Synecdoche, New York.
I don’t understand what I watched yet. Maybe I never will. But it will stick with me and change my perspective on the world for a bit. My strongest initial thought is how much of a waste of a life to try to review and re-live it like that. Afterwards, Flight of the Concords was on and it seemed hollow. Both because it was so light after the Synecdoche mindfuck and after watching Philip Seymour Hoffman sit there and watch his life play out, watching anything play out seem like a waste.
(Jon Brion’s beautiful song from the movie that won’t leave my head.)
After that I read “How the city hurts your brain.” There was bad and good in this. I definitely feel that in cities and try to protect myself from it. I am not usually really outdoorsy but when I am in a city I have more of a longing for nature. I think moving to the Presidio will help balance this. (I’m excited). The other part I thought was really interesting was,
Recent research by scientists at the Santa Fe Institute used a set of complex mathematical algorithms to demonstrate that the very same urban features that trigger lapses in attention and memory — the crowded streets, the crushing density of people — also correlate with measures of innovation, as strangers interact with one another in unpredictable ways. It is the “concentration of social interactions” that is largely responsible for urban creativity, according to the scientists.
When I am stuck on what to write or trying to figure something out, I go for a drive. Seeing the things out there I wouldn’t see staring at a pad and pen trigger my next idea. Sometimes TV does the same. Outside input from this wonderful world we live in shows paths I could never think of on my own.