Have been so busy of late, including a lot of family stuff (Uncle Suey's wake and funeral) and haven't had a chance to blog. (Has blog become a verb?) Yesterday went to see the documentary "Steal a Pencil For Me", which was one of those surprisingly dramatic documentaries. Surprisingly in that though the subject matter was inherently dramatic (a story of Holocaust survivors), it was handled in a very sensitive way, and it was structured so that the dramatic potential in the material was fully brought out.

I'm still in the midst of writing, and i had to miss Ernie Gehr. Two weeks ago, there was a reception for "Modern Mondays"; Larry and i went. This was to announce a "new" program at MoMA, a collaboration between the Department of Film and the newly-formed Department of Media (at one time, the Department of Film was the Department of Media, and it was called the Department of Film and Media). Anyway, what they're doing is taking up the old Cineprobes (which started out on Mondays) and then the Video Viewpoints, and now they're simply calling the program Modern Mondays. "A chance for the avantgarde and independent filmmaker to meet with the audience" or whatever they used to say.

When we went to the reception, Larry Kardish and i started reminiscing. It's just about 40 years since the first Cineprobe ("David Holzman's Diary" by Jim McBride) and i remember going to almost everything for the first three years or so. It was a real education in (alternative) film.

But is it possible? 40 years?