one of my favorite stories from one of my favorite writers…

“Borges and I”

The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate; I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson; he shares these preferences, but in a vain way that turns them into the attributes of an actor. It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship; I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. Besides, I am destined to perish, definitively, and only some instant of myself can survive in him. Little by little, I am giving over everything to him, though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things.

Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him.

I do not know which of us has written this page.

-Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Text is from Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings (New York: New Directions, 1964).

not really certain yet if this blog will continue to exist. i’m really wanting to keep at it, but think my time might be spent best on other things.

however, i’m glad to have been able to set it up and mod it out. the time spent will serve its purpose.

after a long and trying year, red letters is finally complete! last friday i returned from los angeles on the red-eye with an answer print of the finished film and am really happy with the completed product.

although my stay in l.a. was really brief, thanks to the great people at deluxe labs, nt audio, and my amazing friends annika and will, everything went off as planned (more or less) and the print was completed in time to be screened in the 2005 nyu first run film festival later this month.

more info about the festival screening will follow. stay tuned!

principle photography for red letters ended on 3/09! because of an amazing cast and crew, things went off pretty much with out any snags. we’ve got a really great film on our hands and i’m really looking forward to getting it into the editing room. special thank yous and other notes of recognition will be coming shortly as will a ton of incredible production stills taken during the shoot. check the red letters page for more information.