First things first (as though I've not spent enough freaking time on astronomy already): you all need to get over to CICLOPS asap and check out the mindblowing new images Cassini took of Iapetus on a recent flyby. I've always wanted to see real life images of the half-light half-dark celestial curiosity to compare to the ones I've had in my head since reading of Capitan Bowman visiting the sadly fictional alien monolith planted on it's surface in Arthur C. Clarke's A Space Odyssey - but the pictures still manage to surpass all reasonable expectations. Passing by the moon at an incredible distance of only 1000 miles, Cassini is beginning to unravel some of the questions astronomers have had about the moon for hundreds of years - but don't let me spoil it for you, go check out the site!
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So as someone who generally gets acutely agitated when advertising targeting my subconscious is so crass as to make me consciously aware of it's intentions, I have to say I've been pleased with recent innovations like the easily ignorable yet highly profitable text ads of Google's World Domination Department, or similarly, TiVo and it's imatators - though in recognizing that many viewers are simply fast forwarding through commercials, most major broadcasting companies are now injecting jarring and tasteless ads straight into their featured programs. But that's for another post.
No, what's bothering me is that I seem to be lost in the gray area between Alternate Reality Games, which I see as being the future of entertainment, and "Viral Marketing", an exploitation of the fresh ideas presented by the ARG genre. I remember being initially intrigued by ads for EA's Majestic alternate reality game a good 8 years ago or so, but I also remember it being a colossal failure, tainting my opinion of the form for many years to come. It didn't help that my next encounter with alternate reality games was through marketing campaigns for two absolutely loathsome projects: Halo 2 (I Love Bees) and Steven Spielberg's perversion of Stanley Kubrick's AI (The Beast). Little did I know that these two projects were considered not only massively successful, but definitive examples of the ARG form, a fact that came to me only after being ensnared by the excellent Nine Inch Nails ARG. Which leads us conveniently to a short interlude on one of my favorite recording artists.
While it's clear through the sloppiness of the performance in the above video that Trent and Co. are still adjusting to the recent complete re-definition of the band's sound (i.e. the human rhythm section getting sacked, unfortunately resulting in the loss of Josh Freeze from Devo and The Magnificent Twigster from Marilyn Manson's old band, probably the two most talented musicians of Trent's 05-06 live group), I'm actually pretty excited by this development. While it's definitely going to alienate American audiences accustomed to NIN's big guitar sound - popular opinion regarding his new album, from what I've heard around Southern California anyways, is that it's too "electronic" - it suggests along with Trent's sobriety and expanded lyrical themes that he may actually be shaping the Nails into a group with vitality and meaning, something his post-Spiral material has been acutely lacking. His focus and vision is actually inspiring, something I feared I would never be able to say about Mr. Reznor again.
Coupled with the remarkably clear statement of intentionally excluding North America in his tour supporting Year Zero, as well as his mastering the operation of modern electronic compositional tools for the first time in over a decade (look at him go behind that laptop!), now being able to achieve his artistic vision on his own terms rather than those of some knob-twiddling hired hand, it's no surprise he's made enough waves to put him back in the headlines - stories of both his Year Zero ARG and his command to Australian fans to steal any high bitrate rips of his music they can find online have found themselves in wide circulation. The sequel to YZ is due out next year, and there were talks of a movie that have now moved to talk of a television series based on the YZ concept - and once it's all over, NIN will be free of it's contract with Universal and Trent will be able to construct his vision of entirely listener-supported music, distributing his work himself through his website and by sending copies direct to record stores (of which he is perfectly capable considering his personal wealth). I know I'm sounding a bit unnecessarily excited about an aging 90's rock dinosaur, but don't take my word for it when I say he's doing inspired work again: make up your own mind by taking him up on his dare to download his music for free and hit up this Year Zero torrent.
But back on topic, what alerted me to the importance of the Halo 2 and AI alternate reality games was some curious investigation into the company that developed the NIN ARG, 42 Entertainment, founded by Jordan Weisman in 2003. After jumping into the gaming industry with his re-invigorating the floundering MechWarrior series in 95, his FASA Interactive taking over production from Microsoft, Weisman was brilliantly poised to make some waves with his revision of the ARG concept, which many companies had been kicking around for years but hadn't figured out how to consistently operate and fund. Guiltlessly taking advertising money from large companies (or from particularly wealthy individuals, as in Trent Reznor's case) desperate to reach consumers through more innovative techniques than the traditional commercial avenues and their declining effectiveness, 42 Entertainment nails all the concepts presented by the initial wave of proto-ARGs: videos, callable phone numbers, real life artifacts, intricately woven + constantly updating web pages advancing a central plot, etcetera.
Their latest endeavor is a viral marketing campaign for the new Batman flick, The Dark Knight, which I don't mind saying that I'm damn stoked for. I noticed the project at San Diego's Comic-Con this year, which made itself rather visible with an army of Joker's minions (fans that had been alerted through the ARG to meet at a specific location at a specific time to help support "the cause") marching back and forth straight through the main floor of the convention, face paint and all. Smoke bombs were released above the convention center downtown by planes thousands of feet above, the ensuing clouds spelling spelling out HA HA HA in enormous letters that could be seen all the way to La Jolla. But I still found myself in need a rationalization to allow myself to get all caught up in these marketing campaigns - the guilt of supporting the advertising machine, regardless of how innovative, was still bothersome to me. That is, until considering that great art has been receiving questionable funding since art became important enough in human culture to require funding: how many of the greatest renaissance artists were paid by patriarchal monarchs or the oppressive and murderously domineering cult of Jesus Christ? More applicably, the first CD I ever purchased at the age of 8 was Prince's soundtrack to Tim Burton's Batman - a comparatively weak piece of work from one of the most important artists of our time, but still a highly influential one to me at that age, and even now to a certain extent. It may have been a blatant marketing ploy, Warner Brothers pooling their resources to make as much money as possible off an already established character. But that doesn't make tracks like Party Man or Electric Chair any less banging, Prince going into full industrial mode to match Burton's vision of Gotham City. Give it a shot if you like: the album cover is linked to a torrent.
On a related note, Bareback Mountain star Heath Ledger is totally playing The Joker in The Dark Knight (he actually looks pretty terrifying in all the promo shots, with his cheeks slit and bleeding in a huge grin), while Harvey Dent is being portrayed in fine fashion by that tobacco company stooge from Thank You For Smoking. While not much else has been leaked regarding the film, Gary Oldman is still on board as Commissioner Gordon, as is Christian Bale of course (sigh). Here's a few links from the ARG and a trailer to tide everybody over till there's some real news:
http://www.rent-a-clown.com/
http://ibelieveinharveydent.warnerbros.com/
http://ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com/
edit: I know I wasn't the only one who wanted to fucking strangle Richard Hogland on Coast to Coast last night. I don't mind wackos being entertained on C2C, but I wish Noory wouldn't support the guy as wholeheartedly as he does; I miss Art's comparative objectivity.
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Now playing: Spacemen 3 - evening of contemporary sitar music
via FoxyTunes
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