Godard quoting Brecht: "All art is plagarism." He might be exaggerating a bit but, I think the best one-liners usually do that.
So, the first thing that came to mind when reading House of Leaves (HoL) was the fake/real movie aspect of it. Straight away, it made me think of the Blair Witch Project. I'm sure some of you thought the same. Especially with the whole monster-you-never-see device playing a huge role in The Navidson Record.

I can't really take the "plagarism" stand for much more of the book because it is so unique. Given, I am not the most well-read person but I have never flipped so much from one part of a book to another since I read a Choose Your Own Adventure book back in the day. I mean, thats the post-modern condition isn't it? everythings been said, painted, presented, photographed, projected already. Take what you got and get your bricolage on. Danielewski definately did.

I have a question for you. I have already submitted my Senior Project proposal, but since I haven't really done anything other than broadly outline it and contact a few people that would be in it, nothing is concrete as of yet. I was wondering what you thought about the three possiblities that keep me awake at night.

1- Capturing DJ culture in LA. Here, I would interview DJs that occupy different realms of the art/business. I would talk to radio djs, turntablist djs, and club djs and see what similarities and differences exist between them.

2- An indepth portrait of Egon. He is the manager of the biggest independent hiphop label in the world - Stones Throw. Not only is he an amazing DJ, but he takes great photographs, and writes for a hiphop magazine. I assume he'll be busy, but it would be cool to get a glimpse of his life.

As a media studies senior, it feels embarrasing to admit that I saw Rashomon for the first time a few days ago. I was going to post a blog on it that same day, but I was too tired. Thats not the case right now though...
I love Kurosawa. Seven Samurai is one of my favorite films of all time. And, I thought that Rashomon would be up there too, but I found the ending to be completely contrived. I can't believe the priest decided to regain his faith in humanity simply because the bandit decided to hold onto a baby that magically appeared on their temple doorstep. I dont know if its this is the proper context, but it seemed like a deus ex machina to me - in other words, a complete copout.

Living in LA is both a curse and a blessing. The smog, Hummers, lack of public transportation, etc... make me want to leave. But, living here means that I get to see loads of cultural productions that I wouldn't normally get to see at home.

The city I live, frankfurt, has a nice graffiti scene; its not really up to par with berlin or hamburg, but I do get to see great pieces every time I drive under a bridge or when waking through the city. This summer, I visited my brother in London to help him move out of his flat. I had already known about Banksy (my brother bought me his book Wall and Piece last christmas) and I was really excited to be able to see his pieces where they are meant to be seen - in public space.

Being a media studies-psychology dual major is difficult. In one major i am forced to learn the intricacies of freudean theory; in my other major, i am forced to laugh at practically anything he ever said. Anyways...

After reading Marchessault's thoughts regarding the gender (not sex, gender is cultural, or?) of the dead author The Acadamy has been presented with, i must say i am intrigued. Her detective work in the bathroom stall was logical. A man would not sneak into a woman's stall simply to theorize on the gender of The Dead Author. But, is she saying that the dead author is a woman, or that the dead author is a genderswapping zombie?

I have been thinking of what angle to take this for some while now. At first I wasn't sure about the degree of intimacy that we were supposed to inflect on these posts, but it seems like people are getting personal, so I think I'm going to keep it moving in that direction. First of all, this is the first time I've blogged before, but I was planning on starting a blog of my own and this is the perfect catalyst for me. Like others before me, I have to say that this week was a bit too busy to get posting earlier, and I also experienced some technical difficulties.
Anyways.
After reading Barthes and Foucault I have to say that my conception of an author has been slightly changed. Or, better said, my conception of an author has been more informed. The romantic notion that authors write to become immortal (words never die, right?) and the way Foucault tied it to the Hero of Greek narratives (117) is interesting. However, it was much more interesting for me to read that "speeches and books were assigned real authors... only when the author became subject to punishment." (124). The struggle between cynicism and romanticism, will it ever leave human conscioussness? I don't think so. And, when Barthes writes "the modern scriptor is born at the same time as his text" (52) his comment seems to find a balance between the two.