Cantara’s (Social) Notebook

Excerpt Am I to become profligate as if I were a blonde? Or religious as if I were French? Each time my heart is broken it makes me feel more adventurous (and how the same names keep recurring on that interminable list!), but one of these days there’ll be nothing left with which to venture forth. Why should I share you? Why don’t you get rid of someone else for a change? I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love. Even trees understand me! Good heavens, I lie under them, too, don't I? I’m just like a pile of leaves. However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures. No. One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes—I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless i know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It is more important to affirm the least sincere; t...

I remember reading the short story about twenty years ago when I was temping to bring some money into the house. It resonated like crazy. Then in 2002 it got made into a film with Maggie Gyllenhaal that had practically nothing to do with the story as written. More recently I mentioned Secretary and Maggie’s utterly gratuitous nude scene one day over lunch to newly-debuted actor Stephen , who of course laughed nervously. Still, I can’t help but admire Maggie for pulling something over her parents, especially the non-inclusive Naomi .

A year has passed since the strange double suicide of video game designer and would-be Hollywood player Theresa Duncan and her lover, Jeremy Blake. Facebook friend Kate Coe wrote a comprehensive article about her in LA Weekly ; Duncan’s real-life friend, the designer Raymond Doherty, refuted much of that article at his own blog. Here’s the thing. If you don’t have children, and you don’t leave behind an honorable body of work, isn’t dead—well, dead? She seemed to be a curious, promising girl. Never met her, but I used to read her blog from time to time. No role model certainly. Still, I can’t get her out of my mind. [Find another reference to Theresa Duncan here .] SUBSCRIBE TO MY OCCASIONAL NEWSLETTER. CLICK HERE. _____