Category: uncategorized

~ Mark

Making a choice and trying it is an important career skill. And choosing something practical, that people get paid well for, is an important life skill.

Penelope Trunk.

Melancholia

~ Mark

Melancholia. I really wish I’d seen this on the big screen. Depression, death and the end of life on Earth! Some parallel construction here with Antichrist: the super-slow-motion theatrical overture and introduction of themes, and then a brief journey to an isolated setting where the rest of the film takes place. It’s like Trier is controlling the variables of society, technology, etc. so he can run this storytelling experiment on three subjects. Speaking of, great cast. Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland are all excellent. Side characters are good for color and occasional comic relief (see: plate-breaking scene). The recurring use of the Tristan & Isolde prelude is a smart choice. And it’s gorgeous. I do wonder how this movie would feel different if the setting were not so ridiculously wealthy and comfortable.

I’ll call this my favorite Lars von Trier film, though it’s only the third. Dancer in the Dark would be probably be second, followed by Antichrist. I’ve heard good things about Dogville. The Boss of It All and The Five Obstructions look interesting.

~ Mark

A good rule of thumb is that diversity of opinion is essential anytime you don’t know anything about something important.

Max Levchin.
~ Mark

People who are smart and energetic are often angry. Not at each other, usually. Rather, they’re angry that we’re “not there yet,” i.e. that they have to solve X when they should be working on some greater problem Y.

Max Levchin.
~ Mark

gotemcoach:

“THE IRON LEG”

Dirk Nowitzki showed the world his step back jumper.  Kobe Bryant watched Dirk win the 2010-2011 NBA Championship.  Now, Kobe shoots Dirk’s step back jumper.

Some people might slight Bryant for so clearly jacking “The Iron Leg.”  Not me.  I think it’s incredible.  And awesome.

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Dirk created the best post-Olajuwon post move in basketball, Kobe understood it’s value, and put it in his game.  That’s why he’s great — anything to get better.  Last night, Bryant used it in the Playoffs.

You know, imitation is the highest form of flattery, but before you go thinking Kobe’s handing out compliments…

“I improved his move.  I can shoot mine from the three-point line.  He can’t do that… Dirk does it well, I do it better.  Mine’s a little sexier.”

-Kobe Bryant

#GotEmCoach

Rhizome | A Conversation with Jonathan Lethem

~ Mark

Lethem on art and identity and betrayal:

We are so prone to feeling betrayed by the artist in some way. Because the art does something so extraordinary to us that then we find out some detail. “Oh! He stole that from Willie Dixon.” “Oh! He beat his wife.” “Oh! He picks his nose in public.” “Wait a minute. He made that thing that changed my life. This is incongruent. I don’t like it!” That’s why we get so betrayed by the knowledge of appropriations, because we’re holding art to this very weird standard where it is actually about us. It’s about our own lives.

On T.S. Elliott and art that lets you cite:

T.S. Elliott has this appendix to The Wasteland where there are all these citations. We’ll put aside the fact that probably no one ever bothers to read that. But it’s there. He tried. It’s right there. But if a painter makes a canvas, it does not have room for footnotes on it. And a lot of art, the form doesn’t invite the same kinds of embrace of transparency. The specific gestures just don’t work. So what do you do? There might be follow-up. You could speak in an interview, you could make a gesture. But you know what? Not everyone wants to do that. Not everyone wants to be interviewed about their work at all. They want to just make it. And that’s okay.

On Led Zeppelin and Willie Dixon vs. Paul Simon and Graceland, and the axes of judging appropriation:

There are sort of two primary axes on which we make the individual judgment. One is: degree of transformation and the other is degree of transparency and or citation. In other words, how much do they really make something different out of what they appropriated? And how much did they make it easy to see that there was someone else’s gesture behind their own?

Rhizome | A Conversation with Jonathan Lethem

~ Mark

The iron rule of life is that only 20% of the people can be in the top fifth. That’s just the way it is.

Charlie Munger.

10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won’t Tell You

~ Mark

6. Read obituaries. They are just like biographies, only shorter. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives.

7. Your parents don’t want what is best for you. They want what is good for you, which isn’t always the same thing. There is a natural instinct to protect our children from risk and discomfort, and therefore to urge safe choices.

10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won’t Tell You

Thin Ice

~ Mark

Thin Ice. It never quite hit the right rhythm on the funny parts, and the soundtrack wasn’t sure what kind of story this was, but this was a decent, moderately entertaining movie until the last five minutes when it turned into Ocean’s Eleven. There are twists, and then there are twists that undermine everything you just saw. Turns out, the movie wasn’t about the movie you thought you were watching! Disappointing.

Out of Sight

~ Mark

Out of Sight. This was sooooo much better than I expected. Lots of good writing and shooting here. If you’re gonna watch a movie that’s not outlandishly amazing, might as well choose one that’s really, really good.