The Friday Article Roundup
Not a zebra with ketchup on it, but a sample of this week's pop culture writing from around the web.
Focus Your Reading Glasses On:
Thanks to Casper for sharing her reading this week! Send articles throughout the next week to ploughmanplods [at] gmail, post articles from the past week in the comments for discussion, and Have a Happy Friday!
Celine Nguyen of Personal Canon writes about discovering Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time and having her whole view of “literary” literature turned upside-down:
Before Proust, I assumed that high culture was for snobs, and pop culture was for the people—it was where you actually enjoyed books, films, music, art. And yet. I was reading so many bad books: unsatisfying, superficial, insubstantial. […] Snobbery didn’t motivate me; passion did. I wanted to read the books that others loved. It was Lydia Davis’s unyielding love for Proust that convinced me to read him. Reading In Search of Lost Time, I realized that Proust described certain experiences—being conscious, perceiving reality, observing the world, encountering other people—with a kind of trembling, vital energy I had never experienced before. Every page was rich with sensations and ideas—and every I spent reading the novel seemed to overflow with things to savor, because, as Proust wrote in vol. 7, Finding Time Again: An hour is not just an hour, it is a vessel full of perfumes, sounds, plans and atmospheres.
At Variety, father and son Schwarzeneggers talk to each other about acting, nepotism, careers – all the important things in the biz:
Arnold: “Terminator” was the first time that I was doing a film that had nothing to do with the muscles. It was with leather jackets on and being a machine. Only the opening scene was naked. But I’m talking about naked.
Patrick: I’ve done it.
Arnold: I couldn’t believe [it]. I said to myself, “I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there.” And all of a sudden, I see the weenie. What is going on here? This is crazy. Then I said to myself, “Well, Arnold, hello. You did the same thing in ‘Conan’ and ‘Terminator,’ so don’t complain about it.” But it was a shock to me that you were following my footsteps so closely.
Vulture‘s Lila Shapiro writes about the harrowing and the promising possibilities in the already-present (and secret) use of so-called AI in Hollywood:
For [Natasha] Lyonne, the draw of AI isn’t speed or scale — it’s independence. “I’m not trying to run a tech company,” she told me. “It’s more that I’m a filmmaker who doesn’t want the tech people deciding the future of the medium.” She imagines a future in which indie filmmakers can use AI tools to reclaim authorship from studios and avoid the compromises that come with chasing funding in a broken system. “We need some sort of Dogme 95 for the AI era,” Lyonne said, referring to the stripped-down 1990s filmmaking movement started by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, which sought to liberate cinema from an overreliance on technology. “If we could just wrangle this artist-first idea before it becomes industry standard to not do it that way, that’s something I would be interested in working on. Almost like we are not going to go quietly into the night.”
Not really an article, but did everybody see that Mike Mills directed Saoirse Ronin in a music video for “Psycho Killer” by The Talking Heads this week?
Psycho Killer / Qu’est-ce que c’est? / Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better / Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh-oh-oh / Psycho Killer / Qu’est-ce que c’est? / Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better / Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh, oh, oh, oh / Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, ooh
Dan Sinker, founder of Punk Planet magazine finishes writing in his blog about the publication’s 13-year journey – and why it’s never coming back:
There’s a line by the musician/artist Laurie Anderson that I think about a lot: “This is the time / And this is the record of the time.” Punk Planet was a record—and a product—of that time. Now is different. And that’s good. Because now, and tomorrow, is all we have. There’s no going backwards, only forward. Some of what we did at Punk Planet was groundbreaking (and, here at the end, heartbreaking), but mostly what we did was try and capture the moment we lived in and the people living through it the best we could, because if we didn’t, who would. That’s not all that unique. You could start that today. You should start that today. Because today is also a time, and it begs for a record of the time.
About the writer
C. D. Ploughman
The weary Ploughman is a writer and filmmaker, focusing these days on documentary and educational projects. He obsesses over movies with his very patient wife and children.
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The life and career of a man who found the extraordinary in the ordinary.
The Friday Article Roundup
An assembly line of this week's pop culture writing from around the Internet.
Lunch Links
State of the art special effects, little attention paid to plot - what's changed over the past 120 years?
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The Friday Article Roundup
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Department of
Conversation
What Did We Watch?
I am officially out of 30 Rock S6 episodes to watch but at least I got so many funny Bazooka Joe jokes and they weren’t even about the comics. “What did he do with that pink rock quarry? He turned it into gum and sold it to children!”
The Corpse Vanishes – up to 1942 on my extremely sporadic jaunt through the years and I didn’t have anything in my physical media collection so had a look at what was streaming and found this extremely charming Bela Lugosi b-movie, which is my favourite kind of b-movie! The setup here is that young woman are dying at the altar and the bodies are being stolen before anyone can investigate what has happened to them. The cops have no idea but a fast-talking young reporter woman takes up the case and tracks a mysterious orchid found at the scene to a totally legitimate professor who just happens to sleep in a coffin (can I shock you? this is the Lugosi role).
It’s all done with a wry sense of humour and lasts just over half an hour, I’m not going to make any claims for it being a lost gem or anything (I guess plenty of people know it via MST3K but that is not my thing at all) but I was thoroughly entertained, it’s creepy and (intentionally) funny and has my new favourite proposal scene of all time.
Vivacious Lady – College professor Jimmy Stewart, in NYC to retrieve his wayward cousin, falls head over heels for nightclub singer Ginger Rogers, and the next thing you know, they’re married. If only he can tell his staid university president father, sickly mother, and fiancee. The plot is a bit stretched out and things lost steam before we’re done, but this George Stevens screwball comedy never stops being charming. I don’t really know much of Ginger Rogers other than “dances really well,” but she is a fine comic actress and had a ton of chemistry with Jimmy (in his first starring role). Beulah Bondi, as Jimmy’s mother, comes close to stealing the movie.
Kojak, “Letters of Death” – A rising model receives letters threatening people in her life, who are very soon murdered. Who is out to ruin her life? Is it a colleague? The lecherous producer? Or is it her dead sister, not actually dead? Nope. Turns out she has a split personality from guilt over her sister’s death and her father’s ill health. Starts out well and sinks into hokeyness. Guests include Stanley Kamel (Monk’s first therapist two decades later) and Jason Wingreen (the bartender on Archie Bunker’s Place).
NBA Finals, first half of game one – On the one hand, I really wish these games started earlier so I had a chance to watch to the end. OTOH, how many times do I want to watch Knicks Public Enemy Number One Tyrese Haliburton steal a game? Lots of complaints about ESPN’s fairly pedestrian presentation, but I for one don’t want to hear the National Anthem. Also saw my first ad for Superman. I hope this movie is more than Superman fighting things. But at least the ad uses the classic Superman theme.
I watched Vivacious Lady a few months ago and thought much the same, it’s not top-tier screwball but it’s definitely charming and fun. I’ve been really impressed by Ginger Rogers in non-dancing roles, she had a lot of strings to her bow. She’s great in Stage Door.
Pacers are unkillable, man.
Starting to think that who was coaching the Knicks didn’t matter and thus that firing Thibs is not the best decision (even if it is not about that one nightmare game alone).
I just re-watched STAGE DOOR a couple of days ago and Rogers steals the show with impeccable comic relief, totally owning Hepburn.
The Righteous Gemstones, “To Grieve Like the Rest of Men Who Have No Hope” and “He Goeth Before You Into Galilee”
It’s not that “To Grieve” isn’t good, it’s just that “He Goeth Before You Into Galilee” can’t help but overshadow it, what with offering us nude waterskiing, Judy’s attempt to frame Lori for assault, Eli’s continued affinity for a particular sexual position, and the Gemstone siblings sobbing, “Daddy came!” in absolute agony.
The fate of the Prayer Pods is made even better by finding out that Jesse put lotion dispensers in all of them.
My wife immediately recognized what was being set up when we saw Kelvin and Keefe watching Friday the 13th Part 2, so good for her. Also, Keefe defaulting to whisper-singing “Misbehavin'” to impersonate Aimee-Leigh is a fantastic detail.
Love the implication that the siblings got Baby Billy out to Galilee Gulch because they needed scheming and manipulation advice.
I don’t really have anything in-depth to say about either of these, but they were both funny and had good moments. Dramatic high was probably a tie between Lori telling Judy she acted exactly like this when Aimee-Leigh got sick and Eli’s expression during the painful “Mama’s Here” musical number, as he realizes that his kids aren’t putting anything aside after all; comedic high, aside from all the lewd behavior in the first paragraph, might be BJ’s rightfully panicked ire as he points out that his new aides didn’t even introduce themselves and he has no idea who these people carrying him even are.
You Hurt My Feelings
“This is a Greek olive oil” as a desperate interjection to change a conversational topic to something less awkward and painful is still one of my favorite things ever.
As full of realistic and plausibly generated emotional agony as much of this film is, it legitimately makes me feel better about life.
Hahaha after your comments on the Prayer Pods yesterday I was like “Eh… Kinda!”
Babylon 5, Season Two, Episode Twelve, “Acts Of Sacrifice”
G’kar’s ability to express his emotions is unequalled, and the escalating war has been forcing him to confront his own sincerity (it makes him and Delenn awesome scene partners). Londo and G’kar are having a great casual parallel, where Londo is finding to his despair that he’s a Romantic who never really wanted power (“I wanted respect! Instead I’ve turned into a wishing well with legs.”), while G’kar is finding he’s a pragmatic losing his soul to keep the dream of the Narn alive. I actually believe he’s telling the truth when he says he’s grateful to Delenn and Sheridan for preserving what Narn lives they can, but that doesn’t mean the losses don’t hurt. Honestly, I really appreciate the practicality of Sheridan and Delenn’s plan.
Meanwhile, the plot of Ivanova bringing a new species onto the station is very hit and miss. The initial idea of a smug, superior species – fine, whatever. The idea that the diplomat speaks entirely through a psychic translator – a fantastic cinematic concept, where he silently moves about while the translator is offscreen, bringing together the spoken emotion and silent expression in a very bizarre way. Where it fully works is when the superior, eugenics-driven diplomat is only convinced to join Babylon 5 when he discovers the station has a slum, and is delighted that human segregate ‘lesser’ members of society, considers it a clear similarity to his own eugenicism, and agrees to join to the station.
It’s a dark, dark, very funny joke, and I don’t think Sraczinsky (who wrote the episode) quite realises how fucked up it is. Ivanova tries telling him they didn’t do this on purpose and it’s a result of economic problems (people come to the station, can’t afford a ticket home, work menial jobs until the work dries up, and then end up the less-maintained parts of the station), and it plays somewhere in the realm of “this is the result of economic inevitability” as opposed to “this is the result of the system we chose to make”. To be clear, I’m being very pedantic, it’s just a very small blindspot that I find funny.
And it ends with an absolutely embarrassing sex joke. Like, not in a “me being a prude” kind of way, in a “me not enjoying a female character being propositioned as part of a deal” and “a grown adult talking about fake sex like a child” kind of way. Claudia Christian and the (befuddled) actor very nearly save it, but it’s unsalvageable. Past corn and into genuinely humiliating to sit through.
There’s also a very annoying small note where the people who work on a diplomatic station are apparently unaware that traditionally, you look at the person talking (or ‘talking’ in this case) and not the translator. Like, they seem genuinely perturbed that there’s a guy who talks for another guy and you’re supposed to act as if he’s not there.
“I actually believe he’s telling the truth when he says he’s grateful to Delenn and Sheridan for preserving what Narn lives they can, but that doesn’t mean the losses don’t hurt. Honestly, I really appreciate the practicality of Sheridan and Delenn’s plan.”
I felt the mix of gratitude/bitterness was very much tilted toward the latter. So much of this is down to Andreas Katsulas’ phenomenal performance, he makes it very hard to argue against anything but complete support for his people. But I think there is a tone here of Sheridan and Ivanova seeing this as a diplomatic problem that requires a diplomatic solution — which it is! — and that is ultimately a fairly bloodless thing, and this is also a life-or-death problem. It would be worse to get nothing, but in some ways it would be more honest for them to just tell G’Kar they don’t give a shit how many of his people die, that’s not their job. I think that’s what G’Kar is reconciling at the end there and I think he has to reconcile it because he believed too much in their willingness to help him, but they also let that help be on the table in a way that suggested a commitment they didn’t have. Thorny stuff!
Christian should get whatever the TV version of a Purple Heart is for having to do that scene. Awful, awful shit.
For sure, and it’s why I read G’kar as pragmatic – he knows that no matter how upset he is, Sheridan and Delenn are being practical and utilitarian – ultimately, even the Narn would be worse off with Earth and the Minbari joining in a war with the Centauri, at least in terms of the number of lives lost. He’s not going to fuck up the diplomatic situation or turn down what help they have to offer, no matter how bitter it makes him. Interesting to compare to Londo, who is all heart and no brain. Interesting to compare to the Lurker joke, too.
“He’s not going to fuck up the diplomatic situation or turn down what help they have to offer, no matter how bitter it makes him” — ah, I read this as true for the immediate moment but the implication of fuckery or at least acting without considering Earth’s offense down the line.
EDIT: And yes on all your Londo observations, for all his bitching about being away from homeworld he actually really enjoys the diplomat life of personal relations and partying. And he’s good at it! He has enough deviousness to be useful to his people in this role, it’s notable that he only really gets out over his skis because of massive external intervention — he’s not a true schemer.
Babylon 5 — Kosh! The coolest guy here! Some fun stuff with him, the dude is a great concept for a character and his suit is pretty boss too. And after that is a fake news program episode, I have a huge soft spot for this gimmick and it’s done pretty well here, not many cheats of perspective, and Kim Zimmer is excellent as the anchor/reporter, really nailing the pushy and entitled vibe while having solid instincts for story. And that PsyCor commercial is really well done, its cheesiness is very much of the 90s Very Special Episode tone so it feels both goofy and accurate and the ends that is turned to are clearly no good. And the aliens are all here! More of this.
PTU — a ruthless cop leading a brutal strike force is caught up in his fellow cop buddy’s fuckup, chasing a gun through a gang war. So in certain ways this is Johnnie To’s version of The Shield, with the great Lam Suet as fat stupid Shane, an exceedingly corrupt sergeant who has lots of gangland connections and who can throw his weight around but gets in over his head very fast here. And Simon Yam is a Vic who is also a Ronnie, he is not crooked in the sense of stealing drugs and banging sex workers but he will do whatever he wants to get the job done and To very simply stages a scene of him torturing some gang schmo for information, slapping him across the face while making the schmo rub out his tattoo. This is not the only torture scene in the movie! There are some Armenian-level gang guys here and they do not fuck around. A Claudette/Aceveda is lurking over all of this, and did a Terry Crowley just get added to Yam’s squad? Everything goes down in one night and 90 minutes of movie time, there is a lot of grim comedy and harsh looks at fools (a running gag has everyone going for their own cell phones when one phone rings, missed/mistaken communication is constant here) before everything comes to a head at the end. And if To’s action is not at his peak here (although it is still good) it is the fallout that is the point, cynical as hell and perfectly pitched. Because in the end this is JUST ANOTHER DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY for certain people, and this is how and why they make it JUST ANOTHER DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY for themselves, everyone else be damned. The Shield had pathos, To has no patience for that. Magpies with the Criterion Channel, you know what to do.
Kosh’s suit is by far and away and without a shadow of a doubt the coolest design choice on the entire show. The fact that parts of it looks like it’s breathing are fantastic.
I think they did the pyramid architect thing of hiring a genius to design Kosh’s suit and then killing him to prevent his secrets from being used elsewhere. Unfortunately, they did this before doing any design on Minbari culture so all of their shit looks like the cheapest 90s mall store art imaginable.
Clueless – For the first time, somehow. I know! I was hoping to save it for Luke Perry but, you know.
A compulsively watchable classic, with impeccable pacing, a laugh in every scene and renewable energy. Spoiled by Shawn Wallace for half an hour? Here comes a fantastic Brittany Murphy. She’s not enough? Here’s an unknown theater guy absolutely killing it as an off-kilter romantic interest (even aside from his thing for Tony Curtis). I can see its DNA is all the teen movies I did see in the 90s and in my social circles. Late to the party, but what fun to discover it’s still there.
To focus on one thing, I love its depiction of the role of driving in a suburban teen’s life – a right of passage but also an opportunity for small group or one-on-one discussion and a major factor in plans when traversing cities designed only for driving. There’s also some pretty impressive stunt driving involving a real truck, a real bike and the actual (as far as I could tell) actors in a moving vehicle. Not easy stuff to film, at least safely.
Great call on the driving aspect, which I remember catching my attention when I saw the movie (also decades past its release). Also, if driving is not inherently cinematic (rear projection!) it is an active dynamic for dialogue scenes, not to mention as you note being very true to how and when kids can shoot the shit unencumbered. It has been a while for both this and Fast Times at Ridgemont High but I recall Amy Heckerling having a solid, unostentatious sense of craft in this regard that is of course not exactly in heavy supply these days. Also not in heavy rotation: Third wave ska! Why do the films of today not include multiple Bosstones breaks?
I enjoy the 90s tradition of having the school dance band be an of-the-moment radio hit (10 Things I Hate About You has No Doubt maybe?). Definitely part of the fantasy for someone whose dances were DJed affairs heavy on the electric sliding.
That scene where they end up on the freeway is too relatable.
I’ve been running the whole Mission Impossible series this week, culminating in seeing FINAL RECKONING yesterday. I was going to make some comments about the series but this article (which came into my feed this morning) pretty much stole my thunder. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/05/mission-impossible-best-movies-continuity/682997/
The gist of this is that Cruise, as The Ploughman and Lauren have stated, seems to be be retrofitting the script to create a grand scheme to the series designed to elevate Cruise’s screen persona above humanity. I’d just add that the Craig Bonds tried to do the same around SPECTRE, but ultimately brought the character down to accepting the limits of physical ability and the presence of mortality.
I also saw THE BRUTALIST– Of the current list of spectacles championing the grandiose capabilities of large format celluloid, this does the best job of using the visual capacity of the medium (in this case, 70mm VistaVision) to locate its characters in a sense of physical space. The depth of focus, combined with a carefully curated color scheme giving each beam of light has its own personality, lends the narrative a sense of epic porortionality. I think that the writing takes a turn towards the melodramatic in its last quarter which doesn’t really sustain the tone, even if the climax is stunningly rendered.
What did we read?
Empire of Normality by Robert Chapman – Not surprisingly a book that’s gotten a lot of buzz as it’s a Marxist, yet surprisingly intersectional and thoughtful, dissection of disability and normality in hegemonic structures. Chapman largely sticks to the history, like the extent that the French Revolution’s after-effects created the concept of “normal” and “average”, and the beginnings of neurodiversity as a concept in the 20th century, as well as how rights-based liberal frameworks don’t really do enough, but early on notes his early precarious employment and struggles with homelessness thanks in part to poverty and his own autism. Well-written and ambitious.
How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis – One of the better self-help books for neurodivergent-friendly cleaning and organizing, though it doesn’t always feel like reading as the chapters are so short. Still does the job and Davis’ empathy is nice given the criticism I’ve gotten from my parents about dusting and whatnot.
I need to get me a copy of this one – especially now I’m back at work, the clutter is getting out of hand.
The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Writing by Joshua Hammer – Does what it says on the tin: explores how once the lost cities of Assyria and Babylonia were unearthed in the 19th century, the titular scholars worked independently and occasionally together to decipher the complex cuneiform of another time. Reasonably well written, a quick read, and Hammer does not ignore how British intrusion on modern-day Iraq and Iran was making all this possible. But it fades from memory quickly. A well written book is not necessarily a memorable one. (Amazing, though, to think that we only rediscovered the Epic of Gilgamesh within the last 200 years.)
Strike Zone, a Star Trek TNG novel by Peter David – Went and dug this one up on the occasion of PAD’s passing. The title is utterly inaccurate since the whole goal of Picard and team is to not have a given place turn into a strike zone, and it really doesn’t. PAD’s first Trek book (but after he wrote the TOS comic for DC), and thus his first novel. It’s pretty good if a bit clumsy at points. He creates an interesting enough alien race and a couple of intriguing Klingons, and gets the world of TNG as well as anyone could during the second season. His Picard is a bit off (you can tell he’s used to writing Kirk), his Worf and Wesley are pretty good (though Worf making a James Bond-esque quip is all wrong), and his Riker (his favorite TNG character?) is spot on.
”The Colour Out Of Space”, HP Lovecraft
Skipped over The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward because I already explained what I like about that ages ago and went straight to this masterpiece, a perfect horror short story where everything aligns. It’s a vivid and wonderful moment of imagination spawned from a desire to make an alien creature that is truly alien; a nonhuman gas that could, possibly, be a natural phenomenon as opposed to sentient creature, though I interpret it as sentient, and the idea of this impossibly-coloured gas literally sucking the life out of everything around it is such a vivid and memorable idea that I stole it for a D&D game.
Lovecraft chooses to show it destroying a family from the inside out, a rather savvy move that allows the plot to slowly ramp up without being disappointing; at times, this comes off like a horror-heavy parody of radiation poisoning, as characters slowly lose their minds and then their bodies, and the crumbling corpses calls to mind aspects of Charles Dexter Ward. This is also one of the most smoothly-written of Lovecraft’s, having cut down significantly on the adjectives and metaphors to shoot straight to the point; combine this with the plotting, and I don’t think Lovecraft ever found a better balance between his alien creativity and his ever-increasing fascination with rationally breaking down his worldbuilding.
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon – The twisted and varied Pynchonian plot examining the contradictory dualism inherent in the soul of America – The founding principle of freedom and late twentieth century government control. For Pynchon it’s the failure of the 60s generation who thought revolution could be brought to everything and change the world through nothing but rock and roll, man. Instead, Pynchon shows a generation in pieces and their ideals transformed in the years between Nixon and Reagan, seduced by capitalism, power and mass media. A generation who grew up to be more bourgeois than their parents.
Seems divisive among Pynchonites. But I found the stories full of misfits, strays and assholes compelling despite the sprawling nature. At times the story gets lost moving from one character to the next, focusing on them then moving on. There are several characters that carry through tying things together. But it’s a narrative saturated with symbols, a story full of double meanings and contrasts. You have to be willing to be carried away by Pynchon’s peculiar style and his words, without a compass in hand, without having a chronological order to events, because you are always thrown back and forth, dragged into scenes and moments at opposite ends of the spectrum. Surrender to Pynchon’s prose, or not.
VINELAND shows Pynchon being less concerned with proving his genius and giving his instincts (and linguistic discipline) free reign, allowing his talent to flow and shape its terrain rather than perform for critical accolades. It’s the book of his that introduces the reader to the uniqueness of his literary talents without having to run to Wikipedia or some other skeleton key to get the references.
Should give this a shot but first I have a 70’s paperback of Gravity’s Rainbow from my dad (probably worth something in money now).
Halfway through Nona the Ninth. Wish I’d kept the previous volumes handy so I could double check a few details, but overall the disorientation works pretty well for me, aside from my really wanting to know how the fuck [redacted] fucked things up this time.
“She imagines a future in which indie filmmakers can use AI tools to reclaim authorship from studios and avoid the compromises that come with chasing funding in a broken system.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN. YOU FUCKING DUNCE. “reclaim authorship” the fuck does that mean? Make a different story than the one you think needs a god damn computer to make it for you. These people, man. The Punk Planet piece is not a counter or a cudgel necessarily but it is a great alternate point of view, make your shit while you can and maybe there are new ways to do that (the point about networks is a crucial one). Make YOUR shit.
Genuinely, her arguments for using are ass-backwards and insane. And I’m usually the guy trying to read people in good faith!
The most charitable read I have for Lyonne is that she’s an idiot who bought in on something and was legitimately surprised by how many people (rightfully!) yelled at her, so now she’s doubling down and making up stories about David Lynch. We should just freeze-dry actors when they’re not being used so they don’t walk around and put shit like this in their heads when they have downtime.
This is certainly an article I’d recommend reading all for context if anyone doesn’t have access (https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/everyone-is-already-using-ai-and-hiding-it/ar-AA1G4qW9 if you’re paywalled), even though I think your opinion is a valid interpretation. My charitable reading of Lyonne is that the possibility exists to have ethically trained machines (the company she’s affiliated with only feeds licensed and paid for stuff or stuff developed specifically to be fed into it) and if you want to do a certain type of effects-driven film your only option currently is to compromise with the studio system, a system that is increasingly draining the life out of its products and authors even aside from the AI nonsense. No studio is making, like, The Perfect Storm anymore, but if you could generate the effects on a budget (it still takes millions to do the effects right even with AI assistance, programs that instant generate stuff with a single prompt are toys), then you break the monopoly on who gets to make that kind of stuff. The description of the artist who handmade work specifically to feed into a program, then used that program to generate a single artwork on a scale not possible by hand, is an interesting use for it – a specific technique for a specific work of art.
Every marketer and lazy asshole who says “AI” can do what people do can screw right off, they’re distracting from any actual, if less dramatic, potential in the tools.
Ugh, a 19-minute read? Can’t some bot summarize this for me? But I will check it out later. To me, the environmental end alone is enough to say this is all awful, using only licensed material only solves one issue. The best use case I have seen is what you describe at the end, an artist using their own work as a generative idea and shaping the shapes the technology comes up with, and that is indeed interesting on an artistic level — but if a million artists are doing this, we’re right back to where we are now in terms of wasteful energy.
And this needs more fleshing out on my end but I was thinking earlier on the concept of “if you want to do a certain type of effects-driven film” as a given. Every MCU movie is based on visuals that Jack Kirby (and others!) made with some pens — it cost nothing, tech-wise, to do this. The translation to film as it is currently constituted costs billions now and will cost more in, again, energy use and damage (at least the fucking over of Kirby et al’s labor is consistent). Because if filmmakers don’t do that, the alternative is at best the Donner Superman and at worst the Corman Fantastic Four. What my forthcoming book presupposes is — maybe these types of effects-driven films should not be made. These stories have been told in great ways designed to tell them, leave it at that.
Well, I chose The Perfect Storm deliberately as an example, comic book movies have their own set of issues with IP and frankly I don’t really care about that avenue. But ocean waves aren’t proprietary and if I’m a filmmaker who wants to make a shot of somebody in a tempest, maybe I can do this without having to be one of a handful of people who compromised with the studios for decades to get there. (If I write or draw, I can do whatever I want on whatever scale I want as every 8-year-old with a crayon has discovered)
I think what we are really talking about with AI is the ability to make money off of producing entertainment, a situation that exists because of media and tech companies’ gatekeeping abilities due to limiting access to content by marketing the figurative pipeline. Said companies will use AI to reduce labor cost, but on the upside more people will have access to create something on the scale they desire. Whether you can monetize your wares is another thing–ou can post stuff on Youtube but the specificity of algorythms means it most likely will drown in a sea of digital content. Indie filmmakers are already running the gauntlet of getting films screened and sold to distributers. Like what we do here, we do it for love.
Erik Weaver, a producer and technologist who regularly talks with studios on how to use AI, had observed a “radical shift” over the past few months. A few weeks ago, in a meeting with a major studio, an executive told him that “almost every single one of our productions is coming to us and saying, ‘How can I use AI to get back on budget?’” Weaver added, “These filmmakers need $30 million to make their movie and they have about $15 million. They only have so much money, and they’re getting desperate.”
Absolutely astonishing horseshit. No priors interrogated – whose budget and why? Whose capital invested or not? Whose cost? Whose profit? Whose loss? This Erik fuck probably still has money tied up in Theranos.
Holy shit there’s more!
In our conversations, Valenzuela likened individual artworks or images to “sand on a beach” — too small and numerous to meaningfully influence the result. When I brought up the example of someone prompting a model to generate a video “in the style of Wes Anderson,” he said the ethical problem rested on the Wes Anderson enthusiast, not on Runway. “You can still do that without AI systems — shoot a film, color-grade it in the style of Wes Anderson, and promote it that way,” he said. “But the person who’ll get in trouble won’t be the camera or the editing software or the computer. It’ll be you.”
YOU ARE A THIEF. YOU ARE A FUCKING THIEF.
Thieves indeed, and if I can muster another defense of the Lyonne attempt, the tech is going to exist whether we want it or not (and I do believe once the VCs have cashed out we’ll see a much more subdued version of the pitch for its uses), you have to show there’s a way for it to exist and get used that doesn’t steal. It’s not like the models that are currently feeding on themselves by indiscriminately scraping the Internet are doing so well that we can’t imagine a better system.
Hey Friends, What’s Yp?
Gasp! Has the Ploughman been Welsh this whole time?!
Anxiety is absolutely kicking my ass at the moment and, as usual when it flares up, I find myself wishing I’d ACTUALLY DONE SOMETHING ABOUT IT one of the previous fucking times. So this time I’m taking action, because I don’t want to spend my life dreading or avoiding things that I know have a considerable to high chance of actually being good! Anyway got an initial appointment to see a therapist tomorrow and I’ve started working through some exercises and stuff. It’s ridiculous that I’ve reached my early 40s just accepting this as part of life and I’m determined to make some changes.
Can’t remember if I already mentioned that I’ve teamed up with a few friends (two others in the UK and one ex-Brit now in Japan) to have a go at the annual songwriting contest that I’ve entered a few times before, but it’s been really enjoyable so far – with four of us contributing it never feels as high-pressure, we’re all just chucking ideas in and surprising each other with the results. Unfortunately we chose a truly terrible last-minute, meme-inspired name (which we will upgrade if we do anything with these songs post-contest) but the latest one, Flower Moon, came out really well – stuff is here on the slightly confusing contest site if anyone fancies a listen: https://nure.in/bands/721C0F1C8532AAA29CFD3ED512303F31
I hope the therapy goes well! It’s always The Worst that when it’s, well, at its worst is when it’s hardest to get yourself to reach out and get help, so woooo, live breaking of cycles!
And “Flower Moon” is terrific. (Admittedly, I’m an easy sell on murder ballads, but still.) Darkly luminous, and with a killer ending.
(I should throw in that the Baths appreciation is now spreading even further, because I heard my wife singing “Yeoman” the other day.)
Thanks, and thanks! It feels really good to have some semblance of a plan now.
And hell yeah to the Baths appreciation!
Best of luck! I know DBT and grounding exercises helped but I should be doing more meditation.
Thanks!
Good luck with the appointment- anxiety is a merciless drama-queen monster when it gets settled in. Hope you’re able to get the help that will help stay on top of it.
Thank you.
Drinking from three firehoses this week: getting information pertaining to prepping for my job in the fall, starting my graduate courses so I can keep said job, and learning the ins and outs of the distribution co-op I joined ahead of their annual meeting in two weeks. On top of that, fixed a dripping shower and it took all week by the time I could figure it out and get the right parts. On top of that, headed five hours away to my grandmother’s 95th birthday celebration (which I will miss a chunk of because of those classes). On top of that, the wife is sick so I get to fly solo. It’s been a week. I presume it will get better and smoother as I gain some new competence (and start ignoring the pieces of my house breaking). But, been a week.
Oh, just the usual stressors in this absurdly stressy time. Sigh. Shifting to summer mode at work as meetings become less frequent and as I plan for the next year’s slate of such. Wife has been told to go back on the higher dose of her anti-A1C meds, which was making her nauseous. The choice is going to be live with that or make drastic changes to her diet. I think she will be unhappy either way but she agrees it’s one or the other.
Year of the Month update!
This June, we’re covering 1983, including all these movies, albums, books, et al!
Jun. 19th: Cameron Ward: Barefoot Gen
Jun. 23rd: Sam Scott: El Sur
Jun. 24th: John Bruni: Legendary Hearts
Jun. 26th: Cameron Ward: Twice Upon a Time
Jun. 30th: Tristan Nankervis: The Big Chill
And next month is 2005, including all these movies, albums, books, et al!