It’s been a busy couple weeks here, so here’s some interesting stuff I’ve seen on teh internets recently:
- The Honor System – An excellent look at the Teller half of Penn & Teller, as well as the theft of magic tricks (or illusions or whatever you want to call them). There’s some neat intellectual property twists going on here, notably the fact that it’s difficult to protect this sort of thing because suing might “require the magician to reveal too much about his trick in public, making the very act of protecting magic one of the easiest ways to destroy it.” But the article gets way deep into the weeds of the magic con too, witness this bit:
Among his many works, Steinmeyer wrote Hiding the Elephant, his best-selling history of magic. In it, he writes that the best tricks are a “collection of tiny lies, in words and deeds, that are stacked and arranged ingeniously.” Like jokes, tricks should have little plots with a twist at the end that’s both implausible and yet logical. You shouldn’t see the punchline coming, but when you do see it, it makes sense. The secret to a great trick isn’t really its method; the method behind most tricks is ugly and disappointing, something blunt and mechanical. (When Penn & Teller have famously exposed a trick, they’ve almost always invented a ridiculously poetic method and built the trick around it; by making their art seem more intricate than it is, they force the audience to assume that the rest of their tricks are equally complex. Penn & Teller’s exposures are really part of an elaborate con.)
Good stuff.
- Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie – This article chronicles infamous writer/director Paul Schrader’s decision to cast Lohan in his new Kickstarter funded, microbudget film collaboration with Bret Easton Ellis.
Schrader thinks she’s perfect for the role. Not everyone agrees. Schrader wrote “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver” and has directed 17 films. Still, some fear Lohan will end him. There have been house arrests, car crashes and ingested white powders. His own daughter begs him not to use her. A casting-director friend stops their conversation whenever he mentions her name. And then there’s the film’s explicit subject matter. Full nudity and lots of sex. Definitely NC-17. His wife, the actress Mary Beth Hurt, didn’t even finish the script, dismissing it as pornography after 50 pages. She couldn’t understand why he wanted it so badly.
As someone on twitter noted, this article about the film is likely to be more entertaining than the film itself.
- Ryan Gosling Interview – I have to imagine that doing press tours can get to be incredibly monotonous for stars, having to always repeat the talking points of their movie, sell, sell, sell. But every once in a while, an actor or director lets loose and acts goofy and it’s awesome.
- Seal Team 6 Calls ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Inaccurate; Say They Don’t Pop Collars Or Wear Tapout Gear – Priceless:
An anonymous Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for Seal Team Six says the movie “Zero Dark Thirty” is factually inaccurate, portraying Seal Team Six members like the douchebags from Seal Team Two.
And there’s more. Just fantastic.
- ?????????????? – It’s an animated gif, but it’s yet another piece of brilliant internet art brought to you by the idontknowwhatthefuckisgoingoninthisvideo tag on my delicious account. Enjoy.
So there you have it. Stay tuned for some Movie Award winners on Sunday!