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I thought John Kerry’s speech was powerful and persuasive last night. He let the people know who he is, what his values are and how he came to hold them through foundational life experiences. I have to admit I was more than a little worried about his ability to pull it off but I think most people will agree that the man came off as, yes I'm going to say it, Presidential.
The thing I liked most about the speech was the same thing I have been enjoying about the rest of the convention. That is, the Democrats seem to be saying that there are not partisan issues and values here, only American issues and values. They are saying that the rich heritage of equality, economic prosperity, security and individual freedoms that this country is founded on have been neglected by the current administration in the paranoid haze of our bizarre post-9/11 world and that they want to build a bridge back to those values. They want to renew our faith in those values in order to unite the nation, making us stronger, safer and more prosperous.
My favorite part of his speech was where he talked about our great American innovators and declared that it’s time to ask bold questions and be innovative again:
"Two young bicycle mechanics from Dayton asked what if this airplane could take off at Kitty Hawk? It did that and changed the world forever. A young president asked what if we could go to the moon in ten years? And now we're exploring the solar system and the stars themselves. A young generation of entrepreneurs asked, what if we could take all the information in a library and put it on a little chip the size of a fingernail? We did and that too changed the world forever.
And now it's our time to ask: What if?
What if we find a breakthrough to cure Parkinson's, diabetes, Alzheimer's and AIDS? What if we have a president who believes in science, so we can unleash the wonders of discovery like stem cell research to treat illness and save millions of lives?
What if we do what adults should do – and make sure all our children are safe in the afternoons after school? And what if we have a leadership that's as good as the American dream – so that bigotry and hatred never again steal the hope and future of any American?
… It is time to reach for the next dream. It is time to look to the next horizon. For America, the hope is there. The sun is rising. Our best days are still to come."
I know it may seem silly, but I need that kind of intelligent optimism. I want America to succeed and prosper and I fully believe that it can. There were a lot of powerful and memorable speeches given this week. From Carter & Clinton on Monday, to Obama on Tuesday, to Sharpton & Edwards on Wednesday, to the great speech by Mr. Kerry last night and they have all combined to renew my confidence in the possibility of a new America, fully restored in its commitment to all Americans.
Here's a great gallery of Chinese socialist propaganda inteded to make Chinese citizens more environmentally concious. I love their naive utopianism. There's also some sort of SF modular biotech quality to some of the later ones. Super sweet! (via Corsakti)
Demonlover begins as VolfGroup, a French multi-national is making a bid to purchase TokyoAnime, a company that creates Hentai, animated Japanese porn. Early on we see Diane, played by the stunning Connie Nielsen, inject Haldol into a coworker’s bottled water. We do not know what she is playing at until we see the woman kidnapped by two thugs in the next scene. Immediately we are swept into a wild world of corporate espionage and lighting-paced global consumer culture. It turns out that the reason Volf Corporation is buying TokyoAnime is because they are developing a 3D Hentai product that Demonlover and MangaTronics, two competing online porn services, are fighting each other to the death for. The film escalates deeper and deeper into the complex and sordid culture of specialized pornography and organized crime. Diane, it turns out is secretly working for MangaTronics and Karen, the woman she poisons at the outset of the film, turns out to be an agent of Demonlover. Elise, Karen’s personal assistant played by Chloe Sevigny, is also working for Demonlover to a much greater degree. When Diane learns about the existence of Hellfire Club, an online torture service run by Demonlover, she is kidnapped by Elise in order for them to control her.
Olivier Assayas has created an amazing film that evokes the best of David Lynch, William Gibson, and David Cronenberg. He constructs a mirror-world projection that seems to exist 15 minutes ahead of our own world. Here survival is dictated by the ability to be multi-lingual, absurdly chic, fluent in global economics, and fully enmeshed in the bleeding edge of cultural and technological modes of production. And yet the characters seem soul-less, motivated by profit and thoroughly detached from the bizarre situations they are involved in. Diane comes off not unlike someone playing a videogame as she eventually commits murders and performs sexually against her will. Much of the film itself seems to be a commentary on the nature of gaming, network interfaces and interactive devices. It's also a cautionary tale of out of control capitalism. It subtly slides from a conventional techno thriller to an all out criticism of our contemporary society of the spectacle.
Demonlover also astounds technically. Director of Photography Denis Lenoir employs a variety of cameras and film stocks to create a montage that dreamily interprets the dizzy world we inhabit. The colors seem to be lit from within, like an led monitor, which lends an otherworldly feel to the film. The editing choices also work very well. Some of the jump cuts are so dramatic that they evoke jumping from one website to another in the middle of a particularly frenetic web surfing experience. All of this is supported by an amazing score supplied by none other than Jim O'Rourke and Sonic Youth. Their ambient, atonal work drenches the scenery of the film with mutant soundscapes that perfectly accompany the internal and external action of the film.
Overall I found Demonlover to be a comprehensively stimulating film that explores deep problems in our commodity-based culture. It’s a paranoid work that is thoroughly enmeshed in our post 9/11 world where heightened fear encourages us to annihilate any form of potential competition before it can do the same to us in order to sustain our relentless desire for power and capital.
The NYT has an article on the new Rem Koolhaas designed Prada flagship in Beverly Hills. Is it just me or does anyone else see the great irony of Koolhaas designed VIP entrances that allow celebs and other LA royalty “near-immediate access from air-conditioned car to air-conditioned fitting room”? I guess in a way it makes sense, Koolhaas being such a proponent of gross, maniacal, over-the-top capitalism and all.
Get 10,000 of the world’s best athletes together for the Olympic games and what do you get? Apparently two weeks of wild partying and promiscuity fueled by late night drinking and massive stores of glycogen. (via kottke)
Salon is currently running an interview with comic book genius Alan Moore, author of “From Hell” and “Watchmen”. He goes into great detail about how the fascist dystopia he created in his groundbreaking comic series “V for Vendetta” is emerging as a 21st century reality.
Lance Armstrong won both the stage and the Yellow Jersey after fighting Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso to the finish line at Villard-de-Lans today. If he finishes well in the time trial on L'Alpe d'Huez tomorrow this race is as good as over! I'm so happy for him. Maybe all the player haters will shut their mouths now.