 Thursday night Daughter had a movie premiere at the Walker Art Center, and she would roll her eyes to hear it described like that. Two short pieces done with her Walker-sponsored teen arts group. It turned out to be part of a larger exhibition - about 15 small movies made by teens, ranging in quality from Impressive With Lots of Promise to well-Deserved Recipient of the Participation Trophy. Same with movies in the multiplex, in a way.
A few things struck me as I watched all the films:
1 The tools available to make a good-looking film are more numerous and accessible than ever before. The medium has never been more democratized.
2 There’s really no excuse for not turning in something that looks well-shot, well-composed, and well-edited; these kids have been studying the visual arts all their lives, and by now ought to have absorbed the basics.
3 You could tell which of the students had the elements necessary to make a good product: intelligence, artistic creativity, and a grasp of pacing.
4 Snapping your fingers to indicate you are down with the sentiments expressed is really annoying. It's the perfect expression of self-satisfied groupthink. But I would say that, being not of the generation that snaps fingers except to indicate "West Side Story"-style gang conflict.
En route to the Walker I snapped the shot above - the doorway of the 510 Groveland, an old apartment hotel turned into condos. I gave a speech there once - dinner and a show, and I was the show.
Paused to admire one of the churches. There are three in the Loring area. I was in a hurry, and couldn't get you a good picture - but a detail of the steeple is instructive. A simple gift to the neighborhood:
Across the street, there's the Walker Museum. Compare, and contrast.
Imagine you had to design a new museum in an area known for old architecture civic and sacred. And you design this. There's a reason I call it the Rock'em Sock'em Robot.
Inside, the spaces are also . . . non-traditional!
"What goes well with the Nosferatu walls?"
"I'm thinking early 70s suburban mall bricks"
Most of the large areas that feel like they should be gathering spots are off-kilter, except for an obvious one carved out of the bones of the old building.
Daughter's film was the only one that poked fun at the Solemnity of the Art Experience while still respecting the idea.
They also did one that showed many commonplace items - pop bottles, bound books - and gave them pretentious names, with the voiceover asking is it art? over and over again. It's what you come up with after you've had to spend a lot of time at the Walker.
Yes, it's art; of course it's art. Whether it's good art, that's the question.
Anyway: at the end the kids assembled on the stage for questions, and Daughter's group chose her to be the rep.
Smiling up in the dark, watching her work. So proud.
Early Lance, never used before. This is from the Mumps Lawson period, but he's not as bad as other examples.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em, boys:
You win Lawson. Man, they took him personally.
Because I apparently can't be bothered to remember to post the solution, I'm going to put it here - just a link to the graphic. Do try to solve it and have fun in the comments before spoiling it for everyone.
Here's last week's solution, if you can remember that far back. I can't.
It's America's favorite news fluffer, the father of Paul Harvey pauses. Today? Pure horsebleep.
Instead of the swank old sounds of Goodwill albums, this year we're going to share bad 1960s pop music. The second- and third-tier tunes.
Twangy! Music got all down-home and story-like after that Billy Joe incident on the bridge.
The song would be blessedly shorter if Mom had just said "yes" and closed the door.
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Moifaa was quite a horse, but - well, it's Bill.
This site says:
Moifaa along with 3 other horses Toriki, Opea and Norton boarded a steamship for England, by sheer co-incidence another steamship left Melbourne bound for England it too carrying a couple of horses, Chesney and Kiora.
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The first steamship arrived safely in England carrying Moifaa and co, however the second ship the S.S Thermopylae struck a reef oat Table Bay the Cape of Good Hope on the night of January 12th 1901. The crew abandoned ship and on reaching dry land the trainer of the two horses Chesney and Kiora informed the police and one brave officer swam out to the ship and managed to free Chesney but could not find Kiora in the now half submerged ship. It was feared that Kiora had been drowned but somehow the horse had broken free and had swum to Mouille Point where he landed on a shallow reef. 10 Hours later some locals found the horse alive but exhausted and he eventually continued his journey to England where he was to run in the 1904 National along with Moifaa.
It seems that after the 1904 National a story leaked out to the press of a New Zealand horse having survived a shipwreck, naturally it was assumed it had been the winner and the story has stuck ever since. To be fair the story was originated in the American press and the myth grew out of that.
Because a loser horse that survived a shipwreck wasn't good enough.
That will do! Another week; hope I earned your visits. See you bright & early Monday morn. |
