The Genographic Project
Where do we really come from? And how did we get to where we live today? DNA studies show that all humans
today descend from a single group of African ancestors who—about 60,000 years ago—began a remarkable
journey. This film charts new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated
laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.
Dr. Spencer Wells and a team of renowned international scientists use cutting-edge genetic and computational
technologies to analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world to better understand our
human genetic roots. This film with it views of people from around the world traces the development of all the
differences in our physical appearance across a long migration to people the whole world with a single “race” of
humans. It is just us out here.
Awakenings (1954-1956)
Individual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: Mose Wright testifies against the
white men who murdered young Emmett Till, and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in
Montgomery, Alabama.
Fighting Back (1957-1962)
States' rights loyalists and federal authorities collide in the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High
School, and again in James Meredith's 1962 challenge to segregation at the University of Mississippi. Both
times, a Southern governor squares off with a U.S. president, violence erupts -- and integration is carried out.
Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961)
Black college students take a leadership role in the civil rights movement as lunch counter sit-ins spread across
the South. "Freedom Riders" also try to desegregate interstate buses, but they are brutally attacked as they
travel.
No Easy Walk (1961-1963)
The civil rights movement discovers the power of mass demonstrations as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
emerges as its most visible leader. Some demonstrations succeed; others fail. But the triumphant March on
Washington, D.C., under King's leadership, shows a mounting national support for civil rights. President John F.
Kennedy proposes the Civil Rights Act.
Mississippi: Is This America? (1963-1964)
Mississippi's grass-roots civil rights movement becomes an American concern when college students travel
south to help register black voters and three activists are murdered. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
challenges the regular Mississippi delegation at the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City and Texas born and
raised Lyndon Johnson schemes successfully to deny them admission to the convention.
Bridge to Freedom (1965)
A decade of lessons is applied in the climactic and bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. A major
victory is won when the federal Voting Rights Bill passes, but civil rights leaders know they have new challenges
ahead.
Errol Morris Interviews
I Dismember Mama
"Immortality is my short term goal..."
Saul Kent didn't make the usual funeral arrangements for his mother. He wanted her severed head cryonically
preserved -frozen- for future resuscitation. The San Bernardino County DA wasn't convinced Mother Kent had
died of natural causes and was preparing to autopsy the remains. But Saul took the head on the lam. Could he
elude police while maintaining the head at a proper temperature until he reached the Alcor Life Extension
Company? If the life extension works, will he be able to discuss this with his mother in a couple of hundred
years?
"In the Kingdom"
An Interview with Gary Greenberg
Gary Greenberg, a psychotherapist fixated on becoming a writer, was unable to get his work noticed. What
better scheme than to attach himself to a writer who had not only gotten published but was also something of a
celebrity?? The only drawback, Greenberg's writer was the notorious, the infamous Ted Kaczynski, the
Unabomber. They started a correspondence. Seemingly innocuous at first. And then, yes, fraught with problems.
A couple of misunderstandings. Unexpected competition for Ted's affections, and then all hell started to break
loose. Greenberg, who had hoped for a little assistance in his writing career, found himself in the middle of a
paranoid nightmare. But was it of his own devising?? And was the Unabomber just a little annoyed or was he a
lot angrier than that...?
Chris Langan
The Smartest Man in the World
There's Mensa. There's the Triple Nines. There's the One-in-a-Thousand Society. But the members of these
societies are dummies compared to those rare individuals with IQs so high that new tests must be devised in
order to measure them. Chris Langan, body-builder and nightclub bouncer, has the highest recorded IQ in
history. By his own account, somewhere in the 190-210 range. He propounds an interesting take on the creator
of the universes, the Intelligent Designer, based on his own personal experience as a master intelligence.
Bonus Short Subject if you want to hear a really inspiring story
Denny Fitch
Leaving the Earth
This is the same kind of story that Paul (of the blinding light) tells. You feel every twitch and turn. It starts with
ordinary job talk when suddenly the plane is out of control. The flight control systems were inoperable, severed
by shards of the Number Two engine. There were 296 S.O.B.'s, souls on board. A flying bomb filled with tens of
thousands of pounds of explosive aircraft fuel. No one knew what to do. Not the pilot, not airline maintenance,
not the manufacturer, not the aircraft designers, absolutely no one. Check pilot Denny Fitch, a passenger in first
class, went forward to the cockpit, where he managed to control the plane using only the thrusters. The crash
landing was a miracle. In subsequent simulations, no pilot could pull it off. Why was Denny Fitch on that plane?
How did he manage to land it at all? 186 people lived, but 111 people died. Of course, everyone would have
been dead if not for Fitch. Will the memory of the 111 ever leave Fitch in peace? Even though he did the
impossible, will he always be haunted by the belief that he might have done the impossible better? The dream of
a perfect landing...
Les Blank
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
Yes, German film director Werner Herzog really does cook and eat his shoe to fulfill a vow to fellow filmmaker
Errol Morris -- boldly exemplifying his belief that people, like Jesus, must have the guts to attempt what they
dream of. Back in the heady days of the 1970s, Werner Herzog - along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim
Wenders - dominated the German New Wave. Now, it seems, Werner has fallen on hard times. There are a
couple things one must understand about Herzog. One: he is at heart a truth seeker - factual truth, historical
truth, experiential truth, and emotional truth. Of course, the more astonishing and unearthly the truth is, the
better. But where most documentary makers are motivated by political ideals or an urge to inform, Herzog's only
agenda is to make you look. Two: There is little difference between the fiction and non-fiction works - Herzog has
always worked on the desperate edge of semi-professionalism, preferring a plunge into the unknown in which
the lunatic lyricism of nature can overwhelm planned storymaking and become pure image. Herzog is the most
Cassandra-like of auteurs, never quite convincing the world that his totemic visions, his vast metaphoric images,
his exploration of how landscape understands life, and vice versa, can invest our lives with weight and meaning.
"Our civilisation doesn't have adequate images," Herzog was once fond of saying, notably in Les Blank's short
film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. "Without adequate images, we will die out like dinosaurs." It's a truth that
only Herzog and John 21:25 are pursuing.
Jennifer Baichwal
Manufactured Landscapes
This documentary follows Edward Burtynsky (his is a little younger than Joe Bell, but only a little) as he visits
what he calls manufactured landscapes: slag heaps, e-waste dumps, huge factories in the Fujian and Zhejiang
provinces of China. In China, workers clad in identical clothing gather outside the factory, exhorted by their team
leader to produce more and make fewer errors. A woman assembles a circuit breaker, and women and children
are seen picking through debris or playing in it. Burtynsky concludes with a visit to Shanghai, the world's fastest
growing city, where wealth and poverty, high-rises and old neighborhoods are side by side. This film illustrates
the environmental impact on China and it people so that Americans can throw more stuff into our landfills over
here.
Long subjects:
Akira Kurosara
High and Low
An executive mortgages all he owns to stage a coup and gain control of the National Shoe Company. His intent
is to keep the company out of the hands of incompetent and greedy executives. He needs the same money,
though, to pay the ransom that will possibly save a child's life. His resolution of that dilemma -- the certain loss of
the company vs. the probable loss of the child -- makes for a distinct drama, and the ensuing elaborate police
procedural makes for a second view of Japan's unique place among the humans.
Kenji Mizoguchi
Osaka Elegy
A critical and popular triumph which established Mizoguchi as one of Japan’s major filmmakers in 1936. The
leading actress Isuzu Yamada stars as Ayako, a switchboard operator trapped in a compromising, and finally
ruinous relationship with her boss. This sacrifice is required of her to help support her wastrel father. The film
shows very advanced fluid cinematography and deft storytelling.
Sam Fuller
House of Bamboo
In US occupation Tokyo, a ruthless gang starts holding up US weapons trains, prepared to kill any of their own
members wounded during a robbery. Down-at-heal ex-serviceman Eddie Spannier arrives from the States,
apparently at the invitation of one such unfortunate. But Eddie isn't quite what he seems as he manages to make
contact with Sandy Dawson, who is obviously running some sort of big operation, and his plan is helped by
acquaintance with Mariko, the secret Japanese wife of the dead American. This film could be a real noir film if it
weren’t for its bright lighting and carefully delivered dialogue. It does represent an actual view of extremely poor
Tokyo streets and the horrid heroine trafficking that became a regular feature of imperial occupations during the
waning years of the British Empire. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Leo McCary
Duck Soup
The small state of Freedonia (played expertly now by the USA) is in a financial mess, borrowing a huge sum of
cash from wealthy widow Mrs. Teasdale (played convincingly now by China). She insists on replacing the current
president with one of the "Crazy 8", Rufus T. Firefly, and mayhem erupts. To make matters worse, a neighboring
state sends inept spies Chicolini and Pinky to obtain top secret information. We will mainly be watching the
famous and often immitated mirror scene and then skipping to the final battle scenes for their completely realized
cynicism towards all things war related and/or patriotic.
We will next move into a bible study based on Exodus 35:35, Job 7:6, Judges 16:14 and Isaiah 38:12 (passages
left out of the lectionary for some obscure reason) During this study we will make each person a tapestry loom
and the class will work together as described in Exodus 39:3 (another passage left out of the lectionary). The
projects will eventually hang in the Artist Hallway.
The Tapestry Loom.
I have wanted to weave since Terri brought up the idea of making tapestries to hang around in the
catacomb, to sort of soften it up visually and to get at the idea of what an accepting congregation
means, but I always thought it was impossible because of space constraints. Then I saw a tapestry
loom. It was weird because we were trying to take Corin to a Japanese class after he and his family had
to quick quick quick relocate out of Japan. We had lots of problems finding the place because we were
in Paris, and you can’t really find a place certain in Paris. You can find yourself, you can find love, you
can find wonderful food, but you can’t find an address on a street. So we were wandering around and
looking for the place the Japanese teacher had said, not finding it, asking, getting rude responses mixed
with people who wanted to help, but were just guessing about the sort of place a Japanese class might
be. And we came up a little stub of street and there at the corner was a man putting tapestry looms into
the back of an old beat up red Fiat. I recognized them without really knowing what they were. And they
were blameless. It turned out that he was taking down his tapestry show from the same building where
the Japanese class was. So he let me examine them while Corin went in and spoke Japanese for a
couple of hours. The pictures below are of the tapestries he had that were made with the frame size that
this project lays out, about 8” by 10” to 14”. He told me that the yarn he used came from sweaters he
got at the thrift store. Recycled, as it were.
With a tapestry loom you’re able to weave the full length of warp because it’s wrapped all the way
around the frame. You actually shift the warp bar, and therefore the warp, around the whole frame. So
even though the loom is only 22" tall, you have 40" of workable warp. With the use of 2 heddle bars,
it’s easy to open up 2 sheds for all sorts of tapestry weaving. The materials are cheap, and it only takes
about 20 minutes to make the loom’s frame. Then 2 to 3 hours to warp it and rig up the heddle bars but
then you are done. Ready to make the beautiful stuff you have been thinking of.
Pick a frame that is about the size of the tapestry you have in mind.
On your frame, mark where your 4 screw hooks will go. Mark the 4" and 6" points on the long sides.
Drill the 4 holes just deep enough to get the bent screws started, 1⁄4" or less.
Bend your screw hooks over backward. Clamp the screw end into your vise, with the open part of the
hook facing toward you. Grab the end of the hook with your pliers and bend it away from you until it is
parallel to the floor or as close as you can manage.
Twist the screws into your starter holes.
Cut your dowel rods by clamping them in your bench vise. You need 2 lengths equal and a couple of
inches wider than the frame 1 length one inch narrower than the inside of the frame. The latter is your
warp bar; it needs to be able to fit inside your frame.
Measure out every 1⁄2" across the top and bottom of the front side of your loom. Start by finding the
center, and mark every 1⁄2", working your way to the outside of the frame. Make sure you mark the
center so that it stands out a bit.
Make notches at every mark, using your X-Acto knife; just score the frame lightly.
The front of your loom is the side with the modified screw/hooks in it.
Now we are going to put the warp on the loom.
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Tie temporary supports to your warping bar, the bar that shifts your work around the frame.
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This bar needs to be positioned in the bottom quarter of your frame. Secure the warp bar by
tying yarn to both ends and then to the top of your frame. Repeat, this time tying the bar ends to
the bottom of your frame. Adjust the temporary supports until the bar is parallel to the frame
and is held tight.
When planning your project, you may only want an 8"-wide piece. Measure 4" to either side of
your center point so it will be nice and even. Remember, though, that the wider the piece, the
longer it will take to warp.
Tie 1 end of your warp to the left side of the warp bar, where your piece will start. For an 8"
wide piece, you would tie it 4" to the left of the center point of your warping bar. You’ll also
want to think about how many warps per inch you want. For this project we’ll use 10 ends per
inch. We marked off every 1⁄2" with a score mark, so we just need to make sure we get 1 warp
into each score and 4 in between.
For the warping pattern, you need to go down and around the bottom of the loom from back to
front, up and over the top on the front side, down and around the bar on the back side, up and
over the top on the back side to the front, around the bottom to the back, around the bar, and
repeat from the beginning until you have the right amount of warps. Just tie off your warp end
to the bar.
Make sure your warps aren’t crossed. The best way to do this is to weave one of your cardboard
lengths through the warps by picking up every other warp. Then pick up the remaining warps
with the second piece of cardboard.
It’s clear when the warps aren't lining up correctly and you need to re-pick some warps so
they’re in the proper order. If a warp crosses, it’s much easier to fix now than later.
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Place a dowel rod into the lower pair of screw hooks and tie it in place. This is your bottom
heddle bar. Using your cardboard as a guide, slip the leftover dowel into one set of alternating
warps. This is your shed or pick-up stick. Scoot it so it’s directly below the bottom heddle bar.
Tie the end of your yarn to the bottom heddle bar and start looping the warps to the bar. Bring
the yarn under the warp, over the bar, and back under the bar, through the loop you just created,
and down to catch the next warp. Continue until you have picked up all the warps, and tie the
end of the yarn to the heddle bar.
Repeat for the second, top heddle bar and the other set of alternating warps. Now you’re ready
to start weaving.
In the spring, we will move on to explore the Song of Songs.
First, with the intention of following the methods that were used in the composition of the Song of
Songs (and indeed the entire “Hebrew” bible) by the Kabbalah folks we will listen to the most
remarkable speech that any of you will have ever heard. It is recorded as a podcast which can be
downloaded or streamed from this location. We simulate the kabbalahist process substituting the letters
in the existing Song of Songs, without the vowels, and Kabbalah-cobble a new vision. Each class
member will do this and then we will attempt to come up with what we think of as the authoritative
text. An alternative process would be to use the vocabulary whatever Song of Songs the class member
has to troll through the words of Jesus presented on this site. This will allow you to find coincident
words or phrases that Jesus said in this peshitta version of the bible which does translation back into the
language that Jesus spoke (or a reasonable hand drawn facsimile to it) that are congruent with words
that you are puzzling over in the phrase in Song of Songs. The best thing about the site mentioned is
that it also shows the three or four or a dozen other ways to translate that word or phrase. Picking the
one you like or always the one that has some arbitrary sounding as the english word has, you will end
up with the scripture speaking directly through you, to you in Jesus's language. Next, each class
member will select some phrase as their seed (or egg) for creating a mesostic of some chapter of the
New Song of Songs with the new “Johnian 21:25” version mixed in somehow.
This link ( http://www.euph0r1a.net/mesostomatic/ ) takes you to a site which will work out a
mesostic for you from any seed phrase and text on the internet. You can see what you get with a phrase.
This is the way John Cage made his poem like collections that became the base of his efforts to make
speech sound like music.
We will make free use of another generator at http://www.eddeaddad.net/eDiastic/ He you can let it
cycle through the text to get a bigger and more inspired output.
And we will also make judicious use of another http://bensonofjohn.co.uk/poetry/tools/markov.php
which also gives you a diastic generator similar to the above and Travesty which does wonderful things
to text you supply. It is exactly like god whispering into your ear...
It is the intention that each person’s writing will eventually merge/join with the writing of the other
class members to produce a path through the Song of Songs that we can perform as either a unison
choral reading or as a recording something like John Cage’s Roaratorio.
Supporting (inspirational?) Films: Song of Songs Josh Appignanesi's dark drama opens with Ruth
(Nathalie Press), a young Orthodox Jewish woman, returning home to the London suburb of Hendon
after a long stay in Israel, to tend to her dying mother (Julia Swift). Though initially ultra devout and
behaviorally guarded, Ruth harbors a dark and disturbing past that includes erogenous interaction with
her brother David (Joel Chalfen). It isn't long before the siblings' paths intersect, and what begins
suggestively - with the two reading passages from the Song of Solomon to one another in Hebrew and
English - soon turns to full-blown eroticism. In time, David's openly hedonistic attitudes and Ruth's
long-latent urges re-open the door to a renewed incestuous affair.
Song of Songs This was Dietrich's first Hollywood film without Josef Von Sternberg, so for film buffs,
that alone is reason enough to watch. Actually, the movie itself is worthy of a closer look, as Dietrich
gives a very good performance. Playing a peasant girl by the name of Lily, we see Dietrich move to the
city upon the death of her father, to stay with her aunt in her aunt's bookstore. One day she meets in the
store a young handsome artist who is struggling with a sculptor's form of writer's block. She becomes
his inspiration, and they soon fall in love. Eventually, Lily talks of marriage, and the young sculptor
chooses a life of art over love, and leaves her. Lily then falls into the hands of the artist's benefactor
who sees only a beautiful young woman he can mold like clay. Later, we see Lily as she has reemerged as a lady of the evening, making her way in life using men as they have used her, unable to
feel love any more. After a wrenching recitation of some passages from the Song of Solomon from the
bible, Lily destroys the lovely statue she posed for, which to her represents someone who no longer
exists. After this emotional upheaval, the film ends with the promise of Lily and her artist finding true
love again.
The Crimes of Father Amaro Each personality in this Mexican film is as guileless as the person it
reflects, each character is ruled by their sincerity. The tainted Father Bendito is as genuine as the
innocent yet sensual Amelia. The Bishop is as straightforward and sincere in his demands from the
drug cartels as the town "witch" is with her underhanded offers for narcotics. The only character who is
truly corrupt is the handsome Father Amaro, who consciously prioritizes himself and his well-being
over those entrusted to his care. In contrast to the film's understated Father Natal, whose backwater
simplicity belies Amaro's quick accent into favor, Netal's commitment to his mountainside parishioners
echoes faintly of the ministerial Jesus. Besides Netal, Father Amaro is a white washed tomb.
Surprisingly, considering the deeply religious tambour of the film, the only scripture verses recited
throughout are from the Songs of Solomon, quoted by Father Amaro during his inflamed acts of
carnality with Amelia. All the other spiritual maxims were the formulaic recitations of the catechism,
Psalter prayers or church canticles. When a young child asks the Sunday school teacher what
fornication means in his catechism, we receive a more genuine answer upon the heady, praying lips of
Amaro as he quotes the Songs in a heat of passion. The fact that the only person who reports the truth is
the agnostic son of the town's lone atheist sets a biting tone. In the end, Father Amaro takes over the
ailing Bendito's position and looks over a congregation which can no longer hide behind a veil of
innocence. He is trapped within his own web, the church itself.
And possibly, with a nod to the youth culture obsession with vampires, we could watch The Wisdom of
Crocodiles which is an early Jude Law film in which he plays a vampire who prefers to feed on the
blood of people who have fallen in love with him. That could possibly be all the women in the world at
one time or another, as well as many of the men. At any rate, there is the attraction that the movie
makes lengthy use of the Song of Solomon as a love poem during the many seductions.
Finally we will follow John Cage's lead and other random events to select images and sounds to
accompany the poetry and stage whatever kind of multimedia event is necessary to spread this new
word to the world.