Author: jkordy

Nick Cave

What is not to love about these amazing soundsuits! Visually engaging, full of intricate detail, and they are conduits for sound making and performance.

“‘I believe that the familiar must move towards the fantastic.”
– Nick Cave

If you are in Chicago right now, you can go visit a pop-up shop and and video installation down in Chicago’s Motor Row District. It’s a beautiful neighborhood and the video is a great way to see full dynamism of the suits. More info on the store and the artist at chicagomag.

Tres Libros

Buyology
by Martin Lindstrom

While there were some insights in this book, it really would have been much more interesting as a concise and in depth magazine article, than content blow up into book length using random personal asides. Maybe it had to be a book just to justify the 7 million dollar price tag of the study on which it was based? Guess what? Some of the main insights – logos don’t work that well, extreme fanboys respond to their brands as if they’re having a religious experience – are not that groundbreaking. I think this amazon review captures the feeling best.

A Geography of Time
by Robert Levine

I really enjoyed this book. It mixes two of my favorite subjects: time and cross-cultural differences. And what a loaded subject it is. It is amazing to see how differently cultures treat the concept of time and in-turn how these ideas shape the societies within them. The big take-away is the distinction between event-time and clock-time, which usually falls along the lines of western/industrialized societies and the rest of the world with Japan always warranting an extra mention with their expert melding of the two. The book is full of wonderful cultural and scientific insights and anecdotes.

A Mercy
by Toni Morrison

If you’re expecting a narrative recounting the day by day horrors of slavery, you will be disappointed. Those days are yet to come in this book. America is just getting started in it’s exploitation. These are the days when multiple nations, religions, adventurers, businessmen are just getting here and trying to stake out their shares.

What I love about this book is how expertly Toni Morrison transports you to this world in another time. You can see the forces gathering that made full-blown slavery and modern day racism, but they’re not fully here yet. But above all I love the parts that are written in what I think of as Morrison’s trademark style, like poetry or stream of consciousness – descriptions, words, ideas, reality and magical subconscious intertwine and pour out onto the page telling a moving and powerful story.

Quote

“If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.”

— Mohandas Gandhi

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

A videogame movie.


Disclaimer I have not seen the movie, and probably never will, but I am into video games, and I thought this was interesting:

The new york times has two different reviews of this movie, and to my surprise they are complete opposites. The first one, by A. O. Scott, even designates this movie a “critic’s pick.” The second one, by Seth Schiesel, describes how he could barely get through this movie.

How can this be? Simple – the first person is a film critic, the second a video game reviewer. (I suspect age might have something to do with it as well.)

For the film critic, this movie does an excellent job of bringing to life the repetitive mindless button mashing point acquiring primal stupidity addictive feel of early video games. Back when there was no story, just the joy of being the best button masher. If you tried long and hard enough, (and had enough quarters) eventually you would win and get the girl. For him the movie does an excellent job of representing this feeling.

For the video game review writer, that sentiment is exactly what video games have been striving to get away from for years. Nowadays, video games are the ones that are very likely to be cinematic, and so story driven as to rival and greatly surpass many a cookie cutter movie offering. Today’s video games are often interactive, immersive, engaging stories that might pull you into their word more readily and more deeply than any movie ever has. With that in mind any movie that represents video games as the button mashing of yore is a slap in the face. It’s hard not to get a chip on your shoulder when you’re working in an industry that is trying to get recognition as a viable artistic medium and is constantly being compared to film.

Who to believe? Depends on which camp you’re in I guess. For me it was interesting to see opposite reviews in the New York Times, I had no idea this movie would be so divisive.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

I’m a fan of Basquiat, I like his name but more importantly I really, truly like his work. It’s a great mix of childhood innocence, social commentary and a treatment of type, language and words in a visual manner. I’m also a fan of seeing artists up close and personal, or getting behind the scenes info on their lives and how their creativity works. There’s been more than a few movies and films on Basquiat, and I think I’ve seen all of them, but it’s been a while. So I was excited to go see Tamra Davis’ version, complete with never before seen footage of the man himself.

That part was probably the least interesting, and the film overall was an ok documentary. I did get a good sense of Basquiats life out of it, and what his art was about, and how it came to be. Although these were things I mostly knew already. So if you are new to Basquiat lots of good stuff, if you are already familiar then it is a good refresher at least. Also there are lot’s of great shots of New york from the 70’s and 80’s, which I always love, relish even. So I was pretty satisfied.

(image from lookintomyowl.com)

Packing for Mars

Mary Roach’s latest and 4th book does not disappoint. Her characteristic wry and very often morbid humor is back. This time she is explaining the intricacies of space travel.

Packing for Mars may be a little bit of a misnomer, because to get to that point she has to get through the history of space travel and all of the insanity that that entails.

I always thought I knew a little bit about outer space, but truly I had no idea. From the first animals in space (monkey’s and dog’s I knew about but there is more), through wax covered sandwich squares, and edible spaceship parts, through barf bags and “egesta” bags as well.

I also thought I had a good grasp on what weightlessness means, but in reality I had no idea.

Last but not least, unfortunately, I think this book has put out of my mind any fancifull ideas of ever going into space myself, though I might try a ride on a parabolic flight which will only set me back $5k, though even that may have been soiled but Mary’s vivid accounts on space sickness.