No Air

Piledriver black and white photography brooklyn genrification zach barocas fujifilm

This lot used to be an auto repair shop. Visible from almost any direction was a sign reading NO AIR, just in case any deflated motorists or cyclists on Smith Street had ideas about filling up there. The garage burned down years ago, so I’m not sure whatever is going up constitutes gentrification, but given the state of things in that part of the neighborhood, I imagine it will be expensive and therefore exclusive, which is what we usually mean when we say “gentrified.”

A Few Thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s Plan to Retire | The New Yorker

Soderbergh knows one big thing, the cinema itself; for him, cinema is everywhere, and it speaks through him no matter what he does. Tarantino has a huge toy chest of knowledge and enthusiasm, an amazing collection of movies from the history of cinema stocked up in his mind; he gives their multiplicity the unity of his voice, his personality, his public image, and he is, so to speak, their delegate, their representative. Soderbergh has an idea of cinema; Tarantino has ideas about individual movies, which is why each one that he makes counts, why each matters so desperately. Soderbergh risks insignificance, merely vanishing; Tarantino risks the illusion of significance, being a nuisance. Soderbergh escaped from Hollywood in order to evade its limitations; Tarantino’s planned escape seems meant to evade his own. The very fear of risk, the sense of pride and even vanity with which he protects his name, could stand as the ultimate form of self-criticism.

I’ve never liked Taratino’s films very much but his stature at the end of 20th century cinema is great, and that time, from roughly 1985–2000 as far as I can tell, was more or less the end of cinema as we knew it, a material art, a physical process, an international conceit, high culture in spite of its commercial interests. Brody’s exposition of Soderbergh rings entirely true for me, as does his reading of Tarantino.

A Record A Day 2023: April

I’m falling further and further behind as the year goes on but am still posting what gets played. My hope is that I’ll catch up during holidays or something. I’m currently 26 plays short for the year, approximately 5 plays per month. Such calculations don’t help much, though. In any case, you can find the available April plays here on Apple Music. Enjoy!