Popular Media
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Euro Comedy Group Grotesco’s “The Trial”
[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 27, 2011 by admin in Popular Media
Sunday, February 27th, 2011Finally, the Swedes get some comedic revenge for all those Swedish Chef clips on The Muppets, with an hilarious look at American courtroom drama, viewed through European eyes.
 A typical American. At least through the eyes of Swedish comedy group “Grotesco”. |
I’ve always found it interesting that Swedish Chef – one of the liberal progressive Muppets who were otherwise best known for touting the virtues of political correctness and equalism – mocked the real Swedish tongue using a pidgin Swedish vocabulary consisting mostly of variations of the words “dirga” and “doinga”. Words which may have the same root as the Pidgin Arabic phrase “dirka dirka” from the movie Team America: World Police
Australian Film Collective Blue Tongue Films
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 17, 2011 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, February 17th, 2011My love of short film is partly due to my short attention span, and the remarkably talented filmmakers of Blue Tongue Films provide a OH! LOOK! A BUNNY!
Nash Edgerton, an Australian fellow who was at one time an aspiring stuntman, has pulled off an even greater stunt by creating a collective of exceptionally talented filmmakers called Blue Tongue Films. I’ve mentioned before how – thanks to my goldfish-like attention span – I’m a bit of short film addict, so while discovering the treasure trove of quality shorts that Blue Tongue has made available via their YouTube channel has given me a huge fix, the sheer volume and quality of their output may unfortunately require checking into film junky rehab when I’m done booting up. I hadn’t heard of Blue Tongue until today, but this NYT piece from last spring outlines how the collaborative formed over the last few years, eventually evolving into a full blown production company that develops its various members’ work in a cooperative fashion perhaps reminiscent of filmmaker friends like Scorsese, De Palma, and Schrader, or Tarantino and Rodriguez. So far I’ve only watched the shorts Netherland Dwarf and Spider (featured below), but both of these films embody mature conception, execution, and production values that make it evident these filmmakers aren’t just talented dabblers. And their feature film Animal Kingdom – although I personally haven’t seen it – adds weight to that assessment; it won a World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance last year. They have a number of other feature length films in production, and, as I said, plenty of shorts to whet your appetite. Which is why I’m going to just shut up now, and get back to perusing some of the highest quality shorts I’ve seen in a while. Read the rest of this entry »
Media Whore Smackdown: WikiLeaks vs OpenLeaks vs HBGary vs Anonymous
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 10, 2011 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, February 10th, 2011vs Joe Lieberman vs Amazon vs PayPal vs The Banks vs… aw, never mind. In the end, the big star of this international cyberdrama is someone who doesn’t even have a HEAD.
 Before attempting to bring someone to their knees, you might take note of whether or not they have a head. |
I am a comment-trolling, link-baiting attention whore. Just thought I’d get that out of the way, lest you get the impression that the pot doesn’t know that it’s black. That being said, could someone please step into the kitchen and pop up some popcorn? I’m afraid that if I step away from the computer for a moment, I’ll miss something, and won’t be able to figure out who the villains and heroes are in the continually unfolding drama that began with WikiLeaks’ bold venture into international whistleblowing. By now we all know the smug, squinty-eyed face of the fellow named Julian Assange. He calls himself a journalist and author. Some people have other labels for him, like traitor, international security threat, or rapist. Or cat abuser. But regardless of whether you admire him, think he should die, or something in between, it’s hard to ignore the fact that he’s something of an egotistical attention whore. My personal opinion is that I can put up with that, provided it doesn’t destroy the positive aspect of his pursuits, which is the revelation of truths that the powerful think should remain secret. Because knowledge is indeed power, and when people who lust mostly for power try to sequester knowledge, you get things like a Nazi Party. Or a Kremlin. Or perhaps the Washington DC of the near future, if we’re not vigilant. Originally the only real star of the WikiLeaks Show, we questioned back in December whether Assange could handle the celebrity. This has become less of an issue, because if you’ve stayed tuned in, you know the show has come to rely on more of an ensemble cast. While big names like Lieberman, MasterCard, Amazon, and B-listers like Glenn Greenwald and Michael Moore had some interesting walk-ons, it was the relatively unknown Anonymous, from….well hell, we don’t know WHERE Anonymous is from, do we? In any case, in a surprise Oscar-worthy performance, it was Anonymous that became the hot new name in LeakyWood. First by taking down has-beens and also-rans like MasterCard/Visa, Joe Lieberman, the Swedish Prosecution Authority, PayPal and Amazon in defense of WikiLeaks, and more recently by taking down Aaron Barr and HBGary Federal (here’s a screen grab of HBGary’s site after Anonymous had hacked it), mostly because, well, Aaron Barr was a self-impressed dimwit who thought he could make a bunch of money with your tax dollars by partnering with banks and the US government in a secret plan to kill Wikileaks with FUD, and gain a lot of fame for bringing Anonymous to its knees. He really should have pondered whether Anonymous even has knees, I mean, the fact that they don’t have a head should be a bit of a warning sign. If you’ve been too busy following tweets about the block parties in the Middle East, or fretting over whether Lindsay Lohan’s dress was appropriate attire for pleading not-guilty on felony charges, you may have missed the latest episode of the WikiLeaks Show, which really was less about WikiLeaks, and more about the ignorant bravado of the CEO of a “security firm” (now there’s a double misnomer for you) who claimed that he was going to make Anonymous less anonymous. Well, that didn’t turn out very well, now did it, Mr Barr? Count me as one of the more enthusiastic new members of the Anonymous Fan Club. And I’m not just saying that because I know they could take down my site and the hosting company that hosts it with a few keystrokes and perhaps a little social engineering, but because they’re the only actors in this epic drama that can use the term “bitchslap” and still manage to keep it classy. After turning Aaron Barr out on the street like the bum that he seems to be, they called off the dogs when he started crying like a baby, and as his former employers tried to wave the white flag by patronizing them in chat rooms (“Penny” starts in around line 520), the only demand they made was “hey, why don’t you donate a month’s salary to Bradley Manning’s defense fund?” Nice touch, Anonymous. Oh. Did we forget to mention? Michael Moore may be connected with an Assange movie, and *yawns* where were we? Oh yeah. That former WikiLeaks guy whose name we can’t remem z-z-z-z-z-z….wha? OH! Sorry. Dozed off for a second. That other WikiLeaks guy whose name we can never remember is releasing a tell-all book called Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website
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Is Celluloid’s Demise Finally Arriving?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 1, 2011 by admin in Popular Media
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011If you love seeing films at the theater, you better hurry. Within a couple years what you’re watching will almost certainly be coming from a hard drive.
When was the last time you went to a theater and saw a film? I guess that depends on what you call a “film”, because there’s a reasonably good chance that what you saw was data stored on a hard drive on a media server and projected with a digital projector. The other day I ran across this rather charming clip (also below) that features a film projectionist talking about his job, and how that job is slowly becoming a relic. If you really love film, you may have the same fondness that I do for classic full-size theaters, and have a certain irrational attachment to all the things that go with them, including the distant clacking sound of an actual film projector. As much as I generally prefer this archaic process to work, one of my favorite theater experiences ever was when – in the middle of Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold & Volkswagen’s “Fun Theory”
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 24, 2011 by admin in Popular Media
Monday, January 24th, 2011Hey, you got movie in my product placement! We’re really not sure if this is an article about the pervasiveness of advertising, or a pitch for the seventeen brands mentioned.
 This article was not brought to you by these seventeen sponsors. |
I’ve wanted to have children for a long time, but given the expense of raising them and sending them to school these days, I decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t pursue this 20+ year investment until I could find a corporate sponsor. I jest (I think), but as absurd as this idea sounds, can it really be far off? We’re all more aware of than we were even just a few years ago of how much advertising has become part of the fabric of daily life rather than something we’re “exposed to” from the outside. One of the first great coups was probably when cable television found an audience. There was a time when you could buy a TV and immediately start watching free programs, with your only additional payment being the punishment of occasional commercial interruptions. This was actually a pretty good deal. In fact, the commercials provided a nice break during which you could get up and grab a soda or make a sandwich from the horrifying meat products they might be advertising. But suddenly, one day, you found yourself paying through the nose for the same experience, only with more ads, and the possibility of your programs being shut off if you missed paying the bill. Another great advertising breakthrough was Star Wars
