The movie is infused with its marker's obsessions and perspective and, so, is alive and personal. Tarantino's suspense is Lynchian and Hitchcockian. His drama is the mystery that life becomes once its characters approach it as detectives, as they should.
It is easy to be generous when one is rich. To be generous when one is poor and ambitious is the true nobility.
24 August 2019
15 August 2019
Chernobyl (2019)
The redeeming feature of the series is that it motivates one to consult Wikipedia, with which the series competes in dramatic depth and to which it loses in factual accuracy. There is nothing particularly Russian or Soviet about the characters, who are presented as generic Europeans, as if recreated by a creative committee from images on ancient vases and poems scribbled in a tongue long foreign to the modern ear. The visuals are compelling.
14 August 2019
Carol (2015)
It is one of those rare movies whose protagonists one cannot imagine portrayed by anyone but the movie’s actual stars. One sees immediately why Carol (Cate Blanchett) falls in love with Therese (Rooney Mara), from the first sight. One sees immediately what Therese finds so irresistible about Carol. What follows is a sequence of yeses, to oneself and to each other, that—that, and cash—infuse the film with a much greater sense of freedom than would have been warranted by the stifling attitudes of the times and the timeless prejudice against personal happiness alone. One can be decisive in one’s choices because they reflect examined preferences or because they reflect a firm commitment to such examination. It was this decisiveness that both lovers found so attractive in each other—that, and the class transcending the circumstance. Each one had a version of the other live inside her mind long before their meeting in flesh.
31 July 2019
Kumu Art Museum
(23 July 2019)
Perestroika art is a revolt against political establishment, not art establishment. Revolts against art establishment strive to seduce the audience away from the canon. Revolts against the system strive to offend the elites and are often ugly; the audience is the collateral damage.
Rick Owens’s dresses, without imitating Alexander McQueen, borrow his ideal: freedom as the ultimate value. The freedom to entertain and express an idea is also the freedom from being identified with this idea. A dress is a vehicle for an idea.
To a greater extent without than within the museum, Tallinn is strangely subservient to its Soviet past. Are the displays of souvenir busts of former leaders of a purportedly oppressive regime the best way the town can appeal to tourists? Has not the town built a new identity? (The country has, so why not the town?) Perhaps, Tallinn attracts the Northerners who seek the thrill of the past that they themselves have narrowly escaped, instead of attracting those who would value the town for its defiance towards that past. The new identity is also probably slow to percolate into the Old Town due to its peripheral location.
Perestroika art is a revolt against political establishment, not art establishment. Revolts against art establishment strive to seduce the audience away from the canon. Revolts against the system strive to offend the elites and are often ugly; the audience is the collateral damage.
Rick Owens’s dresses, without imitating Alexander McQueen, borrow his ideal: freedom as the ultimate value. The freedom to entertain and express an idea is also the freedom from being identified with this idea. A dress is a vehicle for an idea.
To a greater extent without than within the museum, Tallinn is strangely subservient to its Soviet past. Are the displays of souvenir busts of former leaders of a purportedly oppressive regime the best way the town can appeal to tourists? Has not the town built a new identity? (The country has, so why not the town?) Perhaps, Tallinn attracts the Northerners who seek the thrill of the past that they themselves have narrowly escaped, instead of attracting those who would value the town for its defiance towards that past. The new identity is also probably slow to percolate into the Old Town due to its peripheral location.
"Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" by Peter Godfrey-Smith (2016)
The book asks what it feels like to be the Internet, what it feels like to be a tentacle of an octopus, what it feels like to be Canada, what it feels like to be David Lynch. It all feels about the same.
What distinguishes the nervous system is that it is “fast.” Other cells communicate with other cells—inside or outside the organism—but slowly. Reaction speed is a defining characteristic of intelligence. Complexity, to be preserved in the face of competition, requires speed, which calls for centralisation: a nervous system, a brain. (The observation may also very well apply to social organisms: companies and states.)
One can partition human mind into two selves: the sleeping, dreaming, self and the awake self. This partition may serve as a metaphor for the multiple brains and, so, “selves” of an octopus. Each self thinks it is the principal one; while it may act in concert with other selves, in a kind of a dance, ultimately, the narrative is its own. Or so it thinks. When awake, an individual sticks to the awake narrative. Who knows what life the sleeping self imagines for itself? It would be unwise for either self to ignore the other, just as it would be unwise for a tentacle of an octopus to seek autonomy.
One can also partition human mind differently: the left-hemisphere self and the right-hemisphere self. To some extent, experiences within each such self are compartmentalised (more so in pigeons than in humans). Yet the subjective human experience is emphatically devoid of split personalities, at least most of the time. In a similar vein, even though the brain remembers events and feelings one associates with, say, one’s co-worker in distinct ways, one rarely recognises the tenuousness of the connection between the two kinds of memories. Human consciousness—and that of the Internet, an octopus, Canada, and David Lynch—is alarmingly unexceptional.
What distinguishes the nervous system is that it is “fast.” Other cells communicate with other cells—inside or outside the organism—but slowly. Reaction speed is a defining characteristic of intelligence. Complexity, to be preserved in the face of competition, requires speed, which calls for centralisation: a nervous system, a brain. (The observation may also very well apply to social organisms: companies and states.)
One can partition human mind into two selves: the sleeping, dreaming, self and the awake self. This partition may serve as a metaphor for the multiple brains and, so, “selves” of an octopus. Each self thinks it is the principal one; while it may act in concert with other selves, in a kind of a dance, ultimately, the narrative is its own. Or so it thinks. When awake, an individual sticks to the awake narrative. Who knows what life the sleeping self imagines for itself? It would be unwise for either self to ignore the other, just as it would be unwise for a tentacle of an octopus to seek autonomy.
One can also partition human mind differently: the left-hemisphere self and the right-hemisphere self. To some extent, experiences within each such self are compartmentalised (more so in pigeons than in humans). Yet the subjective human experience is emphatically devoid of split personalities, at least most of the time. In a similar vein, even though the brain remembers events and feelings one associates with, say, one’s co-worker in distinct ways, one rarely recognises the tenuousness of the connection between the two kinds of memories. Human consciousness—and that of the Internet, an octopus, Canada, and David Lynch—is alarmingly unexceptional.
3 Osokins
(Dzintari Concert Hall, 25 July 2019)
Sergejs Osokins’s every keystroke has a life of its own, executed nearly staccato, perfectly timed, and with just the right strength. In that, his classical piano resembles jazz piano (of Raimonds Pauls’s variety); it is decidedly twenty-first century.
There is a reason to keep performing traditional classical music, a reason that does not confuse art with a mere sport competition in the exercise of a narrow vocabulary. A musical piece is a dance whose moves the musical score can codify only roughly. Successive performers build on earlier discoveries and, by doing so, create a slightly different, ever more perfect piece.
Sergejs Osokins’s every keystroke has a life of its own, executed nearly staccato, perfectly timed, and with just the right strength. In that, his classical piano resembles jazz piano (of Raimonds Pauls’s variety); it is decidedly twenty-first century.
There is a reason to keep performing traditional classical music, a reason that does not confuse art with a mere sport competition in the exercise of a narrow vocabulary. A musical piece is a dance whose moves the musical score can codify only roughly. Successive performers build on earlier discoveries and, by doing so, create a slightly different, ever more perfect piece.
The Lehman Trilogy
(Piccadilly Theatre, 30 July 2019)
The play is about three Jews’ journey to America. And yet the play is not about immigration, America, or Jewry. The play is about commitment to adventure (perhaps, with a concomitant commitment to avoid certain misadventure); immigration is but a commitment tool. The play is about trust and rivalry between business partners; both are often found among family members. The play is also about the ever evolving trust among market participants. Finally, the play is about daring and luck.
The play is an ode to capitalism, which forges connections. Capitalism also purportedly brainwashes the public to buy (and, so, to create and to sell). Even so, the mantra that buying is necessary for survival is better than the alternative mantra that killing, pillaging, and raping are necessary to justify and enhance one’s existence. Buying and thinking one is winning is better than thinking one is being taken advantage of. To trade rather than to war is the hallmark of civilisation.
In the play, an exchange occurring during a stock market crash suggests how the expectation of government intervention, however well intentioned, may exacerbate a bank run. The government waits for the first banks, the scape goats, to fail. The remaining banks are to be bailed out. The recognition of this strategy prompts banks to refrain from lending to each other, thereby justifying bank runs and precipitating the collapse of the financial system.
Adam Godley shines, in each of the many parts he plays, spanning both genders and all ages, from an infant to a 140-year old. His dance number (with expert support from his two co-stars) is a standalone masterpiece. All three actors shine in their multi-character play, which only occasionally distracts away from the characters themselves.
The play is about three Jews’ journey to America. And yet the play is not about immigration, America, or Jewry. The play is about commitment to adventure (perhaps, with a concomitant commitment to avoid certain misadventure); immigration is but a commitment tool. The play is about trust and rivalry between business partners; both are often found among family members. The play is also about the ever evolving trust among market participants. Finally, the play is about daring and luck.
The play is an ode to capitalism, which forges connections. Capitalism also purportedly brainwashes the public to buy (and, so, to create and to sell). Even so, the mantra that buying is necessary for survival is better than the alternative mantra that killing, pillaging, and raping are necessary to justify and enhance one’s existence. Buying and thinking one is winning is better than thinking one is being taken advantage of. To trade rather than to war is the hallmark of civilisation.
In the play, an exchange occurring during a stock market crash suggests how the expectation of government intervention, however well intentioned, may exacerbate a bank run. The government waits for the first banks, the scape goats, to fail. The remaining banks are to be bailed out. The recognition of this strategy prompts banks to refrain from lending to each other, thereby justifying bank runs and precipitating the collapse of the financial system.
Adam Godley shines, in each of the many parts he plays, spanning both genders and all ages, from an infant to a 140-year old. His dance number (with expert support from his two co-stars) is a standalone masterpiece. All three actors shine in their multi-character play, which only occasionally distracts away from the characters themselves.
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