Project me this, project me that.

Having gotten most other stuff out of the way, I’m now working on a new short film. This thing is completely fueled by my latest onset of depression. I don’t want to give you the impression that I sat at home in the dark, cutting myself and crying. If it ever came to that point I’d just kill myself and stop being such a whiny bitch.

Unlike anything I’ve done before this little spiel will not be a piece of strict genre convention but instead more tread along the lines of avant garde cinema. It’s not going to be some pretentious piece of garbage without structure though. It will contain some form of story, or at least logic. That’s my goal anyhow. It’s going to be a musically driven piece of visual experimentation. Bear with me. I’ll be back to making my ordinary stuff soon enough.

Listening to: Clutch – Shiny Cadillackiness
Watching: Battlestar Galactica
Reading: Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Good internet, bad internet

There are many fantastic and creative things out there on the Internet. Content created by individuals or groups that transcend Internet camp and show of some serious artistic merit. Without the Internet most of these people would never have found any larger audience than their friends and family. The Internet also offer established artists and writers a new avenue of distribution. Check out Stefan G. Bucher’s little daily project he’s got going. Amazing stuff.

Then there’s the horribly bad side of the Internet. Beside the obviously disgusting stuff like neonazi fumblefucks getting a channel to express themselves in (which they should be allowed by the way) and child pornography we have all the really shitty user created material on youtube. And myspace, and flickr, and all the God damn everyday blogs. Don’t get me wrong, there’s heaps of awesome stuff there as well. Just that it’s outweighed by a ratio of something like 1000:1 or more. But worst of all is the corporate incursions and failed attempts to create “buzz” or “viral marketing” campaigns. Viral marketing can be both entertaining for the consumer and effective for the company but it has to be subtle. So that even if the users finally realize that it’s marketing, which is sort of a necessity, they don’t feel tricked and get pissed off. Here‘s Sony’s feeble and quite frankly insulting attempt to sell a shitty product.

Nobody wants a PSP for Christmas, that’s the main problem in selling this illusion. The second one being that you need to engage the user (or audience if you will) in some sort of activity. Let me rephrase that. You need them to think. Who created this? Is it real? What in the shit is going on? It’s this interest that makes them “buzz” about it and pass it along, thus triggering a viral effect. For them to just visit some blog about a fan-boy and his fancy of a handheld device no one really likes is just….sad.

Why is it that huge corporate influence on anything only makes it worse and spoils the fun for all the rest of us? Granted comments are usually so mind-numbingly stupid it makes my little eyes sad, but I don’t want someone censuring bad language. And certainly not someone besides the creator of the content.

Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp is a documentary concerning religion, specifically Christianity. Not just any category; absolute, ape-shit crazy, radicalism. A strange fringe group, a small fraction of a wast religious whole, right? Or so one would think. I don’t assume most people live their lives after an incredibly strict religious doctrine but a surprising amount of Americans believe in some pretty fucking stupid things.

Dave Foley + Craig Ferguson = Sploodge!

I’ve been a huge fan of Dave Foley ever since NewsRadio. The little known, underappreciated, incredible sitcom that deserves cult status. Since it didn’t get appreciated enough when it was on. Who was on the show a part from Dave you ask? Well how about Stephen Root, Maura Tierney and Phil Hartman? And yeah, Andy Dick. But that was before he fully evolved into his grating, annoying self. I promise.

Another comedian I have a form of mancrush on is Craig Ferguson. Best known for his role as Drew Carey’s boss Mr. Wick on The Drew Carey Show. This ofcourse only showed of a small part of his range. Don’t believe me? Check out The Big Tease and Saving Grace, both awesomely funny movies. In a very british sort of way. When I heard he’d be the new host for The Late Late Show I had my doubts. Sure he’d be better than Craig Kilborn. The man that gets handed awesome show after awesome show and consistently underwhelms on every front. A sidenote; many people don’t seem to know that Kilborn was the original host for The Daily Show, which he managed to drain the funny out of. Thankfully Jon Stewart steered that ship into the sun when Kilborn left for the future failure that was his version of The Late Late Show.

Back to the subject. Ferguson as the new host of The Late Late Show seemed to be a strange fit. I had never seen any of Ferguson’s standup so I had no idea of the man’s incredible ability to improvise himself into any situation and out of any tight spot. Add his comedic timing and weird impersonations in the short skits he does and you’ve got the funniest late night talk show ever. Maybe not the classiest, but who the hell cares?

Oh yeah, I wanted to point you towards this video.

Dave and Craig in an “interview”.

Axl, saving the “e” for “douche bag”

It may be known to some out there that Eagles of Death Metal have been dropped, or dropped out of (depending on who you listen to) the latest Guns n’ Roses tour. You know the one, for that album. Chinese Democracy I think it’s called. I can’t really remember anymore. The thing has been in production since before I hit puberty. Honestly. That thing will probably be out just in time for an actual Chinese democracy.

I don’t want to take sides here without all the information available, but Axl Rose is a huge piece of shit. I think pretty much everybody who listens to music knows this. Even people who are just into avant garde jazzfusion. The only fans he still have left are about as shitty as he is. Any album that takes this long to produce ought to be pretty fucking awesome right? Wrong. The leaked tracks that showed up on the internet a couple of months ago told a whole other story.

Let me paint you a picture. If I ground up a Monster Magnet album, ate it and let it work itself down inside my body, destroying all tissue in its path, then when time came squatted over a microphone and bricked right on it. It would still sound better. Pure musical genius!

You have to wonder about Axl Rose’s fans as well. I mean, according to some people (among them Jesse Hughes) they booed and threw stuff at the Suicide Girls when they were up on stage. Given that their stage performance may be lacking. But it’s hot naked women, jumping around to music. You’d have to be a whole new level of repressed homosexual to not enjoy that. “Put those awesome tits away! I want Axl Rose’s cock in my face!”

More on this stuff here and here.

So to sum things up:

“Disappointment from Axl is Like Being Knighted.” -Dave Grohl

This week in TV.

I’m a huge TV person. Not so much that I actually follow the shows on TV. Also I’m not a huge fatass, well maybe I’m a little chubby arond the belly… Anyway. I download alot of shows. I pay my license fee damnit (a cost every swede with a TV has) and I see it as a free pass for downloading every show that’s aired on Swedish TV, regardless of country of origin. This is ofcourse more a philosophic approach than a legal one, as it’s probably illegal.

Episodes are normally held back for months from their American airings before they get broadcast here in Sweden. This is ofcourse for various different reasons. The major one seems to be the inefficient distribution deals and set-ups various channels and production companies have with their overseas partners. As well as the buyers wanting to get the shows for a cheaper cost. Hell, who’s going to do anything about it? It’s not like the viewers can get their content from somewhere else right? Turns out they can. From a little thing called the Internet.

Sometimes shows are captured and released by various groups on the internet well before they air on the west coast, which is 3 hours behind the east coast, obviously. How is it that a relatively small network of nerds with home electronics can do something major companies seem unwilling or unable to do? Sure they save a little money in the short term by withholding content for periods of time, but in the long run people will find other avenues of distribution. This ofcourse doesn’t mean that the companies have to lose money. The could set up alternative revenue streams. So far this hasn’t happened.

Not in any big way. Sure iTunes and Google Video are offering downloads of shows and other video content. But the pricing is as with the music way too high. 99 cents per song is in my view about double of what the sweet spot would be. A downloaded album shouldn’t cost more than 1/3 of any full price CD. What would be the point if I have to pay 2/3 of full price and then not get something I can actually misplace? Multiply this pricing problem a couple of times and you have the TV section. With prices for a new season ranging from somewhere around $34.99 to $39.99 that’s about twice of what I’m willing to pay.

And thus ends this episode of Ranting Theatre. Tune in next week when I take on mashed potatoes.

Regrets

…is the title of my second proper short film. I made it in about 4 days, stretched out over a month. Yeah I know, I’m not the most productive person. The entire thing was done without a storyboard or script. I essentially “found” the movie while in editing. As my final product turned out alot different from my intial idea. Some parts became better, some parts not so much.

The budget was a whopping zero dollars. The entire thing was shot using things I already owned and had around the house. Even the tape was previously used for another project. I’m a cheap bastard. So without further ado.

Large fry motherfucker!

Good morning you frisky little badgers. Welcome to the latest version of Yoghurtspasm. This time running under the power of the WordPress engine platform stuff machineary. Pretty soon I’ll move this entire thing over to some other form of hosting so that I may further customize the appearance and functionality. More stuff to follow during the day…

Ps.
I started out my first post with a headline containing a serious curseword. This is off to a great start!