Glen Hansard: Raglan Road

Not A Download Act

Listening to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks (the song over and over) and Neutral Milk Hotel's Ghost (from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea) right now.



Glen Hansard's cover of Astral Weeks. The sound is not so great, but hey, you have two chances to hear it 'coz I'm so obsessive about it right now that I'm including two separate versions of it. Cha!




Here's the inimitable Lester Bang's review of Astral Weeks, although to call it a review doesn't do justice to what Bangs has actually written. Bangs, by the way, was the inspiration for my thesis. My thought after reading Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste was hey, where's the theater criticism that's written like this?

And here's Ghost.

Tree Play Images

I started taking these pictures to use as source material about two years ago when I was gearing up for NAPLWRIMO 2008. I was specifically looking for attributes of the tree that could be anthropomorphized. Warning: Some photos may induce "the Feeling" in those susceptible.

Heart

Veins

eye

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
- e.e. cummings

Robert Burns: Variations on a Theme

Interview with William Hutt & Lear

Over the weekend I watched the final season of Slings and Arrows. William Hutt is heartbreaking as Lear. I love these 1st interview segments. You can find the rest here.

Continuing the Paul Gross Love Fest

This lovely film is very inspiring. Plus, geesh, look at the video/film work!

to speak, say

Paul Gross discusses playing the soliloquies in Hamlet. I've been thinking a lot lately about the rhetorical strategies of soliloquies and monologues. Put plainly: what is it doing? And why? More interestingly, what performance opportunities are to be had and exploited?




On the lighter side of things, I saw part of Hamlet 2 with Steve Coogan. Oh late night, wacky fun. Unfortunately I can't find the complete version of this song.

The Power of Nightmares

Time constraints are such that I can't sort through all the films and get them in order in this post. But you can find the rest here.

Big List: This is How You Will Disappear

Wish I could see this.

Boy Meets Girl Structure Slightly Twisted #4

Experiments with Text

For the past two weeks I've been playing around with text and making collages and paper sculptures which are currently in various stages of completion. I've been using collage to explore the idea of compulsion and obsession and how it can be expressed visually and just to, you know, examine how being inside of compulsion actually feels when it's a conscious pursuit. Anyway, here's one of the texts I've been playing with. I've also become quite enamored with Robert Parkeharrison's work. The text comes from this paper: Positive Emotions, Spirituality and the Practice of Psychiatry by George E. Vaillant. This is why I love being a grad student: access to a massive data base for dramaturgy. Because sometimes Google isn't enough.

Book of Life, Robert Parkeharrison

Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001). Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have had personal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichIsuddenlyhadacleardeepfeelingofonenesswithallthatexists. These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common reflections of the unselfish attachment Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001).Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have hadpersonal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13 IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichIsuddenlyhadacleardeepfeeling of oneness with all that exists. These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common reflections of the unselfish attachment Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001). Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have had personal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13 IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichIsuddenlyhadacleardeepfeelingofonenesswithallthatexists. These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common reflections of the unselfish attachment Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001). Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have had personal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13 IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichI suddenlyhadaclear deepfeelingofonenesswithallthatexists.These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994)

Just Because I Like It

Here's a lovely video of winter in Warsaw. I also like the music by cellist Zoe Keating.

Big Think Inteview with Penn Jillette

This interview covers a wide range of topics including his working relationship with Teller, the future of magic, live performance vs. film & tv, tolerance, distrust of the government and why it's important, libertarianism, and atheism and how it affects raising his kids.

Boy Meets Girl Structure Slightly Twisted #3

Watched this very episode this morning on Netflix streaming. Pushing Daisies was one of my most fav tv shows of recent times. Because oh. Let me see. Pie. Abundance of pie. Weirdly dark humor. Non-conventional storytelling. Vivid colors and bright, surprising characters. And part of the set from my other most favorite tv show - Gilmore Girls. Babette ate oatmeal. You bet.

Goodwill Bunting

Not long ago, one of our producers telephoned me and said: “I am putting on a play next week that will not interest you critically in the slightest; it is pretty poor stuff from any sound critical point of view and I am simply hoping to make some money out of it – I need some, as I got hit badly in the stock market crash. I’ve read your dramatic criticism for twenty years and I know that, according to your standards, you’d walk out on a play after the curtain had been up fifteen minutes. So I won’t invite you to review the play and waste your time on it."

Now that is what I call excellent sense! I thanked the gentleman for his honesty and for his implied generosity toward my standards of criticism and assured him that if his fellow producers were as forthright and above-board with reviewers when they put on poor plays designed simply as box-office bumpers, there would be a greatly increased measure of goodwill all around. - George Jean Nathan, Testament of a Critic

Do You Know My Poetry?

Oh no. Haven't indulged this obsession in quite a few years. Have @flipcritic and @aoscott to thank for taking me back to this one. A.O. Scott's video review here.




The opening of the movie reminds me of Butcher's Crossing and it explores similar themes of losing one's identity, being remade/reborn, embracing violence as a necessity and as an expression of self, and of course, similarities to Moby Dick abound. Here's a little review/intro to the book.

Forever Young. Planet Waves.

'cuz I can't find another way to share this.
'cuz
that's all.

Ladder of Truth

There has to be a ladder of truth in a character, so even if the dialogue doesn't work you can change that, but the basic truth is there. - Montgomery Clift

I'm in the process of finding more of this film on youtube, because well, aren't films just better viewed small?

Today's Must Read

There are many fine things I could write about this morning, but none would eclipse this. Read it and come back after you've finished drying your eyes and wiping your nose and tell me what you think.

What Do You Love?

Boy Meets Girl Structure Slightly Twisted #2