myblagh: Fifty Pigments of Saturday Blues

I want to complain. About the weather, about my snail-pace work efforts, about ‘missing out’ and about nostalgia. And I’m pretty sure you are super keen to read all about my self-involved rants. So in order to make myself feel better and to keep you entertained, I will shift my topic of concern to something a little more interesting.

Collecting

First off, let me introduce you to my all time favourite movie of all time. EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED

Starring the quintessential Slavic hottie and my personal favourite Ukranian – Eugene Hutz

(tres vital bit of information: he is also the leadsinger of Gogol Bordello – the band categorised as ‘Gypsy Punk’ music , a self-entitled genre which utterly suits their reckless, fast paced and ultimately HILARIOUS music.)

This Gogol song recurrently features on the films score. HOPAH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkkIwO_X4i4

Which make the film even better is the brilliant acting of star, hero, demi-god Elijah Wood.

Noted, I have had a long standing crush on this blue-eyed deity ever since falling for his entrancing performance in Huckleberry Finn. I must be the biggest creep in the world.

whadda cutie

This is so out of context, but everytime anyone says the utters the word ‘creep’, my squint-eyed loves' lament comes to mind, and to supplement it for some added exquisiteness, check this video. Oh Charlotte, Oh Johnny. OH LIFE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz8TTCqaILs

Anyway.

So if you have not seen Everything is Illuminated, stop reading this now, get in your car, on your bike, use whichever mode of transport available and take it out at the nearest deeveedee store. Or y’know, if you find yourself in a first world country with the convenience of ‘real’ internet, watch it online or something fancy like that.

So this film is about collecting, the Holocaust, Jewish family life, nostalgia, the importance of maintaining cross-generational bonds between family members, etc, etc, ad nauseum (noted: this is also a brilliant book by Jonathan S. Foer, a favourite author of mine. So if you find the time, read that as well)

BOOK!

It is incredible how one film (okay, admittingly repeatedly watched) can have such a strong influence on one’s psyche and perception of the world. By firstly naming the practice of collecting (Jonfen/Jonathan – Wood’s character - when asked about his profession, states that he is a collector of ‘things’) and secondly by placing emphasis on his practice of collecting throughout the film, I was made aware that there is a given space in which one could accentuate the importance of this practice in one’s personal and interpersonal life.

Of course, the notion of collecting isn’t a foreign concept. Most people strive to collect and maintain a good amount of cash money, but as the wise prophets of Wu Tang Clan have taught us, “Cash Ruins Everything Around Me”, in their hit song C.R.E.A.M. Don't you just love a witty acronym? Besides the collection of wealth in the form of dollar dollar bills, we all collect SOMETHING. Whether it is art, clothing, books, music, films, photographs, shoes, sunglasses, etc. and these are arranged in a hierarchal form, I guess depending on the ‘replacability’ of the items in question.

In my opinion, having iTunes wipe all my music in one great tsunami of “Disk Clean-Up” is pretty bad, but not entirely as devastating as losing the collection of photographs I have taken and accumulated over my adolescent and post-high school years. It’s nerve-shattering to realise how easy all our virtual collections can be depleted. Irreplaceable data lost forever in a mess of zeros and ones. Not even this guy with his manifold facial expressions would be able to help you in some dire technological crisis.

zoom zoom Keanu

What am I talking about?

I find myself anxiously gathering numerous, seemingly insignificant and useless items in order to remember the small details of that one golden day or that one sublime experience shared with someone which seems to have happened in a different lifetime altogether. Just a minor warning, I get tediously sentimental and nostalgic about almost everything on a day like today. I guess this is still a rant, or some means to channel my frustration and anxiety.

There is snow on the mountains and it’s nearly November in the Southern hemisphere, so now I miss summer. I’m confined to my room, writing a tiresome essay on political liberalism, so now I miss any action in life which does not remotely relate to academic word-vomit.

As a feeble attempt at a ‘pick-me-up’ I have given in two rolls of film, from my time abroad.

And through all this irksome ranting, I have realised that I have my collections of memorabilia and photographs and little scraps of meaningful weathered-away paper which serve fuel and satisfy my melancholia.

Sad, ne.

But in order to share, which I believe is a crucial part of collecting

...

Looky here

These are some visual representations of those golden times past