What They Found

Loved this quote on ISO50, the blog of artist and musician Scott Hansen, from a post about how professional creatives get past creative blocks.

I go on a long run, bike ride, walk with the dog; Anything but work on the project. Good ideas are stored in fat so if I burn some off I can free them up and use em.

- Justin Krietemeyer, of National Forest

<via kottke>

He’s Back! Seems like Craig Mitchell, of the previously mentioned MyBoot fame, is back from obscurity and taking a stab at finishing his novella, She Hates My Futon. His new website (around since November 2009), FamousBoot.com, hosts the original chapters along with accounts of further progress (and distractions…naked distractions). Craig willing, we’ll finally have a conclusion/closure to his novella masterpiece. Like I said, give it a read, get sucked in, and then join the throng of addicted fans pressuring him for a conclusion. Thanks to Scott for the heads up. Life is indeed good.

So, in honor of MLK Jr. day (a bit late, but the internet was down), here’s a poorly themed picture post from a walkabout around San Antonio.  Yes, perhaps black and white is a poor choice, considering the spirit of the day.  It’s just what happened to catch my eye.  Plus, the brown and white of the last one is quite appropriate for San Antonio.

http://www.theawl.com/2009/12/flicked-off-with-mary-hk-choi-avatar

“Avatar” is staggering. It’s seismic. Evolutionarily speaking it is cladogenesis in a thunderclap. Punctuating the balls outta equilibrium. Think about it: You can’t bit torrent this shit. And even if some very industrious pillager cops the glasses and figures out how to do it in the way it was intended to be seen, that person is a hope rapist that should be shot in the face for dream treason because James Cameron and a gang of wizards made this beautiful, beautiful thing for us—in 2009 of all years. We should ALL hold hands about it.

That interview, courtesy of TheAwl.com, takes home the gold for sheer unbridled vulgar enthusiasm.  Best review I’ve read so far.  I ended up seeing Avatar twice (in 3d, there is no other way), and from the reviews I’ve read, I guess it’s redundant to throw in my two cents.   It was an incredibly amazing piece of work and truly staggering in what it achieved visually.  The characters came as close to the uncanny valley as I’ve ever seen without falling in (though technically they weren’t recreating truly human faces, per se…that’s just nitpicking), and the attention to the expressiveness of the eyes and mouths of the cgi characters allowed you to forget that you were basically watching cartoons for 3 hours and become immersed in the world that Cameron so painstakingly created.   Yes, the story was simplistic (dances with wolves/pocahontas with smurfs),  and yes, “hamfisted” seems to be tossed around in a lot of the reviews of the dialogue, but that’s not the point.  It’s the immensity and detail and reality of the cgi world, along with the well-integrated 3d effects that will set the bar for cgi/3d movies to come.

Of course, it also affirms the prophecy set by the recently departed author David Foster Wallace [1] in his 1998 essay, F/X porn“, which skewers big F/X blockbusters (namely Terminator 2) for their similarity to hard-core porn, and all but lays out the formula that some claim Avatar followed.  

It’s a good read, even if you’re not familiar with DFW, merely for a segue into this next little gem, the first 10 minutes of a 70 minute (yes, 70, more than an hour) evisceration of George Lucas and the steaming pile of true F/X porn that was the Phantom Menace.  

**NSFW**

I’m sad to admit that I watched all 70 minutes (yay unemployment).  It gets pretty weird after the first one, but looking past the whole “serial killer kidnapping hookers in his basement” stuff, the man wields the truth like Thor’s hammer until there’s really not much left for Lucas’s bastardization of the Star Wars franchise to stand on.  Just watch the first one and see if you don’t get hooked.

Footnotes

[1]Obligatory footnote.

On the heels of the music video post…

Jason Forrest - War Photographer

Vikings.  Giant robots.  Marching bands.  Funk.  Rock. What more do you want?

<via pitchfork.com’s 100 Awesome Music Videos>

Techno/Electronic music is one of those genres that some people just don’t “get.”  They hear the same noises, samples, and loops, over and over, without appreciating the subtler shifts and variations and choreography of sounds.  In a way, it’s a lot like classical music, where listening with a careful ear can change the experience completely.   Way back when, I was a wee little nerd and my musical tastes didn’t stray past orchestrated movie soundtracks until a fateful CD opened my eyes/ears.  Cue the Lost in Space Soundtrack.  Half orchestrated soundtrack, half techno.  Thanks to Crystal Method and company, I came to appreciate a whole new world of music that rewarded the engaged listener (at least, when done well).  Anyways, here’s two examples of physically visualizing the layering and interaction of elements that make techno so great (click the pictures for videos).  Strangely enough, they’re both directed by Michel Gondry, a powerhouse director of music videos

Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

On a train? In a box? With a fox?

Daft Punk  - Around the World

Just in time for Halloween

**Bonus:  Courtesy of the Lost in Space soundtrack, a strangely fitting/mildly disturbing claymation video set to “I’m Here(Another Planet)” by Juno Reactor and the Creatures ( the Creatures was a side project of Siouxsie (a la Siouxsie and the Banshees), Juno Reactor just sampled them.)

**Double Bonus: ville.2k presents the 101 best music videos of the decade. Plenty of audiovisual goodness.  Also liking D.A.N.C.E. by Justice, for the groovy bass line and the creative video.
<via fimoculous>

Michel Gondry seems to have a prevalent influence (6 of the top 52), and for good reason. He was also responsible for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a visually trippy movie in itself.

**Triple Bonus: Apparently Michel Gondry also directed “Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor”, a la Flight of the Conchords.  Not as technically impressive, but funny none-the-less.

MyBoot.com (the original site is gone, but thanks to the wonder of web archives its ghost will haunt the web forever)

Where to begin?  I can’t even remember how I found the site, back in the era of America Online  and the WHASSUUUUUUP commercials. It’s been a while, but Craig Mitchell’s 23-part Novella “She Hates My Futon” is still just as readable as it was back in 1999 when I discovered it, and still just as incomplete.  Essentially, it’s the allegedly true story of the author’s exploits after signing up with the “Girlfriend Express” dating agency.  Coming from me, this sounds pretty unenticing.  However, the author is one of those natural story tellers with a great writing style.  The perils of dating single mothers, 80’s nostalgia, team naked, rocket ship playground slide sex.  There’s a reason I’m not the only person wondering what happened to him or why he never finished this piece of work.  A copy of the full text can be found here if you happen to enjoy it, and I hope you do.

I just stumbled on a new, TED-like site, Fora.tv.  According to Fora’s about page,

“FORA.tv helps intelligent, engaged audiences get smart. Our users find, enjoy, and share videos about the people, issues, and ideas changing the world.

We gather the web’s largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates going on all the time at the world’s top universities, think tanks and conferences. We present this provocative, big-idea content for anyone to watch, interact with, and share –when, where, and how they want.

With our community of savvy users and an extensive, growing library of smart videos, FORA.tv is at the forefront of the ongoing integration - and transformation – of the traditional media, TV, cable, and online industries from mass-market to high-quality, high-value content.”

Plenty of nosh for your noggin.  Coincidentally, here’s another talk by Ken Robinson about learning to be creative and encouraging creativity in all walks of life.  The topics range from creativity, passion, and education, to  standardized testing,  climate change, and industrialization.  It’s a good listen, but about an hour and a half long, so hunker down for the long haul or listen till you’re bored, whichever comes first.