Entries Tagged 'popular culture' ↓

Flakey

This is my Pageflakes! There are many like it, but this one is mine!

For anyone wondering what in the hell a “pageflake” is, you are not alone. I, too have no clue. (This isn’t entirely true, as I have a bit more of a clue than you, but not much.)

From what I understand Pageflakes.com is a website devoted to bringing you your favorite blogs in an up-to-the-minute ticker fashion. That is to say that by registering at Pageflakes you can be informed whenever websites of your choosing post new material.

Can’t be bothered to type both w.w.w.u.s.m.a.g.a.z.i.n.e.c.o.m and w.w.w.s.t.a.r.m.a.g.a.z.i.n.e.c.o.m ten times a day? Pageflakes those mothers, put Flakey on a bookmark and click that 10 times a day. It’ll organize all your digital addictions for you.

Speaking of addictions, linking to USmag allowed me to see Britney Spears’ new video. The headline reads:

TOP NEWS! Britney Spears: Animated In New Music Video! “This was a creative and fun way to do her next video,” a source tells Us.

No, this was a creative a fun way for someone else to do her next video. FYI: Us wasn’t even streaming the video, so I went to Youtube where it also wasn’t. Nor VH1.com. Way to blue ball me Us. Why don’t you give me news I can do something with? Update: The video is now up and while it looks cool, I think the only words I could understand in the song were “Ooh, that kinda feels good”. Thanks for the compliment.

Allow, if you will, for me to take you on an adventure. Into my Pageflakes. Click here.

Welcome. The first thing you will likely notice is the killer green header. Below are the tabs where I organize my updates of updates or, RSS feeds. As I don’t have time, nor energy, nor will power or desire, to read 10 blogs chockful of nerdy film criticism I’ve tried to include a more dynamic arrangement for inspiration.

My RSS Feeds

  1. Free my mind. With free stuff. One never knows when one might need Large Broken Concrete Pieces and Gravel Pile
  2. No News Is Good News They sure don’t make news like they used to. Inclusions such as:
    1. Boing Boing: The Directory of Wonderful Things
    1. USAToday.com
  3. Film- These are those nerdy film ones I was mentioning. Two I have already commented on (see: Burbanked and Blood, Sweat, and Tedium. Be sure to check out the comments on those, specifically Tedium. Alan wrote a really interesting response which resulted in a couple of emails about filmmaking/life in general. My roommate thinks it’s a blog war, but it’s not). The newest additions to the cynical cycle of cinematic criticism is a rad blog called Antagony & Ecstasy and the nifty photo filled I Watch Stuff (which is hosting pics of the brilliant Alan Moore graphic novel turned Zak Snyder (300) directed film The Watchmen characters in costume.)
  4. VideoArt- Tab over and you will find where I keep my video post updates as well as any other “art” type subjects.
    1. The first page I keep up with is the New York Times Arts section, which is usually stuffed with interesting articles. To the left one column is a site called FabChannel which is a place where concert videos come to stream. The music is all pretty good (see: Josh Ritter) and it’s a useful resource to check out what artists are using video in their live shows and in what capacity. Also in the video realm is the flake for LeechVideo a video hosting site that has a fair selection of DVDJ video posts (I’ll explore DVDJing in a later post, for now check out DVDJUnique’s YouTube Channel to get a taste of what it’s all about).
      1. Art focused pages:
        1. The Billboard Liberation Front- Freeing our minds one prank at a time
        2. Sleeveface-Photography & Vinyl
        3. The Art Underground- Fellow writing class blogger who talks all about the LA art scene
    2. The Good People houses some of my buddies’ blogs
      1. The New Hindenburg Mad scientists these fellows
      2. The Superhumanoids Great band that comes with a great blog
      3. The Hurwitz An American hero

My Active Searches
Embedded in that totem of information are two features that actively search, or “web scrape” (and according to Wikipedia “sometimes called harvesting” HARVESTING!) It harvests the internet for any appearance of keyword or tag. I have “screenwriting” as my keyword in both the Blog and News searches (which live in the film and news tabs respectively). I expect that any publication that has the gall to include the lowly screenwriter in an article is something work peeking over.

Together, my RSS feeds give me a well rounded view of what’s going on all over the intangible realm of the arts so that I might continue to be inspired (or annoyed) and will keep writing. A little bit of all the ingredients for a tasty cinematic casserole. Or for a filmy flambe. Or a movied manicotti.

My Diigo bookmarks
The bookmarks I keep are a schmorgizboard of ideas. Some are specific artists or films that I will be putting up on the blog and others are unread articles of interest. One such film that I’ll promote here is a futuristic, western, space opera titled MK12’s History of America. Check the trailer here I saw it through Xbox live and it was worth the 160 “Microsoft Points” or whatever those things are called to make stoners and little kids feel like they’re getting a deal by using fake Microsoft money, which of course is their parents’ credit card. I also house a bookmark to UK graffiti artist Banksy’s homepage to nurture my little anarchist. My other bookmarks are pretty lame, such as my work schedule and the website I steal music from (this I recognize is surely one of those Venial Sins).

My Social Bookmarking Soulmate

I wrote a stream of consciousness blog which started on the topic E-dating, traipsed through social networking, and never failed to elude neurosis. You can check it here. From now on I think I’ll stick to a less free form style.

That is pretty much the tour. You got VIP access to all things behind the curtain of Hollywoodent. You saw where the magic happens and it’s pretty much on other people’s websites, I’m just harvesting.

Blahscers

The hands of Hollywood are still recovering from all that self congratulatory back patting done over the weekend. The hoopla surrounding the Academy Awards is nothing new, but I just want to take a moment to point out what was going on under all those artsy fartsy noses, in the real world.

Check out these two links and tell me if something smelly fishy. or doughy, even.

Which new movie got only one star?

The number one film in America is…

Doughy like unleavened bread.

I’m not saying that MSN is some sort of critical hub that has it’s finger on the pulse of taste (they rated Step Up 2 the Streets with 3 stars which is grossly overestimated according to Rotten Tomatoes ) But I stumbled by these two sites one after the next and either way someone is turning crap into gold. I’m going to go watch some more Al Jazeera

Note: The film I was referring to was Vantage Point which has made $90 to date, but continues to suck.