Author: Ayin Es

Recent films

Ayin Es1 Comment

I wanted to make a few comments about some recent films I’ve seen. I never seem to really go into depth about these things, but I am such a film junkie. I figured I should try to make recommendations, make an attempt to express, and give my .02. I have to go through an awful lot of mediocre/shitty films to get to the good stuff, but when it’s good, it’s oh so sweet.

I recently saw Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach) and it was quite a great film. I LOVE films like these. Noah Baumbach also wrote and directed one of the greatest films ever called The Squid and the Whale (2005). I liked that one even more, but his new one hits it on many of the same levels with perhaps a little less tension than I like. Regardless, it is amazingly acted. Nicole Kidman does such a good job, as she always does. Jennifer Jason Leigh (Baumbach’s wife) is also great and plays super well with Kidman. As sisters, they do a few stellar dysfunctional performances together. I identified in how they loved each other, and hated each other. Really, under the face to face niceties, bad mouthing each other the moment other was absent… it’s was so true to life love.

Maybe my favorite acting + writing was between Kidman’s character and her teenage son, played by Zane Pais. We get to watch how the future damage is done for this kid, as his mother (who has Borderline Personality) scrutinizes nearly every move he makes, which in turn is obviously the result of her careful training since she is the archetype.

Jack Black is also in this movie, and I LOVE Jack Black. He is an excellent actor. Funny, yes, but he’s also great at the subtleties too. Brilliant, in fact. That’s not easy to do. He manages to be likable despite his relationship and occupational flaws. I don’t mean to compare the 2 movies so much, I like the differences a lot actually. Baumbach makes everyone in this film more likable than his last. If anyone is the villain in this, it’s Kidman, but she managed to play on my heart strings because of her beauty inside and out.

Another movie (on DVD) that was so incredibly awesome that it changed my life, was Danielson: A Family Movie (Or, Make a Joyful Noise Here), 2006 J.L. Aronson’s debut film about Daniel Smith’s band, which consists of his family and friends. I’d never thought I’d say this, but this documentary about creativity within the Christian faith inspired me more than most movies ever would. It’s the individuality that does it for me. This film is art all the way. As an eccentric musician and visual artist, I bow to him for his brilliance and courage. If you thought there wasn’t anything original left in the world, you need to see this film. Along the way Daniel mentors singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens, and while very different musically, is just as beautiful. I’ve never seen such a great combination of music, animation, vision, and soul like this before. Additionally, the stage “act” is just flippin outrageous. You might think it’s ironic, but it’s just barely. This is for real visionary stuff like nothing you’ve seen or heard before.

The last time I was that inspired (in a completely different way) from a film was when I saw Tarnation.

shut up

Ayin Es2 Comments

kermit

I wish they would shut up, those talking heads, those jabbering radio mouths, those cluttered thinkers, predicting crap about the polls and what the elections are going to be like. They have hard-ons for liking one candidate, disliking another, backtalking and walking backwards, and contradicting and spitting. It’s all such a waste of air time and moving pictures to guess about what may or may not happen. Is this what it’s going to be like for a whole year? Yup.

welcome back to carol’s bloggie

Ayin EsLeave a comment

Welcome back to the new blog. This new blog was over at Blogger for a while, but I decided to bring it back to the site and archive the old blog. So… how do you like it? It’s a new look, I know. And how was your Thanksgiving? I haven’t stopped eating.

An interview article I wrote about artist Mark Steven Greenfield is now featured on Whitehot Magazine’s cover for the Los Angeles section. Check it out.

mark steven greenfield

I’m going back to my weekend now.

Today is Tuesday

Ayin Es2 Comments

Remember when I said I woke up from a dream and there were those loud, migrating birds in the sky? Well, those were not just any birds. We have quite a few flocks of naturalized parrots all over this area. Since I moved here to NELA, I hear these parrots and see them in flocks, jumping from tree to tree, flying in crazy patterns. They are all so loud and beautiful, and frankly crazy to watch. There’s been a lot of Hitchcock moments where I could swear there were millions of birds about to swoop down on me in the yard. They scream and caw like they are on fire.

I started planting a cactus garden last week. That’s what I do to relax, even though it absolutely kills me. My legs are like lead weights now, with electrical currents running through them. Or maybe it’s more like those hot coils inside of a toaster running through my thighs, only I don’t feel the heat, I just feel the electricity. Neat, huh? When I walk I’m all wobbly with shocks zapping down from my hips into my feet. I’m one electric bitch! But you should see my garden. Very meditative and hippydippy cute.

Luckily, I can sit around the ERL lab and take it sleezy while I conduct my Frankenstein experiments, and shop around for some film equipment on Craig’s list for the next project I’m working on. Life is sure changing. There’s lots of new up my sleeve.

I’m also messing with a wood carving that will become the frame for the collector that purchased my painting called, Forgive:

Tonight is the opening of Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow, a solo show by Edith Abeyta at El Camino College Gallery in Torrance. There’s an artist’s talk that starts in about an hour, but I am certain I won’t be able to make that. I’m still trying to make arrangements to go down there for the reception tonite. I think I’d have to take my chair with me if I go, and I just hate being seen in it. So, I may bring an actual chair instead of one on wheels. No matter what, it makes me feel like a spectacle. A walker, a cane, a wheelchair, having to answer to people I don’t know very well what my problem is. Sometimes I sit behind a desk (where usually the only chairs are in a gallery) and have people think I work there, or appear to be some kind of prima donna that’s too good to stand. OR I can just do what I normally do: stand there as if nothing is wrong with me while screaming in writhing pain inside my head! If you are ever talking to me at these things and I’m standing there – I am not listening to a word you are saying! While I lie in bed recovering from this in the days that follow and I ask myself, “is all that agony really worth it?” The answer is no. If I can remember all that beforehand, this is usually why I missed your reception…

Anyway, Edie invited me to be a part of one of her three installations called, Cry Me a River. There are about 50 women artists in total. Each of us decorated a hankie provided by Edith, along with a souvenir blue ball point pen. Everyone did a great job, and each piece is very original. This show is running from November 19 through December 14. Here are some great captures of the installation process from Marshall Astor’s blog. It’s a great idea to have such thorough documentation along the way of an important artist’s career. Edie is a big inspiration.

Here’s a list of some of the other artists in the hankie project:

Kim Abeles, Rheim Alkadhi, Katrina Alexy, Claudia Alvarez, Abbie Bagley-Young, Sunny Buick, Alison Casson, Suzanne Coady, Shannon Collins, Susan Crawford, Hope Dector, Anne Devine, Irana Douer, Rebecca Ebeling, Beth Elliott, Christina Empedocles, Elisabet Ericson, Carol Es, Georgina Fineman, Betsy Lohrer Hall, Christine Hawthorn, Peregrine Honig, Lindsay Jessee, Denise Johnson, Marnia Johnston, Mary Kilvert, Mung Lar Lam, Miriam Libicki, Hilary Lorenz, Allison Manch, Susanna Meiers, Merry-Beth Noble, Saelee Oh, Susie Oh, Naoke Okabe, Ahndraya Parlato, Martha Rich, Lisa Romero, Charlene Roth, Isabel Samaras, Colleen Sanders, Yong Sin, Jessica Newman Skretny, Lisa Solomon, Syl Tapetentiere, Michele Theberge, Deborah Thomas, Rebecca Trawick, Sarah Wagner, Megan Whitmarsh, and Kate Williamson.

I’m pretty sure they’re all for sale too? But ask the director of the gallery to be sure.

rock the miasma

Ayin EsLeave a comment

Getting on top of my current projects, and busy like the wind again. I have not been able to get out much, but last Saturday I saw a new doc at the Westside Pavillion called Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. Very good. It was especially nice to be able to have our very own couch in the screening room. Now that’s a way to get people back into the theaters – make it like their living rooms. Still no ability to rewind though.

I also went to Leigh Salgado’s show at Avenue 50 Studio near my new neighborhood, and that was a beautiful show of her newer pieces, many of them on player piano scrolls. Her delicate work in hand cutting lace and doodle into paper, while camouflaging words and underlaying visual messages, feelings, and the amazing mysteries of female miasma. Leigh Salgado is clearly one to watch.

Another amazing show is at George Billis Gallery. Jorge Santos is a damn brilliant master! You only have a few days left so go see his work before the show ends.