miscellany + "Ghost World"

David Remnick is such a lucid writer, and what an interesting -- and humbling -- figure Al Gore has come to be:

"There is no substitute for Presidential power, but Gore is now playing a unique role in public life. He is a symbol of what might have been, who insists that we focus on what likely will be an uninhabitable planet if we fail to pay attention to the folly we are committing, and take the steps necessary to end it."

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I haven't been much in the way of writing these days. It's been difficult to find a topic that really grabs me, or something that makes me want to write as passionately as I would like to. I wish I had something intelligent to say about young, bright art stars and the so-called backlash at galleries such as Gavin Brown's Enterprise, but I really... I don't know. There's something boring about the debate to me. In the end, it will all come down to whether or not the work is good. No matter if the artist is mid-career or emerging, if the work produced is compelling, we will celebrate it now and later. If it isn't, perhaps it will denigrated or tossed aside, or held up as an example of what not to do with art, how not to make it. What is of interest to me is the contingent of artists who get some attention but aren't Koons-ified, but who are then reassessed and brought heavily to bear. The Gutai artists come to mind, or even comic book artists as a whole. There's something refreshing about the world changing, and shifting just enough to reevaluate, and to find something new in that which was old.

Speaking of comic book artists (and I suppose art in general), I watched "Ghost World" last night for the first time. I had a great time watching it, and particularly liked that, stylistically, it was so clearly derived from a comic book. Well done, Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff! It also pulled off strange -- yet seemingly true and genuine -- moments (unlike Garden State), and helped suspend my disbelief about things that were completely surreal. It was like there was enough weirdness as a whole to make the weirder things (i.e. the old man waiting for the bus, in particular) seem plausible in these character's world.

I've always professed to being a Steve Buscemi fan, but his attention to detail as Seymour -- and being Seymour -- is just superb. It even made him objectively attractive, well, at least for the sympathetic. As a collector, Seymour hordes so many objects, so many pieces of the past, and those unseen acts of reverence and obsession make him as delicate a character as he was. One is utterly rapt with agreement when Enid, played by the mesmerizing Thora Birch, says, "I just can't stand a world where you [Seymour] can't find someone to be with." I fear I'm getting the exact quote wrong, but I hope that what I've cobbled together taps into the same vein of kindness, gentleness --and the discovery by high school outsiders that dorks are kind of awesome.

The movie is certainly not Buscemi's alone; it's even more Thora Birch's. She is simply mesmerizing, and completely reminds me of a more extreme version of what I could have been in high school and straight after -- although, I never really dabbled in the world of punk, nor did I ever really draw the conclusion that strange looking people in diners were devil-worshippers. In fact, I never really went to art classes outside of school; but hers is one that genuinely takes the cake. I guess it's more of her character Enid's harsh, sophomoric judgmental nature that I can relate to all too well, and those days, long past, when I hadn't joined something resembling a yuppie-like generation.

And, how do these last few paragraphs tie together? Well, all of it has led me to believe that "Art School Confidential" will be insanely delicious to watch...