The U.S. government wants you to keep your house tidy and clean. If you don’t, it’ll get blown up and burned to a cinder by an atomic bomb blast. Seriously. This is the entire message of this ridiculous 1954 U.S. government educational film about the effects of a nuclear blast. It seems obvious to me that if you were working for the U.S. government in the fifties you were just a drooling simpleton. This film actually goes from mind-boggling insanity to postmodern masterpiece if you squint at it in the right way. It represents nearly everything you need to know about the 20th century in America.
Author Archives: Cimaxion
Dreams Ripple ~ Here Now – Japanese Animation by Akinori Okada
What the heck is this? I have no idea. But I like it. It looks like nothing I’ve seen so far. Seems to have something to do with a magic box of dreams maybe. Dream characters dance about and frolic with strange projections and shadows. There’s an element of old Japanese folktales with tiny toys or figures coming to life at night. Very strange.
The film was made by Akinori Okada in 2009.
Snow – 1963 Short Film by Geoffrey Jones
This 1963 film was nominated for an Oscar. Director Geoffrey Jones captured the shovel work being done to keep British rail lines open during the winter. It’s an elegant and beautifully edited short film. You can read more about its origin and rhythmic beat editing at the BFI site.
Made available by the British Film Institute.
March 22 is World Water Day
Today is World Water Day. Try to save a few gallons of water today.
The Animated Films of Painter György Kovásznai
While visiting Your Daily Cartoon, I watched an animated film by Hungarian painter György Kovásznai. I liked the calm mishmash of drawing styles and quiet humor. The 1965 film is called Mesék a m?veszet világából (Tales From the World of Art). It has no subtitles but is pretty easy to follow, taking a bemused look at several kinds of art. The first part is an action movie, the second is a theatrical piece, the third is a piano recital.
This one is called Várakozni jó (Waiting for Good). It’s about a traffic jam with a truck that suddenly opens its back doors and explodes into a 1969 rock & roll jam. The wild sketchy ever-changing animation style is more psychedelic than most commercialized sixties psychedelia could ever be.
This one is Gitáros fiú a régi képtárban (Boy Guitarist of the Old Hits) from 1964. It’s simply a guitarist playing and dancing his way through artworks by old masters presented in a very avant-garde fashion. Understanding the art is one thing, but the person who can truly enjoy it is far ahead in the game.
A is for Atom – Nuclear Documentary by Adam Curtis
This is a five-part documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis about the rise of nuclear energy in the United States. These sections make up A is for Atom which is a 1-hour segment of a much longer science and politics television series called Pandora’s Box. It chronicles the development of the nuclear power industry and shows clearly how little was ever understood about what would happen or what should be done during a nuclear accident.
Parts 2 – 5 after the jump
Take This Opportunity to Deface My Art
My latest artwork is an image that is never quite the same twice. I worked hard on it. Framed it. Hung it in a gallery. Now you come along with your paints and markers and mess it all up. I’m curious to see what you decide to do. So when you deface my best work ever just hit the ‘upload art’ button to send your artwork to me. You can get a copy for yourself by clicking the ‘download’ button. You get 3 uploads, so try to make it count.
Have fun destroying one of my proudest creations!
Printing Banksy: Modern Multiples Creates the LA Prints
The art is thin, but secret identities are always fascinating. No artist needs one. They are always put in place to cover up a glaring weakness. In Banksy’s case, the weakness is that he is simply a mildly talented, professionally skilled illustrator with some measure of showmanship. The showmanship is the primary industry in his case. He draws for people who are texting. There is absolutely no art being produced. None at all. But that is one hell of grand joke if you ask me! Banksy naked would simply be the emperor with no clothes. I do however believe that the energy and impulses behind the current explosion of street art will lead directly into the next great movement in art. But that movement will most assuredly not include Banksy.
This is a video about the Los Angeles fine art printer, Richard Duardo, who worked with Banksy to prepare for a 2006 gallery show. The film was made by Brad Beyer and Robert Dragan. There’s an official website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUzUQfyA1sg&feature=player_embedded&w=560
28 Seconds Later – A Horror Film Shot On the Set of 28 Weeks Later During Downtime
MATURE CONTENT AND VIOLENCE:
Ok, so get this! A filmmaker, Damien Joseph Wasylki, worked on 28 Weeks Later and during the downtime snuck around with a camera, borrowed all the great costumes, props and makeup and just made his own horror film! How about that? That’s some real guerrilla filmmaking if I ever saw it. It’s got that nice jittery hardcore infected look with lots of blood and twitchy bodies.
Aspects of Nuclear Radiation – 1950s Atomic Propaganda Film
In the 1950s, while the US army was intentionally blasting soldiers with radiation in order to study them as they melted and died, this film was made to minimize public worry about nuclear radiation. Governments always lie about nuclear radiation. They never tell the truth. So, as President Obama stands before the nation assuring us that no dangerous radiation will reach our shores from the sudden nuclear Armageddon of Japan, watch this reassuring little film and wonder.
A.45 at 50th – A Film About Actor James Cromwell and the Black Panthers in 1968
MATURE CONTENT AND LANGUAGE:
I got a nice surprise submission to my Vimeo Candlelight Stories Short Film group this week. It’s a fascinating documentary about one famous actor’s experiences during the turmoil of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
John Cromwell, the son of actor James Cromwell, directed this short film with Joshua Bell. It’s about his father’s experience with members of the Black Panther Party civil rights organization in 1968. It’s a fascinating short documentary look at someone who finds himself in an unfamiliar world just trying to lend a decent helping hand. James Cromwell has been involved with the defense of the Black Panthers and other human rights causes for decades. I like the film’s professional quality and easy capturing of the sixties look. It presents its important and dramatic subject matter with a good dose of rather charming humor.
Here’s an article and interview with the director and his father.
Northern Japan May be Rendered Uninhabitable by Nuclear Reactors
Look at that picture. That’s a Reuters news photo of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. It is disintegrating. Explosions, fires and radiation leaks are growing worse by the day and the efforts to dump water on the reactors are desperate and considered by experts to be ‘last-ditch’ efforts.
The UK’s Daily Mail has an in-depth article with photos.
This is a frightening and horrific world disaster that is quickly approaching and will likely exceed the Chernobyl disaster. The French government is evacuating its nationals from Japan and has announced that the Japanese government is hiding the truth about the disaster. That’s about all one should need to know at this point. The French, one of the world’s leading nuclear nations, are evacuating from Japan.
Let’s stop and think about a Japan with a northern region that is completely uninhabitable.
Japan cannot handle this situation. It has become an emergency requiring a massive U.S. military intervention.
It should go without saying that investigations of nuclear power plant operators worldwide is in quick order. The criminal stupidity of building these things should lead to arrests and prosecutions in the coming months. If someone comes to your town trying sell you a nuclear power plant… put them in a jail cell.
I simply cannot overstress the absolute criminal stupidity of building nuclear reactors in an earthquake zone prone to massive tsunamis. It is simply beyond all excuse and government and power company officials in Japan should definitely be put in jail and taken out of office. This reactor problem is an insult to rationality itself. You don’t build nuclear reactors on top of faults in tsunami waters. It is suicide.
UPDATE: Great Britain is now evacuating all British citizens from Tokyo.
Photos of Earthquake and Tsunami Damage in Japan
The Daily Mail in the UK has a series of photos of the earthquake and tsunami damage in Japan.
The photos are from the European Pressphoto Agency.
CNN has a live blog following the quake and tsunami.
The Huffington Post has live coverage.
Here is how you can donate to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake effort.
Raw Video of Japan Tsunami Entering Town
This is raw and shocking video of the tsunami in Japan entering and destroying a town. It was posted by James MacWhyte on his Facebook page.
Thank you to Paul Gallagher of Dangerous Minds for the find.
CNN has a live blog following the quake and tsunami.
The Huffington Post has live coverage.
Here is how you can donate to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake effort.
Michael Moore Labor Union Speech in Madison, Wisconsin
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer “bailout” of 2008, now have as much loot, stock and property as the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can’t bring yourself to call that a financial coup d’état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.
Those are the words of Michael Moore and they are very true. If you want to become a bad national joke, you do what Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has done and push through a bill that destroys the right of working Americans to organize and form labor unions.
The revolt against this criminal stupidity in Wisconsin is incredible to watch. It has national importance for the future of labor and the rights of working people everywhere.
They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day — this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart — because you — yes, you, too! — might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don’t rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.