The Magnelephant Review: Ok Goldberg

Monday, May 3, 2010

Ok Goldberg

Hello, readers.

I like puns.

Also, Rube Goldberg.

And, unrelatedly, Nickel Creek. I bring them up because Cafe Sakura is playing "Reasons Why" and hearing that breezy, golden, kind of sad sound in Seoul has surprised and distracted me.

That sort of thing happens a lot here. Not Nickel Creek so much--this is the first they've popped up--but me being surprised and distracted. Earlier today, for example, Snow White was standing in a room at the bottom of a department store escalator, saying goodbye to people as they returned to their cars. This surprised and distracted me so much that, even though I had no car to return to, I went down the escalator to hear her say goodbye to me. After which, I ducked around the corner, came in the opposite door, went back up the escalator, and exited through the front door.

Now, where was I? Ah, yes, Rube Goldberg.

I've always imagined him as a short man with very large glasses and a tendency to absurdism. I actually have very little idea about what the man really looked like. I would find out, but then I wouldn't be able to imagine him quite so well.

Here are two videos, one of which is inspired by Goldberg's Goldbergian systems designed to do simple things in the most complicated manner possible. The other is inspired by the video inspired by Rube Goldberg, and so, I suppose, you would say it is a Rube Goldberg inspiree, once removed.