Filed under: ucla
I received my Teaching Assistant assignment today. I’ll be a TA under Chandler McWilliams, a pretty accomplished designer and programmer. The course is called Creative Internet. It’s a 100 level undergrad course that (judging by the course description) teaches them a variety of tools for the purpose of using the internet as a creative medium in art-making. It also seems to cover the history of the internet and theory about it’s contemporary cultural impact. It’s not an area that i’m totally familiar with so it will definitely be a learning experience for me too!
So, several film related events took place yesterday.
First and most significantly, both Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni passed away. Bergman at the age of 89, Antonioni at 94. This is of course extremely tragic news; Two of the greatest filmmakers in history both gone. I’m not pretending to write a eulogy here. To be honest, I don’t know much about their personal lives, but I really loved their films. I’m much better educated about Bergman’s films than Antonioni’s. But still, one finds it impossible to deny the enormity of their contribution to their field. It’s really difficult to try writing about both of them at once, because they are very different and their films mean different things to me.
The legacy of these directors is just so beyond belief for me. When I think about Fellini and Kurosawa who are also already dead, It’s sad for me because it somewhat concretely symbolizes the end of a wonderful era; the death of a certain kind of making and viewing cinema. It’s really rare that you see films as thoughtful, introspective and heartbreakingly beautiful as theirs anymore. Rest in peace, fellas.
On a lighter note, something that is exciting to me was the announcement and trailer release of the new Wes Anderson film. It’s called Darjeeling Limited and seems to follow three brothers (Owen Wilson, Jason Shwartzman and Adrian Brody) on a journey through India. Looks promising.
And speaking of films, yesterday I watched one the strangest and most visually intriguing films I’ve probably ever seen. The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowski. Apparently this movie was financed almost entirely by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It’s totally beyond 
rational analysis and a thrill to watch. It’s full of really grotesque and interesting imagery, which reminded me a lot of watching some of the Cremaster Cycle films. Both are full of abject bodies, fluids, mysterious rituals and satirical characters. This movie constructs a loose narrative about a thief who meets and alchemist. The alchemist turns his shit into gold and then inducts the thief into a group of elite figures who are all giving up their money and power to seek immortality with the alchemist. They undergo a bunch of training and then travel to Lotus Island in search of the “Holy Mountain”. Wild stuff. Jodorowski is a really popular cult filmmaker now that this and his other most famous film El Topo (a psychedelic western) just got new prints and went on tour. I think i’m going to check out El Topo next.
I was at a gallery show downtown last night and in the adjacent building I just happened to see this excellent project by Graffiti Research Lab that I’ve seen online many times, being “performed” live:
The whole system was really impressive and robust. People were having a great time using it and tagging their names up huge on the side of the building.
As for an actual status update…
I’m in a great mood tonight because I finally have furniture! Aside from the general convenience of having all my stuff slightly elevated off the floor, I guess you could say furniture is making me feel empowered and motivated (hence, finally posting). I’m feeling organized and more clear-headed. YES.
I’d like to get this out of the way quickly: In many ways, LA is exactly how you imagine it. How could it not be? It appears in just…so much media, so people already know what it looks and feels like. Yes the traffic is bad. Yes everybody has a car. The weather and the people are beautiful. The city is enormous and extremely decentralized. You probably don’t have to ever have been here to know at least that. But you know what? These stereotypes are so ingrained in the collective conscience that miraculously, I was already past all of it when I got here and ready to search around for what I like.
It seems to me that the great thing is, because LA is so huge, you can basically live here without having to deal with many of the things that suck about it. You make some friends. You find where you want to go and what you want to do. You go there and do it. And there is a TON of stuff to do everywhere. So it’s actually quite nice here. The only downside is the obvious car situation; places are all kind of far away and you need cars more often than you’d like. So there you have it: LA demystified.
So here are some things I really like about my new city: The weather is consistently excellent, which puts everybody at ease and generally in good spirits. There’s an almost unfathomable amount of art galleries and museums here. The food everywhere is excellent and there’s a huge variety of it. There’s great architecture everywhere that interweaves indoor and outdoor space. Most museums are now having fun summertime concerts and film screenings. So uh, basically, LA is kind of like this video.
There IS a public transportation system here and it isn’t all that bad. You just need to learn a lot about what companies service what area. There’s the Big Blue Bus that goes from Westwood to Santa Monica/Venice. There’s the Culver City Bus. And there’s the Metro system that has buses and a small subway system around downtown (from my understanding).
I’m really surprised at how busy I’ve been able to keep myself despite having borderline too much free time. On a day where i’m not dealing with moving-related business (opening a bank account, shopping for things I need, handling UCLA stuff) I’ve been picking places to go visit and seeing where I can get on the bus. I’ve explored Santa Monica and some of the beach area there. I spent nearly a whole day at the Getty Center, which is a lot like going to the acropolis (it’s way up in a mountain). I’ve been making efforts to meet the students in my department who seem to be a very kind and fun bunch. I’ve been touching base with friends that live around the area. I saw the LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits (CAMPY!).
So to sum up, I feel really fortunate thanks largely to the few people I know around here, to have already had such a broad and thorough introduction to Los Angeles. From gallery going, to outdoor movies; from midnight bike rides to coasting on Ventura drinking shakes from in-and-out burger; I must say I’ve really been enjoying myself here, despite the obvious difficulties and occasional annoyances that can’t be avoided when moving to a new city (especially one so far away).
