Recently i was introduced to an independent comic publisher called Com.x. I was very impressed with their material and felt it was worthy of a write up here.
45
The idea of examining the archetype of the superhero in the context of real world society has been done since Allan Moore's Watchmen with varying degrees of success. 45 is a book that can definitely be considered a success. The premise is that a journalist who is about to have his first child and is concerned that his newborn will have the super-s gene decides to interview 45 superheroes of all ages, genders, races. What emerges from these interviews is a human tapestry as varied and complex as most novels, with the interviewee's struggles and triumphs transcending the limits of the genre. It's nothing new for comics to be considered complex reading for adults and to be taken seriously as literature. It's books like 45 that make this possible. This is a perfect graphic novel for people in their 30s who grew up reading comics and know that there is no limits to the medium.
Path
Path is an all-ages parable about friendship, life, courage, death and the sacrifices we are willing to make to feel accepted. And it involves rabbits and elephants. As heartwarming, and at times, heartbreaking as the bond between Doppler (the rabbit) and Dodge (the elephant) can be, it is really the art here that gives the story weight and grace. The artwork is so textured and dense it almost feels tangible and screams with personality. It begs to be an animated feature. if i was a Hollywood producer I'd snag up this property post haste. Buy this, read it with your kids and fall in love with it.
Music speaks for me, and not just my own that I write. That's why it is just so damn good and crucial. It says what you want when you can't quite express it in words or maybe didn't even think about it that way. It's incendiary - haha...mixing rock music and movies here-(Almost Famous if you somehow don't already know & Brad this is for you). That's why I HAVE to live my life with music- listening to it, creating it, bonding with it, going into the depths of/with it = I. Couldn't. Live. Without. It. Music's nostalgic to me always because my emotions get drenched in what I am listening to at the time of what I'm saturated with and vice versa. I wake up listening to it, I fall asleep doing the same. I play it (literally) over coffee and I play it over drink. And I would never change a thing. I know I'm not the only one.
Right now I am listening to a bunch of stuff but I just downloaded Hole's (not the orig obviously -which I kinda think should be named something different without Eric Erlandson and Melissa Auf Der Maur) album Nobody's Daughter. Nevertheless, I Love Courtney. I just do. She is freaking honest, has huge balls and she is an underrated songwriter. We all know she can perform and has her very own persona- after watching a doc on her last night and seeing her closet I really want to raid it- she also has an impeccable, majestic style that is underrated. I dig Nobody's Daughter, not unlike Marianne Faithfull's (another of my favorite rockdolls) weathered voice you can hear the hardness C Love had to endure in hers. Listen to it. Listen to it loud as it says at the bottom of the preface and for fuck's sake get the Explicit version.
Some lyrics that stick out to me and what's really cool of course is that what she wrote and what I take from it are from two completely different beings with two completely different experiences, but who can take something from the words and have it completely mean something just the same :
"People like you fuck people like me fuck people like you fuck people like me.." in Samantha
"Sunday morning when the rain begins to fall I believe I've seen the end of it all ... I've got the cure for it all" Someone Else's Bed
"Oh I've been cheated covered in diamonds covered in filth" For Once in Your Life
"You are beautiful, you are glorious Now you're covered in loser dust" "Your youth is gone, it's turned to rust" Loser Dust
"And the rain it came down And the wind it moaned And she wrapped her legs around him" How Dirty Girls Get Clean
"It's a long ride home, and my head is bowed" Never Go Hungry
"Hey I burn better in the dark" Happy Ending Story
Plus....included is the visual Digital Booklet which I adore because it's the closest thing to a tangible album or CD cover of yesteryear that I so miss. Fittingly this one is prefaced with a poetic heavy but beautiful paragraph about light, love, birth, death, stars etc. titled with Per Incendia ut Astrum /Through the Fire to the Stars and it starts with .."Nobody's Daughter is dedicated to all the motherless children...." I unfortunately relate to that too in a way ..or should I say fortunately. Fortunate that I have something to relate to and someone who relates. For that, for the artists (or people) that aren't afraid to be real and for their music that bares it I will do the same and am forever grateful. **
[Author's Note: The following is an unfinished blog post. I just couldn't figure out how to wrap words around these films. I took notes; I have plenty more to say. If you watch them/it, let me know.]
They are no longer running separately at the IFC Center in NYC, and I don't know if all three films ("1974," "1980," and "1983") making up the Channel Four trilogy Red Riding are still available "On Demand" from Time Warner Cable. Eventually you should be able to rent them through Netflix.com and other venues. And, of course, one is always welcome to purchase such things on DVD (or in their original 4-book form).
However you are able to do it, I highly recommend you experience Red Riding, but be warned -- it's hard stuff.
On Super Bowl Sunday 2010, I braved the first weekend of The IFC Road Show tour and watched all three parts in one 5 1/2 hour sitting. Since then, I have felt a bit paralyzed by the experience -- unable to say much or write on the subject, studiously avoiding all the reviews piling up around me. I just couldn't process the totality of what I'd seen.
How can I describe what happened, to me or onscreen, in an intelligible way for those who haven't experienced it? I still feel in danger of failure. My marathon viewing is partly the culprit. Wannabe cinemaniac that I am, I'd never before sat for so long in one theater (two 15-minute breaks notwithstanding). The closest I'd come was watching the overlong Inland Empire in that same theater (during which, frankly, I wished to take a nap so that it would be over a little sooner). But it's the films themselves that really cripple me. I would both watch all three again immediately in a quest for a deeper understanding, at the same time that I never want to go back to their world.
Watching Red Riding the night I did was my chosen alternative to several Super Bowl parties, and it felt freeing to choose a wide parcel of film over that nearly compulsory (in this country, anyway) day of sport. That Sunday evening, at the movies, I felt like myself -- asserting my own identity, thrilled to be sinking deeper into the soft chair of the theater as I became immersed in the brutal, velvet world of the R.R. trilogy. I felt like myself, as I just wrote, yet accosted, and perilously close to despair. So it progressed.
I've seen many films (and television shows) with story lines revolving around serial killers. But Red Riding is different. It's a horse of a bloodier color, with a relentless gait. At moments I could stand apart as a viewer "watching a film." And then, if I may be so bold, there were moments I would feel a sensation that something desperately important was happening.
Occasionally I was central and centered, a bit like Roger Ebert is described in Esquire'snow infamous article. Though, dear me, I'm not really comparing myself to Ebert, I did find myself feeling crucial and powerful, scribbling notes into a ringed pad in the dark, surrounded by the films, but held apart. And then I felt, at other times, like a lost child or faceless stranger in their world. My persona slipped away and I lost myself in the spectacle. It was "just a movie" (three movies), but it felt like more.
So, it was/they were (each and together) a singular experience and singular experiences. I was surrounded and enveloped at once by beauty, intelligence, talent, and horror. I was no one and the world was impossibly angry and raw. How could there be any good left in it?
As I mentioned above, the presentation I attended included two fifteen-minute breaks. These breaks came between films one and two. During each intermission, I found myself in the IFC's lovely, lonesome women's bathroom, dug deep along one edge of the theater's mouse-maze of a basement (yes, perhaps this description is a bit dramatic, but that's how it felt).
Anyway, watching films often makes me feel vulnerable, but this was a special night. Each time I took my stretch-my-legs-buy-a-snack-breathe-again break, I found myself in that bathroom, looking introspectively into the mirror, my eyes slightly red from strain -- and, each time, I felt compelled to apply a coat of the lipstick that just happened to be rolling around the bottom of my bag. I twice found I needed to put lipstick on before I could return to my seat and begin the next film in the trilogy. Why? It didn't feel like vanity. It felt like necessity. I think it was armor. I applied the color so I might feel more human, more tied to something outside the off-kilter, too familiar, wrong and punishing world of Red Riding.
I am very excited to see the big screen adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Judging from this trailer Edgar Wright has managed to not only faithfully adapt the comic, but also kept the series fun loving, innocent spirit intact. I don't know how well this film will go over with those not familiar with the source material, and quite frankly I don't care. Being a nerd/geek means you are part of small community. We care how our favorite stories are adapted for screens, but we could care less if the mass of movie goers like it or not.. Or at least that is how I am. In the end I have faith that edgar was enough of a true fan to really GET the stories. Judging by this trailer I don't think we have anything to be worried about...
Before I begin i have to apologize for the size of the picture. I know it's small, but it was what I could find so deal with it kiddies. As I was browsing Netflix's selections I stumbled across a 5 volume collection called 42nd st forever. 5 DVDs of nothing but trailers Grindhouse movies played in the theaters of old Times Square. if you're old enough to remember when these films were shown, it will probably make you miss the sleazy days of old New York. If you aren't then these trailers are a curious and often hilarious relic to a pre-Disney NYC. These movies were shot in the 70s and it is interesting to see how sexism and racism were alive and well (check out the trailer for Corruption that states "we are so convinced that no woman will want walk home alone after seeing Corruption that no woman by herself will be allowed in" or the trailer for a blaxploitation movie simply called Nigger Charley.. sure he gets his revenge on whitey in the film but a title like that?) These trailers also hearken back to a time when porn was still shown in theaters, one of the standouts being the preview for Sly Stallone's infamous porn flick. Judging from the campiness of these films it is impossible fro me to believe that they are worse than the horror schlock Hollywood feeds us these days. if i could I'd see every one of these if they were available on DVD.
A few weeks ago I had the privilege to see Little Steven Van Zandt give an interview at the 92nd St YMCA. Although he focused on his new projects (his Underground Garage radio show and a website he is planning to launch at the end of the year), he had a good time reminiscing about his time on the Sopranos and the E Street Band and his role in taking down apartheid (he wrote and recorded the "We Won't Play Sun City" single). The main gist of his talk though had to do with love of 50's rock n roll. An era he described as a "renaissance". This is a man who has seen a lot, and contributed in a significant way to the history of rock music and television, but still remains down to earth. If only more celebrities were like this.
As much as I enjoy "Empire State OF Mind" (living in the New York area how could I not, right?), I have to ask why did you sell out so bad on your Elements of Freedom album? You have so much more in you than boring hip hop beats and lame string samples. I've heard you play piano. I've heard you sing. Dig deep girl. I know you can do it. Don't settle for production that was played out in '92. I know the temptation is strong to put out a radio friendly unit shifter, but maybe.. just maybe if you made an honest record next time you could be a legend. An icon. Stop thinking Mariah Carey and start thinking Billie Hoiliday. The music that influnced you is jazz and blues not commercial R&B. And don't try arguing with me, I hear it in your earlier music. It's unmistakable and powerful. There's a saying in politics. You Dance With the One What Brung Ya. You're wearing a ball gown so stop trying to dance with the new arrivals in the baggy jeans and crooked baseball hats. it's making you look ridiculous.
If I learned one thing from reading Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 80s is that the medium of the mini comic is one of the purest, cheapest and uncompromising forms of DIY culture there is.. Or was.. the Internet has made the art form a bit archaic. Many of the artists featured in this collection were influenced by a mix of punk rock, dada, the 60s underground comics of Crumb and his ilk and as a response to the oppressive policies of the Reagan administration. They were cheap to make and copy and quickly put together. The result is an almost stream of consciousness surrealism who's mere existence is rebellion. This is a child's first go at dirty drawings sprinkled with cynicism and experience. This book does a great job of collecting some of the best examples and putting them into historical perspective with interviews of the creators. This is a great introduction to and underground scene almost lost to the march of time and technology.
This picture reminds me of the 90's more than the 70's when it was taken but I have been feeling back to my roots lately and wanting to put a big purple streak in my hair like I did in the 90's..then I found this pic of Stevie with one. Now I'm really going to do it. Will post it when done. Nothing like nostalgia.
Although it didn't make my top 10, Up In the Air had an effect on me. The sterile atmosphere of airplanes and airports as well as the plight of the unemployed was both a fitting metaphor and a scary personal reminder of both emotional detachment and the perils of the economic crash. I have been unemployed myself for almost 5 months now, but I am managing to keep it together as are the millions of others in my shoes. The worries expressed by the characters getting fired in Up In the Air have gone through my head. It was a small comfort to see them expressed on film. The emotional component was a little more troubling. Do we need personal connections to feel complete or can we be happy going alone, blazing a trail while being a ghost to others. I guess in the end it is a personal choice.. I'll leave you with two quotes from the movie..
"How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks."
"The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places; and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over."
Self Love. Self love and confidence is not afraid to make statements in photo. Even if that means ugly. I relate to her. So very much. She's one of my favorite artists. Because she's got the same imagination I do. Unafraid to be ugly. Knowing she's Beautiful making statements with her persona. That's not easy. To take on many faces. Even without make up. I emulate her. She's brilliant. If you don't know her work you should inform yourself.
Above you will find trailers to two movies. One was a low budget musical that has become a cult hit and the other is a big budget Hollywood film with a list actors. I realize that movies get made with similar plots (we all remember Armageddon and Deep Impact), but two movie that share a plot this outrageous seems a bit of a stretch. I haven't seen Repo Men yet (it comes out in April) so I'm not making judgements as to which film is better.. I'm just genuinely curious if there is tie that these films have that i do not realize. According to IMDB Repo men is based on a novel written in 2009 and Repo the Genetic Opera came out in late 2008.. Does anybody out in internet land know if these films share a common link?
Looks like we've been watching too much Big Love at my house. I think we'll only be getting two out of the three items on this shopping list.
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P.S. I don't have HBO, so I'm watching it on DVD, and I'm a season behind. Could everyone in the world please agree not to talk about episodes until a year after they've aired?
Sidebar: Am I the only person who still identifies certain actors as "[character name] from Twin Peaks" when I see them onscreen, no matter what or how much they've done since? Grace Zabriskie (Lois on Big Love) is not "Susan's mom on Seinfeld." She's Mrs. [Laura's mom] Palmer.
Also, as long as we're on the subject, Kyle MacLachlan will never be "Charlotte's husband on Sex and the City" or "Orson from Desperate Housewives" to me.
Die Antwoord means "The Answer." I'm currentlykind of infatuatedwiththeseguys. This despite the fact that it is my general tendency to not listen to much music recorded by people who are still alive.
I'll be the first to admit that as a straight 30 something male I might not be the audience for a book like Unlovable, yet I can't help but be moved by the misadventures of Tammy Pierce. I may not understand, but I can accept, that being a teenage girl is rough stuff and Unlovable brings all the trials and tribulations of the American teen into a horrifying yet funny light. Unlovable is a graphic novel translation of a diary found in a rest stop bathroom in 1995. The action described happened in the 80s. As much of a time capsule as it is, this book is universal. No matter what decade we went through our teens in we've all felt like Tammy at some point.. Unlovable. Funny, tragic, hopeful, depressing and everything in between, This is a book that will help us all realize that being a teenager was traumatizing, but not all that bad.
Precious would probably be tied with my number 10 movie of 2009. I've mentioned to people who have both seen the film and read the book that I like the film better. Most look at me like I have two heads. The main difference between the two is that the book gives you an internal view of Precious' life while the film puts the audience in the role of the outsider looking in on a tragic yet hopeful life. I found the outsiders view much more touching and heartbreaking. No matter how much the viewer wants to help her, there is no way in. We watch helplessly as Precious deals with hardships we could never imagine, and are that much more uplifted when she manages to eek out a victory from the mouth of defeat. Precious is about overcoming adversity, those placed on us by society and by those who should love us the most. Deep down we'd all like to think we can deal with the worst that life has to throw us and seeing Precious do it gives us a thrill. Precious is by no means an easy film to watch, but through the bleakness there is one thing that shines. Hope. And that is why it such a triumph.
In the Loop is a tricky, wry film that somehow manages to be outrageously funny and deeply depressing at once. Call me a cynic when it comes to Washington, war, and international relations, but I have a feeling there really might be a battle of evil vs. the inept (with a few intelligent people caught impotently in the periphery) playing out in the back rooms of foreign politics. However, I doubt real life machinations are this funny, or that the cursing is so inspired.
Stylistically, although it isn't suggested in the plot that there is a documentary film crew shooting the action, the hand-held camerawork and dialogue's racing wit mean the movie unfolds like a there's been a marriage between the British series "The Office" and the American version of "The Office," one of whom has had a brief affair with Wag the Dog but come back to the relationship ready to work it out. It's about politics, as I've insinuated, instead of paper and is capped off by a lovely cameo from Steve Coogan. In a special twist, American political aid Chad is Gareth, British Secretary of State for International Development Simon Foster is David Brent, Dharma's mom bleeds from the mouth, and Tony Soprano wants peace (but, then didn't he always, to a certain extent)?
This isn't to say it's derivative. On the contrary, In the Loop is its own animal, a thick film that starts strong and keeps firing until the end. "It's all fun and games until somebody gets an eye poked out," as the saying goes. I was left in the dust like nearly everyone in the movie when it was all over, but -- wartime or peacetime -- it's never really all over, is it? Not while there's a politician left in Washington or Number 10 Downing Street...
Moon (dir. Duncan Jones, aka David Bowie's son) is one of those films I meant to see in the theater when it first came out, simply on the strength of the poster, but I never made a priority. Lately, I've been seeing the title popping up on critics' "Best of 2009" lists (including that of the previous post), and when I re-watched the uneven The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy after Christmas with my parents it reminded me of my fondness for Sam Rockwell (dating back to Confessions of a Dangerous Mind). All these signs pointed to, "Watch Moon!," so I made it a priority on my Netflix queue (better a late priority than never) and got it done this evening.
You know what? I can't take the chance that I might give something away and ruin the film for someone who hasn't seen it.
But I would like to talk about the following topics:
overlapping edits
claustrophobia versus space
isolation and insanity
unobtrusive CGI - finally!
should robot voices be faster?
future/not future
low-budget look
Primer -- and if you've enjoyed Moon, but not watched Primer, you must rent it immediately
If you went to the movies in 2009, it was good to be a kid. From Spike Jonze's uncompromising take on Where the Wild Things Are to Pixar's latest triumph, Up, the films aimed at children where better this year than any in recent memory. Adults weren't completely left out in the cold thanks to films ranging form the funny (The Hangover)to the deadly serious (The Hurt Locker). Call it the dawn of the Obama age or maybe we all just needed a little cheering up after losing our jobs, all in all the films of 2009 showed a return to optimism. Here are my top 10 films of the year.
10.
The Hurt Locker
Time may very well prove the The Hurt Locker is to the Iraq War what Apocalypse Now was to the Viet Nam War, the definitive film about the conflict. What make this film so powerful is its honesty. It does not pick a political agenda to convey, it just portrays the war from the eyes of those that live it. Tense, gritty and unapologetic.
9.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
If you are among the folks who think that Hipster darling Wes Anderson directing a stop motion animated adaption of a RoaldDahl novel is a dream come true you are right. If half the films using real actors had the heart soul that this little cartoon does I would never leave theaters. I challenge you to find an adult who wouldn't enjoy Mr. Fox's adventures trying to save his home.
8.
The Brothers Bloom
The Brothers Bloom manages to be fun while also being a metaphor for the search for identity. It's always fun to learn if you are being entertained at the same time, hell that's one of the reasons I love film. It's no wonder I liked this one so much.
7.
500 Days of Summer
I like my fair share of indie rock and have felt my fair share of pain over women. This movie is tailored made for my sensibilities. Normally I hate love stories with a, pardon the pun, passion. But ever so often one come along that knocks me for a loop because I see so much of myself in it. This year it was 500 Days of Summer.
6.
Moon
Moon is a rare thing. It is a science fiction film that is more psychological than futuristic, examining what makes us human and not relying on effects or mindless action. I'd say this film is the best of its kind since Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sam Rockwell gives a great performance as an isolated astronaut stuck on a moon base. It's not the CGI that makes for great sci fi cinema, it's the human condition.
5.
Up
I expect a lot out of a Pixar movie and so far I have not been disappointed. Up is another near perfect movie. As with Moon, what stands out about Up is its humanity. And its emotional range. Up is funny, sad, nostalgic, bittersweet, innocent and joyful all at the same time. Many movies claim to have something for everyone, Up truly does.
4. Star Trek
J.J. Abrams did the impossible. He made Star trek cool again with a hip new cast playing classic characters and a plotline that paid homage to the original and pushed it forward for a new audience. The success of this film has some critics calling it the first film of the Obama age, leaving the brooding films of the Dubya years behind it. Truth is Star Trek has always been about the hope for a better, more hopeful tomorrow. It just so happens that now more people are willing to believe it is possible.
3. Avatar
I have to admit that one of the reasons I like Avatar so much is that my expectations were low going it to it. What I saw blew my mind. Since I've seen it I've been telling people "even if you don't like science fiction, see this in the theater. It is like no other film you've ever seen". But it wasn't just the visuals that sold me. When it comes to the story this film is all about balance. James Cameron my push the medium of film forward with new technology every film he makes, but his genius is that he knows how to tell a story. The love story could have been overwrought and saccharin and the battle scenes soulless and tired, instead you feel for these characters. As I write this Avatar is the second highest grossing motion picture of all time. It deserves it.
2. Watchmen
Watchmen is one of my favorite books, so I reacted with excited and trepidation when it became certain this film was going to be released. I am happy to say it met my expectations. I never expected such a faithful adaption (I can live without the squid at the end). I know the great failure of this film was that it failed to make converts and fans out of people who hadn't read the book. I don't care about them. I was in my own personal geek heaven watching this and commend Zach Snyder on doing the Herculean task of getting the unfilmable graphic novel on to the screen with as little compromised or cut out.
1. InglouriousBasterds
QT has done it again. Years in the making, Quentin Tarrantino had talked in interviews almost since the days of Pulp Fiction about the WW2 masterpiece he wanted to make. Finally the wait is over. A masterpiece? Maybe not quite, but it is audacious enough to be the most fun had at the movies all year. Inglourious Basterds is full of Tarrantino's trademark dialogue and ingenious use of music, but still feels epic. And if Christoph Waltz is not nominated for a Oscar for his portrayal of twisted "Jew Hunter" Hans Landa there is no justice
