"A friend, another friend, once showed a Picasso, to Picasso, who said no, it was a fake. The same friend from yet another source showed another would-be Picasso and Picasso said that too was a fake. Then yet another from another source; also fake, said Picasso. "But Pablo" said his friend, "I watched you paint that with my own eyes."
"Haha", said Picasso. "I can paint false Picasso's as well as anybody."
The editing is fantastic.. quick, tightly shot, with some great pausing; visually engaging. Great commentary on expertise too.. and shot and told in the way that you actually have to question everything... even if Elmyr himself actually existed! Great story telling. Confusing at first, but really fucking cool once you wrap your head around it....
It comes into question, at least to me now, that if simply playing the part, just doing it, going through the motions; can it be considered faking? Let me rephrase a bit. Is it based on the psychological situation? The human weakness to want to believe? (as suggested in the film.. ) Is simply going through the motions enough? This could be why con men are so successful. Are we like the black box; all that matters is what goes in and what comes out, without any consideration of its internal operations?
"Our works in stone, in paint, in print are spared, some of them for a few decades, or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash. The triumphs, and the frauds. The treasures and the fakes. A fact of life. We're going to die.
Be of good heart, cry the dead artists, out of the living past. Our songs will all be silenced. But what of it?
Go on singing. Maybe a man's name doesn't matter all that much."
More Orson Welles! More Orson Welles!
This movie, these thoughts, really clean up what I was quite poorly struggling with in the previous post, and goes a few steps further. Sharing ideas is awesome!
So, just another thing I've been thinking of lately, especially after an extended discussion during Easter weekend with the family; Picasso's cubism, and the fourth spatial dimension...
I'll post more on it later when it's not so late, but here are a few teasers...
It is important to fully realize the importance of cubism. It isn't just "Picasso's style" but marks the real beginning of abstract art. Picasso's predecessors, such as the impressionists, the fauvists and Cezanne were still principally tied to nature as a model to elaborate on. With Les Demoiselles d'Avignon Picasso reached a level of abstraction that was a radical enough break with the classical dominance of content over form, a hierarchy which is reversed in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and the style which followed from it: Cubism.
Cubism as a forth dimension explained quickly... I suppose not really a 4th spacial dimension, but a concept that is carried through the 4D experience; being able to see all sides, and insides of everything, all at once.
Carl Sagan has gone bunkers, and discusses dimensionality. Gets good only after he stops discussing flatland, after about 5 minutes... but still, a nice review of it in classic Sagan speak.
It was a great couple of days at home. Wonderful Easter dinner, and despite our family not being very religious, it's always nice to have the opportunity to meet and catch up. This year Chris' family came over to our place for dinner and here are a few pics from the weekend...
Havin' some lunch with mom... Reading before the night starts.
Family dinner...
Picasso inspired rhythm.
The kids around dad...
Mmmm.. wide-angle lenses.
Anna getting a well received geography lesson.
I love these next two shots. This camera is unbelievable.
Playing more bananagrams... by that time of night, the games didn't last long..
And these next two!...
EDIT: How fucking great is this camera... dad's face is 100% in focus, but the glass just in front of him is blurred.. ugh... love it.
I know I've mentioned before Donna, but those new glasses are perfect for you and kick ass. You look great in them, and I don't think I can chalk that one up to the camera... all dressed up and pro looking...
This is the part of the evening where my dad and Anna get into pseudo-karate fights. Dry humour.
I honestly thought I blogged about this song earlier!.. but I can't find it here.. weird. I came here to look it up as I was listening to the song... Anyway, here's Andrew Bird's Sovay.
And a lot more. I really don't expect anyone to actually go through this; it's kinda too specific unless you love this song.
Lyrics:
i was getting ready to be a threat i was getting set for my accidental suicide the kind where no one dies, no one looks too surprised and then you, then you realize that you're riding on the para-success of a heavy-handed metaphor and a feeling like you've been here before
cause you've been here before, and you've been here before then a word washed to shore then a word washed to shore then a word washed to shore
sovay, sovay, sovay all along in the day
i was getting ready to consider my next plan of attack i think i'm gonna sack the whole board of trustees all those don quixotes in their b-17's and i swear this time, yeah this time they'll blow us back to the seventies and this time they're playin Ride of the Valkyries with no semblance of grace or ease and they're acting on vagaries, with their violent proclivities and they're playing ride, playing ride playing ride, ride, Ride of the Valkyries
sovay, sovay, sovay all along the day
i was getting ready to threaten to be a threat instead of thinking about my plan of attack, think about a sack the whole board of trustees, all those don quixotes in their b-17's and i swear this time it blows back to the 70's and this time, they're playin Ride of the Valkyries with no semblance of grace or ease now they're acting on vagaries with their violent proclivities
and they're playin ride and they're playin ride playin ride, playin ride, playin ride, playin ride Ride of the Valkyries
sovay, sovay, so ---
This is a really difficult song to fully understand lyrically (I'll get to the music in part two). There is so much going on here, maybe because it is so vague. Although, there are strong clues. I'm gonna try to not only stick to the clues, but also not to ignore other "clues" that may or may not match to the general idea (I think) is the basis for this song... basically, take a look at the song as empirically as I can, without the initial emotions attached.
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Sovay? What the hell (who the hell?) is Sovay? From Wiki:
Sovay is a traditional English folk song (Roud # 7) about a young woman who dresses and arms herself as a highwayman in order to test her suitor. In disguise she robs her suitor of nearly all his possessions, but even under threat of death he refuses to give up the gold ring given by Sovay, thus proving his devotion. Sovay subsequently confesses the ruse to her lover and returns his various possessions, admonishing him only that had he indeed given up the ring, she would have killed him.
Notes: From the notes to Martin Carthy's first album (A Guitar in Folk Music. Petersham: New Punchbowl Music): Sovay was a great favourite among country singers and was printed by Such, among others, under its alternative title of The Female Highwayman. Her name varies from place to place - Sovay, Silvy, Shilo, Sally, etc. - but the story remains the same being a rather involved and slightly chancy way of establishing her lover's good faith.
Here are the first few lyrics from the traditional folk "Sovay":
Sovay, Sovay, all on a day She dressed herself in man's array. With a sword and pistol all by her side, To meet her true love, To meet her true love away did ride.
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Ok, stepping back in, the other large theme here is a bit of war, riding, truth finding, complimented by Ride of the Valkyries..
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As an aside, here's Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries if you don't recognize the name:
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The word valkyrie derives from Old Norse valkyrja (plural valkyrjur), which is composed of two words; the noun valr (referring to the slain on the battlefield) and the verb kjósa (meaning "to choose"). Together, the compound means "chooser of the slain". The Old Norse valkyrja is cognate to Old English wælcyrge.[2] Other terms for valkyries include óskmey (Old Norse "wish girl"), appearing in the poem Oddrúnargrátr, and Óðins meyjar (Old Norse "Odin's girls"), appearing in the Nafnaþulur. Óskmey may be related to the Odinic name Óski (Old Norse, roughly meaning "wish fulfiller"), referring to the fact that Odin receives slain warriors in Valhalla.
Chooser of the slain? Sovay, as originally portrayed? Wish fulfiller? Wishful thinking?
In the opera-house, the Ride .. begins in the prelude to the Act, building up successive layers of accompaniment until the curtain rises to reveal a mountain peak where four of the eight Valkyrie sisters of Brünnhilde have gathered in preparation for the transportation of fallen heroes to Valhalla. As they are joined by the other four, the familiar tune is carried by the orchestra, while, above it, the Valkyries greet each other and sing their battle-cry.
Valkyries, ride over the battlefield I'm dying and glad to bleed Because I know today I will take my place with the heroes in Valhalla of old
For none but the brave, be he king or a slave With a pounding heart in his chest Will be worthy to rise and with the Valkyries fly And ride to Valhalla of old
There are obvious connections here with Sovay's desire, death-worthy need for the truth, and the Valkyries mission in/for Valhalla.
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Additional references in the song:
Don Quixote: From the Globe: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's book contains, in germ or full-blown or by implication, practically every imaginative technique and device used by subsequent fiction writers to engage their readers and construct their works. It crystallized forever the making of literature out of life and other literature, and explored in typically ironic fashion, and for the first time, the murky, illusory frontiers between fact and fiction, imagination and history, perception and physical reality.... By the time we reach the end of the book, it is eminently clear that these protagonists are not precisely the men they were when they started out on their quest for chivalric adventures... For example, what is called the "false Quixote,"... The fictional characters themselves deny the validity and veracity of the imitation... what we call "realism" and what Cervantes called "verisimilitude," or the appearance of truth. It also allows for a constant and discomfiting blurring of the lines between actuality and fiction.
Para (from the lyric "para-success") means "pair/couple" in Polish. Para also means "steam/vapor" in Polish (funny people, eh? ;). Para also alludes to parachutes, and is the B-17 was not only used for bombing, but also drop (parachute) missions by UK during WWII (the UK Parachute Regiments were called "1 PARA, 2 PARA, 3 PARA, etc.. ). Para in Sanskrit is an adjective meaning "transcendental" (Don Quixote???). Finally, para in english means close, beside, or next to.
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At this time, I'd like to over-analyze that last phrase in the context of everything written so far, "Accidental suicide The kind where no one dies". Hmm.. an accidental suicide>/. Could it be a reference to soldiers in a war? As in, signing up for war, you understand the risks, but it really is psychologically suicide? Or maybe the idea of knowing something to be true, and then it turning out not to be true? .. the kind where no one dies... is it Love he's referring to? I don't know.. more needs to be done here... it's a nice phrase for sure.
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Ok, that's enough for now. So with all this background, here's what I'm getting (ie. the take home message). There's large allusions to travel, to riding: (Sovay on her horse, Don Quixote and his horse, the B-17 flying fortress "The War Horse", Ride of the Valkyries, been here before, etc.. ). There is also a strong allusion to change and truth; to what is real and moreover, to when it is real (Don Quixote, Sovay's story, directly from the lyrics: "I was getting ready to consider my next plan of attack", "Accidental suicide The kind where no one dies".
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Anyway, this could be the greatest song ever written, or I'm over-analyzing the shit out of it. I haven't even started analyzing the musical genius here. "That you're riding on the para-success Of a heavy-handed metaphor And a feeling like you've been here before"...
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