I can't decide what to have for dinner. I think I want soup, but I'm
not sure. Why is it so hard to pick something for dinner? It should be
one of the easiest things. I'm hungry, and there is food in the house.
Just pick something and eat it. How hard is that? I think I'll have
soup...
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Think Happy Thoughts
It occurs to me that most of my blogs so far have basically been me whining about one thing or another. That's really what blogs are for, so it shouldn't come as any sort of surprise. That said, there are a lot of things in the world that make me happy, so I thought maybe I'd share some of them.
It makes me happy when someone recognizes that they've been rude and apologizes about it. It's rare, but it does happen. One day I was waiting at a bus stop. Not for a bus, but just to confuse people. Someone near me lit up a cigarette. The wind changed direction, and the smoke blew toward my face. "I'm sorry," they began, "I didn't realize the wind had changed. Would you like me to put this out?" I thought briefly about how to answer that question. On the one hand, I did want them to put it out, because I don't particularly like the smell. On the other hand, it's so rare for someone to even consider someone else's feelings that I felt compelled to utter the following: "No it's okay." Boy. That really made me happy.
Seriously, I have nothing against smokers, or alcoholics, or people who hatch out crotch fruit as if they're trying to repopulate the Earth. I don't begrudge people their thumpy music on their blown out car stereos, or their weekly football game that causes them to leap into the air and shout "WOOOOO!". These are the things that make people happy, and that's great for them. We all need something.
I do, however, wonder if my perfume-saturated, loud-talking neighbors complain much about my habits. For example, it makes me very happy to play Castlevania for hours on end, swearing and throwing temper-tantrums and smashing the controller whenever a goddamn crow comes out of nowhere to peck Simon's eyes out. I imagine that might bother someone. They're probably sick of hearing the theme to "Friends" every night because, in lieu of actual friends, I choose to laugh at Chandler's lame jokes and Monica's obsessive neatness.
I guess my point is, it seems that everyone's happiness comes at someone else's expense. It's impossible to be truly happy without making noise or smelling really bad or taking advantage of other peoples' generosity. So if that's really true, perhaps this blog (and the movies and films of which this is an extension) are really trying to do just the opposite. Explore human misery (mostly my own) for the entertainment and happiness of others.
Or it might just be a giant masturbatory exercise. Whatever.
It makes me happy when someone recognizes that they've been rude and apologizes about it. It's rare, but it does happen. One day I was waiting at a bus stop. Not for a bus, but just to confuse people. Someone near me lit up a cigarette. The wind changed direction, and the smoke blew toward my face. "I'm sorry," they began, "I didn't realize the wind had changed. Would you like me to put this out?" I thought briefly about how to answer that question. On the one hand, I did want them to put it out, because I don't particularly like the smell. On the other hand, it's so rare for someone to even consider someone else's feelings that I felt compelled to utter the following: "No it's okay." Boy. That really made me happy.
Seriously, I have nothing against smokers, or alcoholics, or people who hatch out crotch fruit as if they're trying to repopulate the Earth. I don't begrudge people their thumpy music on their blown out car stereos, or their weekly football game that causes them to leap into the air and shout "WOOOOO!". These are the things that make people happy, and that's great for them. We all need something.
I do, however, wonder if my perfume-saturated, loud-talking neighbors complain much about my habits. For example, it makes me very happy to play Castlevania for hours on end, swearing and throwing temper-tantrums and smashing the controller whenever a goddamn crow comes out of nowhere to peck Simon's eyes out. I imagine that might bother someone. They're probably sick of hearing the theme to "Friends" every night because, in lieu of actual friends, I choose to laugh at Chandler's lame jokes and Monica's obsessive neatness.
I guess my point is, it seems that everyone's happiness comes at someone else's expense. It's impossible to be truly happy without making noise or smelling really bad or taking advantage of other peoples' generosity. So if that's really true, perhaps this blog (and the movies and films of which this is an extension) are really trying to do just the opposite. Explore human misery (mostly my own) for the entertainment and happiness of others.
Or it might just be a giant masturbatory exercise. Whatever.
Friday, May 11, 2007
If Walt Disney Was Alive Today...
...he would probably bend the current Disney company over his knee and give them a nasty spanking. Walt Disney (henceforth: "Walt" or "Disney") was about innovation and storytelling, and so is the current Disney company (henceforth: "Whiny Little Bitch" or simply "Bitch".) Unfortunately Bitch is more about telling stories to the judge or innovating new ways to legally hold copyrights that should have long since expired. Walt was more about innovating new filmmaking techniques and telling stories to children in order to entertain and enlighten them.
It's hard to blame Bitch for their legal meanderings, because they want to make money off of their perceived assets for as long as possible. That's what businesses do. Instead I think we need to look at the judges who actually listen to Whiny Little Bitch and then go along with it. It makes sense though. How would you like to be the judge who has to tell the most "beloved" producer of films for children that you're taking "Bambi" away from them?
There's another way of looking at it, however: You could be the judge who liberates "Bambi" from the Whiny Little Bitch and gives it back to the public where it actually belongs. After all, we the public have paid to protect your copyright for almost a hundred years now. The deal is, we're supposed to get it back at some point.
The sad thing is, I like the quality of Bitch's restorations. I actually want them to keep re-releasing better versions of their films. The trouble, really, is that we can't have all of the films we'd like to see, and they go out of print for years. So we're still paying to protect these films, and we're only allowed to see the films they let us see, when they let us see them. Does that seem right to you?
As an example, let's discuss "Song of the South." I've never actually seen this film, but I've read the stories from it, and it sounds charming. Apparently it portrays African Americans in a negative way, so we don't get to see it. But what about the way Native Americans are portrayed in "Peter Pan"? Apparently it's okay to portray stereotypes of the red man, but not the black man. It's also okay to stereotype Italians in "Lady and the Tramp". Did we get to decide these things? No, Whiny Little Bitch did. Which was fine up to a point, but now were at the point where we're still protecting their copyright for "Song of the South" and we're not allowed to even see it!
I'm going to stop rambling for now. Hopefully Whiny Little Bitch won't sue me for this. Apparently freedom of speech is protected when you comment on the government, but woe be the person who speaks out about copyrights. That, after all, is slander—or at least it will be by the time Bitch spins it through court. I'm going to go watch Fantasia. What a great film...
It's hard to blame Bitch for their legal meanderings, because they want to make money off of their perceived assets for as long as possible. That's what businesses do. Instead I think we need to look at the judges who actually listen to Whiny Little Bitch and then go along with it. It makes sense though. How would you like to be the judge who has to tell the most "beloved" producer of films for children that you're taking "Bambi" away from them?
There's another way of looking at it, however: You could be the judge who liberates "Bambi" from the Whiny Little Bitch and gives it back to the public where it actually belongs. After all, we the public have paid to protect your copyright for almost a hundred years now. The deal is, we're supposed to get it back at some point.
The sad thing is, I like the quality of Bitch's restorations. I actually want them to keep re-releasing better versions of their films. The trouble, really, is that we can't have all of the films we'd like to see, and they go out of print for years. So we're still paying to protect these films, and we're only allowed to see the films they let us see, when they let us see them. Does that seem right to you?
As an example, let's discuss "Song of the South." I've never actually seen this film, but I've read the stories from it, and it sounds charming. Apparently it portrays African Americans in a negative way, so we don't get to see it. But what about the way Native Americans are portrayed in "Peter Pan"? Apparently it's okay to portray stereotypes of the red man, but not the black man. It's also okay to stereotype Italians in "Lady and the Tramp". Did we get to decide these things? No, Whiny Little Bitch did. Which was fine up to a point, but now were at the point where we're still protecting their copyright for "Song of the South" and we're not allowed to even see it!
I'm going to stop rambling for now. Hopefully Whiny Little Bitch won't sue me for this. Apparently freedom of speech is protected when you comment on the government, but woe be the person who speaks out about copyrights. That, after all, is slander—or at least it will be by the time Bitch spins it through court. I'm going to go watch Fantasia. What a great film...
Friday, April 27, 2007
Guess I'm Blogging After All
Sometimes you get a wake-up call. Something or someone comes along and says, "Hey. Loser. Time to wake up." For me, that wake-up call came from a newspaper article. Unfortunately I didn't save that article, nor did I read it very carefully. Anyway, the gist of it is that a bunch of music distributors, including Sony, decided to sue a bunch of college students for downloading music from the intenet illegally. "Wow." I thought. "What a bunch of chunky, peanut encrusted turds."
It was a defining moment for me as an artist. I realized, for the first time, that I genuinely do believe that art is, or at least should be, for everyone. We live in an era where nearly anyone has the technical ability to have access to information, art, and the sum of human knowledge. Some of the biggest corporations, including Google, and even Microsoft, are trying to make as much of this information available as possible. And then Sony comes along and takes a giant dump all over it. Why? To protect their precious copyrights.
I have copyrights too y'know. I've made a lot of music, a movie or two, and written down a lot of useless drivel over the years that some people might find entertaining. I'll show Sony. I'll put my money where my mouth is. Here's my statement:
I believe that people should have access to information and art. I believe that an artist's copyright should be protected by the public, and in return we should have the right to access that information. If an artist wants to make money through their art, they should do so through advertising contracts and the selling of merchandise. If people would rather download your music than buy your CDs, STOP MAKING CDs. If people would rather watch the shaky-cam version of the latest Oscar nominee than wait for the DVD to come out, that should tell you something about your business plan.
I guess my point is, rather than sueing potential future consumers, or taking it out on the public because your old business model isn't working REVISE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL. Which brings me to the reason I'm blogging:
My friends and I have started a group (it's a bit early to call it a company, although we're sort of running it like one.) We plan to use all of the free resources of the internet to provide quality entertainment FREE to the end user. In order to circumvent copyright issues, we'll be doing something surprisingly original: CREATING OUR OWN CONTENT.
For more information, check out our group blog at dogshadowprod.blogspot.com or go to our MySpace profile at www.myspace.com/dogshadowprod or just keep checking back here. We're working fast to create a website through Google's great "googleapps" program, and we'll be updating a lot over the next few weeks to get the ball rolling.
Tune in next time when I give an eerily similar rant about Disney...
It was a defining moment for me as an artist. I realized, for the first time, that I genuinely do believe that art is, or at least should be, for everyone. We live in an era where nearly anyone has the technical ability to have access to information, art, and the sum of human knowledge. Some of the biggest corporations, including Google, and even Microsoft, are trying to make as much of this information available as possible. And then Sony comes along and takes a giant dump all over it. Why? To protect their precious copyrights.
I have copyrights too y'know. I've made a lot of music, a movie or two, and written down a lot of useless drivel over the years that some people might find entertaining. I'll show Sony. I'll put my money where my mouth is. Here's my statement:
I believe that people should have access to information and art. I believe that an artist's copyright should be protected by the public, and in return we should have the right to access that information. If an artist wants to make money through their art, they should do so through advertising contracts and the selling of merchandise. If people would rather download your music than buy your CDs, STOP MAKING CDs. If people would rather watch the shaky-cam version of the latest Oscar nominee than wait for the DVD to come out, that should tell you something about your business plan.
I guess my point is, rather than sueing potential future consumers, or taking it out on the public because your old business model isn't working REVISE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL. Which brings me to the reason I'm blogging:
My friends and I have started a group (it's a bit early to call it a company, although we're sort of running it like one.) We plan to use all of the free resources of the internet to provide quality entertainment FREE to the end user. In order to circumvent copyright issues, we'll be doing something surprisingly original: CREATING OUR OWN CONTENT.
For more information, check out our group blog at dogshadowprod.blogspot.com or go to our MySpace profile at www.myspace.com/dogshadowprod or just keep checking back here. We're working fast to create a website through Google's great "googleapps" program, and we'll be updating a lot over the next few weeks to get the ball rolling.
Tune in next time when I give an eerily similar rant about Disney...
Saturday, August 27, 2005
On a whim...
I am quite the skeptic. I don't honestly believe that anyone will ever read this. In fact, I don't honestly believe that I will continue writing it beyond this first entry. Unfortunately I also have a firm belief in the concept of Murphey's Law. In this case, I believe that as soon as I write something down that I don't think people will read, they will... and it'll come back to haunt me somehow.
Right now I'm waiting for a movie to render on my desktop computer. It's a movie that I copied from Laserdiscs and I intend to put on DVD. It's not that the movie isn't available on DVD - it is, and I've already purchased it - it's just that they've changed the movie dramatically between the Laserdisc version and the DVD, and I'd like to be able to watch it the way I remember it. It would also be nice to finally put things like VCRs and Laserdisc players in the closet. Why should these things take up space in my living room when they can easily be transferred to DVD? Of course I've been rendering this movie for over 20 hours, and I still have 'about 7 hours' left to go.
But I digress. My point is, I can't work on any of the things I'd like to be working on, since they require the desktop computer, so I decided to start a 'blog' using my laptop. Time to join the masses and add my ramblings that no one cares about to the conglomeration of other ramblings that no one cares about.
Once my desktop is free again, I can start recording music, making videos for the music I record, and do other fun and creative things, at which point I will no longer need to post on a 'blog'. At least until I render another full length motion picture...
Right now I'm waiting for a movie to render on my desktop computer. It's a movie that I copied from Laserdiscs and I intend to put on DVD. It's not that the movie isn't available on DVD - it is, and I've already purchased it - it's just that they've changed the movie dramatically between the Laserdisc version and the DVD, and I'd like to be able to watch it the way I remember it. It would also be nice to finally put things like VCRs and Laserdisc players in the closet. Why should these things take up space in my living room when they can easily be transferred to DVD? Of course I've been rendering this movie for over 20 hours, and I still have 'about 7 hours' left to go.
But I digress. My point is, I can't work on any of the things I'd like to be working on, since they require the desktop computer, so I decided to start a 'blog' using my laptop. Time to join the masses and add my ramblings that no one cares about to the conglomeration of other ramblings that no one cares about.
Once my desktop is free again, I can start recording music, making videos for the music I record, and do other fun and creative things, at which point I will no longer need to post on a 'blog'. At least until I render another full length motion picture...
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