Upcoming Weekend Fun
Tonight, seeing either The Gong Show at the Dark Room or my friend Shameless Heather in “Take me for a Ride”. And then maybe go to the Purple Friday Show late. :-)
Saturday morning Tango class! And likely the Metronome’s Tango Milonga in the evening!
Sunday see Naqoyqatsi with Philip Glass LIVE at Davies Symphony Hall! The closest I’ve ever seen him live thus far has been on Southpark.
Monday: nuffum :-)
I never made it out Friday night. But Saturday I made it to both Tango class and the Milonga. And tonight I saw Naqoyqatsi at Davies Symphony Hall, music performed live with Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble. They had 6 keyboards on stage.
My impression of Naqoyqatsi: I don’t think the director,Godfrey Reggio likes people. He doesn’t trust people with developing technology of any sort… from the stick to nuclear power. I make a clear distinction between Reggio’s vision for the film and his personal outlook. I think his personal vision shines through clearly in amid so much film making.
He doesn’t like human organizations of any sort. Corporations, armies, the very idea of money, science of any sort. I imagine that he would tell his newborn, “Welcome to the world, beautiful little baby. You’re fuckin doomed to a life of anguish, pain, war and death. And all of this has been brought down upon you by your fellow man.” Nice.
He’s afraid of everything and anything getting out of control.
The cinematography hurt my eyes a lot. I found myself looking away and rubbing my eyes often. Imagine 2 hours of bright flashing lights, 5 frame per second animation and VHS quality grainyness. Most of the images were overlaid with two or more other images making it impossible to focus your eyes on any object in the frame. Rarely was a frame given less than 2 visual treatments; infra-red film, an odd camera angle, a wacky changing chroma key, film speed-up or slowdown, overlaid with a rapidly moving star field all at the same time was a popular motif. And all that through the haze of poor focus and VHS grainyness. He was trying too hard.
The entire movie seemed slightly out of focus, or maybe like watching a mediocre television to film conversion.
The film was disturbing to me but not with a useful shake-up of new ideas. More with me fending myself off from someone trying to impose their macabre view of the world on me. I felt like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, sans tape holding my eyes open and nausea drip.
The music was good, if a bit repetitious.
:-(
And this from a guy who found Koyaanisqatsi to be a minorly life changing event.
I imagine that he would tell his newborn, “Welcome to the world, beautiful little baby. You’re fuckin doomed to a life of anguish, pain, war and death. And all of this has been brought down upon you by your fellow man.” Nice. (Sounds like all the fatalism of 20th century German lit)
Sad. I used to have that view (surprise–dark secrets). A friend of mine, said maybe my future child would be the one to create paradise! I didn’t believe her then. Now I do. I read a book that depicted kids as the bringers of light. My job is to fan the fire of those lights — keep the light from being blown out – prepare them for a counter strike in the holy quest for joy & goodness – here & now.
I am sorry that the concert wasn’t fun.