Category Archives: Cinema/Visual/Audio

Lego: innocence engineering

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Dave

Evidently, Lego toys are darker and more complex than consumers are willing to admit. Early in the twentieth-century, Sigmund Freud spilled the beans that even young infants  harbored violent and sexual and violent fantasies. Freud scandalized, shocked, emerging middle-class sensibilities, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Marketing/Advertising/Media, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

brother can you spare a dime?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Dave

The Great Depression ended in every film. If it ever existed. Yes we could thank Shirley Temple for that. The great template that the American entertainment complex gave us, and keeps on giving us. To learn to love kids, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

wild boys: remnants of middle class decency

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Dave

Social realism unvarnished, unplugged, with America as a near gulag in gritty depression era society on the edge between starvation and death. Poverty, hypocrisy, opportunism are all explored in pre-code Hollywood where hand to mouth representations of living and ambiguous … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

hormonal reality

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Dave

Its a pretty tenuous stretch of credulity to assert that Elizabeth Taylor is a feminist. She was radically subservient to dominant male culture and all her so-called rebel actions have to be looked at within the context of acceptable behavior … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

you can’t always get what you are

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Dave

Something of a perplexing look at the human condition. A mish mash collage of raw emotion, neuroses and the ups and mostly downs of alienation and marginality. It defies simple categorization and meanders through a cross-hatching of multiple narrative structures, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

the golem: oy vay you say

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Dave

Return of the golem. The problem is not creating these golem, its how to get rid of them. If you don’t kill them off quickly while there is still a bit of moisture left in the clay, they start adapting … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

cinderella story

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Dave

To many, its a fiction, a narrative we manufacture about ouselves, one that borders on the pretense of kitsch, yet the world of Walt Disney has always represented a utopian promise of freedom, something complementary and necessary within the broader … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Marketing/Advertising/Media | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

in gold we trust: bullions and bullions served

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Dave

Is it only a metal whose value comes from the useful goods for which it can be exchanged? The belief in gold does appear more mystical, touching on the psychological aspects of fantasy and ecstasy more so than its pragmatic … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

you know my method, watson

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Dave

by Jesse Marinoff Reyes ( Jesse Marinoff Reyes Design , Maplewood, N.J.) The Return of Sherlock Holmes Penguin Books, 1986 Illustration and Design: Paul Davis (b. 1938)/Paul Davis Studio This is what’s called a TV tie-in (or movie tie-in) design. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Unknown knowns: less favorite things

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Dave

Sacred intensity? Is it kitsch, contrived, organized sentimental logic advocating tolerance or a gateway to perverse desires? The theory of Slavoj Zizek is that natural and caring urges ultimately lead to silly, maudlin fantasies or its flip side: the types … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment