Author Archives: dsamarov

I’m not an exhibitionist. I’ve never been to a nude beach or nudist colony. But my place has always been clothing-optional. Especially through miserable Chicago summers, the idea of having anything on inside feels absurd. Now that K spends time here, this way of being means something else too, but mostly, it’s still just aContinue reading “Sin Ropas”

Ever since Chicago Film Society screened When A Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), I’ve been down a Mikio Naruse funnel. That movie was relentlessly brutal but seductive at the same time. I’ve watched a bunch of others and the man is a connoisseur of human suffering. Every way one person can torment another is exploredContinue reading “Naruse”

A house down my block burned up nearly a year ago. I remember they cut power to the entire block while getting it dowsed. I read Avner Landes’ WWII Soviet writer propaganda tour novel by candle-light waiting for the electricity to return. Riding home through the alley a couple weeks ago, I saw a bunchContinue reading “Let’s Get Lost (in the alley)”