What could be more zeigeisty and revealing of our present moment than John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi/horror flick They Live? How about Rob Israel's They Live, We Look Back illustration, a mashup with Distracted Boyfriend meme, which you can pre-order today as a 12x12 print? (via JWZ) Read the rest
I've often said that science fiction doesn't tell you much about the future, but it sure tells you a lot about the present: the fact that we're still citing Frankenstein and the Terminator tells you that we're worried about being carried away by our technology, the fact that we're still citing The Matrix tells you that we fear that the world is being secretly run by a conspiracy (and not without cause). Read the rest
Inventor Ivan Cash of Oakland, California was inspired by the 1988 cult classic They Live to create screen-blocking glasses.
In the movie, a drifter (played by Roddy Piper) discovers a box of sunglasses. He puts on a pair and soon learns they reveal hidden messages behind advertising and that many people in charge are actually aliens.
Now, Cash's IRL Glasses don't reveal hidden messages but do mask most TV and some computer screens. When you look through the lenses, the screens just go black. Plus, they double as sunglasses that look like the ones from the movie.
IRL Glasses are in beta. This means they are compatible with most TVs (LCD/LED) and some computers (LCD/LED). IRL glasses do not yet block smartphones or digital billboards (OLED).
If you'd like to CONSUME a pair for yourself, he's got a Kickstarter going for them until the end of the month. The price now is $49 and will be $79 after the campaign is over.
They Live, the classic critique of Reagan-era greed, gets updated context in this overview. As John Carpenter says in the video, "Right now, it's even more true than it was back then." Read the rest
DC Dave's "Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression" are a good analytical tool for understanding what's happening when governments are embarrassed by revelations of corruption and criminality and get to spinning, a kind of Spicer-Conway masterclass (albeit one that's spoiled by its descent into conspiracy theory with the Vince Foster suicide as an example of such truth-suppression). Read the rest
How, you say, could Pepsi have been stupid enough to run a TV ad that trivialized the popular uprising against the official murder of black people by American law enforcement? The answer is obvious: They Live. (via JWZ) Read the rest
Illustrator Hal Hefner created this great double homage to Charles Schulz and Stephen King. It does seem as if he missed an opportunity to put Marci in a denim jumper and holding a sledgehammer, though. Read the rest
Trick or Treat Studios is accepting pre-orders for their $70, official They Live Donald Trump Hallowe'en mask, the first in a series of masks based on the 2016 presidential candidates, which will be released in late Sept/early Oct. Read the rest
Mitch O'Connell has designed not just one, but two T-shirts depicting Donald Trump as one of the elitist alien creatures from John Carpenter's cult classic movie, They Live.
They Live stars Rowdy Roddy Piper, who died July 31. It's one of the greatest political sci-fi films of all time, and fittingly, it's the opening film analyzed by Slavoj Žižek in The Pervert's Guide to Ideology. Read the rest
