No Rest For Wikid + SUCKCESS + Apartment + Xs
I have yet again stayed up all night (it is now 7am). I’m not sure what is happening, although I have a sneaking suspicion it may be related to all the red bull I’ve taken to drinking lately. Hmmmm…might be time to cut down. Still I got plenty done tonight, mostly customizing my computer so I am now using a nifty Masters of Cinema Mac Icon Set and this rather AWESOME screensaver.
The other fruit of this evening was managing to finally set up a steady audio routing system throughout my computer – I’ve been trying to make Soundflower work for quite a while now, but it just seems utterly unstable. Sometimes it works like a dream, but most times (especially lately) I can’t get it to run at all. This is pretty depressing considering it’s using the same computer, the same copy of Live, and the same copy of Max, so god knows I could never trust it in a live setting. I have had success with Wormhole.vst, but that requires constant loading and configuring, which especially in Max is a pain. Anyway, tonight I had had enough, and once I realised I had reached the point of no return in terms of staying up, decided to persevere, which didn’t actually take too long. I had heard about Jackserver ages ago, but think I downloaded it and just never opened it (silly me), because it works like a charm which works. Not only that but the simplicity and power easily trounced my experiences with Soundflower or Wormhole, even on a good day. Now I’m sounding like a real nerd, so I’m going to cut this brief; my excitement at being able to run audio through any inputs/outputs anywhere (which is kind of a vital part of the SVO project). I was planning a stupidly complicated routing going ADC > LIVE > MAX > LIVE > MAX > LIVE > MAX > DAC just because I could (FUN), and ended up recording this instead. It’s not going to blow your mind, but if the mic input had been turned on you could have heard me jumping around the room, clapping my hands with glee: JACKJACKtest by Paul Heslin
Having completed this, I sat down between approximately 3.45 and 5.45 to watch The Apartment from 1960, and I think I have a new favourite film. Far better than the more famous Some Like It Hot, and if you haven’t seen it (as I’m guessing many people haven’t) track it down. Really good stuff, and I’m surprised there isn’t a remake with Jim Carrey yet – if he put on some weight he’d look damn close to J Lemmon.
At some point after this I got on Facebook, which is always a bad idea when one does not have one’s brains in gear, and ended up looking up the profiles of all the girls I’ve ever been involved with. I wasn’t trying to be creepy, pathetic, regretful, or any other emotion that is probably going to be ascribed to the last sentence; I was just curious as to how they are going. One of the things that struck me during my musings on death yesterday was the idea of shared memories. I’m an atheist; I don’t believe in any god or supernatural force outside of what we can see and hear, so any conversation/experience/anything shared between a small group (especially in the case of a couple) is only known to those involved (first hand anyway, I am discounting graphic descriptions to friends) so what happens if someone dies – or less dramatically: forgets? You become the sole keeper of that morning/day/afternoon/evening/night. Maybe this is why photos are so important, they provide a third backup, and one which will not be swayed by perception or damage. This is almost turning into poetry. Anyway getting back to my creepy spying on ex-girlfriends, they all seem happy. Which made me happy in a very odd way.
I was thinking about relationships the other day – I know some people complain about how obsessed people are with love, and how the subject dominates pop music and films, yet, when you think about it, it is a pretty huge thing. Of all our social interactions with others (which, in all its forms, some might argue, comprises everything we DO in life apart from fulfilling our basic physical needs), it is a state in which one other person’s existence becomes crucial to yours, and vice versa. This allows for (what at least should be) our deepest and most intimate social interactions. Thus, even when these relationships end, you will always be linked to that person through the special role that you played in each other’s life for whatever period of time.
This may all be pretty elementary, but I feel that it does justify the importance that human society places on love. And it also goes some way to explaining why some of us (and this also includes me) can be so genuinely fascinated by what our exes are doing with their lives, even long after we have ceased to be involved in them.
Please forgive any poorly thought out sentences or grammatical errors, I haven’t been sleeping for the last week.
It is an interesting thought, and I can see your points; but I think there needs to be stated a delineation between love: “the subject which dominates film and music” and realistic human interaction. In mainstream culture “love” is streamlined into something which end up bearing little resemblance to anything, by way of simultaneously being vaguely familiar to everyone. The simple romantic cliche that dominates the landscape (boy & girl meet, problems arise, get sorted, happy ending) is so entrenched that it is extremely noticeable when it is even deviated from slightly, for example in two excellent films: 500 Days of Summer (sometimes you do meet someone else!) and Away We Go (you don’t need dramatic crisis within a cinematic couple!).
Even these films seem to be far from depicting how it feels to be in a relationship, with all it’s individual facets. Right now I’m thinking that 9 Songs, for all it’s failings, is an interesting case study in that it simultaneously tries to be identifiable to EVERYONE (I’ve been to gigs!!! I’ve had sex!!! They’re just like me!!!) and also provide what ultimately feels like a fictitious excursion into a specific couple’s private lives. I also wanted to see “Cloud 9″ for this reason, and also just because it is a break from the constant stream of young lovers who seem to dominate.
As far as covertly having a check up on the lives of others, I suppose there are many different aspects which arouse curiosity –
who are they with!
are they still attractive?
were they ever attractive??
who are they with!!
are they happy?
did I make them happy??
did they make me happy??
who are they with??
we should get back together!
Sorry to add to that long post, but have you noticed how less convincing falling in love is becoming. It is almost like once you have two characters who are obviously intended for each other, the love is already a foregone conclusion! Worst recent offenders, the presidents daughter and scientist dude from 2012, and (sorry) the twilight kids.
Where is the nervousness? The misunderstandings? THE SEX? The lack of confidence in feelings? In the other’s feelings? Instead it’s just straight hello to eternal love, which “saving of life” functioning as lazy replacement for actual earned trust.
You know, I think I appreciate 9 Songs more and more as time goes by. It did nothing for me when I first saw it, but it hit me recently that it’s actually something of a significant achievement – by taking subjects that one would reasonably think there was nothing left to say about (sex and relationships) and presenting them in a novel way that manages to go far beyond the ‘actual sex’ gimmick. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but I think I admire Winterbottom for what he did achieve with it. I’m quite keen to see Away We Go (comes out in a few weeks here), and I thought 500 Days of Summer was quite good.
I certainly agree with you on the romantic cliche aspect, and it’s one of the reasons why I avoid romantic comedies (and, indeed, the vast majority of Hollywood films) like the plague these days. I actually find it depressing to see something as beautiful and complex as love presented in such a mindless way.
So what’s with the Twilight thing, anyway? I haven’t seen the movies, and don’t really intend to, but I don’t get why it’s such a huge phenomenon. It’s not like vampires haven’t been cool before (…Buffy!)?