Plasma Pool

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a set of sharp and cogent notes

Stuff We Like

  • F for Fake

    This is Orson Welles's masterpiece, a virtuoso performance of sound and video editing that co-opts the documentary but is not one. It is the rare postmodern text that's laugh out loud funny, steeped in the relativism of the post war period but not held hostage by it. He appears as himself, sheared of doubts and humanity, in full possession and knowledge of his genius, but he is not the subject (excuse my language) of the film. It's a "film about trickery, fraud and lies," and about two great exponents of those arts, Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. The film is not much watched by people from any generation, met with cold critical reception on release, how can it be Welles's masterpiece? But it is, and is neglected due to its translation from the dross and palaver of our late capitalist society in which relativism extends mainly to the comparison of ledgers, a number of hard, unpleasant truths about meaning, about value, and about our modern oracles, the experts. Or as Welles says of art (or anything): "How is it valued? The value depends on opinion. Opinion depends on the expert. A faker like Elmyr makes fools of the experts, so who's the expert? Who's the faker?"

  • Ferret-Legging

    Ferret-Legging

    The ferret goes in your pants. Your pants are cinched to prevent its escape. Then you stand there while a scared rodent scratches, bites, and generally freaks the fuck out in the vicinity of your manly-bits. He who endures the longest wins. There you have the “sport” of ferret-legging, a Yorkshire coalminer practice now revived at the Richmond, VA Celtic Festival. While I cannot speak for the rest of the Plasma Pool team, I have not personally experienced the joy of ferret legging – nor do I have any desire to do so in the future. But what should be Liked about this particular Stuff is not corporeal, but rather its statement about the competitive nature of man such that he would trap a ferret in his pants for over five hours for no reward but the knowledge that he did what no other man could do. There exists in each of us a compulsion to strive for greatness, and in the course of this pursuit we are capable of unimaginable sacrifice in the name of achievement. Today humanity faces new and difficult challenges, but what drives these semi-sane “athletes” is the same that drives those in more noble fields to cure diseases, create art, and improve humanity in countless other ways. So, thank you ferret-leggers. Just keep that animal away from my junk.  -- Donny Bridges

  • Reactions to the OJ Simpson Verdict

    OJ Simpson Verdict

    Without getting into any kind of commentary about the trial itself or its place in pop culture memory, this video of the OJ Simpson verdict is stunning. Pay attention to 1:24, 2:10, 3:30, 3:59. The camera pans over a near-complete spectrum of emotions, almost oblivious to the murmur of the verdict while the faces hang on to every word. The calm voice at the end advises to "expect the worst." For me, the bizarre essence of the clip is that some idea of "justice" is located somewhere in the physical and conceptual space between the rows of silent faces and the implied source of the unseen voices. The mass of bodies tenses and contorts as an articulation of the disembodied speech of the justice system. I am reluctant to give a reading of all this beyond this cursory description, but one final thing to consider is that our detached gaze is nearly embedded in the perspective of the invisible jury, who sits at the center of the verdict.  -- Scott Coomes

From the Vault

Things that died in 2008.

Our president pledged as primary candidate to staunchly defend individual civil liberties and curb the domestic intelligence abuses of the Bush Administration. As the Democratic candidate, he hedged. As president-elect, he made stunning about-faces, notably on immunity for telecommunications companies who cooperated with Bush's illegal requests. Now, as president, he's continued as many of Bush's abuses as he's curtailed. Also, there was a time when John McCain wasn't an unprincipled, dishonorable bigot. He was quite the man, when he was a man. Then came a succubus to hasten his by then inevitable decline.

drink deep

Oct 10, 2009 0

On Obama’s Surprise Inspired Peace Prize

Megan Stacy

Obama and one set of grandparents

Those who deride this honor as an award of aspiration are missing the point. It’s not about what Obama hopes or intends to do; it’s about the hope and intention he inspires in others. It’s about changing the way people see the world and what the world can be and what the world can produce. There’s nothing wrong with honoring someone whose eloquence and prominence brought about a November night filled with mass gatherings of happy tears, shouts of glee, and hugs for strangers in the streets of Chicago, Kenyan villages, Indonesian hamlets, and towns across the world that see Barack Obama as a little bit of their own.

Aug 19, 2009 2

Tragedy and the Creative Impulse

Lauren Caldwell

Writing is empathic; that is part of the point. And moments of emotional stress, rupture, fragmentation, et cetera, are frequently the spark that makes good writing go. But it is necessary to let things take their course. All poems about breakups, if they are only poems about breakups, are the same poem. So stare at something else for a while.

Aug 14, 2009 0

Imaginary Rebels: Kings of Leon at The Pageant

Justin Curia

Kings of Leon live at the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim (2007)

The Kings seemed to want to portray themselves as rebels, but they rebelled against imaginary authority of their own creation. Matthew’s throwing a fit over a drink lacking a straw befit these imaginary rebels, as did Caleb’s forcing his roadie to wait around awkwardly with a bottle of Gatorade while he whooped it up with the crowd. Whatever Caleb was gabbing about was lost in the symbolism of his hapless roadie, whose sole purpose seemed to be to wait around awkwardly holding a bottle that could have just as easily been set down on the stage by Caleb’s feet. Rebels don’t need straws, nor do they need errand boys to hold their drinks.

Jul 27, 2009 1

Why is Google Taking Money From “Birthers”?

Megan Stacy

The thoroughly discredited “birther” movement maintains, contrary to all available material evidence, not only that President Barack Obama is not a native-born U.S. citizen, but that we’ve all been duped into believing that he is by an international conspiracy.

So why does Google see the birthers as a new market?

Apr 26, 2009 1

What Ayn Rand Taught Me

Scott Coomes

Ayn RandPages upon pages of John Galt self-righteously sneering at all the ‘looters’ (socialists, vegetarians, Christians, liberals, Buddhists, academics, environmentalists, Mexicans, etc.) seem not only like a pathetic attempt to overwhelm a reader who would be impressed by the volume of pages, but also like the product of a small mind. John Galt’s cheery speech was more than my well meaning young-Republican-lite ideology could take. Rand helpfully packaged this ideology in weapons-grade concentration and laid it all out for easy scrutiny and swift rejection.

The Plasma Spring