The Anatomy of a Doodle: Listening to the Backseat Driver

I was watching a video on anatomy for artists and doodling. Later I finished it a little. I have no idea where my work will end up when I start. It is as if I am driving  in a barely familiar city, and somewhere in the backseat some person I should know but I can’t say why, is giving me directions. We always arrive somewhere interesting but I am not sure of the location.

A Poem Inspired by Kurosawa

The Bad Sleep Well

Corruption in high places

provides many opportunities,

to improve your sleeping accommodations.

A deep sound

hole in the night ground

is yours for the asking.

Support your local bureaucrat!

Kickback and relax

In a job well down

and up

to suit the hand

that turns the crank,

That winds the rope

that holds the hole thing suspended

in perfect balance

over the pile of luckless

bucket riders

Who were unable to sleep

on a string.

This poem came about because I thought the title was about a well of bad sleep when in fact it is about how bad people have no trouble sleeping. A movie loosely based on Hamlet, but with a very different ending. It is a tragedy of a different kind. It is one of my favorite Kurosawa films so far.

I have been watching as many movies directed by Akira Kurosawa as a I can get my hands on as part of my 101/1001 project. I am trying to watch the movies in chronological order to see Kurosawa’s development as a director as well the main actors in his stock company. Toshiro Mifune and several others are in many of his films in a variety of roles.

I really love the Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress, and his incredible adaptation of  Macbeth, Throne of Blood. Toshiro Mifuni is awe inspiring to watch in all of these. His sheer physical mastery of each character. I can only judge the physical nature of his acting as I am not aware of the nuances of the Japanese language to know if his spoken acting is as skillful. I just know he has a presence and ability to exude his characterizations through is body. I love the way he speaks also, but I cannot tell if he is as subtle and artful in this part of his performance. Japanese culture is also so unfamiliar to me, and often baffling to my American raised bias, but the more I watch the more I pick up on some of the clues to why the characters are responding as they do.  I am now much more able to appreciate some of the performances than when I began. I also suspect the acting and directing is improving as well.

Elephant Tracks: A Quote Inspired Poem

“Elephant tracks! They were all around my tent this morning. There must have been several.”*

This sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

For most of my life I have been waking up to elephant tracks.

I never hear or see any elephants.

Every now and then I feel a vibration

see the faint ripples in my cup of late night tea.

How do those big things move around so stealthily?

How do the huge events come and go

leaving only tracks and questions?

*Earl Theiser:“The Last Safari” from Audobon Sept-Oct 1999

Kafka and Rimbaud Somewhere in My Mind

“Far, far from you, the history of the world unfolds, the world history of your soul,” Franz mused, staring vaguely past his friend Arthur who replied , “The cleverest music falls short of our desires,” tilting his head slightly to one side

They both smiled sadly and nodded.

My Movie Friend, Kurosawa and Star Wars

Watching Movies with a Friend

As I was watching Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress” a few days ago, I was thinking how much my friend Pat would have enjoyed the two greedy, disloyal, and weak peasants that are the central characters. I vaguely remember seeing this film in a small art theater in Sacramento with him in the late 70’s. Later I heard that George Lucas changed some of his approaches to the original Star Wars script after watching “The Hidden Fortress”. He decided to tell the story more from the perspective of two of the side characters, R2D2 and C3PO. They like Kurosawa’s characters provide comic relief, plot complications, and some assistance. But the main point I was wanting to make was that having someone to watch movies with who really gets what you get from them is something special. I don’t care what movies they are. They don’t have to be great movies. What matters is that when the movies over there is someone who understands what you liked about it and why, or that during the movie will lean over and whisper something only you  would understand, something that happened when you where young and stupid. I miss that. My friend Pat and I were young and stupid together and watched many great and not so great films. I hope that  we will do this again soon.