Thoughts.

  What I did today. Woke up after12PM. Request presistent from the hispanic cunt to pay the bill. Paid. Had to change the room. The cunt said that Would have been able to keep the room had I paid earlier. Laundry, machine at the motel. Read1984. Slept. Woke up. Resumed reading1984. PartThree, highlyfrightening. Anybody who has been subjected to thepsychiatristsfuckfaces knows what it's like. Downloaded ROMs, PS1, GameCube, SNES. Ordered some Games.PC onAmazon. Finished1984. PartThree.ChapterOne-Seven, torture. PartThree.ChapterEight, thelastsentence, HeLovedBigBrother. The next room, fratboys at either UTAustin or AustinCommunityCollege. Shitfaceds and verylouds. Felt hungry and wanted to walk to the diner acrossInterstate35. Discovered that mys shoes, which Had left in front of the door, someone either them has stolen or has threw somewhere. Didn't care, because they smelled like shit and were moists. Am forced to buy another pair of shoes.
  Plan. Walk to a diner. Return to motel. FinishAnimalFarm. Walk to BuffaloExchange betweenGuadalupeAnd29th. Must be cautious about broken glasses on the streets. Shoes. Husbands1970. Return to motel.
  So manyInjustice. They are constantly fighting a bitter classwar and they know what they want. If somebody doesn't stop globalwarming, the homosapiens will perish themselves. theColdWar was nothing but bullshit. Must discover a way to destroy the progress of globalisation. Must learn skills that brings financialsecurity. Would like to obtain UScitizenship. Wouldn't be surprised some cocksuckingjudge or someone atDA'sOffice prevents it by using influence.

Thoughts.

  What I did today. Woke up. Slept. Woke up. Jerked off. Watched a video of a lecture byChomsky. Relation between atrocities and poverty inColombia and USDrugPolicy. Left the motel. Walked towardsGuadalupe.UTAustin. Entered the gameshop.UTAustin. Bought threebooks.gamestrategyguide. BatmanArkhamAsylum/BatmanArkhamCity. TheGodfatherTheGame. AlanWake. Restaurant thai. SpringRolls and pho. BraveNewBooks. Some books by-conspiracynutjobs presents. Bought twobooks onEnvironment. Barbershop.Guadalupe.UTAustin. NumberOne. While waiting, skimmed the books onEnvironment. Regretted having bought them, nothing but rubbish. Haircut completed. Bus. GuadalupeAnd42th? BookCaseStore. Nodeliveryservice. GuadalupeAnd40th. GameRepuliK. Threehours, HalfLife2. Fivehours, Borderlands2. Greatlyenjoyed the cartoonlike maps ofBorderlands2. Taxi. Motel. Now, 24mai2013fri, 1224AM.
  Was reminded of the period HadPlayedDiablo2 during which my anus was fuckedup. Don't play games likeStarcraft2 anymore because there is little possibility of copying the maps into my palace. So many games which Want to reverseengineer. First, Must master ger. lat. and gr.classical. Must think about theSyntax and possible limitations of eng. fr. ger. lat., gr.classical, etc. before Start studying LanguageComputer.
  Plan. Wake up. Speedreading and summary, AnimalFarm and 1984. Husbands1970. Return to motel.

Thoughts on KillingOfAChineseBookieThe1976.

  What they said was true. It is fucking amazing.
  Nothing to add.
  Added, It is clearly superior to-Bubble or -GirlFriendExperienceThe.

Thoughts.

  What I did. Yesterday. Woke up after 8PM? Pasting, WorksOfArchimedes resumed. Left theapt. after12PM. Received StevenSoderberghInterview.UOfMississippiPress and KremlinLetterThe1970.DVD. Bus. BetweenBellaireAndRanchester. JangGeum. Meal, more than 21USD and less than 22USD. Giftstore. Gundam, model, more than 21USD and less than 22USD. Smoothie. Bus. BetweenAlmedaAndHolcombeBlvd. Walked, PostOffice.Almeda. Packages, DjangoUnchainedOST.Vinyl and glue.ten. Walked. theapt. Resumed pasting. Left theapt. after8PM. Walked, chineserestaurant. The music from the next shop, Privé, transversed the thin wall. Disturbed. theapt. Felt as if the universe was out of order. Resumed pasting. Slept. Today. Woke up shortly after6AM. Alarm. Removed the sound and resumed sleeping. Woke up after9AM. Missed the bus toAustinTX.8AM.16USD. Resumed pasting. Finished, WorksOfArchimedes. Edited Glue bySoderbergh. Left theapt. after3PM. Metro. BetweenMainAndInterstate45. GreyhoundbusStation. Ticket toAustinTX.5PM, unavailable. Bought another, 19mai2013.2AM.5AM. 79USD. Fuck. Metro. theapt. Started cutting the margin, GéometrieLa.Descartes. Left theapt. BurgerKing. Now, 8:36PM.
  Plan. Some movies. UTAustin, library. Language.ComputerProgramming. MonkeyWrenchBooks. ResistenciaBooks. BraveNewBooks.

Interview. Soderbergh. GirlfriendExperienceThe2009. Collider. 15may2009. ChristinaRadish.

1.     What compelled you to make The Girlfriend Experience?/I should learn how to answer this better, in general, because it’s a question that everybody wants to know about every film. It really is akin to asking, Why do you like this person? [Fucking DumbAsses.] Mostly because I don’t have any rules about what I’ll make or what I won’t make, and I try to be open to anything that will engage me. There must be some throughline to these things, but fortunately, I don’t have to figure out what it is. In this case, I think it was just an opportunity to explore some ideas about how we define pleasure. That’s always interesting. And, the idea of money is really interesting to me when you begin to think about how that started. Who was the first person to figure out that you could ascribe a value to something like a piece of zinc or gold or a diamond? Who was the first person to look at something and decide, That has a value, and the way I’m going to ascribe value to it is to get somebody to do something for me, and then I’m going to give them that thing, and then they can use that thing to get somebody else to do something for them, or to purchase something? That is a very["]weird["] idea to me, and I’m fascinated that somebody came up with it. The whole thing is veryodd to me. This was an opportunity to play with those ideas about value. How do we ascribe value to certain things? And, in this case, why does kissing require an incredible surcharge in the sexindustry? What is that about? That’s the thing that GFE’s do that prostitutes don’t. You’re not allowed to kiss. That’s a whole different thing. Here, you’re paying topdollar to be able to ["]make out["], and I think that’s interesting.

2.     Why did you choose to castSashaGrey in this film?/I saw the article in LosAngelesMagazine about her, which was published in the summerof2006. And, the way she talked about herself, her reasons for getting into the adultindustry, and the way that she planned to navigate the adultindustry didn’t seem typical to me. I’d never really heard anybody like her talk about the business that way. She said, Here are my reasons for going into it, and this is how I want to work within it. She had a plan, and I’d never heard anybody in that business talk about having a plan. There are similarities to escorts who work at this level. The ones that we interviewed are similar, in the sense that they all had plans. They all either had another business that they were working in at the same time, or they had real good jobs that they were working at the same time. They all talked about howmuch money they’d put away and what they planned to do with that money and howmuch longer they planned to do this. Again, it’s not typical in the sexworkindustry for somebody to take a macroview of the business and use it verydeliberately as a means to get somewhere else. I guess, in my mind, those two things connected. And, obviously, I also wanted someone who, in sexual situations, was going to feel in control and in command and comfortable. I think that’s hard to fake.  Honestly, that just comes from being in a lot of situations in which you feel you’re in control. She’s obviously fearless. I didn’t ask her to do anything that was veryextreme, but at least I knew, in the back of my mind, that there probably wasn’t anything I could think of where she would go, No, I’m not doing that.

3.     When did you first meetSasha?/I read aboutSasha, and then contacted her and asked if she would come in to talk. I wanted to talk to her to see if she would be up for this. The good news is that she watches a lot of movies. In the first meeting, I said, I really want you to watch this Goddardfilm, VivreSaVie1962 and she said, Oh, I love that movie. It’s one of my favorite movies. So, I thought, Okay, that saves me a couple of hours. She has a lot of different interests and she’s ambitious, and she’s had a lot of unusual experiences, so it’s going to be interesting to see what she ends up making with all of these influences and experiences. It could be something unlike anything you’ve seen. She’s only twentyoneyearsold. She’ll be making features before I was making features.

4.     Because of the nudity involved in this movie, was it easier to have an adultperformer in this role, instead of a mainstream actress?/Oh, yeah, no question.

5.     Did you deliberately decide not to include a sexscene in the film?/I didn’t care which way it went. If you want to compare the lives of a highendescort in the GFEstrata and the person who’s working [on] the street, the first thing you have to do is eliminate what’s common to them. Then, what is left are the things that are not common. My attitude was that the sexact itself was irrelevant to me,  because that’s something that’s common to theGFE, the midlevelperson who works through an agency, and the person that’s working [on] the street. The actual sexact, however long that takes, is identical in all those situations. What’s not identical is everything else. So, I decided to pull out the thing that’s common to all of them and just focus on what’s left, and what’s left is this fantasy that you are in an actual relationship for those twohours or for that night. What’s interesting about that is that it pushes you back on yourself and makes you analyze, What does that mean, exactly?

6.     Did you have any technical advisors for this?/We interviewed a lot of escorts. When we first wrote the outline, in the springof2006, we interviewed eightescorts. And then, just before we started shooting, we did one more round of interviews, and the character of the hobbyist is something that came up in that last round of interviews. That wasn’t in the original outline. Even in the twoandahalfyears since we’d worked on the story, that issue had become bigger for them. They felt like these people that run these sites and run these reviews were becoming a problem. They were being blackmailed, in a way, because if they didn’t cooperate, then these guys would figure out a way to get their reviews to skew in a certain direction. So, that turned out to be an interesting thing to use, to puncture her ["]armor["] a little bit. And, the johns in the film work in the industries that they work in within the world of the film. Most of the men that use these kinds of escorts are in the financial business because they have that kind of money to spare.

7.     Is twothousandUSD per hour an accurate figure?/Yep.

8.     And, is that the ["]top["]?/Yeah. It was last october. I don’t know what it is now.

9.     Has that been affected by the recession?/My understanding is that the veryvery["]highend["] people, in this area, haven’t been hurt, but the middle is getting slammed, so it has moved down. The midlevelagencygirls are getting hit because the guys are ["]moving down["] and going back to the street.

10. Why did you choose to work with nonactors, and what were some of the challenges of that?/I’m really interested in it. I’ve been playing around with it for awhile. All of the sixfilms that I’m supposed to do for 2929Entertainment, under this deal, are planned to be done in this way, where you write a story and detail the outline, and then cast real people and use these controlled improvisations. It’s interesting because they don’t act like [professional] actors. And, that’s not a ["]slam["] on actors, but they’re not trying to do anything. They don’t have goals [in] the way actors have goals. You need to give them a goal. You need to tell them what the scene is about.

11. How much of this film was actually structured? And, was the nonlinear narrative something that was preconceived?/The structure is veryverydetailed. You not only had the scenes, but also what the scenes were about. It was ["]bullet points["] to give the performers. I’d say to them, At some point, you’ve got to cover these three subjects. I don’t care how you do it, but you’ve gotta do it. It’s best, in this situation, to shoot chronologically because it’s helpful for the actors, but I knew, when we were shooting it, that I was going to play it out in a nonlinear way. I was veryconscious, every time I was doing a scene, to cull abstract footage that I could use as markers and keystones, that would be cycled and then ["]pay["] off later. I would just make sure I’d gathered enough material to build a mosaic, even though I didn’t tell anybody that.

12. What are you hoping that audiences will take from this type of film?/This is not new. This is something that RobertBresson did, his entire career. It’s very similar. He set up these stories and he cast nonprofessionals to great effect. I’m trying to take that idea and push it even further, and use even more complex stories and ask more of them, and push them and have them have do things that are even more demanding. A lot of the performances in theBressonfilms are verypassive, and they’re not verybig. You don’t see people ["]monologueing["] the way we have people doing it in this film. And so, I guess I’m just trying to get at something that’s entertaining, but that feels a little more lifelike. But, that really depends on the movie. We’re trying to get thisLiberacemovie ["]off the ground["], and we’ve got MichaelDouglas playingLiberace and MattDamon playing this young man that he gets involved with. And, RichardLaGravenese wrote the script. That’s not a situation where I’m going to be sitting around improvising. It’s already there. But, the goal of that movie is very different because of what it’s about and the period that it’s set in. It’s set in the entertainmentbusiness and it needs to have a different ["]vibe["]. And so, a moreobvious construct is fine in that world, but in the world of-Bubble or -GFE, I felt like it has to feel more ["]organic["] [word favoured ofSoderbergh].

13. Is there something fundamentally different about the whoring that Sasha’scharacter does ["]versus["] the whoring that everybody else in the film does, or does Capitalism make whores of everyone?/It depends on how you define whore and how you define Capitalism. Do I personally see any difference between what she does and what I do for WarnerBros.? No, I don’t. But, that gets to this issue of money, and the fact that the world cannot function unless something like the idea of money exists. We cannot all live on a farm and generate enough food to feed everyone we know. [Veryweak argument of someone who never wants to destroyCapitalism.] It’s not physically possible. So, this idea has to exist, and what we’re continually arguing about is, How it should work. What it ultimately ["]comes down["] to is, What is fair? And, a lot of that fairness has to do with what we attribute value to. What’s fascinating aboutEconomics is how clean it is and how clear an expression it is of any culture’s values. What’s great aboutEconomics is that it isn’t an expression of the way we want things to be or the way we wish things to be or the way we would choose for them to be. It is an expression of the way things are, period. [It is true of allScience. Only after one has complte understanding ofEconomics, one has a right to discuss how to improve or alter it.] Personally, I’m not someone who thinks that how somebody pleasures themself should be legislated by me. That’s just the way I feel. I don’t want somebody telling me that, and I don’t want to tell somebody else that. That’s why nobody is encouraging me to run for office. I think there’s such a thing as theft, and I think there’s such a thing as assault. And then, after that, it’s ["]wide open["] to me. [Of course he does.] What you want to do is what you want to do. I think the typical definition of whore is doing something that you would not ordinarily do for money. The problem is that ninetyfivepercent of the people in this world are not doing something that they want to do to make money. That’s just a fact.

14. Is there anything that you would change about the film, or are you onehundredpercent happy with the final product?/It doesn’t matter to me, in the sense that, if you look at the way that I’ve worked and the number of films that I’ve made, my rule is to work quickly and not to agonise over things. I have a certain amount of money and a certain amount of time. I’ve never gone over budget and I’ve never gone over schedule. And so, when the films are done, they’re done. I’ll do anything that I can to improve them until I’m supposed to deliver them, and then I deliver them and I don’t look at them again. So, my judgement of it really doesn’t have a lot to do with the piece itself. It has to do with the experience of making it because that was monthsoryears out of my life. I look back on this fondly because I had a lot of fun making it. Tenorfifteenears from now, maybe I’ll look at it and determine if I did the best job possible of making it. You can contrast that with something like Che, which was not fun to make. It will take me a long time to be able to look at that objectively because it was just not fun. I like to have fun if I can.

15. Is your film KingOfTheHill1993 ever going to come out on DVD?/They’ve been waiting on me to do a commentary, and my rule is that I won’t do them alone, and I haven’t been able to find anybody to do it with me. To be fair, I haven’t tried. But, it will come out, eventually. Everything does.

16. What are you going to be working on next?/Moneyball. We start filming that on 09jun2009, which is soon. And, TheInformant is coming out in september2009.

17. What’s behind your decision to use an animated character inMoneyball?/Well, I may be. There’s one character that I’m gonna try to animate. That’s either a really good idea or a really bad idea, but I’m gonna try.

Soderbergh. Novella. Glue.

better text. anovellacalledglue.com

-->

I will now attempt to tweet a novella called GLUE. 28 Apr [2013].

  CHAPTER ONE. Amsterdam. It was difficult for you not to assume the worst after the way your funeral went down. The whole thing seemed like a parody of itself. Like anything else, the #&%# was only valuable because everyone wanted it and nobody had it. You’ve become the receptacle for everything forgotten, and an impulse can only be ignored for so long before people begin to wonder. Everything that used to be a foregone conclusion was for sale—cheap—and regret was a dead battery. The window reminds you that you haven’t been in one place for more than a week in four years. A message: Paris by train. Overnight. H always said, “The hours are great if you agree to work whenever they want you to.” After all, it’s easy to imagine the worst and the pay isn’t too bad, either. Why else have you been saying yes? But now there’s a new definition of permanent, and the same page is something for everyone to get off of. The smart move is to pull up stakes and head for the nearest cliché. But you don’t. The hotel in Paris is a womb. No message from D. Your first memory of her was her neck. Neither of you said anything worth hearing that night, the first of three at the Nacional. Where the entire 6th floor is wired like Marilyn’s bedroom. But that was okay. You were supposed to be married. The American liaison had a worried look. And the joke about ordering breakfast into the lamp didn’t help. Still... A successful trip all in all, even if death was on the menu and your employer owns your history. Never heard if they found Luis or not. Hopefully not. A text from D. breaks the spell: Meet with S at 2000 hrs at Apt 23. _______ restaurant at 2130hrs to follow. If S was in Paris, then so was the #&%#. Good to know. END OF CHAPTER ONE.

  CHAPTER TWO. this kid. this FUCKER. that look on his face. arrogant piece of...what, we’re supposed to treat you like a rock star? like you’re the first person who ever had an idea? fucking kids like you are hanging out in every fucking starbucks in the world.

somebody would have come up with the #&%# eventually, why are you so special for coming up with something everyone predicted? turner’s fucking cat food if he doesn’t PHONE yes? BEAT hello? BEAT hi, ted, i was BEAT yes, i know i BEAT i don’t really have one right now BEAT i absolutely will, yes, yes-- BEAT fuck END OF CHAPTER TWO.

  CHAPTER THREE. By the time you reached the restaurant, things had changed. You asked D about Madrid, and she smiled an answer. You asked again and she said not to worry, but everything sounded like a worst-case scenario with fuck-you money around the edges. You had to admit you’d lost the thread months ago. Maybe if you could get the #&%# it would buy you some time. Dessert. The room was a lot louder than it was an hour ago, and D knew it. “Have another glass,” you said. She refused, and checked her watch. That’s when you spotted M shoulder his way through the door. Under your breath you said D’s name. She looked at you and then the door. You made a mental note of the exits. M sat without a word and gestured for a waiter. H used to say procedure was a masking agent and nothing more, but he also kept repeating himself in the way vermouth sometimes does. When M mentioned something about Madrid, D lowered her head. A series of questions followed, and she answered. His drink arrived. Her deference was nauseating. Every “sir” that came out of her mouth felt like a dagger. You looked at M and thought: A perpetual smirk must be earned, otherwise it lives alone. “Who are your heroes?” What kind of question was that? You needed to get out of there. M’s stale sweat smelled like failure. You downed your drink and said, “The only people who enjoy this kind of thing tend to suck at it.” You glanced at D. The crack in her veneer was threatening to become a crevasse. To cover, you said something about H and the company. Something amusing. “Fuck fair!” M said. “It’s not like waving a wand!” Loud laughter from the Americans at the next table turned your heads.  And when M’s hand moved, you didn’t hesitate. Did they think you were a fucking child? Mayhem. The French have a word for what came out the back of M’s head: sweetbreads. END OF CHAPTER THREE.

  CHAPTER FOUR. what? wait a minute—what was Michel doing at les halles? how he even know to be there? BEAT BEAT where’s the girl? BEAT no. wait for them to move. she’s obviously dirty, and he must know that, but let’s see what he does. where’s sonnenfeld? BEAT well, keep looking. BEAT my guess would be rome... END OF CHAPTER FOUR.

  CHAPTER FIVE. At the safe house her tears came right on schedule. Your stomach tightened, and any and all conclusions crawled away to look for sustenance or an exit. She wanted to hear herself talk. That’s when you learned you can be lonely anywhere. It’s late and your attitude is nowhere to be found. You always said you deserved each other, but the fact is you would be mad if she agreed. You both knew M stepped off the merry-go-round and got exactly what he asked for. There’s nothing to eat or drink here. She sleeps with her back to you. She might be your age when you wake up, and who knows what she’s seen. Follow your instincts before the numbness becomes a symptom instead of the other way around. END OF CHAPTER FIVE.

  CHAPTER SIX. well, if she confesses and he kills her, great. the question is will she kill him first? BEAT no, but i can--i can--yes, we can--BEAT (off, left) sherrill, can you--get gary maloney END OF CHAPTER SIX.

  CHAPTER SEVEN. She said you fell asleep with your fists clenched last night, but she didn’t seem worried. You know what H would say: The beats are a map, not a clue. Thirty minutes later you’re driving, D beside you. There was nothing to go back to.

The smell of ignited sulfur filled the car, followed by the thin smoke of D’s ultra-light.  Then she mentioned the #&%#. That S had told her where it was. Suddenly all those off-the-record chats with H made perfect sense to you. That's why she was early for the S meeting. Remember? The door was open. As soon as you saw D’s jacket on the floor you should have known this was just part of an attempt to move things along. You drew your gun, and started breathing through your mouth. You called her name, softly. No response. The bedroom next. S was on the floor. Light from the bathroom highlighted his blood. The sound of the sink running his requiem. Then complete silence. Then darkness. A beat. D appeared at the door. END OF CHAPTER SEVEN.

  CHAPTER EIGHT he is a fucking tumor, and you are going to cut off his blood supply. i want him on a graph yesterday. BEAT sherrill will sort all that out. anything else? BEAT and would this be buffet style or a la carte? BEAT okay. eyes on her. no touching. yet. BEAT how do you know about that? BEAT gary, listen to me: you do not want to be in the blast radius of the #&%# situation  yes. BEAT yes, sir. BEAT i anticipate retrieval of all assets within 24 hours. i have my best man in front of me now. BEAT yes, sir. BEAT jesus. BEAT why are you still here? what the fuck are you smiling at? END OF CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE You put your gun away, although part of you wondered why. She nodded at S. Three passports. 500 Euros. A boarding pass. Alitalia. “I guess if there isn’t some sort of surprise, then what’s the whole thing for?” D said before stepping past you. An hour later you were at Les Halles. An hour after that, M arrived. No question it was her. Refusing to discuss the courier in Madrid, then this. Were you asleep? Remember what H said: A teaspoon is about earning trust; a tablespoon is something else altogether. Clearly the plan had been changed without your input, and the consequences couldn’t be nullified with the usual cocktail of distractions And especially not while you’re driving. END OF CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN gary maloney’s real name is not gary maloney. not gary maloney felt it was a bad idea for any government agency to know his real name. for obvious reasons. all the people who knew gary maloney’s real name are dead. some from natural causes. on the way to the airport, not gary maloney made three phone calls from three different disposable phones. the first two were dictated messages to voice mail. the third was a conversation that lasted nine seconds. he discarded all three phones before entering the international terminal at dulles. at the gate, he uploaded one encrypted file from an internet cafe computer. thirty minutes later he was on a plane to rome. END OF CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN She stood in the parking lot and asked what you meant. Listening to her lie was like having your skin pulled off in one strip. Then again part of you would like that. The simplicity of it. You said nothing. You were both quiet for awhile. No tears this time, you noticed. Then she told you everything, and when she was finished you were strangers; anything you shared disappeared. The hole it left behind would become your new obsession. In the audience-friendly version you’d stay together, but it’s never going to be as good as you remember. Time to move on. She feels invaded, judging from her expression, so the only thing to do is book her a round trip to somewhere she won’t stand out. The subtle phrases H left behind suggested a shortcut, but if everyone knows about a shortcut it’s not a shortcut anymore. The conclusion was determined from the start, and there isn’t a word for the taste in your mouth. END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE not gary maloney took a taxi to the de russi. once there, he showered, shaved, and went downstairs to the bar.  ketel one on the rocks with lime. forty-two euros. and a short pour to boot.  he wondered what he would do with the gay italian after he got what he needed. the air in the room changed, and not gary maloney looked into the mirror behind the bar. a well-dressed woman had entered, trailing a handful of pilot fish disguised as people. sibilant whispers traced her name in the air. it sounded familiar. american. not gary maloney motioned for a refill. an actress, he guessed. he wasn’t sure, though. because not gary maloney hated movies. END OF CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN As you stare at the ceiling of the Pantheon, you imagine the other life. The one where you weren’t recruited. The one where you quit to save your marriage. The one where some geek didn’t invent the #&%# while on the payroll and then drop off the grid. But everyone has a different definition of popular, and in this case the numbers do tell the whole story. When Paolo saw your face he also saw his future. He was too much of a pro to run. And not exactly young anymore. By the time you sat he had arranged his expression into something life-like. His smile was at half-mast and his eyes were focused on the ending. The world is full of misplaced ambitions, and the only cure is a crash rewrite with no interruptions. You both knew your hand had been forced. Not that it helped. He would hear what you have to say, and he would repeat it to his captors. He might even be allowed to live. Never trust what you want, or you might end up staring at the big blue marble from a great height. When you were done feeding him, he filled the silence with talk about Walter. Something about their anniversary. He had switched from wine to bottled water. In preparation. Not a minute goes by where you don’t think it’s pointless, but people need something to do with their hands. END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN it’s all there. you can count it if you like BEAT no, i’d like to keep the socks on, if that’s okay BEAT i, uh, i work in…technology. security BEAT exactly. for your computer BEAT PHONE BEAT i’m sorry, i need to take this. can you…i’ll just step in here BEAT yes BEAT put him through BEAT yes, sir BEAT my man is in rome, and that estimate is still--BEAT yes, sir. i understand, the absolute moment--BEAT that shouldn’t be necessary BEAT BEAT BEAT listen, dani, was it? you should…you should just go BEAT yeah something’s…i’m just not...it's not a good time. BEAT i appreciate that, i just need to…i’m just going to stay here for a bit, have one more drink. END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN You don’t feel anything, so you decide to take another. Not everything can be avoided when your head is in a hurry and reappearances remain a fixture. The pattern is clearly random—what you need to remember is the one thing that eludes you. So you wait, and waiting always makes you think of the mouse. You were in Grand Cayman. 1997. Alone in the bedroom of a resort home belonging to a target. Judging from the spread, selling black market munitions paid very well. Until it didn’t. A strong scratching sound drew you to a sliding door, then to your knees in front of the metal column opposite the door handle. Inside the column: a mouse. Obviously it had climbed in through the top and was now trapped; not enough clearance to escape from the bottom. Droppings indicated it had been there awhile. No way to save it without taking the door apart. You went back to the chair and listened to the mouse struggle while you waited for the target to arrive. And you started thinking. What did the mouse know about its own predicament? How long before it died of starvation and exhaustion? Was it cursing itself for crawling in there? For being curious? Had it been trying to find food for its family? Maybe it fell in. Was its family wondering where it had gone and why it hadn’t come home? Was it usually good at this, or a fuckup? How did it decide when to rest and when to struggle? Was it making deals with the mouse God in order to obtain a miraculous escape? Were you the mouse God? Were you the mouse? Then you thought: how many trillions of creatures, humans included, have died without anyone knowing? Or caring? The kind of thinking H encouraged you to abandon. Maybe the mouse now had some cosmic significance because you were aware of its imminent mortality. At least it wasn’t in some lab having cancer injected into it. It was dying, but it wasn’t being killed. Then again, there were no steel columns before Man showed up. So maybe it was on us. You thought about killing it. But how? You couldn’t reach it and you weren’t in the habit of carrying fast-acting mouse poison. The noise continued. Nothing to do but add it to the suffering you ignore in life. That we all ignore. After you considered that list item by item, you went to the door again, to see how it was assembled. No screws, nothing. It would take a spot welder to solve this. You went to the chair again, sat, and listened. Two hours later the scraping sounds. And there would be a lot of explaining to do. An hour after that the target arrived, and you went to work. A week after that you were promoted. END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN From: DBHarriss@cicgov.org/sz/asst_dep_sec Subject: JCOS/DCI briefing preparation This memo is not to circulate outside Station Zebra in its present form. It is not to be quoted or referred to in communications to any other organizations, branches, sections, or divisions. The following diplomatic traffic is now being intercepted: Amsterdam/Paris, Paris/Madrid, Paris/Rome. Contents attached. As of this writing, the whereabouts of both Chamasmany and the #&%# are unknown. Chamasmany was last seen in Madrid 72hrs ago, when our Spanish courier escorted him to a rendezvous with Dunsmuir at location Q. Dunsmuir was supposed to escort Chamasmany to Paris, where he would meet Agent _____ and MI5 analyst Sonnenfeld. Instead, Dunsmuir arrived in Paris alone, and Chamasmany and the courier have disappeared. Dunsmuir has not contacted her employer since she arrived in Paris. Whether the Paris meeting took place is unclear, although luminol tests reveal recently cleaned bloodstains in the bedroom. We are awaiting DNA results and stonewalling all MI5 enquiries re: Sonnenfeld as per your instruction. These events lead us to believe Dunsmuir, the Spanish courier and Chamasmany entered into some sort of arrangement in Madrid. Such activity falls outside the guidelines set forth in the Functions and Structures Chapter of the Station Zebra Directive of 11/11. Such activity, should it be confirmed, would be actionable. It is unclear whether Dunsmuir and Agent ______ are working in concert. The Cuba case is being reviewed for indicators. It is unclear why Michel Maraval showed up at Les Halles and whether or not he was expected by Agent _____ or Dunsmuir. It is unknown what events led to his killing. Special Action Service France views Maraval as officially separated as of 02/09, and has no interest in pursuing the matter. There is no record of any embarkation attempts by Dunsmuir under any of the various aliases known to SZ/CIA/NSA, et al. Agent _____ is believed to be in Rome. SZ has engaged the services of Five Continents Imports to track, acquire, and question him about all of the above. In addition, Five Continents will attempt to track Dunsmuir, with instructions not to engage unless so ordered by SZ. All available assets have been engaged to track and acquire Chamasmany, and his immediate family is now in custody. SZ analytics continue to monitor for any indication that #&%# has been deployed. END OF CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN So far the benefit of the doubt is the only way to distinguish what’s real from what’s been surgically enhanced. The effort to keep your eyelids open was cruel. You saw him enter Paolo’s apartment and you saw him leave twenty-two minutes later. American, early 40s. Thinning hair. Glasses. Off-the-rack suit. Briefcase. You followed him. He was heading for the address you gave Paolo. Repetition is key, key, key. END OF CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN She was supposed to feel better than this, she thought as she scanned the bar. Forty-five minutes ago it was empty except for the staff. Now it was a scrum of flushed faces and noisy narratives. She listened without hearing. A habit. As she raised an 18£ martini to her lips, she wondered how all these people could afford to live in the city. Of course she could now afford to live anywhere she wanted, for as along as she wanted. That was the problem, she realized: A tested fantasy is no longer a fantasy. She wanted to be done with this martini already. And the next one. Because after the fourth or fifth one the image would start to fade, a little. The image being the look on _____’s face when she told him about the arrangement. She watched as the slow spread of disappointment found every part of him. Scratch a cynic and you’ll find an idealist, she thought, in the parking lot. Had someone written that? Did he understand it wasn’t just about money, it was about freedom? Was the disappointment because she didn’t include him? Was he envious? She finished the drink and signaled the bartender. Three down, two to go… END OF CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. 12 Mai.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN. Even when they all wore the same clothes, you could tell them apart by the way they drove a bargain. Moscow Rules now. Only H would hire a guy like this. Would know a guy like this. Another sheep-dipped Title 50 ex-contractor. He must be good in the room. You wondered if he saw Paolo for what he was? Or was he pretending not to? Sometimes it’s hard to believe what people do, until you understand people do what they believe. Part of you wanted to impress them, wanted a “mystique”. Would the effort required diminish your capabilities or add to them? Let’s face it, the best bargain you’ll ever get is the one you make with yourself. You entered the room, and he turned. You realized you misread him from a distance. The look on his face said he wouldn’t be telling you anything. But that didn’t change what had to happen next, up close. You liked physicality. It was clean. The “radical divestment” of everything unnecessary. You’ve heard people say TIME SPEEDS UP or TIME SLOWS DOWN. Not in your experience. You’re a big fan of the trachea—no one functions well when it’s been damaged. The blanket was a wool blend. Would he try to shake it off and create a scene in the middle of an intersection? You kept driving until you ran out of road. Once there, you went to the back seat and pulled the blanket off him. You were right about one thing: he wasn’t going to talk, because he was dead. By his own hand. Or mouth, rather. What was left of it. His passport was very, very good. Government spec. “Kyle Landry”, Five Continents Imports. You put his body in a shed, and thought this might be a good time to call Him. Let Him know what was happening. Within hours, He was there, clasping your hand in greeting. You listened as He talked. It was best that way. This is what He said to you on this occasion: 1. You can argue with success. 2. The lack of a footprint is also a footprint. 3. 50/50 is always a good deal. And then He left. END OF CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY. don’t give me variables and probability, where the fuck is he? BEAT if he had “engaged” with _____ then we would have SPLIT BEAT may i finish? because i really can. if he’s missing it’s because ______ saw him first. what’s happening with DICKFEE’s family? BEAT well, they better start, because i’ve talked to justice. we can send them all to strawberry fields if we want, we can send them to a planet and then have it declared no longer a planet BEAT i actually think we’ll know a lot in the next four to six hours BEAT sorry i got excited, but what can this thing do, in theory? BEAT well, try BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT how many people know this, exactly? BEAT all right PHONE excuse me BEAT BEAT no, let’s just list maloney as DUSTWUN for the moment—no alarm bells and call the embassy in rome, have mel meet me in london tomorrow END OF CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. Not Gary Maloney now existed only in the thoughts of others because he bit the capsule and died. Does it matter when he was found? It would change nothing. Plus, he hated people and people sensed this, so that part about his being in the thoughts of others is actually wrong. END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO When he heard about his family he was so furious he nearly installed the #&%# and just…but he didn’t. Who could help him? Between the unthinkable, the unspeakable, and the unstable, it wasn’t a long list… He thought about that woman from the hacking case, that liaison. She was the one only who knew what she was doing. Dunsmuir. He sent her a message. She didn’t reply for seven minutes. The return message was brief but playful. As though she was with someone. He asked to see her. Five minutes went by. She asked where he was. He said Paris. Five more minutes passed.  She asked if he would be there tomorrow. He said yes. Eleven seconds, then she wrote: I will call you when i’m there. He acknowledged/confirmed/signed off. Then he headed for Paris. END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE If everything is inevitable, you will know what to do afterward. A year’s worth of contacts would end up as H’s appetizer. They didn’t teach this shit at Camp Peary. Were you a soldier or a spy? Anyone who knew couldn’t be asked. You father might know. But he never knew what you did. Could those cracked, calloused hands of his understood? The eyes that survived the Chosin reservoir? He was nineteen in Korea. And that was all he ever said about it. Spectacle and cheap sentiment mingle in your mind as you enter the alley. You’re analyzing various choices as the music swells and you lose consciousness. END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Fuck ME, she thought, turning away. What would Harriss be doing in London the day she hears from Chamasmany? She hit the stairs to the downstairs bathroom while she tried to come up with an answer. She stayed calm and thought through the possibilities. Conclusion: Harriss doesn’t know she’s here. Total crazy fucking coincidence. And: the man Harriss was talking to, she knew him. An attaché or something. From Rome. Her breathing slowed, and she ascended the second set of stairs to the lobby. Exiting, she crossed the street to a pub. From a seat inside, she watched Harriss and the attaché talk. END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE You become conscious in a trunk. Headache, bound hands (behind). Obviously it’s dark. Moving, smooth pavement. 40-45mph. You think it’s probably a sedan and the engine is definitely diesel. You’re think it might be a Mercedes and you also think it’s weird you aren’t wearing a blindfold. The effort to open your eyelids is not only cruel, but pointless, because you’re blind. When you were five you almost drowned. This seems worse. But you don’t have time to go into that. It must be a drug. How was it administered? You came here directly from seeing Him. Think. When you shook His hand? Was that even conceivable? THINK. Most agency-engineered psychotropics take effect within 45 minutes. That’s just about exactly right. It had to be Him. You don’t just UNPLUG like that in the street with no onset whatsoever and then wake up blind. That doesn’t just HAPPEN to you. Someone has to WANT that to happen to you. The car is slowing for a turn, and you hear muffled voices now. Two. You recognize You can’t make out the words, but the tone is argumentative. You’re on a dirt road now. END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE mai22

Interview. Soderbergh. MagicMike2012. FilmComment. AmyTaubin. 26jun2012.

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1.     MagicMike and BehindtheCandelabra, the Liberace biopic which you are about to shoot for HBO, are two of thefinal threemovies that will be in your filmography when you retire in-january2013. Did you have a todolist for your career, nearlythirtymovies in less than twentyfiveyears, and was the male body thelastitem on it? When we were setting up this interview, you emailed, with characteristic modesty, that theLiberacebiopic will be “the gayest movie ever.”/Certainly, I felt that MagicMike would be the way to build credibility for the final assault on heterosexuality in movies. I’m actually glad the two movies timed out like this. I thought ofMagicMike as an undressed rehearsal for Liberace. I’m curious to see what the reaction of the gaycommunity is toMagicMike, to the choices that were made in how to present that material. I have certain ideas about how I want to present Liberace, and I want to see if I’m on the right track or not.

2.     I went to the MagicMike screening with a young, brilliant, gay, artseditor. He was interested in how the film walked right up to the edge of camp, but never crossed over. He also wondered where you found the choreographer./I tasked Channing, as one of the producers, with finding the person to do the choreography because it was going to be his problem more than mine. It needed to be good enough so that if someone paid a cover charge to see the show they wouldn’t be disappointed, but these people aren’t trained dancers. He mentionedAlisonFaulk, who had done work for-Madonna and -BritneySpears, and she understood exactly the ["]line["] we were trying to ["]surf["]. We had determined what the subject of each of the routines would be. There’s going to be a firemanroutine, a doctor, a boxer, andsoon. I didn’t want to see the rehearsals. Then, about a week before we started shooting, I saw everybody do their routines. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was the first concrete confirmation that this was going to be fun for the audience. They weren’t sleazy, they were funny, and that’s when I relaxed and thought we’re going to be fine. Is there a darker, dirtier, scummier version of that world? Of course, but I wanted it to be fun not only for the audience’s sake but for mine. I had no desire to spend tenmonths working on something that was going to be a ["]downer["]. After Che, I felt I had gotten the important movieshit out of my system.

3.     That’s nonsense!/It’s not. Even Contagion, I was trying to push it as far into a genre film as I could.

4.     Okay, but I can’t believe you won’t get ["]the bug["] again to do something difficult./That’s true. Selfimportant would be a better way to put it. Stuff that’s conceived with an eye toward an allcategoriestrade ad at the end of the year. That’s what I don’t want to do anymore. But even withMagicMike, when we started testing the movie, and by then WarnerBrothers was involved, part of the conversation became that in thelastthird of the movie, things stop being funny for a while. Anyone who has tested a movie in the past fiveyears has discovered that all people want right now is happiness. They reject ambiguity or any kind of ["]shadow side["] of anything. It’s just gotten worse and worse. What people want when they go to the movies has shifted a bit. I think there are a lot of reasons for it. But it’s been weird for me, because I’ve been losing a lot of arguments. Not in the practical sense, because I’ve still gotten things the way I want them, but I’ve seen instances where the argument that is presented to me about why people don’t like the film more often turns out to be true. All the things I’ve argued for because they make the film distinctive turn out to be a barrier for the audience. In that sense, the people making the argument turn out to be right. When we asked people about why they didn’t score Contagion higher, they said, We didn’t likeJudeLaw. We didn’t know if he was a good guy or a bad guy, and they felt it was the filmmaker’s fault for not making that clear to them.

5.     In a climate like that, I understand that it’s just about impossible to make anything interesting./It’s hard. So, withMagicMike, there was a big discussion about whether I could just carve that part out of the movie. And I said, No, I can’t. There would be no journey. We ["]seeded["] that stuff earlier. It happens because theKid has shitty judgment. He shouldn’t be giving ecstasy to strange girls at a sorority. He’s stupid. But look, nobody dies. And interestingly, people at screenings lately have said they’re glad that’s in the movie. They thought it would be a piece of total fluff and it turned out to be more than they expected.

6.     But the movie isn’t about the kid. He’s ["]thesecond banana["]. What matters is that MagicMike makes the right choices, that things go well for him. And they do because he ends up with the equivalent of the boss’s daughter. Why did you cast CodyHorn as Mike’s loveinterest? She’s verygood and a good match forTatum. But you’ve made a lot of movies atWarnerBrothers./Yes, I immediately thought they were good together. I had no idea she wanted to act. Thelast time I saw her, she was a sixteenyearold PA. I was having trouble finding the right person for that role. I told our castingdirector she’s got to be tough and strong and funny, a youngRosalindRussell. She said, I think you should have a look at this girl who just came in. She posted it and I said, “Is that who I think it is? She’s perfect.” It’s rare that you can find a woman who can be that brash and yet not annoying.

7.     That scene where she visits the stripclub for the first time and you play the whole thing off her face, she was terrific./And without trying to do a lot. She just watches. That really was the first time she saw Mike’sroutine. I purposely set it up so we shot her side of it first. That was take one. She has really good instincts. And I think it helps growing up the way she grew up. There’s a consonance. I thought it would be funny and weird that the obstacle to them getting together is that she doesn’t like his job. It’s really hard these days to find those kinds of obstacles to romance. But ["]the big elephant in the room["] is obviously McConaughey. When I started showing the movie around, the first thing out of everyone’s mouth was, MatthewMcConaughey, what a crazyassperformance. He impressed the shit out of me. He showed up with a lot of ideas and they were all good. I described the part to him in one sentence and he said, I know exactly who this guy is. And he did. How he dressed, how he talked. Really fine.

8.     What’s interesting about the way he plays it is that the character doesn’t have a sexuality that you can nail down. And in that one lowangleshot late in the movie, he looks like the devil, reallyperverse./We talked about that. I thought it would be interesting if you had a guy who did this job and is surrounded by sex as a commodity, and yet we never get a ["]bead["] on what he does. He doesn’t appear to be with anybody, he doesn’t talk about anybody. He appears to be this strange, asexual, ambitious visionary. It was an interesting line for him to walk. It was a prettysecure on his part to not want to ["]tip["] it.

9.     Could we back up a bit? You’ve said twothings today that are really striking in the context of your being a director who has made more than twodozenmovies in the way you wanted to make them. When you talked about theLiberacemovie, you said something about wondering how the gaycommunity would view it and then, talking about movies in general, you spoke about what audiences want these days. Has the way your movies are viewed always been in the front of your mind? I’ve never heard you talk like this much about what other people might think./We should separate that into twoparts. One has to do with how commercially viable a filmmaker I am. Because I don’t want to waste my time trying to make things that are either not going to get made or, if they are made, not get seen. Wondering about why people go to the movies and what they want to see, there is something filmmakers continually need to do. But I can only make them the way I can make them. So it isn’t a question about how I work. It’s a question about whether how I work is still viable. The other part is about how the gaycommunity will respond. The rights of gays and the role of gays in our culture has become a big part of the conversation, so that when you’re dealing with material such asBehindTheCandelabra, which is specifically about a gayrelationship, you want to make sure it doesn’t ["]end up["] being something that someone can hold up and say, See, this is my problem with those people. I want the movie to be sincere, and I want it to be accurate. Now, it may be both those things, and it still might be used as a ["]hammer["] by someone. It’s almost like withChe: I was ready to be attacked, but I didn’t want to be attacked for being historically inaccurate. At the same time, you have to step back and say it’s just a relationshipmovie. It just happens to be twoguys. I could argue that it’s more interesting for it to be twoguys because the world they occupy is so strange.

10. Because of the period? Because of the closet?/Yeah. That specific aspect of showbusiness at that time was just so weird. Liberace was living in the era when he had to hide that part of his life. It would have been careerending. It’s sad. But, now he wouldn’t have to worry about it. You could argue if there had been no Liberace, would we have the EltonJohn that we have? But my job pictorially is just to figure out how to shoot all theseJacuzziscenes.

11. The male body./Maybe in terms of movies, the male body hasn’t gotten as much attention as the female body, but movies are a recent Artform. But throughout History, the male figure has gotten as much attention as the female.

12. But once stories came into the picture, that changed./That’s interesting because there are twotypes of stripclubs. In stripclubs for men, there isn’t even a pretense of narrative. But, in clubs aimed at women, you always have a skit or some kind of sketch that has a story in it.

13. Everyone has their own taste. I don’t find the stripclub scenes in any way erotic, but they are a lot of fun. But there was that one drugsexscene late in the movie, kind of a dreamlike slowmotion strangely colored scene, that is a turnon. The one that ends deliriously on the potbellied pig./That was a tricky sequence. As written, it’s just, They go out and they party. So how was I going to put across that feeling, like when you know you are going to get some reallygood drugs and go out and ["]hook up["]. I really wanted to see if I could find a way to give that feeling. One of the things I like about the story is that none of us wanted to be punitive about the ways people pleasure themselves. No one is punished in the movie because they had sex or did ecstasy. That’s not why things go wrong. It made me think that, to a large degree, we are still in that mindset that you need to be punished for having pleasure. What I like about the movie is its attitude that fun is fun. Nothing wrong with it.

14. ChanningTatum is terrific. I used to think he had a bit of potential, but here he’s entirely different./I noticed something different about him here too when I was working with him. I never brought it up because I didn’t want to derail him by asking him questions about why he seemed so different. I have to believe that since the movie originated out of his experience he knew the character so well he was incapable of giving a wrong answer. He was more confident.

15. It’s kind of the way Clooney was suddenly different inOutOfSight1998. InER, it had seemed as if he had moviestarpotential, and then on the bigscreen, in BatmanAndRobin1997, all you could see was that smirk and all those terrible selfconscious habits. I always wondered what you said to him or what you did to transform him./I try in every way that I can without being overt to give them confidence, make them feel secure. I remember one of the first things we shot onOutOfSight withGeorge. I told him that I wanted him to be stock still. I said, We have great material, we have a great cast, you don’t have to do anything to own this scene. That was the only conversation we had like that. He got it. I wanted him to know how much I believed in him. The point is, Don’t hide behind stuff. I want you, the inner part of you. That’s what’s most interesting, so don’t distract me. But, when you have a lens threefeet from your nose, that’s hard to do.

16. This is a funny conversation, because it’s all about selfconsciousness. Selfconsciousness in making a movie, selfconsciousness in the presentation of self. But let me ask once again, are you really getting out?/Yes.

17. But you know so much about what you do. How can you just leave that?/I know a lot about stuff that doesn’t matter to me anymore, so I’ve got to find some new stuff that matters to me. I’ve hit a wall. I’m not saying that I won’t come back, but I would need to come back as a reallydifferent filmmaker, and the only way for me to do that is to do something else, so I have time to annihilate everything that came before and start again. I’m excited. It’s a luxury for me to do this. I’m ["]holding out["] hope that there is something that’s eluded me that I can get my fingers around if I ["]turn off the sound["] for a while.

18. I think a lot of people, me included, have the feeling that the movies as we’ve known them are worn out, or have become less important within this totalising Mediaenvironment. But how one could continue or if one should continue to make discrete objects isn’t at all clear./This is a veryexpensive hobby. One thing we’ve got to do is redefine what a success is. The ability to reach everyone is potentially [possibly] a good thing if you are making a discrete and unique object, providing that the scale of it isn’t too crazy. And, on the other hand, if you are making something that only appeals to a couple of people, you can get to them all now. The question for me is, can I withstand the tyranny of traditional narrative. And, if that’s indestructible and that’s never going to move, can I find another way to transmit information so that you know what’s going on, but you don’t know how you know. I might ["]end up["] in some weird hybrid MatthewBarneyworld. I don’t know. And maybe there is a new cycle of filmmakers coming who are more connected to what audiences want now. We’re due for another wave of filmmakers.

19. I think MagicMike is going to connect. It will make a lot of money./We’re fine. It only cost sevenmillionUSD. I hope that if it works, a door is going to open for someone behind me. It’s an original screenplay, there are no guns, nothing explodes, it’s aimed at adults. If we can show up in the middle of the summer and have it work, that means someone else is going to get that opportunity too. And I like that.