Strive To Be Alive by Ross Smirnoff

Self-portrait with Tangerine in imaginary setting by Ross Smirnoff

The Fog by Ross Smirnoff

I first heard the word became absurd

Intended as it was for some divine plan

All mixed up on this existence plain

Disdain for her became insane

My mind was aborted

Distorted logic

Pressure to ascend to the next level rebel

The marked flash time forgotten

A plan man began to comprehend

The hate that was brought upon

I was lost

Tossed in a fog

Descending on a place

I inhabited in a dream

Serene clouds burst open out of the head

Rocket blasted entrapped balminess  

Calm passive and elastic

Shovel silk fur down your throat

Discriminating nation never accepted it’s fate

Irate tears streamed for a thousand years

River formed in the wake

Despite the initial plan

Broke into pieces

The nieces and nephews all gathered to hear the story the Uncle spoke

I awoke to imperceptible patterns 

Creeping into the layers of life

Strife formed despite better judgment

I resist the latest abolition

Despite permission to escape  
I lost it

Spent all the money I made

A waste 

The race was set

Pace was too fast to comprehend

All that time I spent gathering speed

Made me bleed.

Leiji Matsumoto and Daft Punk

August Drawings by Ross Smirnoff

The Answer by Ross Smirnoff

Never knew where I was going
That was my mistake
While you were collecting bills
I went seeking thrills
I searched the interior to discover a lot of material
When I'm here it gets boring
Not knowing if it matters
I get lost in the mind batter
Churning new images with my inaccurate decisions
Maybe the plan will materialize one day
Probably at the expense of my integrity
My integrity is worth more than money
That keeps me real
My collective will never yield
We keep moving through the weeds
Spreading the gospel plot of disintegration
You can join us once you let go of all your possessions
You don't need them
We'll keep up the us vs. them farce
It fuels great art
I throw down my weapons to surrender
I wait for you to answer

Fortunate Alternative by Ross Smirnoff

Ripped and pierced
Mouth pained, not entertained
The laughing (screaming) head

I battled two great beasts
Came away unscathed
Bathed
In a fortunate alternative

They lay dead
Large bulky flesh eaten monstrosities
Rivers of green goo
Flowing from their mortal wounds

The gate was opened
The first step lifted me up to the edge
I peered down to see
A castle in the sea

The gleaming glyphs intercept giant cliffs
Ornamented tiles seem to be distant miles

The home of smiling deity's entrance
Once I find a way through the distant haze
It blocks me from the wonders that lay between these worlds

A trap
Tap, the door echoes like the rain

I'm a drowning sage

Cosmically fading
Eternally waiting

247365 Pure Product and Know More Games Justin Lieberman

Metropolis by Thea Von Harbou

Jackson Pollock Psychoanalytic Drawings

"Boyhood" review by Ross Smirnoff

Boyhood, a new feature film by Richard Linklater takes us on a journey through one boys life growing up in Texas over a twelve year period.   From the opening sequence we watch a little boy no older than seven years old looking up in to the sky while he lies sprawled out on the grass. 

The film is a sequence of events taking place over the course of the next twelve years where viewed from the filmmakers unique perspective, we experience the life of this boy as he grows into a man.   We experience events that every child brought up in America knows with well-developed intimacy.  Baseball games, birthday parties, frequent trips to the bowling alley, camping outings, and the occasional flirt with the opposite sex.   But what makes the sequence so spellbindingly addictive in our evisceration of its contents is that we watch this boy change and develop both mentally in physically.

If you are a fan of Richard Linklater’s other films such as Dazed and Confused, Slacker, and Waking Life, then you will appreciate the dialogue of this film as well.  The director continues to be fascinated with philosophical anecdotes about ideas that fascinate him, such as the state of our society in the digital world, and how much free-will do we really have when they can perfectly match us with our college roommates via our likes on facebook?   Also the isolation of a single-mother who raises her children the best she can only to realize that her life has been a series of milestones, ultimately resulting in the biggest milestone of all, death. 

This all may seem that the movie is a downer, but it's not.  If anything it’s a life-affirming quest that we all experience, growing up with relative degrees of differences. The best sequences in the film are when the father (Ethan Hawke), picks up his two kids from his ex-girlfriend mother (Patricia Arquette), to take the kids on adventures.  He speaks to them as if they are adults, subtly begging them to call him on his distorted and jaded rhetoric. 

All the while we watch the young boy, played to perfection by Ellar Coltrane, grow up on the screen in a little less than three hours.  

The soundtrack plays a pivotal role in the film with big hits such as “Deep Blue” by Arcade Fire, and a songs of the last 12 years by artists Gnarls Barkley, Wilco, and The Black Keys to name a few.  We all identify with these songs because they’ve been playlist of indie rock over the past decade.

This film has an addictive and playful fun going vibe with many laugh out loud moments.  These bring the theater goers together to collectively experience the life of a child growing into an adult.  He will have to carve out his own path in an ever disagreeable world, using all the tools he has to make the best life possible given the circumstances of his existence.  

 http://www.classicalite.com/articles/10373/20140806/review-ellar-coltrane-patricia-arquette-and-richard-linklater-of-course-make-boyhood-well-worth-your-time.htm

Self-Portrait 2002 by Ross Smirnoff