Category: uncategorized

Rashomon

~ Mark

Rashomon. This is my second Kurosawa flick. Throne of Blood was first. This one I didn’t like as much. Dialogue seemed a bit low on subtlety, but maybe that’s partially a translation thing? And multi-perspective flashback to previous events seems so familiar now–I wonder how I’d react if I saw it with fresh eyes. A couple characters, with their shifts from stonefaced to tears to cackling laughter, got a bit exausting. The first moments of the first swordfight seemed tense with possibility, but then subsequent fights just seem like bumbling. You can’t swing swords that much and not cut someone, can you? Nice framing here and there, interesting use of light filtering through trees, obscuring and revealing. And a mostly good soundtrack, though the section during the victim’s testimony seemed to borrow heavily from Ravel’s Boléro. I’ll be glad to see what else Kurosawa has to offer.

~ Mark

It’s Friday night, and you’re home alone making Nutella. Remind yourself it’s an enviable skill that will add to your dowry and that you will not die alone.

Whisk Away: Homemade Nutella. A couple friends of mine have a food blog and a way with words.

LOVE BEGINS A PICTURE: An Anthology of Google Voice Transcriptions Formatted and Annotated As Poetry

~ Mark

“Since the transcript/poem often bears little resemblance to the actual words spoken, who are the real authors – the Voice, the callers, or some synergistic combination of forces beyond our limited understanding?” (via).

WHATEVER THIS IS (Caller: My friend Christina)

Hey mister
it’s Christina
just left you a message and then
I got your message and realized
you’re stuck out

but I’ll try you.

But yeah, just trying to be tomorrow
(if you get the chance)
And if you’re a few Karen in China the next day
Council lot more
eating minnows on the step
and give me a little

I’ll be hanging around then and I am
well,
whatever this is.

See also the found poetry of Shatner/Palin, Rumsfeld, and Clinton/Lewinsky.
LOVE BEGINS A PICTURE: An Anthology of Google Voice Transcriptions Formatted and Annotated As Poetry

~ Mark

A couple of other things that you might not have heard yet, because they’re not available: There’s a fantastic compilation of music that was recorded and released originally on 78s, and it’s called Black Mirror: Reflections In Global Musics. I would recommend it to anybody. But anyway, on that album there’s a song, and when I first heard that song, it just completely blew me away, because all the sudden I had heard the greatest note that I’d ever heard anybody make up to that point. The song is called “Smyrneiko Minore,” and it was sung by Marika Papagika, a young woman who emigrated from Greece to the United States, and she recorded it in 1919 in New York. When you listen to that song, you’re totally unprepared. At least I was. I was totally unprepared for her entrance. When she comes in, that first note, it’s unbelievable, the sense of human sorrow and the feeling of that note.

Kronos Quartet’s David Harrington | The A.V. Club Chicago. The song in question.
~ Mark

The best way to describe it is I’m like this energy-gathering dynamo. I suck in the energy from the crowd and right at the point they’re drained, ready to slump over and fall over and pass out, I bring it to a crescendo and [expletive] shoot it all back at ‘em. And then I’m [expletive] slumped over and ready to pass out and they’re energized and ready for the next artist or end of the party or whatever.

Interview with Coolio, describing what it’s like to perform.
~ Mark

Most intellectual failures, people who are smart but still don’t succeed, tend to be underspecialized.

That’s Andy McKenzie summarizing 11 main points from Colin Marshall’s interview with Robin Hanson. This point from their talk struck home for me. No, I don’t consider myself a Failure, but I know very well how endless curiosity doesn’t necessarily make you productive. Constraint is liberating, etc.

The Royal Tenenbaums

~ Mark

The Royal Tenenbaums. Film #3 in my Wes Anderson self-education program. I’d rank this one below The Darjeeling Limited, above Rushmore. Anderson can start a movie with the best of them, but I’m not sure he’s a good finisher. But I can appreciate how he rides the edge between comedy and tragedy. I’m not sure I understand the soundtracks, though. I don’t think it’s simply a bald move for hip points – “Hey, listen to how cool my music collection is. Pretty good taste, eh?” – but I can’t help but find it somewhat annoying.