Toys In The Gulf

October surprise? Something to think about... and maybe scream about. GL!

Holding my breath on Everything Changed...

Dead on my friend. Well done with the archival photo scan 'n pan. GL. -zen

Great! I love the way you presented this (still images work really well to tell this kind of story) and I also love the ticking time bomb that you lay under the whole thing.

One question: I feel like toward the end, I didn't get the end - or maybe I get it but it's unclear -- the piece about "IF...Iran were provoked they could make it impossible...for that oil to get through...Unless someone was there to protect it."

Was "protect" meant to be ironic? I felt like everything leading up to that point was sort of an assault on the US's means of "protecting" assets which don't belong to them (ie oil), but then the way this ends, I was sort of unclear what was referring to what.

Dig?

Anyway, I am giving you a GL anyway, because it's quite possible that I'm just confused.

This started out a lot longer and by 4 minutes into it I realized it was too much. After screening it my partner suggested I end at "Something has arrived" because the rest was just describing the battle group in more detail and adding that there are 3 or 4 MORE battle groups in the region now also.

The point of this is that Iran has the middle east oil, and thus our economy, by the short hairs because the Strait of Hormuz is so narrow they could mine it or send missles, planes or torpedos at any oil tanker trying to get through. That would HURT back here in sleepy America.

Anybody from the west who was planning to attack Iran would need to protect the Strait of Hormuz.

The idea was to let the audience arrive at that conclusion on their own. Maybe it is now TOO vague?

It could be longer if you could either get an interview with someone who could speak from authority -- a political figure ?-- or if you give us the info that's in your comment through narration. The stills are fine, but without more info, they're just a series of military photos. Yes, you explain it at the end, but I'd like to see it more as a journalistic piece. Still, it's such an important subject, it really needs to get aired. I'll give it a greenlight for content.

Well. . the idea was to try to think outside the box when trying to tell the story. I felt that it needed to be done without narration or interviews and it needed to show exactly the kind of power that is positioning out there. I also wanted it to make creative use of the thousands of amazing free pictures that the DOD has posted on their website. Finally, I wanted it to be a little more neutral this time and let the audience both read between the lines and then decide for themselves if it was right or wrong. The goal was to simply leave a strong impression of what is happening.

If there is something else I could say in text or images to help make it a little more clear within those guidelines I am all ears.

I like this style a lot. I would definetly not destroy the tention by putting something else in, like an interview. This is great. But i agree, it gets a little hard to follow your exact thought in the end. Especially since, if voted for TV, you cannot just rewind.
Good day!

Here's another tag. Did it go through? "The Strait Tlak on Oil."

what I love about this is that it is the opposite of your last piece, in this one, you dont talk at all. besides the great editing work, this piece is great at getting a lot of information accross with public domain images. You have done your homework. I look forward to seeing more stuff from you.. .... gl...now go and see my only post!

Great piece. I like the montage style. I understand the confusion over what has arrived. The provocation, or the protection? The anwer is obviously both, eh. An explosion and a nationwide blackout at the end might be cool. Or is that too cliche?

I have uploaded a new version with different titles at the end that I hope will make it a little more clear without being too obvious. . . It should post today.

Really like it GL! Love your thoughts on my pod.

link Missile launch is warning to US

link Missile launch is warning to US

11/0412006 - It's perfect! Don't touch it [you're too close to it] As an absolute outsider to cinema-magic, I am so thoroughly impressed. The timer ticking off [tense] and the breaks between photos and titles is smooth, yet distant enough.
The message isn't shoved in my face, it's offered as a choice for me to decide.
This is excellent. Make certain to copy it to discs, many, and find all those teachers [on classmates.com] that gave you support [ and the worst ones - just a couple - to show them their inneptitude] and send them off for xmas gifts to mom&dad& all those who love you.
This truly is a piece to be proud of.
Karan
[mother of 4 [teens-to-twenty]

I think it is a great pod. I just wish there was perhaps an interview or some narration in it. But I am giving it the green light for its overall message.

Check out my pod on the 24th Congressional District midterm elections in central New York, listed by BBC as one of the most hotly contested congressional elections this time around.

link

Interesting to know. It flows nicely. The first ten seconds establishes the tone and style.

I love your idea. It's almost like a silent film news reel with nice image manipulation and a very effective spare score (the ticking). I love the ticking, but I would have added maybe a few ominous bass chords sparingly to add some more doom to the piece.

Besides that, well done man. G-fucking-L.

Great images that convey the enormity of war and the US war machine. Love the map graphics. Based on the number of views I wonder if you've posted to the relevant blogs--crooksandliars.com, thruthout, etc. I imagine they'd love to post a link. GL!

On a lighter note, please check out our own Crazed: The Belly Dance.

I've been after Crooks and Liars, AmericaBlog and others for weeks now to start paying attention to Current pods. They just don't seem to care. I've tried being nice, I've tried being snarky. I've even sent several links to pods that they might want to highlight. Not just my stuff. Other great stuff produced here.

America Blog just had their YouTube account shut down because he was posting John Stewart clips. He is all angry about it and he was asking if anybody knew of any alternatives to YouTube. I made 3 posts and sent an email about Current and how importaint it is for independent media and I have still been met with silence.

These guys talk a great talk about how horrible the mainstream media is and how we should be supporting independent media but the video clips they post somehow still end up being John Stewart and Hardball clips from YouTube. It seems they would rather scalp immediate interest from MSM clips than help build an audience for ACTUAL independent media.

As you can imagine I am disgusted and fed up with trying to reach these people and I think they are hypocrites.

Maybe other people should try contacting these people too. Maybe that will make a difference. I feel like I am a lone voice in the wilderness in this campaign.

Powerful. Way to make your audience think. To me that's quality storytelling!

Powerful. Way to make your audience think. To me that's quality storytelling!

You get my GL. nicely presented.

Plisko,

This is some of the best work I have seen as far as stills and pacing go. I have watched this pod three times now, marveling at the choreography of the piece. This effect is usually overdone by most, it takes a lot of time and precision to make it work, an artistic touch, and obviously you are artistic, your choice of the ticking clock is also proof of that...

...you nailed it... Great work.

Thanks very much for the compliments Scoot. It means a lot coming from you because you do darn good work yourself.

I'm glad you noticed and appreciate the coreography. It took forever in After Effects to create the visual rhythm that goes with the metronome like ticking.

The web video often has trouble catching up with it at first.

The option is about to expire and it has been hovering in the 20's since almost the beginnig so I'm debating how to proceed.

Your video is very well done in editing and tone. It kinda made me feel weird, because just yesterday I saw on CNN a story about moving aircraft carriers to tthat region and you were working on this in October. How did you know? Very good work, too bad it wasn't put on air earlier, hopefully they still will.

Very powerful. The ticking made me crazy but it was excellent. You should check out my Daniel Ellsberg pods and what Dan has to say about all this and Bush's secret plans. Congrats to you and Current TV for Viral Democracy in action. GL Getreel

Thank you everybody for the compliments.

Don't expect to get news from CNN, or other TV so called news. It's all a handful of goliath corporations now that would much rather you be distracted than informed. Why would NBC want you worried about the Gulf, for example, when they are owned by GE who is a military contractor? Much better to talk about Brittney's hoochie coochie or Miss America on a bender.

The internet is where you need to look for news these days. It is much more independent and if we can keep net neutrality there will be no way that special interests can get in the way of information again.

Thanks again everyone.

The technique and skills you used with those stills is really amazing. No doubt you have full control of the tools you work with, and know exactly how to grab your audience's attention. Good luck with all your pods! GL from me!

If you get a chance, please check out my pod: ”A Humane Society”. Any constructive feedback is always welcomed. Thanks!

Sometime in the next several months an announcer will interrupt regularly scheduled programming to introduce the President who, blinking rapidly, will announce a series of air strikes against Iran. That announcement will probably use religious rhetoric that makes a tragic situation even worse.

Iran, Iraq, a wreck. That's how you conjugate war in the Middle East, and Iran is the future tense.

What's worse, the government continues to employ heated theological language that plays well to its base but hurts our efforts to reduce terrorism.

There will be little or no loss of American life as a result of airstrikes against Iran ... right away. That will happen further down the road, when generations of Muslims that might have been our allies turn against us. (Remember: Hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathered in the streets of Teheran in solidarity with Americans after 9/11.)

As the Administration continues to escalate militarily the danger increases. The Pale Horse and its rider draw closer to Iran - and to us. And the continued use of inflammatory religious rhetoric only compounds the problem.

Take "Islamofascism." Fascism is a government function, and there is no evidence that any state participated in 9/11. In fact, the only Islamic government known to have sponsored terror attacks against Americans is Libya, yet the U.S. and Britain chose negotiation there. (Britain accepted a longstanding offer from Qadafi after the invasion of Iraq, so they could claim their war brought him to the bargaining table.)

Why does Bush celebrate diplomacy with Qadafi - the architect of Flight 700's tragedy - while refusing to speak with Iran or Syria as the Iraq Study Group recommended? Iran is ten years away from being a nuclear danger, and has signaled its interest in negotiation since at least 2003.

Why would we be afraid to talk now, especially when Iran can be helpful in resolving the catastrophe in Iraq? (And the fact is we've brought a pro-Iranian government into power there.) Instead, we're slamming the door on urgently-needed discussions by labeling our adversaries in theological terms.

What other countries might be described as "Islamofascist," besides Libya, Syria, and Iran? Only nations that are currently allies, nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Pakistan. Leaders like Musharraf in Pakistan are endangered and given less latitude to support our anti-terrorism efforts when we inflame their countrymen with religionist rhetoric.

And if we are to encourage democratic reform in the Arab world, we can't do it by using terms that imply we believe all Muslim nations are inherently fascist or evil.

Then there's "Divine Strake." Tests of this massive "bunker-busting" bomb remain on schedule in Nevada, despite protests from local residents.

Why is it called Divine Strake? A "strake" is a tool used to level sand. A reasonable interpretation of this name in the Islamic world would therefore be "a tool for flattening you into the sand ... in God's name." That will play like a declaration of holy war in the Islamic world.

The U.S. fundamentalist/conservative coalition benefits politically from framing the anti-terror effort as a battle against "Islamofascism." It allows them to claim we're in a new Cold War, with all the political opportunities that creates.

Maybe that's why Christian conservative Gary Bauer, in my debate with him on Sean Hannity's show, said that "The struggle against Islamofascism is the defining issue of our time."

Really? Other issues pale in importance? Ten times as many Americans have died from lack of health insurance as from terrorism in the 21st Century. Six times as many Americans have died from improperly tested pharmaceuticals.

Yes, fighting terrorism is vitally important - but it's not a fight against "Islamofascism." It's a fight against stateless criminals, and a fight to prevent them from taking over countries like Pakistan. So why do we conduct unnecessary

Defeating American militaro-industrial-evangelical fascism is the defining issue of our time.

The incremental raids and arrests may instead be aimed at provoking the Iranians to respond, which in turn would escalate the situation and provide the Bush administration with the casus belli it needs to win Congressional support for war with Iran. Rather than making the case for a pre-emptive war with Iran over weapons of mass destruction -- a strategy the U.S. pursued with Iraq that is unlikely to succeed with Iran -- the sequence of events in the provocation and escalation strategy would make it appear as if war was forced on the U.S.
Prominent Republican and Democratic Senators seem to have picked up on the president's war strategy. At Thursday's hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska drew parallels with the Richard Nixon administration's strategy of lying to the U.S. people and expanding the Vietnam war into Cambodia. "[W]hen you set in motion the kind of policy that the president is talking about here," he warned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, "it's very, very dangerous."Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware added that war with Iran would require congressional authority. Still, Congress is yet to pose a major challenge to Bush's war plan beyond holding hearings with heated exchanges between frustrated Senators and defensive administration officials.The next move may be Iran's. Tehran has likely sniffed the trap and will sit idly by for now and deprive the Bush administration of a pretext for escalation. But continued provocations from the U.S. through additional raids of Iranian consulates and offices will likely lead to an intentional or unintentional response, after which escalation and war may become reality. Iran has at times failed to exhibit the discipline necessary to refrain from responding to aggressions.

UNIQUE! gl!

why hasn't this made it to TV yet? Chilling...

spent a week on this ship filming. This is not a boat. this is just a mobile Island. GL



Please check out my pod
Any Dad2

Very provocative and VERY scary. All this saber rattling by the Iranians and the Bush administration doesn't make things any better, does it?. Let's hope that we don't attack Iran and this is all a *coincidence*. Fat chance, right? Great editing. Gets a GL easily...

Great Job! Looking forward to more.

enter your post here
Ominous and Right On

thank you so much for your feedback. very haunting piece. wonderful job. GL from me all the way.

This is phenomenal. Brilliant. Current should have it in the rotation immediately.

simple and straight to the point.