Test shots from new camera (NikonD800)
(Source: publicnoticedesign)
Two flyers for an upcoming independent Chinese film screening at UCLA!
Xiao Wang in Surface Magazine, March/April 2012
Hell yes.
(Source: blacksilhouettes, via fuckyeahxiaowenju)
This is a poster Dougal designed for an upcoming film screening at UCLA.
CABIN IN THE WOODS
CABIN IN THE WOODS is an interesting film. On the superficial level, you are impressed at the film’s postmodern self-awareness and its deft deconstruction of horror genre conventions. Then, you realize that, like all reactionary (conservative) texts, it actually has an extremely cynical worldview and is perpetuating the very things it’s appearing to make fun of, or even chastise.
I think what’s more disturbing than the eclectic buffet of monsters paraded out by the film’s end is the underlying subtext that either A) young people are exactly the decadent, self-entitled people “we” think they are, and they will be responsible for the end of the world or B) that we ought to celebrate being decadent, self-entitled people and humanity deserves to be wiped out.
I can see why people must love this film. As a spectacle, it’s indulgent in all the bodily pleasures that any good horror film should have. And even as it’s criticizing the generic archetypes of horror films’ favorite victims (the whore, the athlete, the scholar, the fool, and the virgin), it still reproduces them exactly. For instance, “the whore” is a “dumb blonde” who ostensibly does a strip-tease for the audience (after engaging in some bestial erotic play) and then is summarily executed. Although there are puppeteers orchestrating these events, in order to let us all know what clever film buffs the filmmakers are, they are still reproducing the very cliches that they are supposedly critiquing. In other words, even though they “know better,” they still choose to do the same silly stuff that all the old horror movies do. So then, what are they trying to say? That they’re clever and witty?
When you strip away all the visceral excitement and carnal pleasures that this film doles out, you begin to realize that despite all the film buffery behind-the-scenes and plot twists, CABIN IN THE WOODS is still a horror film with all white protagonists (and a very light-skinned mixed black guy), it still reproduces the “whore” and the “virgin,” and it still recreates all the reactionary fears that undergird the traditional horror films. That is, that human beings do deserve to suffer and be punished for their mortal sins. That humanity probably does deserve its inevitable extinction. And that we enjoy watching these ideas play out across the bodies of young, nubile, (white) actors.
Happy twins birthday to my (Mila’s) mom and her sister!
“Moon Shoes” is featured today on the front page of BUST magazine online! The reviewer writes, “Casting three curvy women of color and not asking them to disrobe is, unfortunately, rare in the music industry. The creators of the video were seeking to protest this under-representation of non-white women and the hegemonic ideals of beauty prevalent in music videos. The video artists accomplished their goal and have produced a four minute visual feast that is not only thought-provoking, but beautiful to watch as well. With trippy cuts and fragmented stills, the video is a hailstorm of compelling images.”
Read it here.
Tonight Dougal and I went to see the play, “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” It was an intense and gripping 3.5 hours. You have to settle into the extreme emotional peaks and valley though, as it’s a bit initially abrasive.
Nevertheless it was a great experience and so worth the late-night Hollywood driving alongside teen drunks.
Hehe, my “academic” voice.
(Source: kfffunk, via lepetitlapinblanc)
Can’t help loving this. The song, the looks. Remember leopard print hair back in our high school punk days?
