Flotsam & Jetsam VI

This recent news item has prompted me to finally finish off my last post about last years trip to Japan – I’ll get it up soon. The post that is. It’s taken me a while to index and collate some of the photos given the recent grief my mac has been giving me, but no excuses now. I will avoid the cliche Japan / Earthquake / Nuclear Leak / Godzilla commentary.

 

 I thought it might be a nice idea to link to memorable cinema moments via good old youtube each time I publish one of these miscellaneous posts, so lets start with the intriguing conclusion to ‘Zabriske Point‘, one of Antonioni’s English language films with a very tortured production history. I don’t know why but it’s a film that has been playing on my mind recently – I haven’t seen it in many years and don’t remember being ‘blown away’ except for it’s ‘explosive’ ending <…groan…> – looks like the film doesn’t have a DVD release yet, so this could prove tricky to track down.

I watched ‘The Prestige’ again last night and it remains superb on a second viewing. I have mentioned the terrific Ricky Jay before so here are some awesome tricks.  Prepare to be dazzled.

 

I always preferred Road Runner to the other Merrie Melodies characters, although it would have been nice for once (well, actually he does in this one) for the little bastard to screw up and get caught. I must say that in my current mental state I can empathise with  ‘Carnivorous vulgaris‘ – He is repeatedly thwarted of reaching his primary goal, yet he displays remarkable tenacity in the face of repeated failure and constant humiliation. In addition it’s nothing short of a metaphor for 21st century existence – The Acme Corporation as the technological apotheosis, yet it’s products inevitably mis-fire and are a obstacle to development, not an aid. The championing of intellect (his business card reads supergenius after all) over spirituality when obviously his consistent and repeated experience champions the futility of his existence.

 Or maybe it’s a funny cartoon about a coyote and a road runner. Yeah, that’s probably it. Gotta stop reading these postmodern cultural analysis papers Minty…..<seriously though, could you really hand in a paper on the metaphoric qualities of Road Runner in relation to 21st century capitalism? Oh, OK good for you…..>