The White House recently released its beer recipe, and that’s swell and all, but for a truly patriotic potable, check out the “Small Beer” brewed for George Washington in 1789.
Potent Potables: Presidential Edition
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
“‘What I want,’ a young Luis Buñuel announced to the audience at an early screening of his first film, Un Chien Andalou (1929), ‘is for you not to like the film … I’d be sorry if it pleased you.’ The film’s opening scene, which culminates in a close-up of a straight-edge razor being drawn through a woman’s eyeball, is often taken as the epitome of cinema’s potential to do violence to its audience…Horror movies frighten us; violent thrillers agitate us; sentimental stories make us cry. Suffering is often part of our enjoyment. Within limits, however: we are not to be so displeased that we are not pleased. Buñuel deliberately went beyond the limits of permissible displeasure. And so, in his own way, does the Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke.”
The Teen Whisperer
“When John Green told the crowd that, though he was proud of the movie, it wasn’t his movie, someone shouted, ‘But it’s your plot, John!’—which marked the first time I’d ever heard heckling about the nature of authorship.” Green, author of YA bestseller The Fault in Our Stars, is the literary hero of teenage girls, and nerdfighter hero to millions. After you read the excellent profile at The New Yorker, consider the The Millions’ own review.
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Considering the Bittersweet End of Susan Falls
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The Orchid Read
“Writing gives me great feelings of pleasure. There’s a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to. It’s like trying to write a song, making tiny tweaks, reading it out loud, shifting things to make it sound a certain way. It’s very physical. I get antsy. I jiggle my feet a lot, get up a lot, tap my fingers on the keyboard, check my e-mail. Sometimes it feels like digging out of a hole, but sometimes it feels like flying. When it’s working and the rhythm’s there, it does feel like magic to me.” Susan Orlean on why she writes.
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There Will Be Time
The “Millennials are ruining everything” think piece has become a bit of a trope at this point, so it’s refreshing when you find one that says something new. This piece on the serious danger of losing serious readers to their cellphone screens is well worth the read.
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Very Brief Respites from the Darkness
Want to learn filmmaking from a self-proclaimed “soldier of cinema”? Then sign up for a class with Werner Herzog. The enigmatic director, whose films include Grizzly Man and Fitzcarraldo, announced he’ll be teaching a course in the summer through the online provider Masterclass.
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Soda Series
Tonight at 7pm in Prospect Heights’ Soda Bar: the 10th installment of the Soda Series. Short readings followed by conversation from Roberta Allen, Robin Grearson, John Haskell, and Kirsten Kaschock. The conversations will be moderated by John Dermot Woods and Greg Gerke. The Series also has a Facebook page.
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