Mail call.
I received a couple of interesting items in the mail yesterday. One was a 30X40 canvas with a painting of Frankenstein and Lydiaemily in a lustful embrace. I need to figure out how to transform it from a roll to a plane. My meager art collection grows.
I also got a film by Marc Israel called Nearer My God To Thee. Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way first: It's very well made. Well paced/edited. You have a vast pool of music knowledge to draw from. That first shot where you run across your apartment to film the snowblower made me laugh so hard I had to rewind so I could get the narration. The little clip of Jed caught me off guard.
What I've been thinking: Brave? Self indulgent? You clearly struggled with that question yourself.
Once it became about finishing the movie, it reached a point where it could have gone on forever. You shoot a reel of you guys editing, and the next reel you shoot is of you guys editing the last reel you shot of you guys editing... You found a great way to end it.
I feel like we ran into each other, and I asked what you've been up to, and you said, "it's a long story. Maybe this DVD will explain." I think of a world where we just have our lives on DVDs, ready in case someone asks where you've been all these years.
I think of this time in high school when you were having a particularly bad week, and you were going on about how all these things broke all at once; your stereo, a light, something else I can't remember. It was like the series of plagues in the film, but more, um, high school?
I think about how you would walk around school seeing how long you could go without saying a word.
I think those indians made beautiful music.
I think about how we both have progressed into primarily visual mediums from our musical beginnings, but it's not so far fetched. You were always a storyteller in song, and that follows through to your films. Photography for me follows my less narrative tendencies in whatever music I made.
While your circumstances and actions may seem extreme, the themes are pretty universal; love, loss, isolation, finding what's missing, communication, wanting to be "normal" (something you'd never hear either of us desire 20 years ago), looking back at your past and trying to figure out how you got here, regrets, finding something to keep you going, coping with a chronic illness or two. I can certainly relate to at least ten of those themes. I'm sure I'm not alone. Dare I say this film can help others beyond yourself?
I know you didn't ask for some sort of analyzation, but I didn't think I should just say "it was nice."
I sorta want to show it to my parents.
I also got a film by Marc Israel called Nearer My God To Thee. Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way first: It's very well made. Well paced/edited. You have a vast pool of music knowledge to draw from. That first shot where you run across your apartment to film the snowblower made me laugh so hard I had to rewind so I could get the narration. The little clip of Jed caught me off guard.
What I've been thinking: Brave? Self indulgent? You clearly struggled with that question yourself.
Once it became about finishing the movie, it reached a point where it could have gone on forever. You shoot a reel of you guys editing, and the next reel you shoot is of you guys editing the last reel you shot of you guys editing... You found a great way to end it.
I feel like we ran into each other, and I asked what you've been up to, and you said, "it's a long story. Maybe this DVD will explain." I think of a world where we just have our lives on DVDs, ready in case someone asks where you've been all these years.
I think of this time in high school when you were having a particularly bad week, and you were going on about how all these things broke all at once; your stereo, a light, something else I can't remember. It was like the series of plagues in the film, but more, um, high school?
I think about how you would walk around school seeing how long you could go without saying a word.
I think those indians made beautiful music.
I think about how we both have progressed into primarily visual mediums from our musical beginnings, but it's not so far fetched. You were always a storyteller in song, and that follows through to your films. Photography for me follows my less narrative tendencies in whatever music I made.
While your circumstances and actions may seem extreme, the themes are pretty universal; love, loss, isolation, finding what's missing, communication, wanting to be "normal" (something you'd never hear either of us desire 20 years ago), looking back at your past and trying to figure out how you got here, regrets, finding something to keep you going, coping with a chronic illness or two. I can certainly relate to at least ten of those themes. I'm sure I'm not alone. Dare I say this film can help others beyond yourself?
I know you didn't ask for some sort of analyzation, but I didn't think I should just say "it was nice."
I sorta want to show it to my parents.
posted by josh at 6/01/2006 03:35:00 AM
2 Comments:
Ok, so now I think I should make a DVD about my life just so I didn't have to explain. Actually now a' days people say ..."well didn't you read my blog??". I have been trying to write a mass e-mail for a few days now because I am a laim friend and now get paid to work on a computer 8 hrs a day and can't really muster the effort otherwise....and it all sounded like a bad episode of This Is your Life (like on Sesame Street where the cloud and sun come out, Guy Smiley the host), and ...mixed with a guilty journal entry, one where you want to write about something happening now, but feel guilty for not writing lately and write boring catch-up. Anyway I realised how hard it was to explain this to a bigger audience (um, than 1) it was nearly impossible. I can only imajine that in making a film that exposed what you have been doing with your life, this would be much more difficult. I guess at one point, you have to say...fuck em if they don't get it and move on. Maybe thats self indulgence or maybe just necessary to not get bogged down in pleasing the viewer. But what do I know. If I had invested thousands of dollars in film school I might, but instead I just think I do. Send me one too Marc! Getting nice mail is nice.
I'm not really into that "didn't you read my blog" thing. It's more of a supplement.
There used to be a tradition of people sending out a letter at Christmas time to update friends and family. The telephone, and now email and blogs, have put an end to that necessity.
I'd rather just come see you. I have a book for you.
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