Questions and Answers from the Community. It doesn't. The page that you see when you ask a new question is the page that everyone will see. Iran Has Pivoted to Video. The classic US stereotype of attempted Iranian ideological indoctrination via chants of “Death to America” and such has been old hat for quite some time. As noted by the New York Times on Saturday, in the past few years Iranian pro- government propaganda efforts have increasingly taken the form of rap videos glorifying the country’s military, spread on sites like local You. Tube equivalent Apparat and apps like Telegram. The Times rounded up some of the most high- profile attempts to appeal to the nation’s youth by pairing Iranian rappers with sweeping shots of military personnel and CGI- infused battle scenes, some of which are pretty over- the- top. They’re fascinating to watch, especially at a time when the current presidential administration has gone full hawk on Iran. They’re also more than a little uncomfortable, both because they show an oppressive government’s approach to a digitized era of propaganda and, if we’re being honest, they do kind of resemble pro- military media produced in places like the US. One video highlighted by the paper features Amir Tataloo, a musician with a “hard- partying, gangster- style reputation,” who extolled “our absolute right / to have an armed Persian gulf” while singing alongside naval personnel on the frigate Damavand. The Simpsons fans may notice a strong “Yvan Eht Nioj” vibe.)Another video from last year, titled “We Will Resist,” cost $2. US fighter jets bombing a mosque by a sunny beach, flanked by newly constructed oil refineries. A battalion of Iranian youth carrying flags retaliate by charging towards the water, conjuring up a gigantic tidal wave which sinks the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Another released in 2. ![]() ![]() Seraj Cyberspace Organization, which is affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Basij volunteer militia, shows Iranian- backed fighters in Syria taking the fight to ISIS insurgents flying the terror group’s infamous black flag. The video features Hamid Zamani, who the Times noted was the mastermind behind the anti- imperialist song “USA.”“By Zaynab, we are the defenders of Damascus!” the singer croons as a sniper takes out an ISIS fighter in slow- motion. Husayn’s sister calls us to the Golden Shrine / How can the flames of death possibly set it ablaze?”Another Iranian propaganda effort highlighted by the Times was the 9. CGI action film Battle of the Persian Gulf II, which stars an animated version of Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Suleimani annihilating US troops and naval forces.“The Americans threaten us, we want to say, ‘If you attack us, if you dare to do so, a rain of hot melted lead will be poured on you,” co- creator Farhad Azimi told the paper. The American aircraft carriers, vessels and warships will be sunk and converted into beautiful aquariums in the bed of the Persian Gulf.”So yeah, all this is unsettling.
But again, lest Americans get too high on their horses about this, the US military- industrial complex, its marketing partners and Hollywood filmmakers have basically been doing higher- budget versions of the same thing for decades. One of the more obvious examples is the NFL, where flashy flyovers with high- tech military jets, troops marching with flags and even camouflage jersey sales have been a fixture for years, and the military has pumped tens of millions of dollars into patriotic displays at sports games. Others include the close relationship between the military and the video game industry, or its tight collaboration with the movie industry. Indications are strong President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking ways to back out of the US- Iran nuclear deal, per CNBC, which would set the stage for tensions to escalate rapidly—though with stakes a good bit realer than CGI tsunamis and bullet time. [New York Times]. This TV Backlighting System Fucked Me Up. This is opulence. Suddenly, there is extra light blasting from behind my TV screen, making a day- glow title sequence positively atomic. The Dream. Screen, a backlighting system that’s designed to make your TV viewing more immersive, is a luxury that I absolutely don’t need. In theory, the supplementary lights change color based on the pixels on the TV screen for an “immersive theater experience.” In practice, it’s an overstimulating, distracting, nauseating novelty, and I can’t get enough of this shit. What is it? A group of LEDs on the back of a television that make viewing more immersive. Like. Those lights are very pretty. No Like. It can be really distracting and there are a lot of wires. I’m a fan of the Phillips Hue wireless LED lights, and find the ability to change the color of my room with my phone delightful. Dream. Screen, loosely based on the original Philips Hue- adjacent Ambilux television, works in the same vein, so I was keen on it. I do a lot of stupid things to entertain myself, like acquiring a 5. Samsung television with a gimmicky curved display. Dream. Screen seemed like an upgrade. I was naive. I didn’t realize how much I could loathe and love one product. Depending on what kind of TV you have, the kit costs between $1. HD or 4. K, and the size of your screen). The setup is a small feat in and of itself. There are chunky LED light strips to tape to the back of a TV, differently spaced depending on the size of your tv (there’s a guide). There’s a smartphone app that works with your wi- fi to download and set up. Then you need to plug your video source into the video input of the round HDMI splitter, and plug the output into your TV. There are also two optional “sidekick” lights for extra glow ($6. This thing takes up three fucking outlets. Get ready for a wire rat king. You do get the “bigger, brighter” TV the product’s website promises, but the lights don’t exactly extend the screen space; they sometimes echo, and sometimes compliment the colors of pixels around the very edges of your screen, sending rays of color from behind your television across your walls in time with whatever is on. In the case of a dramatic explosion, this is all very sensible, as a good part of your wall will look onfire. It really shines with material intended to be trippy—like whatever the hell that was in episode eight of Twin Peaks: The Return (above), or that psychedelic 2. A Space Odyssey sequence. The more you give it—pink and blue neons, deep reds—the more you get. But it can be confounding in undramatic sequences, with bright blurry bits of clothes and other immovable objects echoing off screen, like dislocated fuzzy chunks. Daylight and black- and- white sequences result in a bright bluish- white screen halo. Letterboxing also presents an obvious, chasmic problem—gaps. I want to emphasize the visual loudness of this thing. Even at the lowest brightness, without the two sidekicks, the Dream. Screen is really bright. I like to watch movies in complete darkness and concentrate on the screen. With the Dream. Screen, the entire room is illuminated, including the dirty laundry in the far corner that I’m trying to ignore. Say you’re the type of person with serious respect for cinematography. The screen bleeding out of the frame in blurry puddles every which way might not be what the cinematographer intended. Despite and because of its flaws, this truly is an accessory of visual excess. There’s also the product’s weird “health benefits” claim that it “reduces digital eye strain.” The claim cites a single 2. TV not hurt your eyes so much. But the study also says that these results are “modest” and sometimes even the opposite. Speaking from personal experience, staring into a significantly brighter TV area is the opposite—my eyes ache after a while. So I wouldn’t take this study very seriously. Where Dream. Screen really shines is gaming. I sit closer to the TV while I game and my focus is more sharply drawn to specific sections of the screen. This position allows the peripheral edges of the game space to blend with the Dream. Screen light extensions and I’m significantly more immersed, just as Dream. Screen wanted. When I’m not watching the entire screen, the patchiness of Dream. Screen’s illumination isn’t a big deal. It’s also more dynamic because more is happening faster, so it’s swishing around me. That’s neat. For most everything else, it’s immersive, but kind of like watching TV wasted is immersive. You’re going to get pulled into the light. You’ll want to squint. Your eyes might skid. You might ask yourself, do I really need to do this? Am I enjoying it? Why am I doing this? Excess and novelty are perfectly good reasons to try something. Getting overwhelmed and bored is a great reason to stop. Until then, the trick is getting used to something completely unnecessary. Awhile back, I saw Wonder Woman in 4. DX, which is extra 3. D, with moving theater seats and “effects.” For two hours in the theater the seat jostled me back and forth and gently spit water into my hair. It was completely unnecessary. But now I wonder, how am I supposed to watch another movie again without steamy, bumpy smell- o- vision? I wasn’t even sure I liked 4. DX, but I’m going back, obviously. Maybe I want to be thrown around. Maybe I’ll always want a “bigger, brighter” TV. Maybe I want to be perpetually overstimulated by entertainment technology. Maybe I want bright lights strapped to the back of my TV, for extra explosions. Nothing in life is perfect. A lot of the things aren’t even good. I think this thing is bad, but also good. No one really needs it, but it’s awfully easy to get used to. When I don’t use the lights, I miss them. Sometimes I’ll even put them on the ambient setting when I’m doing something else. Like “rainbow.” Or “fireplace.” Twinkling in the background. Completely fucking with my head. READMEIt takes up to three outlets. It’s really bright and dramatic. Best for really bright and dramatic sequences in movies and games. Great for gaming and explosions, not so much for movies you respect. How much you’ll like it really depends on your definition of “immersive.”Easy to hate, hard to leave.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2017
Categories |