Screen Dump 332

With camera obscuras [sic] on the virtual beaches of your odyssey . . .
the white sand studded with the vexing asymmetry
of indulgences flattening your life to a morality tale . . .

in which he/she becomes increasingly enamored of inked torsos . . .
This of course will be addressed in the next chapter . . .
along with the history of illuminosity . . .

Excuse me while I trot off to the deli
for a provolone and tomato on sourdough . . .
Trudging through the snowstorm . . . and all that, yes? . . .

There's something to be said for the interiority
of this short austere work of fiction . . .
It grabs from the get-go . . . with its refusal

to stick to the customary protocol of story-telling . . .
not unlike the days of pushing paint . . . sans serif . . .
Elsewhere sommeliers await the rematch . . .

Interruptions . . . make for interesting bedmates . . .
Why the reluctance to take ownership . . . after all these revisions? . . .
Mayhaps the iffyness of it all? . . .

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Screen Dump 331

1. Action figures . . . with debits and creditors
2. with parlez-vous français
3. with inconsistent bedtime stories
4. of nights in shining amour . . .
5. have returned . . .
6. The day twists and turns and shouts out . . .
7. Checkout lines bottleneck last-minute shoppers . . .
8. BOGO becomes BOGT . . .
9. Your old Harley . . . running on empty over toll roads . . .
10. appears . . . and agrees to ferry you back
11. to the old neighborhood
12. to the desperation
13. of your parents' backyard barbecues . . .
14. with the gambits
15. karaoke machine
16. sleepovers
17. hangovers
18. (un)dress rehearsals . . .
19. Your élan vital is up up and away . . .
20. and on-deck for The Twenty Question Challenge . . .
21. The end run is in the starting blocks . . .
22. The slo-mo is a no-show . . .
23. heavy with odds for the long shot . . .
24. Install the app for It's a Wonderful Life . . .
25. Do it now . . . before it's too late . . .

Screen Dump 330

Blundering into the hemisphere of adjuncts . . .
The holiday pinspotted with strike zone and age spots . . .
Traps baited with unbound collections . . .
The armatures of engagement, yes? . . .

You kick it up a notch for the blue screeners . . .

a bevy of iconoclasts in a black Chevy SUV . . .
ferrying across the Kill Van Kull . . .
using your archives as GPS . . . The kiosks . . . in overtime
running lines . . . forgetting . . . most . . .

Paolo Roversi

Screen Dump 329

A photograph with no "punctum" to draw you in and disturb you.
          - Roland Barthes

You know as well as I that the costume
trumps the standoffishness . . .
this mirror-image of the transformation . . .
a surprise . . . to many . . .
a panoply of seductiveness, if you will . . .
seduction as entrée . . .
as when Proust dips his madeleine in tea
and is transported to metaphysical reverie . . .
Who is bluffing whom? . . .
Enigmatic . . . without whom . . . yes, go on . . .
I have bicycled six crooked highways . . .
To possess in its entirety
as when asleep one possesses oneself . . .
Is that Proust again? . . .
No idea . . .
A play in three . . . no four . . . acts . . .
Reassembled for extra credit . . .
The creditors askance . . . a well of silence . . .
You enter the scene . . . somnambulistically . . .
Your cropped top . . . directing traffic . . .
The extras? . . .
Conquest or discovery? . . .
Stretching out . . . in control . . .
This will be reshaped . . .
as in I will reshape the scene . . .
Isn't it obvious that it has to be redone . . .
Put your dinner with André on hold . . .
You'll be able to assume charge . . .
able to resume . . .
able to subsume . . . if need be . . .
She was so wasted, she knocked over the dip . . .
When questioned about it . . . she lied . . .
Already indifferent . . .
as change . . .
as redundant . . .
as necessary . . .

Krzysztof Warlikowski's New Proust?

Screen Dump 328

Now that you've circumvented that . . .
I just thought . . .
What with all the brouhaha . . . about whatever . . .
Time to videotape the scene . . .
Resplendent, yes? . . .
But what about the gaps . . . in the dialogue? . . .
The silence would be an action, yes? . . .
Into Great Silence . . .
Like smoking weed . . .
The form-fitting costume . . . as requested . . .
Parlaying the emptiness
as if it were the correct pronunciation
which . . . as I'm sure you know . . . it is not . . .
In cursive . . . if that's what you want . . .
Stop the car! . . .
Pull in behind that minivan
brimming with yapping animals . . .
This was written into the scene . . .
Not sure by whom . . .
But he/she said to follow the dotted line
in the dialogue . . .
Go with it . . . improvise . . .
We could try The Red Hen . . .
Yes, let's try The Red Hen . . .
In the dream, I was burglarized
and he was dead . . .
Kind of unusual . . . even for him/her . . .
Ya think? . . .
Anyway, they continued marking up the menu
with changes to the dialogue . . .
Pretty good, actually . . .
But then Door #2 swung open . . .
The revisions tumbled out of the back room . . .
Certainly enough time to grab a motel room . . .
Well of course you can . . .
Why are you lying on the floor? . . .
He/she meant no harm . . .
What about the bandaids? . . .
And your shoes are scuffed . . .
All that walking . . . seemingly in circles . . .
But now the laundry has been folded
and put away . . .
Time to proceed . . .
I'll take that call . . . and raise you three . . .

Marcin Szpak

Screen Dump 327

1. Grim figures with notebooks and head colds . . .
2. Isosceles triangles in training . . .
3. Perch on bathroom fixtures and drywall
4. in Home Depot
5. recording life's secular apocalypses
6. for price check . . .
7. You engage them in Q&As
8. about toilet tanks . . . sawhorses . . .
9. crescent wrenches . . .
10. the impending blizzard . . .
11. Clues to materials, colors, dimensions, warranties . . .
12. as the Porcelain Doll in Orange Overalls . . .
13. Thumbing through
14. The Whole Earth Catalog's Tools for Change . . .
15. captivating players . . . and their parts . . .
16. in the tool shed . . .
17. pro forma . . .
18. with your 16 mm take
19. on Marvell's To His Coy Mistress
20. seducing the dumbstruck
21. with multi-layered costumed panegyrics . . .

Marcin Szpak

Screen Dump 326

1. Indiscriminate evenings . . . leggy with enticement . . .
2. with eyes . . .
3. exchange costumes at the entrance . . .
4. You know the drill . . . however goofy . . .
5. Are you underestimating the instability of the context? . . .
6. the excitement? . . .
7. Come again? . . .
8. Field studies, yes? . . .
9. as if opening a dream . . . to decades-old meanderings . . .
10. drifting . . . out-of-focus . . .
11. The sky . . . too . . . counterpointed . . .
12. with aria . . . faint . . .
13. The weird aftertaste . . . of an unknown
14. hitting you . . . hard . . . on the drive back over the bridge
15. to an all-night diner . . .
16. before tumbling . . . downplayed . . . into morning . . .

Marcin Szpak

Screen Dump 325

1. You seek the promiscuous feeling of being alive
2. conference-call your mirror
3. and dream alterations in structural modesty . . .
4. In effigy . . . someone reminds you . . .
5. Why tarry? . . .
6. It would behoove you to take it to the next level
7. despite the rumblings from behind Door #3 . . .
8. The other day an open mic in the supermarket . . .
9. Lines run
10. on shoppers with full carts
11. and full bellies . . .
12. No one stepped up to the deli counter
13. to sample the sharp provolone . . . sliced or chunked . . .
14. How long the wait . . . in the green room? . . .

Bruno Dayan