Mission Mission

It happens every year, all over. Reader Ross S. sends us this video he shot of some folks burning a tree in the street. (Thanks Ross!)

He also suggests that:

[A] public service announcement regarding when it is ok to burn things in the street (world series win) and when it isn’t (any other time) is in order.

That does sound helpful. When is it okay to burn things in the street? Though this seems a lot safer than burning a mattress in a crowd of hundreds of drunkenly excited fans. It’s probably never “okay”, if you’re really talking about a PSA, but you’ll do it anyway, so it’s always good to be safe while performing illegal acts of anarchy. Anyway, I always thought the beach was the spot to take all of the old Christmas trees. Stack ‘em up and build a super tree. Or just join Danger Ranger. (whoever that is)

One thing we should definitely avoid is leaving a burning tree on someone’s doorstep.

I’d like to also take this opportunity to wonder aloud about shooting video portrait-style, instead of landscape. I know we watch this stuff on our computers, and not the TV, but media still tends to be oriented wider rather than taller. I don’t think anyone prefers the pillarboxed look (seen above), yet people do tend to shoot this way with their phones. Do we need to make room for the long and narrow format? Or should we make people feel stupid so they conform to the old standards?