tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post6656776290726093047..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: Conceptual BlendingBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-49445659077001264262018-06-15T10:05:14.757-07:002018-06-15T10:05:14.757-07:00One of this week’s biggest hit movies is an astoni...One of this week’s biggest hit movies is an astonishingly obvious example of conceptual blending I like to call “Rosemary’s Archie.”<br /><br />The big shocker isn’t in the movie, it’s in the critical reaction. While the film has scored abysmally low with audiences, most critics, many of whom made it and its director a darling of Sundance, are falling all over themselves in praise. Wasn’t Redford in attendance at his own festival to see half of his movie being remade with crawly buggies and stuff?<br />Greg Ehrbarhttp://www.gregehrbar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-51435188472375915722018-06-13T16:10:40.701-07:002018-06-13T16:10:40.701-07:00@E Yarber (belatedly)
Thanks for updating me on th...@E Yarber (belatedly)<br />Thanks for updating me on the Yojimbo question.<br />A mine of useful insights, this place is!Dr Loserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12717234136006844887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-24471749529327800402018-06-13T12:31:32.835-07:002018-06-13T12:31:32.835-07:00One last observation (I hope). When Hollywood rem...One last observation (I hope). When Hollywood remade SEVEN SAMURAI and RASHOMON, Kurosawa didn't sue the filmmakers. The Americans paid in advance for the rights to adapt those stories. The point of the original post was that a creator should be reimbursed for the use of their work, even by someone who claims that another's art is fair game for appropriation. E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-66635422221435717912018-06-13T12:09:36.593-07:002018-06-13T12:09:36.593-07:00Well, now I feel bad; as I should.
My recent entry...Well, now I feel bad; as I should.<br />My recent entry for a screenwriting competition has a scene where my lead character needs information. Anytime something like that comes up, I think of Jack Benny accosting Frank Nelson.<br />"Oh, mister... mister!"<br />"YEEEEEEEEESSSSS?"<br />Figuring that nobody judging the screenplay would have a clue who Jack Benny was, let alone Frank Nelson, I threw in Nelson. All the jokes are mine, but I was tailoring them for that character.<br />Many shows and cartoons have used the character, but that's no excuse. (Although I just used it as one, didn't I?)<br />It's only a half page; but still.<br />I'm one of the first round winners, so I have one (hopefully two) more round(s) to go. I won't be committing that sin again; after all, there are so many other sins to explore.Craig Gustafsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14503925766039307551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-61205574244528374242018-06-13T11:04:28.056-07:002018-06-13T11:04:28.056-07:00We all know how much you love your "gratuitit...We all know how much you love your "gratuititous" Natalie Wood pics ;) But the definitive pic for this post? Mili Vanilli!Janet Ybarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-16647103225351685362018-06-13T09:55:49.866-07:002018-06-13T09:55:49.866-07:00Parody is when you copy (or "evoke") ano...Parody is when you copy (or "evoke") another work in order to demonstrate that work's shortcomings. The most memorable parody case was 2 Live Crew vs Acuff-Rose Music over the former's version of "Pretty Woman". That case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Which brings up the image of 9 old Supreme Court Justices huddled together listening to 2 Live Crew. An image both amusing and frightening. Jeff Boicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14600946876122022978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-91126603573571675492018-06-13T07:21:59.476-07:002018-06-13T07:21:59.476-07:00I apologize for not knowing about the Natalie Wood...I apologize for not knowing about the Natalie Wood thing. I'm sure it's been explained many times, but I've only been a regular follower of this blog for two or three weeks.<br /><br />And yes, she's an excellent choice!The Silver Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00730805376957629641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-15479470437239805602018-06-13T06:02:42.394-07:002018-06-13T06:02:42.394-07:00The New Odd Couple, with Ron Glass and Demond Wils...The New Odd Couple, with Ron Glass and Demond Wilson, got caught recycling scripts from the Tony Randall-Jack Klugman show, in one of the weirder steals I know of.<br /><br />Also, MAD Magazine is or was recycling old Dave Berg "Lighter Side of..."s and giving them new, darker captions. It's the same magazine, but...?<br /><br />One can certainly argue that, with a the press of a button or two, whole passages can be lifted from a song to augment another work. I say, if you pay for it, go on, but I would also argue that it takes a special set of ears to hear something and re-use it. Some samples can be pretty far flung.<br /><br />However, the CONCEPT goes way, way back. In 1460, Guillame Dufay (well before his star turns in "Soap" and "Benson") composed "Missa L'Homme Arme", which was a Mass, based on the melody of a popular song, called "The Armed Man", hence the name. <br /><br />Charlie Parker in 1942 (Well before his breakout role as Sissy Knox in "A Mighty Wind"), recorded a song called "Koko" which used the same chord progression as "Cherokee" by Ray Noble.<br /><br />Digital sampling is not the same as "analog" sampling, but the concept is not new.<br /><br />FRIDAY QUESTIONS: I just re-watched the great Cheers episode "Smotherly Love", credited to Kathy Ann Stumpe. Do you have any anecdotes or recollections of her? There is not a lot on the internet about her.<br /><br />Also, if the writer's room morale is low, what have you done or what have you seen done that breaks the bad mood?<br /><br />Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17850672682992802562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-42689546526412379462018-06-12T23:55:25.340-07:002018-06-12T23:55:25.340-07:00In my romcom "Stand Tall!", I have an ho...In my romcom "Stand Tall!", I have an homage scene. Scientist Keswick Fletcher has been kidnapped and hopes Colleen Cossitt, the waitress he accidentally made more than 16 feet tall, will come to his rescue, although they've had a falling out when she learned he owed a six-figure gambling debt. He imagines Colleen coming to the one-story house where he's being held, lifting the roof off <i>a la</i> the 1958 "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman," picking him up and carrying him to safety. What actually happens is something else entirely, but what I hope is emotionally satisfying.VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-86839620742977937982018-06-12T21:54:23.051-07:002018-06-12T21:54:23.051-07:00One of the surest of tests is the way in which a p...One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest. - T. S. Eliot<br />Quote "lifted" from https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/Geoff Garvoillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-10526767974110088222018-06-12T21:41:46.484-07:002018-06-12T21:41:46.484-07:00To me, parody (in the sense of setting new words t...To me, parody (in the sense of setting new words to preexisting music) is not a "failed homage"; the great work of Frank Jacobs, which I was exposed to as a kid reading <i>Mad</i> magazine, could never be called that.<br /><br />The best example of pastiche I can think of is "Kitty's Back" (1973) on Bruce Springsteen's second album. It has a definite life of its own but clearly was assembled from other musical sources.gottacooknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-66915239580471610332018-06-12T20:31:03.673-07:002018-06-12T20:31:03.673-07:00The Silver Fox said...
I, too, am wondering what i...<i> The Silver Fox said...<br />I, too, am wondering what inspired this post, and how the delectable Natalie Wood figures into things. True, she did appear in West Side Story which borrowed its plot from Romeo and Juliet, but I don't think that was your reason for placing her photo atop your post.</i><br /><br />Ken has explained, many (though apparently not enough) times that when he can't find an appropriate illustration for a column, he runs a photo of Natalie Wood. Why Natalie Wood? LOOK at her!Todd Everettnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-20516962187631991052018-06-12T19:39:36.563-07:002018-06-12T19:39:36.563-07:00John Lennon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_To...John Lennon <br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Together#Lawsuit<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Xmas_(War_Is_Over)#CompositionAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-13921944114077269392018-06-12T16:22:09.830-07:002018-06-12T16:22:09.830-07:00Donald Trump has stolen his entire persona from th...Donald Trump has stolen his entire persona from the character of Biff Tannen in Back to the Future Part II.Peternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-41668851328333794112018-06-12T15:47:34.071-07:002018-06-12T15:47:34.071-07:00Homage is passing off a ripoff as a compliment. Pa...Homage is passing off a ripoff as a compliment. Parody is what you call a failed homage. Deconstruction is what you say when your parody isn't funny.DBensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01144515471557731622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-84350885310139915092018-06-12T15:45:01.449-07:002018-06-12T15:45:01.449-07:00I usually encounter the word pastiche in reference...I usually encounter the word pastiche in reference to serious attempts to create a persuasive Sherlock Holmes story in the style of Doyle. It originated as something of a sport among dedicated readers -- possibly the original fan fiction. "The Seven Percent Solution" likely qualifies, as Nicholas Meyer strives to keep in the Doyle style (as filtered through Watson's narration) even though the story itself runs up against some of the real stories. The excellent Mary Russell novels by Laurie King are not pastiches, even though she's very scrupulous about Sherlockian detail and she has a first-person narrator. The difference is that Russell is very much the focus of the books, and she explores themes and subjects far from Doyle's proper Victorian universe. DBensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01144515471557731622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-62763218289219387052018-06-12T15:11:04.648-07:002018-06-12T15:11:04.648-07:00Someone used the term conceptual blending and I th...Someone used the term conceptual blending and I thought it was bullshit. <br /><br />For new readers of my blog -- if I can't find an appropriate photo for that day's post I always post a picture of Natalie Wood. By Ken Levinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-17059550850595777312018-06-12T14:46:02.104-07:002018-06-12T14:46:02.104-07:00Let me clarify that a little more. Two people can...Let me clarify that a little more. Two people can draw creatively from the same well and have independent works of art as a result. If one person uses the other AS the well they draw from, it's theft.E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-24880307061597753172018-06-12T14:37:02.652-07:002018-06-12T14:37:02.652-07:00Kurosawa sued Leone and won. Akira K. got Asian d...Kurosawa sued Leone and won. Akira K. got Asian distribution rights to the film and 15% of the worldwide gross. Clint Eastwood, who saw the project as a career breakthrough, had to wait a few years before FISTFUL could be released in the US, since no one would distribute it until the legal issues were settled. Not a good case for plagiarism.<br /><br />I'd consider Kurosawa's RAN and THRONE OF BLOOD interpretations of Shakespeare rather than outright theft. Neither of them simply transposes the originals on a surface level but are fully developed symbolically from the inside, just as Grigori Kozintsev made masterful adaptations of KING LEAR and HAMLET with translations into Russian by Boris Pastrernak and music by Dimitri Shostakovich. Joyce's ULYSSES may use incidents from Homer as templates for the action of the book, but James could hardly be accused of coasting on another's writing.<br /><br />Now, there are legal aspects to this in the present day (I myself am trying to prevent a guy from pretending he owns work of mine he didn't pay for), but there are also aesthetic issues involved. <br /><br />I spent this morning at the Getty observing two exhibits that explore art within different perspectives. One was a collection of ancient Greek and Roman art depicting Egyptian figures, juxtaposed with ancient Egyptian art depicting Greek and Roman figures. You were seeing many of the same icons viewed through drastically different mindsets. In another building was a series of drawings Rembrandt had done of art that came from India, back when you had to physically copy a piece instead of drag it to Kinkos. This really WAS creative blending, as Rembrandt's style came through in his drawings of Eastern potentates and in turn introduced him to artistic devices he could employ in original works later.<br /><br />These are cases of drawing from the same well and coming up with different flavors, like Sinatra singing "Be Careful, it's My Heart" after Crosby introduced the number in HOLIDAY INN. It's not the same as taking someone else's inspiration and bringing nothing to it yourself. E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-70306631741181041752018-06-12T14:33:42.908-07:002018-06-12T14:33:42.908-07:00I, too, am wondering what inspired this post, and ...I, too, am wondering what inspired this post, and how the delectable Natalie Wood figures into things. True, she did appear in <i>West Side Story</i> which borrowed its plot from <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, but I don't think that was your reason for placing her photo atop your post.The Silver Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00730805376957629641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-74434993560414784172018-06-12T12:28:28.687-07:002018-06-12T12:28:28.687-07:00Friday question: how do you feel about pastiches? ...Friday question: how do you feel about pastiches? (Supplementary: what differentiates an hommage from a pastiche?)<br /><br />As noted by Dana King, above, it's quite possible to do an hommage (within the legal terms of "fair usage," which I agree can be a little tricky) without resorting to outright theft.<br /><br />To take an example. and I have no idea whatsoever how the contractual arrangements were sorted, "A Fistful of Dollars" is very clearly an hommage to Yojimbo. That very fact is allegedly one of the reasons that Clint Eastwood signed up to it. But, even though there are a remarkable number of obvious rip-offs, I wouldn't actually claim it to be theft.<br /><br />Interestingly, Sergio Leone (whose political motto was probably "All Property Is Theft," just to muddy the waters) described it as "a thematic debt." Which is pretty much like claiming that Kurosawa's Ran has a "thematic debt" to King Lear, to which it was obviously an hommage.<br /><br />E Yarber might well be right. Times are different now.You don't need to acknowledge your sources on the Internet, and if you did, nobody would even care, because quite frankly the number of people who (to sustain the two cases above) know about classic Japanese cinema, or even Shakespeare, is dwarfed by the number of people who don't care and just consume, consume, consume. Just as long as they don't have to pay for the privilege.<br /><br />(Well, that got bitter very fast, didn't it?)Dr Loserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12717234136006844887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-65755570191410556702018-06-12T12:15:50.348-07:002018-06-12T12:15:50.348-07:00I'd like to know in what category we should pu...I'd like to know in what category we should put David Baldacci's books about John Puller a tall, smart, MP. MikeNnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-37796979493113231172018-06-12T11:05:24.989-07:002018-06-12T11:05:24.989-07:00As a musician, I kind of want to make a small rema...As a musician, I kind of want to make a small remark here. <br /><br />Although I agree that sampling has had a troubled past, nowadays the music industry has evolved to a point where most samples for commercial productions are officially licensed. When you hear a sample in a modern pop or hip hop song, the copyright owners (both mechanical and compositional rights) have given permission for their song to be used in this way and have been paid in full. <br /><br />Take for instance 'Somebody that I used to know', the huge Gotye hit from 2011. Before releasing the song, he made an agreement with Louis Bonfa's estate to use the two-note sample in exchange for 50% of the royalties. Considering how well that song did, I wouldn't say that they were shortchanged.<br /><br />Of course, there will always be people who sample without permission, but they usually get caught and are forced to pay. (Also: screw those guys.)<br /><br />Leaving all that aside, love the blog Ken!Sebastiaannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-86013596715857123772018-06-12T10:55:49.721-07:002018-06-12T10:55:49.721-07:00Yep, Van Halen took Tone Loc (Remember him?) to co...Yep, Van Halen took Tone Loc (Remember him?) to court--and won-- because he lifted "Jamie's Cryin'" for his hit "Wild Thing."<br /><br />Didn't we all learn plagliarism is bad in high school?Janet Ybarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-2922810483068665162018-06-12T10:53:38.011-07:002018-06-12T10:53:38.011-07:00Hi Ken,
On Saturday I had posted a Friday questio...Hi Ken,<br /><br />On Saturday I had posted a Friday question asking your view on "weirdos" who try out their gags on Hollywood community.<br /><br />And just now I found out they hit big time :)<br /><br />That weirdo gang called "Yes Theory" has challenged Will Smith to bungee jumping out of a helicopter. And guess what? Will Smith accepted. And guess who will be flying the helicopter? Tom Cruise.<br /><br />Here is the link to Will Smith's YouTube video where he accepts the challenge.<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLt_4e6MthU&t=3s<br /><br /><br />That group do act weirdly sometimes but they generally spread positive message to the community. You can check their channel too:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxeVJGVR6iI<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/user/PracProcrastination/videos<br /><br />Marknoreply@blogger.com