Ummagumma

In my books , I highlight research that indicates play is good for neuroplasticity. Your brain changes through use. Play is one of the more enjoyable ways to keep that change alive. No grim self-improvement face required. Play is strange because it looks like nothing serious is happening. Kids run around making up rules no adult can understand. Someone tells a joke. A family enjoys group games after dinner. People sit around a table playing cards, laughing, arguing over the rules, and pretending the stakes matter more than they do. Alex Hutchinson, writing in Big Think , discusses recent work in a piece called " Why Play Brings Us Pleasure ." The basic idea is simple enough and yet surprisingly deep. In the article's own phrasing, play lets us "create the uncertainty that we can then resolve." We invent a game, accept its restrictions, enter its little world of rules, and suddenly the outcome is unknown. That uncertainty is the point. Play is chosen uncertai...

As I mentioned in the previous review , Memento has been one of my favorite films for decades. I have never really delved into the “deeper” aspects of the film. That is odd for me. Normally, I am profoundly drawn to such things. But, Memento is such a cool idea and is so fascinatingly told, hitting both mind and heart, I never chose to delve deeper. The film stands on its own, as is, without any further speculation. It works as a low-budget noir, as an acting showcase, as a feat of editing, as a story told backward that somehow never becomes obscure. It is surprisingly suspenseful at times. It works as ambiguity that feels like atmosphere instead of confusion. I loved it that way for years and I was right to. What follows does not make it a better film. It does not change the film's worth by a single frame. It only reveals some of the intricacies Nolan was playing with, which is why I’ve been his fanboy ever since. I have seen Memento more than two dozen times. This most recent ...

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) keeps track of his life through polaroids and the notes he scribbles on them. Sometime around 2002 I was the marketing manager for a small tech company. We were short-handed one day so they sent me out to help a field rep with a server install. It was a small company so the tech and I spoke regularly, at least over the phone. We discovered we both liked movies, so over lunch I asked him the proverbial “seen any good movies lately?’ He mentioned Memento . He said it was a really good movie about a guy with a disability trying to find his wife's murderer. Not exactly a description that makes you drop your fork. But I trusted his taste, so the next time I was at Blockbuster I found the VHS and took the plunge. I bought the retail version of the tape shortly after renting the film. For awhile, as I tend to do, I watched it over and over. Everything was on tape back then. I just rewatched Memento for the first time in many years. In fact I’m still rewatchi...