They've gone from 'Kids' to 'Juno' and I'm Greenberg. The 'Gang of Youths' Sydney show.

The 'Gang of Youths' Sydney show.

As we approached the man who was about to slap us with green wristbands, security muttered something to him. "What did he say?" my friend asked. We both thought it might have been "border". Maybe it was "water" I wondered, our other friend did get asked to confiscate her bottle. We carried on into the gig as the second support played their last few songs.

We sensed the wristbands meant the show was All-ages. As the room filled there was a dawning realisation the crowd were overwhelmingly kids. The band we came to see were 'Gang of Youths' so we were genuinely pleased by the poetry of being encircled by just that. I spotted a teenager next to me wearing a 'Freaks and Geeks shirt and smirked at how sophisticated her taste was. I drafted my optimal dating profile: I taped every episode of 'Freaks and Geeks'**.
It proudly tipped my age and cool, being borderline smug about it. I asked her where she got it from, I figured it'd be homemade. She got it at a Comic convention.

A short curly-haired girl with a 3-panel cap walked by, I thought to myself "these kids are reeeeeally cool". But I meant it in a patronising, threatened way. A few beats after passing us, my friend whipped towards me and we locked eyes. "Wait! Did you just give me that look cuz that girl was strikingly cool?". She nodded.

I started thinking about my age. I imagined that this would be a terrible place to be high, I'd be paranoid I was swarmed by adolescents with judging eyes. I relayed these concerns, my friend remarked "It's already happening".
That morning I had listened to a podcast where Director Harmony Korine talked about his feelings towards his landmark movie 'Kids' (1995) 20 years on. It was basically checking in on a punk teen once you aged them with life.

VIDEO: 'Greenberg' (2010) party scene

The kids are all right but those around me didn't seem to have the reckless innocence of that classic coming-of-age movie. Kids be 'Juno' (2007) now. They knew too much or at least more than me at that age.
That's what I felt at that moment, like Greenberg at the party. When Ben Stiller's 40 year old character admonished the kids - "You're so sincere and interested in things. There's a confidence in you guys that's horrifying". This was tonight's theme.

VIDEO: 'Greenberg' Official Trailer

I came to the show because my good friend insisted but I didn't really know the band. I
knew a few songs from the radio, I didn't expect to get hit by this sudden identity crisis but it was cool nonetheless. I spent the first half of the gig drafting everything you're reading now in my head.

Then they played this song and I lost my shit.

VIDEO: Gang of Youths cover LCD Soundsystem 

'All My Friends' for Like A Version

Gang of Youths did a Like a Version for LCD Soundsystem's 'All my friends'. I knew it only as the song that scored the trailer for 'Greenberg', one of my favorite movies. Now it underscored everything.

A few songs before I had realised what might have been said as we came into the venue. The bouncer had just carded us and he was giving the OK to his colleague giving out wristbands for the Bar - "Older" he was saying assuringly.

** Channel 9 aired 'Freaks and Geeks' in 1999. I saw Samm Levine on the Martin Short show and was charmed by him, he plays Neal on 'Freaks and Geeks'. From that daytime appearance I decided to tape the Pilot airing soon after.

Comedian Pete Holmes on Hating popular movements and trends: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, 'Breaking Bad' etc...

Pouring water on a viral sensation, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge:

- The Ice Bucket Challenge: How Can We Really Cure ALS? (socialistappeal.org/)
- Critics pour cold water on the Ice Bucket Challenge: are they right? (theconversation.com)
- The worst part of the Ice Bucket Challenge is the people criticizing it (Vice.com)
- Dumping a bucket of ice on your head does not make you a Philanthropist (Vice.com)

'You Made It Weird' with Pete Holmes: Episode195 - Ari Voukydis
PETE HOLMES: (4m 40s) Sometimes people hate things or have a negative reaction to things because they're threatened by them... I realise once I said that it's kinda obvious. I was talking to my brother last night and he was talking about how he hates 'Breaking Bad'. I was like "Have you seen it?" and he was like "No". He's seen one or two episodes out of order. And in a loving way I was telling him how full of sh!t he is for -- Not because of Breaking Bad, you don't have to like Breaking Bad but -- the great thing about my brother is that he heard me. He wasn't just like "F*ck you", he's my older brother. He doesn't need to listen to this sh!t
What is it about Breaking Bad that you hate? Is it that everyone loves it and you like missed the train? You didn't watch it. You're left out. Does it represent loneliness and isolation. Because I feel that way sometimes about [Downton] Abbey... He also said "F*ck American Hustle!". So I said "You saw it?" and he said "No".
JOHN F. O'DONNELL: He just sounds like he's being curmudgeonly.
HOLMES: That's the worst thing you can do because I love my brother so I say "You're full of sh!t". To let it go is to abandon them which is kind of what I've done with my parents. It's beyond hope so you let it go. But with my brother it's like don't hate Bradley Cooper he was great in 'The Place Beyond the Pines'

How the Movie of our life ends: Linklater's film 'BoyHood' and Duncan Watts' book 'Everything is Obvious'

VICE Meets: Richard Linklater on the Making of "Boyhood"

Director Richard Linklater describes 'Boyhood' (2014) as a meditation on "Growing up, its about time passing and life going on". Linklater is adept at incorporating grand existential themes in his films. As the movie was shot and written over the span of 12 years, it reflects the malaise and meandering we have through the passage of time. Like any good narrative the viewer remains uncertain as to how it will develop or end, the unconventional filmmaking process making the stakes higher. This is reflected in Grantland's 'Straight to Video' review of the film

CHRIS CONNELLY: (4m 21s) He, I feel hasn't settled into a rhythm yet because he doesn't know where the story is going and that's the thing that's so interesting. So big things can't happen in quite the same way we expect from a movie because he's remaining open - Rick is - to what's gonna happen next in these kid's lives.

Without spoiling the movie, 'BoyHood' closes with several beats which might have constituted an "ending" had they been handled by another Writer/Director. In keeping with the theme of time passing and mirroring life itself Linklater chooses an unassuming scene to ultimately punctuate a narrative told with such moments.

I'm currently in the process of reading two books, 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell and 'Everything is Obvious' by Duncan J. Watts. I was surprised through the course of reading both that they contradicted each other. Duncan cautions against Post Hoc fallacies, not to be misled by conclusions drawn after the fact. In 'Chapter 5: History, the Fickle Teacher' with subheadings like "History cannot be told while it's happening" and "Whoever tells the best story wins" he describes the difficulty in evaluating something as ephemeral as a moment in time.

'Everything is Obvious [*Once You Know the Answer]:
How Common Sense Fails' by Duncan Watts

Chapter 5: History, the Fickle Teacher
Within the narrow confines of a movie narrative, it seems obvious the right time to evaluate everything should be at the end. But in real life, the situation is far more ambiguous. Just as the characters in a story don't know when the ending is, we don't know when the movie of our own life will reach its final scene. And even if we did, we could hardly go around evaluating all choices, however trivial, in light of our final state on our deathbed. In fact, even then we couldn't be sure of the meaning of what we accomplished...
In reality, the events that we label as outcomes are never really endpoints. Instead, they are artificially imposed milestones, just as the ending of a movie is really an artificial end to what in reality is an ongoing story. And depending on where we choose to impose an "end" to a process, we may infer very different lessons from the outcome.

Linklater offers this epiphany on his process, "I guess the key thing is to still think it's worth it". A friend recently remarked as we evaluated the intervening decade since we'd known each other - "As long as you're happy today, you'll have no regrets about your past because everything was leading up to this point".
Fin

Find other posts that reference Richard Linklater
- 'Loz in Transit' on the radio: Talking 'Waking Life' and existentialism
- Searchlab Lecture: Richard Linklater talking about being at peace with your art
- Home Movies: 'Before Sunrise' - "I've never been anywhere" quote
- Anticipation for 'Before Midnight' and why 'Before Sunrise' is my favorite movie (No Spoilers)
- Anticipation for 'Boyhood' and why Richard Linklater is my favorite director
- How the Movie of our life ends: Linklater's film 'BoyHood' and Duncan Watts' book 'Everything is Obvious'

Anticipation for 'Boyhood' and why Richard Linklater is my favorite director

VIDEO: 'Boyhood' Official Trailer (2014)

I wrote a piece roughly this time last year in anticipation for Richard Linklater's third installment of the 'Before...' trilogy. 'Before Midnight' premiered at the last Sydney Film Festival, Linklater's latest feature 'Boyhood' will have its debut for this year's program.

I still recall the moment I heard about 'Boyhood'. I was on a train reading Film industry news from some Sydney street press, they announced a Richard Linklater project where he'd enlisted Ethan Hawke and a young boy to film over several years in real time. A piece of cinematic fiction in the vein of the 'Up' documentary series. This was in the early 2000s I had not yet stumbled on 'Before Sunrise' thus this predated my adoration of Linklater.

VIDEO: The long conversation - Richard Linklater on cinema and time

RICHARD LINKLATER: Time is a really powerful factor but it is in all of our lives... I think it's more the perception. How your brain perceives and unfolds through a day and just the perception of an event is so human whether you're in a waking or dream state

Richard Linklater's art is distinct for me in that his work speaks for itself. He handles what it is to be human and the existential baggage that comes with it so deftly that further analysis or supplementation only muddles the ideas. His view of the world as mirrored in his interviews and the manner of speaking in his films is what I love about the podcast format. The honesty, investigation and connection found in my favorite podcasts (YMIW with Pete Holmes and WTF with Marc Maron) had been satiated years before in the conversation found in Linklater's ouvre. I explained in length how Linklater appeals to me in a radio conversation about his movie 'Waking Life' - Talking 'Waking Life' and existentialism

Unlike 'Before Midnight', I've watched the trailer and am not averse to reading up on 'Boyhood' prior to the screening. 'Boyhood' premieres at the State Theatre, Friday June 6, 8:30pm. It will be showing again Saturday June 7 at 11:30am as part of the Sydney Film Festival Program.

Richard Linklater: About Time... trains and dreams

Find other posts that reference Richard Linklater
- 'Loz in Transit' on the radio: Talking 'Waking Life' and existentialism
- Anticipation for 'Before Midnight' and why 'Before Sunrise' is my favorite movie (No Spoilers)
- Searchlab Lecture: Richard Linklater talking about being at peace with your art
- Home Movies: 'Before Sunrise' - "I've never been anywhere" quote

Facebook, consciousness and connection: Theodore Twombly has found "Her".

Single meets Singularity

Director and tastemaker Spike Jonze is getting plenty of press for his new movie 'Her'. A new age love story that asks questions about "real love" in the digital age. In an interview with James Bell for 'Sight & Sound' (Jan 2014) magazine, Spike explains that on the one hand we as humans are afraid of not connecting but afraid of connecting also. Afraid of not being seen but afraid of being seen.

This touches on a similar theme comedian Pete Holmes discusses with guest Harland Williams on his 'You Made it Weird' podcast.

You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes: #127 Harland Williams
HARLAND WILLIAMS: (27m 45s) Let me ask you this? Maybe people have shifted their focus from - I don't think people on a daily basis think about rocks and twigs but maybe people have injected a little bit of their souls into their cellphones and their computers because all these things become very personal now.
I've literally gone out to lunch with my cellphone instead of calling a friend because I want to be with my cellphone and I want to read USA Today, I want to play a game. I want to spend time with my cellphone, so maybe inadvertently we've shifted some of our soul into these belongings but its sad because its not real. They're not part of the earth.
PETE HOLMES: Its a synthetic. We're mainlining a fake type of social [interaction]- but its better. It feels better, like a drug. Like a synthetic drug. It feels better than actually conversing with somebody because you can control it. Its a little bit more private. You read your tweets, you look at your Instagram, you look at your Facebook, you play a game, you read your—Its all very controlled.
Whereas when I'm talking to you, I can offend you...

Other posts on Technology
- Being truly free [with the help of robots?]: 'Whatever You Wish' by Isaac Asimov
- Technology vs human instinct: From Inuits in Northern Canada to Jungle Guides in the Amazon
- Comedian Louis C.K. on what Smartphones are taking away
- Comedians Pete Holmes and Eddie Pepitone on the phone as a "Life Companion"
- Dan Harmon talks television with Marc Maron on GT4: "Hamburger" Art and living in a "concrete, Orwellian Honeycomb"
Other posts on consciousness

Update:

Single meets Singularity (Hurt Edition)

'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty': Ben Stiller on hyperreality and losing yourself in the moment

Australia's Movie Guy, Marc Fennell dubbed 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' as "the best 2 hour Travel Agent ad you've ever seen". So its only fitting that I found this Ben Stiller feature on the Delta Airlines inflight magazine 'Sky'.

Delta Airlines' Magazine 'Sky' (December 2013): The Ben Stiller Magic

The profile written by a forgivably gushy Steve Marsh, injects some psychoanalysis of Ben Stiller

The Ben Stiller Magic
Stiller, at least in the movies he directs, has always seemed obsessed with reality --specifically with how reality is shaped (or warped) by the stuff we watch when we’re on the couch... 

"So why are you so interested in this notion of reality? It seems like your entire career has been obsessed with this idea."
"Wow," Stiller says. "I never really analyzed it. That’s interesting you say that, because I’ve never thought about it that way." He pauses.

As someone drawn to Dreams and Reality this was right up my alley.

I ask him if he ever daydreams. "No, not really," he says. "When you're making a movie like this, or any movie really, you're so in the moment, you’re not really daydreaming. But I do try to take time to appreciate the experience of doing things you wouldn't normally get to do."

He remembers one moment on the set of Mitty: "This wasn't really a daydream, but it was just kind of a moment of realization. I was in the water and we had to do a shot where the Zodiac boat is approaching me to pull me out of the water, and the only way we could get the shot was to put the camera in the boat, because it's like a POV of the boat coming at me. We were a mile or half a mile out to sea in the ocean off Iceland, and the swells were pretty big, so they dropped me in the water and just drove away. It was just a funny, surreal moment. Cause I'm really in the ocean here by myself. I couldn't see anything; the boat went far enough away that it was gone, the swells were at four feet. And I was like, This is crazy, this is actually... this is happening. I'm really in the ocean. If that boat doesn't come back... I mean, I know they know I'm here but... It's like the funny crossover of reality and movies, where you do real things but somehow you think because you're doing it for a movie that everything is OK. And, actually, the weird thing that you're doing is as dangerous or weird as it would be if there was no camera there; you're still really doing it." 

Whether its an Astronaut going about his routine or a backpacker off to his next destination there is an element of being outside yourself that is necessary to accomplish "extraordinary" things.

'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' (2013)

Whilst walking around Cartagena I spotted this perch by the water. Not being scared of heights and with my fondness for climbing things I decided to scale it. I could be like a Pirate of the Caribbean.
Only at the top did I realise how precarious and foolish the endeavour was. What was I thinking?

From Below: Crow's Nest in Cartagena, Colombia

From above: Probably not the best idea 

We "get into the zone" or are under so much pressure we forget to appreciate the moment. When you're caught up in the moment or swept by momentum, things you never thought possible can be mundanely achieved.
We just have to remember not to appreciate them mundanely.

Searchlab Lecture: Richard Linklater talking about being at peace with your art

VIDEO: Richard Linklater - Searchlab Lecture (Part 2)

RICHARD LINKLATER: (17m 30s) Sometimes it connects and sometimes it doesn't but you have to make your peace. If you're not doing it for that reason anyway you can look at it philosophically if it doesn't... I made it for a $100, 000. I had a good experience and I want it to be a hit too. Your reward is the work, you've got to make peace with your movie. The last time you watch it on your own... inevitably you'll be with your whole film alone. That's your best screening. Right then, right there. Make your peace with it before anyone else sees it. Know what you think about it. This is what I got out of it. This is what I learnt, here's I'm a better person for this. I met so many great people. I articulated this story I've been thinking about for 10 years, 20 years or 3 months or whatever. This is a gift... Just be thankful that you gotta to do it and if it hooks up with the public, you can move forward and incorporate it in your life. If it made a lot of money it doesn't make it a better movie, and if it doesn't make money its doesn't make it a worse movie. But Hollywood will always judge it that way, at least for a three year period I've found.

I've made movies that tank and I've noticed people treating it like it was a success years later. That's good, that just means they liked it or that its real life has emerged. That it was quality or there was something that people ultimately responded to...

Find other posts that reference Richard Linklater
- 'Loz in Transit' on the radio: Talking 'Waking Life' and existentialism
- Searchlab Lecture: Richard Linklater talking about being at peace with your art
- Home Movies: 'Before Sunrise' - "I've never been anywhere" quote
- Anticipation for 'Before Midnight' and why 'Before Sunrise' is my favorite movie (No Spoilers)
- Anticipation for 'Boyhood' and why Richard Linklater is my favorite director
- How the Movie of our life ends: Linklater's film 'BoyHood' and Duncan Watts' book 'Everything is Obvious'

Sylvester Stallone on Rocky's celebration: Freezing the moment of ecstacy

VIDEO: The Rocky Story by Sly Stallone (3 of 4)

SYLVESTER STALLONE: (4m 22s) Wouldn't it be interesting to catch a man’s moment—a man’s life—at the quintessential, seminal moment? I thought, wouldn't it be interesting that the first thing Rocky says when she [Adrian] comes into the ring is, ‘Where’s your hat?’ I mean, he’s so into her and the way she looks that he doesn’t care that his eyes are swollen shut, his hands are smashed, and he’s just done the greatest thing in his life. He doesn’t say, ‘Look at me.' 

The visuals are working, the sound is working, the body movement is coming together at this absolute peak, and right there, when I embrace her... we froze right at the single frame where he is looking elated and has her in his arms. There’s this look of ecstasy, and in the next frame it just deflated. There it is—from that moment on, it’s all downhill: how we all hit this absolute maximum of elation and celebration, and it can only be sustained for an infinitesimal moment in time. And if you can just imagine how great it would be to freeze that moment...

Sylvester Stallone is unfairly maligned as an oaf. Betrayed by his beefcake appearance and slurred speech, he is overlooked as the artist he truly is. Which only makes 'Rocky (1976)', the film he wrote and starred in, all the more poetic as it mirrors his own underdog life.

Rocky: Leading actor and writer, Sylvester Stallone. Directed by John G. Avildsen

In this talking heads special feature found in the Rocky box set, Sly talks about the pinnacle of life, the moments of glory that forever define us and our future potential.

- When fireworks underwhelm: Returned Soldier Kyle Wilson and Comedian Pete Holmes "feel nothing"

Comedians Jack Druce and Michael Hing talk about "Life as a movie"

As a movie buff and someone who revels in imagination, I'm an advocate for viewing life through the prism of Movies or Video Games. I've related travel feelings through Movie Tropes and have often used Cinema as a measuring stick for my life. Joseph Campbell articulated this best but its worth noting that we've been bombarded by more engrossing media since his time.

VIDEO: Joseph Campbell - Myth As the Mirror for the Ego

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well the ego can't reflect upon itself unless it has a mirror against which to read itself and that mirror would be the Mythological schedule that lets it know where it is...

Australian Comedians Jack Druce and Michael Hing touch on the idea of 'Life as a Movie' and the issue of Reality Inversion.

The Druce and Hing Podcast: 54 - Wolf The Movie 3D!
MICHAEL HING: (1h 3m) Presumably a lot of screenwriters and stuff are themselves dorky writer nerds who are writing stories about themselves as we all would. And in the film of the life that they're writing of course they get the girl. And so you grow up thinking that people will find this thing charming... the thing is that's not how life works. Because if that was how life worked then that movie would be very boring and their would be no element of interest or intrigue to it.

It'd just be like "Here's 90 minutes that have been directly captured from how things happen" as opposed to "This is an actual Million Dollar fantasy, not only could we not find this anywhere in the world. We had to hire actors and pay people to write this story where this series of events happened because it would never happen in real life. And now you will pay money to experience this because you know it would never happen as well"

Jack makes a great point that no matter how visceral an experience is delivered, we can never truly embody the feeling and thoughts of another person.

JACK DRUCE: (55m 50s) People in movies they're just doing stuff, you don't know what they're thinking. So when you're doing stuff you're thinking "this sucks I'm really bad at this". You don't know if people in movies are thinking like that or not. They could be. You don't know if that's in stories, you don't know whats in their heads at that time so you think you're doing it wrong. Because well I'm doing this thing and I'm in my head thinking it sucks and that's not how culture and stories have told me how people do stuff.

- Find the 'Druce and Hing Podcast' on iTunes or on Michael Hing's Libsyn page

Skateboarders GoPro Train Derailment aftermath - 'Strange Days' visceral experience

VIDEO: 'Strange Days' (1995) Theatrical Trailer

'Strange Days' (1995)
LENNY NERO: Have you ever jacked in. Have you ever wire-tripped?... This is not "like TV only better". This is life, this is a piece of somebody's life. It's about the stuff you can't have right? The forbidden fruit. Straight from the cerebral cortex, you're there, you're doing it. You're feeling it.... Are you beginning to see the possibilities here? 

I mentioned Kathryn Bigelow's 'Strange Days' featuring a Badass GoPro short film. This is dramatically realer as some Skateboard kids stumble on a massive train derailment in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They walk through the aftermath and film their reactions as it unfolds. Thankfully there were no fatalities. The scene recalls another movie, J.J Abrams' 'Super 8'. In fact if that movie were set in modern times it would no doubt be called 'Go Pro'.

Super 8 (2011)
In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash
while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident.

Passengers bloodied after trains derail, collide in southwest Connecticut
(CNN) -- Two Metro-North passenger trains heading in opposite directions collided during rush hour Friday evening in southwestern Connecticut, damaging both trains and leaving dozens injured -- some of them critically -- authorities said.

A train heading from New Haven to New York City derailed around 6:10 p.m., hitting the other train in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. That caused some cars on the second train, which was destined for New Haven, to likewise leave the tracks.

VIDEO: MTA (Metro North) Crash, RAW Footage 

Other posts on "Life as a Video Game"
- Dan Harmon and Duncan Trussell: We are in a simulation echo. God was originally a mortal programmer who "sacrificed himself as a player"
- Exploring Worlds in life and in Video Games - The Indoor Kids #59: Why we Play, with Pete Holmes
- Onnit Blog: Self Improvement in Video Games VS the "Real World"
- Kumail Nanjiani and Pete Holmes talk about "affecting the world TODAY"
- Skateboarders GoPro Train Derailment aftermath - 'Strange Days' visceral experience
- On being a Badass: Comedians Harland Williams and Pete Holmes featuring band 'Biting Elbows'

Harmony Korine talks to Marc Maron about "Plotting" and The Joker talk to Harvey Dent about "schemers"

L'enfant terrible Harmony Korine

Marc talks to 'Spring Breakers' director Harmony Korine about the value he places in plot for his films and life

WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 374 - James Franco, Harmony Korine, Nate Bargatze, Peter Sagal
MARC MARON: (59m 30s) So story initially is not that important?
HARMONY KORINE: No I mean story is always important. Characters are always important. Sometimes I have a problem with like the idea of plot
panel and audience laughter
Cuz life never seems plotted or people who plot things seem horrible. Right? If you're a person who's gonna plot your life I don't want to be around you. So why would I want to plot my movies?
MARON: You might want to be around them when the plot starts failing cuz that's always interesting. Well that plot didn't work out now its...
KORINE: Story and characters are what I like

The Joker reasoning with Harvey Dent (Two-Face) on the merits of chaos over order

VIDEO: The Dark Knight - Hospital Scene (Two-Face and Joker)

The Dark Knight (2008)
THE JOKER: [speaking to Two-Face] Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just, do things. The mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon’s got plans. You know, they’re schemers. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how, pathetic, their attempts to control things really are. So, when I say, ah, come here, when I say that you and your girlfriend was nothing personal, you know that I’m telling the truth. It’s the schemers that put you where you are. You were a schemer, you had plans, and uh, look where that got you. I just did what I do best. I took your plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did, to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hm? You know what, you know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I tell the press that like a gang banger, will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all, part of the plan. But when I say that one, little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
[Joker hands Two-Face a gun and points it at himself]
Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos. Oh and you know the thing about chaos, it’s fair.

Find other Marc Maron posts below:
- AV Club's Nathan Rabin talks about Podcast Culture on Marc Maron's 300th episode of WTF
- Actor, Writer and Traveler Mike White speaks to Marc Maron about Adventure
- Dan Harmon talks Television with Marc Maron on GT4: "Hamburger" Art and living in a "concrete, Orwellian Honeycomb"
- Is Andrew W.K a persona that has been played by multiple actors? Marc Maron in conversation with Andrew W.K.

Coming home from a year abroad. Reverse culture shock and beating the travel blues: The Hurt Locker (2008)

The closing scenes of 'Hurt Locker' (2008)

There's always a period of adjustment when coming home after a year abroad. Settling back into the grind of daily life you encounter people who don't even realise you were gone. Conversely those aware of your absence show little interest to what you did while you were away. Then you come to realise everyone's been living eventful lives (marriage, divorce, mortgages, promotions, kids). You just hadn't been paying attention. You needed your own experience and some time away to get the fresh perspective to see what's always been there.

The more you experience, the more you realise nothing is new - Its just new to you. I've started to have a new appreciation for the stories people tell, messages in movies resonate more.

If you ever get the blues after returning from an extended stay away from home. Don't feel so bad, its human to crave returning to environments where we felt invigorated even though we belong elsewhere. While you're dying to reenlist for your next adventure don't forget that there are others itching to getaway again with their backpacks also.

The Hurt Locker (2008) - Civilian life in the supermarket

The Hurt Locker (2008)
Staff Sergeant William James: [Speaking to his son] You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your mommy, your daddy. You love your pyjamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-box. Maybe you'll realise it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.

- Transcript: Travellers depression and feeling the pain
- Backpacking Round the World Trip - A modern day "Hero's Journey" (Joseph Campbell)

Robert Rodriguez with Blackberry 10: On the beauty and power of Creativity

Robert Rodriguez alongside Kobe Bryant at TroubleMaker Studios

Ever since 'Once upon a time in Mexico' and watching Robert Rodriguez's 'Ten Minute Film School' I've looked up to him as a rolemodel. His resourcefulness, independence and undeniability spoke to me. I liked how he wore different hats creatively, something I aspired to in my own design. I've included a TroubleMaker studio tour in Austin on the bucket list for the 30HomeGames mission.

VIDEO: BlackBerry 10 & Robert Rodriguez - Project Green Screen

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ: When you're saying you want to be a filmmaker, you're saying you want to communicate. It goes beyond the technological, it goes into that realm of creativity, of storytelling. How you got there, whether you used a digital camera or a phone. It doesn't matter. Its the idea that rules at the end of the day. You shouldn't even move forward if you feel too comfortable, cuz you're wasting your time. You wanna be challenged, you wanna do stuff where you don't know how you're going to pull it off.

I lead a creative life and when you lead a creative life you can't help but be happy. Everything that you do is about discovery, creating and being inspired by something and entertaining people and yourself. I don't think I've worked a day in my life. I thought I've always been playing. People say "You make so many movies, why do you work so hard?". Change that question to play and ask that question again. I've done a lot but its only the beginning. There's so much more to do, there's so many more things that can scare you. That you can take on and discover...

When LozinTransit laughed the hardest - Nicholas Sparks trailer

VIDEO: 'Safe Haven' trailer (from Nicholas Sparks)

Comedian Pete Holmes will often ask guests of his 'You Made it Weird' podcast to recount a story of when they laughed really hard. This is the story I would tell:

I was watching 'Zero Dark Thirty' in the cinemas with the boys. My good friend who is an Army reservist was beside me. The trailer for the upcoming Nicholas Sparks movie 'Safe Haven' came on. As the trailer was wrapping up, my friend leant in and in a deadpan voice remarked - "They look happy"
I lost my sh!t after that.

Please watch the trailer and as it finishes highlight the tinted words inside the quotation marks to reveal what was said.

Find previous Pete Holmes podcast references below:
- Pete Holmes collection: Adjacent experiences
- Zach Cregger: Being a kid again and the power of "play"
- Matt Besser: Travel coincidences and Counting the serendipities
- Duncan Trussell: Traveling, living the dream and remembering it
- Kyle Kinane: Being excited everyday
- The Sklar Brothers: Performing, possibly failing - That's living the dream
- A question answered with a quote: Comedy Podcasts

'Cloud Atlas' director Lana Wachowski on the value of making art

'Cloud Atlas' (2012) directed by Andy & Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer

'Cloud Atlas' co-directors Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer discuss the holistic value of making art to Chris Hardwick for the Nerdist Podcast

Nerdist Podcast #275: The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer
LANA WACHOWSKI: (19m 50s) The film was made entirely as an act of love in the exact same way that all young filmmakers begin. The film has a purity of almost amateur intent because we didn't get paid, we put our own money into it, we mortgaged the house to pay for it and when you talk about "What is the value of things?". The value of this film no matter what it paid, we don't even think about it really as a potential financial reward. It will never really be equal to the value of what we've experienced making it, the value of having our lives intersect for this period. The value of making this piece of art that is unique and unconventional and has so much of our lives woven into it.

I mean everyday we keep saying "Oh my God, its so much like the movie". We keep using lines from the movie to speak, we don't even have our own original dialogue anymore. No matter what happens I'm so grateful for the fact that it exists and it will be there forever, it will always represent to me this moment in my life that has been so important. Money is such a small part of measuring the value of making art...

Backpacking Round the World Trip - A modern day "Hero's Journey" (Joseph Campbell)

<< crossposted on the 'Loz in Translation' blog

Are you about to embark on a Round-the-World trip? Have you recently returned from an epic adventure and wondering what to do next? Do you have a yearning to travel, voyaging to foreign lands, exploring exotic cultures and meeting interesting people?

It's the classic template for 'The Hero's Journey' as elucidated by Joseph Campbell, found in myths around the world and mirrored in popular works such as 'Star Wars' and 'The Lord of the Rings'. Whilst our modern day travels might not have the magic of these mythical quests, what with our GPS, crowdsourced tips and online booking there remains the sense of wonder and discovery even if the roads are paved and well-trodden. Myself, I prefer traveling with as little foreknowledge of a place as possible, guided by my instincts rather than technology. Its my way of preserving some sense of adventure.

If you've read even a few travel blogs, you might be familiar with certain tropes. Posts addressing whether long-term Travelers are running away or towards something. Advice on how to free oneself from the shackles of debt or comfort. These themes recur because they are part of the human condition, torn between needing to branch out and being rooted with our comforts. A cycle that began at birth.

Comparing long-term travel and Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's journey"

Whilst our trips may not be as outlandish as those found in legend, to us they are still the stuff of fantasy. People often remark that the treasure at the end of the journey was finding themselves, for a lucky few they may have even snagged the Princess.

VIDEO: The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell (1987)

The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell (1987)
NARRATOR: (43m 30s) The 'Hero with a Thousand faces' was the synthesis of years of work. In his book, Campbell outlined the Hero's Journey he had seen repeated in cultures around the world. He saw the hero as a personification of a Culture's mythology. Traditionally the hero might be a warrior, the ideal of strength and courage. An explorer, a founder of civilisations. A philosopher, an adventurer of the mind. And in the modern world, Campbell would add the artist and the scientist to the pantheon of heroes but the journey is essentially the same - One shape shifting story of the vision quest that transforms the world.

Whether it is Odysseus, King Arthur or Luke Skywalker. The hero is the one who responds to the call to Adventure. The stories often open with the hero appearing restless, something is missing in life, there is a feeling of destiny. It is a time for separation, sometimes it takes a shock to make the final break from the past and gain the final courage to accept the call. But noone can go it alone, everyone needs a mentor to provide wisdom and magical power...

The descent to the underworld of adventure is often blocked by dangerous threshold guardians. They mark the point of no return. Beyond them is the region of the unknown, a dreamlike labyrinth of tests and trials. To pass his initiation, the hero must become a Dragonslayer - seize the treasure or rescue the Princess. But the decisive ordeal of the quest is when the hero confronts death, he is challenged to follow the wisdom of his heart....

Find some of my favorite Movie posts below:
- Read more about the "Hero's Journey" (aka The Monomyth)
- Coming Home from a year abroad. Reverse Culture shock and beating the travel Blues: The Hurt Locker (2008)
- Home Movies: 'Before Sunrise' - "I've never been anywhere" quote
- Find all my 'Movie' posts here

- Traveling life as a movie
- Other people's stories - Tales of: Adventure

Good Will Hunting : "You're just a kid" scene

VIDEO: Good Will Hunting - "You're just a kid"

'Good Will Hunting' (1997) quotes
SEAN: Thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me... fell into a deep peaceful sleep, and haven't thought about you since. Do you know what occurred to me? Will: No. Sean: You're just a kid, you don't have the faintest idea what you're talkin' about. Will: Why thank you. Sean: It's all right. You've never been out of Boston. Will: Nope. Sean: So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. You're an orphan right?

'Loz in Transit' on the radio: Talking 'Waking Life' and existentialism

<< crossposted on the 'Loz in Translation' blog

I had the pleasure of being on community radio to discuss the Richard Linklater film 'Waking Life'. I was given the opportunity to curate the song playlist and touch on themes covered on this blog (travel, reality).

Find the radio chat here:
- Bernie Burke radio interviews (WOW FM 100.7)
- Download the file directly here, Music & Movie Madness: Dec 11, 2012 (51m 13s, no music)

PODCAST: 'Music & Movie Madness' WOW FM 100.7

VIDEO: 'Waking Life' (2001) trailer

Posts referenced in the radio interview
- Home Reading: 'Myth of Sisyphus' by Albert Camus - On the Writer, Actor and Traveler
- 'A Memento Year' exhibition
- Let's Get Real - Episode 5 preview: Black Holes
- Road Music: Friends, Laura and Monica

Albert Camus on the Writer, the Actor and the Traveller

<< crossposted on the 'Loz in Translation' blog

'The Myth of Sisyphus' by Albert Camus

For as long as I can remember I've always been curious about other people's lives and being a fly on the wall. It's where my passion for documentaries, DVD commentaries and podcasts stem from. It's also what I've found most fascinating about travel, the dynamic experience and exchange of stories which I've explored through Couchsurfing and 'ego-tripping'.

Though I have a good friend who is a big proponent of French philosopher Albert Camus, I've only recently become familiar with his work. A passage on drama in his book 'Myth of Sisyphus' sheds some light on the root of my fascination.

Myth of Sisyphus
Hence the actor has chosen multiple fame, the fame that is hallowed and tested. From the fact the everything is to die some day he draws the best conclusion, An actor succeeds or does not succeed. A writer has some hope even if he is not appreciated. He assumes that his works will bear witness to what he was...

What more revelatory epitome can be imagined than those marvellous lives, those exceptional and total destinies unfolding for a few hours within a stage set? Off the stage, Sigismundo ceases to count. Two hours later he is seen dining out. Then it is, perhaps, that life is a dream... By thus sweeping over centuries and minds, by miming man as he can be and as he is, the actor has much in common with that other absurd individual, the traveller...

To what the degree the actor benefits from the characters is hard to say. But that is not the important thing. It is merely a matter of knowing how far he identifies himself with those irreplaceable lives. It often happens that he carries them with him, that they somewhat overflow the time and place in which they were born. They accompany the actor, who cannot very readily separate himself from what he has been... He abundantly illustrates every month or everyday that so suggestive truth that there is no frontier between what a man wants to be and what he is. Always concerned with better representing, he demonstrates to what a degree appearing creates being. For that is his art- to simulate absolutely, to project himself as deeply as possible into lives that are not his own. At the end of his effort his vocation becomes clear: to apply himself wholeheartedly to being nothing or to being several. The narrower the limits allotted him for creating his character the more necessary his talent. He will die in three hours under the mask he has assumed to-day. That is called losing oneself to find oneself.

'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' - Joseph Campbell

- Ego Tripping: (A vacation from yourself)
- Louis Theroux, Couchsurfing and Holland
- Other people's stories - Tales of: Adventure
- Trigger: Ego Tripping in Portugal - Sintra, Obidos, Ericeria, Coimbra
- Trigger: Ego Tripping II - England, on the road again

Update: I appeared on community radio discussing 'Myth of Sisyphus'

Does it matter that the dramatic ending to ARGO wasn't "real"

Bob motivating the only holdout to actioning the daring escape plan
JOE STAFFORD: It's suicide.
TONY MENDEZ: I'm asking you to trust me.
STAFFORD: I don't trust you.
BOB ANDERS: This is the game, Joe. What world are you living in?
STAFFORD: What world am I...? The one where they're hanging people from construction cranes, Bob! It's too dangerous, I don't want to bring my wife into this.
- Argo (2012)

'Argo' (2012) "The movie was fake. The mission was real."

Ben Affleck's latest directorial effort 'Argo' is gaining Oscar buzz but some are tempering their praise as the dramatic 3rd act was heavily exaggerated to ratchet up the drama for moviegoers. Its only fitting as the movie is about the intoxicating nature of cinema, an antidote to the tragedy and absurdity of real life.

Travers: 'Argo' Is Terrific Despite Hollywood Exaggerations 
Ben Affleck political thriller twists history
Though he stays loyal to history for much of the film, Affleck takes some liberties and spices up the ending. "There's no doubt that Argo is a terrific movie. You sit there and you're entertained, you're crazy... you're on the edge of your seat," says Travers. "But is it right that in order to make a movie that would entertain us, you would fake the truth of something that stayed historically accurate through the whole beginning, right up to the 80 percent mark?" If Affleck gets an Oscar nod, does he deserve to lose because he "faked the truth at the end"?

Futurist Jason Silva offers his perspective which leans towards cutting Director Ben Affleck some slack for using his creative license for 'Argo'.

VIDEO: Jason Silva on ecstasy and how "real" it needs to be

JASON SILVA: The cinema, the art breaks through the screen, it literally breaks through the screen and becomes real. In me, in the audience, in the viewer and its this idea that its ALL real. William Gibson says "We'll look back at the past and laugh at the so called distinction between the real and virtual worlds"...