Movie Review: Exit Through The Gift Shop

Exit Through The Gift Shop is so self-aware, so tightly built out of and around the mechanisms of art and film and pretension, that it’s almost impossible to describe it without making yourself sound like one of the characters within it, and that applies equally to this next sentence, true though it is: This movie is an instant classic, a shoe-in for Best Documentary 2010 Oscar, a documentary about documentaries, a work of art that encapsulates and explains works of non-art, an apologia and a manifesto rolled into one.

I saw it without having any preconception of what it was about, and despite this review, I encourage you to do the same. In film school, screenwriters are taught to make their endings surprising yet inevitable, and Exit Through The Gift Shop has such an ending, all the more disturbing and hilarious because it takes place in real life.
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On Jesus And Doctor Who

It’s no accident that the first episode of the new Doctor Who aired the day before Easter, i.e. yesterday. I wonder if American fans like myself would have been slightly less eager to download it right away (instead of waiting for it to be broadcast on BBC America, which won’t happen until April 17) without a vague idea that the two events were related at a deeper level.

Doctor Who is based on the same archetype as Jesus, i.e. the regenerating martyr. The Doctor is now in his eleventh incarnation (the program, in some form or another, has been going on for thirty-two seasons). Each time the current actor leaves the show, the character dies and then comes back to life in a new body (made from his old one). He has a new personality, but the combined knowledge and experience of all previous versions.
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School Lunch

I remember some kind of repugnant reddish-orange soup, circa third grade. I think it was “tomato” soup, served with grilled cheese sandwiches (Velveeta on white bread). Every time, the same routine: the lunch lady would present me with the tray, already complete with sandwich and soup.

“I don’t want the soup,” I would tell her.

“You don’t have a choice,” she would say.

“I’m going to throw it away right now,” I would say. Read the rest of this entry »

“Blank Slate” And Other Thoughts On Revolving Floor

The new issue of RF is up, including a piece by me on life as a D&D geek in the 1980s.

A couple of ways that RF, and my attitudes towards it, have evolved since it started in August 2009:

I’m not as concerned with deadlines as I used to be. When I started RF, I was thinking in terms of the social media “hubs” that I’ve produced in the corporate world. In such cases, the site is typically part of an advertising campaign with a goal, a budget, and a timeline. The audience needs to be both earned and converted (for lack of a better word) within a few months. I couldn’t tell a client: “It’s true that only 500 people came this month, but don’t worry, they loved it, and we got one link from an influential site that I have a lot of respect for. We’re building a brand, and it will eventually pay off.” Read the rest of this entry »

Valentine’s Day 1979, Revisted

I don’t know if they still do this, but when I was in second grade, all the kids gave little paper valentines to all of their classmates, regardless of gender. Our parents would buy them in a plastic bag of 30 or so, and we would write the name of each classmate on the valentine. Although these valentines were sometimes themed according to a popular TV show, they weren’t really cards, because they couldn’t be opened. The point of them was to get the kids familiar with the ritual. It’s Valentine’s Day, you’re a nice person, so you need to give valentines to others. The details can come later. Read the rest of this entry »