MOVIE REVIEW: KOYAANISQATSI

Fakin’ It Without Balance

Koyaanisqatsi

Released: 1982

Directed by: Godfrey Reggio

Genre: Documentary

It was a sunny day in the spring of 2008 when I realized something, not for the first time: I’m far from skilled at pretending I understand what I do not.

I’d recently spent a tedious hour and 27 minutes in a darkened, sleep-inducing theatre in the basement of an academic building, attempting to grasp what was going on in a film with a title that is difficult to spell and more difficult to comprehend. I hadn’t loved every film we’d watched in my course in documentary film and television, but Koyaanisqatsi: A Life Without Balance was the first I could not stand.

My classmates were excellent at faking it. The film, which features time-lapse and slow motion photography depicting landscapes and cities in the US, seemed to have touched all of them. The director’s frenetic handling of stock footage and the plodding, memorable soundtrack by Philip Glass were, in my peers’ eyes, gripping and meaningful, images of a dark world plunging toward a heartbreakingly undone world. At least, that’s what they were saying during our in-class discussion.

It seemed like this is what happened every week. No matter how dull the screenings may have been, the films were always captivating, always original, never a waste of time, as I, on occasion, found them to be. No. To the other members of CAS 255, the documentarians our professor spotlighted could do no wrong, whether the subject matter was Asparagus Fest or a detailed account of how mail was delivered in the roaring twenties.

It was during Koyaanisqatsi discussion week that I began to wonder something, and the question is now permanently pressed in my mind. Who exactly were we trying to impress? It wasn’t the professor, and I say this because he rarely praised anyone, no matter how much they deserved it. He gave no indication of how insightful our points were. What I figured out was that we were out to impress each other, despite this ultimately getting us nowhere. Pretending to love a film like Koyaanisqatsi didn’t make us smarter or cooler or any more sophisticated than we actually were. If anything, it made us sound less intelligent, less hip, and less high brow than we ever did before.

What worried me was how long these classmates of mine had been trying so hard to enjoy what they legitimately did not, and how often I did this without realizing it. Granted, some of what I’m interested in is fairly off-kilter and pretentious sounding, things like the Futhorc and the history of magical realism in children’s literature and Scottish Enlightenment culture. But I’d like to think that I’m not attempting to show someone up by being able to recite anecdotes about David Hume’s atheism and drawing the most ancient of symbols for the letter S. Rather, I’m trying to find something unique in myself and stay interested in it, whether anyone ever finds out about it or not. I’d never mention the Futhorc in everyday conversation, and if I did, I’d feel I was cheating those runic linguists in some way.

When it comes down to it, we’re always looking for approval somewhere and in some way. In a communications course at my liberal arts college, most students wanted to hear their own voices a couple times within the hour, and they wanted those intonations to sound clever beyond reason. For them, that was gold. It’s something I fell victim to in earlier courses, and something I actively avoided as I grew older. The ultimate desire of a communications scholar is to grab onto a budding cultural trend and popularize it in his or her own tongue. It can be beautiful, but it always sounds like a resounding gong in a particularly irritating pitch for the first long while. I guess all my classmates were looking for that touchstone and hoping it was something on which they could capitalize. And can you blame them? It’s a career that looks mighty tempting to someone who’s discovering what he or she loves for the very first time.

Pretending to care is the first step toward becoming a resounding gong and eventually transitioning into academia and popular scholarship. Admitting you can’t is the first step toward recognizing that what you love might never get you anywhere, but you’ll be happier for it. And maybe what you love will nudge you along a strong career path eventually, but in the meantime, being comfortable in testing the waters elsewhere without necessarily diving right in will feel just fine. The moment I proclaimed that Koyaanisqatsi gave me a headache, felt muddled, and did nothing for my inner psyche was the moment film studies felt as freeing as media studies on a whole. Even if an entire classroom disagreed, I knew that some things just weren’t for me, and I was comfortable in that knowledge, because I never really had to pretend again.

Goodbye, unrealistic standards. It’s been fun.

SHARP OBJEX Rating: 2 out of 4

Koyaanisqatsi Trailer

Comments

[linhuang]

OPI released opi nail polish it's Katy OPI India(NLI45) perry Nail OPI Switzerland Polish opi nail polish cheap Collection at the end OPI Brights(NLB35) involving last OPI India month, fresh about the heels of the 1st Serena Williams collection. Star collaborations opi nail polish wholesale seem to be the way OPI is going in 2011, much like Deborah Lippmann's collections, although at a much lower cost. The actual Katy perry Collection consists of four colors and includes their new Black Destroy top coat that literally gives the impact of cracked polish.The very OPI Spain first color in the Katy perry Nail Polish Collection just discount opi nail polish isn't Like The Movies. This shade has a OPI Russia gray/purple base. It's not quite a holographic or a duochrome, nevertheless depending on how the OPI Japan light visitors the polish it changes colors. Katy, 26, has worked on a new Black Shatter Top Coat, which OPI Mexico can be used in addition to the four colours to Pink Zebra CHI generate an unique pattern on the nails.The second OPI Chicago colour in the Katy perry Collection is Final Friday Night. This color is a very sheer azure base that has azure and silver microglitter crammed into it. With several layers there would still be nail OPI Texas exhibiting underneath, so this is one you would definitely want Allsorts 1 row Links Bracelet to layer over azure. If you want to Champagne Bottle Charm stick with OPI, it would look fabulous links of london around Yoga-ta Get This Blue! On it really is own, the color is cheap links of london bland, but is correct great as an emphasize to a darker nail cutting.Advertisement The next a pair of colors go 100 Circles Bracelet hand in hand. First up is chi hair straightener The One That Obtained Away. This color is incredibly bright, almost green with some raspberry mixed in, with a bit of aluminum foil shimmer and glass fleck to it. This color is deep and radiant, by far the most intense from 1st Birthday Cake Charm the entire chi flat iron collection. Teenage Dream gets links of london wholesale the same formula because chi flat iron Pink Last Friday Night time, but AllSorts Gold Links Necklace in a pale Pink & Gold Friendship Bracelet pink packed with silver precious discount links of london metal glitter. Even with numerous coats Teenage Fantasy will not totally deal with your nail. However when you covering two coats from the One Links of Lodon Sweetie Ring That Got Absent with one layer of Teenage Dream, the look is a deep pink Fish Links of London Charm with light pink sparkle and is also gorgeous.Unfortunately OPI made one mistake using the Katy perry Nail Polish Collection and that is that it's not readily available, and if it is, generally not with the links of london sale particular Black Shatter. Websites are usually severely C Links of London Charm back ordered, so if you see it in the stores, grab it way Allsorts 1 row Links Bracelet up! The chi flat iron sale effect looks amazing, just keep in mind that The far east Glaze is coming out with their chi flat irons cheap very own Crackle collection chi flat iron hair now that will have six colors versus OPI which in turn just has Black Shatter. All in chi camo flat iron all, this collection is ok, not one chi hair dryer sale involving OPI's best due to the lack of vibrant color as well as the sheerness of two of the chi turbo hair iron particular polishes, but CHI Zebra Ceramic Collection the Crack is amazing out of the box The One That Got Apart.
http://linbinghuang1234.blog.163.com/

http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2261594297

http://blog.sohu.com/people/!MzcxOTQyNTUwQHFxLmNvbQ==/

http://linhuang123.mylivepage.com/blog/index/

http://linhuang123.over-blog.com/

http://17517834.blog.hexun.com/

http://zhuofei.blog.forexstar.com.cn/

http://blog.cnfol.com/linbinghuang

http://linhuang123.fotopages.com/

http://linhuang2.blogtrue.com/

http://linhuang123.beeplog.com/

http://gvrl.com/blogsearchresults.asp?basicsearch=linhuang1234

http://linhuang123.insanejournal.com/

http://351100.blog.fc2blog.net/

http://chenjiech.inube.com/

http://linhuang123.tiblog.fr/

http://hi.baidu.com/linhuang12/blog

http://www.holatu.com/userlinhuang123/blogs

http://www.adultblogs.com/users/linhuang123/

http://linbinghuang12.blogfa.com/

http://linhuang1234.blog.cz/

http://vidi.co.il/profile_blogs/linhuang123/

http://www.kaka365.com/blog/blog.php?uid=6486

http://www.thoughts.com/linhuang123

http://linhuang123.blogoak.com/

http://linhuang123.allmyblog.com/

http://linhuang123.tumblr.com/

http://linhuang1234.tradea.org/

http://linhuang123.podbean.com

http://www.blogstoday.co.uk/bloghome.aspx?username=linhuang1234

http://www.aishbook.com/linhuang123/blog/

http://blog.zol.com.cn/chenjieuu/

http://www.haylove.com/member/blog_post_view.php?postId=14062

http://linhuang123.createblog.com/blog/

http://wrapcandy.com/friends/linhuang123

http://www.muslimduniya.com/member/view_blog.php?profile_id=1219

http://polovinka.bg/member/view_blog.php?profile_id=245326

http://imfriends.net/user/linhuang123/blogs

http://chenjieuu.blogbus.com/

http://www.bambinidisatana.com/network/blogs/liststories/user_linhuang123

http://www.newar.com.np/blog.php?user=linhuang123

http://www.alieninchina.com/blogs/posts/linhuang123

http://www.ajezzo.com/index.php?do=/linhuang12/blog/

http://www.filipinopeople.com/linhuang123

http://gem.socialgo.com/members/profile/4022

http://www.tripcafe.pl/blogs.php?action=show_member_blog&ownerID=2176

http://obshestvo.ru/blog/1949

http://codesnipers.com/?q=blog/15278

http://www.igolf.to/myprofile.php?id=8285

http://www.creativesocial.net/pg/blog/owner/linhuang123

http://gritosverticais.socialgo.com/members/profile/1203/

http://portal.redboliviana.com/linhuang123/blog

http://saswingers.org/user/6929

http://www.mygatheringspace.com/blogs.php?action=show_member_blog&ownerID=1689

http://www.youaction.com/linhuang123

http://pamplonaempleo.socialgo.com/members/profile/1088/blog

http://420so.com/dolphin/blogs/posts/linhuang123

http://www.comeplaywithme.net/member/view_blog.php?profile_id=1842

http://www.kolspot.com/user/linhuang123/blogs

http://www.cnfblog.com/blogs.php?blog_id=11817

http://www.writernia.com/blog/14294

http://www.linhuang123.un165.com/

http://www.xxllove.net/profile_blog_full.php?id=44861

http://www.cretaceousworld.com/geobooks/SrcShow.asp?Src_ID=17189

http://solobuscame.com/social/blog.php?user=linhuang123

http://www.freeblognetwork.com/linhuang123/

http://motomodders.socialgo.com/members/profile/918

http://www.blogouf.com/linhuang123

http://bbs.hkange.com/boke.asp?linhuang123.index.html

http://redsocial.redindustrial.com.mx/blog.php?user=linbinghuang1234@126.com

http://420so.com/dolphin/blogs/posts/linhuang123

http://www.exfling.com/community/blogs/posts/linhuang123

http://linhuang6.manablog.jp/

http://www.adultblogs.com/users/linhuang123/

http://www.blurty.com/users/linhuang123/

http://www.freedatingsiteahead.co.uk/blogs.php?action=show_member_blog&ownerID=50

http://www.lj.ivanovo.ru/users/linhuang123/

http://chenjieuu.bloggd.org/

http://www.iosudbasilicata.it/blogs/linhuang123

http://linhuang12.blognic.net/

http://www.equestrianblogging.com/blogs/linhuang1234

http://osi.parsons.edu/archive/osi2007/?q=blog/10349

http://imfriends.net/linhuang123

http://gritosverticais.socialgo.com/members/profile/1203

http://polovinka.bg/member/view_blog.php?profile_id=245326

http://www.carandcycleclub.com/index.php?do=/public/user/blogs/name_linhuang1234/

http://www.lw-works.com/user/31716

http://www.spanishmusic.biz/user/linhuang123/blogs

http://askmilton.com/community1/blogs/posts/linhuang123

http://www.pokerweblogs.com/adminpanel/myblogs/

http://parenting.gr/blog/owner/linhuang123

http://truckarmy.com/user/linhuang123/blogs

http://www.swimroom.com/linhuang123/blogs

http://www.luvfree.com/blogs/linhuang123

http://gfdgamestudios.com/blogs/posts/linhuang123