Weird Video: Eraserhead; Folger’s Dad in the Tub; Cardi B for the Census

Weird Video
COMMENTARY BY PATRICE GREANVILLE

Cultural nuggets from the annals of cinema, tv, advertising, and other corners, all reflecting aspects of our strange, semi-deranged culture. The West is not normal, folks. It can be horrid, it can be tedious, it can be smug, and sometimes it can even be funny.

THE BIG SCREEN
ERASERHEAD (1977)
by David Lynch

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]avid Lynch is for most people, including critics, unclassifiable. Following his often troubling vibes (which most auteurs do, anyhow) in this 1977 surrealist horror film Lynch (who also gave us Mulholland Drive and The Lost Highway) breaks most "sacred" rules to build an utterly strange, dreamlike and compelling (when not revolting) world that mixes imagery redolent of steampunk with nightmarish biology, all along apparently drawing great inspiration from the likes of Kafka and Dali. In sum, weird.

TV COMMERCIALS
SUPER MERITORIOUS MENTION

Folgers new Coffee commercial is the best

Zombie Chris approves, and we agree

(Video courtesy by Zombie Chris)

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n this age of stifling PC keeping all establishment channels in tight conformity with the new stentorian rules of propriety dictating interactions between races, genders, ages, nationalities and other subdivisions of the human race, it's almost miraculous we accidentally bump into this extremely irreverent, Buñuelesque tv spot for, of all things, Folger's coffee. The fact no one has yet gotten hysterical over this highly peculiar spot for breaking just about every standing code of conduct in our cancel-obsessed culture is perhaps itself testimony to its uniqueness and, yes, it's both refreshing and surprising. I am awfully glad that Zombie Chris, whose YT commentary and sense of humor we  appreciate, agrees. Furthermore, to anyone who has the slightest idea about how a major marketer's commercial is produced—the sheer work and detail involved; the countless hoops that need to be jumped through; the things that need to be cut to avoid the slightest whiff of impropriety that might offend some priggish soul in New York or Opelousas—this must seem like a profound mystery.  It certainly does to me. Folks, heads have rolled for much less than this, much less. Weird.

TV COMMERCIALS
SPECIAL MENTION

NYC Census 2020 Message from Cardi B
Cardi tells "mi gente, presente" to register with the Census

[dropcap]OK[/dropcap], folks, so let's get this straight: Cardi B, the super-talented in-your-face Dominican/Trinidadian dynamo, is not Donna Reed. Reed, the beautiful farm girl from Iowa lives on in another cultural warp, mainly the Wonderbread white 1950s. Cardi is pure, unadulterated 21st century—product of the finally ascendant multicultural brew that makes our society tick with rich new strains of humanity. For Cardi, born in Manhattan and brought up in the Bronx, the one with the Goddess fingernails and extravagant lissome hair, a rapper, that's right, a rapper who is not afraid to admit to a past that would scandalize every prig in this ridiculously prudish nation, is nothing if not the ultimate antidote to tedium. That's why we are a bit piqued by the firestorm in a teacup kicked up by the whiners who think Cardi B "does not represent New York".  Does not represent NYC? Whaddayamean she does not represent NYC? !!!  Pal, you gotta be kidding. Just weird.

(Note: Cardi wants her folks to believe the Census will make a difference in their lives, but she's wrong. In theory, like Civics 101 (the fantasy script of US democracy), maybe. In reality, nah. It won't happen. The ruling class spends all its time figuring ways of enlarging its wealth and power, plotting new crimes and betrayals, and public needs barely register on its radar. Maybe that's only logical because the US is not a real democracy. Contrary to official propaganda, it never was. Check this, this and this, if you don't believe me.)