(no subject)

[prog]

Caught The Animation Show last night. It was great, so much better than last year's. I loved almost everything, even the artsy French thing (which was actually a clever spin on a couple of old European folktales). The DH piece that closed it would have been tolerable if the balcony weren't filled with DH fanboys who were belly-laughing through the whole thing. For Pete's sake. I bet they all have LJ accounts just so they can have animated user-icons of the my-anus-is-bleeding guy. I would have left at that point but I wasn't 100 percent positive that it was the closer, so instead I took the opportunity to get a Coke and stare at the posters in the lobby for a couple of minutes, doop de doo.

How is it that "Rockfish" took me by surprise? An obviously big-budget, CG-animated SF story that didn't even blip my radar... huh. I really liked it. I wonder if it competed for the Oscar that "Ward 13" took.

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But before I forget: was I hallucinating before the show, or did I see an AmEx ad that used 9/11 to promote its credit card??

This was actually the first time I've ever seen a straight-up high-gloss ad in the Brattle, and that's surprising enough. But the content: a tough-looking grayhair taking us on a tour of NYC, narrating quick shots of city-sights with the template "My ____". So we saw this and that while he said things like "My team. My pride. My bridge." At one point he said "my heartbreak" and there was a glimpse of something over the shoulder of what appeared to be a cathedral; I dunno NYC landmarks well enough to recognize it. But my first assumption, given the word choice, was that it was a shot of Ground Zero. And I was willing to go along with it, since, you know, Brattle, so it was probably a film trailer. But then finally: "My card." AmEx logo over the skyline. Fade to black. WHAT

Update I am being assured by people closer to the topic (and city) than me that I did see what I thought I saw, but that it's not automatically evil. That's cool. See comments.

Comments

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

AmEx is using Robert De Niro to promote their cards; De Niro, talking about his city (other ads have other people talking about "their" things as well), is bound to mention 9/11 as part of his city. I don't find it remotely exploitive.

[prog.livejournal.com]

OK, the grayhair probably was De Niro, then. I am not always very good at recognizing people. I watched the trailer for A Scanner Darkly about 37 times going rrr who is this guy who sounds like Casey Kasem but is clearly not Casey Kasem before I noticed the flashing animated "WOODY HARRELSON" underneath his face.)

I'm probably less "HOW DAAARE THEY" than "Well, that's a first". Though I'm probably still hyperattuned to the subject as an artifact from GWB's 9/11-waving campaign ads.

[prog.livejournal.com]

BTW I Googled Mr. Kasem to make sure I was spelling his name right, and learned that at 73 he's still getting work providing the voice for our hero Norville "Shaggy" Roberts. That's pretty awesome.

[mangosteen]

AmEx is using Robert De Niro to promote their cards; De Niro, talking about his city (other ads have other people talking about "their" things as well), is bound to mention 9/11 as part of his city. I don't find it remotely exploitive.

What tahnan said.

9/11 is as much a part of the city as anything else, and the cathedral in question is Trinity Church, which is directly east of Ground Zero. Despite being the NYC-expat that I am, it was interesting to me that my first thought upon seeing the first tower collapse was "How dare they screw with my city!" NYC is so big that you have to find some way to personalize it.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Righto, thanks. Am retuning my perceptions appropriately. This is very interesting to me.