[schizophrenicroom]

yeah, i had an idea about writing of the evolution of pointed-toe shoes, and then about the weird waist purses women used to carry (particularly nannies and nurses; the french name escapes me because i'm two bottles of wine and a cavs game deep) and how that evolved into fanny packs, and then prob something else... i'm getting around that. i just, have had a trouble lately of feeling imbued with any particular purpose in life and this feels like a great reset button.

[!@#$%!]

i think by 3 readings they mean the historical readings that go along w/ the writer's essays-- you don't need to write about fashion just say "these 3 would go along well w/ a fashion issue.

by demonstrating a grounding in the history of ideas i mean-- use the history of ideas to make your argument of why you should be picked.

what i mean is something like this--

this internship seems to me to be tailored for columbia post-docs (they're the ones w/ the history of ideas program). you here are the outsider.

so use the history of ideas to make your argument-- e.g., moses in the bulrush (you're moses, ha ha). but don't get biblical actually, the guy seems to prefer the greeks. another creature from the wilderness then-- oedipus. "i'll be your king and kill your crops!" no, im kidding. i don't know where to find this (that would be your job).

show the value of the outsider. of not being some trustafarian with 15 years in an academic hothouse. but do it with and through the history of ideas. from enkidu to "the consultant" (damn, that's a long arc)* connect it with "big" things (social, historical)

did you see how in the current issue lapham uses odysseus to revalue of deceit, all the way to daniel patrick moynihan and his pockets full of sawdust? of course he looks at the dark side too with ronnie bozo raygun. this is a continuation of socrates vs the sophists. but anyway, fuck credentials-- just put on a good show and reinvent yourself in the letter.

but purpose-- who needs one? ha ha-- i joke (only partially). i have to sleep now but maybe we continue this chat soon.

---

* hey, forget the greeks-- go sumerian! ha ha ha-- those guys were first in all

[schizophrenicroom]

goddamnit, now i feel totally thrown for a loop. i wrote my old teacher (the one i'm in love with) and the totality of his advice was "you seem to have everything figured out that you want but choose to not believe so out of whatever misplaced fear you picked up in south florida" which is just... more infuriating than anything else, but whatever. i think i misinterpreted readings.

that's funny you choose the word "reinvent" yourself, given that's been my whole goal as of late. been on a semi-gatsbyish journey to do that, even if my goal is to forget the past...

but yeah, the sumerians had symbols and law and everything way before. i feel like if i sit down and hammer something out, i'll be alright. i thank you, by the way.

[guest]

cannot believe how much I've underused the syg emoji bank.



a whole new world

[schizophrenicroom]

hahaha

[Antagon]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

dammit i forgot to reply to antagon's impressive video list

i see fantastic mr. fox made the feature slot! awesome. lots of good things in that list-- venture bros. bowie clips cracked me up.

mary and max were assholes in the end-- weren't they?

Hell yeah, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a visual marvel.

Yeah, by the time I had reached the Venture Bros. clip, I was already pretty lazy, so I just called it "David Bowie Clips". There was an episode in which Bowie, Klaus Nomi and Iggy Pop made an appearance. I used some clips of that episode.

As for Mary and Max - are you referring to the nature of the ending or the characters themselves?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Antagon

Hell yeah, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a visual marvel.

Yeah, by the time I had reached the Venture Bros. clip, I was already pretty lazy, so I just called it "David Bowie Clips". There was an episode in which Bowie, Klaus Nomi and Iggy Pop made an appearance. I used some clips of that episode.

As for Mary and Max - are you referring to the nature of the ending or the characters themselves?

yeah i love venture bros. ha ha ha. good catch there.

mary and max i watched some time ago and only once so i don't recall every detail of who did what to whom ... but basically at the beginning i see them as these sweet people who through no fault of their own become marginalized and manage to form a bond. yet as the movie goes on and mary grows up i started to think "wow, these people are real assholes". in the end i hated mary, and rather than a "comedy" as the movie was billed (it had its funny moments for sure) i perceived it more as a tragedy of fuckups. maybe i misread something, but fuck'em.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by schizophrenicroom

goddamnit, now i feel totally thrown for a loop. i wrote my old teacher (the one i'm in love with) and the totality of his advice was "you seem to have everything figured out that you want but choose to not believe so out of whatever misplaced fear you picked up in south florida" which is just... more infuriating than anything else, but whatever. i think i misinterpreted readings.

that's funny you choose the word "reinvent" yourself, given that's been my whole goal as of late. been on a semi-gatsbyish journey to do that, even if my goal is to forget the past...

but yeah, the sumerians had symbols and law and everything way before. i feel like if i sit down and hammer something out, i'll be alright. i thank you, by the way.

i didn't pick reinvent from some prophetic inspiration but rather from lapham's essay-- it's all his fault. of course that's at the root of america and this is no big discovery, but he puts it in an entertaining way.

i was reading some translations from sumerian tablets (there's a website) and the suckers were crazy for rare stones and woods and luxury goods... maybe there's something in those to find about fasion-- it's been with us forever no? it was just a flash not a developed idea, but maybe you find something in your researches.

as for your teacher's words of course there's that "if you can dream it you can do it" attitude, but what people usually like to skip over is the amount of hard work required for that. "oh and by the way you'll lose your eyesight and bleed from the hands from this work...." ha ha ha ha. that movie i just saw, whiplash, sort of makes that point (while at the same time feeding an overachiever's fantasy, but that's another story).

i don't know what to tell you. i googled last night and saw a decent interview with robin givhan (she writes for the washington post). claudia schifer is also in it but she's such a dullard ha ha. see here: http://thoughteconomics.blogspot.com...9/fashion.html

if you're after some sort of "success" though, what you want is a system not a goal. they day in/day out that produces good results. chasing after "X" only brings frustration-- because you're never there, and you migh finally get there someday but then it will be behind you-- the post-partum depression-- so it's a painful way to go about life. a good system increases your odds and can be satisfying in itself without you having to "get" anywhere. put in your readings everyday, write everyday, take care of yourself everyday, and your odds improve and each day is enjoyable. do a google for "seinfeld don't break the chain"-- that's a good system.

so if you're interested in the history of ideas then don't wait for teh MTA pass of glory but start today, and that will improve your odds. e.g. pick up lovejoy's "the great chain of being" and get crackin'. i haven't read it, but the guy supposedly invented the discipline so why not begin there. in the process of learning you might start to write to people in that field and make connections, and that will improve your odds as well. you're smart and you love reading so yes, no need for mental blocks, but it takes hard work and patience, which means you need to enjoy the everyday not just wait for some glorious goal.

there's more to that but yes. 2 bottles of wine a night does not a good system make though

ps sorry if there are typos and fucked up words but when i type late at night or eary in the morning i use my thumbs to type and words get broken a lot

[Antagon]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

yeah i love venture bros. ha ha ha. good catch there.

mary and max i watched some time ago and only once so i don't recall every detail of who did what to whom ... but basically at the beginning i see them as these sweet people who through no fault of their own become marginalized and manage to form a bond. yet as the movie goes on and mary grows up i started to think "wow, these people are real assholes". in the end i hated mary, and rather than a "comedy" as the movie was billed (it had its funny moments for sure) i perceived it more as a tragedy of fuckups. maybe i misread something, but fuck'em.

I guess you mean the chain of events that was kickstarted by Mary writing a thesis about the Asperger's Syndrome and using Max as her case study without his consent. Yeah, that was a dick move, but at no point did I ever get the impression that either of them were malicious in their intentions.

Mary was still a young and very ambitious woman at the time she did this. In her view - and probably her naivity, she thought she would help him and other people with Asperger's Syndrome around the world. She just wasn't able to grasp that wanting to help is often the polar opposite of actually helping someone. In her ambition, she went way over her head and hurt the one person she actually cared very much about. That of course in no way justifies what she did, but it sort of gives you a bit of clarity as to why she did it.

Max's reaction was totally understandable. He felt used and marginalized and exploited by the one person he was actually able to bond with. But at the end of the day, Mary was also just a person with "warts and all". She was very remorseful, as evidenced by probably one of the film's darkest turns - the "Que Sera"-scene. And Max taking his time to forgive her was very logical as well. After all, the people you care about the most are also the people who can hurt you the most Things just took a very unfortunate turn. The fact that both lived in different parts of the world in a time prior to the internet only complicated things further. In the end, Max did find it in his heart to forgive her though.

Yes, they did start out as just kind of sweet people and got more rough around the edges as the film progressed. But I personally don't see any inconsistancy there. I thought it was quite authentic. In human relationships someone's bound to make a mistake sooner or later and feelings are bound to get hurt. It's only human. And I found it quite endearing that these characters were able to overcome what split them apart initially. Friendships often go through highs and lows. I thought this was a pretty powerful depiction of that. The ending was still sad though.

[!@#$%!]

you're right of course-- i expect too much of human nature.

i was more irked by mary's pretension to become one of the cool kids and betray her outsider status-- to which she ultimately returns. of course most people will do just that when offered passage to a better deck, and sell out their former friends. humans are social climbers. mary was no hero, just a human. i liked her as a kid but not as a grownup-- and that's okay-- i don't like a lot of people ha ha.

i'm not saying at all that this was a bad movie-- it was great, and well made. but to bill it as "comedy" is deceitful (you didn't do that, the marketers did).

just because it's done with claymation it doesn't mean it can't be all about pain & suffering. this was somehow closer to an intimate form or neorrealism than to wallace & gromit. the trailers emphasized the sweet/quirky/funny parts and left out the atrocities.

[Antagon]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

you're right of course-- i expect too much of human nature.

i was more irked by mary's pretension to become one of the cool kids and betray her outsider status-- to which she ultimately returns. of course most people will do just that when offered passage to a better deck, and sell out their former friends. humans are social climbers. mary was no hero, just a human. i liked her as a kid but not as a grownup-- and that's okay-- i don't like a lot of people ha ha.

i'm not saying at all that this was a bad movie-- it was great, and well made. but to bill it as "comedy" is deceitful (you didn't do that, the marketers did).

just because it's done with claymation it doesn't mean it can't be all about pain & suffering. this was somehow closer to an intimate form or neorrealism than to wallace & gromit. the trailers emphasized the sweet/quirky/funny parts and left out the atrocities.

Yeah, marketers are generally full of shit. The notion that if something is animated it must either be for kids or at least light-hearted is still going strong. Last year I watched Miyazaki's The Wind Rises in a viennese movie theatre. All the trailers that led into the film were for mass-produced kids-entertainment flicks. While I can't fault a mainstream movie theatre for getting the target-audience confused, it's still very telling.

Hand-drawn and CG-animation are seen as kids-entertainment and claymation/stop-motion as a medium for light-hearted slapstick. Then again, Seven Psychopaths was advertised as a Tarantino-esque Crime-Comedy. And Fight Club was initially presented as a movie that was just about bare-knuckles underground boxing. I suppose you have to lead viewers astray via advertising to appeal to a broader audience. Doesn't make their practice any less wrong though.

Oh and: You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to !@#$%! again.

[Keeping It Gimple]

i dreamed a dream last night

it was back in my home country in an abandoned and half ruined swimming pool from the 60's before the country went to shit and we had a bit of modernisation (i think?)

there were people there - all men, including a detective, and they were trying to catch a female ghost. but the ghost was literally just a voice. the building was dusty and covered in cracked and ruined concrete and brick and had dark tunnels but it was daylight and the light shone in from the windows. the tunnels were weird - dead ends that got quite dark but just went straight for a short distance to a dead end. the whole place was ruined black and brown stone and concrete and the pool was totally empty. i think the tunnels which were train tunnel size have something to do with all the railways that we let fall into ruin - and my theory is that this happened due to political corruption and was part of the process that led to all the violence.

the whole thing was absurd because these people were obsessing over the ghost and catching it somehow - as if it was a real person - but it was literally nothing more than a voice which would talk to them when they went looking for it but lead them to a dead end. it was as if they were trying to prove something - i think they were pursuing this as if it was the solution to a murder - as if someone had been murdered and catching the ghost somehow would solve the crime or bring some sort of justice.

but literally the ghost was just a voice and nothing else.

she was only talking to the people individually and only saying a few sentences to keep them going after her, leading them on. they would then go back to each other and argue and get heated and passionate about finding this ghost but there was literally nowhere left in the building to go they hadnt been to before.

for some reason this dream seemed incredibly important and its like it announced some psychological change in me - it def seemed o be about something important and its like i made some sort of actual breakthrough not just a willed one if that makes sense.

?

[Keeping It Gimple]

or maybe its just autistic navel gazing

nonetheless there was something amazing about the dream because it had this dark creepy paranoid vibe but at the same time it was daylight and the sun was shining through the windows high on the roof of the swimming pool so there was nothing really to be scared of

still it was very uncanny because it was as if the men were all absolute idiots but didnt realise it - and they were pursuing this disembodied voice that came from nothing and was i suppose not even a sign of intelligence - just literally a voice - like an audio clip playing in mid air - it wasnt even corporeal entity but they were chasing it like it was - determined to prove something - but there was nothing beyond the voice and nothing else to find -

i mean - this isnt even a ghost story - its like something beyond that - its unsettling - because its like the breakdown of meaning and language - just an empty voice that addresses people and fools them into thinking something intelligible is happening but its not.

idk wtf

[!@#$%!]

^^

 

??

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

 

[Keeping It Gimple]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

^^

 

??

i did listen to that story on tape as a kid

but the thing is - the voice is not malicious - its has no intention or meaning - its disembodied text - its not aware of itself as a person - but everyone thinks its real

its like hearing a song and its just a recording not a live thing thats happening



im insane or normal or whatever oh well

[!@#$%!]

ha ha who is normal?

if you could witness people chasing shadows without chasing them yourself it's a good thing

then again jung used to say everybody in the dream is you

[Rob Instigator]

one week until I do not have to hear chatterbox ramble to herself

today:


Man that's funny
I think it looked good!
and I did it! Ha Ha!!
Oh wow....too funny
Come on CONCUR, wake up wake up wake up
Oh well!
You turned your music off
OOOhhhhhh!!!!!
Where was I?
I get a reprieve!
Let's see... tsk tsk tsk so....what comes?
I need to take some of that off
Alright who doesn't?
10.23 I get $200 off the...skip allotted and what we did when taxes came offf..
should be money in there now *sniff* *sniff*
How the heck can I read his?
Let's take all the taxes off...heeehhehehe
(in baby voice) I did not know that! Oh no! what a bad boy!
18.63
18.63
Taxes 1.34
Okay?
*cough*cough*cough*
(in baby voice) still no money there? Hmmm????
STOP IT! No coughing! (to herself after she coughed)

This is about 20 minutes worth guys......

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

one week until I do not have to hear chatterbox ramble to herself

today:


Man that's funny
I think it looked good!
and I did it! Ha Ha!!
Oh wow....too funny
Come on CONCUR, wake up wake up wake up
Oh well!
You turned your music off
OOOhhhhhh!!!!!
Where was I?
I get a reprieve!
Let's see... tsk tsk tsk so....what comes?
I need to take some of that off
Alright who doesn't?
10.23 I get $200 off the...skip allotted and what we did when taxes came offf..
should be money in there now *sniff* *sniff*
How the heck can I read his?
Let's take all the taxes off...heeehhehehe
(in baby voice) I did not know that! Oh no! what a bad boy!
18.63
18.63
Taxes 1.34
Okay?
*cough*cough*cough*
(in baby voice) still no money there? Hmmm????
STOP IT! No coughing! (to herself after she coughed)

This is about 20 minutes worth guys......

roughly 3000 more phrases and you're done!

don't worry though-- dissatisfaction will always be at hand

[Rob Instigator]

what I have learned in 42 years of existence

NOTHING IS FAIR
NOTHING IS EASY