catalyst photos on Flickr

Overall, a disappointing year for docs: Alex Gibney’s exposé of Silicon Valley’s psychopath du jour Elizabeth Holmes (The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley) was underwhelming, ditto for Errol Morris’ portrait of Steve Bannon (American Dharma). On the other hand, Alison Klayman’s The Brink is a powerful portrait of the man who is accelerating the ascent of neo-fascism in Italy: Matteo Salvini’s consigliere Steve Bannon is a catalyst of the dissolution of neoliberal technocratic Europe, or at least that’s how he loves to present himself. One can only hope for both ideologies – neo fascism and neoliberalism – to implode. Unfortunately, living in dystopia is the new normal, in Italy as well as in the US. Hao Wu’s investigation of Chinese live streaming superstars had enormous potential but the delivery was ultimately shallow. I haven’t watched most of Michael Apted’s series, so 63up was never going to be on this list. Claire Simon’s The Competition was my favorite movie of 2017: most of 2019 docs pale in comparison. Brett Story’s The Hottest August is the most illuminating meditation about New Yorkers since Wiseman’s In Jackson Heights. Story’s previous effort, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes is a masterpiece. Recorder is a media scholar wet dream: VHS porn like you’ve never seen it before. Maria Stokes is the Vivian Meier of lo-fi visual hoarding: the ultimate Archivist.

For cinephiles (fanboys?) only: Alexandre O. Philippe’s illuminating discussion on the connections between Alien and the socio-cultural and artistic context in which it was made, celebrates both the ecstasy of influence at a narrative level and the stunning visionary style of H.R. Giger (but also Francis Bacon), through the lenses of Dan O’Bannon, the catalyst. I could watch ten, twelve hours of Memory: The Origins of Aliens.

Best bit: “You need some skills to handle Americans. […] There is a culture in the US, where children are showered with encouragement. So everyone who grows up in the US is overconfident. They are super confident. Americans love being flattered to death. ‘Donkeys like being touched the way their hair grows’. You should touch donkeys the way their hair grows. Otherwise they will kick you. We need to use our wisdom to guide and help them. Because we are better than them,” says the Chinese boss of a Chinese glass company in Dayton, Ohio. “We need to make America great again”, he adds, at a different meeting." (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, American Factory)

catalyst_133 by University of Essex .

Catalyst Reception by CTSI at UCSF

Cindy Chew

6/2/16

CTSI Catalyst Awards

Mr Grim vs Wheeler Yuta-12 by Brian Krieger

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Catalyst by the real miami vice

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20131213_190324 by CogoLabs

Cogo holiday party at Catalyst

Catalystic by Bob Segal

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The facade of the Catalyst, a rental apartment building in the West Loop (Brininstool + Lynch, 2014).

Catalyst Open Source Academy 2017 (5) by Catalyst Open Source

Old Masset Pole by Jody Wells

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Northern Flicker NOFL (Colaptes auratus)

atop Haida carving

Sadly i don't know details of the pole on which the flicker is perched, but likely is an eagle which could signify the family's clan

DSCN6829

More Personal Nostalgia

But when I was 9 years old i witnessed (with my family) Robert Davison's pole be raised, an event that i remeber quite clearly to this day. Yes , i was there!

Below is an excerpt of an account i found online :: British Columbia - An Untold History

On Aug. 22, 1969, a buzzing crowd congregated outside the church in Masset, many dressed in red and black button blankets, with some — due to a lack of traditional garb — wearing painted headpieces made of paper bags. Then Davidson and several other local men began hoisting up the 12 metre-long pole, named Mother Bear. Earlier, a construction crew had offered their crane to help raise the pole, but Davidson refused. Elders wanted to do it the traditional way, using only manpower and a system of ropes and smaller logs.

Not everything was done by the book though. In the past, only members from one of the village's two clans — Eagle and Raven — would raise the pole. This time, Eagle and Raven members did it together; Davidson wanted everybody involved. “The minute the pole stood up, the people started to dance and sing,” he said. The ceremony was followed by a potlatch, another important part of Haida culture that colonial authorities had criminalized for decades.

“The totem pole was actually a catalyst, to make a statement,” explained Davidson years later. “‘Hey! We’re alive, and we want to be part of this world.’” What followed was a cultural revival among coastal Indigenous communities. Many more poles have since been raised, and Davidson is now a world-renowned artist

With Respect i acknowledge there is always so much more to every story and say that my heart will always be tied these Islands of Beauty, especially up by Massett .

Some Haida terms

Gaw

“Inlet”. There were many villages around

what is now Gaw. We call Gaw Tlagee the

land around the inlet, or Massett Village.

Gaw is what we say for what is now Old

Massett.

Old Massett (Haida: Gaw Tlagée)

Haw’aa

Thank-you

Catalyst-Day04_Install by Mode Lab

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