I went back to my hometown of Austin for a few days last week, something I do twice a year to catch up with a few folks who haven't moved, and also to eat BBQ and Tex-Mex (a decent fall-back if you're in the area and short on time, but featuring one of the worst websites known to man: if you click on that, be prepared to hear uber-hack Pat Green singing "Have some tacos and beer and let ourselves go." Tacos and beer! Sodom trembles.). Since I stopped buying CDs pretty much when I got to college, everything I have back home is an automatic nostalgia trip: I will never know any albums as well as I know these, though I'm not sure I want to reclaim the circumstances that made me learn them inside-out in the first place. Back when my income was, um, considerably more straitened, every used CD purchased (new albums? Ha! I was bankrupting the RIAA before it was cool) was a thoughtful investment, to be played something like 8 times each at a minimum. I'd spend hours trolling half.com, freakishly absorbing what the basic price for every CD was, then comparing it to whatever copies I found. This could quite satisfyingly fill up a lot of hours and, as a high school loser, I had a lot of hours to fill. Continue Reading »
The House Next Door
Archive: June, 2008
"Indie 500″: David Bowie, The Spirit of Space/Taft, The Dodos, video round-up
by Vadim Rizov on June 30th, 2008 at 6:00 am in Music
Keith's Korner: Confessions from the Editor (#7)
by Keith Uhlich on June 30th, 2008 at 5:45 am in Film
Two weeks missed. So now that that's over with, let's get back on track:
When I was very young, I received a fuzzy toy caterpillar. Memory suggests that it came in one of those packages with bright cardboard backing, the toy itself encased in plastic lightly smudged with fingerprints. The caterpillar was vibrantly colored (a subtle blend of shades of the rainbow) with big googly eyes that seemed to look outwards and upwards simultaneously. It fit, with only slight dangle, in the palm of my hand, and it was, for all intents and purposes, alive. Continue Reading »
Links for the Day (June 30th, 2008)
by Keith Uhlich on June 30th, 2008 at 5:30 am in Links for the Day
1. Shout out to our friends at Benten Films, who've just put out their 4th release, Matthias Glasner's magnificent The Free Will. GreenCine gathers the reviews thus far. We'll be conducting a Grassroots podcast with the Benten boys this week, for publication in the near future. (And when I get off my lazy ass, I'll be reviewing the disc myself.)
[""Hats off to Benten Films once again for having the guts to release a challenging film like this," writes Charlie Prince at Cinema Strikes Back. "If you can handle uncomfortable dramas, I can't recommend the film enough; it's one of the best films I've seen in the last 10 years.""] Continue Reading »
Doctor Who: Season 4, Ep. 9, "Forest of the Dead"
by Ross Ruediger on June 29th, 2008 at 11:18 am in Television
"Forest of the Dead" is an episode that left me so thoroughly perplexed that I had to see it several times to even begin thinking I understood it. I can honestly say that no installment of the new series (or even classic Who for that matter) confused me as much as this one and if that earns me the nickname "Thick as a Whale Omelet Ruediger," then so be it. I asked for some help from fellow Who/Moffat enthusiasts Steven Cooper, Peet Gelderblom and Chris Hansen, three people whom I figured could help me get to the bottom of it all. They did help, were full of insights and opinions and their words are as important to recap as anything I've got to say. Yet another viewing helped, too, and I'm starting to believe the story is either not as complex as I'd originally thought, or it's so obtuse that I'm never truly going to see the bigger picture. Continue Reading »
Links for the Day (June 29th, 2008)
by Keith Uhlich on June 29th, 2008 at 7:22 am in Links for the Day
1. "La Notte di San Lorenzo: Film or Theater?": A Dan Sallitt article from earlier in the week on The Taviani Brothers' Night of the Shooting Stars. DVDBeaver disc comparisons (from which the above image is grabbed) here.
["After watching ten minutes of the movie, I came to the conclusion that the Tavianis are really theater directors! Not an insult, to my mind...but theirs is not a very pure form of cinema."] Continue Reading »
Eisenstein + Biggie Smalls = Gunnin' For That #1 Spot
by Keith Uhlich on June 28th, 2008 at 12:28 pm in Film
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch tricks out his new documentary, Gunnin' For That #1 Spot, with a ton of aural and editorial bling, and I daresay the results would inspire Eisenstein himself to proffer an affirming nod from the great beyond. There's clear method behind each and every of Yauch's multiple cuts, freeze-frames, digital zooms, overlays, and transpositions, all of which are countered and/or harmonized by a truly awesome soundtrack that skips effortlessly (though never nonsensically) between numerous funk and hip-hop tracks—Kool and the Gang bumping up 'gainst Jay-Z; Afrika Bambaataa going head-to-head with Biggie Smalls.
Yauch's aesthetics are impressive, but his meanings are muddled.
___________________________________________________
To read the rest of the review at UnderGroundOnline, click here.
Links for the Day (June 28th, 2008)
by Keith Uhlich on June 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am in Links for the Day
1. "24Lies & The House to Merge": An important announcement from 24LiesASecond editor, and House contributor, Peet Gelderblom. Related: At De Palma a la Mod, site moderator Geoff Beran has added a comments function so discussions begun at the De Palma-centric 24Lies can continue.
["I have good news and bad news, everybody... First the bad: In the next few months, the 24LiesASecond website as you've come to know it will cease to exist. Now the good: 24LiesASecond will merge with The House Next Door."] Continue Reading »
Why $140 a Barrel Isn't High Enough
by Sal Cinquemani on June 28th, 2008 at 2:12 am in Politics
Back in the '80s, saving the world seemed so easy. I have a Polaroid picture of myself wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and a self-satisfied grin after my kindergarten class sang along to a cassette tape of "We Are the World" for all of our parents. In first grade, my school went out in the playground and created a human chain for 15 minutes as part of Hands Across America. At home, my mother used to cut the plastic rings that hold six-packs before throwing them in the garbage so marine wildlife wouldn't get caught in them when our trash got dumped in the ocean. Each week we gathered up all of our bottles and cans and newspapers and magazines and brought them to the local recycling center. I felt proud as I took the bundles from the backseat of the car and threw them into the giant receptacles. We didn't realize then that even if all of our friends and neighbors across the country were doing the same things, we wouldn't even make a dent in the problems we'd been causing since the Industrial Revolution.
In 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen (now an advisor to Al Gore and a professor at Columbia University) testified before Congress about climate change. The idea of global warming, which I'd heard about in science class, was about as distant and farfetched as the idea that the sun was going to expand and swallow the earth in five billion years. We could recycle and plant trees and sing songs until we were blue in the face but what was required to reverse course was fundamental change at the federal level. There would need to be massive changes in the way we function as a society. Entire industries would have to recalibrate to those changes. Some businesses might even go out of business. (The sun turning into a red giant was another problem altogether.) But no politician was going to legislate the loss of jobs, and it's clear little has been accomplished in the two decades since Hansen went public with his concerns. Continue Reading »
"He's the Internet": A Conversation on Satoshi Kon
by Brendon Bouzard, Keith Uhlich and John Lichman on June 27th, 2008 at 8:59 pm in Film
By Brendon Bouzard, John Lichman, and Keith Uhlich
[Satoshi Kon: Beyond Imagination opens today at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and runs through July 1st. Click here for details. In anticipation of the retrospective, Brendon Bouzard, John Lichman, and Keith Uhlich gathered at Grassroots Tavern to discuss Kon and his work. See after the break for their podcast conversation and a transcript, slightly edited for clarity.]
Fear Itself: "In Sickness and in Health"
by Brian Holcomb on June 27th, 2008 at 1:05 pm in Television
Episode four of NBC's Fear Itself brings together several "masters of horror" with director John Landis at the helm and Jeepers Creepers creator Victor Salva penning the script. Salva's story plays like an old-fashioned radio play—a woman-in-peril melodrama filled with phony red herrings and a plot hook that immediately telegraphs its twist ending. Still, there's a definite tongue-in-cheek tone to the script that suggests that Salva is knowingly playing with old formula while Landis brings his usual charm and energy to the telling of the tale.
As the title In Sickness and in Health suggests, the episode takes place during a wedding. Maggie Lawson and James Roday from the USA Network series Psych play the bride and groom, Samantha and Carlos. Samantha's bridesmaids and childhood friends Ruthie (Sonja Bennett) and Kelly (Christie Laing) are supportive but concerned that their friend is rushing into marriage without knowing Carlos really well, and a mysterious note Samantha receives minutes before walking down the aisle causes particular alarm. It reads: "The person you are marrying is a serial killer." Continue Reading »
The Brave One: Trumbo
by Lauren Wissot on June 27th, 2008 at 8:07 am in Film
[Trumbo opens today at Manhattan's Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Sunshine Cinema. Click theater names for screening info.]
Trumbo, Peter Askin's poignant, mind-stirring documentary about the defiantly prolific screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy era, based on a play written by his son Christopher (from letters Trumbo wrote during that tumultuous period) is essential viewing for all film critics—any professional writer really—recently affected by the economic recession. To call Trumbo tenacious, awe-inspiring, a courageous hero doesn't do the man justice. How many writers working today would accept poverty and prison, shame and exile to stand by their convictions—and do it for ten long years? How many writers in 2008 would have prefaced that with nearly another decade stoically working as a night bread wrapper for an L.A. bakery while studying at USC, repossessing motorcycles, reviewing films for a trade magazine—and churning out six novels and eighty-eight short stories (all of which would be rejected for publication)? To all those laid off writers I say, if you can't write without a paycheck being involved then you've no business considering yourself in the same profession as Mr. Trumbo (thus you probably didn't deserve that paycheck in the first place. Ah, isn't karma sweet?) Continue Reading »
Links for the Day (June 27th, 2008)
by Keith Uhlich on June 27th, 2008 at 6:41 am in Links for the Day
1. "Family of faggot fans fly the flag": There are no words... (Hattip: John Lichman, a sick, sick man.)
[" A West Midlands family is playing a central role in the quest to raise the profile of a forgotten British dish - faggots. The Doody family from Wolverhampton has been crowned The Faggot Family in a national competition, and to kick off their reign they will launch National Faggot Week."] Continue Reading »
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 2008: Letter to Anna
by Lauren Wissot on June 26th, 2008 at 6:30 am in Festivals, Film
[Letter to Anna premieres today at the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 2008. Click here for screening information.]
In Letter to Anna, Swiss director Eric Bergkraut juxtaposes interviews he shot with the crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya—before her still unsolved murder in the lobby of her apartment building on Vladimir Putin's 54th birthday in October 2006—with interviews with family and colleagues to create a personal video diary of a woman fueled by an obsession with justice, more a tribute than a "letter" or film. Though dry and straightforward, even clunky in spots (especially when narrated in the English language version by Susan Sarandon, standing in for the filmmakers), the doc is a low-key, respectful summation of a life that resembled a tabloid-ready espionage thriller. Continue Reading »
Links for the Day (June 26th, 2008)
by Keith Uhlich on June 26th, 2008 at 5:44 am in Links for the Day
1. "The Guys We Would Fuck": Paddy Johnson interviews Nayland Blake at Art Fag City.
["Nobody can accuse artist Nayland Blake of poor titling. The Guys We Would Fuck, the attention grabbing headline of his current curatorial efforts at Monya Rowe not only caught my eye, but does exactly what it claims; ask participants to chose the men they'd fuck. Constructed by way of a meme, the exhibition will continue to grow throughout the duration of the show as those initially chosen by Blake invite others to participate. Tall, bearish and adorned with tattoos, Nayland Blake is a well known and active figure within both the kink and fine art community. He also has a reputation for blurring such distinctions; over the past twenty years the artist has drawn from his experiences as a gay mixed African American as a means of investigating that complex identity. I sat down with the artist recently to discuss his latest show, S&M and other related themes in his work, and his opinions on gay marriage."] Continue Reading »
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 2008: Letter to Anna
by Rob Humanick on June 25th, 2008 at 2:36 pm in Festivals, Film
Letter to Anna's greatest strength—a no-nonsense, straightforward approach that heralds hard facts and concrete documentation over polished style and structured pacing—is also its greatest limitation. Like No End in Sight's all-encompassing deconstruction of Bush's Iraq war, Eric Bergkraut's film forgoes cinematic artistry in favor of pure information, a decision that renders the cumulative effect somewhat bipolar in its efforts to straddle separate mediums but a worthy sacrifice if the potential result is greater awareness of its chosen subject matter. Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaïa was among Vladimir Putin's most vocal dissenters, an accomplished journalist who sought out the stories in most dire need of telling regardless of the dangerous baggage that accompanied her efforts. Though loved and respected by many, her singular dedication to human rights (regardless of the political particulars at hand) made her a loner in constant danger of violence, whether it be on her many trips to the war-torn ghettos of Chechnya or on her way home from a trip to the local grocer. Her role as a martyr was solidified when a government assassin gunned her down on her own steps on October 7th, 2006, and the understandably awestruck Letter to Anna suggests that such tragedy only further empowers her life's work, a point emphasized not only by the opening scenes of crowds mourning her death but by the decision to interweave footage of a very lively and passionate Anna with that of friends and family speaking after her death. Assembled from stock footage, historical recordings and news broadcasts, and narrated by Susan Sarandon, Letter to Anna proves far more invigorating in content than form, though the use of quotidian imagery—such as a shadowy cemetery used as a backdrop against a voiceover discussion on genocide and justice—gives it a much-needed occasional stab of poetic poignancy.
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