The World is a Stage

All the world's a stage, at least that's what they say. In the day of TV and YouTube, this statement is now more true than ever. I was reminded of this after the memorable mishap of Kanye West at the VMA's just a week ago. In case you missed it, here's a video of the incident.

<a href="http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/" target="_blank">Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage</a>

Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage

Everyone's put their foot in their mouth at some point, but very few have ever done it on national TV. And now that our society has become so in touch with the Internet, news of Kanye's blunder has spread like wildfire. By Monday, not only had everyone heard of the incident, but also began to mock it in a variety of ways. Several Photoshopped pictures posted on my school's bulletin board depicted Kanye interrupting other icons (Patrick Swayze's death is not as good as Michael Jackson's, and the red Power Ranger isn't as cool as the green one), while a quiz I took on Facebook informed me on when Kanye would ruin one of my own special moments.

Needless to say, all the world is a stage, and Kanye's act was so memorable that it proceeded to make encores throughout the other venues the Internet has to offer. With the advent of such platforms as YouTube and Facebook, even ordinary people can rise to celebrity status and have the same effect. A man named Gary Brolsma, for example, became famous thanks to a webcam video of his crazy dancing to a pop song. The entire video couldn't have taken more than five minutes to make, but everyone knew who he was as a result. In this day and age, celebrities have more power that ever to rock society's boat - Kanye West did last week, and the boat's still rocking. But the realm of celebrities isn't just limited to rappers, rock stars, and movie actors. Ordinary people have joined the ranks and are rocking the boat on a regular basis. If you're one of those people, don't rock it in the wrong direction. People will remember you for it, and you will likely never live it down.

T.H. Excellence

Old K'nex Ad

I recently came across this TV ad that I've never seen before, but it reminded me a lot of my childhood when I was constantly working with K'nex. This was really back in the day.



Man, sometimes I really miss my childhood. Anyway, just for laughs, here's a video of a really cool K'nex ball machine I found. A lot of people build stuff like this for fun, but this is the most genius one I've seen yet!



T.H. Excellence

The World of Roald Dahl

I recently discovered this featurette on one of the films I'm tracking this fall - Fantastic Mr. Fox, based off the children's book by Roald Dahl. This clip goes behind the scenes of the creative direction for the movie and how the director spent quite a bit of time investigating Mr. Dahl's home and surroundings in order to gain inspiration for the film.



What struck me as remarkable is the fact that Mrs. Dahl is largely in favor of her late husband's works being translated onto the screen considering that the reaction of the author and/or his family is usually the opposite. This is one of the reasons I'm excited to see this movie. When a classic book is adapted through filmmaking not so much for the sake of making money as for the purpose of telling it in a whole new light, you know that the filmmakers' efforts are going to be wonderful and worthwhile.
T.H. Excellence

"Up" Soars Over the Summer Movie Line-Up

This morning I read the Rotten Tomatoes breakdown of this summer's movie line-up and found Up at the coveted "number one" spot on the Top Ten list for the summer, beating out other acclaimed films such as Star Trek or District 9. Though I know that Pixar creates excellent films, I was nevertheless surprised to see their newest title surpass other top movies for the summer that might be a more sophisticated. Could this be because Pixar created a family film, appropriate for all ages? Perhaps, but we were introduced to other family films as well, such as Ice Age 3 and G-Force that didn't even make the list. Besides, when it comes to judging the fine craft of filmmaking, "acceptable for young children" isn't usually high on the list of qualifications.

No, there must be something else in Pixar's Up that excels all the sex and violence commonly found in modern movies. Pixar has disregarded all these sensual components designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator and engaged in superior storytelling. They've created characters that are not only charming, but also incredibly deep. They've used their talents in animation to create magnificent worlds for these characters and stories to inhabit. Most of all, they've blended all of these together in such a way that make you cry in the first four minutes of the film. In other words, their talents only continue to uncover something more powerful (and, as Rotten Tomatoes has shown, more marketable) than the sex and violence permeating Hollywood today. I don't know how they do it, but they've done it so well that their work has not only found a competent place in the filmmaking industry today but has even soared on a regular basis, sometimes all the way to the top.

Well done, Pixar! We'll see you at the Academy Awards!
T.H. Excellence