“The Odyssey” was a submission to the 2008 Chicago Film Festival by New York filmmaker Jeff Burns. Below are CD-packet liner notes by David Schneider. See related content, “When Midnight Comes,” here.
THE ODYSSEY
A film by Jeff Burns
Homer wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey more than 2,800 years ago. Now, that DWEM must have had somethin’ [...]
The Odyssey, a Film by Jeff Burns
Entering Sector D
The Washington Post today has a piece by staff writer Henry Allen called “Entering Sector D.” Naturally, given my name, I was interested. This is the first paragraph and-a-half:
There’s something about the word “disembowel.” Or “depravity,” or “disfigurement” — about so many words that begin with the letter “d.” Divorce, destitution, doubt, drugs, dirt, dwindle. [...]
Oh, Pray do not Handle the Theme! (April 9, 2003)
Re-watched Julie Taymor’s “Titus” last night. I have a great many theories on the play, but a new one came to light last night. Harold Bloom, in Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human is indeed absolutely correct in approaching Shakespeare from a character-based perspective instead of grouping and studying the plays by similar themes [...]
Cosmetic Surgery (April 4, 2003)
Cosmetic Surgery
Until last night I had no idea there was a “news” “magazine” on Fox called “The Pulse,” which somehow is anchored by the same damned Fox “reporter” who’s “reporting” the war, and is supposed to be somewhere out in Qatar or Kuwait. (I know that Fox reporter. He was once an anchor for NBC [...]
The Endurance Expedition (February 27, 2003)
Last night I bought a book I’ve been after for a year or more: South — The ENDURANCE Expedition by Ernest Shackleton. Granted, it’s not all that hard to find, but I found myself stymied by one of my cardinal book-buying rules — namely, if it’s a well-known work of literature, and I don’t need [...]
Milk and Honey
Milk and Honey (April 24, 2006)
I spent part of my weekend reading Sidney’s and Shelley’s defences of poetry. Reading Sir Phillip Sidney drove me to drink, literally, an abject sadness emanating from his insistence upon poetry’s worth in an age which pays it no credit — his assembling of all forces from the dawn of [...]
Of Weasels and Whales: Iraq (October 10, 2002)
HAMLET: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
POLONIUS: By th’mass and ‘tis — like a camel indeed.
HAMLET: Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS: It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET: Or like a whale.
POLONIUS: Very like a whale.
“The world changed on September 11.” Yes, surely, of course.
But which September 11 would [...]
Stacks of Antiquated Oblongs
Stacks of antiquated oblongs
January 26, 2006
I’m reading again. Done with Houellebecq’s The Elementary Particles, which is very curious, clinically pornographic, largely pessimistic, and perhaps necessary. Wanted to put myself back into The Piano Teacher but I’m fairly sure The Girlfriend swiped it from its temporary placement on the floor of my study to use for [...]
