Cargo

I'm embedding it here, but it's much better to go here and watch it in HD, fullscreen, in a quiet moment. It's a little heavy on the rack focus effect at the beginning, bear with it.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Three points:

This is what dreams look like on film.

If they ever make a movie based on the work of Jorge Luis Borges this man needs to direct.

This is all CG. Astounding.

(thanks tugrik)

Convenience is convenient. You don't have to think. Just put something in the microwave. It saves so much time and thought. All this time gets freed up for hitting refresh on political blogs.

Getting rid of stuff, minimalism, is a worthy goal, but we all have a lot of Stuff and I'm not going to become a monk or discard all my possessions or never buy anything again. What I do want is to change my relationship to stuff. The most important stuff is the stuff we eat and use and wear every day. Examining the details of that stuff is the key.

If you're like me you eat food a few times a day. It's the single most crucial stuff any of us consume. And we know so little about it. Who makes it? Where does it come from? How is it made? Can it be made better? Is it cheap or expensive? I know this - I eat in too many restaurants and buy my lunch at the deli too often and spend insane amounts of money at the corner store nearest my house to buy food. Is it possible to make food instead of buying it? Sure, you buy the ingredients, but a quarter's worth of flour and yeast and some time in the oven gives you a loaf of bread. And it's a delicious loaf of bread once you make a few and get the hang of it, far better than you can buy at the store. What I want is to make food - MEALS - from less-expensive base ingredients. If I want cookies I gotta make 'em. If I want a ribeye I gotta grill it up. And when I've gone to all this effort it makes more sense not to shovel it in in front of Colbert, but to pay attention to every bite. And then figure out how to preserve food so it doesn't go bad in a week in the fridge. How to can and jar stuff and make pickles and jam. All this is fascinating history and culture and entertainment, in addition to being good for one's health, and tasting better, AND good for the local community and ultimately good for the planet. Developing relationships with the providers of food ingredients, learning to work with the seasons and with local farms. Giving a shit about where this most important of stuff is from. Knowing food is a big goal and big part of this. Ultimately it's about knowing the community, meeting our neighbors.

Not just food, it's everything, it's shoes and shirts. It's the things you watch and the books you read. I wanna learn to knit. I want to repair the items I have when they break, and if they can't be repaired, to replace them with things that CAN be repaired. To economize in a way that enhances life rather than restricts it. If I'm gonna buy something, buy it from someone I can know, and buy to last. Buy good tools once. Start thinking in terms of decades. Honor the old ways and the old tech when it's still useful, adopt the new when it makes sense.

If you're like me, you're worried about the future. Bad shit is gonna happen, it's already happening and people are hurting. If something bad happens I don't wanna be sorry because I don't know anyone in my building I lived in for two years. It's time to strengthen the local community, to freakin' know my neighbors better. We're so freaking atomized in this world, especially we internet geeks of weird persuasions. We've spent our whole lives retreating into a shell of technology so we don't have to talk to anyone. That's the hard part for me. It's way easier to hit refresh on political blogs than it is to talk to the neighbors - but which ultimately leads to a better life?

So this is the year of making stuff and the year of talking to the neighbors.