Archive for category politics
Interviews Worth Reading: Pete Hamill
Posted by admin in Literature, Reality programs, commerce, politics on December 7, 2009
This Wednesday, legendary journalist and novelist Pete Hamill will speak as part of the The Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series in Syracuse, New York. As noted at its Facebook page, the series is “the largest library-related lecture series in the country”. That’s one heck of a claim.
In preparation for the upcoming speech, Mark Bialczak of The Post-Standard interviewed Hamill. It covers a great deal of ground and is well worth your time reading. (Hat tip to Poynter’s Romenesko for the link)
I am hard pressed to find one quote that stands out, but here’s a snippet of one great exchange in the interview:
What can news organizations, media organizations, do to help keep consumer interest in words and images survive, not just videos and links?
I think they have to begin in high school. They have to somehow find ways to convince teachers that they have to turn their students onto real news sites, not TMZ, where you find celebrity stuff, not the endless life and times of Jon Gosselin, whoever the hell he is.
Hamill has an insightful perspective on the newspaper industry.
Scott Bateman on Atom Age Vampire, Animation
Posted by admin in Animation, comedy, politics, pop culture on August 27, 2009
When a person can craft a 1940s educational film into pure comedy, you have won me over as a permanent fan. That person is Scott Bateman, an “animator in New York City“. His latest project shows how funny stamps can be…seriously. Until very recently, Bateman’s work was featured at Salon.com–but Bateman Animation can also be found at True/Slant and his YouTube channel. With his run at Salon ending, Bateman is devoting more time to generating interest in his film, Atom Age Vampire, which we also get to discuss. My thanks to friend of the blog, Mary Jo Pehl, for introducing me to the greatness of Bateman’s work. And my thanks to Bateman for this email interview.
Tim O’Shea: How do you go about tracking down obscure audio like “Actual audio from the 1947 educational film Using The Bank“. And from there, how do you typically go about writing the script that you run in parallel with the animation. Do you write the script before starting the animation work?
Scott Bateman: There is a wealth of amazing material in the Prelinger Archives at archive.org, a web site that hosts a vast array of public domain material. The Prelinger Archives specializes in short educational and industrial films from the 1940s and 1950s–hygiene, cold war propoganda, juvenile delinquency, it’s all there. Man, I can spend hours on that site!
My writing process for these animations goes something like this: I’ll end up watching a film several times while I animate it, because I’ll go through once and animate bodies, then another time through for mouths, another for hands, etc. So by the time I add the commentary, I already have a ton of snarky comments about the film at my disposal. I’ll put in the comments I most want in the movie first, then fill in the holes between.
Hutton, Howard on Crude Independence
I really love it when I stumble across a project accidentally and get hooked on the concept immediately. And thanks to iMDB, that recently happened when I learned about director Noah Hutton‘s and producer Sam Howard‘s documentary, Crude Independence. What really struck me about the project was how effectively Hutton and Howard have marketed the documentary through YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr (and other online venues). So, after gathering as much info as I could, I contacted Hutton and Howard to see if they would be interested in an email interview. They were, fortunately.
Here’s the basic background on the documentary:
“Crude Independence is a documentary film about the heartland in the process of transplanting itself, and its new heart is pumping oil. In 2006, the United States Geological Survey estimated there to be more than 200 billion barrels of crude oil resting in a previously unreachable formation beneath western North Dakota. With the advent of new drilling technologies, oil companies from far and wide are descending on small rural towns across the state with men and machinery in tow. Director Noah Hutton takes us to the town of Stanley (population 1300), sitting atop the largest oil discovery in the history of the North American continent, and captures the change wrought by the unprecedented boom. Through revealing interviews and breathtaking imagery of the northern plains, Crude Independence is a rumination on the future of small town America— a tale of change at the hands of the global energy market and America’s unyielding thirst for oil.”
And follow this link, to see which festivals will be screening the documentary in the coming months. One more detail–you have to respect any project that is executive produced by Jonathan Demme.
February 2, 2009 Update: Hutton emailed me over the weekend to let me know the documentary, Crude Independence had been selected for the 2009 SXSW Film Festival, where it will be part of “the Emerging Visions competition, highlighting first-time and up and coming filmmakers.” Congrats to Hutton and Howard (along with the rest of the Couple 3 Film crew).
Frank Marraffino on Haunted Tank
Posted by admin in comics, politics, sequential art on December 15, 2008
Frank Marraffino is the storyteller that Vertigo tapped to write its revival of DC’s 1960s to early 1980s Haunted Tank property. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Marraffino to talk about this new five-issue miniseries, set in modern-day Iraq. We also talked about some of his past work and influences.
Before starting the interview, here’s the core info on the Vertigo miniseries (the first issue of which went on sale on December 3): “The Haunted Tank is back in action, but this time it’s an M1 Abrams in modern-day Iraq! African American tank commander Jamal Stuart has his 21st century war ride in full battle rattle and is ready for anything – anything except the whistling-Dixie combat guru ghost who shows up uninvited!
Of course, this isn’t the first time the spirit of Confederate Civil War General J.E.B. Stuart has helped guide a tank. In times of war he makes himself available to assist his descendants in battle. Jamal Stuart, meet your forefather!”
My thanks to Marraffino for his time and Vertigo’s Pamela Mullin for facilitating the interview. Issue 2 hits the stands on January 7.
Tim O’Shea: War comics only seem to see in times of war. Not to say one is exploiting the war, but did you hesitate at embarking on a project like this?
Frank Marraffino: No, not at all. It just seemed like a pretty good story with plenty of complex dimensions worth exploring. Perhaps the fact that it addresses an ongoing war effort makes it a bit more relevant, but I think everyone hopes for relevance in their work. The Iraq War is a big important event that happens to contain all sorts of fascinating material. And you know, the earliest stories, epic poems, and ballads were all about war and warriors. One of humanity’s longest traditions is the telling of tales which celebrate the heroic spirit and memorialize fallen comrades. We’ve been weaving yarns about war for as long as we’ve had wars, and that’s a fairly long time. It’s part of what makes us who we are as a people.
Dang: Studs Terkel, RIP
Posted by admin in politics, pop culture, radio on November 1, 2008
His son said it best, as noted in this LA Times obit.
“‘He lived a long, eventful, satisfying, though sometimes tempestuous life,’ Dan Terkell said. ‘I think that pretty well sums it up.’”
Indeed it does. But there’s also the Chicago Sun-Times obit. Read all his obits that you can find. The man was fascinating and a damn fine storyteller and left every person he met with a story. I’m impressed at how the comments section of the obits even generate stories about Terkel.
Never heard of Turkel? Fortunately he has many books and recordings for you to inform yourself. Here is a bevy of online videos courtesy of Google/You Tube. Here is the Chicago radio station, WFMT, where he spent more than 40 years. Finally here is Chicago History Museum‘s site devoted to Terkel.
Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger on Veeps
Writer Bill Kelter and artist Wayne Shellabarger have brightened this election season with their new book, Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance (set for release in November). In a departure from Top Shelf’s typical publishing material, this non-fiction effort is described by the publishing house as follows:
“It’s a tired but true cliché that every American Vice President is just a heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world … a job they’ve often never really interviewed for. Who are these people? We all know about the one who shot his hunting partner in the face, but how about the tavern owner who once married one of his slaves and then sold her at auction when she tried to leave him? Or the one whose President went to his death regretting that he hadn’t had his Vice President hanged? Or the one who was too frequently inebriated to serve out the whole of his term? Over more than 200 years, the American voters have sent a platoon of rogues, cowards, drunks, featherweights, doddering geriatrics, bigots, and atrocious spellers to Washington D.C. to sit one bullet, cerebral hemorrhage, or case of pneumonia away from the highest office in the land. VEEPS tells the sordid, head-scratching, perversely-entertaining stories of these men we’ve chosen to ride shotgun in the biggest rig in democracy, without ever seriously considering the possibility that they might have to take the wheel. [296-Page Illustrated Hardcover (Non-Fiction), 5 5/8" x 8 1/2]“
I’m amazed at the efforts connected to the fun book. As Top Shelf co-publisher Brett Warnock wrote in a recent email: “. . . because this story is too big for a book, along with the upcoming release of Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance, Top Shelf Productions and Rufus Pictures are proud to announce a companion film to the book. Road To Insignificance tells the story of Veeps creators, Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger, and their search for a new narrative for themselves along the road to the election and inauguration of America’s 47th Vice President…I actually co-directed this film, and the experience was outstanding, and made me even excited more about the book.”
I recently exchanged emails with Kelter and Shellabarger in a pretty fun exchange of emails about the book and the film. Enjoy. (And yes, in case you were wondering, the name Sarah Palin does come up…) Also, please note I asked a question or two based on galleys of the book, which has since been revised. But the authors’ candor was so amazing and unfiltered (about the creative process and outside struggles) that I felt it was extremely insightful (and hopefully beneficial to others on several fronts).
Tim O’Shea: Both of you are established as long-term fans/supporters (how would you characterize yourselves) of vice presidents. How was it that you decided to tackle the appreciation of VPs in a book?
Bill Kelter: Ah yes, the genesis story. The Veeps Project originated from one very drunk morning at my apartment in the Corbett-Lair Hill neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, in late 1999. It was two years after my girlfriend had moved out, and while she was there, she prodded me into nudging the landlord into letting us retile the bathroom floor. We replaced an old brown-and-white floral linoleum with alternating 10” x 10” tiles of white and British Racing Green. It looked fancy and modern, but aside from that, it did little for me.
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