Oh, yeah: this lot

Their Like

Will never be seen again.

Wee sleekit, timorous, cowerin. beasties

This - in the line of odd metaphors - sums it all up, really. Now I'll never be President.

Or he'll make the beans with a different sort of mouse, or a less pungent mouse, and say "hey if you liked THOSE mousey beans, you'll dig these mousey beans! Yeah Wow man groovy, we know what you kids dig we are HIP to the SCENE and its all about love baby" but those mousey beans suck and they are nothing like the REAL mousey beans. The problem is that The Man did not put the mouse in the original mousey beans, and he has no idea how the mouse got in there AND he doesn't understand that it doesn't matter, that to attempt to replicate the mousey beans is worse than not doing it in the first place. He needs to find beans with cat, or moosey beans or beans with a Maccle in em. Then he will understand

Gearing Up

Space and time confusions. If they are indeed the same thing, two faces of, then the far away place is the past (the future having not yet left its trace) and the emotional impact of the past is always a calm (even bad experiences fade when compared to a current experience) so the past is safe, is welcoming, is desired.

Owls at Noon

There's no-one better than Chris Marker for delving into the maze of what constitutes authenticity and what reveals or obscures intention. This is a found photo, so the intention is all in the selection and the surroundings. Here, we have no surroundings.
I was looking for a picture of happiness (as in the Icelandic girls from 'Sans Soleil') but came upon this, instead.
I don't know whether this face is happy, or anxious. So: it exists on its own terms, cut off from everything, contextless and adrift. Does that diminish its power in any way?
It's about time we started asking these questions again.
Happy Memorial Day.

Downtime

It's a mistake to reveal your innermost secrets when enemies might be spying, however, those of us of the Moral Cargo Cult know that you MUST reveal these secrets, knowing them to be only the tip of the iceberg and therefore unusable and essentially unknowable. Well, this is my happy place, with the personification of my haggard self and its object of desire. Enough revealed? OK... so which is which? or, which meta universe are we operating inside? or is there even a second sidestep into the representation(s) of the artefact?
See what I mean?
Anyway, all kudos to Rotwang and a good old fashioned Carry On 'phwoor' for Brigitte Schittenhelm, for it is indeed she.
I mean, are you really going to lock horns with me on this battlefield?

Metal fatigue

This is a drawing of 'anger' by a deluded hippy. It fits. So, we are told this is a negative emotion, but only if it becomes ingrown, or veers off and hits an innocent target. yes, US jets are buzzing foreign powers in a habitual attempt to create an 'incident' and excuse for provocation. Well, as in the macro, so in the micro. It's very frustrating being lied to continually and given repeated put-offs, so, beware the great hippy spiral. Coming soon to a supermarket near you.
AAAar.

Culture and the ilk

What an odd weekend. The internet has substantiated memory. At least, I went out to see internet connected persons, spent two days in Phoenicia, NY and not only experienced several strange coincidences (why would Claude, the owner of the bar where a gig with a former neighbour of mine was happening, have to have gone to school on the street where my son was born in Paris?
Then I find - maybe - a version of a former housemate's album, lost in time, on a blog. Not striictly a coincidence, but rare.
Thinking about 1980-82 for me is like an old hippie daydreaming of 1967. dangerous.
so here's the d-i-y handmade cover of the egg store ilk from 1981. made upstairs from meself in Stoke Newington in a time of great solidarity and happiness... which seems, appropriately enough, to have come back into the psyche right now with enough force to be of great use in current struggles. Click on the title and scroll down for personal anecdote.
I guess that is what is meant by culture.

Not

Imagine our surprise, on opening our eyes.
Now, you all (y'all) may have the mistaken impression that I am a nice type of guy, in which, generally, you are not mistaken. But...
there are limits, and as General de gaulle once said, 'No gentleman is ever vulgar unintentionally'.
I won't sully this post with such words, they are much better uttered in the heat of the moment off a fluid tongue.
Are they (all) having a larf?! A good few people need slapping upside the head.
This show is NOT going on ebay and nor is it becoming a quiet and quaint little cosmetic diversion. There's a point to Indie and teeth, too.
Time to start biting (hands that feed), I guess.

War of Houses

We Drink Your Milkshakes!!!!!
No, seriously... it seems the gypsies must be on the move, but this time they are onward and upward per ardua etcetera
Enjoy the Ivied jpeg. It's huge if you click on it!

Warming Hearts

Continuing our far-sighted policy of taking credit for our students' accomplishments - this little trio have just been selected for the Barcelona International Film Festival in June.
This is more like it, let's leave politicking to the politickers, eh?

No Comment

Lost ships in the vanished Sea of Aral, or a metaphor for the American Educational System?

Crossroads - What Is School About?

Click on the blog headline to see the entire Advisory Committee's report.
Remember, these are just recommendations.
Nothing bad will happen unless you go back to sleep.
You might wake up minus one kidney, but don't blame the 'espontaneos', they're only doing what they must.

More excitinger news soon.

The Darkness

See the gap produced between China and South Korea. See Japan shine! Come back in thirty years and see if there's been any change. back to where it was just a century ago?
And what if that 150 year window was all we had to broadcast our light to the Universe? What chance some alien race would see it, note it and set out to meet and greet it? This 'window of opportunity' is what so vexes futurologists who are concerned with the problem of contact. But there's another angle to this, too, which doesn't involve UFOs and alien invasions: Which areas are dark now, and which are - as Brecht put it 'standing in the light'? where is all the electricity coming from to power those lights?
The current answer is: oil. Who is drinking whose milkshake?
And what happens when the lights go out?
It may be time to start brushing up on those good old fashioned literacy skills again...

Photogram of the Heart

Phillip Winter was a recurring character in many of Wenders' films. And this bloody winter has been recurring far too long now. Not that I begrudge the cold, or the landscapes, but the absence of sunlight and the obligation to get up at six a.m. is taking its toll. All this despite Barnsley beating Chelsea today.
All those little ice monkeys swinging from tree to tree have finally run out of branches and prepare to plummet like listless squirrels. It looks very much as though our week in New Mexico will have to be postponed for - as Weners again said - that most stupid of reasons: money.
Maybe just go for a walk with the polar bears instead. Because, incredibly, here's yet another topical photo from tha Svalbard Archipelago. Yes, Fishbowl, that one.

Wim Wenders Was Right

Getting rid of messy and cumbersome technology is in all our interest, I suppose, and perhaps here lies the future of cinema, though it's been predicted for decades, maybe even since Ancient Times (note caps...)
The question I would ask is this: which headsection was looking at Hilary, and which at Barack?
And what were they listening to?
Click on the headline, as usual, for the full article.

Give Him A Chance!

He's been in power less than a week and already he's become the political football, with H. C. saying she won't speak to him; B.O. saying he will speak with him; and (I think) McCain calling him 'that tyrant'. Give the man a chance to tyrannize, at least! I mean, wot's the bloke done so far? Any purges, putsches or ethnic cleansings? Hmm, thought not. Not yet, say the ever vigilant forces of reason. Then again, they think the best way to get 'us' to vote for HC is to show sleeping kids and ask who we want to answer the phone at 3 am.... well, I'd answer it meself, actually.
Anyway, here's Raul. (not to be confused with thr Real Madrid and Spain footballer, of course)

In From The Cold

Last night, despite threats of incipient inclemency, 80 people turned out for the 'Brittle Bones' show. Once inside, we ignored the weather and enjoyed the fine food, wine, music and company.
A huge shout to everyone who came along - we know who you are!
Many eyes were moist and I admit to tearing up a little when I saw all those old faces and younger ones too, perched on the stairs and having the fine time. Maybe THESE are the good old days? Wouldn't that be a kicker?
The foto is an artist's impression of driving home last night - except not dark.

Moi, apparently

Not that I mind, mind. The advantage of indentifying with an Ak-Tor is that you have several personae to play with. Aside from this one, I rather fancy his role in the excellent and sadly ignored 'Lantana' (see it, see it!) and, of course, his breakout role in 'Shine'. Pants or no pants, that is the question.

OK, smarty pants

You guessed the last spot quiz, so: where and what is this? Prize is a chunk of roadside ice from Route 28 laced with strawberry syrup. Yummy.

Recto and Verso

As below, but with words on it.

In Case You Missed It

Whence? Hence, and Thence.

Whither?

Thither?

And So Farewell

As we discuss the possible and probable outcomes of all dissent and disagreement with dominant world policy, be it American paranoia or British neo-colonialism... here's the one odd exception. Not a voctory, maybe, but some kind of stalemate. Today, Fidel stepped down. What happens now? A new phase, fully independent Cuba integrated into the world economies? or a return to casinos, monoculture, drug running, money laundering and prostitution? Watch this space.

Why You?

The answer would be: because you are a degenerate, lazy life-form and have no respect or fellow feeling for those in authoritah, and you as a virtual creature have dropped down (= put your head over the parapet) into the real world where punishments are harsh and it's 'erase first, aks questions later'. For all these and more....
still.... cute though.

More WiPs

A definitive 'essay' at combining all the graphic elements here, minus the text. See how it evolves over the next week...
This one is H U G E by the way... click on the picture and you can see all its tiniest detailed glory.

Waterfall In Progress

Poster image by Will Lytle. Graphics by Sal Altamirano.

Superbowl Sunday

Instead of watching men with shoulder pads running into each other, we met at Indie and put the finishing touches to the DVD. Now entitled (as revealed in this very column) 'Brittle Fire, Bitter Bones', with sundry Easter eggs. Bones were photographed, scripts scanned, voices overed and compressions filed.
I understand that I will never understand football. It's like listening to a Serbian stand-up comedian. I know it's funny, but I don't speak the language.
Watching and re-watching all the disparate elements (sic) again and again, to check for artifacts and see that all the menus work properly, a different meaning emerges from the images: something very close to our original intention to tell a story through images and moods, not through dialogue or 'plot'.
It is a very strange and beautiful fillum.

OMIGOD!! no wonder this image took so long to load! It's... er... big? But you can make out all the detail which KSC put into her sheets and WL collaged for you to read the palimpsest. In the time it took to eat three bowls of 5 star chili. Now THAT'S a superbowl.

I(ndie) Will Drink Your Milkshake

In opposition to 'Cloverfield', here is a film built entirely on old fashioned values: actors, a script and rugged location shooting. It's long, it's slow at times, but it has more than one of those shiover-down-the-spine moments that you are watching cinema history (even if only with a small 'h'). Daniel Day-Lewis is given over to the film, and vice-versa, apparently, so the symbiotic actor-director relationship which was established is responsible for the striking unity of the film. There are moments of Guignol, and a few plot mishaps (trying hard to give no spoilers here) bt the film hangs together so well they do not seem gratuitous. Even Day-Lewis' choice of acting style (big, brash and concentrated) doesn't offend, because it's all of a piece with the whole film. This, unlike the recent (also pretty durn good) 'No Country For Old Men' - which had many of the same qualities, but lacked the unity - what you might call a soul - so you feel its excesses are purely to affect the spectator (which knowledge - that the film exists to address an audience) make sit post modern. There Will Be Blood is not.
And while it is about oil, and oilmen, and although it is set 'safely' at the start of the last century, it does not invite an allegorical viewing. You can do that, of course, but it's not primarily only an allegory. It is itself, something increasingly rare.
Go and see the film and we'll talk about it after, Be warned - there are a lot of good lines in the script, and you will find yourself applying some of them to real life. I think i have absorbed the Daniel character, so watch out!
Might come in handy these next weeks, mind...

You Are Here

This is how it might look in the 22nd century. If only there were a transport system. And what happened to Rhinecliff?

Prize Quiz

A prize will be given (from Bread Alone) for anyone correctly identifying and contextualizing this photo. It's a really smart idea and involves the wholly real place of SVALBARD (yes, that Svalbard). Answers, please.

New Logo

The real one is bigger and made of wood.

Zeitgeist, Ex-Hobbits and Hubris

This happens more often that you might think - and no conspiracies or theiving is necessary to explain it. there's obviously something in the air, and unfortunately we may all have to troll off to New York to actually watch the thing, but it seems the imagination count is very low, and aside from a very similar premise, the project is unsuccessful and mired in realism. So, something to learn from that?
Check out what you can about Day Zero, and come armed with ideas. Remember - every problem is really a hidden opportunity, and yes, you can learn from others' mistakes.

Cloverfield

I succumbed. Well, not really - I actually wanted to see this film, as a devotee of 'Lost', and have tried to avoid any knowledge whatsoever of its form or content. It's interesting to try to get back to that pre-internet / pre-gossip state, yet somehow still hear about movies. I mean, how do you hear about a new movie?
Anyway, no spoilers here except to say that i did indeed like it very much and was not disappointed. There are other things to be said, but let's wait until we've all seen it.
The risk for the producers was that such a secretive film would flop at the box office. But, as it's already taken $41 million in its first two days, I guess they are sleeping (or partying) easily right now. By tomorrow (MLK) it may well have become the highest grossing opening ever. Star Wars holds that at the moment.
OK, it's not Stan Brakhage, but it's pretty good for a mystery/horror/thriller movie.

Re Redacted

We have seen it now - or to be accurate - others are seeing it, but I left the room. Not because it was strong or gruesome, but because it was visibly fake. And fake not only in the sense of having a lot of bad acting (i.e. well scanned supposedly spontaneous takes) or because the speeches felt like adapted stage dialogue, or because the inconsistent (i.e. badly thought out) use of camera styles... though that would all be enough... but because the film did not trust its own sense of truth or outrage at the actual incident (and indeed, why make a film of that?). This is manifest in the lack of faith in the film's performances and images to carry its truth. So, the images are multiplied and underlined and the story is tweaked totally unecessarily to add shade. But this is so clumsily done that we do not read shade, we read UNDERLINING. The 'mistake' at a roadblock where innocent Iraquis are killed cannot just be a tragic mistake (which points out the inevitability of collateral damage in such a laxly policed war, any war) but the driver had to be presented as impetuous, refusing to respond to signals. Iraqis are 50% illiterate, says the film. A justifiable mistake. People... literacy has nothing to do with understanding what an armed roadblock means... the film deliberately presents Iraqis as stupid. A person was killed. the scriptwriter makes that person a pregnant woman. This is very lazy screenwriting. perhaps she should also have been carrying a kitten?
The foreshadowing wears clogs. The script, in general, wears clogs and boxing gloves.
Now, in theory, the rape/murder scene should be exempt from these criticisms because it actually happened. But the film did not have the courage to film the truth of the event. It filmed a curiously bashful version of the events, complete with ellipse of the girl's murder and horribly acted pious accusation by the father. Kubrick had a certain courage in 'Full Metal Jacket' and gaspar Noe did in 'Irreversible'.
De palma's film is only deep in a strict sense of narrative: it describes horrible events. But it does so badly, in the aesthetic sense. But the film sets out to describe true events, or at least a true situation, and it does so lazily, convinced of its own moral authority. Un reflecting on its own stated Film Theory 101, which it works into its own argument (Sal's speechifying about the implications of filming events).
Oh well, another bad war film won't kill us, I suppose.
It was very interesting to me to see how the style(s) of the film immediately negated any sense of its truth. At least a Dogma version would have carried force - or not - depending on what was in front of the camera. here, every element worked against every other element, as in Bresson's warning, any truth in there was nullified by all the falsehood.
Oh, and I didn't like it, either.
If I run back inside, I'll just catch the end.
Feel free to comment.

Donde Vamos?

Or here?
I had this same choice in 1978, and opted for vancouver rather than guadalajara, aided somewhat by an unbelievable snowstorm which closed New York and New Jersey, but somehow left the road through Pennsylvania open... anyway... if you can get hold of the film 'The Getaway' or better - the book it came from (which has a much weirder and nastier ending than the Steve McQueen vehicle, there is an interesting parallel to the would-be draft dodger's predicament in it. Never end a sentence with a preposition, neither.

What is 'Fey'?

This is fey.

The question was about how to harmonize various story styles within the one film, and how - without wanting to produce boring conformity - some story moods fit badly with others, and, furthermore, to try to shoe-horn a fantasy type story into a realist style film does violence both to the story itself and to the film as a whole. So, is there a middle ground? Can elements be combined or modified? Or should the two stories agree to go their separate ways.
In which context, the word 'fey' as a perjorative, meaning 'magical but weak and not rigorous' was canvassed. faerie, yes; fey, no.

Also for reference, we discussed 'Pan's Labyrinth' and the considerably less fey 'Spirit of the Beehive' upon which much of 'Pan' was based. Look it up in the videotheque.

J'Arrive Acadia

Where would you go? It's not so far - though further in winter. And what is the season, anyway? Questions to be answered.
below follows an untidy version of today's mise-au-point. May be tidied up in the next days, until then, ponder; disagree;complain.

Structure at start of 2008:

House of War
general synopsis

1st scene- news report on T.V. about draft/war with Iran –not saying it exactly
media character…john stewart ??

2nd scene- all characters present, in a public place but not necessarily together (school cafeteria/diner/ restaurant/ train station)
longish scene

3rd scene- DOC interview 1 – e.g. American deserters in Canada from Iraqi war

each story strand starts with the same scene/image/moment

4th- (1 story strand) ??????????????? could this be a child???
geneva’s story
kid obsessed with reading and Lord of the Rings, theatrical. Has a friend (imaginary) with same interests, and always meets her in the forest. Upon discovering he is drafted, goes to hide in forest with her. When police finds him, the audience finally realizes that the friend doesn’t actually exist. Backstory: father died in a war. Character is anti-war because he believes is it dishonorable to fight and kill virtually, without face to face contact.

5th section - DOC interview 2

6th section - (another story strand)
jericho’s story: prereq, women are drafted.
boy’s pov. 18 yr old. Gets draft letter, ambiguous. Lets anger out on girlfriend. Reveals the news. Later, girl tells boy she’s also been drafted…And, she’s pregnant. Boys pushes abortion, but argument ensues. She breaks up with him, keeps child to avoid draft.

7th section
DOC interview 3

8th section (Robin’s story)
a bunch of slackers sit and ignore the draft. One of them begins having nightmares of war and decides to take extreme drugs to render himself unsuitable for selection. But the price paid turns out as bad as going to the Army.

9th section
DOC interviews 4

10th section (child’s view)
a kid in elementary school knows her father is going away, but can’t understand why or the context.

11th section
DOC interviews 5

12th section (Kaela’s story)
a young man evades the draft by going up to Canada (or Mexico) and uses and develops a kind of Underground railroad system which - at great risk - he transmits to his friends who have not dared to run away.

SECION 13 – the ends
We see what became of each person in the story and learn some interrelationships between the various people. Some reversals? Some surprises? Some epiphanies? Let’s dance.