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Unread 05-26-2022, 07:03 PM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Sarah-Jane, Yes, the blending of the comprehensible (the visual) and the incomprehensible (the sound of the voice/language of the narrator) is what makes this a kind of home-made exotic piece of art. As it turns out, after I commented on Youtube about how impressed I was with it he wrote to me and explained he had done the video to satisfy a project requirement in college. He has published other videos that I've watched that are much more intentionally artistic-minded. They are very good. This is another one he did entitled "From Blindness To Silence" that I think might appeal to you even more.

Ralph, I hadn't given the bars that do appear frequently any other meaning but that they are indigenous to the artist's ancestral home: a small, rural, nondescript town in Portugal. But it does give me pause now that you mention it — but not in any way that detracts from what I think is being depicted.

Michael, based on the road signage that appears (beginning at 8:15) the location appears to be Portugal, not Brazil. In fact, the credits at the end identify the village/town as Paredes, Portugal. What I found poetic was the ordinariness of the small village and the seeming sense of detachment of the speaker who, at the same time, drips of nostalgia and loss and even hopelessness. (I don't know what his narrative was so I could be flat wrong.) It is the speaker's voice (and the strange, foreign beauty of the language) that captured me at first; and the ambient sound throughout is intoxicating; and then comes the lonely clarinet... It is the height of melancholy IMO.

John: It’s interesting how intrigue and interest enters your life in patterns. It started with Clarice Lispector and then on to Fernando Pessoa and Saramago and suddenly everything is in Portuguese. I’ve even started dappling in the language but that isn’t realistic at my age. There is a worldview that appeals to me. It isn’t “ almost Spanish.” It’s unique. I’ll enjoy this several times.

Yes, what you say is ironically what the title of this video I think is alluding to.

That quasi-murmuration that ends on the wires at 2:26 is pure poetry.

And the fact that it is so obscure (42 views and counting) only adds mystique. It feels destined to be forgotten.
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Last edited by Jim Moonan; 05-27-2022 at 02:26 PM.
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