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Monday, July 08, 2013

From Sycamore Island to Sycamore Store

Glen Echo Trolley, once upon a time
no copyright infringement intended


The old trackage of the Glen Echo Trolley; it was linking the Potomac countryside in Maryland to downtown Washington. The streetcars in DC stopped functioning in the sixties. Traces remain here and there, like this one, on the passage between Potomac and the MacArthur Boulevard, a footpath connecting Sycamore Island and Sycamore Store. A path that starts from the place where a small ferry is bringing you from the island, then the path is going up on a bridge over the Canal, then up toward a second bridge, over Clara Barton Parkway; and here comes the remnant of the old trackage, it used to be a stop here in the old days, now it looks rather Tarkovskian, sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world, in case you are not familiar with Latin); then the path finds its way to Mac Arthur Boulevard across Sycamore Store.

I tried to shot two videos: the first one with a wonderful musical background, the second, well I tried some experimental sound (it looks to me more Tarkovskian, believe me or not)


(Musical background: Schubert - The Trout, Quintet For Piano In A Major
Tema Con Variazioni, Andante





(Looking for the Old Trolley)

(Tarkovsky)

(Schubert)

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Tracing the Strugatsky Brothers



(click here for the Romanian version)

As you probably know, Stalker, the revered movie of Tarkovsky, is a very free adaptation after Roadside Picnic, a short SF novel written by Arkadi and Boris Strugatsky.

Actually the Strugatsky brothers also authored the screenplay for Stalker, however the link between movie and novel is loose. I could say that the movie starts where the novel ends, or rather that the film is built on the same basic situation (a place possibly visited by aliens), following then some new potentialities. Maybe first of all forcefully suggesting an ambiguity of the place: were they really aliens? or is it rather a scam constructed to mask some inconvenient truths? like a former zone for secret experiments? or a former labor camp? Also suggesting at a deeper level of understanding something beyond the story, touching the transcendental.

I read the novel in an almanac long time ago and it seemed to me that it was bringing forth an interesting hypothesis about aliens: namely that these extraterrestrial beings could be extremely different from humans, biologically speaking (for instance as minuscule as dragonflies are), thus their traces left on Earth would be totally senseless for us (the same way our own traces left in a journey outdoors would be senseless for, say, dragonflies, all those cigarette butts, empty cans, papers, used batteries and the like): for aliens or humans alike, just a roadside picnic.

Well, there are some people among us who have a special kind of sensitiveness: for them such roadside places come as carrying some strange energy and hiding secrets that wait to be deciphered - secrets just beyond the obvious.

Plese don't jump to hasty conclusions: I didn't loose my mind.  What I'm trying is to get the atmosphere of the story imagined by the Strugatsky brothers and to give you the same feeling.

MacArthur Boulevard in Maryland, some place between Brookmont and Glen Echo. The landscape down toward the Potomac reminded me suddenly of the Strugatsky brothers and their Roadside Picnic. Something seemed weird to me: the leaves, and the trees seemed too quiet, like waiting for something to happen, like hiding something too precious and too alien for us humans to understand.




(Arkady and Boris Strugatsky)

(Tarkovsky)

(Looking for the Old Trolley)

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Pe urmele fraţilor Strugatsky


(click here for the English version)

Cred ca foarte multi dintre voi ati vazut filmul Calauza (Stalker) al lui Tarkovsky. Este o adaptare foarte libera a unei povestiri stiintifico-fantastice scrise de fratii Arkadi si Boris Strugatsky. Povestirea se numeste Picnic pe Marginea Drumului (in engleza a fost tradusa cu titlul Roadside Picnic).

Fratii Strugatzky au fost de altfel si autorii scenariului filmului Stalker, insa legatura dintre film si povestire este foarte loose. As putea zice ca filmul incepe acolo unde se termina povestirea, sau poate mai curand ca filmul porneste dela aceeasi situatie de baza (loc vizitat probabil de extraterestri) si dezvolta o potentialitate nedezvoltata in povestire.

Am citit povestirea odata de mult, intr-un almanah, si am retinut din ea un aspect: ca extraterestrii s-ar putea sa fie extrem de diferiti biologic fata de pamanteni (de exemplu sa fie mici cat niste libelule, sau cat niste fluturi), calatoria lor pe Pamant sa fie o excursie fara nici o legatura cu existenta noastra (asa cum o excursie de-a noastra in natura nu are nici o legatura cu viata libelulelor si a fluturilor), iar urmele lasate de ei pe Pamant sa fie tot atat de neinteles pentru noi pamantenii cum sunt pentru insecte sau pasarele urmele lasate de noi insine intr-o excursie (un picnic pe marginea drumului). Dupa noi raman chistoace de tigari, cutii goale de bere, hartii, baterii descarcate de radio sau de aparate de filmat,care nu au inteles pentru insectele care vin dupa aceea. La fel nici noi nu putem da nici un inteles resturilor lasate de eventualii extraterestri. Este tot un picnic la marginea drumului

Sigur insa ca pentru acei dintre noi care avem o sensibilitate pentru asemenea lucruri, locurile vizitate de extraterestri apar ca incarcate cu o anumita energie, incercam sa exploram ce este acolo si sa dam un anume inteles obiectelor gasite.

Nu va speriati: nu am inebunit. Nu fac decat sa intru in atmosfera povestirii Fratilor Strugatsky. Imi imaginez ce si-ar putea imagina eroii povestirii, si incerc sa va fac si pe voi sa va imaginati.

Exista un loc pe care am trecut de multe ori, in excursiile mele de weekend in imprejurimile Washingtonului. Este undeva pe malul Potomacului si de fiecare data cand treceam pe acolo, imi placea sa ma legan in iluzia ca este unul din locurile acelea, una din zonele incarcate de mister, vizitate poate candva de extraterestri, sau poate inca populate de asemenea fiinte, foarte deosebite de noi (de exemplu mici cat niste libelule, dar cu puteri remarcabile), asteptand sa fie percepute de noi, sau poate asteptand sa ne atace. sau poate sa ne elibereze, who knows?







(Arkady and Boris Strugatsky)

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Monday, March 29, 2010

A Tarkovskian Dream


This video is authored by faraz1729 who describes it as a pilgrimage through the onirically strange, transcendentally beautiful, and internally liberating time-sculpting of Andrei Tarkovsky. It is compiled from Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror, Stalker, Nostalghia, and The Sacrifice. Music: Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent), reversed.


(Tarkovsky)

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Tarkovsky

- Image from the Stalker of Tarkovsky -



(Russian and Soviet Cinema)

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Three sequences from Stalker

The Stalker of Tarkovsky, three sequences: the videos come from Mexico, Germany, and UK.




(video by Korb, favorited by Ana Ayana)




(Tarkovsky)

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Saturday, March 14, 2009

Tarkovsky again: A Sequence from The Mirror


The creator of this video considers the scene as the best sequence shot ever. It's beautifully said.

I haven't seen yet Tarkovsky's Зеркало. As they say, nobody's perfect :)

(Tarkovsky)

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Solaris: The Final Sequence


Sacred Texter comments, I love the hypnogogic limbo, combined with the lucid energy of the film (whatever that means, but it's beautifully expressed; anyway, Солярис has been a long story of love for me, and it still is).

(Tarkovsky)

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Solaris: A Visual Fantasy


Solaris: the book of Lem, the movie of Tarkovsky, scored by Eduard Artemyev. I love this so much.


(Musica Nova)


(Tarkovsky)

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Friday, October 24, 2008

Shuesik and His Private Tarkovsky



This video is authored by Shuesik.

(Tarkovsky)

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