Porn Industry Focusing More on Sex than Dialog and Plot
Lights, Camera, Lots of Action. Forget the Script
I’m sure The Onion has written that headline before, but they’re really cutting drastically and making shorter films tailored for the web. From the NyTimes article:
The actress known as Savanna Samson once relished preparing for a role. “I couldn’t wait to get my next script,” she said.
There’s no reason to look at them anymore, she said, because her movies now call almost exclusively for action. Specifically, sex.
Such a pity that porn movies are focusing on the sex. That’s sure to get fans all mad. But in all seriousness and what I think it all boils down to. You just can’t be horny and at the same time care for a character’s feelings and intentions. That’s just totally creepy and awkward. Don’t agree? Try watching an episode of HBO’s cancelled Tell Me You Love Me or the movie Showgirls and follow the story.
The World is Full of Crashing Bores
Enough Already: What I Really Like to Tell the Bores in My Life
“What is it with bores? I mean the sort of people who always have to hold the floor. They talk constantly at you, hurling their words like spears, each one tiny enough but nearly deadly in their collective effect. Almost all bores seem to have been born with, or to have developed, an amazing capacity: they can talk and take in air at the same time, so there’s never a moment to drop in your own two cents. On they go. They take no interest in you or anything about you; at best, you’re a stage prop in the one-person drama that they compose, produce, and star in. These are the people who like to proclaim that they are about to make a long story short, when what they usually do is make no story at all interminable. They’re the people who clear their throats, look you in the eye, and, with great finality, say, “My point is . . . ,” then proceed to ramble on with no point whatever in sight. They’re the people whose idea of human interaction seems to be turning up the volume on the monologue that’s always going on in their heads.”
Here’s the thing though. There are people that are definitely “bores”. People that don’t have any idea what the word conversation means. But a 5 thousand word essay about people that can’t shut up sounds to me like a pot calling a kettle black. Interesting read nonetheless. Like the philosopher Mr Morrissey has cleverly pointed out: The world is full/ so full of crashing bores/ and I must be one/ cos no one ever turns to me to say: ‘take me in your arms / take me in your arms and love me’
Ode to The Indie Film
The video makes fun of the “indie” film formula and it managed to actually embarrass me. Guilty. I find bearded intellectuals and sad Bill Murray compelling.
via Flavorwire
Mediaite Launches
New news aggregator site called Mediaite just launched. “The website of and about the media”, says the intro note by Dan Abrams. Rex Sorgatz over at Fimoculous gives an in depth overview of the site. Mediaite’s notable section is something called the Power Grid, which ranks journalists, news anchors, and other media types.
Fuck Yeah Single Topic Tumblelogs
The Allure of Crowd-Sourced, Single Topic Blogs
Slate’s overview of single topic blogs that are mostly photo Tumblr blogs like This is Why you’re Fat, Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves, the infamous Look at this Fucking Hipster of course, and many, many more. They’re popping up every day like chickenpox.
“Every week, two or three new such single-themed pages seem to break into the Web’s consciousness. When I put out a call for such sites on Twitter, I got back a list of more than 30, including It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It! (ugly photos from real estate listings), Awkward Family Photos, Owl Tattoos, Sad Guys on Trading Floors, Cake Wrecks (snaps of misguided cakes, like these hysterectomy-celebrating, uterus-shaped ones), and Asleep on the Subway(”Because seeing people fall asleep on the subway is a universal language.”).”
God is in the Details
Before I talk about the video, let me start by saying that I’m an agnostic-atheist, exactly in that order. I’m completely ambivalent about the existence of “God” in the philosophical sense. As I understand it, to be agnostic is to understand and accept that the “first cause”, which is the most simple way of saying “god”, a “creator”, or a force, can never be proven or vice versa. But in terms of deities, sacred texts, dogma, and basically organized religion, I’m completely an atheist. I’m certain that Jesus Christ, Yaweh, or Allah are a figment of the imaginations of the founders of those religions. And I understand that religion is not just about believing in unnatural phenomena and that it’s about giving society a moral compass, but morality is not as simple as “good and evil” or “heaven and hell”.
What does all of this have to do with the video? Don’t know how intentionally the video was made to comment on religion, but it definitely strikes a chord with the issue. The video is for the song-single Det snurrar i min skalle by the Swedish Depeche-Mode-sounding band Familjen. It features stock footage of a fundamentalist church preacher, a creepy Charles Manson looking guy playing an accordion, a catatonic kid playing the drums, and a robust lady being cast out a demon. All of it flawlessly syncopated to the song, repeated until turning you into a trance like state, with black and white circle images “subliminally” encoded.
One thing that religion got right, (and atheist, agnostics, and believers tend to agree) is the natural human need for ritual and spirituality. I don’t care what people say, everyone worships something. Everyone has a ritual and has had a spiritual experience in life. It could be hobbies, careers, drugs, or art. Like many, I happen to worship music. It’s a kind of addiction to the feeling of “amazingness”. This video manages that and then some. It’s kind of meta if you think about it. A commentary inside a commentary. Fundamentalist church people always warn about the dangers of popular music, with their hidden Satanic messages and all that. This video spins that idea on them, and they’re the ones that end up looking scary and even “satanic”. But at the same time, that scary imagery syncopated so cleverly to the music is so compelling managing to transfer that feeling, at least to me, that there’s something out there that’s bigger than we are.
I Click, Therefore I Am
From Thinkers to Clickers: The World Wide Web and the Transformation of the Essence of Being Human
Essay about all things clicking and how it has become into a human need like breathing, eating, and looking for shelter.
As they click on one hyperlink after another, they often forget the initial question to which they were trying to find an answer. This is because the Web offers many distractions to its users in the form of ever changing content, links that are either obsolete or lead to completely new and different Web sites, and pop-ups and banners that advertise goods and services. Often times, as people aimlessly click their way through cyberspace, hyperclick hysteria sets in, and people lose their bearings in cyberspace and have to click their way back to more familiar cyber territories.
Bolded to highlight that while I don’t think the above link is obsolete, the essay was written in 2003. So there you go.
Thought Leader Battle Royal – Round 3
In a surprising move, bald marketing guru Seth Godin tagged Anderson, and betrayed his intellectual buddy. The drama ensues.
Conde Nast (publisher of the Wired (Chris’s magazine) and yes, theNew Yorker (Malcolm’s magazine)), is going to go out of business long before you get sick, never mind die. So will newspapers printed on paper. They’re going to disappear before you do. I’m not wishing for this to happen, but by refusing to build new digital assets that matter, traditional publishers are forfeiting their future.
