I've known about this for a while, but it still excites me to no end to finally see the promos for the upcoming animated series "Adventure Time."
Keep visiting their production blog for crazy awesome stuff like storyboards, animatics, background paintings, and more!
I had a hard time narrowing down my list of favorite music videos for this year to just five. Also, I decided I was sick of dealing with embedding issues with YouTube, so for this list, I turned to my new favorite video provided, Vimeo, for this playlist of clips, which are as follows:
5. Coldplay, "Life in Technicolor II" (dir. Dougal Wilson)
No stranger to the Hall of Awesome, Dougal Wilson returns with a decidedly more lighthearted video featuring an overly elaborate Coldplay puppet show, ending with one of the funnier gags I've seen in music videos this year.
4. Justice + Lenny Kravitz, "Let Love Rule" (dir. Keith Schofield)
I've already waxed poetic about the awesomeness of director Keith Schofield, but I can't stress it enough: the guy knows his shit. Not only did he put out a killer Charlotte Gainsbourg/Beck video a month ago, he made this glorious gem pairing '80s kitsch with end credits meta madness.
(UPDATE: Now available with director commentary!)
3. Bodies of Water, "Under the Pines" (dir. Andy Bruntel)
This video made an appearance in my annual Scary Music Videos list, and it reappears here for two reasons. One, the video hasn't been making a lot of lists considering it came out all the way back in January, and so most people have forgotten about it. Second, every element of this video, from production design to costumes to the aged look of the film contribute to the eerie Grimm fairytale vibe of its story. It's a story that seems utterly ridiculous on paper, but works as an effective visual companion to the propulsive song it's set to.
2. Ramona Falls, "I Say Fever" (dir. Stefan Nadelman)
Oh. My. God. Such a great video. Scary, gorgeous to watch, perfect pairing of song and visuals. So many things I could say about this clip, but it really speaks for itself.
1. U2, "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" (dir. David O'Reilly)
First, an explanation. I don't like this song. Musically, it's pretty mediocre, a desperate revival of U2's standard pompous stadium rock. Lyrically, it's abysmal, with Bono stumbling through lines like "Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot" as if he decided to scribble them down at the last minute and not bother asking anyone if they were good or not. Thankfully, animator and Best Short Film of 2009 shoo-in David O'Reilly was brought in to direct a video and it more than makes up for U2's lax songwriting. In fact, it almost works to the video's advantage that the song is so forgettable, because it makes the visuals that much easier to pay attention to.
Honorable Mention:
Bob Dylan, "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" (dir. Nash Edgarton)
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck, "Heaven Can Wait" (dir. Keith Schofield)
Depeche Mode, "Wrong" (dir. Patrick Daughters)
Fever Ray, "If I Had a Heart" (dir. Andreas Nilsson)
Matt & Kim, "Lessons Learned" (dir. Taylor Cohen and Otto Arsenault)
N.A.S.A. feat. Sizzla, Amanda Blank and Lovefoxxx, "A Volta" (dir. Logan)
They Might Be Giants, "Meet the Elements" (dir. Feel Good Anyway)
UNKLE, "Heaven" (dir. Spike Jonze and Ty Evans)
Every year, I compile a top ten list of my favorite albums of the year. However, there are a ton of individual songs that deserve some props as well, even if their respective albums didn't impress me enough to make my best-of list. So, without further ado, enjoy these 19 tracks that epitomize the best music 2009 has to offer. As with last year, there's a La La playlist at the bottom of this list (and in the sidebar) featuring all of these tracks, which you can stream in full.
I thought I would kick off this year's Hall of Awesome with my favorite music videos of the decade, but Pitchfork pretty much beat me to it with their Top 50 Music Videos of the 2000s, a list so well-conceived and compiled that all I can do is simply present to you five more music videos I thought should have made their list. As usual, all the videos are compiled in a single YouTube playlist, viewable at the bottom of this post.
Supergrass, “Low C” (dir. Garth Jennings/Nick Goldsmith; 2005)
This decade, the documentary music video became a go-to style for bands wanting to stand out from the crowd. Most recently, the genre has been picked up by Massive Attack, whose video for "Paradise Circus" features an elderly woman reminiscing about her days as a porn star, intercut with definitely-NSFW scenes from one of her films. This 2005 effort from Supergrass finds the band reteaming with "Pumping On Your Stereo" directors Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith (a.k.a. Hammer & Tongs) for a nostalgic visit to Weeki Wachee, where a group of women are trying to keep their mermaid-themed tourist attraction from going under. It's a rare chance to see the usually SFX-heavy directors deliver a simple story with a minimum amount of style, but with a lot of heart.
Wintergreen, “Can't Sit Still" (dir. Keith Schofield; 2007)
When television stopped being the preferred delivery method for music videos, bands soon realized that in order to get people watching, they were gonna have to come up with something that fell into one of three categories: bizarre, hilarious, or controversial. And by the end of the decade, no one was doing it better than Keith Schofield. Every video of his falls into one of the three categories, and oftentimes he covers all three in one clip. Case in point is "Can't Sit Still" by Wintergreen, an elaborate little video that he posted on YouTube with the sure-to-score-a-ton-of-hits title "How to Make Meth". While the video didn't go batshit viral, it did ruffle the feathers of some people who were afraid kids would actually try to make the harmless concoctions the band ingests in the clip, and Keith eventually had to admit the thing was satire after YouTube threatened to pull it from their site. As usual, this video has embedding disabled, so click on the link above to watch it. As a consolation prize, I've included in the playlist below Keith and the band's less controversial (but equally informative) video for "When I Wake Up".
Gorillaz, “Clint Eastwood” (dir. Jamie Hewlett/Pete Candeland; 2001)
This decade proved that a band can not only sell an image, the band can become the image. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett long-shot concept of an animated rock band turned out to be a worldwide success. And while the songs are top-notch, they wouldn't be half as good without their accompanying videos, animated by Hewlett and his team at Zombie Flesh Eaters.
The Strokes, “Last Nite” (dir. Roman Coppola; 2001)
I can't really explain what I thought of The Strokes' and their video for "Last Nite" when I first came across it one night on MTV (surprisingly, MTV was still showing videos back in 2001). The video's concept is almost insultingly simple: The Strokes, on a soundstage, performing the song live, under a sheen of '70s gloss provided by director Roman Coppola. The video is fun because of its sheer "fuck it" attitude, as Julian Casablancas throws his mic stand offstage like a javelin, and Fab Moretti's drum mics keep falling down. As a result, the version of "Last Nite" they perform is unique from the version that actually appeared on Is This It.
Aphex Twin, “Rubber Johnny” (dir. Chris Cunningham; 2005)
Technically, this is not a music video for Aphex Twin (although the song is taken from his 2001 record Drukqs). It's a short film by music video extraordinaire Chris Cuningham, one of only two videos he made this decade (not counting his commercial work). It's a disturbing and darkly humorous experiment, where Cunningham himself plays the titular character, who has the ability to morph into increasingly erratic shapes as the music of Aphex Twin pumps out of the speakers. It pretty much encompasses the definition of "WTF?" and is a fitting calling card for one of the least prolific, but certainly most watched, music videos directors of this decade.
Here are my picks for this year's Cucalorus Film Festival and why they're must-see films, in five words or less.
#1: The Square. Arson, murder, adultery. Australian Fargo.
(11/12, 7:45 PM, Lumina)
#2: Big Fan. Patton Oswalt goes nuts.
(11/12, 10:45 PM, Lumina)
#3: The House of the Devil. Satanists terrify innocent '80s babysitter.
(11/13, 10:45 PM, Lumina)
#4: Americatown. America, abridged. With crazy legs.
(11/13, 4:30 PM, City Stage)
#5: Calvin Marshall. Funny, great soundtrack. Plus baseball.
(11/14, 7:15 PM or 11/15, 10:30 AM, Lumina)
For your consideration, here's all the trailers:
People who've already gone out and purchased Sufjan Stevens' new movie/soundtrack, The BQE, have probably already stumbled across a couple hidden tracks shortly following the film, a noisy instrumental and this plaintive choral piece featuring Stevens back on vocal duties:
Sufjan Stevens - "The Sleeping Red Wolves" (MP3)
According to this interview from The Quietus, Stevens had originally intended "The Sleeping Red Wolves" to be included in The BQE, but "there just wasn't enough time, so I just threw it in at the end."
The BQE is out now on Asthmatic Kitty, in a myriad of formats.
It's that time of year again, and this time, I've taken the liberty of compiling all fifteen of my original scary music video picks into one, easy-to-use video playlist. Unfortunately, some of the videos have embedding disabled, so you'll need to visit my playlist page on YouTube for the full list. I've also added three new videos to the mix:
Liars, "Plaster Casts of Everything" (dir. Patrick Daughters)
It's official: Patrick Daughters has made my list of Best Music Video Directors of the 2000s, thanks to his eye-catching videos for Feist, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Grizzly Bear. In this clip, he teams the back-projection used in The White Stripes' "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" with a concept straight out of a David Lynch film. The end result is most unsettling.
Fever Ray, "If I Had a Heart" (dir. Andreas Nilsson)
Karin Dreijer of Scandanavian electronic group The Knife is no stranger to scary music videos, having appeared on last year's list in her collaboration with Röyksopp for the song "What Else is There?" Now, for her solo effort, she hired Andreas Nilsson, who has been behind most of the videos for The Knife, to pull out all the stops on the express train to Creepy Town.
Bodies of Water, "Under the Pines" (dir. Andy Bruntel)
In addition to being an exceptional animator (see: Rilo Kiley's "It's a Hit" and his Roman Coppola collaboration "Red"), Andy Bruntel has made a fair share of kickass music videos for the likes of No Age, The Mountain Goats, and Best Music Video of 2007 nominee Bat for Lashes. In this clip, a hunter is cursed with bad luck after he steals a diamond from inside a dead dog's stomach. What follows is a Grimm fairytale with a twisted sense of humor.
Don't forget to check out the other three entries in the Scary Music Video series.
I just realized I haven't posted a single thing on this site since June. This marks the first time I ever skipped an entire month without posting anything. I apologize for my lack of updates, but here's a brief overview of what's been happening in the world of DiMattiaFilms.
The big news is my crew and I just returned from a week-long trip in New York City and Boston for Firewall of Sound. I spoke with record store owners, venue managers, bloggers, and tons of musicians. I hope to start editing this footage in the next couple of weeks, and will post a new trailer for the film when time permits. In the meantime, keep checking the official website for the film for further details and updates.
How's this for a morale booster? A nationwide depression epidemic + awesome Internet technology = The New York Times Homicide Map. Keep track of all the places in the five boroughs where a murder has been comitted, complete with age and ethnicity of both killer and victim, the murder weapon, and motive. It's like a GPS system, only them dots ain't movin' no more.
As many of you know, I've been hard at work on a feature-length version of my documentary project, Firewall of Sound, focusing on the independent music industry and its relation to the Internet. In order to help raise funds for the project, I've created a page on Kickstarter.com, asking people to donate toward us completing the film, and as of right now, we are only $50 away from achieving our goal of raising $1,000!!
But, the rule is if we don't reach our goal by July 10, WE WILL GET NOTHING, so we need people to come to the rescue and get us over that mark! IF ONLY TEN PEOPLE DONATE $5 EACH, THAT WILL BE ENOUGH TO MEET OUR GOAL, so as you can see, every little bit helps! Thanks for taking the time out to read this, and I sincerely appreciate all your support.
A lot of movies are released every year in this country, most of which range from mediocre to terrible. But not only does the new political comedy In the Loop look fantastic, the trailer itself is a beautiful cut-and-paste collage of clever references, well-timed critic blurbs, intentional ambiguity, and hey is that the Clockwork Orange music I'm listening to?
Once again, Hollywood has proven that movie trailer + soundtrack from a Kubrick film = better movie trailer. But, unlike 2012, this one might actually deliver the goods.
Thanks to Screengrab.
In case you haven't been following my other blog about my documentary Firewall of Sound, I was recently interviewed by Andy Maddison of Destroy Before Reading. Check it out.
Ryan Catbird has been working hard to get people to pledge money to his project on Kickstarter, which involves getting the long out-of-print release Black Strawberries by indie stalwarts Unbunny reissued on 180-gram vinyl. Take a listen:
Unbunny - "In a Way" (MP3)
It's a wonderful example of fans directly financing the release of music. $5 or more gets you a high-quality download of the album, $20 or more gets you the LP, and $40 or more gets you the Deluxe Version LP, which promises to feature "special extras, additional artwork and/or customization, hand-numbered and signed by Jarid Del Deo [leader of Unbunny]."
He hasn't reached the $3,500 goal yet, and there's only 53 days left, so if you haven't chipped in, please consider it. Oh, and just so you know, all donors will have their name listed in the liner notes!
I've revamped the official website for Firewall of Sound, and while it doesn't really have anything new to report (just synopsis, trailer, etc.), it will soon be a haven for all things related to my feature documentary. We've got some interesting interview subjects and my crew and I will soon be making trips down to Athens, GA, and possibly up to Chicago. In the meantime, check out the new and improved firewallofsound.com and subscribe to the RSS feed to be kept in the loop!
Before today, 9/9/09 was just the day The Beatles: Rock Band was gonna be released (which is still pretty cool-sounding). Now, it's gonna be the day that the good people at Apple Corps Ltd. finally get off their ass and remaster the entire Beatles discography. Thank God they waited until the CD format became almost completely obsolete! Anyhoo, each album will come with new liner notes, packaging, and making-of documentaries included on each disc:
I'll be the first to admit I have most of the Beatles albums on burned CD-R (sorry, $25 for the unmastered White Album is borderline criminal), so I'm extremely happy to learn that my lazy spending habits are finally paying off. There have been many efforts to rejuvenate the dying music market, but this is the first one in a long time that might actually bear fruit. Let's hope people still have disposable income by the time September rolls around. Also, for those wondering if this means the Beatles are finally coming to iTunes, "Discussions regarding the digital distribution of the catalogue will continue. There is no further information available at this time." Well, as they say, ob-la-di, ob-la-da.
My early pick for best short film of 2009 is now available for free to watch on Vimeo. Make sure to turn HD on and view full-screen:
Please Say Something - Full Length from David OReilly on Vimeo.
UPDATE: The short's now on YouTube. Check it out (in HD of course) and vote the shit out of it!
Last night, there was a ghost sighting in Chapel Hill, a sighting I was fortunately able to document on videotape. The ghost was dressed in a black suit and pants, with a black hat and a black electric guitar. He was accompanied by three other specters, who employed a wide variety of instruments, including keyboards, drums, bass, xylophone, saxophone, and howling. Together, their ghostly reverie haunted the sacred walls of UNC’s Gerrard Hall, a place that I was told James K. Polk had once spoken at, from 7:30 to 9:30 on a cold Sunday evening. The ghost in charge of the proceedings went by many names: Sterling Smith, the representative from Corwood, or the name most people know him by, Jandek.
An elusive individual, yet one who had been releasing records with astounding profuseness since 1978, Jandek only started giving live concerts in 2004, when a music festival in Glasgow wrote to his PO box in Houston (the only way to get in touch with him) asking him to come and perform. Shocking all parties involved, Jandek agreed, and has continued with an on-and-off tour schedule since, rarely playing the same venue twice, and always with a different backing band. For this performance, Jandek was accompanied by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats on keyboards, an instrument he admitted to having never played live since he was 9; Anne Gomez on bass, sax and the aforementioned howling; and drummer Brian Jones, who also took time to bang away on a xylophone during some of the numbers. Before the show, some of the ushers had set up a table where you could pick up pairs of earplugs, giving an indicator as to what was in store for the audience.
The set lasted two hours, and incorporated roughly six songs, most of which stretched past the twenty-minute mark. The opening number began with about 15 minutes of instrumental noise courtesy of Darnielle banging away on the keyboards, Gomez slapping her bass, and Jones rapidly swapping out time signatures, before Jandek took to the microphone with a long list of items, each one beginning with the phrase “I tried…” One of the shorter numbers was a song entitled “I Think I’m Unstable”. I assume that was the title since that line was repeated ad infinitum during the eight-minute song, in between harmonica solos (also performed by Jandek) and Darnielle complementing the harmonica with organ. The most memorable song of the night was a sort of call-and-response between Jandek and Gomez, in which Jandek would recite a few lines from his lyric book and Gomez would respond with a sustained howl into her microphone. The first time she did this, it elicited some whoops and shouts from the audience. Subsequent times, it simply became another instrument in the swirling mass of the song.
Overall, it was a fascinating concert to watch, even though I had to watch most of it through a viewfinder. There were three cameramen total: me, positioned stage left, roughly six rows back; and my friends Justin and Daniel, who were both in the balcony, center stage and stage right, respectively. We were told that a live album/DVD would be forthcoming (if the pattern of live Jandek titles continues, this one will surely be called Chapel Hill Sunday), but that it might be a while because Jandek was still working on releasing albums of concerts from a couple years ago. As I handed the tapes off to the mysterious representative from Corwood, I made sure to tell him that I couldn’t wait to see the finished result.
The flyers were printed on manila envelopes, complete with a pair of one-cent stamps.So...just last week, I talked about the upcoming zombie spoof of Jane Austen's seminal work, Pride and Prejudice, entitled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Now, I receive the following e-mail:
Elton John’s Rocket Pictures hopes to make the first Jane Austen adaptation to which men will drag their girlfriends. Will Clark is set to direct "Pride and Predator,” which veers from the traditional period costume drama when an alien crash lands and begins to butcher the mannered protags, who suddenly have more than marriage and inheritance to worry about.Wow. Did all of Jane Austen's books suddenly become public domain so everyone's jumping on the parody bandwagon or is there a niche market for sci-fi twists on classic novels that I am unaware of? 'Cause I'll go ahead and admit I always thought an alien invasion would've been a nice addition to The Count of Monte Cristo, and why not have Jean Valjean on the run not only from the French police, but also from a killer cyborg from the future? Hollywood, I am waiting for your call.
The success of Internet comedy trio The Lonely Island could’ve easily been attributed to being in the right place at the right time, but their staying power has proved that Lorne Michaels didn’t just pick the first result that came up on YouTube. Now, the three Saturday Night Live cast members/writers have returned to their original moniker for Incredibad, a CD/DVD compiling their most memorable songs from SNL, as well as a handful of new tracks and sketches.
The first thing you may notice about the collection of tracks is that Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer have an affinity for nerdcore rap, whether its Andy and fellow SNLer Chris Parnell bustin’ rhymes about a trip to the theater to see The Cronicles of Narnia (“Lazy Sunday”), or Andy and Akiva bragging about their nautical escapades with T-Pain (“I’m On a Boat”). While this is a strategy that pays off pretty consistently, it does make for a somewhat tedious listen once we finally arrive at the alien three-way that is the title track. High-profile guests like Jack Black and Norah Jones provide entertaining diversions from the familiar material, and it’s nice to finally have unbleeped versions of SNL favorites like “Dick in a Box” and “Natalie’s Rap,” a hilarious hardcore rap parody featuring a wonderfully unhinged Natalie Portman.
Interludes like “The Old Saloon” poke fun at the obnoxious DJ call-outs during promo tracks, but sometimes, like in the case of “Shrooms,” the simpler the idea, the funnier. Songs rarely break the three-minute mark, which is the perfect length to get the jokes across without wearing out the concept, something the other writers of SNL could stand to learn.
Overall, Incredibad does an exceptional job cataloging the first few years of one of the more recent success stories to emerge from the Not Ready for Primetime Players. However, the accompanying DVD feels more like a last-minute bonus than a comprehensive collection, only delivering five of their infamous “SNL Digital Shorts” and three Lonely Island skits. Still, a gift horse this hilarious shouldn’t be looked in the mouth, especially if said horse has just consumed a bottle of Carlos Santana’s champagne.
For some reason, there appears to be a steady amount of zombie-related media being released to the unsuspecting public, and while I am all for anything and everything zombie, I feel the need to point out two of the more recent releases:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Featured on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," and recommended by John Hodgman, one of the stars of the #1 Children's Film in America, this parody of the classic Jane Austen novel features the original text, plus "all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action!" The book's already reached #88 on the Amazon.com Best-Seller list, and it hasn't even been released yet! Also, that cover is amazing. Zombifying the covers of famous literature needs to be the new Photoshop challenge.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is just ten bucks from Amazon.com. It's release date is listed as "unknown."
Otto; or, Up with Dead People
a film by Bruce LaBruce
This film and I crossed paths last year when I was a programmer for the Cucalorus Film Festival, and let me tell you, I hope we never see each other again. I am all for more gay/lesbian cinema. In fact, a lot of the entries I viewed were about homosexual relationships, and for the most part, they were all very entertaining and would've been perfect fits for Cucalorus. Bruce LaBruce's gay zombie porn, however, was boring, incomprehensible, and featured embarrassingly bad acting by people who clearly had no need to attempt the fake foreign accents they were trying to pull off. I mean, seriously, how do you fuck up a film taking place in a parallel universe where "gay zombie porn" has become a cottage industry? It practically writes itself! And look at the tagline on the DVD cover:
That's right; it says "Bringing sexy back...from the dead." If half the film were as creative as that tagline, maybe Otto would've been shown at the festival. It's still ten times better than the offensively heterosexual Deadgirl, recent Cucalorus entry and my pick for worst film of '08. Otto; or Up with Dead People is on DVD for $24.99 on Amazon.com.
The Watchmen viral videos continue with this fake PSA on the Keene Act, which banned the act of costumed vigilantism in the United States:
Not as professional as the vintage 1970 newscast, but I love the step-by-step "How to Avoid Rorschach" at the end. For more awesomeness, check out the official website for The New Frontiersmen, as well as their Flickr page.
I love when two of my favorite comic artists collaborate on one strip. In this case, John Campbell (Pictures for Sad Children) provides the story while Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim) provides the pictures:
Bela Tarr is often heralded as the master of the long take. His films are known for their slow, drawn-out stories and the elaborate camerawork that accompanies them. I've known of several films by this Hungarian auteur (Werckmeister Harmonies, The Man from London) but after reading this analysis on NotComing.com, I decided to make Sátántangó, a seven-plus-hour epic that spans four discs, my first foray into Tarrville.
Now, even though I decided to go on this journey alone, it doesn't mean I can't share in the experience. So I've chosen to post my thoughts on Twitter as I watch the film. After I've finished with each section of the film, I'll post all my twitters in this blog post for easy reference. So, without further ado, let the twittering (tweeting, twiting, whatever) begin!
Part 1: February 5
9:08 PM - Part one of seven-hour Bela Tarr movie tonight. See you on the other side.
9:13 PM - Let's see if I can make it back to my apartment without freezing to death first.
10:24 PM - 47 minutes in and I'm already getting tired. (For some reason, this post never made it from my phone to Twitter, so I'm paraphrasing.)
10:44 PM - At 1:07, a bug crawls around on the camera lens. Nice touch.
10:46 PM - This score sounds like it was performed on an old Casio.
10:59 PM - Is Futaki a Hungarian name?
11:09 PM - Now watching an old man fall asleep. Was this movie designed to treat insomnia?
11:18 PM - Most exciting thing to happen in the film so far: the old man fell over.
11:26 PM - When I hear the title of this film, I can't help but think of the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah song, "Satan Said Dance."
11:50 PM - End of part one. Wow. 2:10 in, and we don't even have anything resembling a plot! We'll see what happens in part two, once Netflix sends it.
Part 2: February 8 (My phone decided to go apeshit on me, so tweets appeared out of order or not at all. Hooray for technology!)
9:27 PM - Alright, you asked for it (actually, you didn't). It's time for part two of Sátántangó!
9:33 PM - Ok, let's see if i can remember all the characters from part one...
9:43 PM - Every conversation in this film seems to take place in two different time zones.
9:43 PM - Ah, that creepy electronic score is back!
9:56 PM - I believe that was the shortest chapter yet, 25 minutes.
10:02 PM - Ah, I believe we have reached the infamous "cat torture" chapter of the film.
10:06 PM - Starting to get tired earlier than I was last week. 35 min. vs. 54 min.
10:16 PM - I think I would much rather be Kelly Reichardt's dog than Bela Tarr's cat.
10:23 PM - I don't think Irimias is ever gonna arrive in town.
10:26 PM - PETA would have a field day with this film, but they're too busy dealing with "Kittens on a Roomba."
10:35 PM - Gotta break to pick up my roommate.
11:04 PM - Aaaand...back to the cat torture.
11:11 PM - I think Bela's taken the "film the actor as they walk away" motif as far as it can go.
11:12 PM - Have now acquired alcohol and will drink every time the camera cuts.
11:17 PM - Dr. Drink-A-Lot makes a return appearance.
11:25 PM - Little girl chapter over. Now on to a chapter subtitled "The Devil's Nipples."
11:29 PM - If that guy says the word plodding one more time...
11:34 PM - Everyone in this movie looks as if they're missing a soul.
11:46 PM - Man, even the parties in this film are depressing to watch.
11:48 PM - Could someone explain the man with a loaf of bread attached to his head?
11:52 PM - This is the worst song ever.
11:53 PM - I think I would rather hear the drunk man talk about plodding for an hour than listen to any more of this song.
12:00 AM - This is the second time someone has fallen asleep in the movie. A hint of sorts?
12:08 AM - And end of part 2.
UPDATE: So...some of you may be wondering why I never concluded this entry with my analysis of the third part of Sátántangó. The fact of the matter is that I thought this was a pretty silly exercise to begin with, and I didn't feel the need to continue it with the third disc. Rather, I just sat down and watched the film, unabated and undeterred. And even though the above posts may lead some to believe that I held the film in contempt and desired to mock it before it even began, the truth is that I thought Bela Tarr's film was a fascinating experiment in subtlety and mood, from the foreboding opening shot of cattle prowling the streets of an empty village, to the never-ending trek the old doctor takes to find the source of the mystery bells. Overall, it was a satisfying experience, although it's an experience I probably won't choose to repeat for some time, at least until I have another seven hours to kill.
Also, I have no idea what's going on in the comments to this post. Either someone is posting the same time as different people (I highly doubt that Mihaly Vig actually reads my blog) or it's computer hour over at the looney bin. (My apologies to people who actually posted coherent responses.)
Gatorade sells a lot of sports drinks to a lot of people, but apparently they must have been missing out on the demographic of geeks and nerds (a demographic that yours truly is a lifetime member of). How else to explain this insanely elaborate homage to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, entitled The Quest for G?
While the joke doesn't really work some of the time (how do you make fun of something that was funny to begin with?) there are some inspired moments, including the gang's showdown with dance group JabbaWockeez and their final battle with a fire-breathing poodle.
...with this exceptionally well-made fake newscast from 1970, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Dr. Manhattan. Check it out, especially if you've never read the book, as it will (hopefully) answer some of your more pressing questions about the film.
Watchmen arrives, court-approved, in theaters March 6.
Let me explain the addition of a new sidebar that you may (or probably may not) have noticed. Because my public demanded it (they didn't) and because I have such a fascinating life (I don't), I decided to sign up for Twitter, the all-purpose digital personal space invader that's like Facebook, except minus everything but the status updates. Anyhoo, mildly interesting and possibly embarrassing (depending on my intoxication levels) updates will be collected in the new DiMattiaTwitter Incessant Ramblings sidebar. Apparently a lot of famous people do it (including the aforementioned LeVar Burton), so that's usually enough to convince me to tag along (and before you ask, yes, I would jump off a cliff if LeVar Burton did it, too, but don't take my word for it. BA-DAH-DUMM!)
Other famous (and semi-famous) people twittering (or tweeting, or whatever):
John Cleese (famous for throwing a dead parrot)
Bill Corbett (famous for impersonating a robot)
Jonathan Coulton (famous for writing a song about cake)
Felicia Day (famous for being the love interest of evil genius Doogie Howser)
Stephen Fry (not famous for throwing a dead parrot)
John Hodgman (a famous minor television personality)
Paul F. Tompkins (famous for loving many various decades on VH1)
The staff at The A.V. Club (famous for eating cheeseburger in a can)
Barack Obama's PR department (cleverly disguised as Barack Obama)
Last year, Oasis decided to promote their new album, Dig Your Own Soul, in a very unusual way: get buskers from the New York City metro system to learn a couple of the songs, and then "leak" the songs to an unsuspecting public by performing them. Well, that time has come and gone, but they made sure to document the whole experience in this fascinating, 18-minute film (with cinematography by Wendy and Lucy's Sam Levy):
I never get tired of the left-field surprises The Soup keeps throwing at me:
In related news, LEVAR BURTON?! I haven't seen that dude in, like, forever!!
After single-handedly destroying The Day the Earth Stood Still, one of my favorite science fiction films of all-time, Keanu Reeves (who last appeared in a decent film in 2006, with Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly) has decided to take his mediocrity gun and aim it at my favorite anime series, Cowboy Bebop. From Film News Briefs:
Twentieth Century Fox is bringing the Japanese anime TV series “Cowboy Bebop” to the big screen, with Keanu Reeves attached to star as a bounty hunter traveling through space in 2071. One of the big titles in anime, “Bebop” is set in a time where “astral gates” make interstellar travel possible. Humanity, decimated by a lunar explosion resulting from a gate accident, spread out across the solar system, as did crime, which gave rise to the use of bounty hunters. Reeves would play Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter and former member of a crime syndicate. Spiegel, along with Jet Black, a fellow bounty hunter and former cop, are the two pilots of the spaceship Bebop. Peter Craig is writing the script.
I was in the lab all this week, cutting together a short trailer for the upcoming feature-length version of my indie music doc Firewall of Sound. I'd prefer you visited the actual YouTube page, so you could watch it in high-quality, but I've embedded it here for your convenience:
So...what does this mean? Well, I am currently applying for a wide variety of grant money, which will go towards equipment and travel expenses for the film. I have ideas about who I would like to interview and where I would like to go, but all of that is dependent on how much money I will be receiving and who agrees to be a subject in the film. I have been immensely grateful to the people who agreed to be interviewed for the short film, and they will most certainly appear in the feature, some of whom I might contact for follow-ups in the near future. Ideally, I would like to use the feature-length to focus on topics I wasn't able to cover in the short, like bloggers who started their own record labels, the recent trend of bands doing impromptu gigs for blogs like La Blogotheque, and what it means to be a "sellout" in an industry where little to no money can be made off of traditional distribution.
As you can surmise, a lot of this is up in the air, and I hope to have more definite answers to your burning questions in the near future. For now, there's a trailer and a placeholder website, which will only exist long enough for me to modify the blog I made for the film back in '06. Until then, keep checking back and I'll keep you posted on updates.
Two amazing actors died today: Patrick McGoohan, best known as the titular star of the surreal '60s British spy series The Prisoner, and Ricardo Montalban, who played everyone's favorite evil supervillain in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. They will both be missed immensely.
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