On...the...subject...of....…art

Did you watch Star Trek when you were a kid? Did it have significance for you? It did for me. Curiously enough it was kind of an antidote for the Flintstones in more ways than being at the opposite end of the timeline.

In 1969 I was seven - in Miss May's class at Mt Eden Normal Primary School. I remember ordering my first Scholastic book (remember ordering books from a catalog then they would arrive at school and be distributed to everyone like it was Christmas and the teacher was Santa Claus?) - it was about travelling to the moon. Why the travellers were portrayed as children I don't know. Maybe they embodied the spirit of the era - everything was possible with the addition of some science, technology and imagination.

Star Trek was important because it promised to tell stories of where no (man) has gone before. There may well have been all sorts of sub-texts that grown ups got but I just like the space monsters, Spock's ears and the idea of setting one's 'phaser to stun'. I used to like the end credits because (if I remember right) there was a montage of some of the juicier aliens which always seemed more believable to me than Dr Who whose el cheapo Daleks - though I confess the Cybermen scared the snot out of me.

Though I'm not a Star Trek aficionado - I think I saw one of the big screen movies but the moment had passed - I enjoy watching William Shatner play Denny Crane in Boston Legal. Shatner obviously has no issues with self parody. That should be instructional for us all.

If you like Star Trek or illustration/art/design check out this exhibition of works inspired by William Shatner - a tribute show. Some funky stuff - some of which can be purchased at quite moderate prices.

Beam me up Scotty

Comments

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer

ThoughtSpurs

Search This Blog