Thought I'd share a great BBC documentary on eccentric comics genius Steve Ditko that I discovered on YouTube recently.
The Alan Moore interview alone makes it worth the price of admission, particularly his inspired ode to Ditko's Randian superhero Mr. A via a reworked version of the Velvet Underground's
"Sister Ray" (which, incidentally, has had said song stuck on "repeat" in my head for the last week or so).
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Monday, March 1, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Off-Topic: "The Architects Of Fear" At Hulu.Com ***Possible Spoilers***
Check out this old episode of The Outer Limits and tell me if it doesn't remind you of the ending of a certain critically acclaimed superhero graphic novel. (Note: If you haven't read Watchmen, you may not want to watch this - it may spoil the ending for you.)
Interesting, eh? (I had actually never seen that episode before today, and particularly enjoyed the beautifully noirish cinematography of Conrad Hall.) Apparently, Alan Moore only noticed the resemblance after he had already came up with the ending. There's a reference to the episode in the last chapter of Watchmen in what Moore referred to as "a belated nod".
Interesting, eh? (I had actually never seen that episode before today, and particularly enjoyed the beautifully noirish cinematography of Conrad Hall.) Apparently, Alan Moore only noticed the resemblance after he had already came up with the ending. There's a reference to the episode in the last chapter of Watchmen in what Moore referred to as "a belated nod".
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Off-Topic: William S. Burroughs Documentary On Google Video
Found an interesting documentary on literary icon/Alan Moore hero William S. Burroughs on Google Video; I thought I would post it in case anyone wanted to have a look.
There's some charming footage of him goofing around with Allen Ginsberg and other friends, which is nice to see - Burroughs seemed to have such a grim affect all the time. Perhaps that was just sort of his default public persona. Then again, Burroughs probably had more to be grim about than most of us.
***
Multi-screen viewing is seemingly anticipated by Burroughs' cut-up technique. He suggested re-arranging words and images to evade rational analysis, allowing subliminal hints of the future to leak through... an impending world of exotica, glimpsed only peripherally.
Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias)
"Look On My Works, Ye Mighty..."
Watchmen
PS The music you hear at the very beginning of the film is from "Another Green World" by Brian Eno.
There's some charming footage of him goofing around with Allen Ginsberg and other friends, which is nice to see - Burroughs seemed to have such a grim affect all the time. Perhaps that was just sort of his default public persona. Then again, Burroughs probably had more to be grim about than most of us.
***
Multi-screen viewing is seemingly anticipated by Burroughs' cut-up technique. He suggested re-arranging words and images to evade rational analysis, allowing subliminal hints of the future to leak through... an impending world of exotica, glimpsed only peripherally.
Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias)
"Look On My Works, Ye Mighty..."
Watchmen
PS The music you hear at the very beginning of the film is from "Another Green World" by Brian Eno.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Off-Topic: DESTINO
This is wonderful - just discovered it on YouTube.
It's like walking around inside a Dali painting!
You can find more information on the film here.
Muchas gracias to Mr. Door Tree of the fantastic Golden Age Comic Book Stories for the heads up.
It's like walking around inside a Dali painting!
You can find more information on the film here.
Muchas gracias to Mr. Door Tree of the fantastic Golden Age Comic Book Stories for the heads up.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Off-Topic: In Case Keith Richards Isn't Available...
I saw this on CNN this morning:
NYC heroin pamphlet -- is it a help or a how-to guide?
Not sure how I feel about the brochure, but it was sure cool to hear them play "Dead Flowers" as a lead-in to the story.
Ah, the Mick Taylor-era Stones - THAT was a great fuckin' rock band.
NYC heroin pamphlet -- is it a help or a how-to guide?
Not sure how I feel about the brochure, but it was sure cool to hear them play "Dead Flowers" as a lead-in to the story.
Ah, the Mick Taylor-era Stones - THAT was a great fuckin' rock band.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Off-Topic: Heretofore Unknown Comedian-Joker-Eno-Blake Connection Revealed!
Something I've done a lot since starting this blog (in addition to looking up information about life on the British Isles during the Stone Age, reading about a million Alan Moore interviews on the net, et cetera) is flip through my collection of Alan Moore trade paperbacks, looking for ways in which his comics work connects (thematically, stylistically, or otherwise) with his writing in Voice of the Fire. I was doing this with my battered and re-re-re-read copy of Watchmen and started looking through the "Fearful Symmetry" chapter, which, IMO, still stands as the most amazing display of formal virtuosity in the history of the comics medium (no, I haven't read
Promethea yet). My eyes wander to the 6th and 7th panels of page 22 (I'm afraid you'll have to follow along in your own copies at home, folks - our scanner is presently covered under a small mountain of paper), in which the one cop is looking into the Comedian's file. I notice the number on the file: 801108, which, as Doug Atkinson points out in his excellent annotations, is a "palindromic number, and all the numbers in it have vertical and horizontal mirror symmetry," in keeping with the chapter's theme of symmetry and mirroring.
Then, following a weird hunch that I had, I picked up my copy of DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore (still my favorite collection of Moore comics, aside from the Watchmen TPB) and turned to the page in The Killing Joke where Batman is walking in Arkham Asylum in the cell block where Two-Face and the Joker are held. I look at the number on Two-Face's cell - 0751. Hm - no help there. I look at the number on the Joker's cell - 0801. A-ha! Aside from the amusing link with the Comedian (a comedian is a joker - geddit?), I figure there's some significance to the number 801 besides that and the mirror symmetry thing. (Are you with me so far?). So I Google 801 and I'm reminded that 801 is a band that the musician Brian Eno was in back in the 70s. Why is this significant? Well, Alan Moore is a huge fan of Eno's, to the extent of naming a Swamp Thing story that he wrote, "Another Green World" after an Eno song of the same name. Wait! It gets better! The name 801 comes from a lyric in a song called "The True Wheel" from the album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). The name of the chapter in which we see the Comedian's file, "Fearful Symmetry", is taken from a poem called "The Tyger" by William Blake. And what's the Comedian's real name?
Why, Edward Blake, of course.
Who but Alan Moore could take us from an comics anti-hero to a super-villain to a groundbreaking ambient musician to a visionary poet and then back to the anti-hero?
The Comedian in Watchmen. Art by Dave Gibbons
Ad for Batman: The Killing Joke. Art by Brian Bolland
William Blake by Thomas Phillips (Wow! He's huge!)
Promethea yet). My eyes wander to the 6th and 7th panels of page 22 (I'm afraid you'll have to follow along in your own copies at home, folks - our scanner is presently covered under a small mountain of paper), in which the one cop is looking into the Comedian's file. I notice the number on the file: 801108, which, as Doug Atkinson points out in his excellent annotations, is a "palindromic number, and all the numbers in it have vertical and horizontal mirror symmetry," in keeping with the chapter's theme of symmetry and mirroring.
Then, following a weird hunch that I had, I picked up my copy of DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore (still my favorite collection of Moore comics, aside from the Watchmen TPB) and turned to the page in The Killing Joke where Batman is walking in Arkham Asylum in the cell block where Two-Face and the Joker are held. I look at the number on Two-Face's cell - 0751. Hm - no help there. I look at the number on the Joker's cell - 0801. A-ha! Aside from the amusing link with the Comedian (a comedian is a joker - geddit?), I figure there's some significance to the number 801 besides that and the mirror symmetry thing. (Are you with me so far?). So I Google 801 and I'm reminded that 801 is a band that the musician Brian Eno was in back in the 70s. Why is this significant? Well, Alan Moore is a huge fan of Eno's, to the extent of naming a Swamp Thing story that he wrote, "Another Green World" after an Eno song of the same name. Wait! It gets better! The name 801 comes from a lyric in a song called "The True Wheel" from the album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). The name of the chapter in which we see the Comedian's file, "Fearful Symmetry", is taken from a poem called "The Tyger" by William Blake. And what's the Comedian's real name?
Why, Edward Blake, of course.
Who but Alan Moore could take us from an comics anti-hero to a super-villain to a groundbreaking ambient musician to a visionary poet and then back to the anti-hero?
The Comedian in Watchmen. Art by Dave Gibbons
Ad for Batman: The Killing Joke. Art by Brian Bolland
William Blake by Thomas Phillips (Wow! He's huge!)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Off-Topic: In Memoriam - September 11, 2001
I always think of this song today. There are a lot of great covers of it, but Dylan's original remains my favorite.
"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
Copyright ©1968; renewed 1996 Dwarf Music
"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
Copyright ©1968; renewed 1996 Dwarf Music
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
(Semi-)Off-Topic: "Mr. Wilson, How Are You Tonight?"
Found this on YouTube yesterday - it's Moore's tribute to the writer Robert Anton Wilson, who passed away a couple of years ago. It's brilliant - check it out.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Stonehenge!
Found the following on Google Videos while searching the internets for info about prehistoric Britain. Despite its somewhat cheesy presentation, there are some interesting insights into what life might have been like for folks back in the (Neolithic) day. Worth a look if you've got some time to spare.
Who Built Stonehenge?
Who Built Stonehenge?
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