Overheard in my Art History class:
“I don’t like how they teach conceptual ideas at this school. I wish they would focus on the more technical aspects, because I don’t want to be an artist—I just want to teach art.”
Category: Art
Author/activist Naomi Klein on Q critiquing the Toronto Internation Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv. Filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici takes up the other side.
A political and artistic debate is being waged at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. An open letter of protest from the Toronto Declaration protests TIFF’s City-to-City Spotlight, which is focussing on the work of Israeli filmmakers from Tel Aviv. The signatories, which include Q guest Naomi Klein, actor Harry Belafonte, Jane Fonda and writer Rawi Hage, argue TIFF is complicit in Israel’s Rebranding campaign that aims to shift emphasis away from the occupation, especially in a year where the conflict in Gaza resulted in over 1,000 deaths of Palestinians. TIFF denies any ideological pressure was applied. On the other side of the debate, filmmakers like Q guest Simcha Jacobovici, David Cronenberg, Ivan Reitman, and Robert Lantos argue that judging films by their country of origin rather than the quality of the artistic product, is a kind of censorship.
Noami explains that the letter is not about politics and censorship but about trying to separate the propaganda from the films:
“We’re not asking for anything—that’s what’s so amazing. The reports today, in response to the statements from Norman Jewison and David Cronenberg, are kind of amazing to me because they’re all denouncing censorship. I’m against censorship. I’m not trying to censor anything. None of the thousand people who signed this letter are trying to censor anything. Even on CBC, sorry to say, they are reporting that we have a problem with the ten films. We have no problem with these ten films. I have seen some of the films—I think they are terrific and I think they are so good they deserve to be part of the regular festival programming and not politicized as part of this celebration of the State of Israel, of the city of Tel Aviv, because that’s not about art, that’s about politics.
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Lego Brick House
I remember one Christmas being certain that I wanted the basic lego set that I saw advertised so that I could build a giant house out of Lego. My older brother, typically, knew better and asked for Space Lego.
Luckily after a short while all the lego got mixed together and I could leave the giant multicoloured lego blocks for the more esthetically pleasing whites, greys, and blues required for intergallactic travel.
Not everyone has given up on the basic blocks:
One man is building the dream, or at least wild fantasy, of many children. James May, a toy fanatic, is constructing a two-story house out of LEGO bricks. He’s using 3 million bricks constructed out of 272 LEGO pieces each. As an added bonus, the house is located in a beautiful vineyard.
Update: Geek Sugar has a more comprehensive gallery of the place, taken in various stages as it’s being built.
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100 Years of Visual Effects
Originally intended for educational use, this “5th-grader-friendly” collection of clips combines notable visual effects of the past century.
[Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration | YouTube]
Treat yourself to a moment, four minutes actually, of beautiful sound and imagery in this short movie by Will Hoffman: Moments.
Radiolab presents: Moments by Will Hoffman.
[16: Moments | YouTube]
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Paul McCartney on the “Paul is dead” rumours:
The conspiracy theory began in October 1969, when a Detroit-based DJ claimed that the three other Beatles — Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison — had recruited a lookalike replacement for McCartney after he died in 1966.
He argued that because the man “posing” as McCartney on the cover of the Beatles’ 1969 album “Abbey Road” had bare feet meant it represented a corpse, and that the number plate on a car in the photograph was LMW 28IF — denoting McCartney’s age, if he had lived.
“It was funny, really,” McCartney, 67, told MOJO music magazine in an interview. “But ridiculous. It’s an occupational hazard: people make up a story and then you find yourself having to deal with this fictitious stuff.
“I think the worst thing that happened was that I could see people sort of looking at me more closely: ‘Were his ears always like that?'”
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Stairway to Heaven on a Harp
[Stairway to Heaven on Harp | YouTube]
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I’m off to see Pearl Jam and others at the 2008 Virginfest in Calgary. I’m having the busiest summer in memory so posting will continue to be light for the next while.
Update: Here’s a photo of the crowd at the Pearl Jam concert. I’m right up there, second from the front.
Ze Frank recaps his experiences running zefrank.com during Webstock 09.
[Ze Frank at Webstock 09 – Vimeo]
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