LAPTOP DEATH, PREDESTINATION, & NEW ART

Five days ago, in a tragic turn of events, my laptop passed away.  I guess I can't say I was that surprised, as the little guy displayed numerous symptoms of terminal illness for approximately the past year.  And so, exiting with a bang on Thursday night, while I was editing some recordings, the monitor suddenly ran amuck, everything - letters, numbers, lines, boxes, everything - melted and merged which resulted in the screen looking like a drunk rainbow.  And then it went black.

I'm not sure what's sadder: my laptop's death or my feelings of utter disorientation that ensued for the next four days.  On Friday morning, I awoke to the realization that I had no Microsoft Office, no Chess, no iTunes, no YouTube, no gmail, no audio/video editing software, no Skype, no New York Jets messageboard,  no *gasp* Facebook.  So I did what any rational person would do upon waking up to that situation -- I went back to sleep.


I suppose having all of this shit at our fingertips says a lot about the evolution of humans: we are pretty fucking intelligent organisms.  It also says we're just as complacent and dependent as we are intelligent.


The sun emits some sort of megamagnetic waves that, like everything else, are cyclical, occurring every several-hundred-someodd years.  According to physicists, Earth is due one of these waves within the next five years, and when this event happens, that fine invention we call electricity will meet its maker.  In the meantime, I'm typing this blog and backing up my files on an external hard drive.


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Chances are, you're familiar with the author Philip K. Dick, and you don't even know it.  He was an awesome SciFi writer whose philosophical ideas and stories have been the basis for many excellent films.  Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly are films adapted directly from his work.  Other films, such as Donnie Darko, The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Vanilla Sky, Pi, and Inception have all been influenced by him.


Recently, I saw a trailer for The Adjustment Bureau which adapts a Philp K. Dick story called "The Adjustment Team."



Among the themes, the music, and the fact that just about every Matt Damon film turns out to be tremendous, I think this movie will be wonderful.  Can't wait to see it.


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In the current era of sex-tape resumes and Seaside Heights eminence, I find it quite refreshing when thespians shine their limelight in the direction opposite of self-aggrandizement.  And I find it even more refreshing when that direction is Art.  Perhaps I'm just a sucker for Shakespearean film-adaptations and unconventional love stories, but I'm buying what Joseph Gordon-Levitt is selling: an ongoing multimedia Art project called hitRECord.

Fusing the aesthetics of literature, film, music, photography, paint, dance, and every other artistic medium under the sun, the project publishes pieces that are submitted by any person with creative impulse.  One of the most fascinating aspects of hitRECord is that upon registering, you sign a waiver permitting your submissions to be used by the project's other members.  For example, someone might remix your slideshow with their own dialogue (of course, any reproduction is also attributed to the original artist), and someone can further remix that remix.


It should be noted that while hitRECord is a reservoir of creative juices established for the sake of Art, it also is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's company and, thus, profits are to be had; and since RegularJOE (his name in the project's domain) is a kind and fair spirit, he gives you a percentage of any profit that's made from your work.

Here's a spectaculous piece from a series in the project:
"Morgan & Destiny's Eleventeeth Date - (white walls)"


 


If you enjoyed that, then you should definitely explore hitRECord, and if you're really feeling frisky, then register to join in on the funfulness.


Ta-Ta for now.


xoxo