Coming Soon...the New DiMattiaFilms

That's right. Now that I've surpassed three hundred posts, it's time for a little spring cleaning...or, fall cleaning, I guess. The most important change is that I am doing away with my CafePress online store starting this Friday. So, if you want any of the merchandise on my online store, you have until FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST AT 5:00 PM to buy! To help get rid of stuff faster, I'm waiving all markups so all merchandise is being sold at the flat CafePress price.

Also in the works...

• A new blog template with easier-to-read sidebar and graphics
  
• A YouTube page to view all my short films
  
• More free mixtapes
  
• More original music, free to download

Let's see if I'll be able to keep any of these promises! :-)

Spotlight on "Grudge 2"

The Grudge was not one of my favorite movies the year it came out. I thought it was too disjointed, and the fact that they just took the same concept (in the same location!) as the original and just made the cast American seemed like a cop-out. Granted, it did have a brilliant opening and the first case of a woman doing all the right things (calling the authorities, leaving the premises, etc.) and still getting killed. Now, we have The Grudge 2...



I thank the filmmakers for not trying to pull this elongated title bullshit on us, just simply "The Grudge 2." Also, I think this trailer's pretty solid. Sure, it goes for a ton of easy scares (some of which I hope won't give away too much about the film) but I loved the use of that oldies classic "I Only Have Eyes for You". I also appreciate the fact that they don't try and make it look like Sarah Michelle Gellar is a major character. No; her character dies early in the film. Sorry, didn't mean to spoil the surprise for you, but the trailer said so.

In other horror news, all my friends keep telling me to see The Descent, but I'm still not convinced. What's so damn good about it? No one has been able to tell me. I also hate to say it, but I'm actually looking forward to Saw III. Despite the bad acting in the first Saw and the obvious "haunted house" gimmicks of the second Saw, I have been unable to predict the endings of both films and have been pleasantly surprised. Let's just see if they can do it again.

300 Posts, 700 Hobo Names

John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton - "700 Hobo Names" (mp3, 53 minutes long!!)

I'd like to celebrate this, my three hundredth post, but I'm too excited about this other piece of news...



That's right; yours truly is now one of John Hodgman's contacts on Flickr. I'm thinking about catching him in Durham when he does his book tour for the new paperback version of The Areas of My Expertise, soon to be followed by an audiobook version!

In the meantime, I'll just sit and sulk as I read about all the awesome shit I missed by not living in New York and going to see the "Revenge of the Book Eaters" benefit concert hosted by Hodgman and featuring Jon Stewart, Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, Sufjan Stevens, and David "This is not my beautiful house!" Byrne!!! Oh, well. At least Stereogum (as always) delivers the good coverage.

Happy 300th Birthday, DiMattiaFilms! Here's looking towards three hundred more, right guys?! Guys? Hey, where's everybody goin'?

For a glimpse at my laughable original intentions when I started this blog, click here to read post #1! I don't know about you guys, but I have yet to release a single soundtrack to any of the films I've made. Or even made a film that merited its own soundtrack.

Post Number 299!!!

My new favorite image. From left to right: Bart, Milhouse, Meg White, Jack White

Catch the White Stripes' "Simpsons" debut in a few weeks. Post #300 to follow...

Pass the SOAP

While I did enjoy über-blogged-about flick Snakes on a Plane, I have to agree with much of what Chuck Klosterman has to say in this article.

Bad movies are fun to watch because when they were made, the filmmakers took themselves (and their finished film) very seriously. Just see Ed Wood for proof of this.

Snakes on a Plane never once took itself seriously, and while the final product is entertaining, it would've been a million times more entertaining if the filmmakers had gone into it with the intention of making a good movie, not a film that was intentionally terrible.

Why I Hate Job Applications

1. There is no universal format. One application may ask me for a list of references, while others just ask for my previous places of employment. There is no way to anticipate what will be on any given application.

2. They force you to write mad small. One application asked me for the address to my last job and gave me this much space to write it in: ____________. Maybe I could fit the zip code in there, but not the entire address. 'Course, if you write too small, no one at the job will be able to figure it out and you won't get hired.

3. Almost all job applications ask you to describe your duties in your previous occupations. Now, I can see why this might come in handy for some positions. I would probably have to explain what a "Customer Service Clerk" is to people not familiar with this doublespeak term for "bagger." But some positions, like "Cashier" or "Waiter," are pretty self-explanatory.

4. A lot of them ask really gay questions, like "Why do you think you would be a valuable asset to blah-dee-blah-dee-blah?" I don't know because I DON'T WORK HERE YET. One Starbucks application asked me "Why do you enjoy coffee?" and I wrote down "Like an alarm clock, coffee is that jolt that gets me up in the morning. Plus, it tastes better than an alarm clock." True story.

5. There is nothing more fun than asking for an application, filling it out, and handing it back to the manager, only to have her glance at it and say "Sorry, we're not hiring at this time."

Moby Greatest Hits Album to Be Released

This just came in my inbox:

"Moby's album Go - The Very Best Of Moby will be released by Mute on 6th November 2006. Go - The Very Best Of Moby compiles 15 songs from his unique back catalogue, including seminal tracks from the multi-million and multi-platinum selling albums Play and 18, as well as containing the brand new, previously unavailable song 'New York, New York' featuring Debbie Harry on vocals.

Play was my first encounter with electronica, and I've been hooked ever since. However, 18 was decidedly lukewarm and Hotel was pretty dull, despite a decent cover of New Order's "Temptation" and a bonus CD of ambient tracks. Also, "Go - The Very Best of Moby"?? C'mon; you guys can come up with a better title than that. Why are so many musicians bent on naming their greatest hit comps after their biggest hit song? I don't think The Flaming Lips would be too keen on naming their best of She Don't Use Jelly and Other Smash Hits!

Who can think of a better title for Moby's greatest hits? (And let's assume you're a fan of his music. No entries like Nobody Listens to Techno! Eminem Selects The Worst of Moby)

Handful o' MP3s

Tonight's Venture Bros. was superb. I don't know which of J.G. Thirwell's original compositions I like more: the opening theme or the end credits theme. Download 'em both and decide for yourself.

Elsewhere, a new Sprites track has surfaced, thanks to Catbirdseat. You might remember the Sprites previous MP3, their brilliant and hilarious tribute to the king of zombie films. This one ain't as catchy, but it's just as topical (and funny):

Sprites - "I Started A Blog Nobody Read" (mp3)

Also, Gorilla vs. Bear may have discovered one of the coolest Beatles covers of all time, a soulful send up of "Eleanor Rigby." Take a listen:

Kim Weston - "Eleanor Rigby" (link expired)

That's all I got. You can catch the encore of the new Venture Bros. episode, "Victor. Echo. November." at 2:30 AM...or you can just watch the damn thing now at the Adult Swim Fix (Windows Media Player required). Thankfully, it's not Mac-repellent like MTV's media player or the Comedy Central Motherload.

Killing Two or More Birds With One Blog Post

The Man Called E
Originally uploaded by devpd.

So...it's been a while since I posted something. And it's been over a week since the eels concert I attended last Sunday, but I have yet to post anything about it. And there's that new Catbird Records release I haven't talked about yet. So without further ado...

• eels delivered one of the best concerts I have attended so far this year. Crafting a concert experience radically different from their "With Strings" tour captured on DVD and CD last year, eels went totally rock 'n roll on our asses, delivering drastically reworked versions of their more somber album tracks. Tracks like "Old Shit/New Shit" and "I Like Birds" were barely recognizable in their new formats. Imagine "My Beloved Monster" chanelled through James Brown, or a version of "I'm Going to Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart" covered by Joe Cocker and you have a general idea of the eels' "No Strings Attached" concert. The covers were varied, too: Peaches' "Rock Show," Tom Waits' "Jesus Gonna Be Here," as well as the standards "I Put a Spell on You" and "That's Life." eels were in fine form, impressive considering the gig they had before their show in Carrboro was Lollapalooza in Chicago!
  
• Catbird Records has just shipped their latest release, Last Night I Saw God on the Dancefloor by Maestro Echoplex, and I am ready to say that it is probably the best CBR release since the Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin/Michael Holt split LP. Download the utterly beautiful "My Eyes are Disconnected From My Head is Disconnected From My Body" here!
  
• Have you joined la la yet? No? Why not?!
  
• My brother expressed interest in seeing a heavy metal band down in Charlotte last Thursday called DragonForce and seeing as how my parents wanted nothing to do with it, I had to drive him there. I gotta say, I was very impressed with what the band calls "extreme power metal!" It was much more enthusiastic and a hell of a lot more melodic then that shitty "screamo" I'd been hearing lately. (All three opening acts for DragonForce were textbook metal, or as Brian Posehn calls it, "metal by numbers.") Bottom line is any band that has a keyboardist who not only plays rockin' solos that incorporate video game sounds and the "Simpsons" theme, but also plays a mean keytar(!) has gotta be worth a damn, right? Right.

Alright, I think that covered everything. Sorry for the shitty grammar, but I wanted to get this done and over with. I head back to Wilmington next Friday, so the next post I write may be written from my brand spankin' new apartment at UNCW! wOOt.

Peace, Love, and Understanding,
Devin

Apple Messes With Your Past

Apple has released a sneak preview of the new OS X, entitled "Leopard." The main selling point of this new operating system is Time Machine, an application with the ability to go back in time to restore any document you should happen to delete.

Which leads me to think, why would you need to ever delete anything again if you know it's all still available on your computer? And is it just me, or wouldn't this application take up a ton of space on your computer? Also, with Time Machine installed, you could never get rid of your Mac, 'cause whoever got their hands on it next would have no trouble restoring all the files you deleted.

Granted, it looks really cool, but I definitely get the feeling Apple's just whipped this up to get folks interested in a new OS X. It's not nearly as cool, or as useful, as the past OS X selling points, like Exposé and Dashboard. As a matter of fact, it looks like Apple's gonna be messing around with the Exposé format by creating Pages. It looks pretty pointless, though I guess it would make it easy to switch from Microsoft Word when the boss is watching to iTunes when the boss has left.

Apple, Once Again, is Awesome

I don't have a MySpace page. There, I said it. I do, however, have a Facebook page and I am the member of several groups as well. So, imagine my surprise when I received a message from Apple's official Facebook group inviting me to download a free 25-track sampler of electronic music from the iTunes Music Store. I mean, who turns up free music? And this is some quality stuff: Thievery Corporation, Nortec Collective, James Figurine (aka Jimmy Tamborello of Postal Service), A3 (the people responsible for that kickass theme to "The Sopranos"), and more. What's better is that they'll be doing this multiple times with different genres! That's 25 free songs off the iTunes Music Store...every week!

To get your free tunes, just login to Facebook and join the Apple Students group. Then, just click on the link to the mix on the group's main page. They'll send you a password you can redeem on iTunes to get access to the free mix.

Nice to finally see Facebook turn out something worth my while, and thanks to Apple for makin' it happen!

P.S. I missed last week's alternative mix, but luckily the link to get the password is still active. Don't be fooled by the ad for the electronic mix; it'll give you the correct code...along with sweet tracks from Phoenix, Maritime, and Goldfrapp!

The Blink of an Eye

Dianne - Cashier, Victoria Mart
Originally uploaded by Paul Gosney.

This might just be the best photograph I've ever seen on Flickr. And apparently the Flickr guys thought so, too. The photo was picked for their Blink of an Eye competition. Congrats to photographer Paul Gosney for being selected, and to Dianne the cashier for a truly unique portrait.

Happy 25th Birthday, MTV!

And for those of us who like cover versions...

Ben Folds Five - Video Killed the Radio Star (mp3)