I finally rented "Across the Universe" - a musical based on Beatles' songs. The story is set in the 60s, but more importantly, the movie is an artistic concept that is completely brilliant, and this is no small surprise due to the talented Julie Taymor, the artistic visionary of screen and stage.

So far, all of Taymor's films have been intensely visual; one critic claims her films "can be described as mainlining pure cinema directly into your veins." Sounds pretty intense, doesn't it? I think she is one of those rare filmmakers who knows how to use the tools of the visual arts to expand the horizons of movie making. She shows us that with "Across the Universe." Taymor and screenwriters, Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais, crafted a clever yet complex story told in a series of interconnected vignettes.

Even though it is about the 60s, it never feels anachronistic. The themes are directly relevant to contemporary society. The film is visually an emotionally powerful artistic statement - literate and highly metaphorical.

Despite some of its somber moments, I thought Across the Universe was an uplifting movie. It is chock full of period references, mostly to Beatles folklore, but there are also allusions, echoes of the era, and surprise cameos - some expected and some totally unexpected. We had fun guessing them and it took a second viewing to realize how many we had missed the first time. I shall not reveal more. Rent it - you'll love it!

P.S. If you have time, listen to the Fiona Apple's cover of the title song. It is one of the YouTube alternates hosted above.

Golden Gnome.

As we all know, there are many graphic artists on the web. A lot of them have their pages totally devoted to graphics to help newbies get a start with their personal web pages. Some of these art sites get over 10,000 hits a day, all from people uploading free art from their web sites.

The big problem, however, is that many of these fine people are losing their web sites due to people linking directly (hot linking) to their servers to use their graphics, sounds or other items, which causes them to pay large sums of money to keep the hosting web site running. Hotlinking to another site is bandwidth theft.

Over the years, many web artists have lost their web sites due to people linking directly to their servers causing them to be billed extremely large sums of money. Most have no alternative but to shut down. In addition, many web artists get fed up with people taking their graphics without a by your leave, thank you or credit. Mad Hatter Graphics is one that comes to mind off the top of my head.

Most of us are familiar with sites where we can find custom backgrounds and graphics that are given free to noncommercial sites or personal web page builders. We have several digital artists here at AW who have done this for AW members in the past. All they asked was that the graphics be uploaded to your own site (i.e., your AW image space or places like Photobucket) and that you give them CREDIT for these graphics on the pages where they are used or a credit link to where the credit information is stored (example: our journals).

There is no LEGITIMATE reason to link directly to someone else's graphics when you are designing your own web page. If you do, you are committing bandwidth theft and that is simply wrong. Like I said, bandwidth theft is the main cause for sites going belly up.

Read more about:
1. COPYRIGHT
2. BANDWIDTH THEFT
3. NETIQUETTE

Another issue: It shows a huge lack of integrity to display graphics and/or text created by other people and then post your own copyright logo on the same page. I am seeing this done here at AW recently at several homesites. There is also a certain individual who is using custom-made avatars that are not hers without permission or credit and sometimes posting a copyright on the same page.

Most of the avatars and standard homesite text at AW are available to AW members to use without permission, but to assume to copyright those pages hosting these avatars and/or text is ludicrous and laughable.

In summary, sites offering free graphics are doing a service for the whole Internet community. They make and/or provide the graphics for people for FREE and do not ask for much in return EXCEPT the following:

That you DO NOT LINK DIRECTLY TO THEIR GRAPHICS
That you ask permission - and get it - BEFORE using any of their graphics
That you give them credit for their work!

I realize that some sites, like VROMA, allow hotlinking to their graphics and reproduction of their information, but a person of integrity would AT LEAST display a source for the graphic/text on the page it appears and WOULD NOT post their own copyright on that page.

Source: Mary Broussard. Personal information and editorial comments in this post are mine.

If you can't do that, well, then you're a scumbag.

Source: Mary Broussard. Personal information and editorial comments in this post are mine.

In lieu of that, cut a bunch of these out and send them in:

The Trouble With Aliens

More IC videos are viewable here: The Ancient, The Modern and The Ridiculous

Way to go, IC!