BLOG YOU IN THE FACE!!!

"I won't put you in my documentary, buddy"

2007-12-18T06:59:00.000-06:00

Prove you're human

2006-07-13T20:39:00.000-05:00

Steady as She Goes

2006-05-15T02:12:00.000-05:00

In honor of me just hearing that Shellac are coming to Dallas for the first time in, like, ever on June 8th. I can't wait.

Hey

2006-03-25T01:51:00.000-06:00

[Something About Movie Trailers]

2006-03-24T23:18:00.000-06:00

Lady in the Water
This is how you make a great teaser. I've never been a huge fan of Shish Kabob's other movies but this really intrigued me so I went looking for more information about it. This was disappointing. A bunch of apartment residents helping a fairy get home. There is a much more interesting story in this teaser than that. Someone should tell it.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
I've been waiting for this film for a long time. In fact, it had been so long since I heard anything new that I had pretty much forgotten about it until it debuted at Sundance last year. There aren't many other musicians around today who really need to make music in the same sense that other people need to breathe. His music is some of the most honest, guileless and intimate that I've ever heard and its always been ashame that many people (at least in America) just can't seem to get past the often ragged presentation to really hear it. The good part - maybe this movie will change that just a little. The bad - whether this film is well received or not, in 10 years or so there will probably be a big stinky hollywood biopic. Joy.

Marie Antoinette
Fantastic trailer. At this point I don't care about the dubious casting or anything else people have mentioned. This trailer is perfect. Everyone has been talking about the use of the New Order song and whether its inspired or silly. I think its great and it totally captures tragic/romantic teenage girl angle to the story that Sophia Coppola seems to be going for. Now, if the entire film turns to be full of pop songs, that's another story...

High Score
I'm conflicted. A film about a grown man trying to beat the world Missile Command record. I want to cheer him on through my tears of pity.

A Scanner Darkly
I dont get why the computer rotoscoping pisses some people off. Whatever problems Waking Life may have had, It looked amazing and just as alien and dream-like as it should have. The decision to use the same technique for Scanner Darkly is more of a leap but I think it looks wonderful. Reportedly, the film stays very close to the Philip Dick source novel, which would make it maybe the first and only Dick adaptation able to make such a claim.

And yeah yeah I know, Keanu is still doing the teeange surfer dude thing but it somehow works for me. Either he has become a much better actor over the years or I have just become more used to him. Probably a little of both.

"Its a beautiful thang, yall"

2006-03-24T22:47:00.000-06:00

"Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston"

Even in the midst of labor, she still manages to make with a passable "do me" pose. Oh Britney, what would we do without you?

[Via]

Overlooked Films of the 90s

2006-03-19T02:25:00.000-06:00

The Online Film Critics Society's Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s. This wouldn't be worth posting if so many of my favortite 90s films (overlooked or otherwise) weren't on it. Sure, I have a problems with a few of these... Lasts Days of Disco and That Thing You Do were overlooked for many valid reasons as far as I'm concerned... but so will everybody else. What surprises me is the number of great films listed that I really wouldn't consider "overlooked". Aren't movies like Glengarry Glen Ross, Babe and Miller's Crossing pretty much considered classics in certain circles at this point?

Whatever, I could close my eyes and randomly place a finger down anywhere on this list and pick a seldom talked about film (Heavenly Creatures, Bobby Fischer, Hard Eight, Pump Up The Volume, Fearless, The Ice Storm, One False Move, Sneakers, etc...) that I've watched way too many times and will never get tired of. I approve of this list.

Trail Her

2005-11-19T20:24:00.000-06:00

Apple have updated Quicktime and their trailer page. The new page is a little snazzier and puts more focus on the HD trailers they now offer. Apparently Apple are using a new format for the streams in Quicktime 7. All I know is that now the standard non-HD versions of trailers won't play correctly in Apple's player on my old computer. Thumbs down, Apple. Luckily they still play fine in VLC...

Superman Returns (teaser)
Yeah this is just a silly teaser and not a full trailer. Yeah the new Superman might seem a little wimpy at first glance... not to mention about the same age as the guy playing Superboy on television right now (and who was orginally considered for this film). Superman is a special kind of icon in American popular culture and the Superman movies (more specifically, the first two) are just as much a part the character as the comics. You can't really say the same thing about any other comics to film translations. This just looks majestic.

V for Vendetta
I like how this trailer walks right up to the edge of revealing one of the story's big twists. This looks better than anyone could have hoped, given the people involved. I don't know if Natalie Portman is the perfect person to play Eve but she pretty much renders any further discussion on the matter moot in the first few moments of this trailer. Hugo Weaving is V. We'll never see his face in the movie but... that voice. Perfect.

Alan Moore, who wrote the graphic novel upon which this film is based, has publicly disassociated himself from the film because he feels that he's been burned by Hollywood one too many times. From Hell, Constantine and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman were all also based on his comics and none of them met with his approval. V for Vendetta is written and produced by the Wachowski brothers. They love comics so much that they based their most popular film on one without ever crediting the source. That film was very good but four years later they choked when they tried to come up with two sequels on their own. This time they've decided to be a little more honest about their inspiration. The film is directed by James McTeigue, who has had a long and varied career as... an assistant director. There is no real reason to assume he did anything different on V. This is a Wachowski brothers movie. I really hope they haven't screwed it up.

Walk the Line
Big Hollywood autopilot biopic fluff. Johnny Cash was an interesting guy. Joaquin Phoenix has always seemed rather doughy and odd looking and yet he's still probably too handsome for the part. Reese Witherpoon annoys me more and more the older she gets, there is no logical reason for this. They're already polishing the Oscars... I smell a fix. This all seems amazingly hollow considering the subject. Of course, it was written and directed by James Mangold so it can't be that bad.

Final Destination 3
There was a scene in the first Final Destination that still ranks as one of the best shocking deaths on screen for me. Its the shot where the whiny blonde is hit by the bus just as she turns back to say something to her friends. The moment it happened and everyone around me in the theater screaming I was struck numb, dumb and confused in a way that I imagine is similar to how I would react if I had really just seen such a thing. Not that I ever really want to find out....

I didn't see Final Destination 2 until it showed up on cable so of course it was going to suffer in comparison. It tried to make up for its less interesting script and characters with increasingly elaborate deaths and increasingly more blood. In this film, once death has you in it's sights, you're pretty much guaranteed to just explode like a big chunky gore balloon at the slightest touch... but that touch only comes after you've been put through a Moustrap like sequence of near misses.

These are slasher movies without the corny contrivance of an actual slasher. Just round up a bunch of WB rejects, add a bunch of sharp and/or heavy objects, shake vigorously. There's nothing of value here. This new one will no doubt be just as silly and fun as the first two and that's the point.

Taxidermia
This is the new film from Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi, who I've never heard of. His last film was called Hukkle. This is about a taxidermist. It reminds me of the films of Jean-Pierre Jaunet. That's all I know.

In other words I don't what the hell this but I'm really interested. Also I'm a little freaked out right now. Yay.

The Fountain (teaser)
Another teaser. Darron Aronofsky's new film about three men in three different times (all played by Hugh Jackman) searching for the fountain of youth... or something like that. He's been trying to get this film made for years. Now he's finally entering the home stretch. The rumors that Warner doesn't really know what to do with this movie could be both good or bad. I just hope I don't have to wait too much longer to find out.

Munich
Forget what I said before about Walk the Line and the Oscars. The one thing Oscar loves more than biopics is Steven Spielberg and his "important" movies. I don't know much about the events this film depicts. The trailer makes the film look like more a spectacle than I'm guessing it actually is. I'll see this and I'll probably enjoy it and feel like a sucker the whole time.

The Call of Cthulhu
An old fashioned black and white silent film produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, based on the Lovecraft story of the same name. It won the "Best of Show" and "Best Short Film" awards at the 2005 H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival (who knew?!). One of the few fan films that actually seems like it might not be a total waste of everybody's time.

Brick
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in two of the most talked about movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The first to see release, in May, was Greg Araki's Mysterious Skin. Its one of the best films of this year and easily the best thing that Araki has ever been a part of.

The other is Brick, by first time director Rian Johnson, it comes out in March of next year. Its described as a "High School Noir" and really, that's all the description that's needed. This is one of those ideas that seems like it should have happened a long time ago. Chocolate in my peanut butter and all that. This looks unbelievably cool. I can't wait.

Goblin - Suspiria

2005-10-28T22:34:00.000-05:00

For a long time the only films I had seen that had any connection to legendary Italian horror director Dario Argento were Demons and Demons 2, two films that Argento wrote and produced during the mid 80's for director Lamberto Bava (son of Mario). Both films are grade-Z terrible. Usually, when a popular director is listed as "producer" on an unknown director's film (from Poltergeist to A.I.), it really just means "ghost-director". I figured the Demons films were probably a good indication of the gist of Dario. I made a point of scratching "See more Argento films" off my mental list of things to do right away.

Then I saw Suspiria.

This is where I'm supposed to talk about what a brilliant piece of horror it is and what a genius Argento is and how it totally changed my mind about him (blah blah blah), but not quite. It too is obviously the kind of film for which the classification of "B-movie" is just a lofty aspiration. The dialogue/dubbing/ is so atrocious that it makes the average anime dub job sound like the Mercury Theatre players in comparison. The gore, while nice and theatrical, is way too fake to be shocking and the ending is just laughable.

What it does have, though, is a gorgeous dream-like look, brilliant sound design and a genuinely scary sense of dread throughout (at least until the end). Suspiria is a wonderfully sensual experience. During those long sequences where no one is speaking and everything is bathed in some inexplicable green or red light, the only sound being far off whispers and moans... it all makes sense.

And then there's the score by italian prog-rock band Goblin, who have made a career out of scoring horror films, most with Argento. Suspiria wouldn't be half as effective without it.

This Halloween you should do yourself a favor and get ahold of a copy of Suspria if you've never seen it. If that's not an option then invite some friends over, break out the ouija board, light some candles and play "Sighs"... loud.

Goblin - Suspiria [MP3, 5.6MB, 128kbps]
Goblin - Sighs [MP3, 4.9MB, 128kbps]

Country covers of The Clash, The Stooges and VU

2005-10-28T19:35:00.000-05:00

The Country Cousins are a former side project of a guy who is a former member of a band called Lovecanal (...) and is now a recording engineer. These are hosted on his studio website and were posted on Hipinion a few days ago.

"there was a lot of drinking involved in these sessions. we basically jsut(sic) got ripped and did a bunch of country covers of punk and proto punk stuff."

The Country Cousins - "London Calling" [MP3, 4MB, 192kbps]
The Country Cousins - "I Wanna Be Your Dog" [MP3, 2.9MB, 192kbps]
The Country Cousins - "Femme Fatale" [MP3, 4.7MB, 192kbps]

www.fabsoundandmusic.com

1953 "The Tell Tale Heart" animated short

2005-10-27T21:08:00.000-05:00

[Via]

Charles Burns - Black Hole

2005-10-27T18:28:00.000-05:00

Last Spring, Cartoonist Charles Burns wrapped up his 12 issue Fantagraphics series Black Hole after more than a decade of work. It takes place in the Pacific Northwest in the 70's and involves a mysterious sexually transmitted disease that slowly mutates the teenagers it infects. The series showed up in the Comics Journal's list of "The 100 Comics of the Century" years ago when it was only at about the midway point. Now the whole thing has been collected in a big fancy hardcover from Pantheon. Cue press tour...

There's a nice feature on Burns and the book at The Baltimore City Paper.

There's also an interview with Burns at Book Standard.

Finally, Burns can be heard along with cartoonist Chris Ware discussing their work and comics in general on Open Source Radio.

Nintendo Revolution Controller Unveiled

2005-09-16T03:57:00.000-05:00

from Metafilter:

"This morning at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unveiled the unique controller for the company's upcoming video game console, code named Revolution. Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrated the device to the press with a series of hands-on demos. While no full games have yet been shown on the system, the controller offers many possibilities for novel, accessible, and compelling game experiences."

This really does seem pretty revolutionary (har har). It uses two motion sensors next two the TV (or wherever I suppose) to sense where the handheld controller and any optional secondary devices are in realtime space. This is an idea that has been around for a long time and the gut reaction is that this might turn out to be just as awkward to use as everything else was.

On the other hand, if Nintendo is using this as the basic control scheme for the Revolution then its a good bet they've worked out all the kinks. I don't think this kind of thing has ever been attempted for anything except 2D games before... which may have been the problem with all those other paper-weights. This just makes sense. Nintendo is the only game company with any ambition left these days. Its depressing and exciting at the same time.

Oh yeah, I'm not even sure why this thing reminds me of the CD-I but it does. Gross.

I hope they plan to finally redesign that uncomfortable thumbstick before its released. They've been using it since the N64 and the thing's a beast.

Say You Want a Revolution - News Story @ IGN

Revolution Controller Mock-ups - Story @ 4 Color Rebellion from June

Omni Magazine

2005-09-09T02:22:00.000-05:00

While searching for something unrelated tonight I found this post on another blog about Omni magazine. I remember reading it religiously (I was a subscriber) every month cover to cover for years and years... even the bits I couldn't understand a word of. I remember tearing the circus freaks pictorial out of the 10th anniversary issue and throwing it away so I wouldn't have to look at it again. I remember, after not having read the magazine in a few years, seeing an issue in the high school library. It was a super slim issue that had the cast of Deep Space Nine on the cover or something. I knew then that the magazine's days were numbered. I don't know when exactly, but at some point in the last ten years I lost all my back issues.

This article from 1997 that talks about the move to an online only format. The Wikipedia entry says the print version ceased in 1995. I didn't even know it lasted that long. I just know I let my subscription lapse at a certain point in junior high and it became impossible to find.

now www.omnimag.com redirects to Penthouse

why did this magazine have to die?

Phoebe Gloeckner, Dan Clowes audio interviews

2005-08-03T20:55:00.000-05:00

This week's Studio 360 on WNYC has cartoonist Phoebe Gloeckner talking about her book A Child's Life and Other Stories being banned by the California Public Library. It's part of a larger show about decency that also features Penn Jillette talking about The Aristocrats, an actor who dubs over bad words in movies and a feature on Christians protesting the BBC's Jerry Springer Opera. Link

Also on WNYC, Leonard Lopate talks to cartoonist Daniel Clowes about his new book Ice Haven. Link

Clowes can also be heard discussing his book with Denny Smithson on KPFA's Cover to Cover. A busy one, that Clowes. Link

[Via FLOG!]

2 Hipinion related albums

2005-08-03T02:08:00.000-05:00

Hipinion V: Killfile 'em All
-Various Artists

Board is Life
-Gonzo

Two free, internet-only albums released within the last few months. Both related to the infamous(?) music site/message board Hipinion (a site that I post at regularly) in some way. One is uniformly well-recorded, well-played and amazingly boring. The other is ragged, messy and brilliant... but maybe only if you get the joke.

Killfile 'Em All is a compilation of songs created by Hipinion boarders. Its a follow up of sorts to last year's Our Board Could Be Your Life. They've been doing these things every so often since before the site was even called Hipinion and it was still just the formerly "official" message board of Pitchfork Media. Every other year or so, all the wannabes and critics who regularly post manage to stop choking on their own irony long enough to bare their own often flailing stabs at creativity to the harshest audience they know. Once the project is done, criticism is usually kept to a minimum. After all, this is just for fun, maaaan.

Our Board had a handful of surprises but it was not a good album by any measure. It was a ramshackle, mostly lo-fi affair full of half finished ideas for songs that was seemingly sequenced at random. None of that mattered though because it never sounded like it was trying to be anything more than a geeky vanity project. That's the big difference between Our Board... and Killfile - presentation.

The first thing you notice is the number of tracks; Killfile has 12 compared to Our Board's 18. The next thing you notice is the sound. The overall recording quality is much better than the last comp. The performances too, especially of those who contributed to both, are far superior. The compiler didn't just take anything that was submitted this time and it really shows. At this point its only fair to state that I submitted a track for Killfile but it wasn't accepted. After hearing the finished product, though, I have to agree that my little barely-a-song scrap really had no place in the set. Killfile sounds like real album and, as such, wants to be taken seriously. The only thing that's missing is good music.

The type of modern music geek who is obsessive enough to post on a board like Hipinion regularly is easy to caricature. Cranky, arrogant, opinionated... its all really about appearances. Its not so much what you know as what you can convince everyone else you know. Its about being the first to fall in love with something new and, more importantly, the first to get tired of it. Its about championing diversity... as long as "diversity" means "hip hop". So maybe it should come as a surpise that Killfile is such a lilly white, stereotypically "indie" affair but it doesn't. Killfile is the sound of a culturally confused, myopic demographic eating its own tail. In that way its fascinating, like cracking open the chest of some giant, blazer wearing, music blogging, Google branded automaton to get a peek at the machinery inside. Killfile is, quite literally, the sound of a Pitchfork nation.

Most of this is pretty bad. The untitled track by The Morphine Bandits that opens the album is actually kind of interesting until it collapses into standard pop-punk nothingness a couple of minutes in. Karenin's Smile's "Don't Break the Ice" shows that they have made obvious strides as musicians since the last comp. It's just that the chops have come at the cost of any sense of personality. Strictly Pretty Nurses have maybe the best track here simply because they don't try to impress anybody and just bash it out. Kozyra's "In Over My Head" is a pop song composed with the attention to detail of a model railroad enthuisiast, and its about as coma-inducing. At the very least, he finally knows how to place a mic... or hire someone who does

The interesting to good tracks (like the Nurses contribution) can be counted on a few fingers and only make the trash that surrounds them smell that much worse. The Acorn's "Darcy", "Watch Out" by Israeli Chaos and the garbled noodling by Duplo that closes the disc are all worth more than a few listens. Mai performs her cover of the Smiths "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" with the stilted, mannered overzealousness of a girl who has heard the phrase "What a lovely voice you have" a few too many times... but it can't ruin such a great song. Still, her performances of Radiohead's "I Will" (from Our Board...) and Underworld's "Born Slippy" (floating around the internet somewhere) are far better examples of her talents.

That's the generous sum... a few interesting songs that should probably be showcased somewhere else. The rest are just awful (Andrei... stop it). Inept, tuneless, boring (No Andrei, really... stop it) and altogether embarrassing (You too, Magritte). Plans are already underway for another comp. Whatever happened to "Those who can't create, critique"?

Wait, nevermind that last part.

And then there's Board is Life. The seeds of this album were sown in the "30 Songs in 30 Days" thread on Hipinion. As the name implies, It was a thread where boarders tried to write a song a day for a month. A poster named Gonzo posted a few songs written about other boarders and they quickly became the only things that anyone remembered from the thread. Gonzo promised a full album in the same vein but I dont think anybody really believed him. Then it came... and it was glorious.

What we have here is a double-disc, tongue through cheek concept album/opera, played mainly on guitar and keyboard, about the Hipinion board and boarding in general. Really, though, its about the same confused culture that Killfile 'Em All is by. This is an album about wasting your life, about feeling lonely, longing for connection, love, sex and death. Its a work that's so funny and so overflowing with creativity you barely notice how bleak and pathetic it all really is.

It could be argued that the reason this all works so well is that young, message boarding dweebs love nothing more than to talk about themselves. Anyone who takes even a passing glance at Hipinion knows this to be true. But it astounds that such an awfully recorded, seemingly one joke premise can be stretched out for two discs without even one real weak spot. Gonzo is obviously very talented.

Most of these (but not all) are named after and are about particular boarders. Each song is in a different style and every one of them is executed so perfectly and so hilariously that its difficult to single any out. "Val" is funny and insulting. "Schreiber" (about Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber) should probably be added to every college radio playlist ASAP. The reverb-soaked "Lostchild" tells the sad tale of "The loneliest boy in Brooklyn". "Rentboy" sounds about how one would expect a song with that name to sound. "Boardin'! (Original Cast Recording of the Hit Broadway Show)" simply has to be heard to be believed.

Tell you what. Just download the album, start listening to the opening "Board is Death" and see if you don't make it all the way to the closing "Board is Life" in one sitting.

Its obvious that a lot of work went into this but it never sounds labored. It all seems happen in one spontaneous rush. The distorted PC recording is partly to blame for this but also its that while Gonzo obviously spent a lot of time arranging and polishing each of these gems, he approaches the performances with an abandon that's exhilarating. His guitar playing is especially inspired.

But for all its brilliance, Board is Life will probably just sound like a big in-joke to outsiders. I'd like to think otherwise. I'd like to think that people who don't use the word "boarding" regularly would dig this but I might be too biased too see clearly. Still, from where I stand, Board is Life is the most worthwhile thing that Pitchfork and Hipinion have ever been responsible for and one of the best albums I've heard all year.

from "Hipinion V: Killfile 'Em All" -
Strictly Pretty Nurses - "Cecelia Girl" [MP3, 6.5MB, 320kbps]
Mai - "Please (Take 2)" [MP3, 1.8MB, 128kbps]
Andrei - "Dust Off" [MP3, 4.2MB, 192kbps]

from "Board Is Life" by Gonzo -
Gonzo - "Board is Death" [MP3, 4.2MB, 128kbps]
Gonzo - "Schreiber" [MP3, 2.8MB, 128kbps]
Gonzo - "Lostchild" [MP3, 4.1MB, 128kbps]

Download the album Hipinion V: Killfile 'Em All Here
Download Gonzo'z album Board is Life here
Download the 2004 Hipinion comp Our Board Could Be Your Life Here
www.hipinion.com

if the trailer's a'rockin'...

2005-07-18T20:49:00.000-05:00

A History of Violence
New Cronenberg. Yay. Ed Harris. Double yay. Viggo Mortensen always looks like he should be doing softcore porn on Cinemax but he's a good actor so he gets a yay too. Can't wait for this one.

King Kong
Jack Black's delivery is such that he will probably never be completely believable in a dramatic role. The shot of his face when he notices Naomi Watts' character is just silly. He's a funny man playing straight and that's perfect because this is a film that seems to have a good handle on it's own absurdity. Also, big monsters, big noises, gooood.

My only real problem is Watts as the damsel in distress. It is the most important flesh and blood character in the film and I'm not sure I buy Watts in the role. She's pretty and is a good actress but you have to believe that she is someone who could drive a giant monkey crazy with lust... this is key. I'm thinking of someone like Laetitia Casta (if she could act and speak english coherently), Gisele (ditto) or Jennifer Connelly. Oh well... we'll see...

Last Days
The last in Gus Van Sant's trilogy of minimal, factually-based films about death (see also Gerry and Elephant). This one imagines what happens in the last days of a tortured rock star's life. Supposedly, that rock star is a fictional character named Blake but anyone who watches 5 seconds of this trailer (or sees the posters for that matter) can probably figure out who it really is.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I don't really cherish the idea of seeing people and events that were important parts of my youth being turned into movies... especially this person and this event. On the other hand, this looks and sounds so authentic its freaky. Also, the fact that this is a Van Sant film means that it will most likely be more subtle and tasteful than the possible film version of Heavier Than Heaven that keeps getting talked about. This is going to happen more and more the older I get. I should probably just get used to it like everybody else did.

There is something very powerful about the image of the scruffy, lonely guy in a dress wandering around his mansion with a shotgun... and the "another day.." line.

One thing that bothers me... I can see the point of having Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth in there but she really can't act for shit.

The Brothers Grimm
I haven't paid much attention to this movie until now and I'm intersted only because its a Terry Gilliam movie. The plot seems to be a coctail of other Summer movies (take a little Frighteners, throw in some Van Helsing, stir) but once again... its Gilliam. The "she's my daughter" exchange is funny. The "a tree! a tree!" one is not. We'll see.

The Skeleton Key
This excites me on some deep, reptillian, they-don't-them-like-that-anymore horror movie level. Why did Kate Hudson do this? I thought she had decided to go the "stardom means never having to do anything but romantic comedies" route. Anyway yay for her. I'm looking forward to this.

The Gits
This documentary follows the life of Seattle singer Mia Zapata, her band, the Gits, her brutal rape and murder in 1993 and the long, ultimately successful search for the killer.

Zapata was a compelling performer and its a heartbreaking story and one that's not as well known as some others (see above). That's really all that needs to be said. I really want to see this.

Serenity
Firefly is a perfect example of fanboy revisionist history and how you only want what you can't have. When the show was on nobody thought it was good. Yeah Fox ran them in the wrong order but no matter what order they would have been presented in the show still would have been bad. The "its in outer space but its like the old west (dude!)" premise probably wouldn't make to the air as an SNL sketch but here was an entire hour-long show all about it. Its a show that only made it past the pitch because of the success of creator Joss Whedon's Buffy and it was clear from the first episode that it was a turkey.

Then it gets cancelled and a dozen voices cry out in protest, but don't you get the sense that the loudest voice was Whedon's? A little internet cult develops, not because the show was good or they miss it but mainly because internet fans just love a cause. Whedon talks about a film that will tie up loose ends (whatever) and prove to a mainstream audience how great the show was but who was he really talking to? The general idea now is that Firefly was a great "lost show" but really...Whedon wanted this film to be made more than anybody else.

This movie looks dumb. It will be interesting to see exactly how many people (if any) go to see this after all the (admittedly small) fuss. Its worth noting that the name "Firefly" appears nowhere in the trailer. At least someone along the line was thinking clearly.

Manderlay
One day I'll get around to compiling a definitive list of reasons why all film schools should probably be burned to the ground. Its still forming so I can't really put pen to paper just yet but I know that Lars Von Trier will be on there somewhere. Some people don't like him because his work seems anti-american to them but I don't care about any of that. He's a clueless (read an interview with him sometime) stylist who's biggest "statement" to date has been exchanging one set of pretensions ("hey look at all the crazy shit I can do with my camera!") for another ("hey look how I barely use my camera!"). Boring. At least if his films were more obviously hateful (or if he'd actually been to America) it would be more interesting.

But pretension can be wonderful when it's entertaining and visceral (see Darren Aronofsky, early David Lynch). Von Trier's work is just lifeless because he really has nothing to say. The point is how he's saying it. Its like watching Bob Ross paint, except without all that cumbersome personality and jovial, hippy charisma.

Michael Dahlquist, 2 others killed in car crash

2005-07-15T18:05:00.000-05:00

from The Perfect Face For Radio:

"Yesterday around lunch time Doug Meis, the drummer for Exo and the Dials; John Glick, the guitarist for the Returnables; and Michael Dahlquist, the drummer for Silkworm all died in a car accident in Skokie. They were coming back to work from lunch and were hit by someone speeding while talking on a cell phone (which is now illegal in Chicago)."

What a waste. I'd like to be able to have some kind of point with this post but I don't except to say that this is very upsetting. Silkworm is one of my favorite my bands. Best wishes those who died and to the families they have left behind. Below is the first Silkworm song I listened to after I heard the news.

Update:
Apparenty the the woman who caused the accident was trying to commit suicide. She now faces three counts of first degree murder. Link

Update:
The Chicago Tribune has an in depth story online about the deaths in which Silkworm bassist Tim Midgett says the band is now over and that Dahlquist "can't be replaced". Link

Silkworm - "Xian Undertaker" [MP3, 5.7MB, 128kbps]

-Thread on the Electrical Audio forum-

-Thread on the Silkworm forum-

www.silkworm.net

www.tgrec.com

The Silver Arrows

2005-06-28T04:27:00.000-05:00

I've only just begun to pay attention to the Silver Arrows as they get ready to leave. They played what will probably be their last show for awhile a few nights ago before moving from Denton to New York... without the drummer, who's staying behind.

The band had a song on Pyramid Scheme's Long Con Compilation last year that I didn't really like at first but which really grew on me. They play a sort of energetic, snotty art-rock that sounds like it would be really fun live. I hope their next Texas show isn't too far away.

I don't think they have released much (or anything, really) beyond the Long Con track at this point. They have been recording all they can before they leave and posting the results on their site. The plan is to find a new drummer once they get to New York and, I guess, become indie rock sensations. I wish them luck and hope this isn't the end of this very interesting band. We know how this goes. Of course, they can always go back home to Denton again if it turns out the rest of the world sucks. It worked for Centro-Matic.

Silver Arrows - "Parade" [MP3, 3.5MB, 128kbps]

Silver Arrows - "Up and Down" [MP3, 2.4MB, 128kbps]

Silver Arrows - "Gonna Do Those Things" [MP3, 2.6MB, 128kbps]

>>----The--Silver--Arrows---->>

Silver Arrows @ MySpace

"Stay away from street RPS"

2005-06-28T03:06:00.000-05:00

the International Rock Paper Scissors World Championships Site has had this clip up for awhile. Its supposedly from the dvd Playing RPS to Win: Secrets of the Masters. The site doesn't refer to the dvd as "upcoming" anymore but gives no information about how to obtain one. I don't know what the deal is - I just know I want one really bad. This clip is maybe one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. If it's all a joke then its brilliant.

It's not a joke though, as far as I can tell, but until I meet a hardcore RPS enthusiast in person there will always be part of me that questions whether this is all some grand hoax or not. Either way, it's fascinating.

There's also a film that's supposed to see release in "Summer 2005". I have hunch it might not make that window. There's a site and a trailer.

And you might as well take a look at the site for the World RPS Society or the Rollingstone news story on these nuts. Here's hoping they they picket for Olympic recognition soon.

haven't been around lately

2005-05-11T18:44:00.000-05:00

Some of the mp3 downloads will be down until I can find a new place to host them. If either of the two people who read this thing have any ideas contact me.

Dinosaur Jr on the Late Late Show

2005-04-17T00:34:00.000-05:00

I never saw the original lineup of Dinosaur Jr or any lineup thereafter. I saw J Mascis and the Fog a few years ago and it was about as tossed off and sad as this (only much louder). I'm going to be a cliche and say that my favorite Dinosaur Jr record is 1987's You're Living All Over Me but I like all of them at least a little (the last few very little) and while I never saw the band perform, I've heard enough bootlegs and seen enough of these tv performances over the years to know that my one Mascis live experience wasn't a fluke; he's only ever been a really fantastic guitarist in the studio. Still, this is ridiculous. It's getting worse as he gets older. Lou and Murph do their best to keep up as Mascis fumbles his way through "The Lung". At least pick a song you can do decent rendition of if you're going be on national television. There are points during this performance when both Lou and Murph look like they are about ready to call the whole thing off so I wonder how long this tour will last.

Or maybe I'm just being a jerk... maybe it was just a bad night and the tour will be mind-blowing. I'll go see them if I get half a chance anyway. It starts off promising but after mascis stops playing so he can sing the first verse (?!), he never really recovers. At the very least, it made me want to listen to the album.

Dinosaur Jr - "The Lung" Live on the Late Late Show video clip (free registration is required to download the video)

icky pre-code goodness for $1000.00

2005-04-13T03:29:00.000-05:00

Link

[via]

many many music videos....

2005-04-13T02:32:00.000-05:00

Link

Because its late and what else are you going to do at this hour? Crazy stuff, that's what. [via]