Wednesday, December 29, 2010

It's like people only do things because they get payed.

Once upon a time there was an acoustic punk band named AGAINST ME!
They were a lot of fun, they released one of my favourite albums.
But then things went sour...

i should explain, the very first song i ever heard by AGAINST ME! was Baby, I'm an Anarchist an absurd ballad about how his liberal girlfriend isn't extreme enough for him. It all seemed very tongue in cheek and a lot of fun.
There are few greater things than singing this song at the top of your lungs.
Other than this song though, i believed they sang about what they believed in, the other songs were raw, emotional, and all about love, being poor, and being an angry youth.

Then they released a boring album and signed to a major label.
i remember at the time, all the criticism raised against them, with everything they say they are, how could they sell out?
Well, they responded by doing their own version of this:


i wish i were joking.
Yes, we've all seen Wayne's World, so tell me AGAINST ME! how well did selling out go for Wayne?
It was during this time i was first linked to Ablini's The Problem With Music.

They put out more bland music, and for the most part i forgot about them.
And then i came across this video:




Oy.
This is the bit that kills me:

I was a teenage anarchist
But then the scene got too rigid
It was mob mentality
They set their rifle sights on me

This is essentially the creed of the kid that can't take a joke and is taking his ball and going home.
i mean, for fuck's sake.
There is nothing wrong with growing up and realizing you were an idiotic youth, that's what SLC Punk is all about, and it's why it's one of my favourite movies.
But no, AGAINST ME! cries that it was the scene that was wrong, not them. They were really cool and hip, but the scene was just too mean.
You joined a band for fame and chicks, admit it, you were young and stupid, you will learn, be yourself and it will be alright.
While i have no respect left to lose for this band, i'm not entirely unreasonable. Reinventing Axl Rose will always be a great album.

The thing that makes me laugh though, is that by far, the most punk, that is, the most honest and emotional song this band wrote was Pints of Guinness Make You Strong.
And it's a song about an old Irish woman missing her dead husband, and it's incredible.

punx as fuck.

Monday, November 15, 2010

bounty


Aw man, i knew the minute they wanted to meet a fan, it was all just a ruse to kill someone in the name of art.

Go watch the video here:
http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/

Unless there's something i'm missing, it's only going to up for the next four hours or so.




i was never sure if this image was legit or not, but be assured, it is real, and it does indeed spell out bounty.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Losers

Okay so while The Spirit is a horrible film, i felt it was one of the best comic adaptations ever. A horrible adaptation of Will Eisner's comic, but a perfect adaptation of the work of Frank Miller. i mean, it was essentially the Dark Knight Returns on the silver screen, over the top, bad dialogue and goofy villians all the way. i have a love hate obsession with it, it's so painful, and yet so fun.
Anyway, i didn't think there would ever be a more honest translation of comic to movie, and then i saw the Losers:



And amazingly, it's really good.
It's got everything, the stereotypical characters, the cliche story and crazy schemes, the femme fatale (Zoe Saldana, what a babe), and even the Saturday morning cartoon villain.
And it's entertaining all the way through, i was honestly surprised at how fun and well made this movie was.
And it contains this amazing scene which is by far the best use of a Journey song.

four out of five

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Like Hell



So in preperation for the upcoming Minecraft Halloween update, i made a video showing off part of my world, all the way up to my brand new hellgate.

Hell truly is ghastly.

Check out more hell previews over at pcgamer and the biome info over at Notch's blog.

i haven't been this excited about halloween in quite awhile.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sherlock



Fairly well done modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. Great acting, i love the updates like the nicotine patches and texting. And hey, Arthur Dent!
Moffat has some clever dialogue in here, he's great with dialogue, but seems to lack the mystery chops. The Sherlock Holmes books were told from the point of view of Watson. And while Watson is quite clever, he's no Holmes, so he'd never fully know what was going on.
In this story Holmes just misses the glaringly obvious so the story can go on. i knew it was the cab driver once it turned out the passenger was just some tourist, i mean come on, there's no reason for Sherlock or Watson to have not thought of that. Not realizing the location of the phone was a bit annoying as well.
Since they never revealed the secret of the pills i'm going to assume they took a page from The Princess Bride.
Inconceivable!
The Mycroft reveal was nice, however i had guessed it, which makes me wonder if Moffat writes things he thinks are clever, or if he writes things for people to figure out so they think they're clever.
Could've done without the high functioning sociopath line as well. "I'm a sociopath now, sociopaths are cool." Yeah, thanks Dexter.
Other than those minor quibbles, it was really entertaining. Much like how i enjoyed the detective view in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, i rather enjoyed the text clues that came up while Sherlock was investigating.
I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the series and am pleased to hear they're working on a second.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Eliva is back!



Oh Elvira, how we've missed you.
Unfortanetly it seems that PDXtv is only showing it at three in the morning on Sundays.
Oh, well.

Mostly i just want to comment on how awesome this is:


Sunday, October 3, 2010

To whom it may concern.

http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/


It's looks like the big unveiling is coming November 16th.

Not really sure what to make of this:



Publisher Clearing House meets "Take me to your leader"

Monday, September 27, 2010

Good Music is at Hand!


My favourite website for MP3's is rising from the dead, that's right kids!
epitonic is back!

This means quite a lot to me, it'd be hard to list the bands that this website introduced me to.
Even though it's been dormant for years, i'd still go back hoping to see what i'm seeing now.
So yes, go forth, donate and help epitonic come back! You can even go and enjoy the old classic site while you're at it!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Kung Pow Chicken in yer face!

Listening to kboo a few weeks back, i was introduced to the magic that is Sweet Snacks.




Never have i been more grateful that i was listening to the radio in the middle of the night.
Seriously, how many other bands write tributes to Yuri Gagarin?



Go now to: http://sweetsnacks.bandcamp.com/ and check them out.
Be sure to listen to Kung Pow Chicken In Yer Face, Ping Pong Champion, and Fortune Cookie.
i can't count how many time i've already listened to Submit to the Chip already, it's that great.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Banksy Imitation


i was up in PDX a few weeks back, and driving around i saw this and thought, "Heh, that looks like a Banksy"

Well it turns out it is, it's the girl he did down in New Oreleans after Katrina.
Doesn't carry any meaning up here in Oregon, however it does fit, in it's own way.
There's also apparently the kid getting carried away with the balloons and a few others.
Well done copies though, makes me wish Banksy would visit Portland.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Primer



This is a really clever movie, basically some nerdy engineers accidentally discover time travel, use it to manipulate the stock market, then start messing around with thier time line. Moral dilemmas akimbo!
And that's the main issue, two men, stumbling into a world of moral choices as children, they've never had to make decisions that could change so much before.
I had heard a lot of talk of the timeline being hard to figure out, but it plays it mostly linearly through Abe's perspective.
At the end we have drugged Abe and original Abe, crazy Aaron, hooded Aaaron, and drugged Aaron.
The two that are drugged belong in this timeline, original Abe is going to watch over them and make sure they don't continue this loop of insanity, hooded Aaaron is narrating the story, and tired of the whole deal, and the original Aaron, the crazy one, is building new time machines in some other country.
It's an interesting take on scifi, that something in the science is so awe inspiring that it the characters obsess and worship it. Much like the sun, in, well, Sunshine. I suppose it's a more interesting look into the dangers of science than: Man plays god, man dies.
I also really love that the movie never explains how Granger managed to come back, with the whole thing with the gun at the party, it's easy to make a guess, but the fact that it's impossible to know is nice.
What's really amazing is that this was the director's first movie, and that he managed to make it with only seven thousand dollars.
I really look forward to seeing more projects from Mr. Carruth, because this movie was really solid.

four out of five

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Exit Through the Gift Shop



Oh Banksy, you lovable rapscallion you.
i went into this movie only knowing that it was a documentary Banksy made about a guy trying to make a documentary about Banksy.
Hilarity ensues.
While i had heard of most of the street artists featured in this, i never had heard of the focus of the movie, Mr. Brainwash.
Basically, he's an eccentric French man that never went anywhere without his camera, and by chance he stumbles into the world of street art and managed to film some amazing things.
He meets and records various artists around the world, and eventually meets the elusive Banksy, and Banky lets him into his world.
It's hilarious because this goofy French guy is in a world of his own, someone comments that they're not sure if he's retarded or not. This is exemplified in a scene where Banksy shows him the Princess Diana money he made, and explains how he never did anything with it because he didn't want to be accused of counterfeiting. After explaining that, the Frenchman asks "Did you make these?"
Once Banksy realizes this guy is nuts, he encourages MBW to go do some art of his own, and to let him have all the footage he's recorded over the years.
After this, the birth of Mr. Brainwash happens, and he hires artists to make his art for him and has a huge art show, and makes ridiculous amounts of money on his factory made art.
And it all comes down to the title of the movie, the marriage of consumerism and art.
It's a great movie in that it shows a lot of footage of street art being made, and that it introduces the world to this crazy little French man.

"I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore." - Banksy


five out of five

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Consoul



This is really neat.
Basically it's the life (and then the re-life) of some random guy.
Pain, suffering, loss, and monotony.
All in awesome 8-bit form!
And it's done so well, i love the little touches, like the guy his wife was cheating on driving over his bike. Brilliant moment.
And there's something truly awe inspiring when he dies, it's like playing Mario in a nightmare, and it gives me a true sense of death, which is odd.
The rocker re-life is kind of amusing, of course it's obvious how it was going to end, but the Trainspotting reference was fun.
It's a great watch, and the music is superb.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Mystery Inc.


Everyone loves Scooby-Doo, well everyone with a soul anyway.
There's something charming about the cheap animation, lame laughtrack and goofy montages.
The series hasn't always been great though. After a time they tried to fresh it up, make it more exciting, and everything that was Scooby-Doo suffered.

And no, i'm actually not talking about Scrappy-D00, as annoying as he may be, Scooby-Doo was pretty much the same with him around.
i'm putting the blame on someone much more sinister than Scrappy, that's right, it could only be...

Vincent Van Ghoul!

At some point in the 1980's they came up with the novel idea of having Scooby, and (part) of his gang face off against real paranormal creatures, and thus the 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was born.
Even with Vincent Price doing a voice, this cartoon was mostly forgettable, it did however start a horrible trend that continued for far too long, namely having the creatures turning out to be, actual creatures.

Think about, the horrible TV movies like Ghoul School, or the one where Shaggy turns into a werewolf to race, and this continues until the Zombie Island movie, and beyond.

i give the first live action movie a pass because well, not only was it hilarious, having Scrappy being behind it all was the greatest twist ever.
Even if they did end up cutting the best scene of the movie:



The second movie however, gets no such pass.

There was another show a few years back, that tried to recapture the original series, and mostly it failed, i watched a few episodes and i can't even remember what happened, all i remember is it tried to hard to be campy, 70's camp isn't the same as 00's camp.
Then there was a really juvenile live-action movie, you can be family friendly without making bad jokes, that's all i have to say.

But now, in the amazing year of the future 2010, we have Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated



And my god, is it amazing. i never thought there'd be a new Scooby-Doo cartoon this amazing.
Just look at this:


They're actually disliked for solving the crimes because the town gets tourism due to all these crazy people in costumes. So many other great touches though, having Fred being an oblivious oaf that's obsessed with making Rube Goldberg traps, Shaggy and Velma being in a relationship, having real action scenes topped with jokes and gags that are actually really clever.
The only disappointing thing is that Shaggy and Scoob are no longer vegetarians, so much for being two groovy peas in a far-out pod.

And then there's the voice actors:
Frank Welker as Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo
Matthew Lillard as Norvelle Rogers
Casey Kasem as Colton Rogers (Shaggy's father)
Patrick Warburton as Sheriff Bronson Stone
Vivica A. Fox as Angel Dynamite

There have even been cameos by John DiMaggio and Billy West

Oh, and also worth mentioning:

Lewis Black as Mr. E

Mr. E keeps sending the kids clues, in a mystery that's spanning the entire season, very exciting stuff.
The real mystery is how Lewis Black got involved, i'm not going to question it though, as it is awesome.

So yes, Mondays on Cartoon Network, i except all of you with a soul to be there.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Zombieland



Hey! You got coming of age romance in my zombie movie....
In the first few minutes of this movies, i was afraid it was going to be painfully stupid, but after the rocky start, it went into an excellent and violent intro (almost as good as the intro in JCVD), and everything was good to go when Harrelson's character came into the picture.
There's honestly not too much to say about this movie, it's funny, dark, gory, and has a few cute moments, like Little Rock explaining Hannah Montana to Tallahassee. i also really loved that touch, that they went by location instead of name.
And the Bill Murray cameo was by far one of the greatest random cameos ever.
i actually finally decided to sit down and watch this movie, because i read an interview with Bill Murray that mentioned the line about him regretting Garfield.
He claimed the only reason he agreed to Garfield it because he thought the Joel Cohen that wrote it was the Joel of the Coen bros.
Odd as it doesn't explain the sequel, but that's Bill Murray for you.
Bottom line, the movie is an enjoyable teen romance with zombies.
Watch it if you haven't.

four out of five

Minecraft: the Movie



Yes, another post 'bout Minecraft.
Well mostly i'm just giddy because Notch posted this on his blog.

This video is triumph to coincidence and serendipity, i was recording because i was about to fuck another mountain, and instead, well, i got hugged by a creeper.
The great coincidence, is when i was trying to think of fitting music, i remembered that the wonderful Minecraft song had a line about opening the door and the creeper exploding.
Since i wasn't recording sound, that creeper exploding is in the song, and it syncs up perfectly.

i'm glad the video is bringing other miners joy, i laughed for a good five minutes after it happened.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

y? 'cause i gotta!



And here we are, y. And i, er, uh. What?
Nah, it's a neat song, and i love the tin foil knight. Unless i missed something though, it seems the "like hell" song never happened.
So perhaps they're going to go past the six lettered songs.
Technically, i supposed they already have since u was split in two.

bounty –noun
1. a premium or reward.
2. generosity in giving.


i do feel i have received something special.
There is a chance this is just more of the puzzle, and the true bounty is yet to be.
So we wait, we wait, because goddamn this is awesome.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

In the year 2010


Where are the malfunctioning robots? The Soy Pop vending machines?
The new airplanes, the Jetson sounding cars, the cure for seventeen stab wounds to the back?
i mean, i guess there are video phones, but they barely work.
Why must cartoons lie to me.

Well good thing i can go kill myself in the suicide booth that was installed two years ago.
Oh...
reality bites.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Well, if this isn't ADD


i'm not sure what is.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Matt Smith? Who?

And here's my review of the latest season of Doctor Who:



Goodnight ladies and gentlemen!

Okay seriously, i'm going to try and break this down, let's start out with the Doctor:


At first, i was a bit weary of Smith playing Who, i mean, he's just so young!
Although i did love the explanation in that short where the tenth Doctor met the fifth, something about how he tried to act all old and serious in his younger days. Cute.
But once i saw Smith in the tweed jacket and bowtie, i figured we were in for good times, and mostly i was right.
He plays a goofy, and really fun doctor, yet his rage is frightening as he seems unstable, while Tennant's Doctor was frightening because of his "lone god" vibe.
Smith is also quite good at portraying how alien and old the Doctor is. It's a nice change after Tennant's very human Doctor, not that i'm saying it was bad.

My fanwankery theory is that the ninth Doctor, despite his distance and coldness, had started a relationship with Rose (they danced, there is no denying the innuendo) so when he changed, he became someone to fit that role better. Of course this lead to trouble, Martha, Queen Elizabeth, Madame de Pompadour.... Well anyway, he changes again into someone trying to keep some distance from humans, as he said the advancing Amy:"But you're human!"

As for Amy and Rory, it's a bit odd, Amy seems to be a combination of Donna (readhead, loud, scary, and the most important person in the universe) and Martha (wants the Doctor, badly)
While Rory is just Mickey, jealous of the Doctor, whiny, somewhat useless, until he grows a fucking spine. I'm sorry but Rory was useless until he realized Amy really did love him, and that was the middle of the series, and he dies two episodes later.
Oh hey, spoilers.
At least we can look forward to him being awesome and potentially having thousands of years of knowledge. And since he was Roman, he can likely fight now! Shame they took away his handgun though (or was it a firearm?) keeping Rory plastic would have been fun.

I think the most amusing things with Amy and Rory are the obvious subtle things, like Rory being a nurse, well of course he's a nurse, but when put in context of how Amy would make him dress up like the Doctor, or a Roman solider... Oh, Rory. They set him up in an occupation where he can help, but he's not a doctor. Then there's also fun stuff like Amy being dressed up like a police woman, living a blue house...

Now my ranking of the episodes:
  1. "The Lodger"
  2. "Amy's Choice"
  3. "The Eleventh Hour"
  4. "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang"
  5. "Vincent and the Doctor"
  6. "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood"
  7. "The Vampires of Venice"
  8. "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone"
  9. "The Beast Below"
  10. "Victory of the Daleks"

Everything about The Lodger was perfect, it's by far one of my favourite episodes of Doctor Who.
Amy's Choice was good, as it was the point where Rory stopped being jealous of the Doctor, Amy realized her strong love for him, and even if he was just part of the Doctor, the Dream Lord was an awesome character. Toby Jones was a perfect fit for the role, also amusingly enough, he's the voice of Dobby.
I put the first episode above the finale because, well the first episode was better, the finale had too many paradoxes, miracles, and universal reset buttons, but it was damn entertaining.
You have to love van Gogh, that's all there is to it.
The Sillurian episodes were entertaining, mostly because i hated that lady, everyone hate's that lady, there's always a character like her, the one that accuses someone of being a witch, getting everyone riled up when things are already bad, the one that does something out of panic to make things worse. Many people feel uncomfortable because of these characters, because they're so fucking real. Just thinking of that horrible old hag in The Mist gets me riled up, and that's not even a good movie! It's just nice to see how unrealistically optimistic the Doctor is about humanity from time to time. The fact that science behind "Homo reptilians" didn't make any sense did bother me a bit, but it was a solid story other than that.
And while a lot of people loved the angels story, i really didn't. i felt Moffat totally ruined the mythology and scare factor of the angels with this episode. Blink was a brilliant episode in an otherwise dull series (i really didn't like Martha, what can i say? Don't worry though, i absolutely loved Simm as the Master) but this was just stupid, why is the angel snapping necks? i mean killing Bob to steal his voice i could maybe understand, but why kill the solider before him? Why not feed on them, or give them to the weaker angels so they can feed. Whatever.
I was one of those that picked up on the missing jacket and tonal change when the Doctor came back to talk to Amy. Which, would have made me feel smug and smart, but the final was wishy washy instead of timey wimey. The whole angel in the eye thing was kind of eh, same with anything that holds the image of an angel. And i don't know how i feel about River, she sure is smug, amusing how she keeps using items of Captain Jack's though.

As for the final, i'm mostly disappointed that the Doctor didn't pop out of the wedding cake.



One of the best moments of the entire series: "You're a lucky man, she's a great kisser!"
Amy trying to rape the Doctor was pretty hot though, just sayin'.

i loved how fun and light hearted the final was, i also loved "Fezzes are cool." and while i had no problem with Amy taking it away from him, River shooting it was just cringe worthy, as was her getting a Dalek to beg for mercy, i mean come on, it's a fucking Dalek. Rory standing guard for nearly two thousand years was nice, especially since he didn't ditch his centurion armour until after WWII. Oh, Rory. But the way the Doctor just came back, well i tie it back to angels.

You see, at the end of, well, The End of Time, the Doctor is presented with two female Time Lords that stood in defense of him, the leader of the Time Lords referred to them as weeping angels. Then there's Amy Pond, fairytale Amy Pond, and she's got something on her back in her eye. So yes, on her wedding day, dressed in white, she weeps, and the doctor is reborn. Whatever Moffat.

And while the cracks are gone, there are still so many unexplained things, and not just the obvious story of River or "SILENCE WILL FALL" but, the stairs in Amy's house looking like the stairs to the wannabe TARDIS, where the fuck the wannabe TARDIS came from, why Amy was crying and pleading to have the Doctor to leave in The Beast Below. i suppose they could be tied together, but it's still annoying.

In the end it's much like all past series of Nu Who, some strong stories, some weak ones, some bad moments, however a lot of really great ones as well.
i look forward to seeing what the xmas special is going to be, here's hoping that the Oriental Express in Space was a throwaway joke.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Pöpcørn



How did i not know that Muppets Studio was making shorts for the internets?
New Swedish Chef, Popcorn, and Statler & Waldorf at the end of every short?
Muppets are cool.


Thursday, July 1, 2010

to a t



Have i mentioned how this just keeps getting better and better?
This is a really fun video, it captures the sexuality of earlier teasers and the way it's shot backwards leads to some interesting flails and lip movements from our mysterious mistress.
Interesting that she's also now the Lady of the Lake.
My only hope now is that release a physical copy of their album once all the songs are out.
See you when "y" is released space cowboys...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Goonies 'R' Good Enough for Biff


Cydni Lauper :3

Earlier this month was the 25th Anniversay of The Goonies.

i didn't go to any of the big events with the few stars that bothered to show up. (Cheers to Feldmen for convincing Astin he should come)
Instead i just checked out the town and took some goonie pictures, and had a good time.


Those kids sure rode their bikes a long way to get here.

Andy leaves Brad for Sloth


Panorama!

It's not a TUMAH!
It is however just down the street from the Goonie House.

ORV... bullet holes...

I also bought a bootleg shirt to honour One Eyed Willie, the only pirate to make it Oregon.
Well, other than me.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

futurama returns!

so when i first heard that futurama was returning to tv, i wondered how they were going to explain away the end of the last movie.
i figured it'd go either one of two ways:

1. it gets explained away at the beginning of the episode
2. the first episode is a parody of lost in space

well it turns out it was neither really, they explained it away with a teaser:

FuturamaWeeknights, 9p/8c
New Episodes on Comedy Central
www.comedycentral.com
Futurama New EpisodesFuturama New EpisodesUgly Americans


to be fair though, they did the same to announce the movies, so this will likely be the beginning of the first episode.

however thinking about this made me realize it's been two years since i reviewed the first two movies, and over a year since the last movie came out.
so with the show returning this month, now is as good as time as any.


bender's game


while i genuinely enjoyed the first two movies (bender's big score is by far one the greatest things futurama has done) this is where the movies started to suffer. it's not that writing was bad, or that the characters were off, it's just that trying to split a movie so that it can be played as four episodes completely ruins the flow. the really annoying part of this is that comedy central played all four episodes in a row everytime the episodes were played. which begs the question, why did they make them split them into episodes in the first place?
so other than the episodic issue, another is that lord of the ring parodies have been done to death. i mean the D&D stuff was kind of funny, every time bender said he was a "fancy man of cornwood" was gold, but another parody of those movies, really? there were plenty of great gags not involving lord of the ring though, "we're owl exterminators!" and other the eviscerator were hilarious. there were some lazy jokes though like "oh hey men find the three stooges funny, women like sex and city" it's not a joke, it's not even a funny observation.
entertaining to a point, but mostly disappointing. hopefully something comes from the revelation of farnworth's son.

into the wild green yonder


while the episodic formula hurt bender's game, it god damn ruined this movie. it's such a mess it's hard to piece together everything that happens, fry becomes psychic and hangs with bums, leela and other women become violent activists, fry works for amy's dad to spy on an evil threat came from mars, humanity is doomed. some other stuff.
i don't know.
more important than that, i can't recall any funny gags, i mean fry thinking he was the bad guy was a nice moment, however it was nothing to laugh over.
leela and fry kissing at the end was nowhere near as powerful as the end of the series, or the real identity of lars, it was just thrown in for fanservice, which is bad and it should feel bad.

bender's big score and the beast with a billion backs are gold, however bender's game and into the wild green yonder are painfully flawed bender's game is good for a few gags at least.
that said, the sins are forgivable since the show is coming back to tv later this month.
and that is good news indeed.

n




THEY'RE GOING TO EAT HER.... THEN THEY'RE GOING TO EAT ME.
OH MY GOD!

new iamamiwhoami videos always make me :3

so far we have b o u n
we can assume there will be six letters.

bounce, bounty, bounds?

good times.

Friday, May 21, 2010

i pac-man google

in celebration of pac-man's 30th anniversary, google has a special version of the game on their main page.
and that my friends is awesome.
even better, hitting insert coin twice enables two player mode with ms. pac-man.


this is up there with youtube's april fools text videos. (i'm still sad that's not a permanent option)

science fiction double feature



today was my first time hearing this.
and while i do love the movie version, this is amazing.
i had never heard of the usherette, it's a cute concept.
also i was quite surprised to find out it was quinn and not nell singing.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

machete is coming for arizona



happy cinco de mayo everyone!

Monday, May 3, 2010

a birthday present from iamamiwhoami




best birthday evar!

Friday, April 16, 2010

the imaginarium of terry gilliam

so while i missed it the first time it came through, i did manage to see terry gilliam's the imaginarium of doctor parnassus recrently




and it was quite refreshing to see gilliam have free range to show us the what lurks in his mind.
i was disappointed with 2005's the brothers grimm, it's not a bad movie, however the tensions gilliam had with the producers has a noticeable effect, as gilliam has said about it: "it's not the film they wanted and it's not quite the film I wanted."
so to me, the brothers grimm is something enjoyed out of it's potential, it had the means to be great, and while it didn't make it, by no means should it be ignored.

the best scene in the brothers grimm is a rather frightening one of the gingerbread man:



it's got a lot of clever moments as well, "merde! i mean, sheiß!" always makes me laugh.

and granted this isn't gilliam's first film since the brothers grim, he did do tideland, which i absolutely loved.
it's dark, and hard to watch, but it's honestly beautiful.

i enjoyed imaginarium so much because i feel like it was gilliam letting loose, telling a story that was his, the way he wanted it told.
and it's quite bizarre.

the acting is great, by far tom waits best role in a film, heath was great, as were all the actors that picked up after him, it was quite refreshing to see an awkward teen that wasn't michael cera. it also introduced me to the alien beauty that is lily cole.


beautiful, goofy, dark, and i love how little it explains, it was gilliam at his best.

here's hopes for the best with the man who killed don quixote finally happening.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

we are water



this video was directed by eric wareheim, yes that eric.
and while i've always been a fan of his work, i had no idea he was capable of something like this.
this is disturbing, and beautiful, it's fucking art, man.

Monday, April 12, 2010

shit just got real


and here we have o, the latest offering from iamamiwhoami

so perhaps this is jonna lee, without the distorted vocals it does sound quite like her.
and oddly enough, as i went to check her twitter today, i discovered it had been deleted.
conspiracy
i'm sticking with the idea that this is just some side project she's involved in, and not an extension of her solo career.
or perhaps this is just a random art project, and not a "real" band at all.

it's going to be interesting hearing the bits and pieces of the old videos revealed in these full songs.
and while i do enjoy this song and b, i do hope the next song is more gripping.
after the suspense and build up of this campaign they really need a song as interesting and odd as the videos.
can't wait for the like hell song myself.
though it is a bit worrisome that most of the industrial sounds seem to be getting sucked out.

i'm guessing there are going to be six songs in all, spelling something out.
bo
bogies?
bolero?
bob newhart?

Friday, April 9, 2010

tegan, sara, and biff.

tegan and sara, as i've mentioned before, have been one of my favourite bands for the past ten years.
and last night, i was finally in the right place at the right time, to see them live.



it was an amazing show.
they played mostly songs off then con and sainthood (which is an excellent album by the way)
with a few songs from so jealous and if it was you for good measure.
as the night went on, i came to accept that they wouldn't be playing anything off their first few albums.
during the encore however, they caught me completely off guard and played divided.

back when i first heard divided, the album under feet like ours was nearly impossible to get a hold of.
so it became a bit of a musical holy quest of mine.
hearing them play it live was awesome, not like tube socks, the literal full of awe kind.
luckily for all tegan and sara fans, under feet like ours is much easier to get a hold of these days.

the encore itself was amazing enough before that moment though, when they came back onstage it was just tegan and sara, no band.
they played an acoustic version of back in your head with sara on guitar and tegan playing the xylophone. it was neat.

then they finished the night off playing living room.
it couldn't have been closer to perfect.

full setlist:
  • The Ocean
  • On Directing
  • The Cure
  • Alligator
  • You Wouldn’t Like Me
  • I Bet It Stung
  • The Con
  • Nineteen
  • Northshore
  • Night Watch
  • Red Belt
  • Monday Monday Monday
  • Where Does The Good Go
  • Speak Slow
  • Walking With A Ghost
  • So Jealous
  • Hop A Plane
  • Sentimental Tune
  • Hell
encore:
  • Back In Your Head
  • Dark Come Soon
  • Divided
  • Call It Off
  • Living Room

like i said, awesome.

tegan and sara are known for their banter, and while there wasn't a ton last night, we did get this great insight into the con:




fun night, great music. i absolutely loved it.
and thanks to last night, i do have to say the ocean is now my favourite off sainthood.
brilliant song.

props to wojo4hitz for capturing last night on video, and mainly music meanderings for compiling the setlist.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

babes


so yes, veronica lake, pinup model, femme fatal, and total babe, known for her wavy hair. she was a major influence on the design of jessica rabbit. 'nuff said.


i told you she was a babe even while she was a boy.


thing is, there's modern actress i'm quite fond of, recently i realized she's a bit like a modern day veronica lake.

the always lovable kristen bell

i mean this in that they're both tiny blonde bombshells, great sex symbols of their respective eras.
i hope bell has a better career than lake though, all the bad romantic comedies she's been in since the end of veronica mars worry me. she's cute, a good actor, and can sing, so there's hope.



especially a babe covered in blood!

what keeps mankind alive

two movies i've watched a month apart, seem to compliment eachother in an interesting way.

sullivan's travels


dogville



both of these take place in roughly the same time period, and focus on tourists in the life of the common folk.
and while they both deal with human nature, they delve into different ends of the spectrum.

sullivan's travels is of note, because it's about a director that wants to make a hard hitting drama, one that triumphs the common man! he plans to name this epic, o' brother, where art thou?
that isn't the coen's only influence from sullivan, barton fink deals with a playwright wanting to triumph the common man in heavy drama as well.
while barton's fate is left largely ambiguous, suillivan on the other head, er hand, after being forced into some hard livin' realizes that the common man doesn't want hard hitting drama, they want feel good comedies.
hence the coen movie.

so once i found out about the coen connection, i knew i had to check this movie out.
and you know, it was decent, it's a great idea for a movie, especially for one from the 40's. it's humourous, has some dramatic moments, and it co-stars veronica lake, the babiest babe that's ever babed.
the movie itself shows the poor and homeless of america, mostly they're not amused by sullivan and his shenanigans. and yet he runs into a lot of kindness. lake, who is down on her luck and leaving california buys him some breakfast. after they get arrested he tells her the truth, and she decides to go with him on his journey to keep him from making a total fool of himself. and even when she's disguised as a boy she's still a babe. that's something to note, smart thinking on her part not going as a beautiful female and all.
other kindness sullivan encounters he later repays, and sadly it leads to his downfall. while handing out money to the poor, a man (that had earlier stolen his shoes) stalks him, knocks him out cold, throws him on a train. while he walks away with the money, he gets hit by the train. so of course everyone thinks sullivan is dead. meanwhile sullivan wakes up with a foggy head, and ends up in jail for assault on a rather pushy and violent railway worker.
he then suffers in prion for awhile, and the heartbroken lake gets some bit parts in hollywood.
while in prison, as a special treat the prisoners get to go to a poor black church and watch cartoons, here he has his realization, good times are what the people want. escapism is the ticket, not cold ugly reality on celluloid.
he comes up with a wacky idea, and it works! he gets out of jail, gets the girls, and cancels all plans for his hard hitting drama.
feel good moments all around.

now dogville on the other hand....

dogville is named such for a few reasons, it has an actual dog, the way the citizens act, what they reduce grace to, and the all negative connotations with the word dog.
the story of dogville is this: somewhere up in the rockies, lives a handful of people on a dead end road, these are simple poor folk. the focus is on tom, the son of a doctor, he fancies himself a philosopher, and a writer, even though he has never actually written anything. he gathers everyone up into the church for what he imagines are inspirational speeches. one night following some gunshots, the mysterious and beautiful grace wanders into town, steals a bone from the dog, and tries to climb the mountain, tom stops her saying it's too dangerous. but he doesn't understand, she needs to get away.
he convinces her to hide in the abandoned silver mine, and lies to the gangsters that show up looking for her, of course he hasn't seen a beautiful woman, nothing exciting happens in dogville. after the gangsters leave he gathers the town and convinces them to let grace stay, none of them are thrilled by this however. eventually though, she wins them over with kindness, helping them out in their day to day life, however soon they come to expect this, and start treating her poorly. tensions grow each time the cops come to look for her, until it reaches the point where one of the men of the town rapes her and says he'll tell the cops if she tries to stop him.
be warned, this is only the beginning.
the man continues to rape grace, until one day his wife sees them, she of course blames grace, her being so beautiful, and a mysterious stranger, of course she seduced him.
while this is going on, tom and grace are in a sexless romance, tom wants to, grace is obviously in no condition. she convinces tom she needs to leave, he steals money for her, and after being raped by the truck driver, she is finally taken out of town.
or so she thinks, it was all just a big ruse, the town thought she might be planning on escaping, and tom lied about the money. so now, back in a pissed off dogville, grace is accused of being a thief and adulteress. as punishment they tie her up on chain. they do it in a way she can still help them, but not escape. and as it follows, soon every man in the village starts raping her, as the narrator point out, they use her for sex, in the way a farmer would use a cow. i would have gone with sheep... however the point still gets across. tom wants to run away with her, he wants to have sex with her, yet she refuses, saying their love means something, the sex won't, not there, not like that, and that if that's all he's after, eventually he'll rape her like every other man. and this pisses tom off, because she's right.
he ends up calling the gangsters that were looking for her that first night, and well, long story short, the head honcho turns out to be her father, and what follows is one of the most satisfying sequences in the history of cinema.

one moment i need to single out and talk about.
earlier on, when the crazy wife thought grace seduced her husband, she decided to punish grace by destroying these figurines grace had been saving up for the entire time she was in dogville. grace pleads with her not to destroy them, didn't she remember, she had watched her children, helped them learn about stoicism. the women then proposes a cruel deal, if grace could demonstrate stoicism after one of the figurines got smashed, she would spare the rest. of course grace cried, and of course all of them got smashed. so when the gangsters were gearing up to kill everyone and set fire to the town, grace told them, with that woman, shoot her kids first, but before tell her, if she can refrain from crying after the first, they won't 't kill the rest of her kids.
sends chills down my spine thinking about it.

the last shot of the film, is the dog, the only surviving resident of dogville, spared by grace as she still owed him, she stole his bone. the dog barks at the sky, or at the camera, whichever. and this is of note as it's the first time the dog isn't just a chalk drawing on the ground.

you see there's something i didn't mention, although i'm sure you noticed if you watched the trailer. the whole movie was shot on a mostly empty lot, with no real sets to speak of. most of the buildings are just chalk outlines, with perhaps some furniture inside. a few houses have windows, the church has the spire. but the rest is just lines on the ground, even the bushes they tend in the garden are little more than cloud shaped drawings. everything is labeled too, in and odd, child like style. it's a rather interesting deconstruction of a movie, and i didn't mention it until now, because it doesn't change the film, it's still this disturbing and gripping tale. when i think back on it, i don't think of the empty space, i think of the drama. my mind's eye fills in the sets, i can see the dirt, there is none in the actual film, but believe me, it's everywhere.

the credits roll with a slideshow of americans throughout the decades, and bowie's young americans plays. some reviews i've read say this gives the movie an anti-american slant, and that's not true, this movie is all about showing the worst and ugliest parts of human nature, it took place in america and the credits seem to reinforce, and point out, that yes, horrible and ugly things like this can and have happened in america. what, don't believe me?

and so there we have it, these movies are two ends of a spectrum, sullivan's showing that in spite of everything there is good in some people, and it will sometimes pay off, dogville shows that humans are animals and treat eachother as such, there is no escaping it, no matter what philosophy or religion you tote. and it's pure simple truth, it's like the realization in i heart huckabees, the wonder of life is in both the shit and the beauty. as my old existentialism teacher used to sing "no, you can't have one without the other"


sullivan's travels:
four out of five

why only four? because despite the happy ending, and sullivan getting the girl, they still don't kiss! you can't have a happy ending without a kiss. for shame moive, for shame. otherwise it's a brilliant movie for it's time, and still really entertaining today.

dogville:
five out of five

for being one of the most brutal and beautiful films i've seen. frightened me more than any horror film. and while i was worried about it before seeing dogville, i'm now honestly terrified to watch watch antichrist.

lastly i'd like to point out that dogville is available streaming on youtube, in it's entirety.
check it out here and thank the odd kindness from lionsgate.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

congratulations


so mgmt's new album has seems to have leaked, in retaliation they're offering it streaming on their website: whoismgmt.com

it's a really enjoyable listen, the second track song for dan treacy is obviously a tribute to television personalities, however at first listen, i guessed the cardiacs.

and oddly enough, some of the tracks, especially the opening, make the iamamiwhoami connection somewhat believable. and in an interesting overlap there is this:



jonna lee, swedish musican, and everyone's favourite pick for iamamiwhoami.
and while i won't deny our mandrake looks incredibly like miss lee, i wouldn't say anything has been confirmed.
her management has denied it being her, she's been silent on the issue, even after performing at SXSW not long after b went live.
also, and most importantly, the music doesn't really fit. jonna lee isn't a bad musican, a few of her songs are quite catchy, however her music is no iamamiwhoami, even noting the tonal shift with b.
iamamiwhoami seems to be lacking her accent as well.
it could well be her, this could be a new sideproject, i can't say, iamnotsurewhoyouare.
like always though, i'll just say, let's wait for the next video to tell us more.