davidthompson

Kisses and Mayonnaise

The Guardian’s Zoe Williams – whose wisdom is known to us – today asks her readers the burning question,

Why don’t lefties complain more?

What prompts this question is the recent, rather baffling, fuss over an advert for Heinz mayonnaise. The Advertising Standards Authority has apparently received around 200 complaints, many of which concern the advert’s dénouement in which one man kisses another. The ad wasn’t shown during children’s programming  - due to the mortally harmful effects of full-fat mayonnaise - and has subsequently been withdrawn by Heinz UK. In light of such controversy, I feel obliged to share the offending advert with you. Brace yourselves.

Everybody okay? Now, the ad strikes me as innocuous and faintly amusing, and hardly malevolent or corrupting. (Though an image of Bernard Breslaw does, unfortunately, come to mind.) The ad isn’t even explicitly about a gay couple. The visual pun being that the husband is actually kissing his wife, who - thanks to her choice of mayonnaise - has acquired the zing and authenticity of a New York deli stereotype. However, the minor hoo-hah surrounding the ad leads Ms Williams to argue – indeed complain - that lefties don’t complain anywhere near as much as they should:

The Opposite of Coy

Imagine you make bidets for a living. Got that? Bidets. Now ask yourself the inevitable question: How would you advertise them on Korean television?

Via the Reciprocal Crap Exchange.

Untooned

Now here’s a thing. Pixeloo has produced a striking, indeed alarming, rendering of a certain cartoon patriarch. Click image for full effect.

The artist adds,

These aren’t studies of what Homer would look like if he was a real person; it’s just what a cartoon like Homer would look like if he kept his toon proportions but had realistic texturing and lighting.

Slightly less disturbing are the renderings of Mario and Jessica Rabbit. The “untooning” process can be seen here.

Astronomical Odds

Here’s the third episode of the excellent BBC documentary series, The Planets. Titled Giants, the film follows the ingenuity and serendipity of the 1977 Voyager mission and its “grand tour” of the outer planets.

Part 1:

A happy alignment. Slingshot. Magnetic Jupiter. 3 million amps. Rings and ghosts.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 2: 

Fearsome weather. Saturn’s other side. Shattered. Perfect timing. Still listening.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Other episodes can be viewed here.

Filler

Busy today, so here are a few short films lifted from the archives. Use them wisely.

Freefall. Joe Kittinger embraces rapid downwardsness.

Lovely Monsters. Flirting squid and other beasts of the sea.

Very Impaired. British troops test LSD, unwittingly, circa 1953.

Lefties. From big idea to burning wreckage.

Craters. Flagstaff, Arizona, gets a radical lunar makeover.

Feel free to browse the greatest hits and generally root and rummage. And making a donation will make you a better person.

Big Hair and Ray Guns

Battlestar goes Barbarella. Via io9. Related. And. Also. Plus. 

Things to Come

For Battlestar Galactica enthusiasts, a slice of blasphemy.

Naturally, the image above contains clues as to the show’s final season. Is Baltar’s Six about to deliver the Cylon gospel? Who’s the new Number Six standing on the left, as if to denounce her counterpart? And who’s missing from the table, and why? Stay tuned.

Previously…

Rough and Tumble

Via Protein Wisdom, The Thin Man sends us this. Readers may spot a thematic link with the previous post. 

After recent terrorist attacks, Spanish police are in no mood for leniency. This man picked the wrong time and the wrong way to try to support his drug habit.

Conscience in Extremis

I gather some of you are fans of the retooled Battlestar Galactica, which remains one of the more intelligent and compelling science fiction series. Given the issues raised during the last three seasons and their real world resonance, law professors Daniel Solove, Deven Desai and David Hoffman have taken an interest and interviewed BSG’s creators, Ronald D Moore and David Eick.

Part 1 deals with the trials and legal systems of the human survivors. Part 1-B explores the depicted use of torture. Parts 2 and 3, on the series’ treatment of politics, cylons and religion, will follow shortly.

Those of you unfamiliar with BSG can watch the episode 33 below.

Link: sevenload.com

(h/t, Volokh.)

Lefties Revisited

A few months ago, I posted a short extract from Vanessa Engle’s Lefties documentary series, which seemed to go down well, possibly due to the heady mix of affectation and farce. I watched the third episode again recently and, as it made me laugh and despair in more or less equal measure, I thought I’d share it in full. A Lot of Balls details the comically inept attempt in 1987 to launch a “radical” left wing tabloid, The News on Sunday. The project was, unsurprisingly, a disaster, but what’s interesting is why. Engle’s documentary teases out how staggering incompetence was a direct result of ideological pretension. This is perhaps best illustrated by the scene in which, with the paper’s first edition about to go to press, most of the staff is out of the office on a deafness awareness day. 

Enjoy.

Part 1:

Statement of intent. “Our truth.” Big Flame. Class consciousness.

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Part 2:

Wearing suits. Other people’s money. The proletariat in charge. “Because you’re black.”

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Part 3:

An unholy war. Avoiding London. Qualified staff. Black man versus white lesbian.

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Part 4:

“No, but…” Pilger’s horror. Dummies and factions. Ad hell.

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Part 5:

Indignation. Causes and committees. “Theoretical crap.” Deafness awareness.

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Part 6:

Remote concerns. Public sector money. Kinnock and competence. Falling apart.

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All three episodes -  Property is Theft, Angry Wimmin and A Lot of Balls  - can be viewed in full here.

Related: the rise of Thatcherism. (h/t, The Thin Man.)

Subsidise my mischief. It’s for the greater good.