Zombisquatsi

Godfrey Reggio, creator of Koyaanisquatsi and Powasqquatsi has made an 8-minute film of children's faces as they watch television. Godfrey says of the film:

Unlike people in a movie theatre, where images are projected onto a screen, television viewers become prey to the television’s own light impulses, they go into an altered state - a transfixed condition where the eyes, the mind, the breathing of the subject is clearly under the control of an outside force. In a poetic sense and without exaggerating one might say that the television technology is eating the subjects who sit before its gaze.

Immediately, this scene from Truffaut's 400 Blows came to mind:



Evidence of the difference between television and LIVE performance?

"Terror Baby"

Rachel Maddow celebrates Barack Obama's 50th birthday (which was yesterday) with a send-up/mash-up of all the "birther" conspiracies. Pretty funny until she gets to the part about how politicians and commentators are STILL hawking confusion and fear about Obama's birth, even after the release of his birth certificate.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Shilling With and For the Children

Santorum is NEVER going to let you forget he has a lot of children. (See post below for older family pic.) This is his new Iowa campaign video.

Suffer the Children

Rick Santorum is on the stump arguing against early childhood education, well, all public education it seems. Here's a choice nugget:

“We need to get the federal government out of that business. We need a leader in Washington to start talking with the states and the communities to rally parents to demand that the educational establishment in this country start meeting the needs of their child, not children. See, that is the difference. Obviously, socialists love children, just like they love people in groups of one million or more,” he said.

This seemed like a good excuse (not that we needed one), to look at this photo of Santorum's family again. The photo was taken during his concession speech after losing his Senate bid in 2006.



It never gets old.