Paroles, Paroles (Words, Words)

Paroles Paroles from Nina Paley on Vimeo.

Directed, animated, designed, etc. by Nina Paley
Hebrew consultant: Aharon Varady
Subtitles to come once I figure out how to make them Subtitles on everything except the repeating end verses, because I manually typed my first ever SRT file at 5am

Song: Paroles, Paroles
Score: Gianni Ferrio
Lyrics: Leo Chiosso and Giancarlo Del Re
Vocals: Dalida (Goddess) & Alain Delon (God)
circa 1973

(song abridged by Nina Paley)

English translation:

Male/God: IT’S STRANGE
I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT WILL BE LIKE FOR ME TONIGHT
I LOOK AT YOU AS I DID THE FIRST TIME

Female/Goddess: MORE WORDS, ALWAYS WORDS
THE SAME WORDS

M: I DON’T KNOW HOW ELSE TO TELL YOU

F: JUST  WORDS

M: BUT YOU ARE THAT BEAUTIFUL LOVE STORY
THAT I WILL NEVER STOP READING.

F: EASY WORDS, FRAGILE WORDS
AREN’T THEY PRETTY

M: YOU ARE THE ONE OF TODAY AND THE ONE OF TOMORROW

F: TOO PRETTY

M: YOU ARE ALWAYS MY ONLY TRUTH.

F: BUT THE TIME FOR DREAMING IS UP
MEMORIES ALSO FADE
WHEN WE FORGET THEM

M: YOU ARE THE WIND THAT MAKES VIOLINS SING
AND YOU CARRY THE PERFUME OF ROSES

F: TOFFEES, SWEETS AND CHOCOLATES

M: SOMETIMES, I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU.

F: THANKS, NOT FOR ME
GIVE THEM TO SOMEONE ELSE
WHO LIKES THE WIND AND THE ROSES’ PERFUME
TENDER, SUGAR-COATED WORDS
TASTE SWEET ON THE LIPS, BUT NEVER IN MY HEART

M: ANOTHER WORD.

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: LISTEN TO ME!

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: PLEASE.

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: I SWEAR TO YOU.

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, WORDS
MORE WORDS THAT YOU SOW IN THE WIND

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: LISTEN TO ME.

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: PLEASE.

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: I SWEAR TO YOU.

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, WORDS
MORE WORDS THAT YOU SOW IN THE WIND

M: YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

M: YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL

F: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, WORDS
MORE WORDS THAT YOU SOW IN THE WIND

________
Original French lyrics (translated from Italian by Michaële, abridged by Nina Paley):

C’est étrange,
Je ne sais pas ce qui m’arrive ce soir,
Je te regarde comme pour la première fois.
Encore des mots toujours des mots
Les mêmes mots
Je ne sais plus comme te dire,
Rien que des mots
Mais tu es cette belle histoire d’amour…
Que je ne cesserai jamais de lire.
Des mots faciles des mots fragiles
C’était trop beau
Tu es d’hier et de demain
Bien trop beau
De toujours ma seule vérité.
Mais c’est fini le temps des rêves
Les souvenirs se fanent aussi
Quand on les oublie
Tu es comme le vent qui fait chanter les violons
Et emporte au loin le parfum des roses.
Caramels, bonbons et chocolats
Par moments, je ne te comprends pas.
Merci, pas pour moi
Mais tu peux bien les offrir à une autre
Qui aime le vent et le parfum des roses
Moi, les mots tendres enrobés de douceur
Se posent sur ma bouche mais jamais sur mon coeur
Une parole encore.
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Écoute-moi.
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Je t’en prie.
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Je te jure.
Paroles, paroles, paroles, paroles, paroles
Encore des paroles que tu sèmes au vent

Paroles, paroles, paroles
Écoute-moi.
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Je t’en prie.
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Je te jure.
Paroles, paroles, paroles, paroles, paroles
Encore des paroles que tu sèmes au vent
Que tu es belle!
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Que tu est belle!
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Que tu est belle!
Paroles, paroles, paroles
Que tu est belle!
Paroles, paroles, paroles, paroles, paroles
Encore des paroles que tu sèmes au vent

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Gaia’s Reproductive Phase

The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17

The Gaia Hypothesis posits the Earth’s biosphere is a single living organism. Living organisms by definition reproduce. How would a planet’s biosphere reproduce?

By sending reproductive cells of some sort to other planets.

Much (possibly most) of the Earth’s biosphere consists of bacteria. In fact most animals, including humans, consist largely of bacteria. Animals are mobile housing units for bacteria.

Humans are a peculiar animal. We’re creating our own extinction event. We seem hellbent on exploiting and destroying “nature,” yet we are part of nature, produced by nature. Why would the biosphere produce homo sapiens?

An extremely popular belief of our time is that humans will colonize other planets. Many humans consider this a more worthy goal than preserving biodiversity on Earth. Humans are willing to trash this planet in order to reach others.

It is vanishingly unlikely humans will survive on other planets. But it is likely we will reach other planets. We will not colonize other planets with humans, but with bacteria.

Humans are Gaia’s way of sending bacteria to other planets, thereby reproducing.

Humans will reach other planets, fueled by human dreams of human colonization. Humans will then die on other planets, leaving convenient meatbags for Earth’s bacteria to feed on, giving them a nourishing head start in a new world. Just as seeds and eggs contain mostly nutrition for zygotes, space humans are mostly nutrition for bacteria. Over billions of years, these pioneering bacteria will evolve, growing a new biosphere of diverse life forms. A new, living planet – another Gaia – is born.

Human exploitation of natural resources culminates in leaving the Earth. Travel to other planets is the pinnacle of human technology. The Holocene Extinction is the price Gaia pays for Her reproductive phase.

Reproduction requires a huge investment of an organism’s energy and resources. Many organisms die upon reproducing. I personally think that even if an Anthropocene environmental catastrophe wipes out “higher” life on Earth, bacteria will persist. Bacteria thrived before oxygen was a major component of Earth’s atmosphere, and will probably thrive after. But whether Gaia is semelparous or iteroparous, to be alive, She must reproduce.    

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Hathor the Golden Calf

HathorWalk36

I took some liberties in this design. “Why all the boobies?” you may ask. Once upon a time, boobies were an object of respect, not shame and ridicule. My goddesses have big, bare breasts to represent that mindset. Not that I think boobies should be worshipped; I’m not into biological fertility, and I’m not a “breast (wo)man”. Having breasts myself, I can say they’re kind of a pain in the ass (nor am I an “ass (wo)man”). But there’s so much shame around female breasts these days, I make ’em big and plentiful on deities to remind myself, and hopefully you, that the shame, discomfort, and anger they provoke is about patriarchy, not women’s bodies.

Here’s Hathor as a golden idol:

HathorGold36

My favorite interpretation of Exodus 32 posits the Golden Calf was Hathor, a very popular Egyptian cow goddess. I’m running with that in my film. Fun!

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Dvorak Diary #3: Introvert

On a recent trip to Trivandrum, India, I decided to try learning to touch-type in Dvorak (after decades of hunt-and-peck in QWERTY). Here I share some excerpts of my “Dvorak Diary”.

Biogradska_suma

Thursday, January first, Two thousand fifteen

Yesterday I awoke with a clear and simple melody running through my head, a really good and catchy one. Then I had breakfast with ____ and it was gone. This is why I am an introvert: I want to hear the music in my head. It’s like a wilderness preserve: clumsy tourists wander off-trail and step on the delicate wildlife, killing it inadvertently. They don’t mean to but the endangered plants and animals don’t care; they don’t survive on good intentions. I miss my melody. It lived so easily in my head yesterday but couldn’t survive another person. Habitat loss. Like the Sitka Deer, much of the life in my head needs a wide range. I am an increasingly grumpy forest ranger, responsible both for the needs of the tourists and the wildlife. The former endanger the latter so I want them to just fuck off. But I need tourists for some reason, like were it not for tourists the forest would be razed for a housing development or mine or parking lot.

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