Comments on: nostalgie de la boom… and ads without ads

By: Patrick J. mullins

Patrick J. mullins — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:01:12 +0000

Wait–I see that, according to the wiki link I posted, it was not re-used by Burton in the 2005 film. So maybe you know it from the 1971 original.

By: Patrick J. mullins

Patrick J. mullins — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:53:02 +0000

Thanks, sisyphus, that’s very interesting, esp. since written for the 1971 original ‘Willy Wonka..’ and now re-used by Burton. Bricusse and Newley wrote a lot of those songs by then, they had gone from their unusual and imaginative ‘Stop the World I Want to Get Off’ and ‘Roar of the Greasepaint’ which had ‘What Kind of Fool am I’ and ‘Who Can I Turn To’,respectively into that period of giant flop screen musicals like ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips’, ‘Scrooge’, etc. That sort of sound–always vaguely indicating ‘Am I Really a Big Stah on Brooooadway?’ unfortunately sounds ridiculous in more recent mutations. But does now make more sense when you know the song is 37 years old, and was normal practice at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Imagination

(sorry to be so off-topic, but appreciate the info).

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:28:42 +0000

Patrick —- at the risk of sounding like a fan, it’s from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the 60s one with Gene Wilder singing. The song is “Pure Imagination” and I think it’s the first glimpse the children get of the inside of the magical chocolate factory.

Just to indicate that whoever posted that clip was probably thinking along the same lines as CR here.

By: Patrick J. mullins

Patrick J. mullins — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:38:12 +0000

Thank you, too. But I needed to add, because not quite clear, what I meant was ‘strange’ about seeing the way DeLillo ‘forced the sense of history’ was that, no matter where one stands on the terrorist issues–true, false, or in between–something massive made that date seem to almost start a ‘new history’ that wasn’t exactly the same as what came before. So that DeLillo has a way of doing something like what we were talking about at Jodi’s blog, he is involved with mediation and hypermediation, but also knows how to resist it so that one’s ‘old sense of history’ was restored (at least it hit home for me when I read it). I mean ‘the years that followed’ for the child in ‘Falling Man’ aren’t the same as they have been for me, but I now know what those other kinds of years would be, in which 9/11 was ‘just another event’. I think DeLillo does a form of this in ‘Cosmopolis’ as well, and also in ‘Mao II’, were you as impressed as I was at his juxtaposition of the way the squatters of Tompkins Square Park were always concerned about every tiny detail of their living conditions–and at all times–and he then talks about how a wealthy person will only give it thought maybe once a month, or whatever the infrequent moment was. I thought this was brilliant, because although the wealthy persons with the big houses have much more power over their domiciles and can repair and remodel, what-have-you, they don’t actually have to think of their places all the time (and don’t do so when their not in a ‘home improvement period.)

Also, wonder if that song actually is from a B’way score. It has that very stereotyped sound Andre Previn used to write, and also some of the Disney shows by Alan Mencken come to mind. The clip was somewhat like one you posted maybe 6 months ago, but without the ads (that might be a superficial observation, but that one was, I believe an HSBC strange ad.)

By: adswithoutproducts

adswithoutproducts — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:25:03 +0000

Thanks, Patrick!

I agree about the films, their value, though. I feel a mostly imagined professional obligation to see some of them, and then once in awhile they’re worth the ticket, though for sure not all that often.

And that’s an interesting way to describe Falling Man. I’m teaching it in a week and a half – and will surely have more to say in the next few days.

By: Patrick J. mullins

Patrick J. mullins — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:19:39 +0000

That YouTube is interesting also insofar as the song-thing is very much in Broadway-show style of febrile anticipation, but not as loud as crud from ‘Wicked’, etc (God, I’ve surveyed all of the tourist shows in the last 12 months, and thankfully I’ve finished; who needs to hear any more ‘stirring’ gratifications from ‘Miss Saigon’, etc.).

But good post here, and one detail that interests me ties in with readings of DeLillo’s ‘Falling Man’ that I don’t believe you mentioned when you first wrote about it, but had struck my very strongly: That forcing-in of history had seemed slightly strange, in the way that a few years went by and we had the Iraq War demonstrations in Union Square, but more so when he’s talking about the child who used to talk about ‘Bill Lawton’ growing older, the ‘years going by’, a way of saying that the ‘end of history’ means a lot less than it would seem to claim.

Movies aren’t worth the admission unless you have some real professional reason that includes having to write about them when they’re ‘fresh.’ The cineplexes are loud and disgusting and many things go to DVD immediately or certainly fast enough for me–I never spend a cent on movies anymore. I’m 250th in line at NYPL to get ‘Eastern Promises’, and the turnover is so fast I might even get it before the Oscars (which I don’t watch, they cause even more brain damage than other entertainments. That would be another thing to watch only if one is paid for it.)

By: creative destruction « ads without products

creative destruction « ads without products — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:18:40 +0000

[...] creative destruction February 15, 2008, 11:18 am Filed under: ads, repetition compulsion Sisyphus just gave me a little present in the comments below: [...]

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:57:08 +0000

Ah, I quite liked that! Please go to the Rodchenko and let us know how it is. I haven’t been out to see any art in quite a while. (I should remedy that)

In a very different vein, this is my favorite ad about ads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oob5uobmcy8