Heads up. Code Grey has a slot booked for Straight 8.
Any interested parties should report to the Renoir in Mayfair on July 30th at 7:30, where the latest Sick Puppy Thing, the “black and white film about colour” will be screening on the third night of Straight8’s increasingly successful attempt to take over the Rushes Shorts Festival.
Be there or be somewhere else.
(pic credit: Nick Scott)
Oops, my bad. Turns out the clip I posted a couple of days ago is the second time Chris Ware has supplied animation for This American Life. Here’s the first one from 2007…
If anything, this one’s even better. It certainly speaks to me as a film-maker, and as an observer of how sticking a camera in someone’s face will totally change the way they behave.
Oh, this is nice. Pure pop from The Bird and The Bee, and a rather nice little demo of OSX into the bargain, courtesy of film-maker Dennis Liu. And a gentle heads up at the end as to the availability of the song in question – in the iTunes Store, of course!
Now, will they release the promo on iTunes as well?
…and about time too. The Happiest Cartoonist in The World has finally branched out into animation, working on a segment for This American Life.
It’s a thing of charm and humour, and I’d love to see more like this. Think Jimmy Corrigan meets Creature Comforts…
(via YesButNoButYes)
…well, insomuch as there’s any kind of winner when it comes to the filmic freeforall that is Straight8, we’ve made a screening this year.
Code Grey has been longlisted to screen as part of the Straight8 nights during the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival this July. More details as we get them. OK, it’s not Cannes or Channel 4, but it’s as good as to my mind. There’s still a slight question mark as to whether everything on the long list gets it’s three minutes of fame, but I’m not even thinking about that yet. I’m chuffed that my mate Fiona Brownlie’s in there as well. If it comes off, it’s gonna be a party.
Great news from the freeform gurus at Jersey City’s own WFMU:
Coming soon: an online digital library of music that will allow music fans, webcasters and podcasters to listen, download, and stream for free, with no restrictions, registration or fees. And most amazing of all, it will all be legal.
The Free Music Archive is being directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America, and is funded by a grant from the New York State Music Fund.
We take inspiration for the Free Music Archive from Creative Commons and the open source software movement. Both are based on the idea that there is merit in waiving certain rights to intellectual property. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.
Isn’t that great? I’ve been a fan of the FMU for years, and Beware Of The Blog is a regular hit on my newsfeed. in fact, as I’m writing this, I’m checking out some cool sounds from Philadelphia on one of their regular sampler pages. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Who knows, it could be the impetus for the garagepunk stylophone phreakout I’ve been musing on for a while…
First Blake’s Seven. Now Survivors is being retooled!
BBC Drama Productions has acquired the rights from the Terry Nation Estate to develop the Seventies drama series Survivors, it was announced today by Jane Tranter, BBC Controller, Fiction.
Set in the present day, the new series will be written by Adrian Hodges (Ruby In The Smoke, Shadow In The North, Charles II and Primeval) for transmission on BBC One.
Looks like The Galactica/Who effect is trickling down to some of the more interesting 70’s shows. Who’s up for a Sapphire and Steel reboot?
What bothers me most about this (and trust me, I could bang on for hours about all the things that bother me about this rushed, shoddy legislation) is that the catch-all phrase “appears to” has made it unscathed through all the readings.
Let’s review the basic points of the addendums to the Criminal Justice Bill…
An act which threatens or appears to threaten a person’s life
An act which results in or appears to result in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals
An act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse
A person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal
Anyone else see the problems? How many films or TV shows have you seen lately that show life-threatening situations?
Yes, alright, this is supposed to be used within the context of a pornographic film/image/soundfile/tapestry. But the fact that the artist, performers and crew can, and for the most part do create these images/films/cartoons/flickerbooks entirely consensually, and for an audience that consumes them safely, and responsibly doesn’t seem to matter. Let’s not forget that the definition of pornography used for the bill remains the Obscene Publications Act, which still uses the over-loose phrase “liable to deprave or corrupt”.
Which is one reason that I refuse to watch Big Brother. I feel dirty just skipping past it on the remote.
So, what we have here is a loosely-defined bill that’s pretty much open to any interpretation that a judge or barrister feels they can get away with. Under this bill, criminal responsibility shifts from the producer, who already has to work under the auspices of the Obscene Publications Act, to the consumer.
Criminalising thousands of perfectly innocent couples who use extreme imagery as part of their consensual sexual relationships.
The particularly telling quote to my mind comes from Liz Longhurst, mother of murdered teacher Jane Longhurst, whose killer was found to have regularly surfed violent porn websites. It was her campaigning that led to the ammendments to the new Bill. When asked how she felt about the charges of criminalising innocent people who happened to have a kink, she replied,
“Hard luck. There is no reason for this stuff. I can’t see why people need to see it.”
Hmm. Ok then. Tell that to the flourishing and affluent BDSM community.
There’s an element of rebellion in the House, I’m very glad to say, with amendments to the amendments allowing people to hold images of themselves involved in consensual acts (I bet the Spanner Group are besides themselves about that one) and significant amounts of disquiet over a Bill that even Lord Hunt, the man in charge, has admitted is being rushed through to meet a deadline. It will, he claims, only affect images that are “grossly offensive and disgusting.”
Ahhhh, the ick factor. I find this distasteful, therefore I will legislate it out of existence. This is different, therefore wrong, therefore illegal. And that’s the kind of attitude that underpins the increase in incidents of abuse directed against anyone that looks a bit strange. In extreme examples, that can lead to horrible events like the nasty, pointless death of Sophie Lancaster, stamped to death for being a goth.
That’s grossly offensive and disgusting, as far as I’m concerned.
Backlash are still fighting the good fight, although time’s running out. Support the weird and keep the government out of the bedroom!
Well, I was going to post on Saturday’s Doctor Who (I’ll leave that to better, wiser hands), but having read Clay Shirky’s bit on cognitive surplus, I think I’ll find something else to do.
Although to be fair to myself, I do tend to watch the telly with the laptop open these days. Proper multitasker, me.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 