Faux Press Re-vlog :: Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything
I love this guy Benjamen Walker and his "Theory of Everything" show.
I don't know what's real or not, but he always makes me think.
He's doing a series on surveillance that kicks butt.
Fills the hole Ze Frank leaves in my head.
Re-vlogged!
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Faux Press Movlog
LOL. ZeFrank leaves holes in my head too.
ReplyDeleteLove Benjamen Walker's "Theory of everything".
I think I've been subscribed to it since episode one.
His recent episode about is friend loosing the paint off his hood is a sad, sad story... I'm not "blaming the victim" but the guy must believe all life's rules come from a book. There's a thing called street smarts. His predicament could have been seen as a lack of respect for the streets.
I wish he would have caught the guy, really wish it. But maybe he'll be smarter next time.
One of the most perplexing podcasts I've hear in a while... in that it was a hell of an episode, hell of a narative... hell of some story telling.
I listened to most of it twice. Fascinating stuff.
Yeah - I hear ya.
ReplyDeleteIn Brooklyn, I called that street thing STREET TAX. It's a tax you pay when you live in inexpensive, rotting, post-industrial neighborhoods.
Street smarts are the tax exemption.
I too lisen sometimes twice to his 'casts. Fascinating emotional journeys and questions.
Hmm... actually I just realized how similar that is to something else I experienced in chicago. I used to love to check out Maxwell Street in chicago. A huge flee market on the near south west side. It's mostly hispanic. Anytime I bought something, wether it be food, drink or really anything, but especially food I'd always get charged more just because I was white. I actually once ordered the exact same thing as the person in front of me and was charged double the price.
ReplyDeleteThere's a similar thing that I hear that goes on in france. Locals charge each other one rate, tourists get charged another. Goes on everywhere. Reminds me of the bar seen in chicago too. Had various buddies back in the day that were bartenders or bouncers. We never had any problem walking in any club, and drinks were always cheaper.
In many respects I see nothing wrong with this. I just find it tremendously interesting. It's not descrimination... bcause it's not against any specific race or class. However, if you flip it upside-down and it was an elite class or people I suspect people would think completely different about it.
Anyway... about your street tax. I think about minor crime costs the same way. Wether it be small acts of vandalism against property... grafitti... scratches on a car, door dings, parrallel parking scraps. It's simply the price you pay.
But there's that fine line between being proud of your possessions and the stupidity or arrogance of parking your mercedes on the street in a poor neighbor hood.
Having spent a lot of time in chicago I'm used to seeing a possesions not as a measure of status but of language. There's a huge amount of young urban professionals that extremely savy about the way they dress and act. They may have a $3k macbook in their bag, but they don't go walking around in a suit and their bag may well be a patched and painted and scuffed and worn timbuktu bag. It's not about pride or status, it's about the language of the street. Fashion.
Reminds me of urban outfitters. A high priced shop that sells stuff that looks like it was from a thrift shop. Ironicly I think Urban Outfitters got started right here in Ann Arbor, MI.
And your comment reminds me of the wardrobe department in films and television when they have a new piece of clothing that must be aged to fit the character's part / circumstance. Sandpaper is the aging device of choice. Seeing the wardrobe folks at work sandpapering clothing always makes me laugh and shake my head.
ReplyDeleteI follow you. Never thought about that.
ReplyDeleteBack in my "art school days" virtually every piece of equipment that was able to be checked out from the audiovisual dept came in a case that had been properly aged and weathered...and quite frankly was made to look authentically like sh*t.
BTW, blog conversations RULE.
This is way, way better than email, especially yahoo groups.
Have you started using co.mments.com?
We've got to get other people hip to this.
Imagine if it wasn't just you and me talking but some other key Faux press fans as well.
My own blog btw, has been starting to get some comments lately. Only a few, but it's where the conversation should be.
I haven't mentioned it... but I have this dream, that higher forms of IP (intellectual property) like videos, photos, and audio, even pdfs will become the central basis for conversation and that conversationw ill naturally form around these elements in cyberspace.
This has been a dream of mine for several years and it is the basis for all my experiments in media. It can largely be seen as starting to come true with podcasting, video blogging and photosharing, but it has a LONG way to go.
If I'm correct the conversation will slowly shift away from mailing lists and yahoo groups into the open web around podcasts, videoblogs and other indreasingly open, public and media rich areas.
Interesting directions, MM.
ReplyDeleteThe more choices you have to communicate ideas, the better.
What ever medium best collects / expresses your thoughts is best.
Now, to get one place where you can subscribe and view all possible expressions of communications...
Gotta throw a pdf file in the pipe to see whether FireANT handles 'em now. iTunes handles pdf's.
Yeah, I get what you're angling at. I saw your post on the videoblogging group.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to have one client that could handle all media syndication.
Wish I could say mefeedia does... in the future we might, but we've just started working with audio, and it'll be a long way untill we get to photos.