Abstract Expressionists
Apparently, there’s a festival called "edges" that’s been going on in Victoria the past few days. It’s a selection of the best Canadian independent short films and videos. I had no clue this was going on until a buddy of mine pulled me out to check it out. We sure picked the right night and time to go … the first thing that came to mind after the first short? "Someone please, tell me what the hell that was!!!" I was trying to figure out who was on crack … Anyway, I couldn’t figure out what 80% of the directors were trying to achieve. Perhaps they were just too abstract for me, or the quick, random images were giving me a headache and causing eye strain. Either way, some of the stuff was pretty damned weird - and who the hell would think of running Marlon Brando’s movies through a "particularily problematic MPEG stream" and call it art? I fell asleep in a matter of minutes; serves them right for showing 18 freaking minutes of it!!! Whatever, I think that the theme for the evening "out there, eclectic explorations" is enough of an explaination.
Interestingly enough though, it did spark some thoughts in my own convoluted mind. Most of the short films were from a whole other dimension and they made me realize how quickly we can become focused on life as we know it. What do I mean? With work and all our our immediate interests (whatever they may be), we can quickly forget about all the other things that are going on in life … essentially sheltering ourselves from the rest of the world. My buddy apologized to me saying that the films were so off the rocker that it was an apparent waste of time. It most definitely wasn’t the case though. While they are different and most definitely off the beaten path, it makes the mind wander and spur interest. It’s also a small opportunity to make sure that you don’t get too entrenched in your ways too quickly and forget about the rest of the world. Make sure you always stay aware of what’s going on in your environment and try something different every so often.
