Joy Williams - "Dimmer"

About the boy Mal, whose father dies in the first sentence, and his mother in the second. How he moves around, no friends, though sometimes people leave him food. How he saves an old lady, and they don't know what to do with him, so they thank him and send him to America. From LAX he is rescued by a girl who drives cars back and forth.

Finished reading "Dimmer" by Joy Williams, the first in the Paris Review short story collection bought not too long ago. Strange story. Sometimes I literally didn't understand sentence after sentence. The words, yes, most of the time. But the sentences were strange. I cannot say I liked it much, but it put my mind in a weird place, which is a compliment.

Thomas Truax - "Everything's Gone Halloween"

https://soundcloud.com/thomas-truax

Strangest musical clic-n-plop music. From England. Nice stuff. Spoken word at times.

Dave Eggers - "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"

He's a great writer, and the beginning is gripping, but after a 100 pages I know that semi stream of conscious style, that blurting out of sentences rolling down the hill, tumbling over each other, segueing...

And then, what's left? No character arc, unless it's Toph (who *just* started to do something grown-up)

It's kinda amusing to read, but the 'I' character just ambles along. He has a lot of difficulties in his life, but never seems to change, hop, another challange, hop, another difficulty, hop... deeper emotions? Somehow I fail to grasp them.

I think I sometimes see the meaning, and zeitgeist, weltschmerz, oh give it a name. But for me it's over the top, it's forced.

no more hanging up

"Ian Bogost writes about a cultural tradition we've mostly lost as smartphones have become ubiquitous: hanging up. While we still use the terminology (in the same way we say 'rewind' when skipping backward on our DVR), the physical act of hanging up a telephone when we're done using it no longer occurs. And we don't get that satisfying crash and clatter when hanging up on somebody to make a point. 'In the context of such gravity, the hangup had a clear and forceful meaning. It offered a way of ending a conversation prematurely, sternly, aggressively. Without saying anything, the hangup said something: we're done, go away. ... Today a true hangup — one you really meant to perform out of anger or frustration or exhaustion — is only temporary and one-sided even when it is successfully executed. Even during a heated exchange, your interlocutor will first assume something went wrong in the network, and you could easily pretend such a thing was true later if you wanted. Calls aren't ever really under our control anymore, they "drop" intransitively.' It's an interesting point about the minor cultural changes that go along with evolving technology."

Utopia

British thriller miniseries about a graphic novel whose second, never published, part falls into the hands of a group of nerds, who in turn are chased by "The Network".

Amazing look & feel. The music by Cristobal Tapia de Veer  is amazing.

The story is wonderful. I liked how they did not let it end well. How the 'brother' is confused, a hit man with no soul, and confused that he is different.

Teknolust (2002)

Strange film featuring Tilda Swanton, about robots (or, "SRA") who need male chromosomes. One of them, Ruby, goes out to seduce men and so obtain "substance". The sequence in which a used condom is boiled into tea is amazing.

Amusing, a bit slow.

Music by Klaus Badelt.

Maxim Gorki - 'Kinderen van de zon'

Een groepje / familie intelligentsia bespreekt diepzinnige problemen van de mens terwijl buiten de revolutie en cholera woeden.

De geprojecteerde beelden waarin ze op het toneel rondrent, waren cool. Een deur ingaan die dicht blijft, is intrigerend.

Verder deed 't me weinig. Deels de tekst, het hoogdravend soort spreken over "de mens kan alleen gelukkig zijn.." (ik doe het hier geen recht), deels het acteren, de klucht humor.

De link met de buitenwereld vond ik minimaal. Was het juist het idee om te laten zien hoe soap-achtig ook intelligentsia zijn, daarmee de werkelijke problemen negerend? Misschien, maar dan is het idee te uitgesponnen. De beelden van dictators, wat moesten die?

How big is infinity? and The Continuum Hypothesis

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/07/how-big-is-infinity-ted-ed/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainpickings%2Frss+%28Brain+Pickings%29
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UPA3bwVVzGI

Wonderful animation showing how Cantor proved that the infinity of irrational numbers is bigger than the infinity of rational numbers, how you cannot list every fraction, and the description of his Continuum Hypothesis: are there infinities of different sizes between the infinite set of whole numbers  and the (larger) infinite set of decimal numbers (this is probably horribly wrong. One of those videos where you think "I understand!" while watching, yet as soon as you try to explain...)

And the most amazing thing:
Gödel proved that you cannot prove that the Continuum Hypothesis is false.

soundworks - The Dark Knight Rises

http://soundworkscollection.com/videos/darkknightrises

Five "foodgroups" of sounds.

Hans Zimmer: using 40yo moog modulators.

Robert Greenberg - How to Listen to and Understand Great Music

Did I not mention this amazing series before?! I must have.

On the 5th Symphony of Beethoven, 3 courses!

The Allies used it as their victory: ta da da daaaa... short short short long.... = v in morse code! Ironic, considering Beethoven was very German.

The opening unit is called the Fate Motive. His assistent said Beethoven had told him he once thought of Fate knocking on his door... Apocryphal! He was using a bird song! But that didn't sound angst laden enough.

Beethoven, though still called a composer of the classic era, uses much more rhythm; in his Fifth, rhythm is almost more important than melody.

Pina - original soundtrack

Cool music.

• Jun Miyaka is strange, sometimes evocative
• Hazmat Modine is swinging, very East Oriental

U.N.K.L.E. feat. Sleepy Sun - "Follow Me Down" (Where Did The Night Fall)

Oh, I've encountered her before? Probably on the same song. She's the Björkish voice on this U.N.K.L.E. hit.

Jun Miyake and Lisa Papineau - "The Here and After"

Interesting song from the documentary "Pina". Worth checking out.

Pina (2011)

Never cared much for (modern) dancing, but this is amazing. The music, the dances. The meaning, which I do not understand, but it makes me see and feel and I don't know what it is, but I don't want to loose it.

Los Ojos de Julia (2010)

Good Spanish/Mexican thriller/horror.

Woman slowly becomes blind while investigating the suicide (not really) of her sister, who was also blind.

The first 2/3rd is wonderful. She acts well, particularly some of her smaller movements are very expressive.

When the killer literally comes into view, the story slows down, and too much so. His psychological past felt a bit deus ex machina, and so serious editing would have benefitted the story overall.

Neil Gaiman - "A Calendar of Tales"

12 tales of the months, prompted by answers of twitter readers to his questions.

Not every tale is as good, but some are gripping and almost every one shows his talent.

Tame Impala - "Elephant"

Sounds nice!

Australian.

Sabotage

French workers throwing their shoes, sabots!, into the looms, to stop them... sabots became sabotage.

U.N.K.L.E. - "Psyence Fiction"

More Beastie Boys, less ambient. Good for running, perhaps. Less for writing.

buying two jackets simultaneously

a single Italian word for the practice of buying two suit jackets, one to actually wear as you swan from café to café, and one to leave hanging over the chair in your office so it looks like you're at work...

but no such word has been found, yet.