the photo

newyorkmug.jpg

the info

Dan Carlson
Houston, Texas

I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of certain TV shows — for starters, "The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "The Zeppo," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April Is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day," "An Echolls Family Christmas," "Look Who's Stalking," "The Garage Door," "Charlie Gets Crippled," "Wind Sprints," and "Corner Boys" — you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings, or at any rate a heartfelt attempt to interpret them. I guess I was made to be a film critic.

Calendar


February 2010
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28

The Counter

the world

« Ooh Las Vegas |Main| To This, Our Noble Tie: Or, Houston Means I'm One Day Closer To Screwed »

June 13, 2007

In Memoriam

By Dan Carlson

norelco.jpg

So long, trusty Norelco.

You served me well for five good years, always ready to keep my facial hair neatly trimmed. Your detachable head came in handy when I wanted to trim small areas or maintain my sideburns, which I gamely sported all through college, because I took pride in my ability to grow them. Your sturdy handle, cast in a somehow manly magenta plastic, has been a constant presence in my young adult life.

Why did you die? We'll never know. You were fine before I flew to Houston; I used you that morning, and you didn't complain. True, your battery hasn't been what it once was, and I've had to keep you plugged in all the time, but that was always your way, trusty friend: You served without reservation. Did the flight somehow break you? Did you perhaps just decide it was time to move on? All I have are questions with no answers.

Take care, old friend. Tomorrow morning, a brand new Remington will take your place in my bathroom, but never my heart.

Trim on.

Comments: 5

Houston ruins everything. Everything

zac

Just yesterday I was chastising my Norelco for not holding a charge for longer than a day. It hasn't for about 4 years now. Now I'm nervous because it worked well for a solid year, making it the same vintage as your departed groomer. I yell, but I love it. I can't have facial hair without it. My sideburns are a 6, my mustache a 5. My goatee, a 7 or 8, depending on how I'm feeling. My full beard was a 5. No one liked it. My heart goes out to you and your Norelco. I hope your Remington has the same twist-click settings.

I was actually holding the Remington and Norelco next to each other, and I think their click settings are almost the same. The 5 looked pretty identical, anyway. I try to keep my full beard at a 5.

That is the goddamn cutest thing I've ever read. Makes me think of Rusty, the blender that I bought at university in a thrift store for four dollars. Six faithful years until I dropped and smashed his glass pitcher a month ago. So many dicey cocktails. So many hangover smoothies. So many good times.

The deepest love I have now, except for my husband and mum, natch, is for my laptop. His possible demise doesn't even bear thinking about.

Cindy

Hey, I uncovered this website by on a fluke when I was looking on Google then I arrived to your web site. I must say your web site is really cool I love your theme! Currently possess a lot of time at the current moment to fully look through your sitebut I bookmarked it. I will come back in a day or two. Thanks for a great site.

Post a comment

the post

Questions? Comments? Complaints?

Drop 'em in the mailbag.

homefeed.png

The Lines

The Quotes

"The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
— Pauline Kael

"Film lovers are sick people."
— Francois Truffaut

"I hope I strike a blow for chubby bald men everywhere. I hope they rise like an army."
Paul Giamatti, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 12/14/04

"Let others praise ancient times, I am glad I was born in these."
— Ovid

The Shelves

Dan's  book recommendations, reviews, favorite quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists

The Songs















Powered by
Movable Type 3.33

the wisdom

Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?

O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.
— Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
— John Stuart Mill

We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.
— G.K. Chesterton

We were, for the briefest of moments, something greater than the sum of our uncertain parts; we were youth itself, in all its painful glory and sharp joy.
— Me, Fall 2003

There is a time in the lives of most writers when they are vulnerable, when the vivid dreams and ambitions of childhood seem to pale in the harsh sunlight of what we call the real world. In short, there's a time when things can go either way.
— Stephen King

Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.
Ask the Dust, John Fante