ode to the brooklyn bridge and snow. and david fincher's zodiac.

It's snowing here in New York, but not really snow. It's more like falling shards of ice, with dire winds to match. I'm writing a treatment for a Bright Eyes video tonight.

I often begin the whole writing process with a single image. Sometimes when it occurs, while listening to the song, I cannot fathom why or connect what it means to the song. It's an alchemical apparition that starts me off, literally tumbling out of my unconscious. This time I immediately thought of trains and bridges.

I was listening to the song on repeat on a long subway ride home and halfway through it the N train crosses the bridge and for a moment you come out of the tunnels and see the entire city below and away from you. When it's snowing I can't think of anything more beautiful, the city quietly hiding underneath a bed of white, the gusts running down the river filling the sky with flurries. Every time I see this I have to get out of my seat and go to the window and just watch.

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I'm surprised by how many people I know who live in New York or come to visit never check out the Brooklyn Bridge, or walk its span. It's one of the simplest things you can do here but on a good day I can't think of a more perfect way to experience New York, suspended above it between the two boroughs, Manhattan spreading out and beyond you, every landmark building recognizable, the Statue of Liberty visible on the horizon. All the waterways reveal themselves. There's something quaintly sublime about how the bridge was constructed to let people walk on it. It's merely wood, and it rattles with the passing traffic and the wind.

I spent a lot of time out there Sunday. Given it's snowing here, oddly enough a few days ago it was nearly eighty degrees. It was one of the first bright, clear skied days we've had in a long time and the bridge was full just as the sun was going down. I hadn't worn a coat and the wind off the river was brutal but I didn't feel cold.





I was really down and heavy with thought but something about the firmament of the bridge and its beauty and a feeling of hovering between two realms lifted me up enough to start getting my head clear about things. When I came off the other side of the bridge I realized I'd said goodbye to something forever halfway across it, and at the moment I stepped down into Manhattan everything changed. The bridge had taken my weight.

Ok, I still have no ideas for this video...
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I was going to stay in, what with the weather and given I was out for dinner and drinks last night but got convinced to go out and check out Zodiac. The roll of good movies continues. I loved it, but don't expect it to be to everyone's taste. It's ultimately not even about a murderer so much as an examination of commitment leading to self ruin, even when the best of intentions are behind it.

I think it's a huge leap forward for Fincher, the first movie he's made where his style becomes a presence rather than the modus operandi. It's exhausting and exhaustive - I've never seen a movie that seems to adhere to every odd nuance life presents, which is an odd feat, as sometimes the details of life can be dramatically inert. Every single detail of the real case is packed into this movie. It's also revelatory as a time travel machine to a time before cell phones and email. The structure of life seems entirely ancient only 30 years ago.

But really the movie is dependent upon whether or not you're one of those people who gets into the existential hole that crime presents; the movie is about singular obsession, which directors like Fincher obviously know about, and what it ends up doing to individuals. I'm sure a lot of people will find the movie frustrating, or boring, but if you've ever found yourself reading about a real murder and getting engrossed in all the symbological detail, it was fetishistically, perfectly made for you.

Harris Savides' cinematography is a wonder - the first film shot on digital that pretty much lays it down that digital is here to stay and can stand on par with film - still different but not lacking. And the other wonder has to Robert Downey, Jr. who has somehow leaped into my field of favorite actors. During the worst part of his personal life and career he always seemed to be trying a little too hard. He seems wise now, in the way only someone who has gone through some really fucked up stuff can be, and combined with his natural gifts it's made him so completely watchable. I think he even looks more interesting with age on him. There's a single moment where all he says is the word "no" that is the emotional centerpiece of the entire movie and shows why Jake Gyllenhall has a lot to learn.