Thursday, April 26, 2007

surreal kitsch: splendors of ancient Egipt.

Today I invite you to look at the bizarre works of Estonian commercial director Harry Egipt. In the early 80s, high on consumerism and sex appeal, Egipt cranked out a whole slew of strange, lurid, sometimes nightmarish Soviet ads for such mundane things as kitchenware and meat. Here's one that I think is for shoe polish:


A statue man is "polished" and brought to life by three eager blonde girls, one of them briefly topless, in the middle of an empty urban lot. Could this be a analogy for rigid times of communism giving way to the perverse charms of capitalism? And note the empowering new-wave song, complete with an oddly placed Beatles sample. In the end, this commercial seems to be selling the sexual as much as the material; the statue man doesn't appear to give a shit for his shiny new boots, as he is too busy embracing his young, beaming savior.

And here, if you can stomach it, is a disturbing ad for chicken:


This one skips any attempt at narrative or concept and goes straight for the message: carnivorous consumption is glamorous. Here is a chicken, here is that chicken's meat, here are some lovely women eating that chicken's meat. The music is industrial avant-garde with some woman repeating (so I've read) the words "chicken" and "beef". It's hard to imagine that Egipt wasn't leaning towards the macabre in this ad, and maybe he was.

"Producing a TV commercial is an obstinate process. And the course of action has to be controlled by one man only. Until the very end. Though a good result is guaranteed if the makers are having fun while producing the film." -Harry Egipt, from an interview.

Recently several clips from his commercials were seen by the masses during the end sequence of the Borat movie. To see the original ads in their zany entirety, just search for Harry Egipt on YouTube.


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Sunday, April 08, 2007

ironies of a divine banana.

atheist's nightmare?


Ironic that God, in all His supposed power and supremacy, would send proof of His existence to Earth in the form of a fruit that not everybody likes. Would it be blasphemy for a Christian to think bananas taste terrible?

Ironic that God's fruit also happens to be the treat of choice for chimpanzees. Those little guys can enjoy a banana on as many levels as a human can; the ergonomic shape, the "tab", etc. But evolution is, of course, a ridiculous concept. Of course.

Ironic that God would make his perfect fruit so undeniably phallic, as if to taunt man and his repressed, shunned sexuality. It's like teaching your kids all about how terrible the Nazis were and then baking them a bunch of swastika-shaped cookies.

Ironic that God wouldn't standardize his flawless fruit. Here's a wild banana, and it doesn't look quite as appetizing:


Ironic that God would also create the world's deadliest spider to hide among banana bunches and bite unsuspecting Brazilian farmers.

Ironic still that for thousands of years native peoples happily ate bananas while worshipping their own deities. ...That is, up until foreign conquistadors came and slaughtered them in the name of God. I guess they really wanted those bananas.


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Thursday, April 05, 2007

sex vs. art?

what people are watching:

Beyonce & Shakira, Beautiful Liar, directed by Jake Nava

what people should be watching:

Subtle, The Mercury Craze, directed by SSSR

Which took more time? Which took more ideas? Which took more talent?
Most of all, which is more interesting?
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