Here I am again, in an airport. It is 4:20 p.m. 2 hours more 'till my flight starts boarding, if on time.
And, judging by the snow outside this one of those times I should be wishing and hoping and praying for my flight not to be delayed (or cancelled... uhm... stick with the other scenario). Too bad, I have little faith in any attempt to change or better the mysterious ways in which airplanes, airways and related stuff works. Just get me to the place as fast as possible all in one piece. That's good enough.
But I don't mind, this was such a goooood week. I got to hang out with friends, very good ones. Ex- 2nd years, co-years and first years from the UWC era. Amazing beautiful people that I had not seen in years. Yet, it seemed that was just a couple of days. And just saying hi to people who went to school with me in Norway... They always have a great smile for you, a couple of minutes to chat, to ask how are you and mean it. Even if they were not your closets friends, they were there, they know, and they were part of it. And there is this bond....
(I'm listening to stuff that remind me of when I was little. Things from this naive age of radios and bad school days
e.g.
)
This break was really like food for the soul. Good conversations, familiar faces, strange faces, a completely crazy dried up arctic-like climate, buses, planes, sleepless nights, colleges, breaksfasts and dinners and lunches, random encounters, Christmas shopping with friends, laughs. It was a reassuring week. It told me the world is still a marvelous place, in all the ways I thought it was. It showed me love is still around, friends are still there and the smiles still express genuine feelings.
(More childhood memories: )
On to more universally serious business:
Why did every pop singer in the nineties have short platinium blonde hair??
I was still in oblivion regarding social trends in hairstyle at that point in life, but a coherent attempt of explanantion by some more enlightened soul would be appreciated.
quarta-feira, 23 de dezembro de 2009
quinta-feira, 17 de dezembro de 2009
A flight at 3 Am
I am at Vanocuver International Airport and I am blessed by the gift of free wireless and my laptop actually being with me.
I had to take the opportunity to write a post truly in the spirit, or original spirit, of this blog. It is now 3:30 am and I have been here since midnight roughly. My flight is not untill 7. The perfect mental conditions are created for me to write on the most random tone. Or pherhaps not so random. It is hard to predict what the natural high of long hours without sleeping can do.
All around, cleaning staff, the occasional traveler, in fact, not much. This is a dull airport. Plus, it's hard to find a place to plug-in your latptop.
I just watched "Oscar and Lucinda". The first question that comes to mind is Why does everyone die? But that is too easy... The other is, what about a glass church? I think it is a splendorous idea. I once read a book by Aldous Huxley in which he explained the psychadelic, so to call it, properties of stained glass. He said that it works in the same way some drugs do: if you stare at it long enough you might just visit parts of your counsciousness that you never imagined could exist. I have a project based on this idea. A sort of meditative project, if you would call it so. I plan to choose the most beautiful vitrals in Europe, buy a train ticket and spend a month going from church to church to stare instensely at this glass. I might bring some precious and semi-precious stones along, Aldous said they help too. It requires work, it is not like just some pill you can take. Altering counsciousness with vitrals must be extremely tough. But it is an art I hope to acquire, even if only on a small and initial degree.
I just finished re-reading a paper a friend sent me on the difference between Dao and Nirvana in a Chan interpretation. I discovered that, even if teh topic is new, it is widely refreshing and engaging just because it is not Anglo-saxonic philosophy. I mean, it might be in method, but not in theme. Having come accross the brutal fact of Philosophical life that is the regional division of teh subject. I feel it is important to try to put things together, to be able to be fluent in a number of subjects but also a number of prespectives. Obviously I am neither. But I hope to approach such a state someday. We can only hope to understand a significant part of the endless films, books and ideas around us. I myself wish I could pause time, read, see and feel everything there is in this world, then resume. Foolish, yet indicative of an overwhelming feeling of ignorance. The human condition or the sleepless condition?
No more of this non-sense. Let's fill out some US customs paperwork.
I had to take the opportunity to write a post truly in the spirit, or original spirit, of this blog. It is now 3:30 am and I have been here since midnight roughly. My flight is not untill 7. The perfect mental conditions are created for me to write on the most random tone. Or pherhaps not so random. It is hard to predict what the natural high of long hours without sleeping can do.
All around, cleaning staff, the occasional traveler, in fact, not much. This is a dull airport. Plus, it's hard to find a place to plug-in your latptop.
I just watched "Oscar and Lucinda". The first question that comes to mind is Why does everyone die? But that is too easy... The other is, what about a glass church? I think it is a splendorous idea. I once read a book by Aldous Huxley in which he explained the psychadelic, so to call it, properties of stained glass. He said that it works in the same way some drugs do: if you stare at it long enough you might just visit parts of your counsciousness that you never imagined could exist. I have a project based on this idea. A sort of meditative project, if you would call it so. I plan to choose the most beautiful vitrals in Europe, buy a train ticket and spend a month going from church to church to stare instensely at this glass. I might bring some precious and semi-precious stones along, Aldous said they help too. It requires work, it is not like just some pill you can take. Altering counsciousness with vitrals must be extremely tough. But it is an art I hope to acquire, even if only on a small and initial degree.
I just finished re-reading a paper a friend sent me on the difference between Dao and Nirvana in a Chan interpretation. I discovered that, even if teh topic is new, it is widely refreshing and engaging just because it is not Anglo-saxonic philosophy. I mean, it might be in method, but not in theme. Having come accross the brutal fact of Philosophical life that is the regional division of teh subject. I feel it is important to try to put things together, to be able to be fluent in a number of subjects but also a number of prespectives. Obviously I am neither. But I hope to approach such a state someday. We can only hope to understand a significant part of the endless films, books and ideas around us. I myself wish I could pause time, read, see and feel everything there is in this world, then resume. Foolish, yet indicative of an overwhelming feeling of ignorance. The human condition or the sleepless condition?
No more of this non-sense. Let's fill out some US customs paperwork.
sexta-feira, 4 de dezembro de 2009
On Vampires
There are vampires all over the place.
For someone who was terrified of even switching the channel to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in her younger years, had nightmares after hearing a small plot summary of "Interview with the Vampire" and did not like goign to attic because of some vampire story.... this could be a problem. Except! Vampires now are sexy, sweet and not really that ... terrifying anymore!
So, finding the balance: How do we get back to the sensual attractive yet mortally scary and macabre vampire figure back? How do we keep the allure and charm without going "American highschoolish"?
(yes, these are the great questions of existence that come to mind while writing 3 essays in a week...)
A role model must be found. An actual being we can just stare at and have some sort of adoration for. I propose we go back to the 80's. not my favourite decade, for sure. But I must admit... there was Peter Murphy. Probably the sexy yet macabre figure my imagination needs right now.
´
I love listening to Bauhaus. I know.. I know... they were sort of the beggining of the Goth scene and all that. No contradiction: still love them. And specially Peter Murphy. The sort of epic tone, the whole body-language and dramatism... And he is the embodiment of the vampire figure: the light eyes, the elegantly thin face and the slender floating posture. But nothing sweet about him, nothing boyish, nothing particularly tamed. He had that wild energy, and the perfectly calm face, that surprise element about him.
So, just because we are talking about vampires I will take the opportunity to leave a small note. Two movies everyone that goes to see those new vampire stories in the cinmea should see beforehand. Just helps judging what is going on. By this I do not mean the comtemporary stuff is totally a waste of time. What I believe, is that one must see it in perspective and contextualise. Then the actual beauty and message of such comtemporary releases might actually be properly appreciated. So, besides reading "Romeo and Juliet" again and some assorted ultra-romantic 19th century European literature, people should look this up.
1. Nosferatu : YEs, the 1920's version. First vampire movie ever. Important, amazing. Probably the 1979 Werner Herzog version is as good (haven't had a chance to see it). But ntohing beats the 20's when it comes to special effects and terror movies.
2. The Hunger. Tony Scott directing Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in the 1980's. It's perfect. Every little scene of it. And it starts with Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's dead". In my opinion, probably the best vampire movie ever.
For someone who was terrified of even switching the channel to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in her younger years, had nightmares after hearing a small plot summary of "Interview with the Vampire" and did not like goign to attic because of some vampire story.... this could be a problem. Except! Vampires now are sexy, sweet and not really that ... terrifying anymore!
So, finding the balance: How do we get back to the sensual attractive yet mortally scary and macabre vampire figure back? How do we keep the allure and charm without going "American highschoolish"?
(yes, these are the great questions of existence that come to mind while writing 3 essays in a week...)
A role model must be found. An actual being we can just stare at and have some sort of adoration for. I propose we go back to the 80's. not my favourite decade, for sure. But I must admit... there was Peter Murphy. Probably the sexy yet macabre figure my imagination needs right now.
´
I love listening to Bauhaus. I know.. I know... they were sort of the beggining of the Goth scene and all that. No contradiction: still love them. And specially Peter Murphy. The sort of epic tone, the whole body-language and dramatism... And he is the embodiment of the vampire figure: the light eyes, the elegantly thin face and the slender floating posture. But nothing sweet about him, nothing boyish, nothing particularly tamed. He had that wild energy, and the perfectly calm face, that surprise element about him.
So, just because we are talking about vampires I will take the opportunity to leave a small note. Two movies everyone that goes to see those new vampire stories in the cinmea should see beforehand. Just helps judging what is going on. By this I do not mean the comtemporary stuff is totally a waste of time. What I believe, is that one must see it in perspective and contextualise. Then the actual beauty and message of such comtemporary releases might actually be properly appreciated. So, besides reading "Romeo and Juliet" again and some assorted ultra-romantic 19th century European literature, people should look this up.
1. Nosferatu : YEs, the 1920's version. First vampire movie ever. Important, amazing. Probably the 1979 Werner Herzog version is as good (haven't had a chance to see it). But ntohing beats the 20's when it comes to special effects and terror movies.
2. The Hunger. Tony Scott directing Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in the 1980's. It's perfect. Every little scene of it. And it starts with Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's dead". In my opinion, probably the best vampire movie ever.
quarta-feira, 2 de dezembro de 2009
Knitting, men, women and advertising
Most knitting websites aresdirected at female audiences. When they are directed at males they need to have pictures of men with mittens in working shirts digging something up in the woods with their male friends or urban guys with black death-metal shirts on - and a knitted scarf. 90% of the time the caption will hint at the fact that the knitted items were offered by a hip girlfriend or a trendy wife.
This one has an excellent "teen space" for 16-25 knitters. Great models, great yarn and .... nice pictures - www.phildar.com .
And it has men in the photoshoot....
Apparently, if you knit their models and buy their yarn you might just get a really good looking guy that will hold your needles and ask you to knit him a similar one. (And you will turn into the blondie model trendily swimming in that sweater or the sexy skinny one with the attitude and the hat) Compared to the no-male-involvement-at-all-grandmother-attitude in so many of these places, it's a start. Look: they knit and get guys! And hey! No need for hyper-masculinising the male person: he can just have a nice laid-back look with a coulourful shirt and all!
The old commercial trick of "buy our product and he'll show up on your door" might just be an ideological breakthrough in the knitting world.... It's one of those situations where, given the alternatives, I don't mind being oppressed by the capitalist-advertising system... for now.
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