Ossification of the Architect

Maybe one reason for the ossification of the architect, his taking
refuge in the mantle of the stoic visionary and "great man" with his
eye on immortal concerns, is his inability to be self-critical, at
least in public. How could an architect say of some of his earlier
work, "I was faking it," or "Boy I really got that wrong!" when
people are still living in it? This would be like a famous surgeon
saying, "Those operations I did in the 70s? Boy was I an amateur
just poking around in people's organs. I hadn't a clue!"

Doodling

The thing of my constant doodling on pads as a kid. Hit the point of
a very interesting pattern or drawing, but still with pen in hand,
needing to doodle on, pushing it pas the point of balance and into
something overwrought, noisy, thick and tangled. This is how I feel
about what can go wrong in the approach to film editing where,
because it is so easy to do, the point of perfection is glibly passed
over, the sense of beauty is missed and before long the faculty
dulled so that the idea of their even being a restraint, a kind of
balance, is no longer recognized or appreciated. Which is why I had
an early distinctive distrust dislike disgust with music videos.
They were an oxymoron. The real music was in the story. Editing was
the process of finding and completing a symphony of meaning. While I
see now that the whole culture has gone the way of worshipping this
newer understanding of editing, few filmmakers coming through its
discipline have been able to hew it to ends that I can admire. Most
produce eye candy and think that's enough.

modesty

some discover it early
others have it beat into them
some ram it home for good measure
in obsequies

The Architect

Long a believer in space kept by stone
Now wanting to come unstuck
be lambent as the image-makers
who shimmer with no bearing
who've never been jealously
guarded by some final belief
He wants to shake it off and
Be Change.

Defense

I'm not going to say what you egg me on to say in defense of art, my
art, whatever. No targets will be given in the utterance to dissolve
into froth. I'll jealousy horde my bone.
'

Movie: Grizzly Man

Herzog still has it. In fact, has it more. His attachment to this
guy is one of pure paternal affection, of the kind that he had for
Bruno S. Only here the guy is this weird Hollywood-inflected loner/
outcast, and the amazing thing is, it's not at all difficult to see
him having become a Woody Harrelson (to whom he apparently lost out
in casting for "Cheers"). Onto his story Herzog is able to graft
very organically his vision of the diabolical chaotic world the
romantic finds himself struggling for meaning in. But it's just a
perfect find for Herzog--it's like found art. This guy is in fact
pushing something like a death wish in his drive to become one with
the bears, and you sense the meaning of his salvation from alcoholism
in these charged moments of rapture after his close encounters. As
in Stroszek and some others, the overlay is very much in the vein
that Errol Morris taps, juxtaposing him against uncomprehending
others, Americans passing judgment in their middle-American scripted
ways, or casting him as something of the idol of misfits, but the
difference is that I don't think Herzog really ever has contempt for
these people, I think his compassion is true, while Morris is
savagely bitter (though often uproarious too). Herzog seems not to
have that sense of irony. In keeping with his characterization of
America as "the most exotic place on earth."

A rule of thumb in film editing

Think of the woman in France who got her face rebuilt. She looks like
a monster. It does little good to say "But think of what she looked
like before"
Because no one, seeing her for the first time. Ever appreciates
that. Likewise, never pride yourself on what you've cut out from a
prior version no one will ever see. Look at what's there, always,
for the first time.

Cardinal Rule of Film Editing

Think of the woman in France who got her face rebuilt. She looks like
a monster. It does little good to say "But think of what she looked
like before"
Because no one, seeing her for the first time. Ever appreciates
that. Likewise, never pride yourself on what you've cut out from a
prior version no one will ever see. Look at what's there, always,
for the first time.

Revelation in Coop

after running into Deb M. and her husband Jason in AM. Something
about people vacillating between considering others as ends in
themselves and others as means to ends.