“Parallel to the evolution of physiological methods, a new form of artistic creation will appear that will aim for the species. […] At that stage in its evolution, man will tend to transform himself in a pure esthetical product, becoming himself a work of art. In this way he will return to the sole object that is both idea and effect, i.e. a fabricated human being, developed and transcended by man. In this way we have closed the loop, from object to non-object, and from non-object to man as object-idea-effect. We have demonstrated that art has far from exhausted its possibilities, and has just opened the road to a development of prodigious complexity that will be fundamental and crucial for the blossoming and perfection of mankind.”
- Nicolas Schöffer, La Ville Cybernétique

“Fourier developed a type of utopian socialism based on the idea that the natural passions of human beings, if properly channeled, would result in social harmony. [… He] predicted that human beings would evolve until they attained a height of seven feet, developed an archibras (a powerful tail tipped with a hand-like claw) and lived for 144 years. He foresaw his ideal world enduring for 80,000 years, of which eight thousand would be an era of ‘Perfect Harmony’ in which androgynous plants would copulate, six moons would orbit the earth; the North Pole would be milder than the Mediterranean; the seas would lose their salt and become oceans of lemonade; the world would contain approximately 37 million poets equal to Homer, 37 million mathematicians equal to Newton and 37 million dramatists equal to Molière; and every woman would have four husbands simultaneously.”
- New World Encyclopedia entry on Charles Fourier

“Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge. […] The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the “underclass” humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.”
- “Human species ‘may split in two,’” BBC News

I just found out that dating (and annoying quiz) website OkCupid has a blog where they take information provided to them by their users and plot it in some rather fascinating ways. They brag that their pool of survey takers is about 100 times as large as the average Gallup Poll.

If that boast is an attempt to claim a higher level of accuracy, it’s important to remember that of course it ignores a rather high level of self-selection bias, and that OkCupid being a dating site will no doubt skew the results (and the questions and answer choices themselves) significantly. Still though, some of their graphs and charts are very interesting, especially where they deal with sticky subjects like sex, politics, religion, and most especially, ethnic relations. Here’s a few of the ones I thought were the most interesting…

(click the images to see the full blog posts they were taken from)

If you knew for sure you would not get caught,
would you commit murder for any reason?

Rate Your Self-Confidence

Before watching for myself, I had only heard three things about The Lawnmower Man:
1) It has nothing to do with the Steven King story.
2) Somebody has virtual reality sex.
3) It’s not a good movie.

After watching the film, although I can confirm those first two points, I have to disagree emphatically with the last one. Obviously, I understand why someone would hate this film. I especially understand why a cinephile or a filmmaker would hate this film. And by most conceivable definitions of the word, it is by no means a “good” movie. It’s cliched, hackneyed, pretentious, portentous, over-dramatic, convoluted, and silly. And yet, not only is it incredibly entertaining, but it’s a total mindfuck. Honestly, this may be one of my new favorite movies of all time.

I think the most apt comparison I could make would be Zardoz (and not only because both star James Bond actors). Like Zardoz, The Lawnmower Man transcends standards of “good” and “bad.” It’s not merely “so bad it’s good,” but rather, half “so bad it’s amazing” and half just plain actually amazing - except usually those two halves are occurring simultaneously. I’ll spare you the schematic of my thoughts. In essence, while watching the film it’s a good idea to completely throw any ideas about intentionality out the window.

The plot amounts to what is essentially a poor man’s Videodrome, with a decent helping of Flowers for Algernon and Carrie thrown in for good measure. I can’t really elaborate on that without giving too much away, but when you watch it, you’ll know exactly what I mean, because the plot points are pretty much lifted directly from those three stories. None of the characters ever really rise above the level of generic archetypes, and whereas in most films that would most definitely be a negative thing, in this film the characters are so much generic archetypes that they become hilarious caricatures, and it becomes endlessly entertaining to watch just how cliche they’ll be next. It’s obvious that the writers paid a lot more attention to the ideas they were trying to get across than to character or narrative believability. And that’s great! Because let’s be honest, Videodrome ain’t exactly hailed for its great character development either, if you know what I mean.

And those ideas are laid on thick. Reeeaaaal thick. But (again, just as in Zardoz) that doesn’t mean they’re not interesting. Despite the bluntness, heavy-handedness, and melodrama, there’s a lot to sink your teeth into intellectually. Some familiar cyberpunk themes of the dangers of the posthuman and the blurring of boundaries between cyberspace and ‘meatspace’ are explored, as well as religious and sexual themes. One blogger interprets the primary theme of the film as being “the aspiration to become information,” and I think that’s pretty spot on. I’m sure if I was better versed in critical theory and transhumanism, I’d be able to have a field day analyzing this film to death.

Lastly, I couldn’t allow myself to finish this review without at least some mention of the RIDICULOUS special effects. Obviously, the N64-quality CGI seems incredibly dated - laughably so - but not only does it add to the nostalgic cyberpunk feel of the film, it’s also often legitimately creepy and unsettling in a way that fancier, more realistic graphics could never accomplish, thus adding to both the “so bad it’s amazing” and actually amazing factors. Not to mention how the complete lack of realism in the virtual world makes for a much more interesting contrast between that world and the real world.

Now I’m just looking forward to seeing Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War!

BARR (aka Brendan Fowler) makes minimalistic, self-referential, autobiographical, motivational, self-help, spoken word rock. It’s hard to really convey what that means, and I was going to post some lyrics here, but that won’t convey it either. Because it’s the music (and the tone in Fowler’s voice) that really imbues those words with emotion and makes them a lot more than just some art school kid, fed on critical theory, thinking out loud and over-analyzing his life and his relationships.

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about BARR’s track “The Song Is The Single.” At the time, that was really the only track on this album that I enjoyed. I think when you’re first confronted with these songs, it’s hard to get past Fowler’s dry intellectualism and allow yourself to feel the naked sincerity underneath. This is “post-modern” music, yeah, but its definitely not ironic. And I don’t think its contrived or pretentious either. Even with all the art-theory-speak and intellectualizing of everything, Fowler always sounds conversational, like this is just how he talks about stuff all the time. And even if it’s not, I’m sure it’s how he thinks about everything. And I guess I can relate to that.

I feel like in order to really appreciate this album, you have to be going through some heavy shit, or be close to someone who’s going through some heavy shit. If you’re in a certain head space, and you’re willing to let your guard down a bit and give it a chance, this album can be the most uplifting, re-assuring, life affirming thing ever. Brendan Fowler is my fucking life coach.

If you just want a taste, listen to the track I linked to in the second paragraph. If you like that, I’d say give the album a chance.

BARR - Summary (2007)
1. First (2:31)
2. The Song Is The Single (4:06)
3. Summary (3:24)
4. Complete Consumption Of Us Both (5:06)
5. Untitled (3:55)
6. Half Of Two Times Two (Newer Version) (2:34)
7. Was I? Are You? (2:09)
8. Piled on Piles on Head (2:24)
9. Context Ender (5:05)

BUY IT
DOWNLOAD IT

And photographed me! And I ate a panini!

She’s starting a little series on her blog of short, 1 or 2 question interviews with friends. I had the pleasure of being the first one. She asked me about the really embarrassing short stories I wrote in my early teens and how they relate to my filmmaking now. You can read my answer here.

You should also take a look around the rest of Dea’s blog (and her other one). She writes about being an activist in the coal mines of West Virginia, but also about poetry, and zines, and diners, and punk rock, and other things.

I know this place has been abominably slow recently.

Lots of shit’s been going down the past month, and I’ve found it rather difficult for my brain to function. Not only that, but now it’s also finals week and I’m in full on senior thesis mode, so yeah.

Expect new stuff in a week or two, and hopefully in a few weeks this blog will be back to running at it’s usual “only kind of slow” pace.

Communities of Resistance (1/6) (Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey interview)
Communities of Resistance (2/6) (Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey interview)
Communities of Resistance (3/6) (Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey interview)
Communities of Resistance (4/6) (Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey interview)
Communities of Resistance (5/6) (Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey interview)
Communities of Resistance (6/6) (Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey interview)
Karl Hess: Toward Liberty (awful quality, but great film!)
People Doing Stuff
Tuvan Internationale
Cat lady makes bags out of fur
Biz Markie Performing “Bennie and the Jets”
exmovere chariot prototype
crispin dancing
Crispin Glover on art, Werner Herzog, David Letterman snafu
Alan Moore: art is magic
Roy Road Fish Co Humingbird Hat
Sobbing Goodbye
Pizza Kids - “We Like Pizza (Radio Version)”
80s Video Dating Montage
The chippendiddys
Deerhoof - Spy On You
Chimp & Frog
Pamela Douglas decides to feed grizzly bear with Donna !
Radiation March
SITE BEST STORES (part 1)
SITE BEST STORES (part 2)
SITE BEST STORES (part 3)
SITE BEST STORES (part 4)
Christian Side Hug
The Devil’s Toy - English (awesome 1960s skateboarding film)
Story from North America
Snake Vore - Sexy Animation - Snakes Gone HUNGRY!
from here to ear - Céleste Boursier Mougenot - Galerie Xippas
untitled yet
Sciences at Purchase 60sec
shane sings 5 octaves on piano
Timelapse of swarming monster worms and sea stars eating a dead seal
Julia Stiles as a hacker on Ghostwriter
silent night - miau (meow)

Wikipedia Roundups are where I periodically post all the most interesting Wikipedia articles I’ve read lately. Feel free to share your own finds in the comments section. For more links, click here.

RRRecords
Anti-record
Aokigahara
The Lone Ranger: The Lone Ranger creed
Mickey Slim
American exceptionalism
Pythagoreanism
Jury nullification
A language is a dialect with an army and a navy
Statelessness
Speakers’ Corner
Structural violence
Documentary mode
Plop art
Sluggishly progressing schizophrenia
Final girl
Space law
Cat intelligence
The Angel Makers of Nagyrév
Real-life superhero
Ted Serios
Potemkin village
Kijong-dong
Internet addiction disorder
Cultural references to pigs
Whistled language
Fratire
Jack Parsons
Chartjunk
Art game
Serious game
Non-game
Video game art
Machinima
Monolith (computer program)
Alignment (role-playing games)
Creature type (Dungeons & Dragons)
Blackwater Worldwide
Fela Kuti
Non-monogamy
Morganatic marriage
Polyfidelity
Oneida Community
Eugenics
Designer baby
Participant evolution
Free love
Spiritual marriage
Lavender marriage
Boston marriage
Homosociality
Romantic friendship
Bromance
Man cave
Asexuality
Kinsey scale
Klein Sexual Orientation Grid
Peijainen
Voter fatigue
Rational ignorance
Girlfriend experience

Seems obvious enough.

From the backside of a letter from Dennis (Johnson?) to La Monte Young. Published in An Anthology of Chance Operations (pg 52).

From the Pitchfork article on No Age designing a sneaker:

“The members of No Age walk an interesting line. They’re some of the biggest proponents of DIY all-ages spaces out there, but they’re also fully willing to play shows with corporate sponsors. They clearly know their Fugazi, but they’ve adapted the punk rock ethos for an age when even your mom is on Twitter. It’s kind of inspiring.”

I didn’t know “inspiring” was the new word for “gross” (or “adapted” the new word for “abandoned”).