Rich Clesham

"(The real origin of ‘pelican’ is from the Greek ‘I hew with an axe’, in a..."

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 11:03:55 +0100

“(The real origin of ‘pelican’ is from the Greek ‘I hew with an axe’, in a confusion of its large bill with that of the woodpecker’s.) But more unusual than its appearance are its habits.
With its bill and claws, the mother bird caresses her offspring with such devotion that she kills them. After three days the father arrives and, despairing over the deaths of this young, rips at his own breast with his bill. The blood that spills from his wounds revives the dead birds. This is the account given in medieval bestiaries, though St Jerome in a commentary on the 102nd Psalm (‘I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert’) attributes the death of the nestlings to the serpent. That the Pelican opens its breast and feeds its young with its own blood is the common version of the fable.
Blood that gives life to the dead suggests the Eucharist and the cross, and so a famous line of the Paradiso (XXV, 113) calls Jesus Christ nostro Pellicano - mankind’s Pelican.”

- The Pelican - The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges

Tom Waits newsletter contained just this image with the subject:...

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 12:00:52 +0100

Tom Waits newsletter contained just this image with the subject: I Breathe Better Underwater

Yes.

"Here is a partial list of my childhood fears in no particular order Expiration dates, Unexplained..."

Sun, 27 May 2012 10:44:24 +0100

“

Here is a partial list of my childhood fears in no particular order

Expiration dates,

Unexplained secretions,

Tree forts,

Deer ticks,

Entrapped digits,

Life preservers,

Baseballs,

Nails,

Tumors,

Necrotic flesh,

Kidnappers,

Strangers,

Candy,

Mustaches,

Beige Cadillacs,

Conversion vans with curtains

(I guess the previous six are in order),

Halloween candy, and

Eyes.

”

- From Chris & Cronenberg - a rather uncanny(!) tale of Cronenberg’s The Fly.

fuckyeahrobertobolano: The novel follows Amalfitano—exiled...

Sat, 19 May 2012 22:47:13 +0100

fuckyeahrobertobolano:

The novel follows Amalfitano—exiled Chilean university professor and widower with a teenage daughter—as his political disillusionment and love of poetry lead to the scandal that will force him to flee from Barcelona and take him to Santa Teresa, Mexico. It is here, in this border town—haunted by dark tales of murdered women and populated by characters like Sorcha, who fought in the Andalusia Blue Division in the Spanish Civil War, and Castillo, who makes his living selling his forgeries of Larry Rivers …

New Bolaño!

Best thing you will see today. Probably.

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:57:41 +0100

Best thing you will see today. Probably.

iamsambell: Pierrot le fou (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:28:54 +0100

iamsambell:

Pierrot le fou (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

And now I find that Tarr does, in fact, make films both unique and original, and in a style I find...

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:43:15 +0100

And now I find that Tarr does, in fact, make films both unique and original, and in a style I find beautiful. I prefer the purity of black and white to color, I like very long takes if they serve a purpose and are not simply stunts, I am drawn into an air of mystery, I find it compelling when a film establishes an immediate, tangible, time and place. For all of its phantasmal themes, “Werckmeister Harmonies” is resolutely realistic. Every person, every room, every street, every action, every line of dialogue, feels as much likecinema verite as the works of Frederick Wiseman.

This evening I managed to get into conversation with someone who claimed to love films where very little happens, where the overall, and the general interactions between characters matters most; and I was put into mind off Werckemeister Harmonies, a film where a lot happens, but very slowly, and so I recommended it wholeheartedly, and meant it - it is a film that you don’t forget - it is magnificent in a way that only cinema can be (each form has its own magnificence).

The conversation brought me back to the film, and from that to Roger Ebert’s review (a critic I much admire and appreciate) and he sums up some part of the film so beautifully in the above passage. The film is one of the most astonishing I have ever seen, it is fantastical, it is otherwordly (or dreamlike, whichever you prefer) yet it is also, as Ebert says, realistic. For a film about an apocalyptic circus, that features just a whale and the elusive ‘prince’, that might seem like a bizarre statement, yet there is something to Tarr’s direction that strips the whole film of any falsity - it feels true: it is affecting in the way that only something really plausible can be.

Was there ever a more beautiful piece of music?

Sat, 12 May 2012 23:55:00 +0100

Was there ever a more beautiful piece of music?

steveflow: Infernal Affairs Custom DVD Cover

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:36:44 +0100

steveflow:

Infernal Affairs Custom DVD Cover

Photo

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:44:49 +0000

LiveLeak.com - Security Video Shows Tornado Hitting School

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:49:20 +0000

LiveLeak.com - Security Video Shows Tornado Hitting School:

wbotd:

the power of nature

Remember that film Twister? This is way more terrifying.

theatlantic: theatlanticvideo: A Jump Rope’s Eye View of...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:47:41 +0000

theatlantic:

theatlanticvideo:

A Jump Rope’s Eye View of the World

Callum Cooper’s dizzying experimental film, Full Circle, uses a custom camera rig for a unique perspective. The short was produced by Klezinski, a creative studio based in London and Melbourne.

Via Vimeo Staff Picks.

What, no double dutch?

Sometimes the post is the highlight of the day.

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:09:44 +0000

Sometimes the post is the highlight of the day.

Will be tweeting along to the Oscars. As long as my Oscar party doesn't get too raucous.

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:05:14 +0000

Will be tweeting along to the Oscars. As long as my Oscar party doesn't get too raucous.

loopermovie: We’re locked! Still 7 months away though.

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 09:17:37 +0000

loopermovie:

We’re locked!

Still 7 months away though.

dukeofyorks: marmeenoir: just saw this movie. It’s a little...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:38:50 +0000

dukeofyorks:

marmeenoir:

just saw this movie. It’s a little bit complicated and a lot of questions are left unanswered but it was a beautiful, enjoyable film, with great acting and brilliant cinematography. It’s the first time I really appreciate the slow pace of a film.

rating:8/10

Probably the weirdest film we caught at last years Cinecity Film Festival. THIS MUST BE PLACE will be at The Duke’s again soon!

Sorrentino’s follow up to Il Divo, my favourite film. Still a little reserved about it, but chances are I’ll love it.

kickstarter: Our second million dollar project. Tim Schafer’s...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:40:26 +0000

kickstarter:

Our second million dollar project. Tim Schafer’s project just passed $1M in funding, in less than 24 hours, from more than 26,000 backers. That is incredible.

So I’ve never actually played ay Tim Schafer games - though now I think I may have to, but I have been following this project (and the rumoured Notch backed Psychonauts 2) and it’s amazing. This is genuinely really exciting just as an alternative fundraising model for gaming (that clearly can work). Will be fascinating to see what this fundraiser will lead to now that they’ve tripled their target in a little over 24 hours (It’s past $1.2 million).

Also great day for Kickstarter!

iamsambell: Melancholia (dir. Lars von Trier): Prologue

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:14:16 +0000

iamsambell:

Melancholia (dir. Lars von Trier): Prologue

So I missed this on U.K release, heard mixed things about it,...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:19:54 +0000

So I missed this on U.K release, heard mixed things about it, but god damn is that a beautiful poster.

Roberto Bolaño - The Consummate Exile

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:00:05 +0000

By its very nature, the life of an exile — and Bolaño may be remembered as the consummate exile — is fraught with jarring shifts that play havoc with memory. What’s interesting is that he embraced his sense of displacement as if it were the ultimate source of strength. He seemed less interested in his (and his characters’) past, in verifiable dates and events aired out for analysis, than he was in the experiential portfolio derived from mental and physical peregrination.

Probably all of us, writers and readers alike, set out into exile, or at least into a certain kind of exile, when we leave childhood behind. Which would lead to the conclusion that the exiled person or the category of exile doesn’t exist, especially in regards to literature. The immigrant, the nomad, the traveler, the sleepwalker all exist, but not the exile, since every writer becomes an exile simply by venturing into literature, and every reader becomes an exile simply by opening a book.

Mikel Dunham - The Apocalyptic Tradition (Los Angeles Review of Books)