Today's Letter is A, as in Absurdity

I found this ridiculous video of Neil Patrick Harris as the "Shoe Fairy" in the new season of Sesame Street via Salon's Critic's Picks, so I thought I would share it with you all. Definitely worth the 1 minute 52 seconds of your time, for the sheer absurdity of watching Neil Patrick Harris dance and sing while wearing fairy wings. Also includes a wonderful tap dancing interlude. 

The Frenchman with the Movie Camera

In a preview of Sunday's Boston Globe online, there is a great article in Movies section by critic Mark Feeny on the French filmmaker Chris Marker (born Christian Francois Bouche-Villeneuve). In one of his own films, Marker introduces himself as "CHRIS MARKER, THE BEST KNOWN AUTHOR OF UNKNOWN FILMS," which definitely shows the man's humor. While Marker has requested his films not be embeddable  from YouTube, you can still watch the short film here. 

He sounds like quite the interesting filmmaker, and Feeny compares him to the famous Soviet Dziga Vertov (of The Man with the Movie Camera), in their similar love of film, and in their "both being so constitutionally radical, artistically even more than politically." One can read a profile of Marker here. One can also read many articles on the filmmaker here, in a site devoted to him.

This is one director I will have to explore.

Awash in a Sea of Information

This first entry for "A Dump Truck to Unload My Head" will basically serve as an introduction to the purpose of this blog, and as a preview of what lies ahead. My first foray into blogging was through the political blog Heartless and Brainless co-founded by my friend B. Tau. While this has been quite entertaining to write on politics, I feel myself being constrained by the format and themes of Heartless and Brainless, so I have set up this as a way to write and comment upon the other interests that I harbor. 

A brief list of areas you might stumble upon here: films, music, science & technology, politics, literature, religion, etc. etc. Basically whatever my mind happens to find interesting at the moment. And so this will serve as an area to "unload my head" as Dylan puts it. 

Hopefully you will enjoy these unloadings as much as I will.