glitterfish.com

There is an article floating around about likely NY mayorial candidate Rep. Anthony Weiner’s love affair with a glamorous former vouge model and top Hillary Clinton aide, Huma Abedin. There is speculation that this otherwise very uninteresting story about a couple of Clinton hanger on’s is actually a cover up designed to diffuse speculation that Huma Abedin is actually Clinton’s lover. The comments thread is pretty funny.

BBJR May 29, 2008 8:01:30 PM
Probably an article to defuse speculation about HRC’s sexual orientation. To me Hillary’s only significant love object is the vision of HERSELF as the avenging savior of helpless women throughout history, powering through the purported glass ceiling to pay back all the Bad Men.

mattfromcalifornia May 29, 2008 3:28:29 PM
Oh please. This is just damage control, because they realize the story is getting out that she’s Hillary’s lover. Do you really think they would let some guy travel in her campaign, just because he wants to woo this girl? Be serious people. How stupid can you get. This is more of the Clinton Spin Machine in action.

HornDog Mullins May 29, 2008 6:09:39 PM
What the heII is so “glamorous” about this woman? She looks like your average illegal alien bimbo.

Here is the rest of the article.

I’ve really wrestled with who I want to be president. Since the beginning I’ve been for Hillary but I couldn’t figure out why. She voted for the war, she is a corporate candidate who unapologetically accepts money from lobbyists, and worst of all was recently all but endorsed by Ann Coulter!

It is also discouraging to hear who else supports Hillary Clinton: old people! I was devastated by this New York Times article titled: Is Obama a mac and Hillary a PC? Crap! I thought I was a Mac, I am definitely not a PC! Obama’s website is so awesome, the “features and elements are seamlessly integrated, just like the experience of using a program on a Macintosh computer.” I can’t even make it past the first page of Hillary’s website. Everything is written in all caps, it’s like the page is shouting at me and I need to run away.

To my great relief, Jack Tapper at ABC News has come to my rescue and articulated exactly was is so off putting about the Obama campaign:

Joe Klein, writing at Time, notes “something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism” he sees in Obama’s Super Tuesday speech.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Obama said. “This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It’s different not because of me. It’s different because of you.”

Says Klein: “That is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is. “

Wow, exactly right! Then he quotes somebody else:

The always interesting James Wolcott writes that “(p)erhaps it’s my atheism at work but I found myself increasingly wary of and resistant to the salvational fervor of the Obama campaign, the idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria. I can picture President Hillary in the White House dealing with a recalcitrant Republican faction; I can’t picture President Obama in the same role because his summons to history and call to hope seems to transcend legislative maneuvers and horse-trading; his charisma is on a more ethereal plane, and I don’t look to politics for transcendence and self-certification.”

For real! When people talk to be about Barack Obama they do it with the same sort of giddy idolation usually reserved for over hyped musicians or movies. If Barack Obama was screenwriter instead of a politician his name would be Diablo Cody.

Oddly enough, this is the very first time I’ve ever really seen Romney where I thought he came off as genuine. There’s something honest about a white as Wonderbread politician telling black kids to say “who let the dogs out, wuff wuff” as a form of “cheese” to the camera.

@ 2 Spare

There is an awesome quote in this AP story regarding music snobs:

In America, rock authenticity is a really important thing, whereas in Britain, there aren’t so many hang-ups like ‘Is it cool to like this?’

I totally agree; however, it’s a shame that the article is written about the The Scissor Sisters. No matter what 2.5 million Brits have to say, they suck.

After the success of Charles Marx’s Communist Manifesto, the issuing of such statements became popular with all kinds of political, social, and artistic organizations. Art manifestos were a feature of many Modern art movements of the early 20th century and they have continued to be issued by new groups ever since. Circulated in magazines, journals, newspapers, and now the web, the documents served as an easy platform for art movements to renounce the outdated ideas of the past and outline new aesthetic and thematic frameworks.

Generally manifestos contain a brief introduction followed by an enumerated list of demands and then some commentary. Usually they are written in a revolutionary or even incendiary tone. In his dada manifesto, Feeble Love & Bitter Love II (1920), Tristan Tzara’s describes the art manifesto as follows.

A manifesto is a communication made to the whole world, whose only pretension is to the discovery of an instant cure for political, astronomical, artistic, parliamentary, agronomical and literary syphilis. It may be pleasant, and good-natured, it’s always right, it’s strong, vigorous and logical. Apropos of logic, I consider myself very likeable.

I’ve said before that art is in a slump. These days art is dominated by the page-view-click-thru critics. With their penchant for hype and smarmy language, the blogant-garde has gone from a cornucopias “chorus of voices” into a homogeneous indiecrat PR machine. If you think that’s a grim situation, I don’t even want to get into god and politics. Because the world needs revolution, and because I find myself very likeable, Mr. Tzara’s words strike me.

The reasons are all the usual suspects: cheap cameras, cheap bandwidth, cheap blah blah blah. The deluge of short form video is upon us. Artist, filmmaker, and photographer Nathan Swango of Freeworkingspace.com proposes:

Laying awake I recall an idea shared with me by a good friend, his thought is that anything is watchable as long as it is short. Lately it seems true, a new wave in videography and digital filmmaking has emerged in the form of amatuer filmmaking and internet streaming video. Enormous trends have been set already, funny cats, inside jokes, personal video journals, sexy-smoking-housewives, music video parodies, etc. More often we are seeing professional concepts being inspired by amatuer videographers. The mass contribution continues non-stop and it is a global phenomenon.

Here is my list of rules for Short Concept Digital Video, this is an experiment:

1. One minute in length (60 seconds).
2. Up to but not more than four edits.
3. Camera is hand held.
4. Sound must be original.
5. Playback demensions must be 320X240.
6. No credit to the director.
7. Quick, Cheap, Easy but no sacrifice to the integrity and the quality of the idea.
8. Showcased in a digital public forum, i.e. the internet, youtube.com, Google Video.

Nate doesn’t think like the hand held camera rule and I definitely agree. There seems to be consensus that the 4 cut limit is at least very interesting even if there is disagreement on the exact number of cuts. My favorite rule is #6 but I think it contradicts #4. To me rule number #4 totally flies in the face of what digital short form video is. Digitized information has no “final cut.” Putting something on the web is implicitly giving permission to have your work remixed, mashed up, and made fun of.

Go read the manifesto and check out Freeworkingspace.com.

Today a little bit of me died when the supposed creators of YouTube auteur LonelyGirl15 came out and announced their presence. For those of you who haven’t been arduously investigating the mysterious LG, I’ll fill you in because she’s my new favorite obsession now that I no longer have cable television.

LG has taken the place of Laguna Beach in my heart. Not only because this season of Laguna is now colossal suck, but also because she’s so damn cute. Her first videos were mediocre, but I kept watching because she was just so charming, her screen presence is amazing. After I developed my crush on her, coherent storylines started to develop in her short posts and speculation about her authenticity rose keeping me even more interested. I read as much about her as possible from the NY Times, LA Times, New York Magazine, Business Week, and even became a big time lurker on the forum. The theories surrounding her were so fascinating and ranged from her being a viral marketing concoction to a covert religious message (and an occultist one at that) to a Brian Flemming TV show pitch. And then even weirder shit started happening like a crazy creepy audio file from a girl once briefly mentioned in an episode arrived in Times’ blogger Virginia Heffernan’s inbox and then people kept pointing out Aleister Crowley references. The only thing that would make it better would be a note written in blood hung to Virginia’s door with a butcher knife warning her to stop probing.

But sadly, the creepiness ended when the creators gave some existential rationale behind the whole charade:

“Right now, the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is “who is she?” We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us.”

While Glitterfish bossman Andres tells me this is just the beginning of LG, part of the fun that was LG has died to me. It was fun sometimes to pretend like this could be real, that there really is a charming, little home-schooled occultist out there. It was just as much fun to make up theories about her and try to catch her missteps, and I was definitely not alone here (gohepcat’s my favorite LG investigator). The other part of the fun was the video responses to LG. I wonder what kind of impact knowing she’s fake forreal will have on these as most center around the fake vs. real. Is it possible to interact with fictional characters like they’re real? The creators say they want to “usher in an era of interactive storytelling where the line between ‘fan’ and ‘star’ has been removed, and dedicated fans like yourselves are paid for their efforts.” Paid for interacting? Something sounds a little bit off about that. Yes, this is the beginning of something new, but I’m going to miss my old LG. Check her and her fans out before cash flows and superstardom corrupt her and she starts giving us coked up videos where she ditches her loser pal Danielbeast for someone hotter and who actually has enough balls to hit it.

I’m glad I got to know LG15, good luck on your next journey. Stay Sweet! Kisses!

First I want to apologize. My first post about indie music was almost off topic and this one is downright unrelated to filmmaking. Nevertheless, I can’t resist regurgitating some more Stereogum content. Lilly Allen had this to say in NME about indie rock after fans got upset she was talking shit on her blog about The Libertines.

I like lots of indie bands. I’m a fan of good guitar music. I think it’s just that at the moment everyone’s like, ‘Music’s so great, we’ve got these great indie rock bands’ but in reality they all sound the same. They’re just doing what S Club 7 and Steps did - regurgitating the same songs because that’s what people are buying at the moment.”

Lilly you are my hero. Word on the street is that the rest of your new album is only half as brilliant as your two singles but still, lets get married.

UPDATE: The entire record, start to finish, is amazing.

name droppings n – “Droppings” is as in shit. The product of person trying to impress you with their knowledge of a played out bourgeois art scene (i.e. indie rock).

It happened last year. The inevitable backlash was finally upon us. Adam Shore, General Manager of Vice Records, had this to say about indie rock:

“I feel like there has been created, in the past two to three years, an indie-yuppie establishment. Bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Iron and Wine, the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, they are great bands, really great bands, with great albums, great songs, high quality. And to me, it’s just so fucking boring,” he says. “It’s like fancy-coffee-drinking, Volvo-riding music for kids. And kids should be listening to music that shakes them up more, makes them uncomfortable. … I don’t think we’re ever going to sign an indie rock band. … I want to sign stuff that is more immediate and shakes you up a bit.”

Last May the NY Post wrote (scroll down a bit for the article) about how Stereogum (you know that totally hip indie blog that you and your grandmother read everyday so you know what to listen to) responded to the above quote with a “You know you’re an Indie Yuppie if…” contest. The irony that most of the commentators participating in the contest didn’t even get what an indie yuppie is, wasn’t lost on the Stereogum judges.

I find it not only exhausting but also totally unrewarding to keep up with indie bands. There is a new one every thirty seconds and this month’s name droppings don’t carry nearly the same amount of cred as they used. Back when listening to indie rock meant something—back when you weren’t ashamed of your Bright Eyes albums—you could be proud to be familiar with lesser-known second tier indie bands. Now, there is some sort of expectation that you know the fifth and sixth tier bands and whatever derivative off shoot nonsense side project they have going on.

Does it really mean anything to you that Hot Club De Paris is sort of like the Future Heads meets the House Martins? Because seriously that sounds like it would sound like shit to me.

Here is the part where I talk about movies. I like “Sundance” movies. Just like everyone else I’m a sucker for coming of age stories, family dramas, and quirky comedies. But honestly if I see one more Wes Anderson knockoff I’m going to snap and that includes movies actually directed by Wes Anderson. Replace movies with music and band names with 2005 Sundance titles when Adam says, “[Movies] like [The Squid and the Whale], [Thumbsucker], [Me You and Everyone We Know], [Junebug], they are great [Movies], really great [Movies], with great [Directors], great [writers], high quality. And to me, it’s just so fucking boring.”

Breakout of the indie-yuppie establishment! Please move on with your snobbery. I have a suspicion there are a bunch of 14-year-old-more-hip-to-what-is-next kids laughing at you and your haircut right now.

Bonus Link: Zach “the Shins will change your life” Braff released the sound track to his next movie. Coldplay? No wonder Mandy broke up with him.

UPDATE: Links fixed.