Hopefully, the extraordinary creativity demonstrated by this video is also the very human faculty which will contradict the video’s conclusion. (It’s a long one, but well worth the trip.)
“In the end the aggressors always destroy themselves, making way for others who know how to cooperate and get along. Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity.” – Fritjof Capra
Video by: http://vimeo.com/blu
sountrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI
Here’s one for the hermit researchers – or the shrinks. The wordiness of life has been bugging me more than usual lately. It’s been almost six weeks since I’ve written anything for this blog and I have to confess there were moments when I seriously considered abandoning the endeavor. I’ve talked about these phases before. [...]
“Can we connect our empathy to a single race writ large in a single biosphere?” – Jeremy Rifkin
Griz forwarded this to me with the above subject. It’s a rare song or music video that captures Griz’ attention. I’m posting it here so we can both find it easily (and just in case any of you missed it.) Eight million views in just over two weeks – there’s method in this madness. I like the music, too, but would probably buy it just to honor the effort.
This Too Shall Pass by OK Go
“Any real record person knows that the number one most powerful marketing tool when it comes to music is repetition.” – Nile Rodgers
I wanted to see Avatar again before I drew any definitive conclusions. Griz and I have been sci-fi fans forever, but Griz periodically dozed off during our second viewing (he’d only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before). And although I stayed awake, I have to admit I was more restless and impatient than I anticipated. The 3D shock-and-awe just didn’t compensate for the thin plot and dialog on the second run. I was more irritated by the noise and violence.
Still – I’m glad I saw it again. The visual artistry is worth a second take. I noticed a lot visually that I missed the first time and I look forward to a sequel.
After all, it’s not as if James Cameron doesn’t warn us about the simplicity of his parable. If the stereotypical characters don’t jump out at you early on, by the time you hear the word “unobtainium,” you should have a clue. James Cameron’s forte has always been special effects. An old story with a new look works for him (and apparently his audience). Everyone who saw Titanic knew the outcome before they entered the theater.
I suspect James Cameron has great fun making movies, and I think he wants his audiences to have fun, too. Nothing wrong with that. Giving the Nav’i elongated canine teeth is such a clear ploy for today’s vampire popularity that it’s laughable. He probably threw in many of Avatar’s other cliches and plot deficits just for fun, too (perhaps to see if we’d notice). Cameron’s close enough to my age that I’m sure he saw the same old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies on TV that I did as a youngster. In Avatar, the only thing missing when the deus-ex-machina beasties stampede in to save the Nav’i is this:
And from what I’ve read, it seems most people (including reviewers) come away from Avatar with the message they took into the theater beforehand. The rejecters reject the same things they always reject, the admirers admire the same things they always admire. Appreciating good art is like that – the best art offers each of us an intimate subjective experience. With Avatar, gamers get a techie game, spiritual seekers get transcendence (although some devout reject Avatar altogether as promoting paganism), environmentalists get ecological connectivity, pessimists get to feel depressed because Earth isn’t as sublime as Pandora, optimists get to hope Earth is becoming Pandora. Lots of good guys and bad guys to go around – with cross-overs and a paradox or two.
Here’s what I walked into the theater with: I am fortunate enough to live in an area where Earth’s vibrant glory is readily accessible and visually competes damn well with anything you can create digitally. This, of course, keeps me fairly optimistic about life in general and our environmental direction in particular. Though not religious – spiritually, I lean toward nonduality.
Here’s the message I took out of the theater: The Nav’i R Us. We are rejecting our small, violent selves and becoming something larger. We are connected to all life, but life itself is a school and there are often mortal risks associated with learning to make the important connections. Ultimately, caring and connectivity will prevail and we’ll choose to banish our small, violent selves.
But the best thing about Avatar is this: popular movies are a reflection of our cultural consciousness. Even if the ideas are presented in elemental terms to reach the masses, ticket sales in response to Avatar’s themes of environmental responsibility and global connectivity represent very positive trends.
I had fun, too.
I’ve admitted here before that I love big trees. When we first moved here, I actually considered affectionately naming some of our big evergreens – but I changed my mind. Naming them would be insulting, I think – it would imply a level of intimacy we may not deserve. After all, part of my love is for their wildness. Naming things always implies dominion or control. We own these trees in paper legality only – control of them is illusory. It would diminish them to attach names. You never really own any other living thing – you just borrow it – to look at, to cherish or befriend, to use as a resource when necessary.
I’d also hate to get too attached. Big trees fall. Some have to be cut down.
And most of our trees grew to their glory before we arrived here – without the need for words or names. They just are, surviving tough conditions right where they stand, beyond analysis or judgments – and they’re mighty nonetheless. Passive endurance resulting in magnificent splendor. Unintentional artistry. (Though some would say it’s intentional.)
Look upward while standing quietly beneath a big tree. You cannot avoid feeling the power. Imagine what it takes to oppose gravity to that extent, processing sunlight, circulating nutrients and water to such great heights?
Big trees demonstrate the great wisdom of nature – they bend to buffeting winds, lean toward sunlight or bow to obstacles as necessary. When partially knocked down, they slowly redirect themselves back skyward, fortifying themselves even more at the bending point. They shed the unnecessary to 
better endure and prosper. I admire them.
Hard to believe such giants start out smaller than this volunteer western red cedar struggling for a foothold in our driveway gravel. This 3″ youngster was a seed last summer. I pot and replant more of these little buggers than is practical, but it’s hard for me to think of them as weeds.
The great tree symbology in James Cameron’s Avatar pleased me. Avatar’s popularity demonstrates a positive direction in our collective consciousness. As little as twenty-five years ago, I doubt if Avatar (with or without 3D) would have captured such a large audience. Twenty-five years ago, only us die hard sci-fi types would have gone. Sure, there are probably more sci-fi enthusiasts now than ever before, but Avatar goes beyond sci-fi – it touches our growing ecological and spiritual awareness – our acknowledgment of an immutable connectedness.
A serendipitious tree article showed up in Griz’ Nuts & Volts Magazine last month. An Idaho company, Voltree manufactures a bioenergy harvester which attaches to a living tree and uses the tree’s metabolic processes to create electricity. The small electrical generators do not harm the tree. (At least we don’t believe they harm the tree.) Of course, the amount of energy you can generate this way is limited – these generators are used to power passive surveillance and scientific monitoring equipment. Still, it’s a kind of symbiosis that tickles me.
Voltree’s products are the kind of green technology we’re heading toward (very slowly) – ways to use our resources without depleting or harming them. We are starting to make those critical connections – artistically, figuratively, literally.
Of course, you get a lot more energy (quicker) from a tree if you chop it down and burn it to heat the shelter you’ve built with it’s carcass. (Intentional shock value.) See my next post Tree Power Down: Timber!
A poem – one of solitude’s trinkets. Or why I don’t write sometimes – I often yearn for The wordless place Of quiet brushstrokes And gently rustling nature, Where falling backward In total trust Without direction Feels as perfect As its common opposite. Where the restful process Of simply being Is creativity enough. And this [...]
This album contains 1 items.
The Lifetime Channel recently aired a made-for-TV movie entitled Georgia O’Keeffe starring Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons. In spite of excellent acting, the movie was a big disappointment to me* [see footnote], focusing primarily on O’Keeffe’s turbulent love affair with New York photographer Alfred Stieglitz (played by Irons), her ultimate marriage to him and her [...]
“Everybody, by virtue of being a human being, is willy-nilly a metaphysician.”
Speaker: Alan Watts
Music: Svefn-G-Englar by Sigur Ros from Soundtrack to Vanilla Sky
Posted on YouTube by redliterocket4 (Matthew Segall)
Special thanks to Twitteur extraordinaire @gregorylent for tweeting the link to this video.
