R.I.P. Don Knotts

Barney Fife has passed away, and the world is surely a sadder place without him.

UPDATE: And now the dad from A Christmas Story died? What is this world coming to?!

The Case Against Theater Ads

Roger Ebert's latest Movie Answer Man column addresses an important issue that has been pissing off the moviegoers of America for several years running and that is the idiotic inclusion of television commercials at the start of most theatrical films.

I'm not an expert on these things, but if you're paying upwards of $7 to see a movie, the last thing you want to see are big-screen versions of ads hawking Coca-Cola, American Express, and last (but stupidest) the Marines. Who in their right mind is going to report to a recruitment office and say "Yeah, I saw your Marines ad before Final Destination 3 and I thought, 'That's for me!!'"

So, I have devised a simple hypothesis: Maybe the reason theaters haven't cut down or eliminated ads before movies is that people aren't being vocal enough about it. So, the next time you're at a movie theater, snag a couple comment cards (or give one to each member of your party) and fill them out, noting in the comments field how much you are sick and tired of commercials when you go to the movies. Better yet, find a manager and let him or her know.

I'm going to try and see Woody Allen's new movie Match Point tonight. I'm going to keep track of how many ads I see before it and report back tomorrow on it. Later!

Trippy Video of the Day

Here's something to blow your mind on a Saturday night. Check out this medley of old 1980s ads for the Isuzu Gemini.



Keep in mind that NO CGI was involved in these commercials. The stunts you see on the screen are really being performed!

Thanks, Yewknee.

Twenty years...

Wow. Can't freakin' believe it. So now that I have left the realm of the teens and into twentyhood, I look forward to all that lies ahead. In this day and age, I feel like simply being alive and well for twenty years is something of an accomplishment. So, thank you everyone who has sent me good wishes and e-mails and cards and stuff! Your generosity has not gone unnoticed! Now that you're here, please partake of my birthday mixtape, download one of my short films, or better yet, send me an e-mail! Any of these things would be a great gift to me. Thank you all, and good night!

Devin DiMattia
Keepin' it real since 1986.

My Birthday's Tomorrow, But Here's a Gift for You!

Whee!!! To celebrate my upcoming 20th birthday, I've posted a new mixtape on YouSendIt, ready for your downloading pleasure!

CLICK HERE TO GET IT!!

I've put some of my favorite birthday songs, as well as tracks about youth and life and pretty much anything else I could think of. Here's the track list:

Devin's Birthday Mix
1. The Beatles, "Birthday"
2. The Soundtrack of Our Lives, "Bigtime"
3. Jamie Cullum, "These Are the Days"
4. Travis, "Happy"
5. Dave Matthews, "So Damn Lucky"
6. Coldplay, "Crests of Waves"
7. The Beatles, "Getting Better"
8. Robbie Williams feat. Frank Sinatra, "It Was a Very Good Year"
9. Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins feat. Ben Gibbard, M. Ward, and Conor Oberst, "Handle With Care"
10. The Smittens, "Party Time"
11. The New Pornographers, "Broken Beads"
12. Blue Man Group, "I Feel Love"
13. The Strokes, "The End Has No End"
14. Faces, "Ooh La La"
15. Andrew Bird, "The Happy Birthday Song"

Bonus Track: Frank Sinatra, "Young at Heart"

Oh, and also, since I'm utterly terrible at keeping track of time, I just found out that the first anniversary of the DiMattiaFilms blog was back on February 7th, so Happy Belated Anniversary, DiMattiaFilms!! As of right now, we've hada total of 4,518 visitors to this site, and we're still growing! Thanks, everyone, for all your support!

dj BC Strikes Again

A couple of years ago, mashup master dj BC delivered The Beastles, a collection of better-than-average mashups of Beatles and Beastie Boys tunes. Now, he's back with Let It Beast, a follow-up collection of more Beastie/Beatle mashups. What I've always liked about dj BC is his rapid-fire precision in piecing the two songs together. He also has more fun with the mashup concept than most, usually throwing in random movie and TV clips for good measure (his first album sampled High Fidelity and School House Rock, to name a few). Give 'em a listen!

Yahoo on Yahoo!

Read this news article (link removed) about Cheney's recent hunting victim having a heart attack and tell me there's not something funny about it. Correction: somethings.

Check out these snippets:

• "Whittington suffered a 'silent heart attack'--obstructed blood flow, but without the classic heart-attack symptoms of pain and pressure."
  
  Oh, how I long for the days when people experienced "classic heart-attack symptoms," not all the high-tech, razzle dazzle of "silent heart attacks." What is this world coming to?
  
  
• "The doctors said they decided to treat the situation conservatively and leave the pellet alone rather than operate to remove it."
  
  I certainly hope they're treating the situation conservatively. He is a millionaire lawyer.
  
  
• "Cheney, an experienced hunter, has not spoken publicly about the accident, which took place Saturday night while the vice president was aiming for a quail. Critics of the Bush administration called for more answers from the Cheney himself."
  
  So now we're supposed to refer to him as "the Cheney"? What an egotistical maniac!

Sick in bed...

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've recently come down with a bad virus and have been bedridden for the last couple days. Is it a deadly strain of bird flu?! Only time will tell. BUCK-CAW!! Oh, shit.

Surround Sound Lips, Pt. II

The Flaming Lips have always tried their hand at pushing the boundaries of musical enjoyment, from conducting massive parking lot experiments involving hundreds of car tape decks each with a different set of music, to the release of Zaireeka, a four-CD box set designed to be played all at once. Now, the Lips have taken the liberty of re-releasing their past albums in glorious 5.1 Surround Sound.

Their first endeavor, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 5.1, was impressive, despite the fact that the US version had a flaw in it causing the last song to cut off twenty seconds early.

After that album's release, the Lips asked their fans to pick which one of their previous albums should be given the 5.1 treatment next. The fans came up with the obvious choice, 1999's The Soft Bulletin, one of my favorite albums of all-time (that's another list that I've been meaning to post on this blog).

I'm listening to it right now and, I must say, it's quite impressive. If you have a 5.1 speaker setup in your house, this is the perfect disc to try it out on. Plus, it's the Lips, so you know it's good. In addition to the complete album in 5.1 Dolby Digital format (with psychedelic visualizations for your TV), you can listen to several unreleased outtakes and radio sessions, as well as watch the music videos for "Race for the Prize" and the uncensored version of "Waitin' for a Superman." Also, like the 5.1 version of Yoshimi, the Lips include the original CD version on a separate disc. But what's interesting about The Soft Bulletin 5.1 is that while the CD contains the US version of the album, with the Mokran mixes of "Race for the Prize" and "Waitin' for a Superman," the 5.1 DVD version is the original UK sequence, without the Mokran remixes but including "Slow Motion," a song cut from the US version and replaced with "The Spiderbite Song." Luckily, I found a copy of the song in regular MP3 format and am presenting it here for your downloading pleasure:

The Flaming Lips, "Slow Motion" (right-click, Save As...)

For those who want more, here's a nice cover of the Lips song "Suddenly Everything Has Changed" by our good friends The Postal Service:

The Postal Service, "Suddenly Everything Has Changed (Flaming Lips cover)" (right-click, Save As...)

Brokeback to the Future

A hilarious new fake trailer that uses clips from all three Back to the Future films and incorporates them into a Brokeback Mountain-style plot. Enjoy!



Thanks to Stereogum.

PREVIOUSLY: The Shining gets turned into a romantic comedy.