The Edge of Logos

One Thousand Movies+

February 15th, 2010

No comments

A few of you know that for years, I have taken on a personal project to watch a thousand movies. Why? Well, I began to realize over the course of time that I’d seen a lot of movies, but there were so many I hadn’t seen. There’s a century of work in this art form, and a lot of it is amazing. And it gives so much background to pop culture. If you haven’t seen “To Kill a Mockingbird,” you really can’t get any of this.

So I thought: why not watch the very best film from any place and era, rather than the latest hunk of meaningless summer release garbage doled out by the Hollywood machine? Why not go for quality instead of convenience? Why not give attention on the best work of directors like (say) Pedro Almodóvar, David Lynch or Alfred Hitchcock? Why not check out what made it onto the AFI Top 100? Think of it as an autodidact’s film school, courtesy of Netflix.

I tracked progress on the project by keeping a list of what I’d seen. Over the years, the list grew and grew. And at the end of last year, I saw my 1000th movie. Project complete. Was it worth it? Absolutely!

At Gaia’s request, I’m posting the list. Each movie title links back to its page on the Internet Movie Database, if I could find it, so the title isn’t just a name. While I was entering it in here, now and then for the past few months, I happened to catch twenty more movies; that’s why there are actually 1020 movies listed.

Movies I’ve selected for special distinction are in bold. You really should watch these if you haven’t already.

Jason Wells art, culture, film

Wrapping Up

December 24th, 2009

No comments

I’ve been back in San Diego for a few days now, and it’s astonishing to have free time as Christmas approaches. Dad was in town with my uncle Tom on the 20th, so we had an early family dinner at my grandparents’. Tomorrow he heads off to Boracay for a month long trip. Since then I’ve occupied myself in fairly prosaic but seriously neglected things. I transplanted two fan palms I’d been nurturing from the garden in the back to the front, and actually met a neighbor that I’d never spoken to before. And I’ve been doing a *lot* of reading in general and more specifically, continued research for the book. Also getting back in touch with friends and family that I normally never seem to have time for. This is a good time of year for that, maybe the best.

Here are a few photos from the Big Sur trip. This was on the journey back south on the US 1. Happy Holidays.

Jason Wells big sur, family, friends, nature, san diego, travel

Book Report

December 18th, 2009

No comments

Returned from Big Sur to LA. For what I set out to do, the trip was gratifying. When I arrived at the cabin, the book was a bunch of disconnected blobby ideas floating in formation. Now I have a coherent structure and far more material. The outline is basically complete–I’m sure there will be some pruning and grafting here and there, but it’s there. I’ve got roughly 100 pages written. There’s a long way to go, but I’m over the hump. It’s not just a bunch of ideas for a book anymore–it’s for real.

I’m really happy about that! I seriously underestimated how far I could get done up there. This is the longest and most complex document I’ve ever written. But when you’re in a quiet place, with no phone, Internet, TV or anyone with you, there are no distractions, and I got seriously productive. I wrote and wrote, and when I didn’t I read, or went out into the mountains and trees, or just slept.

So there it is. My “vacation” is basically over. Soon I’ll be back in San Diego spending time with Heather and my family leading into Christmas. I’m looking forward to coming home.

Jason Wells big sur, philosophy, travel, writing

The Long Now is Finished

December 14th, 2009

No comments

At long last I have completed the Long Now Photography Project. After five years, every single photograph I have is digital. Stats:

18,741 photos total
on 11 DVD albums
spanning from 1870s to today

So, so glad to be finished with this. Oh my God.

Jason Wells cool, photography

In Big Sur, and the Book is Now Afoot

December 13th, 2009

No comments

Day 1 of my adventures took me up to LA to visit Sharon. Turns out by coincidence she had a party that evening, so I caught up with a bunch of other friends in LA, and made a few new ones, which was great. But the plan was never to go no further than LA, so the following morning I needed to decide where to next. Sharon suggested: why not Big Sur? She’d done a ton of research on the area for a trip she’d taken earlier and knew where I could get a little cabin with no advance reservation. I made a few phone calls that morning, and voila. All set. I’m here till the 17th.

The Big Sur drive from LA would be over 6 hours factoring traffic, according to the Google, so I needed to get moving if I wanted to get there at a reasonable time that night. I quickly reloaded the van and after goodbyes, headed up the 101.

The rain was torrential, as expected. Traffic existed but wasn’t as bad as it could have been. As I got distance from LA, the scenery got better and better. I happened to time driving through Pismo Beach just as the clouds broke briefly and a gorgeous sunset emerged.

Darkness came on fast thereafter, and the rain got heavier and the road windier. There had been many little rockslides and rocks ranging from golf ball to beach ball sizes were on the northbound lane of the US 1, sometimes in both lanes. In the dark rain they came on fast, and I dodged. I hit one with a wheel. It was about the size of a tennis ball and when the van hit, it made an impressive WHAM. Rocks, not mud. Got it.

Weaving and meandering, and rediscovering the value of high beams, which are really awesome on the van now with the new composite beam headlamps, I got to the cabin. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep, so I basically conked out once I took possession.

And onto today. It’s really pretty out here and the cabin is just what I wanted, primarily: quiet. I’ve been incredibly productive writing all day; the words are just flowing out of me and I feel more confident about the success of this project than ever before. I made particular progress on the chapters applying semiotics to computer science and on the Antikythera mechanism. I’ve got a very good start on the outline of the book, so the overall structure and flow is coming along too.

I’ve been having trouble communicating out here; phone service is mostly nonexistent–I get a feeble bar of 2G once in a while–and WiFi is only in the cafe, closes at 2pm. I found a restaurant nearby that has WiFi now, which is cool. At the moment I’m eating dinner at the Fernwood.

Been missing Heather though. Being alone is just what I wanted and neededfor this phase of the trip, but I still do.

Jason Wells friends, nature, philosophy, technology, travel, writing

The Edge of Logos

One Thousand Movies+

Wrapping Up

Book Report

The Long Now is Finished

In Big Sur, and the Book is Now Afoot

Twitter

Recent Posts

Pages

Categories

Archives

Meta