Wordplay

After the initial viewing, there was this, which helped to answer maybe ONE of the 11 million questions straining my brain:

“Inception’s Dileep Rao Answers All Your Questions About Inception” (from Vulture blog via NYmag).

And then, there was  “The Neuroscience of Inception” (from Gizmodo via Jonah Lehrer from Wired) because maybe it’s all a ploy by Nolan to make us FEEL as though we’re in a dream state while we’re watching the dream state(s) fold in on each other.

To which my other brother (psychology major and urban development expert) responds via email:

The critical factor here is active vs. passive participation. And with all cinema, the director has 2.5 hr max to convey a complete (or semi-complete) story (or multiple stories) and develop acceptable and somewhat realistic characters. All cinema  inherently includes shallow/one-dimensional characters and extensive incongruity when broken down to individual and separated elements; it is the way a cinematic experience is conveyed to an audience that has no “active” participation. The writer/director must be able to condense and tell a story to mass audience. We as the audience do not have the privilege of exploring or “understanding” the story on our own terms in real-time, therefore we get the “survey-course” version.

And then my dad (rocket scientist extraordinaire) says:

I still think that the most interesting notion is that of shared dreaming.  If it were possible, what would the experience be like?  How could two subconscious dreaming minds share a dream state?  Who would be in charge of the dream world?  How would logical conflicts be resolved?  Could the two dream avatars interact?  Communicate?  Could both simultaneously experience lucid dreaming? Etc.

Talkin’ World War III Blues, last verse:
Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams.
Everybody sees themselves walkin’ around with no one else.
Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time,
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time.
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours.”
I said that.

And after a while my little brother (grammar expert) spelled Dylan like dilyn (on purpose? on accident? to demonstrate how an email thread can parallel a dream in which you aren’t sure how to properly attribute quotes to famed 60s singer-songerwriters/reluctant figureheads of social unrest?).

And then I saw this on facebook and thought it was pretty clever:

Some folks in the ad world got laid off (sucks). Some people with cameras decided to ask them how they’re coping (neato). Turns out,quite nicely:

“You don’t have to quit your job to change your life. You can just incorporate more of what you love into your everday… and it makes the biggest difference in the world.”

“Just do SOMETHING. The worst thing you can do is NOTHING.”

Can a birthday cupcake say “I am dazzled by your charms?” Not really. Not unless it’s a really big one and you have really exceptional frosting-writing skills and you have some way to trasport this really big cupcake (which would probably need to be long and short, more like a cake, to avoid tipping). Nevertheless, the answer is supposed to be No, it cannot. Enter, the ranunculus.

This description of the flower is from Teleflora. Bascially, what they’re saying (with all their web glitch punctuation) is that the ranunculus is this SH*T. I mean, for something so multi-layered, it’s quite cute. And there are coyotes involved, so what’s not to love? I haven’t tried out it’s medicinal properties yet, but I still have quite a bit left of birthday to go.

I Wrote This For You–a blog I stumbled upon a few weeks ago from a love-addicted friend. The photographs are original and perfectly moody. The message is clear and striking: Love me. Love me all you can. And if you can’t, it’s OK. And if you don’t, I’ll love you anyway.

Facebook explains: I Wrote This For You was started in July of 2007 by Iain Thomas and Jon Ellis, who met one day in a shady backroom on the internet, although they’ve never actually met in real life. The main reason behind this is that the words (Iain Thomas) live in South Africa while the pictures (Jon Ellis) live in Japan. Naturally, this makes it hard to pop round for a cup of tea. Neither of them really know what I Wrote This For You is supposed to be but several thousand people seem to really like it, so that’s ok with them.
I Wrote This For You is published 5 days a week except around about Christmas time when everyone takes a well deserved break.
Finalist Best Original Writing/Personal Blog 2009 Blog Awards
Winner Best Photography 2009 National Blog Awards

Today’s post was exceptionally divine. In the spirit of graudation-anxiety-induced moments like these.

“Fine. Maybe I’m the puzzle. But you’re still the pieces.”

Do you love it?

From theloveshop.

WHY DO ANYTHING ELSE…

NY mag feature: What those who matter first thought of this sleepless city, before they mattered so much.

Some excerpts I like of their first memories of New York–because some strangely remind me of mine and some are just strange:

Cindy Sherman, artist
Arrived: 1977
It was the summer of 1977, and I was terrified of the city. The Son of Sam was going around murdering couples, the city blacked out for 24 hours, the transit strike stopped all the buses, and all of the sudden women who used to wear little pumps to work now started wearing sneakers.

Lauren Hutton, actress
Arrived: 1964
I came to New York for two things: to get to Africa and to find LSD. In those days it was legal. You could get it from this Swiss chemical company, and I met six guys who were very willing to give it to me. But I didn’t like any of them enough to take it, so it took me a few months. As for Africa, I was supposed to meet a friend in New York, and we were going to take a tramp steamer to Tangier.

Diane Von Furstenberg, designer
Arrived: 1970
Coming from Europe, I had expected the city would look modern, and actually, it didn’t. I was a young princess, so I lived on Park Avenue and had some small children and blah blah blah. But we were a young couple, and fairly good looking with a nice title, so we were invited everywhere.

Harold Evans, editor-at-large, The Week
Arrived: 1983
Our first apartment was a disaster: a sublet on Third Avenue for which we paid rent by putting dollar bills in a hat…One day I opened a cupboard and out fell tons of pornography. I shouldn’t have been looking in the cupboard—it wasn’t my apartment.

Danny Meyer, restaurateur, Union Square Café
Arrived: 1980
The first night I moved to New York was the night that John Lennon was shot…So I slept on the floor of some college friends’ apartment, and that weekend I went to Central Park for the Lennon vigil. It was an amazing feeling: a moment of community and realizing that this horrible tragedy had brought that many human beings together. It wasn’t the violent act that scared me as much as it was the beauty of its aftermath that attracted me.

Ira Glass, radio host, This American Life
Arrived: 1984
I rented an illegal sublet that cost me $145 a month; if anyone questioned what I was doing there, I was under strict instructions to say I was visiting somebody. My roommate had come to New York to do art but then had gotten into a dispute with the landlord…She was like a character out of a Tom Wolfe novel—her life had made her crazy—and that just seemed to sum up so exactly something about this city.

Jann Wenner, editor and publisher, Rolling Stone
Arrived: 1977
It was an era of parties, and a great time for drugs and alcohol. Elaine’s was thriving. We felt more than welcomed. New York loves ambitious people—eats them up.

Nick Denton, publisher, Gawker Media
Arrived: 2002
I once made a spreadsheet comparing San Francisco, London, Budapest, and New York. I assigned different weighted scores based on different criteria: old friends, business opportunities, Hungarians, Jews, nature (that one had a fairly low weight). I was living in San Francisco, but I’ve always liked the idea of that city more than the reality of it. So I would play with the spreadsheet, and when I didn’t get the result I wanted, I adjusted the rankings. One factor that tipped things in New York’s favor was that New York had way hotter guys.

Aziz Ansari, comedian
Arrived: 2000
Most nights, I ended up going to bars on a strip of Third Avenue below 14th Street. Bar None, Nevada Smiths: Finally, the experience of shitty college bars, right in New York City! Every year, I would wise up and go one more avenue east to avoid the mess. And every year, one kid in the group would always say we should go another avenue even farther east, because that’s where the good bars are.

Kristen Schaal, comedienne
Arrived: 2000
I was so broke I’d have a slice of pizza for lunch, and I would drink 40s for dinner to fill me up. My roommate and I experimented with all different kinds of 40s…I still keep one unopened can of Crazy Horse on a shelf in my apartment, just to represent that time. I said, I’m going to drink this Crazy Horse when I’m 60 on the French Riviera, topless, and crack it open with the ocean running up my thigh!

*Note: I’ve never had or wanted LSD but would love to go to Africa. I haven’t had any small children, blah blah blah, and I’m only invited some places. Haven’t been to a Lennon vigil, but was in LaGuardia when the plane landed in the Hudson, which I understand is not the same, but still scary. The shitty beautiful college bars are just as shitty and just as beautiful. I haven’t downed a 40 as dinner, yet, but there’s still time. Plently of it.

Such a cute print:

Goodmorning Sleepeyes by bluebicicletta

Because once they’re forgotten, all you have left is a sad reality full of small paychecks, big bills and nothing worth fighting for.

Alone print by MagnolijaART

Yep, I’m now on Twitter. Notice that new addition on the right? It’s me pretending someone would be intersted in my daily activities.

Anyway–FOLLOW ME if you are so inclined!

In lieu of next weekend’s lovefest, a few unconventional valentines:

“What do you use as a measuring stick for love?”

Paperwhite studio thinks the only way to really determine how much you love someone is to measure it against something else. SUBMIT YOUR OWN “I love you more than ____” and they’ll publish your comparison on their site. Above are a few of my found favorites. Visit their gallery to see many many more submissions, among which two are mine!

In a time of financial struggle Pantone makes a bold move:

Color of 2009?

PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa

Says Pantone: In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow.

“The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation.”

Mimosa, hmm? Looks like something I saw in my breakfast cup over the weekend if I’m not mistaken. I guess one way to avoid thinking about your collapsing stock portfolio is to drown out those thoughts with orange juice and champagne.

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