3:00 snapshot #422, plus random

[urbpan]

Home early for a predicted snowstorm, we take a break in the Rock Band playing to see the weatherman admit he blew it: no big storm for Boston.


This is very important. They have made ice cream featuring the best girl scout cookies. I don't want to hear from you thin mints people.

I'm not buying any new t-shirts until I unload a few dozen of mine. But when I do, I'd like this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. That reminds me, would anyone like any of my old t-shirts?

When I lived in San Francisco for a short time, I was taken care of by a wonderful Granny, who loved art. Her house was not just full of art, it was made of art. One of the artists who made her house was a collage artist named Jason Mecier; he did amazing mosaic assemblage portraits, often of pop culture icons. It's good to see he's still active and producing relevant work.

Cartoonist and animator Nina Paley has taken on various causes in her life that have occasionally become more high profile than her comics. Lately she's been examining the problems with copyright law, and how it restricts artists from building on the work of others. She's produced a wonderful video addressing the long tradition of derivative art (embedded below), and then detailed the process of making the video (hint: she took lots of pictures at the museum).

Comments

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

Fuck those thin mints bitches!!!

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

And I just signed up to be notified when it comes to my area. I am now stalking ice cream. What has my life come to??

[calypso72]

I love that video. Maybe she can be a witness in the case against Shepherd Fairey.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

awesome vid :D

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

Nice icon!!

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

thankyou :D

[propaddict.livejournal.com]

They've had that for years. And it is GOOOOOD. It came out a year or two after the Thin Mints ice cream came out. . .which is still the best.

[pangolin.livejournal.com]

Awesome video, I may repost it. And this is a very good point about the silliness of copyright law. Insofar as it exists, it should basically only cover exact copies or portions thereof. For example, if someone takes the idea of Harry Potter, changes the names and writes a new book, that should be ok, and not subject to suit. If people like the new book better, well, isn't that capitalism?

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Gah! No. the hard work isn't typing the words, it's coming up with the concept, the whole interlocking setting and creating believable and functioning characters. Once that's done the characters often start taking the story in directions the author never planned for. I's not a perfect system, but I'm not ready for a world populated by endless amounts of terrible slash fiction.

[pangolin.livejournal.com]

What's funny here is that you said the hard part is the concept, and then you proceeded to describe an aspect of writing that is separate from the concept. The concept is a young boy who finds he is part of hidden wizarding world and sent off to magic school. Everything you said after concept up there is setting, character and background details, which is what I would expect to be different in a "knock off".

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not expressing myself well. I love Nina's work but I'm confounded by her stance on copyright.

The concept of a young boy who finds he is part of the wizarding world is basic enough that I don't think you could copyright it. By concept I'm referring to all the stuff that goes beyond the one sentence description, all the underpinnings that make the world work. The stuff that would make up the bible of a TV series. That's work.

As much as I'd love to see a series of Cerebus stories postulated on the theory Sim didn't go nuts two thirds of the way through the series, It's up to Sim to decide if he wants to let someone else do that.

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

UGH Samoas! Tagalongs win! :P