The Rauch Brothers made this animation that follows a story told by 86-year-old World War II veteran Joseph Robertson who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. It concerns his memory of killing a single German soldier.
Film: Tommy Kane Draws Lebanon
Art Director Tommy Kane went to Lebanon and made a film about his wanderings. He also drew magnificent illustrations of what he saw. Those are in the film too. The combination of the beautiful street scenes and the cheerfully expressive drawings make me want to get on a plane and go visit this stunning country.
I found this via Drawn!
Yellow Cake: Animation About Cause, Effect and 9/11
Nick Cross has made an animation seems to be mainly about 9/11. I’ve read quite a bit of nonsense around the web about this cartoon. Animation blogs that should know better do their best to avoid the brutal politics of the film even though those politics are its entire reason for existing. In fact, I find that most of the animation world on the web is shockingly conservative, embarrassingly non-diverse, and mind-numbingly infatuated with Walt Disney. In this creepy little film the fat cats need the little cakes that the bakers make in their village. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what kind of tiny animal the bakers are supposed to be. Little featherless tweety-birds maybe. Anyway, the fat cats take all the cakes under threat of annihilation and sell them in their city. When the bakers can’t stand the slavery anymore they blow up a house full of fat cats. Then the fat cats become extremely security-conscious and attack the bakers with bombs and slaughter them all. The end.
That’s my description of the film.
I like people who are nasty and drive their anger through their work. This film is off-balance and awkward. It’s unpleasant and crude. Why are the titles off-center? I do respect its attitude and its simple perspective on the reality behind the events of 9/11, but nevertheless it annoys me. Why do animators persist in trying to reproduce the quality of animation from the 1930s? I’d prefer less cute flip-floppiness from the animator. Give me the politics. Leave out the throat lozenge.
How to Save Someone’s Life
Ever wondered just what you’d do if you found someone on the ground unconscious? Here’s what you’d do. CPR. But there’s a new, simpler way to do it that works better than the old way. The video shows you how to do it.
Film: The Wild
This film was made by Franck Deron. On his blog he says that he filmed it without a lens, using a pinhole through some aluminum foil. I’m not exactly sure what that means. I’d be curious to know more about exactly how he set that up. But I like the results. It’s a mysterious and moving film. I watched it with total absorption and the blurry glowing camera work reminds me of old super 8 movie cameras. The director has quite an accomplished list of films he’s made as music videos and promo spots. They are very well shot and edited. But I always like a director’s more personal films, made with no other client in mind than his or her own demanding internal artist. This is just such a film.
I found this on a beautiful web site called The Rumpus.
Picasso Has a Comment for Doomed Publishers, Editors, Bookshops, and Newspapers
We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.
Pablo Picasso
Jagger and Richards Play with Hurricanes
Do you think this guy is scared of Swine Flu?
And have you seen Keith Richards stop for a moment to hit a guy in the face with his guitar?
Publishers Doomed by Predatory Book Pricing? So what?
John Grisham on NBC’s Today Show discusses his new book, writing novels versus short stories, and so-called predatory book pricing by large retailers like Walmart, Target and Amazon.com. I like Grisham in this interview. He’s a good interview and he seems sharp. He talks about how it’s much more difficult to fix a problem in the middle of writing a novel than to do so with a short story. So he advises writers to ‘not have a problem.’ The trick is to thoroughly outline your entire novel before you even start to write it so that you know every single thing that happens along the way. Pretty sound advice in most cases. Not all. Some of the greatest novels in the world were written by writers who had absolutely no idea where the novel was going from page one. It depends on what kind of book you’re writing. I think his advice is perfectly good for most books that are intended for sale in a grocery store. Certainly. But writers should never listen to famous writers. They’re full of crap. You write what makes you sweat and drink lots of coffee late into the night and bang your fingers on your keyboard until they hurt. Or not. Whatever. I hate outlines. Especially in word processors. Awful things. They destroy good minds and belong mostly in PowerPoint presentations for corporate managers. I’m not sure what the hell Grisham is talking about quite frankly. But then again, I’m not selling thrillers in the grocery store either.
But what mainly interests me in this interview is the discussion about ‘predatory pricing’ by the giant retailers. Apparently, if you listen to publishers, this spells doom for publishing and book selling as we know it. When asked what he thinks about his latest book being available for nine dollars at Target, Grisham says:
It’s shortsighted. Short term, they know what they are doing, I think. But if a book is worth $10 then suddenly the whole industry is going to change. You are going to lose publishers and book stores, and though I’ll probably be alright, aspiring authors are going to find it difficult to get published.
Yeah? So what. So we lose publishers and book stores. Who cares? The key in Grisham’s statement is where he says, ‘…and though I’ll probably be alright.’ He means writers will be alright. The big scary fact of the matter is that we simply don’t give a tiny damn whether or not a publisher prints a book or an author does. Publishers read, accept, edit, design, print and promote books. At least they used to. I don’t care what anyone tells you, but we do not need the editors. Writers can do that. You write the book and you edit it and you’re done with it. Readers are getting used to reading writers without editors. That’s why blogs are so popular. No editors. If you have an editor poking around in a blog, trust me, it’s not a blog. It’s a corporate front-end. A writer can also design and print a book. And sell it. Writers are publishers. No reader cares about Penguin. They care about the guy holding the gun. The guy holding the gun is put there by the writer. Writers will make guys, guns and gals forever. It’s what they do and it’s what readers want.
I don’t care if the guy with the gun says, ‘I’ve been looking for you for a long time, Mr. Peabody. Smile, because it’s the last thing you’ll ever do.’ Or if he says, ‘I’ve been looking for you. Smile. It’s your last.’
The writer can pick. The editor can go watch Kitchen Nightmares.
There is absolutely no excuse for a writer to work hard on a story, hammering it into existence from nothing, polishing it and making it exactly what he or she wants it to be… and then sit around to wait for some agent or publisher to get back via the U.S. mail so that said writer can be allowed to move on and send out yet another plea for acceptance. This is old technology. Twentieth century. It’s gone. In this century a writer writes and edits and publishes and sells. His book can sell in Target for nine dollars or three dollars. Magnificent. Literature available to people who don’t make lots of money. What a novel idea! If you’re griping about Target selling books for nine dollars, you must not be buying books. Go watch His Girl Friday and pretend that typewriters still make newspapers.
And you know something else? The guy with the gun doesn’t care. He’ll always be there. He’s not going anywhere. All the publishers and book stores could burn and all the editors could go to their early graves, and you know what? The guy with the gun is still gonna getcha. He’s going to find you wherever you go. He’s alive.
Reverend Billy Wants New York City and He Can Have It
This is a short documentary called The Gospel According to Reverend Billy, from an outfit called Syndicate of Human Image Traffickers. This guy looks like a preacher but he’s decidedly against what most preachers seem to be preaching in our angelic little country. He’s Reverend Billy and he’s running for mayor in New York City. He thinks Mayor Bloomberg is a corporate Wall Street guy who represents the takeover of the monoculture. He’s right. I lived in New York for eight years in the 1980s. I remember it as being rough, exciting, nervous, overly work-oriented, and dirty. I visited just a few months ago. It’s now an open-air mall with a Starbucks and a Gap. Gee, thanks Rudi Guiliani for your cleanup. Micky Mouse would feel right at home on Times Square. New York is also home to the several thousand creeps on Wall Street who are personally responsible for trashing the U.S. economy and running criminal scams on a worldwide scale. Well, at least we know where they all live, right? When I lived in the city I worked with many different types of people in many businesses. I would always give the same advice to my friends and acquaintances who were looking for jobs: Never Never Never work for the money people. They are vicious and very poorly educated. I recall working for one of the biggest real estate investors in all of New York. He owned some of the famous big buildings. He was also prone to throwing insults around and yelling at employees. He spent eight hours per day for a full week having meetings in his office about the design for his new closet at home. On Friday at about 1:00 pm he emerged to ask me about a pile of papers I was supposed to have finished that week. I had put them all untouched in a pile that I labeled ‘Complete.’ He picked them up and riffled through them for several minutes. Then he threw them at me and screamed, ‘What the f— do you think you’re doing?’ I picked up the phone while giving him a giant smile and called my employment agency. I said, ‘I’m going to put you on the phone with Mr.____ and I’d like you to tell him to kiss my ass.’
As I walked down the hall, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘Don’t you people ever even think about sending an a-hole like that over here again!’
Yep, that’s the kind of New York SOB I was back in the 80s. And I haven’t learned a thing. I’d still do it on any sunny Friday afternoon.
New York has about as much cultural energy now as Dallas, Texas. It’s like a zombie apocalypse in Manhattan. Everyone looks like they’re trudging to the office on a Sunday. The East Side – Woody Allen’s favorite – is the land of strange men in khaki dockers who buy baskets in small stores. I’m not sure why Reverend Billy would give a damn about being mayor of a dead city but he’s got my vote of confidence if he wants it.
As for the preacher bit, I’m not sure I like it. It’s some kind of a joke or then again maybe not. He likes the vocal patterns of the preacher for sure, but that’s not all of it. Couldn’t he borrow the vocal technique of the preacher without the costume? Oh nevermind, that would be Bill Clinton.
Via Coilhouse
Happy Halloween!
Enormous Whale Swimming Through Internet
There’s a huge blue whale swimming the internet. It’s monstrous. Life-size. This is no laughing matter. You should see this thing. It’s gigantic and blue. The mouth alone could swallow you whole. You could probably live inside this creature for a few weeks at least.
Want to see it? The ginormous blue whale is right here.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society had something to do with perpetrating this gargantuan act of underwater mammal-watching.
Problem With Nook eBook Reader?
I’m looking at this new e-reader from Barnes & Noble called the nook and I’m a little worried. It’s that split screen. The top is an e-Ink display for reading your books. But the bottom is a color LCD. Look at that picture. I don’t know about most readers, but I certainly don’t want that row of book covers staring me in the face as I read. Can one totally black that screen out while reading? What else shows up in there? Ads? Does anything move around to distract the reader?
I don’t know about this nook thing. I’ve got doubts.
Prosecute George W. Bush for Murder
Famed Charles Manson prosecutor and three time #1 New York Times bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi wants former President George W. Bush indicted for murder. Bush and his vice-president Dick Cheney misled the nation into a brutal and needless invasion of Iraq which has resulted in the deaths of nearly 4,000 American soldiers. They should both be indicted by a Grand Jury and tried for murder. Absolutely no question about it. The string of lies that they told in order to accomplish an invasion and put a sovereign nation under the control of a private corporation is the equivalent of what Nazi Germany was doing in the buildup to World War II. It was a criminal act against both Iraq and the United States. It amounts to treason and is punishable in the severest sense.
We need more people like Mr. Bugliosi around. Everybody’s afraid. Afraid to offend. Afraid to be angry. Afraid to make nasty comments on a web site. What’s up with this country? Bugliosi’s aggressive and sustained argument for prosecution is exactly what is needed.
Continue reading
Film About Ingmar Bergman’s House
Ingmar Bergman, the magnificent film director who most assuredly would have detested Woody Allen, lived on a Swedish island called Fårö. Diane Solway wrote an article for W Magazine about the island and she made this short film about her trip there.
Cellphones are Destroying People
Look at that cover. Look at exactly what’s going on there. Makes you almost cry, doesn’t it? It better. Because if it doesn’t, then baby you’ve got it coming. Chris Ware, one of our finest cartoonists did this cover for the New Yorker and made a comic strip for the issue.
I see people crossing streets while typing on their ‘devices.’ I see them driving and sitting in fine restaurants with their dates and they’re answering email and texting. Makes you want to walk over and plant a big kiss on some guy’s date right in front of him while he texts his mother. Would serve him right. People are not even remotely aware of other people anymore. They drive right through stop signs while texting or chatting on a cell phone. They wipe out entire families on freeways because they were trying to type, ‘OMG Heeee’s sooooo hot!!!!’
These people are simple dark abominations. They are fools who understand only how to be dead, dried husks that resemble human beings. They think they are part of the information overload and that they are multitasking through life. They’re just obliterating themselves.
Let me put it this way: if somebody sees you using your device, you’re not using it properly.
Sometimes I see a woman in the grocery store answer her cell phone and say something like, ‘Yes, honey, I’m in the grocery store. I’m looking for those little pepper things now.’
Do you know why the guy calls her there? I do. It’s because he thinks she’s cheating on him because he knows she wants to because he’s a total flaccid drip. That is why 99.9% of all cell phone calls on the planet are placed. That is why the cell phone economy works. It’s nervous people checking up on their significant others to make sure they’re still around.
You know I’m right. You’ve done it too. Haven’t you?
But look at this cover illustration and think about trying not to do such an awful thing to your kid this Halloween. Try hard, because that kid will never forget that little screen in your face.