The former internet home of Los Angeles writer Tessa Strain.

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Email:
strain.tessa@gmail.com

Twitter:
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Essays about the San Fernando Valley:
http://valblog.tumblr.com/

Art:
http://number1pennumber2thoughts.blogspot.com/

20th April 2011

Photo reblogged from Geoffrey is Working with 14 notes

bigredrobot:

Speed Racer has a posse.

I am an unabashed Speed Racer apologist. I’m hard pressed to think of another movie so gleefully over-stylized (best contender would be Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but its comparative sophistication makes it appear far more restrained). What makes Speed Racer so appealing to me is that it is the exact kind of movie that critics who used to complain about how MTV was ruining film forever were fearful all movies would become; it is the realization of their worst nightmares. No moments of stillness, no negative space, no silence, no pretensions of substance. Just aggressive whiz-bang all the time, a relic of a cinematic future that might have been, or may yet to be.

bigredrobot:

Speed Racer has a posse.

I am an unabashed Speed Racer apologist. I’m hard pressed to think of another movie so gleefully over-stylized (best contender would be Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but its comparative sophistication makes it appear far more restrained). What makes Speed Racer so appealing to me is that it is the exact kind of movie that critics who used to complain about how MTV was ruining film forever were fearful all movies would become; it is the realization of their worst nightmares. No moments of stillness, no negative space, no silence, no pretensions of substance. Just aggressive whiz-bang all the time, a relic of a cinematic future that might have been, or may yet to be.

Tagged: motion pictures

Source: bigredrobot

14th April 2011

Photo with 8 notes

You dig?

You dig?

Tagged: motion picturesa life of crimerole models

14th April 2011

Quote with 5 notes

If watching John Phillip Law and Marisa Mell fuck on a pile of money doesn’t make you wish you lived inside a volcano I can’t help you and god can’t either, son—you’re done.
— Matt Fraction on Danger: Diabolik!

Tagged: motion picturesa life of crimerole models

12th April 2011

Photo reblogged from fuckyeahdavidlynch with 138 notes

I saw Eraserhead for the first time a couple months ago. It was kind of a big deal because there had been nearly a year’s worth of buildup, and by the time I actually saw it, the film had acquired a great deal of personal weight for me.
Those of you who don’t know me personally may not be aware that David Lynch has played a pretty big role in my relationship with Geoff. I drove up to LA from school last spring to go to a party at his house the night before the LA Festival of Books, at which David Lynch was doing a signing. What we intended to be buddy/buddy hangout time with the added bonus of meeting one of our favorite directors (Lynch asked me in that delightful voice of his, and I quote “Would you like a little bit of gold?” as he signed my sketchbook) ended up being an unintentional first date. Auspicious start, no?
So far so good.
The first text I got from Geoff following this was about Eraserhead, saying that we should watch it together next time we hung out (neither of us having yet seen it). Which we never quite got around to doing. The watching Eraserhead, not the hanging out. We did a lot of that. Plans to watch Eraserhead together became plans to watch Eraserhead over the phone once he moved to New York, and again, we didn’t quite get around to it. Then in February, I came to visit. It was a great time, and we ate a lot of pizza, as one is apt to do in New York. We were together over Valentine’s day, having all kinds of fun around the city before going home for the evening. At which point we had a great idea.
“Wouldn’t it be fun,” we mused collectively (conversation condensed into single quotation for the ease of the reader), “if we finally watched Eraserhead together?”
O wretched young lovers (as my elementary Latin reader might phrase it), you do not understand the foolishness of your plan (I swear, some variation on this sentence appeared in every. single. story)!
Those of you who have seen Eraserhead can surmise, I’m sure, why this was such a comically misguided idea, but also why it would have been even more comically misguided during the burgeoning stages of our (really any) relationship. At no point were either of us under the impression that it was any kind of date movie, but we were little prepared for the sheer depth of grotesqueness to which we were about to bear witness. In short, it was one of the most unspeakably horrifying movies I have ever seen (remember, this is coming from a huge David Lynch fan, so calibrate accordingly!), and we both spent most of it tense and nauseated, and thank god we ate our dinner first, and then we also had to watch The Omen afterward as a kind of mental palate cleanser. (Have you seen The Omen? It’s really good and creepy, and Gregory Peck rocks some super inspiring fashions, you should check it out.)
So basically it was the most romantic thing that ever happened in the history of all time.

I saw Eraserhead for the first time a couple months ago. It was kind of a big deal because there had been nearly a year’s worth of buildup, and by the time I actually saw it, the film had acquired a great deal of personal weight for me.

Those of you who don’t know me personally may not be aware that David Lynch has played a pretty big role in my relationship with Geoff. I drove up to LA from school last spring to go to a party at his house the night before the LA Festival of Books, at which David Lynch was doing a signing. What we intended to be buddy/buddy hangout time with the added bonus of meeting one of our favorite directors (Lynch asked me in that delightful voice of his, and I quote “Would you like a little bit of gold?” as he signed my sketchbook) ended up being an unintentional first date. Auspicious start, no?

So far so good.

The first text I got from Geoff following this was about Eraserhead, saying that we should watch it together next time we hung out (neither of us having yet seen it). Which we never quite got around to doing. The watching Eraserhead, not the hanging out. We did a lot of that. Plans to watch Eraserhead together became plans to watch Eraserhead over the phone once he moved to New York, and again, we didn’t quite get around to it. Then in February, I came to visit. It was a great time, and we ate a lot of pizza, as one is apt to do in New York. We were together over Valentine’s day, having all kinds of fun around the city before going home for the evening. At which point we had a great idea.

“Wouldn’t it be fun,” we mused collectively (conversation condensed into single quotation for the ease of the reader), “if we finally watched Eraserhead together?”

O wretched young lovers (as my elementary Latin reader might phrase it), you do not understand the foolishness of your plan (I swear, some variation on this sentence appeared in every. single. story)!

Those of you who have seen Eraserhead can surmise, I’m sure, why this was such a comically misguided idea, but also why it would have been even more comically misguided during the burgeoning stages of our (really any) relationship. At no point were either of us under the impression that it was any kind of date movie, but we were little prepared for the sheer depth of grotesqueness to which we were about to bear witness. In short, it was one of the most unspeakably horrifying movies I have ever seen (remember, this is coming from a huge David Lynch fan, so calibrate accordingly!), and we both spent most of it tense and nauseated, and thank god we ate our dinner first, and then we also had to watch The Omen afterward as a kind of mental palate cleanser. (Have you seen The Omen? It’s really good and creepy, and Gregory Peck rocks some super inspiring fashions, you should check it out.)

So basically it was the most romantic thing that ever happened in the history of all time.

Tagged: david lynchmotion picturesshut up about your boyfriend

8th April 2011

Photo reblogged from mykicks with 15 notes

mykicks:

Well thank God Criterion has put up a photo album for people to share their regrettable tattoos.

The people who get Criterion tattoos are the same people who conveniently forget that Armageddon is in the Criterion Collection.
I say this with all love for the outrageous explodaganza that is Armageddon.

mykicks:

Well thank God Criterion has put up a photo album for people to share their regrettable tattoos.

The people who get Criterion tattoos are the same people who conveniently forget that Armageddon is in the Criterion Collection.

I say this with all love for the outrageous explodaganza that is Armageddon.

Tagged: motion picturesi kind of wish i owned the criterion edition of armageddon

Source: mykicks

7th April 2011

Photo with 3 notes

Okay, I can totally understand how anyone would hate Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming. “Bored, well-educated white kids complain glibly about feeling rudderless after college graduation” is probably not a one-liner that would sell a lot of people, and rightly so. That said, lines like “What I used to be able to pass off as a bad summer might now just turn into a bad life” kind of force me to say that I identify with this movie in more than a few ways, in spite of its many flaws.
Anyway, the only reason I bring it up is that this shot from the movie always blows my mind. The first time I noticed it, I thought I must have been imagining things because WHERE IN GOD’S NAME DID YOU FIND AN ESTABLISHMENT TO SHOOT AT WHERE THEY HAVE A NEON SIGN ADVERTISING SNAKE RENTALS?! Amazing!
But no, I didn’t imagine it. Snake rentals.

Okay, I can totally understand how anyone would hate Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming. “Bored, well-educated white kids complain glibly about feeling rudderless after college graduation” is probably not a one-liner that would sell a lot of people, and rightly so. That said, lines like “What I used to be able to pass off as a bad summer might now just turn into a bad life” kind of force me to say that I identify with this movie in more than a few ways, in spite of its many flaws.

Anyway, the only reason I bring it up is that this shot from the movie always blows my mind. The first time I noticed it, I thought I must have been imagining things because WHERE IN GOD’S NAME DID YOU FIND AN ESTABLISHMENT TO SHOOT AT WHERE THEY HAVE A NEON SIGN ADVERTISING SNAKE RENTALS?! Amazing!

But no, I didn’t imagine it. Snake rentals.

Tagged: motion picturessnake rentalsi want to go to there

31st March 2011

Photo reblogged from gallivanting & grass with 7 notes

tangentsandthe:

top five spirit animal 4ever.

For being someone who isn’t so much into warm weather or beaches or not wearing eight layers of clothes at once (I like all of those things, albeit in small doses), I really really love the Beach Party movies. As in, I want to live in a Beach Party movie. Nobody appears to have jobs or school or cash flow problems or a hair out of place. They just hang out and have dance parties on the beach EVERY DAY, and when they need conflict of some kind, Frankie and Annette pick some kind of fight with each other about surfing or marriage or who is jealous of which musical guest.
Also there’s a mermaid in Beach Blanket Bingo. A MERMAID.

tangentsandthe:

top five spirit animal 4ever.

For being someone who isn’t so much into warm weather or beaches or not wearing eight layers of clothes at once (I like all of those things, albeit in small doses), I really really love the Beach Party movies. As in, I want to live in a Beach Party movie. Nobody appears to have jobs or school or cash flow problems or a hair out of place. They just hang out and have dance parties on the beach EVERY DAY, and when they need conflict of some kind, Frankie and Annette pick some kind of fight with each other about surfing or marriage or who is jealous of which musical guest.

Also there’s a mermaid in Beach Blanket Bingo. A MERMAID.

Tagged: motion picturesbeach party

Source: gallivantingandgrass

24th March 2011

Photo reblogged from this is now a dead blog with 24 notes

nola-darling:

redheadwalkingest:

I’ve become kind of obsessed with the idea (spawned in a very long facebook thread about the horribleness of Garden State) that every movie about a manic pixie dream girl would be made LIGHT YEARS better if the dream girl in question was played by Nicolas Cage.
Take note, Hollywood. This shit works.

 The Nicolas Cage tag has never let me down.

Forget 3D, this is the greatest movie innovation since color.

nola-darling:

redheadwalkingest:

I’ve become kind of obsessed with the idea (spawned in a very long facebook thread about the horribleness of Garden State) that every movie about a manic pixie dream girl would be made LIGHT YEARS better if the dream girl in question was played by Nicolas Cage.

Take note, Hollywood. This shit works.

 The Nicolas Cage tag has never let me down.

Forget 3D, this is the greatest movie innovation since color.

Tagged: motion picturesnicolas cagei had a dream the other night that he and i had a joint bday celebration

Source: dazzle-ships

14th March 2011

Video

I saw Cruising last night. Here is the only noteworthy moment.

Tagged: motion picturessick moves