Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

30 January 2008

Shooting Milk

RD: Every day on the way into work I pass through the subway station in San Francisco where Harvey Milk Plaza is. Who is Harvey Milk and why make a movie about him?
Gus Van Sant: Well, he's one of the most important San Francisco representatives of the Castro who made it to city supervisor, the first openly gay politician in the state, and he was shot by his fellow supervisor. He's a very iconic figure in the gay community, and [he] hasn't really had a dramatic film made about him. It's a project I've been working on for a while, and finally we get to do it.

— December 2007

Indeed. It's hard not to wonder if Van Sant's seeming fascination with shootings — seen in Elephant, Last Days, etc — was in some way a reflection of the Harvey Milk project that might never be made.

Now shooting in San Francisco, the film will be made, with actors Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Diego Luna. I took these pictures from a single spot on the sidewalk (almost) near the corner of Castro and Market, turning to snap the camera at three different angles. Notice the Castro Theater's spiffy new deep-red paint job, the enticing marquee's (fake) siren call toward the Poseidon, and the sandwich board placed in front of every storefront, proudly announcing that business remains open during the making of a biopic about the neighborhood's most famous resident, yes sir.

Actually appearing on the Castro's screen this week, it's not Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters, Roddy McDowell, and Red Buttons, but the sixth annual Noir City festival, whose movies show an even older — although perhaps no darker — San Francisco. As the poster says, "10 Days, 20 Films, No Happy Endings!"

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

January 30, 2008, 01:46 PM

girish

Rob, one of the earliest documentaries to make an impression on me as a 'non-transparent' film (a doc with formal awareness and interest, not simply and transparently narrating a nonfiction story A&E Biography-style) was "The Times of Harvey Milk" (1984). It won the Oscar for best documentary that year and is now on dvd. I haven't seen it in 20 years but I imagine it might still hold up.

January 30, 2008, 01:49 PM

girish

I'll try the link again: here.

January 30, 2008, 07:36 PM

davis

Thanks, Girish. Yeah, that doc has been in my Netflix queue for a long time, but I haven't seen it. Maybe it's time to bump it up. Or start watching things from Netflix again. :-)

BTW, I just realized in that picture above that they have old cars parked in front of the Castro, too, and Lorraine says a lot of the nearby storefronts have new/old facades, but I didn't notice when I was down there.

January 31, 2008, 09:25 AM

davis

Pics of Penn as Milk. (Say that three times quickly.)

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