Here is a fifteen minute video that I shot on Vimeo. Recently, I have been using Vimeo as an educational platform and a way to share my thoughts. This video opens up an aphorism by E.M. Cioran and brings in some other thinkers, as well. Is it perfect? No, but it was the best I could do at the time. I hope you can pull something useful out of it. Please ask questions.

“Authenticity is a practice and habit of openness. It is the attempt to help free up others for their projects of care. It is an attempt to release beauty incorruptible.” – Corey Anton

“If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.” – David Carradine (12-8-1936 – 6-3-2009)

Here are 10 general mindfulness exercises for when you are working.

1. Engage yourself in your work as if your job depends on it.

2. Become the best at what you do, not the best at gabbing around the office.

3. If you finish a project early, review your work and look for ways to improve upon it.

4. A big project is filled with small tasks, which may seem menial and/or tedious, but remember that the large project can only come together through the doing of the small tasks. Do them well.

5. Learn from your co-workers by asking the right questions.

6. If you are becoming overwhelmed by your workload, consider coming to work early. A quiet office very early in the morning can be quite refreshing and may be a nurturing atmosphere for productivity.

7. An afternoon walk outside may provide a solution to that problem you are trying to work out and the stimuli may help, too.

8. Build your work competencies daily by asking questions and learning as much as you can about your current position.

9. The better you are at what you do, the more meaningful your work will be.

10. From CL wisdom, “Do the NOW well.”

——

Please help me expand this list. What techniques for mindful working work for you?

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The Bakuon Film Festival began over the weekend. The premise of this festival is simple and evident from the 12-foot high speakers stacked on both sides of the screen: Maximum Audio Blast! I had the good fortune of seeing David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof” last night and was not disappointed. I had never thought of Lynch as a musician, but after last night’s showing, it was his role as “sound designer” that really took precedence over the visuals of the film. He has stated before that his films are meant to be seen on a big screen and I would add, with a crisp and able sound system. The sub-atomic bass that he mixes into so many scenes was really brought out last night’s screening and was equal to any “noise” show that I have attended.

On the other hand, Tarantino’s soundtrack selection, as is often praised (even by himself when he said, “I have one of the best soundtrack collections in America.”), was warm beyond belief. The lapdance scene’s version of The Coaster’s “Down in Mexico” was a vinyl version of the song, as opposed to the CD version (an updated version), which is included on the DVD and the soundtrack. We all know vinyl sounds good, but coupled with Tarantino’s sharp cinematography (credited as writer/director and Director of Photography), this movie, too, took on a new life. Oh, yes, the cars were damn loud.

I couldn’t stay for Dario Argento’s cut of “Zombi,” but hopefully can catch it this week. If you are in or near Kichijoji, make your way to the Baus Theater and check out the Bakuon Film Festival. No previews. Huge audio. The 2am presentation of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” definitely seems worth checking out.

The official website: Bakuon Film Festival

From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet”:

“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend up it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” – Sherlock Holmes

Dr. Corey Anton
Where and when are words?
May 2009

Serendipity landed in my lap this morning as I found a relevant quotation (relevant to my purposes here) from the visual stylist, the cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar-Wai, etc.). The camera as the eye of the motion picture, the lens through which we experience the picture, when wielded by a master, can expand and enlarge the enchantment of the cinematic world. If, as Dario Argento once said, “Films are dreams,” then Christopher Doyle is one of our great dreamers. Here is a quotation from Doyle that, if you are interested in such things, may be useful to you, too:

On his philosophy of filmmaking: “I really think music and movement — dance, you know — and literature inform my visuals. I think film is also based in dance. The relationship between me, the camera and the actor is always a dance.” These words come from this article, which has many interesting and informative words from Doyle on his craft and way of working/thinking.” – Christopher Doyle

Wong Kar-Wai’s “In the Mood for Love” spoke to me in this way even before I knew who the cinematographer behind the lens was. The narrative, sound and movement blend together with such precision and elegance. Had someone else shot this film, it would have been a completely different film. Such is the case with all films. It makes all the difference who shoots it.

Questions for Readers
What great films, for you, have the dance-like quality, which Doyle talks about?
Can you suggest (and share) other relevant quotations, which might enhance this perspective of filmmaking?
What cinematographers move you?

Here are two trailers featuring Doyle’s work: Wong Kar-Wai’s “In the Mood for Love” and Jim Jarmusch’s “The Limits of Control,” respectively.

I’ve been living in Tokyo for two months now. This is my first update since the move. I relocated from a quiet “bed town” in Ibaraki to a beautiful neighborhood close to Shinjuku. While my neighborhood in Tokyo is relatively quiet, I miss the dead-of-night stillness that comes from being in the countryside. I grew up in northern Michigan, so I am quite close to that quietude. It is odd to experience stillness in the midst of a metropolis like Tokyo, and for me, the experience is very different from that of the stillness in the country: being surrounded by open sky and dark woods as opposed to being surrounded by tiny streets, high-rise apartment buildings and cherry blossom trees. Being a fan of horror films, both of these experiences of stillness can be frightening, although the stillness of the woods is a fright closer to my heart. That makes the stillness of the city at night more frightening. The Unexpected can be conjured in both situations, but seems like a wholly different breed to unexpected fright. Are these both symptoms of a fear of what could be lurking around the corner? How do the two different landscapes affect the use and play of shadows?

What I like about the dark nights of the city is the sound of wailing voices coming from the street at night, the frightful chill of an unknown voice and then, upon looking out the window, realizing its only a drunken business man howling because he burnt his “manhood” with his cigarette while trying to urinate on the sidewalk. Now, that’s scary.

Not all of us are as good at improvising as director/writer/comedian, Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat, Religulous). Maybe we can learn to develop that capacity for improvisation.

In this short video, he briefly opens up the idea of “cracking the code” for a piece of art (in his case, film/TV). I admire his story of walking with Larry David and allowing the thoughts to kind of “bubble up,” – stream of consciousness. It seems that some of our greatest ideas can come not when we are sitting down at our desk, thinking hard, but when we are in route, on a walk, or alone in those “in-between” moments of life. This is not to say that planned “thinking sessions” may be productive and useful, but that we should (might want to) learn to develop the skill of thinking, even in those routine moments of life.

In the coming weeks I will try to further flesh out this idea and apply it to a television program or film. Of course, I will share the results with you here.

What is the “code” for the trajectory of our own life?
Should we be merely studying “about” the code or “how to” create the code?
Is this something that one should “study” or something that one should “live out?”

Perplexed as always.

“The most important tribute any human being can pay to a poem or a piece of prose he or she really loves is to learn it by heart. Not by brain, by heart; the expression is vital.” – George Steiner

Questions:
What are the differences between learning by heart and learning by brain?
How do those differences (heart vs. brain) shift or enhance the learning experience?
How can we develop the competencies which would enable us to deepen our learning?
How can we develop the competencies which would increase our capacity for vitalized expression?
Why is the expression “vital?”

I have gotten back into the mode of studying Japanese on a daily basis. I recently learned this nifty and useful concept, 生活習慣病、which, can be read “seikatsusyuukanbyou.” In English, this means “lifestyle [lifestyle-related] disease(s).” The kanji can be broken down as follows: 生活 (daily life and/or lifestyle), 習慣 (habit(s)), 病 (disease). In my lexicon, this could be understood as diseases or disadvantageous ways of being that result from one’s everyday (or momentary) habits, which encourage unhealthy mental hygiene and physical health. The most common example of this “disease” as expressed in Japanese would probably be overeating. I will refrain from going into the “metabolic syndrome” boom that hit Japan last year.

Could we use this term to include the potential misuse or disadvantageously habitual ways of taking the world into account?

It seems that if we got those ways in which we grasp and are grasped by the world, right, then things like overeating or not getting enough exercise would not have to be dealt with. They simply wouldn’t exist for the person who had a different way of understanding (and doing something with) the prevalence of habits. A firm foundation, a firm understanding of the ubiquity of habits, taken firmly into account, may be just the kind of change that would be needed for someone looking to improve other parts of his or her life (overeating).

What do you think? Am I caught up in my own lifestyle-related dis-ease by wanting to bring this concept under a different light? Is thinking a habit that can be developed? If so, how do we become better thinkers? Is being stuck in a certain way of thinking, itself, a kind of “bad habit?”

Eyeslit-Crypt favorite, Ken Tanaka, has made a new video in which he encounters a seemingly random Japanese woman while out for a stroll in Little Tokyo. The woman that Ken meets turns out to be Los Angeles based artist Mari Araki. The video shows stills of some of her magnificent pieces as they talk about rabbits, art, life and latex. Break out the whips.

Michael Wade wrote an excellent article entitled, Slowing Down, which I recommend you spend some quality time with. His brief article deals with, as the title says, “slowing down.” Namely, slowing down the ways in which we might rush through a project, an email or a piece of writing (slowing down our habits of living). His words ring quite true to myself as I scramble to put on my tie, finish and send an email while wolfing down breakfast, so that I can get to work on time. His words also remind me of some Constructive Living wisdom, which goes something like this: When you are in a hurry, slow down.

It’s amazing how sometimes we can jump so far ahead of ourselves that we ignore some small yet crucial detail or task, necessary to the successful and mistake-free completion of a project or task. Even as I am writing this, as the words keep appearing, I am, in a sense, rushing (now revising). Maybe you can sense that. We tend to live in a world of varying degrees of speed (as Thayer reminded us in “Reach vs. Grasp”). Sometimes productivity can overwhelm us. Sometimes being too productive can cloud over the value of slow and effortful doing. Perhaps productivity folds back in on itself. Sometimes faster is not always better, only faster. If, as the cliche goes, “time is money,” then we should make sure that we are wisely investing our time. This does not mean engaging in “impulse buys,” but, more crucially, in well-thought-out decisions (purchases) and purposeful doing. It’s the difference between eating fast-food as opposed to eating fresh fruit. There are big differences in the outcomes of this seemingly brainless choice.

Wade points us to a simple yet, in my opinion, valuable, look at this controllable way of thinking and doing. Our TV game shows like to challenge us by testing how quickly we can answer questions. The person who is the fastest gets to reply. If, in that situation, we are fast and able to correctly answer the question, we may walk away with a cash prize. Nonetheless, our daily lives are much different than that. While speedy responses and speedy completion of projects may show us to be valuable employees on the surface, what if the haste of our doing results in some simple yet overlooked mistake? Do we still get “the prize?” What if that email lacked some important piece of information? Why kick yourself later when you had the choice to revise? Overlooking something can be corrected if we just slow down. Is tackling a project with speed and tackling a project with purpose different? If so, how so? Can a quick reply be a well-thought out reply? Perhaps, but not for me.

Sometimes we become speed and sometimes we become slow. How does this way of thinking change or improve our ways of doing? Does it matter?

I haven’t spent much time with Demetri Martin’s comedy material, but through some great stroke of serendipity, stumbled across this hour-long special for the BBC, entitled “If I.” To my delight, this performance is not simply “stand-up,” but examines such things as communication, choices, life-making, creativity, meaning and thinking. Martin unpacks the word “if” and uses it to point us in the direction of how our lives are influenced by our choices and the power of imagining our lives through the “if.”

While watching this video, I couldn’t help but be drawn back to Lee Thayer when he wrote, “…there is no dynamic in what ‘is.’ What stirs the human mind to life is not what ‘is,’ but what could be, or what should be, or what might be (from “Pieces”).”

In addition, Martin uses original artwork, music and photography to help pull us into “his” world. He is a brilliant public speaker and I hope you can use this video (and the other five, which can be found on Youtube) to enhance your life in some meaningful and constructive way.