Woman in the Dunes

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the 1964 Japanese film, Woman in the Dunes. The basic premise is that a schoolteacher from Tokyo comes to the coastal sand dunes to collect strange bugs in hopes of finding a new species and getting his name in a field guide. He stays at the dunes too long in the day and misses his bus back towards town. Local villagers offer him a place to stay and he accepts. The home they offer for him to stay in is inhabited by a widow and is in the bottom of a large sand pit. He is lowered down by a rope ladder and when he attempts to leave the next day the ladder is gone and he is essentially imprisoned.

Throughout the film we see sand all over the place; it leaks through the roof, covers their bodies, erodes from the pit walls, and windstorms bring large cascades of it. Near the beginning of the film, we see the woman shoveling sand into buckets to be lifted out of the pit for an entire night. We learn that she has to shovel sand every night in order to protect her home as well as the homes of neighboring villagers (the logic being that if her home is buried, it will be easier for other homes to follow). The nameless schoolteacher is captured so that he can prevent the destruction of her home through help with shoveling.

The most telling scene of this seemingly existential allegorical movie is during one of these scenes where they are both shoveling sand. The schoolteacher is venting frustration at the futility of trying to get rid of the sand...how they would have to do this endlessly and it seems so meaningless. However, if the pit is symbolic of society/life etc. the woman's task is no more futile than the man's activities of collecting bugs. Her task is based on survival while his is based in academia, but both could be seen as ultimately meaningless. Any individual life is full of routine and detail to seemingly meaningless tasks...whatever we do for a living, chores, hobbies...all of them are series of routines. The video essay included as a special feature makes the interesting comparison of shoveling sand to the Myth of Sisyphus, but makes the distinction that Sisyphus must roll his boulder to appease the gods, while those in the sand pit have more primitive and basic survival reasons.

While the film may not contain a particularly hopeful theme, it does provide many beautiful visual images and some memorable love scenes. Overall the images, story, and even the soundtrack all add up to one striking adjective: haunting...in the best way possible.

A little story about Oakland

So I haven't written in a while, and for once I think I have a decent excuse: I'm moving. to Oakland. In tribute to what will become my new home, here are some facts and some history about the home of hyphy:

Oakland (and Long Beach) are the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States, speaking 150 different languages. Of approximately 415,000 people, 31% African American, 26% white, 25% Latino, 16.4% Asian American, 1% Pacific Islander, .6% Native American, 14% Other

It's the 8th largest city in California and the 44th largest city in the U.S.

Rand McNally claims that Oakland has the best weather in the country (coming from Southern California, I find that hard to believe...)

As far as Oakland's notorious reputation, it's somewhere between the 4th and the 8th most dangerous city in the country mainly due to homicides (hopefully my mom never reads this) of which there were 127 last year.

Home to the As, the Raiders, and the Golden State Warriors

As far as history goes, Oakland was granted to a dude named Peralta in the early 19th century from the Spanish Royal government and named "encinal" meaning "oak grove" which eventually turned into "Oakland." The Gold Rush of 1848 affected Oakland as well as a lot of California, bringing railroad lines, boats, and streetcars. When the 1906 earthquake hit San Francisco, Oakland's population doubled due to the amount of refugees escaping earthquake damage and fires. 1920s were a good time economically for Oakland, leading to the building of many houses and a lot of the downtown buildings still standing today. Oakland was home to many industries including shipbuilding, canneries, bakeries, metals, and automobiles. These industries, especially during WW2, attracted many African American laborers.

After WW2 the automobile and shipbuilding industries significantly dissolved and eliminated many jobs. However, many who had originally come for work had decided to settle in Oakland. Simultaneously, more affluent sectors of the population moved into easterly suburbs as an example of "white flight." After the war, Oakland had become increasingly poor.

The most significant aspect of Oakland's history during the 1960s and 70s was the creation of the Black Panthers by two students of Merritt College, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panthers were originally formed as a response to rampant police brutality at a time when only 16 of 661 police officers were black in a largely poor black community. Funk and the Hell's Angels were both visible forces and the 1970s were apparently a good time for all three professional sports teams.

Oakland was at the center of the ebonics controversy, when in 1997, Oakland's school board decided to formally recognize ebonics or AAVE (African American Vernacular English) as an official language.

Anyway, in less than two weeks, this is where I'll be..