Category: media

Women and Imps

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOBReZOeDTY]

I’ve noticed an odd advertising trend. It seems to me there aren’t any supernatural uber-beings trying to sell products to men. Why is this?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3kugHmbNgQ]

Maybe I’m approaching the question from the wrong direction: Why do advertisers feel a need to push products on women using the voice of a being that ought to be well beyond human comprehension? Do advertisers believe women to be more superstitious than men?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hbZudFqv0M]

Why aren’t I turning on the TV to see Nazgûl attempting to sell me razors?

Listen, Money4Gold, Kar’Wick is ready and available, just give the word.

Kar'Wick, The Spider God

The Shadow

There’s a new (non-Baldwin) The Shadow movie in the works!

The ShadowIn an exclusive interview with MTV, Uslan—no stranger to superhero adaptations as the producer of all contemporary Batman movies, among others—confirmed that The Shadow is still moving forward, despite the fact there has been seemingly no progress since the initial announcement four years ago.

[…]

When asked about the rumor that Raimi was out as director and [Twilight: Eclipse Director] Slade was in, Uslan said, “Don’t necessarily believe everything you read on the Internet.” And, while he didn’t confirm that Raimi would actually be directing, he said that Raimi was as passionate about the project as he was. – reelzchannel.com

I know this is the general fanboy thought everytime Raimi is attached to direct something – but – what if Bruce Campbell were The Shadow? That chin could put the pulp back into fiction.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af1OxkFOK18]

The Death and Rebirth Of MTV

I’m tight for time today, but I wanted to throw a quick thought out:

The lack of music videos on modern MTV is the stuff of legend, or at least second-rate stand up comedians. While they took a lot of flak for it at the time, I think what we unknowingly witnessed was a media transition that many industries – I’m looking at you especially, Print Journalism/Cartooning/Real Estate – need to consider in the age of the internet.

MTV Logos

My guess is that it was increasingly tough to turn an advertising dime in the mid-to-late ’90s due to the plummeting ratings brought on by the ever-cheapening VCR, and teen proficiency with the record button. Today, between band DVD releases and youtube, pressing on with a straight video platform would be suicidal.

I’m certainly not suggesting that journalists should start following around spoiled teens or that real estate agents should start creating ‘cribs’ styled videos for their clients, but I think it says something that, while it brought on quite a bit of criticism at the time, MTV looked to their core (e.g. Brand T(w)een) and pivoted to catch the wind – instead of panicking, throwing up their hands, and blaming everything on the internet.

London After Midnight

Lon Chaney - London After Midnight

London After Midnight is probably the most famous ‘lost film’, the last known copy was destroyed in a vault fire at MGM in 1967. A silent film, it starred Lon Chaney as a madman running amok in a fantastic hat.

It has such a following that a few years ago Turner Classic Movies decided to pay for a reconstruction – so they had a 45 minutes version made using nothing but the publicity stills.

It’s a great peek at what the movie would have been like, but many film buffs were still not satisfied.

Film buffs like Sid Terror:

Meanwhile, the Monster Kid waited and time passed. Every time I’d get into an old movie theater, and there were many of them, I’d give the cursory look around.

There was the now long-gone Vitaphone Theater in Saratoga California. Once a silent house, this arch-ceilinged cavern of a Quonset-shaped auditorium had made the change over to sound around 1930 or 31. Still owned by the Butler family, amazingly, up through the 1970’s they still also ran old carbon arc projectors with their lead rods that constantly had to be adjusted. At 15 years old, I learned to project and do my first reel changeovers on those relics. – more

To be fair, Sid’s quest started well before TCM ever considered their remake, and the current conclusion is both amazing and heart rending.

Robots: The Great Capitalist Lie

Is the lead for this CNN article supposed to be pulling in people who’ve just stepped out of a viewing of Metropolis?

Ugh

Are we really having to convince people that robots aren’t a figment of popular imagination like ghosts, aliens or bigfoot?

Maybe there are a group, like flat-Earthers or Moon landing nuts, of robot deniers who’ve carefully taken apart Short Circuit 1 & 2 frame by frame and can prove that robot technology simply isn’t possible.

(Side note: Did you know the constant cannibal-churn of Hollywood has brought us to the point where they’re actually in the process of re-making Short Circuit for 2011?)

(*I also kind of expected this to lead into an Old Glory Inusrance commercial.)