Wild and Spaces
Wild (the film adaptation) came out yesterday and I saw it this afternoon wary that it starred Reese Witherspoon, wary in general. Overall, I was touched by it. Shed some tears and reassessed some things in my own life--the mark of a good film, yes? I guess if I had to name thing that really bugged me most was that the book didn't focus that much on her experience as a woman in the wilderness (which was something I criticized the book for) and the film did. However, it wasn't in the way that the book could have commented on the female experience. She didn't have so many run-ins with gross and pig-headed men in the book, but she did in the film. Poor little woman all alone in the wilderness. That pissed me off because her experience had little to do with that in her book and everything to do with how the wilderness came up against her experiences in the world as a human. As a person who fell into some pits and was just looking for a new perspective.
Having been in this city for a year and a half, I've felt it turn me into gross versions of myself and seen it pull me back out again. I've felt terribly lonely in ways I haven't before and I've also felt touched and awed by space and landscape more than any other place. What more American place is there than Los Angeles? Sorry, New York, but I would argue that we win this one--this place of reinvention. Which is arguably a concept growing in fervor. It used to be that folks just wanted to set their suitcase down and look at their neighbor's house and wave and say "we've made it." "We have the same shit." Now we want to look at our neighbor and say, "We have the same shit, but mine is the most recent version. Mine is the top of the line."
I guess watching Wild made me leave that theater seeing how fucked up everyone has become about stuff and about money. When I was a kid, we rarely got new things. We got food, yeah, but when it came to new clothes and general things we didn't necessarily need, but wanted, we hardly saw anyone coming in with shopping bags in their arms. Our life then wasn't surrounded in places to shop. Ben said when he came here, "There's so much shopping everywhere." Others have come here and express feeling self-conscious about what they're wearing. That they aren't up to snuff.
This is a city where folks are frequently trying to express their best selves. Namely, that their outward appearance will get them noticed and will get folks to think they're attractive.
It's just a place.
I guess that's why I'm so obsessed with Braeburn as a place, as an entity, as a pivot.
Now I'm in a city of 4 million (a county of 14 million) and feel that I'm constantly searching for folks who aren't bashed with self-doubt.
Last night, there was a discussion about how much time we waste and how all that time could have been put better use. That we might have a larger body of work with that time. To some extent, yes, but to another extent--how much is that expose influencing our work? Our minds?
I've become really interested in discovering how the human brain has changed and how what we're doing to it now is going to create a different race of humans in the future. Maybe everyone is become dumber. However, intelligence isn't marked by the ability to memorize, but rather the ability to be innovative. Since we allow the computers to hold so much memory and facts for us, we might be better capable of developing our imaginative, innovative spaces.
Having been in this city for a year and a half, I've felt it turn me into gross versions of myself and seen it pull me back out again. I've felt terribly lonely in ways I haven't before and I've also felt touched and awed by space and landscape more than any other place. What more American place is there than Los Angeles? Sorry, New York, but I would argue that we win this one--this place of reinvention. Which is arguably a concept growing in fervor. It used to be that folks just wanted to set their suitcase down and look at their neighbor's house and wave and say "we've made it." "We have the same shit." Now we want to look at our neighbor and say, "We have the same shit, but mine is the most recent version. Mine is the top of the line."
I guess watching Wild made me leave that theater seeing how fucked up everyone has become about stuff and about money. When I was a kid, we rarely got new things. We got food, yeah, but when it came to new clothes and general things we didn't necessarily need, but wanted, we hardly saw anyone coming in with shopping bags in their arms. Our life then wasn't surrounded in places to shop. Ben said when he came here, "There's so much shopping everywhere." Others have come here and express feeling self-conscious about what they're wearing. That they aren't up to snuff.
This is a city where folks are frequently trying to express their best selves. Namely, that their outward appearance will get them noticed and will get folks to think they're attractive.
It's just a place.
I guess that's why I'm so obsessed with Braeburn as a place, as an entity, as a pivot.
Now I'm in a city of 4 million (a county of 14 million) and feel that I'm constantly searching for folks who aren't bashed with self-doubt.
Last night, there was a discussion about how much time we waste and how all that time could have been put better use. That we might have a larger body of work with that time. To some extent, yes, but to another extent--how much is that expose influencing our work? Our minds?
I've become really interested in discovering how the human brain has changed and how what we're doing to it now is going to create a different race of humans in the future. Maybe everyone is become dumber. However, intelligence isn't marked by the ability to memorize, but rather the ability to be innovative. Since we allow the computers to hold so much memory and facts for us, we might be better capable of developing our imaginative, innovative spaces.