I spend my Tuesdays at three in the morning the way most people my age do: watching movies in a cramped room with more people than available seating.  The last movie we watched together was the long-anticipated arrival of Sanjit and Ranju Majumdars’ Determinism. I was not sure what to think of the movie prior to viewing except for hope from the alluring trailer and rather cryptic title.  The movie itself was wonderfully dark and refreshingly insightful.  The director’s imaginative film style, creative music scores and powerful storyline make Determinism a movie you have to see to believe.

The film style was defined as “grunge” and certain rough shots and harsh camera movements were used to reinforce a darker ambiance for the viewer.  With that in mind I will admit that the exposure was off periodically and Majumdar was guilty of breaking the axis at times.  It had the downside of making dialogue difficult to follow, yet the methodical nature of introducing the characters reinforced the grunge style that the director was hoping for.  The special effects were quite impressive for the movie and the sweeping city shots were amazing (although arguably superfluous transitions).  Characters would be reintroduced in the movie with their name cleverly inserted somewhere on screen, which helped me to follow them since the beginning of the movie.  It had a unique character introduction, with Facebook profile-style introductions. The storyline also had a nice level of sophistication with a seemingly linear plotline that was actually threaded in layers of foreshadowing and backstories.

What I am truly concerned about, though, is the relationship between the director’s intent and the movie itself.  The very title provokes some deep insight into an existential dilemma.  We see the main character, Alec’s, struggle of being an authentic individual in a “racially charged” world that one is becoming increasingly disenchanted with which forces the viewer to question how much control he really has over his environment.  However, Alec became so engulfed in his own shortcomings as a first-generation Indian that he seemed to follow a path of despair and crime instead of working towards his own betterment.  Fortunately, it is the very apathy expressed by him that makes the movie particularly spectacular.  The characters are revealed slowly and their rather obscure history demands attention to every detail, every dialogue, and every little piece of information in order to understand the motives of all the characters.

You may contact the reviewer at cwilli10@ashland.edu.

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Time to go whizzing through December’s green and white landscape, in roller skates, whirling around to face smiling people everywhere without malice or bah-hum buggers! With deft fingers, you finished wrapping presents in July, perfectly, with bows that stick like magic, with youthful exuberance to spare- (and unlimited funds in your account)! Today window shopping for that perfect gift, looking at your size 10 in the windows at Macys you blow a kiss to that strawberry auburn bottled wonder- with the cute bob your stylist designed just for you; gee but its great to be that healthy, glowing, svelte middle aged gal, who will look just like this in 30 years, blessed with superior genes.

Than you come home to a hot dinner that Betty Crocker herself might have whipped up, with the savory scents of gravy and home cooked rolls warm and inviting with a big dollop of real butter gliding down the crease in the center-it never goes to your hips and by the way, who needs a fortune cookie with this life? You comb through the mail luxuriously, and note that once again you won the Readers Digest sweepstakes two years in a row, and of course half will go to the orphanage and you will be on the cover of Time magazine just in time for your pedicure and a visit with Opra. The lush pine from the Hallmark card Christmas tree is intoxicating, and the silver ware is polished to perfection.

You may reach Cynthia Lamanna at cynthialamanna@yahoo.com.

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About the Artist:

Joshua Braff is a painter and writer living in Oakland, California. He uses color and specific shapes to “evoke slashes of chunky movement or chaos amongst blips of order.”

Braff is an author of two novels, The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green (Algonquin 2004) and Peep Show (Algonquin 2010).

View his Website at www.joshuabraff.com.

We are pleased to announce that Daveland is now available as an audio-book! Check out the Website for more information!

Marty Castleberg’s memoir was first featured in Synchronized Chaos back in 2009. The reviewer described it as “…unique because of its readability and narrative style, and because it brings these literary qualities to the often dry, clinical world of learning differences. “

Click here to see the review.

Gloria Balderas
Creative Facilitator/Editor-In-Chief

Happy holidays and welcome to the December issue of Synchronized Chaos! This issue touches upon self-identification, exploration, and human nature, reminding us of how art can be a powerful channel into the internal state of mind.

Alex Luke re-examines the connection between self and character through the exaggeration of human nature.

Warmth, history, and inward strength are expressed in the works of Valerie Brown-Troutt, James Gayles, Cynthia Tom, and Mary Bartnikowski.

In Patsy Ledbetter’s writing, she reaffirms a personal relationship with God and translates her faith to others.

Junko Van Norman’s and Jennifer Wildermuth’s work evoke dream-like states of wonder and contemplation.

The energetic artwork by Matthew Kowalski flows effortlessly together, causing us to explore deeper, beyond the layers.

Henry Avignon’s visually exciting artwork centers in the mind, expressing a myriad of immersed emotions.

Alexander Voitsekhovsky finds the parallels of animal and human behavior, while Alisha Fisher intersects nature with human character.

Nick Friedland gets a cultural reality check in Riding the Bus in Argentina.

Ron Weil experiments with interlocking ideas and images and Jamie Treacy seeks to explore the deep-down wonders of life in his featured work for Life: Expressions of Living.

Gordon Pagnello’s “Estate Sale” series plays with space in interesting ways and the objects in each piece tell us a story about the personality of the individuals they belong to.

We at Synchronized Chaos hope you enjoy this month’s issue, and please don’t hesitate to leave any comments!

Artist Statement

“Something wonderful happen to me during the summer of 1999: I claimed and discovered my artist. Me! I went to several second hand shops and bought old canvas and found thrown away framed pictures and took them apart, covered them with gesso and started a studio on my patio.”

“Turning old ugly things into something new is so much fun and inexpensive. Messing up, changing my mind and starting all over again satisfied by creative energy. I got lost for hours in the dialogue of mixing color, creation, making meaning through images and mediation.”

“Art in a variety of forms has always been my passion. I love paintings, poems, theater, jazz, singers, poet, actors and actress, photography, great movie pictures, sculpture, rhetoric, comedy, nature, etc.”

“My art intentionally creative what I have missed in my art loving experience, me! I was born into a world that never showed me a lovely black, fat angel. I long to see things that look like me, my people (I love) and my ancestors. This is where it started.”

“I continue today to address the absence of images that I think are important to the stories of my life and culture. I am creating now to preserve and share with others especially my grandchildren what life was like for me growing up. Most of my images celebrate my spirituality which makes life meaningful for me.”

Brief Bio

Valerie enjoys life as a mother, wife, professional and grandmother as she pursues goals experiencing God’s peace, love and grace. Valerie shares the life story of struggle of ordinary black women described by Delores Williams as resisting and rising above forces in society…doing what they always do: holding the family and church together; working for the white folks or teaching school; enduring whatever they must so their children can reach for the stars; keeping hope alive in the family and community when money is scarce… a contribution of faith, love and hope to the black family to the church and to the black community in North American. Many of her life’s dreams have been actualized including a successful professional career as an educator, social justice activist, entrepreneur and administrator of non-profit organizations. She is now using all these skills in ministry – as pastor of New Community Fellowship, a ministry she founded and working as an English Teacher for Oakland Unified School District.

To contact the artist, reach her be email at vbtroutt@aol.com.  See more of her artwork on her website at valeriebrowntroutt.com.

Artist’s Statement

LIFE EXPRESSIONS OF LIVING

“After a deep examination of this current exhibition’s title, I’ve concluded that there is a central theme that has ran and is still running throughout my life and my artwork. This theme is the search for cultural identity. Growing up as a child in the 50’s which by the way was when I started painting in elementary school, my cultural identity was either taken from me or worst grossly distorted. This led to the development of an inferiority complex during that period of my life. Subsequently I am subconsciously drawn to the cultures to African and people of the African Diaspora. This drive is mainly manifested in my artwork. What is presently being exhibited is a good example of this.”

ARTIST BIO

Emmy Award winning artist James Gayles attended Pratt Institute in New York, where he studied under renowned painters Jacob Lawrence and Audrey Flack. He simultaneously pursued careers in both fine and commercial art. As a commercial artist he established himself in New York as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator, becoming Assistant Director of Graphics at NewsCenter 4, NBC-TV. At NBC he won a television Emmy Award for design and illustration.

In New York he was a two-time winner of Art Direction Magazine’s Creativity Award, one for the NewsCenter 4 logo redesign, and the other for an editorial illustration for the New York Times. Here in the Bay Area he won the first place award for illustration at the California Newspaper Publishers’ Awards.

In addition to NBC and the New York Times, James has illustrated for McGraw-Hill, Random House, Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, as well as several advertising agencies on both the East and West coast.

The Artist can be reached by email at jgayles66@hotmail.com.  You can visit his website at http://www.jamesgayles.com.

Read more about James’ life and artistic career by clicking on the ‘Read More’ link below.

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