Kings Norton Canal Junction, May 12th
I’ve been getting very very self-critical of my photos of late. This is a good thing, I feel, though it does mean I can come back from a jaunt with very little, if anything, deemed worthy of public consumption. Today eight photos had the mustard. Either it was a good day or I’m slacking.
In other news I spent most of the morning crawling under a stage sweeping up dust. My snot was black.
Job interview on Monday. First one since about 2002, I think. I need to buy a shirt.
Link of the day: Horizon documentary from 1981 on Richard Feynman. Not only wonderful stuff (key quote: “the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something”) but the style of the piece seems revolutionary. Fifty minutes of talking head with no narration, no music and no fancy editing. This is what factual TV should be, and it turns out used to be, like.
“Fifty minutes of talking head with no narration, no music and no fancy editing. This is what factual TV should be, and it turns out used to be, like.”
Oh God yes, yes, yes.
The amount of potentially interesting documentaries made fucking unwatchable these days through pointlessly bizarre camera angles, effects or editing or, God help us, reconstructions is just depressing. If the footage of talking heads isn’t sufficiently interesting then YOU’RE TALKING TO THE WRONG PEOPLE! But if you’ve chosen an interesting subject and you’ve got articulate people with a knowledge of that subject to talk about it then, that’s it, your job is done. Make sure there’s film in the camera and Professor Clever is in focus but beyond that just don’t fuck around with it.
More on names and words and knowing things in the ‘What is Science?’ lecture on this site:
http://www.feynmanonline.com
It’s in the Life and Science section.