Cyanide-free Cult of MaHKU
I’ve been swamped since I moved to Amsterdam. Swamped with my Masters degree, with my new job, with my new apartment, with my new life. I love it all … and my new apartment is just dreamy.
Anyways, for my digital concepts class, all of us editorial design students have had to create a blog, directly or indirectly relevant to our masters projects. I created Cult of MaHKU on Blogger (It’s always good to switch things up … and by the way, stick to WordPress as Blogger is horrendous in comparison).
And so I was thinking to myself earlier, “What should I blog about on Café Solo?” … and it occurred to me: “I could blog about my other blog.”
So here it is … Enter the Cult of MaHKU
Total visual enlightenment. At least that’s the point x
Period film posters (meet popular culture)
THE OTHER DAY, I selected a handful of film posters, on the premise they accurately captured an essence of the popular culture (and/or popular factions) in Western cinema at the time.
On a totally separate note, I found a really interesting site that hyper-analyses themes, issues and ideas in cinema. Images: A journal of film and popular culture is an interesting site for a film buff of any degree, purely on the basis of the random information available on the site and also the analysis of relatively obscure ideas and subject matter. The information isn’t organised as thematically or methodically as it could be, but there is some cool stuff on the site. The “In Focus” feature this week is sure to bring tears to the eyes of any warm-blooded North American that grew up in the 60s, 70 or 80s watching old Westerns after school or late at night: “30 Great Westerns.” Ummm, can somebody say John Wayne?
The features on the site more academically written than journalism, but the benefit of that is that its well-researched and methodically analysed or deconstructed. I’ve found a number of must-read articles on the site that I must recommend to anyone that considers themself a cinema enthusiast of any degree …
• “Monster at the Soda Shop: Teenagers and Fifties Horror Films”
• “Cleopatra Jones: 007(Blaxploitation, James bond and Reciprocal Co-optation)**
• “Billy Wilder: About Film Noir” and “Samuel Fuller: About Film Noir” (These are both interviews)
**This article about “Blaxploitation” (The exploitation of black people) in the cinema is a really interesting read.
On a separate note, for anyone studying or interested in the study of popular culture in cinema, this page from the English Department at Berkeley University in California, lists some good resources and links. It’s a starting point. I’m working on a project encompassing this sort of stuff. If anyone knows of any good resources in the realm of iconogaphy, cinema and popular culture — please get in touch. –Saba
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