Trying to Put a Name to a Face of Evil in Myanmar - New York Times
My homie Isaiah Seret gets a super-huge write-up in the New York Times for his work directing Ellen Page in a spot for the Burma Can’t Wait Campaign:
The spot is one of 30 produced for U.S. Campaign for Burma, starring celebrities like Will Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston. They will be distributed on Fanista.com, a social-networking and entertainment retail site, then passed along to sites like YouTube and Google Video every day for the next month. The goal of the campaign is to thrust the cause of human rights in Burma — now known as Myanmar — into the orbit of A-list activist causes, along with Tibet and Darfur, and to encourage international pressure on a government that activists say is one of the world’s most oppressive.
…
A story that is going to hold people’s interest also needs a villain. While General Shwe is a natural in the role, said Isaiah Seret, a 30-year-old music video director who was enlisted to write and direct the Ellen Page spot, the general also came with built-in drawbacks — his name lacked impact, his face was forgettable. The general, Mr. Seret said, lacked what is known in marketing vernacular as a “unique selling point” — like Hitler’s mustache. So the director attempted to turn the general’s blandness into a joke. In the spot, Ms. Page scribbles a Hitler mustache on a large photo of the general and declares, “Make no mistake about it, he is a professional dictator.”
Isaiah conceptualized, wrote and directed the Ellen Page piece (which debuts in the next few days - i think), as well as seven or eight others that will be released one-a-day for each of the 30 days of the campaign. I’m super excited to see Isaiah’s name up in print. I think he hit a home-run with this spot. Sometimes stars align and this is one of those times. He’s been working like mad on this campaign and it completely dove-tails with his personal voice. This guy is definitely an artist to watch. Each time I see new work of his, I’m amazed at his progression in style and form, without losing his personal voice. I’m callin’ it now: Dude is gonna be famous.
- Burma Can’t Wait.org
- All the clips listed on You Tube
- Isaiah Seret.com
The Year in Pictures hips us to these awesome posters created by Brazilian graphic designer Daniel Molin. The Google Machine™ has never heard of Molin (unless he’s the same guy creating massive amounts of sci-fi fantasy art - which i doubt). That’s a shame. Regardless of your political leanings, these are beautiful pieces of design.
Simplicity works so well.
[SWF]http://www.youtube.com/v/ulMUxwwnbPo, 425, 355[/SWF]
Mear One rocks some wicked pieces in promotion of LA vs War, a 4 day art + activism even in downtown Los Angeles, April 10-13:
LA vs WAR highlights the travesty of a senseless war now going into its 6th year, giving LA artists a platform to exercise their freedom of speech. Hundreds of artists representing our diverse communities unite in delivering a universal message of peace and understanding, and offering resistance and opposition to the US government’s war policies.
Good art + Good ideas. The Ghandi piece, in the video, is amazing!
[via Wooster]
File this one under:
How This Economy Is Going To Play Out by Ian Welsh at Fire Dog Lake.
Welsh wrote some dire predictions about the US and world economies in this post from November. He revisits the post and italicizes which ones have already come true in the last four months:
1) Housing prices and sales will continue to decline. Expect 3 years before the bottom, as a very optimistic best case scenario.
2) Commerical real-estate will suffer a steep decline as well.
3) Consumer demand will drop. Unemployment will rise.
He continues on through number ten and even adds four more bonus predictions, here’s one:
15) A serious collapse of the US stock market, probably by September at the latest. Maybe within a couple months.
Read the full article as he goes in depth as to the “why” of the equation. This particular paragraph really hit home:
The old, oil based, suburban sprawl economy based on forever rising house prices, on easy credit, on subdivision after subdivision–on running up credit cards and on leverage piled on leverage piled on arbitrage, is in the middle of cracking up, spectacularly…Huge swathes of exurbia and suburbia become simply economically unviable. Zombie Burbs.
(more on zombie suburbs here)
If you wanna get a litmus test as to the validity of what this guy is saying, just ask someone who manages money (not your money), like a hedge fund manager. We did, three months ago. and they said the same exact thing.
[FireDogLake article via Digg] and [zombie suburbs article via Curbed LA]
