Coincidence No. 432

After watching a documentary on the Hope Diamond, I go to watch the first short animation that came to hand. As it happens "In the Rough" was about a caveman with a favourite rock that just so happens to contain.... Come on, there has to be a way of tying Schopenhauer into this.

I'd be so proud of that!

Although I have seen his work before, I am only now really discovering the work of Don Hertzfeldt. On the face of it his animation is juvenile, 'badly drawn' and violent. However, scratch the paper-thin surface and it's not hard to see something deeper going on. Any of his work I have seen is arresting, often hilarious, and sometimes profound. Apparently the short that got him noticed was "Billy's Balloon". It's violent, sadistic, but very original (and, yes, very funny).



Then there's 'Rejected', a fictional account of what might have been had he accepted all those offers to make commercials that Pez obviously did.



But topping them all, and with wonderful use of music by Wagner, "I am so proud of you" is like a coming together of "Tristram Shandy" and "Slaughterhouse Five". A masterpiece.

What is distinctive of all his work is that truly auteurial sense of a single vision. Not only that, but each piece has a cohesive identity in its own right.

You can buy merchandise (including his dvds). Hell, that really would make me a fan.

Web Weary

I took off last Friday and yesterday, but it's been a time of study (web matters). I'm exhausted. A lot more to come. Hopefully we'll be launching a redesign of the university website this week, but just when one date is agreed the goal posts are shifted. It can't be too long away now though.

Dunne!

Living where I do, I tend to go to Dunnes for my grocery shopping before Tesco; buy Irish and all that stuff. Well, I was too late for Moore Street, and I do like my fish, so I went in to buy some whiting. It is cheap (€8.89 a kilo) and I like it, and I have bought it many times before in Dunnes. So I was a little surprised at the cost when I got my fish. Nothing incredibly extravagant, it just seemed wrong. Sure enough on examining it, I noted the label stuck on my purchase claimed it was €10.24 a kilo. I pointed this out, but was told the scales were the thing and the price on display (as I say, €8.89, a price that always been the selling price before) was just wrong. I know my rights, but didn't feel like pressing it over a few cents. In Tesco when they get the advertised price wrong you are refunded the entire price of the product, but I didn't want this, just the price it was being sold at. It's the principle, not the few cents, and it took the good out of it.
I'll think twice before ever going back there for my fish (a lesson to you, Dunnes!). As it was I paid my bill and went to Tesco.

Sad

I am very sad at the way the British election has turned out. The only possible plus is that we are in for a good spell of comedy as the comedians can now thrive unapologetically and with good (ie. bad) material.

A Legal Low

Am I the only one who thinks the Government's blanket bombing of head shops is insane? On an interview tonight a mother confessed that there will always be drug dealers. Yes, and now you have put the power right back in their hands. If some drugs are dangerous then ban them, but ridding the world of all legal highs is a recipe for disaster.

Game Over

For all you very early computer game lovers!

I was just looking at a few more of this guy's films. Really lovely stuff. His 'Roof Sex' in particular is almost a direct lift from Svankmajer, but that's a good thing. All in all Pes seems to be a sweeter, less disturbing, but very enjoyable version of the old Czech master.

Nude without any Clothes

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

I came across this in London a couple of years ago and have finally found it again (ah, the Web!). Love it (though you might want to forward through the preload).

Ain't It Nice

Apparently this is Cambodian Hell, or after the war, or a Friday night.

Questions

Isn't it funny how they put date sites and sex lines in the ad breaks between 'You've Got Mail'? What's worse is I'm asking the question.

Husserl, where are you?

I'm not sure of all the German phrases (like Dasien and zuhanden etc.) but sometimes the phenomenological experience of the self is very hearthening. No future, no past, just the self and as the idea is now.

Questions

Why has Iron Man 2 got an ACDC tie-in when only two ACDC songs are featured? There are two Clash songs. Shouldn't it be a Clash retrospective?

East Essex Street in the Rare 'Oul Times!

My grandparents' shop on East Essex Street, now Charlie's II

You see they've moved the hall door from where it originally was.

And just behind my aunt is Fitzers'.

I Remember Nam

Somewhere in Vietnam
I've started using old photos as a slideshow wallpaper and have realised how little I've looked at them. But then once you've taken a shot you always seem to believe it is magically incorporated into your psyche. Memories are just too perishable.