• Measures

    World, Hold On

    It began with a harmless conversation about the credulity we all carry. Our willingness to see past all kinds of falsities, fallacies, inconsistencies, and hokum. Our yearning to believe in something. An evolutionary entrapment that has led us equally to our darkest depths and highest heights.

    A meal and some thoughts shared, and some inspiration found. An umbrella under which too many topics reside. Pseudosciences and pseudohistories of all kinds, bereft of credibility and yet magnetic to their adherents.

    I chose cults as a worthy topic of exploration. Fictional ones, anyway. Perhaps an examination of some genre films to tease out greater truths surrounding collective tendencies powered by individual vulnerabilities.

    The idea was written and the draft started. Then I noticed all the others in my directory. Satellites launched into orbit, as promising as they were unfinished. Gliding along – momentum assured. Undiminished but static.

    Fulfilling ambition a constant struggle when the majority of your energy is demanded elsewhere.

    Something to look forward to.

    Imagination reaching escape velocity. Outpacing the pen, as expected.

  • Frames,  Measures

    Streaks Blue and Red

    Today was the warmest day in Prince George this year. So far.

    The temperature outside hit 35 C. Even though the inside of my apartment was slightly cooler, it only took a few minutes on the exercise bike before the sweat began pouring. For some reason this brought back a memory of walking through the Academy Museum in Los Angeles earlier this year. Specifically, an exhibit on Spike Lee’s 1989 treatise on race relations, Do the Right Thing.

    The exhibit had several engaging behind-the-scenes videos playing in which the filmmakers spoke about their craft and process. The one that stuck out to me was an interview with Ernest Dickerson, the film’s cinematographer. He shared the different methods that his team used to imbue the film’s scenes with heat. Bright, warm color schemes in the architecture; butane-lit fuses just below the camera as it rolled to create a hazy layer that sat between the lens and subject, mirroring humidity; actors sprayed with water before each scene; all in service of a narrative filled with beguiling tension.

    It was generally warm while they shot the film, but they wanted to up the pathetic fallacy. The buildings needed to bleed; the people’s inner emotions needed a worthy reflection in unforgiving asphalt.

  • Journal,  Measures,  Memories

    Embers of Empire

    Brexit referendum voting card

    Allow us royal subjects, commonwealth citizens governed by neocolonial pressures, we who have lived through dying embers of empire and observed the revolving door of mediocrity in British politics over the last decade or so, our quiet judgments and tempered schadenfreude. With the approval of an ailing monarch, the Conservatives will finally find their way out of power in the next few days. Their replacements will wonder where to start; this election is not exactly a mandate-providing affirmation, rather a denouncement of what came before. The public did not chase an inspiring vision; they voted for the hope of basic competence. The unfortunate truth – a bittersweet relish – that we from afar can savor in a twisted way, is that there will be brevity in this grand feeling of change. A new team dominating the game does not necessarily change the sport being played.

    – / – / –

    A kingdom voted. Kingdoms tend not to hold too many consequential votes. Democracy is not a requirement under divinely blessed royalty. But this kingdom is United, you see. A constitutional monarchy, they say. It delegates freedom under colonial architecture; a parliament hardly parochial. Its subjects are free to exercise their voice – an inside voice, mind you. Nothing loud enough to disturb the foundations of those lovely palaces and their inhabitants, or a growing body of unelected nobility who specialize in slowing down legislation already outpaced by the most sluggish of snails.

    This is not the land of brave trial-and-error politics, but one of rehashing failed ideas given cosmetic treatments. A country that has offered largely static views on economic and foreign policy for over four decades. In a time when large blocs of nations grappled with the right combinations of Keynesian, Marxist, or Monetarist ideas, the UK tried austerity… and nothing else. A reminder that the last Labour governments championed the Iraq war and continued the Tory project of privatizing health services to undermine the NHS. I wonder how long it has been since a party in power was actually sympathetic, in action, to the marginalized or the working class. And how much sympathy they elicited from the House of Lords or head of state.

    But this may be a reflection of the populace. At least, the politically active, participatory factions. This foreigner and brief interloper observed a small ‘c’ conservative political landscape. People of all ages within the conglomerate territory appear risk-averse in their volitions. Whether it was through apathy, complacency, or fear of novel approaches. Even in Edinburgh – filled with youth and committed to a more liberal republican future – one could not escape the feeling that there were certain red lines that could not be crossed. Jeremy Corbyn’s name was all it took to send people into fits of anger, no attention paid to the myriads of scandals that followed those actually in power. The press system, dominated by tabloids, periodicals, and punditry apple-skin-shallow, reduced everything to soundbites and everyone to caricatures. Complex narratives were impossible to find in the mainstream.

  • Measures

    Earth-Sized Company Towns

    For a program that has created so many original, prescient musical numbers, South Park’s most blunt commentaries on common complacencies are sometimes found in straightforward reflections scored with throwback tracks. The decades-old song usually functioning as two reminders in one – of the cyclical lessons we face and their almost routine repurposing behind different masks.

    Some people say a man is made outta mud
    A poor man’s made outta muscle and blood
    Muscle and blood and skin and bones
    A mind that’s a-weak and a back that’s strong

    This version of 1946’s “Sixteen Tons” (itself referring to a coal mining practice in the 1920s) was sung in 1955 by Tennessee Ernie Ford. It relays, as effectively in 2024 as back then, the forceful allying to an exploitative entity. Except today, the company towns are earth-sized; the swelling digital monopolies that tie themselves to our collective political economies at immeasurably large scales. The Titanics that carry with them the fate of markets, elections, freethought, and our environment.

    You load 16 tons, what do you get?
    Another day older and deeper in debt
    St. Peter, don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
    I owe my soul to the company store 

    It is a strangely vanilla, yet efficient, montage in an episode with quite a few absurd zeniths. (Not every day does a man in a box end up the leader of a union drive.) No mystery why it came to mind as I went out to grab some takeout today. The two individuals ahead of me were on their phones, each awaiting a number of orders to be placed within a large, thermally insulated bag, each with a different food delivery app’s logo stamped across it.

    I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
    I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
    I loaded 16 tons of number nine coal
    And the straw boss said, “Well, a-bless my soul”

    The laboriousness of labor may change, but its structure remains consistent. And we have done not-too-well to find ourselves in similar places in relation to the power brokers of society, nearly a century apart.

  • Measures

    McFerrin

    It is a curious refrain embedded into key moments throughout 2017’s The Square. Calm moments surrounded by uncomfortable situations; intonations amplifying unwelcome serenity.

    When I first heard this portion of the soundtrack, I thought it was a unique instrumental. By the time it resurfaced during the last scene – the calmest of emotional climaxes to the story, where a young girl looks up at her father from the back seat, her previous respect undermined by his unstable actions and not-so-well-hidden mistreatment of others – I knew I needed to look it up. The track is such a perfect auxiliary to the ridiculous, and occasionally important, musings of Ruben Östlund. And of his many flawed characters.

    I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was Bobby McFerrin’s improvisations that scored this maelstrom of a film. In many ways, appropriate accompaniment.

    An indie ditty for the middle of this, a most testing, week.

  • Journal,  Measures

    Suitcase Diaries

     

    Il est minuit à Tokyo, il est cinq heures au Mali
    Quelle heure est-il au paradis?

     

    A couple of days ago, a decent chunk of a city was glued to their screens as their affiliated team produced a classic comeback to win a playoff game. The fifth of sixteen they will want to claim top spot in North America’s premier ice hockey league, for the time being.

    I had wanted to join them but found myself exhausted. Falling asleep on the couch, I relented and headed to bed, only for my envisioned nap to turn into a night-long sleep. My energy levels can be an issue when I am away from my regular abode and routines, as I have been for the past two weeks. A combination of interrupted sleep, more arduous daily excursions, and social exuberance needed during times of increased movement.

    – / – / –

    Last calendar year, I spent just over four months away from my apartment. (I refuse to call it my ‘home’; that designation has not yet been earned.) Living out of a few bags and transporting myself from location to location, mostly for work and a little on vacation. This year and only ten days into May, I have already racked up over two months in the same situation. Transience has been a regular theme of my life for the past eight orbits. A voluntary one, for the most part – I have enjoyed going to every corner of BC and witnessing transformative projects in person.

    No complaints on my chosen path. But I was reflecting on the transitory life; a microcosm of our long existence.

  • Measures

    Interpretations: Bach, Cello Suite No. 1, Prélude

    Do you know it? An introduction to one of the most widely interpreted suites in the history of the humble cello.


    In its singular form:

     


    Presented with visual flair:

     


    In context of the full set:

     


    And always inviting innovation:

     


    A late night entry, filed under ‘M’ for mesmerizing.

  • Frames,  Measures

    Singularly Felt but Universally Relatable

    A take-it-all-in hacktivist mystery. No spacetime for blink-and-you-miss-it shenanigans. Mild spoilers for A Murder at the End of the World below.


    Imagine yourself an adolescent with no knowledge of British idioms, culture, reference points – British life, in general. Now imagine picking up a random Agatha Christie novel and reading the first couple of chapters. Would you latch onto it? Would its unapologetically English characters, class tropes, and personification of European vignettes resonate? Christie was my introduction to murder mysteries. As a high schooler, I must have read most of her catalogue. At times, the prose and characters were difficult to get a grip on, but worth grappling with regardless. The twists and turns so worth it.

    Christie knew how to construct a setting, place characters in context, prescribe them motivations, interests, and suspicions, and lead the reader down several rabbit holes of possibilities. It did not matter if the cultural touchpoints were not always obvious or easily understood, at least to this reader unfamiliar with the world of twentieth century Britain at that time. The author was doing enough to keep you engaged and develop the people you were following. The strangeness of the stage provided plenty of intrigue.

    Sometimes, she cheated. A clue left unshared or a spurious revelation plucked from speculation that could not possibly be confirmed until the author was ready for us to hear it. And Then There Were None was guilty of this; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the exact opposite.

    Not every mystery writer sprinkles their literature with puzzle pieces to the full picture. Nor do they need to. It may be fun to go through a Sherlock Holmes story with the aplomb and brilliance of the eponymous detective, but alas, that is not easy given the number of red herrings overlaid within the narrative. When entering the world of a murder mystery, we are also conditioned to be suspicious of everyone and ascribe intention or ulterior motives to every little action. We cannot let anything go. It is as much a game to play as it is a story to absorb. Pleasantly surprising, then, when we happen upon a thriller or murder mystery having gone in blind – now we have to re-read or re-watch it at some point; what clues did we miss along the way?

    This brings us to FX’s A Murder at the End of the World, created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij. With “a murder” in the name, the only surprises ahead are the ones you are expecting. It is a whodunit that primes the viewer to be doubtful of everyone and everything. Except this one actually plays nicely on the trope of revealing a grand master plan, instead dwelling on the evolving mess at hand.

  • Measures,  Weekly Picks

    Weekly Picks – March 17, 2024

    Weekly Picks Mosaic - March 17, 2024Credits (clockwise from top left): Stefano Summo for ProPublica; Edges of Earth / Adam Moore; Mutual Aid (2009). Photograph by Timothy Vollmer / Flickr; Apu Gomes / AFP / Getty; Brian Snyder / Reuters / Redux; Cole Burston / AFP / Getty; Jon S. / Deed; Alice Martins

    Collective struggle – a possible foundation for radical care; solidarity and its discontents the hallmark of destabilizing systems of oppression. Stories from those on the street facing their own unconquerable peaks. Hell on Earth in the heat of the desert, a growing fallout of sustained war, where neglected souls and zealots alike seek peace but remain trapped in turmoil. The surrender of a province and its environment to fossil fuel fanaticism. A historical review of a central African conflict, itself an allegory of how colonialism seeps through social strata. The compounding research behind the ill-effects of rising wealth disparities worldwide. Triads, illicit drug trades, exploited immigrants, and a cavalcade of avoidable problems linking nations who choose to criminalize substances to support their home-grown industries of terror. Freedivers off the coast of Japan preserving community as much as an ancient way of life. Finally, a comment on change in the media landscape, and on trust’s declining value as a commodity used to buy political engagement.

    This week’s collection:

    Quite a lot of doom and gloom shared above and below. A final comment for this week – you may remember one of the more recent reimaginings of Tears For Fears’ “Mad World”, as interpreted by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules, and popularized by 2001’s Donnie Darko, tv shows, trailers, and video games:

     

    People often remark on Gary Jules’ vocals, but the video’s exhibition, simple yet remarkable, should also be noted, carrying Michel Gondry’s signature in its frames. Worth revisiting as our perpetual cruelty towards one another seems unceasing, gaslighting the collective or impressing upon us, whether falsely or not, a powerlessness to act. But there is hope in preservation – in words, no less. An ongoing reassurance that alongside our deepest laments there exists a choice to latch onto a wider reality, one that persists through inferno.

    Note that only excerpts (often introductory) are quoted. For full text (and context) or video, please view the original piece.

  • Measures,  Memories

    Memories, Randomly Accessed

     

    (Note for those scrolling past: this post contains a gallery of snapshots from Tokyo in 2014. Click “read more” to view.)

    A decade ago, nearly half a kilometer above the most populous metropolis in the world, a conversation began between a professor and student of English from two different worlds. The professor was Japanese, born and raised in Tokyo. He was treating his grandkids to a day atop the capital city, their faces eagerly leaning as far as they could towards the slanted glass that overlooked the concrete jungle. The student was Canadian, by citizenship it should be said; attachment to national identity already too nefarious a notion to adequately stomach. He was on a vacation and had come to the tower to spend a few hours photographing the vast steel lanes and their skyscraping endpoints, in light from above during the day and when lit from below at night.

    “I do not teach grammar, I want to be clear about that,” the older man explained in a soft tone, “I teach literature.” How to read human beings and their complexity through discussions of their textual output.

    The two chatted while the kids ran through people’s legs, mostly young couples, as the evening view transformed from ‘diurnal smog’ to ‘twilight neon’. They spoke about how students approached their studies and of their seriousness in attending to life’s challenges. The professor was empathetic and non-judgmental. He had been born after the big war and lived through the Japanese adoption of global (mostly American) culture. The influx of democracy and capitalism – of modernity and its customs – alien from the pre-war empire but only separated from it by “a few years”. He had watched his neighborhood’s wooden roofs subsumed by a growing encasement of metal, glass, and machinery. He did not own a vehicle, simply stepping outside and catching a train two minutes from his doorstep that took him straight to campus.

    The student, a visitor, did little talking, choosing instead to ask questions. A lecture voluntarily attended and with great enthusiasm, in a classroom within the clouds.