Uh Uh Uh

If you haven't seen Persepolis, you really, really should.

Yes Yes Yes

Incredible.

Put the Glaaaases Onnnn!

AV Club picks this after yesterday's set?

Those Black Skinned Blue-Eyed Boys Ain't Gonna Fight No Wars

Fresh off some kind of liquid Tylenol daze I'm not sure I entirely fathom, Holly just had to go and cap off the recounting of her Vegas trip with mention of hearing Adam Freeland's new set.

Go Here to download. Right Click. Save As.

Check this fucking set list:


Billy Nayer - Ship Alarm (BSG Records)
Siriusmo - Girls Rock (Bungalow)
Unkle – Restless [loop] (Surrender All)
Evil Nine – They Live(unmixed demo) (Marine Parade)
Rogerseventytwo – Imagination (Tiger Trax)
Grinderman - No Pussy Blues [Adam Freeland Edit] (CDR)
Adam Freeland – Glowstix (Marine Parade)
Boys Noize - Let's Buy Happiness (Boys Noize Records)
Autolux – Blanket [Adam Freeland Mix] (Full Time Hobby)
Junkie XL - Cities in Dust [Glimmers Mix] (Artwerk)
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor [Soulwax Mix (EMI)
Shadow Dancer - End Hit (Boys Noize Records)
Alan Braxe – Addicted (Vulture)
U.N.K.L.E. – Restless (Surrender All)
Blake Baxter/Mark Romboy - House Ya [Bootleg] (CDR)
Alex Metric – Pins (Marine Parade)
Crookers - Love To Edit (Crack Crack Records)
Bloody Beetroots – Butter (Crack Crack Records)
DJ Shadow - Right thing/Ztrip - Set off the party (Island)
Freeland – Do Ya(unmixed demo) (Marine Parade)
Map Of Africa - Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys (Whatever We Want)
Black Strobe - Shining Brightstar [Phones Mix] (Playlouder / Beggars France)
Sebasien Tellier - Sexual Sportswear [SebastiAn Mix] (Record Makers)
Breakbot – Happy Rabbit (Moshi Moshi)
Tepr - Midniut Jacuzzi [Data Mix] (Wall of Sound)
Soulwax – Krack [Nite Version] (Play It Again Sam)
Midnight Juggernaughts - Road to Discovery (Siberia Records)
Adam Freeland – Hate (Marine Parade)
Freeland - How To Fake Your Life(unmixed demo) (Marine Parade)
Splitter - All Alone [Alex Metric Mix] (Eye Industries)
Can – Mothersky (United Artists Records)
Swayzak - Smile & Receive [Apparat Mix] (K7!)
Simple Minds - Theme for Great Cities (Sanctuary)
Caribou – Niobe [Adam Freeland Edit] (CDR)

Just reading that caused to stand on end the numerous hairs on my body.


I am Up All Night.

Addendum: Never much used drugs. I don't have to. I have music like this. I thought last year was a peak. Thank God these people got the madness.

I Used To Be Much Older

First: See In Bruges. I'm not at all the first to sing about it, but I haven't seen anything quite so zany that wasn't also drowned in whimsy. It pulls no punches, it takes unbelievable chances, and to top it all off, most of it is hysterical.

Second: Two movies I'm developing a larger appetite for:



and

Hope Floats

Yes. Like the rest of you, heard the Obama speech in all its Obamity. His speech was easily the best campaign speech on race the world has ever heard. This is not a small thing.

And then this shows up.

Neither one of them is giving us much but from the mouths of babes, here. I've never understood how Hillary could play the experience card. She hasn't got that much on Obama at all.

Then there's this:

A little disenchantment with Obama could turn out to be a good thing. Too much idealism can blind a leader to reality as surely as too much ideology can.

-From Cozy Curmudgeonly Dowd's response column today.

Obama was forced to examine his alliance with extreme characters, and responded to controversy, trying to confront his shortcomings.

To be forthright is a breath of fresh air after the past eight years, hell, after the past several decades.

Elect him. If he isn't up to the job, we'll replace him in four years. So long as we're making choices bravely, no matter what we're offered, the choices so offered might get better.

He'll still be better suited than Bush, or perhaps, so will she.

Besides, all of the experience in the world isn't alone going to put this place back together again. Experience gave us the atom bomb as well the New Deal.

Obama has the power to move us, and he may very well have the power to lead us. What the hell, let's find out.

Eucharist of this Our Age

the object in its Journey, comes nigh, among the excursions of Chance, the sins of ministers, the inscriptions upon walls of Gate-posts, -- the birth of the 'Sandwhich' at this exact moment in Christianity,-- one of the Noble and Fallen for its Angel! Disks of secular Bread, --enclosing whilst concealing slices of real Flesh, yet a-sop with Blood, under the earthly guise of British Beef, all,-- but for the Species of course,--Consubstantiate, thus...the Sandwhich, Eucharist of this our Age.

- From Mason and Dixon - Thomas Pynchon

The above was a summer spent reading when I should have been tending to more important things, but either way, I get easily distracted by dense, very possibly crackpot writing, and I had this strange, elusive piece as a part of my FB profile for the longest time, unable to take it down due to a fascination with it that I can't quite put my finger on.

I'm intrigued by theology, by belief systems as they affect society, both the good and bad effects those may be (I find it more enlightening to focus on the good things, since we've been dealing too heavily with the results of bad theology in recent years). I find as much good in Religious belief as most Agnostics find bad, which is a turnaround from the cranky Atheist I left behind from my teen years.

Most of all, I kept the quote up for two years because I love language that can find meter, humor and a wily confusion in anything religious, and seriously, have you picked up a copy of Mason & Dixon? It's like 7,000 pages the fuck long and I'll never find that quote again. Yeesh. Gotta save it somewhere.

Auteur Poseur?

"I started out by calling Mr. Haneke a sadist, but it seems to me that he may be too naïve, too delicate, to merit that designation, which should be reserved only for the greatest filmmakers."

- A.O. Scott, reviewing Michael Haneke's remake of his 1998 film Funny Games


I'd hate to do this, but I already agree with A.O. Scott, and must link his Funny Games review. Have I seen Haneke's update? No, I've seen the original German version, and the new one is a shot-by-shot American version, the director's first film in English.

I'll do without. I was propelled, by a fascination with The Piano Teacher and Caché, to see another Haneke feature, Netflixed the original Funny Games (unaware, at the time, of its impending remake), and was thoroughly unhappy for a few days after watching it.

I don't care that that is partly his intention. I don't care that he's deconstructing 'our' predilection for or 'enjoyment' of violence. Nor am I impressed that he lets us know it's all only a movie.

If you want to see acting on a level you've rarely seen, rent the original version. I don't doubt that Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt and others give performances that are equally powerful, but I know all the twists and turns, and don't wish to return to Hell.

The horror we witness on the screen during your film is borne so realistically and painfully by your actors that it's most certainly hypocritical to deride us for the natural, primal attention we give it in return. But deride us you do. You mock us for wanting them to survive it all, as if you're taking us to task for rubber-necking.

Doddering, curmudgeonly, pomo nonsense like that cheapens both the humanity of your film's suffering actors and the accomplishment of their performances, which, in your original version are considerably brave ones.

Michael Haneke, you make Lars Von Trier look like Marc Forster.

Just Wait for Seagal....

My Favorites

Are winning.

Tilda Swinton

Coens

Robert Elswit


Fuckin' Glen and Marketa repr'zent!

This never happens.

Call It

Song

Winner: Falling Slowly (Once)

My Fav: Falling Slowly (Once)


Editing

Winner: No Country For Old Men

My Fav: No Country For Old Men


Cinematography

Winner: Atonement

My Fav: There Will Be Blood


Art Direction

Winner: Atonement

My Fav: There Will Be Blood


Original Screenplay

Winner: Juno

My Fav: Juno


Adapted Screenplay

Winner: No Country For Old Men

My Fav: No Country For Old Men


Foreign Film

Haven't seen any of this category, but will mention it because Romania's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days is a chilling, superbly acted and directed film that should've been at least nominated.


Best Director

Winner: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)

My Fav: Joel-Paul Thomas Coen Ethan-Anderson Fuck


Supporting Actress

Winner: Ruby Dee (American Gangster)

My Fav: Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)


Supporting Actor

Winner: Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)

My Fav: Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)


Actress

Winner: Julie Christie (Away From Her)

My Fav: Ellen Page (Juno)


Actor

Winner: Daniel DAY Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

My Fav: Daniel DAY Lewis (There Will Be Blood)


Best Picture

Winner: No Country For Old Men

My Fav: There Will Be Blood

I Say Thee Write Your Own Original Content...

Because I have to post a section of this article verbatim here, in anticipation of the most significant Oscar Night I've ever seen (in my short life):

From The Carpetbagger:

A Critic’s Critic

Paul Thomas Anderson, apart from being the holy vessel of hope and aspiration for critics and cineastes, is known in the industry as both a straight shooter and a barrel of monkeys — someone who takes the work seriously, but not himself. On Thursday night at STK, he did not disappoint.

He was in full cry with his mates, staying late and talking with all comers. The Bagger, who has admitted here that he finds “There Will Be Blood” more admirable than convincing, introduced himself. Mr. Anderson laughed for a while. And then he laughed a bunch more.

“You know you don’t know a thing about movies,” he said.

Um, gee, the Bagger thought, maybe this is the point where he should change the topic to “Punch-Drunk Love,” another movie by Mr. Anderson, one of his favorite films of all time? But the filmmaker just kept laughing.

“ ‘There Will Be Blood’ was the best movie of the year,” Mr. Anderson said. “Except for maybe ‘Juno.’ And ‘Clayton.’ And ‘Atonement.’ Other than that, it was the best movie of the year.”

Um, there seems to be one omission in that gracious tick-tock, the Bagger noted. The one that sent the Bagger into fan-boy convulsions. The Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men.”

“You really think that movie was better than ours!” Mr. Anderson said, scoffing. “C’mon, do you really believe that?” Mr. Anderson laughed one more time, clapped the Bagger on his back and wished him on his merry, misguided way.


My original content for the day? Why, if I encounter one more article reminding us of the "obscurity" of this year's noms, I'm going to just drink the editor's fuckin' milkshake. Seriously, I know you have stuff to do, people, but you've gotta be kidding me. Y'all went to see Hayden Christensen refuse to use a damned car door this weekend, right?!! C'mon, eejits.

Of Course...

...none of the previous post means for a second that Terry Gilliam's solution isn't worth noting.

Your Mother Should Know

These past few months have been the most chemical imbalancy, abject, crazy-town, gut-wrenchingful months of a life full of 'em, and I figure culminating stress found fulmination finally in a fight or flight response that squarely found itself in column "flight".

Not, mind you, the kind of flight that makes me reparations for being a twenty five year old with a B.A. in Theatre and no discernible future on the horizon, save for the obvious future of time. Consequently, that flight was the kind which shuts you down and cold cocks your system but good. I ran out of "fight" for the first time in my life, and am just left with the angry.

So we're in recuperation land, have been shuffling there in all possible ways since early November, and who knows what bright patch or dark patch we might land into? Keep fastened your seatbelts, because around the corner it's the end of delayed adolescence land, that white elephantine part of yourself that you've concocted with the help of a Protestant-like devotion to films, breakbeats, literature, intense and worthy friendships, theatre, and other forms of worship that were a part of an ego-involved attempt to be a good boy.

I didn't want to be the next disaster in my family. I spent the next eleven years more or less exceeding that expectation. There are many, many things I'd desperately like to keep from those years, least of which are my dreams. My Protestantism, however, needs to make peace with a personal life of some kind.

This should be interesting.

I'm Your Goddamned Partner

It's got a ridiculous title. It's been nearly twenty years since the last one. George Lucas rejected Frank "ShawFuckinShank Redemption" Darabont's screenplay and gave the reins to David "Copout/Undercooked" Koepp. Last but not least, apparently this one's a full on slapstick comedy... And I officially CAN'T FUCKING WAIT.



Not after seeing that. I'm totally excited.

Another Something...That Rhymes With June.....

Since Something Awful photo-trolls create exempla of the best of our wretchedest holidays far better than we can:



Happy Valentine's Day.

Intermezzo...

...you know, between now and when they call the Dem's race next week...

Whackity Schmackity Doo

Patton Oswalt discusses a crazy alternate universe on one of his albums, one in which "Arnold Schwarzenegger runs California, torture is legal, and spinach is poison."

Aside from whomever you think should win today or whomever you think shouldn't, would it not just be fundamentally weird to know that Bill Clinton is the (first) First Husband/Gentleman/Hound Dog, and back in the White House? Well, we'd finally have a woman in the office, only it's, you know, her?

To top it all off, Al Gore has a Nobel Prize (Imagine that in 1994), an Oscar, frequently guest appears on brilliant tv shows, and generally saves humanity when he's not ensconced along with Ed Begley Jr. in his sciencey lair.

Most of all, it's going to be weird for Chelsea Clinton, though I'm sure she won't complain, she's used to it.

It might be too weird for me, though. I don't know, aside from an infinite number of actual reasons to not vote for the Clintons, in favor of unwhackifying the Universe as much as possible, I don't want to give some girl I've never met in my life two freakin' Presidents for parents.

Imminently Utterable

..And quite frankly should be repeated, there has been much talk of Juno dissenters dissenting on the grounds that the dialogue is unrealistic. The logical response has been that movies and books, though a mirror to the world, shouldn't produce an image unaltered by imagination.

Do we look like we come out of a Picasso painting, or do we sound like Ray Charles? No, but we find ourselves depicted by those artists whether we want to or not. We see ourselves as we are or as we could be, depending.

No wonder people are so unhappy. There are apparently large sections of the public that have abandoned any sort of fantasy life, whether it be their own, or the one vicariously supplied to them by the movies.

Surely, at large, this isn't true, right? I mean, considering what makes big bugs at the box-office, that just can't be so.

So, maybe the problem is simply a bad habit of compartmentalising. We can accept a pregnant teenager movie, but it better be earnest and depict a Maria Full of Grace-type reality. Fantasy films mustn't, by the way, have any reflection of the real world. Bah.

On a basic level, though, a Death Star doesn't exist to be blown away any more than the President is likely to fight terrorists with his bare hands, any more than it's right to expect people to talk like they're walking out of Raymond Chandler, Quentin Tarantino or Aaron Sorkin. What fun these things are, though.

To indulge in certain illusions will keep you young, people. The good kind of young.

There's good cholesterol and bad cholesterol, just as there're good illusions vs. bad ones. Consult the experts, in either case.

When Your Mind's Made Up

From The Onion AV Club's Film Poll, about the movie Once:

"I hate musicals. I hate earnest singer-songwriters with guitars. I hate indie-movies where nothing much happens but people have profoundly understated experiences. I loved this movie."

—John Shelton, Prague, Czech Republic