In Absentia

A reader writes: "Hey Levi, I know you have a kid and all, but that can't be eating up all your time. Some new content, please..." Fair enough. I'll try to account for my absence here these past two months. I could say that I was bummed into silence by the sudden death of my former neighbor, and that would be partly true. Or that the few movies I've managed to see in theaters weren't inspiring (oh, Romero! Did you have to take your zombies the way of Redacted?), but that would be brushing off 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I could admit that, as I do most winters, I've taken on some kind of obsessive hibernatory pursuit; this year it's trying to watch every last film noir I haven't seen. Yeah, I'm serious: the DVR is backed up with TCM recordings (including the Very! First! Noir! Stranger on the Third Floor, which I, uh, haven't gotten around to), and the Netflix queue is clogged with titles like I Wake Up Screaming and Cause for Alarm. I could whine that my newish job is hogging my attention (at least I'm shepherding pieces like this one and this one into the world).

I could say all those things. Or I could just confess that my wife and I are working our way through the first four seasons of The Wire, and hope that you understand.