Well, the jam is pretty tasty, but I think I heated it to too high a temperature. It’s a little too firm, but still well within acceptable parameters. It’s hard to reach that delicate balance between runny and firm that your grandmother seemed to be able to reach without a candy thermometer.
Big Chrissy and I watched the new Todd Solondz film Storytelling tonight, which I thought was great. Not as stellar as Happiness–bleaker, and more cynical. The characters weren’t given as much depth, too. I find that he often creates characters who are defined by a particular flaw or idiosyncrasy (and sometimes even named after them, like “Hope” in Happiness), but rather than be limited by their one-dimensionality, they’re surprisingly complex. So although these characters were interesting and given great dialog, they seemed a little thinly drawn. I really like his directorial style, though, particularly in how stilted all the acting is, which somehow isolates the actors and draws attention to their actions and words, and abstracts the emotional content.
Tomorrow the museum curator is coming over to visit my studio. I’m hoping to finish this piece that I’ve been toying with for the last few weeks, so that I’ll have three pieces from my Thundercrack! series to show her in addition to all of my other obsessive works. Keep your fingers crossed!