Aphorisms and quotes
August 15th 2006 10:50
… he'd stride across a crowded platform -- hundreds of people -- and if you asked him who the prettiest girl was, he'd say, without missing a beat, the petite brunette near the vending machine, or the goth blonde with the shopping bags. So he had this ability -- not even consciously used anymore, but honed from decades of practice -- to filter out everything else, and zero in on female pulchritude -- all in the most cursory of glances. And, as he pointed out, his talent wasn't even particularly unusual -- the majority of guys could do it.
"Stumbling upon a random webpage about traditional Catalan nativity scenes, you read about a peculiar figure called the 'caganer.' The caganer is a harlequin of sorts, a grizzled old man who squats -- trousers at his ankles, stogie in mouth -- casually defecating in the background of the nativity. A sociologist, Xavier Fabregas, is quoted: 'The caganer reminds us that even in the midst of the greatest mystery of humanity, the birth of the Redeemer, there are these ineluctable and physiological necessities.'" -- Rolf Potts, "The Art of Writing a Story about Walking across Andorra", 30 December 2005
I feel like one of those slimy white creatures living under a rock, and someone lifts the rock up, and you see sunlight for the first time in your life, and it's like, "Dude, put the rock down, for fuck's sake put the rock down."
Lawrence M Hinman: Death is now a decision; you don't just die anymore; technology has made it a decision.
"It costs too much to say it was all a waste." -- Michael Gow, Live acts on stage
Nietzsche (Human, all too human, I think): Whoever does not have two-thirds of the day to themselves is a slave.
The story is the excuse to hang the moments on. The moments are what matters, in the film, in the novel.
The movie is not the theme, the proposition, however well emotionalised. The movie is the total of the moments.
"Speed is like a dozen transatlantic flights without ever getting off the plane. Timechange. You lose, you gain. Makes no difference so long as you keep taking the pills. But sooner or later you've got to get out because it's crashing, then all at once the frozen hours melt out through the nervous system and seep out the pores." -- "Withnail and I"
"Pacific, Mountain, Central. You lose an hour, you gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time." -- "Fight Club"
The thought did cross my mind: MB gets $50 a week pocket money?!! He must be the happiest kid in the world… Though I knew he wasn't. And though I knew the awful secret that once you have it, you weary of it. He went there every week, and it meant nothing to him.
"No matter how much I sell out elsewhere, this is one area of my life about which I can say, Here, at least here, I do not sell out."
I don't understand why people disparage reality television on the basis that it's prurient or voyeuristic. Don't people watch every movie and play for similar reasons? Aren't we always hoping for revelation of the personal?
He's always committed to the possibility of communication, the never-ending promise of words; whereas an Adrian response is more like, "You people are irrational, and I'll see you in hell."
Tom Cruise, in "Cocktail": Everything ends badly, or else it wouldn't end.
… built a house of sighs…
It's striking that in this -- the most personal of areas -- we care about what's normal. It shows the ridiculous extent to which other people's opinions determine our choices. We let our enjoyment be dictated to us. We let them tell us how to enjoy, and whether we do.
A man born on a desert island worships a rock, because he thinks it brings the rain. But the moment when he forgets the cause and effect relationship, when he simply worships the rock for its own sake, when he thinks it's right to worship the rock -- is this when morality begins?
Gasps are expressive. I'm not sure of what or why. But the gasp of the father in "Billy Elliot", just before the older Billy jumps, is the best part of the movie. The involuntary, emotional, gasp…
Why do children always open things -- drawers, boxes, doors? Why do they want to unveil, what are they hoping to find? And why do they ever stop opening?
Perhaps surprising is always a matter of degree. Perhaps every single thing is surprising to some extent.
***
"Stumbling upon a random webpage about traditional Catalan nativity scenes, you read about a peculiar figure called the 'caganer.' The caganer is a harlequin of sorts, a grizzled old man who squats -- trousers at his ankles, stogie in mouth -- casually defecating in the background of the nativity. A sociologist, Xavier Fabregas, is quoted: 'The caganer reminds us that even in the midst of the greatest mystery of humanity, the birth of the Redeemer, there are these ineluctable and physiological necessities.'" -- Rolf Potts, "The Art of Writing a Story about Walking across Andorra", 30 December 2005
***
I feel like one of those slimy white creatures living under a rock, and someone lifts the rock up, and you see sunlight for the first time in your life, and it's like, "Dude, put the rock down, for fuck's sake put the rock down."
***
Lawrence M Hinman: Death is now a decision; you don't just die anymore; technology has made it a decision.
***
"It costs too much to say it was all a waste." -- Michael Gow, Live acts on stage
***
Nietzsche (Human, all too human, I think): Whoever does not have two-thirds of the day to themselves is a slave.
***
The story is the excuse to hang the moments on. The moments are what matters, in the film, in the novel.
The movie is not the theme, the proposition, however well emotionalised. The movie is the total of the moments.
***
"Speed is like a dozen transatlantic flights without ever getting off the plane. Timechange. You lose, you gain. Makes no difference so long as you keep taking the pills. But sooner or later you've got to get out because it's crashing, then all at once the frozen hours melt out through the nervous system and seep out the pores." -- "Withnail and I"
"Pacific, Mountain, Central. You lose an hour, you gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time." -- "Fight Club"
***
The thought did cross my mind: MB gets $50 a week pocket money?!! He must be the happiest kid in the world… Though I knew he wasn't. And though I knew the awful secret that once you have it, you weary of it. He went there every week, and it meant nothing to him.
***
"No matter how much I sell out elsewhere, this is one area of my life about which I can say, Here, at least here, I do not sell out."
***
I don't understand why people disparage reality television on the basis that it's prurient or voyeuristic. Don't people watch every movie and play for similar reasons? Aren't we always hoping for revelation of the personal?
***
He's always committed to the possibility of communication, the never-ending promise of words; whereas an Adrian response is more like, "You people are irrational, and I'll see you in hell."
***
Tom Cruise, in "Cocktail": Everything ends badly, or else it wouldn't end.
***
… built a house of sighs…
***
It's striking that in this -- the most personal of areas -- we care about what's normal. It shows the ridiculous extent to which other people's opinions determine our choices. We let our enjoyment be dictated to us. We let them tell us how to enjoy, and whether we do.
***
A man born on a desert island worships a rock, because he thinks it brings the rain. But the moment when he forgets the cause and effect relationship, when he simply worships the rock for its own sake, when he thinks it's right to worship the rock -- is this when morality begins?
***
Gasps are expressive. I'm not sure of what or why. But the gasp of the father in "Billy Elliot", just before the older Billy jumps, is the best part of the movie. The involuntary, emotional, gasp…
***
Why do children always open things -- drawers, boxes, doors? Why do they want to unveil, what are they hoping to find? And why do they ever stop opening?
***
Perhaps surprising is always a matter of degree. Perhaps every single thing is surprising to some extent.
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