...more recent posts
It would seem unlikely that I could see anything here, regarding flicks, that hasn't been seen first in NY but I think this may be the case with the "one week only" showing of The Dish which I saw a few weeks ago with Magee when he was in town for Jazzfest. Its a fictionalized true story about the satelitte dish relay station in Parks, Australia that was integral in beaming the video signal for the first moon walk. Good wholesome fun. Ya'll check it out, I mean if it ever gets to the backwaters of Manhattan. " I scooped 'em ma, I scooped the big city boys and girls." Of course it may have passed your way last year which would account for why I see no mention of it in Nyker.
"you froggin ashmole..."-- words used to hide expletives in the tv rebroadcast of Theres Something About Mary
The LA Times and NY Times recently published articles on synthespians (all-digital actors); although both would be described as "think pieces," their main purpose seems to be hyping two upcoming movies: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Simone. (By posting and mentioning those titles, I'm playing my part in the spin-cycle. Where do I pick up my check?) The LA Times piece is better, because it's more of a straight trade-mag account of the new processes and film industry responses to them. (I love that the article mentions Tron, even though I disagree that it "set back computer animation by a decade": its retro-futurist approach looks better than a lot of what's being produced
now!) The NY Times piece, "Perfect Model: Gorgeous, No Complaints, Made of Pixels" by Ruth La Ferla, is more annoying, because it's hype disguised as criticism: lots of mock-profound gushing from people in the synthetic human biz, with the obligatory quote from a culture-studies prof. One concept mentioned in the LAT article is "the uncanny valley," a principle of robotics that says the more an android resembles a human, the more we focus on the minute differences between us and it. This makes sense, and would seem neatly to demolish the NYT's pitch about virtual models and actresses.