"You're the guy that killed Mozart!" - my own personal snippet of intertextuality from the celluloid GEM *cough cough* that is 'The Last Action Hero.' It's a sect of dialogue directed at one of the actors refering to one of my favourite films - 'Amadeus' which ironicly doesn't really refer to much historical reality.
Gone are the days of 3 hour lectures on cell biology and the integrity of the stuctural elements of 2,4 dinitrophenylhydrazone, and I've never loved character creation more! Grease! Pulp Fiction! Planet of the Apes! This is what deadbeats napping in lectures dream about. This has to be one of my favourite lectures thus far; fun, entertaining, thought provoking and interesting! Even the lecture...who knew Dracula was meant to look like a penis? Neeless to say, I got thinking about this. Being a lilly livered jessy, I found the pre 1980's draculas bloody scary, not only that, but they had the skin crawling qualities of a mangey dirty old man staring down your top and rubbing his thighs - Robert Pattenson and the breed of vampires we see these days, seem to induce this type of behavior in myself. How times have changed from rapey sexy, to sexy sexy. I thought it was quite bizzare and fascinating the way the vampire aesthetic has changed so much.
I can't say I can this of too many uses of intertextuality at this precise moment in time, but I shall be sure to post them as I do. God bless potato farls. Here are a few I enjoyed.....
 David Cerny's representation of Saddam Hussein floating in a tank of formaldehyde is paying obvoius homage to Damien Hirst's 'The Physical Impossibitity of Death in The Mind of Someone Living.' We are still in unnaturally close proximity to one of lifes many widow makes, staring death in the face - only this time it wears a different guise. It's a bit cheeky and naff, but I like it. Sort of.


I know it's an obvious one. Don't judge me for it.

Oh my deary me... trying to be an uber swot, I thought I'd look up some journals or papers written on seimiotis. Took me a while to realise I was reading 'The Journal of Semitics...'

In todays lecture, we also discussed NOISE. This is the concept that the less NOISE, the more focus there is placed upon the subject in question. Therefore, I have elected to detract from the demented ramblings of my blogging, with a nice NOISY hospital scene. Do please enjoy.

With regards to this afternoons lecture, I'm torn between thoughts of mind numbing boredom, or being completely and utterly fascinated. Also, I had the brainwave of possibly doing my iMap on a toilet roll.... Anyhow, during the lecture we were discussing the sliding scale betwixt iconic and abritrary signs. Putting up the word 'CAT' and such like, got me thinking about a short story I read years ago. I may be a bit sad, but not so dull as to type the whole thing out - 't'is ''No is Yes' by one of my dearly beloved childrens authors - Paul Jennings. In short, it's about a doctor/scientist who uses his daughter in a communication type experiment. He teaches her (as the title may suggest?!) that 'no' is 'yes', that 'salt' is 'sugar' etc. SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Eventually the family home is set ablaze - but the daughter, Linda is saved. As our doctor lies in his burning abode, Linda is asked by the fire fighters whether there is anyone left in the house, and she of course says 'no.' Sad story, but pretty cool all the same. It makes you think about language which never used to interest me. Maybe I will learn esperanto. They don't even have regional variations in dialect....'ay oop chook?'.......pardon?

So I was thinking about all this 'reality' malarky. If reality is truth and actuality, then what are dreams? I was thinking about a film I saw YEARS ago, and it took me a while to remember the name of it, but I eventually stumbled upon it, and I'd definitely recommend a gander.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgpfMxYFSmE

Brainwave, courtesy of Casper the Freindly Ghost....

Seeing is believeing.....

Being a virgin blogger, I wasn't too sure what to write in my first post - profundity isn't really my thing. However, I thought I'd explore some interesting points raised in the seminar following Thursdays lecture. We got chatting aboout Tod Brownings 'Freaks.' I think the thing people find so hard about this number is its brazen sense of reality. It's too real. Its not a work of prosthetic magnificence, it's cold, hard, unfeigned reality. Rumour even has it that the author F Scott Fitzgerald happened to be sharing a canteen with the cast, and upon seeing a pair of siamese twins eating lunch (together) fled the premises to liberate the contents of his stomach. 78 years down the line, people are a little more accustomed to seeing various genetic and physical anomalies, however with sensationalist programme titles like 'Real Wolf Kids' and 'Half Man, Half Tree,' these people are still obviously viewed as 'freaks.' Reality shocks people.


We accept you, one of us! Gobble! Gobble!

It's the same and yet the polar opposite with some of the hyper realist scuplture and wax works one sees knocking about. Real size. Real skin tones. Real hair. Real everything - apart from the fact it's not.......... It's so real, it transforms into something completely and utterly surreal. Ron Mueck has done some truly astounding work with hyperrealistic sculpture.

There's something derangedly creepy about this one in particular. Maybe it's the hairless beligerence.

 Warping the scale of something as familiar as a face takes it to a completely new level. A new town even. The portraits are both beautiful and insanely grizzly, blood, saliva - nothing can hope to escape Mr Mueks attention. You notice pores and hair folicles, compare features in a different way. It really has a remarkable effect jarring with everything you thought a body should be. It's so real, its SURREAL! Oh! The irony. Once upon a time on my quest as a medical student, I had the privallage of taking part in a disection lab. There is nothing more real, and unreal, than being in an enormous formaldehyde scented room filled to the brim with dismembered corpses. It  all seems to be a bit of a viscious circle!