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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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image, Ambition, c.1998. From mrnobody.org
I admit, about 5 years ago I figured Mr. Nobody for a charismatic flash in the pan, but the dude (Tanya Read's creation/alter ego?) just doesn't go away. Missing Krazy Kat and Ignatz? How about Felix, or Steamboat Willie. Willy Loman? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? You need a dose of Mr. Nobody. This catlike everyman cipher has Toronto wrapped around his little ...uh...finger. Now he's got telephone poles in Korea covered too.
Wow. There's a really nice spot about this blog in the current issue of THIS Magazine. I've always had a great deal of respect for THIS because of their probing, left-wing take on politics and alternative culture. It's a bit of a thrill to be on their pages again (first time was in '98 when I was quoted saying "beauty is boring." Try living that down. And yes, I said it. I'm a dork). The current issue looks really good. There's a guide to religious troublemakers, the groups who are "working to promote international debate" and who "simply refuse some of the official tenets of their faith." There's a piece on Tooker Gomberg, and an article by Clive Robertson that I can't wait to read defending the cultural value of science to left-wing activists. There's much more of course, including a really positive little write up about digitialmediatree.com/sallymckay by Joyce Byrne. Thanks Joyce! I hope it brings new people to the blog.
I do have a few small additions. Lola (the art magazine I used to work on) was co-founded by myself, Catherine Osborne and John Massier (readers of THIS might think from the piece that it was all me -- so very much not the case.) The piece also quotes me as saying that this blog is the "most intellectually stimulating thing I've ever done." I'm sure I said it, cause I do say things like that, but it's no slur on Lola. That magazine had me all fired up 24-7. Anyhow, the write-up makes me proud, and it's nice to show up in ink on paper once in a while. Thanks THIS!
Image of Totoro at the bus stop from www.totoro.org
My Neighbour Totoro (Miyazaki again) is a romantic story about animism that turned all my world weariness to jelly and melted it away (for an hour or so). There are big strange creatures, spirits resembling animals to some degree, that inhabit nature and remain neutral with regards to human concerns. Yet they might relate to us, and occasionally there can be a meeting between person and spirit beast. In this case the spirit is Totoro, a furry sleepy grumbling creature. He stands with the girls at the bus stop and although he is cute he is also scary; his eyes are inhuman and stare with fixed incomprehension at such foreign curiosities as little girls. He rumbles and roars, and when he opens his mouth it is huge enough to swallow a house. He seems to be on the brink of eating somebody most of the time. Eventually a cat bus pulls up. Yes it is a flying cat with many legs, wild eyes, a crazed manic grin and zany, bus-like enthusiasm for freakish careening around. The cat has a furry, enclosed seating area in its back. When it picks someone up it opens a door-shape in its own hide for them to enter.
Totoro gives the girls a packet of seeds and they plant them. They wait and wait for the seeds to grow. One night Totoro and his two little companions (small-sized and smaller-sized versions of Totoro) show up, hopping around by the garden. The girls run out to join them and they do a sort of yogic dance, raising their hands and bowing to the earth. The plants start to grow and all of a sudden a giant bursting tree is boiling up out of the earth. It's momentous and breathtaking. Too much growth -- that scary out-of-control power of nature spirits. But its okay, fun even, a sort of permission to mania and exultation in life. Totoro has a spinning top for flying around. The girls jump onto his chest and hang onto his fur, and up they go into the air. Then they all sit up high high in a tree branch and play little owlish night tunes on their ocarinas. It's beautiful.
Today I was inspired by Mr. Wilson's May Day post to go outside and look at plants. I am fond of plants, and prefer that they live, therefore I've given up trying to grow things myself. Luckily my good friends/neighbours can handle it, so I went over there and hung out in the back yard.
I've been directed to The Memory Hole (Rescuing Knowledge, Freeing Information) by two separate sources today (Tom Moody's blog and Ben Smith Lea's post to IDEAL mailing list). American media is by and large trying to ignore the US Military Intelligence condoned torture of Iraqi prisoners. But the bloggers are on it. The quote below is from The Memory Hole's "some favourite quotes" section.
"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who loves his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."
H.L. Mencken
I've been working on this blog for about 5 months and I am still feeling out the medium. One thing that I love is how fast ideas move by. As someone who thinks slowly, and has trouble being "in the moment" I find the pace here challenging and stimulating. But there are some drawbacks. I don't have time to follow up right away on all the interesting recommendations that get posted in the comments. Later, when I'm ready to go browsing/researching/video_renting, they can be hard to find. So I've made a new page of recommendations. I did this for myself, but realised others might get something out of it too. It's sort of like a links page, but not quite because often there aren't links, and each entry has a referral back to the thread where it appeared on this blog. Now that I've done the back posts, it shouldn't be too hard to maintain. I'm not sure if this is a throw-back reaction I'm having, an old-fashioned desire to hang on to things, or a genuinely useful type of archive. We'll see how it goes, I might abandon the idea if it starts to drag me down. Anyhow. Recommendations from comments on this blog are currently posted here.