BIO
Curt Cloninger is an artist, writer, and Associate Professor of New Media at the University of North Carolina Asheville. His art undermines language as a system of meaning in order to reveal it as an embodied force in the world. His art work has been featured in the New York Times and at festivals and galleries from Korea to Brazil. Exhibition venues include Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Granoff Center for The Creative Arts (Brown University), Digital Art Museum [DAM] (Berlin), Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (Chicago), Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, and the internet. He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including commissions for the creation of new artwork from the National Endowment for the Arts (via Turbulence.org) and Austin Peay State University's Terminal Award.
Cloninger has written on a wide range of topics, including new media and internet art, installation and performance art, experimental graphic design, popular music, network culture, and continental philosophy. His articles have appeared in Intelligent Agent, Mute, Paste, Tekka, Rhizome Digest, A List Apart, and on ABC World News. He is also the author of eight books, most recently One Per Year (Link Editions). He maintains lab404.com, playdamage.org , and deepyoung.org in hopes of facilitating a more lively remote dialogue with the Sundry Contagions of Wonder.
Cloninger has written on a wide range of topics, including new media and internet art, installation and performance art, experimental graphic design, popular music, network culture, and continental philosophy. His articles have appeared in Intelligent Agent, Mute, Paste, Tekka, Rhizome Digest, A List Apart, and on ABC World News. He is also the author of eight books, most recently One Per Year (Link Editions). He maintains lab404.com, playdamage.org , and deepyoung.org in hopes of facilitating a more lively remote dialogue with the Sundry Contagions of Wonder.
Re: Re: Re: doron golan animation movies and qtvr works
Hi Michael (and Ryan),
It's interesting you mention pet ownership in a discussion about documentary film. I just got through watching Errol Morris's "Gates of Heaven" (the one about the pet cemetary) for the first time, and it rocked my world. I was weeping at the end as he showed the plastic swan floating on the tiny man-made pond. I've always maintained that there is a fine line between sappy and sublime, and the best art gets right up to that line without going over. It's like a cliff and you want to get as close to the edge as you can. Which is why pop music to me can be the highest form of art. But one man's high sublimity is another man's overboard sappiness. Again, empathy is crucial; and how you sneak up on it is crucial. Hardline postmodern cynicism is so easy, but it's too safe. It hesitates to even approach the edge (or admit its existence). And then something like country music television is well over the edge, but you know, as much as I hate country music television, at least it attempts to be in some kind of dialogue with the edge at all.
I also like Morris's second film, "Vernon, Florida" as a cult classic, but he is much less empathetic with those characters, and the more I watch it, the meaner it reads. Whereas "Gates of Heaven" is marvelously sublime (in the bravest, trailer park sense).
peace,
curt
Michael Szpakowski wrote:
> Hi Ryan
> gosh, the slipperiness of words, especially on Planet
> Postmodern!
> My take on the two terms is the time honoured one
> -sentimentality for me, is *unearned* emotion, emotion
> triggered by a formal, almost Pavlovian, response to
> certain standardised stimuli - and in the process real
> feeling, empathy, is often effaced. A lot of Brits,
> who would kill for their animals, whom they
> anthropomorphise and sentimentalise, would equally as
> quickly denigrate (and worse) refugees and asylum
> seekers, real, suffering, often desperate, human
> beings.
> The manipulative side of it is where these triggers
> are used in culture to direct us to a preforseen, a
> desired, conclusion; for example it seems to me that
> the bulk of Disney and in fact the bulk of mainstream
> cinema is almost exclusively about using sentiment (
> and other short cuts -*action*, *excitement* for
> example.) to point us in a particular direction.
> That rather tortuous definition really just enables me
> to repeat myself -I contend that Doron's latest work
> lacks sentiment in this sense -the thing that gives it
> its mysteriousness is the impossibility of determining
> precisely at any point the directorial viewpoint -the
> viewer has to contruct a relationship to the folk in
> the films herself. In the end the films seem to me to
> leave us with a complex( because hard won, or better
> *worked for*, by the viewer)kind of empathy for their
> subjects and from this emerges a sense of great warmth
> for *actual* human beings engaged in living their
> complex and mysterious and messy lives.
> best
> michael
It's interesting you mention pet ownership in a discussion about documentary film. I just got through watching Errol Morris's "Gates of Heaven" (the one about the pet cemetary) for the first time, and it rocked my world. I was weeping at the end as he showed the plastic swan floating on the tiny man-made pond. I've always maintained that there is a fine line between sappy and sublime, and the best art gets right up to that line without going over. It's like a cliff and you want to get as close to the edge as you can. Which is why pop music to me can be the highest form of art. But one man's high sublimity is another man's overboard sappiness. Again, empathy is crucial; and how you sneak up on it is crucial. Hardline postmodern cynicism is so easy, but it's too safe. It hesitates to even approach the edge (or admit its existence). And then something like country music television is well over the edge, but you know, as much as I hate country music television, at least it attempts to be in some kind of dialogue with the edge at all.
I also like Morris's second film, "Vernon, Florida" as a cult classic, but he is much less empathetic with those characters, and the more I watch it, the meaner it reads. Whereas "Gates of Heaven" is marvelously sublime (in the bravest, trailer park sense).
peace,
curt
Michael Szpakowski wrote:
> Hi Ryan
> gosh, the slipperiness of words, especially on Planet
> Postmodern!
> My take on the two terms is the time honoured one
> -sentimentality for me, is *unearned* emotion, emotion
> triggered by a formal, almost Pavlovian, response to
> certain standardised stimuli - and in the process real
> feeling, empathy, is often effaced. A lot of Brits,
> who would kill for their animals, whom they
> anthropomorphise and sentimentalise, would equally as
> quickly denigrate (and worse) refugees and asylum
> seekers, real, suffering, often desperate, human
> beings.
> The manipulative side of it is where these triggers
> are used in culture to direct us to a preforseen, a
> desired, conclusion; for example it seems to me that
> the bulk of Disney and in fact the bulk of mainstream
> cinema is almost exclusively about using sentiment (
> and other short cuts -*action*, *excitement* for
> example.) to point us in a particular direction.
> That rather tortuous definition really just enables me
> to repeat myself -I contend that Doron's latest work
> lacks sentiment in this sense -the thing that gives it
> its mysteriousness is the impossibility of determining
> precisely at any point the directorial viewpoint -the
> viewer has to contruct a relationship to the folk in
> the films herself. In the end the films seem to me to
> leave us with a complex( because hard won, or better
> *worked for*, by the viewer)kind of empathy for their
> subjects and from this emerges a sense of great warmth
> for *actual* human beings engaged in living their
> complex and mysterious and messy lives.
> best
> michael
plot this concept: 1to1 -- Keyhole Memory / Mediated Psychocartography
plot this concept: 1to1 -- Keyhole Memory / Mediated Psychocartography
PRECEDENCES:
Confessional poetry. Geocaching.
TECHNOLOGY:
Google bought the Keyhole satellite photography database and made it
Google Maps. MSN has something similar called Virtual Earth. In
some areas of the world, the google map set is more detailed; in
other areas, the MSN mapset is more detailed. Now there's a cool
flash interface that combines both: http://flashearth.com (by Paul
Neave). You can bookmark and save specific locations as discrete
URLs. The cool thing about flashearth is, unlike MSN Virtual Earth
and Google Maps, there's no search field. So you can't just type in
the name of the location. You have to start macro and zoom in
manually. It requires a bit of visual recognition and spatial
cognition. You "feel" your way there and in so doing you get a
haptic sense of where "there" is in relationship to "everywhere else."
CONCEPT:
Memory is intrinsically tied to location. Now via flashearth I can
access my personal "memory locations" from on high. I can then
connect each location with its correspondent memory by posting a
discrete URL of the location with a text description of the memory.
Others can access my locational memories, "surf them," then post
their own.
Because flashearth is a database, when I post the discrete URL of a
memory location, I'm not just sharing a static satellite image of
that location; I'm sharing a locational node which is connected in
context to a database of the whole world. The reader of my post is
thus able to navigate the areas surrounding my locational node, and
contextualize my location with other locations in her personal
history/memory.
INSTRUCTIONS:
A.
Acquire a URL ( psychocartography.org ) and set up a guestbook
structure with the following requisite form fields where anyone can
post:
1. The URL of their location from flashearth.com
2. The real world name of the location (where and what it is)
3. The date of the memory associated with the location (may be a date
range. may be subjectively described.)
4. A brief description of what that location means to the person in
terms of their personal memory (may include events, people, moods,
etc.)
5. Optional: URL of any collateral online material that would
supplement or enrich the memory (could be text, photographs, video,
audio, etc.)
These posts can take several forms:
1. They can be straightforward and autobiographical ("this is out
back of the circle K in Detroit where I kissed Jane Harlowe for the
first time. We were both 13.")
2. They can be downright cryptic and totally personal (almost like
notes to one's self).
3. They can be fantastical/fictional ("this is the winter palace
floating on a man-made lake in Beijing where I gazed into the lotus
pond as a young girl.")
Discourage generic tourist posts ("this is where I saw the eiffel
tower/pyramids/mt. rushmore"), unless there is some more interesting
personal/idiosyncratic memory involved.
Or,
B.
simply post your own location/memory combinations at any online
listserv or bulletin board and ask people to respond with their own
posts. (That's what I'm doing here.)
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION:
Feel free to respond with your own location/memory combinations.
SAMPLE POST:
Here are a few actual location/memories from my life:
[note, the URLs may get split in half in the web version of this
post. Just paste them back together.]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.472465&lon=-82.804411&z.7&r=0&src=0
Dutch Cove, North Carorlina | winter 2005
The gap between our cove and Cruso, the town beyond. This winter,
when the brush has died back, I aim to hike over this pass. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/dutchcove/
)
2.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-23.561252&lon=-46.6558&z.5&r=0&src=0
Sao Paulo, Brazil | 2004
Gallery where I stared at that Bosch painting for so long. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/picture/bosch/
)
3.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat1.778081&lon5.234522&z.4&r=0&src=0
Jerusalem, Israel, Western Wall | 2004
Prayed for unknown things in tongues.
4.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.536877&lon=-87.905523&z.3&r=0&src=0
Fairhope, Alabama, Seminole Ave. Beach | the year I met Julie
Bayfront beach down the road from my rental house. Dancing in the
moonlight alone.
5.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.696654&lon=-88.096533&z&r=0&src=1
Mobile, Alabama, Baxter Ave. House | Caroline's first three years
Began playdamage.
6.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.69716&lon=-88.131897&z.2&r=0&src=2
Mobile, Alabama, Wilmer Hall Orphanage, Murray Cottage | 1991
4 days on, 3 days off as a house parent. Good memories of us all
gathered around singing "Romans 16:19" with Zach playing drums on the
garbage can.
7.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.701192&lon=-88.135445&z&r=0&src=1
Mobile, Alabama, Mary B. Austin Elementary, Old Ann (oak tree) | 4th grade
Kicked off of the safety patrol for tree-climbing.
8.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.701977&lon=-88.15638&z.1&r=0&src=2
Mobile, Alabama, woods behind our house on N. Carmel Drive | High School
He is there and He is not silent.
9.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.21119&lon=-85.927273&z.8&r=0&src=0
Sewanee, Tennessee, The Dairy | college
Mysterious, fragrant days. All invitation and promise; Cocteau Twins
soundtrack.
10.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.219469&lon=-92.027814&z&r=0&src=0
Lafayette, Louisiana, Maw Maw + Paw Paw's swimming pool | childhood
Dad flipping Andy and me high up in the air. "Stay balled up. 1, 2,
3..." (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/lafayette/
)
11.
http://www.flashearth.com/?latH.004443&lon=-114.243945&z.2&r=0&src=2
Lakeside, Montana | 1993
Read the book of Isaiah aloud in six hours. At the very end of the
last chapter it started to rain. (cf:
http://lab404.com/plotfracture/whorl/memory/mt/road.jpg )
12.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat.71537&lon=-64.736149&z.3&r=0&src=0
St. Croix, US Virgin Islands | 1992
Walked around the perimeter of the island in 4 days. (cf:
http://lab404.com/plotfracture/whorl/memory/mt/flag.jpg )
13.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat6.727087&lon=-80.79148&z.8&r=0&src=2
Carroll County, Virginia, Joy Ranch Boys & Girls Home | 1994
My first teaching job. X marks the spot of the storage room where
there was an upright piano on which I wrote this song for my wife the
year before we met:
http://www.lab404.com/audio/no_one_knows/you_have_ravished_my_heart.mp3
14.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat.196044&lon=-100.138459&z.1&r=0&src=0
Valle de Bravo, Mexico | 2003
The Rose of Jericho and Bougainvillea (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/valle/
)
15.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat4.30351&lon=-83.82345&z.5&r=0&src=2
Gainesville, Georgia, Brenau University Women's Center | courting Julie
I would stay here when I went to visit Julie while she was in
college. We would watch videos, eat snacks, sit on the couch in the
commons room, and be glad.
16.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat2.065684&lon=-84.921433&z.4&r=0&src=2
Providence Canyon, Georgia, outside of Eufaula, Alabama | right
before my job at Integrity Music
Before we had kids, back when Julie and I used to go stay at Alabama
state parks for fun. I was between jobs and very depressed looking
into this big gorge. Soundtrack: The Verve's "Urban Hymns." (cf:
http://gastateparks.org/content/georgia/parks/parkphotos/providence.jpg
)
17.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.536523&lon=-87.490501&z.4&r=0&src=2
Styx River, Alabama | growing up
Sandbar where Dad and I camped in cold weather, where I first looked
at the moon through his glasses, saw details I hadn't seem before,
and realized I also needed glasses. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/juniper/
)
18.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.409731&lon=-82.85969&z.5&r=0&src=2
Cold Mountain, Shining Rock Wilderness, North Carolina | 2003
There's no through road.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
yours,
curt
PRECEDENCES:
Confessional poetry. Geocaching.
TECHNOLOGY:
Google bought the Keyhole satellite photography database and made it
Google Maps. MSN has something similar called Virtual Earth. In
some areas of the world, the google map set is more detailed; in
other areas, the MSN mapset is more detailed. Now there's a cool
flash interface that combines both: http://flashearth.com (by Paul
Neave). You can bookmark and save specific locations as discrete
URLs. The cool thing about flashearth is, unlike MSN Virtual Earth
and Google Maps, there's no search field. So you can't just type in
the name of the location. You have to start macro and zoom in
manually. It requires a bit of visual recognition and spatial
cognition. You "feel" your way there and in so doing you get a
haptic sense of where "there" is in relationship to "everywhere else."
CONCEPT:
Memory is intrinsically tied to location. Now via flashearth I can
access my personal "memory locations" from on high. I can then
connect each location with its correspondent memory by posting a
discrete URL of the location with a text description of the memory.
Others can access my locational memories, "surf them," then post
their own.
Because flashearth is a database, when I post the discrete URL of a
memory location, I'm not just sharing a static satellite image of
that location; I'm sharing a locational node which is connected in
context to a database of the whole world. The reader of my post is
thus able to navigate the areas surrounding my locational node, and
contextualize my location with other locations in her personal
history/memory.
INSTRUCTIONS:
A.
Acquire a URL ( psychocartography.org ) and set up a guestbook
structure with the following requisite form fields where anyone can
post:
1. The URL of their location from flashearth.com
2. The real world name of the location (where and what it is)
3. The date of the memory associated with the location (may be a date
range. may be subjectively described.)
4. A brief description of what that location means to the person in
terms of their personal memory (may include events, people, moods,
etc.)
5. Optional: URL of any collateral online material that would
supplement or enrich the memory (could be text, photographs, video,
audio, etc.)
These posts can take several forms:
1. They can be straightforward and autobiographical ("this is out
back of the circle K in Detroit where I kissed Jane Harlowe for the
first time. We were both 13.")
2. They can be downright cryptic and totally personal (almost like
notes to one's self).
3. They can be fantastical/fictional ("this is the winter palace
floating on a man-made lake in Beijing where I gazed into the lotus
pond as a young girl.")
Discourage generic tourist posts ("this is where I saw the eiffel
tower/pyramids/mt. rushmore"), unless there is some more interesting
personal/idiosyncratic memory involved.
Or,
B.
simply post your own location/memory combinations at any online
listserv or bulletin board and ask people to respond with their own
posts. (That's what I'm doing here.)
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION:
Feel free to respond with your own location/memory combinations.
SAMPLE POST:
Here are a few actual location/memories from my life:
[note, the URLs may get split in half in the web version of this
post. Just paste them back together.]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.472465&lon=-82.804411&z.7&r=0&src=0
Dutch Cove, North Carorlina | winter 2005
The gap between our cove and Cruso, the town beyond. This winter,
when the brush has died back, I aim to hike over this pass. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/dutchcove/
)
2.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-23.561252&lon=-46.6558&z.5&r=0&src=0
Sao Paulo, Brazil | 2004
Gallery where I stared at that Bosch painting for so long. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/picture/bosch/
)
3.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat1.778081&lon5.234522&z.4&r=0&src=0
Jerusalem, Israel, Western Wall | 2004
Prayed for unknown things in tongues.
4.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.536877&lon=-87.905523&z.3&r=0&src=0
Fairhope, Alabama, Seminole Ave. Beach | the year I met Julie
Bayfront beach down the road from my rental house. Dancing in the
moonlight alone.
5.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.696654&lon=-88.096533&z&r=0&src=1
Mobile, Alabama, Baxter Ave. House | Caroline's first three years
Began playdamage.
6.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.69716&lon=-88.131897&z.2&r=0&src=2
Mobile, Alabama, Wilmer Hall Orphanage, Murray Cottage | 1991
4 days on, 3 days off as a house parent. Good memories of us all
gathered around singing "Romans 16:19" with Zach playing drums on the
garbage can.
7.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.701192&lon=-88.135445&z&r=0&src=1
Mobile, Alabama, Mary B. Austin Elementary, Old Ann (oak tree) | 4th grade
Kicked off of the safety patrol for tree-climbing.
8.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.701977&lon=-88.15638&z.1&r=0&src=2
Mobile, Alabama, woods behind our house on N. Carmel Drive | High School
He is there and He is not silent.
9.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.21119&lon=-85.927273&z.8&r=0&src=0
Sewanee, Tennessee, The Dairy | college
Mysterious, fragrant days. All invitation and promise; Cocteau Twins
soundtrack.
10.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.219469&lon=-92.027814&z&r=0&src=0
Lafayette, Louisiana, Maw Maw + Paw Paw's swimming pool | childhood
Dad flipping Andy and me high up in the air. "Stay balled up. 1, 2,
3..." (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/lafayette/
)
11.
http://www.flashearth.com/?latH.004443&lon=-114.243945&z.2&r=0&src=2
Lakeside, Montana | 1993
Read the book of Isaiah aloud in six hours. At the very end of the
last chapter it started to rain. (cf:
http://lab404.com/plotfracture/whorl/memory/mt/road.jpg )
12.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat.71537&lon=-64.736149&z.3&r=0&src=0
St. Croix, US Virgin Islands | 1992
Walked around the perimeter of the island in 4 days. (cf:
http://lab404.com/plotfracture/whorl/memory/mt/flag.jpg )
13.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat6.727087&lon=-80.79148&z.8&r=0&src=2
Carroll County, Virginia, Joy Ranch Boys & Girls Home | 1994
My first teaching job. X marks the spot of the storage room where
there was an upright piano on which I wrote this song for my wife the
year before we met:
http://www.lab404.com/audio/no_one_knows/you_have_ravished_my_heart.mp3
14.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat.196044&lon=-100.138459&z.1&r=0&src=0
Valle de Bravo, Mexico | 2003
The Rose of Jericho and Bougainvillea (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/valle/
)
15.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat4.30351&lon=-83.82345&z.5&r=0&src=2
Gainesville, Georgia, Brenau University Women's Center | courting Julie
I would stay here when I went to visit Julie while she was in
college. We would watch videos, eat snacks, sit on the couch in the
commons room, and be glad.
16.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat2.065684&lon=-84.921433&z.4&r=0&src=2
Providence Canyon, Georgia, outside of Eufaula, Alabama | right
before my job at Integrity Music
Before we had kids, back when Julie and I used to go stay at Alabama
state parks for fun. I was between jobs and very depressed looking
into this big gorge. Soundtrack: The Verve's "Urban Hymns." (cf:
http://gastateparks.org/content/georgia/parks/parkphotos/providence.jpg
)
17.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.536523&lon=-87.490501&z.4&r=0&src=2
Styx River, Alabama | growing up
Sandbar where Dad and I camped in cold weather, where I first looked
at the moon through his glasses, saw details I hadn't seem before,
and realized I also needed glasses. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/juniper/
)
18.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.409731&lon=-82.85969&z.5&r=0&src=2
Cold Mountain, Shining Rock Wilderness, North Carolina | 2003
There's no through road.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
yours,
curt
ten thousand flower tube general worldwide village
http://skl.yculblog.com/post.713846.html
Chinese review of playdamage.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Chinese to English (the "right" way):
These warm-hearted art " startle the guest ", in the overbearing commercial driving influence the adverse current above, happy does not have takes into consideration!
curt cloninger is one set attractive and has the valuable reading difficulty the digital picture-and-story book. The author probably used several hundred about picture, the group exchanges more than 100 groups of pictures and the sound source material, again looked resembled inundates the non- goal way group ships out one set of brilliant interests continually pages atlas. When one opens them, we may think oneself is in 看, but perhaps can think oneself is walking, is relating, is reciting. curt cloninger at least but certainly not merely is one simple net art work, the author travels for pleasure to each place local conditions and social customs, together with his feelings, completely compiles inside fairy tale strange 境地. Everywhere all is the story, all is is reluctant to part with, all is recollects. 呀 study language young girl, in bar attractive and warm woman, vertically and horizontally the neon light street, did not have several times the performance, the new friend, the street corner was drunk the liquor, the terrorist nightmare, was joyful and is sad, together attached to trivially spells pastes with the landscape, wove the dream general life scene. Buries under these 怪 prospect, is one poet sensitively pours out with the bright mood.
Looks from the outlook, this is reaches 61 pages of natural lengths, the color and the composition extremely is all energetic, the music and the picture also complements each other, loafs in this ten thousand 花筒 general worlds, unconsciously spent my half hour.
>>> enters the picture-and-story book home page
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Japanese to English (the "wrong" way, and even better):
些? Mental? "? Customer "? Resident in 霸 road trade? On counterflow 而 in power? Heart 而 无 place? And!
Curt cloninger right one 套 drifting Akira 并 possession yes? Degree numeric system? Picture. The writer generally? Business Ryo several hundred? Left and right illuminating piece? Coming out hundred multi? The one harmony vocal sound material, re-from here watching being similar 漫 无 intended system? Equipment coming out one 套? Mark hobby? Collection. One? 翻? 它? Our? Yes from here? Self right resident in watching? 但 也? Meeting? Profitable self correct resident in line running, righteousness resident in? Correct resident in sing singing/stating. Curt cloninger reaching little 但? Fault? Right one 个? Mark net art work, writer 游? 于 every place? Native feeling? The same other thought, all? Coming out child? General? In odd state 之. The capital right thing, capital right stationary love and capital right time? 呀 study? Mark small mother-in-law daughter, liquor? Village drifting Akira 而? Feeling woman person? Side
Chinese review of playdamage.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Chinese to English (the "right" way):
These warm-hearted art " startle the guest ", in the overbearing commercial driving influence the adverse current above, happy does not have takes into consideration!
curt cloninger is one set attractive and has the valuable reading difficulty the digital picture-and-story book. The author probably used several hundred about picture, the group exchanges more than 100 groups of pictures and the sound source material, again looked resembled inundates the non- goal way group ships out one set of brilliant interests continually pages atlas. When one opens them, we may think oneself is in 看, but perhaps can think oneself is walking, is relating, is reciting. curt cloninger at least but certainly not merely is one simple net art work, the author travels for pleasure to each place local conditions and social customs, together with his feelings, completely compiles inside fairy tale strange 境地. Everywhere all is the story, all is is reluctant to part with, all is recollects. 呀 study language young girl, in bar attractive and warm woman, vertically and horizontally the neon light street, did not have several times the performance, the new friend, the street corner was drunk the liquor, the terrorist nightmare, was joyful and is sad, together attached to trivially spells pastes with the landscape, wove the dream general life scene. Buries under these 怪 prospect, is one poet sensitively pours out with the bright mood.
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>>> enters the picture-and-story book home page
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Japanese to English (the "wrong" way, and even better):
些? Mental? "? Customer "? Resident in 霸 road trade? On counterflow 而 in power? Heart 而 无 place? And!
Curt cloninger right one 套 drifting Akira 并 possession yes? Degree numeric system? Picture. The writer generally? Business Ryo several hundred? Left and right illuminating piece? Coming out hundred multi? The one harmony vocal sound material, re-from here watching being similar 漫 无 intended system? Equipment coming out one 套? Mark hobby? Collection. One? 翻? 它? Our? Yes from here? Self right resident in watching? 但 也? Meeting? Profitable self correct resident in line running, righteousness resident in? Correct resident in sing singing/stating. Curt cloninger reaching little 但? Fault? Right one 个? Mark net art work, writer 游? 于 every place? Native feeling? The same other thought, all? Coming out child? General? In odd state 之. The capital right thing, capital right stationary love and capital right time? 呀 study? Mark small mother-in-law daughter, liquor? Village drifting Akira 而? Feeling woman person? Side
Re: Robert Moog Dies at 71; Created a Synthesizer That RevolutionizedMusic - nytimes
From a local perspective:
http://www.themap.org/content/view/61/
The recent biography:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0378378/
He will be missed here in Asheville.
-
lee wells wrote:
> The New York Times
> August 23, 2005
> Robert Moog Dies at 71; Created a Synthesizer That Revolutionized
> Music
> By ALLAN KOZINN
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/arts/music/23moog.html?hp
>
> Robert Moog, the creator of the electronic music synthesizer that
> bears his
> name and that became ubiquitous among experimental composers as well
> as rock
> musicians in the 1960's and 70's, died on Sunday at his home in
> Asheville,
> N.C. He was 71.
>
> The cause was an inoperable brain tumor, discovered in April, his
> daughter
> Michelle Moog-Koussa said.
>
> At the height of his synthesizer's popularity, when progressive rock
> bands
> like Yes, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Emerson, Lake and Palmer
> built
> their sounds around the assertive, bouncy, exotically wheezy and
> occasionally explosive timbres of Mr. Moog's instruments, his name
> (which
> rhymes with vogue) became so closely associated with electronic sound
> that
> it was often used generically, if incorrectly, to describe
> synthesizers of
> all kinds.
>
> More recently, hip-hop groups like the Beastie Boys and rock bands
> with more
> experimentalist leanings, from They Might Be Giants to Wilco, have
> revived
> an interest in the early Moog synthesizer timbres. Partly because of
> this
> renewed interest, Mr. Moog and his instruments were the subjects of a
> documentary, "Moog," which opened in the fall of 2004. In an interview
> last
> year with The New York Times, Hans Fjellestad, who directed the film,
> likened Mr. Moog to Les Paul and Leo Fender, who are widely regarded
> as the
> fathers of the electric guitar.
>
> "He embodies that sort of visionary, maverick spirit and that inventor
> mythology," Mr. Fjellestad said at the time.
>
> Mr. Moog's earliest instruments were collections of modules better
> suited to
> studio work than live performance, and as rock bands adopted them, he
> expanded his line to include the Minimoog and the Micromoog,
> instruments
> that could be used more easily on stage. He also expanded on his
> original
> monophonic models, which played only a single musical line at a time,
> creating polyphonic instruments that allowed for harmony and
> counterpoint.
>
> Even so, by the end of the 1970's, Mr. Moog's instruments were being
> supplanted by those of competing companies like Arp, Aries, Roland and
> Emu,
> which produced synthesizers that were less expensive, easier to use
> and more
> portable. (Those instruments, in turn, were displaced in the 1980's by
> keyboard-contained digital devices by Kurzweil, Yamaha and others.)
>
> In 1978, Mr. Moog moved from western New York to North Carolina, where
> he
> started a new company, Big Briar (later Moog Music), that produced
> synthesizer modules and alternative controllers - devices other than
> keyboards, with which a musician could play electronic instruments.
> His
> particular specialty was the Ethervox, a version of the theremin, an
> eerie-toned instrument created by the Russian inventor Leon Theremin,
> in the
> 1920's, that allows performers to create pitches by moving their hands
> between two metal rods.
>
> It was the theremin, in fact, that got Mr. Moog interested in
> electronic
> music when he was a child in the 1940's. In 1949, when he was 14, he
> built a
> theremin from plans he found in a magazine, Electronics World. He
> tinkered
> with the instrument until he produced a design of his own, in 1953,
> and in
> 1954 he published an article on the theremin in "Radio and Television
> News,"
> and started the R. A. Moog Company, which sold his theremins and
> theremin
> kits.
>
> Mr. Moog was born in New York City on May 23, 1934, and although he
> studied
> the piano while he was growing up in Flushing, Queens, his real
> interest was
> physics. He attended the Bronx High School of Science, and earned
> undergraduate degrees in physics from Queens College and electrical
> engineering from Columbia University.
>
> By the time he completed his Ph.D. in engineering physics at Cornell
> University in 1965, his theremin business had taken off, and he had
> started
> working with Herbert Deutsch, a composer, on his first synthesizer
> modules.
> Mr. Moog was familiar with the huge synthesizers in use at Columbia
> University and at RCA and that European composers were experimenting
> with;
> his goal was to create instruments that were both more compact and
> accessible to musicians.
>
> The first Moog synthesizers were collections of modules, connected by
> electronic patch cords, something like those that connect stereo
> components.
> The first module, an oscillator, would produce a sound wave, giving a
> musician a choice of several kinds, ranging from the gracefully
> undulating
> purity of a sine wave to the more complex, angular or abrasive sounds
> of
> square and sawtooth waves. The wave was sent to the next module,
> called an
> A.D.S.R. (attack-decay-sustain-release) envelope generator, with which
> the
> player defined the way a note begins and ends, and how long it is
> held. A
> note might, for example, explode in a sudden burst, like a trumpet
> blast, or
> it could fade in at any number of speeds. From there, the sound went
> to a
> third module, a filter, which was used to shape its color and texture.
>
> Using these modules, and others that Mr. Moog went on to create, a
> musician
> could either imitate acoustic instruments, or create purely electronic
> sounds. A keyboard, attached to this setup, let the performer control
> when
> the oscillator produced a tone, and at what pitch.
>
> "Artist feedback drove all my development work," Mr. Moog said in an
> interview with Salon in 2000. "The first synthesizers I made were in
> response to what Herb Deutsch wanted. The now-famous Moog filter was
> suggested by several musicians. The so-called A.D.S.R. envelope, which
> is
> now a basic element in all contemporary synthesizers and programmable
> keyboard instruments, was originally specified in 1965 by Vladimir
> Ussachevsky, then head of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music
> Center.
> The point is that I don't design stuff for myself. I'm a toolmaker. I
> design
> things that other people want to use."
>
> University music schools quickly established electronic music labs
> built
> around the Moog synthesizer, and composers like Richard Teitelbaum,
> Dick
> Hyman and Walter Carlos (who later had a sex-change operation and is
> now
> Wendy Carlos) adopted them. For most listeners, though, it was a
> crossover
> album, Walter Carlos's "Switched-On Bach," that ushered the instrument
> into
> the spotlight. A collection of Bach transcriptions, meticulously
> recorded
> one line at a time, "Switched-On Bach" was meant to persuade casual
> listeners who regarded synthesizers as random noise machines that the
> instrument could be used in thoroughly musical ways. The album's
> sequels
> included the haunting Purcell and Beethoven transcriptions used in the
> Stanley Kubrick film "A Clockwork Orange."
>
> Rock groups were attracted to the Moog as well. The Monkees used the
> instrument as early as 1967, on their "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and
> Jones
> Ltd." album. In early 1969, George Harrison, of the Beatles, had a
> Moog
> synthesizer installed in his home, and released an album of his
> practice
> tapes, "Electronic Sound," that May. The Beatles used the synthesizer
> to
> adorn several tracks on the "Abbey Road" album, most notably John
> Lennon's
> "Because," Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" and Paul McCartney's
> "Maxwell's
> Silver Hammer."
>
> Among jazz musicians, Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer and Sun Ra adopted
> the
> synthesizer quickly. And with the advent of progressive rock, in the
> early
> 1970's, the sound of the Moog synthesizer and its imitators became
> ubiquitous.
>
> In 1971, Mr. Moog sold his company, Moog Music, to Norlin Musical
> Instruments, but he continued to design instruments for the company
> until
> 1977. When he moved to North Carolina, in 1978, he started Big Briar,
> to
> make new devices, and he renamed the company Moog Music when he bought
> back
> the name in 2002. He also worked as a consultant and vice president
> for new
> product research at Kurzweil Music Systems, from 1984 to 1988.
>
> His first marriage, to Shirleigh Moog, ended in divorce. He is
> survived by
> his wife, Ileana; his children, Laura Moog Lanier, Matthew Moog,
> Michelle
> Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog and Miranda Richmond; and five grandchildren.
>
> * Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
>
> --
> Lee Wells
> Brooklyn, NY 11222
>
> http://www.leewells.org
> 917 723 2524
>
http://www.themap.org/content/view/61/
The recent biography:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0378378/
He will be missed here in Asheville.
-
lee wells wrote:
> The New York Times
> August 23, 2005
> Robert Moog Dies at 71; Created a Synthesizer That Revolutionized
> Music
> By ALLAN KOZINN
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/arts/music/23moog.html?hp
>
> Robert Moog, the creator of the electronic music synthesizer that
> bears his
> name and that became ubiquitous among experimental composers as well
> as rock
> musicians in the 1960's and 70's, died on Sunday at his home in
> Asheville,
> N.C. He was 71.
>
> The cause was an inoperable brain tumor, discovered in April, his
> daughter
> Michelle Moog-Koussa said.
>
> At the height of his synthesizer's popularity, when progressive rock
> bands
> like Yes, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Emerson, Lake and Palmer
> built
> their sounds around the assertive, bouncy, exotically wheezy and
> occasionally explosive timbres of Mr. Moog's instruments, his name
> (which
> rhymes with vogue) became so closely associated with electronic sound
> that
> it was often used generically, if incorrectly, to describe
> synthesizers of
> all kinds.
>
> More recently, hip-hop groups like the Beastie Boys and rock bands
> with more
> experimentalist leanings, from They Might Be Giants to Wilco, have
> revived
> an interest in the early Moog synthesizer timbres. Partly because of
> this
> renewed interest, Mr. Moog and his instruments were the subjects of a
> documentary, "Moog," which opened in the fall of 2004. In an interview
> last
> year with The New York Times, Hans Fjellestad, who directed the film,
> likened Mr. Moog to Les Paul and Leo Fender, who are widely regarded
> as the
> fathers of the electric guitar.
>
> "He embodies that sort of visionary, maverick spirit and that inventor
> mythology," Mr. Fjellestad said at the time.
>
> Mr. Moog's earliest instruments were collections of modules better
> suited to
> studio work than live performance, and as rock bands adopted them, he
> expanded his line to include the Minimoog and the Micromoog,
> instruments
> that could be used more easily on stage. He also expanded on his
> original
> monophonic models, which played only a single musical line at a time,
> creating polyphonic instruments that allowed for harmony and
> counterpoint.
>
> Even so, by the end of the 1970's, Mr. Moog's instruments were being
> supplanted by those of competing companies like Arp, Aries, Roland and
> Emu,
> which produced synthesizers that were less expensive, easier to use
> and more
> portable. (Those instruments, in turn, were displaced in the 1980's by
> keyboard-contained digital devices by Kurzweil, Yamaha and others.)
>
> In 1978, Mr. Moog moved from western New York to North Carolina, where
> he
> started a new company, Big Briar (later Moog Music), that produced
> synthesizer modules and alternative controllers - devices other than
> keyboards, with which a musician could play electronic instruments.
> His
> particular specialty was the Ethervox, a version of the theremin, an
> eerie-toned instrument created by the Russian inventor Leon Theremin,
> in the
> 1920's, that allows performers to create pitches by moving their hands
> between two metal rods.
>
> It was the theremin, in fact, that got Mr. Moog interested in
> electronic
> music when he was a child in the 1940's. In 1949, when he was 14, he
> built a
> theremin from plans he found in a magazine, Electronics World. He
> tinkered
> with the instrument until he produced a design of his own, in 1953,
> and in
> 1954 he published an article on the theremin in "Radio and Television
> News,"
> and started the R. A. Moog Company, which sold his theremins and
> theremin
> kits.
>
> Mr. Moog was born in New York City on May 23, 1934, and although he
> studied
> the piano while he was growing up in Flushing, Queens, his real
> interest was
> physics. He attended the Bronx High School of Science, and earned
> undergraduate degrees in physics from Queens College and electrical
> engineering from Columbia University.
>
> By the time he completed his Ph.D. in engineering physics at Cornell
> University in 1965, his theremin business had taken off, and he had
> started
> working with Herbert Deutsch, a composer, on his first synthesizer
> modules.
> Mr. Moog was familiar with the huge synthesizers in use at Columbia
> University and at RCA and that European composers were experimenting
> with;
> his goal was to create instruments that were both more compact and
> accessible to musicians.
>
> The first Moog synthesizers were collections of modules, connected by
> electronic patch cords, something like those that connect stereo
> components.
> The first module, an oscillator, would produce a sound wave, giving a
> musician a choice of several kinds, ranging from the gracefully
> undulating
> purity of a sine wave to the more complex, angular or abrasive sounds
> of
> square and sawtooth waves. The wave was sent to the next module,
> called an
> A.D.S.R. (attack-decay-sustain-release) envelope generator, with which
> the
> player defined the way a note begins and ends, and how long it is
> held. A
> note might, for example, explode in a sudden burst, like a trumpet
> blast, or
> it could fade in at any number of speeds. From there, the sound went
> to a
> third module, a filter, which was used to shape its color and texture.
>
> Using these modules, and others that Mr. Moog went on to create, a
> musician
> could either imitate acoustic instruments, or create purely electronic
> sounds. A keyboard, attached to this setup, let the performer control
> when
> the oscillator produced a tone, and at what pitch.
>
> "Artist feedback drove all my development work," Mr. Moog said in an
> interview with Salon in 2000. "The first synthesizers I made were in
> response to what Herb Deutsch wanted. The now-famous Moog filter was
> suggested by several musicians. The so-called A.D.S.R. envelope, which
> is
> now a basic element in all contemporary synthesizers and programmable
> keyboard instruments, was originally specified in 1965 by Vladimir
> Ussachevsky, then head of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music
> Center.
> The point is that I don't design stuff for myself. I'm a toolmaker. I
> design
> things that other people want to use."
>
> University music schools quickly established electronic music labs
> built
> around the Moog synthesizer, and composers like Richard Teitelbaum,
> Dick
> Hyman and Walter Carlos (who later had a sex-change operation and is
> now
> Wendy Carlos) adopted them. For most listeners, though, it was a
> crossover
> album, Walter Carlos's "Switched-On Bach," that ushered the instrument
> into
> the spotlight. A collection of Bach transcriptions, meticulously
> recorded
> one line at a time, "Switched-On Bach" was meant to persuade casual
> listeners who regarded synthesizers as random noise machines that the
> instrument could be used in thoroughly musical ways. The album's
> sequels
> included the haunting Purcell and Beethoven transcriptions used in the
> Stanley Kubrick film "A Clockwork Orange."
>
> Rock groups were attracted to the Moog as well. The Monkees used the
> instrument as early as 1967, on their "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and
> Jones
> Ltd." album. In early 1969, George Harrison, of the Beatles, had a
> Moog
> synthesizer installed in his home, and released an album of his
> practice
> tapes, "Electronic Sound," that May. The Beatles used the synthesizer
> to
> adorn several tracks on the "Abbey Road" album, most notably John
> Lennon's
> "Because," Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" and Paul McCartney's
> "Maxwell's
> Silver Hammer."
>
> Among jazz musicians, Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer and Sun Ra adopted
> the
> synthesizer quickly. And with the advent of progressive rock, in the
> early
> 1970's, the sound of the Moog synthesizer and its imitators became
> ubiquitous.
>
> In 1971, Mr. Moog sold his company, Moog Music, to Norlin Musical
> Instruments, but he continued to design instruments for the company
> until
> 1977. When he moved to North Carolina, in 1978, he started Big Briar,
> to
> make new devices, and he renamed the company Moog Music when he bought
> back
> the name in 2002. He also worked as a consultant and vice president
> for new
> product research at Kurzweil Music Systems, from 1984 to 1988.
>
> His first marriage, to Shirleigh Moog, ended in divorce. He is
> survived by
> his wife, Ileana; his children, Laura Moog Lanier, Matthew Moog,
> Michelle
> Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog and Miranda Richmond; and five grandchildren.
>
> * Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
>
> --
> Lee Wells
> Brooklyn, NY 11222
>
> http://www.leewells.org
> 917 723 2524
>
rewrite this concept: Banal Hollywood
Show business kids making movies of themselves
You know they don't give a fuck about anybody else."
- Steely Dan
PRECEDENCES:
1.
In "Me and Billy Bob," and "Screen Kiss"
http://www.meandbillybob.com/
http://soilmedia.org/Screen_Kiss/
Jillian McDonald inserts herself as the heroine in Hollywood kissing
scenes. She's mainly exploring fan culture, but the work also has
the effect of normalizing these spectacular Hollywood moments.
2.
_Chinatown_ ends with the the good guy losing, just when we think
he's about to win, thus subverting the Hollywood formula,
disappointing lots of ordinary movie goers, and thrilling critics.
3.
In _Pulp Fiction_, John Travolta's character gets killed abruptly
early on in the film, thus upsetting the Hollywood given that the
main character won't get killed halfway through because you wouldn't
pay a famous actor and give him top billing if he only appeared in
half the film.
4.
_Last Action Hero_ puts a normal kind in the action movie world and
then takes the action hero and places him in the real world. In the
movie world, all the workers at the video rental store look like
models. In the real world, the action hero nonchalantly punches
through a car window expecting no adverse repercussions, and he cuts
his hand all up.
_Purple Rose of Cairo_ is kind of the same, just more artsy.
5.
http://www.steelydan.com/lyrcountdown.html#track5
CONCEPT:
The idea is not to make an experimental, quasi-narrative film (a la
Bunuel or Brakhage). Instead, take regular Hollywood films and
re-edit them so that normal stuff happens to the characters half-way
through which cause the film to abruptly end. The idea is to inject
some real life banality into the plot lines in order to critique the
Hollywood genre. You get the idea.
INSTRUCTIONS:
You're shooting for a really banal anti-climax. Hollywood films are
premised on all these great and improbably obstacles being overcome,
crescendoing in some amazingly improbably feat. Either that, or they
are anti-hero movies that crescendo in some amazing defeat, or at
least some amazingly pedantic defeat. No matter what, Hollywood
plots always require some climactic event (good, bad, or astoundingly
indifferent). But you are not going for titanic banality. You're
just going for real life banal banality. Let the main character
hurdle a few of the early improbably obstacles, and then just pick
one thing to go wrong (not even the climactic obstacle), and let it
go wrong and end the film. The films you choose to rewrite don't all
have to be _Citizen Kane_ and _Casablanca_ type movies. They
probably shouldn't be experimental films or independently produced
movies. Just pick Will Ferrel or Ben Stiller or Vin Diesel movies.
+++++++++++++++++
Examples:
1.
In Adam Sandler's _The Waterboy_, The Waterboy overcomes all these
obstacles to play college football, only to be accused of forging his
high school graduation documents. With only a day before the big
game, he has to study up and pass his high school equivalency exam.
In the regular Hollywood film, he does pass the exam with flying
colors, and then goes on to face a series of even more challenging
obstacles before showing up at halftime to win the big game.
In your rewrite, He'll get his test scores back, and it will go
something like this:
TEST SCORE GUY: Sorry Waterboy, You did really well and made a 79,
but you need to make an 80 to pass the test. You can retake the test
in a couple of weeks if you like. I'm sure you'll pass. You're
really close.
WATERBOY: But isn't there any way I can take the test any earlier?
The big game is tomorrow!
TEST SCORE GUY: I'm sorry, but the county requires at least a two
week period between tests. I'm afraid my hands are tied.
THE END
2.
In _Racing Stripes_, a baby zebra falls off a circus truck in a
rainstorm and is accidentally left behind. A farmer takes the zebra
back to his daughter, and through a series of trials and
tribulations, the zebra is trained by the father to race in the big
thoroughbred derby, with his daughter as the jockey. In the regular
Hollywood film, the zebra wins the race.
In your rewrite, the circus will send a clown back to look for the
zebra. After searching years for the zebra, the clown will grow
increasingly angry, bitter, and resentful. He will finally track the
zebra back to the farmer and his daughter, and will show up on their
front doorstep the day before the big race. He will be dressed in
full clown regalia, and the dialogue will go something like this:
CLOWN: I'm here for the zebra. He f ell off our truck a few years
ago and I've come to take him back to the circus.
DAUGHTER: But Mr. Clown, the big race is tomorrow, and the zebra and
I have grown so close!
FATHER: Isn't there anything we can do? I'd buy him from you, but
we've morgaged the farm to the hilt to raise the entrance fee for the
derby. If you hang around until after the race, I'm sure the zebra
will win, and the prize money wiil be more than enough to purchase
him from you.
[DAUGHTER gazes lovingly, hopefeully up at her father's face. Then
looks back to the clown.]
CLOWN: No. The zebra is not for sale. I've got to take him back to
the circus.
DAUGHTER: But can't you just wait one more day, just until after the
race? At least let him run in the race!
CLOWN: No, no, no! Enough chit chat. Hand over the damn zebra!
FATHER: Take him if you must. He's out in the barn.
THE END
+++++++++++++++++
Find your movies online and downlaod them via bit torrent. Search
any one of these:
http://www.torrentreactor.net
http://thepiratebay.org
http://www.torrentspy.com
You'll have to get a camera, and stage and shoot your scenes, but
they don't have to be in a fancy locations, and you don't have to
have great actors.
Then post the entire Hollywood movie right up to and through your
newly written ending. This will give the piece more context and
momentum and make the outcome even more stupid and banal.
If you get sued, claim fair use and get a lot of free press.
Call your URL banalhollywood.com
FIN,
curt
You know they don't give a fuck about anybody else."
- Steely Dan
PRECEDENCES:
1.
In "Me and Billy Bob," and "Screen Kiss"
http://www.meandbillybob.com/
http://soilmedia.org/Screen_Kiss/
Jillian McDonald inserts herself as the heroine in Hollywood kissing
scenes. She's mainly exploring fan culture, but the work also has
the effect of normalizing these spectacular Hollywood moments.
2.
_Chinatown_ ends with the the good guy losing, just when we think
he's about to win, thus subverting the Hollywood formula,
disappointing lots of ordinary movie goers, and thrilling critics.
3.
In _Pulp Fiction_, John Travolta's character gets killed abruptly
early on in the film, thus upsetting the Hollywood given that the
main character won't get killed halfway through because you wouldn't
pay a famous actor and give him top billing if he only appeared in
half the film.
4.
_Last Action Hero_ puts a normal kind in the action movie world and
then takes the action hero and places him in the real world. In the
movie world, all the workers at the video rental store look like
models. In the real world, the action hero nonchalantly punches
through a car window expecting no adverse repercussions, and he cuts
his hand all up.
_Purple Rose of Cairo_ is kind of the same, just more artsy.
5.
http://www.steelydan.com/lyrcountdown.html#track5
CONCEPT:
The idea is not to make an experimental, quasi-narrative film (a la
Bunuel or Brakhage). Instead, take regular Hollywood films and
re-edit them so that normal stuff happens to the characters half-way
through which cause the film to abruptly end. The idea is to inject
some real life banality into the plot lines in order to critique the
Hollywood genre. You get the idea.
INSTRUCTIONS:
You're shooting for a really banal anti-climax. Hollywood films are
premised on all these great and improbably obstacles being overcome,
crescendoing in some amazingly improbably feat. Either that, or they
are anti-hero movies that crescendo in some amazing defeat, or at
least some amazingly pedantic defeat. No matter what, Hollywood
plots always require some climactic event (good, bad, or astoundingly
indifferent). But you are not going for titanic banality. You're
just going for real life banal banality. Let the main character
hurdle a few of the early improbably obstacles, and then just pick
one thing to go wrong (not even the climactic obstacle), and let it
go wrong and end the film. The films you choose to rewrite don't all
have to be _Citizen Kane_ and _Casablanca_ type movies. They
probably shouldn't be experimental films or independently produced
movies. Just pick Will Ferrel or Ben Stiller or Vin Diesel movies.
+++++++++++++++++
Examples:
1.
In Adam Sandler's _The Waterboy_, The Waterboy overcomes all these
obstacles to play college football, only to be accused of forging his
high school graduation documents. With only a day before the big
game, he has to study up and pass his high school equivalency exam.
In the regular Hollywood film, he does pass the exam with flying
colors, and then goes on to face a series of even more challenging
obstacles before showing up at halftime to win the big game.
In your rewrite, He'll get his test scores back, and it will go
something like this:
TEST SCORE GUY: Sorry Waterboy, You did really well and made a 79,
but you need to make an 80 to pass the test. You can retake the test
in a couple of weeks if you like. I'm sure you'll pass. You're
really close.
WATERBOY: But isn't there any way I can take the test any earlier?
The big game is tomorrow!
TEST SCORE GUY: I'm sorry, but the county requires at least a two
week period between tests. I'm afraid my hands are tied.
THE END
2.
In _Racing Stripes_, a baby zebra falls off a circus truck in a
rainstorm and is accidentally left behind. A farmer takes the zebra
back to his daughter, and through a series of trials and
tribulations, the zebra is trained by the father to race in the big
thoroughbred derby, with his daughter as the jockey. In the regular
Hollywood film, the zebra wins the race.
In your rewrite, the circus will send a clown back to look for the
zebra. After searching years for the zebra, the clown will grow
increasingly angry, bitter, and resentful. He will finally track the
zebra back to the farmer and his daughter, and will show up on their
front doorstep the day before the big race. He will be dressed in
full clown regalia, and the dialogue will go something like this:
CLOWN: I'm here for the zebra. He f ell off our truck a few years
ago and I've come to take him back to the circus.
DAUGHTER: But Mr. Clown, the big race is tomorrow, and the zebra and
I have grown so close!
FATHER: Isn't there anything we can do? I'd buy him from you, but
we've morgaged the farm to the hilt to raise the entrance fee for the
derby. If you hang around until after the race, I'm sure the zebra
will win, and the prize money wiil be more than enough to purchase
him from you.
[DAUGHTER gazes lovingly, hopefeully up at her father's face. Then
looks back to the clown.]
CLOWN: No. The zebra is not for sale. I've got to take him back to
the circus.
DAUGHTER: But can't you just wait one more day, just until after the
race? At least let him run in the race!
CLOWN: No, no, no! Enough chit chat. Hand over the damn zebra!
FATHER: Take him if you must. He's out in the barn.
THE END
+++++++++++++++++
Find your movies online and downlaod them via bit torrent. Search
any one of these:
http://www.torrentreactor.net
http://thepiratebay.org
http://www.torrentspy.com
You'll have to get a camera, and stage and shoot your scenes, but
they don't have to be in a fancy locations, and you don't have to
have great actors.
Then post the entire Hollywood movie right up to and through your
newly written ending. This will give the piece more context and
momentum and make the outcome even more stupid and banal.
If you get sued, claim fair use and get a lot of free press.
Call your URL banalhollywood.com
FIN,
curt