The Calm

I haven't been writing much these last few years. The wears and tears have been starting to show. Today a coworker asked me how I could be so calm when so many seemingly horrible/stressful things are happening around me. The only thing I could think to tell her was it had become a life choice. It's not that I don't care, I've just figured out where the eye of the storm lies. The Serenity Prayer has always meant something to me, and it helps lead me to the Calm: 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

The best part of living life this way, I still get to see the storm for what it truly is, one beautiful, incredible mess. 

Check ignition and my God's love be with you

The studio version does not do this song justice.

The Unknowing Film Theorist With The Natural Exterminating Angel

   The Unknowing Film Theorist

  When Bergson used the analogy of the “cinematographic apparatus” to illustrate how the intellect perceived reality he perhaps did not intend that his premise be the fodder for discussion more than his conclusions. However his acknowledgement of the cinematographic apparatus, used interchangeably with “cinematographic mechanism” and than later as the “cinematographic illusion” has great merit when attempting to explain ancient philosophical paradoxes involving movement and time. To Bergson, the mind (or the intellect) and film approach the perception of reality, which according to Bergson is movement, in the same manner. Both  began with the present “real movement,” break it down into a series of single fragmented frames and then put it through a projecting apparatus, for cinema it is an actual projector and for the mind it is a combination of static interpretations the intellect makes. Neither of which are an actual representation of the continuous movement itself.
In Bergson’s words,

Such is the contrivance of the cinematograph. And such is also that of our knowledge. Instead of attaching ourselves to the inner becoming of things, we place ourselves outside them in order to recompose their becoming artificially. We take snapshots, as it were, of the passing reality, and, as these are characteristic of the reality, we have only to string them on a becoming, abstract, uniform and invisible, situated at the back of the apparatus of knowledge, in order to imitate what there is that is characteristic in this becoming itself. (Bergson, Creative Evolution, 306)

In other words, to perceive with the intellect, as opposed to the intuition, is to fragment an instance of time, say, of a marching regiment. In doing so we discontinue  the continuous, fragment the whole, and stabilize the motion. Any sort of playback is an illusion, according to Bergson, of the original because the original’s duration can never be duplicated, and the copy requires spatiality forced upon it. This goes for the “idea of cinema” and an individual’s intellectual experience of the present.

Whether we would think becoming, or express it, or even perceive it, we hardly do anything else than set going a kind of cinematography inside us. We may therefore sum up what we have been saying in conclusion that the mechanism of our ordinary knowledge is of a cinematographically kind. (306)

Or as Professor Gary Zabel summed up so eloquently, “The present we experience is the comet’s tail we drag after us.” One may think of our experience of the present as a love letter becoming obsolete as each letter of each word finds its way from the heart to the paper.

   Deleuze believes that Bergson’s “unknowing” film theory goes more to show that cinema is an expression of the fear of this illusion rather party to it. Bergson is emphatic that we cannot duplicate the exact duration a specific instance occurred and Deleuze says that cinema, even in it’s infancy, helps to illuminate that fact more so than other art form. Because it is a combination of movement and a duration, a time-image, and if we agree with Bergson (as with Deleuze) that duration is ceaselessly open it implies that temporal change inheres in things. As in the Odessa Step sequence of a film like Battleship Potemkin images of the Tsar’s Cossacks juxtaposed with victims faces and the baby carriage falling down the steps is an artistic expression that time has been leading up to this pinnacle moment and yet will keep running, changing, and adds to the fluidity of the actual uprising. As the last body falls the audience inherently knows the massacre is not the end of something, nor the beginning, but a continuous social struggle.

The Natural Exterminating Angel

   Deleuze attempts to develop his notion of impulse-image by situating between his idea of affect-image and action-image. Affect-images to Deleuze highlight emotion, in them a part is captured in such a way to represent the whole and they are “any-space-whatever.” Action-images highlight the space and geographical/historical environment and are not “any-space-whatever.” It is the “determined milieux” (Deleuze, Cinema 1, 123). Impulse-image comes between the two in the “originary worlds/elementary impulses.” An originary world as Deleuze describes is “not yet an any-space whatever because it only appears in the depths of the determined milieux neither is it a determined milieu, which only derives from the originary world” (123).  An impulse is an impression, not an expression, nor does it regulate behavior like emotions (123). Deleuze further develops the impulse image by saying is is not merely an intermediate between the action-image and affect-image, but that it is autonomous (123).

   Bunuel, according to Deleuze is quite effective with his treatment of Naturalist Cinema because of its links to surrealism. Deleuze compares Bunuel to Stroheim, who he believes to have missed the mark with naturalist cinema, with regards to Bunuel’s circular views of degradation. Stroheim uses light and dark to show straight degradation over time, but to Deleuze any descent is too much like the action-images and affect-images of the descent down the steps of Odessa.

   The circular nature of Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel  highlights the whole, and unlike a descent, the necessity for the end of the guests ordeal to become their beginning implies that there is never anyone who is all evil as they will end up being good again. The originary world becomes the drawing room that inexplicably confines the guests there and individuals act in accordance to the severity of the situation. The guests truly do become like animals, “the fashionable gentlemen a bird of prey, the lover a goat, the poor man a hyena” (123). Their actions go from wavering social graces to outright hysteria to an almost murder, or sacrifice. All sense of human decency almost lost, until one man stands up for another and slowly composure, or at least an exhausted calm takes over the group. One keen observer notices they are almost in the same position they were the night before they were trapped. The key to salvation for the guests was to, in essence, begin again, and reprise the roles that had earlier doomed them. After their release, the film ends with the group being reunited at a church for a funeral of one lost during the ordeal, and as the mass ends the originary world of elementary impulses starts again with the group, along with the rest of the congregation trapped in the church. We are left with the undeniably symbolic scene of sheep herding themselves towards the church. This break with the dichotomy of good and evil and exploration of process is to Deleuze what makes Bunuel’s film a success in naturalist cinema.

You Send Me

Kinda perfect.

I Love Coffee

No. I'm serious. I really love coffee, like . . . I can't live without it. I know I'm supposed to say this sort of thing about loved ones, but it is honestly how I feel about coffee. Any kind, all kinds. I don't discriminate. Hot, cold, iced, black, light, sweet, bitter, flavored. I love it all. I drink it all.

Great coffee . . . lets have sex.

Actual title of this song. Awesome.

Sail Away!

Clearly, I'm in love. Lets go sailing together, via The Beauty Department.

Pistol Annies

Who Knew Ramen Could Be So Good?

We all did. It's not such a big secret. But do you know how to make it even better? I do.

I'm a bit of a Ramen expert. I've never been a fan of those flavor packets, but a block of noodles is one of the happiest sights a broke girl can see on a cold, rainy winter day. I love Asian style cuisine. Authentic, Quasi-authentic, Not-even-close-t0-authentic . . . you get the idea, and what better way to experiment with Asian-tastes but with some cheap-o, yet oh so good noodles? That is how I came up with my version of Not-even-close-to-authentic-but-still-so-yummy Asian Garlic Noodles.

Ingredients:
1 packet of Ramen Noodles (just the noodles, toss the flavor packet)
1-2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of Minced Garlic
1 Egg
2 tablespoons of Peanut Sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons of Hoisin Sauce
Sriracha Sauce (optional)

A Wok
Spatula
Tongs

Preparation:

1. Cook noodles according to label.
2. While noodles are cooking, add oil to wok and swirl around to cover 2 inches from the bottom. Use as little or as much oil as needed to do so. Turn heat on high, and add minced garlic.
   
3. Noodles should be finished, remove from heat and strain.
   
4. Crack the egg and fry in wok with spatula.
5. Add strained noodles to wok, using tongs is sometimes easier.
6. Mix the noodles around with the egg using the spatula (almost like a pancake) for 3-5 minutes.
7. Add in Peanut sauce and Hoisin sauce. Mix again, this time using tongs, for about a minute.
8. Use tongs to drop your creation into a bowl, and add a little Sriracha if desired.
   

A few important notes for this napkin note. I used a single-serve wok, as my boyfriend is a meat-corn-and-potatoes kind of man who doesn't exactly enjoy eating anything that comes out of a wok. Also, these flavors are all quite bold, so do a little taste test of each sauce to see what might be the best combo of flavors for you. Maybe you want a little less peanut and a lot more Hoisin, to each his or her own for this creation. Experiment, have fun, and enjoy!!

You better run, better run faster than my bullet

Djarum Black

Say it ain't so.

I just smoked my last one.

And now they're illegal. What the hell!?!!

You make it easy for people to clog their arteries with special deals on Chicken McNuggets, but you won't let me blacken my lungs with a good ole clove cigarette? Is this shit for real!?!!!!

Don't Forget to Smile When You Fall

For a good 1/2 hour this morning, I stayed snuggled under my covers thanking God for all the awkward moments he's spared me this past year running into people I'd rather not at the Marsh. Especially because most of my time has been spent stuck up front in some manner or other, not allowing the easy escape to the break room or stock room my previous position allowed.

Then I thought it would be a great idea to go to the grocery store on a Saturday.

Ran into 3 of those folks. Fuck.


Aaaannnnd that's how life goes folks. Better learn to breathe through it all.



Thanks Leftover Cuties.

Dotted Lines

I never was someone who knew what to say

It sounds beautiful

A beautiful piece from Dinosaur Bees.

The Sound Effects Bible
Larry O. Dean

In the beginning God created the hammering and the electric shaver.

And the cavern was without footsteps, and vacuuming; and darkness was upon the dripping faucet of the sink. And the Spirit of God moved upon the sizzling of the frying pan.

And God said, Let there be light switches: and there was light switches.

And God saw the light switches, that it was good: and God divided the light switches from the doorbells.

And God called the light switches Click, and the dishwasher he called Swoosh.

And the distant plane and the match scratches were the first incoming fax.

And God said, Let there be a floor creak in the midst of the whistling, and let it divide the whipping cream from the washing hands.

And God made the busy signals, and divided the dial tones which were under the hang ups from the ringtones which were above the dogs barking: and it was so.

And God called the coffee grinder Growl. And the garage door and the gas stove were the spigot.

And God said, Let the snoring under the ricochet be gathered together unto one place, and let the alarm clock appear: and it was so.

And God called the toilet flush Gush; and the gathering together of the cheering called he Hooray: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the cell phone bring forth vibrating, the chainsaw yielding buzz, and the modem yielding dial-up after his kind, whose sink draining is in itself, upon the suck: and it was so.

And the explosions brought forth glass, squeaking and breaking after his kind, and the cream yielding shaving, whose scraping was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And the chattering and the heckling were the studio audience.

And God said, Let there be bravos in the brushing of the carpet to divide the scissors from the sharpening; and let them be for screeches, and for splashes, and for dings, and yells:

and let them be for moos in the clearing of the throats to give ouch upon the eek: and it was so.

And God made two great kisses; the greater kiss to rule the mouth, and the lesser kiss to rule the cheek: he made the smooches also.

And God set them in the oven of the microwaves to give boiling upon the water,

and to rule over the slam and over the deadbolt, and to divide the zip from the zipper: and God saw that it was good.

And the splashing and the sploshing were the motocross.

And God said, Let the bathtub bring forth abundantly the frothing faucet that hath splatter, and keys that may drop onto the bazooka in the open jingle and jangle.

And God created great farts, and every spaceship takeoff that zoometh, which the hair dryer brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every camera click after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be boiling eggs, and bubble, and fill the gusting winds in the hurricanes, and let horses whinny on the slot machines.

And the beep and the burp were the heartbeat.

And God said, Let the ambulance bring forth the siren after his kind, shredder and aerosol can, and bang of the firecracker after his kind: and it was so.

And God made the dentist drill after his kind, and crackling campfire after their kind, and every thing that twangeth upon the train after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us crash hot rods on our speedways, after our horn honks: and let them have flat tires over the gravel of the roads, and over the screeching of the steel-belted radials, and over the noisy mufflers, and over all the rattling, and over every braking thing that braketh upon the pavement.

So God created ticker-tapes in his own image, in the image of God created he him; effervescence and gurgling created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be beep, and buzz, and bowl the ball, and smack it: and have dominion over the disposal of the garbage, and over the register of the cash, and over every flapping wing that flappeth upon the fire extinguisher.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every wine glass clinking, which is upon the tinkling of all the stemware, and every toaster, in the which is the propellor of everything Cessna; to you it shall be for throttling.

And to every jackhammer of the pneumatic, and to every blender of the liquefying, and to every thing that pureeth upon the velcro, wherein there is chopping, I have given every sputter for splat: and it was so.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

And the helicopter and the laser beam were the can-opener.

Eat Meat

In all seriousness hiding from the world today. Cooked on the grill and made enough of these for the next two day's meals. What can you do with Spicy Mango & Jalapeno Chicken sausages?
Do yourself a favor and watch The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virgina. If you don't love 'em we can't be friends. Have a hillbilly good day and don't forget Shark Week on Discovery.

Sunlight

It's been a bummer summer day.