And a good idea…
March 17, 2009
“A TV series that smells and causes physical pain, now, that sounds like a proposition!”
Lawrence Miles
Thought for the day
March 11, 2009
“Someday we’ll be able to choose our own melanin levels as if it were a fashion statement, and once the millennia of social programming are stripped away, we’ll realise that pinky-white flesh is generally just a bit on the bland side. Like boiled chicken.”
Lawrence Miles
A new view of TV…
March 6, 2009
I took a leaf out of Lawrence Miles’ book and turned off the volume on my television set. It’s amazing what a difference it makes. Suddenly, you’re confronted with wordless drama – mime artists in the living room! People scream, rant and rave in silence. Long, meaningful conversations take place, soundlessly – allowing you to create dialogue for these dumb marionettes; to impose your order on their absurdity.
In CSI a man dies, gunned down by another man (silently). Shortly follows another scene where the victim is once again alive, or at least animate, probably a ghost, but is shot dead for a second time – by a young woman (a ghost hater?). Unbelievably, I witness a third resurrection, the victim totally lacking in stigmata wanders the sunbright pavement only to be confronted by a man and woman. The woman shoots him for the third time (does she not realise what a waste of time and effort this is…?). Then the man, the woman’s companion, shoots her dead.
They call this entertainment…?
The ancient Roman’s took great pleasure in their spectator sports, too, of course. The blood. The thrust of a short, broad bladed sword. The crowds surging to their feet in enthusiastic delight…
They lacked the lingering delight of slo-mo, unfortunately! Luckily, we don’t!
And those party political broadcasts? You know what I mean? Where that dour round faced individual stares at you from the TV screen, mouth working, munching on silence, jowls rippling slightly. What’s he saying? Well he never made a whole lot of sense with the volume up but now…he’s saying whatever it is you want to hear!
Today, I’ve taken Mr. Miles’ idea that bit further and turned the television off. Now, eyes half lidded, I can create the dialogue – and the characters and their actions! A far more satisfying occupation, and one to be wholeheartedly recommended.
