The 2005 Wired Rave Awards

smack-pot writes "March 2005 issue of Wired Magazine features The 2005 Wired Rave Awards announcements. The 15 categories include Films, Business, Science, Architecture, Medicine, Games etc. Some of the winners are Brad Bird for The Incredibles, Danger Mouse for The Grey Album, Burt Rutan for SpaceShipOne, and Pete Parsons for Halo 2."

Jon Stewart

[fraudrogic]

I don't know. iFilms is great and all, but I think Jon Stewart should have won for Television. He did something (and continues to) that no one else on major television stations would dare do, and that is be brutally honest and be intelligent about it. When it comes to those qualities, he's my hero. Oh and the humor aspect is pretty good too.

Re:Action Animation Movies?

[astrokid]

I agree with most of your points, however, I wouldn't bash Spielberg's adaptation of War of the Worlds just yet.

Atleast wait to see it before you do.

I'm very happy for Brad Bird, I really don't think The Iron Giant got as much recognition as it should have. It's definately one of the better efforts put forth from an American Animation studio in a very long time.

Re:Jon Stewart

[PopeAlien]

Uh yeah.. especially since it was Jon Stewart that helped boost iFilms page views. Jon Stewart creates tv content, iFilms simply distributes clips of it.. It seems a strange choice for winner of the 'television' category.

Is Danger Mouse that important?

[sielwolf]

I guess it's basic 15-second mainstream digestible keystone of mash-up'dom.

Of course this is old as hip-hop itself. Dancehall exists on the idea of a riddim becoming popular itself and multiple deejays rap/sing over it. Now hip-hop, R&B and Reggeton artists get in on it. An example from '04: Pitbull "Culo", Mr Vegas "Pull Up", Nina Sky "Move Ya Body" and many others [unitysounds.com] all used the Coolie Dance Riddim.

The pop culture clash of using a very recognizable outer-genre instrumental (the "mash-up") got big in clubs two years ago (making this Wire award a bit like John Wayne's Oscar). A popular one was Whitney Houston ("I want to dance with somebody") over Kraftwerk ("Numbers") forming ala Voltron to Girls on Top's "I Want to Dance with some Numbers" [overstated.net]. Nigh unreleasable due to copyright considerations but interesting none the less.

Of course now MTV is in the Official Mash-up business by creating things that aren't Mash-ups at all (that Jay-Z and Linkin Park thing is, due to original parts by both artists, a collaboration).

I still think Chopped and Screwed [screweduprecords.com] is going to hit the mainstream consciousness soon as T.I.'s disc just got the treatment and it sold amazingly. And kids are chop n' screwing all sorts of tracks now. Many on laptops and then distributed into the public conscious via P2P (so Wired could give it an award and be a bit ahead the bellcurve). Of course this is a decade old style too.

Reading over these Awards

[JMPrice]

I can't help but think of those who got left out--i.e. the rest of the members of the teams the highlighted individuals work with. Anyone else get the feeling that some of these awards should have gone to the whole team and the selection of a single individual was rather arbitrary?

Re:Is Danger Mouse that important?

[Jakhel]

NOW they get in on it? What do you think remixes are? In fact, what do you call band and orchestra "arrangments"? This concept is nothing new, it's just being applied to a more modern form of music.

Also, riddims only involve using the same beat with different lyrics. More originality is required to do this.

As far as mashing up is concerned, it's essentially (this may be a little off topic but I threw it in anyways so fuckit) the same as playing a song with a different instrument than it was originally performed on. Like a flute or guitar player playing the lead in Take 5 instead of a trumpet (or saxophone, i forget) player.

Re:Jon Stewart

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you ever even watched the Daily Show? Virtually every episode since the elections has slipped in at least one joke about democrats sucking it up in the election, including making fun of Kerry directly and the party in general. Beyond that, what can he make fun of them for? They don't control enough to actually do anything stupid..

Re:Jon Stewart

[Illserve]

You know, the sad part is, I don't think he was embarassed.

I think he thought he tore Jon a new one.

I think he thought that this "comedian" was out of his league on a real hard-hitting news show.

At the end Jon just bites his tongue. It's like letting a child think they've beaten you because it would do no good to tell them otherwise.

Re:Jon Stewart

[RatBastard]

but he is definitely biased towards the left and has admitted as much.

Explain to me how admitting to being biased makes him less honest politically? I'm really trying to make that work but it just doesn't wash. Not being "brutally honest about politics" would be him not admitting his bias. I've watched a lot of his show and he has never hidden his bias nor has he pretended to not be biased, like many cammentators/journalists/pundits who are biased towards the right.

I don't know what word you want, but I don't think "honest" is it.

I hate stuff like this

[Quiet_Desperation]

Articles like this just make me feel like a big loser. :-( My life is one of squandered oppurtunity. I was one of the best and brightest when I was younger. What the fuck happened?

Hey, I'm honest, at least.

Re:Jon Stewart

[poot_rootbeer]

[Dangermouse] is the DJ equivalent of a Score: 1 Slashdot comment in an RIAA rantfest and he's the future of music?

I'm guessing you haven't actually heard the Grey Album, or if you have you didn't like it for valid subjective reasons.

But objectively, the album is a significant accomplishment. Not only is it the latest in a line of legitimate and coherent works of art built entirely on borrowed source materials, but it also brought an entire sub-genre of hip-hop -- eg, mash-up -- into mainstream consciousness.

It changed the way I think about music, just a little, and I can't be the only listener that it had that effect on.

Re:Jon Stewart

[geoffspear]

Being "brutally honest and intelligent" is (a) highly inappropriate for a satirist

Uhh... yeah.

It's a good thing Swift and Voltaire were neither honest nor intelligent, then.

Re:suspect statement

[Golias]

Anime is considered by most of the world, and Hollywood in particular as nonconventional, and thus not to be taken into consideration.

It's too bad, because the fact that it's "nonconvetional" is the best thing about it.

There will probably never be a TV show in the US quite like "Haibane Renmei."

"Azumanga Diaoh" is the best comic fiction about kids since "Peanuts" was in its prime, with the possible exception of "Calvin & Hobbes."

"Last Exile" is exactly what Lucas probably wishes his Prequel trilogy could be, if he were only a better writer/director.

Re:Jon Stewart

[Deadstick]

Carlson's confidence may have suffered somewhat when CNN fired him and killed the show...

rj

Re:suspect statement

[bitrott]

How can you even put Shrek in the same category as Toy Story? Because of the graphics? PLEASE, people. Toy Story and The Incredibles are amazing movies because they're good stories told well because BRAIN came before cheap pop-culture references and lame, embarassingly lame visual gags.

I've always maintained that Shrek doesn't even rate as a fine example of what animation is capable of, when 99% of the gags won't make sense to anyone in 5 years time.