Month: February 2008

OK, I’ve been watching this, because the UK media has been full of it,
and considering how much global impact the result is likely to have it
is rather captivating at times – like when you slow down on the motorway
to gawp at the accident on the other carriageway, something in you
really wants to look, despite how distasteful it all is.

So I have been a Hillary supporter for a while, because I quite liked
Bill and thought it would be good to see a Clinton dynasty to rival the
Bush dynasty. I had even felt that although Obama was saying some quite
interesting things, Americans probably weren’t ready for a black
president, but might be ready for a woman.

Tonight I have changed my mind. Tonight I think Americans ARE more ready
for a black president than I thought – SO LONG AS HE”S A MALE – and SO
LONG AS IT ISN”T HILLARY CLINTON. Tonight I changed my mind – and the
thing that changed my mind was this: 90% of Obama’s fundraising is made
up of individual donations of under $100.

This is what a Democratic strategist interviewed on Channel 4 News said.
I’ll repeat it if you like. 90% of Obama’s fundraising is made up of
individual donations of under $100. He has raised more millions of
dollars than McCain, more even than the most formidable fundraising
machine in Democratic history (until now) – Bill Clinton. 90% of Obama’s
fundraising is made up of individual donations of under $100.

This is completely unprecedented. This means, I think, that the US really IS ready for change.

Roll on Obama. I can’t vote for you, but I sincerely hope you win – more
importantly – I sincerely hope you really do make a change, and that
you don’t get yourself shot.

 

Goodbye to the Normals
Do you know what the problem with television is? There’s too much of
it. There are no limits. Too many possibilities. So what happens?
All the resources already dedicated to quantity, few – or at least not
enough – are dedicated to quality. This is not to eulogise a heyday of
four – three – or even two national channels when the competition
between ‘venue’ brought the very best out of the pioneers. But who
would deny that most TV these days is awful?

The best paintings/stills are simple: portrait, stil life, landcape.
The best music obeys the strictest of accepted forms: concerto, symphony, song, 12bar….. even jingle.
All the very best in literature – the art of the written word – is in carefully crafted poetic form: the haiku, the sonnet.

The moving image combined with music and the spoken word has given us
some of the greatest works of history: the shamanic dance; the
transubstantiation mass; jacobean tragedy. That its launch onto the
celluloid stage has struggled at times with form, born as it has been in
a time of play with form, is perhaps not to be wondered at, in such
early days.

The very best in film, right now, is the short : sometimes driven by a
commercial intent that funds it, yet from which constraints its
liberating parameters are born, the advert is the haiku of film; at its
very best mimicking the style but with something different to sell…..

Here’s an example of the best……..