Short
Hotdog Hustle from Tom Hunter on Vimeo.
Photography
Links
“The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.”
A well shot, well edited documentary that is topical and late at the same time. It was good to hear a few dissenting views on the subject, namely that technology making everyone an artist can lead to mass-mediocrity, but overall the subject was the same as we’ve been hearing: THERE ARE NO MORE EXCUSES FOR NOT MAKING STUFF.
The doc is available for FREE and for MONEY, with no difference in quality between them.
Art
Luis Riuz via Urban Sketcher.
Week 32
I have been trying to do that combination of relaxing and working to create an atmosphere of creative intake as well as output. You know, like a writer. So far, this means I have the iPod on me at all times to tell me not only what time it is and what my objectives for the day are, but also what day it is and what the hell I’ve been doing since I woke up.
I don’t understand how farmers can keep their crop rotation in their heads. If I left the house with empty pockets I’d be convincing myself it doesn’t matter what day it is by the end of the first block, because I probably left myself with enough time to get somewhere because I’m usually pretty good at that for me, right? Wait, did I lock the front door?
All of which was happening while the MegaUpload “compound” (rented mansion) was being stormed by police in New Zealand. Police found the owner in a panic room (protected by “technical looking things”) with a shotgun and seized his 20 cars on the way out.
Fuck?
READING
I re-read Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run on Daredevil, as it always was definitely something that brought me back into comics full-time. If I remembered the order, it was something like Ultimate Spider-Man for free on the web and the introduction of trades into book stores. I wouldn’t be able to track what came first, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Sin City, but it did all start somewhere around there. I remember buying an issue for a quarter and furiously going back and finding what I was missing. Flipping through them all, god, those covers… I love comics.
I’ve also been reading CHILD OF GOD by Cormac McCarthy, which leaves a filthy taste in my mouth.
I’ve also taken to FILM CRIT HULK’s column on Badass Digest, which I sincerely hope he releases in POD form. The information on screenwriting and the myth of the three act structure and acting all deserve to be collected somewhere, not because it’s original, but because it’s fresh, well conceived and well laid out. If you look at the screenwriting section of a book store, you won’t find an argument on the form, you’ll find McKee and you’ll find the three act structure. Writing books, like other self-help books, sell on simplicity, understandability and confidence building, rather than results. So the easier someone can break down something as “LOOK AT THIS SIMPLE SECRET INGREDIENT… IN THE BUSINESS WE CALL IT ACT TWO” the more it sells and the less research you have to do because if it sells well, it must be right, right? FILM CRIT HULK has none of that shit and it’s pleasant to read.
WATCHING
I watched eight episodes of FIREFLY today. I have no regrets on the subject.
I saw HAYWIRE in theaters on opening night and was treated to a full row of older women sitting behind me. One shifted her foot and kicked my chair every five minutes. We would have moved, the theater was mostly empty otherwise, but they were of the kind of dunces that feel the need to speak every vacant thought they have in every wasted moment of their empty lives. And their gibberish was hilarious.
Golden lines included:
10 seconds into the first trailer: “Is this a trailer?” “What movie is this?”
20 seconds into the first trailer: “We need to see this!”
Right before final showdown, ten minutes after the reveal: “I think Kenneth is up to something.”
End of film: “Well that was two hours!” (It was an hour and a half.)
THE GUARD was great and reminded me a lot of IN BRUGES. Not just because I missed it in theaters because the trailer was mediocre. Not just because I think I saw something instead that I can’t even remember a single moment from (IN BRUGES was skipped in favour of THE BANK JOB, which all I can remember is that it featured Jason Statham and maybe a Bank). But MOSTLY because THE GUARD was written by John Michael McDonagh, brother of Martin McDonagh, who wrote IN BRUGES. Oh, and Martin exec produced it.
It’s definitely a first film, but it’s clear, the acting’s great and the language is fantastic. “Racist? I’m Irish. Racism is my culture.”
Fuck, what a family that is. Bloody Irish. How I adore it.
WORKING
Back to London this week. Back to looking harder for work tomorrow. Not that I want to, but I need to.
I’ve been writing a lot of sketches for some reason lately. After finishing a ten-pack of CANADA – THE INSTRUCTIONAL SERIES sketches, I revisited Monty Python and the form and logic is so enticing it’s hard to not just do that for a little while. My biggest flaw is that I can never seem to write one sketch, I always seem to find a way to write or develop a series of them. Like yesterday I wrote the first in what could be a series titled GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE, about Fessenden’s first radio broadcast. I can’t just create the small box and fold it up nice and tight. I always find a way to sprawl.
This helps when making new things, but not when you just want to write something and call it done. Why can’t I just write a simple parody of something I hate? Who fucking knows.
So I’m going to try some more with that this week. See if I can maintain steam.
Short
Photography
Source: j-golveo
Week 31
Support the SOPA blackout, yes, but am Canadian, so keep on, I guess. Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Canada if SOPA passed though, as a mighty exodus of tech might happen, leading to a digital prohibition era level of bootlegging the web. Piracy has always been a point of contention that borders cannot solve. We know that the majority of downloading piracy happens outside of the US for the expressed purposes of foreign languages. The bulk of streaming, on the other hand, is for English speakers. From what I understand, the bulk of servers are in smaller European countries anyway. Skype is in Luxembourg.
Microsoft talked about it, but maybe it’s time for Google to make an off-shore independent island and nation.
Then there’s other problems, like release dates. Sherlock Series 2 is done in Britain and North America has to wait until May. Movies premiere in Hong Kong a month or more before North America. Why? The world is smaller and timing matters.
This is the week that I finally lose patience with my iPad keyboard, which stops fucking noticing the iPod is sitting on top of it. It’s currently prostrate on my desk and acting up as if I were dangling it like a toddler out of a window. I’ve got to find a replacement and find it soon, because I like writing on my iPad. I find the features so restrictive I have no choice but to write and write fast, ignoring all formatting, details and etc.
Restrictions in a very clear way help to move things along, just like discomfort precipitates action.
READING
I just finished AUDITION by Ryu Murakami. I breezed through it this afternoon. The prose is sparse and the detail on par with a screenplay. I’ve missed the movie for years, it was usually out of stock at the video store and I’d never heard enough of it to warrant buying or borrowing, but knowing now what I know about Takashi Miike, I am looking forward to it.
The prose being as sparse as it is though, like the BRICK novella, you get the feeling that they wrote the story to attract a film interest. The book being a means to an end is an interesting to way look at it, just like how everything else we do these days is a dash on our resume for something else. The risk, of course, is writing a bad book, but you could just as easily write a bad screenplay or record awful music or draw poorly.
I finished the Carl Banks collection, DONALD DUCK – LOST IN THE ANDES and it was delightful in every way. The gags were funny and the art was clean and the new colouring outstanding. Reading it really opened up some new sensibilities that Dark Horse and other reprints will let me explore another time. Until then, I’ve got INFINITE KUNG-FU and a pile of other things to read.
I’ve continued plodding through AND HERE’S THE KICKER, which I love. The Dick Cavett interview made me keep brevity in mind. Todd Hanson explains that The Onion works in pitching Headlines first, selection the 6-8 from a list of a hundred, discarding the rest and then writing the articles (which explains why the headlines are usually the funniest part, but still). Robert Smigel talks about being subversive in mainstream setting (in a sweater, he says), where Bob Odenkirk doesn’t want you in the audience if you don’t get it.
WATCHING
The new FRIGHT NIGHT was fun. Turns out I did miss Colin Farrell after not seeing him outside of IN BRUGES for a little while. I also watched MYSTERY TEAM, the Derrick Comedy movie. It was funny in that it played it completely straight and stuck to it’s core thesis. It was definitely Donald Glover heavy, but that could have happened for any number of reasons.
I’ve also enjoyed another episode of FRY’S PLANET WORD, where Stephen Fry travels the world and examines the origins, context and content of language. The fifth episode goes into storytelling and argues, irrelevantly, that Shakespeare is the finest example of which that has ever existed. It’s always pleasant to see Stephen walk around the world and talk about things of which he is passionate about, but this series especially comes off as a fun watch.
The SHERLOCK series 2 is stuck under my craw at the moment. 10.5 million people watched the premiere on January 1, plus whatever the BBC iPlayer pulled. The DVD comes out the 25th, or so. And North America doesn’t get it until May, leaving pirates enough time to make it so available that one could trip over it. Not to mention the spoilers.
I’ve got to wonder exactly what the deal is from Showtime, compared to what could be done now. Showtime gets second window viewing, three months after the fact so the BBC can run it, what, two, three times? And if you pull a FIRST viewing at 10.5 million, what could the damage be of putting it on iTunes at 2 bucks a pop and waiting for it. Hell, put it up the second it starts airing. Worldwide release, available at a price.
Even if that doesn’t make fiscal sense right now, it will in a few years. And then we begin to see the decline of the network system.
LISTENING
Rdio seems to insist that Adele is similar to The Black Keys. Other than that, it seems to be a mistake to listen to the Rolling Stone and David Bowie, as that opens up a cornicopia of shit that I never want to hear being recommended to me with great regularity.
That said, the amount of rare and bizarre things that keep popping up is making me pleased. The Damned doing Lust For Life. The Buff Medways. EPs and otherwise. I look forward to digging deeper.
WORKING
Plans are beginning to shift monumentally, as I begin sectioning off my year. It’s be nice to start seeing some pages, as I start worrying about Specs and Originals once again. The package has to come together by May and the decision stands between NEW GIRL (picked up) and COMMUNITY (questionable fate at the moment) and PARKS AND REC. Then the dramatic choice between WHISKEYTOWN and THE RIGHT STUFF must be made to balance out the package.
CHARLEMAGNE, as it is, causes me such resistance that I should put it aside with the draft that I have and come back to it when I actually can make some distance with it.
Art
Short
Storm Origins from claudiu voicu on Vimeo.
