Cut and Segmented Two interested bits of culture from this weekend. The first: Gabrielle and I saw Jane Campion's In the Cut. We both loved it. I mean really loved it. The sound design was incredible. Meg Ryan's performance was bold and fierce. The mystery was sufficient. And the love story was one of the most brutally honest that I've seen on screen in a long time -- it reminded me a bit of Cronenberg's Crash.

Not that I'm one to listen to what others think, but I'm saddened (if that's the right feeling) that critics have bashed this movie so badly. Don't get me wrong: critics pretty much HATED Crash and another of my favorites: Mulholland Drive. But I was so much more willing to write them off as idiots in those instances. My feelings about In the Cut are not as steadfast. Maybe I need to see it again. I most certainly need to read Susanna Moore's book. I also found this film remarkably similar to Mystic River -- and not just because of the Kevin Bacon appearances.

If anyone has any opinions on this film, please e-mail me. I'd love to start a discussion.

The other interesting thing I saw this weekend: Trail Mix, a weekend of outdoor site-specific installations and performances at the Hahamonga Watershed Park. Most of the art was pedestrian, although that didn't stop me from enjoying the one-mile hike around the park to witness it all. The best piece was called "The Segmented Path" by Palle Henckel, Sara Roberts, and Kadet Kuhne.

This sound installation piece was designed as a game so that the audience would create the a version of the finished piece. The idea was game players were given a portable recording device and asked to record sounds from the park to form a one-minute loop. The devices were then brought back and arranged within the composition's boundaries. It ended with "the ground touring the resulting spatialized sound composition, noting individual compositions and the overall soundscape." Amazing.

The thing that I love most about these kinds of art -- a good movie or an experimental art piece -- is that they are so inspiring for my own work. I believe that art is fuel.