Tim O'Donnell: "All that is art"

My friend Tim O'Donnell passed me a link to his new online art project. Here's the blurb -- you need to check it out --

"Artist Tim O'Donnell has invited you to an online project. Each day Tim will post a 2-D work, photograph, and video during his spring residency on the Cape. It will be posted on the blog: All that is art."

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The New Star Trek Movie

JJ Abrams doesn't really love James Tiberius Kirk. He just keeps him hangin' on.

I'll tell you what I mean by that in a minute. But it bears noting that Motown's auto industry could learn a lot about making old models newly relevant from the way Abrams has taken Star Trek the Original Series and retooled it for an entirely new generation. And he did it without most of the usual cheap clip-on concepts that most screenwriters and directors have used this past couple decades:

• Hip-Hop music
  
• Characters who were originally boring now infused with dance funktasticness
• Anyone on a skateboard or skateboard-like appliance
• Background characters who look like cartoon characters or Muppets
• Fart jokes, poop jokes, bathroom humor
• Lots of swearing
• Characters who originally ignored each other now sexually involved
  
• Sassy characters who exude Jerry-Springer-audience-member attitude
• Well-known comedians performing some version of their own schtick
  

Actually, Abrams does use one of the devices listed above, and it's a bit painful. I'm letting it slide for now; decide for yourself if it works.

It's almost, but not quite, as if Abrams had taken Roddenberry's development concept from the 1960's 'as is' and executed it using tons more cash -- the early Star Trek episodes filmed for $80,000 each, if I recall correctly from David Gerrold's book The Trouble with Tribbles -- and using early 21st-century cinema culture, referring now to cinematography and special effects in particular.

And it's even more than that. Star Trek the Original Series was developed at the end of the Modernist narrative, when great technological progress was mated with a strong faith in the ability of humankind to improve itself. The idea was, more or less, that we'd become better people as our technologies eradicated disease, starvation and war. There was a Utopian gleam, if not really a Utopian ambition, to the Modernist project. And The Original Series is a pure expression of that. This is a galaxy united in peace, with warring factions who still haven't picked up on the enlightenment making things difficult from time to time.

Well, Abrams literally blows away one of the supposedly most enlightened symbols of that Modernist world in Act I. It was quite unexpected for me, and I'm not going to blow it for you. At any rate, in doing so, Abrams hurled the entire Star Trek premise deep into the much more skeptical 21st century. And in my view he made the Star Trek premise his own.

The cast he's chosen is quite strong. Chris Pine does a convincing job owning the Kirk role, and he does it confidently enough to fling a few Shatnerisms along the way. Zach Quinto's Spock is just plain eerie in its semblance to the young Nimoy's version. I particularly enjoyed John Cho's Sulu; he pulls that role off with a seriousness that not only makes me buy into it completely, but really adds a lot to the atmosphere of the bridge. He's got military gravitas down. Karl Urban seems sometimes to be acting by the skin of his teeth as McCoy, and I'd almost fault the writing at those points where it gets too thin. And for my money Abrams plays the "I'm a doctor, not a _______" line a bit too much, reaching almost beyond the boundary of pastiche's Neutral Zone.

I have only two serious grips with the casting:

My first gripe would be with the vocal tones of key cast members. Yeah, sounds trivial. But Pine's voice has a bit of a boozed-out quality to it. Fine, he's depicted as a heavy drinker early on, but it takes the edge off of some lines in a way that I wish it wouldn't, because over all the writing's pretty good. I want to hear a more Shatnerian sonorousness. And he's always so dead-certain, too -- perhaps as would be the manner of a young hotshot, I suppose, but for me it peels away the illusion just a little bit.

Quinto's voice is just too high for Spock, in my opinion. Even when young, Nimoy's Spock got a lot of mileage out of vocal tone, or monotone. It's just a bit tough to hear excellent Spock lines from a voice that could have come out of any given member of an 80's boy band.

And my second gripe with the casting is that Abrams unknowingly touched the third rail of legitimate Star Trek productions. This law needs to be written in bold type at the top of every script he directs: In the Star Trek universe there is no Winona Ryder.

While I like the script a lot in its general thrust and in many of its particulars, things in my view got a bit out of control in several areas:

• I'm seeing too much of Leonard Nimoy as the old Spock. The script's reasoning on this is fine. But Abrams flings him around a bit too much at the end for my taste. I'd have allowed his presence here to be a bit more enigmatic, a bit more ghostly. Also there are some pretty big plot holes surrounding the manner in which Nimoy first appears.
• There are at least 3 times that we see Jim Kirk hanging on to the edge of an incredible drop. OK, we get it: "Kirk lives life on the edge." Move on.
  
• The premise surrounding the bad guy character is pretty thin, in my view, although Eric Bana plays him quite effectively.

Kudos to make-up and special effects. It's the usual Star Trek Mardi Gras xenomorphology -- various combinations of wacky head on human body -- and while that always annoyed me from the point of view of realistic expectations, nowadays I consider it to be part of the brand.

It'll be interesting to see where Abrams takes the property now. Over all this was a very satisfying night at the flicks. So long as he can stay away from HoloDecks, Sherlock Holmes, Baseball, and all the crap that infested TNG -- and so long as Kirk never wears a baseball cap backwards, Spock stays off the skateboards and McCoy doesn't lay down any freestyle raps -- I should think this new iteration of Star Trek will play out well.

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Nick Ferris and Rani Free: "Regrets" -- at Chacala May 13 - 14

My friend Nick Ferris shot me an email about a big show he's cooking up with Rani Free -- read and be enlightened!

I’m putting on a charity exhibition next week in New York on the theme of “Regrets” which I wanted to invite you to. Since we launched the show’s website we’ve been inundated with people sending in anonymous regrets and it seems to have really struck a chord with people.

Myself and the other artist, Rani Free, have put this altogether in our spare time over the last 8 weeks, including taking all of the photography. The show comprises of photography, sculptures, video installations, audio installations, an interactive “Stage of Regrets”, a specially commissioned children’s book and also a Wall of Regrets where visitors can post their own regrets at the gallery. Myself and Rani will also be on NBC Nightly News Monday to promote the show. There are about 250 regrets in total featured in the show. The show’s website is www.nickandrani.com

It’s free to attend and proceeds from any picture sales go to charity.

Many thanks

Nick
212 224 3507

More details are below:

………………..

Regrets
Chacala
394 Broadway, 4th Fl
New York, NY 10013
The gallery is located in Tribeca on Broadway between Walker and White Street at: Chacala Art Gallery - 394 Broadway, 4th Fl, New York, NY 10013

(Canal St Station – N,Q, R, W and 6)

May 13th 12-5pm
May 14th 12-5pm

Regrets Exhibition Opening in New York May 13/14 2009.

A new art exhibition entitled “Regrets” is opening in New York for a limited run in May. The theme has captured the imagination of people worldwide with hundreds of visitors to the show’s site listing their anonymous regrets in life – from the deeply personal to the highly superficial.

As well as featuring regrets from the website, the exhibition captures the personal regrets of the artists through a variety of media including photography, poetry, short films, sculptures, audio and even a specially commissioned children’s book (Rated R). The exhibition also features interactive artwork - a stage of Regrets where people can overcome some of their regrets in life and a “Wall of Regrets” where visitors can list their own regrets whilst at the show. In total over 250 regrets (both positive and negative will be in the show)

Regrets is a fun, sad, challenging, heartbreaking and highly unique exhibition – where guests can be both voyeuristic and introspective.

The show is free to the public and proceeds from any sales go to support two very important charities - You Can Thrive and Sense.



Even more about Regrets:

“I regret not being myself. I hide myself. Always”

This is just one of the many regrets posted anonymously on the official website - nickandrani.com. As soon as the theme of this exhibition was announced, one thing became apparent - nearly everyone has regrets of some kind, but very few share them, with anyone. Until now.

As well as the unprecedented public feedback to the idea of Regrets, the artists have done a remarkable job in putting this exhibition together in their spare time in just two months. All of the works of art were produced in this timeframe. Once the show is over, a charity Regrets book will also be published that will capture all of the regrets listed both before and during the show.

If you would like more information or to talk directly to the artists, please contact us at nick@nickandrani.com. The exhibition is highly unique and for great cause, and we would appreciate all the support we can get.

The artists would like to thank the following people and companies for heir support, generosity and belief in Regrets:

Amanda Zizgen, JustCalmDown.com, Clifford Endo, Lenny Zinnanti, Rich Strait, StockChoiceToday.com, Madame X

Please note all proceeds go to some very worth causes. The two charities supported are:

• You Can Thrive! Foundation supports an innovative multi-tiered quality of life program to help alleviate unnecessary pain, disability, and psychosocial that often accompanies a diagnosis of cancer, and resurfaces after treatment or during extended living with disease.
• Sense is the leading national charity that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are deafblind. It provides expert advice and information as well as specialist services to deafblind people, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them.

For more information about the artists please go to www.nickandrani.com
For press enquiries please contact Nick Ferris: nick@nickandrani.com

Nicholas Ferris
Group Publisher
emii.com
212 224 3507

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Reid Stowe - The Oceanic Heart Part 2

Reid Stowe, The Oceanic Heart -- 2009 --

GPS markers on Google Maps describing a heart-shaped path 2,600 miles in circumference

Considering all the problems he's had to deal with alone on his twin-masted schooner, artist Reid Stowe's Texas-plus-sized conceptual piece is a triumph.

Check this latest entry from day 745 on 1000days.net:

It seems perhaps bad news has replaced our search for the miraculous and our human myths, and I am left to think we are an intellectual society in fear, with many suffering a sense of personal meaninglessness. Those who went to our website and looked at our Google map may have been surprised I am now completing a giant heart with my course in dedication to Soanya and as a gift to the world.

Stowe has stepped off the civilization-sanitized plain most Americans inhabit, where a meal is a few microwave minutes away and distractions abound.

He's dropped back deeper, to a level not usually experienced by other-than-tribal people in this hemisphere, at least not since when -- the seventeenth century? And it saturates his writing, which reminds me of John of the Cross, "The Cloud of Unknowning," and others who have sojourned long in a place where each continued moment of life seemed like a gift.

The thing is, he always sounded this way, even in writings before the 1000 Days voyage.

I've come to believe that the things you learn in your early 20's are the ones that stay with you for the rest of your life. During those years of his life, Stowe was criss-crossing the Atlantic in small sailing vessels, often solo. He spoke to me once of the way you become one with your ship -- drifting off to sleep and suddenly sensing something that needs attention high up on a mast.

Long weeks alone on the sea, your mind wrapped up in survival moment by moment, facing storms of lightning, wind and rain, and also of doubt, and yet living through all of them: there's no way that that isn't going to affect your outlook. In my opinion it was highly transformative.

Stowe learned the mystic's appreciation for life and the universe not through books, or at the feet of a guru, or because it was a really cool fad. He really didn't even try to learn it in the first place. It came to him through protracted, sometimes gruelling day-to-day experience. And it never left him.

Unlike so many similar gestures made in irony or with hypocrisy, this Oceanic Heart is real. The only question remaining in my mind is can the world accept it?

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Verena Dobnik / Associated Press article published this past May 3 on Reid Stowe's "1000 Days" voyage

Here's a snippet:

Also monitoring Stowe’s travels is Charles Doane, editor-at-large of Sail magazine. “I check his positions every day,” he says.

Already, Stowe “has set the record of the longest nonstop, unsupplied voyage at sea,” says Doane, adding that proof the schooner has not touched land comes from a GPS satellite system tracking the voyage, along with regular photos and videos posted on the Web.

“I want to inspire people to follow their dreams,” Stowe says. And in fact, the voyage serves as a vicarious adventure for some young virtual sailors — second-graders at a Virginia school whose teacher, Mindy Morrison, wrote to the wandering mariner that his Web site was helping them locate continents and oceans, making geography “more tangible and more importantly, FUN!”

On the newspaper's blog one of the commenter's left something that really resonates with me, partly I think from having worked with Reid all those years ago:

As I try to imagine the perspective of Reid Stowe as he sails into the fringe of our worlds, I find myself surrounded with images of classic adventure tales from my childhood; like The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery, telling the story of a lonely boy from another planet who fell in love with a mysterious rose, or the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor of the Thousand and One Nights who goes to sea to repair his fortune. I hear sounds of Rimsky-Korsakovs Scheherazade and remember how I used to fantasize about what would do when I grow up.

Reid Stowes quest is profoundly idealistic and makes a point about life and human nature.

Can I get an 'amen,' somebody?

Read the article -

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