Real without being actual

"But let a noise or a scent, once heard or once smelt, be heard or smelt again in the present and at the same time in the past, real without being actual, ideal without being abstract, and immediately the permanent and habitually concealed essence of things is liberated and our true self which seemed - had perhaps for long years seemed - to be dead but was not altogether dead, is awakened and reanimated."

Marcel Proust

I promise you...

...this is worth watching.

Strangely touching

New York Times headline from September 14, 1929:

EDISON SITS UP ALL DAY.; Recovers From Pneumonia and Is Fast Regaining Strength.

Unreal

23

The cover of this Blonde Redhead album gives me chills. I hate it.

When did this blog turn into a list of things I don't like? That's the opposite of what it was supposed to be. Anyway, I haven't updated much lately but I am going to once I am unemployed next week.

Things I have learned in my life so far

Stefan Sagmeister published his list of about 20 things "all over the world, in spaces normally occupied by advertisements and promotions." He also had an exhibit at Deitch Projects that I missed because I am lazy, but I did buy the wonderful book.

He's inviting everyone to contribute to his list. This reminds me a lot of Learning to Love You More. I like these things.

The Legend of Holly Boy

This book might be the best thing I have ever found at work. Illustrations by Jack B. Hood.

First, Holly Boy and Linda travel back through a time/space tunnel to Bethlehem.



There, they meet the three wise men, who look like Klingons.



Then, at some point after they see Mary and the baby Jesus, we witness the birth of Holly Boy. I haven't read the book so I am not sure how they account for the time travel paradox.



It could be that the time travel paradox is the impetus for whatever happens next, when things go very, very wrong.





But not to worry. An angel saves them with the magic light from her hands.

One more quote from Errol Morris

"If everything was planned, it would be dreadful. If everything was unplanned, it would be equally dreadful. Cinema exists because there are elements of both in everything. There are elements of both in documentary. There are elements of both in feature filmmaking. It's what makes, I think, photography and filmmaking of interest. Despite all of our efforts to control something, the world is much, much more powerful than us, and more deranged even than us."

If Othello had been in Hamlet's place

Errol Morris, in conversation with Werner Herzog, talking (at first) about a serial killer:

"That's the way Werner described him at the time. An elephant with the soul of Mozart. I'm not sure that most of the prison authorities would have described him in the same way, but at the time I found Werner's description very interesting. I thought for a long time about it. It made it situational, as if God in his infinite perversity had somehow mismatched Kemper's various attributes in order to produce some kind of nightmare, some kind of tragedy. I remember thinking, Yeah, if Othello had been in Hamlet's place, and vice versa, there would be no tragedy."

Studying semiotics at Brown

I think this is something I would like to do.

List of people who studied semiotics at Brown:
Ira Glass
Jeffrey Eugenides
Todd Haynes
Christine Vachon
Rick Moody
Steven Johnson

I also love the fact that when Steven Johnson graduated and began writing, it sounded as though he had just translated his own text from French.