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In Which There Is Cost-Benefit Analysis
Feb. 28th, 2011 11:01 pmFriday:
Drove out to Newton to see a gallery show called "Artistic Mediums II," installations based around the idea of artist as spiritualist who summons the unseen, only in this case from electronic signals rather than the aether. So, for instance, the film "Ginger Minus Fred", or lines of magnetic tapes you could run an audio head across to search out words, or holding a salt shaker to your ear that would recite Sonnets From the Portuguese if you pointed it at the mouth of a woodcut.
Then into town for a disorganized screening of short films at Spontaneous Celebrations, an old music hall that is now the home base for a troupe of stiltwalkers who use it as a base to promote arts and peace. The audience was maybe 20 people, an even mix of hippies and hipsters, and it was my first time to see "Aperture" projected for an audience. (An art museum screening is not the same thing.) In any case, both "Aperture" and "The Sleeping People" went over so well they've asked if they can show them again next time.
Grain of salt, since I don't know for sure there will be a next time, but it's nice to be asked. Great space. Nice people running it. Scarlett wants to move in and is developing schemes. (She was the reason I was involved in the screening in the first place.) Among the board games in the children's corner, found "Kosherland," a Candyland knockoff with Matzo instead of Princess Gumdrop, where the danger isn't getting stuck in the mud, but accidentally mixing milk and meat together. Amazing.
Tried to attend a going away party for Ciro's friend Tiffany, who is moving to Virginia Beach and joining the Navy now they've made moves to abolish "don't ask, don't tell," but arrived too late because she went to sleep oddly early. Maybe we can catch her in Virginia Beach if we go visit my grandmother.
Saturday:
Mom made Huguenot Cake from the 50 states in cake form cookbook I got her for Christmas. (Apparently South Carolina had Huguenots.) Spent most of the day video editing; 7.5 minutes in, halfway to my 15-minute rough cut goal for the weekend. A somewhat unreasonable goal, but I'm going to lose next Friday and Saturday to C.Blacker music video and I'm already feeling behind schedule. Still, things are cutting together and it's engaging, which is a relief and something of a pleasure.
Started reading The Disappearing Spoon.
Sunday:
Oscars - dull and expected. The whole thing felt like a corporate event desperate to sell something to me. The Oscars shouldn't be about the Oscars; the Oscars should be about the movies. Instead, pandering to various key market segments who I doubt were convinced by the desperate cries of "we're relevant! really!" I never doubted it before, Oscars, but now I'm starting to. Very little evidence of a passion for film or a love of art.
Editing - 17 minutes of rough cut complete. Grueling.
Monday:
Head cold, exhaustion, chilblains, vague nausea, swollen belly. Scare-mongering article in the lifestyle section of The Boston Globe about the "chemical burden" of Bisphenol A, phthalates, etc. Well-meaning or not, this stuff always strikes me as more irresponsible than helpful. Let's be clear: fire retardants save lives. Lots of them. Plastics save more and are a wonder of modern life that prevents food from spoiling, creates sanitary bandages, and makes a host of lightweight, hard-to-break objects in areas where ceramics and metals don't do a good job (and have their own heavy metal contaminations). Canning has been a huge boost to nutrition.
It is the height of privilege to be able to do without these things and still live at a post-industrial level with a modern life expectancy. If you can do it, you're lucky, and more power to you. Meanwhile, a study in Britain a few years ago found that low-income mothers had internalized the message that non-organic produce contained dangerous toxins, and since they couldn't afford organic, they protected their children by not feeding them any fruits and vegetables.
Drove out to Newton to see a gallery show called "Artistic Mediums II," installations based around the idea of artist as spiritualist who summons the unseen, only in this case from electronic signals rather than the aether. So, for instance, the film "Ginger Minus Fred", or lines of magnetic tapes you could run an audio head across to search out words, or holding a salt shaker to your ear that would recite Sonnets From the Portuguese if you pointed it at the mouth of a woodcut.
Then into town for a disorganized screening of short films at Spontaneous Celebrations, an old music hall that is now the home base for a troupe of stiltwalkers who use it as a base to promote arts and peace. The audience was maybe 20 people, an even mix of hippies and hipsters, and it was my first time to see "Aperture" projected for an audience. (An art museum screening is not the same thing.) In any case, both "Aperture" and "The Sleeping People" went over so well they've asked if they can show them again next time.
Grain of salt, since I don't know for sure there will be a next time, but it's nice to be asked. Great space. Nice people running it. Scarlett wants to move in and is developing schemes. (She was the reason I was involved in the screening in the first place.) Among the board games in the children's corner, found "Kosherland," a Candyland knockoff with Matzo instead of Princess Gumdrop, where the danger isn't getting stuck in the mud, but accidentally mixing milk and meat together. Amazing.
Tried to attend a going away party for Ciro's friend Tiffany, who is moving to Virginia Beach and joining the Navy now they've made moves to abolish "don't ask, don't tell," but arrived too late because she went to sleep oddly early. Maybe we can catch her in Virginia Beach if we go visit my grandmother.
Saturday:
Mom made Huguenot Cake from the 50 states in cake form cookbook I got her for Christmas. (Apparently South Carolina had Huguenots.) Spent most of the day video editing; 7.5 minutes in, halfway to my 15-minute rough cut goal for the weekend. A somewhat unreasonable goal, but I'm going to lose next Friday and Saturday to C.Blacker music video and I'm already feeling behind schedule. Still, things are cutting together and it's engaging, which is a relief and something of a pleasure.
Started reading The Disappearing Spoon.
Sunday:
Oscars - dull and expected. The whole thing felt like a corporate event desperate to sell something to me. The Oscars shouldn't be about the Oscars; the Oscars should be about the movies. Instead, pandering to various key market segments who I doubt were convinced by the desperate cries of "we're relevant! really!" I never doubted it before, Oscars, but now I'm starting to. Very little evidence of a passion for film or a love of art.
Editing - 17 minutes of rough cut complete. Grueling.
Monday:
Head cold, exhaustion, chilblains, vague nausea, swollen belly. Scare-mongering article in the lifestyle section of The Boston Globe about the "chemical burden" of Bisphenol A, phthalates, etc. Well-meaning or not, this stuff always strikes me as more irresponsible than helpful. Let's be clear: fire retardants save lives. Lots of them. Plastics save more and are a wonder of modern life that prevents food from spoiling, creates sanitary bandages, and makes a host of lightweight, hard-to-break objects in areas where ceramics and metals don't do a good job (and have their own heavy metal contaminations). Canning has been a huge boost to nutrition.
It is the height of privilege to be able to do without these things and still live at a post-industrial level with a modern life expectancy. If you can do it, you're lucky, and more power to you. Meanwhile, a study in Britain a few years ago found that low-income mothers had internalized the message that non-organic produce contained dangerous toxins, and since they couldn't afford organic, they protected their children by not feeding them any fruits and vegetables.
