Hello, Louise

Façade

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Social formations

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Introvert Extrovert

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Flows Like Blood, Thick Like Oil

Spoiler alert. Don’t read this if you’d like to see the film first.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything like Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.

It’s the kind of film my dad would have put on and enjoyed one weekend afternoon, while I watched only half-heartedly.

Having seen it on the big screen, I’m enamored with the film’s characters, the numerous blunt but effective symbols, and the lethal simplicity of the story’s tensions and conflicts.

One of its foremost charms is the excellent soundtrack. Scored by Johnny Greenwood, it highlighted all the subtle nuances of the film that the visuals alone could not have, as all great movie soundtracks do. It swings between blaring cacophony and barely audible sighs, gently tugging the viewer along. Every note and chord couldn’t have been choreographed more appropriately.

With oil as one of the most vital interests in this country, it’s hard not to look for the parallels between oil and blood. It’s there and, as always, it’s extremely gratifying to find.

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Tankut’s Mountains

I first met Tankut Can in sixth grade, when I had started attending Collins Elementary. Since then we’ve gotten close and drifted apart repeatedly. Tank was the star pitcher of our high school’s baseball team, and is now an avid handball player. He just completed his physics major at UC Berkeley. Though we’re flung far apart, I was still able to get his permission to post this essay he had written during sophomore year of high school. Of all of my friends’ writing, this is one of my most favorite.

When the World just doesn’t feel comfortable…

Existence begins with a little itty-bitty dot. A One-dimensional universe explodes and gives us multi-dimensions. This universe that has spawned our human race, that has let us evolve into such a dubiously superior species, has also forgotten some things. It has forgotten to give us each lots of money. The universe, in all its power and might, forgot to give us each cable television and a really nice car. While it was at it, it should have assigned every person a card that specifies who their true love is, so we could have been pimply and in love. And most important of these trivialities—one thing the universe forgot in its random evolutionary scheme, that goes deeper than materialistic wet dreams, is to give us a way to shatter mountains without shattering ourselves.

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