Double spiffy.

The Friday Article Roundup Reads All About It

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Summer reading courtesy a dead film project. A queer triple feature rescued from obscurity. The life and career of a multi-faceted artist. Concerns about the publishing industry. And a touching human interest story that will teach you to love again.

Thanks to Miller for his many contributions this week, may his sunscreen never expire. Send articles throughout the week to ploughmanplods [at] gmail and share links from the past week for discussion below. Happy Friday!

Shane Carruth uploaded his script for the unproduced The Modern Ocean and tweeted a suggested soundtrack to listen to while reading it, an exciting announcement tempered by the extra confirmation that the project is dead in the water.

‘I kept it quiet for a long time because…I don’t like scripts because they are not movies and movies are not film and I just didn’t want to be embarrassed. But now I think it might be fun. It’s all good, now.’

Megan Sergison at The Arts Fuse looks at three newly restored early queer films (that can be rented from some Boston arts theaters right now):

Mädchen in Uniform depicts lesbianism as a benediction in an otherwise unforgiving world. In the midst of hunger and austerity – common afflictions in the dying days of the Weimar Republic – von Bernburg offers Manuela and her classmates compassion and understanding. Manuela grows to yearn for von Bernburg, turning her face like a flower to her teacher’s light.

The Toronto Star runs a deep, fascinating obituary for Denise Cronenberg, artist, ballerina, dressmaker and costume designer for her brother David and other filmmakers:

‘She would conspire with the actors and it was very delicious for them, because they would feel very special because she was paying attention to them,’ said David, 77. ‘All good costume designers have to do this, but it’s a question of how sensitive you are as a person and, as a performer, Denise really understood what it is to be there in the spotlight. And really, it’s your body and your costume — that’s what you’ve got to work with.’

Maris Kriezman writes about the how the low pay for publishing assistants (and low advances for authors) continues to stifle diversity:

Unequal advances are the symptom of a larger problem, and that larger problem is the lack of racial diversity in book publishing. A 2019 diversity baseline survey commissioned by children’s book publisher Lee & Low found that 76% of respondents were white, while only 5% were Black and 3% were biracial/multiracial. The most racially diverse stratum of publishing was the entry level, while the executive tier remains 78% white. If the decision-makers in publishing are overwhelmingly white and their decisions amount to subjective guesswork, then racism, no matter how unintentional, will be institutional.

And very sad news from Clickhole, about a music fan sliding into utter dementia:

A few days ago, 36-year-old senior citizen Steven Kane was listening to music on his ancient record-playing contraption when he looked up and said, “For my money, the emotive balance between drone and melody that My Bloody Valentine achieved in the early ‘90s is the most innovative development in guitar-based rock of the past 30 years.” Everyone within earshot immediately became extremely concerned, since this was a very worrying string of word salad with almost no discernible meaning, seemingly pieced together from random unrelated terms floating around in his fading memory.