James Joyce's Ulysses

I have been watching a dvd on Joyce's Ulysses, and I wrote down a great quote to share with you all. It was said shortly after Ulysses was published in 1922 as a commentary on the book's significance.

T.S. Eliot writes:

“I hold this book to be the most important expression which the present age has found. It is a book to which we are all indebted and from which none of us can escape. Joyce had made the novel obsolete by replacing the narrative method with the mythical method. Instead of telling a story from a particular and consistent point of view, as 19th century novelists had done, Joyce manipulates a continuous parallel b/t contemporaneity and antiquity; that is, between life in early 20th century Dublin and the mythic episodes of Homer’s ancient epic called The Odyssey. Joyce used ancient myth as a way of controlling – of ordering – of giving a shape and significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy, which is contemporary history.”

The professor giving the lecture (James A.W. Heffernan) also said:
It is a novel of flesh and blood, of pain and passion, music and laughter, a symphony of human voices.
on the characters - Joyce wrote what they do, think, feel, imagine, and fantasize about.

New York City, June 16th, 2010

Mid-Manhattan branch of the public library:


Close-up of those two contrasting signs:








The subway! I measured it as being three people shoulder-to-shoulder in width:

I just really enjoyed this, every time:


The corner of 73rd and Lexington:




I took a few photos of the apartments in this area, as that's probably where Sam lives (I don't know why she would walk 5 blocks to take a taxi...)





The Strand Bookstore in the Village (Greenwich Village, that is):


Look at that gum on the ground!

I just thought it was interesting that on one side of the book are these old books (intellectualism! quickly becoming a thing of the past!), and reflected are cars (industry! machines!), and a sign for Ugg boots (materialism!), and in the upper right hand corner you can see a building (urbanization!):



Inside the strand bookstore (this struck me as very dramatic):


Across the street (and there is no Dead City Cafe in existence):


But there IS a really cool record store on another corner. I found a recording of the monologues in Ulysses, but they weren't read very well, so I went with Edith Piaf and Simon and Garfunkel records instead.


My friend took this picture, and I think it is just wonderful. Especially because Woody Allen is right in the middle.

Statement of Intent

I wanted to write a statement of intent, so as to present my concept in a unified structure, for all of you to enjoy. It was surprisingly very helpful. Here goes:

I was initially drawn to the story of Ulysses due to the style in which James Joyce decided to write what could be considered a very boring day in the life of two men. Joyce challenged the structural ideas of the past, and in doing so, was able to show the true beauty in the day-to-day complexities of life. Dead City carries on this idea, as well as several themes, such as the quest for paternity (now the quest for maternity), as well as the epic hero (before Leopold, now Samantha) being just that due to his or her ability for compassion and understanding in any situation. I couldn’t think of a more important quality in a hero, when our world today is so consumed with violence.

I want to create a play that excites all of the senses, either directly or by calling up the memory of it in the mind. The evocative descriptions of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations in Ulysses struck me so deeply, and it lends itself greatly to a story that could have been an epic bore. I want to fully envelope the audience in the world we have created, and through that, present a cathartic viewpoint of how we are now living, creating more and more barriers between each other due to our romance with technology.

I promise to constantly question and challenge every member of this production, as well as myself. I will always encourage new ideas, but also embrace those ideas we have agreed upon as truth, fostering them through their development until they can be fully realized. I put the utmost emphasis on collaboration, as it is the backbone of theatre. I will always be striving to integrate all of the elements of design, along with the actors, to create a unified, inspiring production.

- the director

5 Sams

I had a realization today.

I'd been having a really hard time finding the turning point in the play, as there isn't a very clear change written in. After reading some more about Ulysses, and looking at Sam and Jewel much closer, I realized that Sam's arch is during the 5 Sams part, where she is able to finally bare her soul to another human being, even if just a small fraction of it. Today I realized that we see the manifestation of Sam's soul through Jewel, and thus in her words. It is her poem that we hear of Sam's soul - and finally her artistic block (which has been her epic flaw since a young girl) is broken through. This is able to happen because she finally has found some kind of compassionate maternal figure she can listen to and be inspired by. (And if anyone knows about Ulysses, this whole idea should match up to some extent.)

So basically, the 5 Sams part is really important. And I'm really glad all of the actors are a part of it.

As Promised on Sunday

So I've been attempting to make this into a Youtube video, but after a number of processing run-ins, I finally was able to upload it.

And an hour later it was taken down for being too long. What the fuck.

So here it is, on Vimeo. Because they're cool and don't have ridiculous content restrictions.

This was done for the 48-hour film festival in the summer of 2009 with a group led by Nivan, who directed, as well as a number of characters that some of you will know.

The first 4 minutes is just a kind of warm-up, which is usually how I begin things, noodling around and seeing what notes and intervals I'm liking. If you're getting bored with that, feel free to skip to the loud parts. But this will get people to know what to expect if I am to come in and improvise during a rehearsal or two.

Enjoy, and feedback is always appreciated. Even if you hate it.


P.S. - I really want to be able to play during a rehearsal. Just making sure you know.

rhythm and hope

First off let me say wow, what a great design meeting we had today. Thanks y'all for being so present and absolutely inspiring!

I just watched Jónsi's newest video for his sharp, happily rhythmic "Animal Arithmetic". I never really liked this song before, but the video put a completely different perspective on not only the essence of the song, but the rhythm and quality of the music. And what is a great music video if it doesn't challenge our understanding and increase our appreciation of the music.

Anyway, here it is:

animal arithmetic from Jónsi on Vimeo.

I love the use of perspective in this video. It creates such an intimate feel, not only with the people in the video, but also with the instruments, and thus the music.

Jónsi always does such a wonderful job with rhythm, and that continues over into his videos. I found while watching this video that even when the rhythm slows in the middle of this song, the energy still holds the same intensity, just waiting to be released. I can't remember what kind of energy that is, scientifically (kinetic is which kind?) and I'm too on a roll right now to look it up, but it is a concept that is very important in theatre as well as music. I stress this concept in rehearsals, especially with the Viewpoints work.


This idea of intimacy specifically applies when discussing how we can create the club scene. Specifically, what will the projection of the bodies look like (I would think using the rear projector, if we have one). Another possibility is to use silhouettes, maybe even in addition to the projectors.

It would be very helpful if, eventually, we could see sketches from somebody of how all of these projections will work on the set. That might be something we want to put into the model, possibly?


Sometimes I wonder why I am so absolutely in love with these Icelanders. Then today I saw a quote about Jónsi from the New York Times that described his voice as "a messenger of ecstatic hope." And that is what this music does for me -- it can travel to the deep dark places of the soul, express the heartbreak of tragic love, and in every other way find a way to match my energy, no matter how dark, but it always has hope. Making that realization now is so completely full circle, because the one tattoo I have is of the last line from "Viðrar vel til loftárása" (a Sigur Rós song off of their album Ágætis byrjun):

the best thing god has created is the new day.



Hope.

Truth lies behind every window

CLAREMONT by Lewis Baltz, 1973

1. Riding on the brown line towards home, the sun set into darkness. A high rise apartment passed by; my reflection in the window. Dead City... dead city... The train rolled on. Then my reflection in a more distant window described a smaller 'me'. An even further window set me back to nearly tiny. I was enticed by my self's alteration because of the moving train.

It led me to sketch an image of the receding window; considering the great variation in scale that is, consequently, based on where one is situated... to the massive expansion of a city GRID. Look at one from where the clouds float, and see how slight they do seem.

- creating depth by layers of flat surfaces.

2. I'm working on a project currently for my Puppetry class in which I have taken an old window frame, sans the glass, stretched a paper across, and painted a sea-scape. In the corner of the canvas, a smaller metal frame contains a silhouette of a sailboat that is held 'afloat' by a magnet on the other side of the paper. The magnet can then be moved from the back of the paper to move the sail boat across the 'ocean'.

I like the image of something defined entirely by it's contour, but also captured in a constructed box, that can travel within a larger plane. People seem to be doing that every day just by walking around. All the trials and memories and thoughts come along the the body, wherever it may go.

- pane inside a pane. box in a box.

3. From looking at the places that Sam finds herself throughout the day, I began to explore the arc of this play.

sc. 1 - "apartment" is home.
sc. 2 - "street corner" is a traffic place.
sc. 3 - "spa" is a relaxing place.
sc. 4 - "cemetery" is a reverent place.
sc. 5 - "office" is a busy place.
sc. 6 - "eating establishment" is a fancy place, as well as a replenishing place.
sc. 7 - "library" is a quiet place + exploratory place.
sc. 8 - collision of all places : a turning point.
sc. 9 - "internet cafe" is a virtual place.
sc. 10 - "subway" is a traveling place.
sc. 11 - "basement bar" is a dark place.
sc. 12 - "nearby Hudson" is the closest we come to a nature place.
sc. 13 - "maternity ward" is a birth/creation place.
sc. 14 - "night club" is a chaos place.
sc. 15 - "taxi" is a homeward bound place.
sc. 16 - "apartment" once again.
sc. 17 - "bed" is a safe place.

In the beginning, the places she visits have clearer definitions of accepted social interaction, but as the day progresses, we move into more abstraction of the certainties. Sam leaves her home and moves through her day externally to find understanding of her self internally.

- exterior search for clarity within.

We live behind windows that can reflect light from the outside, and radiate light from the inside. As the sun sets, the illumination of the inner grows brighter and stronger.


Questions:
What is in between? Where is the portal that leads us from one flat plane to another? Is there something more 3-dimensional by the end of this play? Maybe we travel from flatness to greater depth.

Words:
journey. unreal. numbness. blur. books. rows. real. refound. surrounded.
libraries are a lot like cities. books get lost like people: mis-ordered, mis-shelved but eventually rediscovered.

a link to some beautiful natural photography : M.F. Wolik
The sand images seem somehow fitting -