Baby Zen koan

BRAIN: ‎”why is the baby crying” is a Zen riddle of sorts
FEREJOHN:”Because he is a baby”
BRAIN: I’m going with “MU” as in “the assumption you’ve made that there is a ‘why’ is a fallacy”

A pilgrim of the way asked the Grand Master Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?” Zhaozhou said, “Mu.”

Favorite films and voyeurism

KIRA WOLF TRINITY: Had a very empassioned discussion about film last night, DPs arguing that there are certain films I simply must watch, being a director, and my arguing that I’m only interested in films that have a fantastical element to it, and that standard “classic Hollywood” kinda bores me to tears.

BRAIN: it’s good to see the kinds of shots that exist as a catalogue, and what they accomplish as storytelling devices… but I wouldn’t go so far as to say you have to watch the entire movie to appreciate what they are for.

There’s lots of movies I love that are famous for film studies students that almost no one else has seen, and sometimes I suspect the people who claim to love these films have only seen them once or twice. Compare that to something like Star Wars, which some people have seen hundreds of times… It’s like the wives in “The Sopranos” watching “Citizen Kane,” talking about how great it was when it’s obvious they all hated it.

Also, I find one of the challenges in receiving aesthetic opinions from other film enthusiasts is: people like movies for different reasons, and most of the time, aren’t very articulate about why they like it. Don’t you think?

KIRA WOLF TRINITY: Agreed – since film is voyeurism, we have all kinds of messed up reasons why we love this or that. I’m no different, I just realized that I can give other people something to be a voyeur about which is why I’m doing it. Not out to be a “great filmmaker” so to speak…. I’m more interested in having a great time throughout the process, and have an entertaining and insightful product in the end.