In the future food will come in pills, email will come in the newspaper, and flash video players will get elected to public office. May I submit these fine candidates:
One Got Fat (1963) Want to see children dressed up as monkeys riding bikes? Want to see them brutally run down by cagers one by one in what can only be described as “Saw On Wheels”? Of course you do. (from ZPG)
Journey to the Moon (2005) Apparently a home recording by William Kentridge. Makes me feel like the least productive person ever. If you like it, check out this other highly Kentridge-influenced animation: Deterioration. (thanks Jon)
Shock Doctrine Short Film
(2007) The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a book by Naomi Klein, from the book’s website:
In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world— through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.
Klein sent a copy of The Shock Doctrine to Alfonso Cuarón (director of Children of Men) expecting maybe a quote to print in the jacket of her book. What she got instead was a short film directed by both Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón. Animation and stock footage are combined slickly to deliver a powerful introduction to Klein’s book. (Thanks Ryan)
There are holes, in my sheets, they don’t stop me from sleeping.
There are holes, in my teeth, they don’t stop me from speaking.
No they don’t, no they don’t.
So I do, so I do, so I do.There are days when I, will play along.
There are ways that I, will do you wrong.
Through my words and through my work,
try to affect a reduction of harm.
And I’ve been feeling out of body these days.
And I’ve been feeling out of my mind these days.
I’ve been feeling awful out of body these days.
And I’ve been going out of my mind.
Based on what we know of particles that go
in straight line trajectories they’ill bend around the heavy things
but really there’s uncertainty the same kind for you and me
and I can’t trust, in anything,
and I can’t say, anything.
I’m trying to learn, how to think,
and I’m trying to learn, how to speak.
Neurons fire concordantly,
like flames onboard a ship sinking into the sea.
And I’ve been feeling out of body these days.
And I’ve been going out of my mind these days.
And I’ve been feeling awfully out of body these days.
And I said I’ve been going awfully out of my mind these days. these days
Based on what we know of particles that go
in straight line trajectories they’ill bend around the heavy things
but really there’s uncertainty the same kind for you and me
and I can’t say anything.
I read about a movie today called The Tracey Fragments. You ought to watch the trailer right now.
There are a lot of things about The Tracey Fragments that get me very excited. There are a few of those things that I can fairly describe with words.
First off (and why I heard about this film in the first place) the director Bruce McDonald is fully embracing creative commons licensing. Nearly 20 Gb of video, audio, and Final Cut Project files are downloadable as torrents on the film’s official site, under the heading “Re-Fragmented”. Everything shot during the four week’s of the film’s shooting, the script, and the original soundtrack by Broken Social Scene are available under a BY NC SA license.
McDonald explains:
“The Tracey Fragments is a film that fully embraces experimentation and teamwork. I wanted to find out if that experience exists on the Internet and give others the chance to experiment and play with some beautifully shot footage of a world class actress in a free form environment. I hope people make their own feature films, short films, rock videos, trailers, experimental films and personal manifestos out of The Tracey Fragments.”
Don’t like the way the editor paced the film? Fix it. Want to make a trailer that will highlight the portions you think are most appealing? Do it. Want to see the guts of the project splayed out on your monitor? Get to it. Read more about how this film is made of pure futurethought over on the CC Blog.
The Tracey Fragments has it’s US premier next Tuesday in LA. By then I will have all of the aforementioned files on my computer, but nothing can stop me from paying to see this movie.
The Darjeeling Limited? I’ll be stealing that off of the tubes, thanks. Saw IV? Yeah, um, pass.
Jon Huck is a photographer. He is from in and/or around LA. He has an awesome series of photos pairing portraits of over 100 people with their breakfast. He also has a series of photos of couples that was written up in LA Weekly. You should check it out.
I went into the basement of the bike shop today, and I returned much more heavily laden, my psyche weighed down by terrors unknown to the world of sunlight and sweeping.
You can’t get to the basement unless you open the door. It’s a trap door, and indeed it threatens entrapment. Built of dry splitting floorboards and bent black nails, it seems to be held together by cobwebs alone. Maybe fear also. Standing on the trapdoor when it is closed is not highly recommended if you weigh more that 120lbs. Looking at the trapdoor the wrong way while someone else stands on it is also dangerous. Once upwardly swung open, the door hangs by a single hook. The screw attaching this hook to the door hangs on by a few brave threads, promising eventual and catastrophic failure.
Below the deathdoor trapdoor a staircase leads into the subterrain. There is a lightswitch which activates no effective illumination, but merely a humming buzzing and flickering pair of bulbs that are most likely filled with nothing but spider eggs.
You enter a dark room. To the North there are the skeletons of ancient English 3-Speeds hanging from hooks in the ceiling. To the East there are boxes of components ranging from vintage 1971 Campagnolo brakes to the drum brakes off of a VW bus. To the West there is a passageway leading to certain doom.
I am glad I can still be frightened by the imaginary and the harmless.
I’d be reticent and recalcitrant in my blogging duties if I didn’t take the time to share the goods I’ve discovered on these the internets.
First off, some bicycle related posting.
Wheels of Fortune Grist illustrates the virtuous cycle of financical effects resulting from increased cycling.
Healthier planet, healthier people No Impact Man correlates with the (ought to be obvious) statistical connection between increased cycling and improved health.
Educate Some knowledge gets dropped on the Cranked Magazine blog.
And some links that make me angry in the good way.
Fourth Wave Feminism and Real Men There was a wickedly heated discussion of gender power imbalances in my Anthropology class on Thursday. I wish I could’ve had them all read this post from the We Are All Giant Nuclear Fireball Party blog.
Atheists and Anger Greta Christina gets angry, I get angry, were it to be that we were all angered.
Haha, just like the meme! Anyway, I’ve been busy eating words instead of shitting them out on the internet.
For my classes, I need to chow down on:
Savage Dreams: A Journey Into the Hidden Wars of the American West by Rebecca Solnit
Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy by Kevin Bales
Personal Identity as edited by John Perry.
For myself I should indulge in the conclusion of:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert Pirsig
The User Illusion by Tor Nørretranders
Deep Economy by Bill McKibbon
Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawkens, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins
Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra
The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn
Labyrinths of Reason by William Poundstone
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
Plan B 2.0 by Lester R. Brown
Guerilla Gardening: a Manifesto by David Tracey
American Power by Noam Chomsky.
For my own health I should re-evaluate my appetite. There are only so many hours in the day and of them so few spent awake enough to actively read. A good threshold may be when the books I am trying to read outweigh my head.
I feel like I am for the first time reaching and perhaps even exceeding my thresholds of ability, in terms of how much crap I can get done on time. I’m a vigorous second year student with a healthy mind and body, but this doesn’t mean my capacity for new information, creative endeavors, work, and socializing is boundless. Taking on loads of brain-itchingly interesting books and watching myself fail to competently juggle them along with the required (and thankfully interesting) readings for my classes is like sticking out my internal tongue to probe the inside edges of my headspace. Of what do they taste?
Tonight I’ve found another comic artist with whom into love I shall fall. May we all fall for Lucy Knisley. She makes me feel like I can draw, in the good way and not the bad way. Le Sigh.
I watched the first 9/10ths of A Bridge Too Far. Who wasn’t in that movie? Sheesh. I didn’t get to see the last half hour, but I’m pretty sure I know how it ends.
For dinner; olive batard from Tin Roof bakery (a little stale but still a treat), a tomato sliced and salted, fried polenta, and the last of my extra ginger brew.
I did an illustration for Ryan’s article in the latest issue of the print version of Synthesis. I might get paid for it, but I’m not sure of the licensing status. As the illustrator, I ordain it must be given to the creative commons! Enjoy. (Also, in said article, I have assumed the moniker of one Jon Goldstein, again. Thanks buddy!)
I’ve written two new songs. Both are up on my archive.org page in very rough form. Here are links to the .mp3s of ‘Hi, Hi’ and ‘Identify 1’. I need some constructive criticisms, kthnxbai.
I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for an average of three hours a day this week, this is down from the previous week, and the week before that. This is a good trend.
I’ve read three hundred and forty-five pages this week of which one hundred and nineteen were written by Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins, one hundred ten were written by Ervin Lazlo, sixty-two were written by Valerie L Kuletz, and fifty-four were written by Bill McKibben.
Only four days this week have I drawn in my “Every Day” sketchbook, and in those drawing there were thirteen robots. That’s ?1.86 robots a day. This week I have drawn zero pages for my new comic, in which there are two characters, of whom only one is a robot.
I my last pay period I worked for almost twenty hours at a rate of eight dollars an hour and earning in total one hundred fifty-six dolalrs, from which sixteen dollars and eighty-seven cents was withdrawn for Federal Withholding, Social Security, Medicare, and California Disability.
I have eaten nearly four pounds of apples this week.
I have ridden my bike only twenty to twenty-five mils this week.
I have broken zero guitar strings this week, but not for lack of trying.
I’ve started working as a bicycle mechanic again, it’s brought me nothing but health.
The shop I wrench at, Pullins Cyclery, is one of eight in a 10 block area of downtown Chico. It’s not a big shop, it’s not a high volume shop, and I wouldn’t call it a boutique. The bikes we sell most of are in the low to mid price range, and our stock of shiny new parts is normally a bit shorter than what some may expect. However, the shop has been doing well for over 90 years, winning “Best Bike Shop in Chico” every year for the past 13.
The current owner (whose workbench I commandeer) bought the store from old man Pullins himself in the seventies. Steve’s a good boss, a solid mechanic, an Irish music enthusiast, and a long-haul citizen of Chico. He runs an honest shop plans to keep it that way.
The shop is relatively clean, meaning it’s about as clean as a century old bike shop with hard wood floors can be, which is by most standards relatively filthy. There are more than three shop cats, I think, and they chew on birds out back and flirt with customers up front. The space is quite small is reflected in our standing inventory, density of the mechanic’s area, and the sharing of roles sales/service/bartender.
I was made so much more aware of all of this by a very busy thread over on the Bike Pirates community livejournal. Relating some god awful and some really inspiring bike shop experiences, this thread made me quite glad to work in a shop I can respect so much. We may not be able to serve every need, and we may not be able to compete on a price-matching level with internet mail-order, but gotdamn if this isn’t the kind of bike shop I would open if I were so inclined.