This weekend, the subway system underwent major repair work, leaving only one out of the 19 subways lines running normally. I just figured i wasn't meant to get around, so i stayed home. Watched television. "Changeling" which turned out to be fairly engrossing but rather slow, Angelina Jolie was subdued but she was effective in her hysterical scenes. Tried to watch "The Hurt Locker" on Showtime, but it kept breaking up which was distracting; nevertheless, the first half hour that i saw was incredibly tight and tense. I turned to "Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon"; this was a documentary that i thought i had seen, because i received a screener from TLA a while ago, but a lot of it didn't seem familiar. Then i watched "The September Issue" on A&E. It was a very alienating experience. The only way i could watch it was to think about it as an example of the secularization of society, where the idea of "the sublime" (which was linked to religious idealism) has been discredited to the point where the meaning of art has devolved into the issue of beauty, and so art has become fashion as opposed to the vessel of cultural meaning. Because we don't have meaning anymore.

I did go to press screenings this week, including several screenings of the New York Film Festival. But i'm exhausted so i'll wait to go into what i saw.