Specialisation requires detachment, which can be arrived at by deep reasoning or by prejudice, and is well sustained by prejudice.
Individuals are bad at solving in parallel multiple optimisation problems with disparate horizons. Peace---the luxury of focusing on the long horizon---is conducive to intellectual pursuits.
A rich choice set has ennobling influence on one's idiosyncrasies. In its presence, one is not forced towards the lowest common denominator. A choice set is expanded by inviting and following up on life's leads.
That is real the idea of which is useful.
28 April 2013
Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future 1940-1990
(The Getty Center, 27 April 2013)
Advances in art come with advances in technology. Only the most successful adopters of novel technologies are remembered. Only the most confident in their own success venture to experiment and can afford to.
L.A. has had neither a Haussmann nor centuries of compression to mould a city. Its identity is not that of a city, but of individual ideas, which did not have to clash and form a consensus alien to each contributor. Instead, each dreamer got his way (e.g., got Anaheim, Venice, Disneyland, and the LAX Theme Building), neither hampered nor supported by a non-market arbiter of good taste and civic sense.
A museum in a city brings a respite from the mandate and gathers disparate individuals with shared tastes, whom one later learns to recognise unaided. The former role is largely obviated by L.A.'s natural beauty and eccentricity.
Advances in art come with advances in technology. Only the most successful adopters of novel technologies are remembered. Only the most confident in their own success venture to experiment and can afford to.
L.A. has had neither a Haussmann nor centuries of compression to mould a city. Its identity is not that of a city, but of individual ideas, which did not have to clash and form a consensus alien to each contributor. Instead, each dreamer got his way (e.g., got Anaheim, Venice, Disneyland, and the LAX Theme Building), neither hampered nor supported by a non-market arbiter of good taste and civic sense.
A museum in a city brings a respite from the mandate and gathers disparate individuals with shared tastes, whom one later learns to recognise unaided. The former role is largely obviated by L.A.'s natural beauty and eccentricity.
21 April 2013
Clare Means
(The Third Street Promenade, 20 April 2013)
An artist cannot help being, and translating who he is into a narrative. If one finds aspects of beauty in oneself and translates these, one succeeds as an artist.
Few are artists. While some are tall buildings and fluid fabrics, others are merely a smooth gait, a wit, a reassuring profile. Nevertheless, most can find gratification in distilling a part of themselves into the beauty that can be passed on, onto the audience of strangers. One creates when the external narrative is either lacking or inspires a dialogue.
There is wisdom in being but a reporter---not a schemer, nor a moralist, nor a nostalgist---especially when one is of the age when one is supposed to be alive. One gets only one chance at being oneself, followed by numerous an opportunity for revising the account of what one used to be.
An artist cannot help being, and translating who he is into a narrative. If one finds aspects of beauty in oneself and translates these, one succeeds as an artist.
Few are artists. While some are tall buildings and fluid fabrics, others are merely a smooth gait, a wit, a reassuring profile. Nevertheless, most can find gratification in distilling a part of themselves into the beauty that can be passed on, onto the audience of strangers. One creates when the external narrative is either lacking or inspires a dialogue.
There is wisdom in being but a reporter---not a schemer, nor a moralist, nor a nostalgist---especially when one is of the age when one is supposed to be alive. One gets only one chance at being oneself, followed by numerous an opportunity for revising the account of what one used to be.
6 April 2013
Top Hat
(Aldwych Theatre, 2 April 2013)
A live performance assures that the memories evoked by music are real. This reality is shared, at least by few, in whom one sees those who one aspires to be or may become, or was or could have been. A live performance assures that also music is real, ready to reveal the humanity that transcends individuals once a critical mass of them assemble, on or off stage.
In an act of the division of emotional labour, the audience empathise with characters, thus inhabiting multiple lives at once. This practice is no escapism. Escapism denies one's condition. Empathy enriches one's condition.
A live performance assures that the memories evoked by music are real. This reality is shared, at least by few, in whom one sees those who one aspires to be or may become, or was or could have been. A live performance assures that also music is real, ready to reveal the humanity that transcends individuals once a critical mass of them assemble, on or off stage.
In an act of the division of emotional labour, the audience empathise with characters, thus inhabiting multiple lives at once. This practice is no escapism. Escapism denies one's condition. Empathy enriches one's condition.
30 March 2013
Axiom
(Fais Do-Do, 29 March 2013)
Civilisation---aided by art---structures immediate temptations to further long-term gratification, and---aided by science and luck---structures immediate incentives to further long-term goals. Civilisation replaces the degrading compromise by the quest for an ideal.
Civilisation---aided by art---structures immediate temptations to further long-term gratification, and---aided by science and luck---structures immediate incentives to further long-term goals. Civilisation replaces the degrading compromise by the quest for an ideal.
23 March 2013
"Balanchine GOLD" by Los Angeles Ballet
(Royce Hall, 23 March 2013)
Balanchine's is a peculiar language, that of social isolation, decreed aspiration to excellence, and the fear of slowing down for fear of disappointing the machine. His language constructs aesthetics, but neglects meaning. Balanchine is the Manhattan people commute to.
Bach is the Manhattan people reverse commute from. Engineered to dance to, Bach's music tricks thought into wakefulness. In "Concerto Barocco," Bach's music attributes the ballet's kinetic detachment to the congruence of individual goals, not to the sacrifice of self-denial.
Balanchine's is a peculiar language, that of social isolation, decreed aspiration to excellence, and the fear of slowing down for fear of disappointing the machine. His language constructs aesthetics, but neglects meaning. Balanchine is the Manhattan people commute to.
Bach is the Manhattan people reverse commute from. Engineered to dance to, Bach's music tricks thought into wakefulness. In "Concerto Barocco," Bach's music attributes the ballet's kinetic detachment to the congruence of individual goals, not to the sacrifice of self-denial.
17 March 2013
End of the Rainbow
(Ahmanson Theatre, 16 March 2013)
It is unclear what Judy Garland is, and hence how to portray her. One could sing a little better than she did, dance a little better than she did, and pass for a star.
Judy Garland is anything but Judy Garland. Yet the play focuses on Judy Garland---not on the studio system that had shaped her, not on the husbands who clung to her, not on the public who adored her---not on who Judy Garland was.
In the play, Judy Garland is too subordinated to addictions to be free, her prospective husband Micky is too dull to be free, so it is left to her accompanist, Anthony, to deliver one-liners that the audience can take home for guidance and reassurance.
The world collapses once one asserts one's singularity, instead of waiting for the world to impose it upon one.
It is unclear what Judy Garland is, and hence how to portray her. One could sing a little better than she did, dance a little better than she did, and pass for a star.
Judy Garland is anything but Judy Garland. Yet the play focuses on Judy Garland---not on the studio system that had shaped her, not on the husbands who clung to her, not on the public who adored her---not on who Judy Garland was.
In the play, Judy Garland is too subordinated to addictions to be free, her prospective husband Micky is too dull to be free, so it is left to her accompanist, Anthony, to deliver one-liners that the audience can take home for guidance and reassurance.
The world collapses once one asserts one's singularity, instead of waiting for the world to impose it upon one.
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