At Cartoon Brew you can help Select The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies-- it's for a new book project by Jerry Beck. I heard about this and then spent a couple days going through the archives trying to pick a top ten to post. It was not easy, this stuff is like bible to many people my age. I probably saw these, on average, 20 minutes a day for several years.
Porky Pig's Feat (1943) is directed by Frank Tashlin, it has Porky and Daffy trying to run out on a hotel bill. It's of the older surreal B&W style, really dense frames, early characterizations of Daffy, Porky and even Bugs.
The Unruly Hare (1945) is a color Tashlin with the old style Bugs and Elmer Fudd. Bugs was more evil and manic in the old days. I had to pick some of old ones for the quality of the animation and chose these two which have stuck with me since I first saw them. Sometimes the pacing or dated jokes of the earlier ones don't hold up for me but these two are great.
Right away I thought of the line "No! Not the Thinker!" from one of my favorites-- It's Hummer Time (1950)-- a cartoon with no big stars. A bird is being pursued by a cat. The cat keeps failing and in doing so, each time, disturbs a large dog. The dog then grimly puts the cat through a ritualized punishment regimen as the cat protests. It's just a really simple and brutal cartoon.
Another one without big stars is Boyhood Daze (1957) where a kid gets sent to his room for breaking a window and then daydreams of ways he might be a hero so that his parents won't always blame him for everything. It has that graphic style like Andy Warhol's shoe ads & illustrations. In the daydream sequences the characters speak a childish syntax even with adult voices. Paper airplanes become jet fighters.
(more selections below the fold:: you can post your own list at cartoonbrew thru Jan. 9th)
I'm looking for at least 3 game testers to try a free evaluation of the game, for the purpose of collecting data for Beyond Exile 2.0 to be published in January 2009, and be made available to the internet at the www.textadventures.uk.com web site.
I was thinking today during the football: "Shouldn't I own Playstation3?" I'm anticipating some years of boredom. This happened to remind me of a "local legend" in New Mexico:
In the infamous video game crash of 1983, Atari posted losses that totaled more than $500 million. Warner's stock price slid from $60 to $20. Failed Atari 2600 games, such as the video game version of the hit movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial helped accelerate the downfall. Atari had paid $25 million for the rights to produce the game.
In September 1983, in Alamogordo, New Mexico, twenty truckloads of Atari boxes, cartridges, and systems from an Atari storehouse in El Paso were crushed and buried at a landfill. Millions of unsold copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ultimately ended up in this landfill, crushed and encased in cement.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is generally considered to be one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming history, as well as the worst video game ever made-- especially among people who spend time considering this kind of thing.
But of course, with a little digging-- of course I find the counter-backlash E.T movement alive and well at the site called To What Degree Do You Love E.T.?
It's a well argued site, full of video examples, walkthroughs and articulation which I found very convincing and made me hope there could be an equally tedious vintage version available for Playstation3 if I so choose to purchase one.
No, this is not a joke. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 is a much better game than most people think. I didn't even know most people supposedly hated the game until I got Internet access in 1999 and since there is an abundance of anti-E.T. pages and articles out there, including ones that encourage you to destroy E.T. cartridges, I thought it was about time that someone who liked the game spoke up.
Palmer's Club (ham, turkey, roast beef, bacon, onion, tomato and lettuce on marble rye)
The Marshall Field (ham, turkey, bacon, Swiss, cheddar, lettuce, tomato and Thousand Island dressing on marble rye)
Dad's Killer (roast beef, turkey breast, smoked ham, corned beef, pepper cheese, swiss, American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, Kosher pickles, mustard, Miracle Whip, Tuscan Italian dressing on a roll)
The Carolina Sandwich (smoked turkey, Ranch dressing, Swiss, lettuce, tomato, red onion and avocado on a roll)
Milano Beef & Provolone (shaved Italian roast beef, smoked provolone, caramelized onion, fresh tomato, roasted peppers, banana peppers and garlic mayo on whole wheat)
Tuna salad (tuna, mayonnaise, celery, grapes, oregano, basil, pickles, black pepper, onions on white bread)
Egg Parmesan Sandwich (eggs, celery, onion, salad dressing, parmesan cheese, and salt on wheat bread)
We just finished a project for The Templin Marr Group, scoring a series of instructional videos on investment strategies for single women. This part of the "confidence offensive" that a lot of firms are undertaking at this time.
The theme was: GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUNDS-- but securing the rights to the original song was too expensive so we set our own parody lyric to a tune from Brahms's 3rd Symphony, a composition in the public domain.
Brahms's 3rd rarely, if ever, springs to mind as one of the "greatest" symphonies of all-time, not in the way Sibelius's 2nd or Beethoven's 9th might. But did Brahms ever write a more thrilling theme than the one which leaps from the orchestra like a bolt of hot pepper at the beginning of the Third symphony?
The first and last movements tower like mountain, sky and wind, while the two inner movements are smaller and more intimate. These inner movements are expansions of Brahms's chamber music style. The perfection of these movements lies precisely in their intimate and personal nature. They are cradled between the heroic beginning and the towering finale like Peru's Colca Canyon, their depth giving rise to surrounding majesty.
It is perhaps the composer's most elusive symphony. The daring modulations in the first movement and delicate thematic inter-relationships are an astonishing testament to Brahms's powers of counterpoint.
Continuing our survey of the Regional New Wave Counter-Reformation, this week we look at the late-70s-early 80s Washington, DC band Tru Fax and the Insaniacs.
With a sound somewhat akin to Pylon or The Waitresses, TFATI were a fixture at the 9:30 Club in DC which had a big pole right in front of the middle of its small stage. The club's interior was painted black, perhaps in tribute to how someone imagined Berlin was like.
The band played mostly in DC but ventured out reluctantly to NYC, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina. Like most DC bands of the time they seemed content to indulge in regional comforts. This was a hallmark of the New Wave Counter-Reformation and produced many desirable results in cities where pop music was seen as an acceptable outlet for stray or excess energy rather than some sort of serious endeavor, either in the political or financial sense.
Many DC bands followed this pattern, some by choice and others due to ignorance about the general structure of the music business or due to personal miscalculations such as drug addiction or lack of a vehicle.
Tru Fax and the Insaniacs got some local airplay with their great song Washingtron. It captured perfectly one very large side of the archetypal DC lifestyle, a side oft disguised by numerous occasion to irony or downright lying-- and, indeed, this uneasy balance between satisfaction and emptiness can be a source of mild self-recrimination for many a DC resident to this day:
I used to be a wai-tron in the lounge at the Hil-tron.
Now I work for my Sena-tron and I live in Arling-tron.
I'm just a Washing-tron.
"Washingtonian Magazine" named Tru Fax and the Insaniacs the worst band of 1980 without ever having heard them. Washingtonians thus became informed about the band and could then comment knowledgeably upon them.
Tru Fax and the Insaniacs were one of six bands picked to play concerts to close the original location of the 9:30 Club (actually, I think they used to call it "club 9:30"...) and 4 songs are featured on the 1996 CD commemorating that event. They definitely deserved the honor.
In the 80s, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs released a vinyl 7-inch and a vinyl 12-inch record on the WASP label.
We would like to recommend highly this book created by Dan Nelson. This tome is a portal to The Metal, another rubric cut upon the alabaster plinth of Menkaura, written in letters as if inlaid with lapis lazuli-- it is a most wonderful thing. It will make humans victorious upon earth and ensure safe and free passage through the Tuat.
For more information or to purchase the book visit: A.K.M.B. All known scheduled readings by Dan Nelson: July 19 at Rowan Morrison, in Oakland
July 31 at Electric Works in SF
August 11 New York, NY
With the release of "Jaws" in the summer of '75 bathers at the beach were terrified by John Williams' three note motif score representing the mood and state of mind of a man-eating shark. During the same summer, director Robert Altman used sound differently in Nashville. Altman cast mostly non-musical actors to write and perform their own songs using 24 audio tracks for the 24 separate characters allowing for multiple and overlapping dialogue.
This “thick” aural density causes the listener to make regular choices among competing sounds. One of the major competitors is presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker’s campaign van. His pre-recorded voice blares from loudspeakers cruising the city attempting to sell his platform to the people.
"Fellow taxpayers and stockholders in America. On the first Tuesday in November, we have to make some vital decisions about our management. Let me go directly to the point. I'm for doing some replacing. I've discussed the Replacement Party with people all over this country and I'm often confronted with the statement - 'I don't want to get mixed up in politics,' or 'I'm tired of politics,' or 'I'm not interested.' Almost as often, someone said, 'I can't do anything about it anyway.' Let me point out two things. Number One: All of us are deeply involved with politics whether we know it or not and whether we like it or not. And Number Two: We can do something about it.”
Interweaving an entire cross-section of characters into a microcosm of American culture in the country-music capital, Nashville portrays the connected interests of the music industry and campaign politics. Similar to Wild In the Streets and Medium Cool, Nashville takes place on the campaign trail to reveal the vice versa of show business politics. The weakness of political parties combined with fame, glamour, and excitement naturally has made the political arena a perfect match for our modern gladiators.
However, at times the spotlight cast by the attention drawn from celebrities can illuminate an otherwise obscure issue. A Backstreet Boy testified before a senate environment and public works subcommittee on mountaintop removal mining for his hometown; no harm done. On the other hand, who cares how Tom Hanks votes? No one wants to wear sneakers by Bono, and does it really matter what Morrisey says about immigration?
Ok, maybe the argument is not whether celebrities should be involved in politics or not, or if news media is a war enabler. What we have here is a discussion on who our “leaders” are, where did they come from? Have we fully participated in their obtainment of power? Is choosing deciding?
But, perhaps there is a way….Across the country and throughout the world the demand for effective leadership is soaring. As a result, academic programs in leadership studies are being integrated into the national curricula. I wonder what would happen if the ’08 presidential candidates were required to attend such a course. I’d like to see a class with the I Ching as the textbook and Charlie Bartlett as the professor. SHIH/THE ARMY
In times of war it is desirable to be led by a cautious and humane general. If he has achieved his position through force, the general will not last long and he will lose support of his army when he needs them most. If on the other hand he has become a leader through superior conduct and even-handed treatment of his fellow soldiers, then his power is well consolidated and it endures.
SUI/FOLLOWING
Leading others is a delicate art. Following creates success. Proceed gently, with balance, staying unattached to results. Remain responsive to the views of those you would influence.
TS’UI/GATHERING TOGETHER
It is our collective strength that makes positive change possible in the world. However, the tremendous power of human collectives must be directed by a qualified leader. Improve yourself into the kind of person you yourself would follow wholeheartedly and without hesitation.
TING/THE CAULDRON
You serve as an example to others by sacrificing your ego and accepting the power of the creative. Employ music, prayer, meditation, a common project, or some other form of sacred concentration or ceremony to release the pent-up energy in yourself and others.
---Excerpts from I Ching/A Guide to Life’s Turning Points by Brian Browne Walker
Great new blog: MILITARY SPOUSE PRESS-- "We are making the critical shift from the more traditional role of care-giver to the more necessary role of ADVOCATE."
Yes, and, and...bullsh*t, ie.: AP IMPACT: Islamic schools lure African boys into begging-- when every day in town I see The River of Life Youth Ministries sending their little children out to beg for cash with their buckets and tears I must not think: is that the same?
Today's Featured Artist...Brooklyn's own, Malcolm Goldstein:
He is the author of the book Sounding the Full Circle. His 1991 recording Sounding the New Violin consists entirely of 20th century works for solo violin...
Compositeur et violoniste Malcolm Goldstein a travaillé notamment avec John Cage et Merce Cunningham, et cofondé au milieu des années soixante l'ensemble Tone Roads (avec Philip Corner et James Tenney). ''Hardscrabble Songs'' présente quatre pièces en solo et une composition interprétée par le quatuor Bozzini...
Director: Barry Shear//Based on the short story "The Day It All Happened, Baby" by Robert Thom.
Christopher Jones stars as singer/revolutionist Max Frost leader of The Troopers, his backbeat and roommates at a sprawling Los Angeles mansion commune. The band includes Kevin Coughlin as his 15-year-old genius attorney on lead guitar, Diane Varsi as ex-child actor now nudist keyboardist, Larry Bishop as a hook-handed bass player and Richard Pryor as anthropologist and drummer Stanley X. When The Troopers are asked to sing at a televised political rally by Senate candidate Johnny Fergus (Hal Holbrook), who's running on a platform to lower the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen they’re all in favor—but Max stuns everyone by calling instead for the voting age to become fourteen, then finishes the show with an improvised song, "Fourteen Or Fight!", and a call to take to the streets in protest. The youth of America goes Max Frost crazy and soon enough he is commander-in-chief of the USA, making marijuana use mandatory and placing anyone over thirty in concentration camps to undergo LSD therapy.
The storyline gives proof by contradiction as a reductio ad absurdum projection of certain issues from the time period taken to extremes. A type of logical argument where one assumes a claim, derives an absurd or ridiculous outcome, and then concludes the original assumption must have been wrong as it led to an absurd result. Max Frost’s term shows us with a youth in office we could face dire consequences. He would act just as his elders and the cycle of oppression would continue. What else from a millionaire pop-rock group with a lawyer for a lead guitarist and a front man that runs on the republican ballot? This is not funky! This is harsh reality!
When watching this film you get the feeling there was a select few within the crew who believed they were getting away with some sneaky subversive scenes amongst vain Hollywood attempts to cash in on the hippie-activist market. The film does capture some lucid moments depicting Max and his band acting as his cabinet, with politicians cutting deals and shifting sides like our present day “super delegates”. Despite the creative crew and a stunning schizophrenic performance by Shelly Winters as Momma Frost, most doubt the film had any role in the lowering of the voting age. The Twenty-sixth Amendment made 18-year-olds eligible to vote in all federal, state, and local elections. Until 1971, the minimum age had been 21 in most states.
The election of both the President and Vice President of the United States is indirect. While many people believe they are voting for a particular candidate on Election Day in November, they are, in fact, casting their vote for that candidate's electors. Proponents of the Electoral College argue that organizing votes by regions forces a candidate to seek popular support over a majority of the country.
Although the aggregate national popular vote is calculated by official and media organizations, it has no bearing in regards to determining the winner of the election.
"The public deserves to know who they are, how they plan to use their power, and what forces are working to influence them."---Superdelegate Transparency Project
"The Shape of Things to Come", the movie's theme song was a top 30 pop hit for the studio group and is featured in commercials for Target Department Stores.
Today's Bon Mot from John Donne, also said to be the inventor of the Twist.
When I dyed last, and, Deare, I dye
As often as from thee I goe,
Though it be but an houre agoe
And Lovers' houres be full eternity,
I can remember yet, that I
Something did say, and something did bestow;
Though I be dead, which sent mee, I might be
Mine owne executor, and Legacie.
I heard mee say, Tell her anon,
That my selfe, (that's you, not I,)
Did kill me, and when I felt mee dye,
I bid mee send my heart, when I was gone,
But I alas could there finde none,
When I had ripp'd, and search'd where hearts did lye,
It kill'd mee againe, that I who still was true
In life, in my last Will should cozen you.
Yet I found something like a heart,
But colours it, and corners had,
It was not good, it was not bad,
It was intire to none, and few had part.
As good as could be made by art
It seem'd, and therefore for our loss be sad.
I meant to send that heart instead of mine,
But oh, no man could hold it, for twas thine.
Dogs in Space Director: Richard Lowenstein Austrailia,1987
Set in the days when chunks of SKYLAB were expected to fall to Earth somewhere over Austrailia this film looks at the lives of post-skunk rockers pursuing their futile search for true anarchy. Michael Hutchence(R.I.P) stars as the central character, Sam; based on Sam Sejavka from the late 70’s band The Ears and later Beargarden.
Interesting entropy metaphor for a small Melbourne underground music scene or did the discovery of government secrets lead to a massive impact on the future, or was it rubbish burnt in an oven for a prank?
--NOW--On the snowy steppes near Orenburg, southeast of the Ural Mountains in Siberia, teams of military search and rescue experts have spent the last month scanning the ground with metal detectors and probing the snow drifts for Russia's most advanced spy satellite, which hasn't been seen since it came down to Earth on Jan. 9th 2008. While it looks like the Russians are calling it quits the American Government reported last month of a bus-size unresponsive and out of control spy satellite rapidly descending to Earth. The Pentagon plans to shut it down next week using a tactical standard missile-3. This reasoning is due to the thousand pounds of toxic hydrazine fuel its carrying.
China is concerned, Russia cries cover-up, and America assures us there is no security issue “its really just a big thing falling to the ground…”
Only one person has ever been recorded hit by manmade space debris: in 1997 an Oklahoma woman was hit in the shoulder by a 10 x 13 cm. piece of blackened, woven metallic material that was later confirmed to be part of the fuel tank of a Delta II rocket which had launched from a U.S. Air Force satellite in 1996. She was not injured. Source:TodayinScience
What seemed at first to be like a simple game of Duck Hunt has become an extensive military operation, involving modified rockets control systems, hundreds of formers and experts, as well as the shiny Aegis sea-defense cruiser. The damage comes to roughly sixty-five million dollars.
The missile strike could produce 100,000 pieces of Space Junk adding to the already copious amount of objects in Earth's orbit created by humans, that no longer serve any useful purpose. Spent rocket stages, defunct satellites, explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust, and slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by nuclear powered satellites, deliberate insertion of small needles, and other small particles.
Space junk has become a growing concern in recent years, since collisions at orbital velocities can be highly damaging to functioning satellites and can also produce a feedback runaway scenario, also referred to as the Kessler Syndrome. Objects in orbit are frequently struck by the escalating amount of loose debris, creating even more clutter and a greater risk of further impacts eventually rendering space exploration, and even the use of satellites impossible for many generations.
Following yesterday's Robert Smithson news, loyal reader CallMeDalkonBlues tipped us to this recent story about another old earthwork interacting anew with its surroundings:
...Great Gulf Group, new possessor and developer of the property on which the work sits, owns the future of Richard Serra's Shift (1970-1972), a meandering wall-like structure originally built on open farmland...
Mr. Serra: "I was too young at the time (of the construction of Shift) to have a contract."
Submerged for 20 years, the earthwork has again become visible due to lower water levels in the lake. The stones are completely covered with crystallized salt and the dirt between them has eroded...
...the oil wells will not be above the water, but that means some kind of industrial complex of pipes and pumps beneath the water and on the shore. The operation would require roads for oil tank trucks, cranes, pumps etc. which produce noise and will severely alter the wild, natural place.
zero comment.
absolve is not an ingredient.
the smoking and the studio.
regulation kicks in 2008.
just the corner.
dominick's and the pushed out bakery.
smells from the porch,
you should have written more
In the desert it gets very cold at night-- and there are legions of stray wild cats prowling around keeping the perimeter secure. With a small bit of my surfeit of junk I shall construct this comfortable winter hutch:
1. Laundry bin set into hole dug well past the frost line (in New Mexico it's only 6"-9"), small holes punched in bottom as drain/vent, gravel inside along with some old t-shirts.
2. Unitary foam packing element wrapped in plastic shopping bags (leaving one slot open for egress) wedged into mouth of bin.
3. Metal rods plunged thru the foam rest on bin lip as supports. Weatherproof tape lattice to secure the top structure.
4. Bricks around the bin act as steps.
5. Layer of black plastic sheeting secured with weatherproof tape (yer basic passive solar...)
Long about last May I read an interesting essay by Michael Marissen on the anti-semitic elements behind the construction of Handel's Messiah-- it includes forensic textual analysis of the libretto and learned interpretations of the piece's symbolic musical content, especially as it progresses towards the beloved "Hallelujah" chorus:
Handel's music makes its own contribution to the troubling theological message here. The mood of the "Hallelujah" chorus is over-the-top triumph.
For the first time in "Messiah" trumpets and drums are used together, although they would have been appropriate or welcome at several earlier places. In Baroque music trumpets with drums were emblems of great power and of victory. In "Messiah" the combination is saved for celebrating the destruction of Jesus' crucifixion-provoking "enemies" (read: Jews) prefigured in Psalm 2.
It's like the Hostel of music. At this juncture, the essay is returning 600 hits searched by title. Reading through the list it seems to have provoked right-wing angst along with fascinating musicological responses and an article announcing that Handel's "Messiah" is to be performed in Branson, MO.
One thing I know for sure is that the Nazis themselves deemed Handel's music insufficiently anti-semitic. Even though they fawned over Handel and incorporated his work into their mythology they still found that it took some effort. For example, "cultural dictator" Alfred Rosenberg set about transforming Handel's biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt into Mongol Fury to cleanse its Jewish content.
Arnold Schoenberg fled Berlin for Paris in 1933 and there reconverted to Judaism. In that summer, he "freely transcribed and developed" the lovely Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra in B flat after Handel's Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 7. Here is some good analysis of the piece from Gradone:
Schoenberg dually reveals antipathy and veneration for the music of Handel...
The opening 32 bars of the exposition of the fugue subject of the allegro are maintained almost intact, with the subtle addition of one or two inner contrapuntal lines. The changes begin when Schoenberg begins to chromaticize cadential patterns and replace sequences with very chromatic and virtuostic sections for the string quartet (m. 41-41 and 57-60). As the movement progresses, the orchestration becomes more and more bombastic, and chromaticism is continually added until the piece becomes a harsh caricature of itself...
The confrontation is indeed compelling but Schoenberg himself summarized the concept of the piece by saying: "I was mainly intent on removing the defects of the Handelian style." This is why I often exhort my friends in the Neo-Consumptive community to concentrate on building themselves a big strong tomb before they pull the Dutch act-- remember, Schumann only attempted suicide.
NASHVILLE 
combined with fame, glamour, and excitement naturally has made the political arena a perfect match for our modern gladiators. 
"Wild in the Streets" 1968 
The election of both the President and Vice President of the United States is indirect. While many people believe they are voting for a particular candidate on Election Day in November, they are, in fact, casting their vote for that candidate's electors. Proponents of the Electoral College argue that organizing votes by regions forces a candidate to seek popular support over a majority of the country. 
