77 million paintings by Brian Eno. Yes.

by Ryland Walker Knight

My friend Mike introduced me to The Clock of the Long Now. I'm not sure who introduced him to the project but I know he was into it, at least partially, because Brian Eno, something of an unbounded mortal, was on the board of directors. The project has only grown since Stewart Brand's book and next weekend The Long Now Foundation will be presenting the North American debut of 77 million paintings by Brian Eno. "North American debut?" Well, yeah: Eno first threw this digital party in Venice, which is where those pretty pictures down below comes from (stolen from Wired's blog). Wired's blog has a notice up about the event, which runs Friday June 29th and Saturday June 30th from 8pm to 2am (both nights) at the Yerba Buena Center. If you like time, space, stained glass, arrays of Macintosh computers, big clocks, slow computers, Nevada, Danny Hillis, nerd shit, bell tones, Roxy Music or Brian Eno -- you may have a fun time starting stupefied and bewildered up at these evolving marvels. If you can't make it, you can buy a DVD approximation of the installation Eno has programmed to run on almost any computer. But, chances are, ain't nothing like the real thing, baby. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for students.



UPDATE, Sunday, July 1st, 2007, 8:34pm:
Went last night with Cameron. Was thinking about writing up another post about it but to attempt to fix it into words would be mostly pointless I feel. The idea is one of infinity, even as it is named with a fixed and round number and as it is proudly displayed for a mere 6 hours over a measly 3 days. To watch, or, to experience the project isn't merely to sit or stand and watch the three screens of varying light-objects. It is to inhabit the space. For, as a theatrical event, it exists to multiply worlds. Even the colors on the screen are arranged to make worlds, with multiple spheres and layers, or levels, of images washing into one another. And all the while bell tones play overhead, slowly ebbing across the auditorium. After a while I began to look around at my fellows more than at the screen, which made each sight new, and exciting. I would have loved to spend more time in the installation but my back hurt. And we wanted burritos. We're such silly California wingnuts. Here's a postcard I picked up:

Shameless Plug

Hey Duff. How's it going?


Yeah, I know.


I feel the same way. I mean summer so far has been, well, such a bummer. There hasn't been much to do. I have already read Middlesex so there goes Oprah's Book Club. Oh well. Did you watch Oprah last week?


Yeah. I needed a box of tissues too. Well, we should get together sometime soon. It's been ages. I mean with you being in the Velvet Underground and me spending all my time dreaming up conversations between myself and celebrities, it's been tough. Hey maybe we can catch a movie sometime...


You're right, Spidey did suck. Maybe we could go see something a little more...I don't know...good?


I don't know Mr. Smarty Pants! Did you ever see:


How about:


Yeah those movies are great! We should get together sometime and watch them. Maybe at your place on your plasma flat screen jumbotron. I'll bring the 8-Ball.


Well I agree, it would be great to see them in the theatre where they were meant to be shown. Hey I know, let's party line G-Money and see if he can do something about this. Hang on. Yo G-Money, what up?


Chillin'.


No shit. Hey me and Duff were talking about hooking up next week and we were wondering if you were down.


Well we were talking about watching some old movies and maybe working on the Patriot Quilt for the 4th of July festivities. Hey, you know what I haven't seen in ages:


And what about:


You think we can come over G and scope these joints?


What?


You're shitting me. Really? In Seattle? They're also playing:


And:


Holy fuck:

All starting Wednesday, June 27th?

Where?

When You're In Your Little Room...

Yesterday...

and today...

Miguel Cabrera is fat now.

2007

2003

Yup. Ozzie Guillen told him so.

Preliminary Notes on a Netflix Experiment (Plus, somethings special)

by Ryland Walker Knight

A dear friend of mine recently moved from the Bay back north (way fucking north) to Canada. Netflix doesn't deliver to Canada (yet?) so, in order to retain access to certain aspects of the site, this friend has switched the membership's shipping address to mine and the membership's rental plan to the $5/month, one-at-a-time version. Thus, I will be receiving Netflix somewhat sporadically with no knowledge of what's coming. I thought the best way to make the best of this fortunate (and generous) situation would be to write up the films as they come in the mail. There will be, on average, one of these posts every couple of weeks, I imagine. To keep it simple (less time consuming) I plan on writing no more than 500 words, and preferably one paragraph of about 300, as soon as I watch the film. Of course, there will be editing, and tweaking, but I want this experiment to be as immediate as possible. That is, in an infrequent, delayed kind of way. The first title to arrive:Andrucha Waddington's House of Sand. I plan on watching it sometime this week. Until then,

...something special 1:

[Paul Thomas Anderson has put together a teaser trailer for his adaptation of Upton Sinclair's OIL!, which he has re-titled There Will Be Blood. Yes. Appetite whetted. No, scratch that: I'm fucking drooling.]

...something special 2:

[That would be Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson and Peter Bogdonavich. Or, uh, the stars of Wes Anderson's next movie.]

Generosity for the day

But as to commitment in a general sense ... You know, I can't believe in the general ideas, really I can't believe in them at all. I try too hard to respect human personality not to feel that, at bottom, there must be a grain of truth in every idea. I can even believe that all the ideas are true in themselves, and that it's the application of them which gives them value or not in particular circumstances. ... No, I don't believe there are such things as absolute truths, but I do believe in absolute human qualities — generosity for instance. [Jean Renoir]

To Live is To Learn: Kenji Mizoguchi on screen, on DVD

An e-conversation between Ryland Walker Knight and Steven Boone

[To read the exchange, click here, and you will be redirected to The House Next Door. I've been busy as of late what with summer school and the Rivette marathon masterpiece and life but I promise more writing will be hitting the interweb soon, including my ever-growing reflections on Out 1, plus, you know, a certain TV show that just ended. And, dun-dun-dun: my first real attempt to write about Tarkovsky. Now if only I knew how to balance these projects a little better and procrastinate a little less.... Thanks for staying tuned. Summer is proving more difficult an environment than expected, no matter how useful and beautiful and warm.]

[Here's a clip from one of Ugetsu's final scenes. If you have not seen the film, do yourself a favor and skip the clip. Otherwise, enjoy the movie magic: it is nothing if not truly awesome, and tender.]