Summer is around the corner....sorry for the slacking

Well, as the days turn into summer, my mind becomes more and more absent. Personally, I cannot wait to get out of the Mitchell basement for a couple of weeks before I return for summer school! Anyway, my comments on Hamilton are as followed:
1) Why is that girl still with her baby's daddy? Was she adopted or something because it seemed as if they shared the same mama. Woody Allen syndrome I suppose. Anyway, I blame the city of Balitmore myself. Baltimore is not one of the safest cities in the US here, no matter how much they regentrify the ports. Porterfield happens to capture the decay in silence. Urban decay happens silently and drastically. Slowly the rich move out to the burbs and the ethnic minority/low income families move right on in. The family does not look the richest nor the most motivated. After all, we have a 17 year old pregnant child, a 15 year old who smokes, and some other girl with a child herself.
2) The movie's environment is something to comment on. Since everyone in the theater has been in a decaying neighborhood (Milwaukee is full of them because we are the most segregated city in the US), it was as if we could feel the humidity of the summer day, the cerulean of the pool, the sun beating down outside the church, and the sweat beading as the young lad mows the lawn. Maybe it is Dr. Barker's senses class rubbing off on me, but the whole atmosphere of walking in the woods, but the nostaglia and childhood feelings arouse sense memory. The creek and the woods, as an example, environment reminds the viewer of the childhood innnocence these children should have, even though one has a child and the other is smoking. Lots of contradictions on how these children should be children, but they are acting like adults.

Pomegrante Orgy

Did anyone else find the Pomegrante scene from Montgomery's Notes on the Death of the Kodachrome the most sexual scene out of all the films viewed Monday? The color was so red and the texture was so appealing sensual that one could not help but feel violated by the fruit! Since Montgomery shot the pom scenes close up, the viewer never really saw the entire picture. It leaves the audience to make up what the members of the orgy are doing and how they react to the juicy, high in anti-oxident fruit. It is all goes to haptics, and this scene was the only time I was invited to look at the image and ignore the audio voice-over. Whatever she was saying at that time did not matter, my senses were kicking in and I felt as if I was there. That is what haptic cinema does: never alienates, just invites. Then, she would intercut with the menstrual art, which at first did not tap into my feminist side, but overtime, it was became appealing in some sense. But as I watched her make art with her blood, I wanted to go back to eating the pomegrante, longing for the seedy fruit that is now out of season. She invited the viewer into the movie through those close shots as if to say, "Hey, come on in. The orgy's fine!" While the menstratual art was alienating to most of the male audience, the pomegrantes kept the viewer's interest. Jennifer must have done that on purpose; contrasting both images to be vulgar and beautiful, sensual and disgusting. What ever the case may be, her approaches in the prophecy delcares a death in texture as she transitions to the post-modern/feminist world.

thislife.org

The work I selected was entitled, "24 Hours at the Golden Apple." The center of the story is based on the two waiters who happen to work the graveyard shift. For the past two decades, the two ladies discuss their adventures, from couples arguing over a late night meal (I would not be surprised they were probably a little tipsy from drinking at the bars) to cops making frequent stops to eat the fine dining menu. Based off Nancy Updike's work, the semi-documentary piece offers a slice of life. The stories are mini narratives: people drag their drama into the restuarant in order to find resolutions or just ramble. In relation the narrative and experimental film, it shows that nothing is linear. Experimental film goes out of its way to make sure it does not follow any stereotypical guidlines, making things abstract and incoherent at times. In a way, it becomes empowering to not follow the rules. The thislife.org and NPR invite people to listen to stories that are everyday life: places people usually take for granted during their waking hours. And yet, does everything have a story? Is this a story right now as I type or when the viewer reads, engaging in the question? I personally find reading this blog not a story, but in the grand scheme of things, it becomes a part of the "story of your life" (made, edited, and updated by you). Sometimes people do not resolve their resoultions. For instance, these ladies working at the diner, do they have any resolutions to their lives or do they live vicariously through the patrons? Are their lives not compelling enough to write about? Their narratives, obviously different from the patrons, seem hum-drum, boring, and not exciting. Maybe that is why they are working the night shift for the past decades.....

The Camera Obscura

Ethan Jackson's camera obscura was an inviting exhibit. Since we saw the installation "in the works," it never-the-less was interactive and involving. The camera obscura, for a brief lesson in history, was constructed (in the Western world) during the Renaissance. I believe its most influential involvement was probably during the rise of the Dutch paintings of the 16th century, most notably Rembrandt and Vermeer. I am pretty sure everyone/Andrea is familiar with "Girl with the Pearl Earring." The author of the book (Tracy Chevalier), with the same name, addresses in great detail how the servant girl interacts with Vermeer in his art world, using the camera obscura to capture the image so he could get very detail painted onto the canvas.

It seems the most primitive camera has made a comeback. Mr Jackson invites people to see the exhibit, establishing the room (with retractable walls) as interior of the human eye. He had five lens situated along the wall, all parallel to each other. The images, from the outside, were inverted onto the wall inside. It reminded me of a quote by the painter Constantijn Huygens: It is impossible to express the beauty in words. The art of painting is dead, for this is life itself, or something higher, if we could find a word for it." This quote was dictated after he saw an image produced by a camera obscura. To him and the Renaissance, it represented life, a true reality away from the easel and pastels. Jackson seems to harken back to the Renaissance, adopting the principles of how the human eye sees and manifests images of the outside world into a dark room. Since we cannot look at our retinas, we can just walk on down to Kenneliworth and get a virtual reality of our world through our eye's point of view.

Projections, Projections, Projections

As the advent of spring break comes upon the weary, lack of sunlight film students, who spend more time in the basement of Mitchell, it is time to pause and reflect the mid-term thus far. The mid-term was not that bad, only I wish I studied the names of the artist a little closer, but hey, for the most part, I liked taking the test. Any test you can "rain man" through is a friend of mine.

Now, seeing that I should quit going on tangents and "follow orders," I found last Monday's screenings more tolerable and enjoyable. I actually found myself intrigued by the images flickering. Since the class focused on the projection machine as the artist, I felt its presence was telling me the story of the film through its loud "purring." Storm de Hirsch's THIRD EYE BUTTERFLY and LACES OF SUMMER were probably my favorite the entire day. LACES took an ordinary summer day, as she obsevred the changing tents and a red sail out her balcony. As you watch the images, you feel like Dorsky's philosophies of "heightening the act of seeing" are breathing down your neck. As the projection dictates the story, your eyes have no choice but to look at the images on the screen. It only takes the film expert to identify the sound of the projector, so they have no need to twist their neck to the back of the theatre to find the noisy equipment.

Now, THIRD EYE BUTTERFLY was interesing to watch just because of the angle I was seeing in. The double projectors were located just behind me, a couple of rows up. That day, I was sitting at an angle due to the recent injury I caused my ankle (no dumb jock references please. I have been twisting my ankle since 1996!!) Anyway, so I got the full experience of hearing the projector and taking in its presence through my left ear, while the sound of the speakers came into my right. It was a clash of sounds that de Hirsch probably strived for when making the film. The pyschedelic images captured the late 60s (along with the soundtrack), and since I am becoming a fan of installations more and more, I loved watching the different images that would pop onto the screen like a kaliedoscope. It was an enjoyment to have the projection tell me this story.

Finally, just another tagent. Between comtemplating about AVAILABLE LIGHTS projected box (it looked like the state of Wyoming at first, but then I concluded it was a movie about the changing seasons of Oregon, since the climate is completely different from West to East) and the camera obscura, I found NIGHT FALL only interesting for one purpose; my cell phone went off during the film. In the beginning of the film, the viewer is greeted with a loud bang as the image quickly flashes onto the screen (like a thunder and lightning storm). Anyway, as I was watching, my seat started to rumble. At first I thought, the sound is not that loud, but it is great if it can make my chair rumble. Little did I realize, it was my cell phone on vibrate going off. See, I got that invovled with the movie that I could not tell which way was up or down. Next time, the film should crank the volume, to make it feel as if the audience is in a thunder and lightning storm. How much fun would that be?!

For my comments on Marks, please refer to the Conceptual Studies Blog

csatuwm.blogspot.com

Granted, it is not about Monday's session, but it does cover, in detail, her lecture at the colloquia.

The Biggest Soviet Letdown

Its a controlled society where the government promises you things are going to get better. That the Soviet people are the best people. That they would be living in the sky, flying in sleek airplanes as the steel glistens from the sun rays. A place of milk and honey, where communism would unite the worker, turned out to be the biggest joke. Even in the eighties of Glasnot and Pereistoika, McDonald's could not save the degrading economy. In D'Est, a film made after fall of communism, is basically a film of waiting. Waiting for what though? Economic crisis plagued the former SovRus citizens, while former soviet nations slowly transitioned in democracy or erupted in civil war, things could only go up, right? You think, after being oppressed for years, that the people would be singing and doing cartwheels, that they would finally be technology advance with the Western world. Instead, they are left waiting. Akerman depicts a life that has not changed. People are still farming by hand, in carts that would be the biggest techonological advancement of the Medieval ages. Then again, serfdom in Russia was not banned until 1871! It seems that nothing improved since the fall. The best scenes, that provoked the most emotion for me, was the people just waiting. It seems that Stalin did not take any cues from Mussolini when it came to trains. People are standing outside, some in the cold, waiting for a train or mode of transportation that may never come. As they stare into the camera, it becomes symbolic. Where they better off in communistic times or will the better times be just around the bend? Despair plagues the people, and it still hold true today. The images are a testament, depicting on a how government can fail its people. Also, I must applaud Akerman for not showing the McDonaldization of the Russian city. People were still in cultural outfits and no one was found shouting something that would symbolically represent Western ideals. Russians were still living in tiny apartments, with little food and excess amounts of vodka. Akerman wanted to show depression, disillusionment, and time gone by, and she succeeded by illustrating to the viewer the real meaning of communism.

My favorite Russian Joke:
Old Man goes up to Stalin and says, "Comrade Stalin, I want to thank you for my childhood. They were the best years of my life."
Stalin looks at the man puzzled, responding, "Comrade, I was not General Secretary during your childhood."
The Old Man smiles and replies, "Yes. And that is why my childhood was the best time of life."
(after the joke, the old man mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again.)
If you do not get the joke, I highly suggest commenting me for further detail!