Bumperstickers.

Driving around San Francisco and the rest of the area I've seen some pretty funny bumperstickers. Most people either wallpaper their cars with them or have one or two discreetly placed. Today I saw someone with a reticent bumpersticker. It was in the driver's side window of his newish car and was not placed so that it could be read well. Anyway, it read:

BU(little LLs)SH(little it).

I don't think I'd seen this one before. I really liked it. I wanted to ask him to place it in a place in which it would be really legible.

Sam Lowry, or Isaac in metallic silver over Brazil.

For some reason, this evening I wanted to rent a film that would either be about music ("Scumrock" was my first choice here),
love (I couldn't finish watching "The New World"--or whatever it is called), sheer genius or otherwise funny. SO, I decided to rent at my favorite video store (no, not Leather Tongue, even though I like them and maybe should have some alternate video store choices) The Four Star, Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."

Orwell's "1984" is a must read for everyone. Often, we don't want to be reminded of it. This weekend I went to see the '70's band Heart put on the hits and play some other people's songs at Konocti Harbor up north in the most bizaare area of northern California: Clearlake. It was blazing hot and beautiful with a plague's worth of bugs flying around on stage as Ann Wilson sang with her usual sweetness. Some eight or nine women sat a few rows ahead with penis-studded fairy ears.

I could go on about the concert. Is that their original guitar player who plays with them? Probably not, right, since when he was introduced it wasn't like he was recognized or anything. It was really Ann and Nancy and some very good musicians around them. They covered a Tom Petty song and two Zeppelin songs. I was hoping that they'd play some of their deeper material, but they went for the rock hard '70's sound. They deserve a musical dvd for distribution.

"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"

To dream or not to dream, that is the question in this surrealist funhouse. It was such a weird film. At center is the Ambassador of "Miranda." He is Spanish, and 'miranda' means "seeing." I love all this convoluted stuff in a film. It is the ultimate dream state. I haven't remembered a dream in its entirety for months and months. In this film by Luis Bunuel, almost everyone has a dream--except the women. They are there to make commentary on the men and help out now and then.

Remember they are the bourgeiosie and therefore must be held up to ridicule. In one scene the three ladies are in a cafe and the waiter tells them at different moments that there is no more tea, there is no more coffee nor milk nor herbal tea. This film even comments on marijuana. The Ambassador and some military men as well as one of the ladies sit around and smoke pot. Was this a dream?

I'd never heard of a "Junebug" until...

I rented a video of this film from my local bazaar of video, "Four Star Video." Kind of a retro name, but who really cares as long
as there is a wide selection of genres and internationally-made videos. Such is this "Four Star." They had put a hand-drawn telephone-type "star" next to the markered posting of this video. I thought, "I've looked around and all the films that I would have wanted to have seen have been rented.

There's the story of the actual desire to watch a film I'd never heard of nor a bug (I like bugs) I'd never seen in a magazine.
I won't tell the story but the film has something to do with love, art, mental acuity, love, the art business, personal desire and the desire of another.

What I really liked the most about this film is the theme song by the band Yo La Tengo which I saw play here live in 1996 or something like that. The song is as lovely as love. I really recommend this film. Although I think here are some flaws in the actual presentation of conflicts between humans in a coupled situation, the film's like lingering in the woods and the jumpcuts that Nature provides.

"Happy Endings"

Tonight my friend and I rented a film: "Happy Endings." On the cover of the cd is a photo of a woman's back and a towel wrapped atop the buttocks. For some people, this film might seem like soft porn. However, it's is far from porn and
closer to barbecued corn.

This film deals with relationships in a multi-colored world. At times I was taken away by the cinematographic effects--long shots through green-grayish rooms with a certain blue. These colors dominate the film, giving its edge, its biosphere.

There are multiple relationships in this film, too. There is a portrayal of a male gay relationship. Laura Dern plays a lesbian.The parts of the story revealed by dialogue are instead typed onto the screen, while letters on black. I actually haven't seen this device used since the silent movies.

Maybe I'm not giving it a better review. It does provide ensemble acting in that the characters become interconnected in some way. There are no major Hollywood stars in it to wreck it. Yay.

What more I hate about money.

Someone said "there's no free ride." I think most Buddhists would agree. However, how would a Hindu (and many and all other spirituals beliefs respond?