experience – Cubilone's Dimension

qbdp Episode #2: Πρωτοχρονιά 2014 – The Party Experience

Αντί ποστίου για τη νέα χρονιά -αν και δεν εγγυώμαι ότι δεν θα κάνω κάποιου είδους ανασκόπηση του ’13- σας παρουσίαζω το εορταστικό επεισόδιο “Πρωτοχρονιά ’14, The Party Experience”.

Αν αναρωτιέστε γιατί τη μία γράφω τους τίτλους στα ελληνικά κι άλλοτε στα αγγλικά, δεν έχω καλή απάντηση. Καλωσήρθατε στον κόσμο μου.

Το επεισόδιο περιλαμβάνει:

•Προσβολές για το εργαλειάκι από άπιστους
•Σχολιασμό πάρτι από καναπεδοκένταυρους
•Αναρώτηση της χρησιμότητας του χορού σαν είδος ερωτικής τελετής
•Ήχους ανοίγματος κουτακιού ~~σόδας~~ μπύρας
•Θόρυβο από τις -σίγουρα λιγότερο ενδιαφέρουσες!- συζητήσεις στο βάθος
•Μουσική, για να γίνει το πόδψαστ λίγο πιο ζωντανό! Βάλτε φτερά στα πόδια σας με αυτά τα beats από το παρελθόν!
•Αναφορές στην κολική δραστηριότητα του Κεμάλ Ατατούρκ
•Πιθανή προέλευση του ονόματος «Πανταζής
•Φιλοσοφική συζήτηση για το κατα πόσο η λογική είναι ο μόνος, ο καλύτερος -ή τελικά απλά άλλος ένας- τρόπος ερμηνείας του κόσμου.
Και πολλά άλλα.

Συνιστάται η χρήση ακουστικών για μεγαλύτερη ακουστική απόλαυση και μια συνολικότερη εμπειρία.

To Cubilone’s Dimension δεν φέρει καμία ευθύνη αν η έκθεση σε αυτό το ηχητικό αρχείο σας προκαλέσει συμπτώματα παρόμοια με πραγματικής παρουσίας σε πάρτι, όπως: ξαφνική όρεξη για υπερβολική κατανάλωση αλκοόλ (και λοιπά φυσιλογικά συμπτώματα), συζήτηση με αγνώστους, επιθυμία χρήσης κινητού, τάσεις φυγής, κρίσεις ταυτότητας («γιατί δεν χορεύω;»), υπνηλία, αγάπη για όλον τον κόσμο, μίσος για όλον τον κόσμο, και άλλα.

Review: The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher

The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Above: a photograph of my own copy of The Art of Looking Sideways.

This book is a valuable collection of experiences, quotes, designer-gasms, observations and insights into life, the aesthetic, artistic and general human experience, by late master graphic designer Alan Fletcher.

I got it more than a year ago like new (yes, it took me this long to go through its 1000+ pages reading/enjoying on and off) for around €30. Most of that must have been the shipping costs: when it arrived I really couldn’t believe the sheer mass of it. I tried to scan some of it, once; the results: my current profile picture, and a scanner which since then has been occassionally malfunctioning, the book’s weight having left a permanent scar in its life of digitisation. This is actually the only reason I haven’t been lugging it around more often, showing it to each and every one of my friends — artistically inclined or no.

This book is so thick with inspiration it’s almost impossible to deal with: you can’t open it randomly to catch the creative spark (supposedly Alan Fletcher’s point in making it) without wanting to read it all. Though I suppose this mindless and distracted consumption is a personal demon I have to deal with!

Anyway. I’ll make this short and to the point: this treasure chest of a book is one of my most prized and proud possessions — and believe you me, as a rule I don’t take particular pride anymore in owning things.

View all my reviews

Enter the Void

Yesterday I watched Enter the Void.

This film tells the story of a drug dealer-addict in Tokyo that dies while tripping on DMT. He subsequently has the “longest and biggest trip of his life”, together with an Out of Body Experience. After his death, he flies around in Tokyo, watching his sister and close people and how they have dealt with his death.

Some say Enter the Void is meant to be an experience, like a LSD or DMT trip would (even if some say DMT is misrepresented in the film) and is not made to make the audience feel empathy, serenity or any kind of feeling apart from disturbance or boredom. This movie had way too much needless sex — I mean, if you had died, why would you go around looking at your sister fucking? Yes, our… hero does that a lot. And other people fucking of course, lots and lots of them. Then, the question arises: has he really died, or is it just the biggest DMT trip of his life? For starters, it is said (and stressed in the film) that DMT is secreted in every person’s brains when they die. Apart from those unlucky few who have their heads pulverised by a shotgun or something, of course. We get a good look at Tokyo’s underground (strip) club and drug scene and many emotional or startling moments from which we feel detached.

I cannot decide what to think about this movie. It’s way too long and the last part is a long, redundant, boring trip (some compare it with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just throw some sex in there). The technical aspect of it though is top-notch. I asked myself “how the hell did they film that?!” many, many times over.

HOW THE HELL DID THEY FILM THAT?!

The psychedelic effects are also very intense (if you suffer from any kind of epilepsy, avoid ever EVER watching this film. You will probably have several fits, possibly at the same time). For the rest of us, it’s quite a trip.

Which leaves me wondering: is the whole point of the film merely to emulate a psychedelic trip? It sort of succeeds doing that. But it fails being a cohesive cinematic experience. If you want to look at this as an experience –no added adjectives–, you might find it enjoyable. If you’d rather look at it as a film with a particular structure, the common meaning of the word, you’ll be itching to press the fast forward button.

I don’t know what to make of this. It’s a film you can’t not feel strongly about, one way or the other. It’s so unlike anything I’ve ever seen but I wouldn’t feel like watching again some parts of it which were absolutely frustrating in their repetitiveness. A part of me hated it. Another part of me hates to kind of liked it. And another part of me absolutely loved it. This trichotomy, for me, is an indication that at least there’s something about this movie that might be easy to miss or you just need to be in the right (very possibly altered) state of mind to fully appreciate.