The Scrivener

I dream dreams, I envision, I ponder, I move blissfully through the economy of words.

[entertainmentweekly]

[the-scrivener]

Dream Job

[the-scrivener]

I saw Slow West last night and loved it! I’m not usually one for quirky indie films. You know the ones. They always have that one song playing in the background during a flashback. Needless to say, I had a change of heart. If Slow West was a wine, it would have aromas of Little Miss Sunshine, warm tones of a Wes Anderson flick, and a kick of Django Unchained. John Maclean directed the film, and it follows the typical coming of age trope. However, it takes place in a western, which allows the director to do some neat things with that genre.

If you haven’t seen this film, then please do. Go see it right now, or as soon as possible, because I’m about to spoil it for you.

Have you seen it? Okay good, because I think that Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender) are one and the same. Silas seemingly comes out of nowhere twice during the film. Once when he rescues Jay from the soldier and a second time when he helps retrieve Jay’s belongings from Werner, the traveling anthropologist. Jay is Scottish and Silas has an accent of his own. Neither character has their past elaborated upon. Slow story short, in order for Silas to get to his love, Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius), his younger alter-ego, Jay, must die . . . or they’re not the same and Silas is a changed man having watched his young travel companion die . . . I’m a glass half-full kind of guy, so I’m partial to my theory.

Best line: “Dry your eyes, kid. Let’s drift.”

[the-scrivener]

There are a lot of great things about Mad Max: Fury Road. In my opinion, the best part of the film is that it has a beginning, middle and end. The worst thing is that they’re making a sequel, Mad Max: Wasteland. 

Do we even know how to leave a good thing be anymore? Film buffs should commit this to memory: at the end of the year Star Wars VII comes out. Seven! I read a quote by J.J. Abrams today on why this Star Wars is different, “One of the things that we always refocus on from the get-go was that it not be one of these very long, bloated blockbusters. A lot of very entertaining movies lately are too long . . . I mean, we were really aiming to have it be—when it’s over you’ll say, ‘I wish there’s more.’ Or, ‘Wait, is it over?’ Because how rarely you get that feeling nowadays, and I think we’re headed there.” I think nowadays what we rarely get is the feeling that a film is over. 

Even though Mad Max is number four in its series, it has a sense of finality. It is The Hero’s Journey. Furiosa kicks ass. The ratings on Rotten Tomatoes didn’t make me not want to see it. The stunts (not special effects) are amazing! It’s actually worthy of being called a film. 

[the-scrivener]

T.S. Eliot - "East Coker" V.

So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years— Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure Because one has only learnt to get the better of words For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate With shabby equipment always deteriorating In the general mess of imprecision of feeling, Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer By strength and submission, has already been discovered Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope To emulate—but there is no competition— There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss. For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

[the-scrivener]

Neil Gaiman - Mistakes

Hmmm, this seems important . . . 

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

[the-scrivener]

The trailer for Dead Man Down launched on Apple Trailers recently. And, as with all movies that spark my interest, I’ve watched this trailer a million times (well maybe 4). There are elements that are indicative of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window, but Noomi Rapace is the furthest thing from Grace Kelly, and Colin Farrell is no Jimmy Stewart. Also noteworthy, with all the talk of gun violence in the media it’s almost nauseating to watch something that is about ‘revenge’ and ‘killing,’ but I guess you can’t halt something that was in production pre-massacre. I wonder if we'll ever change movies back to what they once were, or if our societal taste for a "good" crime movie will live on. 

[the-scrivener]

To be present with God you will gradually become very transparent and vulnerable, you will gradually let go of roles, titles, masks, identities. They are all in the way. God’s perfect loving of you makes it possible to shed your “character armor” (a la Ernest Becker), just as with a true friend. I suspect this is the archetypal fascination of lovers’ undressing one another and undressing themselves for the other. That’s very powerful stuff, and not just titillation.--Richard Rohr, Hope Against Darkness

Art allows me to understand my spiritual musings at a much deeper level. When I came across the Rohr passage, quoted above, I automatically thought of a video I recently enjoyed by Sigur Ros. The music video shows a dance performance. We assign meaning to art based on our interpretations. Here is my reading of this performance: Two people are wandering through what looks like an industrial wasteland. When they first lock eyes, they do so upside down, which is indicative of a shared worldview. After their initial flirting (which seem to include a lot of leg swings and wild stretches) the female dancer disappears and the male dancer appears saddened. Even though she is gone for a short time, I believe the male's fearful responses is indicative of the male ego and it's attempt to control outcomes. His fears are unfounded. The couple finally meets up and they share a dance together. As time elapses the two draw closer and closer together, until finally there is a stripping down. (Toward the end of the clip there is nudity. If you have not spent time in an art community, or if you consider nudity untasteful, stop the video around 7:00)

[meesoohl]

Steven Daluz

[the-scrivener]

Dave McKean’s artwork has been an unexpected surprise in-between the pages of Wizard & Glass. Although I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite genre of art it adds a nice touch to book four. Another surprise, McKean also does the cover art for The Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. King, Gaiman, and McKean must all eat at the same restaurant or something.   

I’ve become somewhat of a tower-junkie(Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series) over the past 6 months. As cliché as it might sound, I have fellowshipped in the struggles/horrors that Roland Deschain and his band of follower (ka-tet) have preserved through. When it’s all said and done, I will have read some 3000 pages, reflected heavily on the character of Roland, and will know what King has hide at the end of his magnum opus.

The gunslinger is iconic and legend, your best friend, praise the Man Jesus, and your worst enemy . . . ya kennit?"

Book series come and go, some more obscure than others, but I feel like I was really holding out for this one, and I’m glad I did. Rest assured, I’ve not adopted a funny mid-world accent (do ya kennit?), forgone all my casual dress for a cowboy hat and boots—I still hate country music—nor have I purchased sidearm’s to tote around with me as I walk down the street. No this would be the condition of a geek or up there with drawing a scar across your forehead with a sharpie marker and buying tickets for the Harry Potter amusement park in Florida. I like to think I’m finding something far richer than all the aforementioned things.    

After each reading session I feel like I’ve reinforced the plain knowledge that some people (even make believed ones) have it far worse than me, and no matter what horrors I must face on the other side of college (the real world) I’ll be alright. The past 6 months have been pretty shitty compared to how wonderful the 6 months were before that, but Roland has got me through it and made me better for it. What I mean is this, spending time reading about someone else’s journey and the inner strength they find to preserver through the muck sets an example. Even simpler, those that don’t read, that don’t spend time reflecting, are often the ones with hefty bills from their shrink.

Here’s to 6 more months and 1,500 more pages with Roland Deschain!      

[the-scrivener]

So it’s been a while . . . Ridley Scott’s Prometheus offers a bleak answer to the origin of man, and yet it’s Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) who shines brightest. The past three decades of pop culture have offered many examples of strong female characters; Shaw will definitely be filed among them. It’s her ability to preserver through the ugliest situations (my memory recalls: shale-wind storm, death, alien/squid c-section, and more death). I do wonder if Rapace choose the name Elizabeth in honor of Lisbeth Salander, the tough as nails punk detective who she played in the Swedish adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. She had to have!

[the-scrivener]

"From a drop of water," said the writer, "a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the enquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems. Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a glance to distinguish the history of the man, and the trade or profession to which he belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the faculties of observation, and teaches one where to look and what to look for. By a man's finger nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boot, by his trouser knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt cuffs -- by each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent enquirer in any case is almost inconceivable."

From "The Book of Life", an article by Holmes quoted in "A Study in Scarlet"

[the-scrivener]

The LEGO haunted house I tried building as a kid pales in comparision.

Decaying Victorian Home -- Created and Built by Mike Doyle

“To my eyes, patterns of decay find a more pleasing path than an untouched object. A roof collapsed by the weight of snow, side shingles ripped by the force of winds, substructures rotting, insects and weather gnawing the exposed surfaces. I can picture those windy days where a shingle flies off. Or the sudden creaking, cracking and burst of tinder giving way under snow’s heavy hand."

[the-scrivener]

The end of the whole mess . . . 

"We Were Humans" by AquaSixio 

[the-scrivener]

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Screen Shots. I know what to expect from Daniel Craig, but I'm curious to see how Rooney Mara portrays Lisbeth Salander. My hopes are high. 

[the-scrivener]

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- December 21, 2011 (only 3 more months)

I'm reading through the second book right now, 100 pages in, and I'm slight less impressed than I was with the first book. Regardless, I drool every time I watch this.   

[the-scrivener]

Union Station

If I could be anywhere it would be asleep on the narrow confines of an Amtrak train seat—my destination wouldn’t matter. There would be the soft pitter-patter of rain on the obnoxiously large window next to me and some jerk in the seat behind me talking about his obnoxiously curvaceous girlfriend. Maybe a fellow passenger (also asleep and across the aisle) would let out a loud fart. I would be content with all of this. 

So I lied, I wouldn’t actually be asleep just hiding under my hoodie while biding my time before I reach my destination. Entertaining hunger and fasting with only $10 in my pocket. I set my body in motion—to do the work of a machine—to get me from point A to point B. My head is a whirl wind with numbers, letters, and information all pertinent to reaching home. This is travel.

[the-scrivener]

In honor of DC’s reboot of the Justice League I bought Marvel’s Dark Tower: Gunslinger Born, because who really wants to read the same story over again? Really though, it was only a matter of time before I tumbled a bunch of Gunslinger art. I’ve developed somewhat of a Stephen King fascination over the past month but don’t have enough time to invest in the Dark Tower novels, so I settled on the graphic novels. The writing is still fresh, and I love some of the similarities to H.P. Lovecraft’s style of writing—the creepy associations between what is being described before you and what is taking place many miles away.

For example, in showing the Crimson King (the antagonist) Peter David writes,

The Crimson King speaks. As a direct result, somewhere a slumbering, dreaming infant shudders and dies in its crib.     

Okay, so that’s pretty dark but I enjoy the genius behind it, behind all of The Gunslinger Born. It's Tolkien's mythopoeia meets The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.