plato's cave forty eight (being a film journal) it is happening again

Mark Frost and David Lynch - Twin Peaks: The Return - 2017

Seascapes, Avant-Garde Scrub editing and Transcendental Electricity in Part Three

Purple burst of liquid light transcends to Sugimoto / Vija Celmins / Michael Snow like

Seascapes with a bass heavy oceanic drone not unlike Thomas Köner.  Nearness & Infinity.

Hiroshi Sugimoto Lake Superior, Cascade River - 1995

Vija Celmins Untitled Ocean - 1970

Michael Snow Wavelength - 1967

Scrub editing by Duwayne Dunham and David Lynch. I have never seen editing quite like this. The edits move freely through the shots like a scrubbing tool or a disc jockey scratching a vinyl record, back and forth, sometimes fluid, sometimes not. Visual ellipsis, like parts of the film got destroyed and edits needed to be made (P. Adam Sitney on the films of Joseph Cornell). In addition; foreign shots are added in, interrupting and causing havoc, in these already scrubbed moments. Scrubs go between being smooth and hypnotic to jarring and nearing out of control. This editing effect is used to an astounding effect in Part Eight, especially around the gas station/convenience store, but basically introduced in this section with Cooper and Naido. One of the outstanding achievements in this new series is the disorienting editing techniques used. People disappearing in flickers also appears numerous times. The history of avant-garde film has unconventional editing techniques more commonplace; works by Kurt Kren, Saul Levine or Peter Kubelka, but here the subtleties and complexities of this scrub technique (for lack of a better word) is quite novel. In addition, seeing these techniques in television is really quite crazy even with all the unconventional tv of the day.

If one looks close at these techniques an attempts a description; we start a slow zoom into a character (Naido), with edits here and there to remove frames, interrupted with reversing back to a previous part of the zoom, again interrupted with edits. Camera movements and hard cuts between different camera set ups further extend this technique. The overall feeling of a solid decision is present, no randomness… this decision adds such gravity to the editing. Lynchian drones and Badalamenti melodies are an  undercurrent to this fuckery and slowly Electricity makes itself present (last image) which has such a profound presence in this 18 hour work.

As we exit to the cosmic bell, the sound design is beyond sophistication, with distorted banging and drones followed by sonic electricity, then to near silence as Naido falls into space (second image).

Vija Celmins Night Sky #2 - 1991

Vija Celmins  Night Sky #18 - 1998

Jules Janssen Photograph de la surface solaire * - 1884

Ernest Mouchez La Photographie astronomique a l'observatoire de Paris - 1887

The scenes of Cooper and Naido in space resonate quite clearly for me as I am a follower of artist's and scientists depicting space, like Vija Celmins and early cosmos photography (see Dans le champ des étoiles. Les photographes et le ciel, 1850-2000).

James Turrell Meeting at MoMA PS1, photo by Chi Yun

Post cosmos, we enter a James Turrell like interior, which leads us back to Electricity (third image) and a lovely ring-like tone to a deep drone.

Images of Electricity

Face and body morph as Cooper moves through the outlet, rendered even more otherworldly with scrub editing.  Electricity further manifests itself with Mr. C, and then he barfs black corn Garmonbozia.

Dougie Jones electrical disintegration in the Red Room reminds of Hans Holbein anamorphic painting The Ambassadors from 1533. The strange and often times childlike special effects throughout the 18 part series are so very beautiful and novel. They are mostly very painterly, like Dougie Jones appearing as black smoke in the Rancho Rosa empty house fuck pad; Jade gives two rides (third image).

plato's cave thirty five (being a film journal) it is happening again

Mark Frost and David Lynch - Twin Peaks - 2017

From Part One - New York establishing shot

Obsessing over the imagery of the New York "screening room" from Part One of Twin Peaks. The screening room is presented initially as a place for the young man to look into the "glass box".  It reminds this viewer not only of the obsessiveness some people (myself included) have for watching films for hours and hours a day, it also has a connection to the binge watching of television that was made possible by netflix and the like.

Our viewer has interruptions though.... from an attractive young women presenting coffee and wanting possibly other things that may not be considered christian. This begins one of the great mysteries of the show, who is the billionaire that is paying for this? what is going on in the box?

In terms of the visuals; it is easy to make connections to some 20th and 21st century artists. From the architectural monumentality of Richard Serra to the quiet contemplativeness and voyeurism of Edward Hopper.

Edward Hopper - Intermission - 1963

Edward Hopper - Solitary Figure in a Theatre - c.1902-4

Edward Hopper - New York Movie - 1939

tall pretty young women in periphery of "screening room"

Hiroshi Sugimoto theatre

Dan Graham glass mirror sculpture

melancholia, music, books, film & the sound of duchamp's large glass

(some nice business that has come my way)

vikki jackman: of beauty reminiscing

asher: the depths, the colors, the objects & the silence

****music****

-larsen and friends: abeceda (with david tibet, jòhann jòhannsson, baby dee, and the amazing julia kent)
2007 important
(a great band and performance, especially the lovely cello playing of julia kent)

-jgrzinich / mnortham: the absurd evidence
1998 orogenetics
(some intense business)

-rosy parlane: jessamine
2006 touch
(one mother-hubbard of a cd, full of mysteries)

-asher: the depths, the colors, the objects & the silence
2007 mystery sea
(stasis and velocity mixed together to create delicate, distant melodies, and overwhelming textures)
directions
and invariably the blue
three untitled pieces
(these three untitled pieces sound like actual dust moving through time in slow motion, and brought to mind man ray's photo of duchamp's large glass covered with dust. i like thinking about the sound that dust makes, and the sound the large glass makes which we are not privileged enough to hear....[unless we listen to asher's three melodies})
the anguish is not the same
miniatures
(in miniatures asher has managed to find old recordings of chopin himself playing the piano [and some others], mystically transformed by the wires of time. often in this cd, the wires take over and we hear nothing but static and time.)

-ubeboet: red and black remixes
2006
(with some lovely tracks by asher, arturas bumsteinas, mathieu ruhlman and dead letters spell out dead words)

-taylor deupree & christopher willits: listening garden
2007 line
(more in the realm of distant melodies, and good for drinking tea)

-stephan mathieu: the sad mac live at mutek 2002
2002 (here)
(the second track is something quite amazing)

-bill thompson: hogmanay on the north sea (2005) and other works
(some very subtle transformations of sound)

-nick drake: family tree
2007 tsunami

-josef van wissem: stations of the cross
2007 incunabulum
(solo lute, field recordings and music for airports, magickly imagined by aleister crowley [many tracks recorded in airports])

-vikki jackman: of beauty reminiscing
2007 faraway press
(another great album from andrew chalk's label)

-yuichiro fujimoto: the mountain record
2006 ahornfelder

-walt dickerson: walt dickerson 1976
1976 trio/whynot

-alice coltrane: a monastic trio 1968, huntington ashram monastery 1969, ptah, the el daoud 1970, journey in satchidananda 1970, universal consciousness 1972, world galaxy 1972, lord of lords 1972

-pharoah sanders: summun, bukmun, umyum 1970, thembi 1971, wisdom through music 1972
(catching up on my jazz. anyone who is interested in jazz and has not heard walt dickerson or alice coltrane; it is some of the best.)

****photography****

hiroshi sugimoto: aegean sea, pilion , 1990
seen at the hiroshi sugimoto exhibition at the de young, san francisco

my favourite sugimoto books:
-hiroshi sugimoto: seascapes
1994 museum of contemporary art, los angeles
-hiroshi sugimoto: architecture of time
2002 kunsthaus bregenz
-hiroshi sugimoto: architecture
2003 museum of contemporary art, chicago
-hiroshi sugimoto: theaters
2006 walter konig
-richard chartier + taylor deupree: specification fifteen
cd commissioned by the hirshhorn museum for the sugimoto exhibition

****books****

with borges by alberto manguel (found via inbetweennoise)

on borges' blindness:
-sometimes he (borges) himself chooses a book from the shelves. he knows, of course, where each volume is housed and he goes to it unerringly. but sometimes he finds himself in a place where the shelves are not familiar, in a foreign bookstore for instance, and here something uncanny happens. borges will pass his hands over the spines of the books, as if feeling his way over the rugged surface of a map in relief and, even if he does not know the territory, his skin seems to read the geography for him. running his fingers over books he has never opened before, something like a craftman's intuition will tell him what the book is that he is touching, and he is capable of deciphering titles and name which he certainly cannot read. (i once saw an old basque priest work in this way among clouds of bees, and to tell them apart and assign them to different hives, and i also remember a park ranger in the canadian rockies who knew exactly in what part of the woods he found himself by reading the lichen on the tree trunks with his fingers.) i can vouch for the fact that there exists a relationship between this old librarian and his books which the laws of physiology would judge impossible. (pages 30-31)

some other nice jorge luis borges books i have enjoyed:

-borges and his fiction: a guide to his mind and art by gene h. bell-villada
1967/1999 univ. of texas press
-conversations with jorge luis borges by richard burgin
1968 holt rinehart winston
-borges on writing edited by norman thomas di giovanni, daniel halpern, frank macshane
1972/1994 the ecco press
-jorge luis borges: a literary biography by emir rodriquez monegal
1978 dutton
-the lessons of the master: on borges and his work by norman thomas di giovanni
1988/2003 continuum
-with borges on an ordinary evening in buenos aires: a memoir by willis barnstone
1993 univ. of illinois press
-borges et l'architecture by christina grau
1993 centre george pompidou
-jorge luis borges: conversations edited by richard burgin
1998 univ. press of mississippi
-jorge luis borges: this craft of verse
2000 harvard univ. press (book + cd set)
-borges: the time machine
2001 colleccion jorge luis borges fundacion san telmo
-jorge luis borges: a catalogue of unique books and manuscripts by charles vallely
2003 lame duck books/volume gallery
-borges: a life by edwin williamson (still have not read)
2004 viking
********
-a personal anthology by jorge luis borges
1967 grove press
-jorge luis borges: collected fictions, selected poems, selected non-fictions translated by andrew hurly
1998-1999 viking
-some fiction translations by norman thomas di giovanni
1970s dutton press

****(some) films****

william wyler: detective story, 1951 (unbelievably good)
nicholas ray: in a lonely place, 1950 & michael cutriz: casablanca 1942 (both on 35mm)
lamont johnson: the last american hero, 1973
nuri bilge ceylan: climates, 2002 & climates, 2006 (see below)
hal ashby: shampoo, 1975
kelly reichardt: old joy, 2006
bennett miller: capote, 2005
steve buscemi: interview, 2007 (not much compared to his other films)
cristi puiu: the death of mr. lazarescu, 2006
vittorio de sica: two women, 1960 (on 35mm at BAM, one of his best)
chris noonan: babe, 1995 (a great ending john cage would have enjoyed [because of the silence])
-david lynch: inland empire, 2006 (35 mm & dvd) (see below)












stills from nuri bilge ceylan's film distant (uzak), 2002 (recommended by asher).

such stunning photography (done by ceylan) and sound design. the sound in ceylan's films has the feel and complexity of many of the sound artist's often listed in this blog. it is so nice to see a reciprocity between sound-art and cinema (and/oar's trilogy of director discs is another example, or the sound work of asher).
another great example is david lynch's inland empire.
in lynch's film there is a moment (at 1 hour and 39 minutes) that sounds so much like keith berry's soundtrack to 58º north, i like to think that they both encountered the sound together, and both used it in different ways.
but then, lynch's eraserhead (1977) can be considered one of the first great abstract soundworks.
and i like to think of sugimoto relaxing in front of one of his seascapes, listening to richard chartier and taylor deupree.