February 21, 2012 Leave a Comment
A great share from NPR in honor of David Foster Wallace’s 50th birthday anniversary. The music video for The Decembrists ‘Calamity Song’ was created as an homage to his novel Infinite Jest, specifically through the re-creation of the Enfield Tennis Academy’s round of Eschaton, a game that simulates global crisis. The video was directed by Michael Schur, co-creator of Parks and Recreation and huge DFW fan.
February 8, 2012 Leave a Comment
Netflix, CCO Ted Serandos, shares a solid insight into why TV is more popular than movies by identifying what type of storytelling we’re drawn to:
The reason why television is becoming so popular–for us it’s become more than half of what people are watching on Netflix–[is because of] this long-form serialized storytelling. In some ways it’s like the new literature, you know, where you have the ability for a story to develop and for characters to develop, and more importantly for the audience to develop relationships with the characters.
Read the entire piece here.
February 4, 2012 Leave a Comment
Just discovered these guys. “Swampy dirty South rock, blues, and soul delivered with punk rock fervor,” says the band. Couldn’t put it better myself. Check out a few tracks from their upcoming album, Boys & Girls.
January 28, 2012 Leave a Comment
A fantastic two-part interview with Maurice Sendak.
January 22, 2012 Leave a Comment
Bryan Curtis wrote a great article for the New York Magazine about George Lucas and his new film Red Tails, which premiered in most theaters this weekend. However, the part that really got me was the analysis of the relationship between Lucas and the hardcore Star Wars fans:
What the blistering fan reaction illustrates is one downside of Lucas’s naïve style. By persuading us to drop our snarky defenses and embrace his fables, Lucas had forged a bond with fanboys like no filmmaker, outside of Spielberg, before or since. (Adjusted for inflation, the three original “Star Wars” movies and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” still rank among the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all time.) But naïveté is a fragile emotion. When Lucas goes back and futzes with his mythology — has Greedo shoot first or creates a goofball like Jar Jar Binks or makes Indy uncool by sticking him in a refrigerator — he isn’t just messing with beloved movies. He’s telling fanboys the naïve belief they gave to him was misplaced.
“What more could one ask for than to have one’s youth back again?” Lucas once asked his biographer, Dale Pollock. Now imagine it being yanked away. If the fanboys had become like the studio to Lucas, then Lucas, to the fanboys, had become the man who breaks the bad news about adulthood. He’d become their dad.
I’ve always been conflicted about the the anger that fanboys have towards Lucas since he began tinkering with the films. Their his movies. Go make your own masterpiece. But, as a lifelong fan of this saga, every edit and change he makes, is like a small wound to that inner child I work so hard to keep alive and Curtis nailed it.
[Image via NY Mag Slideshow, "George Lucas, Hitman"]
January 19, 2012 1 Comment
Last night I watched, PressPausePlay, a documentary that addresses how technology is impacting our culture and it’s art forms. The film primarily focuses on music, arguing that greater access to better technology is making it easy for anyone to create art. But, at what cost?
They interview a variety of thought-leaders and artists, including Seth Godin, Andrew Keen, Moby, Bill Drummond and a bunch more.
I have to say, author, Andrew Keen, as always, makes some startling but compelling points about the cultural dark age he believes we’re heading towards. Keen postulates that technology and social media are leading everyone to believe that they’re an artist of some sort. The result is a sea of mediocrity that obscures the ability of the limited number of truly talented individuals in this world to shine through, ultimately destroying our beloved art forms when the world eventually becomes accustomed to sub-part art. Pretty ominous stuff.
However, I don’t agree with this. My first thought is, how can more people creating, building and making things possibly have a negative outcome on our society? Art, when practiced diligently, can lead to self-actualization, a greater appreciation of life and an overall sense of purpose.
Furthermore, and perhaps more compelling, is that the democratization of art and culture should be more effective at bringing the high quality work to the surface, not less, as Keen argues in the film. Allow me to explain. No more than 15 years ago, record studios and the radio stations determined what music you got to hear. If you had adequate buying power, you could drop 15 bucks on a band’s CD. Now with sites like iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and countless others, you can listen to tons of music for free without having to make a financial commitment of any kind.
January 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
A couple weeks ago, NPR released a great piece about the rise in popularity of TV’s anti-heroes. While short, it identified an interesting trend in how we’re gravitating toward stories with darker, less morally-defined characters. The topic itself is extremely interesting as it can be examined through so many different cultural lenses.
From award-winning shows like Mad Men and it’s famously self-indulged Don Draper to Dexter with it’s lead serial killer bearing the same name, to shows like Boardwalk Empire with Nucky Thompson, Breaking Bad with Walter White and so many more, you can’t help but notice that the recipe for success for the modern-day drama is a morally-ambiguous anti-hero.
But, let’s take a look at why this recipe is delivering in spades.
The anti-hero is not a new type of character. They’ve been popularized since spaghetti westerns like the “Man With No Name” or even “Dirty Harry” (Eastwood seems to have had the role locked down), as well as classic comic book characters like Punisher and the Hulk. The anti-hero has a long history in modern literature as being somehow damaged, and searching for redemption by any means necessary.
November 23, 2011 1 Comment
Typically, I see no point in regurgitating content at this blog, but every now and then I get excited enough about something to break my own rule. Evidently HBO has signed a two-year deal with writer/producer Akiva Goldsman, whose work includes A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code and more. Goldsman is evidently re-uniting with Director Ron Howard to create a pilot for a series about the life of mythical western hero Doc Holliday. According to JoBlo.com, “The series will feature the never-before-explored love triangle between Holliday, his prostitute wife, Kate Elder and best friend, Wyatt Earp — all set against the lawlessness and desperation of a rapidly changing society.”
But, what got me even more excited was that the project is apparently based on a novel that came out this May by Mary Doria Russell, entitled “Doc”, placing Wyatt Earp’s sidekick at the center of story about life, love and death. From what I’ve read, it’s gotten incredible reviews and should make for some solid holiday reading.
November 6, 2011 Leave a Comment
Most don’t know this, but Phish has one of the most active and passionate communities of fans, not just among bands, but also brands in the world. How did it all begin? Jam bands, dating back to the Grateful Dead have always been defined by the constantly changing and unpredictable nature of their live performances. Simply put, it wasn’t the records they periodically produced, it was going to see them live that made these bands and the genre what it is today. A mainstay of this culture involved fans recording live shows and sharing them with friends, a practice that has been going on for decades.
In the 80s, these individuals became known as “Tapers.” An entire subculture emerged of people who traveled to concerts to record them, share them and trade them with friends. Naturally, this made a deeper analysis of each performance possible, while generating social groups that revolved around this discovery and learning process. Eventually, this ability to more attentively listen to and discuss the music of these bands coupled with the always evolving nature of their performances, grew into a more rabid and loyal fan base.
So, after looking at this history, one that many brands would salivate at the prospect of having as their roots, musicians and bands in more mainstream genres still don’t seem to understand the power that experience holds in developing active online communities of fans. So, I chose the band Phish to show how these powerful sub-cultures harnessed by a sound digital strategy has been turned into not just a revenue source, but a means of constantly fueling support and loyalty for the music itself.
November 2, 2011 Leave a Comment
Google’s Think Quarterly is an amazing publication for anyone working in the knowledge economy, particularly creatives and innovators. Covering a wide range of topics, like culture, technology, business, economics and more, this edition revolved around “People.” Aside from reading it, you should check out the collaboration among 14 UK-based illustrators as well as creative shop, The Church of London, to create a massive mural that would then become the individual covers for hard copy editions sent to key partners.
Love the notion of a giant canvas that everyone collectively works off of. No rules. Reminds me of something you’d see in a kindergarten class. But, admittedly, I’m also really drawn to the simple, whimsical style that each artist brought to the project.
Kudos to everyone involved: Yasmeen Ismail, Paul Layzell, Matthew Hams, Chetan, Hattie Stewart, Dominic Owen, Jasper Dunk, Jean Jullien, Toby Triumph, Ryan Chapman, Maggie Li, Dale Murray, Robbie Brown Shoes, Daniel Frost and The Church of London.
Check out Yasmeen’s site for a nice photo set.
