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 No ageism here...just a stating of the facts, a bit of comedy and a celebration of longevity.

(taken from www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com)

Fortune 500 Silicon Valley Beard Off...only in America? Maybe...I'll allow for your own interpretations:

Check It HERE 

With the writer's strike finally over, it seemed that the television and film industry could settle down and get back to work. (I am sure those mortgage bills are well over-due by now.)

But not so FAST! According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, NBC super-mogul Jeff Zucker is considering sueing the WGA for events that caused this year's Golden Globes to be canceled.

The headache continues...

In case you haven't heard yet, Kodak is discontinuing their polaroid products.

As a major element to our culture over the last 40 years, this seems really unfortunate. Utilized by Warhol to Marc Jacobs ads to your mother to your friends on myspace, this is one instance of nostalgia that I will never feel bad about missing.

Use those last packets of film well kids!

When not hosting his show and getting into fisticuffs with Conan O'Brien to fill airtime, Stewart will be busying himself hosting the 2008 Academy Awards on the 24th of this month.

However, Stewart recently backed out of hosting a recent event honoring Viacom board member and majority owner Sumner Redstone. Read the blurb from the HuffingtonPost here.

The decision is particularily interesting because Stewart's The Daily Show (renamed "A" Daily Show in lieu of the now three-month-old WGA strike) is owned by Viacom.

Still no word on whether Stewart will has plans on dropping the Oscar's gig but its seems unlikely.

Way to keep your integrity there John and show some solidarity with the writers finally...don't hurt yourself now.

Pabst Brewing Company has started a new marketing campaign that is attempting to garner appeal of their 40 oz. malt liquor brand Colt .45 towards young, urban youth. The campaign includes graphic novel style advertising and decorative brown paper bags.
Read the full story on Adage.

There is no denying that with the rise of hip-hop in America that many aspects of cultural iconography have been appropriated by middle-class white youth. The 40 oz. has and continues to be an element of that in some ways. (Some of us may remember the St. Ides commercials aired in the early 90’s featuring prominent hip-hop artists of the time)

However, the 40 oz. has also been considered a product that contributes to perpetuation of keeping urban poor communities down. (lots of alcohol for a cheap price has never led to good results)

Pabst’s attempt at making the 40oz. hip is a bizarre response to the continued appropriation of urban, hip-hop culture. It’s also sort of amusing…I wonder if it still costs a $1.99? Maybe Jesse can buy this for his next state of the union drinking game.

Thoughts?

Somebody once told me that Michel Gondry had no guts. It was in relation to his last film "The Science of Sleep." I was having a discussion trying to determine the reasons why I left the theater pleased but with a feeling of emptiness-like something was missing from the film. Gondry's films are good but I came to realization that his characters only contain a certain amount of depth. Gondry chooses to utilize his kitschy surrealism and fantasy rather than ever explore the complexity of human emotion and memory. It is what Gondry does best, but it can leave the more skeptical viewer (as in my case) with a desire for a more involved exploration of the psyche that is only lightly touched upon in his films.

Starting on Tuesday of this week, E10(10 % Ethanol) fuel will be mandated in all gasoline sold in nine Northwest counties in Oregon.
The nine will be followed over the course of the year by two sets of other counties that will eventually see by September 16th the entire state of Oregon selling motor vehicles only gas that is cut with 10% ethanol. The blend requirement is apart of an amendement to Oregon's renewable fuel legislative bill that is following in the footsteps of the city of Portland which in 2007 became the first major U.S. city to mandate the 10% ethanol blend within its city limits.

A 10% ethanol blend can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 18-29% compared with conventional gasoline and in 2006 reduced CO2 greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 8 billion tons Argonne National Laboratory. The ethanol blend is expected to reduce smog pollution and has been certified by the EPA to reduce carbon monoxide emissions up to 30 percent.

In addition, two ethanol producing plants are currently being built in the state which will help create jobs and hopefully allow the state's ethanol supply to eventually come completely from local source. Oregon will become the 4th state behind Hawaii, Minnesota and Missouri to mandate the E10 blend in all gasoline sold.

While biofuels provide enviromental benefits, it is largely linked to feedstock production and fuel processing and therefore are only as sustainable as these industries. As reported in The Econmist, a major switch to biofuels could also increase food prices and have a major, possibly negative impact on world markets.
The switch to biofuels has even lead a U.N. expert to define biofuel a "crime against humanity"-stating that biofuels are leading to a worldwide food shortage due to increased food costs.

It may not seem strange for a Radiohead album to reach Number 1 on the Billboard charts. However, the band’s decision to originally post their recent album ‘In Rainbows’ on the internet with a “pay as much as you like” price tag seemed a likely exception to their success on the sales charts. Nevertheless, with the official CD/LP release on the first week of January, the album topped the Billboard charts with 122,000 units sold.

The experimental decision by the band marked a new chapter in how music is accessed via cyberspace. No official figure has been released on how many people downloaded the album but the estimated number is 1.2 million.

The success of ‘In Rainbows’ sales is an interesting phenomenon not only because of the free to download option. The music industry has suffered a rapid decline in sales over the last 6 years which has caused record stores to close their doors as bands and record labels look for new alternative ways to sell and distribute music.

In late 2006, legendary Tower Records announced that is was folding and the recent closing of staple and almost landmark-esque Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles this month is just another drastic testament to the increased decline in music sales.

Leave it up to Radiohead to practically give an album out for free and still be able to reach Number 1 on the U.S. Billboard charts in deteriorating music industry and a slowing American economy.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that despite the album’s success, the album has drastically undersold their previous album “Hail to the Thief” which was 3rd on the Billboard charts with 300,000 units sold in 2003.

Before passing judegement we will have to see how they handle the topic of the strike. However, both host have seemingly established a reputation amongst the American public (especially that of college students) as representative voices for those who desire an alternative to the stuffy news anchors of CNN or borderline comedic right-wing slant of FOX. The establishment of such reputations have caused us to expect alot out of them.

Furthermore, with the unlikely emergence of David Letterman as the vanguard supporter of the strike with the recent deal struck between the his World Wide Pants Inc and the WGA; Colbert and Stewart’s actions are looking even all that more disappointing. This has been further emphasized by Letterman's stauch support of the WGA on his most recent episodes since the strike beginning on January 2nd.

In addition, lest we forget his recent addition of a beard (which will unfortunately go away on Monday) which feels like a possible subtle stab at the heads of CBS who no doubt prefer a clean-shaven appearance. (Note: Conan has also grown a beard under what he stated as "solidarity" with the writers on strike. We will see if it stays...)

Of course, Letterman is in a better position that other hosts since he owns the rights to his show. Nevertheless, one can't help but feel that we expect more out of our beloved Stewart and Colbert.

Should we hold them to such standards? Maybe not...but either way we should wait to see what happens Monday.

The art of waiting for our Godots

“Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time? It's abominable! When! When!”- Waiting for Godot

November 3, 2007 was opening night for the outdoor performance of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Journalist Cain Burdeau of the Associated Press was in attendance and described the outside setting of the play as surrounded by “ruined houses still untouched since they were flooded by roof-deep water.”
The lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans is one of the poorest sections of New Orleans and was most affected by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Today, much of area is still destroyed and has yet to be rebuilt.

This rendition of Beckett’s play, which centers around two men attempting to escape boredom while they wait for the elusive Godot, draws intentional parallels between the characters awaiting his arrival (which never happens) and the residents of a destroyed city awaiting the help of the Red Cross, FEMA Vouchers and other government aid. Marked with elements of existential doubt and moments of insanity, the themes throughout “Godot” additionally connect to the daily condition of life in the Ninth Ward that its residence must experience.
Director of the play and artist Paul Chan expands on the similarity between the play’s theme and the state of the place it is being set in.

“The longing for the new is a reminder of what is worth renewing…“Godot” was my way of re-imagining the empty roads, the debris, and, above all, the bleak silence as more than the expression of mere collapse. There is a terrible symmetry between the reality of New Orleans post-Katrina and the essence of this play, which expresses in stark eloquence the cruel and funny things people do while they wait: for help, for food, for tomorrow.”

The theme of waiting is something that seems to permeate our society on various different levels. Most of these experiences are not that of what Katrina victims have had to endure. However, all of us live our lives in anticipation. We are characterized by a perpetually waiting for something or someone that can be emblematic of our own, personal “Godot”. Despite its different interpretations, Beckett’s play is wholly connected the human experience in society and on a universal level.

If you are religious, you are constantly waiting for a savior, the after-life, or that moment when the space between the divine and one’s earthly existence can be bridged. For others, it can be a life constantly in pursuit of an ambition or that which will make you sense a purpose. Some live their lives as it comes but are not free from societal constructs leaving us in a long grocery line, or stuck on the freeway as time flees by, making us late or simply cheating us from our freedom of how to spend those lost minutes.

As Katrina victims in the Ninth ward know, waiting is tedious and unbearable.
"We waited for Red Cross. We waited for George Bush. We waited for rescue. We waited for housing…" stated 53-year-old Tyrone Graves as reported by to the Associated Press on the night of Godot’s opening.
Yet this can also further emphasize a great outcome or a tragic end. All of mankind must at some moment experience both these polarities.

Waiting was the prisoners of Auschwitz on those last few days before liberation. It is what the third-world child experiences as they await sustenance, the soldier for his target, the elder on their death bed or nine month pregnant mother. It is our sense of anticipation as we wait for our hair turning the color of ash, the orgasm, the alarm clock to ring, the day to be over, dinner, the light to turn green.

And yet all these are more that just solely the act of waiting; they are events that change and define our passing time. Thus the essence of waiting lies in the experience of the moments which we “wait”.

The characters of “Godot”, despite all their longing, are able to discuss and comprehend the nuances of their waiting. What is discovered is a necessary of the “now”. One is only “waiting” if one lets it be that. There is still time to operate until then.

Kierkegaard wrote that “unhappy individuals who hope never have the same pain as those that remember. Hoping individuals always have a more gratifying disappointment”. By constantly committing the recollection of what is to come but continues to not occur disallows us the ability to hope. Yet, to wait and constantly remain in a wishful anticipation and desire is a whole other kind of waiting. It allows us to forget and no longer see our waiting as idle, and ultimately allows us to better act and exist in that condition of waiting.

The residence of the ninth ward assuredly believe that to be able to continue and exist in their devastating condition, they must find a certain balance between all of that which is, and an attitude of continual hope for what may or may not come. It an unfortunate lot to be in. However, to a certain degree it is something that is universally experienced. “Waiting for Godot” and the situation of the ninth ward is a precisely appropriate coupling and a stirring testament towards our human condition. The result is an uncommon example of real life closely interacting with art.

           There is no question that war is hell. This seems to be becoming even more apparent as the situation in Iraq continues to fall apart and the daily tally of people killed continues to rise. Recently, I re-watched two war films; Kanal and Das Boot, and it occurred to me the strikingly applicable nature of these two films to our current situation in Iraq. Both films present that war leaves little room for humanistic statements on the worth of the individual or any philosophizing over morality and ethics. Furthermore, each film displays the dehumanizing affect of war through its treatment of those involved as mere pawns in a greater game. Through its anti-heroic stories, the very realistic and devastating consequences of warfare are revealed and serve as a reminder of how atrocious war can be.

            The films focus both focus on a small group of individuals and display their struggle to survive as they are forced through the most extreme situations ultimately to no avail.  At the bitter, ironic conclusions of these films, we are left to question the purpose of what these characters have just endured. These films testify that amongst the heroic stories of combat, there are an equal number of stories of warfare ending in no heroes and no valiant victory. Ultimately, we are left with a group of young, dead soldiers whose simple desires and wishes have been cut off for a sometimes vague and seemingly purposeless aim.

            Despite both these films being over 20 years old (Kanal over 30), they seem to make stronger statements about intricate aspects of war that many other war films seemingly lack. In comparison to other war films such as The Bridge Over the River Kwai or even the more contemporary The Thin Red Line; these films succeed in breaking down the dualistic paradigm of definitive protagonists and antagonists. Unlike most war narratives, Kanal and Das Boot through an attention to the grim nuisances of armed conflict, create stories based on the plight of the individual soldier and succeed in creating a different dialectic of war that argues for the preservation of the ultimate human gift; life.

             In an interview accompanying the DVD of Kanal, the Polish director of the film  Andrzej Wajda stated,

 “I think that the strength of Kanal lies in the fact that it is limited to this certain group of characters and pointing out that they died.”

            Wajda plainly reveals the simplicity that Kanal is about the horrors of war and does not allow for any heroic or victorious themes. Furthermore, the film quickly reveals that its aim is not politically or historically based. Rather, Kanal plainly reveals the reality of the final hours of the characters and displays the extremities they had to endure in a very personal and intimate way. Kanal recognizes the participants of the Polish uprising, but in no way glorifies the situation. This is where Kanal is most affective.

            From the very beginning of Kanal we are told to watch these characters closely for this is the last hours of their lives. In the same scene we are revealed that this group of individuals is very common people with no lofty aspirations. They simply want to live; something their Nazi oppressors are trying to prevent. Thus they are cast into the roles of soldiers and forced to endure the most extreme of situations.  As we watch them descend into the sewers as a last ditch effort for survival, the obvious physical analogy to “hell” is revealed. But what evil or action have these individuals taken to be cast into this abyss? Kanal leaves us with no such explanation but continues to focus on the slow demise of their last hours.

            Evidently in war such reasoning does not exist. Thus, Kanal concludes with no victory or success achieved and no point or explanation given. Conclusively, it only reveals the realities of the devastation that war can cause and that bravery can ultimately lead to nowhere. Through its refusal to name a hero or reveal any hint of hopefulness for the future, Kanal ultimately becomes a film that manifests into a blaring anti-war statement that holds strong even today in the face of the Iraqi conflict.

            While in Kanal the soldiers were fighting for liberation of their city and country, Das Boot displays a group of men fighting on the side of Nazi Germany. However, it is quick to display that hardly any of the men support nor are necessarily members of the Nazi party. This facet of Das Boot creates an interesting element to the narrative that further strengthens its themes and seems only further applicable in today’s situation.

            While these men may fight under the jagged black curves of the Nazi swastika and thus technically fight in support of Hitler, we can still view this film and sympathize with these men without any moralistic or political dilemma. These men are soldiers who choose this position and were assigned to the submarine. Their position is first and foremost a job to them and comes before any socio-political agenda. We bear witness to the captain openly criticizing Hitler. Another scene depicts a home sick sailor writing letters to his French lover. These contrasts allow Das Boot to reveal the strange complexities of war and the individuals that participate in it with glaring relevance to the current Iraqi conflict.

            One of the most essential elements of Das Boot, is its ability to display the sailors as ordinary human beings taking part in a global conflict. The American troops of today’s Iraqi conflict are no different than the World War 2 Nazi sailor depicted in Das Boot. Whether fighting under the pretense of fascism or democracy, these individuals are individuals fulfilling their duty to being a solider.

            With each passing frame of Das Boot, it becomes increasingly more apparent that the higher military regime that gives their orders holds their lives with little value. The individual does not matter. War becomes Us vs. Them and the assigned mission must be achieved at any cost. The fact that these men are given orders by a political body they don’t necessarily support makes the struggle throughout the film seem even more absurd and further displays the situation as truly tragic.

            The conclusion of the film only further highlights the absurdity of the situation. The shockingly realistic and anti-heroic scene that Das Boot closes with causes war to seem wholly inexplicable.  Ultimately, the film is a grim depiction of warfare with a perceptivity that allows its themes to go beyond that of a specifically German experience, but of an experience that has and must be endured by those individuals on both sides of the conflict.

            Das Boot speaks for the individual participators who serve as pawns to help carry out the work of war. Through focusing on humanistic elements of these individuals, the film reveals the blurred lines between the enemy and the ally.

            Upon their conclusion, neither of these two films provide condolence or any elucidation on their tragic outcomes. The viewer is left questioning the purpose of such struggle and as the final credits finish one is left asking who is to blame. No answer is given. Rather, Kanal and Das Boot break down and rule out all our preconceptions and ideologies of war and leave it up to us to recognize the only deduction that can be made; when the fingers start to point and accountability must be allocated, liability for the death toll on both sides of the conflict must be first attributed by those highest in command and not entirely on the individual soldiers. However, these films do not leave the soldier free from consequence. Opposed to the true offenders, who direct these individuals from afar and never have to bear witness to such ugly tribulations, the films display that a soldier’s punishment lies in the psychological weight they must bear for having actually experienced, witnessed and partaken in such atrocities. It is here that lies essence of these films; their ability to depict war through the humanistic and tragic outcome of the participating soldier while leaving it up to us at the final scene to take that last step towards its ultimate thesis.  

            Ultimately, Kanal and Das Boot are a grimly refreshing alternative to that tired old dualistic conflict of the hero and the villain, the good and the bad by depicting war as an event that results in none other than the death of individuals. No matter the politics or what side you choose to align yourself, the grim and unfortunate reality is that war equals death. These films are ultimately a great aide memoire of such unfortunate truths.