Yesterday Nikki, Heather, Olivia and I went to the enormous book fair, Un Futuro Con Libros that's here in the city. After overwhelming ourselves by books and books and more books and people and more people, we went to a narration session, where I promptly started to fall asleep. The first narrator was interesting I guess, but not enough to keep my eyes open. (See image below)
The second one, I couldn't sleep through if I tried - she was SO COOKY. Her baggy clothes, disheveled hair, strange story and shocking singing were so obtrusive. She was talking about sheep, and flying into the clouds on a sheep, then frogs, and sheep again; words that were trees and the river that flowed around the tree... OH BUT THAT RIVER AND THE SHEEP!! I was like... "uhhh" (See image below)
Needless to say we left after YODEELLEHHHHHHHHHH YoDelEEeeeEEeLLL Yodeleeeeeeehhhhhhhh *rocking back and forth* (her song under the word tree in the water summoning the sheep so she could go touch the clouds that looked like sheep and were made of sheep).
Nikki and I looked at each other utterly bewildered at what just happened. Olivia, Nikki and I then went to go see some independent films at a small art institute of sorts - hopping on the 59 and searching for the elusive building we walked by 3 times.
We finally walk in, 15 minutes before the films are supposed to start, and of course that is FAR too early to arrive so we were directed to go look at the small exhibits they had. The exhibits were fantastic; really sensational displays of household items with laser lights playing in sequences against the structures that played fun images on the walls. The first room made me feel like I was in a brain watching neurons firing signals - really exquisite.
The films were a different story. We sat down for 4 short films, totaling 50 minutes, at about 645 PM and lost Olivia to another independent film with Heather at a different location. The first film was about 2 minutes long and I wanted to tear my hair out because all it was was this image of a mare feeding its child to the tune of something SO MONOTONE and REPETITIVE and CLIMACTIC covered by the sound of a simulation of an old movie projector. The song overstimulated my brain and it drove me crazy because the music said nothing about the clip of the horses other than their possible impending doom: from a musician, in my opinion, the music should have told a story. It could have been effective, but after 2.5 minutes the music had no effect other than tears and pleas for mercy.
The second film was about some boy in from Barcelona who had to go back there from Argentina with his grandfather for the Bull Run. I'm not sure what happened next, because that one included the same special effect for 20 minutes - refocus and out of focus and show individual frames of the images every so often. AGAIN I WANTED TO TEAR MY HAIR OUT and knock my teeth in. Once again, the significance of the film, which was more understandable because there was dialogue, was lost on me because of the irritating music and effects.
The third film was just a few pictures of a young boy on the beach. Covered up by the same simulated movie projector sound AND the chemical reaction special effect -a chemical reaction producing a black substance with gas - and then disappearing again. Then the bubbles came back and everything was red. Then they went away. And then they came back. And went away, and came back and PLUS another repetitive and overstimulating song. The story was told neither through the special effects that became useless, the music that had no meaning, and the enigmatic photos that were repeated for 10 minutes.
The final film was also images of a little boy on the beach, but this time there was a girl. And there were movie clips. Unfortunately the bubbles from the chemical reaction came back for the entire film and there was once again, useless music.
I'm not trying to be a movie critic, but I am.
If nothing more than a good story this remains, I am happy. But I guess to culture yourself you really never know what to expect.
Angela
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