theequilibrist

[theequilibrist]

It’s odd enough that there are two living popes. It’s odder still that they live in such proximity. But what’s most odd is that the two popes are these two popes, and that the one who spent a third of a century erecting a Catholic edifice of firm doctrine and strict prohibition now must look on at close range as the other cheerfully dismantles it in the service of a more open, flexible Church.

The Atlantic, May 2014

Read the full article here. Even as a non-religious person, this is a remarkable take on how the Catholic Church has changed since Benedict stepped down and Pope Francis took the lead. I, again, as a non-religious person, can only approve the openness, empathy and humility of Pope Francis, leading to a more accepting, inclusive and sympathetic institution.

#Easter #Good Friday read #Pope Francis

[theequilibrist]

Do not think in faceless numbers.

(video) and (video)

#International Women's Day

[theequilibrist]

Sobering upfrom the Academy Awards with the Best Picture nominees' pop-art remade posters.

12 Years A Slave by Kathy Cho

American Hustle by Jami Miles

Captain Phillips by Rachael Polack

Dallas Buyers Club by Adriana Marin

Gravity by Lily Ou

Her by Deanna Paquette

Nebraska by Cristin Burton

Philomena by Philippe Intraligi

The Wold of Wall Street by Jordan Roland

(via thenextweb)

#Academy Awards #pop art

[theequilibrist]

Why-prizes

After a week spent digging into background research, predictions, statistics, interviews and tabloid coverage, I will live broadcast the Oscars tonight. I have seen all feature films in contest, a little personal achievement to be proud of. I am sure that some of the AMPAS's decisions will leave me discontent, after all, my taste in films will never coincide with the overwhelmingly 60+ white male voter board, plus the American spirit.

A friend of mine said in an interview that to her, the importance of Oscars is to acknowldge newcomers in big league filmmaking, the contenders in short sections - whose work I haven't seen - since up until the awards season, those lack worldwide distribution, 360-marketing and media coverage. That is why I follow the Independent Spirit Awards with high hopes for low-budgets and a different aspect on what's good.

For this part, I have to admit, I saw those productions that were comfortably available, some showcased at European festivals within my reach. Furthermore, even if I liked them, I probably have things to say about lacking qualities as well. (By now for professional reasons, I traded the sheer joy of watching movies to the dry professional mindset and the contemplation about marketability.)

Take the Best Feature category with its nominees 12 Years A Slave, All Is Lost, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska. None of these are cash-strapped projects, all of these introduce superb newcomers in acting and filmmaking. All Is Lost echoes both The Old Man and The Sea and is a lower-than-Captain Phillips-budget sea monodrama. Frances Ha is a response to the big city hipster phenomenon, black and white, arty, and personally (now really set aside professional manner) irritating. Inside Llewyn Davis is the much-anticipated Coen-brothers movie, impeccably shot, atmospheric, reviving music in film and for film as a tool of storytelling, character portrayal, and depicting an era and a lifestyle. Nebraska is widely loathed in competitions, because it shows life as it is, a personal monomania driving its characters, barely anything happens aside from relationships falling apart and strengthening, shot impeccably in black and white.

Maybe apart from All Is Lost, all contenders have a stunning ensemble cast parading throughout the films. Which are all very consciously built and executed, so it leaves me with nothing else but the stories to point at as the reason why 12 Years A Slave could triumph this award. All Is Lost is a personal struggle on the sea. Frances Ha is a personal struggle in friendships and emergence. Inside Llewyn Davis is a personal struggle to pursue one's dreams. Nebraska is a personal struggle to keep loved ones close, satisfied and ultimately, loved. Whereas 12 Years is widely interpreted as a film with the mission to uncover the American sin and confront the guilt, through a personal struggle where the American spirit overcomes the brutality with perseverance. 12 Years A Slave is a story where justice gets done, is in a very weak sense uplifting in the end, which gives your heart the notion that all is well at the end, after all it's just 12 years spent in slavery, not a day more. It delivers to the promise. None of the others have this kind of uplifting ending, everybody stays miserable in their own ways, and apparently, that doesn't make a good movie. There's no catharsis, there's no sense of all is well. It seems to me, that American voting boards need this all is well. It's so soothing, arguably it's so integrated in the drama genre. 

Ultimately, awards are accumulated personal opinions, and as such, a product of extensive cultural and social perception. Disguised as professional verdicts, they have the prestige of shaping the entertainment industry, not revolutionizing it. Not even at the threshold of independent filmmaking, have they the openness and curiousity to vouch for something different. This, especially in the context of a namely independent spirit, is a saddening notion.

#AMPAS #Oscars #independent films #film industry #awards season #Independent Spirit Awards

[theequilibrist]

Toronto, London, Berlin, Austin - Film festival capitals

(source)

#film festival #artwork #Jazzberry Blue

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The Sunday Times - Icons

#advertising #pop culture

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I love how he is made to re-position himself as himself.

#Benedict Cumberbatch #PBS #Sesame Street #Benedict Sherlock

[theequilibrist]

So sudden. 

I remember watching Magnolia, among my first attempts to understand films other than Disney. I was 11 then. Now I write about movies and celebrate them at festivals. I loved the The Master, watched Doubt hesitantly, A Late Quartet with awe, The Big Lebowski because one has to watch The Big Lebowski, and the same goes to the fab Boogie Nights, then Almost Famous to learn that I am too, a rockstar and a groupie and almost famous. Two of his films I truly love, are Flawless and Mary and Max. In the latter, he only does voicing, invisible behind a claymated figure.

From now on, he will be invisible a little bit. But not his presence, his talent, and his humility towards his roles - that will remain preserved in his body of work. If only I could have seen him on stage.

#Philip Seymour Hoffman

[theequilibrist]

C!RCA & Debussy String Quartet: Opus

18-22 Feb 2014 Barbican Theatre, London

#curated

[theequilibrist]

I just leave this here.

#random

[theequilibrist]

Downworthy Is Happening

I have just posted about the annoying and to some extent, dangerous side effects of upworthy-ied stories flooding over the Internet, and here it is, a real-time response for my prayers. Browser plug-in Downworthy brings irony to those extremely unbelievably hilariously mindblowing headlines going viral on the web.

You Will Shed A Tear Over How This Amazing Idea Would Bring You Life-Changing Browser Experience.

Because Enough is Enough Already.

We've all seen them - the clickbait headlines that websites like Buzzfeed, ViralNova and UpWorthy use to drive traffic, especially through social networks. Even Huffington Post has jumped on the bandwagon of endless recycled listicles and bombastic titles.

Downworthy replaces hyberbolic headlines from bombastic viral websites with a slightly more realistic version.

You'll find more fun at developer Alison Gianotto's site.

via AdAge

#Downworthy #Alison Gianotto #AdAge

[theequilibrist]

You Won't Belive How Easily You Fall For These Hilarious Marketing Phenomena: The Upworthy Effect

As Super Bowl coming up, I am excited to see the commercials. It's like awards season for marketing: divisive, spectacular, an essence of Zeitgeist. FastCoCreate's summary of last year's creme of the crop marketing moves seemed just the right tool to test my trend/brand awareness. Frankly, I am often ashamed that I fall for the simplest effect of advertising: sentimental storytelling. But this list ensured me that I'm not the only one. There's the famous Oreo-tweet from the last SuperBowl along with the Clydesdales, the Chipotle's sequel to 'Back to the Start', the arguably overhyped Dove Beauty Sketches, the tearjerker TrueMove H ad I posted here earlier, together with Coca Cola's Small World project. Common in those is that big brands unite timing and create stories for and with the audience in a predominantly emotional and touching way, making involvement the stepping stone of engaging customers.

Stories of affection, self-immolation, and acts of kindness do deserve an audience. However, entirely structured content and reportage of those will create a beguiled audience that will be less aware of the line between accurately planned presentation and the f/actual story behind.

Upworthy stories are a matter of entertainment. Unlike when you buy a ticket to see a movie, knowing that it is a carefully calibrated dose of emotional ups and downs, it's like a feel-good fix: you see something moving, you share it, and there, faith in humanity restored, spead accurately, with the catharsis that you did something worthwhile.

In the meantime, this is what Upworthy does to you: using a clickbait headline, it precisely instructs you how you should feel about the issue, projecting the right emotional response of outrage, surprise, reassurance, or sympathy. Then it shoves some crying people up in your face, presents some politically correct and safe cause worthy of anyone's support, and wraps it up into some fight for a more humane world.

While there is nothing wrong about the evangelisation of good, what happens is the undiscering obtrusion of an opinion to many receptive for a heartwarming, "there's still some good left in this world"-minded audience. It falsifies perception, stamps out criticism, elevates wishful thinking into some sort off cyber-reality many of us faces purposefully to lighten the everyday gloom.

While you hate ads as they distort reality, for they push you towards seeking all means to purchase goods which would make you feel better about yourself - in other words, you have already developed some criticism against a medium that forces ideals down your throat, people crave and unconditionally react to these engineered Upworthy stories. How easy it is? You can check the correct wording for upworthy headlines over here.

Double standards, that's all I'm saying. Similarly to the un-fact-checked viral threads about environmental and political sensations, to the latest cure for cancer-posts, government scandals and celebrity fails which everybody takes seriously to some extent, Upworthy thrives on gullibility and emotional reassurance. It maybe represents a world worth living in, but definitely not the world we're living in. It's fake. It spreads fake messages. Convenient, soul-massaging messages, but ultimately, delusive ones. It's time to go out in the world and do something upworthy, not just to share what's already been done.

#FastCoCreate #The New Yorker #content #criticism #advertising

[theequilibrist]

Yann Pineill & Nicolas Lefaucheux: The Beauty of Mathematics

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So, when this loose behavior I throw off And pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men's hopes; And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off. I'll so offend, to make offence a skill; Redeeming time when men think least I will.

Shakespeare - Henry IV, Act I Scene 2

#Shakespeare

[theequilibrist]

I have naturally fallen in love with the entire cast of August: Osage County. Its masterful interpersonal dynamics just elaborately flowing throughout the film time, flawlessly broken, perfectly disconnected, overwhelmingly distant from each other.

The Cast of “August: Osage County”

(souce)

#August: Osage County #Tracy Letts #John Wells

[theequilibrist]

Gosh, a fabulous tax app ad. As we all know, impossible is nothing.

Your product might be kinda boring, but that doesn’t mean your creative has to be.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

#Wieden+Kennedy

[theequilibrist]

Mark Seliger, portrait photographer.

Exhibition opens on 20 Jan 2014 at Beetles+Huxley, London.

#Mark Seliger #Beetles+Huxley #photography