Brain taking longer to spin up than usual this morning. Normally, by the time I get to my desk I’m more or less functional. Days like this are when I wish I liked coffee. The smell of coffee is wonderful, but I’ve yet to acquire a taste for the stuff. Someday. The lack of full functionality means I have no main topic today, instead: Brain Droppings.
In place of the brown sludge the rest of you all consume to jump-start the mental neurons, this morning I’m listening to Paleowolf albums. Paleowolf describes itself on its bandcamp page thus:
Paleowolf is a tribal/dark ambient project aimed at invoking the ancient spirits of prehistoric past. The ear of Paleowolf is set in times before, during and after the Ice Ages, when humans were still living the lives of hunter-gatherers.
I find this particular sub-genre of ambient music very useful when I need to focus or to think. There’s something in the mythic qualities it possesses that inspires. Sometimes I’ll listen to this sort of music and a slow, black & white movie up on the big external monitor on mute to glance at once in a while; a practice I stole from Warren Ellis.
A film I’ve been throwing on the aforementioned screen is Abbas Kiarostami’s 24 Frames. A series of short scenes made up of mostly-static shots with limited movement: wildlife seen through car windows, rocky landscapes, tides lapping up on shores and even a painting by Brugel the Elder with limited animation. It’s very meditative. I love looking at it and letting my mind wander. It seems another thing I stole from Warren Ellis is a fascination with “slow cinema”, particularly in black & white.
I’ve been assembling a list of these sorts of films to see and keep to hand for use on the big monitor. When the list gets a bit longer maybe I’ll talk about it here.
I watched the David Lynch short film that Netflix released last week. “WHAT DID JACK DO?” and I loved it. I think it was very considerate of Netflix and David Lynch to produce this weird thing specifically for me.
Currently Playing: Paleowolf – “Megalitheon”
Currently Reading: A MAN’S HEAD, Georges Simenon (CA) (US)
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