In The Garden

I got in the mood to draw a little (badly) and play with colors. And fingerpaint! Crayola fingerpaint is great for staining pages, if anyone wanted to know.

Pfleuger

Apparently, there is a place in Texas called Pfleugerville. Apparently, this is a common name in the area. In my imagination, a Pfleuger is kind of like a smurf, but purple and slightly more insane. Following, is my representation of this mystical creature which populates the southern united states: 

Pfleuger, with ceremonial plunger. 

Does anyone else have any information on this creature? If so, please share!

Japan day?

So, apart from kicking around with homework, I spent the day indulging in two of my old vices: Japanese literature, and anime.

Reread some Mishima. This was a book we took in one of my upper year Asian cultural history classes, which was taught by my favourite history professor of all time.

If you can get your hands on this collection of short stories, I'd highly suggest it. Mishima can be a little slow at times, but what he lacks in fast paced action, he makes up for in the unspoken depths of his characters, and in his minute attention to detail. Where Mishima is truly strong, is in his creation of a setting, the way he paints an image, which comes through with vivid clarity even in an English translation.

As for the anime, I imbibed in a rather confusing little number, a series made up of eight "movies" called Kara no Kyoukai. As with most anime I watch these days (yeah, I'm getting too old for it, but I'm also too old for The Princess Bride and I watch that on a biyearly basis, so bite me) I am of mixed feelings. 

Production quality seems high enough. The musical score is quite good, though at times a little disjointed in a way that reflects the plot. The story is told in reverse order, with a series of flashbacks working up to where we began in the first episode.

When I say the plot is disjointed, I am not pointing out a flaw. It is intentionally confusing. The main character is a schizophrenic sociopath with a split personality disorder, and the only people keeping her grounded are a chainsmoking "sorceress" and a very sweet young man named Kokuto. 

I think my biggest bone is with the main character, Shiki, herself. She has an unfortunate habit of wearing a red leather jacket over top of a traditional kimono, and although she is constantly dubbed "beautiful" by the other characters, I'm just not seeing it. She mostly just seems kind of bitchy, especially to poor Kokuto, who is so enamoured with being rejected by her that he came every day for two years to visit her when she was in a coma (all the better to ignore him, I suppose).

Am I being cynical? Probably

(but seriously? you can't tell me that that doesn't look a little dumb) 

Badminton and Good Parenting

Book of Good Parenting #1

Signs your child may need glasses: 

Book of Good Parenting #2

Signs your child may not be athletically inclined: 

. . .and that about sums up my highschool gym experiences ^__^

November 6, 2011

Autumnal chill

breath brittle on my tongue

misting out over 

glasslike still

The lagoon before me

Tread forward

leaves crackling loud as

shards of old china

dusted with frost

At water's edge

I look down

Searching murky depths

for my oldest teacher

met with nothing

The truth

Distant trumpets

sound from heaven

a manic cry

geese heading south

Silent Films

I know that to the modern viewer, the silent film looks sort of. . .comical. Overacting is necessary to convey a story without sound, and the jerkiness of the film itself makes the actors look like humorous parodies of human beings.

But all that aside, watch this little story of adultery by one of France's pioneer filmmakers, Charles Pathe.

What struck me, watching it, was first of all how different people must have been back then. Today, you could hardly get anyone to sit through anything without sound, without stunning visuals, explosions, sex, and fast paced action. Much less could you get most people today to *follow* a story told purely through mime. There's something admirable in that: the silent film makes you think, and use your imagination to fill in the story. Modern film not only gives us everything on a silver platter, turning us into two hour zombies as we absorb the film, it also often shoves overdone cinematics down our throats.

The second thing that struck me was the beauty of some of the visuals. A great deal of time and effort must have gone into setting up a scene, almost like laying out the props for a painting or an artistic photograph. You could take a still shot from almost anywhere in the video, frame it, and put it up on your wall. This attention to detail in the creation of a visual moment has become well established in cinema today (although, not everyone uses it). When it is applied well, attention to detail can raise a film from pure entertainment, to art. It is interesting to see how far back this goes, but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. In the silent film, the visual was all that was available to convey, so much thought had to be put into how each image was laid out, in order to create something in any way worth watching.

While I wouldn't want to revert to the silent film (I enjoy my vegitable time, dammit), the art form certainly seems something worth exploring further. I am curious to discover the ways in which silent film has influenced film today.

Celebrities, and Their Tits.

So, it's happened again. Some celebrity snapped a bunch of photos of her naughty bits on her phone, and they got leaked to the public. Which celebrity this time you ask? None other than Blake Lively, star of "Gossip Girl", "The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" (parts one and two), and the upcoming "Green Lantern".

I'm sure you're asking yourself the same thing I am:

Why the *fuck* can't the famous figure out this simple fact. If they take pictures of their tits, they *will* be seen by the public. It's inevitiable.

Or to quote a disturbed literary figure: "It's axiomatic."

The popular theory is that she snapped these R-Rated pics while she was filming "The Town". Having seen them, I'd have to say I concur, since the tattoo's on her body match the ones that Make-up put on her for the movie. So, here it is. I'm gonna put it out there in plain-speak for all the celebrities who think that their boyfriends need a picture of them posing like self-absorbed cunts in their bathroom mirror:

HEY. CELEBRITIES. HERE'S THE DEAL. IF YOU TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR TITS, ASS, AND NETHERLY GIRLY BITS.. PEOPLE WILL SEE. IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. SO UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR VAG PLASTERED ACROSS THE WEB, KEEP YOUR FUCKING PANTS ON.

That being said: I hope no one takes my advice, because I like watching famous people fall.

(I almost included pictures, but I'm not sure who the rights belong to, so I neglected. If anyone is desperate to see them, go to Egotastic, or What Would Tyler Durden Do?)

I almost forgot to add: her Reps vehemently deny that this is her.. but she has nice tits, and I like nice tits -- after doing a forensic examination that approaches CSI levels, I can say -- this *is* her.