Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Continuing the series of extreme sports and music of some kind or other: I was amazed by the athleticism and grace of this dancer. Did he use wires? Is it CGI?

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Yup, that’s right folks, there is a Gay Rodeo in L.A. and you can watch ‘em beefcakes in spangly dresses wrangling with cows ‘n’ stuff right here on Film Monday.

This is part of series of short films “Gay Rodeo ain’t fer Sissies” on Underground Yahoo where Brad Miskell goes in search of underground culture in America. He writes in the post accompanying this video:

“Gay rodeo is about inclusiveness…and spangled chaps, and tight jeans, and Marlboro man mustaches, and Stetsons, and studded shirts, and studs and fillies—in other words, it’s just like regular rodeo except the studs are more cut and maybe a tad cattier about it. And the cowgirls ride bulls if they want. Oh…and the dancing. Dancing is maybe as big a gay rodeo draw as gay rodeoin’.”

You’ve been warned so if this kind of thing is not for you, you don’t have to watch the video.

I have to say, though, I do feel uncomfortable about the way the poor steers and goats are treated - not just in this rodeo but in rodeos generally.

You can find out more about the L.A Gay Rodeo here.

I’ve usually shown crazy and funny videos from YouTube on Film Mondays on Fusion View. This week’s video is more thought-provoking and serious, taking a look at Asian-American identities through a series of interviews with students with roots in the Indian subcontinent all the way eastwards to Japan. It’s just over ten minutes long and you’ll need to have sound to listen to what the different voices have to say.

In the US, the identity “Asian” generally refers to Orientals whereas in the UK, the term is used to denote people from the Indian subcontinent ie Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc are all lumped together. The Asians east of there are Orientals though there really aren’t enough of us to merit a catch-all identity so we’re generally allowed to be Chinese, Japanese or Korean.

One of the questions asked in the film is “What is your identity?”. Hmmm, now how would I answer that? I’d say: I’m a Malaysian-born British-Chinese ie my family are ethnic Chinese who migrated to Malaya (as it then was but is now Malaysia, following independence) and I am now British, having migrated from Malaysia to the UK. A bit of a mouthful. The best answer is the film is the guy who says that he identifies as the sexiest man alive. Simple!

I can’t work out if this is a real ostrich.

If it is, I can’t help but be amazed. But part of me wonders: is this cruelty to animals?

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In Big Brother and other reality TV shows, participants and put in a house or on a desert island by TV companies and made to do weird and wonderful things for the entertainment of a global audience. We’ve had the fictionalised movie versions of the extension of this idea in The Truman Show and Ed TV where someone’s life is played out in front of cameras all day and all night. We can now watch someone’s life unfold in the real world in real time for real.

Justin Kan started wearing a mobile webcam on his head two weeks ago and it streams everything he sees, hears and does. It’s becoming a huge cult streaming video thing that people are tuning into on the web. You can find out more at http://www.justin.tv/ or watch it below:

There’s some background info and tech industry commentary about Justin and also live mobile streaming at Techcrunch.com.

It’s not a terribly exciting footage and the streaming can be a bit slow at times. Still, 126 people logged on at one point to watch Justin sleep, according to Techcrunch. We are probably seeing the early days of the next level in blogging. At the moment, the technology allows us to post written posts very easily so everyone’s doing that. Podcasting is the next level up in terms of portability (you can download the MP3 and take it with you wherever you’re off to) and also in terms of getting that one step closer to real reality - hearing the content creator’s voice. Video blogging is the next natural step to getting as close as you can to the author. Soon anyone will be able to author or narrate their lives and live in their own movie. And everyone can be permanently watching everyone else’s lives.

Will those people with the cameras on their heads feel compelled to make their lives more interesting to their viewers, to increase their ratings?

If they act up or hype up what they are doing or feeling or living at that moment, will that be their real lives or will they just be pretending for the camera?

Will they create dramas, start arguments, cause accidents / fights/ havoc just to get the viewers in? Will their lives be an action movie, a noir, an indie movie, a French arthouse flick?

Will their lives be more real merely for being more watchable? If so, for whom - them? Their viewers?

And what of those who don’t video their lives? Will they exist at all?

I have updated Fusion View with a phone blogging post. Click here to listen to it or use the Flash player below:

Here is a video to spark some controversy. If you are a cat-lover, you’ll see cute kitties doing their loveable thang in this video. If you are not so fond of them, you’ll see evil, spitting demons….

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Which camp are you in?

We have now passed the closing date for the prize draw to win a copy of James Wood’s The Theory of Everything. I am delighted to announce that the three winners picked at random from the Fusion View email subscriber list are:

lucy

ella

lenny

(The above are taken from their email addresses and edited to maintain their privacy.)

I have emailed the winners to let them know and to make arrangements for a copy of the book to be posted to them. Enjoy!

Thank you to everyone who has subsribed to Fusion View!

All the best
Yang-May

After post the other week about foul language, racism and the Big Brother hoo-ha, I came across this great spoof of the whole reality TV genre, filmed in a real Ikea store, without the company’s knowledge - with foul language and racism and household fights and everything, handled with just enough realism to shock while being just extreme enough to be clearly satiricial. Interestingly, the video appears to have been posted on YouTube in May last year, long before the current controversy and

I also love the advice session given by the Chinese lady shopper who has somehow got drawn into the “household” drama…

(You need to have the sound switched on on your PC to enjoy the best moments of dialogue on this video.)

The (Un)Happy Planet Index is a website which measures and compares personal wellbeing and also the wellbeing of the planet across the globe. It is supported by the Friends of the Earth and poses the questions for each of us - are we personally happy? And are we helping to make the planet happy?

Curiously, the happiest countries are those in Central America - a surprise to me as the general perception about them is that they are dangerous and poor countries overwhelmed by drugs and guns. The UK comes at no. 108 in spite of longer life expectancy and being generally more stable economically and politically. Malaysia come no. 44, but with lower life expectancy than the UK. Our “cousins” across the causeway in Singapore fare terribly, coming in at no. 131.

The index also measures the environmental footprint of a country and of individuals ie the impact that person or country has on environmental resources. As you would expect, the more developed the country, the greater the impact. Singapore’s footprint is 6.2, the UK’s is 5.4 and Malaysia’s is at 3.0.

You can check it out for yourself at http://www.happyplanetindex.org/

I took the test to see what my Happiness Index was. I came out above average on general feelings of contentment with my life, personal self-esteem and life expectancy. Sadly, I also came out above average for my environmental footprint - although I rarely use my car and instead often take public transport and walk wherever I can. Perhaps I need to recycle more and live in a colder and darker house!

You can take the test at http://www.happyplanetindex.org/survey.htm. It’s anonymous so you don’t have to worry about typing in your weight and whether you eat too many cheeseburgers!

If you do go and explore or do the quiz, please come back and let me know your thoughts on the site!

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PS. Thanks goes to David Grantley for telling me about the site