Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Some people collect books, some collect ceramics, and -- now that digital technology is here -- some collect video clips. I've been exploring some online collections, and can report that the people who collect video clips share a taste-set; they're drawn to funny commercials, celebrity sex videos, skateboarder wipeouts, fistfights, and car crashes. This is not the Pacific Film Archives, in other words.

A fast connection is required for optimum viewing, of course, and a few of the following are NSFW.

Here's a reminder to wear your damn seatbelt. A former Miss New York can't have wanted this going public; Miss Venezuela at least keeps smiling. It's amazing that boys survive adolescence, isn't it? Some people sure do have a different idea of how to have fun than I do. In Prince Charles' immortal phrase, "There almost went the dynasty." The new, uninhibited young woman is free to act out as she pleases. Sometimes the subtitles are better than the action. Surely no one can deny that an inescapable connection exists between new technology and sex. Those little wisps of chic fabric the catwalk girls wear? They come off a whole lot faster than they go on. Today's Little Red Riding Hood is a Riot Grrrl. Hey, dude -- that's not the finish line. So I guess this one doesn't go in the record books?

I'll spare you my rant about how today's avant-garde cinema isn't to be found at Anthology Film Archives, but on "America's Funniest Home Videos" instead ...

Best,

Michael

Actually, I'd kind of like to hear "about how today's avant-garde cinema isn't to be found at Anthology Film Archives, but on "America's Funniest Home Videos" instead ..."

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on October 27, 2004 11:39 PM

Very dimly ... Has to do with the way that avant-gardes generally have run out of steam, and with the way that the traditional avant-garde ideal has in many ways merged with commercial-media drives. Reality TV, rock videos, semi-transparent architecture -- it's all quite radical, really, even if the drive behind it isn't artsy, it's commercial. So when I look at "America's Funniest" or at pages of video clips I see something similar: arrange-it-yourself; nonlinearity; anti-authoritarian; do-it-yourself; the contrived and the semi-staged crossed with the "real" and the "caught." Subversive as heck, at least in traditional avant-garde terms. Dizzying stuff. But of course nothing but pop trash too. I wonder what it's like being a self-consciously serious avant-gardist these days. Must be bewildering to watch corporate pop cult outdo you in your own terms.

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on October 28, 2004 11:41 AM

Why is it that if two guys get into a fight, their buddies would move in to pull them off each other, but with two women fighting, everyone gathers around with their beers and catches it all on video for posterity?

Posted by: missgrundy on October 28, 2004 06:59 PM

To answer missgrundy: Because, in my experience, women only fight after a long buildup of emotion, of pure hatred for that one enemy, and so when they fight, they fight all-out. It's dangerous to break up a fight between women, whereas men can usually be pulled apart without much damage to the intervener because men fight mostly for ego, and ego is not as strong a motivator as hatred.

Posted by: platocave on October 29, 2004 10:29 AM

missgrundy: We know that fighting women's girlfriends are rarely willing to risk being hit to help them. This seems to be is due to:

- Women's weaker loyalty to friends.
- Women's stronger aversion to getting hurt and/or scarred.

Posted by: What are you lookin' at? on October 29, 2004 08:18 PM

http://www.thewb.com/Popups/Video/0,8204,136480,00.html

I just read this post. Funny, but this morning I just blogged the above link, too hilarious!

Posted by: Cowtown Pattie on October 30, 2004 11:17 AM

Oh, come on, admit it -- men would never break up a fight between two women because there's something titillating about it. But of course, I have little experience of women fighting with each other -- you all sound much more experienced and knowledgeable in that area.

Posted by: missgrundy on November 1, 2004 04:07 PM






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