Dead Director's Society
Michelangelo Antonioni has died has died aged 94, right after another famous director, Ingmar Bergman lost his final game of chess on the beach with Death. Since famous folks like this normally go in threes, anyone care to bet on the next respected but aged director to vacate the Editing Room? I almost put Michael Winner on my Director's Dead Pool, but since it is for respected elder directors he clearly isn't eligible...
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Shiny morning
A rarity this summer, a bright, sunlit morning. Crossing North Bridge, clear views right down the valley to the Forth, birds circling, riding the thermals rising from Arthur's Seat. And right below the bridge the zig-zag pattern of glass panels on roof of Waverley Station above the platforms; simple structure, nothing special about it until the breeze fluttered across and I could see there must have been some sort of plastic covering over the glass. As the wind caught them they rippled, catching the morning sunlight and causing glittering, sparkling starbursts, like sunshine catching the waves by the seashore and for a few seconds something ordinary and rather dull was beautiful and magical. I love when the city shows me something like that.
A rarity this summer, a bright, sunlit morning. Crossing North Bridge, clear views right down the valley to the Forth, birds circling, riding the thermals rising from Arthur's Seat. And right below the bridge the zig-zag pattern of glass panels on roof of Waverley Station above the platforms; simple structure, nothing special about it until the breeze fluttered across and I could see there must have been some sort of plastic covering over the glass. As the wind caught them they rippled, catching the morning sunlight and causing glittering, sparkling starbursts, like sunshine catching the waves by the seashore and for a few seconds something ordinary and rather dull was beautiful and magical. I love when the city shows me something like that.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Things you don't want to see...
...Raindrops pooling along the brim and then dripping off of your nice Panama hat you put on to keep the summer sun from your face as you went on a walk of several miles along the beach...
Of course, being Scotland it was still sunny as it rained. Another thing you don't want to see, raindrops running off the dark lenses of your sunglasses.
And add in a a t-shirt that was now two-tone, darker on the front where it was soaked and sticking to me (yes, ladies, you missed Joe's Wet T-Shirt Beach-a-thon, try to contain your disappointment or your lunch, depending on your point of view or inclination) and still the normal on the back where it was dry. Still being summer the rain was reasonably warm. And when the sun came back out again the rain made all of the plants glisten as if covered in diamonds.
...Raindrops pooling along the brim and then dripping off of your nice Panama hat you put on to keep the summer sun from your face as you went on a walk of several miles along the beach...
Of course, being Scotland it was still sunny as it rained. Another thing you don't want to see, raindrops running off the dark lenses of your sunglasses.
And add in a a t-shirt that was now two-tone, darker on the front where it was soaked and sticking to me (yes, ladies, you missed Joe's Wet T-Shirt Beach-a-thon, try to contain your disappointment or your lunch, depending on your point of view or inclination) and still the normal on the back where it was dry. Still being summer the rain was reasonably warm. And when the sun came back out again the rain made all of the plants glisten as if covered in diamonds.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Blogging meme
Normally I'm not mad on memes, those pesky little things that go round blogs and seem to be the web equivalent of the supposedly funny jokes or pictures that used to get faxed from office to office. And I got tagged twice with this same meme, as Ariel tagged me at the FPI blog for it and Big Dumb Object tagged me here at the Woolamaloo, no fair! But since this particular meme was to do with blogging I decided I'd take part; I considered being lazy and just repeating the tip I added for the FPI blog - don't be afraid to voice your own opinion, regardless if it flies in the face of many other opinions, as long as you can defend your reasons for it. But then I decided I'd go for another tip, a nice simple one, and add it to the previous ones on the list:
After adding my tip I'm supposed to tag up to another ten victims to pass this on to, which since I already had to do this over on the FPI blog is pushing it a bit, but anyway, here are a few more potential victims: Padraig, Katie, Von and Moggy, Dan Goldman, Hal Duncan, the Silvereel.
Normally I'm not mad on memes, those pesky little things that go round blogs and seem to be the web equivalent of the supposedly funny jokes or pictures that used to get faxed from office to office. And I got tagged twice with this same meme, as Ariel tagged me at the FPI blog for it and Big Dumb Object tagged me here at the Woolamaloo, no fair! But since this particular meme was to do with blogging I decided I'd take part; I considered being lazy and just repeating the tip I added for the FPI blog - don't be afraid to voice your own opinion, regardless if it flies in the face of many other opinions, as long as you can defend your reasons for it. But then I decided I'd go for another tip, a nice simple one, and add it to the previous ones on the list:
-Start Copy-
It’s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)
Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.
After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends! Just think- if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already!
1. Look, read, and learn. ***** -http://www.neonscent.com
2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. ****** -http://www.bushmackel.com
3. Don’t let money change ya! **** -http://www.therandomforest.info
4. Always reply to your comments. ***** -http://chattiekat.com
5. Link liberally — it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. ****
-http://chipsquips.com
6. Don’t give up - persistance is fertile. *** -http://www.velcro-city.co.uk
7. Give link credit where credit is due.*** -http://www.sfsignal.com
8. Follow your own path. Do anything you want to, it’s your blog. **
-http://www.bigdumbobject.co.uk
9. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can blog today. Backlogs are the primary cause of Bloggers’ Block. * -http://www.thegenrefiles.com
10. Don’t be afraid of giving an honest opinion when you post, even if it is different from most others, as long as you can explain your position and give a decent reason for it. http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/
11. Using some visual material can really make a post look more attractive - pictures, photographs, video embeds and so on, and also help break up larger posts, such as interviews and reviews to make them more readable instead of offering a huge chunk of unbroken text. Just bare in mind not to over-use pics and to keep them relevant to the article. And cute kitty pics are always popular :-) http://www.woolamaloo.org.uk
-End Copy-
After adding my tip I'm supposed to tag up to another ten victims to pass this on to, which since I already had to do this over on the FPI blog is pushing it a bit, but anyway, here are a few more potential victims: Padraig, Katie, Von and Moggy, Dan Goldman, Hal Duncan, the Silvereel.
The ads I'd like to see
Adverts - some are funny, some are stupid, rarely do they make me want to buy something but boy, how often do some of them grate so much you dive for the remote to change channels? Except when you're in the cinema and stuck with them. When I can't get away from them in situations like that I stay sane by amusing myself with the version I'd like to see. Top of the annoying list has to be that little shouting twat Barry Arsehead who does the Cillit Bang ads. Cleaning product ads are often the lamest of all (especially since they often use the same footage across Europe and dub in appropriate language voice over which doesn't match mouth movements), but the Cillit one is made even more annoying as this wee arse struts onto camera and bellows. It's TV, you twonk, we can hear you perfectly alright without shouting. Quite why a short man shouting is supposed to make a product attractive to us is beyond me. I long to see a Cillit Bang ad where they strap that eejit down, force feed him five bottle of Cillit Bang, insert a fuse down his throat, light and run away - Bang! And the dirt is gone! Now there's an ad I'd watch.
The mobile phone 'flex' adverts too bug me, especially the one that starts with the guy chattering away on his cell phone as he gets ready to go out, then gee, take the stairs or lift, no he goes out the balcony of his block and drops to the plaza below which becomes like a trampoline, flexing to allow him to land safely. I understand the ad is trying to say, look, we make our service flexible to suit you (which is bollocks, as we all know) but I can't help but see it as a sign of the lazy and selfish attitude of many today: get everything out of my way, I want it my way, right now, sod off, me, me, me (the other phone ad where buildings and vehicles are all folded down flat to get out of the way of the hip young things illustrates this perfectly too - visually funny image, but if you think about it what happens to the people in those buildings???). The oh-so-cool guy doesn't even look before he leaps; what if he landed on someone? Or even if he missed them what if someone was walking nearby when he makes the ground ripple, causing them to fall over and get hurt?
Yeah, I know, you're thinking, Joe, don't take is so seriously, its just an ad, which is true on one level but how often have you been bumped into by some twonk who is constantly talking on their phone and ignoring everything and everyone around them as they do, walking into them, knocking things over, not even pausing in their conversation even when dealing with someone like a sales assistant in a shop or the driver when boarding a bus (so bloody ignorant). A general symptom of the increasing selfishness and rudeness we see everyday in society. So I want to see this ad where the numpty jumps out of his window, plummets earthwards and suddenly he runs out of credit and hits the hard, stone plaza and does an impression of a giant pizza. Or he loses signal as he falls with a similar result. Or he lands safely again but the rippling, elastic flex of he ground as he lands caused someone to fall over and get hurt, then they sue him and the cell phone company for damages. And I have to admit there is a perverse part of me that almost wants to see some stupid idiot trying to replicate this ad in real life, be a great one for the Darwin Awards.
And while we're at it, what the hell is with the constant use of faded-out colours and clothes styles which are used to try and create a 1970s film footage effect in so many ads? Cell phone ads are the worst for this. Once or twice is fine, but so many now do it I find I hate even the appearance of this stylistic.
Citroen, alive with technology as the French car suddenly becomes a Transformer robot and runs down the street. What happened to the driver when this happened? Don't you just want to see this ad where the car transforms and there's a wet scrunching sound as the driver find out what its like to become pate? Actually I don't mind the Citroen ad too much, it looks quite cool, but what does annoy me is that lack of internal logic to the idea: I can suspend disbelief and go with a car which transforms into a robot for an ad, but really, what do the ad makers think happens to the occupants of the vehicle? If they ain't horribly crushed they will at least be terrified and probably terrified of all motor vehicles for life after that.
And then there's the ads that do what ads do best, try and pray on our fears of things not being quite right with our bodies. Don't let diarrhoea ruin your day, take these pills. Then the other way round, don't feel constipated, take this! Talk about being full of shit... Tell ya what, instead of popping an instant-fix pill as our modern, super-fast society demands and try actually eating right you stupid bastard! Got the runs? Eat decent, balanced foods and wash your hands before cooking rather than pop pills. Bound up? Again eat some decent food you numpty. Decent fibre or if all else fails a good curry and Guinness.
Adverts - some are funny, some are stupid, rarely do they make me want to buy something but boy, how often do some of them grate so much you dive for the remote to change channels? Except when you're in the cinema and stuck with them. When I can't get away from them in situations like that I stay sane by amusing myself with the version I'd like to see. Top of the annoying list has to be that little shouting twat Barry Arsehead who does the Cillit Bang ads. Cleaning product ads are often the lamest of all (especially since they often use the same footage across Europe and dub in appropriate language voice over which doesn't match mouth movements), but the Cillit one is made even more annoying as this wee arse struts onto camera and bellows. It's TV, you twonk, we can hear you perfectly alright without shouting. Quite why a short man shouting is supposed to make a product attractive to us is beyond me. I long to see a Cillit Bang ad where they strap that eejit down, force feed him five bottle of Cillit Bang, insert a fuse down his throat, light and run away - Bang! And the dirt is gone! Now there's an ad I'd watch.
The mobile phone 'flex' adverts too bug me, especially the one that starts with the guy chattering away on his cell phone as he gets ready to go out, then gee, take the stairs or lift, no he goes out the balcony of his block and drops to the plaza below which becomes like a trampoline, flexing to allow him to land safely. I understand the ad is trying to say, look, we make our service flexible to suit you (which is bollocks, as we all know) but I can't help but see it as a sign of the lazy and selfish attitude of many today: get everything out of my way, I want it my way, right now, sod off, me, me, me (the other phone ad where buildings and vehicles are all folded down flat to get out of the way of the hip young things illustrates this perfectly too - visually funny image, but if you think about it what happens to the people in those buildings???). The oh-so-cool guy doesn't even look before he leaps; what if he landed on someone? Or even if he missed them what if someone was walking nearby when he makes the ground ripple, causing them to fall over and get hurt?
Yeah, I know, you're thinking, Joe, don't take is so seriously, its just an ad, which is true on one level but how often have you been bumped into by some twonk who is constantly talking on their phone and ignoring everything and everyone around them as they do, walking into them, knocking things over, not even pausing in their conversation even when dealing with someone like a sales assistant in a shop or the driver when boarding a bus (so bloody ignorant). A general symptom of the increasing selfishness and rudeness we see everyday in society. So I want to see this ad where the numpty jumps out of his window, plummets earthwards and suddenly he runs out of credit and hits the hard, stone plaza and does an impression of a giant pizza. Or he loses signal as he falls with a similar result. Or he lands safely again but the rippling, elastic flex of he ground as he lands caused someone to fall over and get hurt, then they sue him and the cell phone company for damages. And I have to admit there is a perverse part of me that almost wants to see some stupid idiot trying to replicate this ad in real life, be a great one for the Darwin Awards.
And while we're at it, what the hell is with the constant use of faded-out colours and clothes styles which are used to try and create a 1970s film footage effect in so many ads? Cell phone ads are the worst for this. Once or twice is fine, but so many now do it I find I hate even the appearance of this stylistic.
Citroen, alive with technology as the French car suddenly becomes a Transformer robot and runs down the street. What happened to the driver when this happened? Don't you just want to see this ad where the car transforms and there's a wet scrunching sound as the driver find out what its like to become pate? Actually I don't mind the Citroen ad too much, it looks quite cool, but what does annoy me is that lack of internal logic to the idea: I can suspend disbelief and go with a car which transforms into a robot for an ad, but really, what do the ad makers think happens to the occupants of the vehicle? If they ain't horribly crushed they will at least be terrified and probably terrified of all motor vehicles for life after that.
And then there's the ads that do what ads do best, try and pray on our fears of things not being quite right with our bodies. Don't let diarrhoea ruin your day, take these pills. Then the other way round, don't feel constipated, take this! Talk about being full of shit... Tell ya what, instead of popping an instant-fix pill as our modern, super-fast society demands and try actually eating right you stupid bastard! Got the runs? Eat decent, balanced foods and wash your hands before cooking rather than pop pills. Bound up? Again eat some decent food you numpty. Decent fibre or if all else fails a good curry and Guinness.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Truth and lies and videotape
The BBC admits a trailer for a programme on the queen was re-edited to give the wrong impression, TV phone in quizzes turn out to be falsified and fraudulent, Discovery has admitted that Bear Grylls' survival programmes aren't as authentic as they seem, he often sleeps in a nice motel and not under some desert rock with a lizard as we thought (personally I was more pissed off with seeing him killing a frog by biting its head off to then eat it. Survival trick maybe, but killing an animal like that isn't necessary for a bloody TV programme, is it?)
... Gee, guess what? TV isn't real! Even reality shows aren't real. So why are we surprised? Yes, they were attempted to create a misleading impression, but all texts, every single text any person creates, from a simple photograph to a TV programme or film is informed by choices about how it is structured to give a particular impression, consciously or unconsciously; in media studies it is referred to as the paradigmatic and syntagmatic elements of the text, the selection and combination of elements desired to give a certain effect. The big surprise here is that anyone is really surprised that even factual programmes aren't the solid, objective, truthful beam of light we might like to think. Everything is edited, everything even before being edited was decided to be shot in a certain way with certain light with certain people, places... What you see is only half the story at best and if a lot of folks have forgotten that - as it seems from the surprise - then it is a good lesson to relearn. Mind you, it does make you think about how we decide to base our opinions on anything and also consider just what is truth and what is real?
The BBC admits a trailer for a programme on the queen was re-edited to give the wrong impression, TV phone in quizzes turn out to be falsified and fraudulent, Discovery has admitted that Bear Grylls' survival programmes aren't as authentic as they seem, he often sleeps in a nice motel and not under some desert rock with a lizard as we thought (personally I was more pissed off with seeing him killing a frog by biting its head off to then eat it. Survival trick maybe, but killing an animal like that isn't necessary for a bloody TV programme, is it?)
... Gee, guess what? TV isn't real! Even reality shows aren't real. So why are we surprised? Yes, they were attempted to create a misleading impression, but all texts, every single text any person creates, from a simple photograph to a TV programme or film is informed by choices about how it is structured to give a particular impression, consciously or unconsciously; in media studies it is referred to as the paradigmatic and syntagmatic elements of the text, the selection and combination of elements desired to give a certain effect. The big surprise here is that anyone is really surprised that even factual programmes aren't the solid, objective, truthful beam of light we might like to think. Everything is edited, everything even before being edited was decided to be shot in a certain way with certain light with certain people, places... What you see is only half the story at best and if a lot of folks have forgotten that - as it seems from the surprise - then it is a good lesson to relearn. Mind you, it does make you think about how we decide to base our opinions on anything and also consider just what is truth and what is real?
Edinburgh raft race
Some video footage from the recent raft race on the Union Canal near me - all the rafts were made from found material (yes, there was someone with a floating bath-tub too at one point!). It's so cool to see life back here now, it was run down for so long, now the canal is refurbished, back in use with holiday barges and some barges moored around the new quays which folk live on year round, restaurant barges go up and down the way, the old derelict areas and the the former brewery are all being redeveloped with new apartments, cafes and bars, while the towpath has been repaired from the old potholed, overgrown mudbath it used to be to a good path for walking and cycling now. And as you can see here as the competitors for one heat try to get to the start the old Leamington Lift Bridge has also been restored to working order. I knew it had been fixed up but for all the times I've passed this spot I'd never actually seen it working until now. I know I'm easily amused but it tickled me to see it working again after all this time.
It isn't a real raft race until someone ends up in the water.
Some video footage from the recent raft race on the Union Canal near me - all the rafts were made from found material (yes, there was someone with a floating bath-tub too at one point!). It's so cool to see life back here now, it was run down for so long, now the canal is refurbished, back in use with holiday barges and some barges moored around the new quays which folk live on year round, restaurant barges go up and down the way, the old derelict areas and the the former brewery are all being redeveloped with new apartments, cafes and bars, while the towpath has been repaired from the old potholed, overgrown mudbath it used to be to a good path for walking and cycling now. And as you can see here as the competitors for one heat try to get to the start the old Leamington Lift Bridge has also been restored to working order. I knew it had been fixed up but for all the times I've passed this spot I'd never actually seen it working until now. I know I'm easily amused but it tickled me to see it working again after all this time.
It isn't a real raft race until someone ends up in the water.
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