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Notes about “girlfriend is paula cole”

Warning: these are my notes to R/Kain Blaze about a project we are working on… one never knows what records will be important and what ones will not… I error on the side of copious…

Buy this DVD at Amazon.com! Yes, the spoken word tracks, parts 1 and 2, are in the “invisible man” collection. These of course will be the soundtrack to the motion picture, making a show of about 10 minutes.

For limits on visuals, we can see the first part as the tight, close, interior, thought space. The sound of the second part suggests more complete, exterior scenes:

  • The woman reading historical texts and adlibbing with strong rhetoric. These moves might work in the first two minutes of Part 2.
  • The subway—the symbol of the intellectual working class. These “lovers” are pedestrians of the typical city. I know I mentioned New York specifically—but disregard this specific detail.
  • The sexual references—the grab bag of symbols and images: Desdemona, stereotypical sexual practices of the Portuguese, Moors and Slavs.
  • The restaurant—referring to the Black woman working in the restaurant as a “waiter” instead of a “waitress” deserves a scene (see screenshot below).
  • The couple—walking “arm in arm through the crowded commercial district” or the typical Facebook-style nightlife snapshots of the “happy couple” might help…Some ideas from Hiroshima Mon Amour:

Hiroshima Mon Amour This shot shows how the male “of color” reaches right across his ancestral mother figure to touch modernity. The woman is oblivious to what has just happened. She is focused on the modernity—her eye line goes straight to the Gauloises. The blocking shows me that the male is making most of the effort to reach out across “cultural boundaries.”

Hiroshima Mon Amour This shot fits my “waiter” scene (mentioned above). Look at how he frowns at the Japanese servant while the woman stares with blank fascination.

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