tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55032005377589040282011-11-27T16:37:24.165-08:00PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.comBlogger711100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-76049497236025471152011-11-15T21:34:00.000-08:002011-11-20T16:17:35.618-08:00

Brick CityThere, up ahead, a man pats an empty plastic bag, like a tambourine.He shakes his head, side to side,to side,eyes glazed, marbled, cold.Loosies, loosies, loosies,the street sings.Baby turtles scratch their plastic cages with tiny nails, pawing furiously.Loosies! Shake your head, eyes to laces.Add a brick.Clickity-clack. Clickity. Clack.Down the block, dark, hairy legs, bowed out,

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-59186549077962037512011-10-27T07:51:00.000-07:002011-10-27T08:12:21.566-07:00

I'm slowly working my way through the 2011 Booker Long List (link below), and I'm currently halfway through Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie (think Life of Pi + The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet). It's one of those books that makes your television so very easy to ignore, and that makes you wish that someone finally, finally, invented the never-ending novel. It's that good. I'll have a full

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-1242832418780996852011-10-25T16:45:00.001-07:002011-10-29T08:27:53.763-07:00

Monster Bug Wars, a 60 minute television show currently airing on the Science Channel, is absolute insanity. You're probably asking yourself (a) what is Monster Bug Wars? or (b) what is the Science Channel? or more likely than not, you've never heard of either. The show and the channel bill themselves as "educational" television, but if this is what's teaching our children, God help us all.So

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-52955671387751821272011-10-17T20:59:00.000-07:002011-10-18T07:24:57.842-07:00

Snowdrops, the debut novel by A.D. Miller (current editor for The Economist) shortlisted earlier this year for the Man Booker award, is a superb character study that simultaneously paints a vibrant picture of the oil-rich and over-banked Moscow of the mid-2000’s. For someone about to embark in career of corporate law it’s also harrowing. Snowdrops’ protagonist, Nick Platt, is a mid-30’s ex-pat

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-68793903223496311432010-03-22T20:47:00.000-07:002010-03-24T16:52:53.458-07:00

I’ll start this by prefacing that I come from a literary family; my maternal grandparents founded STORY Magazine, and helped champion some of this century’s most influential American writers (the recently deceased J.D. Salinger being among them). So when my father surprised me with the three hundred dollar Amazon Kindle (I cite the price only because I find it absurd) for Christmas several

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-22305298247294665202009-11-03T18:44:00.000-08:002009-11-03T19:05:26.933-08:00

Since you listened so very intently to my first suggestion (wait, no, you didn't), I’ve thought of another, maybe even better suggestion! Foolproof even! This one goes out specifically to all you pay-cable channels that can spend upwards 20 million dollars on things like Band of Brothers and Rome (so basically just you, HBO. Or Showtime, if you’re feeling lucky). Two words. Ex. Machina. Well,

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-75486889328324451692009-10-16T20:51:00.000-07:002009-10-16T21:01:41.142-07:00

The McSweeney's slash fiction collection got me to pick up Sarah Manguso's memoir The Two Kinds of Decay (Picador, 2008), documenting her battle (beginning as a junior in college) with a wildly unpredictable and incapacitating autoimmune disease. It's an unforgettable read."The events that began in 1995 might keep happening to me as long as things can happen to me. Think of spacetime, through

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-76598293461720490352009-10-05T18:00:00.000-07:002009-10-05T20:40:05.195-07:00

I've been so, so, busy. So busy, in fact, that I've only been able to read snap and flash fiction (woe is me).Which is where I found these:"POSTMODERNYou are readingSATIREYou are reading in a clown suitSCI-FIYou are reading in a spaceshipSPECULATIVEYou do not exist in a spaceshipREVISIONWe've been through this before"--Deb Ulin UnferthAnd from David Eggers:"Well then, they ask again, what does

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-71149766250330313742009-08-03T11:20:00.001-07:002009-08-03T12:25:57.805-07:00

Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, two brooklyn-based documentary filmmakers, previously raised 10,000 pounds of corn for their 2007 award-winning documentary King Corn.This time around, frustrated with Brooklyn's lack of farmable land, the two took matters into their own hands and decided to fill their truck-bed with everything from arugula to tomatoes. They filmed the entire experience (including

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-84084280269930127782009-07-29T10:17:00.000-07:002009-07-29T11:07:54.642-07:00

( Frank Bruni, circa a 1984 STYX concert)Next month, Frank Bruni, the celebrated Chief restaurant critic for the New York Times will be exiting his post for greener pastures (he's just moving over to the Times Magazine so I'm guessing he keeps his old office). This very fat, very gay foodie, whose ten-year-old picture is seared into the retinas of petrified waiters city-wide, also tends to be

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-9358471676521338362009-07-23T10:55:00.000-07:002009-07-23T11:04:24.558-07:00

From James M. Cain (1892-1977), author of the hard-boiled novels The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Double Indemnity."I never feel that a city is really in the Big Time unless it has soap boxers damning the government in the parks, and parades that occasionally result in cracked heads. Why I regard such things as cosmopolitan I don't know, but I do."From Paradise, 1933

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-52097280237460136662009-07-21T12:26:00.000-07:002009-07-23T07:28:41.146-07:00

There are certain books that you wander back to as an adult. Gravity pulls you to their dusty bindings, stuck deep somewhere in a bedroom closet. It can be years or even decades later, but when you finally open the pages they seem to be speaking a completely new language. It's as if the entire book changed along with you. So you analyze the prose, picking the books apart word by word. How did I

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-86101664029238627862009-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:002009-07-16T13:04:41.572-07:00

Just to kick-start the weekend (a day early, but whatever), the Toronto-based duo MSTRKRFT, featuring John Legend. Pretty sure this video isn't official, but that doesn't make it any less terrific. MSTRKRFT – Featuring John Legend from vincent haycock on Vimeo.

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-9781748185965260122009-07-15T09:12:00.000-07:002009-07-15T11:28:27.935-07:00

( Dash tagging the Brooklyn Bridge, in 2007)New York City and the art world lost one their brightest young stars Monday night, yet again to a drug overdose. I caught a few of Dash Snow's photos at the Whitney Biennial, and knew his family (to whom he was estranged) and younger brother when I was in grade school. It got me thinking about how many artists we've lost senselessly young and well

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-29419899887861637092009-07-14T08:29:00.000-07:002009-07-14T08:43:47.181-07:00

Discovery, the side band of Wes Miles (Ra Ra Riot) and Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), released their self-titled LP last week and it's definitely the catchiest thing I've heard all summer. I particularly love the looping work and build on So Insane.

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-60789596514085562762009-07-10T06:53:00.000-07:002009-07-10T08:06:20.989-07:00

After a long weekend on the west coast I picked up Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, edited by David L. Ulin. Los Angeles is a funny "city" (if you can even call it that); disjointed, surreal, and not particularly attractive (save for the beaches), I find myself liking it nonetheless.I’ve pulled the below passage from Stewart Edward White’s (1873-1946) The Rules of the Game (included in

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-47313955590999295852009-07-07T07:59:00.000-07:002009-07-07T08:13:54.621-07:00

Summer, known for its long weekends, mindless blockbusters, and lazy strolls in the park, has always been viewed as something completely different for network television executives: a fertile dumping ground for shows that didn’t (NBC’s Kings and ABC’s Eli Stone are good examples), or wouldn’t (I’m a Faux Celebrity, Shoot Me in the Head with a Nail Gun springs to mind) make it during the other

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-63337378660117201932009-06-18T07:01:00.000-07:002009-06-18T07:24:27.438-07:00

I found today's quotes buried in a wicked Salon.com article (http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2009/06/18/impact/ ) for the new ABC summer mini-series Impact, starring James Cromwell, and airing this Sunday at 9. The two-parter was originally set for broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel (should give you a good gauge of quality right there), and was produced by a German production company (ok, now you

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-78178547508517194162009-06-17T12:54:00.000-07:002009-06-17T13:27:21.153-07:00

I recently stumbled upon an entire sub-genre of YouTube clips where people take a considerable amount of time and effort to re-cut movies into trailers, completely changing the tone of the films. Some of them are terrible. Some of them are pretty amazing.I've linked a few of my favorites below.ShiningThe Shining as a family rom-com, appropriately re-named Shining."Meet Jack Torrance. He's a

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-83012804191064131262009-06-05T08:15:00.000-07:002009-06-05T11:01:41.992-07:00

Ok, so maybe there wasn't much demand for a Godard/Pixies mash-up, but there sure as hell should be now. I'm pretty sure the UK Surf remix is off of the B-sides album if anyone's interested (personally, I like it better than the original).

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-85880704834773413392009-06-01T08:49:00.000-07:002009-06-01T09:08:39.403-07:00

From reclusive British author James Hamilton-Paterson's Seven Tenths: The Sea and Its Thresholds (Europa Editions, 2009), a melancholy meditation on the ocean and man's destructive and transformative power:"And then what pleasure to set up a hut, a fish drier; to pare things back to water and light, to knives and spearpoints, to order and silence! All men have an island, Donne should have said,

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-38119944121237810532009-05-27T10:07:00.000-07:002009-06-05T09:24:43.347-07:00

[ and yes, this monkey can paint better than you ]I was recently re-reading a few of my favorite chapters from the 2005 New York Times Bestseller 'Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything' (basically a mishmash of pop culture and econ 101), when I remembered a great little article from several years ago (by the same authors) detailing an experiment looking to teach

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-40981967074805465692009-05-21T12:29:00.000-07:002009-07-22T13:41:22.253-07:00

Movie-going audiences haven’t seen much from director Kathryn Bigelow since 2003’s box office flop K9: The Widowmaker, when Harrison Ford unhappily took home the statue for “worst accent in the history of film” (previously held by Keanu Reeves for his “British” accent in Dracula). The Hurt Locker, set to be released next month in New York and Los Angeles, should change all that. Over the past few

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-82499748815554407062009-05-15T13:03:00.000-07:002009-05-15T14:18:30.280-07:00

[That's 'cutlery' to you, damn Yankee] Currently Michael Caine is known for both elevating any film which he deems worthy of his innumerable and immense talents, and as that old british guy your mom would happily bang. Lately, "any film worthy of his talents" translates to "anything Chris Nolan is directing" (trust me, I used an online translation program - it's science). But Sir Caine wasn't

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-13681909318153242322009-05-14T10:52:00.000-07:002009-05-14T11:34:20.682-07:00

J.J. Abram's Fringe, like most of the things to which the maestro attaches his name, has quickly risen through the ranks to become one of my guiltiest pleasures. It's not a particularly great television show, and the pseudo-science is often utter drivel (most of the time they don't even try, i.e. deja vu is actually you experiencing an alternate universe...uh, ok, sure), but sadly it's better

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-36914108474401020562009-05-12T13:15:00.000-07:002009-05-27T10:56:30.285-07:00

The Criterion Collection is known for plucking classic films from obscurity (films often lost or available only with terrible transfers) and transforming them into beautifully packaged (and colossally expensive) DVDs. The extras aren't just added studio advertisements but enlightening documentaries containing interviews with film historians and the films’ creators, often edited with direct input

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-10872540598224457102009-05-05T12:03:00.000-07:002009-05-06T07:59:39.864-07:00

From the memoir 'The Invention of Solitude', Auster's highly personal reflection on his shell of a father, and ghost of man:"From a bag of loose pictures: a trick photograph taken in an Atlantic City studio sometime during the Forties. There are several of him sitting around a table, each image shot from a different angle, so that at first you think it must be a group of several men. Because of

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-8189723631247818352009-04-28T13:21:00.000-07:002009-05-15T14:19:54.346-07:00

Patrick Stewart is awesome. Along with headlining two mega-million dollar franchises and rocking the shit out of any Shakespeare part he plays, he also makes pretty amazing cameos (not to mention his recurring character on Fox's 'American Dad!').If you haven't seen Extras (which is good, but not close to the The Office (British) good) you owe it to yourself to watch this. Unless you're a

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-66321258253461200872009-04-21T09:19:00.000-07:002009-05-14T11:38:06.360-07:00

According to Variety, the wheels are in motion for principal photography to begin on Fighter, a long-gestating project that now adds Christian Bale to a cast that already includes Mark Wahlberg (Brad Pitt was previously attached). The film follows Irish Rocky Mickey Ward and his half-brother, Dicky Eklund, a fellow boxer who kicked a drug habit and served jail time before backing Mickey to world

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-41462527187176120702009-04-14T10:30:00.001-07:002009-04-14T14:30:49.806-07:00

Tweenbots, the brainchild of ITP graduate student Kacie Kinzer, is probably the cutest thesis project I've ever seen. Or maybe the only cute thesis project I've ever seen. The lil' cardboard robots are completely human-dependant, can only mosey in one direction at a constant (and hilariously slow) speed, and have a final goal in mind (printed on a white flag sticking out of the robots square butt

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-61650666217300198632009-04-08T12:22:00.000-07:002009-04-08T14:23:30.198-07:00

On March 3rd, Brooklyn-based The Antlers released Hospice, a full two years after their previous full-length album. Self-produced, it’s as good as anything I’ve heard all year (yes, better than Animal Collective), and well worth the wait. I’ve been playing it frequently and fully, as it should be listened. The record is completely realized over ten tracks, which unspool to tell the story of a

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-79454984955384890182009-04-06T13:58:00.000-07:002009-04-06T14:30:48.066-07:00

[the Uruk-hai's the least of your problems, kiddo] 5. The Black Hole (1979)This little masterpiece came out before I was born, but still managed to spread its dark, dark, tentacles throughout my nubile mind. To this day I haven’t been able to gather the strength necessary to re-watch the damn thing. As a SPACE.com article asked, twenty-five years after its original released date: “Does Disney’s

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-50002834825915780752009-04-03T12:04:00.000-07:002009-04-03T12:21:07.255-07:00

From Roberto Bollaño's posthumous, five-part masterpiece, the lyrical and haunting 2666:"Then Boris Yeltsin looked at Amalfitano with curiousity, as if it were Amalfitano who had invaded his dream, not the other way around. And he said: listen carefully to what I have to say, comrade. I'm going to explain what the third leg of the human table is. I'm going to tell you. And then leave me alone.

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-67779360780320474372009-04-02T11:40:00.000-07:002009-04-08T13:32:49.692-07:00

Or maybe I'm stalking you. Whichever it is, I feel like I've seen you everywhere lately. I first met you (or so I was led to believe) on Flight of the Conchords where you play Doug, Mel's silent, push-over of a husband. You were quiet— Mel’s constant shadow – and I barely noticed you. But as you huddled under the basement stairs of your Queens brownstown (at Mel’s request), beneath that solitary

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-43558295248537093272009-03-25T10:46:00.000-07:002009-05-15T14:21:18.180-07:00

From the visuals and the animatronics, to the David Eggars screenplay, all the way down to the Arcade Fire song, this trailer is pretty much pitch-perfect.Jonze's last movie was the great Adaptation, way back in 2002 (!). There have been some rumblings that the studio was unhappy with the tone of film and made Jonze re-cut and re-shoot much of this 80 million + film, which is always a bad sign.

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-19647316413436785022009-03-24T09:13:00.000-07:002009-03-24T14:05:29.033-07:00

From Steve Baer, prominent American inventor and solar designer:"You don't need to know that muchyou just need to go aheadand try and it out.But then you have to doother things."

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-16392249768066023312009-03-23T12:30:00.000-07:002009-04-03T12:26:16.986-07:00

[ I feel your pain little buddy ]7. The X-Files (death by dude coming out of a toilet episode)My older brother has seven years on me. I guess then that my childhood subjection to adult-themed television can be seen as somewhat natural. I do, however, think that watching The X-Files as a nine-year old was probably, in retrospect, a bad call. The X-Files was one of the first shows to perfect the

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-7036833850636232982009-03-23T11:10:00.000-07:002009-04-03T12:30:44.684-07:00

...Justin Long managed to steal the entire movie with four minutes of screen time. Crazy how that works sometimes.Watch the entire scene here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lL2F6mw9pk Good job Apple Guy! One more step on the path of redemption for Herbie: Fully Loaded (which, incidentally, sounds like a porno).

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-43515498336188804772009-03-19T08:28:00.000-07:002009-03-19T08:34:15.633-07:00

Alan Moore (author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta), on creativity:"To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head – and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It's an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that's not the most important thing. It's the work itself. That's the reward.

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-17093039448769231062009-03-13T13:51:00.000-07:002009-03-13T14:00:50.103-07:00

That is, if you’re looking for your children to be cripplingly depressed, fall in love with a prostitute, and die, early, from cirrhosis of the liver. Hamilton (1904-1962), probably best known as the playwright of Rope and Gaslight (which spawned the classic Hitchcock and Bergman movies), is slowly gaining recognition for his brand of fiction. His most celebrated novels, Hangover Square and the

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-80562600511297010102009-03-04T08:31:00.001-08:002009-03-04T13:57:47.707-08:00

Variety is reporting today that Megan "Transformers Hooker" Fox has signed to play Aspen Matthews in Michael Turner's Aspen, a comic that debuted in 1998, at the height of the 'big boobs and impossibly small waist' wave. Turner, who passed away last year after a long and arduous battle with cancer, will remain as executive producer. The comic centers around Aspen Matthews, an Olympic swimmer and

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-82680789502164403522009-03-03T11:18:00.001-08:002009-03-03T11:42:41.070-08:00

The sad news today that Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, the follow up to their widely acclaimed Yellow House (2006), has been leaked. It's a poor quality, transcode leak, which makes this all the more unfortunate. According to lead singer Ed Droste on his Twitter: "I'm trying to be zen about the album leaking because I'm "ok with it, but I'm bummer. And apparently it's a low quality rip. So now

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-9513854075548764672009-02-27T14:05:00.001-08:002009-02-27T14:12:24.750-08:00

From Brooklyn-based Paul Auster, author of The New York Trilogy, one of my favorite novels of all time (though this quote is pulled out of his newest novel, Man in the Dark):"At that point, Noriko finally breaks down and begins to cry, sobing into her hands as the floodgates open - this young woman who has suffered in silence for so long, this good woman who refuses to believe she's good, for

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-5675925411398740522009-02-24T10:45:00.000-08:002009-03-05T09:36:46.347-08:00

On rare occasion I’ve found that opening sequences (be it title credits, a montage, or simply a set-up scene) can trump an entire film. Some argue that the same can be said about critically acclaimed films; the storming of Normandy in Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan; the single-camera, no-break tracking shot at the start of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights; or the wide-angle POV scene which

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-90124453838810554112009-02-19T14:40:00.000-08:002009-02-20T16:20:00.964-08:00

Battlefield Earth, John Trovolta's 2004, quasi-Scientology misstep, is good for very few things. One reviewer claimed that it was only recently surpassed (by The Spririt) as the worst film of all time. It's good for laughing. It's good for crying, from laughing. And it's good for death by alcohol poisoning (if you're under the age of ten, I'd recommend Time Bandits, per my previous post, for the

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-81152554197703116322009-02-19T09:02:00.000-08:002009-02-19T14:20:55.246-08:00

On Tuesday night I finally decided to polish off a two-day-old episode of Flight of Conchords, HBO's off-beat musical/comedy show. To my suprise, who do I see listed as director but Michel Gondry. Gondry lensed what I consider to be one of the best love stories ever put to celluloid, Eternal Sunshine Spotless Mind, having previously collaborated on music videos with Daft Punk, Bjork, the White

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-4707553831707868432009-02-18T12:27:00.000-08:002009-02-23T14:08:48.227-08:00

This list started to bounce around my brain right after exiting a 3-D showing of Coraline, which I thought was excellent. It should not, however, been rated PG. This movie creeped me out. If I was a kid, and I saw this movie, I probably would've pissed my pants and then had one of those seizures like in The Ring. My face probably would've inverted. So I've attempted to point fingers. Starting at

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-44238256905221023222009-02-18T12:05:00.000-08:002009-02-19T08:38:49.166-08:00

It's well over a year old (I just found it), but includes some less known, yet nonetheless fantastic tracks from Beirut, New Order, Yo La Tengo, M. Ward, Broken Social Scene and others. The playlist really gives some good perspective on The National's musical influences (though I'm suprised not to see and Tom Waits or Nick Cave, but maybe that's just too obvious).I would also highly recommend

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-38910691847281710452009-02-13T07:21:00.000-08:002009-02-13T08:54:10.125-08:00

Well obviously he can, considering two days into office he admitted to a previous long-term cocaine addiction and several instances of infidelity (Huh? Really? Him?). But after reading The Economist this week, he actually had an amazingly prescient quote, and the Big P (I'm hoping that catches on, but I doubt it) has never really been one for words."Everyone with a shovel says they're

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-84263772712664312252009-02-12T13:54:00.000-08:002009-02-13T07:21:37.360-08:00

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a black and white, annual series, written by Canadian native Bryan Lee O’Mally and published by Oni Press, has gotten quite a bit of publicity of late. It’s for good reason. Edgar Wright, who brought Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead to the silver screen is attached to direct a script based off the graphic novels, and the cast seems to be lining up nicely (I think they’

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-62277407280632216022009-02-09T13:48:00.000-08:002009-02-20T16:24:01.138-08:00

Last Monday night, I walked down a snow-filled Bleeker Street for another chance to see the Scottish, alt-folk band Frightened Rabbit, for the second time in as many weeks. The all-request, all-acoustic set, would be their swansong for the year-long tour promoting the oft praised Midnight Organ Fight. Literally, every song yelled out by the respectful crowd was played. At one point, frontman

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-69885960877602905742009-02-03T14:49:00.000-08:002009-02-03T15:03:31.967-08:00

…we decided to head to Chef Damon Wise’s Frugal Friday, held at Tom Colicchio’s Manhattan flagship, Craft. The three of us intelligently chose the opening night of the experiment (note the sarcasm). Everything on the small plate menu comes in at under ten bucks (some are better values than others), but the experience was pretty great. The place was absolutely packed by 6:30, with an hour and

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-22301959993384290232009-01-30T14:03:00.000-08:002009-01-30T17:33:50.488-08:00

What. The. Hell. This video blows my mind on so many different levels, and I can't stop watching, for whatever messed up reason. First off, these guys look like a cross between some rejected anime characters and the robots from A.I. Secondly, you're thinking they're going to sound something like N'Sync or the three riders from the hell (aka the Jonas Brothers), but it ends up closer to a cast-off

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-54782762188500197742009-01-29T15:35:00.000-08:002009-01-30T08:00:37.074-08:00

Today's quote comes from Alessandro Piperno's sprawling novel, The Worst Intentions, recently translated from Italian and published by Europa Editions (to which I currently have a strange, crack-like addiction). The quote below describes Beppo Sonnino, a Jewish-Italian who bares a striking resemblance to Mr. Bernard L. Madoff:"Bepy was an ingenious and shameless flatterer, what in English is

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-47598457039716970922009-01-28T11:42:00.000-08:002009-01-29T15:35:37.886-08:00

Or so says Robb Webb, the sardonic, pithy, and often off-topic narrator, in the opening titles to the limited (and legendary) IFC series, Fishing with John. The pseudo-documentary, which first aired in 1991, included only six episodes. They follow actor/musician John Lurie (the titular character) and a rotating cadre of ‘celebrity’ friends (including Willem Dafoe, Tom Waits, and Matt Dillon,

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-21794577057131532532009-01-22T17:51:00.000-08:002009-01-26T08:38:56.048-08:00

Something struck me a few weeks ago, six episodes deep into this season of Bravo’s Top Chef. It wasn’t anything good. Yes, the show has become predictable; a head chef during Restaurant Wars got voted off (again), the new judge is a bald Simon Cowell rip-off, and the product placements are beyond out of control (this week make a soufflé out of EXXON gasoline! Yummy!). But above all I’ve found one

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-77763643316682973302009-01-20T13:58:00.000-08:002009-01-20T14:09:05.605-08:00

Comes some unlikely advice from William Faulkner:"...the best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it's the perfect milieu for an artist to work in."Here, here.

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-23398447307691164582009-01-20T13:37:00.000-08:002009-01-20T14:20:24.946-08:00

Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are both fairly new to the network scene. Fringe starts the back end of its first season tonight on FOX, and Connor, now well into its second season, starts up again next week. While they both fall comfortably under the science fiction banner, Fringe attempts a sort of quasi-science route, whereas Connor plays with temporal dilemmas and mommy

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-60121650927863899472009-01-16T12:03:00.001-08:002009-01-16T13:05:45.257-08:00

Nick Cave (of Bad Seeds fame), has been tapped to score the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. The film, directed by John Hillcoat (who also lensed Cave's writing debut, The Proposition), and starring Viggo Mortensen, has been in film release purgatory ever since it was handed to Miramax.The book is phenomenal, and follows a father and son (think Lone Wolf here) as they traipse across

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-48589243473051053022009-01-13T13:22:00.000-08:002009-02-02T09:51:04.821-08:00

Well, actually, NBC doesn’t have much of a Kingdom anymore, so to speak. They’re more like a war-torn Kandahar. Come to think of it, I don’t even think they have a serviceable drama on-air. Heroes has turned into a walking punch-line (two of the top stars are looking to break their contracts), ER is done this year, Night Rider got a full season pick up (?!?!) and next year, the Monday through

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-70785147847570264972009-01-13T11:40:00.000-08:002009-01-13T11:47:29.073-08:00

Micheal Chabon. Oh how you confound me. After reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, and The Final Solution, I thought you might become one of my favorite authors. Your flowery, lavish, 19th-century language, angered yet intrigued me.But then I read Gentlemen of the Road. I get that you’re delving into different genres (with The Yiddish Policemen’s Union it was

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-39201774966075092402009-01-09T13:25:00.000-08:002009-01-09T13:43:40.028-08:00

What can I say about Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law? Well, I can say that it's one of my favorite films of all time, that Tom Waits is my god, Robby Muller's cinematography is gorgeous, and John Lurie's original music is tonally perfect.I can also say, finally, that some amazing person has placed my favorite scene on YouTube.

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-25619348069574101942009-01-09T12:34:00.000-08:002009-01-09T13:52:39.210-08:00

Today's quote comes from Steve Erickson, an American novelist, essayist, and film critic, based out of LA. His narritives often take place in Los Angeles as well and his most recent novel, Zeroville, was one of my favorites of last year. It follows Jerome, a slightly autistic, 24 year old architecture student (with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor tattooed on his shaved head) through 1970's

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-71472080180164407052009-01-09T11:34:00.000-08:002009-01-13T14:26:28.456-08:00

MTV, home of the most wretched TV on earth, has somehow managed to outdo itself in Brody Jenner and Ryan Seacrest’s (yes, that Ryan Seacrest) new vehicle entitled Bromance. And yes, that actually is the title of the show. He also managed to get one of his bros Frankie Delgado a producer credit, so some respect can at least be given to his representation. The respect is immediately rescinded when

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-79744111987479128532009-01-08T13:05:00.000-08:002009-04-06T14:23:30.509-07:00

Ah, Josh Schwartz. Love him or hate him, you’ve got to admit, he’s got pretty good taste in music. So when Chuck, the fluffy, somewhat vapid, NBC show (executive produced by – you got it- Josh Schwartz) came on the air late 2007, I was expecting some chuckles and a bunch semi-indie music to accompany the over-dramatic montages that dutifully would unspool by episode end. Well, it’s two years

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-90741309102392203462009-01-08T11:31:00.000-08:002009-04-06T14:24:06.939-07:00

Dear Pixar,Everyone loves you. Wall-E is on every critics ‘best of’ list. You’ve never had a movie come in at under 150 million dollars domestic. You delight kids and grown-ups alike, with superb directing, crisp writing, and every so often, topical storylines. I know you like writing your own material. I get it. You take pride in it – moving from the conception stage on up. But please, please,

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-30763663197005758412009-01-08T09:29:00.000-08:002009-01-08T09:38:34.011-08:00

Today's comes from PKD's novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch:"I mean, after all; you have to consider we're only made out of dust. That's admittedly not much to go on and we shouldn't forget that. But even considering, I mean it's a sort of bad beginning, we're not doing too bad. So I personally have faith that even in this lousy situation we're faced with we can make it. You get me?"Like

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-30726119545722658272009-01-08T08:47:00.000-08:002009-04-06T14:21:50.831-07:00

After a year long hiatus, Damages returned last night to FX. Academy Award winner Glenn Close, the fabulous Rose Byrne (huge crush in this corner), and a top-of-his-game Tate Donovan, are joined this season by William Hurt, Timothy Olyphant, and Marcia Gay Harden, among other notables. How can a TV cast get better than that? I have no idea.The second season starts off in a similar fashion to the

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-44525280531975418912009-01-07T14:07:00.001-08:002009-01-07T14:25:24.647-08:00

From the ever-spectacular Ricky Gervais, on his worst movie of the year:"1. Twilight -- Dear Fat Girls of America, I know times are tough. I know how it feels to be overweight, and unpopular, to feel that no one really understands you and to wallow away at night, lying in your big bed, snacking and wishing there was an effeminate vampire boy-child to come steal you away and show you how shiny he

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-16084775169329456302009-01-07T13:07:00.001-08:002009-01-07T14:26:15.134-08:00

First off, amazing song, amazing video. The original, non-remixed Tellier song is something like 8 minutes so I can understand why they didn't go for that one when it came time for the radio edit. The video is director by Ace Norton (Venice Beach, CA), who's directed similarly fantastic videos for Death Cab, Bloc Party, and the Mountain Goats. Enjoy.This one isn't too shabby either:Damn my

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5503200537758904028.post-36654811346458442362009-01-07T09:33:00.000-08:002009-01-07T12:14:32.952-08:00

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a seminal American Film, and with a budget upwards of 150 million, it is one that I assumed studios no longer had the gall to make. A two hour and forty minute meditation on life and death, it in many ways lacks categorization. The story revolves around a central gimmick, pulled from a F. Scott Fitzgerald short story; what if a man (Button, played by Brad

PVIIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01368186613122349376noreply@blogger.com0