"Success Is The New Failure"

The movie industry may still be trying to figure out what to do about the Web and streaming video but not Illeana Douglas:



Illeanarama - Supermarket of the Stars
Episode One

My Childhood Linguistic Milieu

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Midland
The Inland North
The South
The Northeast
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

The Existentialist

By 1963, Americans in the twentieth century had witnessed the War To End All Wars...and then the war that came after that. They had been through the Great Depression. They had come to know the details of Hitler's concentration camps and of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Freudian psychoanalytic theory was sufficiently widely known, at least in its broad details, that neither family relations nor sexual impulses could be thought of as "simple" or straightforward. The nasty tactics of cold war espionage had come to light -- both in the news and in fiction. Complex, tectonic changes in racial attitudes and relations were (often violently) underway. All in all, the early 1960's could hardly be regarded as an innocent time.

Since the Second World War, too, Existential philosophy, which had originated in the European continent, was lapping, here and there, at our shores. Existentialism brought with it the distinct possibility that God was dead. It brought "Nausea", "No Exit", "The Plague", Absurdity and, ultimately, Nothingness to trouble the complacency of any intellectually aware American.

Nevertheless, in the face of all that, we managed to retain, many of us, a remarkable sunniness of outlook, a whimsciality of vision which in retrospect baffles me.

By 1950, in an essay collected in Vaudeville For a Princess, Delmore Schwartz was already adjusting the European Existential slogan, "Nobody else can die for you" to what he considered to be the less morbid, more appealing, more American-friendly "Nobody else can take a bath for you."

By 1963 I was aware, as a young boy, of the short, non-commercial films made by film students and "experimental" film-makers. Many of them appeared on pre-PBS educational television as filler in between programs. A surprising number of them were quite cheery, despite the fact that they dealt with very serious (and sometimes grim) subjects. They seemed to have a tone of -- dare I say it? -- hopefulness at their core. I cannot imagine many of those films being made today.

I offer as evidence a video currently being hosted on YouTube, posted by "Tasutpen", entitled The Existentialist. It is a wonderful short film by Leon Prochnik, made over forty years ago which, it seems to me, epitomizes the sort of upbeat spirit which, I think, it is impossible to recapture these days.



A brief introduction by the filmmaker, along with a short interview and bio, can be found on this page for WNET's Reel NY

NYC 9/11 Memorial Field

Between 9/8/2006 and 9/11/2006 a soccer field in Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan is being turned into a memorial field honoring the thousands who died on 9/11/2001.  Over three thousand flags on ten-foot poles have been planted.  They bear the names of the civilians and the rescue workers who were lost.  The field is open to everyone, between the hours of 8 A.M. and 10 P.M., during its brief existence. ... See my Tabblo>

The Baslow Family Visits Niagara Falls

We went to Niagara-on-the-Lake at the end of the summer of 2006 to attend the  Shaw Festival  but,  of course,  we  also wanted to visit Niagara Falls.  The day after our arrival we'd scheduled our first play for the evening so we set out in the morning for the Falls.  The day was quite gray, overcast, and even a little bit ominous at the beginning of  that first visit but it did not detract at all, surprisingly, from the spectacle of the Falls.  We drove along Niagara Stone Road and stopped half a  kilometer or so from the Falls to get our initial  distant view. ... See my Tabblo>

Playground Perspectives

See my Tabblo>

Neo-Noir Studies

See my Tabblo>

Do I Look Like I'm Smiling?

I decided to put together a gallery of faces of people who are not saying "cheese"--

See my Tabblo>

Joel Evolution

I wouldn't want to slight my son:

We've been fascinated to watch our son grow from a shy, introspective, scholarly kid into the blues-guitar-playing, Theater Arts major at Oberlin. If you'd told us that this was the direction he'd be taking when he left middle school we would not have believed you. We have a feeling Joel is going to keep us guessing for many years to come. We're proud he's grown independent and disciplined enough to make his own path.

... See my Tabblo>

Yet Another Attempt To Resucitate This Sucker

It seems that all my energies have gone into posting photos to flickr, for some time now. Recently I discovered tabblo.com, which permits me to arrange the photos into nice, poster-like presentations. Maybe this will be the spur I need to start posting to this long-neglected blog. I give you one of my first tabblo's, My Daughter Ruth

My daughter is a person of many moods and many faces. She is a constant source of surprise and (among other things) delight. ... See my Tabblo>

What Is A "Caitlin DeLuca" And Why Did It Harrass My Wife?

I'll have more (much more) to say about all of the following in subsequent posts. For now, I will simply lay out the sequence of events in a documentary fashion, with as little redaction as possible.

EXHIBIT A - The Caitlin-Bev Correspondence

Dat: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:53:30 -0500
From: "Caitlin DeLuca"
To: bev@bevsolow.com
Subject: Breast feeding

Bev,

I'll cut to the chase. I'm an editor at a major New York fashion magazine who recently gave birth to a beautiful little girl. "Formula" is trash. We all know it. I refuse feed my newborn child powdered milk. I want Sasha to have the Crystal of breast milk, the breast milk I never had.

I need a lactation consultant, and I want you, Bev. I need a lactation consultant whoose not afraid to stand up and say "I enjoy breast feeding my baby!" I want to be able to breast feed Sasha during my Sunday brunch at Balthazar at my table, instead of in the bathroom.

Let me know


Caitlin Deluca
202-555-1111
Managing Fashion Editor
Elle Magazine
143 Fashion Ave
Suite 7b
DelucaC@elle.com
CaitlinDeluca@gmail.com

---

Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:17:04 -0800 (PST)
From: "Beverly Solow"
Subject: Re: Breast feeding
To: "Caitlin DeLuca"

Hi Caitlin,

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. I hope things are going well. It sounds like you are looking for some assistance. I'm not sure where you live. I provide in-home consultations on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and northern Manhattan. If you live in those areas, give me a call at 212 555-2222. If you live in other parts of the city, my colleague Susan provides services there (212-555-3333).

Bev Solow

---

Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 15:37:23 -0400
From: "Caitlin DeLuca"
To: bev@bevsolow.com
Subject: Re: Breast feeding

Bev,

I'd have responded sooner, but I've been in Ibiza.

I don't want your collegue, Bev, I want you. I live in the Meatpacking district, but am willing to travel uptown. Little Sasha deserves the best breastfeeding consultant Manhattan has to offer. Do you do outcalls? I'm willing to pay or, if need be, hop in a cab. We have precious few mounths before Sasha starts eating baby food, as I refuse to be one of those mothers who breast feed her baby until she's 5

I'm best reached by email, since I have my blackberry on me 24/7. Please let me know, since I'm going to St. Tropez in two weeks. Maybe we can do brunch?

Caitlin

---

Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 06:28:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Beverly Solow"
Subject: Re: Breast feeding
To: "Caitlin DeLuca"

Hi Caitlin,

If you just have questions, I provide telephone consultations (212-555-2222). If you want me to observe a feeding and make suggestions for improvement, then a face to face consultation would be the best.

If a mother doesn't live in the areas I cover, I sometimes do consultations at the Upper Breast Side on w71st St, before the store opens for business. That's also where I do weekly small groups, limited to 5 mothers. Let me know if you'd like to talk on the phone or make an appt. to meet me at the Upper Breast Side.

Bev Solow

---

Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 03:40:09 -0400
From: "Caitlin DeLuca"
To: bev@bevsolow.com
Subject: Re: Breast feeding

B-

Perhaps I'll have me assistant, Marcus, call you sometime early this week. I'm simply to busy. But I can't stress enough how dearly I want you,

Bev, as my lactation consultant. I hear you'e the best. I went through three lactation consultatants during the adolescence of my previous daughter, Brianna. I'm prepared to pay extra to meet with you outside your natural habitat. I can't afford the risk of meeting you with 4 other women involved, due to Gawker.com and Page Six. I'm willing to pay.

CD

---

Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:32:05 -0400
From: "Caitlin DeLuca"
To: bev@bevsolow.com
Subject: Re: Breast feeding

Bev,
I thought we were on the same page. Why haven't you emailed me back?
Rachel

---

Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 02:35:48 -0400
From: "Caitlin DeLuca"
To: bev@bevsolow.com
Subject: Re: Breast feeding

Listen Solow,

Thanks to your refusal to email me back, I've been forced to outsource the breast feeding to an eager, young Vietnemese woman. I was looking into your apparant rival, the renowned "Lower Breast Side," and though they assured me that "East" could be made out of "Breast," if one simply deleted the B and the R, it simply didn't rhyme. They are technically on the east side, and I don't care for semantics or geographically misleading rhyming schemes. Especially when they refer to possibly hot breast feeding locals.

You should know, Bev, that my assistant, Marcus, tells me that the people at the Time Warner Center are thinking of opening up a breast feeding botique, tentitively called "Lactation Circle." Ground

level, Bev. On the fucking park.

Hope to see you soon, but not in the pages of Elle Magazine. Which is a shame. Gilles Bensimon tells me he wants breast feeding to be the focus of the July issue. Forgive me if I neglect to include your little business.

Yours, Caitlin Deluca

PS- We're in talks with Angelina for the cover.

---

Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 06:47:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Beverly Solow"
Subject: Re: Breast feeding
To: "Caitlin DeLuca"

Hi Caitlin,

I just read your email from 4/11. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I've been taking some time off over the recent holidays, and even when I'm working every day, I don't check my email very often (in this case, not since 4/10). In your email you mentioned having your assistant Marcus call me, so I was expecting a telephone call. I check my voicemail every day, even when I'm off. If you or Marcus want to contact me, I'd be glad to respond; and I'll be checking my email more frequently this week.

I hope you're enjoying your baby.

Bev Solow

---

Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 22:57:07 -0400
From: "Caitlin DeLuca"
To: bev@bevsolow.com
Subject: Re: Breast feeding

Thanks Bev,

Great to finally hear from you. I had to fire Marcus for theiving, so
I am now officially assitantless!! When hiring domestics, its important to get cash up front or threaten them with deportation first. Lesson learmed. Let's meet soon!

=====

EXHIBIT B
An Article From Gawker.com Which Appeared About a Week Before the Caitlin-Bev Correspondence Began

Do a Fashion Editor’s Job for Almost No Money!

=====


EXHIBIT C -- The Barry-Gawker Correspondence

Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 1:11:12 PM
From: barrysolow@yahoo.com
Subject: Why is "Caitlin DeLuca" trying to scam my wife?
To: somebody@gawker.com
CC: bev@bevsolow.com

My wife, Beverly Solow, is a lactation consultant. Over the past month she has been receiving email from someone purporting to be "Caitlin DeLuca, Managing Fashion Editor, Elle Magazine". There is no such person, as I've confirmed by calling Elle. The name seems to have been plucked from an article you ran:
http://www.gawker.com/news/jobs/do-a-fashion-editors-job-for-almost-no-money-161220.php

I am attaching a Word document containing the entire correspondence to date. Neither my wife nor I can figure out why this person is sending these emails. What possible gain, financial or psychic, can be gotten? The time is now past when she could have benefited from a lactation consultation, if that ever was the goal.

My question to you is: Was the name "Caitlin DeLuca" concocted randomly or was it some kind of trade reference or in-joke which might shed some little bit of light on this whole matter? We'd really like to understand better why this person is doing what she (or -- who knows ? -- he) is doing.

Thank you.

Barry Solow

---

Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 1:18:25 PM
From: Somebody@Gawker.com
To: barrysolow@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Why is "Caitlin DeLuca" trying to scam my wife?

Hi Solows.

Yikes. "Caitlin Deluca" is an alias for a reader of ours who seems to get a perverse pleasure from emailing people under assumed identities, NOT for any financial or practical gain but because it amuses him. Quite some time ago, he sent us an exchange with a fashion-house publicist that was fairly amusing -- and involved someone who roundly deserved some mockery -- and we published it. It seems, however, that it was a mistake to encourage him. Apologies to Bev -- who, unlike the fashion person, clearly doesn't deserve this -- and rest assured that you can safely ignore any communications from "Caitlin."

Best,
Somebody (at Gawker.com)

---

Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 1:28:35 PM
From: barrysolow@yahoo.com
To: Somebody@Gawker.com
Subject: Re: Why is "Caitlin DeLuca" trying to scam my wife?

Well, thanks for the clarification. I hope you don't mind if I seethe
for a week or two.

Barry Solow

---

Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 1:29:42 PM
From: Somebody@Gawker.com
To: barrysolow@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Why is "Caitlin DeLuca" trying to scam my wife?

please do, by all means.