An angel being blown backwards into the future

Happiness Is a Warm Gun
September 18th, 2009

Via Wikipedia: "One of the most salient musical features of the song is its frequent shifts in time signature. Beginning in 4/4 time, the song has one measure of 6/4 time for the line She's well acquainted... before changing back to 4/4 time for the next line (The man in the crowd...). It then uses a measure of 5/4 followed by a measure of 4/4 for the line a soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust. The subsequent guitar solo features a measure of 9/8 followed by two measures of 12/8. This pattern is repeated in the I need a fix... section. This gives way to alternating 9/8 and 10/8 measures in the Mother Superior... section before returning to 4/4 for the doo-wop style ending. The When I hold you... section slows down dramatically and employs one of the few examples of polyrythm in the Beatles, where the drums play triplets while the rest of the instruments and background vocals use a duple rhythm."

On CVs

by Mike Radcliffe
August 19th, 2009

Via Eye blog: "First of all, view your initial contact as the opportunity to get a meeting, nothing else, just a meeting. Once you have the meeting then it's your responsibility to win over your interviewer with your wit, charm and amazing portfolio. But before you get the meeting, I would create the simplest and most effective CV to send out, and a small work presentation to send out with it; don't mess up before you've even got in there. Personally, I think CVs are an exercise in cutting the information back to the bare minimum, especially if you are a graphic designer. . [...]

All we need to know is where you've been, what you've done and if there was anything significant that happened along the way to make you employable! It's your job as a designer to make information clear, accessible and enjoyable to read."

Big Love

Television drama and further
August 3rd, 2009

From Wikipedia: "The show was co-created by Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer, who also serve as executive producers. Olsen and Scheffer spent almost three years researching the premise of the show, with the intent of creating a fair portrayal of polygamy in America without being judgmental. The series' theme song is God Only Knows by The Beach Boys; the musical score for the series is composed by David Byrne."

the Graveyard.

by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn
April 4th, 2009

Via their website: "The Graveyard is a very short computer game. You play an old lady who visits a graveyard. You walk around, sit on a bench and listen to a song. It's more like an explorable painting than an actual game. An experiment with realtime poetry, with storytelling without words. Buying the full version of The Graveyard adds only one feature, the possibility of death. The full version of the game is exactly the same as the trial, except, every time you play she may die."

Sit on the bench and listen carefully to the beautifully strange lyrics!

Objet petit a

The object of desire which we seek in the other
May 3rd, 2009

Via Wikipedia: "In the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, objet petit a (object little-a) stands for the unattainable object of desire. It is sometimes called the object cause of desire. Lacan always insisted for it to remain untranslated 'thus acquiring the status of an algebraic sign.' (Écrits).

In 1957, in his Seminar Les formations de l'inconscient, Lacan introduces the concept of objet petit a as the imaginary part-object (see Melanie Klein), an element which is imagined as separable from the rest of the body. In the Seminar Le transfert (1960-1961) he articulates objet a with the term agalma (Greek, an ornament). Just as the agalma is a precious object hidden in a worthless box, so objet petit a is the object of desire which we seek in the other. [...]

Slavoj Žižek explains this objet petit a in relation to Alfred Hitchcock's MacGuffin: '[The] MacGuffin is objet petit a pure and simple: the lack, the remainder of the real that sets in motion the symbolic movement of interpretation, a hole at the center of the symbolic order, the mere appearance of some secret to be explained, interpreted, etc.' (Love thy symptom as thyself)."

The Century of the Self

by Adam Curtis
February 27th, 2009

Via Wikipedia: "Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud's theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their engineering of consent. [...]

The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality."

Magic

Note to self
January 13th, 2009

Via William Bennett: "My own definition is a relatively simple one, yet within it there is incredible potential for creativity and exploration. It's the realisation (or actualisation if you prefer) of something you used to think was utterly impossible and unachievable. That's it.

Doesn't sound like much, except the more you begin to contemplate those words the more you begin to come to terms with how very much that truly encompasses. How many pleasures have you never experienced because you thought you never would? And indeed, how much of it can or could you stand? What in fact are your limitations?

Wherever you choose to set that is the boundary between the you and magic. And that's where I want to go."

F for Fake

by Orson Welles (1915-1985)
January 11th, 2009

From bright lights: "When we get to a late film in Welles' career, the documentary F for Fake (1976), he formulates his most explicit statement about contemporary reality, leaving little room for greatness, let alone tragedy. And if F for Fake seems a superficial film, we will then have experienced the first lesson of postmodernism: playfulness, conscious illusions, and an undisguised reflexiveness about making movies. Put another way, what is seen in the film that seems real is not as real as it appears — but most especially we can't trust the filmmaker Welles himself, he will lie to us and deceive us, if only to get at the heart of the movie's main contention: you cannot trust anyone, especially anyone who asserts his or her authority without any basis or proof." ("F for Fake, The Ultimate Mirror of Orson Welles, In which Welles deflates expectations of greatness — and transcends them" by Robert Castle).

(Thanks to Nina Juric!)

End of 2008

Ten things - because it is a tradition I affirm.
December 31st, 2008

Book Tough topic, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be Austerlitz - for the concept.

City Cologne, indeed.

Concert DAF - it was such an energetic flashback.

Film Death Proof - by one of those men who understand women. And for everybody who disagrees, check out William Bennett's inspiring movie reviews.

Perfume Patchouli Patch, recommended by the fabulous blog of Theresa Duncan - RIP.

Present Silver necklace - yes, we do like to see feelings materialize.

Song O Superman - for all coincidences, which sometimes made me wonder if they were really coincidences and then pushed me to realize that, yes, they are just coincidences. Starting to enjoy it!

Talk Isabel Allende on Tales of passion.

Unsorted The six kilometres along the canal in rain, fog, snow, sun, wind, heat, light, dark and any other fucking weather condition, over and over again - thanks for keeping me company, Eva!

Website "UbuWeb was founded in November of 1996, initially as a repository for visual, concrete and, later, sound poetry. Over the years, UbuWeb has embraced all forms of the avant-garde and beyond." A goldmine.

So, here we are... And what is next?

Trust your eyes?

The Ouchi Illusion
December 19th, 2008

Via Scientific American: "This illusion is by op artist Hajime Ouchi. Move your head back and forth as you let your eyes wander around the image and notice how the circle and its background appear to shift independently of one another. Vision scientist Lothar Spillmann at the University of Freiburg in Germany stumbled upon the illusion while browsing Ouchi's book on Japanese Optical and Geometrical Art. Spillmann then introduced the Ouchi illusion to the vision sciences community, where it has enjoyed immense popularity."

Also, check out the 80 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena site by Michael Bach at the Freiburg University in Germany: "These pages demonstrate visual phenomena, and optical or visual illusions. The latter is more appropriate, because most effects have their basis in the visual pathway, not in the optics of the eye."