Orson Welles: For my next experiment ladies and gentleman, I would appreciate the loan of any small personal object form your pocket. A key, box of matches, a coin – ah, key it is, good sir. Hold it up 10 feet over your head and watch out for the slightest hint of hanky panky… and behold before our very eyes a transformation! We’ve changed your key into… a coin. What happened to the key? It’s been returned to you. Look closely, sir, you’ll find the key back in your pocket. May we see it please? What’s that, sir? Did I used to be a magician, sir? I’m still working on it. As for the key, it was not symbolic of anything… this isn’t that kind of movie. You’ll find the coin in your pocket now, sir. Keep your eyes on that coin sir, while it’s returned to you… as your key. Should we return you to your mother? Is this your mother? No, of course not. Open your mouth wide… and we’ll return you your money. And by the way, have you ever heard of Robert Houdin, speaking of magicians, I mean. Oh no, of course not. But of course, you do know my partner Francois Reichenbach. Houdin was the greatest magician who ever lived. And do you know what he said? “A magician, he said, is just an actor. Just an actor playing the part of a magician.”
Orson Welles: Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash – the triumphs, the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life: we’re going to die. “Be of good heart,” cry the dead artists out of the living past. “Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing.” Maybe a man’s name doesn’t matter all that much.
Small fish, big fish, swimming in the water.
Snorks, I hope that you and the actors and the musicians and everyone else rests well tonight, and today. It’s a hard wind blowing and the shelter overhead is a welcome respite.
The traditional Hollywood companies can no longer specify just whatthe general public want or will get as they have up until recently. At the time you add to that distribution on the web, media, web pages, from gossip to whole movies. It’s just a completely new world. Some of it really good, some not.