Sunday Night Watch: The Highway of Tomorrow
by Giampaolo Bianconi
This has long been a Youtube favorite of mine: a 1958 Disney cartoon focusing on the Magic Highway of Tomorrow. One of the weirdest things about this is that it’s all analogue. If anyone can suggest any relevant reading about the switch from analogue to digital computing, please do. For now, enjoy this short ‘toon. Anyone interested in extra credit should compare to this video Le Corbu. Also looks a little like Dubai if that’s more your bag. Meanwhile I’m waiting for our heated pavement to melt the snow outside (this shouldn’t even been an issue thanks to my hovering car).
Dispatches from the Web: Whose Tube?
by Giampaolo Bianconi
Video artist Amy Greenfield was recently informed that Youtube would be pulling her work from their website. She was told that “her works, which contain some artistic nudity, did not conform with YouTube’s ‘community standards.’ Under YouTube’s policies, ‘Films and television shows may contain [full nudity]; however, videos originating from the YouTube user community must abide by the YouTube Community Guidelines and are not permitted to include such content.’” Though Youtube has now reversed their decision thanks to efforts from the EFF and the National Coalition Against Censorship, I fear the issue is far from over. I found out about the story through BoingBoing, where one reader identified only as pjcamp commented: “I’m having a hard time telling the difference between artistic nudity and busty.pl[.]” I’m having a hard time deciphering “busty.pl,” but what intrigues me about pjcamp’s comment is how magnificently it manages to miss the point completely.
Youtube isn’t protecting anyone from “busty.pl,” though it might appear so. What’s happening, instead, is that Youtube is continually serving the interests of “films and television shows.” These, to be sure, aren’t your films or the tv talk show you and your friends record every Sunday night: “films and television” shows are films and television shows from networks, studios, and distributors that have a serious financial worries about how their media is viewed. Since Amy Greenfield wasn’t one of those, her work got axed–though, presumably, if it had been from the film Young Adam starring Ewan McGregor, Youtube wouldn’t have thought twice. That’s what is dangerous about Youtube: its interests couldn’t have less to do with you. The question is not one of moral censorship but rather of financial censorship: Youtube isn’t barring nudity, they’re just not allowing it if you aren’t distributed by Fox Searchlight. It’s a question, all the same, about what we’re allowed to see.
The World Gone Backwards
by Matt Paley
I just stumbled on (not stumbled upon, thank you–I do my internet research old school) this beautifully executed, remarkably simple Ok Go video. Ok Go went from indie band to… well, bigger indie band, largely because of their wonderful videos, which are marvels of efficiency and flair.
But I’m not embedding this video because of how much I enjoy it (although I do, very much). I’m embedding it because Damian Kulash (the lead singer of Ok Go) is asking us to. All of us. (more…)
Of Blood and Beards
by Giampaolo Bianconi
If only Philip Seymour Hoffman looked like Heather Graham (Anderson directing "Boogie Nights")
Variety broke the news yesterday about Paul Thomas Anderson’s next feature, which it describes as exploring “the need to believe in a higher power.” The film will star frequent Anderson collaborator and now-portlier-than-ever Philip Seymour Hoffman as the founder of a fictitious religious movement in the 1950s. Hoffman’s character, according to Variety, is referred to in the film as “the Master,” (in the sense of a master of ceremonies) which gives me hope that Anderson might delve into the art of stage magic and slight-of-hand trickery–a concept not so foreign to the idea of religion in the twentieth century. Anderson, for those of you who don’t know, is the son of this man. He’s also collaborated with the great Ricky Jay. (more…)
100 Greatest Quotes from “The Wire”
by Giampaolo Bianconi
I just found this nifty youtube compilation of the 100 greatest quotes from The Wire. Whether or not they’re actually the greatest quotes from a series as good as The Wire is certainly debatable. What’s important, though, is that it’s made me want to watch the whole thing again from start to finish. If you’ve already seen it, I’m sure it’ll make you want to as well. If you haven’t, I envy you–I wish I was gearing up to watch the show for the first time.