Wed, 26 May 2004
Random Musings
Bastien's post set off a chain of memories for me today. I saw Soy Cuba a couple years ago at the library, and loved it. Once you get past the propaganda, and some of the goofy characterizations (the portrayal of Americans is particularly funny), you begin to realize what an interesting piece it truly is. There's a scene in a bar where the camera work is just poetic.
And of course it was co-written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. I saw him once in Pasadena. He and the American translator of his work co-read The City of Yes and the City of No, the translator in English and Yevtushenko in Russian. We all assumed he was drunk, but perhaps he was just dramatic, dancing about maniacally while his translator read in English like an automaton.
That evening he also screened his film Stalin's Funeral, which was pretty wonderful, as I recall (this was more than ten years ago). There's a scene where a prisoner practices piano on the edge of table in prison; he told us that this was a true story and that the real prisoner, a concert pianist, maintained his training this way and gave a concert the week after he was let out.
I've also been thinking today about the transience of things, and the difficulty, even pain, of letting go. You'd think after all these years, and all the various projects I've worked on and left, that it would be easy. Nevertheless, despite my awareness (however vague) of this process, I find I put a part of myself into whatever I work on, and pulling it out again hurts.
posted at: 15:50 | path: /personal | permanent link to this entry
