Woke this morning and it seemed to me That every night turns out to be...

A little more like Bukowski...

Adam Long's motion graphics depiction of Charles Bukowski's A Little Bomb is terrifying, depressing, apocalyptic, and down right - - Bukowski. It's disturbing form works perfectly with the meaning of the poem, thus displaying how form and content can parallel one another in order to reinforce the message of the medium.

It was interesting to see this video because I am familiar with this poem, and have always regared it as one of my favorites. However, Adam Long's work only made my experience with the text that much better because of the way the form and content work in unison rather than against one another. For me, A Little Atomic Bomb is about our maniacal desire and willingness to destroy the things in life that are either annoying, troubling, or stressful in order to increase the quality of life. Take this clip of the poem:

"o, just give me a little atomic bomb not too much just a little enough to kill a horse in the street but there aren't any horses in the street well, enough to knock the flowers from a bowl but I don't see any flowers in abowl enough then to frighten my love but I don't have any love "

The poem is asking for "just a little atomic bomb", just enough to destroy something. However, the preceding lines always reveal how we don't even have any of the things we wish to annihilate. Bukowski asks for a bomb to frighten his love, but responds by saying he doesnt have any love. The poem not only taps into the nihilistic and destructive tendencies of the human nature, but it could be interpreted as commentary on how human's have destroyed everything beauitful and are left with nothing, yet continue to act on this willingness to violence.

The text in the video works well with the poem because it is fleeting - - it comes and goes in every direction on and off the screen - - somehwat like our fleeting desires to kill and desroy. It is also written in a dark black scripted cursive text which gives off an eery aetshetic. The motion of the text is made even more interesting by the way that a horse will appear when the poem asks for enough of an atomic bomb to kill the horses in the street, or when a zeppelin flies past the screen and drops that bomb, it blows up and smears blackness all over the screen. These aesthetic variables are not only appealing to the eye, but also to the mind. It draws the viewer into the medium of the message as well as drawing them closer to the meaning of the message. Adam Long's creation also pairs form with content by having interaction between the visual icons and the text. For instance, the poem says "give me a little atomic bomb to scrub in my bathtub...like a dirty loveable child," and then the screen motions the viewer in on the child who looks disturbed and spills out the words "I've got a bathtub." The interaction between visual content and scripted content also reinforces the message. If you were reading this poem strictly out of a book, your mind could wander and interpret the message in various ways - - perhaps even mistaking the poem for something pleasant. But if you were to experience this poem through Adam Long's video, he does not leave the viewer with much room to wander or even flirt with an inkling of optimism because his form, content, sound, and visual aesthetic work in conjunction with each other to create an environment which encompasses Bukowski's appeal.