There will come soft rains

Misc things & links i bookmarked for myself perhaps in January, perhaps in February or March, with or without notes. Do what you want of any of these or just skip any or everything.

– Film. The Clone Returns to the Homeland, ‘クローンは故郷をめざす’, Directed by Kanji Nakajima, 2008 [nb. i haven’t watched it.] Letterboxd, synopsis & trailer link.

– Film. “Fe”, はがね’ Directed by Kanji Nakajima, 1994.
[nb. I haven’t watched it yet.]
review: https://loudandclearreviews.com/fe-1994-movie-review-kanji-nakajima/
>”From its first sequence, Fe (1994)establishes a setting of eerie familiarity. Its location towers above the handful of characters, and stretches into shadow behind them. Abandoned factories, rusting metal, collapsed roofs, junkyards of glass and discarded items, smoke pluming from the peaks of mountainous chimneys.
The site of Fe’s narrative is a metal labyrinth in its death throes. Clangs and scratches from unseen mechanisms shroud the characters as they traverse the ruins of a declining epoch. When not present, either a similarly oppressive silence fills the void, or the emotionally-fuelled compositions of musician Satoshi Isige, and filmmaker Kanji Nakajima, accompany the muted colours. The first character that speaks within Fe is introduced as miniature against the sky’s infinite backdrop. They declare themselves to be a painter, and tell of how they once painted a tree in this very location.”

– Music. Hania Rani – On Giacometti: A live performance at Atelier in Stampa

– On how to grow an idea, by Jenny Odell (Author of ‘How to do nothing – Resisting the Attention Economy’, ‘Saving Time – Discovering a life behind the clock’…), April 2018

– May 2020, Why time feels so weird right now on Vox.com

– March 2023, There’s Nothing Unnatural About a Computer. James Bridle’s Ways of Being wants us to take a fresh look at nature’s intelligence. (By Claire L. Evans)
https://www.growbyginkgo.com/2023/03/14/theres-nothing-unnatural-about-a-computer/

– podcast “Tsukimi”; Episode 08, atelier Sentô, duo de dessinateurs passionnés du surnaturel au Japon
> “Atelier Sentô est un duo de dessinateurs et auteurs, Cécile Brun et Olivier Pichard, tous deux passionnés de Japon, et plus particulièrement du surnaturel au Japon qu’ils évoquent dans leur BD dessinées et écrites à quatre mains. Dans cet épisode, nous avons évoqué l’origine de leur amour pour le Japon, et comment ils s’y sont pris pour partir y vivre. Nous avons parlé aussi de l’univers des yokaï, ces êtres surnaturels qui interviennent dans le quotidien des hommes.”
– Atelier Sentô : http://ateliersento.com/fr/
– Bande dessiné conseillée en lecture : « Daruchan », de Lemon Haruna, éditions Lézard Noir.
– Film « Taste of Tea », de Katsuhito Ishii.
– Suggestion d’interview : Franck Manguin, l’auteur de « Ama, le souffle des femmes » :  https://editions-sarbacane.com/bd/ama

– Le podcast Tsukimi – Episode 12, Issekinicho éditeurs spécialisés dans le Japon
> “Le duo de dessinateurs derrière Issekinicho : Delfine et Alex.”
> “Issekinicho est une maison d’édition spécialisée dans le Japon, c’est aussi un duo de dessinateurs passionnés par ce pays. Après un voyage coup de cœur au Japon, Alex et Delfine partent vivre en 2010, deux années à Tokyo. Aujourd’hui, Delfine et Alex vivent en France et dirigent une maison d’édition, celle-là même qui a publié les livres d’atelier Sentô, avec qui nous avons eu un entretien en épisode 8. Dans cet épisode, nous parlons de leurs métiers d’illustrateurs et d’éditeurs. Nous évoquons aussi les raisons pour lesquelles ils aiment tant le Japon, et quelques astuces de voyageurs pour ceux qui souhaitent visiter le pays.”
– http://www.issekinicho.fr/accueil/
– Site internet pour acheter des graines ou plants de légumes japonais : Promesse de fleur. Patate douce variété murasaki : https://www.promessedefleurs.com/potager/plants-potagers/plants-potager-de-a-a-z/patate-douce-murasaki-29-en-plants-bio-ipomoea-batatas.html
– La douceur de Delfine : Ichigo daifuku, cliquez-ici pour la recette !
– La douceur d’Alex : Yamazaki Pan et le gateau de lune 山崎パンの月餅 le nom complet à l’air d’être Tokusen geppei 特撰 月餅

– The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Le Guin, wikipedia page.
> “The Lathe of Heaven is a 1971 science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. The plot concerns a character whose dreams alter past and present reality.”

L’autre côté du rêve (pour le titre FR).
> “Lorsque George Orr dort, il rêve, comme tout le monde. Mais lorsqu’il se réveille, au contraire de tout le monde, il découvre que ses rêves ont changé l’univers.”

– Bis repetita etc. Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘A rant about “technology”‘ (SFF)
> “We have been so desensitized by a hundred and fifty years of ceaselessly expanding technical prowess that we think nothing less complex and showy than a computer or a jet bomber deserves to be called “technology ” at all. As if linen were the same thing as flax — as if paper, ink, wheels, knives, clocks, chairs, aspirin pills, were natural objects, born with us like our teeth and fingers — as if steel saucepans with copper bottoms and fleece vests spun from recycled glass grew on trees, and we just picked them when they were ripe…”

– Always Coming Home by Ursula K Le Guin on Wikipedia.
// unusual stylistic or structural devices in books such as the experimental work Always Coming Home (1985)

> ‘Always Coming Home is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. It is in parts narrative, pseudo-textbook and pseudo-anthropologist’s record. It describes the life and society of the Kesh people, a cultural group who live in the distant future long after modern society has collapsed.[1] It is presented by Pandora, who seems to be an anthropologist or ethnographer from the readers’ contemporary culture, or a culture very close to it. Pandora describes the book as a protest against contemporary civilization, which the Kesh call “the Sickness of Man”.’

Titre FR: “La Vallée de l’éternel retour” – Babelio[FR].
> Dans un futur lointain, après de multiples désastres, la Californie est devenue une île. A l’abri dans une vallée, le peuple Kesh cultive la vigne et la sagesse, danse l’harmonie du monde, fait la guerre au Peuple du Cochon et rit des mauvaises blagues du Coyote.
Avec ce livre subtil et profond, Ursula Le Guin nous donne la vision d’une société humaine à la fois étrangère et mystérieusement proche. Elle invente une archéologie du futur pour nous convier dans la vallée de l’éternel retour.

– Outer Space Objects Index
> The Online Index of Objects Launched into Outer Space provides a quick and efficient means to access information provided to the United Nations in accordance with the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space and General Assembly resolution 1721 B (XVI).
> Currently the Index contains information on satellites launched from 1957 to the present. Space debris and other non-functional objects are presently not included.

– radio/podcast, Français [Fr. Cult.]:

1/ “Voir le futur en peinture” >Expo LES PORTES DU POSSIBLE au centre Pompidou-Metz >Art + Science-fiction.

2/ “Et si on arrêtait le progrès ?” > ‘Le progrès, cette flèche du temps qui va vers l’avant, vers le mieux. Une notion qui accompagne l’histoire des 150 dernières années. L’innovation ce mot totem de notre époque, un « buzzworld » omniprésent. Mais « maintenant, c’est plus pareil, Ça change, ça change… ». Face aux défis sans précèdent de la crise climatique. Est-ce que notre manière de penser le développement des techniques est à la hauteur de ce qu’il faut affronter ?’

– Ancient forest found at bottom of huge sinkhole in China | Trees and forests | The Guardian
>”Zhang Yuanhai, a senior engineer at the Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey, told the state news agency Xinhua that the site had three caves in its walls and a well-preserved primitive forest at the bottom.”

– the practice | Velcro City Tourist Board (2021)
‘But I think the amount of time or words you do is less important than the fact of three pages, of whatever size and style works for you.’

// adjacent personal note. Or; as a note2self/reminder. it’s _trying_ at least to (remember to) sit down and draw for 10 minutes every day — even or especially during the periods/times i believe that i can’t. That i’m not able to etc. it might not work that day, i might be too tired/exhausted/having too much anxiety etc. At least i tried. At least i did try for 10 minutes. I haven’t been regular at all lately but in my past experience, 10-minutes-a-day can easily turn into 30 minutes or 1, 2 or 3 hours when things work (or work enough, when i have fun, etc). I can give up after 10 minutes if it’s really not a good day (most aren’t — and even tho i might still spend more than 10 mins rather often), but it’s nice at least to simply try. Personally i know it’s of no use for me to insist on ‘bad days’, if i’m losing patience or something. It’s not going to work. But. It’s nice to at least try. To show up/be present when things might work. When i may be very surprised when things work better than usual. It’s also a matter of ‘practicing’/not ‘lose’ the little drawing related habits; I also (really) need the regularity or every time i pick up a pencil, mechanical pencil or any other drawing tool… It always feels like i have to completely relearn every thing i know (or that i think/believe i know), even if i only skipped a few days. And granted; i have never properly learned to draw (formally; studies &/nor school), i don’t know much. A bit more in theory. Perhaps ‘a lot’ more in theory. But in practice… Haha. There’s still a ton I’d need to/WANT to learn – And i’ll only ever manage to perhaps learn 2 or 5% at best of what I’d like to [If this was an ideal world]; But this process of learning (even badly and very so very slowly) requires at least a little routine. Etc etc. Fucking obvious perhaps.

– Morning pages – Austin Kleon (2020)
> ‘My method is cribbed from The Sedaris Method: write things down all day in a pocket notebook, then wake up the next morning, fill out my logbook, and then write longhand about yesterday.’
>’When I don’t know what to write about I answer “The Best Thing” prompt or draw until I feel like writing. (This morning I wrote about banana bread and palm trees.)’
>’I often do some combination of mind-mapping or what Janet Burroway in Writing Fiction calls “clustering”: starting in the middle of a page, writing a word, putting a box or circle around it, then writing another word, etc., until I have a tree or web. (Maps are magic, too.)’