Mon
Jan
30
The men sink into the anonymity they’ve craved in their ramble eastward. Turkish immigrants around them trudge westward, worlds passing at twilight, the visibility of each to the other dying at dusk. Session musicians come and go through the cavernous studio, a converted movie set from the silent era before the rise of the Reich where epic visions were filmed of sexy robots in Twenty-First Century Babels. The air fills with the chemical smell of old celluloid rotting in the vaults.
She’s never seen musical instruments that look like these. It’s as though they’ve materialized from the same silent science-fiction German movies whose rot the musicians breathe in and out as they play; the instruments appear more like time machines, or what she imagines a time machine might look like, transporting the traveller from the execution of a song back to its inception or forward to its completion - bending the music from the end or beginning back into the middle, and bending the music of years from now back to the music of years ago, to produce this music of the moment.
Steve Erickson, These Dreams of You, 220.
Tue
Jan
24
Barbossa: “The world used to be a bigger place.”
Jack Sparrow: “The world’s still the same. There’s just… less in it.”
Mon
Jan
23
“ It’s a country that does things in lurches. Born in radicalism, then reluctant for years, decades, the better part of the centuries, to do anything crazy, until it does the craziest thing of all. But it’s also a country - inherent in its genes - capable of imagining what cannot be imagined and then, once it’s imagined, doing it.
Steve Erickson These Dreams of You, 12.
Fri
Jan
20
The truly educated become conscious. They become self-aware. They do not lie to themselves. They do not pretend that fraud is moral or that corporate greed is good. They do not claim that the demands of the marketplace can morally justify the hunger of children or denial of medical care to the sick. They do not throw 6 million families from their homes as the cost of doing business. Thought is a dialogue with one’s inner self. Those who think ask questions, questions those in authority do not want asked. They remember who we are, where we come from and where we should go. They remain eternally skeptical and distrustful of power. And they know that this moral independence is the only protection from the radical evil that results from collective unconsciousness. The capacity to think is the only bulwark against any centralized authority that seeks to impose mindless obedience. There is a huge difference, as Socrates understood, between teaching people what to think and teaching them how to think. Those who are endowed with a moral conscience refuse to commit crimes, even those sanctioned by the corporate state, because they do not in the end want to live with criminals—themselves.
from Chris Hedges “Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System”
Thu
Jan
19
Over the next 12 months, I have committed to write no fewer than 7 articles and chapters of 6,000 to 10,000 words as well as 5 pieces of 1,000 to 2,000 words (this does not include the main work in progress), none of which is about literature.
Tue
Jan
3
Everyone likes to bitch about the mindlessness of Hollywood blockbusters - from Transformers 3 to the latest Mission Impossible - and how they only provide explosions, chases, and CGI, which is now officially 100% indistinguishable from live action sequences, at the expense of plot development and complex narrative. I myself have done a fair bit of such bitching. But perhaps this is a wrong way to approach such movies in the first place. Perhaps we should no longer talk about cinema but about two cinemas. One following the classical narrative tradition, both European and American (which, it’s important to remember, was NOT the only tradition in early cinema), which strives to engage viewers in original plots following unpredictable (or rather - life-like) actions of psychologically plausible characters. The other driven by the ambition to dazzle and envelop viewers in the unrelenting rush of adrenaline and awe, all of which do not have to exclude some narrative - it’s just that the storyline takes a distinctly second place. Both cinemas still use the same, or largely overlapping, production modes and distribution channels, not to mention the basic medium of transmission, which makes it harder to see that they are actually two very different things. If we recognize this difference, perhaps we will not be disappointed by MI: Ghost Protocol because the political rationale beyond the conflict driving the plot is very murky AND we will joyfully and aesthetically appreciate the elegant slickness of Resident Evil and Underworld.
Naturally, there is also a large area of overlap (will it shrink in two decades?) between these two cinemas - narrative-centered films also use heavy special effects and spectacle-driven blockbusters can also be narratively complex - but remembering that this is only a meeting zone of two distinct entities will help us to keep them separate in our expectations.
Sun
Jan
1
2011 was a great year for me - possibly the best in a number of years. 2012 promises to be even better on all fronts and in all departments. Whatever it brings, I want to remember, with all humility, that my life is so much safer and more comfortable than that of painfully large masses of people on this planet and that this obliges. To maintain the clarity of vision while being open to the possibility that I am wrong. To remain curious about the world and find as many things mind-blowing as I have so far. Tough calls all around but one should aspire to something good. And I wish you all who are reading this the same.
Wed
Dec
28
iceblink:
The first rule of Thesaurus Club is, you don’t talk about, bring up, mention, speak of, discuss or chat about Thesaurus Club.
Can I officially submit my application to join the Thesaurus Club?
(Source: minuteman3)
