1. "A Dark Day for Documentary as the Academy Changes Course, Fights the Future": AJ Schnack of All These Wonderful Things on AMPAS' regressive attitude towards documentaries.
["In one fell swoop, the Academy's decade-long campaign to repair its scandal-plagued 1990s reputation of nominating television-styled or extremely conventional films, was reversed. And, combined with the Academy's recent announcement that it will no longer require a theatrical rollout, made one wonder if the bad old days of Oscar are truly here again. ... We have come to a crossroads in documentary once again. Those of us who are the children of Morris and Moore and Zwigoff and Pennebaker and Maysles and Reggio have seen it happen to our elders and mentors, filmmakers whose best work was often ignored by their peer groups because it played with form or tackled less "important" topics. "]
2. "Variety's Strike Disinformation Campaign": Nikki Finke busts on the trade paper's slanted coverage of the writer's strike.
["When the strike is over, and one day far into the future that will be true, media critics may have a field day dissecting the slanted coverage and total fabrications which Variety is reporting in these early days of the strike. But for now, I'll do it."]
3. "Sweeping the Clouds Away": Brought to you by the letters N & C, and the number 17. (Hattip: Odie Henderson.)
["Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia. Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”"]
4. "Drawn into Grendel's Den": Kevin C. Murphy of Ghost in the Machine finds much of interest about Beowulf.
[""I am the ripper, the terror, the slasher. I am the teeth in the darkness! The talons in the night! My name is strength! And lust! And power! I AM BEOWULF!" Well, ok then. If Zack Snyder's 300 last spring only whetted your appetite for cartoonish sword-and-sandal epics featuring hyperstylized gore and naked men bellowing, you're in luck. For now arises Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf, a rousing 3-D mo-capped glimpse into the future of filmmaking and the ancient past of storytelling."]
5. "Don't flame me, bro'": On the psychology of the online poster, from the New Scientist Technology Blog. (Hattip to Slashdot.)
["My pet theory about why people behave so rudely is that online commenting is treated, by most people, like a pub conversation – they don't necessarily expect to be taken seriously and the social rules are fairly relaxed. And yet, because comments appear in cold text without important cues like friendly body language, they can easily seem more offensive than if they would otherwise. As a result some people get annoyed, and the flaming and trolling begin. After being described a few weeks ago as "a self-lobotomised liberal who can't face the facts", I decided to look into the psychology of online behaviour a bit further. Much of the research on online communication has looked at email, but it seems that many of the results can be generalised to apply to chat rooms and forums too."]
Quote of the Day: George Orwell, from Down and Out in Paris and London.
Image of the Day (click to enlarge): From One, Two, Three (1961).
Clip of the Day: I gotta get me some of this guy's moves.
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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Links for the Day (November 21st, 2007)
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8 comments:
I played some trombone as a kid, but I just couldn't master the dance moves, so I dropped it.
“These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”
Because they actually have to pay attention, which doesn't suit the needs of today's morbidly obese, ADD-addled pre-school kids. These kids are too busy being brainwashed and dumbed down by Sesame Street's resident four letter word, Elmo. They can't sell Tickle Me Mr. Snuffleupagus, so don't let your kids watch this! "Look at me!" screams Elmo. "You are getting very sleepy...go get Mommy's purse! Send Elmo NOW!"
“We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now”
Why not? I always thought Oscar was great. He was unapologetically mean, lived in a trash can, and managed to fit about three buildings' worth of items in that can. The old people in my neighborhood growing up were just as mean as Oscar too, which was like an in-joke for us.
Let me see if I understand this: Cookie Monster liking cookies and Oscar the Grouch living up to his eponymous characteristics are worse for kids than that commercial I saw for Hitman at 10AM this morning? Is the Children's Television Workshop now admitting they fed us thirty- and fortysomethings a bill of goods designed to damage us?! To paraphrase the Cookie Monster's signature song: "B is for bullshit, and that's just what this is."
Considering what's on TV nowadays, I don't think letting your kids watch a grittier Sesame Street is going to turn them into Charles Manson...but it might turn them into the odienator!
Ah for innocent days of children's TV that wasn't exclusively intended as a marketing tie-in. that's why it's not suitable for today's child
odienator: I wouldn't include "morbidly obese" as a generalized character trait of America's children today. It's just sloppy.
re documentaries: this category has been going down the shitter for several years now. I can't totally blame the academy... very few legit "document" documentaries are released these days, and it's becoming a genre in which there's a real public interest in the outcome. You couldn't say that in the 1990s.
I didn't read the article about early Sesame Street, but I have actually seen some early Sesame Street episodes somewhere or other in the not-too-distant past, and I have to disagree with Odie: if anything, old Sesame Street is like MTV on acid for pre-schoolers. The amount of psychedelic animation, the fast cuts, the jangly electronic music -- whoa. My kids thought it was weird.
New Sesame Street is a lot less hyper. It's also a lot less funny, a lot more sanitized. My kids still crack up over the old routine with Kermit and Grover demonstrating the opposite concepts heavy and light. Kermit gets to pick up a sandwich, Grover gets to pick up a piano. It was funny. But even as a kid I winced at the baker falling down the stairs with all those beautiful pies and cakes -- such a waste!
I'm glad my kids have outgrown pre-school tv, because taming the Cookie Monster ("cookies are good sometimes"? WTF? He's a Cookie Monster, people --), letting everyone see Snuffleupagus (not just Big Bird), making Oscar less grouchy, etc -- did not improve the show. But dropping the acid-inspired animation sequences wasn't such a bad idea.
Kids' tv in general really does keep getting worse. My kids love to trash "Dora the Explorer" and other supremely idiotic shows. (I have banned them from ragging on "Wonder Pets", though, because any show that features classroom pets singing opera in silly costumes gets my vote.)
My nieces love Dora. My Mom says she "teaches kids how to be a hard-headed little bitch." Having never seen the show, I'll have to take her word for it.
Joan: But dropping the acid-inspired animation sequences wasn't such a bad idea.
I kinda forgot about those (well, not the pinball machine one, which I am watching RIGHT NOW instead of working: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12...doo doo doo doo doo...). I guess they seemed right to me back then--this was the 70's! I also remember the "a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter" cartoon, where the little boy goes to the grocery store and has to remember what was on his Mom's list to buy.
I always thought some of the skits involving the humans on Sesame Street (Mr. Looper, I mean Hooper, David, Willie Dynamite--I mean Gordon, etc.) moved more slowly than the ones they have now. Hence why I said we had to pay more attention. I could be wrong about that, but it felt that way.
Joan: But even as a kid I winced at the baker falling down the stairs with all those beautiful pies and cakes
I LOVED when he fell down the stairs. I suppose that's the fundamental difference between girls and boys; we dig pastry-inspired carnage! You know who freaked me out though? That mad painter guy who painted numbers on people and objects. He painted an 8 on a bald guy's head once, if I recall correctly. I'd later realize that guy was played by Paul Benedict, who not only was Mr. Bentley on The Jeffersons, but who also got the privilege of examining slaves for piles in Mandingo. What a versatile actor! :)
And what about Lefty? You know, the guy with the trenchcoat who just reeked of Times Square before Disney Ruined It. He was always flim-flamming Ernie out of his nickels, selling him shit that either didn't work or exist. He was the Muppet equivalent of that guy who hawks Orange Clean on TV!
Maybe I need to rethink my statement, Joan! My God, old school Sesame Street IS rated R!
Steve: odienator: I wouldn't include "morbidly obese" as a generalized character trait of America's children today. It's just sloppy.
I didn't know you saw me when you looked in your mirror! If and when you do, then you can write my comments for me. Until then, I guess I'll just have to be "sloppy" and like it. Thanks for pointing that out, though.
Hey, thanks much for the link. :)
I should reiterate that, tho, while I did enjoy the spectacle of Beowulf, if I was recommending one film for most people over the Thanksgiving holidays, I'd say go see No Country for Old Men. And, if you were fortunate enough to live some place where Todd Haynes I'm Not There is now showing, see that instead. (Yes, I'm admittedly a Dylanhead, but I completely fell for it.)
Regarding Sesame Street, I think kids are usually pretty misanthropic, subversive creatures anyway -- I know I was, and I don't blame Sesame Street for it. So thankfully there'll always be Roald Dahl books and the like to help kids think weird and different, now that Sesame Street has become so life-affirming.
Speaking of which, it's elided over in the NYT article, but it was my understanding that everyone can see Snuffleupagus now not because it was strange for Big Bird to hallucinate but because they didn't want to encourage kids to have "secret" friends nobody else knew about - i.e., possibly exploiters of children. That's actually a change that makes some sense (although my imaginary friend is inclined to disagree.)
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