"Film and digital are different mediums; they make different cinema and different art. They have their own unique disciplines, image structures and visual qualities. Their co-existence is essential to keep diversity and richness in our moving image vocabulary. The ascendance of one does not have to mean the capitulation of the other, unless we allow this to happen."
This quotation is from Guillermo Navarro ASC, A.M.C., whose new organization SaveFilm.org is working to get film, the traditional media of the cinema, UNESCO status so that it can be preserved and continue to thrive as a medium.
His request is pretty simple and his logic is airtight. A growing binary attitude infects our thinking about media in the digital age. If it's not zeroes and ones, it should go away. But we didn't kill all the horses when cars became the more common mode of transportation in the Western world. We didn't take a photograph of the Mona Lisa and burn the painting when cameras emerged.
The world is not black and white, and our media choices should reflect that. Film deserves our efforts to keep it alive. We signed the petition, and wouldn't ask you to do the same if we didn't think it mattered. All that was required was an e-mail confirmation.
Click?
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Friday, April 26, 2013
Not the UFO Carnival We Wanted
... still, the very phrase "UFO Carnival" made our eyes turn into hearts and we salivated like dogs in Pavlov's paddock.
Parapolitical brought the news to our attention: A press release announcing that an organization called Paradigm Research Group will be presenting a forum called the "Citizen Hearing on Disclosure" at the National Press Club in Washington DC.
The "Citizen Hearing ..." earned the term "UFO Carnival" from Parapolitical because Paradigm Research Group is behind many of the "show us the proof we know you have!" type petitions that go up on the White House petition page. Proof, that is, of a vast government conspiracy to hide the alleged truth about visitors from other planets coming to Earth.
Weirder still, and rightly highlighted by the article, is that many of the speakers are retired U.S. congress members, some flat broke from bad investments, others simply kooky and ready to share their theories, or perhaps inside information.
Give it a close read and get lost on the Web, looking up the bios of some of the folks participating.
[A firm handshake to The Fortean Times for the info.]
Parapolitical brought the news to our attention: A press release announcing that an organization called Paradigm Research Group will be presenting a forum called the "Citizen Hearing on Disclosure" at the National Press Club in Washington DC.
The "Citizen Hearing ..." earned the term "UFO Carnival" from Parapolitical because Paradigm Research Group is behind many of the "show us the proof we know you have!" type petitions that go up on the White House petition page. Proof, that is, of a vast government conspiracy to hide the alleged truth about visitors from other planets coming to Earth.
Weirder still, and rightly highlighted by the article, is that many of the speakers are retired U.S. congress members, some flat broke from bad investments, others simply kooky and ready to share their theories, or perhaps inside information.
Give it a close read and get lost on the Web, looking up the bios of some of the folks participating.
[A firm handshake to The Fortean Times for the info.]
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
A Typing Monkey Exclusive: Pontiff Prefers Primate
An anonymous source has given The Typing Monkey exclusive access to a leaked memo from the desk of pope emeritus Benedict XVI. The document is dated March 27, 2013 -- just one day before Benedict stepped down from his seat at the Vatican.
Based on the content of the memo, the pope attempted to name his own successor and his shocking cryptozoological association may surprise you.
See a scan of the original document here:
Or read the text transcribed:
TO: College of Cardinals
FROM: The Pope
RE: Papal Election
My fellow Roman Catholic patriarchs, as we discussed after last week’s bible study, you now know my reasons for resigning. Those of you who missed the coffee & biscotti klatch, or had to leave early, I typed up minutes and left them in your mailboxes behind the receptionist’s desk. (Minutes dated 20.2.03)
All cardinals not on probation will soon meet for the conclave. You will listen to old Motown 45s, drink Champagne cocktails, and enjoy the “Barney Miller” marathon I curated for you on my DVR. And eventually you will pick my successor.
Cardinal Lowenstein, I know you’ve been campaigning for the job, but I fear the world is not ready for you. Please allow me to submit another candidate: Sasquatch.
You may know of his works under his other title, Bigfoot, and still others wonder why I don’t just suggest Dracula or Judas Iscariot for the job. I tell you, Dracula isn’t interested and Judas will stay locked in the Vatican basement until [REDACTED].
After my meeting with Sasquatch in 2008, I realized that he is perhaps best equipped to lead our congregation of 1.2 million. He has, after all, literally spent his entire life isolated and content in the forests of North America.
Also, giving Mr. Sasquatch this position will force people to stop using that stupid line about the Pope [REDACTED] in the woods.
Give Sasquatch fumata bianca and let’s make this sedes vacan’t a sedes vacans.
Good night you kings of theology! Good night you princes of the church!
xo
The Pope
***
We've had the document analyzed by a team of independent forensic memologists and believe it to be legitimate. The Typing Monkey has not reached out to The Vatican for comment because we totally want them to make Bigfoot the new pope.
Based on the content of the memo, the pope attempted to name his own successor and his shocking cryptozoological association may surprise you.
See a scan of the original document here:
Or read the text transcribed:
TO: College of Cardinals
FROM: The Pope
RE: Papal Election
My fellow Roman Catholic patriarchs, as we discussed after last week’s bible study, you now know my reasons for resigning. Those of you who missed the coffee & biscotti klatch, or had to leave early, I typed up minutes and left them in your mailboxes behind the receptionist’s desk. (Minutes dated 20.2.03)
All cardinals not on probation will soon meet for the conclave. You will listen to old Motown 45s, drink Champagne cocktails, and enjoy the “Barney Miller” marathon I curated for you on my DVR. And eventually you will pick my successor.
Cardinal Lowenstein, I know you’ve been campaigning for the job, but I fear the world is not ready for you. Please allow me to submit another candidate: Sasquatch.
You may know of his works under his other title, Bigfoot, and still others wonder why I don’t just suggest Dracula or Judas Iscariot for the job. I tell you, Dracula isn’t interested and Judas will stay locked in the Vatican basement until [REDACTED].
After my meeting with Sasquatch in 2008, I realized that he is perhaps best equipped to lead our congregation of 1.2 million. He has, after all, literally spent his entire life isolated and content in the forests of North America.
Also, giving Mr. Sasquatch this position will force people to stop using that stupid line about the Pope [REDACTED] in the woods.
Give Sasquatch fumata bianca and let’s make this sedes vacan’t a sedes vacans.
Good night you kings of theology! Good night you princes of the church!
xo
The Pope
***
We've had the document analyzed by a team of independent forensic memologists and believe it to be legitimate. The Typing Monkey has not reached out to The Vatican for comment because we totally want them to make Bigfoot the new pope.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Black and White In Color
One of the most wonderful aspects of the Web is that reading (or listening to, or watching) things you know, or are at least have intention to know, can take on some of the traits of conversation with friends who are smarter than you.
Perhaps you're reading posts from comic book writer Kurt Busiek and in a matter of seconds, find yourself staring at amazing photos by Gordon Parks, on a terrific art blog called Messy Nessy Chic.
Specifically, Messy Nessy was highlighting a series of incredible color photographs from Parks, a frequent contributor to the pages of Life, that were discovered after Parks died. Parks shot in black and white most of the time, but he opted to document the "softer" side of life in a segregated United States in bold color.
Softer, we say, because, as Nessy notes, most of us are accustomed to pictures of the Civil Rights era, and the years leading up to it, depicting violence or clear indications of a nation about to boil over.
These shots instead show an almost mundane, yet still massively loaded, everyday-ness of living in a world of denial.
Check out the Parks page on Messy Nessy, then dig around the rest of her site. Who knows where you'll end up.
Perhaps you're reading posts from comic book writer Kurt Busiek and in a matter of seconds, find yourself staring at amazing photos by Gordon Parks, on a terrific art blog called Messy Nessy Chic.
Specifically, Messy Nessy was highlighting a series of incredible color photographs from Parks, a frequent contributor to the pages of Life, that were discovered after Parks died. Parks shot in black and white most of the time, but he opted to document the "softer" side of life in a segregated United States in bold color.
Softer, we say, because, as Nessy notes, most of us are accustomed to pictures of the Civil Rights era, and the years leading up to it, depicting violence or clear indications of a nation about to boil over.
These shots instead show an almost mundane, yet still massively loaded, everyday-ness of living in a world of denial.
Check out the Parks page on Messy Nessy, then dig around the rest of her site. Who knows where you'll end up.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Message in a Gravestone
An Oregon woman bought some fake gravestones at K-Mart in 2011. The Halloween decorations were put into storage unopened.
A year later, she opened them to put them up for the October holiday and found something far scarier than the cold embrace of the grave: a note allegedly written by a Chinese laborer at the factory where the disposable-income item was manufactured. It's a plea for help, detailing the harsh working conditions in which the item was made.
The note sets of The Typing Monkey's baloney detector, though it's entirely possible that it's legitimate. We don't deny that many things we buy -- including the computer used to write and post this information -- are crafted and assembled in conditions our well-fed and generally secure selves would find deplorable and unimaginably cruel.
Yet the note seems a little too good to be true in terms of human rights-riling. Why is this making news two months after the note was discovered? The timing seems off, given that many Westerners have recently spent millions (billions) buying things we don't need to celebrate Christmas.
Read it and draw your own conclusions.
A year later, she opened them to put them up for the October holiday and found something far scarier than the cold embrace of the grave: a note allegedly written by a Chinese laborer at the factory where the disposable-income item was manufactured. It's a plea for help, detailing the harsh working conditions in which the item was made.
The note sets of The Typing Monkey's baloney detector, though it's entirely possible that it's legitimate. We don't deny that many things we buy -- including the computer used to write and post this information -- are crafted and assembled in conditions our well-fed and generally secure selves would find deplorable and unimaginably cruel.
Yet the note seems a little too good to be true in terms of human rights-riling. Why is this making news two months after the note was discovered? The timing seems off, given that many Westerners have recently spent millions (billions) buying things we don't need to celebrate Christmas.
Read it and draw your own conclusions.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Many Kinds of Close Encounters, Apparently
The sordid tale of former U.S. Senator and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards' affair with a videographer named Rielle Hunter has provided miles of column inches for newspapers, magazines, tabloids and Websites since the story broke.
Old and often repeated, the story of infidelity and apparent cracks in the moral character of a public official (gasp, faint, etc.) is far less interesting than a detail of the scandal brought to light via the court testimony.
That detail being that Rielle Hunter, the videographer with whom Edwards fathered a child out of wedlock, wanted to claim she had been abducted by aliens. This was part of an effort to deny that Hunter and Edwards had been romantically involved.
The Typing Monkey wants to make it clear to any politicians, celebrities, spin doctors, historical revisionists and public relations flacks that we think this is a marvelous idea.
Have a starlet who needs to lay low in rehab for a few weeks? Tell us she is taking time off to document sightings of the chupacabra.
Grassy knoll and second shooter theories are no more provable or easy to deny than, say, a coven of Satanists eager to assassinate the first Catholic president. See? You really can't handle the truth. [You're mixing up your Oliver Stone films. -- ed.]
We'd like to posit that William H. Seward got such a deal on Alaska when he purchased it from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million because Russia agreed to evacuate all of the Yetis residing there, hoping to bring them all back to Siberia so they could create an army of abominable snowmen. The U.S. got a gold rush untroubled by Yetis, Russia gained an army of cryptids.
The Loch Ness Monster attacked and sank Nazi U-Boats during the war? Why not?
Take any historical controversy or even minor event and make it more exciting by adding paranormal explanations and interference. Our tabloid political climate could use some actual tabloid fodder instead of this banal baby-mama drama.
Old and often repeated, the story of infidelity and apparent cracks in the moral character of a public official (gasp, faint, etc.) is far less interesting than a detail of the scandal brought to light via the court testimony.
That detail being that Rielle Hunter, the videographer with whom Edwards fathered a child out of wedlock, wanted to claim she had been abducted by aliens. This was part of an effort to deny that Hunter and Edwards had been romantically involved.
The Typing Monkey wants to make it clear to any politicians, celebrities, spin doctors, historical revisionists and public relations flacks that we think this is a marvelous idea.
Have a starlet who needs to lay low in rehab for a few weeks? Tell us she is taking time off to document sightings of the chupacabra.
Grassy knoll and second shooter theories are no more provable or easy to deny than, say, a coven of Satanists eager to assassinate the first Catholic president. See? You really can't handle the truth. [You're mixing up your Oliver Stone films. -- ed.]
We'd like to posit that William H. Seward got such a deal on Alaska when he purchased it from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million because Russia agreed to evacuate all of the Yetis residing there, hoping to bring them all back to Siberia so they could create an army of abominable snowmen. The U.S. got a gold rush untroubled by Yetis, Russia gained an army of cryptids.
The Loch Ness Monster attacked and sank Nazi U-Boats during the war? Why not?
Take any historical controversy or even minor event and make it more exciting by adding paranormal explanations and interference. Our tabloid political climate could use some actual tabloid fodder instead of this banal baby-mama drama.
Many believe the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage, taken in 1967, is definitive proof of the existence of Sasquatch. What they fail to realize is that Bigfoot is, in fact, a courier on his way to pick up The Pentagon Papers from then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
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