Friday
Apr302010
Silly Rigor
Friday, April 30, 2010 at 5:05PM
Lately you can't swing a bag of cats without hitting some media outlet gushing over OK Go's (the indie-band dudes who brought us the ingenious treadmill music video) latest Youtube music video phenomenon.
Why?
Because it's awesome, here it is...
Why post it on a theatre blog? Because to me this elaborate Rube Goldberg machine (a machine with the aim to make a simple task as exceedingly complicated as possible) embodies silly rigor. Silly rigor's one of my favorite terms, and all it means is to take a silly or whimsical idea extremely serious, devoting much time, sweat, and brain power to create something unique.
It's what's made some of my favorite things I've seen this year so powerful and entertaining. Like the production design for Where The Wild Things Are movie, or if anyone's seen the awesome art piece Technicolor Dreambox in one of the +15 windows in the Epcor Centre with the geometric color blocks exploding out of the cube, or the time and care that goes into Ronnie Burkett's marionettes. All very labor intensive, beautiful, handmade feeling work that I find unique and inspiring.
And I think that's why millions have already watched the OK Go video, and why millions more will.
And just for fun, here's their treadmill video...
Why?
Because it's awesome, here it is...
Why post it on a theatre blog? Because to me this elaborate Rube Goldberg machine (a machine with the aim to make a simple task as exceedingly complicated as possible) embodies silly rigor. Silly rigor's one of my favorite terms, and all it means is to take a silly or whimsical idea extremely serious, devoting much time, sweat, and brain power to create something unique.
It's what's made some of my favorite things I've seen this year so powerful and entertaining. Like the production design for Where The Wild Things Are movie, or if anyone's seen the awesome art piece Technicolor Dreambox in one of the +15 windows in the Epcor Centre with the geometric color blocks exploding out of the cube, or the time and care that goes into Ronnie Burkett's marionettes. All very labor intensive, beautiful, handmade feeling work that I find unique and inspiring.
And I think that's why millions have already watched the OK Go video, and why millions more will.
And just for fun, here's their treadmill video...
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