On Layers, or “If Souls Had Mass”

If souls had mass, we’d all be dead.
our insides melting metal, expanding
becoming a great confounding cult.

Limitless liminal luxury we live in,
you should be so lucky, landing your
punches in ounces of lovely dope.

Simply put, we’re superfluous samples,
intergalactically sallow, leisurely sucking
the space inside atoms, complex compaction.

I like the real thats smooth, you know
that skin slides at liquid, embroidered
and gartered, a derivative Dyson sphere.

If souls had mass, we’d all be dead.
Stacked buildings staggered, unstyled
shells, by what’s outside is in, now defend.

Funneled Time

Hello,

I think a post is in order. It has been some time since my last post, and an even longer time since I’ve posted something I really felt involved in. In this regard, I apologize. A lot has changed in the last 6 months in my life; personally, academically, professionally, and/or virtually. I returned from England with a lot of things that felt more pressing than ever to deal with. Without going into great detail, I’d like to thank my friends and family for being there for me (Specifically: Monica and her family The Debbelers, My sister Harmony Starr, My father John Baldwin, Sam Caughlin and his folks (Leanne), CAPS at Indiana University, My friends here at IU and the people I live with at what I call ‘The Think Tank’, everyone at RTVS, WTIU and WFIU, and many more folks I’m probably forgetting).

So what’s changed? Well, I’m about to move on and graduate from college (assuming I don’t flop this semester, which I won’t). To me graduating from college (with a double major in EALC and CMCL) is a really big deal. It’s something I made a completely conscious decision to do (when I left for Seattle and came back to IU, it became more important to me, and had more personal meaning). I’ve been lucky enough to study abroad, work with WTIU and RTVS (which has been a truly incredible experience, filled with unique opportunities). I’ve made some cool, creative, and fun movies through the CMCL department, learned about East Asia and learned Japanese, and generally took the time out of my life to learn about–and participate in–the discussion of things greater than me (albeit, all for my ultimate benefit). All that said, the past year has been a different time. I’m taking fewer credit hours, I’m not even working that much, and yet somehow my time has been flying. Why? Where has it gone? Several areas: Firstly, some personal things have caused an increased need for personal reflection and analysis. Secondly, I’ve prioritized job applications and school work over web (generally speaking), and I’ve (for better or worse) placed everyday experience on a higher plane than physical reflection and analysis (i.e. photos, journaling, blogging). In many ways I think this is due to the intense recording (journaling, blogging, skyping, photographing, facebooking, etc) that I was doing while abroad. On top of this, I’ve been setting my sights on the horizon–focusing mainly on moving beyond what undergraduate college offered me. I’ve applied for JET (an exchange program to teach English in Japan), and I have my final Teach For America Interview tomorrow. All that said, there is still a lot up in the air. I really just wanted to update the situation. If you want more, I’ll always encourage you to follow me on Twitter. Otherwise, check back in some time and see if I’ve posted anything new!

Peace.

So You Like Best of Lists

So, you like best of lists. Alright, fantastic, well I trolled and found what seem to be the most unique and interesting top lists I could find. I’ve considered making my own of some of these, but probably won’t have time. So, Instead, here’s my updating list of Best of Lists that you may not have seen:

• The Best Films of the Decade (1900-1910)
• The Decade that Made TV Art (this is an article, but it name drops primarily artistic shows)
• The A.V. Club keeps it interesting with:
  Almost the Best Films of the 00’s
  The Worst films of 2008…and 2007 (No 09′ yet)
  And, Best Comedy Albums (almost didn’t include this)
• Remixes of the Decade and Another Similar One Here (There’s a really dope T++ Shackleton Remix that should have made this list)
• Holiday Songs of the Decade (short and sweet) And Christmas Songs of the Decade
• My favorite Soundtracks of the Decade (With a middle finger to numbering)
• Science Fiction!
• Vinyl design of the Decade
• (12-11-09) The Year in Ideas is always a good read from the NYT.
• (12-13-09) Designers Take on the 00’s, says designObserver
• (12-14-09) Top 10 Stories you missed in 20o9
• (12-14-09) The Year in Photos from the Boston Globe (they are always the best at photos)
• (12- 18-09) Movie Posters of the Decade, here’s another one (wish I thought of this–<3 Funny Games!)
• (12-18-09) Media Errors of the Year
• (12-27-09) Most Kick-Ass Japanese Horror Film Heroines
• (12-29-09) The Aughts as Picture Chart
• (12-29-09) The Aughts in Architecture and Design
• (12-29-09) Vimeo’s top video’s 2009
• (12-29-09) AV Clubs can’t-wait-for expectations of 2010
• (12-31-09) Core 77’s Best of 2009 (this is a massive page, however highly entertaining)
• (12-31-09) Good.is ’s The Decade in Food

Check back for updates. Maybe I’ll make a weird list of my own.

Edit: Here’s a question. Who coined the term the Aughts? So far this is as far as I’ve gotten. Robert Smith (of the Cure) called the decade “The Notties” in 2002, according to some random person commenting on a WNYC post. This seems unlikely, for some reason, and hardly tenable. Perhaps the coinage of a decade cannot be made by one person…still, someone had to say it first…

Still no more info on the original of this word (which I only started reading about a month or two ago). If you have any info, contact me, I’m curious.

November 2009 (For Music Videos)

Wow, so many good music videos I found this month. This is a music video post month:

The video was directed by http://timnackashi.com/ .  If you want to know how-to in After Effects, check this video out.

Maya Deren Anyone (see here)?

which reminds me of this (not new, but memorable):

Another one of my favorites from the past:

I really like Chris Cunnigham’s work in general. But it’s time I come clean, I liked this video a lot when I was a kid:

Around the same time I was into this as well (I kind of liked that “Barbie Girl” song, too, but I will not includethat):

Basically every music video by Radiohead, but I have to say my favorite one is actually really simple:

It was hard to choose that one, particularly because I really like the one by Jonathan Glazer for Rabbit in your Headlights, both will probably stay with me, but I think about the former more. Well, I hoped you enjoyed this video post. Check back and expect a couple more posts–as I’ll be out of school, and probably posting some other interesting lists to enjoy.

edit (12-10-2009 2:34PM):

Just found this one:

also video of the year award:

Onlisland

And so, under this net I crept on line
New animal, a cannibal, new wild
Glass helmet avatar, on unmet island

Soul out, coated in volumes of bit brine
Enveloped in sync, where am I now: dialed
And so, under this net I crept on line

Blinking L.E.D., so dim and divine
From darkness pin lights, all coded in guile
Shadowed seer, still just an unmet island

On type: we are taught, we take thought, note time
Our fresh face, the new content, to replace style
And so, under this net we crept on line

Despite a lack of “counscious” thought, I’m fine
Augmented senses, like Kubricks’ Star Child
Behold icy icon, an unmet island

Inside this, what was special now futile
Some old self dissolved in some kinda bile
And so, under this net I crept on line
Reverse zoo, could be you, this unmet island

October Roundup (is Late)

Decided to change it up for this one. Instead of film news and movie news, and the like. I decided to post a roundup of great videos I watched on the internet this month. It may slow loading time a bit, but it should be fairly enjoyable. Thanks for waiting

New video for Giorgio Tuma “And three parasol stars”. out on Elefant Records Video by Emanuele Kabu

A Humanoid robotic body developed by Kaist called ‘Hubo Humanoid’ has installed an animatronic head of Albert Einstein from a well known engineer David Hanson of Hanson Robotics. Those who fear the uncanny valley beware.

VIDEOGIOCO animation and concept by Donato Sansone

Trailer for the new documentary from the director of Helvetica.

Let’s Paint,Exercise,& Blend Drinks TV!

Chemical Brother’s Star Guitar music video by Michele Gondry

Trailer for a documentary about John Hughes

Trailer for a French cowboy film called Lucky Luke–they love cowboys over there. (the flash video player isn’t working for some reason, none-the-less, the link is visitable).
//

There’s quite a bit more where that came from, but I imagine this already slowed the sites loading time way down. Enjoy.

Notes On Gattaca

The over-arching fact:
Your blood aint’ yours.

The cold stew inside:
A gift from above.

The footnote truth:
Your flesh is doors.

The real structure:
Dots made of strings.

The hope to be seen:
Threads rearranged.

The un-plastic path:
Just sex and move on.

The human excellence:
Their blood aint’ theirs.

The help of this future:
A science untook down.

The quick-came end:
Cheat and get your dream.

The hope done gained:
Alone, great views, and no oxygen at all.

Selected Film News — September 2009

I’m a week late, but here’s some news I enjoyed (selected from my del.icio.us feed, as usual), which is film related:

• There are a lot of interesting horror films coming out soon. Splice is one of them, you can see a sneak preview here. It looks truly strange. It comes out in November and it’s got Adrien Brody. Also, a film called Corpsey featured at this year’s DOCFEST, looks great.
• Best article on Twitch this month? Definitely, “Where are My Bleepy Crunchies.” A suggestion of the top five films integrated with electronic music. Number one is Pi, but I haven’t seen several of the others and they look superb.
• The new Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer gives the film just about as much “future of film” hype as I’ve heard about Avatar. Anyway, I think it looks sweet (a look at Wes Anderson behind the scenes in the previous link).
• Contenders for Best Picture of 2012, already? Yup.
• I saw two films this week in the theater: Jennifer’s Body, and Zombieland. Both really enjoyable, though I certainly favored the latter (which I’m biased toward because of the cameo [BR], which I won’t spoil in case you haven’t seen it yet, and the genre [I'm a big Zombie fan]). What I haven’t seen yet, and would really like to see is The Informant. Mainly due to, besides the good trailers and promotional materials, an episode of This American Life, that I’d strongly recommend.
• Herzog is hosting a series of lectures/seminars in L.A. about film making. I’d go, except it cost about $1500. It’s titled Herzog Rogue Film School. Speaking of Herzog, a reviewer at TIFF for Twitch has the first look at his collaboration with D Lynch.
• Thom Yorke went out of his way this past month to promote a film called The Age of Stupid. I’d link to the blog article from DeadAirSpace, but it doesn’t have permalinks…
• The villain has been selected for M Gondry’s rendition of The Green Hornet: Christopher Waltz. You may remember him from such great roles as, the best villain ever in Inglorious Basterds (this link is to Tarantino interviews which you may find interesting).
• Other Movies: Reviews for The Road look pretty favorable. Videocracy looks fascinating, though I bet it’s too late to have any useful analysis of the media publicity overhaul by the Obama Administration (could you imagine George Bush on Twitter?). Year of the Carnivore looks like a good indie romantic comedy. More info on Korine’s presumably-fucked-up-as-usual musical: Trash Humpers. The final trailer for [rec]2, hope it doesn’t “ruin the mythology” to quote Tarantino. Terry Gilliam’s got a film (Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus) that immediately makes me think of “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium”, but doesn’t co-star Natalie Portman, to my knowledge. Can’t find anything else about this film, but Я looks awesome (from the 15 seconds I’ve seen). Criterion collection releases a box set of Japanese Noir? You bet! And, they are re-making Plan 9, and I can’t understand why even in the slightest (wish they’d give up on the Barbarella re-make, too)
• One-liners from TIFF, Thanks Vulture.
• I discovered possibly the best food related film I’ve seen all year: Disappearing Manhattan from the always entertaining Anthony Bordain.
• The Best Cut in Cinema. Duh, from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In parallel, the greatest long takes in cinema history. Also, 100 years of Visual Effects (ignore the shitty music).
• Time Travel in popular Film and TV (Primer would be impossible to quantify on this map).

A Year of Film Recorded (September to September Top 5 Films 08-09)

There was many weeks where it was quite hard to choose between two films, to specify a favorite of the week (like the recent week where I watched District 9 and Inglorious Basterds). However, I always managed to pick one in the end, sometimes weeks later. And that’s the point. Sometimes movies, and TV shows, stick with you more than other. The reason is different for everyone. But one reason, of many, that I started recording the movies I’ve seen is to try and track what inspires me, what I learn, and what’s important to film for me.

So, I will pick my top 5 movies that I watched from the last year, and share why. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, and maybe some of my selections will be naive, and certainly won’t please everyone–but that’s the best part of reflecting on yourself–your humanity.

And speaking of humanity, it should be noted that I set out with this recording hoping at first to watch a movie a day, or seven movies a week. I have counted, and I have failed. I think I’ve watched just about 300 movies this past year (That’s like an 82% if I were grading myself). I don’t think it’s to be frowned upon.

Without further Ado:

5. Blue Velvet

This is, for all intents and purposes, my favorite David Lynch movie. Often, I am taken by surprise by what Lynch is capable to communicating in films like Inland Empire and Mulholland Drive, but the more cohesive and accessible works of his I often find myself coming back to. It’s the subtitles of the normality he presents in this film that I find the most interesting. It should also be noted that I saw this film in Paris with Monica at the Cinémathèque Française. This surely affected my experience of the film; however, if that’s the only thing I gained from it, I think it’s still very important. The theater is crucial to the cinema experience.

The film is a private instigation, a neo-noir. It is based on Lynch’s childhood in Spokane Washington, his father worked for the Department of Agriculture. I recently was shown by a friend the moving scene where the woman dances on top of the car while the psychotic man creepily sings The Sandman to the main character Kyle MacLachlan (who is among the ranks of actors I feel are very underrated who Lynch uses often in his films [I'm pointing to Laura Dern, here]). Anyway, A lot more can be said about the movie, but really, it just made me want more. It was one of those films where when it ended, I felt like I wanted to remain friends with the characters, I felt lost in the world of Lumberton, and I’d like to go back.

4. [rec]

I know very little about this movie except that it’s a documentary style zombie film. And while Romero is pretty much washed up at this point (I mean, look at the last two films he’s offered to the genre), many other directors are taking zombies in awesome new directions. This is the perfect horror-mentary film. The frustration of the uncontrolled camera is way fun, and something that film soften try to use but fail (in my opinion at least). It was overly inspiring, I wish I could have seen it in the theater. Of course, where one movie succeeds, there are always more. [rec]2 has already premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, I think.

3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers – (56′ Version)

I’ve seen both the one from 78′ and the one from 56′. The one from 78′ is a classic, too. It also has Jeff Goldbloom and Leonard Nemoy in it, enough said. But I put the former on this list because of it’s historical value and content. I’ve read it’s an allegory for communism or the loss of autonomy in the Soviet state, but frankly I think it’s a perfect depiction of “the other” (at least from the American perspective, I think). I also may be slightly biased towards the situation within which I experienced the film, but I suppose that’s always part of it.

The bottom line is that this film isn’t as accessible simply because of it’s age. I’m trying to by humble here, I know most people probably have less interest in older movies, even if they’re “classics” (most of the time I don’t either). It’s just doesn’t have those little things we take for granted in contemporary cinema. Regardless, there’s something that’s pretty timeless about the film–and really captures the essence of the alien as a symbol in culture. Plus, it’s still pretty darn fun to watch, even with all the old fashioned stuff.

2. Groundhogs Day

I forget and remember this film every year in a fantastic cycle. I absolutely love this film. And this year when I re-watched it, I remembered how much I love movies that really move you. I cry every single time he can’t save the homeless man’s life. It’s such a simple aspect of humanity, and after he tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide so many times, and within the lens of Phil’s experience, his death seems so resonant to me. I can think of other movies that did this to me this year, but this is also about a time travel. I have a fascination with time travel, and especially enjoy time travel movies (well science fiction in general), and this has a completely new take on it. It’s like a sci-dramedy.

1. Primer

So, this one has been probably my favorite film for a long time. Maybe I need to grow out of it, but I just can’t. It’s just so cool. It’s like they’ve taken time travel and every logic problem associated with it, and created this reality where it works. It’s complicated, and intertwined, and almost beyond recognition. It’s so easy to get lost, but the characters seem to as well, and the parts of them fall to the side while others keep going. It also was made on a ridiculously small budget (like 7,000$, even though that sounds ridiculous). Has the passion and stylistic control of a Kubrick film. The story of the film itself makes the monotony of everyday life somehow exciting again, relishing in the excitement of accidentally discoveries, and depicting the never-entirely-moral-or-logical ways in which humans move forward with science. It’s probably the most inspiring film I’ve ever seen.

Alright. So. Obviously this is just 5 movies. These are just movies out of hundreds that I enjoyed, and out of 54 favorites. I probably could have written about every 300 movies, and I already have replacements. Maybe I should have done a worst 5–that would be just have useful, if not more useful, in my own learning. Plus, these movies were pretty famous, I imagine most folks will have already seen this films. Well, I’ll keep that (5 worst from the year) idea on the back-burner. And, I hope you found this useful and interesting.

August 2009 Roundup

School starts back on Monday  here at IU, and my time for cinema will be pressed even further. Here, however, is some news I’ve gathered over the last month. This is what I thought was worth checking out.

• John Hughes died, and a wealth of information showed up on the internet in dedication to him. Molly Ringwald offers her memories, NYtimes had an interview right before his death on “The Brat Pack“, and then later offered a tribute to his style.
• Antichrist has leaked two months before it’s official release date. Torrent?
• So, what’s the difference between Widescreen and Fullscreen, well, everything. Here, directors talk about how pan and scan re-directs cinema.
• There’s a Barbarella re-make, and Vulture had a bit of news about it.
• Slate put together a fantastic taste of the many voices of Maryl Streep.
• Peter Jackson produced District 9, a film by Neill Blomkamp, which I’m sure you’ve already heard about. Check out this interesting article on the meaning of the film. PJ’s also got another film to be released soon called “The Lovely Bones,” the trailers out here. However, District 9 (apparently based on this short film), tied this week (for the first time on my weekly favorite movie section) with Inglorious Basterds. The final segment of this film is simply: dope. Anywho, check out Tarantino’s top 20 films of the last decade on youtube.
• Want to test your knowledge of cinema history? This quiz from NYTimes was really hard for me, hopefully you’ll do better. I particularly enjoyed the question regarding the difference between American film markets and foreign film markets (which I got right, notably).
• Other select news from “Twitch“: Full theatrical trailer for Astro Boy is out. I still want to see Ponyo. Also, the trailer for this crazy horror film came out: Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre. Plus, Absurda (David Lynch’s production studio), is putting out a Herzog film, and the trailer is up. Say What?
• Speaking of foreign directors, Haneke’s Palme D’Or winning film “The White Ribbon,” has a trailer out now, and it looks fairly historical, enough said.
• Finally, I Watched Idiocracy this week, and enjoyed it slightly more than last time, in perfect time for the release of the “Extract” trailer. Mike Judge, thanks, enjoyed you on Fresh Air while I was serving food at Scholars Inn this past week…

And speaking of public broadcasting, I’ll be working jib for the telethon that’s going on probably near forever, or until you all pay small increments of money so that I can keep my job and you get commercial free television. Donate?