Hey, everyone! Sorry about the lack of updates. I've gone home for the Thanksgiving holiday, so DiMattiaFilms will be taking a brief siesta. Let me take this time to wish each and every one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
See you next Monday!!
Last year, I had the good fortune to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular live in New York City, featuring the one-and-only Rockettes. This year, the New York Times has posted a fascinating article giving a glimpse into the backstage life of the Rockettes. I did community theater for a couple years, but I can't begin to fathom how difficult it would be to do what those girls have to do, sometimes doing five shows a day!
There's a really cool animated short featuring original music by The Flaming Lips, featuring robots and other various creatures getting together to paint and stuff. Apparently, it's for some short film contest Coke is sponsoring but, thankfully, the beverage makes no appearance in the film. To get to the film, click "English" and then click on the third tab from the top (it should say "Coca-Cola M5" when you roll your mouse over it).
Plus, if your craving for robots hasn't been satisfied, Beck's new video for "Hell Yes" is now up for streaming on his website. It features four Sony QRIO robots doing elaborate dance moves, which apparently took three weeks to program into the robots. Alright, Beck; we get it. You obviously want a video music award really bad, and weren't able to get Christopher Walken. It happens, man.
Since I always give credit where credit is due, thanks Stereogum.
UPDATE: Now even Coldplay's gotten into the act. Their new video "Talk" (viewable from their website) features more giant robot action!
I finally decided to do a little spring cleaning at my online store and I have slashed prices on all my Jump Cut Radio merchandise!! The prices can't get any lower (seriously) so this is the best deal you can possibly get on this stuff. Plus, I'll be pulling all the Jump Cut merchandise on Friday (11/18), so these offers aren't going to last long!
Also, Cafepress just added black t-shirts, so look for those soon!
According to CNN, Comedy Central comedian Lewis Black will be on the Weather Channel tonight as a sort-of "celebrity guest" weathercaster. The official website for the network doesn't really say when he'll be on, but I'm gonna say maybe around 8 PM?
Last post for the night, I promise.
Yewknee pointed out this link to where you can download the video of the Gorillaz performing live at the European MTV Video Awards. If you didn't know, the Gorillaz are a cartoon band and don't exist in real life (don't tell Damon Albarn). So, Jamie Hewlett and his team got together with Industrial Light & Magic and whipped up some kickass digital animations to perform at the show. It's pretty damn cool, if you ask me. And according to this article about how the performance was created, the technology is only going to get better, leading up to the insanely-hyped Gorillaz World Tour in 2007.
Could it be? 2D, Murdoc, Noodle, and Russel coming to North Carolina? Let's hope so.
ALSO: See the new video for the song "DARE."
Hey, you know those cool commercials for Wendy's? Who knew that the guy that makes them hailed from my hometown of Wichita, Kansas? Friggin' sweet!
Click here to see a whole bunch more of those Wendy's ads.
Here's a link to his work-in-progress website, Bendable Rubber.
As always, thanks to Drawn! for the hookup.
So, Jack and Meg must've listened to my previous ranting because, lo and behold, they got Michel Gondry to direct their new video for the song "The Denial Twist." You can see it here.
This one definitely pulls out all the stops, which is nothing unusual for a director like Gondry. It mainly focuses on shape and size distortion (don't worry if the video looks weird at first; that's normal), with the video centering on when the White Stripes made several appearances on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". Apparently, it was all shot in one take (a Gondry trademark) and Conan O'Brien even makes a guest appearance in it!
If you'd like to know more about the video, MTV News has a really interesting article about it, as well as what Gondry and the Stripes' plans are for future videos.
So I saw North Country last night with Merri. We were planning on seeing The Weather Man with Nicholas Cage, but the theatre cancelled the late showing to make room for an additional screening of Jarhead, which is apparently a huge hit with the military crowd.
We were very, very impressed with North Country. It's an unbelievably powerful film, one that plays with your emotions non-stop. The film makes you cry, makes you angry, shocks you, and ultimately, makes you hopeful. I believe that every single actor and actress in this film is worthy of an Oscar nomination, from Charlize Theron, Sissy Spacek, and (especially) Frances McDormand, to the male actors like Woody Harrelson, Sean Bean, and (especially) Richard Jenkins.
The film is about the first ever class-action sexual harassment suit, filed against a mining company in northern Minnesota. The film makes it clear early on that its story is "inspired" by true events, which makes the somewhat over-the-top courtroom scenes in the end permissible. But it's the director, Niki Caro, whose previous film Whale Rider was the best family film to ever receive an unnecessary PG-13 by the MPAA, who makes North Country special. With her beautiful sweeping shots of the mine and the small town that harbors it, the great musical choices, and the bleak blues and blacks which make up the film's color scheme, she turns what could've been just another "woman takes on the world" movie and makes it into an intimate portrait of a small town struggling with the constant gender battles in the workplace. Go see it.
Click here for King Kong-related goodness.
So, apparently, Peter Jackson's in a little bit of trouble 'cause his rough cut is over three hours. I say leave it! There are plenty of excellent three-hour movies (Magnolia, to name a more recent one) and it certainly looks like this film will be excellent, at least if the trailers are any indication. I rarely get this excited about a film.
Oddly enough, another mainstream motion picture that I'm really looking forward to is coming out in a couple weeks: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I hadn't picked up a Harry Potter book since I read The Prisoner of Azkaban in eighth grade and I finally got around to reading the fourth one over the summer. It's definitely my favorite Harry Potter book. Let's hope it becomes my favorite Harry Potter film.
Alright, getting back to more artsy films ('cause I know most folks think that's more my style), Merri and I saw Broken Flowers on campus this week. It fits right in with Lost in Translation and The Life Aquatic as Bill Murray's more intellectual comedies. What set Broken Flowers apart from these films is the way in which writer/director Jim Jarmusch creates a world in which Bill Murray is the only sane person and that everyone else is totally nuts. I also think the ending hit just the right note of uncertainty and confusion. If you're the kind of person who wants a well-rounded story, with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end, don't see this film.
A while back, The White Stripes made a song called "The Union Forever," whose lyrics consisted entirely of dialogue from Orson Welles' grand opus Citizen Kane. Even though no credit is given to the film in the album notes (bad move, Jack) it's still a pretty interesting song, and a nice way to pay homage to one of the greatest movies ever made.
Well, now it's come full circle because editor Jeff Yorkes has made a music video for that song, using clips from...you guessed it, Citizen Kane.
Click here to watch it. It's pretty sweet.
So, it's November now, and per the rules I gave myself, I should be allowed to buy movies and music again. What I learned through this exercise is that I still end up spending as much money as I normally do, just not on movies or music. :-(
Oh, well. The personal ban also gave me the chance to revisit a lot of the music I have filed away in my CD racks, prompting me to add Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
Andrew Bird, "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left"
You also should be able to stream the entire album here. My favorite tracks are "MX Missiles," "Masterfade" and the beautiful "Tables and Chairs," in which the most triumphant moment is when Andrew Bird shouts joyously "There will be snacks!!"
Just awesome.
The blog Drawn! always has the lowdown on the coolest drawings, sketches, and cartoons on the web, and their most recent entry is no exception. It's a short film called An Eye for Annai by Jonathan Klassen and Daniel Rodrigues, and it's definitely one of the most beautiful and deceptively simple short films I've ever seen. It reminds me a lot of the old National Film Board of Canada animated shorts I used to check out of the public library back home. You can see more animation, as well as some great drawings, on Klassen's Burst of Beaden website.
Posts
All Comments
