Flashback #1 - Catherine Wheel "Black Metallic"

This one floors me everytime.

WKW & Cat Power!?

In New York Times (Sept. 20th, 2006)
By WINTER MILLER

Like Will Oldham, another indie-folk rocker who is currently starring in the film “Old Joy,” Ms. Marshall is considering a foray into acting. She said that the cult director Wong Kar-wai invited her to play Jude Law’s ex-lover in the movie he is now shooting. Mr. Wong, she said, told her he was in the habit of playing “The Greatest” for his actors before each scene.

NYT Cont'd Article (login req'd)

Cat Power
Old Joy's Website

Sven Nykvist (1922-2006)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden Oscar-winning Swedish filmmaker Sven Nykvist, who was director Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer of choice, has died after a long illness, his son said. He was 83.

Nykvist died Wednesday in his bed at a Swedish nursing home where he was being treated for aphasia, a form of dementia, said his son, Carl-Gustaf Nykvist. The exact cause of death was not immediately known.

Nykvist won Academy Awards for best cinematography for the Bergman films "Cries and Whispers" in 1973 and "Fanny and Alexander" in 1982.

Cont'd:
The Associated Press

Additional Links:
IMDB Filmography
Wikipedia
ASC Lifetime Award
Sven Nykvist on working with Tarkovsky

Cig # 5 - Le Notti Bianche

Le Notti Bianche (1957) - Luchino Visconti

Cig # 4 - Butterfield 8

Butterfield 8 (1960) - Daniel Mann

Saddam's a Vegan.

Carrie Brownstein plays as Cindy Overton in a strange & bizzare interview with Saddam Hussein (Fred Armisen) on the cable access show, "Boink!"

(Via Pitchfork)

Bishop Allen + Mutual Appreciation

Andrew Bujalski's latest film Mutual Appreciation is starting a theatrical run later this month and will be playing throughout September.

Some of you might have heard me raving about this film earlier this year (I bought the dvd via their website, which was loaned and then horribly snapped into a billion pieces). This film nails the twenty-something period so well, I'm jealous. As I can go on and on about the film, I'll stop and just encourage you to checkout the screenings list and catch "one-of-the-best-2005/2006-films" in theaters.

If you liked the jams in Mutual Appreciation, Justin Rice (the lead in the film & pictured above) and Christian Rudder (one of the leads in Bujalski's other film Funny Ha Ha), form Brooklyn based Bishop Allen. They will be releasing EP's via their website throughout 2006. Plus they'll be playing a few shows here and there (though not stopping by the West Coast!).

Upcoming Screenings: link
New York City @ Cinema Village, begins 9/1
Los Angeles @ Laemmles' Sunset 5, begins 9/8
Pasadena @ Laemmles' Playhouse 7, begins 9/8
Boston @ The Brattle Theatre, begins 9/13
San Francisco @ The Red Vic, begins 9/29

The Rolling Eyesore Tour:
Bishop Allen w/ Chris Mills
8/17 Detroit @ the Lagerhouse
8/18 Chicago @ Subterranean
8/19 Milwaukee @ Mad Planet
8/20 Cleveland @ Beachland Tavern
8/22 Cambridge @ the Middle East [Up]
8/23 New Haven @ Cafe Nine
8/25 New York @ Pianos
8/26 Philly @ World Cafe Live
8/31 New York @ Joe's Pub AA

linksies:
film trailer
mutualappreciation.com
bishop allen

(Via Pitchfork)

Ok Go, Not OK but Ok Guilty Pleasure.

I hate showing up late to the Ironic Hipster party. Combining Busby Berkeley, West Side Story and well dressed boys in a dance off. OK GO's "A Million Ways" music video has been out for a year, plenty of time for people to perform their own versions of the dance out in public and now finally... YouTube. The band caught on and decided to throw a contest for the best version of the dance. If your dancing shoes want to join in the party, the deadline's been extended 'til August 30th.

Some horrible, but still fun standouts:
UCSD Tritones : An acapella version of the song...
Lord of Dance : The crowd goes crazy!
In the Fountain : Wet and wild.

links:
http://www.youtube.com/group/okgodance

PS. Cigs are coming back. I promise.

"The Scene" with Christopher Doyle

"The Scene" travels to Hong Kong to meet acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle and hears how his adopted city has inspired him in his work. (Thanks Via Sean!!)

Cig # 3 - Bugcrush

Bugcrush (2006) - Carter Smith
2006 Sundance Short Filmmaking Award

www.bugcrush.net

Cig # 2 - Accidents Happen

George Washington (2000) - David Gordon Green

Cig # 1 - Sic transit gloria.

Cigarette #1 out of 100.
Rushmore (1998) - Wes Anderson

This will be fun. 100 Cigarettes in 100 Days.
We hope that you choke.

World Cup Art

The Beautiful Game
July 10, 2006

In this Episode of CH Video we explore 'The Beautiful Game' (soccer that is) and its correlation with contemporary art by spotlighting a recent New York City wide exhibition of the same name curated by Trevor Schoonmaker and Franklin Sirmans. In a recent tour of Roebling Hall Art Gallery, co-curator Sirmans explains the motivations and ideas of contributing artists from around the globe.

(Via Cool Hunting)

La Jetee

Google Video of Chris Marker's La Jetee. It's without subtitles, so here's a copy of the script. (via pas au-dela)

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)

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)

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)

Pitchfork's 100 Awesome Videos, Plus One!

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

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"

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

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)

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/

Parodies of...

Two posts with this update.

A One.
Wong Kar Wai's "Big Girl's Don't Cry"

WKW's dialogue remixed?

A Two.
Wes Anderson's American Express Commercial
via Transbuddha
Watching this made me want to bury myself in a Truffaut film.

"Lucky Three"

So I guess this blog is becoming more of a dumping ground for video links that I run across on the web. This link is sorta related to what's been going on lately.

I watched Jem Cohen's latest film Chain at Redcat (meow!) Monday. Enjoyed it, but not as much as say those critics that champion "top ten of 2005." I thought it was an interesting to compare it to Jennifer Reeve's latest film, The Time We Killed. Partially because I watched them only a few days apart, but also because they both study the daily lives of women.

Anyway, here's a link to Cohen's short with Elliott Smith.

XO.

It could've been so much better.

Unreleased Spike Jonze documentary on Al Gore, pre-2000 election.

The "Pixar" Effect (or How-to-become-a-media-contender-overnight)

A link below to an interesting NYT's article. Highlights below.

"More than a few business pundits have drawn parallels between the flat, decentralized "corporation of the future" and the ad-hoc collection of actors, producers and technicians that come together around a film and disband once it is finished. In the Hollywood model, the energy and investment revolves around the big idea — the script — and the fine print of the deal. Highly talented people agree to terms, do their jobs, and move on to the next project. The model allows for maximum flexibility, to be sure, but it inspires minimum loyalty and endless jockeying for advantage.

Turn that model on its head and you get the Pixar version: a tightknit company of long-term collaborators who stick together, learn from one another and strive to improve with every production... 'The problem with the Hollywood model is that it's generally the day you wrap production that you realize you've finally figured out how to work together.'"

Full Article:
How Pixar Adds a New School of Thought to Disney
By WILLIAM C. TAYLOR and POLLY LaBARRE

WTF?

The 18th century runs head first into New Order?
Sofia Coppola's trailer for her new biopic Marie-Antoinette has been out for a while now, but I just caught it today. If you thought that A Knight's Tale was pretty bad, this looks even worse. This trailer makes my head sink low and want to implode.

How to save up $7,300 for a feature by 2007.

Here's a snip from another filmmaker's blog (filmmaking for the poor) that's something anyone with a decent dayjob can do.

Here's the simple strategy:
Put $20 away in a piggy bank or a bank account or a treasure chest buried in your back yard EVERY DAY THIS YEAR. By 1/1/07 you should have about $7300.

$7300 is plenty to shoot a no-budget/ultra-low budget indie DV feature with. If you need tips on working on such a budget check out some of Rick Schmidt's low budget filmmaking books, such as Extreme DV Filmmaking At Used Car Prices. Extreme DV has tips on making a DV feature for under $3,000.

Awesome.