Bob McMillan

RIP Kodakchrome. After 75 years, its goodbye analogue, and on to a brave new digital world. Kodak gave the last roll of Kodachrome it ever produced to Steve McCurry. You may know his work through his cover shot of an Afghan girl for National Geographic. You can see what he decided was worth shooting at his blog.

The End of an Era – 1935 to 2010 « Steve McCurry's Blog

Sports Fun

Had enough culture for the day? Good, let's have some fun. Here are 32 Great Calls. No, not blown calls by the referee. Great calls by announcers covering some of the most memorable sporting events of the last 60 years. Some of the clips I've seen many times before, but check out number 6 Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes in 1973. I don't even care about horses, but I know greatness when I see it. The other clip not to be missed is number  7, Victor Hugo Morales on the greatest goal of all time, Diego Maradona’s second goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. You don't have to love soccer to enjoy this one, trust me. What's your favorite clip?

More Film Fun

Think you know your movies? Think again …  This one is from The Guardian UK. Name all 26 films referenced in this short video.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/sep/23/film-season-video-challenge

The next link is a more artistic endeavor by Philip Scott Johnson.
 A short history of Women in Film. http://vimeo.com/1455935 If you like it, don't miss Men in Film. http://vimeo.com/1456206

The New Face of Marketing

Here is an article published in "Marketing Daily" discussing new trends in marketing. If you can wade through the buzz words here is what you should learn.

•There will be a shift from buying impressions to acquiring user data.


This translates into marketers mining your data acquired from
registration forms, Facebook/Open ID plug-ins, web searches etc. and delivering that information to marketers and producers.
•Seamless experience across multiple media.
According to a recent Nielsen study 32% of all mobile activity is related to social media. Marketers will design advertising campaigns to find you no matter where you are and what media device you are using.
•Growth of Apps
The article talks about the change from a wide open web to semi closed platforms. Marketers will try to get you to use the web in the manner that benefits them, not you.

Browser beware!

The Great Depression Ends (75 years too late)

In class we looked at Depression era photographs by Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans. These photographs helped document the migration of farmers from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life. Now the trend is reversing on a somewhat smaller scale, as California migrants to Oklahoma increase. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-10-12-oklahoma12_CV_N.htm Happy days are here again!

No Boundaries

When I was a young lad I thought art was something you went to a museum to see. It hung on a wall in a frame, or perhaps as statue on a pedestal. Then one day I opened a magazine and saw a picture like the one above. I had heard a description of "Running Fence" and thought "give me a break - that's not art". Then I saw the pictures. It was a life changing experience. For me, it removed so many boundaries of what art could be, but also the boundaries of what I could be. The act of viewing this picture gave me permission to be creative. I found out the artists name were Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Their website describes their work as "temporary large scale environmental works that include elements of painting, sculpture architecture and urban planning". I would describe their work as surprising, lyrical and powerful.

I've been lucky enough to see one of their works in person. In 2005 I drove to New York City in a blinding snow storm to see "The Gates". Here was a work of art so powerful that it made jaded New Yorkers behave nicely towards tourists. You can see that work at Christo's and Jeanne-Claude's website. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is currently holding an exhibition entitled "Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence". The exhibit ends September 26th, 2010. While it is not the same as seeing the work in person, it is probably the next best thing. Go.

Film Links

People love to compile lists of their favorite things; movies, novels, rock bands etc. They then proceed to argue about what was left out, what was included and how the order you listed them in is all wrong. Here is my short list of lists of what some critics and viewers rate as the best movies of all time.
First a list of lists - http://www.filmsite.org/greatfilmssummary.html

This one is by the American Film Institute
It is one of the most quoted and well thought of, but it concentrates on American film. Here is a totally slanted list by the voters on Internet Media Database – people had their favorites and stuffed the ballot box, and here are the results.
This is also from IMDB. If money talks, then these are the two lists for you.
http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross
http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross?region=world-wide
This list is adjusted for inflation.
This one is a list of lists from Channel 4 in England.
Here is a list by of all things, George Clooney’s dad. Unlike Spinal Tap, it goes all the way up to 20.
Here is another truly bizarre list from Merry Olde England. When I say bizarre I mean that “There Will be Blood” is not number two on any list, with the possible exception of a list of over the top Daniel Day Lewis roles – “Gangs of New York” would of course be number one.

This one is also oddly skewed because it is the work of only two people: Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel of Time Magazine. The best thing about this list is that it includes many foreign films and list all films alphabetically, therefore listing Aguirre: the Wrath of God as the greatest movie ever made.
A great place to go for movie reviews and info - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
One of my favorite film critics Roger Ebert - http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/

"Dog Bites Man" is News, Why Photography Matters

 Photographer Charles Moore passed away on March 11, 2010. He is noted for his photographic work documenting the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. Many readers may not recognize the name of Charles Moore, but his photographs found a nationwide audience in Life Magazine, and are credited in helping hasten the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is hard to imagine now in our multichannel media wonderland what an impact an 11 page photo essay in Life Magazine could have in the United States. With circulation topping 13 million, it is estimated that half the adult population, including the political leaders of the country read Life Magazine. According to noted historian Arthur Schlesinger, “The photographs of Bull Connor's police dogs lunging at the marchers in Birmingham did as much as anything to transform the national mood and make legislation not just necessary, . . . but possible."


Charles Moore was born and raised in the south, and was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. While photographing the Civil Rights Movement, he was both beaten and arrested by supporters of segregation. Moore’s photographic style included the use of wide angle lenses that required him to get closer to the action than many of the other photographers. According to a March 2005 interview in The Montgomery Advertiser, Moore recalled some of the events of the “Bloody Sunday” riots in Birmingham during 1965. After witnessing a policeman club a black woman with a wooden baton Moore recalled “that was a moment that really made me angry that someone would club a woman…made me angry that people could treat other people like that. It was emotional. I thought it was important to photograph those police with dogs attacking people.”

Many of the landmarks of the civil rights movement were covered by Moore while under contract to the Black Star Publishing, Inc. In 1989 Moore received the first Kodak Crystal Eagle Award For Impact In Photojournalism. From the arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama in 1958 and James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi in 1962, to protests in Birmingham, Alabama and marches in Selma his photographic images form a road map of the Civil Rights Movement.