Easily the best creative content in the DCU.
LOTR But With Low-Budget FX & Soviet Mood Music
The geniuses at Leningrad Television put out this masterpiece in 1991, a full ten years before Peter Jackson.
Cue up Gandalf’s eagle escape and elaboration at the Council of Elrond:
The above includes the entire first half of this 1 hr 50 minute extravaganza. More Fellowship of The Ring excitement here.
And It’s Mostly Trash
The video quality sucks but I enjoyed it anyway. It’s important (cough) to hear a pointy-headed conductor learn us about the Beatles.
New Kung Fu
News to me:
In the ’70s, martial arts legend Bruce Lee pitched a series to Warner Bros. called The Warrior — centered on a Chinese martial artist traveling across America’s Old West. Ultimately, Warner Bros. rejected Lee’s pitch because it didn’t think audiences would tune into a Chinese-led television show. However, one year later, Warner Bros. launched Kung Fu, casting a white male lead (David Carradine) with no kung fu experience in a story that resembled Lee’s initial pitch.
The reboot is hoped to honor Lee’s legacy.
Fair Use And Transformation
Lynn Goldsmith took the photo on the left. She recognized the Warhol silkscreen on the right as her material, and challenged the Warhol Foundation over fair use, in a copyright infringement case.
Fair use – when one artist can borrow from another without permission or payment – hinges on “transformation,” in the law. When the goals and function of the secondary work in question are quite different from the original, transformation is said to occur. Last month a New York appeals court found in favor of Goldsmith: they reversed a lower court decision, and said that the standard of transformation was not met.
Transformation is probably a deep, aesthetic, philosophical and cultural concept – so it’s comical when courts try to sort it out.
Right?
A few years back, a bevy of art critics declared that Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 sculpture called “Fountain” — a store-bought urinal he had presented, unchanged, as art — was the most influential work of the 20th century.
Friday Anthem
Apologies if this is (appropriately) filtered out by your IT overlords. This is going on my Smoko mix.
Enjoy!!
I Had To Look It Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQS6F-vHzaY
Makerbot’s post made me want this origin story. The dance with the censors / standards & practices is always fascinating.
Space Junk
My sister sent me the above photo from near her home on Thursday night. Much as I was excited to learn that one ton objects burn up in the atmosphere every week, I’ve never seen one, so I’m jealous.
The culprit: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 From Outer Space.
Here’s some good footage:
DID YOU SEE THIS? I have never in my life seen something so incredible. I am in awe. Just happened over Portland about 10 minutes ago. #LiveOnK2 pic.twitter.com/L9wLEXBrcW
— Genevieve Reaume (@GenevieveReaume) March 26, 2021
I Will Sell You The Brooklyn Bridge
So says The Unnamed Artist John Cleese, who will let this non-fungible masterpiece go for $69,346,250.50.
More here.
I Can Almost Understand It
Italian singer Adriano Celentano released a song in the 70s with nonsense lyrics meant to sound like American English, apparently to prove Italians would like any English song. It was a hit, and resulted in this: THE GREATEST VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN. pic.twitter.com/B3mQWmQgXq
— Harry (@HarrietMould) November 26, 2020
Catchy!