http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxQgXgS5G3c
Good advice from the Pythons. Happy Monday, friends and enemies!
Posts published in “Film & TV”
These were floating around a few years ago, but never made it to The Black Laser. Well, the time is now!
Presented here for your viewing displeasure are three training videos created by Wendy’s in what looks like the early 90s. And my god are they terrible. They just reek of corporations raping popular culture turning things that were once cool (old school hip hop) into things that are really really not (rapping about sodas for a training video). And for Wendy’s to think that singing soulfully about adding cheese to chili is the best way to reach their new employees is pretty offensive too.
Yet, I love these things. The people in them are just so earnest. The guy and chick in the hot drinks and cold drinks videos respectively just feel like young, starving actors who got their first real job and are so psyched to be there that they could be asked to do anything and they’d do it. It’s kind of endearing, I think. I mean, watch the videos and tell me you won’t be humming the frankly awful songs the rest of the day. Try it. Go ahead. I dare you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8zLvIHvJ4hw
With visuals that would have looked cheap by 90s FMV game standards, TopCat Films has clearly set out to set a new standard for cinematic excellence with this one. Here’s the stirring synopsis from IMDB.
Henry Howard an ambitious young scientist struggles to develop a super human serum designed to improve muscle mass and prolong life expectancy. His boss, the grumpy General Darwin, will not allow Hank to marry his daughter, Hannah, until the experiment is a success. Against Darwin’s wishes Hank proposes to Hannah anyway, but his life is shattered by a mugger who steals his engagement ring. Dejected, Hank injects himself with the experimental serum and is transformed into the Amazing Bulk. The Bulk goes on a rampage through the city destroying everything in his path. Hank is caught by a relentless detective, imprisoned by Darwin and forced to battle the sadistic Dr. Kantlove, who threatens to blow up the moon with his arsenal of weapons.
Poor Dr. Kantlove. I wonder if he’ll ever find love on his quest to blow up the moon? But I am pretty sure I’ll never like grumpy General Darwin.
You can watch this gem when it comes out on DVD in April. Does anyone want to do a Thankskilling/The Amazing Bulk double feature with me and then drink poison Kool-Aid™?
I’ve always maintained that Japan produces the highest, most beautiful forms of art and the lowest, most vile. Zombie Ass is firmly in the second camp. It looks to me like it might be the stupidest, most offensive movie ever produced and I am not sure if that makes me want to see it or if it makes me want to run screaming away from it as quickly as I can. Hmmm. We are presented with many obstacles in life. I just hope they say “danger” throughout the film as much as they do throughout the trailer. That’s the best part.
DANGER. DANGER.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLQrMqog8Fk
“I’m Rick Perry, and I’m a piece of shit.”
Yes, Rick. Yes, you are.
What fucking client greenlit this stinking pile of mediocrity? And then was happy with the result? Oh. It was Ortega. Gymnasts should not be allowed to “act”. Those tacos look fucking horrible. I’ve never in my entire life seen something that made me think a taco was more disgusting than this ad.
Holy fucking shit, this is the worst. Just the worst. I am embarrassed for everyone on this. Make my tacos pop my ass.
Even though he comes off as a little bit of a dick, Gilliam’s comment on the nature of art is valuable and true. Effectively, that the best art leaves strings hanging for the viewer/reader/whateverer to figure out for themselves which, I believe, creates a more intimate experience. There’s nothing like having to work for comprehension to help make a thing feel like it is your own, to build a bond with a work, to internalize it, to have it affect you. When handed all the answers, things are boring as hell. It’s one of my major pet peeves with YA fiction and, really, a lot of SF/F. I get so bored when everything is explained. Just put things in there and let us work it out through context. That is one of the things I really enjoyed about Gene Wolfe’s work. Creativity is problem solving. Jeez, that’s like my new mantra.
And like women, the easy ones are boring. There’s nothing more boring than a woman who throws herself at you. It’s the difficult ones we all like and go after. Art. Women. Women. Art. They are the same.
The other day as I was clicking through Tumblr, a network I am finding increasingly strange, I happened upon an image with three points labeled “Incomplete Manifesto for Growth”. After following the tumble trail to its absolute origin, I found this: Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. Man, I love shit like this.
Originally written in 1998 by designer Bruce Mau, the list outlines his design process. But, more importantly, I think the little snippets of advice and guidance can inform any creative process, from writing to design to filmmaking to music. Whatever it is you’re struggling with creatively can benefit from some alternative perspective. You may not always take the advice, but if it causes you to think differently about the problem you’re trying to solve, then it was helpful. As I said yesterday, creativity is problem solving, and anything that helps you solve a problem is good.
And this list is filled with all sorts of good lits bits. If I were forced to pick my favorite five, they would be these.
2. Forget about good.
Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.3. Process is more important than outcome.
When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.9. Begin anywhere.
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.11. Harvest ideas.
Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.32. Listen carefully.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.40. Avoid fields.
Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.
I know, I know. That was six. I tried not to post the whole list. Get over it.
Check out the remainder of the 43 points here: Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.
Number 15 on the list, Ask Stupid Questions, reminds me a lot of Leonardo’s to-do list from the post yesterday. “Ask Benedetto Portinari by what means they go on ice in Flanders”?? That is a stupid ass question. Maybe I’m not asking stupid enough questions.