The Clarion Workshop at UCSD

Today’s Los Angeles Times reports on the efforts of L.A. developer Sonny Astani to bring his memories of “Blade Runner” to life in the city’s Figueroa district.  As shown here, Astani’s seeking approval for a 14-story high ‘billboard’ made up of “of tiny panels embedded with LEDs, or light-emitting diodes — a concept viewed by some at City Hall as the next frontier in outdoor advertising.”  While massive billboards already exist, Astani’s would be the first with moving images — and would face right out onto the 110 Freeway, where drivers so desperately need distractions like this.

Reading through Astani’s comments, one gets the sense that he didn’t notice that Blade Runner’s vision is dystopian, not utopian.  Then again, he’s not alone: the story also focuses heavily on desires among developers in the district to turn Figueroa into Times Square West, like that’s a good thing. 

Good news in the Los Angeles Times this week in the decision from HP and Sony to make Sony’s motion picture library available on demand for DVD purchasers.  This follows up on HP’s Oct. 2007 announcement of an agreement with “30 digital content providers” for on-demand DVD delivery, allowing content with limited market appeal to become available for sale.  The LA Times piece specifically notes the likelihood of “classic science fiction movies” becoming available for the first time in decades.  I’d love to see a list of all those films, ranked by genre and the number of times they been purchased; and then buy three never-purchased sf or fantasy films, just to see how bad they are.  It would make a nice background distraction at a summer lawn party.

What I’m really hoping for, though, is the next stage in this technology, when we’ll be able to build our own DVDs from the digital content.  All my favorite swordfights from classic films: Basil Rathbone and Danny Kaye in The Court Jester; Carey Elwes and Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride; Aragorn and Lurtz in LOTR; interspersed with all the light sabre scenes in the Star Wars saga, for example.  Now that would be entertaining.