My eyes are glad that this week is over. Too much looking at tiny words, at close proximity, on laptops, tablets, phones, and printouts. A few years ago I got bifocals, an aging rite of passage, added new complexity to the eyeglasses I’ve worn since second grade. But they do nothing for the kind of stiffness of focal length that I increasingly experience if I spend too long on close-up work. When I stop to look at a distance the world is blurry, and stays that way for a long while until my eyes slowly adjust. I’ve learned that it’s called an “accommodative spasm” which is such a strange phrase that it’s honestly kind of a silver lining if I get to use it regularly.
Luckily the solution is simple, and something we probably all need to remember: it’s healthy to just stare off into the distance every once in a while.
While out on an evening walk along the waterfront this magical pillar of light turned on! It’s Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower, the base of which I saw on Viðey Island when I visited a few weeks ago. I was surprised, because I knew it wasn’t supposed to start until John Lennon’s birthday on October 9th. It turned off again after 15 minutes, so I’m guessing this was just a test.
I got tickets to attend the official lighting ceremony this week. My timing will unfortunately be tight, with some other commitments immediately beforehand, but I’m hoping I can catch the last ferry before the 8pm event. If you want to watch, they’ll be streaming it live on their website (4pm ET).
Noted & Done
- Saw The Mastermind, a film by Kelly Reichardt, at RIFF.
- Relatedly, I was excited to learn this week that the score for Reichardt’s film Old Joy, performed by Yo La Tengo, is now available on vinyl. It came out earlier this year, 19 years after the film was released!
- Saw a selection of “Films from the North Shorts,” curated by the Tromsø International Film Festival at Nordic House.
- Saw KUSK & Óviti at Kaffibarinn.