Yesterday, Mr Moth talked about the foundation of the King Kong myth. Today he concludes with a look at the reinvention and retelling of it in later years.
All posts by Thom Willis
King Kong – The Eighth Wonder
In the first of two posts, Mr Moth examines the enduring legacy of Hollywood’s greatest monster, King Kong.
Mostly Pop – March 2014
Another month goes by, and MrMoth once again plunges into the crystal clear waters of pop music and emerges with pearls for your delight and wonder.
Mostly Pop February 2014
Like a dog we’ve trained to say “Sausages”, MrMoth is back with a string of pop reviews in his own, shall we say inimitable style?
Never Knowingly Soft-sold
With John Lewis making actual headlines with its Christmas adverts, Mr Moth takes a look that is both wry and sideways at this season’s big television commercials.
Mostly Pop November 2013
Seemingly gluttonous for punishment, Mr Moth is back to review a selection of this month’s singles releases. This time there are tracks from 1D, Britney, Robbie and other, less easily abbreviated, artists. Some of them are even quite good! Not many, but some!
We’re all going to be together in the dark
by Mr Moth
I know you like it, Americans, but you do Hallowe’en all wrong. For a start, there’s the costumes. They’re supposed to be scary, you can’t just wear any old fancy dress. Going to a Hallowe’en party as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz is just not on, unless you’re basically admitting a deep-seated fear of gay icons. Trick or Treat? Well, that’s debatable and I don’t know who’s right or wrong but I can tell you now that ACTUALLY GOING THROUGH WITH THE TRICK IS BAD. Don’t do that. Changing your Twitter avatar to a spooky skull on the first of October? TOO SOON. The most egregious affront to Hallowe’en, however, has occurred only recently and in an unlikely spot – cable television.
You see, American Horror Story: Murder House was first broadcast on FX in the United States on the fifth of October. The second series, Asylum, premiered on the 17th of October. And Coven, the third series, began on the ninth of October. Is it too much to ask that a series so steeped in American (and, for that matter, European) horror tradition premieres on the 31st of October? Or at least as near as possible?
Saints and Winners
Last week saw the release of Grand Theft Auto V. A month before that, a smaller fanfare heralded the release of Saints Row IV. Mr Moth talks about why the former may not outclass the latter.
You already own Grand Theft Auto V (the V is important, symbolically – a hook for promotion, it is a V sign for peace, it is a V sign for fuck you). You might not have the game in your house. You might not have a console on which to play it. You might not ever have considered buying either of these things. But you own it. We all do.
I know what you’re thinking – “You’re blathering, Moth, creating an ominous philosophical generalisation into which you’re attempting to gather the whole of society simply for existing at the same time as a tinpot piece of cultural flotsam that matters only to a relatively small section of society!” To which I say – Well, yeah, a bit, but I’m going somewhere with this. Also, now that we’ve established that I can read your mind, maybe you’d better keep your thoughts nice while I talk, eh?
Mostly Pop August 2013
by Mr Moth
Lady Gaga – Applause
This is more like it. After the frankly lacklustre Born This Way (the singles were… OK, but frustratingly short of the brilliance The Fame/Monster threw out with unthinking abandon, and the album tracks were terrible), this first shot from Artpop promises much.
Supposedly rush-released following leaks – at which point Gaga declared a POP EMERGENCY, and who are we to argue? – Applause barrels into the room and bashes you with hooks until you beg for mercy and no more hookings, please. Your eyes hurt from the hooks. Handclaps, crowd noise, a bit where is goes quiet then comes back in… textbook. Magic. And isn’t it nice to have a pop star who really loves pop and wants to interrogate it? Who lives an examined megastar life? The self-awareness, the wit, the flamboyance and a load of cracking tunes make Gaga the most important pop star on the planet right now, and that’s before I get to the video.
But That’s Not All
by Mr Moth
If, like me, you ever find yourself staring at the on-screen TV guide for so long that all you can hum for the next day is the background lift-funk, you’ll know the lure of the more, shall we say esoteric?, stations available towards the top end of the channel range. I’m not talking about the ones with almost-naked ladies looking bored and waggling a vintage cordless phone at the camera, nor the ones with grainy, sweat-soaked footage of a preacher telling people off for being very naughty in the sight of God. I’m talking about the shopping channels. A whole range of actual TV stations that exist purely to sell, sell, sell. Given that this is like watching regular commercial television without that ridiculous “content” getting in the way of the sweet, sweet advert breaks, what actual incentive could there be for a normal human being tuning in? Why would anyone ever switch to Thane Direct of their own volition?
The answer, of course, is that there is gold in the gold-digging. Between frantic sales pitches, bamboozling product demonstrations and artless time-filling, there are spaces where the mere act of selling you a food processor transcends commerce and becomes art.
Of a sort.
MostlyFilm 