God's Little Acre

God's Little Acre
Lord, make way for gold

the girlfriend experience

the girlfriend experience
chelsea's work

Trash Humpers

Trash Humpers
broken, faked, MADE

Sunday, August 31, 2014

kardashians kan kry

Kris Jenner has not let herself be known.  Bouncing from business lunch to business lunch, she plays manager to several high powered Hollywood children, making sure that deals get negotiated in her interest.  She rushes out of Nobu to check in on various daughters in various photo shoots, and Kris' Truth remains hidden in the unknowable space between her outings.



Many ask if mother manager exploits her own children.  Is making your children filthy rich equivalent to exploitation? Or is it only because she designs what they get hired for, and she is cut 15 percent, or is it more?
Maybe she started out to make her children learn to work, and within her hollywood context, living life as reality starlets was simply reflective of their locally limited options.
Maybe it turned exploitative later on.
Some wonder, do the children feel exploited? Do they seek out fame and the initiation of narratives (to make a better tv product)?
In the last episode of KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS Khloe flipped out on mother Kris, saying she can't have her as her manager if she keeps slipping up. Khloe said her mother had set her up on an interview where she was asked questions her manager was supposed to make sure were not allowed, but Kris had forgotten to check the questions. Khloe's rage was personal, claiming it made her feel less loved, low on the totem pole, and more forgotten compared to more valuable siblings.   At the episode's end, all had been resolved, because the rest of the episode focused on Khloe's burgeoning dalliance with French Montana, and her attempts to cope with divorce and a broken heart.  The issues with managerial exploitation were now safely contextualized as one more way Khloe was acting out because of her heartbreak.  Kris expressed love and patience with Khloe, and by the credits, all was well at Kasa Kardashian.

At no time did the children unite to discuss the thought that they may all be exploited in their roles as daughters on camera.  It is confusing, but it is also a culture which often equates parents with bosses. Both make decisions as to how to behave,and how to instill order and teach people how to make a space (company or family home) profitable.
The boss is the one who exploits because they control how your wages reach you, n'est-ce pas?

Who is the real Kris Jenner?  Does her heart still mourn her late husband?  Does her soul still cry out for murdered best friend Nicole Simpson?


Has she bled out silicone tears and sweated through menopausal 15 hour industry work days just to one day enjoy a little bit of luxury?


Tortured by her daughters' beauty and her competitive nature, she is but a woman who gave birth to many beautiful wage earners.  Unable to keep up or cease aging, her gears whir into motion, desperate to DO something. Resulting in a series of plastic procedures; ranging from 'unfortunate' to 'not so bad' to 'could be an allergic reaction',  the pain wears itself on her bloated features and increasingly short haircuts.






The soul lies under our skin, yet sometimes it sweats through it's cover, revealing itself in droplets of transparency.
The consistent motion of managerial meetings resists opportunities for the soul to touch and moisturize the chafing brutal exercises of labor that persist to keep it hidden.
How can mother be seen as mother when she is the wage manager?

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Lock up the Beast

The scar of his pain is larger, more visible than one is allowed to show.

The scar in mention is of Freddie Quell's. But the scar he bears is of any human who transgresses. The Jesus of post war United States. The cross bearer who fucks underage girls, without any stigmata. Anderson narrows in on messy, expansive debauchery with a formalistic, laser focus. THE MASTER is on fire when the cinema is at its most essential: music is clean and classical; the focus of each shot is precise, narrow.
The order and discipline of the storytelling is what makes the transgressions and scope of the religious founder so compelling.

THE MASTER opens with approximately 20 some minutes of "scoundrel esque" behavior from Joaquin Phoenix's character, a former US Seaman (a marine?) who acts out sexually and morally in anti social, public inappropriateness that ousts him from societal acceptance.

How is one to fit in when one's emotional pain exceeds what polite graces allow?  Phoenix's character       Freddie Quell explains away some "bad behavior" to a military superior by noting he was reacting poorly
to a letter he received from an ex.  The connection is logical, yet in other scenes, his debauchery and risk taking behavior is less explained.  The religious portion of the film will focus more on causation at its most nebulous; memories from pre birth.


The LRH ish Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) forms a symbiotic relationship with Quell.  Dodd is the hand on the shoulder, the calming, fatherly and non judgmental presence who ( at first) lightens the harshness of Quell's burden.  His smile is warm, his pasty skin is soft and his features as gentle as his hair color.  In sharp opposition is the angular Quell whose neck always seems to be straining up and away from his spine, with veins and wrinkles strangling his skinny face.

"YOU ARE NOT RULED BY YOUR EMOTIONS.  WE DO AWAY WITH NEGATIVE EMOTIONS..AND BRING MAN BACK..MAN...IS NOT AN ANIMAL."

Even while listening on headphones and transcribing this message of Dodd's Quell nonchalantly writes a note to his fellow listener that asks if she wants to fuck.  The fact that this question is in conflict with the promise of higher self that Dodd promises is not reflected in Quell. He is still operating, ever casually, from his basest instinct.  He is like Truffaut's WILD CHILD, brought in from the jungle family and expected to behave amongst professors.
ordered symmetry of the gnarled face

But the union of Quell and Dodd is also a clear and deliberate reflection of what happens in 12 step programs.
Quell is attracted to Dodd as he relates to him yet Dodd has something that Quell wants.  This element of identification with attraction to an improved self is a key principle of how 12 step fellowships operate.  In looking for a sponsor the basic texts tell people to look for someone who has something that they dont. To find that person who is similar yet calm, when you are anxious. Or someone who has pain like yours, but they act light and they smile, while you shrug, and walk looking downward.

interdependence

Their first intake, the one on one between the two men, shares some elements a Fourth and Fifth Step.  Scientology has replaced 12 step programs for many addicts who prefer religious promises to the non religious Anonymous Fellowships.
Ultimately, the behavioral issues and help that men seek is unable to be contained. The film tracks a progressive and chronic expansion; it is comprised across oceanic waters, dug in the sand, runs across the desert, compulsive behaviors and tempers unleashed. The beast evades lock down and the clock ticks in time with the staccato of the film's score, tracking inevitability.

As the film progresses, there is a stress on repetition, both in specific spoken utterances ("excuse me, excuse, me, excuse me" and the way Quell and others are asked to repeat their names  during intake), and also in the consistent return to the past and alternating progression of Quell's spiritual journey. This rhythmic tension adds with each cycle of the story, each cycle of progression and regression of Quell's journey and Dodd's religion.

The perversion of behavioral science suits some of the people in the universe of THE MASTER. It entails creative storytelling,  improvisational science, and aid to people who engage in self harming antisocial behaviors.  Using academic perversion to dominate natural human perversions is an implementation of ORDER and DISCIPLINE on the highest levels, not at all unlike the filmmaking employed to illustrate it.

Lorna's Silence

Lorna's Silence
spirit interrupts

the girlfriend experience

the girlfriend experience
chelsea managing the business

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l'Interieur

l'Interieur
cutting through the walls