The Rolling Blackout

Where you been?

2010-10-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

Recipe: Taco Pizza

2009-05-08T20:13:00.005-04:00

Cinco de mayo! Weeeeoooooo! Chips! Salsa! Tacos! Dos Equis! You ever get a pound of ground beef for making tacos, eat a few tacos and then resume with the margaritas and suddenly your left with half your taco meat and fixins sitting there on the cutting board? Don't throw them out and let's think about something else besides next day burritos.

Taco Pizza.

Ingredients:

1/4 pound seasoned, cooked ground beef

(if you cooked some onion or pepper into the beef, all the better)

1/4 Can of Goya red refried beans

1 green onion - chopped

1 clove of garlic - minced

Handful of grape tomatoes - quartered or halved

1/2 cup of pepper jack cheese - grated

Few spoon fulls of salsa - optional

One Boboli pizza crust

Okay, so everything's been sitting in the fridge for a couple days and you've sobered up. You're ready to erase any lingering memories of cinco de mayo and throw those leftovers away. But with the purchase of a good pizza crust you can make those leftovers into one of the best pizzas you've ever had. If you have a good pizza stone thing for your oven you can use one of those, fancypants.

[So with your pizza crust or dough out you can get your salsa and splash some of that around. This is a totally optional move - I've done it in the past and it's been pretty tasty. It gives the dough or crust a bit of spice. But the last time I did Taco Pizza it was without the salsa and I didn't miss it a bit. But if you use a couple splashes of your favorite salsa, you should be in good shape.]

Pre-heat the oven to 450. This is standard pizza temp.

Next, open up that can of refried beans -- this is key, it is the glue that holds the Taco Pizza together. We don't have any typical pizza sauce going on here so the refried beans is critical. Don't get any white-boy crapola either, go for the good stuff (Goya). Take a spoon and flick the refried beans at the pizza crust, making dollops here and there. You don't want to cover the pizza in the stuff but you want a good amount -- a half dozen or so dollops.

Now throw the meat around. Use whatever leftovers you got. If you didn't cook onions in your taco meat, maybe put in some chopped yellow onion for flavor and texture. If you like it hot, throw some chopped jalapeno or some sort of pepper in there.

Cheese time. Grate up the pepper jack and sprinkle it around. Don't use too much cheese on this -- less than you would a normal pizza. You want small pools of cheese, not a blanket of cheese. Just as you wouldn't want your taco swimming in cheese, you want just enough cheese on your slice of taco pizza to give you that layer of flavor.

Chop up your garlic into little bits. Then sprinkle those bits around the pizza. I like to get a good amount just on to the rim of the crust.

Let's get some veg in here, eh? Grape tomatoes are perfect for taco pizza (cherry tomatoes would work fine as well), just cut them in half or quarters so that they'll cook well in a short time. Spread them around so that each slice will get a coupe pieces or more.

Finally, the green onion, or scallion. Take one, chop it up, and sprinkle it over the pizza. It's like a garnish that will not only make the pizza look more attractive, but also add a nice bit of flavor.

[Additional topping suggestions could include - avocado, black olives, hot sauce, queso fresco - anything that you might put on your beef taco you can try here. Have fun with it.]

2008 - Year of the Beard & Year of the Clam

2008-04-14T17:08:00.004-04:00

The Beard is still going strong (being kept at a either a 6 or a 7 on the trimmer) and as summer fast approaches phase two of 2008 is coming to realization.

Living in New England is also living in Clamtown. Not sure if you knew that. My specialfellow friend has lived in New England all his life and doesn't like seafood. He is not well. It's like living in Arizona and not liking heat. I don't know how he does it--he gets by I guess. Eating a fried clam, is like eating a piece of New England. At its best it's a crispy yet tender, salty salute. At its worst it's a rubbery, uneatable, bitter mess. It's either the best of foods or the worst of foods. Anyway, viva la clam!

View Larger Map

Now this, for the most part, is an exploration of the fried clam. There are one or two places on the map that may not have fried clams per se, but do offer a clam dish and look interesting enough or have enough insanely positive word of mouth that they make it on the list.

I'm not going to even attempt to make it to all of these places or even most of the places. I don't have the money or the time. I'll be trying to hit three or four a month every other weekend probably. Some trips might be exclusives -- like the Martha's Vineyard one, some might be trying to hit two or three in one swing. By and large this is going to be a playing-it-by-ear endeavor.

If you have any hot tips please pass them along. I will be updating the map constantly. This will also be coinciding with me picking up the remnants of last years botched Summer of Putt Putt -- only hit three courses... Sad. I promise this summer will not fail in such a manner. So if you know of any superior coastal mini-golf courses please pass the word along. I really haven't begun to work on the Putt Putt Map (the lack of a good Google Map was a problem to last years failure to launch) but here it is in it's infancy:

View Larger Map

The excitement should begin this weekend with Mike's Clam Shack in Wells, ME and THE Clam Shack in Kennebunk.

The Beard Pt. 5 (Day 60 something)

2008-01-27T15:40:00.000-05:00

About two months old. I've been keeping tabs on it with a pair of barber scissors on a semi-daily basis. It's had one professional trim about a week or two ago. I don't know if I'm going to keep it up in the summer. a few weeks back we had some warm, close to 60 degree days and I was not enjoying the thing. But on winter days like today where the wind is blowing damp snow around -- it's perfect.

The Beard Pt. 4 (Day 13)

2007-12-05T17:48:00.000-05:00

Yeah, these are yesterday's photo's (today is actually day 14) -- didn't have the time to post them but I don't think too much has changed (I'm not spending .75 to take another 3 pics). The big thing here is at this point I'm really not too sure how much I'm going to let it go before the trimming starts.

I think I'm going to give it one more week to grow.

One of the beard tech things I'm finding out is that it takes some work to keep it the soft texture it was when it was first getting going. I guess when it's still close to the skin it gets by all right -- but the longer it gets the more you have to do to keep it from being razor wire. I use a 3 combo shampoo that has conditioner in it but it might take a little extra help. It's not bad right now. I'm not saying the thing is like razor wire or anything -- I'm just concerned that keeping a proper beard might take me buying some extra product -- which is something I wan't quite calculating.

The Beard Pt. 3 (Day 9)

2007-11-30T18:05:00.000-05:00

What an unattractive photo. Oh well, this isn't a vanity project! We're starting to get a bit hairy now, there's definitely some action going on here -- you can kind of see the scar under my chin from my sledding accident. I've read that you're born with a certain number of hair follicles -- it doesn't change -- you don't get more as you grow older. It debunks the old myth that you shouldn't shave certain areas for fear that it will grow back thicker. I used to have a goatee back in high school and collage and I swear that this area is growing in a bit thicker than the cheek area... I guess that's just how this beard is going to work out.

I've come across my first problem with The Beard. The area on my neck where I'm trimming my beard every day is the same area where I get the worst razor bumps. My bumps. My bumps. My ugly razor bumps. Sorry, I watched Blades of Glory last night. Anyway, I think I'm going to have to buy product.

Note: First day of work without a co-worker's mention of The Beard.

The Beard Pt. 2 (Day 7)

2007-11-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

Yeah, no too much action going on, only the slightest of difference from Day 5. Still feels good though -- a nice surprise when I look in the mirror. Definitely makes you feel older, which in turn can give you a bit more confidence. It's getting more and more fun to rub. For a person like me who's always needing something to do with their hands, stroking The Beard is a pleasant diversion.

Still trying to figure out exactly where to trim The Beard. This picture isn't the greatest but you can kinda see where I'm at. I'd rather be cutting it a little long than shaving too much off, that's my philosophy right now. We'll see -- I think I have to wait and let The Beard grow stronger and tell me what it wants.

The Beard Pt. 1 (Day 5)

2007-11-26T21:21:00.000-05:00

This is the part where we follow the progress on Sean's first real beard (I've read that college beards don't count). I've been threatening to grow a beard for a while now. I think the time is right.

We begin with Day 5

Not bad. Still in its infancy. Feels good. Fun to rub. Softer than expected. I've decided to keep it simple at the beginning here. We'll let the beard dictate how it will end up looking -- right now we're going with a simple line from the end of the sideburns to the mustache and trimming it about where the neck starts. We're off to a good start.

For Further Information

2007-07-30T17:53:00.000-04:00

I'm inclined to leave this guy here as a time capsule of my late twenties.

Yep... [stretch...] Some good stuff here in the old TRB...

Anyway, enough looking back -- If you perhaps stumbled upon the page, or wondering what became, might I direct you to Reviews From the Couch...

Who?

2006-10-08T00:39:00.000-04:00

What?

Oh, not much. Turning 30 in a few weeks.

Yeah, whatever.

You know that Scorsese movie's pretty great. Yeah, sorry, I know you know that.

Huh? No. Basically I haven't had a good internet connection to steal from in ages.

Yeah, I know. I should just pay for my own. This one isn't very reliable.

Yes, I still think I don't have much to add that isn't out there already.

Well, ok. Go and read The Pride of Baghdad and the Scott Pilgrim books; watch Veronica Mars and Smith and Kidnapped; listen to the new The Hold Steady, Yo La Tengo, The Walkmen, and Bonnie Prince Billy.

Yeah, I'll write more later.

What Poppa Tomato said to Baby Tomato

2005-12-09T20:32:00.001-05:00

I'm not even sure if I enjoy this blogging business anymore. What's the point? All this crap you can find out on your own. You don't need me to tell you that a dvd for a Japanese tv show starring manequins as Americans called The Fuccons is arriving on the 20th.

Do you even need to know about the Grabowski Shuffle? Will it make you happy? Click here to find out. Thanks, Scott.

You probably already know Eugene Mirman has his own blog thing going on at the Village Voice website where he sometimes makes funny comments and posts his always funny phone conversations. (He also pointed out Steven Seagal's offical website for it's unabashed awesomeness. Free mp3s!)

Is it my job to tell you about the Law & Order Coloring Book?

I don't know -- when is New Yorkish coming back? Ever? That was a good blog. It didn't pretend to be anything more than what it was -- a collection of funny links, nicely organized and displayed. I recently went clicking through five or six connected blogs that all had the same damn links to the same damn stories -- it seemed to me like these people felt the need, the imperative, to update their blogs just for the sake of updating. Do we need 1 million bored people's opinion of the daily celebrity news?

Ah, fuck it. I'm just being pissy. Maybe I'm just realizing I have nothing to really offer this blogiverse. Three sentence netflix reviews and the same old music recomendations you can find at any annoying hipster music site out there. Hell, I don't even have time to update the sidebar but once every few months. Maybe I'll finish remodeling in here and feel better about it all. Maybe.

Here's something you won't find everywhere -- my grumpy old man email to the guy that runs Roger Ebert's website:

Hi -- First off, I'd like to say that I enjoy the blog and the discussions that have been going on within but felt the need to respond to what I found to be a bit of a continuity error.

I enjoyed the post "Misreading Spielberg (& Hollywood)" dated Nov 28 where you pointed out the numerous errors in a NY Times article about Spielberg and his relationship with the Hollywood studios. I went on to read the previous post "Can movies live up to TV?" and my jaw promptly struck my keyboard.

You mention about halfway through that "Alessandra Stanley, the TV critic for the New York Times and one of the few television reviewers I really enjoy reading..." Wuzza wuzza? Not one week later you'd be devoting a well meaning post on the flaws of The New York Times fact-checkers, or lack thereof, and ill-informed writers and here you are recommending possibly the least correct writer on their staff.

And there's been a lot of research done to back up the fact that she is the one of the more error prone reporters. The website Gawker even has an Alessandra Stanley Watch that pops up rather frequently to inform us of the most recent ones.

This might have been what lead John Cook, a former TV writer for The Chicago Tribune to go ahead and collect her mistakes on his blog. That's a lot of mistakes -- 23 mistakes in 2004 alone. Sure some of those mistakes could be blamed on typos or getting nit-picky -- but her actual reviews offer very little in the way of making it seem she knows what she's writing about. Take this example:

""American Dad" has amusing moments and engaging characters, but it is to "The Simpsons" what Japanese anime is to Disney's "Fantasia": fashionable, but crude and cheaply drawn in comparison."

I think anyone reading this blog knows that Japanese anime has offered some of the best animation ever put on film. One could assume she's talking about the children's cartoons like Sailor Moon or perhaps Speed Racer, but part of being a writer is making your point clear, no?

Or this statement in her review of the show "Over There":

"During World War II, many war movies were made long before its outcome was known: "Mrs. Miniver," "Casablanca" and "In Which We Serve" were released in 1942. Back then, wartime films focused on survivors and civilians struggling on the home front ; neither Hollywood nor the War Department wanted to demoralize audiences with too graphic a depiction of what their servicemen were likely to endure. "

If you look at the films involving the war made in 1942 -- it's clear that the majority of films did not focus on the home front. She seems to be skewing the facts to fit her review. Not something a good reporter/reviewer should do.

The last example (I could go on to find many others) is what bothers me the most about her reviews, this is in regards to the TV show Supernatural:

"The first half-hour of the pilot is quite effective: the camera angles, spooky music and jumpy sequences (whenever a character appears, it is sudden and startling) are as frightening as those found in any horror movie, with an added twist of suspense."

Effective spooky television is having every character appear in a sudden and startling manner? With dutch angles and spooky music, of course. And she never mentions what this added twist of suspense is... She reviews two shows in this column (Bones and Supernatural) and yet manages to properly review neither, I really couldn't tell if she was recommending either show or not. Instead she offers up vague descriptions and numerous comparisons to well known shows and movies.

Argh, I'm sorry, this was a rant that's been building up and your seemingly contradictory posts forced it out of me. I apologize for going on and on but someone had to do it.

Many thanks,
Sean

Brilliant! What can you say to that?

Dear Sean --

Yikes! I admit I like Stanley's writing style, but I guess I don't have the TV background to recognize her factual errors. (Well, I also tend to read her stuff in the morning before I've had my coffee, so unless I go back and look at it again later I must confess I'm a bit fuzzy.)

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll try to keep a more critical eye on her stuff...

Thanks gain for writing,

Jim Emerson
Editor, RogerEbert.com

Hmm... Not very satisfying, but I'll take it as an admission of something or other in the way of guilt.

Yes, let's leave on a lame sort of high note here.

We Now Resume to Comcasticness

2005-11-28T20:09:00.000-05:00

I've always been first in line to give Comcast a grievance but always welcome it back in to my heart when reunited. And it feels so good. Gotta give a week or so to break in this dvr and make sure no parts fall off. Initial signs point to some possible gremlins in the gears but I won't rush to judgment.

The new tv stand entertainment center shelving unit thing and the cable and the ps2 back from the dead all make me want to save up for a new tv. And then I realized, why tv? Why not go all the way and save up for the proper visual sensory imput device.

This is what you real need to receive true Comcastafied bliss. Plus, you can take your military aptitude tests that you'll probably be taking one way or another shortly enough anyway. Go ahead and photoshop your head on that picture and tell me you don't feel delighted already.

New England Beer Festival 2005

2005-11-13T13:47:00.000-05:00

Okay, so here are my belated notes on the beer fest form a few weeks back. Oct ‘9th to be exact. I’m simply going to write exactly what I jotted down in the book – no editing going on here.

12:10 – Inside the Cyclorama. Get glass & 15 beer tix & food vouchers. Slide into swag line.

12:15 – Get swag bag (t-shirt, bottle opener, stickers, coupons)

12:18 – Newport Porter – nice start, smooth, light not heavy porter, tasty

12:20 – Cambridge Brewing Co. Olde English Porter – too light, too smooth, airy, hollow, not bad tasting, not good

12:30 – Ipswich Winter Ale – Nice smell, coffee, tastes good, like it, toffee & biscuit

12:38 – Watch City Boston Bruin – refreshingly bubbly after the porters, bit of an aftertaste but not too bad [sip of Allagash Interlude had at this time – weird fruity apricot taste to it, will not try again]

12:53 – John Harvard’s Instigator – very nice, equal parts bite and drinkability, 7.8% is felt but not overwhelming… supposedly found after 2.5 years in basement… caramel? intimidating smell…

1:05 – Sam Adams Colonial 375 – smells exactly like beer should, nice foggy unfiltered, "dirty", beer supposedly made as colonials would, earthy, beer tastes exactly as beer should in some instinctual way

1:25 – Cambridge Brewing Co. Colonial Beer – supposedly the same idea going on here as 375 but quite different in look, smell, but taste is somewhat similar, darker heavier taste… not as good

1:35 – Pittsfield Brew Works Smoked Porter – A bit like the CBC’s light porter but much better, nice toasted taste, not bad at all

2:00 – Milly’s Tavern Hopnoxious – Excellent IPA type beer, snaps in flavor, refreshing, powerful [had sip of Millie’s Manchester IPA – like the Hop’s small cousin, more drinkable but not as crisp]

2:30 – After a bit of a line have some actual good food from Sunset, a place I haven’t had much luck from food wise but chalk it up to the fact that they opened a new location, the Cantina. Had chili with a cheese filled pretzel – excellent.

2:45 – Shed Restaurant & Brewery’s Saison de Shed – recommended from 3 dudes asking for our own recommendation, not really in the mood for a Belgian white type but good nonetheless, more enjoyable towards end of glass… recommended the Sam Colonial, Pittsfield smoked, and Newport to the dudes.

2:50 – Offshore Brewing Co. Inkwell – 10% going on here, not very drinkable at all, similar to a stout but chalkier and thicker than it should, bad pour as well so I got it for free, not ticket, so not that bad.

3:00 – Harpoon Munich Dark – an excellent beer, glad to be drinking a good beer again, unexpected from Harpoon.

3:20 – Berkshire Brewing Co. Coffeehouse Porter – even better than the Harpoon, loving the wintery beers going on here, chocolate and coffee…

3:50 – Stone Coast Brewing Co. 420 IPA – good, straightforward and tasty [was pretty drunk here]

4:00 – Smuttynose Winter – Last beer of the fest and one of the best – everything you'd want in a winter brew – halfway between an IPA and an ale, warming, excellent, love Smuttynose...

Last entry – had waffles, so damn good, so damn tasty

There's Calm in Your Eye

2005-11-09T17:39:00.000-05:00

Still working on the background thing. Might tweak a couple of other things. In the meantime...

So who knew Wiley Wiggins had a kick ass blog? The News of the Dead has many fine things to be had. Like fun animated film on the dangers of inhalants, cool, if flawed, classic movie desktops, what’s up with Roland Topor?, Abraham Lincoln Land, and so much more – hours can be spent looking through the little treasures in his archive.

McSweeney’s has set up a new store, and in it is a rather exciting new DVD quarterly magazine thing called Wholphin. What you’d call a cross between a whale and a dolphin from what I gather. The material on the debut – Miguel Arteta's and Miranda July's short movie with Mike White and John C. Reilly, Spike Jonze’s covering Al Gore, Patton Oswalt… Yes please.

Scott pointed me to the #1 Colbert Report fansite, and yes, the fan fiction is pretty awesome. I’ve been able to download and watch the first week of the show resulting in much happiness. Comparisons to how much more quality the Daily Show and Colbert deliver than the past couple years of SNL aren’t too crazy to me.

Under Construction

2005-10-30T20:56:00.000-05:00

Changes... Patience... No more robots allowed.

Belated Halowe'en Flick Follow-Up

2005-10-30T08:30:00.000-05:00

Okay folks, sorry for the massive delay, I know you were all sitting by your computers waiting with baited breath this follow up post on English as a first language Holloween movies. Or rather, those computers sitting by their humans waiting for this post -- whichever the case may be. So without further ado...

Night of the Lepus – Yes that movie with the rabbits is finally available on DVD. Okay, some might not want to see Janet Leigh and DeForest Kelley running from giant fluffy bunny rabbits, but those are people without a campy funny bone in their body. Not the scariest movie by far – possibly horrifyingly bad, but a classic in it’s own right nonetheless. You'll laugh, maybe cry... A perfect double feature with…

Day of the Triffids – These movies came out on DVD a week apart from each other, coincidence? Much much better in the way of filmmaking with this one – not nearly as campy but still, rather than cuddly bunnies we have some nasty looking rubber plant life attacking us. Well, London anyway. And this has one heck of an opening sequence where we start right of the bat with nearly all of our population going blind and a possibly fairly realistic look at what would happen in the aftermath. Funny that this and 28 Days Later are both British movies, definitely some parallels. Many laughs to be had here but also some good fun.

The Changeling – Okay, enough of the campy crap and the gory Italian shit, gimme something I haven’t seen that might actually give me some scares! All right, buddy, check this shit out. We have George C. Scott in prime fashion, Peter Medak directing at the peak of his powers and one hell of a fucked up haunted house. You think The Sixth Sense was a brilliantly original movie? Um, watch this and tell me if you still think so. Think The Sixth Sense was a piece of crap – reinforce your beliefs with this fine movie. Not many horror movies actually stick with you and get under your skin – this one will do just that. No big special effects, no zombies or monsters – just creepy through and through, wonderful performances, eerie as hell music and sound (this is a movie that will excel with the best stereo system you’ve got), and a great story. Should be on your best of list with The Exorcist and An American Werewolf in London as the top of the crop.

My Bloody Valentine - Yeah, so is this a better valentine movie or halloween flick – not sure. But I do know it’s better than most of the 80’s slasher flicks. The set-up is pretty much pure cheese, I know, but the stuff in the middle is pretty meaty as far as this type of shit goes. Canada came out with a good assortment of this fare in the 80’s, you know those played to death Friday the 13th movies and Mr. Cronenberg’s terrific offerings, but this one’s top shelf as well.

Society – So I want to go to bed, trying to think up one more movie to put on this list… Then it hits me. I’ve talked up Re-Animator and it’s sub-par sequels. Those sequels were done by a guy by the name of Brian Yuzna. This guy never really reached the knowing sly touch that the original Re-Animator’s Stuart Gordon brings to his movies (even with his fighting robot movie Robot Jox that just came out on DVD). But Society came pretty damn close. There’s a funny subversive slant to the plot of what goes on behind the doors of the well-to-do that is rather enjoyable. And it has one of those stories that I loved most when I was growing up. The kid who senses something strange is going on in his town and through some sleuthing of his own finds out it’s worse than he thought and gets in over his head [see: Blue Velvet, Fright Night, some others I can’t think of right now].

Others to be noted in this wrap-up: Society beat out Wes Craven's last good scary movie The Serpent and the Rainbow and Stuart Gordon’s Dagon. And speaking of Gordon and his love of H.P. Lovecraft (which is some good shit to read if your thinking of warping you mind with some horror reading this Halloween) there’s this movie you may find interesting… click the pic for more info, thanks boingboing.

An Italian Hallowe'en

2005-10-24T21:01:00.000-04:00

So All Hallow's Eve is one week away, and perhaps you're hosting a party of some sort, as is half the population of 18-34 year olds. And perhaps I can maybe point you in the right directions so you're not playing Evil Dead 2 for the hundred billionth fucking time... Perhaps...

Last year I was touting the good ‘ol Dario Argento. Not the most original of suggestions but the guy still gets over looked in some circles. So, in keeping with the Italian angle, these guys did know their horror, how about Mario Bava, “Maestro of the Macabre”? Like Argento, he does have his big ups and his decent share of big downs. So to cut to the cream of the crop, check out Blood and Black Lace. Like Argento’s Suspira, it’s one of the originators of the whole slasher flick genre. For one, it’ll look great on your TV – the guy’s movies are rather stunning in just their composition, lighting, and so forth. And for two, the guys will dig the numerous hot Italian babes that end up going under the knife at one point or another.

Black Sabbath and Black Sunday are his two other classics. Black Sunday was his first breakthrough film. Even though it was made in 1960, years after the Universal horror classics like Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula and the such, it ranks right up there with them. And Barbara Steele, va-va-va-voom… A great opening scene in this one, and a lot of fun to be had. Black Sabbath – I mean, the name alone… Well, this one’s in color for those of you who shy away from the awesomeness of the B&W, but it still looks great, as does all his early work. It’s a trilogy (It’s aka Three faces of Fear) and hosted by Mr. Boris Karloff himself. It’s the foundation of what he was good at – placing young women in suspenseful situations, watching them scream and cringe and probably die a bloody death. Yes, it’s the foundation of the horror movie itself – and this was another of the modern age of horror’s originators.

Now at most Halloween parties there’s a movie on in the background and a group of people milling around chatting, flirting, getting drunk, maybe all three at once. These Bava movies are good movies to have on in the background because they look great (especially if you have a good TV), have great looking ladies in them, and if you have any film geeks at your party they’ll probably be a bit impressed. But say the subtleties of these movies aren’t really what you’re looking for at your party. You want some fucked up shit – heads rolling, people getting eaten, chainsaws, limbs being lost, etc.

Okay…

To complete the Italian trifecta we must touch on Lucio Fulci. The one that even the critics will point to as being a high water mark was The Beyond. This movie has it all – demons, zombies, dismemberment, eye gouging, hey, this guy’s got the moniker “Godfather of Gore” – but like his Italian brethren he does it with a certain panache (also, he was once a med student, that’s really hilarious once you see a couple of this guy’s movies). He also makes his movies look like a million bucks. Some nice cinematography goes a long way to harshening the blow of getting your intestines ripped out. And that happens in a couple of his movies.

Like Zombie... There really isn’t much more to say – these Fulci movies (along with Gates of Hell – which unfortunately isn’t on dvd) are the cream of the gorehound’s crop. Besides Romero’s Dead movies these are as good as it gets. Great shots, great music, great make-up, top notch, and some would say better than the genre deserves.

Well, that’s the top of the Italian stuff – but after all that I feel like mentioning a guy at the bottom. Now this is for the freaks only – but Umberto Lenzi is the master of the, yes, cannibal movie.

He carved out a little niche for himself and while I’m sure he’d of rather gotten some more chances at the finer things in life – it’s what paid the bills and he could film a scene of some unholy natives chowing down on some poor dude like no other. You want to fuck up some people’s minds at your party – put on the movie that was banned in 31 countries, Cannibal Ferox, or as it’s hilariously subtitled, Make Them Die Slowly. And serve up some bloody marys while your at it – good lord I’ll promise you at least one person will loose their candy. Or perhaps take the insanity down to a 9 and put on Eaten Alive! Now Mr. Lenzi doesn’t really play by the classing it up game that Fulci and Argento do – this man’s out to fuck you up with as much gore, nudity, and gruesomeness as possible, so this shit will definitely offend someone if you have more than 10 people at your party. Not to say that all his movies are like that – you could look at Spasmo that despite it’s American name is pretty tame in comparison with some of his 80’s stuff, and also quite better – can actually be compared with some of his Italian brothers stuff. Except more fucked up.

I'll come back tomorrow, hopefully, to chime in with some of the lesser known American horror movies if you dare not risk the greatness of these fine gentlemen.

Jens Katamari

2005-10-20T21:47:00.000-04:00

Jens Lekman put on a brief but damn fine gig at the PA’s Lounge the other night. I recommend catching the guy and his troubadour show. A couple of songs at the beginning were a bit like being at the ol’ sock hop at the community rec center via 1959, but after singing his break-up song mid-way through it turned a bit more dramatic and, well, better. I still don’t quite know how he got his trumpet player, sit down bassist, keyboardist, and violinist to fit in the tiny place but they were all amazing together. The opening act of Nedelle – well, you take your own chances there…

This article on the PA’s Lounge performance from a year ago is a good read and strangely enough is nearly the exact thing that happened on Monday and has plenty good pics and mp3s (the PA's site still has some mp3s on it as well). Except there was no cool Boston By Starlight cover to cap things off. This is the rest of the tour…

Nov 19 - Athens, Greece - Small Music Theatre (soloshow)
Nov 5 - Toronto, Canada - The Music Gallery @ St. George the Martyr Church
Oct 29 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop
Oct 28 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
Oct 25 - Austin, TX - Emo's
Oct 24 - Houston, TX - Walter's
Oct 22 - Richmond, IN - The Earlham College Comtock Room
Oct 21 - Bloomington, IN - Second Story

In other stories of music recommendations I’ll tell you to go get your ears on some of Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary… and an Elliott Smith demos comp from his Basement on the Hill sessions you can find here… and Cage’s Hell’s Winter is downright brilliant…

Katamari

I have to thank m’lady for this one. Being the Japanophile she is, once she heard/saw of the PS2 game Katamari Damacy we went out and bought it the next weekend. At first I thought well, this sounds fun enough – you roll a ball around and pick up random objects – the bigger the ball gets picking up things the bigger objects you pick up… Sure.

Um, sweet sassy molassy, this game is like video crack. And I’m jut talkin’ about Damacy – you may well know that We Love Katamari is on the shelves now – or was, since it was sold out from Target and Best Buy last we checked… Anyway, so, yeah, I haven’t tackled that one yet but I’m still working my thumb blister on the Damacy.

There’s a funny thing that happens playing these games. You’re building your ball for your father, the King of the Cosmos. And very rarely do you get his praise – ok you met your given goal for the round but the reply is, well you met you goal but c’mon you’re the prince, you can do better, if I was rolling that ball I’d do much better! Okay, onto your next round, pathetic prince. And so on. Do you think I’m impressed, no! So there's this guilt and need to do better that actually does make you want to be back to these round and do better. I've beaten this thing a couple times over now but I still want to find those gifts and get his praise...

There’s also much Japanese weirdness – the intro and segues are very trippy. Every other round you can build a constellation [sorry, the point of Damacy is to roll up enough things on your ball to recreate the stars in the sky since your dad fucked up one day and lost them all] and when you do this Japanese girl turns around and says, “I can it… I can feel the Cosmos!” Or something like that. It is indeed awesome.

So I’m trying to get this t-shirt… Either I have it being shipped to be or either it's unavailable -- click on the pick to possibly understand this.

What Ever Happened to SARS?

2005-10-13T21:18:00.000-04:00

Recently watched the 6 episodes Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant's new series Extras. Hilarity. Not quite as crippling as The Office but a damn fine piece of work. Stephen Merchant's part as Ricky's agent is brilliant. The show is infinitely better than anything that came out on American TV this season. Well, I guess they're showing it on HBO... But you know what I mean.

This is pretty sad... Right now as I write this Takashi Miike's Izo is playing practically down the street from me. Only I just found this out 10 minutes ago. Curses! Also, that trailer's dissapeared... But all that is practically meaningless anyway as it seems this one's come out on dvd at some point over the past couple weeks anyway. That certainly snuck up on me.

What's also sad is that the theater it's playing at, The Brattle, is finding it hard to make ends meet these days and may go under. Nasty bit of news, that is. It's a great place to find movies that don't find a distribution deal in the US. As well as new prints of onld movies and well, everything in between. They used to, still do?, have a yearly thing of showing Brazil and Blade Runner as a double feature. For a better ode to the Brattle check this article for a practical eulogy. I can't help but think how at this moment there's people across the nation looking for donations to help rebuild their towns and cities, schools and libraries, and a independant movie theater must seem like the last thing worthy of their spare cash right now. But it certainly would be a shame to see it go.

Didja See Me? Huh, Didja See Me?

2005-10-08T00:50:00.000-04:00

Good bye. There I was. Hell, don't think that dipshit back there a few posts ago trying to eat some kinda hot sandwich was me... My old lady likes to post some pictures... Me, up there in the right corner like I said all along is me, and waving my hat in this embarrasing photo, yeah... Most times I got my beard under control... Eh, whatever, let's see the White Sox win one, no? I kinda like that slogan they got going -- from red to white. They're even worse off -- last big win is 1917? Well, best of luck, and I think you have a good shot at it. Though m'lady used to be familiar with St. Louis... So let's see what happens...

5 Fingers of Death

2005-10-07T23:24:00.000-04:00

If you're at all a fan of the kung-fu movie, well, you may have already seen this movie. Me, I just got done watching this and couldn't contain myself – had to come on here and rejoice.

I’ve already admitted that I’m not too up on my Shaw Bros. So I started off with the 5 Deadly Venoms… Man, I guess you could say it’s good or bad that I picked that one but 5 Fingers of Death may well be the best kung-fu movie I’ve witnessed (that I can remember).

Okay, the acting is pretty top-notch as far as this shit goes. The main guy (Lo Leih) – you totally root for him the whole way, the guy can act and... and I’m sounding like a complete geek right now but hold on… The movie starts off with a brilliant fight scene between an old guy and a dastardly group of ne’er do wells and the old guy kicks a good amount of ass. This scene, with the old guy swapping kicks and jumping around completely wraps you into the movie – something Venoms failed to do…

Now I’d love some people to come on here and tell me what Shaw Bros. movies I’m missing out on, but I can’t imagine a better one than this. It hooks you in right at the start, the dubbing is decent, the acting is pretty damn good, and the last half hour kicks complete ass backwards and forwards. And in between that there’s great fight scenes and scenes that actually make you care about this main guy (Lo Leih – who is brilliant in his acting and fighting, what happened to this guy?)

And lastly, yes, this is the movie that Quentin got the Bride’s fight sound from. That alarm that went off when Uma was about to start some shit – that’s the sound that goes off when Lo’s about to lay the Iron Fist down on some sad bastard. Though it is indeed tweeked a bit in Quentin’s world and has an added ending that is extra special.

If you like your kung-fu, go rent this movie. Head, I know you had Venoms on your list – look, I admit I have some flats on my queue, this one is infinitely better than Venoms, my promise to you and to everyone else.

The Beginning of Another Beautiful Post Season

2005-10-04T20:42:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, wasn’t that a nice 14-2 loss to start things off? What Red Sox fan could ask for more? Everyone knows that sweep of the Angels last season was frightfully dull and without the requisite panic and drama that we sox fans need. Yes, this was a good start. Seriously.

Silver Jews Breakfast Pizza

2005-09-29T22:59:00.000-04:00

May everyone in America go watch Serenity this weekend. And go home, drink good beer, listen to Tanglewood Numbers, and have great sex. This is my wish unto every one of you. You may replace Serenity with History of Violence and I will not be displeased.

And when you wake up...

Thumbsucker: The Review

2005-09-26T20:01:00.000-04:00

I figured with the amount of jibber-jabbing I've been giving the book and the impending movie I’d chime in with my two half-pennies on the results. It’s not that I really think that anyone reading this went out and picked up the book and read the thing and is now wondering about the movie – but hey, what’s life without fantasies and bookends.

The movies pretty good actually. It’s a skipping stone to the book though. As I predicted we don’t get the pot baby or the job at the gas station. We also don’t get the Mormons, which is probably the most missed, and we don’t get the majority of the dad’s story arc (his cry for help family hike and the lost weekend on the island with Justin). Now yes, this is all sorely missed – but I know just as well as anyone that making a good book into a good movie is a Sophie’s Choice struggle. And for the most part they’ve succeeded.

The good/bad is that Keanu and Vince (Vaughn) almost steal the movie from the central family – that’s not to say that Tilda or the other Vince (D'Onofrio) do a bad job. Not at all, Tilda especially brings her Mom part to life, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that she looks and Vince gives his main scenes that deep well of substance that he always offers up (this time not as creepy as most) as the Dad. If they’d given 15 minutes of touching on his hunting obsession I’d definitely be more pleased, but it seems they wanted to clock in at the 90 minute area so we’re given a small firecracker version of the book.

What really makes the movie good is that you know that Mike Mills (the writer/director) loves these characters. And that’s not just because I’ve read his interviews. That love is up there on the screen and it’s infectious.

HOT KUNG-FU JOHN WOO JEAN-LUC GODARD ACTION

2005-09-22T21:42:00.000-04:00

It's that time again...

Five Deadly Venoms -- My familiarity with The Shaws Bros kung-fu flicks of the 70's is sorely lacking. So this seemed like a good place to start. It starts off OK. Then it slides a bit downhill with a rather unlikable main protagonist. The last student of a dying kung-fu master is sent to track down and keep tabs on his previous five students, the 5 deadly venoms of the title, each one the master of a certain reptilian technique. The plot set-up is rather ridiculous, the dying master seems to have an uncanny ability to know just when the shit's about to hit the fan, thought the only reason he seem to be telling his young annoying apprentice is because he's dying... But hey, we're not renting this movie for its plot structure.

So the 5 Venoms always wore masks so the dude doesn’t know who they are, only that they're probably going to be going after the money that the master has left his friend in this small town with a horrendous judiciary system. Yeah, I told you it’s ridiculous, but just stick with me. Once two of the Venoms are revealed to be the evil ones and the guy with the money is killed the movie starts to pick up – at this point it goes from 2 stars to 3.

The kid from the beginning that we think is the main character thankfully stays in the background and some pretty cool set pieces happen when 4 of the 5 Venoms figure out who each other are and a couple of them get arrested and have to deal with some pretty severe forms of questioning.

The last half of the movie is far superior to the first and there’s some pretty gruesome death scenes and a damn fine finale. Starts off at 2 stars and ends up squeezing out a 4 out of 5.

A Better Tomorrow II – This is a movie I’d seen way back in ’95 or ’96. Alls I remembered is that the last half hour of this movie blew me away. I’m not the biggest John Woo fan. The only classic I think he’s created is Hard Boiled. Which appropriately enough was the last movie he directed for China. I liked The Killer and A Better Tomorrow well enough but can’t quite get into the soap opera melodrama, though I won’t deny that these elements are what him the first guy to turn his gun battles into opera.

But this movie’s definitely one of his poorer efforts. (Though you can read elsewhere that this was a very troubled production, one of the biggest budgeted films of Hong Kong at that point since it did film in New York and the producer Tsui Hark was starting to get his own directing ideas. Tsui’s become a better director if you ask me but sadly hasn’t been given a second chance or even a decent opportunity in the US – which may or may not be a good thing.) The shit subtitles and crappy transfer on this DVD certainly don’t help – I’m not sure what it takes or what it costs to put new subtitles on a movie, but damn, this one’s one of the worst I’ve seen. Practically every other sentence has a misspelled or otherwise fucked up sentence – some of it engrish-ized. “Yes, hats a very good pran.”

We won’t mention that Chow Yun-Fat died in the first one and comes back as Ken’s twin brother Mark is a pretty cheesy thing, because hey, Chow Yun-Fat is always a good thing in a John Woo movie regardless. There’s so much over-acting in this movie it pretty much becomes painful, especially with the whole Uncle Lung business losing his mind and repeatedly getting force-fed over and over again.

But! Besides all this, we’re treated to possibly one of the finest staged and choreographed acts of insane bloodshed ever put on film. You could pretty much put this DVD on at the 1 hour 13 minute point of the film and go crazy. The amount of perfectly exploded blood packs and squibs and the ingenious use of introducing a samurai sword in the middle of an automatic gun fight… And the second or third to last shot on the men resting together in the aftermath. Yes, this is why 10 years ago I thought this movie was the shit. 2.5 out of 5.

Alphaville – French new-wave sci-fi. If that sounds interesting to you, you’ll love this. Jean Luc-Godard’s version of 1985 pretty much. You have a mostly highly enjoyable adventure with Lemmy Caution, a Sam Spade type who arrives in Alphaville with an unknown agenda. You can’t say too much more without giving the whole thing away. The city’s evolved into a fascist state through the calculations of a computer program, and Lemmy’s shaking things up with the help of an always obsession worthy Anna Karina. It’s a fun mix of noir and sci-fi long before Blade Runner, though the subject matter does get a bit repetitive at times.

There’s so much going on and trying to be said in here but there’s a good amount of playfulness that keeps it entertaining. For 1965 it’s pretty cool to see Godard play with these genres and the idea of a fascist future created through computer programming. A lot of elements of Fahrenheit 451 also in here as well. Well worth watching – 4 out of 5.

Old Man Goes To Concerts

2005-09-13T20:14:00.000-04:00

September 8th, 2005, 5:30pm -- We meet up at Redbones for some food before the show. The show is Sufjan Stevens. The app was Catfish Fingers, the meal chosen is Beef Jerk Sandwich with a side of Mac & Cheese. Now, I hold a small amount of pride for having a pretty damn high tolerance towards hot/spicy foods. That "hot" salsa you hand my way, spicy ketchup. But this shit was insane. Tears were pretty much constantly pouring from my eyes, sweat beeding on the brow. The only reason I was able to eat between 1/4 or 1/3 of this sandwich was the mac & cheese. I know that the worst thing to do in this situation is to drink water. Milk is the best hot sauce antidote, and the beer and macheese got me through a dozen or so small bites and then I had to throw in the towel and order a second helping of our app -- the kickass Catfish Fingers. I felt a beaten man with a possibly troubled digestive system.

The line was wrapped around the venue but we got excellent seats. The old man was able to sit. Laura Veirs opened up, and the entire time I could not get over her bass player and his suspendered linen pants and braided hair. It was an OK set -- I definitely enjoyed the songs more on the ipod though.

The drummer came out first for Sufjan’s set. From where I was sitting this was the only member I didn’t have a good seat for. M’lady reassured me that he was dressed in the cheerleader outfit that I’d been told was the attire of this tour (though later on when he came to sit in on xylophone it was revealed that they ran out of cheerleading outfit material and sadly he, the drummer, was the one to end up with shorts, much to the funny of the audience). He started up a drum-roll and the rest of the band came out in the requisite cheerleading formation. They preformed a cheer for the audience and launched into the 50 states song.

The whole set that proceeded was a joyous occasion. Sufjan is one hell of a confident performer. They did a version of the Star Spangled Banner that had even the most cynical guy in the house cheering afterward. God knows I'm no Christian, but I even dig the songs where he'll slyly bring in his faith, for some reason I find it endearing. To me it’s the same as listening to the American Folk Anthology – your listening to someone who believes it and it’s powerful -- a good song's a good song.

Most of the songs were the sad stories that wrapped you up and tucked you in. And in between were choreographed cheers about midwest cities. They were good songs… I’m still more of a Michigan fan but Illinois is growing on me.

September 11th, 2005 -- The Hold Steady at T.T. The Bear’s. The old man had to stand but it was obvious The Hold Steady kicked the ass of every living being in the place. Was it worth being 90% useless on Monday? Looking back, I say, yes. They throw out a great amount of energy that you can't help but be affected by. I enjoy their 2 albums -- the first one a bit more, but they do pale more than a bit in comparison with the live show.

I apologize if I cut The Hold Steady stuff short – trust me, go see them – but I want to add a bit in here about The Staircase.

Ya like Law & Order, right? Who the hell doesn’t? This is pretty much Law & Order Super Sized. Fuck that convenient wrap-it-up-in-an-hour NYC shit, let’s see what really happens in the average American courtroom. Right? Wowzers. It's been over a couple weeks now since I saw the 8 one-hour episodes that comprise this two-disc set and it's still sticking with me. The mother of an affluent family is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in a pool of her own blood. Despite a frantic call to 911 the husband is charged with 1st degree murder.

I can't give too much more away -- every episode packs what in legaleese is refered to as a whammy, or a, hey-oh! The filmakers get unprecedented access to every part of the defense team as they try to build their case. We find out in the bonus interviews with them that they tried to get similar access with the prosecution team but were denied only a minor amount. But after watching the entire story unfold and seeing the prosecution's case -- you're not complaining. If you've ever had a passing interest in true-crime or the insanity of the legal system then this is for you, and everyone else too. Shit -- 5 out of 5.

Back That Thing Up

2005-08-30T20:12:00.000-04:00

Netflix, what say ye? So the streak of multiple disc TV shows has ended and we've gotten some movies in these past couple weeks. First and most recently:

Seconds -- I was a bit disappointed by this one. It'd been on the queue for ages along with another Frankenheimer flick Seven Days in May. I guess from what I'd read I was expecting a bit more of a mind fuck than what was delivered. The pitch is basically a feature length Twilight Zone episode where through a shady business deal an old guy gets to become young again and have a second shot at an ideal life doing whatever it is he really wanted to do with his life before he gave up on it all. Of course this is going to come back and bite him in the ass with regret and an evil twist at the end. There are good performances all around but Frankenheimer gets a little too experimental for his own good throughout much of it. It was interesting to see Spike Lee's actor-cam being used -- as far as I know it may be the first feature to use it (you know, where the camera is attached to the actor while he walks around leaving the guy in place and everything else in motion). There's also this laughable hippy freak-out scene in the middle that's like dates it rather badly -- but is mostly forgivable as the majority of the movie gives you this feeling that it's going to be a fun ride watching the second half of this guy's decent into what should be a disturbing end. But alas, the disturbing end isn't much more than a yeah, well, that sucks. But I still give it a 3 out of 5 for the performances and the effort and enthusiasm.

Errol Morris' First Person -- Okay, now you talk about your disturbing – some of these episodes that comprise Errol Morris’ short lived Bravo series are downright spooky. And all they basically are, as anyone familiar with Morris’ work, are interviews. You may remember Mr. Morris from such films as Mr. Death, The Thin Blue Line, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, Fog of War, Vernon, Florida, Gates of Heaven, and A Brief History of Time (which sadly has yet to come to DVD). Now these individual 17 interviews are a bit spotty – there are a couple early on that fall a bit flat, but taken as a whole there are interesting themes that get woven from one subject to another. These are people that have nothing at all in common with each other and yet… do. Some of the standouts are: the woman who came home to find her son-in-law had killed himself in his bedroom and decided to become a professional crime scene cleaner, the man with the highest documented IQ (who happens to be a bar bouncer), the pen pal of the Unabomber, the seemingly insane lady who falls in love with a death row serial killer, and the pilot who got on the wrong plane home and helped “land” that DC-10 in Ohio. This is a great collection and a brilliant example (as all his films are) of how to make an interview interesting on film. Check this shit out. 5 out of 5

Battle Royal -- Now this is one that’d been on the queue for a long while, had heard much hype about, and did not fail to deliver the goods. Long story short, it’s Lord of the Flies on an amphetamine overdose. In Japan. Each year they take the rottenest group of high schoolers, send them to an island with a small bomb strapped to their necks, give each one of them a different weapon and treat the last one standing like the winner of American Idol. Meanwhile the disgruntled teacher (in this case the always watchable “Beat” Takeshi) cheers them on over an intercom in the island’s control center. We watch as friendships are tested, cliques get splintered apart, and bottled-up revenge is had with or without consequences. High school’s a bitch. 4 out of 5

Slaughterhouse 5 -- Another somewhat disappointment. Though this one didn’t have too much expectations going into it. I swear I’d watched this movie 7 or 8 years ago as I remember pulling it from the shelf of the Pleasant Street Video in Northampton, but I think I was completely stoned at the time of viewing so I couldn’t remember a single scene from the thing. And Filmbrain had recently posted about it’s values and I hadn’t been steered wrong by him yet so… I’m not saying it’s a bad movie by any means – just not a wholly enjoyable one. I’m not too up on my Kurt Vonnegut, I’ve only read two of his books, but I did enjoy those two. And I have to agree with both sides on this one – Slaughterhouse 5 is a bad book to try to make a movie and the movie that was made is as good an adaptation as there’s ever going to be. Michael Sacks does an award worthy performance in this as the main character Billy Pilgrim who lives his life constantly shuttling back (“unstuck in time” as it were) and forth from being a WWII POW and dealing with his unrewarding family life afterward, his institutionalized life in between and a somewhat parellel existence being observed in a bubble on a distant planet. Now, like I said, Sacks inhabits this role perfectly and George Roy Hill (coming into this after Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and The Sting) films it beautifully… but at the same time you wish it was something else. It’s a movie where you know the book is much more enjoyable – and during the whole thing you’re only able to watch the characters and never really get to understand them at all so you feel that you’re being held at a distance that prevents you from getting involved in what’s going on. 3 out of 5

*********************************************************************
Oh, and in case for some ungodly reason you haven't seen it --
40 Year Old Virgin -- Go now. See this movie, and cry the tears of joy I cried. The trailers and commercials are simply unable, through cetains laws that are in place in our society, to show you the greatness that lies with in this movie. I'm unable right now to even recall a movie that I've seen recently that has as much hilarity as this. [Oh yeah, and watch Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared while you're at it.]

*********************************************************************

Thumbsucker

2005-08-18T23:17:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know I've been pushing the book for the last couple months but now I know the website for the damn thing's out there. There's a different preview on the apple quicktime trailer thing -- as well as another one when you go into the Thumbsucker site. I'm sorry I'm a bit pissy but the Patriots just blew a gimme game -- I know it's preseason but what the hell? Anyway, the trailers are making me believe they might turn this beautiful book into a half decent movie. After watching these, I'm thinking the pot baby is going to be left out (I really never thought that such a disturbing thing would make it in anyway) as well as the gas station job, but I have a fondness for these actors and I'm liking the way the marketing is going -- it's not trying to turn it into somthing it's not (like that goddamn line that appears on imdb calling it the "next napoleon dynamite" -- I swear I'd give that person such a pinch). And I think these trailers give you enough to show you THIS HAS NOTHING IN COMMON WITH NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Fuck, that took the rest of me out. So check out that first link -- the site is pretty cool and again, go read the book.

I Spent $300 on Curtains

2005-08-16T23:00:00.000-04:00

It was a damn fine weekend for movies this year. Well, that's strictly speaking for Boston that is. We got The Aristocrats, Last Days, and Grizzly Man (Broken Flowers came out the week before). Though, of course, none of these movies even made a dent in the top 10 B.O. results, what with Duke's driving around and Mark Wahlberg taking no prisoners...

I managed to see two of them -- Broken Flowers and The Aristocrats.

I'll just say that I found myself crying with laughter more then a couple times during The Aristocrats. That doesn't happen very often. I will say it's the funniest movie that I've seen this year, but it's also a bit exhausting – as you may guess from a 90 minute movie about a joke. But in a larger sense it’s more about the art of comedy itself and I’m sure any budding comics out there will treat this like a tutorial.

Bob Saget and Gilbert Gottfried pretty much come off as the stars of the film and Saget does indeed kill the audience in this with by far the best version of the joke. He’s the most creatively obscene and that’s really what the success of this joke hinges upon – the most relentless and imaginatively degrading and filthy is the stuff that wins. Or else you find a creative alternate way to tell the joke like the card trick guy or the mime – both winners as well.

I recommend the movie – but it might go by a bit more smoothly if you’ve had a few before hand and aren’t going in with impossible expectations like I did.

For something completely different Broken Flowers is a superb Jim Jarmusch film. Bill Murray is pitch perfect and gives a beautifully subtle and muted performance that easily stands out and differentiates itself from his recent work in Rushmore, Translation and Zissou. But Jeffrey Wright nearly steals the show as Murray’s neighbor and instigator. I’ll still sit and watch Basquiat whenever it’s on and think his performance in that is amazing.

And to wrap this up I’ll mention a few things about 2046, Wong Kar Wai’s sequel to In the Mood For Love, which I was able to get a free pass to tonight. Now I won’t by any means say I was disappointed – it’s just that it’s kind of impossible to not to compare it to the first. Now, I’m not sure if I’d mentioned it here before but I only saw In the Mood For Love around February or so and was pretty much floored by it. I’d seen Wong’s Chungking Express and have much love for that one, but In the Mood is another kind of movie all together. The look, fetishistic eye for details is pretty breathtaking.

Anyway, 2041 keeps all of these elements going and is for the most part enjoyable. But you find youself enjoying the bits and parts of it moe than the story itself. The beauty of the shots and the art direction, the music, the acting – all top notch and worth the price of admission. But the story itself isn’t quite as engaging as it’s predecessor’s. Really though, the more I think of it, it may just be that it just doesn’t quite have the same impact the second time around. Not to say that this is just a retread of the first movie – it’s definitely it’s own thing, but just not quite as affecting this time. But again, it’s a damn fine film that’ll probably grow on me the next couple days, and I’m going to see what I can do about getting my hands on the soundtracks to the both of these movies…

Subtractions, Additions, Retractions...

2005-08-11T20:23:00.000-04:00

Those ads, yeah, I figure if I can get 10 bucks a year -- hey, that'll be worth the ten minutes it took me to put them up there... Also, I find it funny seeing what parts of the blog the ads decide to focus upon to gear themselves towards. Anyway, the subtractions took place on my Netflix queue so that I could get that little sidebar feature back up and going again. There's a couple places there where you can click and see what 400+ movies made the cut and you can click on any of the movies to get their repective official page. And if you have a Netflix account feel free to send me an email if you want to do that whole Netflix Friends thing.

As far as retractions go, I must say I'm smelling bad things coming from Brothers Grimm. I'd been pretty psyched about this movie for a long time -- I mean, shit, it's a new Gilliam movie -- cause enough for celebration. But now more and more word is leaking out that this is a strictly for the $$$ endeavour on Terry's part and the Weinsteins have taken most of his personal touches off the thing. Criminy...

But you see the flip side to this thing is that now matter how sub-par the movie is I still want to see the thing do boffo box office. For if this happens it could bring about the things that should have happened years ago -- Terry can get together enough money to buy back the rights to the Don Quixote project, get Good Omens back on it's feet -- and maybe even enough good will in Hollywood to direct a Harry Potter movie like he always should have (though I hear the latter books are more his material anyway) which is sure way to get some of his personal projects off the ground.

So hear's hoping your oppertunity to cash in is successfull Terry -- even if it's not the movie you wanted to make in the first place -- so that you may be able to make the movies you 've always wanted to make in the first place.

Comedians of Comedy

2005-08-08T21:54:00.000-04:00

So, of course, in my discourse of the past week, I completely omitted probably the best thing -- The Comedians of Comedy show at the Paradise.

I was going there to see Patton Oswalt, who has a brilliant CD out, but was staying to see the rest of the bunch -- Zach Galafianakis, Brian Poshen, Maria Bramford, and special guest Todd Barry. I was excited to see Todd Barry announced, his web site (that receipt museum kills me) and a Comedy Central show I’d downloaded as an mp3 a year or so ago has brought many laughs.

Patton opened up the show as a sort of warm up and reinforced my belief that he’s clearly the king of this road show. But then Zach Galifianakis came on (the guy on piano in the pic) and fucking killed. He is like a combo of Steven Wright and that comedian that played piano and Mitch Hedberg – because he has that a bit stoned feeling about him – and yet definitely has his own thing... oozing confidence. He did have his own talk show on VH1 for about half a season--I may be the only person who remembers that. He got the crowd to buy him a shot and played to the cameras more than anyone else. Anyway, if you ever see him playing in your town, catch him, he puts on a great show -- not just your regular stand up shit.

The entire show was being filmed for Comedy Central. Many jokes were made at their expense. Not just this show but part of the compiled 6 northeast shows making up this tour. They played Atlantic City before Boston and every one of them made a point of how abysmal that crowd was. We were up at the top of the stairs and right behind the sax player that showed up at the end of Zach’s set. So hey, I may be on basic cable tv.

Brian Poshen & Maria Bramford kept the crowd going (they were good, but I'm moving on). And Patton came on afterward to put the thing to bed. Obviously they’ve set him up as the star of the show – but he definitely proves it. He took requests (Robert Evans! Tom Carvel!) and pretty much made sure everyone went home happy. They whole lot of them gave signatures at the merch booth and I bought a t-shirt and Patton’s 222 album. (If anyone knows where my Mr. Show tour t-shirt is, let me know.)

Todd Barry was a bit off – maybe the whole special guest thing wasn’t working for the crowd. I was a bit jealous myself for NYC getting Eugene Mirman but like I said, I dig the guy’s material. He didn’t bomb by any means, but the crowd, I think, was pretty eager to get Patton back on the stage.

Anyway, I’ve gone on much too long and in too dry a way – so since the fucking tour thing’s over with already, go catch it censored up the fucking ass on Comedy Central and wish you were there.

I recommend buying Patton’s 222 album – I don’t give a shit if you’ve never heard of him before or whathaveyou – they don’t make comedy albums like this anymore and they most likely never will. I swear it’s a classic to have, and every person who ever liked a stand-up act not conducted by a southern gimmick or a prop-wielding idiot will love and cherish it. Goodnight.

What the Hell Have You Been Doing?

2005-08-04T22:57:00.000-04:00

Good question... Let's play catch up. We'll start July 15th when the Dinosaur Jr. renuion tour drove into town. (thank you ttam elbanak for the photos)

Yes, that's Gandalf on guitar. A blur of swirling white hair and Lou Barlow created their trademarked wall of sound and for the first 20 minutes of this show I was blown away. I think they pretty much played Living All Over Me in it's entirety (with bits of Bug and their first album). I must say Lou is amazing. I'd seen Dinosouar Jr. in '95 or so and it's strange to think how different their playing styles are. Maybe I'm just ill informed but I've never seen a bass player strum his guitar and created as full a sound as Lou does. And J, well the man's a guitar god, there's no doubt about it. I know of know other 3 piece band that sound like a 6 member assault like these guys.

But as I said, after 20 or 30 minutes the old man in me says, where's the seats and/or when the hell will I be able to get back to my couch. I'm sorry, but I'm having many issues with going to shows these days. I was pleased to see the smashed college dude yelling, "Mascis for president!!" after every song -- I mean, you can't get that experience watching the DVD.

So then, if we're going in order we have the The Penguin Movie aka The March of the Penguins. Short story -- go see it. But, see it at the later showing. We made the mistake of seeing at the matinee and yes, this is a G rated movie, so there was plenty of restless youngsters at the show. But for the most part they were behaved and the best part was listening to them get all scared and worried and want to go home when the whole nature vs. baby penguins stuff starts happening. Like Winthrop says, there's cute and then there's super cute and then there's baby penguins.

But that documentary has nothing on Murderball.
This movie is a true kick in the ass and a well, it's really a treasure -- in that it feels like something you never would have watched but afterward you feel like a better person that's learned something. Do you know the real definition of a quadriplegic? I didn't -- shit, these guys are more active and better well adjusted then I am. Why? Because of wheelchair rugby -- once known as Murderball. But as the spokesman says -- it's hard to sell a sport known as Murderball. If for some reason you're wondering about what documentary to see -- no, nevermind, see this movie -- regardless of the cute penguins, this one will stick with you long after the cuteness and the trials of the penguins. Let me quote a bit from CHUD: "Mark Urman, head of the theatrical division of THINKFilm, who released the movie, says, "The only explanation is that people don't want to see something about handicapped people. There is some resistance."

He may well be right, and that's just tragic. See, Murderball's not interesting because it's about cripples, and it's not great because it's uplifting. It's interesting because it's about this weird, exciting sport you never heard, played by strange and awesome and fascinating people. And it's uplifting, if it is, because the people it's about are real people, not because they're in wheelchairs.

" Well put.

So then, today that is, I got to go to my first Fenway Park game. The things I learned today: the Fenway Franks are pretty gross -- go for the footlong. They play Sweet Caroline in the middle of the 8th inning, everyone sings along, it's kinda fun. Standing room only tickets aren't too bad at all. Don't try to start a chant when the pitching coach is on the mound. And the grandstand seats in the shade are a good place to be.

V and The D

2005-07-26T19:54:00.000-04:00

So The Watchmen feature film seems to be in what the folks like to call Development Hell [I'll take down that link to the site that even had a message board which is non-existant now I guess?]. And of course that's a shame indeed. These next two years -- with all these bottom tier comic characters getting their movies -- would be a perfect time to cut to the real point of what the whole superhero mythos is all about and shed the metaphors and put some real substantial issues out there. But in the meantime we do have a different Alan Moore book coming out to the move screens in V For Vendetta.

You may have heard about this movie recently with the London terrorist bombings as this is indeed a book that takes place in London and has "terrorist" bombings as the crux of the plot. I must say I'm proud that the WB hasn't pussied out on this movie and is going forward with the release date of November 4th. This story does take place in a completely alternate reality -- in the book it takes place in the 1990's in a what-if-the-fascists-had-gained-power-England. I don't remember the book actually referencing the Nazis but that's the impression you get. It's a very much Orwell Big Brother society where subversives (homosexuals, most music/movies, literature, theater, etc.) are banished/exterminated and the powerfull are a type a hierarchy and rule unchecked.

It's a pretty great read, but the recently released trailer for the movie does not do much for me. The book was affecting in its artwork as presenting this quasi future of England as being a bit grimy and ugly. But it seems this movie has quite the glossy coating. The screenplay was written by the Wachowski Bros of Matrix and Bound fame and they were reportedly the second unit directors and it seems they and their former second unit director -- who's the actual director of this movie -- are unable to film a frame of realistic settings. I mean, remember how Zion, or whatever their "real" world was, looked in those Matrix movies? It was like the cleanest raggety clothing and most pristine underworld put on film...

Yes, in most of your mainstream, well known comics you're given a brightly colored, sharp lined, and clean universe in those tiles. V For Vendetta is not one of those books. DC Comics are known for getting darker and getting mort dirt under the nails of their characters -- especially those on their sister imprints like Vertigo. Which is why I always liked DC more than Marvel when I was a kid. This is the reason why I'll again say Batman Begins is a truly great adaptation. Even though the Batman character has gone full spectrum in that regard -- from cheesy to dark and brooding -- in both movies and comics unfortunatley enough....

Anyway, I also wanted to mention the release of a, well I guess you could call it a teaser, for the Tenacious D movie -- The Pick of Destiny. The interview at least in rather entertaining. I think of it I guess as a guilty pleasure with these guys. I fell in love with them when I unwittingly witnessed their HBO episodes back in '99, and was rediculously hppy when they released those episodes on DVD last year. But I was initially let down with their CD release in 2001. But since then it has indeed grown on me and I'm looking forward to the new album/movie soundtrack. Good goddamn am I looking forward to it... You can read an interview with the funny fuckers here.

P.S. - Back to the previous points, I should say that I thought Constantine was a pretty decent movie. This also being an adaptation of a Vertigo comic that Alan Moore had a hand in at it's incubation. Reeves does a good job with the role without being a blond haired Brit -- and I really don't think that whole issue makes a difference. It's a bit wattered down, but he does get Constantine's essence to make the movie work. I'd love to see a sequel to this one -- just as I'd like to see a sequel to another unfairly maligned adaptation, Hulk. Hulk, to me, was the closest film has ever gotten to capturing the experience of reading a comic book. Now, this isn't necessarily a great thing for casual goers -- or even faithful Hulk fans -- but Ang Lee's use of paneling and framing is about as good as it gets in that regard.

Holy Shit Did The Island Suck!

2005-07-20T22:48:00.000-04:00

No joke, the thing has steam coming off it -- look out. I wasn't even expecting much from the movie. I'd seen the usual ad on my way to work to send an email off for a free pass -- ok. Can't be that bad, and I doubt I'd pay money to see it in the theater anyway, so why not. It'll be in a nice air conditioned room on a hot Wednesday... Wrong and wrong. First off the theater's cooling system seemed to be keeping the room at a thick 80 degrees or -- maybe a little less than that... And after all was said and done the movie itself offered about 10 minutes of decent entertainment. People were walking out of the place right before the 15 minute "climax".

Now I'd bitched about War of the Worlds being a bit of a letdown but by comparison -- well let's just say WOW is a dutch oven and The Island is a Cleveland steamer. So far this summer's been a crap fest for movies. I've heard Land of the Dead was a fun time, and I can vouch for Batman Begins an Me and You and Everyone We Know, but besides that... nada.

Not much to report from the Netflix front either. Pretty much been enjoying the Freaks and Geeks and Wonderfalls sets. Though most of you have probably already caught those... maybe not Wonderfalls, it's a pretty good show that I'd describe as a cross between Joan of Arcadia and Northern Exposure... but better than that sounds...

Anyway, I did catch up on some Kurosawa with a nice Yojimbo and Sanjuro double feature. And revisited some classics like Flirting and The Station Agent (yes I already consider that one a classic). But there's also been a few duds like The Yes Men and Harold & Kumar... And the rest of them fall in the middle and aren't even worth mentioning really. Time for sleep.

Geek Reflex

2005-07-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

Every year I see these photos from the San Diego Comic-Con and every year I laugh at the foolish geeks that get their picture taken next to sweaty storm troopers and whatnot -- and then wish to god, satan, Ellis, Clowes, Moore, etc. that one day I too will be able to be counted among the elite of geekness. [For the best/most hilarious coverage of this perennial event I turn you to this.]

I’ve always been firm in my belief that there’s a broad line between The Nerd and The Geek. Most often these two are considered interchangeable in uses. I really don’t feel like getting into it now but I’ll try to simply graze the issue…

Let’s take an icon like the Comic Book Store Guy from The Simpsons… Yes, clearly a Geek. The nerds were the ones that helped Homer in that Animal House episode… Okay, maybe further clarification is necessary. Let’s break it down to its simplest level: Nerds – good grades. Geeks – good swag. Would a Nerd be a high school dropout with a collection of every issue of Big Ass Comics? Or a copy of every Bruce Campbell movie on VHS…

Do you see the difference? Good.

One of these days I will be there, as satan as my witness. But it's second on my list after the SXSW fest. I mean, they do show some movies at the Comic-Con and have panels for upcoming the much-anticipated sci-fi summer flicks but compared to SXSW it’s all strictly bonus material.

Stop Me If...

2005-07-07T22:03:00.000-04:00

I posted about this probably more than a year ago on a different blog. But now that the movie is finally gaining some steam I feel compelled to make another note of it.

I like David Fincher. Even his sorta crappy movies (Alien 3, Panic Room) have an appeal to me -- not sure why. I think I have a weakness for directors, or autuers if you will, who even though they've created something uneven, flawed, and frustrating -- they're still trying out new techniques, pushing some boundaries, and well, being interesting.

Mr. Fincher's been keeping it low-key for more than a few years now, mostly collecting producer credits. But he's got a couple of director efforts in the works now and the one I'm a bit intersted in is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Click that link to read it yourself. It's a cool little story you can take care of during a lunch break. It's a bit sci-fi -- the story of a man born 80 or so years old and grows backwards. A bit like that Seinfeld joke of the similarities between being elderly and an infant -- but more profound... It's already collected Brad Pitt as Benjamin and Cate Blanchet as his wife. The three of these people together, I'm pretty confident it'll be a nice piece of work.

Also, I'm kind of sad this web site hasn't been in my life since now, but Boing Boing is one of those blogs that makes you feel rather useless if you're trying to create your own "directory of wonderful things". I could spend a few days curled up with it's archive... Anyway, a fun site.

Bogus Journey

2005-07-05T23:45:00.000-04:00

Just spent an hour working on a post to have Firfox crash. Wicked pissah. So we sum up:

The Aristocrats. Documentary about a filthy joke. Looks like a funny movie (check out the cast). Here's a segment they got from South Park. Here's the trailer.

War Of the Worlds. Kinda sucked.

Me and You and Everyone We Know. Great. Shitty comments out there comparing it to Napoleon Dynamite are retarded. If anything it's the antithesis of that crap factory. Real characters resulting in honestly funny situations. Rather than caricatures acting funny in manufactured situations. Granted, you can say both movies are unique and original and made on small budgets but that doesn't make them at all comparable.

Well, there was a bunch more commentary on those three things but alas...

Like Pulling Teeth

2005-06-23T15:35:00.000-04:00

Kind of what it's like to get me to update this thing. But it's also what happened to me yesterday. At 28 I figured my wisdom teeth would have bitched at me by now if they were ever going to but it seems that fun has just begun. Got the lower left one pulled while I was floating in the ethers of whatever it was they were pumping into my arm. An odd experience as I woke up as they were just finishing up with the stitches... And it seems that it's just a matter of time before the other ones start causing a ruckus. Can't wait.

Well, now I get to sit at home for the next couple days, eat soft foods and have fun with these Percocets. Though on this first day with them, I must say I prefered the Vicodins I got before the tooth was pulled, but I think that has to do with the dosage amount. But I'm not that into experimenting that I'm going to start mixing.

So I've been whiling away the day downloading music and watching cartoons. I found a pretty satisfying, albeit most likely temporary cure for having no cable. One of the things I miss the most is Adult Swim. But I found that all my favortie shows from it are to be found available to download from my file-sharing friends--bless them all. So I've managed to download the entire first season what I've easily convinced myself is the funniest damn show in production now, The Venture Bros. That along with the two regulars: Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab--being 15 minuntes a piece those are much friendlier on eating up the memory.

Also enjoyed the first episode of Stella which you can view here. Pretty decent -- they showed the dance for the apartment at their live show I caught some months back, nice to see that again... And I can also catch the best bits of The Daily Show I've been missing over there too. So for the time being I'm doing all right.

Well, I finally got around to updating the sidebar over there (books and music anyway) so for whatever that's worth... I highly recommed the book Thumbsucker. It's one of those soon to be released movies that caught my eye a while ago and decided to pick up before it comes out--and damn if it isn't easily one of the best books I've read in a while.

Oh, and I did catch the new Batman. Damn fine movie. If you've ever been a fan of the character you'll be blissed out over the thing.

Ok for now. I'll get back to you in a bit.

NPR Bloc Party

2005-06-16T17:53:00.000-04:00

I love those commie pinko bastards at NPR. And tonight to show some love to me their going to be broadcasting their show live from DC. I caught them on Conan the other night and was quite impressed with their live chops. Should be good.

Too Hot for Blogger

2005-06-13T22:10:00.000-04:00

[The things I do for Head...]

So here I sit in my short shorts and wifebeater, trying to drum up some things to post about while wondering how much heat this monitor is giving off -- it feels like too much; and maybe I should go back to the living room and watch a couple Mr. Shows or Stranger With Candys and call it a night. But I pour a frozen Cape Cod and go forth... What's happened?

Went to Virginia -- the first things I saw in Viginia once we made a pit stop off the highway? A military base and this:

Heady advice. And from that time since, I have indeed rocked steady. And all the while supporting the troops, natch.

Did I just type natch. Didn't think I ever would, but hey, let's move on. I needed some practice, so I rocked steady at Steve Malkmus.

No Pavement played. I'd heard he dipped into the back catalog in the past but I guess that was during his first tour when he didn't have that many Jicks songs to play. But it was still a good show. Couldn't say the same for the opening band Picque, or whatever they were called... too much heroin going on there.

And for the first time I struck out at Suffolk Downs. A shame really. I've always been able to win at least one race. Guess it's good I only go once a year. But M'lady went out on a winning note -- so all wasn't lost.

A bit of a Netflix roundup?

Trouble Every Day -- Been waiting a while for this one to get out on DVD - or maybe just for Netflix to get it. Anyway, it's basically a quietly disturbing vampire movie. I've been meaning to check out Claire Dennis' movies and wanted to start with this one. She'd been the AD on movies like Down By Law and Paris, Texas - a couple of personal favorites. And so this may not have been the best of introductions but I was entertained and not disapointed. I may be one of the dozen or so out there waiting for the DVD release of Brown Bunny and Vincent Gallo was in some fine grime method acting action in this. I swear, the man has some chops - ever seen Palookaville?

Machinist -- Wanted to take a look at this before Batman Begins comes out. I've always liked Christian Bale, ever since the underapreciated Empire of the Sun. I still think American Psycho is a great date movie, and even enjoyed the muck and mired Reign of Fire as a weekend afternoon movie to drink heavely spiked egg nog to. So much had been made of his dilapidated form in this one. I forget the actual number of pounds he dropped for this movie - I'm guessing 70 or 80. I thought one of his ribs might poke Jennifer Jason Leigh's eye out at one point (you know which point). Anyway, his dedication is not lost on this movie. Towards the end it gets a bit unhinged but it had my interest the entire time - way past my bedtime, and was thuroughly impressed with the performace... which may in fact overshadow the movie itself, but nonetheless this is a recommendation.

Ken Park -- I'm a wicked man now. I've downloaded a movie. Don't arrest me! The only reason I downloaded this movie was, well, it seems it ain't ever going to be gracing our screens here in America. It recieved one showing in Australia and was promptly banned... Looking at that poster I can't wonder why? I'm not too sure where this movie was shown otherwise [Europe] but I rather enjoyed it. I guess as I've perversely enjoyed all of Harmony Korine's movies. Or is it Larry Clark's movies? Ahh, what's become indistinguishable... There's a bit of difference I suppose in Mr. Clarke's two previous movies without Harmony - Bully and Another Day in Paradise. And Harmoy's two without Larry - Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy. But this is another joint venture between the two auteurs and it feels just like home. That is, if your home is a disturbing suburban nightmare. On display here is your usual skateboarding teens just trying to get by by alternately killing themselves, killing their legal gaurdians, killing their brain cells... Or reversely their parents doing the same thing/causing them to do the same thing... You know! The thing about these movies is that you can write pages about them and still not get the point. What is the point that I got? It's Kids on the west coast -- with parents, and even more unsavory results.

DiG! -- The story of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Two bands I couldn't really give two shits about when I saw this. More on point it's the story of their relationship together as growing bands and the steady rise of the Warhols and the steady insanity of the BJM, or rather it's leader Anton. And this window into Anton is really the beauty of the movie. What if the leader of your band was bringing you to the cusp of greatness and notoriety was bipolar and constantly drug addled? But he's also quite charismatic and a bit of a musical prodigy... The movie seems a bit heavy handed on the side of the Warhols while your watching it. The lead singer of that outfit is playing the part of the narrator, and you get to watch their eventual success via that annoying Stones rip-off 'bohemaian' song, while all the while watching Anton drag his band into eventually quitting one by one through on-stage fights and drug frenzies until he's playing solo with his sister (and that doesn't end pleasently either). But this is a fascinating movie. [There's even seperate commentary tracks - one by the Warhols on by The BJM.] And upon listening to random songs by these two bands after watching the movie, The Brian Jonestown Massacre wins the battle hands down. And they're playing TT's in couple weeks - oh to witness a band meltdown on-stage...

So Nicole Kidman's drunk On Letterman to ease the pain of losing one of her best friends and the Kieser Chiefs are on Leno doing a decent job...

Oh... I watched DiG! (i Don'T kNoW what's up with the title either) as a double feature with End of the Century: Story of the Ramones. I can't believe that I'd be debating which would be a better documentary but it's close -- though as a genuine documentary I'd have to give it to The Ramones. It's a more focused and genuine story and rather than making a forced pick and choose perspective on it's subject, it compiles great footage and unexpected interviews to make a great closing statement on a lasting legacy.

Used Resurrections

2005-05-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

Mmmm... Tammy Littlenut. Sorry, but hey, Used Wigs has a nice way of getting those soon to be out of reach interviews. [Because in my mind The Strangers With Candy movie is going to be a huge goddamn blockbuster.] God bless them. While I'm at it I'll exploit their link to a half decent Sleater Kinney video. I can't quite get myself to link to the tree thing -- but if I were on weed...

Thanks to Stakes is High I now know of The Superficial. The bitch rag of the month. Enjoying it much more than Defamer. But, most likely, in a couple weeks, it will get old and annoying -- just like Defamer and Whatevs...

In case anyone had doubts, I'm glad to report Topher Grace can act. Thuroughly enjoyed his performances in P.S. and In Good Company this weekend. I'd had my suspicions from Traffic and his bits in the Ocean's films, but I'm putting this guy in that Johnny Depp catagory of definitely having a long and prosperous leading man career after his B show tv career if he keeps up these well chosen roles. P.S. is the better of the two as a film that sticks with you after the viewing -- In Good Company pretty much gives you a grin as it flows over you, leaving you happy and content. P.S. tries to pack a bit too much in it's 90 minutes but is chock full of great performances and even has a bit of a Miller's Crossing [definitley on my top 3 Coen Bros. movies] reunion (even though they have no scenes together) with the pretty much always spot on Gabriel Byrne and Marcia Gay Harden.

[Okay -- feeling a need to vent a bit about my Netflix relationship. Until very recently I've been peaches and cream with these guys, as I think this blog shows. But recently, my Friday send-backs haven't been getting to them until Tuesday and, well, I guess that's it... But! I have a feeling that this has something to do with me being unable to return my movies as quickly as I used to... I'm not sure... Hacking Netlflix has some case sudies very close to this with folks saying the same thing... Hey, I'm not saying they're still not the best thing out there, it is -- but -- some cracks are starting to show. And the only reason I can think of is my turnaround rate isn't what it used to be. Just a heads up, I guess. But don't worry NF, you're still my honey. I'd still toss a bomb in a Blockbuster for you any day. Kisses.]

Birth made for a pretty good counter-point for P.S.. Both deal with the what-if situation of a lost love returning from the dead in the from of someone else. 20 years go by and Topher Grace comes back as Laura Linney's lost love. And in Birth 9 years go by and wunderkind Cameron Bright says he's Nicole Kidman's dead finacee. Now, this kid's actually 12 years old know -- so he was actually very close to the nine years old he plays in the movie and his creep-tastic performace is almost worth watching for. Again, this kid (though he has the whole child actor teen drug/booze freakout to attempt to avoid) has a very good chance of being a hell of an actor -- very much like Christian Bale? I mean, look at the headshot he's already got going on IMDb for chrissake. And that Thank You For Smoking sounds pretty good too.

Okay, folks. The Rolling Blackout will be having a seriously lame contest going on in a couple days, so stayed tuned for that. Basically all you'll have to do is tell me you want one and I'll send it to you. Much like this giveaway that I'm doing over st SF -- click here to order yours today.

Miskates

2005-05-16T17:55:00.000-04:00

Sorry -- seems I screwed up publishing that 5/12 post. (How does one screw up posting on Blogger is the question...?) Well, it's down there now, but I must place another warning about that picture... I swear I saw that guy in Hellboy... Heh. More to come later.

Factotum

2005-05-13T01:38:00.000-04:00

Hey, you know I should be sleeping the sleep of kings right now but I just heard Matt Dillon say some shit about Factotum being made into a movie so here you go...

The what the hell?

The little bit. Really, screw that one, unless this other one doesn't work.

The Real Trailer. I gotta say it looks great. Matt Dillon. You know, I wouldn't put him in position for many roles but this is looking good. Maybe too good though--needs some pock marks, but he definitely has the stance down... Shit, I gotta sleep... Click the pic to buy Chuck's best work.

Cutely Horrifyingly Funnily

2005-05-12T20:09:00.000-04:00

Is it just me or are the Kidz Bop people moving up in terms of production value?

From Kelly to the Alligator on Guitar

And to go from cute to highly--and I really mean quite fucked-up--disturbing... really I don't know why this should be passed around but I can't help myself now--it's like The Ring! I followed these instructions from Patton's blog after he warned over and over again and blah blah blah...

"Go to jimgoad.net

Click on 'Lounge'

Scroll down, and click on 'Their worst day ever…'

That's where the picture is. And that's three steps until you can see
it. I want to make sure anyone reading this actually wants to see this
horrible, horrible picture."

The first picture will make you laugh, the second picture -- well, depending on your constitution... Scarring.

Anywho, so who likes comedy?

The Stella videos have finally found a home that can host -- HERE... I've so far only watched ten or so and 80% of them have been pretty damn funny. Special guest stars include dreamy Paul Rudd on "Woods", Zach Galifinacamackous on "Searching For Santa", and Sam Rockwell on "Bored" (my favorite so far). Who knew so much funny could be made out of rubber penises and necrophelia? But I can attest to the genius of their live performances, which I have doubts about their being able to translate to the Comedy Central show they're getting. Then again, they've been around long enough to know what to do. But if you get the chance, I highly recommed seeing them in person.

I was recently reminded of the great Louis CK's website... it looks like shitballs (and I'm pretty tolerant of shitball looking sites) but there's some great video on there. Winthrop tipped me too the rather wildly uncomfortable "cinema classics nyc" clip in the "rough experimental material" section, not for everyone -- but if you have a sense of humor...

Feeling Non-Comital (SF - PH)

2005-05-10T01:24:00.000-04:00

What's to talk about? Yeah, Paris Hilton got turned into all kinds of dead. But that doesn't beat Orlando Bloom nipples, does it? I guess it does. No, there's nothing to talk about.

On a Midnight Near You?

2005-05-02T20:29:00.000-04:00

The Coolidge Corner Theater's had some pretty good midnight shows the past couple months... Most of you should know about Found Magazine. Well a while ago there was a Found Video presentation. Though there were many funny/disturbing videos shown that night, two of the better ones weren't exactly "found" at all--they are classic 80's videos with a bit of production behind them...

Sadly, after about an hour and a half of searching I could only find this one clip of the brilliant Wendy's training video from 1989 entitled Grill Skill. But I think it does a good job of touching upon the greatness of the whole thing. Click the pic of the magical training rapping dude that comes from the magical training tape at Wendy's.

With Mother's Day coming around here's another one they showed that evening -- Mr. T rappin' at y'all about treating your moms with respect. It's worth the damn commercial. Yes, in 1984 what better rap was flowin' than: Mother/There is no other/Mother/So treat her right

And this is happening in a couple weeks. The whole thing brings more questions to mind than excitement--but it has certainly captured my interest... From the Coolidge Corner Theater website (5/14/05):

Sure, you can have your X-Box super-advanced 3-D action video games, but nothing matches the sheer joy and innocent fun of Asteroids, Berzerk, Combat, Defender, Missile Command, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Yars Revenge. Yes, we're talking about the home video game system that started it all - the Atari 2600. To celebrate the long lost art of these classic video games, the Coolidge is turning the ENTIRE theatre into a massive Atari 2600 video arcade for one night only! Join us for Atari on the big screen as we kick off the night with three auditoriums, each featuring a different classic Atari game. We'll play in 5 minute rounds (first come, first play, just like at the arcade), with judges passing out raffle tickets to the best players.
Then at 1:00, join us for a final Championship Round between the best players (drawn from our lucky raffle participants) on the GIANT SCREEN. Yeah, it's just like that Fred Savage movie THE WIZARD, which, what do you know, we'll be screening immediately afterwards!

Add Two More Tease Me's, Please

2005-04-26T22:32:00.000-04:00

Since I was in a frenzy of posting video clips last night--and this morning these two were staring me in the face I simply felt the need to preserve these two on the ol' TRB as well. This first one is another gift from our friends in France. All freedomy as they are, they've gone and dipped into the slasher pic genre. A couple of sweet innocent ladies have gotten themselves in a bit of trouble while trying to visit the 'rents in the countryside. This movie's been around in festivals and such for two years now--it's finally coming stateside via Lions Gate on June 3rd. Word is that it's damn good for what it is--a maniac killer movie, but with uncommonly great performances, but then there's the end where it has a pull-the-rug finale. Anyway, here's the teaser, click it...

Chris Cunningham creeps me the fuck out. His work with Aphex Twin is some of the most surreal stuff that's gotten to large market in this country--I barely made it through his Director's Series dvd -- it's much darker than Spike Jonze's and Gondry's stuff. And when I say dark I mean nightmare shit. Anyway, as much as I feel completely uncomfortable around his work--I am at the same time drawn to it. He knows precisely what he's doing and taps into some weird primal eerieness--sort of like an urban David Lynch without the subtlety. This whole teaser thing isn't much--but I've no doubt that the completed project is something worth keeping an eye shut for. Click the-what-the-hell-is-that below.

Wait! One more from m'lady to make it three -- a claymation New Order video that would have went well with the animation theme going on last night. This one beats that Arcade Fire video rather soundly. Anyway, here it is.

While I'm here again I might as well mention like some others I'm sure have recently, that Fiona Apple's unreleased Jim O'Rourke produced album Extraordinary Machine is pretty damn good. For whatever it's worth, I've never really been a fan of hers in the past -- her songs have always been those that I've never been opposed to but never liked enough to go out and buy n album. Her politics have been a bit off-putting, for lack of a better word. But I've known she's been the gal of one of my favorite directors for a while now (for all I know they've been long since seperated) and so I've always held out a sort of feint interest in her. Anyhow, I've gotta say this new unreleased one of hers is far superior to anything I've heard from her in the past. That's all, I swear.

Kids Power Out on Mars Space Orchid

2005-04-25T20:38:00.000-04:00

Hey kids, wanna watch a funny show? It's called The Kids Show. See how that works out. Thank you, Mathew Tobey, I miss your mp3 blog -- why no updates for three months? That twised little show reminds me a lot of the dearly missed TV Funhouse -- the one that Comedy Central will hopefully release a dvd of some day...

What, more animation? How about that video for Arcade Fire's Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) -- it's well done if not a little boring in the mid-section. I can't help but think of those little hooded things from the first Star Wars movie. Thanks Stereogum.

And finally one from a special fellow (you're still making my firefox crash every time though)-- Space. No, it's not the new Daft Punk video, you ass. Sorry. I guess they're French -- and this was condsidered a hit in 1977 according to All Music. Via this place.

Which reminds me, I haven't updated what's been going on in the mix lately so let me give a small break down of some things you should give a listen to if you're so inclined. MIA's new cd Arular is pretty darn good for your booty. Ahem. Sam Prekop's Who's Your New Professor is a damn fine listen. And because they're suposedly playing the MFA sometime this summer I've been catching up on Mouse From Mars, and if you haven't, I suggest you do the same. And of course there's that new White Stripes single. Blue Orchid. Thanks you.

Ok, now I can go watch Primer and get some sleep. If all those links work -- amen.

A Castle in Kazakhstan

2005-04-21T20:53:00.000-04:00

[I know I missed my sorta promised Monday night post this week but us Massatwoshits state employees don't work on Patriots Day, my apologies...]

There are probably a lot of people not into Japanese animation that have caught a Miyazaki movie and been a bit enchanted -- the guy is fairly amazing at creating grandiose otherworldly universes, with sweeping and very original stories that manage to translate well across the globe. This one looks to be another feather in his cap and the animation looks amazing in that sexy quicktime (small - medium – large - x-large). Also funny because I know a guy named Howl and I’m sure he’s always wanted a moving castle. (Thanks again AICN.)

A while ago I got steered to this article from somewhere and thought that another season of Da Ali G Show was underway. It’s a damn funny story if you’re familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen’s character from that show, Borat. And even if you aren’t, really. Well, it became a bit clearer that after that incident it wasn’t a new season they were filming but an actual Borat-centric movie. Word got out that Sacha got in a bit of a row with the director he’d hired and then things went silent. And really with this type of project, you can’t be too sure that what was getting out was really the truth, or the guy just having fun with the press. But now good news – a new and improved director has stepped up to bat for Borat in the form of the possibly genius-y Larry Charles (save for the Mad About You stuff). Click here for the CHUD article and its own back-story about the goings on of this project. Thinking about it now, Borat seems like a much better character to be basing a movie around rather than Mr. Ali G -- click HERE for my review of Ali G Indahouse movie and Larry Charles' very much underrated Masked & Anonymous [how strangely convenient] -- here's HBO's own Borat bio...

"Borat Sagdiyev is Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man. A leading journalist from the State run TV network, Borat has been sent to the United States to report on all aspects of American life. From baseball to Broadway, Borat asks the questions no westerner would dream of in his tireless quest for knowledge, telling dating agencies he will 'crush' women who are unfaithful, touching the penises of Vietnam veterans in Atlanta, urinating on trees with new age gurus in Sedona. Borat on his first ever trip abroad presents a picture of America that only Charles Manson would recognize. "

Click the pic there to witness one of the funniest and yet most thuroughly disturbing things from Borat's escapades in America. And if that link doesn't work try one of these: HERE or HERE? Sorry, my ride on the information superhighway is running low on gas tonight and can't quite be bothered to double check these last few links.

Oh, but before I sign off and watch the rest of this rather kick ass White Stripes movie (a bit more than enough crotch-shots of Jack--but visions of barefoot Meg will be drumming in my head tonight), I want to implore you to read this visit to the set of The 40 Year-Old Virgin. The movie's IMDb page has been sitting over there on my rather stagnant-because-I'm-lazy sidebar for a good while now ever since I stumbled upon the fact that Steve Carrell's getting his own leading role in a Judd Apatow movie. This will be the last AICN link I'll post on here for a while, I promise. But it's a damn funny article.

Remind Me

2005-04-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

...next year that I now have a decent job I can actually get some worth while cash back from the governement. In the past I've either owed, or got around 30 bucks back. If I knew what was coming to me this time around, well, it certainly would have gotten some fire under my ass to perform my least favorite task--dealing with numbers.

But that's not why I'm up past midnight, once again, feeling the need to finish of this fairly nasty box of Franzia that was given to me as a house-warming gift nearly 3 months ago, and speak to the dark oblivian of the internet community. No, a very special thing is happening this weekend (for those of you not in LA or NY, there are some of you out there right?). Old Boy. The story of a pissed of man and his hammer...

...that won the hearts of the Cannes film fest last year is finally making it's way to my little 'burg here in Cambridge. The insane hype this movie's been getting has been rattling round in my head for about a year now and I can't help but be downright giddy to be finally getting a place to see this. Click that pic above to get a nice little write up from by dear dear imaginary friend at Brokentype. AICN has been doing a circle jerk over this movie for the longest time, since it was shown at their last Butt-Numb-A-Thon. And it seems ages ago that the always read-worthy Filmbrain gave it his thurough going-over, including: "The final shot of the film is so haunting, so disturbing, that it most certainly deserves a place in the 'greatest closing shots' pantheon." And more recently here's todaysthe Phoenix's take.

The main reason I'd really find that tax refund useful right now is so I could live in the land of do-as-you-please and rock this upcoming Boston Independant Film Festival. There's too much going on to really get into here at this hour but: Steve Buscemi's in person opening up the thing with his new directorial effort Lonesome Jim -- Hal Hartley's new one is going to be there -- The JT Leroy adaptation The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things -- The very cool sounding Chain -- And the short I'd mentioned before during my longings of the SXSW gone past, Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?... click that link up there to get more info on those and others--even if you aren't in the area, they're worth keeping an eye out for.

Okay, I'll wrap this up with two very unrelated video links. One (click on promo reel) for Larry Clark's (Kids, Bully) upcoming movie -- seems basically like Kids in LA, not that that's a bad thing... And one for some monkeys singing about the joy of the first hangover beer.

A brief one...

2005-04-11T20:28:00.000-04:00

...because I've gotten back into the Jack Bauer Power Hour and I promised myself I'd get more than six hours sleep. Circuit City had a decent buy 3 DVDs for 30 bucks thing going on so I picked up the Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown dvds and was up way too late last night watching the extras bonus discs. Some interesting features, mostly on the Jackie Brown one, and I'd forgotten how good that movie is...

Anyway, I'd meant to chime in on the recent new feature on the Onion A.V. Club -- Will Wheaton's Games of Our Lives. It's a small little gem of a feature that always gets a good laugh out of me each time by managing to get a plot of some sorts out of these ancient Atari games from the 80s and it's become something that I look foward to every Wednesday. It's been around for a month or two now and if you haven't seen these little bits, spend a few minutes and catch up on some fun nostalgia.

And it's been a couple weeks so of course there's a new Miike trailer out there for something called Yokai. It's not nearly as crazed as that IZU trailer but it does look like he's working on a rather large scale once again and is in full-on bizzaro mode. Don't ask me what the hell the thing's about--AICN is probably as close as you can get by comparing it to Clive Barker's old Nightbreed flick. All IMDb tells you is it's based on a comic book created by a guy who's been in that business for at least 40 years and that can mean anything, especially in Japan.

Do The Hustle!

2005-04-07T23:56:00.000-04:00

Hello again folks. I know, what? Two posts in the same week? It’s like the old days… Can a couple months be considered the old days? In this hurly-burly intermetablogsphere? Sure.

Well, Tuesday night I got a swift and powerful kick in the ass from one Mr. Stephen Chow in the form of his hella rad, wicked awesome, goddamn joy of a movie Kung-Fu Hustle (thanks to Netflix no less). Five minutes into this movie, once the Axe Gang does their little victory dance,

I had an ear to ear grin on my face that didn’t let up even as we were leaving the theater. This is an amazing achievement of a movie. Now, I never got around to seeing Shaolin Soccer, the only other Stephen Chow movie to my knowledge to get any kind of proper release here in the states. From what I heard the movie got pretty well butchered by Miramax before it was delivered and many were crying bloody murder and, well, it’s on my queue now at any rate. So this was my first Chow experience, and I can’t remember the last time I was so happy sitting in a theater watching a movie. Probably Shaun of the Dead…

It’s like the man took a Looney Tunes cartoon, an old 70s kung-fu flick, some Chaplin, a little Busby Berkley, mixed it all together and at the last minute decided to toss in a few winks to his favorite American movies. In 30 seconds or less – the Axe Gang has taken over as the controlling gang in town, the gangs have left the community of Pig Sty alone, as it’s the poorest part of town, until Stephen Chow and his sidekick try to get free haircuts there posing as Axe Gang members and accidentally cause a bit of a rumble between the Pig Sty residents and the real gang. We find out that some of the residents are retired kung-fu masters and the rest of the movie is the Axe Gang trying to take over Pig Sty to save face.

I don’t want to spoil much for you by getting into details but I have to give praise to the Landlady and her husband –

I want to be 9 years old and have action figures of these two in their on-the-town outfits with a destructable casino playset so I can recreate their fight with The Beast. This couple is so much fun to watch…

Anyway, this movie is making it’s way to a theater near you in the next couple weeks and I implore you to grab your honey, your pal, your imaginary friend, and check it out. You’ll have to have a withered up old Grinch heart not to find enjoyment in this movie. I’m certain it’s going to become a dorm room staple in the years to come—as it should.

Another one I caught this week was Sin City. I’d gone in having read two Sin City books – A Dame To Kill For and The Big Fat Kill, both great little stories. A Dame didn’t make the final cut, and hopefully will make the dvd, but anyway I knew what to expect in terms of the mood and level of ultra-violence involved. It’s another one that is definitely bound to become a bit of a cult-classic – it’s unlike anything that’s been put on the screen before, and if you have the stomach for it, it’s a pretty fun ride.

But there was definitely something lacking… What it is exactly I still haven’t put my finger on. My first thought was that the slavish frame-for-frame duplication of the books was both an asset and a hindrance. There isn’t much movement going on in this movie and I think it tends to slow the pace down a bit. But when it the camera does move around in this grimy shadow world they’ve re-created you definitely are wowed and it’s quite dazzling. I can definitely understand why they chose to cut out A Dame as it clocks in at just over 2 hours as it is. And when you come out of the movie you feel like you’ve just gone through a once over from Marv himself.

Speaking of Marv, Mickey Rourke definitely comes away stealing the show. He doesn’t appear to be something that is part of our world but rather an organic being strictly to belong in Sin City. They guy simply kicks ass. A wonder to behold that you can’t take your eyes off of.

I have to recommend this one, though not nearly as much as Kung-Fu Hustle. But Sin City does its job thoroughly. Fans of the books are going to leave satisfied, but I think those who aren’t sure what to expect may come away a bit more pleased as its one of those movies that will have so many unexpected turns and surprises that the experience can be a bit more fulfilling. And I expect this one will be a huge dvd seller.

Lastly I wanted to share this funny bit of news regarding Hunter S. Thompson – did anyone think the man would stay silent after death?

Dusting Off the Netflix Journal

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

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story -- Is this The Head's Gigli? Well, on this one I almost agree with you Head. Myself, I rank it below Starsky & Hutch, and above Duplex. And I haven't even seen Duplex. It was elongated Staurday Night Live Skit good. There were some laughs to be had but it barely justified it's spot on the queue. Make sure you're drinking some beers durring this one because by the time the 20th dodgeball hits the 20th set of testicals, inebriation must be in place. The thing that really soured me on the whole thing was the "Alternative Ending". The director mentions the word "art", and (not to spoil anything for you, but) it's not an alternative ending but rather an abrupt ending where they simply stop the movie short by five minutes. I'm calling bullshit on this. The guy's trying to make his one joke movie into Rocky. You made some funny commercials and an okay movie, be happy and hope Ben tosses you some more cash. [2.5 out of 5]

Incident at Loch Ness -- Like Nessie, it's an odd beast. Screenwriter Zak Penn crafted a sort of mockumentary within a fake movie wherein he gets Werner Herzog to go out and try to crack the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. It is fun though. Moreso if you're familiar with Herzog's history of madness--it's pretty much playing off of his reputation and isn't ashamed of itself with trying to recreate the brilliant documentry of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo -- Burden Of Dreams. Unfortunately that movie isn't on DVD yet. But it does a great job of playing it completely straight-faced and getting you to wish it were true, which in turn makes it a fun ride. [3 out of 5]

Beyond Re-Animator -- Disapointment. I don't know what I was expecting. I figured it'll be a fun enough 90 minutes -- dishing out the dark humor, gore and T&A of the original. Well, sadly, this one's still running at 50%. I'd heard it was an improvement on Bride of the Re-Animator. To tell you the truth all I remember is being a bit frustrated with that one and this is no different. Stuart Gordon's King of the Ants, which I told you all about a while back, is much better time spent. His grasp on the horror/comedy balance that was in the original is still sorely missing here. Some of you, as I did, may still think it's worth the price to see a mouse kung-fu fight a penis -- but trust me, its not worth 80 minutes of cringing. [2 out of 5]

The Nest -- This one's worth checking out. A French take on what's become the Assault on Precinct 13 genre. There's a wharehouse with some goods that 3 crooks are after. This happens to be the same wharehouse the police are going to hideaway their tranporting crime boss -- that of course his henchmen are going to storm to try and free him... The bandits and the cops band together, blah blah blah... But, we have on our side some good perfomances, some nice camera work, pacing, tension, it all works out. This came out before the recent AOP 13 remake that recently came out and got the director the job of Bruce Willis' recent movie Hostage. I'll give it [3.25 out of 5] (that's right, I'm taking it to quarters).

Black Sunday -- Holy shit, where's this movie been in my life? The fucking opening credits to this movie say it all. Staring Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern. Produced by Robert fucking Evans. Co-written by guys who wrote the Hitchcock and Lumet movies of the 60s. This one's a keeper. Dern (a shamefully underused actor) is a pissed off POW vet that has a job flying the Goodyear blimp. His terrorist girlfriend has a cause and some use for his anger and skills. I had this on my queue and meant to watch it around Super Sunday time... and damnit, it's good enough to put it back up there next year. [4 out of 5]

Visitor Q -- Okay. You've seen a couple of Miike movies and want to put a few more on the queue. Hell, the guy's pretty entertaining. I've seen Ichi, and the DOA trilogy, Gozu was a fun trip, let's keep the ball rolling... Or maybe we should take a break. That's what I thought after this one. It's a nasty, cringing, bad fucking taste of a movie. Yeah, I know he can push the buttons to make you uncofortable -- but this one is full-tilt darkness. Netflix has this to say: If you liked: Gummo, Irreversible, Julien Donkey-Boy, Desperate Living, Dead or Alive, Videodrome, then you might like this. That's pretty damn appropriate. And yes, I liked those movies, but the closest of those is Julien Donkey-Boy. And of those movies, that's the one I enjoyed the least. I liked it, but fuck, it's not something that I'll be re-watching or recommending to a lot of people. [3 out of 5]

Okay, here's my plan for a little while -- for any of those still out there who give a damn -- my promise to you is at the very least a Monday night update. Or rather, something to check out on a Tuesday.

And for shits and giggles here's something to reflect upon. Myself, my parents had a rotary phone around well into my late childhood (late 80's). A green one, you'd pick it up and then the big ol' dial showed itself -- I love this little movie... Click the pic.
thanks kittenpants.

the office and some gentlemen

2005-03-24T23:18:00.000-05:00

It was good. Can Steven Carrell do no wrong? I do not know the answer to that question. God I love his Veggie Guy thing he did on the Daily Show... Does he still do that? Honest question -- I don't know, I don't have cable anymore. The Steven vs. Stephen thing with Colbert... Good stuff. Not to mention the Wake Up, Ron Burgandy shit... [feelings about the Get Smart movie aside]

Anyway, yes, it was good. I was a bit worried. The commercials have really been pushing the stuff that isn't the pilot episode. And it was looking pretty good. So knowing that this was pilot, the one episode they simply took the British script and photo copied... I was low balling. But they did the job. They laid down the foundation of the major characters, and they did it well. From what I see and what I read it seems this shall be the Thursday night appointment. They tried Men Bahving Badly, Coupling, every other game show that pumeled us the past two years, and thankfully did'nt get that Ab Fab off the ground. Well, I hope this one sticks.

Oh, and speaking of Stephens, the new Stephen Malkmus album has some retty good songs on it. Especially Mama. I recommend you seek out that song now. As well as the Decemberists' new album Picaresque.

And to pass on some good suff here's a brilliant peek into the underbelly of this "internet". And who knew Ricky has his own thing going.

unknown post #50

2005-03-18T17:29:00.000-05:00

I knew I should have done an update to the ON HIATUS post when I thought about it a couple weeks ago. I’ve been doing some serious slacking on this web log business. But my main excuse shall be that I needed time to adjust to this poor new desktop set-up. I’m no longer operating this off a laptop and well, I’ll just say, the desk part of the “desktop computer” still needs some work. And there's still many adjustments to be made to the new residence. And well, sorry, TV’s been good to me lately. Basic broadcast television no less. The tools purchased to connect that coaxial cable hanging in that closet proved the thing to be dead. But the Lost, Alias, Veronica Mars, all these Law & Orders, and yes those Gilmore Girls, have kept me pre-occupied to even fit in the Netflix backlog.

But excuses aside there's also been an ennui of sorts. Also just like using the word ennui... a perversion perhaps... But what I mean is, "Shit, if you're gonna do something, might as well do it right," a loose quotation from a book that guy wrote. But trying to keep a blog of some respectability in this day and age seems daunting to me. So my solution to that is I'm going to eventually have to put some real effort into this thing and have some bells and whistles implemented. And that could mean some lags in the posting until that all occurs.

Until then...

Where Are They Now?
Highbrow urbanites swear by his sophisticated oeuvre, but with just three films to his name, brevity may indeed be the soul of Whit - Stillman, that is.

I’ve been thinking that same question for the past few months. What the hell happened to Whit Stillman? And why can’t I find Metropolitan on dvd? So I was happily surprised to find that article up there, which is a good thorough answer. Though not about the dvd, just about what he’s been up to in the past 6 years or so. This guy Phil’s got a good archive going on there—everything you wanted to know and more, so I point you there for the linkage.

Now, Whit Stillman isn't going to be everyone's idea of fun cinema. Comparisons to Hal Hartley come to mind when I think to describe Whit Stillman. But if you know one, chances are you already know the other, and their similarities and differences. They don't really have that much in common other than they're both sometimes very dry/subtle-humored and tend toward being driven by lots of heavy conversation. But where Hal Hartley is going to have his fun with dead-pan opera moves, Whit Stillman stays perfectly firm-footed in his over-intellectualized, literary urban world. I don't really agree that the term "comedy of manners" suits his style, but I can see why he'd be working on a Jane Austen adaptation. Anyway, all of what he has is three movies [Metropolitan, Barcelona, and Last Days of Disco] that form a sort of trilogy with a few interweaving characters -- but are meant to stand on their own. And I consider it a small tragedy, for I feel like being dramatic right now, that only Barcelona is available on dvd right now. But hey, there was no reason to go throwing out those vcrs in the first place.

Toward the end of Waking Life there was the bit with Richard Linklater playing pinball and spouting about how Philip K. Dick had a moment where he met the couple in his dreams that he was writing about at a party or something. And now with the same technology he used to create that movie he joins the oh-so-great lexicon of film adaptations of Mr. Dick's material. I think I need to re-watch Minority Report but at the same time, having not read that story of his, I'll probably still feel that it doesn't quite live up to the source material. I was still trying to get the taste of A.I. out of my mouth. There's a mood to Dick's writings that, as everyone else will say, only Blade Runner has captured.

But what the real point is of any argument about these adaptations is the matter of making a good sci-fi movie. And this is something that has been hard to come by for a good many years. Please name me the last good sci-fi movie that came out. Even Code 46 and Solaris left me shrugging. What Blade Runner, Kubrick sci-fi, the original Solaris, and even those early Star Wars and Crichton movies did was make the atmosphere organic and the characters to come out of this environment. Spielberg's been trying to bring that out but I think even he's susceptible to making the flashy lights the reason the seats get filled. Which is why I'm much more excited about Hitchhikers than I am War of the Worlds. But even more than those, I'm excited about A Scanner Darkly.

Some acknowledgements should be made for the following: Nik Strangelove, with his rock star/porno name, has some nice photos to browse through -- one of Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, and Richard Linklater. Not far to go for a six-degrees thing here. The Philip K. Dick drawing came from Ivan Jerônimo, who has some nice material as well.

The Punks Made His Day

2005-02-28T23:03:00.000-05:00

I can't stay too mad, the guy is indeed a class act. Hell, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly's one of my favorites... And yeah, Hitchcock and Kubrick never won a best director Oscar so Marty's still in good company. And like I said, he deserves to win it for a more important movie than The Aviator, which I'm sure he still has in him. This is one of those years that a few down the line no one will remember what the hell was nominated or won anyway. Oh yeah, that one with Chris Rock... That highly anticipated Catwoman 2 joke was pretty funny...

Obligatory Oscar Post

2005-02-27T13:48:00.000-05:00

Yeah, the nominations for tonight's Oscars are indeed pretty damn dull. Not much to root for or against. I did love Sideways and am going to be rooting for Thomas Hayden Church to take home a statue of a naked gold man. But other than that... I have this thing against Million Dollar Baby. I don't know why, I guess it's due to some of the crap I've read about it on filmbrain and a couple of other places. That Rochi guy on Netflix gave it a pretty thorough reaming as well saying it just beat out Van Helsing for crap-fest of the year. There’s just something about it that rubs me the wrong way. Is there really anything new going on in this movie? The movie feels like something that was written for these guys when they first started out their careers, and now they’re cashing in their Get A Free Oscar card. Maybe I’ll put it in the queue sometime, maybe not.

Sideways was great and overrated at the same time. Whatever, it was still one of the best things I saw last year. And Eternal Sunshine, which I saw way the fuck over a year ago still reigns supreme. So these are my guesses for the two screenplay winners.

I wish I’d seen Aviator before tonight—I also have this wish that Scorsese would win for something other than a period bio-drama. Oh well, I still think he’s going to beat out Clint for the director and best picture awards… I only say this as I think Clint’s been bestowed with enough praise by the Academy over the years and they’re going to take this opportunity to give Marty their golden shower this year.

Actors – I’d like to see Cheadle win. The man’s been making a living with great supporting roles and getting by with straight-for-cable flicks for long enough that he deserves an award but this year it seems Jamie “Booty Call” Fox has this one wrapped up. For supporting it’s gotta go to Mr. Church—it’s a great performance and going from Wings to an Oscar is proof that most Hollywood movies go for safe/boring casting way too often. But Closer was a great movie too, but Clive Owen was the most one-note of all the roles in that one.

Actresses – My vote’s for the Ms. Staunton from Vera Drake. Now, I regretfully have not caught this movie but Mike Leigh is one of my favorite all time writer/directors and this lady had me in the trailers alone. Kate Winslet was amazing, of course, but it will most likely go to Ms. Swank anyway—hopefully the only award MDB gets. And let’s give it to Natalie Portman for Closer in the supporting category. I knew she could act but after the Star Wars debacles and Garden State I’d completely forgotten, easily the best surprise I’d had at the movies in a while. But I’m guessing Virginia Madsen might take it home—I have a feeling they’re willing to pat her on the back for staying in the game through semi-obscurity for so long this past decade or so.

Like I said, not very exciting is it? So thank the gods they put Chris Rock in front of a mike for this thing. Possible updates to follow later tonight…

Me & HST

2005-02-22T20:15:00.000-05:00

My fist recollection of reading HST was right out of high school—fall/winter of ’94 during my first stint at Tower Records (Burlington, MA). Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, of course. It was a revelation of sorts. Never had I had that much fun reading a book. Up to that point it was pretty much required reading from school and dorky teen material. And I remember vividly sitting in the sub shop two doors down from Tower reading Vegas and my boss moseyed in and ended up sitting across from me, he noticed the book and said something like, “You know that books really a big exaggeration of course…” He was a bit of a hippy himself, which was funny, but he genuinely seemed concern how I was taking the whole thing as I probably seemed giddy while reading it. I think I pretty much nodded and sheepishly said yeah.

But his point, false as I probably is, really struck me as irrelevant, whatever... The book was a blast—being a bit over twenty years old it did and still does seem like the freshest and most interesting style of writing I’ve come across. Hunter can put you in the middle of his frenzied, addled brain, peering through his sweaty sunglasses and have you wonder along with him how the fuck you got there and what the fuck could possibly come next. Buy the ticket, take the ride. Etc.

I immediately started devouring everything else I could find of his. And for the most part it lived up to or surpassed Vegas. The Great Shark Hunt collection blew me away, it’s his definitive collection of articles and immediately give you a solid respect for the man. He voice is persuasive and clear. And Vegas was indeed a political book, but heavily disguised with humor and craziness—and as there is much of that here as well, his politics in some of those articles come through much sharper.

Of course, at that point I hadn’t yet read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail in ’72. Now this is, to many people, the epitome of his craft. It’s the most precise of what you’d call The New Journalism. And from what I gather there is no better and truer book on politics—completely demolishing the wall that mainstream media and news puts up to make the whole scene seem untouchable. He pulls the curtain here and shows you the shame that lies in every political campaign. The crooked egomaniacals that actually put themselves out there in the spotlight, and the scurvy minions that try so desperately to smooth their rough edges by whatever means necessary. If you thought at all that the book/movie Primary Colors was a hoot… shit. Hunter shows, and tells you, why that book was released by Anonymous.

The only other book I feel the need to talk about here is The Rum Diary. This was hunter’s baby. The first novel he ever wrote, before the great Hells Angels book. When he had the clout to release it proper in the 70’s he declined not to, feeling it hadn’t aged well and wasn’t up to his own standards at the time. But as he slowed down these past 15 years or so he revisited it and was able to edit it down to something he liked again. The book covers an important time in his life when he got his first serious writing gig at the San Juan Sun newspaper in Puerto Rico. At the time it finally got released I was damn excited for it. It was the first new thing he’d put out in quite a while. It was a novel—something he had precious few of. And it kicked my ass. Short, sweet, touching, like a good Salinger or Fitzgerald story. Clearly like nothing else he’d written or become famous for—but, clearly a HST story, I can’t recommed it enough—even if you aren’t familiar with his other material. Benicio Del Torro was to make it his directorial debut, but the thing’s gone through much development hell and still stands in limbo. Check the link to the IMDB page in the sidebar for that story.

Well, what else can I say… I recommend getting the Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas Criterion Collection DVD and listening to his commentary track. It’s one of the best of it’s kind, right up there with the one for Cannibal: The Musical. It also has great docs on the stars of the book, Hunter and Oscar Acosta, the late 70’s BBC doc being at times funny and sad as he kind of reveals himself to be at odds with his fans in trying to live up to an image he’s created but realizing it to be more that he can handle—a bit of a hindsight is 20/20 thing now… And if you’re a fan at all, you should go here now and pick up Breakfast With Hunter, a great little movie with more access to the man then any other documentary you’ll find out there.

The most profound thing I came across yesterday may be the most obvious thing to mention—depending on why you think he ended up taking his own life. [I think it had to do with the fact that his ailing health was just getting to him too much—seemed he was spending some time in wheelchairs and such…] At any rate it’s from Dr. Samuel Johnson. “He who makes a beast of himself, takes away the pain of being a man.”

For other links I point you to gonzo.org. nytimes.com has a nice reference to all of their book reviews going on right now and for what seems to be his last writings check out his writings for ESPN the title of the last post they have available seems way too approprite. But a glanse through the titles of the archive there gives you an idea or two what might have led to this ending as well... Hunter in a wheelchair? I'd rather not.

Mahalo, Hunter... Mahalo

A Sad Day For America

2005-02-21T12:06:00.000-05:00

We lost an important soldier yesterday, boys and girls. A brilliant and resounding voice of the counter-culture. A term that today hardly means anything anymore but is no less crucial. I suspect in the next four years it will grow once again, but today I mourn the loss of a personal hero and great source of inspiration. More to come later on... I need a drink.

Hitchhikers update...

2005-02-15T16:43:00.000-05:00

One quick one before I go, a possible view of a real-deal trailer for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy may be found here... haven't even had a chance to look at it myself so can't comment...

On Hiatus

2005-02-15T12:30:00.000-05:00

A note to my half-dozen or so faithful: I'm going to be AWOL for some time whilst I settle in to the new apartment. Gotta straighten some things out with Verison and get back into their good graces before I can set up the new TRB HQ. So, in the meantime I recommend you get to know the fine upstanding boys of Special Fellow. My brethren there have recently popped back on the grid and the posts are coming faster and furiouser. Anyway, TTFN, see you soon, stay cool this summer, see you in the funny pages, l8er sk8er, peace in the middle east, I'm Audi 5000.

The Bacon Strip's Sizzlin'

2005-02-10T19:45:00.003-05:00

Don't know how this one got by me, but jerriblank.com's Tony has planted the first seeds of Strangers With Candy: The Movie's official website. A nice selection of movie stills and various other info is available. Hopefully a release date will pop up soon so I can start obsessing more. Yeah, click the pic.

A Watchmen Tidbit

2005-02-09T20:47:00.000-05:00

A site's up for the movie. Sign up for updates if you feel so inclined. Alas, still no word on casting...

Overexposed Thoughts and Festival Updates

2005-02-08T21:14:00.000-05:00

So they've released the schedule of films they're showing at SXSW this year. Pretty hot shit. What pops out the most for me is The Comedians of Comedy tour movie (in the Documentary section), and nearly every movie in the Spotlight catagory (esp. Old Boy -- must see this movie soon, Layer Cake and Palindromes), The Aristocrats, and Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic. All I can do is hope next year will be as good, for I will be there, yes, by hook or by crook.

If you're in NYC right now you can check out Old Boy and a few other great flicks this week at the Film Comment Selects series.

Miike's IZO [if you haven't already, check out the trailer on the sidebar--vampires AND samurais!] is playing there as well as a couple of hard to find Sam Fuller films. Really, if you can (on Wed, Feb 9th), you could make me extreamly jealous by going down to the Walter Reade Theater and catching the 9pm showing of Old Boy. I doubt you could possibly be disappointed.

Speaking of disappointed, what the fuck is up with this praise for Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State? I saw Garden State a few weeks ago and am pretty much over the bad taste that left me with. Basically, felt it tried too hard with it's indie rock posturing and blatant ooh-look-at-me quirkiness. And Natalie Portman's was a perfect example of a role written by a guy who needs help writting a real woman's role and not just his imagination's idea of a perfect girl. But anyway, Napoleon Dynamite, while I laughed at moments, the more I think about it, the more this one bugs me even more. I want to know, what exactly people liked about this movie? Ok, there was some decent writing/dialogue, and one good actor (the dude who played Kip). Aaand...? I'm sorry but the movie is hollow, at least Garden State had some honest (if cheesy) moments/feelings in it. Napoleon Dynamite reminded me of Todd Solondz making a slapstick comedy over the weekend. There's about 5 funny ideas in the movie, and you know what, they're all in the 5 minute original short movie that's included on the dvd. And what about the ending that got slapped on after the movie was already out for a month? A funny dance. I'd have to be pretty fucking stoned to be happy about spending 10 bucks to see a movie who's plot wraps up with a fucking funny dance. You know what? Starsky & Hutch had a funny dance in it too and was a lame spin-off with even less in the original ideas department--but I have to say I enjoyed that more than watching a one-note lead character sleepwalk around Utah in vintage clothing connecting together a bunch of catch phrases. The movie came off to me as the definition of all style/no substance. Somebody explain what it is they saw in this, please?

Oh, and there's a hell of a lot more Levitra Couches spotted across the country (click on the pic). But this whole thing is starting to seem a bit off to me. This couch was supposedly found here in Boston...

That tree in the background certainly isn't saying Boston to me, and was this going on five six months ago, otherwise those leaves on the ground just don't add up--looks like anywhere but the northeast to me.

But something's going on and I like Vince from Calgary's explanation, "Clearly these couches were crying out for help as they'd been discarded because they were no longer firm. They needed the wonder drug to reaffirm their place in their former households. They're crying out for help, man! Oh, the humanity!"

Trailer Trash and Screw-On Head

2005-02-01T20:33:00.000-05:00

For some reason or another I find it difficult to update the "On The Radar" thing on the sidebar. So here's what it might contain if I were not as lazy and preoccupied as I am...

Sex. Paris. Pop Music. Playing at the theater near you?

More Burton gothic romance.

Badass Kung-Fu #1

News from the front.

Thanks for the fish.

Badass Kung-Fu #2

French gore. And Sonic Youth's Superstar cover always had chainsaws in the background, right?

A possibly good mind fuck?

And just for a couple laughs.

Amazing Screw-On Head
[From scifi.com - re: upcoming shows on the Sci-Fi Network]
"Adapted from the critically acclaimed, Eisner Award winning comic book by Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Amazing Screw-On Head is a half-hour animated comedy based on the exploits of one of history's unsung heroes. A secret agent who never made the history books, Screw-On Head is in the employ of the U.S. Government. A robot that screws his head onto a wide variety of bodies, Screw On Head battles those who threaten our civilization. Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, NBC's Carrie) and Jason Netter (Kickstart Productions) will executive produce. Fuller will be writing and Netter will oversee animation."

A great one-off comic from 2003 that you should still be able to find at your local outlet--or click the pic--the comic's premise offers many possibilities for a great show and I'd love to see Mignola's style get animated, here's hoping.

New Beck Video [check comments for updates]

2005-01-27T21:37:00.000-05:00

Pretty sweet Beck video for "Hell Yes" -- beautifully capturing his awesome dance moves.

For more info on the dude that created that masterpiece of funky freshness check out Mumbleboy's website here. One could spend a lot of time visiting Mumbleboy, but I think this is my favorite so far...

Levitra Couches

2005-01-26T18:52:00.000-05:00

I love ironic tagging. So I was intrigued to say the least when I got wind of this new trend...

There's couches in Atlanta, couches in Virginia, and widespread throughout California... What can it mean?

It's more of a mystery than the recent classic ironic tagging of Val Kilmer that spread through parts of Canada...

Which at first simply seemed like humorous ironic tagging--but was revealed to be a publicity stunt for a Canadian band called The Val Kilmer Tagging Caper... letdown. So, will the mystery of The Levitra Couches be revealed as a similar scheme? Well, The Levitra Couches is a much better name for a band, but I'm hoping instead the mystery will deepen and enrich all our lives--uniting us, not dividing us--like only bizarre tv culture overload releases can.

A New Season of Festivale

2005-01-25T17:48:00.000-05:00

[Internet was down for a while—this was kind of timely when it was supposed to be posted, last Thursday after the Bright Eyes tidbit. Oh well… Durring the blizzard a lot of activity/news actually happened around these festivals. --.ed]

Are these the days of brooding jealousy at The Rolling Blackout? Seems my last few posts have been me bitching about cities that are better than mine, paintings I can't afford, songwriters years my junior releasing solid albums... And so one last gripe.

One of these years I'm going to make it to the South By Southwest Festivals. For a couple months a while back, secretly I thought, maybe this year... but alas, 'tis not to be I'm afraid. But I browse the goings on down there anyway... And what do I find? A band from Torrance, CA called Rolling Blackouts. You see, a few years ago planned on using The Rolling Blackout as the name for my shitty home recorded solo debut. Who knows if that tape will ever be made, but still, I at least hope they're a decent band. Plus, seems that comedy tour movie with Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn will be playing there as well as Solondz's Palindromes.

And so then the Sundance Film Fest is underway as of today. Yeah, again, one of these years... But just wanted to plug some of the movie, that if I were there, i'd be queued up to see. There's a lot out there this year; a short film by the guy who directed Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl starring Mike White himself, Noah Baumbach and Werner Herzog have new movies, but what I really want is at the "Park City at Midnight" category. Oh yes, we have the (as far as I know) world premiers of the Strangers With Candy: The Movie, and Crispin Hellion Glover's What Is It?. [Possible trailer viewing here] My god, the idea of being able to see those two movies in one week boggles the mind. There are some lucky bastards in Colorado right now. There's a lot more there to see than just that--but let's keep it brief, eh? Below: An SWC: the Movie publicity photo taken at Sundance. I'm guessing the guy at the top is Jerri's love interest and Stephen Colbert can be just a bit, well downright scary sometimes. And the other photo seems to have a poster size shot of Ian Holm doing Jerri's Dad to the left of Amy and what you could imagine to be Jerri's mom looking like at some bizarre point or another--either way it just begs for context.

And finally, something I can see. The 2005 Animation Show. I especially dig the Hertzfeldt stuff they show there. Check here for my feelings about Plympton. His short Guard Dog is on the playlist at the Show and is also nominated for an Oscar this year.

a short word on those Bright Eyes albums

2005-01-20T14:05:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit upset with this Conor Oberst guy. What is he know, 22? 23? Whatever, he looks like a trendier/tinier version of my sophomore year self in high school. I've listened to both of his new albums over last night and this morning and the guy just impresses me too much. I don't like it. The albums are wildly different as far as instruments and production... and both are good--though I think I like Digital Ash better. I will go on record as saying that I still prefer that Desaparecidos album overall to his others outlets. The reason for this came to mind today; it's his voice. It can start grating on you, especially after two albums in a row. But it's perfectly suited for a punk band. But I just wanted to begrudgingly chime in on the ass-kissing he's already starting to get and probably will receive much of in the next month or so (the likes of which may all go to his head and cause sightings of the bedheaded Oberst floating over Omaha trying to be tethered by Saddle Creek mates--but wait, he's moved to New York already right? The guy's way ahead of us all...). Hit the Switch will likely go down as one of the better songs written about being a twenty-something. Congrats.

Not So Random Linkage...

2005-01-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

A couple of items that were forwarded to me by m'lady. So maybe some others might find interest in them as well. One is for long-term involvement, one is for a minute or so of entertainment.

StumbleUpon. Say you like black & white French New Wave movies from the 60's. Of course you're not the only one. Someone out there's probably found all the good sites out there for fans of the genre--but how do you know where to begin, which one's are better than others, etc. Well sign up with StumbleUpon and let them show you the way. Or something like that. It's a toolbar that you download to help you browse less like a spastic fool and more like a seasoned pro with all the right connections. Here's some of the press...

"It's kind of addictive ... when you have time to surf it really does allow you to find some unique and relevant sites" - Andy Walker, g4techTV.

"...extensions recommended by more than one reader included StumbleUpon, a community website-recommendation project that lets you find more cool and usually obscure websites -- sort of a Friendster for site links." - Wired News.

"I'm hooked on the thing, and rate it as the second most useful web browsing tool after Google itself. In fact, that pecking order may even change, as I find instead of Googling I'm Stumbling more and more..." Davey Winder, PcPro Magazine.

Okay, I know it's always been your dream to be the maestro of a equine a capella quartet. Now's your chance. If you spend more than a couple minutes with this thing, then, well, I'm sorry. But as I was told, "this is insanely cute." Yeah... Here's the link.

Time for an Eightball

2005-01-04T23:25:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed my comment on this over on the sidebar but I just noticed this TIME Magazine best of column mentioning Dan Clowes' Eightball #23 as, of course, no. 8 comic book of the year. Also their Aug praises are linked. I still see some copies around town, find yours.

E I G H T B A L L N O . 2 3
B y D a n C l o w e s
For most comic books, when a nobody teenager discovers super powers and a gun that zaps anything out of existence, it usually results in his getting buff and facing the dilemmas of responsibility in between fist fights with ubervillans. Forget that. This is Clowes' world. Here, even with such accouterments, a nebbish stays a nebbish. The 23rd issue of Clowes' "Eightball" contains a single short story, "The Death Ray," about Andy, a milquetoast who discovers he gains super strength while smoking, and his only friend Louis, who has no powers but a giant ego just the same. Together they up-end every superhero cliché in a series of interconnected vignettes bookended by Andy as a middle-aged dullard. Ingeniously, "The Death Ray" moves way beyond a mere superhero parody and into the uncomfortable territory of exploring the way people can or cannot change who they are. "Eightball" #23 continues Clowes' ascendancy as one of the medium's premier storytellers. --Andrew Arnold

Maybe a Ryden When I'm Rich

2005-01-04T22:43:00.000-05:00

Yeah, maybe, one day when I'm rich I'll buy a Mark Ryden painting. Maybe. Yeah. A painting. Rich. Mailing List. Maybe... I dunno. I had a weird dream last night, might have to keep it in the guest room.

Miscellany End of Ought Four

2005-01-02T21:45:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I really hate New York. And sometimes it's not because of the Yankees. Sometimes it just because they seem to have day after day of really cool shit to do over there. The city stays open a lot later, there's multitudes of different cool bars, record stores (not that I've been to one in ages--with these mp3s i kind of do miss the act of shuffling through records or cds, but that's a different post), restraunts, clothing stores, movie theatres, or book stores to go to. And I know it's simply a much larger city to begin with, but does that mean they have to have so many more good shows to go to as well?

Tinkle's been gathering some pretty big hype these days. It's a weekly comedy show that regularly features the likes of David Cross, Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, Jon Benjamin, basically all my favorite comedians. And for 6 dollars no less. Christmas shows, bands show up, on crazy booze cruises... I mean, they already have the Upright Citizens Theatre, The Midnight Pajama Jam, do they need more cool shit? Sometimes I don't think so. Like this afernoon, when I was more than a bit jealous reading the accounts of the Tinkle show that went down last Thursday night.

here
here (video, too)
here
and
here (better pics)

Yeah, I guess Jon Benjamin didn't make it, but it seems like it was a hell of a show anyway. If Patton Oswallt showed up I'd probably be crying. But then they get Wilco, Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney all playing the same show for New Years Eve entertainment. I think the best option for a show that night in Boston was Guns & Roses karaoke. And I'm only sort of joking. Gaddamn you New York and all your fucking nice distractions. If you weren't so expensive I'd really have something against you. But I heart you too. And I have a feeling you pay a little better than MA. So...

And completely off subject, but when the hell, I don't trust downloading something off a site directly into my iPod, but there are some interesting options out there if you're one to go experimenting.

Linux for the iPod here
Lots here

And when did Discovery and TLC become a fucking shop class and automotive channel? Isn't that what Spike TV and Home & Garden were for? I don't know... And are there a lot of blogs already talking about the freakyness of the new year and plauges of locust and the tsunami's happening so close together? Eerie. I know Patton's mentioned it and has the links.

So yeah, happy 2005. ...double ought cinco was the year my sonny boy... They'll say. Let's hope it's in good context.

The Queue is Burned

2005-01-02T17:39:00.000-05:00

I had to trim off some of the fat so I could get FeedBurner to handle it but I've got an RSS feed for my Netflix queue in case you're interested what 400+ movies I could possibly have on there. There are more than a few on there I have seen but for the most part it's all new to me. I'll bet this on the sidebar eventually, but for now click HERE if you're curious or are looking for a couple recommendations.

Your New Favourite Magazine

2005-01-02T13:37:00.000-05:00

Over On the Radar there's been a link over to Chunklet Magazine's website. Well, the new issue is finaly out there (check here for a store near you). I'm never too sure if they only come out with two issues or three issues a year. Whatever it is it's certainly too few. This is a great and hilarious magazine. Possibly a bit elitist in it's views but that's part of it's charm to me--it can get to be a bit outlandish, but this especially suits they're ongoing The Most Overrated theme. Last issue's centerpiece dealt with the Most Overrated Bands with many laughs resulting. The new issue, Part 2, deals with the the most overated films/artists/etc--as well as interviews with most of the people I've written about on here for the past 3 months. Go figure...

You might also want to check out some clips from this movie Chunklet's some out with recently...

Click the pic -- there's a ton of clips there. It seems like it could be pretty funny--but part of me just can't get over how similar it is to Fred Armisan's 1998 SXSW video. Watch both of them! Compare and contrast the fun pranking of your favorite indie icons!

And to wrap this up I'll pick some of my favorite "1,000 Unrelated Overrated Things":
Character on Kids in the Hall: The “I’m Crushing Your Head” guy
Sonic Youth associate: Lydia Lunch
Thing for a parent to be proud of: Honor student
Late-night drinking activity: Vomiting in a friend’s car
Frozen Mexican treat: Choco Taco
Source of band names: Any movie reference
Season of Buffy: Second
Cleaning tool: The Swiffer
Cereal: Frosted Mini Wheats
Dead black man: Tupac Shakur
Cell phone service: Virgin mobile
Contemporary slang word: Blog

The Return of Opus

2004-12-31T13:14:00.000-05:00

I rarely get the Sunday edition of The Boston Globe, I'm not much for clipping coupons and really the whole thing is just a bitch to throw away for the small amount of info it provides. But I happened upon one the other week and much to my suprise, right on the front page is a new comic strip by Mr. Berkeley Breathed, this time simply titled Opus. Over the years there was only two daily newspaper comic strips that I enjoyed. Most of them are barely tolerable. These were Calvin & Hobbes and the Pulitzer-Prize winning Bloom County. Oh, and The Far Side was pretty good too. Anyway, I was pretty happy to see it and so I checked out www.berkeleybreathed.com and it seems that Opus came back a little while before the election.

Click to enlarge

Anyway, I thought that was worth pointing out. Also there's a movie in the works, allegedly to be completely cgi. This is a dicey propostition but I always felt the A Wish For Wings The Work TV special could have become a holiday staple much like A Christmas Story and the rest of those cartoons.

Here's one more dealing with the ol' anxiety closet... WHAT'S IN GW's ANXIETY CLOSET

Dump Tanks and Skull Island

2004-12-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

I know, this is old news, but I've just recently gotten back into checking up on Kongisking.net -- the place to go to for info on Peter Jackson's King Kong remake. It's been up for a few months now posting these sometimes interesting, sometimes funny (Jack Black), "production diary" videos. I never watched any of these videos I guess Mr. Jackson also made during Lord of the Rings (I have much more anticipation for this king kong than I did for the hobbits) but these little videos are a pretty great if you have any interest in movie making. Or any interest in on-set antics of Jack Black. And I have a fondness for both so... Anyway, there are about 30 of these things on there now so it's a good way to waste an hour or so if you want to. You get a very deep insight into how a production of this ginormous size is run, from a look at some of the smaller aspects like the creation and placement of fake animal poo, to the creation of a fake ocean storm. But the tantalizing thing of it all is you get a good idea of the aformentioned ginormity of this movie and how cool it all could be. And yes, Jack Black is always "on" when a camera is in front of him. Click on the big ape.

p.s. -- new Sin City trailer here

Fan of the Farrell

2004-12-19T20:30:00.000-05:00

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is coming out on DVD on December 28th. That's great and all, but what I'm looking forward to is this:

When the cast and director were having their rounds at the press junkets when Anchorman was coming out they'd mentioned that they'd filmed a whole other plot line that didn't even make it into the movie--basically that they had enough extra footage that could be edited to make a whole seperate movie, and that they'd probably put in on the DVD release. And so here we are with Wake Up Ron Burgundy, to be released as a seperate DVD on the same day as Anchorman. Very classy.

Watchmen & Friends

2004-12-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so I suppose Watchmen deserves its own post. I don't know why it took me so long to pick up this book. It's status amoung comic book geeks is something equivilant to On the Road or the Bible. And I'd known how good Alan Moore's stories can be--I still have my copy of The Killing Joke sitting on my bookshelf after foolishly selling many other of the comics I had as a kid long ago. But like a good number of any of the other books I've read over the years, I decided to finally pick this one up after reading so much about the struggles of getting the movie version up and running.

You can type "Watchmen" into Google and you'll see people have set up sites all over the world disecting every panel of this comic book--er, graphic novel. As the blurb from The Villiage Voice puts it, a brilliant piece of fiction. And that really is what it is. The act of reading a comic book still seems to put some people off for whatever reason. But I have read very few books that have left me as eerily touched or have spoken as profound and timless a message as has Watchmen.

Simply calling it a commentary or decunstruction of the superhero mythology is just grazing the iceberg of this book. (Click the pic for the plot description.) But what really stuck me was how timely this book is. It came out and takes place around 1986, but I'll be damned if it doesn't resonate like it came out last month. I suppose it could be simply from the fact that the Russia vs Afganistan conflict and the general political climate during that time is a very interesting reflection of our problems now. And that may be the reason the movie is finally getting in motion. But whatever happens I can only hope they do it half the justice it deserves. I agree with the Devin over at CHUD (they even have a message board set up for this) who has repeatedly requested that it be made as a miniseries on HBO--Band Of Brothers style, giving each chapter it's own hour. That would be ideal--but I've read that the script is actually pretty good and I think Paul Greengrass is an interesting choice. As long as they're fans of the material I feel this could turn out well. Let's hope.

In other comic news, I want to recommend 4 titles that have giddy every time the next issue pops up.

Astonishing X-Men -- This is getting a lot of hype so if you're barely into comics you've probably heard about it. Or, if you're a Buffy fan you may have obsessed over every issue already like me. Yes, Buffy meastro Joss Whedon has launched a new X-Men book (I believe he's down as sole writter for the first 12 issues) and it is a thing of gloriousness. These are great characters and he's made them even more enjoyable and relatable then I remembered them being. This title got me back to hovering over the stands like I used to years ago. Pure joy -- even if you're not that famialiar with these guys (huh?) this series picks up at a great place to jump into.

WE3 -- What happens when the military takes 3 household pets and straps them with some heavy-duty machinery to be used as combat weapons? Well, when the project gets cancelled and the animals are released by the empathetic project director, don't try to stop these 3 from getting home to their masters. But of course that's just what happens and the amount of carnage that ensues it quite intense. A well written and most timely series of three books (the third's about to drop this week or next) by Grant Morrison (Arkham Asylum anyone?). And the brilliant brutal art work is unflinching and makes me cringe with glee. (Click link for Adobe peek)

Ocean -- Ah, Warren Ellis. A great great writter, genius of the medium really, who's also working on revamping Iron Man from the ground up. Both titles are worth checking out, but Ocean is a head scratcher that I still can't tell exactly where it's headed and am loving the mystery of it all. Mr. Ellis is great at creating his own unique worlds and his vision of the future universe of space travel and politics is cool as hell -- he's got kind of a Alien meets Solaris thing going on. I also like his diverse casting for the futuristic story. Making our protagonist a black dude (get Don Cheadle for the movie) and having the team he meets be largely made up of women is an interesting way to go.

Well, check those out. I don't think you could be disappointed.

Netflix Update

2004-11-26T09:46:00.000-05:00

Been a while since I pimped some rentals, so as I sit here, day after Thanksgiving, a bit hungover with nothing better to do, I figured I'd do just that.

Masked & Anonymous -- So this one has been on my mind a lot lately as I've been listening to his autobiography. Most critics have been pretty cruel to this one but I really got into it. Co-written by Dylan himself (though you get the feeling that a good majority may have been improvised), it really is like taking one of his songs and stretching it out into a 90 minute movie. It's a dis-jointed almost sci-fi plot, rambles a bit at times, jumps around with free-association, is filled with other-worldly characters, and well--like I said, just like one of his songs. I loved it's disregard for standard movie conventions (like another movie below). This movie has it's own agenda and couldn't be bothered concerning itself whether or not you're up for following along. Let the movie wash over you, enjoy the excellent live songs Dylan plays that are scattered throughout and the 5 star cast that you can tell is having a good time just letting loose. There's a lot going on and trying to be said in this movie. Though critics disregarded it, NYU and probably some other schools immediately started featuring this in their film classes--and for good reason. They just don't make movies like Masked & Anonymous at major studios with a cast like this. It is an oddity to be sure, but a rather enjoyable one.

Ali G Indahouse -- It's Friday night, you have your beverage of choice within reach, you've smoked a bowl or two, now press play. That's the ideal way to enjoy this movie anyway. Now of course it isn't as brilliant as the show is, but did you really expect it to be? It starts off amazing and slowly goes downhill from there--but there are moments of hilarity sprinkled from beginning to end. If it was as smart as Anchorman it would have thrown the plot out the window and just come up with random excuses to deliver the jokes, as the whole Ali G becomes member of parliament thing seems forced and lame from the moment you see it coming. But no matter, there's a lot of bug laughs in there to make this worth checking out.

Also, if you haven't seen it--check out Ali G's speech to this years graduating class at Harvard. Laughter will ensue.

Blueberry (Renegade) -- This one's the weaker of the bunch but I still recommend giving it a shot. I'm into Vincent Cassel's work lately. Birthday Girl, Irreversable, Read My Lips, all top notch stuff that I recommend checking out. Anyway, this is, to my knowledge, the first psychedelic western. Very strange existential revenge movie based on some obscure comic book with lots of peyote consumption going on and even a five minute freak-out at the end. There's some good performances by the eccentric cast, but what really hooked me was the photography. I'm not familiar with the French director who made this but some of the cinematography going on here is amazing. The ending is a bit of a let-down though. The big pay-off seems to be Juliette Lewis' bush. But as I said, this is an existential revenge movie--if you can deal with that concept then you may have a good time with this one. And I refuse to call this by it's US DVD title of Renegade. There's no Lorenxo Lamas involved and Blueberry is a very apt title to this bizare movie--as well as the name of the main character and the comic book. Who do they think they're fooling with Renegade? Ick.

Bubba Ho-Tep -- A classic in my book. I love The Chin, and he was born to play geriatric Elvis and I pray to whatever god decides which movies are green-lit that there is indeed a sequel to this movie as the end credits suggest. A lot of you are probably already hip to this one, it's been out for a while now--but if you're not, it's Elvis and JFK in a nursing home fighting off an evil soul-sucking Mummy. From this plot they manage to make a movie that is both flat out hilarious and oddly touching. Bruce Campbell proves he's got plenty of acting chops as he gives us an elderly Elvis who's pretty much lost his will to live until Ossie Davis' black JFK gives him purpose in saving their home. And Ossie, lordy... by the end of this he actually has you believing that JFK could be alive, black, and living in Texas. Highest honors go to this one.

Well, that's it for now. These aren't the best of movies ('cept Bubba), but they've stuck with me for some reason or another so I figured I'd give them the shout out. Feel free to bitch me out if you disagree.

Bob Dylan via Sean Penn

2004-11-22T20:37:00.000-05:00

So Bob Dylan's autobiography came out. Well, the first volume anyway. Chronicles, it’s called… And as I was wasting time in Borders standing at the big cardboard display flipping through the book (no pictures!?) the guy at the counter felt the need to comment to me how good the book is. I was really in the middle of trying to do the math—figuring out which was cheaper—the book with the on-sale discount or the audio-book?… I asked him if he’d heard Sean Penn’s rendition. He said, no, I kind of like hearing Bob’s voice in my head while reading it. Ok, maybe there’s a point to be had there. I’m assuming he meant Bob’s voice 40 years ago. But I chose Sean Penn’s voice instead. And therefore also choosing to be read to rather than actually reading it.

The first audio book, and the only other audio book I’ve purchased was Robert Evans’ The Kid Stays in the Picture. And I’ll go out on a limb here and say that those 6 cds are probably going to be the best rendering of a book put to cd ever. The guy’s voice is like the purr of chain-smoking gin soaked panther on ludes. I loved every minute of it. I know, there have been many jokes on the subject on Patton Oswalt’s cd and Mr. Show, all very funny jokes – but these jokes all stem from the fact that the audio book is priceless.

Well, the Chronicles audiobook is of course a different beast. And I just wanted to chime in and say Sean Penn does a kick-ass job. Loses himself in the part as he always does. Kind of kidding there, but really—by the second disc you pretty much start to think that Bob is telling you his story of getting by in the East Village visiting Woody Guthrie in the hospital and eating free french fries backstage at the Gaslight with Tiny Tim. Yes, it is a good listen – and while it doesn’t serve as quite the reference material a Bob Dylan autobiography on page does, it’s a really enjoyable way to go. There are a lot of references to the people who inspired him in those first few years in New York that you’ll sometimes want to go back to, but what’s good about this one, which wasn’t present on the Bob Evans audio book, is that there are track breaks on each cd, so it’s easier to go back and revisit bits.

I’m sure it’s an even better read – but I’ve got three other books that I haven’t even touched yet, so I choose Sean Penn to serenade me for 6 hours. Either way, you won’t loose.

Sundance Channel's Midnight Snack

2004-11-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

If you don't get the Sundance Channel you should. I've been torn between the Independant Film Channel and Sundance Channel for a good while. And I have to say, today, I prefer the Sundance Channel. IFC gets some great movies, and some good original series -- Dinner for Five is hands down my favorite interview show on TV. Well, "celebrity" interview show. Charlie Rose still holds strong with his thang. But IFC also gets bogged down with having to rotate the same handful of movies every month which can get pretty boring. Now all this depends on which service you have, but it seems that now IFC is getting tossed in with a lot of packages and Sundance is costing extra. Consider it. I'm not completely sure about the packaging details but what I am sure of is Sundance has been kicking some programing ass recently.

I started noticing this in October when I became a big fan of The Al Franken Show in the morning repeats before work. Well, that show is no longer with us, but what we still have is Midnight Snack. This is a prime slice of, for a lack of a better word, "cult" movie greatness. Every Friday night at midnight, the great Bob Odenkirk hosts a showing of new, old, classic, soon-to-be-classic, midnighty type movies -- in his bath robe.

They also have cool Monday documentary specials, and Saturday night music related features (where they recently featured the mesmerizing behind the music style movie DIG! -- that They Might Be Giants doc is up next). I'm writing this now because I just realized Bob is hosting the final in Takeshi Miike's what the hell oh my god are you kidding me this is fucking kick ass trilogy -- Dead or Alive: Final this Friday. Look here for my slobbery kisses to Mr. Miike. And be sure to check the link on the Midnight Snack page for a cool Miike interview. This trilogy is huge fun and the Final(e) is Miike at his most famboyant what-the-fuck best. And to me the combination of Bob Odenkirk and Takeshi Miike, well, a channel can't program a block of tv any more Sean-specific than this. Watch it, you won't be bored.

Speak to the Blender (cuz common sense ain't listening) / Sin City

2004-11-07T01:00:00.000-05:00

[So check out the updated linkange for some new ways to browse away your day.] This is one of the stranger inventions I've heard of lately. It's called Blendie. And it's a voice activated blender. You want a high speed mix, well then make a high speed mixing blender noise. Want a gentle mixing action, make a low gentle grumble. But really, no matter the effectivness, or need for this device -- the video is pretty fucking awesome. Click the pic to watch the hot girl-on-blender action.

Also, this is a movie that I'd somehow forgotten about until the other day when I saw this poster.

I like it, as far as posters go. But what really gets my geek blood a-pumpin' is the video that they showed at the Sand Diego Comic Convention a while back where he took some of the footage he'd shot and inserted stills from the books for everyone to see the attention to detail that's going on here. It used to be over at themoviebox.net but it seems some people got upset about everyone and their little brother downloading the thing or something so now if you haven't seen this already get it HERE. Seriously, this is some pretty cool shit -- albeit unfinished and incomplete and all that (and even though I still think Josh Hartnett's about as interesting to watch as a ham sandwich) -- but it's taking comic book translation into a whole new realm. And the fact that Frank Miller, the guy who created the books, is co-directing along with Rodriguez and Tarantino [who directed one scene for the price of one dollar] is a welcome sign. Rodriguez gave up his guild card to be able to make this movie with the way he saw fit and it looks to me like the result is going to be worth these unusual efforts.

The Curse of the Jaded Scorpio

2004-11-06T21:21:00.000-05:00

So in one week I turned 28, the Red Sox won the World Series, came down with a bitch-ass cold from hell that lasted 9 days, got an ipod, and watched a bunch of bible-thumping rednecks fuck up our country for at least another 4 years. See, it's the karmic teeter-totter, with every good stroke comes the backhanded bitch slap. C'est la vie. And I really think that I've become so used to the daily slog through the river of shit that is the daily news I automatically put on the knee-high rubbers every morning. So when I woke up to get the confirmation that GW was indeed elected (this time for reals), it was like, bummer dude, oh well, it figures, don't it...

Sure I was upset, disappointed, or whatever you call it. But I swear I couldn't even work up a real simmer of a rage like I did 4 years ago. Nope, it felt like I was like I was out of stock on frustration. The lady I work with who's kid is over in Iraq, fuck, she was [is] super-pissed, but I just nodded in agreement and went back to reading about the R Kelly / Jay-Z feud. Other friends seemed like they were sincerely hurt and depressed by the turnout, but myself--I get angrier from 30 seconds of watching Fox News than the actual fact that Bush is going to be around 4 more years. I think I've become far too jaded. [I couldn't even get that excited about the Red Sox win -- I was happy, some clapping was involved, but I know that last year or the year before I would have been running full-speed in circles crapping my pants and screaming halle-fucking-lujah -- all at the same time.]

There are a couple of other theories I have about this. Maybe I'm happy that there'll be four more years of good comedy material. Or, maybe we'll be able to watch him dig himself into a situation where he'll be publicly humiliated, impeached, indicted, and/or forced to resign. I mean, with all that's happen in the past 4 years, it really isn't much of a stretch. Both those ideas are pretty sad also. I mean, let's watch him drive the country into the ground like a cigarette butt under his cowboy boot--but hey, at least we'll have a good laugh at our own expense! Or, maybe this will all hit me later on down the line. Either way, right now Nov 2nd and 3rd just seem like two more normal bad days. Sad...?

Lisa Simpson: We're the Mtv generation, we feel neither highs nor lows.
Homer: Really, what's it like?
Lisa: (shrugs) Meh...

Stolen Linkage [Republican Phone Sex]

2004-10-30T01:35:00.001-04:00

Probably my only sorta political post, before the election anyway. Got this link over at Newyorkish.com (the highest quality links around town) for Li(v)e Girls, a fine piece of genius. Click the pic, choose your viewing mode and enjoy.

Gilliam

2004-10-24T22:39:00.000-04:00

The Brothers Grimm is another thing I put on the sidebar over there. It's a movie that Terry Gilliam directed and finished filming more than a few months ago. And if you know the history of Terry Gilliam movies, or seen Lost in LaMancha, the fact that it's finished can be a cause for rejoice--even though it won't see the inside of a theater until Winter '05. But I felt like mentioning the site that the link is for: MENTIONING. It seems to be the only decent site for Gilliam out there -- which I find strange. I mean, the guy was in Monty Python for christ's sake. That alone should give a guy 3 decent sites. But maybe I'm just not finding them. Anyway. The site says he's already started Tideland.

Which could possibly mean that two Gilliam movies could be at your local cinemaplex this time next year. Craazy. It'll be over five years since his last movie, but hey, it's the definition of the double-dip-cream-dream. So good things come to those who wait, Clarise.

And take a look HERE (it's a lot easier to read than the amazon chapter) for the first, albeit small, chapter of Tideland -- what sounds like a very cool book. There's also an interview with the man behind the book on that Gilliam appreciation site from a couple years ago when Terry was first signed on for the adaptation. And being able to chronical the struggle of getting Good Omens made(for fun fact reading, especially if you've already read it)... Well, to me, that's one of those dream movies -- the perfect material for him, and you can only hope--like being a Red Sox fan in some ways--that it will happen one of these days. You really hope that Brothers Grimm or Tideland is hugely successful to make the suits with the money wake up.

Amy on Dave

2004-10-23T01:30:00.000-04:00

Amy Sedaris on Letterman tonight. Funny lady, and the two of them have a great rapport -- I like how Amy tosses her own questions in the way she does. I wonder who cancelled... There'll be some good stills from those couple of impersonations she did [probably show up here soon]. Anges Morehead... She does look a bit more tan than usual. No mention of the movie. I think they had the wrap party July 31st at a MisShapes afterparty at NYC's Luke & Leroy's (get your hands off her, greasy Justin Theroux!), but it doesn't look like it's coming out until Spring. Must be the extensive CGI post-work needing to be done... Anyway, I'll always think that her on Conan with an animal expert afterwards is the best way to book an Amy Sedaris tv appearance--I think they allow her to get a bit more crazy on Conan. Well, my ears still haven't quite recovered from ...Trail of Dead last night--and still need work catching up on the shut-eye...

Game Day #7 (Coupland)

2004-10-20T23:17:00.000-04:00

Keeping this one brief, I need sleep.

1st Inning -- Papi! D-Lowe! Or is that Owen Wilson? I'm never too sure... I'm already exhausted.

2nd Inning -- The ol' choke-a-dope. Impressive inning and a third of pitching. I like that guy. Wait-hold the fucking presses! Holy mama pajama! Untamed Damon! Finally! Capn' Caveman comes through. Best game ever! Double that score and I can go to bed.

6th Inning -- Well, Boston is full of drunk rabble rousers tonight. More than usual that is. What with FUCKING HISTORY BEING MADE! D-fucking-LOWE! Take A-fucking-ROD and shove it sideways...

This has been fun guys. Sorta. Not doing this again, though. I have no place commenting on sports really--but the main reason is it's just a hassle. The posts on here will be written for a reason--not simply because I get myself into a situation where I feel I gotta keep a theme running. Anyway, need sleep--and beacuse I feel I have to put some sort of commercial here...

Commercial -- Coupland

New Douglas Coupland soon to be released. Yes, Jeff, it's a reason to be cheerful. Unlike this fucking game. But no fear, Pedro has a history of bullshit first innings. But I'm sure he has something he wants to prove to someone, himself?, whatever--if this gets real ugly I might feel the need for bitching and moaning--but I stand by need to lie down and let this insane victory wash over me.

8th Inning -- Thanks Bellhorn, you know what I'm sayin'.

Game Day #6 (Eugene Mirman)

2004-10-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

So here I am again. Nearing 8pm and sitting in front of the laptop with the tv turned on to Fucking Fox about 6 or 7 feet beyond that. Sean McDonough a nice little tease -- look at them, talking to someone who isn't a complete fucking annoying windbag automaton like themselves, craaazy. So there's my bitch and moan about Fox for the night, I promise I won't bring it up again.

Commercial -- Eugene Mirman

This guy makes me laugh. He recently was on tour with the likes of Modest Mouse and Yo La Tengo and can mow be seen opening for those Stella gentleman. Is the lesser known friend of David Cross, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, you know, that whole scene. And if you don't know that whole scene--what the fuck there, holmes? Get a-googlin!

4th Inning -- 3 innings and no score? Refreshing. I wonder what kind of drugs they've got Curt pumped up with... But definitely, infinitely more refreshing is being up 4-0.

8th Inning -- Don't they show replays on the jumbotron or whatever they call it? Pretty obvious--A-Rod shooting dirty pool. Headache setting in.

9th Inning -- Nice. "How about we just tip over the SUVs after the game? It shows how pissed we are as fans but also how politically aware we are as a city." What's a good song to play over the speakers as Yankee fans get tasered, gassed, and/or clubed? I'd say We Will rock You.

What can you say? I'm surprised it only lasted 9 innings. There has to have been some people with weak hearts who've suffered some attacks... Well, one more.

Sideways

2004-10-19T15:16:00.000-04:00

This is looking to be possibly the best movie of the year--right now it's sitting along side Eternal Sunshine and the innevitable The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. I know it may look bad to put movies I haven't seen on the best-of list but with the Life Aquatic, I mean, this is Wes Anderson with Bill Murray we're talking about.

Anyway, I keep reading great things about Sideways, the new movie by Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Election, Citizen Ruth--all recommended), and I'm getting pretty jazzed to check it out. Read the above links to the reviews or the offical site for the story. It just finished up the New York Film Festival and will be making it's way around everywhere else in the upcoming months. Also, the official site has some fun wine related extras to it--though my favorite feature is the "Life Uncorked" bits.

I created a little "On the Radar" spot on the sidebar today where I put some references to some movies that are coming up that have caught my attention. I figured I'd give this one it's own post since the ad campaign for it seems to be non-existant [at least on tv and in print media... hmm, maybe I don't need to post this...-ed.] -- but I expect once it gets closer to Award time you'll be hearing more about this one.

Game Day #5 (Army Man zine)

2004-10-18T23:00:00.000-04:00

7th Inning -- Maybe I'm just hung up on this dynamic announcing team Fox has but I'm sorry, the word cadence does not belong in baseball. That's just my opinion, and again, I'm a bit biased against these Fox bastards. Nevermind the insane frustration these games bring me just being a fan of the Red Sox, whatever that guy's name is, I don't care if he's got ten rings on his fingers and thumbs, he should get a muzzle strapped on and given a once over with some cattle prods every time he uses that word to describe some facet of this game.

10th Inning -- Arroyo. Not a fan of the braids, but I like the hot potato he does at the end of his pitches. Hell yeah. These games are hurting me.

Commercial -- The extra in that last Believer mag.

This is the cover of a great zine reprint that came in the September issue of The Believer magazine. Army Man, America's Only Magazine. It's wirtten by George Meyer of the Simpsons and some other people including a Jack Handey Deep Thought. I recommend getting your hands on it if you can. Hilarious stuff. Click it to make it bigger.

13th Inning -- Not sure why Mirabelli doesn't get sent in... "Mesmerthighs" hasn't been hitting very well--well, I mean no one has really, but I think we've reached the point where you really couldn't make it any more stressfull than this inning. But maybe I shan't say such things.

14th Inning -- I love it when it comes to big Papi. Sorry, bad joke. But seriously... Thousands crap their pants at once... Maybe I'm amazed? I don't know how they do it, or how I can watch--no I guess I do know, it's ultimately the most entertaining (if somewhat insanely hair pulling) shit around.

Game Day #4 (Vice mag)

2004-10-18T01:00:00.000-04:00

Well, last night was definitely the lowest I believe the Pain part of the roller coaster can go. Hopefully the Delight part will show up today.

8:00pm - Still enjoy Denis Leary's rants. And he made a good point there about the optomistic cynic that most Red Sox fans are. Derek Lowe, the unlikely hero. Unlikely indeed.

Commercial --

Why is the Scandinavian edition of Vice so much better than the US's anniversary issue?

1st Inning -- Wow, we made it through the first without giving up 10 runs. So happy...

2nd Inning -- D-Lowe! Joe Buck's begining to make me nauseous. He really should stick to whoring himself on the streets of NYC with Ratso.

5th Inning -- Hot shit!

6th Inning -- That Godzilla is a fucking baseball machine. A robot of some sort, I'm certain. Taking out D-Lowe will be this years keeping in Pedro.

9th Inning -- Hey hoo ha! Rally caps are on. More hot shit. Very methodical and business like. Damon snaps his streak. Barely. No double play...

1:24 am -- Papi finally comes though. Glad I had that nap earlier. I think most people are too tired and sobered-up to cause any kind of ruckus on the streets tonight.

Game Day #2 (Monobrow/Sanchez Bros.)

2004-10-13T23:40:00.000-04:00

[Will update continually 'till the end of the game... Maybe.]

8:00pm -- Yeah, so Curt's not doing to good, eh? And what was the biggest difference between last year and this year? Our pitching, right? Well, I still think we still have plenty to work with in the bullpen. Bring out Lowe instead--I wouldn't squak. I'm looking foward to Pedro shutting up that NY crowd... should be a good game. Hell, if last night's a sign of anything it's that all these games could very well be classics.

Commercial -- Who's #1?

This Guy. Click and feel it -- unh, yeah, that's right...

1st Inning -- That throw to second almost smacked Jeter in that mug of his... almost.

2nd Inning -- Did that douche bag just question Pedro's "cadence"? I think he did. Sweet jesus...

3rd Inning -- Scooter... sigh... Have I mentioned my dislike of Fox? I wonder how many focus groups it took to decide upon the name of a talking baseball.

Checking in on the Presidential Debate --

5th Inning -- Now's the time. Close. Damnit.

6th Inning -- Pedro's got the crowd quiet though--I like that, very much so. Olerud? Well, there goes that crowd respect... And okay, who's your daddy... um, why not Where's the Beef? or Who's the Boss? or Whachoo Talkin Bout? Yes, I'm bitter.

Commercial -- Have you met the new Partridge Family?

Do yourself a favor -- MEET RON, GARY, BRUCE AND DOUG

7th Inning -- This Sheffield/Godzilla double whammy unnerves me.... I really need to see the Papi/Manny double dip happen tonight.

8th Inning -- Did I jinx Damon last night? I sent this raging email to The Trifecta last night about Damon... Well, if I did, my realizing it now should un-jinx him. Here comes his first hit... Ouch.

9th Inning -- Well, the real bitch of this thing would be losing a game because of the 1st inning. That's tough. Nice tense way to do it Foulke.

And so it goes. Papi wanted it just as bad as any fan out there.

Game Day #1 (Roller Coaster of Pain and Delight Begins)

2004-10-12T23:42:00.000-04:00

[Constant Updates 'Till The Game is Over]

8:00pm -- The Star Wars opening. I guess Fox doesn't have to pay much for that footage--it's a cheap idea in more ways than one. I mistakenly thought the game was going to start at 7. Just used to that time I guess. So since I've been waiting even longer than I should have all I can do is scream--get the fucking game on already! I hate pretty much everything about you Fox! [sorry, a bit jaded there] I think I'm going to put some music on, or maybe the radio--I really find all the Fox hosts and personnel a bit sinister and evil atound the edges.

Commercial -- Thinking about buying this hat.

But I'm not much of a hat wearer at all... but it makes me kind of want to start every once in a while... though I really want the sold out Pit Pat hat.

Does the words "My Big Fat" anything make anyone else's bile rise up a bit? And that Nomar song should never grace airwaves again ever.

1st Inning -- Don't like the looks of this. Fans sound pretty intense... That's okay, too early to get too worried about anything.

2nd Inning -- "...loves to pound the green monster." Please, somebody slap this guy good. Love Millar's Amish Up look. Please someone just get the fuck on first base soon...

3rd Inning -- oh... Pain starting to build. I don't like this Sheffield guy. Your right that's a strike you bitch [c'mon Schilling you're really making me wish Pedro was up first -- he feeds of this crowd.! walk... godzilla is even worse... "Who's your daddy?" Schilling seems to be feeling the heat... Sweet Mercy.

4th Inning -- Another 5 up another 3 down. Sadness mixed with frustration begins to simmer. LesKanic? I'm not even sure I've seen him play... Jeter. Look at him. He's got that face that you just want to punch. I'm sure he could visciously pummel me into patty but still. Double play--exhale. oh! Inning should be over with but not. But is. I repeat please get at least one fuckin' guy on base.

5th Inning -- The moose is on fire. Slipping...

6th Inning -- Wakefield Headache. Again, I wonder how this game/series would have turned out if Pedro had pitched first.

7th Inning -- holy shit. A hit. C'mon Papi! holy shit... C'mon Amish Power! holy shit... gotta love 2 out runs. 2 more innings, 4 more runs.

Commercial -- Vote.

7th Inning -- Heart attack time. Go Papi! This 2 out shit's killing me. Holy shit! Papi hit a tripple? That must have been the fastest he's ever run in his life.

8th Inning -- Sorry about all the swearing. Sports can do this to most anyone... Especially a Red Sox fan. It's neccessary for the coping process. I am now swearing.

9th Inning -- Now's when sports can even get prayers to come to the lips of even the most Agnostic of us...

Typical. A very familiar game--takes you right up to that point of glory, and then drops you. But hey, not like we're not used to it...

Bill Plympton & Hair High

2004-10-09T22:05:00.000-04:00

BIll Plympton has created some of my favorite animated moments. I believe it was early 90's Mtv, maybe Liquid Television, where I first saw one of his short cartoons. Some of them are a good laugh, and some of them are trancendant moments of bliss. He also shows up on a lot of Spike and Mike collections and he's made more than a couple of features as well as even wining an Oscar at one point. Anyway, I'm a fan and I was more that a little happy to find out he's got a new movie on the way.

That cast is pretty great -- and Matt Groening and Michael Showalter from the State and Stella contirbute voices as well. Click on the picture for some clips but there isn't really to much else except the official press kit. And IMDB makes it seem like it's still looking for distribution as it's still doing festivals. Well, I'm hoping it comes out in one form or another sooner than later.

Star Wars - The Last Hope

2004-10-09T01:00:00.001-04:00

Like many of my generation I grew up on Star Wars. Some of my earliest movie memories are of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I got the posters, the action figures and shipis, the magazines (I think my first object of lust was Carrie Fisher in that Bobba the Fett slave outfit) even the Bantha Tracks fan club-only magazine that had all these ads for cool crap that we couldn't afford like the official Hans Solo utility jacket or Indiana Jones Stetson. Not really sure exactly who those Bantha Tracks were aimed at exactly. It was a strange magazine -- or newsletter really, as it was indeed informative and awesome to receive in the mail with your , as a seven or eigth year old it also did a good job of stripping away any childish thoughts of movie magic by introducing you to special effects guys and crew members that would talk about how many people it took to operate Bobba the Fett. (What the hell happened to those now very collectable issues and toys I had escapes me...) [Going to go look these up on ebay... hmm, disapointing - ed.]

I so vividly remember this very issue (though it wasn't so fuzzy). I remember the redish issue, the greenish one too...

So like any good geek I was eager to get any news I could about Lucas creating episodes 1-3 of the series. Sure, I'd sat through Howard the Duck, Willow, and two spotty Indiana Jones sequels (still get hardly any enjoyment out of Temple of Doom) but I figured American Graffiti couldn't of just been a fluke... And I don't think he invented the prequel (did the Godfather do that?), but it was an interesting notion when he first announced it and so he had my attention. Word started spreading about the cast of Episode 1 and the choices seemed fine -- all was still well. The image of the little kid with the Vader shadow was indeed tantalizing.

But then the commercials came. Ok, at first... But there was this noise about the movie now -- it was all about Lucas trying to get the new generation of 7 and 8 year olds to buy all the new toys and games that were about to be air dropped onto the masses. Indeed, it seemed that what millions had been waiting over a decade for was a kiddie flick. Then the thought occurs that maybe that's what the first Star Wars was... Yet looking at the various documentaries about the phenomena of the original it seemed like it was stoned teenagers and geeky 20s that were queuing up. Sure, those were the ones queuing up this time too -- but were those the ones coming away pleased? And shouldn't that be the same audience he should be shooting for?

So I was pissed. I walked out of the theatre thinking the time would've been better spent catching a few winks. And of course the main brundt of my cursings was that fucking hell spawn Jar Jar... but we'll speak no more of that bastard. Let's chalk it up to a big fucking disapointment, try to forget it ever happened and move on. Thought immediately turn to how much better Empire was than the the first one.

I didn't even see Clones in the theatre -- that's how pissed I was over Menace. Even a kung-fu Yoda on the Imax couldn't get me to shake it. And the title didn't help at all. But I must admit, when I watched the DVD, I wasn't too disapointed. Maybe because my expectations were so low, but I found myself shrugging off the more preposterous moments with a laugh and simply enjoying the fact that it was better than Menace, if even by a small margin. Yoda definitely helped.

And so now, as if to start the vicious cylce over again, there's this...

Again, I find myself tantalized -- i think it reaches down to some sort of cellular level childhood reaction. I don't know. There's even a cool THX feel to that hallway. And the noise this time is that it's supposed to hit much darker themes and possibly even be PG-13. But I'm not going to get my hopes up again. Lucas has lost that ability in me. I'll be dropping the 10 dollars ro see this next installment but this is what will be in the back of my mind (copied from here)...

Thursday, October 07, 2004
I LOVE STAR WARS!

George Lucas recently gave an interview to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY to promote the release of the “directors cut” versions of the first three STAR WARS movies that just came out on DVD. What follows are actual real (true!) quotes from George, along with what I would say if he said that shit to me…

DOUG BENSON: Why the fuck did you have to go and add a bunch of useless crap to the original trilogy?

GEORGE LUCAS: When STAR WARS came out, I said it didn’t turn out the way I wanted—it’s 25 percent of what I wanted it to be.

DOUG BENSON: 75 percent of the movie wasn’t there? Funny, it seemed pretty complete to me.

GL: So the choice came down to, do I please myself and [finally] make the movie I wanted, or do I allow the audience to see the half-finished version that they fell in love with?

DB: Half-finished? That’s only 50 percent.

GL: If you really look at it, there’s hardly any changes at all.

DB: First you say 75 percent, then 50 percent, then hardly any changes…are you retarded?

GL: The thing that really caused the trouble on STAR WARS is the whole question of whether Han Solo or Greedo shoots first.

DB: Yeah, Han Solo understandably shoots Greedo because Greedo is holding him at gunpoint.

GL: He didn’t shoot first.

DB: But he did. I saw it. At least 50 times.

GL: In my mind [Greedo] shot first or at the same time.

DB: Sounds like you really don’t know what your mind thinks.

GL: We like to think of [Han Solo] as a murderer because that’s hip...

DB: Yeah, murderers are awesome!!

GL: I mean, I don’t see how you can redeem somebody who kills people in cold blood.

DB: Greedo, the green ant-eater faced monster, is a person now? You’re so crazy, I wanna have your baby.

GL: Every other change is, you know, I wanted to have a good matte painting in here.

DB: So you’re saying STAR WARS is 75 percent matte paintings? I thought it was mostly characters and plot and shit. But then again, I’m not a filmmaking genius, I’m just an asshole comedian.

GL: Half of directing is great casting.

DB: You should really stop throwing around percentages.

GL: It really is. If you cast it right, you don’t have to do much work.

DB: That kid you hired to play young Anakin in PHANTOM MENACE was terrific.

GL: I said, well [PHANTOM MENACE] is not going to work because I’m making it about a ten-year-old boy, and nobody is going to want to see this.

DB: I certainly wish I didn’t.

GL: And then [ATTACK OF THE CLONES] is a love story.

DB: No wonder I didn’t like it. Love is stupid.

GL: It’s not a hip, happening romantic comedy with the Olsen twins.

DB: Um, I know you’ve been busy making horrible movies, but there’s no such thing as a hip, happening romantic comedy with the Olsen twins.

GL: So at least Darth Vader is in [EPISODE III]. Only for two minutes, but he’s in it. If you take them all together it’s a fascinating saga.

DB: Oh, I get it, if I see EPISODE III next May it will magically make EPISODES I and II not suck. I’m gonna go get in line right now!

Buffy & Me: A Confession

2004-10-09T01:00:00.000-04:00

About 2 years ago I began watching reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on FX when they showed two episodes in a row from 6-8pm. At first I was hesitant. I had seen a couple episodes over the years but never really got involved with the show and suspected that it was really just another WB teen soap opera with a kitschy vampire twist. But now, 2 years later, I freely admit that it is [one of the-ed.] funniest, most original, imaginative, and most sincere and emotionally honest 1-hour "drama[s]" to be aired on free TV ever.

It wasn't an overnight love affair. More of the slow-burn seduction variety, which always leads to the more meaningful and lasting television relationships. I wasn't even the instigator of this relationship -- it was a roommate of mine who would generally be home before me that was the fan. And so there it would be, already on TV every day when I got out of work. I passively stared at it in the beginning. Nodding along with its formula of monster of the week popping up in Sunnydale, finding out where it's hiding out at the last minute, kick its ass and save the day, chuckle, repeat.

But then the not so subtle array of metaphors started hitting me. And as the episodes moved along in order, the characters themselves starting showing the actual subtlety and growth. I started thinking the character of Willow was the most interesting thing on television at the time. What was going on? I thought. Was I falling for a WB show? With the girl from Scooby Doo as the star and central themes revolving around teen problems? Yes. I was falling in it deep. And once you start falling for the three to five central characters and caring about them, then the action scenes even take on depth.

Sure, there were some characters that showed up that were a bit annoying; bad guys that didn't really deserve the time devotion; bad CGI and rubber suits; some story metaphors that were too painfully obvious and close to preachy; but these could all be forgiven when you realize that this show also gives you some of the best writing and dialog to have ever graced television. At its best it is the best, or shoulder to shoulder with it at any rate, and at it's worst is is still better than the other 99% that's being programmed.

My favourite thing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer is being able to look at an episode from the first season and see 3 high schoolers with baby fat trying to get through high school and compare it to the last season, seven years later, and be able to see 3 people, hardened, weathered, who've almost in all cases literally been through hell and back--having had their lives crushed and built back again, more than once in some cases, and really be able to honestly see it in their faces and in the better-than-deserved performances of the actors. What other show can you see that? What other one hour drama can you even see all the main cast last until the end of the shows run? Not many at all. And how many of those shows have jokes with references to Magnolia, kung-fu, hot vengeance demons, and the production values of a studio feature?

So in all, I think it took about 2 to 3 months for me to become a full-fledged geek about the whole thing. And at first it was just Buffy--fuck that gay Angel crap, right? Never liked that actor much anyway... Well, ok, let's take a look--they're starting to repeat them on TNT... Son of a bitch! Who is this Joss Whedon and why the hell are his shows so fuckin' good? And what gives Angel the right? I mean, there's episodes on that show that trump Buffy itself. And the last episode was much better than the final Buffy. Hmm, let me check out this Firefly show that got cancelled after 4 shows or something--can't be very good right?... Shitballs! It's genius! And so on...

Yes, a year ago my geekness was basically being kept to a minimum--only freaking out about TV things related to Mr. Show and Amy Sedaris. Now I find myself anonymously peeking into the Buffy fanclub site and Whedon blog; anticipating the April '05 release of Serenity while trying not to drool; ordering the UK Region 2 DVDs of Buffy seasons so I can see the episodes letterboxed; what has become of me... But no, no shame in this game. I've become utterly convinced, unwavering in my beliefs. America may not justify my claims, but the actors are treated like gods in England. And in most cases it's a good sign in my book when something American is more popular in the UK than here. And speaking of England, what's up with the Giles show over there?

So now, here I sit. A man in the clutches of a Star Trek-like obsession. Alias was a good distraction. But with only 3 seasons to it, sorry... I'm buying Buffy season 2 tomorrow, and that'll give me 4 of 7. I'm buying these used mind you--which breaks down to about 2 dollars an episode per season. Not too bad. Like I said, no shame in this game. Anyway, so I'll be satiated for another couple weeks. It's a pretty good season, a big improvement from season one... Okay, I'm getting sick of myself here. So let me wrap this up.

For your benefit, a seasonal review, in order of bettertude (first being bestest):
Season 3 -- The Mayor is easily the best Buffy season villain. The characters are at their peaks of likability.
Season 5 -- Glory being the next best villain. Spike at his best. Great cliffhanger.
Season 6 -- The musical is pure genius. It's something that by all laws of logic should be laughable and fail miserably. But it actually becomes possibly the coolest episode of TV ever and having some of the funniest moments of the series as well as the "We'll see it through / It's what we're always here to do" tingle-moment. Honors also to the Nerds of Doom. And respect for being able to get away with as much bleakness as they did.
Season 2 -- The Buffyverse comes alive.
Season 4 -- "Hush" is the Buffy apex for me--doesn't get any better. Unfortunately Riley is a human snooze button.
Season 7 -- Preemptive wrap up, but I liked the message of the season and bringing back a worthy villain.
Season 1 -- Only because the actors were still figuring themselves out, it was a short season, and budget restrictions were visibly in place.

Again, this is just different levels of goodness, there are no bad seasons, this is just my own personal biased opinion.

Boom #2.

2004-10-07T13:23:00.000-04:00

It seems some people still haven't seen this...

It's a pretty interesting video about the Pentagon hit on Sept. 11th. Check it out and promptly start scratchin' your noggin afterwards.

Boom.

2004-10-04T13:19:00.000-04:00

Something's brewing...

Prez: More of the Same!, sez Kerry! (May / Dario Argento)

2004-10-02T21:41:00.000-04:00

I'll move on to something else soon, I promise. But these titles keep popping up that I feel I've neglected to mention along side these past few recommendations. I don't want to start any type of theme so early on here but since it is October, and you'll hear people pushing the same old tried and true scary movies at you until Halloween comes along, I think I'll continue pushing my own.

Now, this one wasn't just one of the best horror movies I'd seen in a while, but also one of the best movies I'd seen last year. May.

A great creepy little movie. And a performance from Angela Bettis as May that you immediately realize should launch this actress into many great things, and I believe she will be well known in a matter of time. Good performances all around in what is in some ways is a kind of Dr. Frankenstein story retold through a disturbed suburban teenage girl. A definite recommendation to put on the Halloween queue.

Also, in case you haven't heard of Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, here's a brief intro... And three movies that are all you really need to see in the order of their betterness...

The fist one there is The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. This is one of Dario's first movies and the closest to being as Hitchcockian as people like to refer to him as -- a normal guy is an accidental witness and gets in over his head. It has some great photography by Vittorio Storaro who went on to work with Bertolucci and Coppola afterwards. A great movie to simply look at but also an effective thriller--De Palma has clearly been more than a little bit influenced by this guy and after watching this you'll see that how Aregento moves a camera around has had an impact on a good number of directors.

Suspiria, the second one there is pretty much the prototype of the teen slasher picture. It also falls into the same catagory as some of Polanski's early movies, of an innocent girl going insane in new surroundings, growing paranoia, etc. Again, great visuals, great camera work... A classic, and the one that really brought Dario the ten years or so of minor fame he achieved in America.

(Have to pause here--this SNL monologue is pretty funny... Dr. Porkenheimer's Boner Juice... shit, that was good. Anyway...)

The last Argento movie I'll recommend to you here is Deep Red. His giallo triumph. I put it third because it gets a bit stranger and less linear than the previous films. This trend would continue more into to the 80s until he faded into low budgets and lose his grasp on his strengths -- which is great visual storytelling, which is still in high gear on this film. A great horror movie. Now all of these movies will have plots that will strike you as very familiar -- Deep Red has the whole psychic who knows what the killer is thinking plot -- but these were the one's that started it all and did them best.

These movies are really what DVDs do best. Take great movies that could previously only be seen off of crappy copies and chopped up frames -- here they are in their colorful and gory brilliance the way they should be.

(Holy shit! Tina Fey AND Amy Poehler doing the news together -- I swear people are reading my dreams. If only they'd get around to the one's that involve me...)