Reverse Sacrifice

Last night I attended the second night of the Northwest Film Festival, organized at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, Oregon. The night's screenings involved a collection of shorts handpicked by the judges from local filmmakers (Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC). Needless to say it was a mixed bag of oddities, impenetrable tosh, and run-of-the-mill squares.

Two films, however, grabbed my attention: Jamie Marie Waelchli's excruciating Little Pleasures and Vincent Caldoni's brilliant The Rifle Workbook. The former consists of Waelchli stuffing as many gums as possible into her mouth until she pukes (multiple times) and her cheeks enlarge to contain the elastic sugary mass. It is a heavy-handed metaphor for a society where we subject ourselves an overload of puny pleasures, instead of experiences that are rewarding for a longer period of time. The film - experiment, if you will - reaches a point where it ceases to be funny (as was evidenced by the ending laughter from the audience three quarters of the way) and becomes painful to watch. A ridiculously simple premise and execution, but very effective.

The Rifle Workbook, on the other hand, showcases the talents of Caldoni as a future superstar movie director. Using a soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky, the film takes place in a wooded area where an angel oversees a strange ritual where the locals place their most precious belongings (mirror, knife, hair, whiskey, etc.) in a case. The angel then burns the case and from the ashes comes out ... It is a fantastic little film - music video, if you will.

Both films were shown in the middle of the schedule, so they overshadowed everything that came before and/or after them. Interestingly, though, both films were satisfyingly unconventional, yet accessible. Just like short films should be.

"Anathem" by Neal Stephenson

Here is my review of Stephenson's latest book, Anathem as posted goodreads.com.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Despite its grand ambitions and occasional bursts of genius, it falls short of its promise. Stephenson's linguistic prowess is undeniable, but his prose is far from poetic or emotionally gratifying. However, it is one of the more interesting and challenging science fiction, or "speculative fiction", books I have read and would recommend to anybody searching for something slightly out of the ordinary. Prior knowledge of the Long Now Project isn't essential - the book is only marginally connected to it - but adds to the experience.


View all my reviews.

Goodbye to Massachusetts

I posted this blog somewhere else by mistake. Oops...

It has been a little over three and a half years since I arrived in Beantown with no definite game plan for the long run. I had signed up for the summer school to get some film classes in order to find out if the whole scene was right for me. My original plan was to travel around the world for a year with the money I had in the bank (a few years' worth of savings and what I got for my 2001 Ford Fiesta 1.6L 5-speed manual). However, after a couple of weeks in Boston, I decided to stay here. I enrolled - miraculously - in graduate school and the rest is history (I can't escape cliches nowadays).

My three and a half years (with 3 months break in the City of Angels) has been full of ups and downs. Here's the lowdown:

Ups:
- Regan - love of my life and the most gorgeous girl in the world.
- Friends - mostly through BU I met some amazing people that are now my lifelong friends.
- Accent - my new British-American-Turkish hybrid of an accent is apparently a hit.
- US of A - there are so many places to see and things to do here, I love it.

Downs:
- My car - how can a car break down this frequently?
- Personal issues that I don't want to divulge - those close to me know what they are.
- Job situation - unless you're an accountant or have a medical training, Boston is devoid of job opportunities.

Now I'm heading out to Oregon - a place I fell in love with two St. Patrick's Days ago. A new beginning. I'm sad to say goodbye to Boston, but at the same time I am very relieved to be out of this place. Who knows when I will be here next - not for a long time. I hope life treats me a little better out there, because I'm running out of options.

Anyway, this is getting pretty morbid. This is my last blog from the East Coast. Next blog will be written in Pacific time.

Peace.

NFL Logos Going Right

I may not be the first one, but the other day I notices something as I was trying to look for a worthy addition to my otherwise abysmal fantasy football team. With the exception of one team, all the NFL team logos face or point to the right - excluding, of course, the "stationary" ones - letters and symmetrical symbols. Here's a list of the ones "charging", if you will, to the right:

- Ravens' raven
- Browns' helmet
- Texans' bull
- Jaguars' jaguar
- Titans' fireball
- Bills' buffalo
- Free Willy on Dolphins'
- Patriots' minuteman
- Broncos' bronco
- Chiefs' arrow
- Lions' lion
- Vikings' James Hetfield
- Falcons' falcon
- Panthers' panther
- Buccaeneers' flag
- Redskins' Native American
- Cardinals' cardinal
- Seahawks' ... seahawk
- And, last but not least (pun totally intended), Rams' ram

Only Eagles' eagle is facing left.

I don't know if it was a deliberate attempt by Philly to come up with a logo that defies the "Western logic" or the rest of the NFL. What I mean by "Western logic" is that languages written with a Latin-based alphabet are written from left to right (duh...), so it is natural for children growing up learning these languages as mother tongue to "think" from left to right too (Lacan's language-based psychoanalysis). Let's give a cinematic example: in Kubrick's film The Killing (1955), all the characters enter the scene from left to right. Kubrick later said that it was deliberate. I might be completely off the mark here, but I remember reading a quote by David Lean along the same lines.

Anyway, back to football. What is strange about the NFL logos isn't the fact that they face right, but that one team - by pure coincidence or pure rebellion - has a logo facing the other way.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Peace.

Goodbye, Mr. Wright...

The music world has lost one of its most talented and elusive players. Rick Wright, Pink Floyd's legendary keyboard player, has passed away after battling with cancer. It is sad news indeed, as not only was he immensely gifted as a songwriter, but he was also a master of his instrument. Players such as Jon Lord, Keith Emerson, and Rick Wakeman are "superstars" in terms of rock keyboards for their showmanship and technical expertise. Wright, on the other hand, was more subtle. Take a listen to Floyd's "Echoes" or any song from Dark Side of the Moon (1973).

It's a shame that we will never get to see Pink Floyd in all its glory anymore - Syd Barrett, the founding member, also recently passed away. But, they left us a catalogue that deserves the epithet "unique" more than any other.

P.S. "Echoes" is playing in the background right now and it's killing me. What a song.

Peace.

And another Awesome Playlist!

There are some overlaps from the previous one, but also some new additions and long-forgotten gems:

Coming Home by Alter Bridge
Threshold by Audrey Horne
What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse by The Black Dahlia Murder
Falling off the Edge of the World by Black Sabbath
Reverend Wrinkle by Black Stone Cherry
Porno Star by Buckcherry
The Doom of All Fires by Cavalera Conspiracy
I Don't Want to Know (If You Don't Want Me) by The Donnas
Piranha by Exodus
Doomsday for the Deceiver by Flotsam & Jetsam
Executioner's Day by Heaven's Basement
The Mirror's Truth by In Flames
Rocket Ship by King's X
Ilyena by The Mars Volta
Bladecatcher by Mastodon
Bleed by Meshuggah
Bleeding Me by Metallica
Issizligin Ortasinda by Mogollar
While Your Lips Are Still Red by Nightwish
Stuff Is Messed up by The Offspring
Hessian Peel by Opeth
Shesmovedon by Porcupine Tree
My Global Mind by Queensryche
Morphine Child by Savatage
Sepulnation by Sepultura
Sacrifice for the Slaughter God by Skeletonwitch
Practice What You Preach by Testament
Jump for Joy by Warrior Soul
Living for the Weekend by Willie Stradlin
Alien Angel by 3

Peace

No More Perfection!!!

Great. You wait for six months to prove everyone that Patriots may not have been the perfect team, but the best team in the country and what happens? Tom Brady - they should have cast him instead of Brandon Routh in Superman Returns (2006) - gets injured within the first five minutes after tossing a awesome pass. He's out for the season and a return to glory for the Pats looks a lot harder now. The pass was intercepted, by the way.

Losing Brady should not be wholly detrimental to Patriots, because (read the first paragraph again) they want to prove themselves to be the best team. Unfortunately, Brady's input is so huge that his loss undermines any title hope the team, the pundits, the fans, and the players had. They are now a strong contender for a play-off spot - quite probably seeded - but I can't see them progressing any further. Matt Cassell should be an able replacement, but he won't reach the numbers Brady put on board last season. I hope he does and I end up eating my words. But, he won't. Brady's loss also means lesser numbers from Moss and Welker (and there goes my fantasy team). All in all, Patriots will finish the season with a handful of less games won than last year.

On the bright side, it was a stellar first week: Favre vs. Pennington (I wish they had mics inside the helmets of both); Panthers' last second touchdown (thank you San Diego defence); Falcons finally winning a game. And tonight we'll see if Rodgers can shut the Packers' fans boos as he sizes up Petersen and the Vikings. It's going to be good...

Peace.