January 2012
39 posts
WatchUnicorn City — New Trailer
After winning some festival awards, looks like that movie I worked on 2 summers ago is going to theaters after all. Cool!
R-Rated People On Trial
Amuse yourself for a moment and think of a person you find disgusting. I don’t mean “disgusting” as in someone who picks his nose, forgets deodorant, or farts in a college classroom accidently, but someone who really violates, in an important way, what you believe are the rules of correctness, the rules of human decency. This person should be someone who values what you think is evil or praises...
The Mormon Conversation America Needs →
There is a tension—mostly healthy—within contemporary Mormonism. Mormons both want to be distinctive and to find full acceptance within American society. Striking that balance has proven difficult. For the most part, Mormons have been distinguished by their distinctiveness.
Internally, this distinctiveness fosters vitality within Mormonism. Mormons participate at high rates in their faith and...
Spider-womannn on Existence
spider-womannn said: But, existence is so raw, so lovely. I think to merely exist is enough, that creating a reality is like taking the blue pill. I suppose picking a reality is a bold move, but I see existence as something so pure, when you exist, you need nothing else.
...
Existence, Reality: Is there a difference?
A friend of mine believes that reality cannot be changed, that it sets limits on human ingenuity. In our conversation we thought of several examples: fire burns, planets orbit, tides ebb and flow, gravity gives weight to objects, etc. These kinds of things don’t give a damn about our thoughts; they seem to represent things as they are in spite of our wishes, values, attitudes, and...
“No man is safe unless he is master of himself, and there is no tyrant so...”
– Joseph F. Smith
Atman: The Divine Indwelling
He must gain experience for himself. He had known for a long time that his Self was Atman, of the same eternal nature as Brahman, but he had never really found his Self, because he had wanted to trap it in the net of thoughts.
(Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse)
Letters From This Guy →
Dear Barnes & Noble Booksellers,
While I was in one of your stores today, I saw an entire section for “Teen Paranormal Romance.” My mind was blown. In a bad way. I am always game for a good mind blowing, but this was bad. Very, very bad. What has happened to our world? How could we ever let ourselves sink so low? Sadness pierces my heart as I think about such terrible...
“Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she...”
– Goya (via apoplecticskeptic)
The Drinker
“The drinker does indeed find escape, he does indeed find a short respite and rest, but he returns from the illusion and find everything as it was before. He has not grown wiser, he has not gained knowledge, he has not climbed any higher.”
—Govdina (Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse)
Psychedelic and Religious Experience
Sam Harris has said, “It is impossible to communicate the profundity (or seeming profundity) of psychedelic states to those who have never had such experiences themselves.”
I think the same argument can be made for religious experience.There is an assumption, based on ignorance or a lack of participation, that religion exerts a negatively charged, conservative, censorious pressure on our...
“You’ve never been depressed—yours is a gift”
I’d like to dedicate this post to unhappy, lonely, emotionally-spent, awkward people.
If you and I share something similar, we share a label that was given to us involuntarily at a very young age. This label would go on to define us, or define who we thought we were, and would be the cause for why we feel different in social settings. Allow me to personalize this label for a moment before I speak...
Proof, my darling
The kind of evidence she desires
Is not something I can willfully command
Not because there is none
There is
But because any I could give her
She’d reject on terms that what is required of her to become
Is not convenient for how she wants to continue living
Chomsky on Sports
Sports - that’s another example of the indoctrination system. For one thing, because it offers people something to pay attention to that’s of no importance, that keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives, that might give them some idea of doing something about. And it’s striking to see the intelligence that is used by ordinary people in sports. Listen...
“If there is a God who will damn his children forever, I would rather go to hell...”
– Robert G. Ingersoll, (1833-1899) American political leader (via chzane)
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It is my carefully considered opinion that the personalized God I...
Sonnet 27
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; But then begins a journey in my head, To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired: For then my thoughts, from far where I abide, Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, Looking on darkness which the blind do see Save that my soul’s imaginary sight Presents thy...
Behind-the-Scenes of "The Master" →
In a time where there seems to be a constant focus on set photos and early looks, it’s reassuring to see distinguished auteur Paul Thomas Anderson’s next untitled offering (aka “The Master”) make its way to theaters so quietly. But this week has seen the spotlight shined back on the work of the director with looks at what he’s working on right now and a hint at what may come after that.
...
Johnny Greenwood to Score P.T. Anderson's "The... →
After what seems like years of speculation and delays, Paul Thomas Anderson is in post-production on The Master, his film that is either a lot or a little inspired by the life and work of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The movie stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as the title character, with Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Laura Dern and many more appearing as well.
And now it seems that Anderson...
My Husband Discovers Poetry
Because my husband would not read my poems, I wrote one about how I did not love him. In lines of strict iambic pentameter, I detailed his coldness, his lack of humor. It felt good to do this.
Stanza by stanza, I grew bolder and bolder. Towards the end, struck by inspiration, I wrote about my old boyfriend, a boy I had not loved enough to marry but who could make me laugh and laugh. I wrote about...
Persian/Arab Apothegm
“He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool…shun him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is willing…teach him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep…awaken him.
He who knows and knows that he knows is wise…follow him.”
My Top 6 Films of 2011
1. Melancholia (Lars von Trier)
2. Drive (Nicolas Wending Renf)
3. Hugo (Martin Scorsese)
4. Shame (Steve McQueen)
5. Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen) — sorry, no review yet
6. Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
Hugo (2011)
As I walked out of the theater I couldn’t help but smile as I overheard from behind me a soccer mom, who had brought all five of her children and was probably expecting a children’s film, give her gut, post-film reaction to Martin Scorsese’s latest picture:
“I was expecting more action. It was too much of a documentary.”
I don’t think there’s any way I can say what I’m about to say without...
The Best Is Yet To Be by Jeffrey R. Holland →
The start of a new year is the traditional time to take stock of our lives and see where we are going, measured against the backdrop of where we have been. I don’t want to talk about New Year’s resolutions, but I do want to talk about the past and the future, with an eye toward any time of transition and change in our lives—and those moments come virtually every day.
As a new year begins and...
New Year's Resolutions: Expectations Vs. Reality →
“Today’s person spends way more time in front of screens. In fluorescent-lit...”
– David Foster Wallace, in interview with David Lipsky, in Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (via fuckyeahphilosophy)
Sonnet 129
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had, Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad: Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest to...
December 2011
57 posts
Shame (2011): The Loss of Self-Control
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well to shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
—Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129
It’s funny, I think of Hollywood and immediately think of an industry so fueled by sex and hot bodies that to see a film like “Shame” portray sex as something so unsexy, so joyless, actually makes for an attractive sort of irony. This is not the kind of film you...
Jesus was an occupier →
During Jesus’ life the temple in Jerusalem was the symbolic center of Jewish religious, political, legal, and economic power. It was, in the words of one of my former Bible professors, the White House, Supreme Court, and Federal Reserve combined. During the time of Jesus’ life the temple had a practice of using “moneychangers.” Moneychangers had the task of exchanging Roman and other money for...
