Thanks, Doug. I wasn't so sure of this text, but after a number of
revisions on separate occasions over a three month period, I thought it
was "good enough" to make public. While there is a fair amount of
documentary footage on the Romany, a fictional feature out of that context
is simply rare, as the National Gallery of Art's program notes stress.
Also, there's an accidental "rhyme" with the current quarterback of the
Dallas Cowboys, Tony Romo, especially in light of a friend's reportage:
"Saw a news report about Roma living in shacks outside Rome the other
evening on BBC." Finally, the performance artist/curator Gabriela Pohl
surprised me by calling my text "great" and when I demurred, she
elaborated: "I really liked the JR "swagger" Texan feel I got."
Considering that I was never intrigued by the tv show & rarely watched it,
I conclude that the film's director must have translated Dallas well.
And Christian Bok translated Calgary for me as Canada's Dallas. Barry
On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:24:52 -0600, Douglas Barbour
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>the film sounds fascinating, Barry, & the caught lines catch a tone
>neatly.
>
>Doug
>On 26-Sep-07, at 8:26 AM, Barry Alpert wrote:
>
>> DALLAS AMONG US
>>
>> “A genteel gypsy”
>>
>> via Robert-Adrian Pejo
>>
>>
>> Do you recognize it?
>> A fat cat?
>> Love my daughter, you?
>> Listen--for 5 cigarettes I’ll kneel down
>> about you for ages, JR.
>> Should I have waited?
>>
>> A piano soloist during communist times--
>> many times I cursed you.
>> Of me begging for money:
>> no choice
>> going nuts.
>>
>> Us? U.S.?
>> Should I have waited?
>>
>>
>> Written during my first viewing of this 2005 fictional feature largely
>> set
>> in a Romany camp on the fringes of a central European city, right next
>> to
>> the dump. Returning to the camp after he had escaped “the life”, a
>> teacher
>> from the big city attends to his father’s funeral and stirs up long-
>> standing problems and relationships. The camp’s bar/general store,
>> set up
>> in an old bus, screens episodes of the tv show “Dallas” almost
>> continuously, & the local mob boss answers to the initials “JR”. I
>> have to
>> admit to a fascination with the sociology of “dated taste”, and this
>> particular focus struck me as cinematically unique.
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