april 20th 2026

i got about 80% of the way through a blog post last week about Jorgen Leth's cycling films, but figured i would leave that sleeping dog lying rather than try to revise it a week after the fact. he had it though. so ill say something different, but related to that theoretical post. (this is all about a sunday in hell, fwiw).

bike racing seems to make the most sense to me when i view it through charles sanders peirce's (brought to my attention by jean-jacques nattiez) concept of the infinitely multiple interpretant; (defined crudely, apologies) bike racing (the concept) is an (virtual) object, which exists through the infinite multiplicities of interpretants, which all allude to the object (and to each other). while the tangible "getting to the velodrome the fastest" is a notable, important part of "the bike race", "the bike race" is made up all of the other things leth chooses to show us, as well. what's neater is that all of these other things inform each other. a protest (an interpretant) shapes the parkour (an interpretant) which shapes our perception (the virtual object of) the bike race but the protest (an interpretant) only happens at the bike race because it is a large, broadcast event (this fact is also an interpretant). the broadcast event (an interpretant - ill stop pointing this out but dont stop thinking about it) only exists (tangibly) because of public interest in the sport. that public interest itself is constructed of infinite interpretants. (the thrill of a sprint, national pride, the aesthetic marvel of a rider on a bike, the excuse to get drunk on the side of a rural road at noon in april). this entire construction of what "makes" a bike race has been a fun pm exercise.


i feel like i have very little to say about benning's 11 x 14 because its still just seeping through me. i feel like some sort of fresh baklava that is having the honey syrup of the film poured over me and all i have to do is absorb it. hellie kept saying "generous" which really feels like a better word to put on it than i can summon. i felt surrounded by it. this is the only answer i will accept if someone is describing a "comfort movie" from now on.


my friend molly texted to say she was in town for ~1.5 days so we're grabbing a coffee. maybe someday theyll invent something better than hanging out, but no one has done it yet.

corrupt vision have been the new listen over the last week or so. alice + i went and saw some not-typically-my-speed black metal adjacent stuff on friday which was super fun and one of the bands had like screamo-y adjacent vocal stuff; combined with listening to some of dupage countys finest skacore band, evil empire ('CUZ ITS 187 ON A CAROL STREAM COP) has me cooking up just some of the most unappealing emoviolence/ska crossover shit. Jane Hoe are kind of the vision for the heavy parts (first ep, track 2 has gotten so many listens over the past 48 hours).
rodenfest 2k26 is imminent
see you all so soon