Gloria Grahame’s smoke is now bigger than both their heads, and soon it will be as big as the room. Soon it will be nothing.⠀

Two days ago I was celebrating the birth of the world as Bogie’s lighter sparked into flame. Turns out that what I had decided was not a reflection…was a reflection. There was no flame. No worlds were birthed. Our celebrations…

What if we were to zap Bogart out of the picture and replace him with Cary Grant, or Gary Cooper, or you, or me? It wouldn’t make any difference. Tonight, at least, and maybe next Tuesday, Gloria Grahame would still…

Look at her eyes looking at his, already making plans. Look at his smile, aware of her eyes, even if he’s thinking of next weekend. We can pretend our thoughts have given us control, but meanwhile mysteries are making us.

Riggs, the ghost in the background curtains, has either taken off his fedora, or has shifted his position while he waits eternally for hidden blonde Britt to become someone else, or has thrown himself into a ghost war with Gloria’s…

Repetition is a form of change. Repetition is a form of change. Repetition is a form of change. See? Nothing is replicable. You’re not what you were.

Yesterday I wrote about the shadow of Bogart’s shoulder transposed to the back of Britt’s chair. The notion was that our shadows live in a separate dimension, uniting us in ways we can’t fathom. Ridiculous, of course. And yet today…

Bogie’s dark right shoulder is now perfectly replicated in Britt’s dark shadow at her back. And if the shadow on the curtain across your room is the smudge of my hand, and your leg is the stripe extending from the…

I’m in Mexico City, tracking Bolaño through the streets. Here’s something you notice, even enthralled by fresh surroundings: when everything changes, it doesn’t really. The cigarettes still take weeks to get lit. Which, paradoxically, is an argument for this moment…

A first indication that Gloria Grahame may be at least subconsciously aware of Britt in the background, and of the murderous extent to which she’ll go to attract the spotlight: the smoke from Miss Grahame’s cigarette appears to be heading,…