THE GOLD RUSH (1925) dir. Charlie Chaplin

nothing like a watching a silent film on a sunday evening with the los angeles chamber orchestra performing the original accompaniment! charlie chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (1925) is a comedy at its finest. i almost cried at the end. i would have brought francine for the occasion, but she was nursing hungover at home (needless to say, silent film galas do invite fox furs). the cut we watched was as close to the director's cut you could get, pieced together from a two later versions of the film and a salvaged 35mm print from a private collection. the original cut has been lost to history. 

it was very comforting. i am happy right now. 

paris, texas

i still can't stop obsessing over my recent drive to coachella for the music festival. i left l.a. on friday night, after work. i drove by myself, with the convertible top up. 

i was listening to the soundtrack ry cooder recorded for wim wenders' paris texas (which won the palm d'or at cannes in 1984). it's surreal driving down a one-lane winding road through the desert with no streetlights listening to the twang-twang of his steel-string guitar. 

i'm not crazy about david lynch like most in l.a., i didn't even think "dark night of the soul" was that great (i went to the opening last night too at the michael kohn gallery; i do like the flaming lips mix though; for $50 i bought the stupid book anyway)... but it was a real lynch-ean moment. 

alternatively you can watch my favorite scene which is also excerpted on the soundtrack, when the main character finally finds his ex-wife in a penny arcade after all these years. the cinematography is breathtaking. look at his reflection in the glass.