Graffiti 126

I agree with the sentiment but the phrasing is a bit blunt. To be healthy people need to give and receive love. In equal measure to keep a balance. Give too much you are hollowed, take too much you are bloated.

The lesson, presumably, love as much as you can. Form a circuit with those people important and dear. Love flowing both ways. Feeding off each other for the mutual benefit and improvement of both.

You cannot pour so much love into someone it banishes their self consciousness and doubt. Nor can one person give you so much love it raises your self worth from low to high. Love will not fix you. You need to look inward before looking outward.

The act of loving is important. It's revitalizing, exciting, and necessary to a happy life. We are not creatures governed by hunger and procreation alone. We are complex feeling beings that require not only physical nourishment but mental and spiritual sustenance as well.

"There is no hope for us in this painful, mysterious world save in giving ourselves to love." -Byron Caldwell Smith

Sink Or Swim

I don't like change.
Or variances in routine.

I like things controlled.
And ordered.
Predictable.

Moving homes or moving friends
open the door to flux.

Possibilities endless and far reaching.
Fill up the quiet moments with a deafening
uncertainty.

An abrupt future weighs
on the mundane.
And courage is required

to leap into the void.

'Under The Skin' A Review

Under The Skin is an abstract alien thriller, the first movie from director Jonathan Glazer in a decade. The film opens with an extended abstract sequence out of space and time. With a harsh black and white setting and an even harsher score the first ten minutes of the movie have no dialogue and make no sense. We are then jolted to Scotland with the nameless lead played by Scarlett Johansson. She spends the majority of the movie driving around blank faced picking up men in order to lure them to her home. After she gets them their we see another abstract sequence in which the men are consumed by a goopy mirror like black tar.

The film has moments of brilliance. Some inspired physicality by Johansson, one moment specifically where she is naked in front of a space heater slowly and quietly examining her body. The nudity throughout the film is treated with a refreshing lack of sexuality and there are more dicks than boobs in the film(also refreshing). There are some beautiful shots of Scotland and some beautifully captured normal Scottish folks.

There is however no semblance of plot, narrative, or character. No semblance of motivation, change, or resolution. With dialogue so sparse and unclear it virtually doesn't exist the film recedes so far away from convention there is not only no text there is no subtext. Its abstraction is so drastic it belies its self-proclaimed premise.

Under The Skin has a steady and unavoidable stench of pretension. With numerous bizarre and shocking moments transparently contrived both self-serving and self-satisfied. A message so far distant from the actual content of the film you could make a case its about anything.

A visually interesting, narratively frustrating, ultimately unsatisfying alien movie more about metaphor deconstruction than aliens.

Don't See It.

First Spring Day

Although yesterday wasn't the first day of spring it was the first day that actually felt like spring. The first weekend day where the sun was out and the temperature was oscillating in the upper 60s.

Nicole and I mounted our bikes, mine recently purchased hers recently tuned up, and rode down the bike path. It was a wonderful relaxing lazy day.

We sat by the lake for a while and just enjoyed not having anything to do.

On a whim we headed over to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was very crowded mostly with pregnant women and formerly pregnant women and their babies. The African painted dogs were a highlight. 

The main attraction of course was the lion. The King. Lording over the park from his sunning rock. He yawned a couple of times showing his large toothy maw. He may have been tired or he may have been showing off for his adoring crowd. Majestic.

Nicole had never been to the zoo or ridden down the bike path. It was a lovely day of firsts.

Partnership

A common purpose
an estranged past
meet as if by magic

through long discussion
and soul expression
intimacy is uncovered

not flowered romance
or sweeping fancy
but deep and fortified compassion.

Two lovers form
a bond with time
and look ahead with wonder.

Movie Going Suggestions

Me: Did you notice how many people left?
Chloe: Oh. I noticed.

Tonight Chloe and I went to see Under The Skin an odd, artsy, experimental type alien movie with Scarlett Johansson. The theater was packed and there were people trickling in during the trailers and the first 10 minutes of the movie. A number of people got up and left, presumably because of the tone or nudity in the movie, and there was a woman skrintching a plastic bag for the last 15 minutes or so. It was a bit of a distracting experience. Here are some suggestions to ensure a fluid and pleasurable movie going experience.

1. Have an idea of what it's about. You don't need to read a review or know the actors or the director or know a plot synopsis. But know what you're getting into. If it's an artsy alien movie or a depressing period drama you have certain expectations or can intuit what kind of a movie it's going to be. Unless you're a movie buff who sees movies indiscriminately don't wander into a movie theater and select the film that is most convenient for you time wise. This is doubly true if you're at an independent movie theater. The tone, content, or narrative(or lack there of) can surprise you if you haven't prepped sufficiently. You don't want to be caught on a Friday night seeing a movie that makes you feel uncomfortable or stupid.

2. Be on time. If you can, be on time. Find your seat and get yourself situated. This will prepare you for your cinematic experience and it is courteous to your fellow patrons. If you're all situated and quiet and have your drinks and snacks ready it limits interruptions which can impede on others experiences. If you arrive late, no big deal, slide into the nearest open seats, you have sacrificed your right to be choosey about where you sit. If the theater is packed go directly to the front. Don't ask people to move, don't stand in the walk way whispering to your friend, don't use your phone as a flashlight. You are late, the people already there were not late, respect that. Besides sitting up in the front can be fun, give it a try.

3. Be Quiet. Put your phone on silent and put it away. If you need to check the time do so discreetly. Be aware of who is around you and how close they are. If you are in a crowded theater go to the lobby if you need to do any extended phone use. You can whisper or react to your friend or loved one periodically but don't talk. Don't engage in a conversation. You can talk about the movie after. You are in a public place where people have paid money to see this thing, respect that. Be aware of your snacking volume. Don't be rustling in a plastic bag, opening a ton of packages, or adjusting the position of your bags once the movie has got going. If you need to open a delicious baggy of sour patch kids wait for a loud noise, a shouting scene, or anything that is not building suspense/a climax.

Simply put: be respectful. You are a human in a room with other humans.

'Blue Ruin' A Review

Blue Ruin is a small, tight, grim, revenge thriller set in Virginia. The film opens with transient Dwight(Macon Blair) taking a bath in a strangers house. It then follows him for a series of scenes with no dialogue. He is homeless and lives in his car. With a bushy beard and haunted downcast eyes Dwight is unassuming verging on pathetic. Things change when a cop brings him in and notifies him that the man imprisoned for killing his parents is being released. Dwight then gets his old Pontiac Bonneville running, the blue ruin of the title, and heads back to his home town to kill the man recently freed.

The film is shot beautifully and has a patient subdued tone which creates an organic thrumming suspense, inferring much to the audience by shot and score alone. There is an acute sense of authenticity about the film that brings it vibrancy. The focus is on character and emotion rather than circumstance, on the mundane minutiae and tools of revenge that make it credible. The dialogue is sparse but thick with subtext. Fascinating characters come into sharp clarity not through exposition, long-winded monologues, or over-complicated action sequences but through presence and image and situation.

At the center of it all Macon Blair gives an amazingly layered and complicated performance. He leads this bloody and pure film with an air of exhausted resignation and determination. The supporting cast is great but only Devin Ratray as best friend Ben matches Blair's nuance.

A refreshing, personal, and engrossing look at rural Virginian revenge that touches the heart and keeps its beat jacked.

Don't Miss It.

'Blue Ruin' opens tomorrow at the Music Box in Chicago. See it while you can, it is currently only playing through May 8th.