Primer - absolutely flabbergasting film

Yes - my "gast" was well and truly "flabbered". Not only is "Primer" one fantabulous film - it's even more amazing that it was made for $10,000 - and the guy (Shane Carruth) who wrote it also starred, edited, wrote all the music etc etc. If you liked "Donny Darko" and spent hours working out what happened- you'll love this even more. All i can say is- don't let the 'geek-o-babble' in the first 20 minutes turn you off. If you can make a film of this calibre for less than the price of a small car- why bother with Hollywood? I've never seen "user generated content" like this before - but it surely is a sign of things to come.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (TDBATB)

I've just recently changed my homepage from igoogle to "mynytimes"... and so have been reading a lot of the New York Times online. You can add/subtract whatever bits of the paper you find interesting/boring- once again ensuring you never have to read news you might get upset by, or opinion you might disagree with. (Part of the reason i cancelled my subscription to The Guardian Weekly International Edition).

Anyway, found a great article about Julian Schabel- artist cum director who has a new film based on "The Diving bell and the Butterfly". I have 2 copies of this slender book- both in hardcover and i haven't read either. It's written by a French magazine editor who suffered a 'locked in' syndrome after a brainstem stroke that rendered him mute and immobile. He was, however able to communicate with the movement of one eye (!) - and dictated his book in this manner.


I have always dreaded being buried alive- waking up face-to-face with the cushiony quilted purple silk lining that i imagine all expensive coffins have. You know- you have to bite the tip of your finger off in order to scrawl the words " i was still ALIVE" on the fabric. Imagine the horror of being confined in your chair on an infinite airline flight in economy class - multipled by a trillion. Imagine being COMPLETELY aware of the pain, and the 'gallows humour' of the ICU team on their rounds. Believe me- i know- i've been on them- working under a 5 foot genius Intensivist with a wit to rival the great S J Perelman.

BP: And how about cardiac? Any arrythmias overnight?
Self: A short run of SVT only-
BP: Short? SHORT? Around here we don't use that word. We say "petite", we say "gamine".. we say "lithe"... but we never say "short".

the whole day went on and on like this..

I have been waiting for the right time to read one of the books-but i've never been so unbelievably happy in my life that no neurological horror story could upset me.

So, when i read this great article from NYTimes about Julian Schnabel (FOOTNOTE: Schnabel? Schnabel! .. how do you do the Blog?Shlog! yiddish put-down when the word already starts with 'sch'?) about his new film TDBATB- i thought maybe i can stand to watch the film instead- in french, with english subtitles! The photo at the top makes it look like "Weekend and Bernies" .. "He's in a locked-in state but he's the life of the party!". But i don't think i will.

Yet, i did manage to read an article about a film about the book(s) so that's something i guess. It was a very well written article- and Julian Schnabel sounds like a fascinating guy- artist, director, millionaire married to a model. What else could you wish for? Except that his art is crap.

What the Bleep Do We Know? We Know that this Film is a Fucking Waste of Time

"What the Bleep Do We Know?" starts off promisingly enough... it begins with a discussion the basics of quantum mechanics - indeterminacy, superposition etc but then rapidly disintegrates into one of the WORST films i have ever had the misfortune to watch.

One of the problems is a confusion of 'scales'! Sure, a subatomic particle may 'exist' in a spread out wave of probability before detection shrinks it down to a particle.. but these effects are minimal on a macroscopic scale... and do nothing to explain why the pissed-off deaf girl has a "Being John Malkovich" moment at the end of the film. (She also has a few "Sliding Doors" moments- presumably these are meant to represent the "Many Worlds" theory).

Observing a photon, and therfore collapsing it's wave function is a little different from "Creating My Own Day"... no matter what some stupid chiropractor sitting by his open fireplace says. I didn't like the way he was fondling his own left hand during the interview either.

Seen as a comedy, this film is really pretty funny.

My favourite kook whose new age crap is advertised here is the woman who not only looks like she's dressed up in a Star Trek uniform -but also actually seems to have had the SAME facelift as William Shatner (see above).

It turns out that the woman (Mrs JZ Knight) is actually appearing as "Ramtha"... a 35,000 year old being that regularly posesses her.

According to Wikipedia, Ramtha has appeared in several court disputes. One involving the dissemination of material containing the copyrighted Ramtha. Another in Austria, involved a Berlin woman who also claimed to channel Ramtha. The Austrian Supreme court decided that JZ Knight was the only person who could channel the spirit Ramtha.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME- PLEASE!!!