The New York Observer has an kind of interesting essay about video sites such as YouTube; whereas most of the recent articles concerning these wildly popular sites have praised them, the Observer seeks more to bury them. And while the writer has a certain point that television moments used to be fleeting but now they're omnipresent (reminds me of a line on the Simpsons where Homer said, "Everything looks bad if you remember it"), what's he's really angry about isn't YouTube but is instead the betrayal of his own reactions. Who hasn't had a movie they loved as a kid not hold up to their adult expectations? Or who hasn't listened to a band they liked as a teenager or early adult or been horrified (for me it's Beat Happening; cringe)? If our estimation of something later in life is changed when we're reacquainted with it (whether it's books or movies or music), that's called maturity (or at the very least reappraisal). So if YouTube makes you confront something from twenty years ago, and you realize it wasn't what you thought it was, it's not really YouTube's fault. And who's to say you are (or were) any worse off for liking it way back when? As they say, ignorance is bliss...
Excerpt: "Video had always been more elusive. It defeated secondhand reports; a critic might describe a scene, but the moving image was unquotable. There was no way to share that passing experience. All you could do was write about it or talk about it. The original moment was transformed by the telling into something else—probably something funnier or more original or more shocking."
You can read the article here.
From Matt: The scriptwriters made quite a few changes from the book, but they were all for the best - and booklover though I am I have to admit that its better to see magic than to read about it.
From Mina: I adore this film. Monsieur Hulot’s very modern sister and brother-in-law don’t know what to do with Tati’s charmingly untidy and bungling protagonist, who inhabits a world where meaning is still more important than appearances.
From Carey: A must see Hayao Miyazaki’s anime is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, originally released in 1986. A fantasy film that explores the altruistic and compassionate nature of humans, aspects lost through repeated exposure to power, technology, and the complexities brought by the combination of the two. 
"So if YouTube makes you confront something from twenty years ago, and you realize it wasn't what you thought it was, it's not really YouTube's fault. And who's to say you are (or were) any worse off for liking it way back when? As they say, ignorance is bliss..."
Granted, I don't have those twenty years, but if ignorance is bliss, then so is being able to type in two or three words and drool over glam rock, Peter Sellers, and cute little kittens falling asleep in the backseat of some random French dude's car. ;-P
Posted by: Princess Tuber | July 30, 2006 at 07:17 PM