Shadow Puppets
So about 15 years ago I used to stay up really late watching stolen cable on the hot-box my parents had; lots of HBO, Showtime, Comedy Central, MTV, USA Up-All-Night, et al. I had been looking on and off for this one short animation I had seen played between features on Bravo or IFC long long ago, having forgotten the director, and only remembering that it reminded me a bit of More (the Mark Osborne short) and involved shadow-puppets.
Well, while rearranging my room and going through piles of junk, I was looking through one of my big old notebooks of random facts, quotes, morbid newspaper stories, and miscellaneous media to check out-- things I wrote when I was about 15, like: "Delicatessen (weird foreign film)" ~ "1974 Dodge Sedan (Blues Bros.)" ~ "17% on high school graduates said they would punch themselves in the face really hard for $50" ~ "Blood Meridian (disturbing)" (though I didn't even read Cormac McCarthy till about a year ago)-- and I had written: "Chuck Gamble short film, cartoon shadow-puppets." And so, after some brief Interneting, I realized that (a.) I wasn't the only one curious for the last decade and a half, (b.) it was student produced animation presented at SigGraph '94 and (c.) it was on YouTube. I <3 Internet!
Yes yes, quite dated I realize (both in style and theme), but a least I found it *shrug*.
*
This actually got me thinking a little bit more about More, and what kind of message its trying to send, which seems to be: "DON'T SELLOUT OR YOU'LL LOOSE THE LIGHT THAT'S INSIDE OF YOU!" Or worse yet: "DON'T USE ANY OF YOUR CREATIVE ENDEAVORS OR SCIENTIFIC KNOW-HOW TO CREATE ANY FALSE PRETENSES WITHIN THE WORLD OR ELSE THE LIGHT INSIDE YOU DIES!" ... Or at least, something like that?
Whereas Shadow Puppets seems to be saying: "You toil begrudgingly through the world, and when you finally find some trifle amusement that makes you happy, the powers that be will take it away...but you'll find your way." Maybe?
Put in their simplest terms, both are pretty bleak. Crap. I forgot where I was going with this...
Well, while rearranging my room and going through piles of junk, I was looking through one of my big old notebooks of random facts, quotes, morbid newspaper stories, and miscellaneous media to check out-- things I wrote when I was about 15, like: "Delicatessen (weird foreign film)" ~ "1974 Dodge Sedan (Blues Bros.)" ~ "17% on high school graduates said they would punch themselves in the face really hard for $50" ~ "Blood Meridian (disturbing)" (though I didn't even read Cormac McCarthy till about a year ago)-- and I had written: "Chuck Gamble short film, cartoon shadow-puppets." And so, after some brief Interneting, I realized that (a.) I wasn't the only one curious for the last decade and a half, (b.) it was student produced animation presented at SigGraph '94 and (c.) it was on YouTube. I <3 Internet!
Click to viewYes yes, quite dated I realize (both in style and theme), but a least I found it *shrug*.
*
This actually got me thinking a little bit more about More, and what kind of message its trying to send, which seems to be: "DON'T SELLOUT OR YOU'LL LOOSE THE LIGHT THAT'S INSIDE OF YOU!" Or worse yet: "DON'T USE ANY OF YOUR CREATIVE ENDEAVORS OR SCIENTIFIC KNOW-HOW TO CREATE ANY FALSE PRETENSES WITHIN THE WORLD OR ELSE THE LIGHT INSIDE YOU DIES!" ... Or at least, something like that?
Whereas Shadow Puppets seems to be saying: "You toil begrudgingly through the world, and when you finally find some trifle amusement that makes you happy, the powers that be will take it away...but you'll find your way." Maybe?
Put in their simplest terms, both are pretty bleak. Crap. I forgot where I was going with this...