March 29, 2012
TV Tropes is a wiki that collects and expands on various conventions and devices (tropes) found within creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has gone from covering only television and film tropes to also covering those in a number of other media such as literature, comics, video-games, and even advertisements and toys. It is known for approaching topics with a casual and humorous tone.
The site initially focused on the television show ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ and has since increased its scope to include thousands of other series, films, novels, plays, video games, anime, manga, comic strips and books, fan fiction, and other subjects, including Internet works such as Wikipedia, which is referred to in-wiki as ‘The Other Wiki.’ Some believe that use of ‘TV Tropes’ teaches the user to analyze and dissect works of media. An unanticipated side effect causes some readers to become jaded and cynical, ‘[replacing] surprise almost entirely with recognition.’ This is referred to on the site as ‘TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life,’ referring to the inability to read books, watch films, etc. without identifying each trope as it occurs.
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March 28, 2012
Dionysian imitatio is the influential literary method of imitation as formulated by Greek author Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the first century BCE, which conceived it as the rhetoric practice of emulating, adapting, reworking and enriching a source text by an earlier author. It marked the beginning of the doctrine of imitation, which dominated the Western history of art up until 18th century, when the notion of romantic originality was introduced.
The imitation literary approach is closely linked with the widespread observation that ‘everything has been said already,’ which was also stated by Egyptian scribes around 2000 BCE. The ideal aim of this approach to literature was not originality, but to surpass the predecessor by improving their writings and set the bar to a higher level.
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March 28, 2012
Photomontage is the process and result of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does not use film, is realized today through image-editing software.
This latter technique is referred to by professionals as ‘compositing,’ and in casual usage is often called ‘photoshopping.’ Author Oliver Grau in his book ‘Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion’ notes that the creation of artificial immersive virtual reality, arising as a result of technical exploitation of new inventions, is a long-standing human practice throughout the ages. Such environments as dioramas were made of composited images.
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March 28, 2012
John Heartfield (1891 – 1968) born Helmut Herzfeld, was a pioneer in the use of art as a political weapon. His photomontages were anti-Nazi anti-Fascist statements.
Heartfield also created book jackets for authors such as Upton Sinclair, as well as stage sets for such noted playwrights as Bertold Brecht and Erwin Piscator.
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March 28, 2012
Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung (b. 1976) is a Chinese-American new media artist who lives and works in New York. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Arts degree from San Francisco State University. Hung’s works are digital collages of popular culture and current events.
His media includes hi-definition video animation, video games, net.art, digital graphics and mixed-media installations. Hung has been called the ‘John Heartfield of Digital Era.’ He loans 5 percent of his art earnings to low-income entrepreneurs listed on Kiva Microfunds.
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March 27, 2012
Inkie is a London based painter and street artist, originally from Bristol. He is cited as being part of Bristol’s graffiti heritage, along with Banksy, 3D and Nick Walker. Inkie began working as part of Crime Incorporated Crew (CIC) in 1983, along with Felix and Joe Braun. He was one of many arrested in 1989 during ‘Operation Anderson,’ the UK’s largest ever graffiti bust. He arranged 1998’s ‘Walls On Fire’ event with Banksy, on the site of the future At-Bristol center.
He has subsequently worked in the video game industry, including some time as head of creative design at Sega, where his work featured in ‘Jet Set Radio.’ Inkie was one artist present to do live painting at the launch of Banksy’s book ‘Bristol: Home Sweet Home.’ Inkie has likened the time spent training as a graffiti artist to that of classical musicians.
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March 27, 2012
BS 2000 is the name of a musical side project of Beastie Boys’ Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz and Amery ‘AWOL’ Smith also with tracks featuring Janay North. In 1997, BS 2000 released their vinyl-only self-titled debut.
BS 2000 later released a limited-edition vinyl/CD, ‘Buddy,’ in 2000 and ‘Simply Mortified’ on vinyl and CD in 2001. Their song ‘The Scrappy’ was featured on the American and European versions of the Xbox video game, ‘Jet Set Radio Future.’
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March 27, 2012
Jet Set Radio Future is a video game developed by Smilebit and the sequel to ‘Jet Set Radio’ (also known as ‘Jet Grind Radio’). It was published by Sega in 2002 in the US, near the beginning of the Xbox’s lifespan. Similar to the original, it depicts a future Tokyo where freedom of expression is outlawed. The user plays a character in the GG’s, a gang of in-line skating graffiti artists who skate around Tokyo covering up rival gangs’ graffiti, knocking over Rokkaku police, and dancing to the eclectic soundtrack.
The game uses a cel-shaded style of animation, and has been widely acclaimed for its unique music style, detailed art, and gameplay. The soundtrack introduces artists that are either foreign, not found mainstream, or work under gaming licenses such as Guitar Vader, BS 2000 (the side project of Adrock of the Beastie Boys), Hideki Naganuma, Scapegoat Wax, The Latch Brothers (including Mike D of the Beastie Boys, Richard Jacques, Chris ‘Wag’ Wagner and Kenny Tick Salcido), Cibo Matto, and The Prunes.
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March 26, 2012
John Lurie (b. 1952) is an American actor, musician, painter, director and producer. He is co-founder of The Lounge Lizards, a jazz ensemble. Lurie has acted in 19 films including ‘Stranger than Paradise’ and ‘Down by Law,’ composed and performed music for 20 television and film works, and he produced and starred in ‘Fishing with John,’ a 1991 television series.
In 1996 his soundtrack for ‘Get Shorty’ was nominated for a Grammy Award. For five years he appeared in the HBO television show ‘Oz.’ Suffering from chronic Lyme disease since 2000, Lurie refocused his attention on painting. His primitivist art works have shown in galleries around the world. His painting ‘Bear Surprise’ became an internet meme in Russia in 2006.
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March 25, 2012
‘A Night at the Roxbury‘ is a 1998 American comedy film based on a recurring skit on television’s long-running ‘Saturday Night Live’ called ‘The Roxbury Guys.’ SNL regulars Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, and Colin Quinn star.
The film is about wealthy Yemeni-American brothers Steve (Will Ferrell) and Doug Butabi (Chris Kattan) who enjoy frequenting nightclubs, where they bob their heads in unison to dance music (specifically Haddaway’s hit song ‘What Is Love’) and fail miserably at picking up women. Their dream is to party at the famous L.A. nightclub The Roxbury, where they are continually denied entrance by a hulking bouncer (Michael Clarke Duncan).
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March 25, 2012
Second City Television (SCTV) is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto’s The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984. The basic premise of the show is that ‘SCTV’ is an independent television station in the city of Melonville.
Rather than broadcasting the usual TV rerun fare, the station produces a bizarre and humorously incompetent range of cheap local programming including a soap opera called ‘The Days of the Week’ (‘Monday… Tuesday… Wednesday… these are… the days of the week’), a game show, ‘Shoot At The Stars,’ in which celebrities are literally shot at like targets in a shooting gallery, and full blown movie spoofs like ‘Play it Again, Bob’ in which Woody Allen (Rick Moranis) tries to get Bob Hope (Dave Thomas) to star in his next film.
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March 25, 2012
National Lampoon was both a ground-breaking American humor magazine and also a wide range of productions directly associated with that magazine. The magazine ran from 1970 to 1998, and was originally a spinoff of the ‘Harvard Lampoon’ (is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 at Harvard University).
The magazine reached its height of popularity and critical acclaim during the 1970s, when it had a far-reaching effect on American humor. It spawned films, radio, live theater, various kinds of recordings, and print products including books. Many members of the creative staff from the magazine subsequently went on to contribute creatively to successful media of all types.
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