Jeff's Tripartite Favorites

Hello everyone, i hope all is well, that the movies and other interests y'all may have are succeeding in making life worth living. I wish here to ratify what means most to me in three categories Film, Music and Books, when anything is included here, it's with a weightiness, and is the opposite of flippancy.

FILM

Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 and 2 -- sooner would i part with all of Eisentein's silent films for this tragically cut short trilogy, the images, acting, how the people are dressed and move, and LOOK with their eyes, and the Prokofiev score, unite in a seamless tapestry, stirring, and special, in a class by itself.

Mad Love is Jeff Keen's masterpiece, with a most pleasing fusion of multilayered visuals and catchy music. This is just cool British bohemians being creative and happy, the antithesis of going to church.

MUSIC

Neutral Milk Hotel -- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea -- listening to this tonight spurred me onto this idea for a thread, i love the spirit of this music, a certain kind of depressing which is quirky, and sometimes aggressive, it's how i imagine Ween to be if they weren't being all goofy. Most of the bands i liked as a teen were imo striving to be like this but always missed the mark, only with the internet for the last decade plus have i found a smattering of the musical visions i had need of when i was younger, and vicariously i relive those days with a better soundtrack now.

BOOKS

Hermann Hesse -- Steppenwolf -- this is one of those deep works of philosophical fiction, which attracted a generation which has extraordinary importance to me, for some kind of psychic reason, the teenager intelligentsia from the tumultuous 1960's, when established norms were challenged and were in a way chic, and how it inevitably crashed and burned, the twinkling of a new way of thinking that just couldn't live side by side with how the world actually goes.

Soren Kierkegaard -- The Present Age -- this is the most dynamic little piece by the one and only thinker who can make Christianity seem worthy of further cogitation. When i first read this, it made a physical impact, i was all tense in my muscles and so forth, it's like i was holding these words these ideas, turns of phrases in a death hug, squeezing them for all they were worth, life had meaning, it made sense in an absurd manner. I shall read this again before attending church again, i do it to make dad feel a little better, but i wouldn't advise anyone doing that for such reasons, this faith enters you, if that happens you'll either love it or hate it but can't escape it, i can't escape it, and i'm so ****ing lost to myself, where's the thoughts that edified me, that rang true??!! Much of them lay hid in this Danish Father of Existentialism, reading him is like understanding myself better, now with theologically sound teachers this is putting self above God, but whatever, maybe i just need to get the self down pat again and again before even beginning to fathom the infinite and completely other than what being human is.

Jiddu Krishnamurti -- Think On These Things -- one of the best guys to put to sleep the nagging inescapable thing aforementioned, he's like an improved Emerson, to me he spells out the mechanics of thinking, of a liberating methodology. Words from the wise, some of the Buddhist literature serves a purpose, which can be linked to Schopenhauer and onto a true dynamo and very formative fella but at this specific time Krish outshines, i'm referring to Nietzsche btw, yes Krishnamurti rises above that ole wandering shadow friend. Nietzsche falls where his rough edges stain rather than illuminate one's spectacles through which reality is being consumed. Krishnamurti offers clarity, a little more mundane, and less immediately exciting for sure, but more useful and offering a more lasting reposeful state.

Everything by Clarice Lispector, her writings are a form of life, it has a pulse, it is alive, this is wisdom literature in action, she makes me feel the very fiber of existence, she creates wonder, awe, terror, what she would call God, the poetics of her thought cannot be conveyed to someone like my dad, it would be 10 times less difficult to explain the poetics of Emily Dickinson to such a stolid believer. That enemy mentality that throws away anything different than what they are conditioned to see "objectively", subjectivity rather being the raw mode of experiencing life, Clarice embodies this.

Some treasures from my film collection

1. 2 of the 3 silent clowns well represented on Blu-ray, we're talking Chaplin and Keaton. For the former there's the 4 DVD's of the Keystone days, on BFI Blu-ray there's the Essenay and Mutual Comedies, and for the feature films of Chaplin there's the penny pincher Curzon Artificial Eye set, but since it doesn't offer the silent version of The Gold Rush i had to get it from Criterion, and it would be good to get the other Criterion Chaplins because of the supplements, but supplements aren't as important to me these days. As for Keaton, all from Eureka Masters of Cinema except The Saphead release which i just haven't gotten around to quite yet. {I often forget that i have the Criterion release of The Cameraman with another film of his as a supplement} What a treasure all the silent comedians are, Leontine is one such new discovery from the Cinema's First Nasty Women set.

Some cds that were important to me

1. The Bonzo Dog Dooh Dahh Band -- all the studio albums, one of the last things i got before using YouTube for all my music needs, the comedy and the musicianship were so addictive, i'd listen to them over and over, liking most of all the trad jazz numbers.


Physical books that i wrote in very humiliating personality traits so that if anyone in the family read my notes in them i'd have to go into the witness protection plan


1. Human, All Too Human -- What i love most from Nietzsche's writings is the free spirit series which contains this and 2 appendices, and Daybreak and The Gay Science, this first one published by Cambridge i write on the blank opening pages a sort of tantrum-esque curse on anyone who reads this book and doesn't understand all of a sudden how things were for me. Sadly i haven't been able to get an ebook edition of this and have a version full of typos and non-hyperlinked footnotes. From this book there's a list of 6 French Moralists who i am proud to have something by each in very accessible editions on the kindle and will surely find a 2nd half of life with them having more of a say in the general intake of applicable kinds of philosophy.

Some of my most trusted Reformed theology tools

This shall be a solo entry in this thread, because i don't want to group this kind of material with other films and music i like, theology has no equivalent in my other 2 interests, there is no film with a Reformed theological stance that i even know about, although i guess the closest would be Dreyer's Ordet. But just now i successfully acquired the 4th and final volume of Joel Beeke's Reformed Systematic Theology, a very solid work which can be seen as the best recent work to cut your teeth on all things Reformed. What follows is a sampling of some of the other heavy hitters in this niche area of interest

I feel i must give a reason for why this is a thing for me, for i don't believe i use it in a normal way, or a right way. I use this brand of Christian teaching as an upper hand on the surrounding Christianity, namely my dad and our non-Reformed church. The site i was puckering about before coming back to active use here was The Puritan Board, that's where Reformed people go to talk about things, and for me it did not work out, i don't know nor ever will know how to debate topics and issues. I'm conditioned to be permanently in an environment where i'm at variance with it, if i can't escape Christianity, i need to intellectually assent to a doctrinally purer standard, so i can say inwardly haha, you all are wrong. I need them to be wrong for this kind of use to be functional.

These 2 were the first to get when i went back to this sort of thing, the kind of resources not intended to newbies, i take a certain amount of pride in saying i have this and that, but lemme say reading them is a whole other matter, but i'm committed i think that they'll grow on me

Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics
Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology

Complete works of sundry Puritans -- these guys are seen as killjoys and so on but Beeke cited above strives for a more authentic understanding to be possible, they were all usually very erudite men, all except John Bunyan i believe knew Latin and all that, some of the big names (i see it like baseball card collecting) William Perkins, Richard Sibbes, John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, John Flavel, Thomas Brooks, and so many more!!

The Dutch Further Reformation is a rich minefield of Calvinistic goodies which include the ongoing publication of Petrus van Mastricht's Theoretical-Practical Theology, Wilhelmus a Brakel's The Christian's Reasonable Service, and Theodore van der Groe's swashbuckling trek through the Heidelberg catechism. Oh and i can't leave out here Herman Witsius' Economy of the Covenant, which wowed me with it's solemnity in how a believer is to talk about the things he believes.

The most intelligent Reformed theologian i know of is Jonathan Edwards who is best known for preaching a sermon that whipped the audience into a frenzy.

Over 800 sermons of Charles Spurgeon, he's the guy who all the way back in the mid 90's i took refuge in from being exposed to the heights of ubermensch thought.

A controversial Reformed writer A.W. Pink wrote zealously about some of the 5 points of TULIP that Reformed publisher Banner of Truth censored one of his works!! I have all of it, but he was an unpleasant man and that takes away some of his authority as a teacher.

An early champion of Puritans and who helped bring them back in an albeit limited style was JI Packer, who Beeke critiques in a video for signing a document that in a sense says he was ok with Catholics.

R.C. Sproul was the last great defender of Reformed theology, his most acclaimed works deal with Holiness and Predestination.

This should prove a useful grocery store list for the teeming multitude on MoFo wanting to get into Reformed Theology, you're welcome folks!!

You better collect some Catholic books

__________________
Preserving the sanctity of cinema. Subtitles preferred, mainstream dismissed, and always in search of yet another film you have never heard of. I speak fluent French New Wave.

I have some of them, with a Cioran connection i'm glad to have Teresa of Avila for example

My peculiar use of the trinity of film, book and music

This entry here shall be a chance i give myself to expostulate on my manner of approach of these things which shall be gradually enlarged both above and below.

On the use of film and it's most significant parts

The watching of films and episodes is to limit it to disc only, the only A/V streaming will be educational kinds of videos, and perhaps if there's no other way to watch a film that way so as to get a rough idea of what it is but to never again to say i've seen something if i've only streamed it, in this sense i have an idea of Run Lola Run, but i haven't really seen it, but ooooh i love the soundtrack in it, streaming a movie allows one component to be heightened, the sound aspect of it.

There are 3 main ways to consume films for me 1) short films bunched together 2) normal length features in 3 or more sittings, in one sitting if i'm doing especially good, and 3) long and regular length films to be seen in portions over a long time. Which mimics the method of reading for me, and this should also indicate that i can allow myself to have a long list of movies i'm currently watching. I will even listen to music while merely watching a film.

At any given time there'll be focuses, and sub-focuses, currently this is the age of silent cinema focus, a sub-focus now is classic Hollywood, Asian films, and anything else which can be described as arthouse, preferably in a non-english format, and mostly PG-13, if a Rated 18 film is gotten it has to be something which has been on the wanted list for a long time and that has thus garnered extensive desire.

On the use of music and it's most significant parts

The finest music is baroque, then classical in general, then minimalism, then (i'm lazy here) selected pop music, i use the term pop merely to indicate popularity, if it can be found, it's popular in other words.

On the use of books and it's most significant parts

It should be known by now that my approaches are not correct, no where is this more crucial for understanding than my religious readings in theology, it's woven into the very teaching how my approach is wrong, i am cursed for how i do things there, and so be it, damned if i do damned if i don't.

In my thinking, there is nothing i've ever come across that i herald as simply and succinctly what i think to be true, there is a hierarchy to the learning kinds of material in my arsenal, all intended to be at war with the immediate surroundings, and what is the glue between all the various parts? There is none, it's the mysterious meaning of my existence that sticks them together, not what i planned or anything involving my choices, it all has happened as if from another force. Maybe what it all means is that hell will be that much more tortuous for me for having known certain things and still not to have done anything pertaining to what would be called for.

Besides all learning based material, there is a small window i leave open for purely entertainment kinds of reading, and this is besides classic fiction which i place amongst the learning material, in the candied colored category of the thrilling page turner, only a corner of time is to be spent.

I write here to see how it could go, in this crinkly skull is a tempest, a walpurgis nacht, the saying that all the learning material is a warfare against the immediate surroundings deserves further explication. -- The world is wrong, the family is wrong, the church is wrong, but mostly i am wrong, so does that mean one of the former is right after all? By no means!! All things uttered fall short of perfection, as all deeds and sentiments. What Reformed theology does when it is sound is it walks you through something which is purportedly without blemish. In my warped mind, and approach, i see these tools as being of more use than that which they all subscribe so deeply to.

At church today it went deeper into my awareness of my folly, of how a Christian life is supposed to be lived out, and that which i am indeed doing is anything but, it is a bibliolatry, and a theologicalatry. Doctrine without life, without caring for others as much as needed. Of not being a team player, of preferring solitude, and personal study over a single moment talking to another person, which is torture for me, i never got the hang of that, i love however to see how it's done, the getting along with each other, of how people can argue where both sides are portrayed compellingly. I LOVE that, in serious films of human relationships, is one of the most satisfying avenues of film appreciation. But i would sooner be a midnight cowboy than voluntarily have to be in a brief conversation with anyone, even someone i idolize, perhaps especially those, your heroes will disappoint you, because they will treat you with respect, the last thing you deserve, you are scum, a worthless waste of space, and for a idol to see you otherwise means you lose all respect for them. It's funny how the mind and life works, i have nothing figured out of any value, but it consumes me, and i'm very grateful for this space to express poorly what all that is.

Filmmakers i could spend all day with comfortably

Jonas Mekas -- what a wonderful human being he was, through "chance" i picked this to put on and how he says it so plainly and emphatically he just doesn't understand, he sees life as precious, too wonderful for words, is how i interpret it.



Music i could listen to all day and night

The best part of this 8 hr work


Authors i could read for an eternity

Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet
La Rochefoucauld's Maxims
The poetry of Emily Dickinson
Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy
The short stories of Robert Walser
Max Stirner's The Ego and It's Own
Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West
Anais Nin's Diary
Montaigne's Essays
La Bruyere's Characters
E.M. Cioran's French books

Solemn oath to the cinema

To truly abandon any forced programme, and let the wind carry whichever comes, and let there be ample time set apart so that not too long from June 3, 2024 a film i never heard of at this date will become a Tripartite Favorite as listed in 1st entry.

Musical oath

To realize that even were i never to discover anything new, the music i'm aware of has such inexhaustible depth, and replayability that a long remaining life wouldn't be enough still.

Ode to a Kindle Urn

Thou hast sufficient layers to be sent into a dervish for centuries
To places untasted, and endless variations of the same things
Thy foresight in the past as you fast forwarded through all the combination fireworks
a life remaining to slow down and savor
By doing so, you are fast forwarding on the other side

Long films i'm devoted to for at some time to plumb their depths more fully than i have hitherto been capable of


Shoah -- the Holocaust documentary, incredible, in that Eureka set with the thick book, and other related films, i mentioned it on a previously used site, and there was a responder who got his hopes up that i would say something worthwhile about it, it sucked to let him down, but i got it over with quickly. Some moments though seem to linger too ponderously over technical details that don't seem to add anything to the tragedy already established, like when a gas machine operator guy or someone in charge in an extermination camp is questioned ad nauseum about something i can't quite remember what it was but it was like something about the size of the rooms, or how much electricity they used.

Our Hitler -- i've never yet finished it, in the 2nd or 3rd part there's excruciating detail from Hitler's butler or shoemaker or someone like that, it made me feel like it wouldn't get back to those deeply disturbing philosophical dilemmas being talked about, felix culpa and so on.


Contra Long Music

Music longer than an opera, and most operas in full are tough for me, unless it's one of those 3 operas by Philip Glass, Satyagraha being the best, each movement is a catchy number in extended version. This music is for the soul what a good thunderstorm is for the earth.

Shorter pieces rule the roost with something dreamy and austere at the same time as Webern's Symphony.

The short list of Long books i must experience

Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time
Nin's Diary as mentioned above, but i just dipped my toes back into Henry and June and it's so dreamy and elegantly otherworldly, so i have to leave breadcrumbs behind so that the future me will remember where to go, the books in full can be very labyrinthine. Anais possessed amazing psychological insight, and the life she lived was wondrously puzzling. Like she lived how most would only dream of getting a role in for a month or 2 of their whole earthly existence.

TV show interlude

It's super saturated in the pop culture, but i can't deny the impact Breaking Bad made on me, the places this went emotionally were staggering, so i might be getting the whole Vince Gilligan saga on Blu-ray soon, i love Better Call Saul too, i quit drinking while watching it for the 1st time!