Now THAT'S a Scion, or The Influence of The Toaster on Japanese Cars

Even in the remotest backwater of Japan where we've been for the last two weeks, the popularity of tiny, square city-friendly cars is startling. Easily 25-30% of the cars on the road here in Shikoku are what's known as '1-box'...
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The Suntory Commercials of Akira Kurosawa

Nothing wrong with bigname film folks making commercials. Errol Morris (whose The Fog of War I just saw and will write about soon) directed the Apple Switch ads. Swedish master Ingmar Bergman made some cake by selling cakes of...
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My Video Art Bootlegging Article in the Sunday NY Times

Thanks to the adoring fans who commented on my article in the NY Times yesterday about video art tape trading. I won't list them by name (mostly because it's possible to list them by name, and doing so might crush...
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Cremaster 2: Videotape Boogaloo

Until this spring, there was still a press release on Art House Films' website heralding the coming DVD release of The Cremaster Cycle . If Matthew Barney's films are obsesed wtih potentiality, announcing and never releasing the DVD's seems...
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DVD extras for The Atomic Revolution

Well, almost. I consolidated all my posts on The Atomic Revolution, the shockin' awesome Military Industrial Complex comic that artist Ethan Persoff re-discovered. Now it's a greg.org feature. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out online, Saturday at...
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Part 3: The Making of The Atomic Revolution

Finally, for the the half dozen people who are as intrigued by The Atomic Revolution, the Cold War propaganda comic Ethan Persoff put online, here is at least part of the story of its origins. Mushroom cloud, from The Atomic...
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First, Industrial Comics, Now Industrial Musicals

[via Scrubbles] The Golden Age of corporate comic books coincides nicely with the Golden Age of industrial musicals. Jonathan Ward tells their history. These lavishly produced sales-and-morale-boosting programs were usually performed only once or twice, at a company's sales or...
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On The Atomic Revolution: Part 2, American Business Concerns

The non-comic comic book is often cited as a phenomenon of these troubled times...These garish publications are marked by horror, violence and practically everything but humor. They have evoked nation-wide condemnation. In recent years a far different kind of "unfunny...
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On M. Philip Copp, The Military Industrial Complex's Goto Guy For "Unfunny Comics"

Discovering The Atomic Revolution--a stunningly drawn, cheerleading 1957 comic book for Our Friend, The Atom--and being in an apocalyptic Animated Musical state of mind, I set out to discover its origins, and its elusive creator, Mr. M. Philip Copp,...
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Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Winner

detail, The Atomic Revolution, image: ep.tc [Dublog, you rock.] If I could get the artist of The Atomic Revolution to do my Animated Musical, I would. Ausin-based artist Ethan Persoff found the mysterious 1957 comic book at an estate...
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Confound me: Wim Wenders' Audi Roadmovie

I, of all people, should like a sponsored roadmovie featuring an Audi, and a Handspring. Go figure. Another GreenCine find, Wim Wenders has directed a The Other Side of the Road, a 6-minute filmmercial for the introduction of the Audi...
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Because Google says I have it: here is The Architect's Speech

I won't reveal it here, and I can't verify it until I see the movie again, but Clark Kent has put out an annotated transcript of The Architect's explanation to Neo of The Matrix. And before you get into any...
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Nude Scenes At BYU

Originally titled, "One reason I decided to become a filmmaker: Nude scenes at BYU" Alfredo taking out the bad parts in Cinema Paradiso, which had more than 50 minutes cut for its original release. Image:splicedonline.com You know how, in Cinema...
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Introducing greg.org Features

I swear, I wrote this on the train, before seeing Jason's latest post. If only I'd waited till I got home, perhaps I'd just switch to Movable Type/TypePad and forget the whole thing:Sometimes, my posts get a bit long. (Usually,...
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Night Of A Thousand Film Geeks

clockwise from top R: UA's Bingham Ray and honoree Alexander Payne David O. Russell, last year's honoree, still in a euphoric daze "special friend"/screenwriter Jim Taylor, freezing on way to afterparty John Waters and sycophantic fan, photo: David Russell...
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'Lost' Swedish Soap Commercial Director Ingmar Bergman Finally Gets Recognition

The Surgery, Bris soap commercial directed by Ingmar Bergman See, if you stick with it long enough, recognition will come. When his commercials for Bris soap were shown in 1951, Ingmar Bergman seemed to be living the admaker's dream:...
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Well, I'll be damned, or How Norman Mailer IS The Center of The Universe

earthrise [image via]Had a man been always in one of the stars, or confined to the body of the flaming sun, or surrounded with nothing but pure ether, at vast and prodigious distances from the Earth, acquainted with nothing...
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