MELISSALAND

Tell me this is not the coolest damn thing you’ve seen in a long time:

http://marcobrambilla.com/civilization.html

I mean, holy shit. Stravinsky, the insane imagery, I could sit in front of this thing for days and still be completely on my ass in awe. You can bet your life I am going to try and get this in the gallery….

Civilization (Megaplex), a metaphysical journey from Hell to Heaven, is portrayed by computer altered found footage. The journey begins under Kurosawa’s “Dreams” volcano, then rises through a purgatory populated by images of suburbia, demolition derbies and shopping malls, finally soaring towards a paradise of beauty contestants, cherubs, bodybuilders, then past the peaks of Mount Olympus to a cosmic portal inspired by Gustav Dore’s paintings, as reinterpreted in the movie, “The Fountain”. Civilization (Megaplex) is an epic video mural containing over 300 individual channels of looped video into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images. - ARTnews

Link: Marc Brambilla’s website

So, I am posting photos I took from this past Spring of the magnolia tree behind my apartment. I am so not looking forward to the cold weather.

Speaking of……

I was talking with someone about this movie recently. I freakin loved Magnolia when it first came out. I talked about it nonstop. I love that it was inspired by an Aimee Mann Album.

The one good thing about winter: it makes crawling in bed with all my old movie loves a perfectly acceptable way to spend a day…..

I have been going through and scanning Robert Flynt’s photographs all morning and I am falling in love with so many of them. $900 a piece for these unique chromogenic photographs. Christmas is coming….that’s all I’m sayin

View more online here

Was thinking tonight about effort and determination, passion, habits, and loves. The things you do simply because they are so ingrained in the essence of what makes ‘you’ you…..that without them, you might cease to exist. And how, despite any failure, any setbacks, you keep trying. And its not because you are waiting for the day you play that perfect game….

It’s because, you love to play.

Seriously, if you are a girl and you are in need of a dress, go here. I think for every big occasion I’ve had in the past two years that I’ve needed something to wear, I’ve bought it from Lisa. Above a few of the purchases I’ve made…..

Most recently I bought the sweetest acorn color dress that I wore for the big opening at the photo gallery. Lisa just wrote about it on her blog.

Really, I don’t know what I would do without her shop

Interior Designer Anjali Pollack, whom the gallery has worked with in the past, was with her husband Michael Pollack at the Taj when it was attacked. They appeared on Charlie Rose monday night to tell their story. It’s pretty incredible and moving….especially hearing Anjali speak towards the end of the piece. I can’t imagine what it must be like to experience something like that. I was reading a letter her husband wrote that was forwarded to me from a co-worker and it just brought tears to my eyes.

For the next seven hours, I lay in the fetal position, keeping in touch with Anjali via BlackBerry. I was joined in the stall by Joe, a Nigerian national with a U.S. green card. I managed to get in touch with the FBI, and several agents gave me status updates throughout the night.

I cannot even begin to explain the level of adrenaline running through my system at this point. It was this hyper-aware state where every sound, every smell, every piece of information was ultra-acute, analyzed and processed so that we could make the best decisions and maximize the odds of survival.

Was the fire above us life-threatening? What floor was it on? Were the commandos near us, or were they terrorists? Why is it so quiet? Did the commandos survive? If the terrorists come into the bathroom and to the door, when they fire in, how can I make my body as small as possible? If Joe gets killed before me in this situation, how can I throw his body on mine to barricade the door? If the Indian commandos liberate the rest in the other room, how will they know where I am? Do the terrorists have suicide vests? Will the roof stand? How can I make sure the FBI knows where Anjali and I are? When is it safe to stand up and attempt to urinate?

You can read Micheal’s full letter on Forbes website

I can’t wait to see the movie Coraline - a stop motion animation film coming in February 2009. And what a fun website they’ve made for it, full of cute little teaser shorts. Go to www.coraline.com and when prompted for the key try the following passwords: (thanks cpluv)

stopmotion
moustachio
puppetlove
armpithair
sweaterxxs

Found the poet Lisel Mueller tonight and fell head over heels for her brilliant words. Here is one lovely one (also, I WANT to find this record - as a kid, I had a huge crush on Danny Kaye)

Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny by Lisel Mueller

Jenny, your mind commands
kingdoms of black and white:
you shoulder the crow on your left,
the snowbird on your right;
for you the cinders part
and let the lentils through,
and noise falls into place
as screech or sweet roo-coo,
while in my own, real, world
gray foxes and gray wolves
bargain eye to eye,
and the amazing dove
takes shelter under the wing
of the raven to keep dry.

Knowing that you must climb,
one day, the ancient tower
where disenchantment binds
the curls of innocence,
that you must live with power
and honor circumstance,
that choice is what comes true–
oh, Jenny, pure in heart,
why do I lie to you?

Why do I read you tales
in which birds speak the truth
and pity cures the blind,
and beauty reaches deep
to prove a royal mind?
Death is a small mistake
there, where the kiss revives;
Jenny, we make just dreams
out of our unjust lives.

Still, when your truthful eyes,
your keen, attentive stare,
endow the vacuous slut
with royalty, when you match
her soul to her shimmering hair,
what can she do but rise
to your imagined throne?
And what can I, but see
beyond the world that is,
when, faithful, you insist
I have the golden key–
and learn from you once more
the terror and the bliss,
the world as it might be?

(I have to share one more great one by Lisel)

The Blind Leading the Blind
by Lisel Mueller

Take my hand. There are two of us in this cave.
The sound you hear is water; you will hear it forever.
The ground you walk on is rock. I have been here before.
People come here to be born, to discover, to kiss,
to dream, and to dig and to kill. Watch for the mud.
Summer blows in with scent of horses and roses;
fall with the sound of sound breaking; winter shoves
its empty sleeve down the dark of your throat.
You will learn toads from diamonds, the fist from palm,
love from the sweat of love, falling from flying.
There are a thousand turnoffs. I have been here before.
Once I fell off a precipice. Once I found gold.
Once I stumbled on murder, the thin parts of a girl.
Walk on, keep walking, there are axes above us.
Watch for the occasional bits and bubbles of light.
Birthdays for you, recognitions: yourself, another.
Watch for the mud. Listen for bells, for beggars.
Something with wings went crazy against my chest once.
There are two of us here. Touch me.

(photo)