The Content Factory » Life

Detroit: blowing away

thecpay2 — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:48:48 +0000

Slowly but surely, Detroit is evaporating in the wind.

Its residents are leaving the city in their thousands, and the poorest of those that remain are fighting for hand-outs. Most of us have grown up in relative prosperity for 50 years – a Ghost Town was something you saw in a horror flick or episode of Scooby Doo. Yet that is exactly what large chunks of Detroit have become; not just the poor suburbs, but even its famed central skyscrapers.

The US recession is taking the blame for Detroit’s demise, not the short-sightedness of lack of imagination of the companies that powered the Motor City for so many years, nor its poor government. And any hope of centrally funded renewal is fading as the recession drags on. It’s a sad, strange and scary story.

Japanese rubber band assault rifle

thecpay2 — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:55:43 +0000

Every reason to live in terror of a resurgence in Japanese militarism. Someone spent months making this thing.

Can’t. Stop. Watching.

thecpay2 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:39:02 +0000

Not sure whether to laugh or cry. Or run. The 3D renderings come from AlterEgo, the ‘facial performance’ team currently working on Silent Hill 5. Go here for more strangely unsettling videos.

Rock Abuse, Part 1,703

thecpay2 — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:50:58 +0000

Transpires that a UK Top 40 hit was the launch of a gum ad campaign. Says the Beeb:

But in studying the words of all the hits, I failed to spot the significance of the chorus to Brown’s number. “Double your pleasure/double your fun”, he sings – a line I should have twigged was from the Doublemint gum jingle used since 1960.

Now Wrigley’s have come clean. In a press release they reveal how the song is an extended version of a new jingle for their product.

“The summer release of Brown’s smash hit, Forever, which featured the unmistakable Doublemint gum jingle lyrics, kicked-off the creative partnership between Brown and Doublemint gum”, the company announced.

“Wrigley consulted with Translation Advertising (NY) to conceptualize and identify the artists behind the jingle remakes.”

‘Conceptualize and indentify’? Reassuring to someone is still holding the flame of face-melting rock rebellion aloft.

Garfield strays into existential angst

thecpay2 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:44:26 +0000

Garfield: cheesy American cartoon strip. Garfield minus Garfield: surreal observations on the American mind. Cool ideally, brilliantly effective.

Autism: is TV the culprit?

thecpay2 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:04:43 +0000

New report points to television being a cause behind the growth of autism in the US (it has gone, apparently, from one in 2500 children in the late ’70s to one in 166 today).

No, I said Drive… put it in Drive…

thecpay2 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:03:47 +0000

The film that that doesn’t see black

thecpay2 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:00:08 +0000

Watched Collateral again this morning. Probably the sixth or seventh time I’ve watched the film right through. I begun to wonder why I find it so habit-forming – I’m certainly no major fan of either Cruise or Foxx, and the plot itself is hardly life-changing (in fact, Vincent’s attempts to intellectualise his killing is just annoying).

Then I realised: it’s the cinematography, Mann’s digitised vision of nightime LA. A little Googling unearthed what was so special about it:

The difference between film and HD, says Cameron, is that film’s sensitivity falls off sharply at the bottom of the curve, transforming subtle shadows into deep rich blacks. But what if, he asks, you went into those shadows? “How do I record what the eye sees at the toe of the curve?” Where everyone is trying to make black, Mann decided he would go into those shadows and pull out information to create intense emotions.

But I reckon there’s more to it than technology. The most memorable scenes are set in the most miserable locations; shit-cheap motels and nameless side-streets, usually with the skyscrapers of downtown LA as a distant backdrop. If you’ve ever strayed from the path inn any major American city, Collateral works on a whole new level.

Muppets on social media

thecpay2 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:15:51 +0000

How did the Roman Empire fall, exactly?

thecpay2 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:39:29 +0000

Watched Road Wars on SkyOne last night. Ten minutes in, I had a brief, well… moment. I suddenly became aware that I was sat on a sofa somewhere in Surrey, watching images on a television screen.

Those images were depicting a society that has collapsed. Civillians showed no fear of the law; they were happily spitting at and punching the police, taking a smug pleasure in knowing that the punishment will be at least four sizes from fitting the crime.

I tried to imagine what I would have felt if I had been watching those images on a sofa in 1950s Britain. I can only imagine a mix of terror and disbelief; the people I see around me every day do not behave like this. No-one does.

Of course, Road Wars is both political and sensational. The police collaborate with Sky in its production, presumeably to make a broad point that the police are in control. I also suspect that high-ups within the Force quietly sanction the references to minimal sentences: most coppers I know feel that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.