Christopher Bernard's Blog
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Jan.06.2011
.... on John Rhodes and Clara Hsu's poetry TV show, at 8 pm, on Channel 76 (San Francisco; Comcast).
Carlos Ramirez, John Rhodes and Clara Hsu will also read (and in Carlos's case, sing).
The show can also be seen online, at:
http://www.archive.org/details/...
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Sep.05.2009
The Man Who Talked to the Sea
He stands by the hour on the edge of the beach, staring at the sea.
He stands near the water’s edge, in the roar of the breaking waves, his eyes scanning the horizon or focused on a single point, or gazing at a cloud.
He sometimes...
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Jun.06.2009
Tulpan, directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy, is a peculiar and delightful thing: a romantic comedy set in the steppes of Central Asia. Bound by a semi-arid plain of scrub nubbed with yurts like sleeping beetles on a vast desolate counterpane, the story follows the hopeless courting of a young Kazakh just...
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May.16.2009
Traumraum
Written and directed by Ahmed El-Gasseir
Performed at the Mission Cultural Center, May 15-17, in San Francisco
Traumraum (German for “dream room”) is a philosophical entertainment – and I only hope there’ll be many more from Theatre Anomaly, the spirited company that produced it and...
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May.16.2009
Chaturanga (Four Chapters), based on a novella by the early 20th century Bengali writer Rabindrinath Tagore, often translated under the title “Quartet,” tells the story of a series of spiritual crises of a young Bengali Hindu, beginning with his rejection of the religious traditions of his family...
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May.16.2009
My Suicide is a dark, no-holds-barred comedy (or “dramedy,” to use the fashionable, and apposite, term) that explores contemporary teen angst with considerable insight into the labyrinthine hell of modern youth indentured to a high-tech world, both freed and imprisoned by it. The film...
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May.07.2009
The new film by French director Claire Denis (best known in this country for such films as Chocolat, I Can’t Sleep and Beau Travail) is a work of that casual skill attained by only the most accomplished, in the service of a candid and probing and clear-eyed love, of the director for her characters...
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May.07.2009
Never has the phrase “the little monsters” to describe the sweet little kids playing in the next room been taken more literally.
The South Korean director Yim Phil-Sung’s updating of the Grimm brothers’ fairytale, this time reversing the roles of children and witch, was screened at the current...
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May.07.2009
Adoration, the challenging, teasing, smart new film by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, received its American premiere on April 25 at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The film is a cunningly made construct of Egoyan’s trademark non-chronological style, shattered pieces of time...
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Feb.22.2009
It will pass, and so it should.
The flame requires so much wood
to burn and warm and brighten here –
where you eat and laugh and sleep,
the fire glistens in your eyes,
illumines your lips, and then it dies.
If only I could flame for longer
than it takes to burn this wood:
a life, a body, time,...
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Feb.22.2009
It rises
from the mouth of the night,
a clench
of ripped feathers, lambent
velvet thick with black,
eyes
dark conquering; a claw
hangs from its belly.
It hunts.
The soundless hum of its beating
is a stare
harder than a beak.
You will not
escape the hour you cling to.
Try
to forget its image
against...
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Oct.31.2008
I have decided my own computer has a borderline personality, with tendencies both narcissistic and histrionic - it has random bouts of crazy hostility with generally irrational behavior, acting out, bizarre reactions to simple requests, unpredictable moping, etc. Just like one of my old girl...
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Oct.28.2008
The distress call from "Philip Hackett" was apparently a hoax based on identity theft.
Please ignore the request for aid and do not contact the email address given.
Thanks! (Apologies for the confusion - but I was one of the one first to be deceived.)
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Oct.17.2008
Philip Hackett, the San Francisco poet, has an emergency and needs help from the writing community. Please read below for details:
<< I made an emergency trip to England and am having a serious problem. I need a total of $2,000.00 to enable me conclude my program here. Please assist me with...
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About Christopher
I grew up near the Atlantic seaboard and in the farm country of eastern Pennsylvania and the high deserts of Mexico, immersing myself in Russian fiction, English poetry, and the music of Wagner, Beethoven, and Bruckner. I soon began writing my own stories,...
Christopher’s Favorite Books
In Search of Lost Time
Under the Volcano
Notes from Underground
The Possessed (aka Demons)
In the Labyrinth
The Portrait of a Lady
Count Julian
Juan the...