I watched The Prestige (2006) last night. It was good. No spoilers, not to worry, but there was one scene in which a magician was extremely bothered because the logistics of a particular act left him backstage at the moment of glory---the applause and the cheering (it was a very good trick).
I sympathized, somewhat. As a visual artist, I'm acutely aware that my best artistic moments are spent...alone.
Art isn't created in a vacuum. In a busy studio, where multiple projects in different media are always in process, things happen. Often. Deep insights, clever improvisations, spectacular feats of slap-stick, on-your-feet thinking occur with fair regularity.
and
There are occasional moments of true brilliance. Sometimes.
I generally like the works that emerge from the sometimes chaotic mess I call my studio. I generally enjoy showing the art to people. Still, I'm constantly aware that what the public sees is the product. They never really get to see the show.
Music today included The Eraser, by Thom Yorke (of Radiohead). My first listen tells me there is more to be discovered in subsequent plays. Good stuff.
I need to see the Bodies exhibit. Soon. (www.bodiestickets.com) . Hmm. Who do I know in NY?
I'm currently reading Cigarettes Are Sublime by Richard Klein. I'm always reading at least one book. It rarely occurs to me to mention it. I'll try to be better about that. Most of the books I read are worth mentioning.
We swam today, Ben, Orion and I. Diving into cold water (as I imagine running in cold air, skiing, or whatever else you can think of that involves cold and movement) seems to be an effective deterrent for fatigue, sloggishness or the plain old fucking blues. It slaps your inner child's butt and says...'you're alive! So... live!'
I have to say I recommend it.
Blogger ate the earlier version of this post, which was longer and more colorfully written. This one is shorter and somewhat more to the point---so, good for you. I'm attempting to post a photo of a Poppet wedding couple I made this week. (Hi to Steve and Kelli.) If it doesn't work, I'll email the photo to Ravyn, who can add it to this post while I'm sleeping three hours earlier than when she wakes tomorrow.
It's like time travel, dammit.
I recommend The Prestige. Good stuff. Good director, good cast. And David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. ok. That's just too nerdy-cool to miss.
8 comments:
I really enjoyed The Prestige over the weekend. Great comparison you make to that scene, it was a very interesting one from the perspective of the motives that drove the character to later actions. And it was GREAT to see David Bowie in that roll!
I saw The Bodies show when it was in Chicago - powerful and amazing - I can't recommend it enough, it was one of the best exhibits I have ever seen. There were some bodies which consisted of only the blood systems, eerily beautiful, lacy and fragile. They had a few pieces that you could handle as well - a lung and a liver I believe. My daughters loved it as well, one enough to switch her major to the sciences. Hope you can see it!
I did the same, saw The Prestige over the weekend and also really enjoyed it. That scene you talk about was a really interesting one, and I loved that he still took a bow though no one could see him.
And thanks to you, I'm listening to The Eraser again right now. :)
There's a "Bodies" display in Vancouver right now. You know someone in Vancouver.
now I WILL have to see that movie.
love the wedding couple. very charming
The show is in Boston now and I haven't seen it yet, but need to.
And you don't know me at all, but I've been reading for months now (and recently ordered some pieces from your Halloween sale) and would be most happy to put you up in Boston in a clean, safe, place inhabited by three grad students and two cats. We have a very comfy futon and could even feed you.
(If you desire further references of some kind, the only thing I can give you is that Neil knows, vaguely, my friend Johanna, whom he has christened the Queen of Clocks, and she will testify that I'm not an axe-murderer. What a round-about and absurd sort of introduction...)
Robert and I saw the Bodies here in Atlanta. It was fascinating. I agree with Ivenotime that the displays of the circulatory system (limbs, organs and entire bodies shaped from the dense network of red or blue arteries, veins and capillaries which feed them) were probably the most bizarrely beautiful part of it. The Atlanta exhibit also had a display of the nervous system, a brain with eyeballs still attached leading down to the spinal cord and nerves of the trunk and extremities that looked to me like some jellyfish or octopus creature, both human and strangely alien at the same time. I do hope you get a chance to see one of these exhibits somewhere.
I hope to see The Prestige soon... I need to find out where it's playing (damn these limited release films!) and line up a babysitter.
By the way, I was overjoyed to be able to purchase some poppets of my very own! Thank you. They will have a special place here, somewhere between the status of valued artwork and treasured pets. I hope they will enjoy university life- I've got my own plans for POT.
:-)
I couldn't go and see Bodies, because (and I hate to type this, because it sounds so Victorian-novel-heroine) I would faint. I once passed out in a bookshop just reading an overly anatomical description. (The only upside was that I got given a free muffin and a cup of coffee by the store staff.)
So those of you that are brave have a duty to the rest of us.
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