material memories

as i was reading this essay [material memories: time and the cinematic image by paul d. miller (dj spooky)], i was walking down 9th street to get my car from the bars. this article gave me deja vu many times, but not in a freaky way...in a comforting way. this summer i would walk down to pearl street to retrieve my car after a night on the town and it's what got me up in the morning, what really got me started on my day. walking this morning i felt like belle from beauty and the beast walking through the town in the morning:

[Townsfolk]
Look there she goes that girl is so peculiar
I wonder if she's feeling well
With a dreamy far-off look
And her nose stuck in a book
What a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle

[Belle]
Oh, isn't this amazing?
It's my fav'rite part because you'll see
Here's where she meets Prince Charming
But she won't discover that it's him 'til chapter three

when i was a kid, my mom used to play piano scores from disney movies while i sang the lyrics. i have an especially fond memory of this one as my sister, chelsea, and i would walk in circles around the living room with our noses "stuck in a book" as we sang this one.

as i was reading Miller's article i felt as if i was in my own "montage of attractions," in my mind there was a soundtrack to every moment, a new thought from every line i read. i couldn't completely re-create it, but it's just as miller describes:

"a world which...was becoming increasingly inter-connected, and filled with stories of distant lands, times and places -- a place where cross-cutting allowed the presentation not only of parallel actions occurring simultaneously in separate dimensions, but also parallel actions occurring on separate temporal planes."

as i reached my car, i started him up and the song came on, "i like it rough" by lady gaga:

‘Cus it’s a hard life,
with love in the world
And I'm a hard girl
Lovin' me's like straightening curls

You got me wondering why I-
I like it rough,
I-I like it rough,
I-I like it rough
You got me wondering why I-
I like it rough,
I-I like it rough,
I-I like it rough

the montage continues. nights of sake bombs and painting with my girl caitlin, driving around atlanta in my high school days blasting music in my little ford explorer with the words on the back window...

"Get in, Sit down, Shut up, and Hang on!"

i felt like i was in a remix of my own life. dj pat a (my snowboard coach) quite possible turning the tables while i traveled through time on my own accord. as any dj would agree, dj spooky (miller) points out:

"it's all about selection of sound as narrative."

as i read the words on the page, the songs in my head changed, the film clips in my montage evolved through time, and i didn't feel like i was in boulder anymore. i was breathing the cold air, with cold hands clinging to my book i had so many thoughts going through my head but i could travel through them comfortably as i traveled through time in an amazing way.

"time is invention, or it is nothing at all..."
-- Gilles Deleuze, Movement-Image

what is reality? what are memories? what is time? and i was left thinking with one thought that starts yet another montage as i travel through time, i'm feeling as lost/insignificant and as enlightened/special as the first time i saw the matrix...as morpheus asks neo:

"Do you think that's air you're breathing in here?"

i agree with ashley "The feeling of a film is influenced by the way time is regulated within it. At least, I think that's what the author is saying. Time influences format." i also would like to add that format influences time. the way the cinematographer portrays reality influences the way i am feeling and how the essence of time presents itself upon me at that very given moment.

in referring to the two million fiber bundles of nerves that stream data from the eyes to the brain, miller leaves me with on last thought to marinate in,

"any shift in the traffic of information...can create...not only new thoughts, but new ways of thinking."