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Sunday, February 17, 2013

No Translation

mamihlatinatapai : (in Yaghan) from Tierra del Fuego. "a look shared by two people, each wishing to say something but hoping that the other will do so first"

Friday, February 15, 2013

Nothing like a party full of criticism and guilt

Hello D-

I was looking through some of our old letters today. I miss paper correspondance. There is something about the tactile feel of paper and the smell of the ink. There is nobody I know that sends letters anymore, with the exception of my grandfather. We had perfectly opposing handwritings in these letters, your strong block lettering and my looping script.

I noticed how many of them ended with your drawings of robots. You were always so fascinated with that idea. I wish I had photos of the cardboard robot we made. Robots are sort of Steel Frankensteins, aren't they?

There was a time during college when we were both taking too many film classes to actually shoot something, so we came up with the idea to cut our projects from stock footage. We looked through hours of the Prelinger Archives up on the third floor of the arts building. Didn't all the buildings on campus remind you of castles? It was so cold, and it had snowed that sort of fine dust that falls when it's really freezing. The end of February and the wind howling outside.

I cut this:


The Black Skull Presents: A Word To The Wives (2009) from on Vimeo.

That's when I found my favorite video from the 1940's "Leave It to Roll-Oh" a bizarre speculation into the future of AI. They also pronounce the word Robit, which made me laugh.


This of course led me right down the rabbit hole of the Prelinger archives. I got lost for a couple hours in it's recesses. The video below is about a teenagers first dinner party with the most judgmental narrator I've ever heard.

Though I have no issues with the idea that proper manners can alleviate issues, and make social events easier for all those involved, I have to say that it's the narrators tone that really gets me. Soporific and anal to the extreme; a bizarre uninvited guest. An unsettling exercise in paranoia with lines like:

"Betty wonders if she should try Floyd's method of eating the olive."

"Bob sat on his Napkin"

"Betty wonders if she's giving too small a serving of salad."

Trust me, they dwell on the olive question for a long time. The strangest bit is that the narrator NEVER ACTUALLY ANSWERS any of the etiquette questions that he poses.

Be forewarned, some minor frames and pieces of audio are missing.

I'm gonna draw some robots tomorrow...

I hope you're well D.

-Vi

Thursday, January 3, 2013

The Ghost in Your Television

Hello D-

 I'm sorry it's been so long between posts. The hurricane was much worse than anyone could have know, and then my grandfather passed away, and then the holidays...it's been a little bit of a tough month... But I am back!

And I have something wonderful to share with you!

 I thought you might find this kind of inspirational and/or interesting and/or woah there.

 The first television show broadcast by W2XAB in New York City (Owned by CBS) was called The Television Ghost.
Essentially each ghost would tell the tale of their murder. But it was just a tight close-up of an actor George Kelting, his face painted white with a towel over his head. Each episode was 15 minutes long. 

No recording of the show was ever made, the only thing that remains are photos and the radio version of the show, which went out on WABC.

 It's thought to be one of the first dramatic television shows in the world. 

A ghost in the machine D.

 Sometimes I think my body is a machine and my mind is a ghost.

Also, is thinking like reading your own mind?

Nice to talk to you again,

 Vi