apple_innocent

Joined 5 years ago

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Comment · 5 years ago
"In "Can't Get You Out of My Head," Curtis plays a long montage of talking heads on U.S. cable news repeating the phrase "the walls are closing in," during the final days of the Mueller investigation. He accuses media organizations, including the Times and magazines like this one, of profiting from the frenzy and uncertainty of the past four years, obsessing over Trump's personal corruption and mendacity rather than the alienation and anger that brought about his Presidency in the first place."

The question I have of Curtis is whether he starts with a premise and then finds video to support it, or whether he derives his ideas from watching random archive video, or both. It would be fascinating to watch a "making of" documentary that shows how he finds the right archival footage.

Ideas like the above about MSM are the easy, obvious ones. It may reinforce what we already feel we know.

But his films are also filled with deeper reflections that are less obvious, which he can illustrate with obscure, memorable visuals.

If his films did not touch on the obvious ideas they might be too alienating, more like avant-garde art film.

If they only addressed obvious ideas the films might be too boring, more like documentaries on Netflix.

He somehow finds the right balance.

But I think these overarching general theories tying all these disparate clips together that he presents via voiceover... the "leaps" as this article describes them... these are what make his films worth the watch.

He has a true talent for that. He stretches but is careful not to go too far. That is what make his films unique, IMO.

His "general theories" are similar in effect to conspiracy theories perhaps. They can be very appealing to certain receptive audiences.

The big difference is the former seem to be designed to make you think while the latter (along with political correctness) seem to be designed to relieve you of thinking and appeal straight to emotion. His films always seem to suggest we cannot remove ourselves as factors in any outcome. We have to take some amount of responsibility. We cannot view ourselves as pure victims nor others as sole culprits.

As for this article, he reveals no overt objection to populism.

The title of this film is an homage to the author of "Bullshit Jobs", a self-described anarchist.

Comment · 5 years ago
I was refering to Google's reliance on online advertising. The media unlike Google does have something to sell: journalism. The media relies in part on advertising, but not greater than 90%, as Google does. I never mentioned the concept of value or the media's dirty tactics. I am refering to operating as a middleman and having a nearly 100% dependence on advertising. As far as I know, those are facts.
Comment · 5 years ago
You say you disagree with the last paragrah but you did not offer any argument against any of the assertions in the last paragraph. The asserions were factual, having to do with the need for advertisers. Unless you can claim Google does not need advertisers and offer arguments in support, then you have not disagreed with the last paragraph. Instead you changed the subject. Something about capitalism and Wal Mart. Has nothing to do with whether or not Google relies on advertising to survive.
Comment · 5 years ago
At this point, I would not even bother using Google to find news from Australia, whether Google pays or not. Just go to the Australian media websites. How hard is that.

Middlemen: we do not need you.

Comment · 5 years ago
"I don't get why Google should pay news sites for promoting them and helping them make money."

Because Google pays massive fees to be the "default search" on millions of computers. Why would they pay so much for that. They insert themselves between then computer user and the path to finding the media sources. Nerds may know how to get past middlemen if they need to, but most people using computers do not know how.

Comment · 5 years ago
Oil companies pay a living wage. At least they used to, before "Big Tech".

People used to care about environmmental degradation. It used to be a headline issue in the 1970s.

It is depressing to think of how much energy is required to keep Google alive. That is no small amount of oil.

Google's mission is to keep online advertising alive. Without it, they cannot sustain the high life they are living. They serve only advertisers. To do this, they need massive amouts of data, more than any single media publication could collect. People using Google search and Android are just ad targets. At least the media employs journalists, and they have a purpose to inform. Google's purpose is just to collect personal data and serve advertisers, including political campaigns.

Comment · 5 years ago
For a lot of folks reading HN, who are trying to excise Google from their lives, if they were in Australia, this would be a dream come true. How do you make Google go away? Force them to pay.
Comment · 5 years ago
Looks like Google is going to pay France.
Comment · 5 years ago
Doesn't Apple now own Beats.
Comment · 5 years ago
How about caching proxy

It has code that has been removed from Github

Comment · 5 years ago
Comment · 5 years ago

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