Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Indeterminacy 65
Then we had to go back to New
Haven to do the TV class
over again. This
time on the way back
it was a very hot and humid
day. We
stopped again in Newtown,
but at a different place,
for some ice.
There was a
choice: raspberry,
grape, lemon,
orange,
and pineapple.
I took grape.
It was refreshing.
I asked the lady who
served it whether she had made
it. She
said, “Yes.”
I said, “Is it
fresh fruit?” She said,
“It’s not fresh,
but it’s fruit.”
- John Cage
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
A remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi film about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth.
Basically a professionally done remake with a good cast and up-to-date special effects, but with an unnecessarily annoying child and a simplified and implausible message compared to the original.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Indeterminacy 39
Two wooden boxes containing Oriental spices and
foodstuffs arrived from India. One was for David
Tudor, the other for me. Each of us found, on
opening his box, that the contents were all mixed
up. The lids of containers of spices had somehow
come off. Plastic bags of dried beans and palm sugar
had ripped open. The tin lids of cans of chili
powder had come off. All of these things were
mixed with each other and with the excelsior which
had been put in the box to keep the containers in
position. I put my box in a corner and simply
tried to forget about it. David Tudor, on
the other hand, set to work. Assembling
bowls of various sizes, sieves of about eleven
various-sized screens, a pair of tweezers,
and a small knife, he began a process which
lasted three days, at the end of which time
each spice was separated from each other, each
bean from each other, and the palm sugar lumps
had been scraped free of spice and excavations
in them had removed embedded beans. He
then called me up to say, “Whenever you want
to get at that box of spices you have,
let me know. I’ll help you.”
- John Cage
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