Spencer's play, and Waking Life
Mar. 7th, 2006 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_belle_laideSo Spencer's play was Sunday, and it was quite a pleasant surprise. It was "42nd Street," and was not your usual high school fare. These kids were mostly pretty good, and the girl who played Dorothy Brock had quite a voice. And what a huge surprise to see Spencer in a 3 piece suit and top hat, singing and dancing. FTR, Spencer didn't actually want to do this play, but the choreographer--a senior who is a friend of his--roped him into doing it. Then she kept giving him more and more stuff to do. I can hardly fathom that this is the little boy who once knighted himself in the name of god, St. Michael and Captain Planet. He was beautiful.
Then afterwards, Jeremy stayed to watch some of the Oscars with me, which was fun. And then Joaquin lost. WAHHH!
Last night, on the recommendation of the girl from Blockbuster, I watched the movie Waking Life. (That link is to the trailer.) I expected it to be about quantum or string theory or some sort of science, but really it was all philosophy. Which is not a bad thing, just nothing like what I had expected. I will say this, though: it scared the christ ouf of me and I had nightmares all night.
The two parts that scared me the most is when the protagonist (he is not named; let's just call him The Guy,) is with his friends who are discussing lucid dreaming and all the fun things one can do in a lucid dream. The Guy mentions that he keeps thinking that he's woken up, but he can never read the numbers on his digital clock so he knows he's still asleep. His friends tell him that this is a False Awakening, and that usually you can't read numbers or time during a dream, or small letters, and that's always the biggest clue that you're dreaming. And then he pointed out that you also can't usually turn lights on and off during a False Awakening, and that's when I freaked out. Because I have recurring dreams sometimes, too, dreams in which I think I woke up but then the same stuff starts happening from the dream, and every single time I try to turn on a light, and every single time the light doesn't work. I thought that was just a personal quirk of mine, but there it was on celluloid. So then as he's leaving, The Guy half-jokingly goes to turn off the light, and nothing happens. When he looks back, everyone is just staring at him. It was totally unsettling.
And the end freaked me out, too. I won't give it away for anyone who might want to see it. I recommend it to my friends who can sit through a philosophical movie during which not much happens, but a lot of people are talking. If you're the kind of person who has to have a car chase every seven minutes, or something getting blow'd up, or couples hooking up with TEH ROMANCE, you're going to hate this movie.
There was one part that made me think of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
faire_damsel right away. It was the part about reincarnation, where it gets rejected on mathamatical grounds. If the populations has doubled in the last 40 years, then are literally half the population "new souls?" And the ones before that, the last time the population doubled, are those semi-new souls? There aren't enough past lives to go around for even half the world to have had one. But the part that made me think of faire_damsel was this line:
Everybody says they have been the reincarnation of Cleopatra or Alexander The Great. I always want to tell them they were probably some dumb fuck like everybody else.
Because, you know, she wasCatherineKATHRYN Howard. (Oops, sorry, almost spelled it right for a second.) Not to mention various witches and mermaids and fairies and stuff. But especially KATHRYN Howard. Yup.
Anyway, so the movie gave me nightmares of waking up every few hours, trying lights that didn't work, and then some other things that I won't write about because I don't want to spoil the movie. The ending was also unsettling, as The Guy got more and more desperate, trying to wake up, not even sure which metaphor he was going to wake up to. It gave me the creeps. I might actually watch it again. That cartoon guy was kind of cute.
Ah well, House is on tonight, thank goodness!
ETA The entire reincarnation quote was this: I mean, it's impossible. Think about it. The world population has doubled in the past 40 years, right? So if you really believe in that ego thing of one eternal soul, then you have only 50% chance of your soul being over 40. And for it to be over 150 years old, then it's only one out of six. That's from the script.
ETA AGAIN One important thing I wanted to add about this movie, something that I was thinking about all day today, is how well it was "acted", and acted is in quotes not because it was animated and voice acted (it was shot live-action first,) but because no one really seemed to be acting at all. The characters--the people--were just talking. I'm reminded of Jon locitz on old SNL and how he used to have that character who was a theater actor and always shouted "ACTING!" in haughty tones, and this movie had absolutely none of that stuff. The dialogue was the most natural that I've ever heard in a movie. That might have been why it was so engaging to me.
Then afterwards, Jeremy stayed to watch some of the Oscars with me, which was fun. And then Joaquin lost. WAHHH!
Last night, on the recommendation of the girl from Blockbuster, I watched the movie Waking Life. (That link is to the trailer.) I expected it to be about quantum or string theory or some sort of science, but really it was all philosophy. Which is not a bad thing, just nothing like what I had expected. I will say this, though: it scared the christ ouf of me and I had nightmares all night.
The two parts that scared me the most is when the protagonist (he is not named; let's just call him The Guy,) is with his friends who are discussing lucid dreaming and all the fun things one can do in a lucid dream. The Guy mentions that he keeps thinking that he's woken up, but he can never read the numbers on his digital clock so he knows he's still asleep. His friends tell him that this is a False Awakening, and that usually you can't read numbers or time during a dream, or small letters, and that's always the biggest clue that you're dreaming. And then he pointed out that you also can't usually turn lights on and off during a False Awakening, and that's when I freaked out. Because I have recurring dreams sometimes, too, dreams in which I think I woke up but then the same stuff starts happening from the dream, and every single time I try to turn on a light, and every single time the light doesn't work. I thought that was just a personal quirk of mine, but there it was on celluloid. So then as he's leaving, The Guy half-jokingly goes to turn off the light, and nothing happens. When he looks back, everyone is just staring at him. It was totally unsettling.
And the end freaked me out, too. I won't give it away for anyone who might want to see it. I recommend it to my friends who can sit through a philosophical movie during which not much happens, but a lot of people are talking. If you're the kind of person who has to have a car chase every seven minutes, or something getting blow'd up, or couples hooking up with TEH ROMANCE, you're going to hate this movie.
There was one part that made me think of
faire_damsel right away. It was the part about reincarnation, where it gets rejected on mathamatical grounds. If the populations has doubled in the last 40 years, then are literally half the population "new souls?" And the ones before that, the last time the population doubled, are those semi-new souls? There aren't enough past lives to go around for even half the world to have had one. But the part that made me think of faire_damsel was this line:Everybody says they have been the reincarnation of Cleopatra or Alexander The Great. I always want to tell them they were probably some dumb fuck like everybody else.
Because, you know, she was
Anyway, so the movie gave me nightmares of waking up every few hours, trying lights that didn't work, and then some other things that I won't write about because I don't want to spoil the movie. The ending was also unsettling, as The Guy got more and more desperate, trying to wake up, not even sure which metaphor he was going to wake up to. It gave me the creeps. I might actually watch it again. That cartoon guy was kind of cute.
Ah well, House is on tonight, thank goodness!
ETA The entire reincarnation quote was this: I mean, it's impossible. Think about it. The world population has doubled in the past 40 years, right? So if you really believe in that ego thing of one eternal soul, then you have only 50% chance of your soul being over 40. And for it to be over 150 years old, then it's only one out of six. That's from the script.
ETA AGAIN One important thing I wanted to add about this movie, something that I was thinking about all day today, is how well it was "acted", and acted is in quotes not because it was animated and voice acted (it was shot live-action first,) but because no one really seemed to be acting at all. The characters--the people--were just talking. I'm reminded of Jon locitz on old SNL and how he used to have that character who was a theater actor and always shouted "ACTING!" in haughty tones, and this movie had absolutely none of that stuff. The dialogue was the most natural that I've ever heard in a movie. That might have been why it was so engaging to me.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-08 01:09 am (UTC)You've noticed that a very few people shine, right? While most people just fade to gray at a short distance, there are a few people who amaze you, humble you, even scare you a little? Intelligence may be part of it, but there seems to be a spiritual quality as well, even if they don't admit to being especially spiritual. (One of my friends has met Buckminster Fuller -- not only was he an amazingly thinker, but he brought out the best thinking in everyone around him.)
These are the people who got the old souls. These are the people who have had over 150 years well-lived -- they live differently because, on a subconscious level, they've learned all the trivial lessons already and moved on to the important ones.
The people who have younger souls are the dim lights... though that's perhaps no more fair a comparison than giving an algebra test to a preschooler and the Senior Class valedictorian and comparing their scores.
Note that I say that people with older souls shine -- I do not say that they are necessarily better. Not all of these lives are going to have been good. A whole lot more people have lived on this planet than our censuses (censi?) would suggest -- they just didn't live long enough to be counted. Anyone who has had a few reincarnations has also probably had at least one as a child or infant who died way too young... in addition to a few more that were painful, brutish, and short.
(I'm assuming that a human's soul is given to him either at the moment he sees daylight, or the moment he is named. If a soul is given at the moment of conception... well, that makes things even more complicated.)
If I may switch to Christian terminology for a moment? All the great saints are possessed of greater souls. So are all the blackest sinners.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-08 01:25 am (UTC)What I really don't believe in is this. (http://faire-damsel.livejournal.com/45700.html) Because that's when it gets crazy and I lean towards that line in the movie.
(I'm assuming that a human's soul is given to him either at the moment he sees daylight, or the moment he is named. If a soul is given at the moment of conception... well, that makes things even more complicated.)
First breath, I've always thought. But, that's just me; I guess we will neve rknow for sure in this, uhm, life. ^_^