Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The Science of Sleep

Michel Gondry's latest film The Science of Sleep premiered earlier this year at Sundance. The film's production company, Gaumont, has just put the trailer online. The Science of Sleep is slated to be released stateside in NYC and LA on 4 August (my birthday!) via Warner Independent Pictures.

also see:
additional film clips on Gaumont

(Via director-file)

SFMOMA's Matthew Barney Exhibit

Friday, June 23, 2006 - Sunday, September 17, 2006

SFMOMA is the only U.S. venue for this full-scale survey, the first to gather together Matthew Barney’s entire DRAWING RESTRAINT series. Spanning almost 20 years, DRAWING RESTRAINT is an ongoing, performance-based project exploring the notion that form emerges through struggle against resistance. A site-specific installation designed by the artist, the exhibition occupies the Museum’s entire fourth floor, which has been reconfigured to eliminate the gallery walls and so encourage a nonlinear experience of the art. The presentation includes DRAWING RESTRAINT 9, a recent project comprising a feature-length film and related photography, drawing, video, and sculpture. DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 is shown daily in the Phyllis Wattis Theater.
SFMOMA

also see:
cremasterfanatic.com
drawingrestraint.net

The Life Aquatic in Legos!

A complete set of lego figurines made for The Life Aquatic is out on flickr. Not bad I say! Checkout the rest of the brothers brick for other minifigs and lego projects. My personal favorite is the Musical Minifigs featuring Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab, U2 & Rilo Kiley.

(via Brian & the brothers brick)

Thursday, June 22, 2006

American Apparel on Second Life?


American Apparel, the non descript, tight-fitting, sweat-shop free clothing brand (ie. "cool, but hip Gap") ventured onto the virtual world of Second Life. Users now can sleep easy knowing that their avatars wear clothes that are sweat-shop free. What they won't catch though are those wage slaves that work for nothing to get your characters up to level 30 in World of Warcraft.

also see:
wikipedia on Second Life
Wage Slaves 1up.com article

(via Wonderland)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Eulogy for a Powerbook.

Sam Brown (of explodingdog.com) says goodbye to his Titanium G4 Power book.
at least three or four of the times that my powerbook has been declared dead the expert making the declaration was an Apple Genius and the Apple store. each time they would declare it dead, then offer to sell me a nice new computer.

i would decline and then buy a new battery or a new power supply or whatever i thought was the problem. and when i would get it home it would work again. the apple geniuses did not believe in my powerbook, but i did.
I think it's cute that the scratched up bottom of the computer looks similar to his drawings. Anyways, take a look at his art, they're magnificent!

explodingdog.com

(via tuaw.com)

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Pitchfork's 100 Awesome Videos, Plus One!

100 Awesome Videos! Ranging from A-ha to Bone Thugs to Til Tuesday, the Pitchfork's staff choose an eclectic mix of classics and guilty pleasures for their list of "100 Awesome Music Videos."

When selecting the following vids we decided to chuck anything from the Director's Label Series-- virtually everything on those collections would be obvious candidates for a list like this-- and stick to clips roughly from the MTV era. Crucially, they also all had to be on YouTube-- we prefer giving you the chance to see a clip to simply talking about one. Best to check these out early and often, then-- it is possible that some record label funcrusher could come around and wrinkle his nose at us pointing you all to a commercial for his company's product.
Seems that RIAA is looking for blood.

Personally, I'd like to add What's It Gonna Be to the list for 101.

Pitchfork's 100 Awesome Music Videos

Sunday, June 18, 2006

The Eraser

New Radiohead CD=2007.
But SOLO Thom Yorke=July?!

"The Eraser" : Thom Yorke
01 the eraser
02 analyse
03 the clock
04 black swan
05 skip divided
06 atoms for peace
07 and it rained all night
08 harrowdown hill
09 cymbal rush

Album Website
Video Interview w/Thom

Also, a bonus extra. NEW RADIOHEAD TRACK "Videotape"

Friday, June 16, 2006

Claire Carre : "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." Spec

Claire Carre is on to something here... I'm a sucker for found footage (especially super 8), but toss in Sufjan Stevens, well that's even better. Carre's music video for Sufjan digs through old education videos, 50's melodramas, and some found footage to piece together a rather tough hitting video.

Also look at her other spec, "Cripple and the Starfish," for Antony and the Johnsons.

"John Wayne Gacy, Jr." - 3.5/4
"Cripple and the Starfish" - 3/4

clairesquare.com

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Cafe Lumiere

Duncan Shepherd takes this week's SD Reader Movie Section to review Hou Hsiao Hsien's Cafe Lumiere via DVD. I've been really anti watching stuff on TV lately, but this was the only way to watch it in San Diego.

I liked Cafe Lumiere a lot, more so than HHH's other contemporary projects of late. Compared to Three Times and Millennium Mambo, nothing really happens in this film (although nothing really ever happens in a HHH film). Yet for two hours, watching Hitoto Yo walk around is pure bliss. It's not really the Ozu dream project that people anticipated, but instead a really solid HHH film done as an homage to him.

Moving trains, Asano Tadanobu, and the perfect ending shot make this a 4/4.

Amazon

Dubai: World's fastest growing city?

Checkout this insane flickr set spanning ten years of the world's fastest growing city. Dubai has $90 Billion U.S. dollars invested in the city and about 15% of the world's cranes are operating there (and I thought San Diego had a lot of cranes). It is also home to both The World and The Palms, man-made island (aka land reclaimation) projects off the coast. For $7 million you can own your own private little island. Wee!

(via rocketboom)

super 8 still alive and kicking.

For those of you in the UK, Maximo Park just released a live concert DVD with their performances from earlier this year along with music videos and a Super 8 documentary.

"Shot entirely on Kodak Vision 200T and 500T the 32 minute film follows the band on tour and is described by band's official website as being 'beautifully shot.' The DVD release is initially being sold as a special edition deluxe case bound book with a sixteen-page booklet."

Here's to hoping that "being beautifully shot" will bring back Super 8mm as an option for bands to use. The White Stripe's Under Blackpool Lights was pretty neat to watch, though shot on what my guess is gritty Tri-X B&W.

Amazon

(via onsuper8.org)

FlickerLA Podcastique!


Also new in Super 8, Flicker LA just started a podcast.

Cut 'n Paste this link to your favorite podcast viewer.
http://www.flickerla.com/films/FlickerLA.xml

There's only two videos so far, but one's from Norwood Cheek himself.

(via onsuper8.org)

Peanut Gallery : A theater experience via the internet?

If you thought Skype was pretty neat, checkout Peanut Gallery. The program hosts videos in a virtual theater which avatars can chat or interact with each other. There are ways to introduce pre-roll reels or intermission videos, as well as setting up playlists.

I'm quite interested in the communal aspects that this program presents over the internet. Although the program limits users to 8 right now, I'd like to see this as an alternatitive way for film/video distribution. I'd imagine virtual film-festivals would be interesting to try with this program. No need to fly out to Cannes or Sundance anymore, just hangout at home with your pj's.

Would anyone like to try this program with me sometime? The demo limits the hosting to 10 mins, but I can imagine finding enough shorts to put together a mini festival. Send me a message or leave a comment.

A Movie Clip of Peanut Gallery in action. (via daring fireball)

Sunday, June 04, 2006

a day in a lift.


Found a neat link to performance artist/student, Elke Veltman's blog, where she spends an entire day in an elevator. Veltman has another blog treinproject, documenting her stroll through a train station with an oversized dress (perfect for parties!)... Can't read any Dutch, anyone care to translate?

(via rocketboom)
http://liftproject.blogspot.com/