PopCult: March 2004 Archive Page

He was the greatest director of his generation. Jack Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" Lolita's heart-shaped sunglasses. The Dr Strangelove cowboy riding the nuclear bomb like it's a bucking bronco. And on and on. So many images have implanted themselves into the public consciousness, surely because of the director's ever-burgeoning attention to detail.

"Why don't you just accept," says Jan, "that this was how he worked?"

"But if he hadn't allowed his tireless work ethic to take him to unproductive places, he'd have made more films," I say. "For instance, the Space 1999 lawsuit seems, with the benefit of hindsight, a little trivial." --Jon Ronson --Citizen Kubrick  (Guardian Unlimited)

An excellent essay on the archives of director Stanley Kubrik. The story unfolds bit by bit... very clever.

Remediate The Alamo!Jerz's Literacy Weblog)

I had the pleasure this afternoon of playing hooky from the 4Cs, and accompanying two Canadians on a visit to The Alamo.

My wife and I had visited San Antonio (among other Texas cites) during our low-budget honeymoon (10 years ago this July), and I really wished I could have had the whole family with me -- the Riverwalk is so pleasant, and my son Peter (age 6) would enjoy the military history.

I had no idea that San Antonio is gearing up for the premiere of the new Alamo movie. Street barricades, tents, and movie set lighting were being set up in front of the Alamo. The movie title was etched into a big obelisk shaped like a silhouette of the building's distinctive front, and technicians tested the special effect -- flames shooting through the letters. TV crews were setting up, and photographers were prowling.

We circled the outside of the building, and caught the ending of a presentation delivered by Alamo employee Pete Huertas, who delivered a stirring oral rendition of the battle, told from the prospective of the American defenders who died in after sustaining a 12-day artillery barrage from Santa Anna. The most notable figures are Jim Bowie, Davey Crockett, and the young Col. Travis -- the latter of whom is undisputably the favorite here in Texas.

After attending two days of conference papers delivered by experts in rhetoric and communication -- some of whom mumbled into their notes, apologized in every other sentence for how badly their presentation was going, cut themselves off in the middle of their presentation without even starting in on the conclusion, or went way over time (thus excluding the possibility of questions from the audience) -- seeing a good rhetorical performance was a welcome relief.

Don't get me wrong -- it wasn't every presentation that was bad. (For the bloggers who are reading this, don't worry, I wasn't thinking about your presentation... all the blog-related talks have been good, and most of the others as well.)

Huertas, standing outside, off to one side of the complex, gestured expansively towards the church building, where Davey Crockett's Tennessee volunteers planned to retreat after Santa Anna's forces entered the compound. He described Santa Anna's motions from the perspective of the Americans trapped in the fort, attempting to place us all back in history.

His presentation did not vilify Santa Anna and his Mexican forces, but it did glorify the Americans. He emphasized the desperate messages that Travis sent out to the regional and state authorities, pleading for reinforcements; and he emphasized the government's failure in coming to help. I explained to my Canadian companions the unique history of the Republic of Texas, formerly an independent nation, and still a fiercely independent culture, suspicious of the value of depending on the government rather than on independence and ingenuity.

Huertas told me he was a junior teacher for 23 years. He gave up on the state educational system because he said it was geared towards teaching students to pass tests, rather than expanding their minds.

When I mentioned the delicate cultural role of interpreting the historical events surrounding the siege of the Alamo, in an increasingly multicultural society that may not wish to hear the same messages in which the losing American forces are glorified and the winning Mexicans are pretty much faceless and nameless. (except for Santa Anna himself), Huertas responded that he wanted to "go ahead with what I know to be true, in spite of Hollywood."

At this point, Huertas' boss saw me taking notes, and Huertas told me that Alamo employees have been told not to talk to all the reporters who are here to cover the Hollywood premiere.

Later, in a museum setting in one of the side buildings, volunteer docent Max Knight gave a more objective description of the battle, carefully sourcing and qualifying all his claims about where the bodies of Travis, Bowie, and particularly Crockett were found. Bowie was ill upon his arrival at the Alamo, and quickly turned command over to the young Travis. Legendary accounts of Bowie's death have him whipping out his eponymous bowie knife (which, according to one exhibit, is credited with killing Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula) and defending himself to the death; but Knight drew our attention to the lenght of the Mexican bayonets and pikes, and asked whether we really thought a bowie knife would be much use. The Mexican accounts of Bowie's death had him shaking in fear beneath his blankets. Knight said that Bowie would indeed probably have been shivering from his sickness, and may have been able to fire the pistols Crockett gave him, but that's all we know for sure. (He dismissed the story supplied by a woman who claimed to have been a nurse tending to Crockett at the end of the battle.)

Knight noted that Disney's movie presents Crockett surviving the siege, not torching the powder kegs and dying in a heroic explosion, as in John Wayne's portrayal). Texans can be very possessive of the stories about their icons; and since Crockett is on record as giving a speech promising that he would defend The Alamo to the death, his survival (and subsequent execution) problematizes that legendary material.

The convention floor is closing now... more later.

Update, 27 March: Something I didn't notice when I was here before was a monument bearing a poem in traditional Chinese characters, donated in 1914 by Shiga Shigetaka, who saw parallels between the siege of the Alamo and the siege of Nagashino Castle in 1575.

"Every age tries to communicate the message of Jesus in the idiom of that time period and culture... There is a spiritual hunger in our culture, and [Gibson] is tapping into it and speaking to the culture in a way that it can hear. And I think the genre of our culture is violence." --Fran Leap, a colleague of mine here at Seton Hill University, interviewed in an article by Ann Rodgers --Gibson's 'Passion' remains a concern over portrayal of Jews (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

This insight really helps me to understand the function of the violence in the film. Gibson's success comes from his action film; he is using the grammar of a genre he understands in order to communicate his message. The message itself is radically orthodox, but his medium is radically subversive.

I've read concerns that Gibson's use of violence will once again desensitize society to violent images, but the youth culture that is not particularly attracted to traditional religious media has already been desensitized; and Gibson isn't interested in their attitude towards make-believe violence, he's interested in their attitude towards the core Christian message of the significance of the crucifixion and the value of meditating upon it.

(I blogged my own thoughts about The Passion of The Christ, and about waiting for the film to start).

"It signals our intention to take Doctor Who into the 21st century, as well as retaining its core traditional values - to be surprising, edgy and eccentric." --Jane Tranter, BBC Controller of Drama Commissioning, --[Christopher] Eccleston is new Doctor Who (BBC)

Your worst nightmare has come true. (Or maybe your fondest wish - if you are a sick little puppy.) The dead no longer stay dead. Zombies are taking over the planet. So what do you do? Give up and become a shishkabob for one of the ever growing ranks of the undead? Not on your life! You are prepared for this, thanks to the following list. --The Survival Guide for a Zombie World (http://zombiejuice.com)

This one's for Mike Arnzen.

Good voice acting can't save a bad game, but talented actors can imbue a game script with genuine emotional freight. Some of the best in-game voice work is not the long bits of dialogue in boring cut-scenes, but tiny, subtle bits of atmosphere. In Tomb Raider, Lara Croft's quiet, voluptuous moans as she hurled herself off ledges were half of what made the character so erotically charged. In Super Mario 64, Charles Martinet?a longtime voice actor who has done dozens of Nintendo titles?does almost nothing but grunt, sigh, giggle, and gasp, yet he gives the tiny anime plumber a surprisingly human quality. --Clive Thompson --The Game's the Thing: Why are Hollywood actors starring on your PlayStation? (Slate)

The article actually focuses more on A-list actors who are starting to appear in videogames, but I found this section on non-verbal vocalizations interesting.

"The Windmills of Your Mind" is too crazy to be anything but a piece of its crazy time, and it is almost airily psychotic: "Is the jingle in your pocket/Or is the jingle in your head?" A question like that made a lot of sense in 1968. --Mind the Windmills (http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com)

Boynton has collected a few reviews and reflections on that odd "Windmils" song, which, if you know it, is now probably lodged firmly in your brain. (Sorry about that.)

Can you identify the candybar by looking at the cross section?
Make a guess and click on the cross section to find the answer.

--Name that Candy Bar (Science Museum of Minnesota)

I gave up chocolate for Lent, so naturally I'm tormenting myself on this site. Via Page's Page.

The day is saved when the Enterprise arrives, along with its commander, Adm. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew (news)), and the doctor (Robert Picardo (news)) from the "Star Trek: Voyager" TV series. --Vegas 'Trek' attraction could revive franchise (Hollywood Reporter)

Urk! Since when did Janeway command the Enterprise? Her ship is the Voyager.

The technical details of this attraction are enough to freak your inner geek: "Kasanoff and Johnsen assert that it is the first "Star Trek" production to be shot digitally; the first all-digital motion picture to incorporate live action and animation within a 3-D cinema environment; the first multiple-angle 3-D cinema production with 3-D effects from the front, overhead and both right and left sides of the participant; the first time a Steadicam has ever been used in a digital 3-D production; and the first worldwide attraction to use 2K digital cinema projection, which produces the highest-resolution digital projection commercially available."

Blips, bloops and beeps emit from the room that houses the exhibit, where a dozen video-arcade games from the late 1970s and '80s are lovingly arranged in chronological order, each lit with a single spotlight. Three free tokens, good for one game play each, are included with museum admission. Additional tokens may be purchased for 25 cents each.

Buy a bagful of those tokens, because these games are just as addictive as they were back in your misspent youth. --Michelle Delio --When Space Invaders Ruled Earth  (Wired)

From the online exhibit:

Back on store shelves, video-game companies are discovering what the music industry has known for a long time: the past can be mined for profit. The classics are being cloned, emulated, compiled, enhanced, and updated for a home market made up of children craving novelty and post-boomers binging on nostalgia. --Carl Goodman