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The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business. |
Tuesday, June 1, 1999
One year ago: Road Movie
Two years ago: To Love Myself
I'm no longer among the hard-disk-space challenged at work! I'd put in a request to add another internal drive, since I thought that was more likely than a new machine, and I only had two gigs on the present system. That was adequate when the machine was made (in 1996, I think), but not today. It didn't take long for the tech to install it. He had to get some extra parts from the tech assigned to our building. It turns out that the tech is a lindy hopper. Did I know this? His name and face were familiar, but I don't know if we've crossed paths on campus before.
So I've now got six gigs total. The only bad part is the noise the new drive is making!
I was sitting at my desk this morning, wearing headphones, so I didn't quite hear what our group leader said to me, as he walked by with a few other folks. Then he thought better of what he was going to say. "Never mind," he said, sheepishly, and went on. After a few minutes, it came to me what he'd been trying to ask me about. The full time employees in our group were going off to a showing of the Phantom Menace. He was going to remind me or ask me if I was going, I'm sure, then he remembered that, as a contractor, I wasn't invited. Ah, well... If I hadn't seen the film already, I'd be more bugged about it.
- The Living Museum
(IMDB page for this film) I was very impressed by this documentary about a museum and arts facility attached to the Creedmore mental hospital in Queens. The artists profiled ranged from a convict who is probably sane, now that he's off the drugs, to a few folks that are pretty limited by the strong meds they are on. Some were very talented! Tursi ("Dirty Tursi," he calls himself) had abstract sexual drawings that used a French curve template as the basis, and a lot of very clever sculptures made with found objects. I was glad that the doctor that runs the place backed off on his orginal assertion that these people had been "freed" to be creative by the mental breakdowns they'd suffered. I'd say it's more likely that most people have the potential to be creative, but these folks had been put in a situation where they had time and encouragement, so they could get over the stifling that happens to most people in the course of growing up. I liked it!
- The Rabbit in the Moon
(IMDB page for this film) This documentary will be seen on POV on PBS later this summer, around the fourth of July. It did tell me some things I didn't know, about the divisions within the Japanese people interned at the camps. The mimeographed camp newspapers caught my eye. Worth watching!
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