Our brain is plastic

PLASTIC, n. and adj.


B. adj.

I. That moulds.

1. Characterized by or capable of moulding or shaping clay, wax, or other soft or formless materials.

2. Causing the growth or production of natural forms, esp. of living things; formative, procreative; creative.

3. fig. Generating or adapting non-material, aesthetic, or intellectual ideas, concepts, etc.; creative.

II. Able to be moulded.

4. a. Of non-material things and conditions: able to be moulded or modified; impressionable, pliable; susceptible to influence; fluid, flexible.

b. Of a material: that can be (easily) moulded or shaped; pliant, pliable; that readily takes a new form.

c. Biol. Relating to or exhibiting an adaptability to environmental changes; spec. relating to or exhibiting an ability to alter the neural connections of the brain as a result of experience, in the process of learning, etc.

5. a. Relating to or produced by moulding, modelling, or sculpture.

b. Relating to or involving a permanent change in shape of a material, without fracture or rupture, by the temporary application of a force.

6. Med. Capable of, exhibiting, or producing organization; forming tissue, esp. fibrous tissue.


III. Of or relating to plastic as a material.

7. a. Made of or containing plastic; of the nature of a plastic.

b. fig. Artificial, unnatural; superficial, insincere.

La invasion de los espias

Un articulo de Juan Gelman sobre un programa de la CIA para financiar estudios en areas estrategicas de conocimiento.

The Wedding at Cana by Peter Greenaway

Check a review in the nyt.

Years pass, ideas evaporate

I have seen so many movies that I frequently don't remember the titles. Sometimes it is hard to remember the director, the actors. Sometimes different movies blend into one. Like those first Jim Jarmush movies are just one long movie.
What remains is a blurred dreamlike juxtaposition of images, sounds and personal mental states:

a)fumado
b)borracho
c)sereno(?/!)
d)enamorado
e)...

Something similar happens with books and music. Everything melts like wax and the more you access an old memory, the less accurate it becomes. Years pass, ideas evaporate.

The fog of war

A documentary about Robert McNamara, Defense Secretary with JFK and Johnson during the Vietnam war. His views on war and politics during a crucial historical era adorned with music by Philip Glass. A must see as far as I am concerned; even more if for free.

HOME, a documentary.

Check out a great documentary about your home, the earth.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

The lovers took an elevator to the gallows

The lovers took an elevator to the gallows. miles davis was softly wispering, and he did it not once but twice. De repente un disparo y un hombre cae al suelo. Otro hombre esta encerrado en un ascensor pensando en su amante.

He feels like the freest person in France. He is rich and successful, he need not worry about tomorrow. No matter what he does or what happens, he doesn't need to worry about tomorrow. At this point, in his 30's, he's freed himself from almost everything. Morally, religiously, in practically every way.

Pero ella esta en Paris, huye del aburrimiento de una vida provinciana y de un desagradable marido. No puede ayudarle, in fact, while her lover is trapped, she is at a polo game. She is about to go to bed with a handsome spanish polo player.

Tomorrow things will be different. Both together now, she will be driving her car, followed by the police who suspects them in a murder case. De hecho, ha sido ella, so suspicions are well founded. ella se escapa, y deja a su marido y a su hijo detras. Su carrera, la de el, hubiera sido la misma en todo caso. La de ella no.
Un amor furtivo cambio su vida para siempre.

References: "The lovers", "Elevator to the gallows", Louis Malle interviews.