jdbrecords

art by gabriel molina

2013-05-22T14:10:00.001-07:00

marion at cannes

2013-05-21T08:09:00.001-07:00

I love this dress (Christian Dior Resort 2014)!

tu(n)esday!

2013-05-21T06:41:00.001-07:00

Loving these tracks by Milky Chance...

She burns...

Ace Neptune...

Made to stray (unique use of sound mixing on this one)...

This is Giorgio's year! Race on...

ONJ's "Love Song" revamped...

Love strong...

I always like to see what The Hood Internet is up to...

New Kitsuné mixtape! Let's get it on...

No use...

liam hemsworth & lily pads

2013-05-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

fantasy

2013-05-19T11:36:00.001-07:00

Pastel candy-colored clip for "Fantasy" by Juveniles.

the romance of practicality

2013-05-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

The film Frances Ha is essentially about "the romance of practicality." That's how director Noah Baumbach described his latest, and perhaps best, effort--a nimble character study of a hapless, socially awkward New Yorker (Greta Gerwig) who yearns for all the "practical" things we all yearn for (a place to live, rewarding work, some money, and companionship). Those things can be hard to come by, especially within the landscape of New York City (economic uncertainty is one of the film's major themes) and once Frances's longtime best friend, gawky bespectacled publishing employee (she doesn't read, according to Frances) Sophie (an excellent Mickey Sumner who is Sting's daughter), decides to live with someone else in Tribeca and then eventually gets married to a businessman appropriately named Patch (Patrick Heusinger, who is able to break his character free from stereotype in a few scenes). Sophie and Frances's affection for one another is almost cloyingly claustrophobic in early scenes and but then grows distant and caustic as Frances flits from one address to the next and her modern dance career stalls.

Filmed in black and white, Sam Levy's supple photography owes much to Gordon Willis's work on Woody Allen's Manhattan. It's hard to imagine the movie in color (a joke by Frances's Sacramento mother about a red cutting board is made even more sardonic): each shot is like a photograph. The richness of the black and white and the excellent, sometimes French New Wave-inspired editing (by Jennifer Lame) is what makes it a cinematic experience and also what separates it from that certain HBO show that people seem on intent on comparing this film to in reviews. Short moments become elongated (a desperate search for an ATM machine) and longer ones are cut in montage (a trip home to Sacramento for the holidays).

Despite the artistry of the photography, the film never feels too fussy or studied. Baumbach and Gerwig collaborated on the script which is biting and sincere and full of funny lines. The looseness of the screenplay (Baumbach contends the film wasn't improvised and that it consisted of multiple takes) and the narrative make it lissome. And yet its organized too--broken up in chapters (by addresses) and in its centering upon the tumultuous friendship between Frances and Sophie--which becomes the film's driving conflict. The music is a patchwork of music from Truffaut movies and an inspired use of David Bowie's "Modern Love" (Gerwig's spirited backpacked run set to this tune, with an occasional grand jeté, through downtown crosswalks is a joy).

Frances Ha creates many tensions throughout between the lithe and the clumsy, rich and poor, the distant and near. In a jaunt to Paris, ironically set to Hot Chocolate's "Every 1's a Winner," the film avoids falling into obvious romantic territory with a credit card-fueled journey that feels sad and amusing and real to Frances's predicament. The performances are incredibly sharp. Even though we've seen Gerwig before as an awkward songbird, her turn here is distinct and revelatory. Sumner is unrecognizable as Sophie, doing an American accent and changing the register of her voice to completely disappear in her complex character (a later scene between the two in a dorm room is unexpected, intimate and moving). Gerwig's real parents memorably figure. I also loved Charlotte D'Amboise as Frances's dance studio boss, with her pixie cut, little eyes, and clipped little digs that Frances is unable to comprehend. Overall the movie is a sometimes breezy experience but also a heady one. Perhaps because of its unique editing style and because I was so caught up with the emotions within the story, Frances Ha felt much longer than its 85 minute running time; I had felt I had gone through these rocky years with her. The evocative final shot is redemptive in its way, some practical things happen, but still with shades of uncertainty. ****

chris pratt is looking good

2013-05-17T06:17:00.001-07:00

He's preparing for Guardians of the Galaxy (via Just Jared)

julianne at cannes

2013-05-15T11:35:00.002-07:00

via Celebrity Red Carpet

julian

2013-05-15T08:34:00.003-07:00

New video from Say Lou Lou.

solange

2013-05-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

Solange in Complex

tu(n)esday!

2013-05-14T06:53:00.002-07:00

Take over you...

Julian...

New Du Tonc! ("Surging Memories")...

Illusions, illusions...

Nova Scotia...

Feel real...

Memorium...

I didn't believe ("Soul Train" mashup clip)...

new daft punk

2013-05-13T11:49:00.002-07:00

Right now Daft Punk's new album Random Access Memories is streaming on itunes. Hooray!

kidner

2013-05-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

via Michael Kidner

stories we tell

2013-05-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

I looked at nothing concerning Stories We Tell before seeing it and am grateful, so you might want to wait until after you've seen it before reading this. A film dependent upon a series of emotional reveals and surprises, Sarah Polley's wondrous piece defies the documentary genre and re-creates--in a dazzling, almost eerily obsessive way--a fractured portrait of her mother's mysterious life. Once more well-known as a film actress, Polley is quickly emerging as a great filmmaker, showing talent and sensitivity in directing two strong, well-acted films (Away from Her and Take This Waltz) which show wisdom beyond her years by not delving into easy sentimentality or expected routes. The new doc highlights the thematic elements of infidelity and relationships in Polley's previous work, but also expands upon them in a more unbridled, experimental format.

If examining Polley's parentage sounds slight, it's not, thanks to the quirky and resonant interviews she conducts with family members and friends of her mother (often in fourth-wall breaking ways... as Rory Kennedy did with her clan in Ethel) and the breathtaking use of Super-8 (the line between what's created or not is blurred; the photography is by Iris Ng) and the plaintive music (Timber Timbre's "Demon Host" and the piano nocturnes of Abraham Lass). Oft-shown in memorable attire (that purple coat) with a late 70s, bell-shaped Lee Grant hairdo, it helps too that the ghost of the picture is portrayed as such an enigmatic, dramatic character; there are contradictions in the way people feel about her and all have, in some way, have been hurt by her loss and the memory of her. Polley explores the myth and tenuousness of certainty with herself and her subjects. In eloquent baritone (fussied over in a studio recording that we get glimpses of, with "take that line back again" moments, directed with steely resolve by Polley--is this too a performance?), her father Michael (portrayed as a quippy, showy actor but also a sensitive, reserved man) delivers much of the voice-over, based upon his writings.

Polley has said of her work, “I don’t know how it has changed me, but I know it has. It is by far the hardest thing I have ever done and the most rewarding in terms of the result.” Not sure what Polley thinks but making this film seems to be both an attempt in taking control of her mother and the past but also an attempt to clarify the mysteries of her very existence. ****

young & beautiful

2013-05-10T06:34:00.001-07:00

Lana Del Rey's Sophie Muller-directed clip from The Great Gatsby soundtrack...

dfa records

2013-05-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Cool, brisk doc on the founding of the DFA record label, home to artists such as LCD Soundsystem, Holy Ghost!, The Rapture and more.

vintage fire island pics

2013-05-08T08:30:00.003-07:00

I love these.

Friends, 1970

The pines, 1966

Doris Taussig & others at the Yacht Club, 1958

Friends, 1968

Artist Ferron Bell & others, 1969

Early 70s

Building, early 1970s

1979

A hunk in 1979

Barbara Ross, 1980

The Invasion, 1977

via Out Traveler & The Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society

tu(n)esday!

2013-05-07T07:32:00.001-07:00

Disclosure's (f/Eliza Doolittle) "You & Me"!

CHVRCHES make "Hurricane" by MS MR all bubbly...

The Hood Internet mixmashes it up with their new tape...

Drop Out Orchestra remixes "Get Lucky"...

Annie, I've missed you!

& Spring Breakers gave me a newfound appreciation of Britney Spears's "Everytime"

met ball '13 faves!

2013-05-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year.

Here are some of my faves of the night! Who were yours?

Chloë Sevigny, in Proenza Schouler, with Repossi jewels

Beyonce, in Givenchy Haute Couture, with Lorraine Schwartz jewels

Anna Wintour, in Chanel Haute Couture

Jennifer Lawrence, in Dior Haute Couture, with Brian Atwood shoes

Sarah Jessica Parker, in custom Giles, with a Philip Treacy headpiece, Fred Leighton jewels, and custom Christian Louboutin shoes

Gwyneth Paltrow, in Valentino, with Wilfredo Rosado jewels.

Claire Danes, in Oscar de la Renta, with Van Cleef & Arpels jewels.

Carey Mulligan, in Balenciaga

Alexa Chung, in Erdem

Kirsten Dunst, in Louis Vuitton

Taylor Swift, in J. Mendel with Lorraine Schwartz jewels

Blake Lively, in Gucci Premiere, with custom Lorraine Schwartz jewels

Alicia Keys, in custom Jason Wu, with Robert Lee Morris jewels

Elettra Wiedemann, in Prabal Gurung

Ashley Olsen, in vintage Dior

Linda Evangelista, in Marchesa, with Harry Winston jewels

Emily Blunt, in Carolina Herrera with Lorraine Schwartz jewels

Ginnifer Goodwin, in custom Tory Burch

Chelsea Clinton

Sienna Miller, in Burberry Prorsum, with jewels by Eddie Borgo and Genevieve Jones

#beautiful

2013-05-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

There isn't much to the new Mariah Carey song featuring Miguel but it has a nice low-key vibe.

great guns

2013-05-05T07:43:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed reading and pondering Farnoosh Fathi's collection Great Guns (from Canarium Books).

With nods to Emily Dickinson, the poems are lyric and contained but also feel unbridled and modern.

Here is "Sparrow" (originally published in Poetry):

Sparrow

This was more like the atmosphere
had been pinched, whose chirp was an unexpected gust
in a harmonium enough
to break all that high horse talk
that curdles the atmosphere. While centaurs

ate grass and hurdled epitaphs, that chirp
in the midst did change one of us.
'Twas clawed out in a feeling’s flock
'Twas 'couraged by the tall grass
Did you not catch it?

It is enough to gather at your age;
It is enough to note just what
was said that provoked the Alps to rage.
And the eye sews along. But can it cup
a crazing off the tops of trees?

Just one eye as yours could be enough—
one for six moons that surround
the mind’s water birth, while a lily on its cot
bloated, lapses. Sparrow, here again! Countless
consuls tower and luff but the world sizes
down to a restless heart:

To the one note that repeats itself and is all.
To the note one repeats to one’s self and all.
To the one line spitting the heart into flight.

Metaphor is elsewhere, a jewel resulting
in the snout of a pig. Sparrow, here—nearly unresting thing
which always seems suddenly to never have left
my mind. Because you will so easily disappear,
I think of you as infinitely near.

-Farnoosh Fathi

Also check out "Aubade."

looking for mr. goodbar

2013-05-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just scored this soundtrack from Kim's Video for 2 bucks.

It's pretty amazing. Some classic disco songs.

Read my review of the film here.

don't look at me

2013-05-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

It kills me.

assaracus

2013-05-02T08:03:00.004-07:00

I'm thrilled to have ten poems in the latest issue of Assaracus.

The journal, edited by Bryan Borland of Sibling Rivalry Press, includes work by Jonathan Alexander, John Bonanni, Travis Crockett, Ron Drummond, Rob Jacques, Kelly McQuain, Miodrag Kojadinovic, Allen Salerno, Lawrence Schimel, Josh Stenberg, and Denver Torres.

Get yourself a copy here.