Technology And Food

“I especially don’t trust people who don’t write things down. With those who do write things down, I’m very interested in what they write things in. If it’s one of those chic little Fifth Avenue notebooks with those expensive gold pencils, I’m more suspicious than ever. Many people feel it’s beneath their dignity to take notes, and try instead to trust their memories. I don’t work with them.”

— Stanley Kubrick

After a particularly tiring series of takes, Kubrick called for a tea break and, while a member of the catering staff served it, called Nicholson over for a conference. The recordist turned up the volume of Nicholson’s radio mike, and heard Kubrick mutter to his star, “Did you see the tits on that tea girl?”

Those excerpts are from
John Baxter’s “Stanley Kubrick”



It’s a great book. I wonder
if Stanley was glad that his sound man
on “The Shining” wrote down things?

Three birds are looking for worms
in a tiny patch of grass.

One of the birds is watching
a fourth bird on the sidewalk
eat berry after berry
that fell from a nearby tree
and rolled along the concrete.

I think the bird in the grass
is getting the idea
the bird eating by itself
on the sidewalk where berries
are just sitting there waiting
to be eaten is a bird
adapted to the future.

I think that bird in the grass
watching the bird eat berries
is thinking, “Why didn’t I
think of eating those berries?”

I think that bird in the grass
watching the bird eat berries
is thinking, “Sidewalks are good.”

I think that bird in the grass
watching the bird eat berries
is reassessing its thoughts
on its own relationship
to technology and food.