21–30 of 63 posts
They also have a flash site where fans can create their own ideal member using parts from the other girls, and then share and rank each other's creations http://www.icenomi.com/oshimen/index.html
http://search.cpan.org/~jrockway/Acme-MorningMusume-ShinMemb...
It's amazing how Gibson predicted this sort of thing almost 20 years ago: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Idoru
Gibson, who is after all the guy who said "the future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed yet", might well point you to patio11's comment, and to various Media Lab-type demos from twenty years ago, and then ask: Was it not obvious that this would happen? You've also politely failed to notice that Gibson, along with many other people, believed the hype about AI twenty years ago. ;) Gibson's great because…
This is only a little bit weirder on the continuum of what we already do for pop starlets, both in Japan and the United States. Japan has been manufacturing them -- that is totally the right word, too -- for about 30 years. Disney cottoned onto it a bit later. These days producers already have the key personality traits, demographic fit, sound, and marketing campaign for the new brand already planned out prior to lau…
I follow Korean pop culture more than Japan's, but I definitely have a sense that the K-POP labels have virtual stables of up and coming "properties", getting paid little, living in bunks with other stars-in-training and eating instant noodles, but being given the very best in song and dance lessons for hours a day, waiting to be selected by their manager to begin a nationwide PR blitz and concert series for at least 2 years of "instant" stardom, then cultural obscurity.
I imagine that something no entirely dissimilar happens in the U.S., but the feeder system is all different...
The K-Pop starlet BoA is one I remember very well (also semi-popular in Japan if I understand correctly), chosen at about 13 (years ago), dropped out of school and "manufactured" through endless training programs to become what she is today. Interestingly, she was an investment by her label specifically for export to the U.S. and Japan. She hasn't done well in the States, but her label seems happy with her performance across the Sea of Japan, infiltrating J-Pop. Her interviews in the States (in very good, but accented English) came across as weird, slightly aloof, uncomfortable and detached...kind of what you'd expect out of somebody who has never really lived a normal life.
Does this mean that High Definition Video evidence of a suspect performing a crime does not constitute very strong evidence of that suspect as guilty of the crime?
If all our celebrities were CG-generated illusions... what would all the tabloids print to sell magazines? Actual news? I think I'm looking forward to the future!
This is only a little bit weirder on the continuum of what we already do for pop starlets, both in Japan and the United States. Japan has been manufacturing them -- that is totally the right word, too -- for about 30 years. Disney cottoned onto it a bit later. These days producers already have the key personality traits, demographic fit, sound, and marketing campaign for the new brand already planned out prior to lau…
That manufacturing also appears to carry a considerable investment (or possible payoff). One initially wonders why, when manufactured pop stars spectacularly flame out, that they are simply told to go low profile for a while then come back and act like nothing happened...until you think of them as a multi-million dollar entertainment machine their managers no doubt poured tons of money into in the form of singing les…
It's amazing how Gibson predicted this sort of thing almost 20 years ago: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Idoru
If all our celebrities were CG-generated illusions... what would all the tabloids print to sell magazines? Actual news? I think I'm looking forward to the future!
I doubt you can libel a fiction, so I think the tabloids would get even more creative. Ambush photographers would be replaced by cheaper digital choreographers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gibson, who is after all the guy who said "the future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed yet", might well point you to patio11's comment, and to various Media Lab-type demos from twenty years ago, and then ask: Was it not obvious that this would happen? You've also politely failed to notice that Gibson, along with many other people, believed the hype about AI twenty years ago. ;) Gibson's great because…
What is the Joseph Cornell stuff? All I could find was a Wikipedia mention of some boxes, but no actual description.
The Cornell exhibition I went to see is, alas, closed now:
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Cornell-Lynda-Roscoe-Hartigan/d...
...and all the boxes are back in the hands of various collectors. But modern art museums have them in smaller numbers. I saw a few of them at the Art Institute of Chicago, for example.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the Joseph Cornell stuff? All I could find was a Wikipedia mention of some boxes, but no actual description.
Read Count Zero and you will learn all about Joseph Cornell. Not facts , mind you, but you will learn what Cornell's work feels like. The Cornell exhibition I went to see is, alas, closed now: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Cornell-Lynda-Roscoe-Hartigan/d... ...and all the boxes are back in the hands of various collectors. But modern art museums have them in smaller numbers. I saw a few of them at the Art Institute of…