Slog - Comments on Speaking of Geniuses http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses Not only is the kid playing Nixon an unprecedented comic actor, but whoever made this video (and I'm guessing it's the kid playing Nixon) creatively misses(?) reinterprets(?) the Watergate scandal for today's consumption. For example, rather than giving us any of Nixon's famous lines ("I am not a crook"), he gives us "America is safe." America is safe?? This has nothing to do with Watergate...and everything to do with 9/11...which gives the audience a weird lens on today's students trying to make sense of 1973. Weird & beautiful how the lacking understanding of Watergate translates. If this was a project... Copyright 2008 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 13:37:45 -0800 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:07:30 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by fixo I don't know Josh. Certainly there are many many elements of genius here, but no "I am not a crook," no Rosemary Woods, no Deep Throat, no Congressional hearings with Sam Ervin, Howard Baker and the rest? Maybe we will have to await the sequel for things to be filled out a bit.

]]> fixo http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478463 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478463 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:07:59 -0800 Comment by patron Can Jen G. (I'll forget asking Feit)provide some intelligent commentary on this video, because I think it's plain stupid. Pretentious brats. Big deal. Keep Josh away from the art department so we can safely avoid empty platitudes like "off-the-charts brilliant."

]]> patron http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478467 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478467 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:09:27 -0800 Comment by Josh Feit Fixo,
That's what so great about it: They don't have a sense of the plot... and so, they end up reinterpreting the whole thing to make it intelligible for today's consumption & their own. In other words, rather than the "I am not a crook" line... the kid has some weird line about "America is safe" ... which has nothing to do with Watergate and everything to do with 9/11.

]]> Josh Feit http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478474 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478474 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:30:22 -0800 Comment by Andrew Well, there weren't any real credits so it was hard to tell who was who. Was the kid with the weird accent supposed to be Kissinger? Then the narrative was a bit rough, mostly due to having more jump cuts than a David Fincher video, and the dialogue was a little, shall we say, flat. There's lots to love here though, like how they didn't learn their lines and were reading off the script -that was totally rad. I kept expecting one of the kids to say "Line!" just so it would be the cherry on top.

My fave was the disappearing and reappearing moustache. It should get a production deal and a spin off.

]]> Andrew http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478483 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478483 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:50:05 -0800 Comment by patron Thanks, Josh, you've intellectualized the conundrum into the well-worn path of speaking out your artsy ass.

Josh said - "Weird & beautiful how the lacking understanding of Watergate translates."

Did these kids' teachers use the Burroughs cut-up method and mail them to you for promotion?

Please, Josh, avoid being near anyone who has a sense of aesthetics whenever you use the word "beautiful"

]]> patron http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478485 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478485 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:53:12 -0800 Comment by andrew b If you click on that video, there are highly invaluable links to other products by these geniuses (including Part 2 of the Watergate film, which solves many mysteries). My favorite, though, is their movie about Frederick Douglass. I especially like the whipping scene in which both participants crack up.

]]> andrew b http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478488 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478488 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:06:02 -0800 Comment by Josh Feit Patron,

The stars were like totally bleeding poetry.
The stars were like totally bleeding poetry.
And then I knew that I was an artist.

]]> Josh Feit http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478489 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478489 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:06:02 -0800 Comment by fixo well, they might as well have called it The Battle of the Bulge, for all of its fidelity to actual history....I especially liked it when Ehrlichman or Haldeman or whoever it was slapped Nixon, saying "I resign" in a huff. God knows we could have used him to be beaten about the head and shoulders a little bit. As for you Patron, I hope your day goes better from here on out.

]]> fixo http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478490 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/speaking_of_geniuses#c478490 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:07:30 -0800