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[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 29, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Friday, August 29th, 2008And your birthday suit’s looking good too
Back in 2003, I became convinced (probably because of my own goldfish-like attention span) that the real future of film and video entertainment would be in any content that lasts less than twenty minutes. Around that time, Fox Searchlabs was launched, offering amazingly well-conceived and produced shorts created by up-and-comers at Fox Searchlight, usually shorts less than 10-15 minutes long. Even that recently, streaming video was a bit of a joke, but especially with the advent of streaming HD, this is becoming a really viable media (especially with services like Joost). Some favorites of mine from that pre-YouTube era include Hang Time, the video at left; Farm Sluts, about a guy who loses his job because of a porn-infected e-mail he receives at work; and The Birthday Suit, about a 50-year-old mom and businesswoman who has a little misunderstanding about her birthday gift. Fox Searchlab is still on line, but for newer high-quality shorts you can check out sites like NiceShorts.com or TheSmalls.com
Learning To Read Can Be Creepy
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 21, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, August 21st, 2008Run Wrake’s animated short film “Rabbit”
I don’t recommend watching this animated film over your morning cup of coffee. Your day probably just won’t feel quite right from then on. Using a familiar style of imagery from a childrens’ learn-to-read book, Run Wrake creates a macabre reality that only Brueghel and Roald Dahl would feel at home in. You can watch the little clip at left, but it’s more effective in the native YouTube scale, or better yet, download the higher-resolution version (QuickTime file) from Run Wrake’s web site. On a side note, that YouTube link appears to be unauthorized, calling the film “Idol”, when in fact it’s called “Rabbit”. Whatever. Creepiness has never been so eerily beautiful.
Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on August 18, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Monday, August 18th, 2008Buried Lyndon? Full Cardboard Jacket? A Boxwork Orange?
As a rather rabid Kubrick fan and generally mild-mannered obsessive-compulsive myself, I was riveted to the screen by Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, Jon Ronson’s documentary about the thousands of boxes that Kubrick amassed as he did meticulous research for each film. Originally aired as part of the “True Stories” series that ran on Channel 4 in the UK, there are rumors of a US broadcast coming soon on the Sundance Channel. In the meantime, try watching the entire 49 minutes (Google Video) or in several parts on YouTube. At least, that is, until there’s a takedown notice. By the way, I’d give my left kidney to own a copy of the limited first run of The Stanley Kubrick Archives
How To Get A Head In Life
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 16, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Saturday, August 16th, 200818 Ways to Morph Your Photo On Line
You’ve probably seen the Elf Yourself ad campaign or the MyHeritage Celebrity Lookalike gizmo , but Mashable.com shows us 18 Ways to Get Your Head in the Game. Upload a picture of yourself to any of a number of sites, and soon you can be one of the Villlage People, a Wanted Criminal, or see your face on the cover of Rockstar magazine . Before you know it, you will have wasted an afternoon, and want to come back here and kill me for it. The Morphable image on the left is from MyHeritage. It was a little disturbing to find that I look like Bruce Willis and Howard Dean (and who the heck is Stephen Chow, anyway) but Drew Barrymore? If only I looked like Drew…my lesbian friends all adore her, she always gets a great table at restaurants…the only drawback would be being chased by whack jobs like Tom Green…Anyway, feel free to post links to your results in the comments.
How To Frighten Hogs
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 14, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, August 14th, 2008Some contests you’d maybe rather not win…
When my ten seconds of Internet fame comes, I hope it’s not like this. When I first saw this clip the other day, I thought “Wow, Mrs. Numa Numa“. Sure enough, it caught on like cholera by Wednesday…