It's all great fun and exciting. I wonder why they never went into pyrotechnics for the film industry.
We couldn't find girls like that when we were growing up. It was quite the opposite. They would run away. Here's to a life of making heat, light and noise.
1
Rich & Dee have found their life's calling, are darn good at it and it shows. No explanation required to those who get it. For others who don't get it, they probably never will. Pray for all those in need, to find their life's calling too (save their wacko politics)... Crank up Johny Lee Hooker's Boom Boom lyrics & enjoy the audio/visuals... American as apple pie on the 4th of July! Cheers!
Loved it!
2
Reading some of the disparaging comments here, I was reminded of the following, by another famous misanthrope:
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
6
The level of ignorance of these comments is amazing. Firstly they use a lot less combustable material than you might expect. I think a 4000 foot wall of fire uses less than 100 gallons of diesel fuel in a lot of small plastic bags. So a major show stopper with thousands of people watching used four car sized tanks of gas. Hardly a major contributor to global warming even relative to other airshow performers. I'm sure the Blue Angels burn at least ten thousand gallons of jet fuel in a weekend.
5
Just be circumspect and aware in even researching the field of explosives, our American nanny state might place surveillance and issue security bulletins on you, as I can unfortunately attest. The worst part is these blatant overreactions occur in secrecy, without any illegal activity having occurred, and without apparent recourse to the citizen. Federal 'intelligence' (from NSA and FBI internet monitoring, among other sources) is actually distributed right on down to the local police, and even private security. Urge your state and local lawmakers to legalize Class C consumer fireworks if you love firecrackers, roman candles, and bottle rockets! I can't tell you how happy my neighbors were when I set off a ~300 rocket saturn missile battery on the 4th of July. Awesome fun! And campaign against the surveillance/police state, if it hasn't noticeably encroached on you yet (as it has me), maybe you aren't fully exercising the freedoms you must claim as an American.
1
This is the kind of story that makes me proud to be an American! Must entertainment be so efficient, cerebral and carbon neutral?
1
Really nice. Great music...
All of you people talking about environmental disaster? Seriously? Do you picket Fourth of July fireworks too? Lighten up. I'm a liberal, but I also believe in smiling and having fun.
3
Although some people may find this kind of thing entertaining (not me personally), I do wonder why the video is posted front and center on the NYT's home page, seeing as it is of absolutely no news value whatsoever.
1
It's one thing for this couple to waste their time on this environmentally damaging "hobby." I mean, there are so many things that this couple could do to benefit society.
Go use this talent to save some elephants, for example. Go blow up some poachers.
But it's another thing for the Times to glamorize this destruction of our land.
I recently watched Judge Judy's opinion of OctoMom. To summarize, she said it's one thing for someone to be so irresponsible and stupid to have 8 children she can't care for. But for the media to "celebritize" her and her irresponsibility is what is disturbing. Ditto for this "documentary."
Go use this talent to save some elephants, for example. Go blow up some poachers.
But it's another thing for the Times to glamorize this destruction of our land.
I recently watched Judge Judy's opinion of OctoMom. To summarize, she said it's one thing for someone to be so irresponsible and stupid to have 8 children she can't care for. But for the media to "celebritize" her and her irresponsibility is what is disturbing. Ditto for this "documentary."
1
Yes, that poacher might be a criminal, and deserving punishment, but his/her life is worth the same as yours or mine! I respect and love the natural environment, but still place us humans in a separate category of worth and respect, regardless of their identity or deeds. And viva Fireworks & Explosives!
A poacher's life is only worth something when it ends I'd say. They should indeed be blown up upon apprehension, and the parts left as food for wildlife in a fitting finale. Humans basically aren't worth as much as elephants, by sheer supply and demand laws, asides from how much more destructive and immoral we are.
As for this couple's explosions, they're not beneficial, but they really don't do anywhere near the damage as another couple, the Koch brothers. So yes, it's not positive what they do, but they're not really the problem; I'd rather stop poachers than stop these pyrotechnicians.
As for this couple's explosions, they're not beneficial, but they really don't do anywhere near the damage as another couple, the Koch brothers. So yes, it's not positive what they do, but they're not really the problem; I'd rather stop poachers than stop these pyrotechnicians.
They walk on the knuckles of their front legs.
I suppose if the article is not profound, serious, or provocative, then its deemed unworthy of NYTimes? Maybe get rid of all sections except the news? For that matter, perhaps all of us should stop having fun and cease to be entertained.
I'm an environmental guy, but I love to watch things blowing up.
Great documentary.
I'm an environmental guy, but I love to watch things blowing up.
Great documentary.
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"Does this strike anyone else as rather wasteful?"
It strikes me as emblematic of the idiotic hubris that pervades human culture. Ask someone who has had their village blown off the map whether this looks like fun.
It strikes me as emblematic of the idiotic hubris that pervades human culture. Ask someone who has had their village blown off the map whether this looks like fun.
3
Well, if the options for a pyro-fascination outlet are this vs. leaving flaming gasoline-doused dog poop outside someone's door, ringing the bell, and fleeing to hide across the street in the bushes....
1
Nice video
I've performed in airshows where they did the pyro. They were the best, professional and a pleasure to work with.
2
Shades of SCTV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHkvD7-u7y8
maybe a little explanation is in order, this clip from SCTV features John Candy and Joe Flaherty discussing events featuring things/people that "blowed up real good; the video "Kaboom" might be considered to be life imitating art
Is it a coincidence that the initials of their business are R.I.P.?
Pretty sad that this is how two adults choose to spend their time and energy. Why are so many people in this country so dedicated to investing their energy in things that are destructive and violent? Maybe they really just don't see it for what it is.
I don't understand why most individuals in the comments cannot just watch this, and try to extract a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. This video is micro anthropological documentary on passion, excitement, and reflection on a lifelong career choice. The degree of carbon emissions has nothing to do with the film, and is tiny compared to the day in, and day out use of energy most Americans consume and pollute. Any microscopic impact on the environment doesn’t diminish the value that can be extracted from Mr. and Ms. Gibson’s kooky story.
6
By the way, for all those who think this is wasteful, I hope you're also working against the completely pointless and absolutely parallel fireworks shows at July 4th, New Years, and corporate parties or whatever those random fireworks displays are. This is just simplified fireworks, no more or less wasteful or polluting.
3
I think the human preoccupation with flames and explosions is based on our innate love of power, particularly the power to destroy. Creating is very difficult and often doesn't turn out quite right, but destruction is fairly straightforward and always successful in its own way.
We like blowing stuff up, or seeing it blow up. We like gunfire, and bodies shredded, and streets running red with blood. This is apparent all over the world, that the base human instinct tends to destruction and killing.
And so every time a bunch of humans blow eachother up in Syria and so forth, or a guy attacks cops and gets shot, or a guy shoots up a school, I can't help but think, this is what humans are all about. This is the lowest common denominator, this is the average human's instinct at work, unfettered by higher thought.
So when people prattle on about peace in the Mideast, or world peace, or benighted nations like Pakistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Egypt, North Korea, and so forth getting their act together, it's hard to avoid sarcastically saying "yeah right". People aren't peaceful, and the upside of it is, it helps keep our numbers from multiplying too fast.
We like blowing stuff up, or seeing it blow up. We like gunfire, and bodies shredded, and streets running red with blood. This is apparent all over the world, that the base human instinct tends to destruction and killing.
And so every time a bunch of humans blow eachother up in Syria and so forth, or a guy attacks cops and gets shot, or a guy shoots up a school, I can't help but think, this is what humans are all about. This is the lowest common denominator, this is the average human's instinct at work, unfettered by higher thought.
So when people prattle on about peace in the Mideast, or world peace, or benighted nations like Pakistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Egypt, North Korea, and so forth getting their act together, it's hard to avoid sarcastically saying "yeah right". People aren't peaceful, and the upside of it is, it helps keep our numbers from multiplying too fast.
4
Dan, I agree with you 100%. Destruction is easy. Creation is difficult. Destruction is an easy way to solve problems. To actually bring two sides together and create a synthesis...a lifetime of work and toil.
3
Dan, right on. There is no historical evidence for peaceful society, human or otherwise. The whole religious fantasy of supernaturally-induced peace is an attractive fiction, but usually with a substrate of global violence, apocalypse and punishment. Peace is a concept, unrealized in practice.
From the toddler smashing the pile of blocks to the depraved genocides and wars, we always show what we are about. It's built in.
From the toddler smashing the pile of blocks to the depraved genocides and wars, we always show what we are about. It's built in.
2
I grew up & out of interest in faux violence and explosions many years ago, just as I got tired of shooting guns. I'm not interested in movie violence per se. I don't care for the noise element of fireworks. Retaining those interests is a sign of immaturity or gross taste, to say nothing of the pollution this causes. Notice, they don't use any sort of protective clothing etc. What they love in the income.
I'll come seek your wise counsel next time I have the immature urge to set off a saturn missile battery. NOT! I'm sure I'll still love this stuff if I'm alive at 80, and there's no reason to feel guilt in that. I guess Robert Goddard and Werner von Braun's work was useless and immature as well (sure, it's been misused, as tends to happen with any powerful human tool, unfortunately).
1
Polluting. Wasteful. Unproductive.
5
No fun you. If you live in NYC, your contribution to environmental stress may be far greater than this.
You probably didn't like Monty Python's "Exploding Orchestra," either.
You probably didn't like Monty Python's "Exploding Orchestra," either.
13
Yes, and MP's "How Not To Be Seen" skit.
1
You described 95% of human activity. Hey, it's just another way to have fun. Lighten up.
2
Contemporary art reconciles creation and destruction in paradoxical themes much as the bible. The only difference is that the bible offers redemption through incomparable myths that appeal to the instinctive totality of human nature. The stories of the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, Genesis, the nature of the extremes between good and evil as well as the capacity for man to rise above his primitive nature to commune with holiness.
Man will always seek to "blow up" the best of our collective existence in order to reassemble something anew which resemble his own prideful image. The question remains why peaceful existence is always under attack from the primitive nature of man which aims at destroying what is left of our common totality.
Man will always seek to "blow up" the best of our collective existence in order to reassemble something anew which resemble his own prideful image. The question remains why peaceful existence is always under attack from the primitive nature of man which aims at destroying what is left of our common totality.
3
It's like Halloween, when we take out the old religion and look at it for a moment. The "primitive nature" of man is eternal, even if it is undesirable; and it must be addressed. Consider this a liturgy to do that.
4
So, you're too smart to enjoy blowing stuff up? Maybe one can have too much education.
1
When the light of man is extinguished in search of the fantasy of the dark, then a worship of the dead will turn the living into a zombie plague with no intention of exalting the Earth but rather to destroy the living.
From Isaiah 8:19, New International Version (NIV)
When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Isaiah 8:19King James Version (KJV)
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
From Isaiah 8:19, New International Version (NIV)
When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Isaiah 8:19King James Version (KJV)
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
1
What an important and groundbreaking (no pun intended) documentary from the paper of record.
3
To the commenters wailing about environmental doom and destruction - please stop. Do you have any idea where the vast majority of climate harming emissions come from? Big agriculture. Passenger transportation in the form of planes, trains, and automobiles. Factories processing oil and gas.
Get off your high horses. You all participate in consumerism that results in FAR more egregious climate ramifications than anything portrayed in this video.
It is actually scary that people place blame on people in this video, and not on the huge global resource gobblers and climate warmers.
Get off your high horses. You all participate in consumerism that results in FAR more egregious climate ramifications than anything portrayed in this video.
It is actually scary that people place blame on people in this video, and not on the huge global resource gobblers and climate warmers.
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It reminds me of the objections to the Keystone pipeline. Honorable causes but specific complaints grounded on symbolism having miniscule or no practical effect on widespread environmental degradation.
Humorlessness is rampant
19
Ram pants are a little funny I think.
Yes it is. Dimwits are both dim and lacking wit.
1
Could be the butt of a joke, he said sheepishly.
2
Given the presence of this episode, I reckon the NY Times managing editors believe attracting readers (i.e., ratings) means producing inane and worthless episodes such as this one?
Can you believe staff were paid to spend time on such a worthless pursuit as this one?
Can you believe staff were paid to spend time on such a worthless pursuit as this one?
10
The op-doc video feature showcases work by independent film and video makers and so is very useful.
1
Does this strike anyone else as rather wasteful?
7
no
The script on the sleeves of the sponsor tee shirts is Arabic....but are the characters on front and back, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or something else?
2
Ah also, it's very hard to make out what the four (or five?) characters are, but the right-most one definitely means "fire", the five-stroke one that looks a bit like a flame or a tree.
Started with 'also' there because my initial comment got cut, don't know why. But to confirm, the row of ideograms on the shirts are Chinese characters in an older style of writing; I haven't really seen the line style in Japanese (whose written language derives from Chinese, unlike Korean which was original). And my bad, the one meaning 'fire' (Ka in Japanese) is actually four strokes, 5 points on it but with 4 lines drawn.
I prefer Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok of SCTV's "Farm Film Celebrity Blow Up."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQKWn6oPj-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQKWn6oPj-c
5
Let's lament a technology demonstration, and then wonder why our kids ignore environmental science with the rest of it. I hear a bunch of Fun, apparently, is something evolution gave us that should be banished by those smarter than nature.
5
Like there isn't enough explosives contaminating the environment and lives, this is ridiculous damage from juvenile immature behviour. Enough of that!
6
Often, juvenile, immature behavior is the most fun. This is hardly going to tip the scales on global warming. Maybe we could lighten up a little bit and realize that sometimes it's just, like, totally awesome to blow something up.
My wife wants fireworks at her funeral. I have no doubt that her four sons will ensure that happens.
My wife wants fireworks at her funeral. I have no doubt that her four sons will ensure that happens.
24
It's escapist and fun -- much better than the real alternative. Give me a BOOM any day.
12
Well, you know, there's this magical place called Hollywood. It seems that there's no way to make an action movie or a tv show without something going BANG, preferably with lots of scattered debris and diving, tumbling stunt men. It is true that some of this is digital manipulation, but theatrical explosions are simply universal. The war reenactor crowd also thrives on jsmoke and bangs, colleges still encourage giant bonfires, and there's hardly a dwelling around here without a decorative or functional fireplace...
Rich and Dee, working air shows, are part of the tradition, and probably much, much safer overall than fireworks and anything that involves proximity to actors. Air shows, on the other hand, have always involved high risk and have killed pilots and spectators alike. Nobody would attend to see a low-risk display. The psych crowd might weigh in, but my guess is that their opinions wouldn't change anything.
Rich and Dee, working air shows, are part of the tradition, and probably much, much safer overall than fireworks and anything that involves proximity to actors. Air shows, on the other hand, have always involved high risk and have killed pilots and spectators alike. Nobody would attend to see a low-risk display. The psych crowd might weigh in, but my guess is that their opinions wouldn't change anything.
2
Lord help us.
3
Myself I'm with Tigra and Bunny -- I prefer the cars that go boom.
We humans have learned that smoke, fire, and exploding chemicals have an adverse impact on our atmosphere, and each of us should be striving to reduce emissions that contribute to air pollution and global warming. As a regular reader of the NY Times, I found it extremely disturbing to watch this video and to read the laudatory introduction to it. Humans also used to 'love' watching gladiatorial combat and battles to the death with lions and bears. Our civilization has learned to abhor the human impulses that fed that type of 'love'. Surely this film glorifying the Gibsons and their destructive love of explosions does not belong in the New York Times.
13
I'm not sure whether you're comment is in earnest or sarcastic. Surely you're joking? Most any major (and many minor) civil engineering project involves the constructive use of explosives. Aside from that, it's technically interesting and a powerful 'force' we humans have harnessed. Many will believe I'm unsound for saying so, but I suggest having our high school and college chemistry classes synthesize a little trinitrotoluene, nitroglycerine, nitrogen tri-iodide, etc. under controlled conditions, and detonate that stuff! Awesome fun! I've come across more than a few accounts of pre-1950s American children so enthralled by their childhood chemistry set explosives that they progress to accomplished careers in science or engineering. I consider our current culture of excessive safety a suffocating wet blanket on our intellectual and physical freedoms.
1
Frax, that's another topic, and as an older scientist, one I think about. Valid school chem labs are,if not extinct, restricted to the point where kids are made afraid of experiment. Shop classes are actually extinct, and trade schools offering real-world hands-on are closing. Add that into an increasingly science-adverse public, and we have the stage set for worse things than lack of progress, invention, or even defense.
1
Science and engineering have indeed become indistinguishable from magic. If that's due to some of the astonishing complexity out there, rather than ignorance, I can definitely sympathize. I suspect a lack of science proficiency allows debate on important issues like climate change to devolve much too readily to mere opinion. I'll admit my knowledge of climate science is lacking, so I defer to the prevailing conclusions of the experts, even while recognizing they are fallible humans like myself.
As for the manual skills you mention, I can't wait to be out of school (I'm adult student) and have a workshop again! Germany offers a great example in promoting and respecting trades.
As for the manual skills you mention, I can't wait to be out of school (I'm adult student) and have a workshop again! Germany offers a great example in promoting and respecting trades.
God what an environmental nightmare. Thanks guys for contributing to climate doom wildly beyond your share. Hope everyone had fun!
16