Wouldn't you have loved to be in the meeting when the ad people pitched the idea to Apple for their current line of commercials? Maybe it went a little something like this:

-"So all we're gonna do is pick a cool new song and lay it overtop of close up images of the product."

-"That sounds great. And then a list of all the features will come up or what?"

-"No. No product features, just images and music... maybe the Apple logo at the end, but I guess that's an image... so just images and music."

-"Whoa, whoa... we've been slaving away for years to create products with the perfect, user friendly features and you're just going to play music?!?"

-"Yep."

-"But Apple's about the usability of its products and how intuitively the product and its features are put together."

-"Right. But our target demographic isn't a robot, it's a 20 or 30-something who feels and is moved. That's why it's got to be just images and music. We're not selling a product, we're selling image and identity. That's what music and images create."

Andrew Dominik’s western takes place in the volatile days following the American Civil War. Adapted from Ron Hansen’s 1983 novel of the same name and starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, the film did not make much of a dent at the box office even though many critics included it in their top films of 2007. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a sweeping portrayal of the last days of the infamous James gang and the unraveling and eventual murder of one of America’s original anti-heroes, Jesse James.

Welcome to the advancements of the modern world: the internet, ipods, cell phones and all your favorite TV shows on DVD. So much has changed since our parents were kids. With so much information at my fingertips it's hard for me not to think that I am better educated and have a better understanding of my world than my parents ever had of theirs. However, Solomon's famous saying, "there is nothing new under the sun," just doesn't seem to match up with this sentiment of superiority I feel because of my contemporary experience of all our modern advancements. Aren't there new things under the sun everyday? It often feels like so many things are new that our world is advancing at an exponential rate. The more discoveries and advancements we make, the more discoveries and advancements we are able to make and at a much more rapid pace.

One of the primary interests of rednoW are the questions in which a particular piece of art asks of us - asks of humanity. Though it is a reasonable argument that art does not always exist for these purposes (to ask questions), it is often a starting point.

If you take on the view that the "questions" we ask tend to shape or greatly impact our expierences - shape the way in which we interact with the world, then their role within any creative process seems feasible.

There is something both freeing and frustrating by the fact that we can choose how/if we interact with a particular something. For example: Yesterday, I spent nine hours driving through what is arguably the worst stretch of interstate in America (I-57)... no landscape... no surprises... no Chipotles. If there was a question posed that framed my driving experience - say "Is this in fact the arm pit of our nation?" - then, it is not difficult for me to look for data that supports this claim... or of course - data that refutes it. This reality might be most visible today in our political world... how do we see our potential Presidential candidates? Corrupt? Hopeful? Human? What distinguishes between "actual" and "possible"?

Even Kanye wonders. In his song "Stronger" Kanye asks "do anybody make real shit anymore?" Kanye's question might seem a bit hypocritical coming from a guy who in this very song is sampling from Daft Punk. But I'm not so sure what Kanye, and the "Kanye hands video" (below) that sampled from the "Daft Punk hands video," (also below) are creating isn't "real."

 

During the Academy Awards this past Sunday, after winning the Oscar for Best Song (along with Marketa Irglova) Glen Hansard made a couple quick thank yous as he accepted the award, then ended his brief speech with the call to "make art, make art." This caught me off guard, and I found it to be one of the most beautiful moments of this year's Academy Awards.