Two Different Sets of Numbers

 

Nighttown: Hate The Zyn, Love The Zynner

In the Relapse episode of Ulysses, the encounter between Marc Maron and Stavros Halkias is chaotic and surreal for two reasons:  Maron’s newly discovered need to connect with today’s youth, and both openly double dipping 6mg Zyns.

1. Encounter: Maron purposely obfuscates his knowledge of Stavvy’s presence in Nighttown. Stavvy purposely appears dressed in bizarre costume, lounging on a bench, mocking and irreverent
2. Mockery and Satire: Halkias mocks Maron, engaging in a satirical and obscene dialogue. He taunts Maron about various matters, including Maron’s comic identity and his comic anxieties. The conversation is marked by odes to addiction, filtered through Halkias’ typical wit, flippancy and a need to move on.
3. Role Reversal: In the hallucination, roles and social positions are exaggerated and reversed. Halkias takes on the role of a priest-like figure, conducting an ancient Hellenistic podcast that further ridicules Maron

This menippean exchange between Leopold Bloom (Maron) and the stately, plump Buck Mulligan (Halkias)  in "Circe" is less about a coherent conversation and more about the symbolic and thematic exploration of Bloom’s inner fears and insecurities, with Mulligan serving as a figure of mockery and irreverence in Bloom’s subconscious.  Game investigates game.

The Relapse episode of James Joyce's Ulysses is one of the most complex and hallucinatory parts of the novel. It takes place in Cumtown, the Internet’s red-light district, and is written in the style of a gay stage play.  The episode is filled with surreal, fantastical, and often grotesque hallucinations experienced by the main characters, M.M. and N.M.

Here are some key events that occur in the Relapse episode:

1. Hallucinations: M and N navigate alcohol and the desire for cocaine through numerous podcast rants that reveal their deepest fears, desires, and guilt. Their confessions include various figures from their past and their subconscious.
2. Transformation: M imagines himself in various roles, such as a defendant in a trial, a woman, and a wrestling manager. These transformations explore his identity and insecurities.
3. Encounter with H.C.E. :  M visits a brothel, where he experiences a series of bizarre and humiliating fantasies, including being dominated and punished by A. F. who becomes a successful dominatrix in his vision.
4. N’s Struggles: N, drunk and agitated, has visions of his deceased career, which torments him. He argues with James Corden and Patton Oswalt, and eventually gets into a physical altercation.
5. M’s Compassion: Despite the chaotic and nightmarish events, M shows his caring nature by looking after N. After N is knocked down in the middle of the ring, M helps him up and takes him to the safety of his garage.

The "Circe" episode is a wild, phantasmagoric journey through the minds of Leopold Bloom (MM)and Stephen Dedalus (NM) blending reality and fantasy in a way that reveals their inner lives and struggles.  The progression is ghosted in letters.

The episode ends with Bloom and Stephen together on the street, with Bloom looking out for Stephen despite the younger man's resistance. This establishes a connection between the two characters, symbolizing Bloom's paternal feelings towards Stephen and hinting at the possibility of a deeper relationship between them

 (Circe was renowned for a vast knowledge of herbs and herbs. Through the use of a magic wand and a magic wand, she would transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals or animals.)

The Giordano Rules: The Art of Memory

 

I’m 

Portillo’s: We Have To Go Back

 

1900s-1910s

• Disposable Income: Very limited for most 16-year-olds. Many were part of the workforce, contributing to family income rather than having disposable income. Child labor was common.
• Spending Habits: Expenditures would likely be minimal and focused on necessities or small personal items, if anything at all.

1920s

• Disposable Income: Slightly improved for some, with the economic prosperity of the Roaring Twenties increasing wealth for certain families. However, disparities were significant.
• Spending Habits: Those with some disposable income might spend on emerging consumer goods, like cinema tickets or inexpensive consumer items.

1930s

• Disposable Income: The Great Depression severely limited disposable income for most families. Teenagers often worked to support their families.
• Spending Habits: Spending was heavily focused on essential needs. Luxuries were rare.

1940s

• Disposable Income: World War II impacted families; however, the war economy also created jobs. Some teens had more disposable income by the late 1940s.
• Spending Habits: Savings bonds, movies, and simple leisure activities.

1950s

• Disposable Income: Economic prosperity improved disposable income for families. Teen culture began to form, with some teens having allowances.
• Spending Habits: Music records, movies, fashion, and early fast food.

1960s

• Disposable Income: Continued economic growth. More teens had allowances or part-time jobs.
• Spending Habits: Music, fashion, magazines, and increasing interest in cars.

1970s

• Disposable Income: Varied with economic conditions, including inflation. More teens worked part-time jobs.
• Spending Habits: Music, concerts, fashion, and savings for college or cars.

1980s

• Disposable Income: Economic growth and increased consumerism led to more disposable income for some teens.
• Spending Habits: Video games, fashion, music, and movies. Increased spending on technology.

1990s

• Disposable Income: Continued economic prosperity. Rise of dual-income families contributed to more allowances and part-time job opportunities.
• Spending Habits: CDs, fashion, early cell phones, video games, and movies.

2000s

• Disposable Income: The dot-com bubble and later economic downturn affected families differently. Many teens still had part-time jobs or allowances.
• Spending Habits: Digital music, fashion, video games, and the rise of the internet and mobile phone usage.

2010s

• Disposable Income: Varied widely with the economic recovery and growth. Social media influenced spending.
• Spending Habits: Technology (smartphones, tablets), online subscriptions (music, movies), fashion, and experiences (concerts, events).

2020s

• Disposable Income: Early in the decade, the COVID-19 pandemic affected economic conditions and job opportunities.
• Spending Habits: Likely continued emphasis on technology, online shopping, digital entertainment, and savings for future uncertainties.

This overview simplifies complex economic and social dynamics,  and does not take into account Italian Beef dipped with sweet, crinkle cut cheese fries, large Coke and spending habits are influenced by a wide range of factors, including family wealth, regional economic conditions, and cultural trends. Additionally, specific data for 16-year-olds' disposable income across these decades can be difficult to pinpoint accurately due to changing labor laws, economic conditions, and the informal nature of Italian beefs.

Dead Sea Cinema: Fair Use

 

Cinema

  

“Frankly, I hate dialogue.  Dialogue is for theatre and television. I don’t remember movies because of a good line, I remember movies because of a strong image. I’m not interested in dialogue at all. Pure image and sound, that is the power of cinema, but it is something not obvious when you watch movies today. Movies have been corrupted by television.”

Denis Villeneuve

Original Cinema: The Daily Shew

“I’m sorry to differ with you sir.”

“You are the caretaker.”

”You’ve always been the caretaker.”

“Great party, isn’t it?”

Original Cinema: You Are Very Harsh

It meant that you were seeing into absolute reality. The essence beyond the mere appearance. In your terminology, he thought, what you saw is called stigmata.

It takes a certain amount of courage, he thought, to face yourself and say with candor, I'm rotten. I've done evil and I will again. It was no accident; it emanated from the true, authentic me.

I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?

Original Cinema: Better Call Paul

The new tribalism in the age of the media is not necessarily the enemy of commercialism; 

it is a direct outgrowth of commercialism and its ally, perhaps even its instrument.

If a movie has enough clout, reviewers and columnists who were bored are likely to give it another chance, until on the second or third viewing, they discover that it affects them “viscerally” — and a big expensive movie is likely to do just that. 

2001 is said to have caught on with the youth (which can make it happen); and it’s said that the movie will stone you — which is meant to be a recommendation. Despite a few dissident voices — I’ve heard it said, for example, that 2001 “gives you a bad trip because the visuals don’t go with the music” — the promotion has been remarkably effective with students. “The tribes” tune in so fast that college students thousands of miles apart “have heard” what a great trip 2001 is before it has even reached their city.  

Pauline Kael

“Kubrick was impressed by the meaning of cinema as pure knowledge more than anybody else (except Tarkovsky).  

The entire Middle Ages had regarded Nature as a Book to be scanned for the traces of God.  Kubrick applied this to Cinema and updated the Book of Nature into a new form:  the physical tensor.

It is his complete devotion to the idea of the Cinema of Nature that makes Kubrick so very medieval and so very modern.  

The gap between medieval and modern is this:  

The Medieval Book of Nature was for contemplatio like the Bible. 

The Renaissance Book of Nature was for applicatio and use like movable types. 

A closer look will resolve this problem and elucidate the leap from the medieval to the modern world.”

Not Pauline Kael

Actus Diurna: A Perfect Circle

The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory. That is our duty. If we don’t fulfill it, we feel unhappy. A writer or any artist has the sometimes joyful duty to transform all that into symbols. These symbols could be colors, forms or sounds. For a poet, the symbols are sounds and also words, fables, stories, poetry. The work of a poet never ends. It has nothing to do with working hours.

You are continuously receiving things from the external world. These must be transformed, and eventually will be transformed. This revelation can appear anytime. A poet never rests. He’s always working, even when he dreams. 

Besides, the life of a writer, is a lonely one. You think you are alone, and as the years go by, if the stars are on your side, you may discover that you are at the center of a vast circle of invisible friends whom you will never get to know but who love you. And that is an immense reward.

Jorge Luis Borges