WAX

Sorry y'all WAX: OR THE DISCOVERY OF TELEVISION AMONG BEES is just way to long a title.

one of my favorite parts about this blog (and podcast) is the strange rabbit holes it has lead me to. one minute im watching NAKED LUNCH again, the next i'm looking for the William Burroughs documentary, and from the google search William Burroughs movies im suddenly learning about this historic experimental film.

As the first film streamed across the Internet in 1993, the New York Times declaring Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees an “historic event.” That same year, the hypermedia version of the film, Waxweb, was one of the first sites on the World Wide Web, and thus has been repeatedly cited as a milestone of Internet Art. Waxweb has been presented in museums worldwide. Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees was an early example of digital cinema, was one of the first independent films to be edited on a digital non-linear system, the Montage Picture Processor, and transferred from video to film for theatrical presentation.

that sounds great and all, but as someone totally oblivious to all that who stumbled into watching this movie, i wasn't sure what to make of it.

this whole things feels like a much more linear version of EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE. Its a Mosaic of mediums that feels dated now, but its undeniably effective. your essentially listening to a man calmly and in monotone describe the sensation of totally losing his mind, and how various parts of his personal life fuel his delusions. i would in no way call this a horror movie, but from start to finish the whole thing is very disturbing. a lot of that feeling is this movies incredible sound design, which is about the only real comparison to ERASER-HEAD this movie deserves.

according to Wikipedia, Wax provided an early critique of the Gulf War and current-day drone warfare. according to Eric, this movie is basically THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT if jack was just a bat shit crazy Midwestern boy with a thing for bees.

if you want to check out this wild ass movie for yourself, here ya go https://youtu.be/Aq1PV8JcstA

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