The Trappings of a Misspent Adulthood

Thank you, friends!

2007-02-05T21:17:16Z

Hey there,
I just wanted to thank everyone who listened the "Top 20 Indie Albums of 2006" episode of my downloadable radio show, 120 Megabytes. It turned out to be a (relatively) huge success, with more than three times as many downloads (22) as my previously most popular show (7). There's been a ton of newly-leaked albums over the past few weeks, so expect Episode 6 to have a sleeker, more varied sound. I'll most likely be transitioning from giving 5 artists 15 minutes apiece to playing 8 artists for 8-10 minutes this time around. We'll see...

I've been listening and slotting for the past week or so, and plan to record this next weekend (the 10th & 11th). Hopefully, I'll be able to have links posted before hitting the sack Sunday night.

Thanks again!

120 Megabytes counts down the Top 20 Indie Albums of 2006

2007-01-15T01:23:57Z

Episode 4 of 120 Megabytes -- up and ready to go!

2006-11-30T06:50:26Z

Hey everyone,
The latest installment of my radio show is up and ready for your listening pleasure. Before you feast your ears, however, I've got a few things I wanna say.

First off, I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who's been downloading the show and checking it out. When I did my first episode a couple of months ago, I was a little bummed when nobody downloaded it. However, a few folks gave the second episode a listen, and by the time the third program came out, I managed to get all the way up to seven downloads. Now, I know that's not a whole lot of people, but at least the number's continuing to go up, which leads me to believe that people are liking what they hear and coming back (in fact, someone even went back and grabbed a copy of that first program!). So, again, thanks to everyone for making the time and effort of doing these shows worth it!

The second thing I wanna mention is Episode Five, which should be coming out in a few weeks. It's going to be a double episode that counts down my Top 20 indie releases of 2006, so look for that sometime around Christmas break.

Okay, enough of my blabbering -- here ya go:

120 Megabytes: Episode Four - 224 kbps (120 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Four - 192 kbps (102 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Four - 128 kbps (71 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Four - 64 kbps (34 MB)

Enjoy!

Episode 3 of 120 Megabytes -- out now!

2006-10-30T07:27:34Z

Here ya go, folks:

In my opinion, it's the best show I've done yet. The streams:

120 Megabytes: Episode Three - 256 kbps (120 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Three - 192 kbps (89 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Three - 128 kbps (62 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Three - 64 kbps (32 MB)

Hope you enjoy it!

120 Megabytes: Episode 2 -- Available NOW!!!

2006-09-27T00:21:50Z

Hey everyone,
Here's the second installment of my bi-monthly downloadable radio show, 120 Megabytes.

I've added a few extra streams, so potential listeners of varying Internet speeds / hard drive spaces should all be able to find something to their liking. Remember, though, that the smaller the file, the less audio quality (although I've listened to the the 64 kbps version and, at least on headphones, it sounds fine).

Here you go:

120 Megabytes: Episode Two - 256 kbps (120 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Two - 192 kbps (101 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Two - 128 kbps (71 MB)
120 Megabytes: Episode Two - 64 kbps (35 MB)

I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks and hope you enjoy it!

Okay, so...

2006-09-06T08:46:01Z

Things got kinda real at work for a few weeks, so this took a little longer to post than I was expecting. It's finally here, though -- the inaugral edition of 120 Megabytes, my bi-monthly (meaning twice a month, not once every two months) look at upcoming releases from the world of independent music.

This premiere episode features tracks from the latest albums by Junior Boys, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Xiu Xiu, Dani Siciliano, and Yo La Tengo. The show runs sixty-seven minutes and forty-one seconds.

Here is a link for you to download the show and give it a listen:
120 Megabytes: Episode One - 256 kbps (120 MB)

For those who'd prefer a smaller file with slightly less audio quality:
120 Megabytes: Episode One - 192 kbps VBR (86 MB)

If anyone would like a different bitrate / filesize, just post a comment with your preference and I'll do my best to fill your request as soon as possible. Also, these links should be good for up to 90 days. However, if anyone is having a problem with them, please post a comment and I'll try to get it sorted in a hurry.

In closing, I'd just like to provide a brief caveat:

I have no broadcasting experience or education. I'm well aware that the pronunciation of my P's and S's is a little too hard. I assure you, I'm working on it, and will most likely be picking up a pop filter sometime soon. I also know that, at times, the background music on my vocals is a little too high, and that I opted to keep takes that included a stumble or two (rather than starting from scratch). Please try to keep in mind that I'm learning as I go.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy it!

eud0xia @ 2006-08-07T14:02:00

2006-08-07T21:08:34Z

picked up one of these babies over the weekend:

expect my first foray into the world of podcasting sometime within the next week.

Tomzorz,
If you happen to read this -- provided that my show doesn't suck, what do you think my chances are of scoring a slot in ye olde endgame radio lineup?

myspace jawns

2006-04-24T21:45:26Z

Hey peoples,
So, I put together a myspace page the other day. If anybody wants to add me (or just have a laugh at my expense), my page can be viewed at http://www.myspace.com/e_u_d_o_x_i_a

Holla!

Giving credit where it's due

2006-03-30T03:48:38Z

Okay, so... for a long time I've been very critical of the RIAA's member labels and how they've gone about repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot with regard to the Internet. Well, it looks like the majors (or, at least one major) is starting to get a clue.

Yesterday, Def Jam / Island released Fishscale, the new album by a rapper named Ghostface. This highly anticipated follow-up to one of 2004's best albums, Ghostface's The Pretty Toney Album, has been receiving one rave review after another from numerous influential online music publications (the top dog of online criticism, pitchforkmedia.com, gave it a 9.0 out of 10 -- tying Ghostface with Liars' Drum's Not Dead for the highest grade they've given to a new release so far this year). In the ramp up to the album's release, a couple of "promo" versions of the album popped up online (one being a DJ mix, and the other a rough 14-song "sampler"). The coup de grace, however, was putting the album for sale at Best Buy for $6.99. That's not a typo, folks... seven bucks.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who took notice of this. The Best Buy where I went to pick up Fishscale this afternoon had around 10 copies left on a "New Release" endcap that probably held 100 copies when the store opened this morning (unsurprisingly, just about every other album featured on the endcap still had almost a full supply available). Which brings me to my point: it's about time that major labels started adapting to the realities of this "post-Internet" environment. Bribing radio stations to run one song into the ground and then expecting people to shell out $16-18 for a record they have yet to hear 90% of is no longer a viable option.

On the other hand, allowing "marked" promo versions (which let you to get a feel for the album's quality, yet still leave an incentive to buy due to 5-10 second audio clips inserted randomly throughout the disc that keep it from being of equal quality as the real release) or streaming the album in its entirety for a month or so before its release (as Matador did with Cat Power's You Are Free, which made a stunning debut at #2 on the Billboard heatseeker charts, despite being on an independent label) enables record companies to generate true buzz for a release before it comes out. By combining these methods for hearing a record in advance with "early bird" pricing such as what Def Jam & Best Buy are doing with Fishscale, the potential is there for labels to finally discover that illusive silver bullet they've been searching for since the rise of Internet filesharing: a means of competing against the option of getting the music for free.

"Can't people still just hop onto the Internet and grab the record for nothing?" you might be asking, and the answer is still yes. However, here's the thing -- let's say that I'm a major label, and I've got the next album by a top artist (like, say, Kanye West). If I, as the label, leak a promo copy of the new Kanye record that has the aforementioned audio clips embedded in it, then for the next few weeks/months before the album comes out (and for the first few weeks of the album's release), a very, very high percentage of the versions available online are going to be dupes of the promo, thoroughly frustrating the efforts of most pirates to get a legit copy.

Sooooo...

the prospect of having to dowload a record multiple times in order to find a non-promo copy
+ the risk that you run of incurring the wrath of the RIAA and getting sued for thousands of dollars each time that you try to download it
+ the ability to hear the record before its release
+ a window of opportunity to buy that album with full confidence in what you're getting at a price around 50% of what you'd normally pay

= a product that, as long as its quality is high enough to generate advance buzz, stands a much better chance against "free" music.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to download this new Ghostface record to my cellphone and listen to it while I'm at the gym.

My favorite movies and records of 2005

2006-03-28T08:25:15Z

Okay, I know I'm really late on this one, but the death of my old computer severely limited my access to new music at a crucial point toward the end of the year. Therefore, I've only recently been able to feel comfortable about nailing down my picks. As far as movies, well... that list could've probably been written on Oscar night, but the past few weeks have been exceedingly hectic.

So, without any further ado, here you go:

My Ten Favorite Films of 2005

#1. Craig Brewer, Hustle & Flow
#2. Richard Bracewell, The Gigolos
#3. Terrence Malick, The New World
#4. Stephen Gaghan, Syriana
#5. Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know
#6. Judd Apatow, The 40 Year Old Virgin
#7. Eyal Halfon, What A Wonderful Place
#8. Ron Berger and Dan Klores, Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story
#9. Jonathan Nossiter, Mondovino
#10. Doug Sadler, Swimmers

My Ten Favorite Albums of 2005

#1. Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney, Superwolf
#2. Silver Jews, Tanglewood Numbers
#3. Caribou, The Milk of Human Kindness
#4. Stephen Malkmus, Face The Truth
#5. John Vanderslice, Pixel Revolt
#6. M.I.A., Arular
#7. Modeselektor, Hello Mom!
#8. Lightning Bolt, Hypermagic Mountain
#9. Andrew Bird, Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
#10. The Clientele, Strange Geometry

As a bonus, in exchange for my tardiness, here are my five favorite albums for the first three months of 2006:

#1. Biosphere, Dropsonde
#2. Mountains, Sewn
#3. Clogs, Lantern
#4. Murs, Murray's Revenge
#5. Chihei Hatakeyama, Minima Moralia

Okay, so this is my 22nd season as a Seahawk fan...

2006-02-06T09:41:53Z

And I just wanna say that I have no complaints about how things went down today.

Having suffered through the Behring era, the 2-14 season, the McGwire/Stouffer/Gelbaugh/Mirer revolving door at quarterback, the lousy call by the refs on Vinny Testeverde's Roethlisberger-eque QB sneak that knocked us out of the playoffs a few years ago, the "We want the ball and we're gonna score" OT loss to Green Bay, last year's collapses against the Rams and Cowboys (speaking of bad calls -- Keyshawn's TD where he was out of bounds), I came into this post season asking for only one thing: the first Seattle playoff win since I was in middle school.

Ever since they beat the Redskins three weeks ago, everything else has been gravy. The win against Carolina, the fact that they went out there today and made a game of it... deep down, I was just hoping that they wouldn't go out there and get embarrassed in a lopsided game that was over by halftime. Sure, there were some calls that were hard to swallow, but the irony is that the most blatantly blown call today actually went against the Steelers (imagine that!) on the ball that Stevens fumbled that got called an incompletion.

Referees aren't the reason why we lost this game. This game wasn't lost because Roethlisberger was given a TD when he didn't get in the end zone -- it was lost because, three plays earlier, we had the Steelers at 3rd and 28 and let them convert. It was lost because we missed two field goals. It was lost because Michael Boulware allowed himself to get sucked into being in the wrong place at the wrong time on that counter that Willie Parker took for 75 yards. Seattle didn't lose this game because of a blocking penalty on Matt Hasslebeck -- it was lost because we left Hines Ward wide open on that reverse a few plays later. Believe me, Ward could've easily run the extra fifteen yards after catching Randall-El's pass.

All in all, though, I'm proud of what my team accomplished this year. The Seahawks are a good squad, but there's still work that needs to be done in order for them to truly become a championship-caliber squad. They showed time and time again that they could move the ball on the Steelers' defense in the first half, yet only came away with a total of three points. If they're ever going to get their hands on that Lombardi trophy, they're going to have to develop the kind of killer instinct that enables them to translate that offensive success into points on the scoreboard, rather than moving the across the field and stalling out in the crunch.

In closing, I believe that the reason why the Steelers are Super Bowl champs is because we had lots of opportunities and made little out of them, while Pittsburgh had few scoring chances and made the most of nearly all of them. Roethlisberger had a lousy game, Polamalu and Porter were relatively underwhelming, and yet they still beat us. To the Steelers and their fans, I say congratulations.

3 things (jacked from my boy wickedthought)

2006-02-03T00:44:07Z

Name three cds you own that you think no one else on your friendslist does

Various Artists, South India: Periya Melam - Chidambaram Temple
Christian Marclay, Records 1981 - 1989
Lee Morgan, The Procrastinator

Name three books you own that you think no one else on your friendslist does

Kevin Kerrane, Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting
George Plimpton, The Curious Case of Sidd Finch
Stokely Carmichael, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

Name three movies you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that you think no one else on your friendslist does

Luis Bunuel, L'Age D'Or
Whit Stillman, Barcelona
The Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin, Salesman

Name three places that you have visited that you think no one else on your friendslist has

Santiago, Chile
Camp David
Scottsboro, Alabama

Factcheck.org on the State of the Union address

2006-02-02T04:19:29Z

Terrorist Power Rankings, 2nd Edition

2006-01-16T11:34:19Z

I did one of these before for a couple of message boards that I visit, but somehow I forgot to post it here. So, here's the 2nd edition, which covers the period of December 16th-31st.

And, so that you're totally up to speed, here's the 1st edition, which covered December 1st-15th:

2005 AFI Fest Summary

2005-11-15T09:37:22Z

10 days, 33 films, and a whole LOT of Jack In the Box curly fries.

For those who might be interested, here are my 2005 AFI Fest Awards:

BEST FILM, INTERNATIONAL FEATURE COMPETITION: Richard Bracewell's The Gigolos
BEST FILM, INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION: Kelly Duda's Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal
BEST FILM, LATIN CINEMA SERIES: Marcelo Piñeyro's The Gronholm Method
BEST FILM, ASIAN NEW CLASSICS: Eyal Halfon's What A Wonderful Place
BEST FILM, EUROPEAN FILM SHOWCASE: Theo Van Gogh's 06/05 The Sixth of May
BEST FILM, AMERICAN DIRECTIONS: Doug Sadler's Swimmers

And here are my top 10 films of AFI Fest 2005:

1. Richard Bracewell, The Gigolos
2. Eyal Halfon, What A Wonderful Place
3. Doug Sadler, Swimmers
4. Kelly Duda, Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal
5. Marcelo Piñeyro, The Gronholm Method
6. Sébastien Rose, Life With My Father
7. Kief Davidson & Richard Ladkani, The Devil's Miner
8. Andrew Bujalski, Mutual Appreciation
9. Theo Van Gogh, 06/05 The Sixth of May
10. Danis Tanovic, Hell

AFI Day 10

2005-11-15T09:03:14Z

Celebrities spotted: None
Movies seen:

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - This Unforgivenesque western made quite a splash when it won Best Actor and Best Screenplay nods at this year's Cannes festival. It wasn't all that bad, by Hollywood standards, but Barry Pepper's performance as a newly hired border patrolman had a little too much mustard on it, Tommy Lee Jones' mannerisms are, at times, lacking in subtlety, and there were a few spots in the dialogue that rang kind of hollow. Otherwise, I suppose it was pretty decent; probably worth a rental, I'd say. Grade: B

The Devil's Miner - Documentarians Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani were first drawn to Bolivia when they heard about Catholic miners who also worshipped Satan (in the form of "Tio" statues, who supposedly rule over the mines). However, upon their arrival, the filmmakers discovered that the story which really needed telling was that of hundreds of teenage boys who help support their families by undertaking the dangerous, backbreaking labor of working in the mines.
One such boy is 14 year old Basilio Vargas, who has worked in the mines while going to school since the age of ten. Davidson and Ladkani risked their own lives by entering the mines to show this young man's daily hardship, and also presented a tender portrait of a loving brother and son who willingly sacrifices everything to keep his family going. Grade: A-

AFI Day 9

2005-11-13T11:53:15Z

Celebrities spotted: none
Movies seen (Since I saw four movies today, it's 3:00 AM, and I have to do laundry before catching a screening at 1:00 PM, you get one sentence reviews):

Hell - Director Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land) dazzles us with the details as he gives longtime Krzysztof Kieslowski collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz's script about a trio of sisters dealing with the slings and arrows of unrequited love a masterful presentation. Grade: A-

Through the Fire - This high-quality ESPN documentary about high-school hoop star Sebastian Telfair delivers a well-made, professional look at the phenom's senior year and subsequent application for the NBA Draft, but it plays too close to the vest artistically to rate All-Star status. Grade: B+

Stories of Disenchantment - Bizarre Mexican DV fantasy about two teens who discover that the waystation between waking reality and dreams is a dingy Mad Max-meets-S&M club labyrinth... with musical numbers (which are actually pretty decent). Grade: C+

Hidden - Having established himself as a major presence in European film with stellar releases like Code Unknown and The Piano Teacher, Michael Haneke's latest is an innovatively realized, engagingly acted, and thoroughly engrossing mystery whose ending left more than a few audience members puzzled and frustrated. Grade: B+

AFI Day 8

2005-11-12T09:51:39Z

Celebrities seen: none
Movies watched (I only saw two today; I'd originally been planning to go out of town and come back sometime Saturday afternoon. However, between Maricela and I both getting sick this week and her having to take a 2nd day off from work in only her 2nd week on the job, we decided against going. I should be back up to four films tomorrow, though):

The Art of Flight - It was strange, like being in a dramatic enactment Ted Leo & The Pharmacists' "The Ballad of the Sin Eater." The first person to speak during the Q&A after the screening accused the director of promoting white supremacy, while the second person agreed with their sentiment and called the film a "wasted opportunity." Therefore, it would seem like how you're going to feel about this film has a lot to do with your point of view with regard to notions of "orientalism" and the proprietary rights of a race's members to document its struggle.

If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, here's the deal: Davin Anders Hutchins, a white guy from the US, dropped everything to spend two years in the Sudan and Egypt. Hutchins set out to chronicle the life and struggles of Sudanese refugees as they flee from a 20+ year civil war, only to wind up in a police state where they are terrorized by the locals and tortured by police while negotiating the red tape needed to get clearance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for relocation.

Davin Anders Hutchins lived on a total of $8,000 for two years, rode in cattle cars through the desert with little/no privations, ran the risk of being arrested & imprisoned (which would've likely led to torture, if not death), and gave countless hours of his time trying to create a document that would inform and educate us here in America of the refugees' plight. And yet, there are still people who subscribe to the notion that Hutchins is nothing more than a voyeuristic tourist, whose race and privileged position as a benefactor of American hardball capitalism disqualifies his from having the right to tell this story. If you are among those who hold such beliefs, then you might as well not even bother seeing this picture.

If, on the other hand, you have no such hang-ups, then you'll probably find this to be a solid little documentary, grittily put together under rather daunting circumstances. While one audience member remarked that the numerous shots of Hutchins jogging and riding on trains (combined with his voiceover narratives' many references to how he felt or what he was going through) struck him as being rather self-indulgent, all I could think was, "Hey, hasn't Ross McElwee proven that the whole self-referential thing isn't such a bad thing?" My own personal knock against The Art of Flight would be that the natural arc of its narrative seems to peter out at about the hour mark, giving a couple of segments on torture and refugee art feeling like they were tacked on as filler. Otherwise, though, I thought it was pretty good. Grade: B+

What A Wonderful Place - Writer-director Eyal Halfon has done a masterful job of interweaving a pastiche of elements from the unseemly underbelly of Israeli society into a marvelous movie, all the while populating his picture with richly textured characters who bleed, who hope, who make mistakes... and who make the characters in Crash look like cardboard cutouts. If The Gigolos hadn't been so damn gloriously wonderful, this would be the best film (so far) at the fest. Grade: A

AFI Day 7

2005-11-11T10:56:03Z

"Celebrities" spotted: Jimmy Kimmel, Garry Shandling, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carson Daly
Movies seen (despite still being under the weather, I was able to rally and see four movies; however, the need to rest will probably force me to keep these write-ups short):

Mutual Appreciation - It looks like this year's winner of the Prix de Max Fischer is Mutual Appreciation's Justin Rice, who plays an itinerant musician named Alan that (despite his father's protestations) is more worried about finding a new drummer than a job. This second feature by Funny Ha Ha's Andrew Bujalski is kinda like Cassavetes' Faces for the hipster set. The film got off to a very strong start, then sagged at the 50-70% mark with a pair of parties that fail to keep pace. Mutual Appreciation rallies from there, but never fully regains its initial momentum. On the whole, still pretty good, though. Grade: A-

The Gronholm Method - Those who are fans of reality shows like Survivor, where contestants conspire to eliminate each other, should certainly enjoy this Spanish picture. The Gronholm Method is a sort of Twelve Angry Men for today's contemporary corporate culture; while protesters march through the streets of Madrid to protest an IMF-World Bank summit, six applicants at a company called Dekia do whatever it takes to emerge victorious and earn a spot on the payroll. My only real complaint was that the ending was kind of a letdown; if this film had been able to deliver jawdropping, pull the rug out from under me ending like The Usual Suspects or In the Company of Men, then I would've been ready to give it the title of "best movie I've seen thusfar"; instead, it merely ranks in the top five. Grade: A-

Tristam Shandy - I suppose I became a fan of director Michael Winterbottom somewhere around the time that I saw 24 Hour Party People in the theater and The Claim (thoroughly underrated, btw) on DVD. Like 24 Hour Party People, Tristam Shandy takes a quirky, meta approach toward Laurence Sterne's novel, with Steve Coogan talking to the camera and cast members freely moving between their performances in an adaptation of the book and portraying themselves. This film would've been much better if the laughs were bigger and not so few and far between. Grade: B

Next Door - Even wackier than Dead Run from the festival's fourth day is Next Door, a thrilling psychosexual mystery from Norway. After breaking up with his girlfriend, John is asked by his beautiful nextdoor neighbor to pop over and help out with moving some furniture. Quicker than you can say "Röyksopp", John's situation begins to quickly spiral out of control. My biggest problem with the story was that John seemed incapable of saying "no" to the girls nextdoor. It was as if, at any point in the story, had he just said "screw this" and went back to his place and taken a cold shower, then the movie would've been over... but nooooooo, he continued to go along as things got worse. Grade: B-

AFI, Day 6

2005-11-10T10:28:03Z

"Celebrities" spotted: Cuba Gooding Jr. (the guy sitting next to me at Amu, who works for the AFI Fest, claimed that the Black Eyed Peas were in the house for the 7:00 PM screening of Gooding's cop movie, Dirty -- I cannot confirm this, because I didn't see them, though).

Okay, so since I've started coming down with a pretty nasty cough, sore throat, and headaches, I only caught three movies today. I'll try to speak about them briefly, so I can go ahead and get on to bed.

Shanghai Dreams - While it has the look and feel of those great works put out by former Beijing film students Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Zhang Yimou in the late 80's and early 90's, Shanghai Dreams' story is incapable of keeping up with masterworks like Raise the Red Lantern and The Blue Kite, telegraphing most of its punches long before they're delivered. Grade: B+

Amu - In a mistake that I'm seeing over and over again at this festival, otherwise fine films are being torpedoed by the poor casting/direction of their leads. Konkona Sen Sharma, who is cast as the main character Kaju (a college student visiting India to "get in touch with her roots") seems to have surprisingly little control over her diction and facial expressions, making the delivery of each line an adventure that usually ends with jaw-droppingly bad results. It's a shame, really, as writer, director, and producer Shonali Bose does an otherwise solid job. Grade: B-

Dark Horse - Before I forget, let me just start off by saying -- for god's sake, people... get some YELLOW subtitles! There were scenes where entire chunks of dialogue were lost to the fact that their white text was directly on top of a white background. I saw numerous walkouts during the film, and they all seemed to come right after a particularly patchy sequence with the subtitles. Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, on with the show...

Director Dagur Kári's (Noi Albinoi) second film is black and white 16mm romp that gets off to a rollicking start, promising a picture that's quirkier than Clerks yet more laugh-infested than Stranger Than Paradise. The jokes get progressively more "meh" during the middle third, then things get all serious and dramatic in the last twenty minutes or so. After the first 15 minutes, I thought this was gonna be one of the 2 or 3 best things that I saw at the fest. By the time the final credits rolled, I chalked it up as a squandered opportunity. B

Dude, WTF?!?

2005-11-10T09:40:56Z

AFI Day 5

2005-11-09T10:40:48Z

Celebrities spotted: Two - Jason Bateman and Margaret Cho
Movies seen:

Buckle Brothers - No-fi documentary about black teens in Compton who choose bullriding over whoo ridin'. The filmmaker's gear was downright primitive, their budget non-existant, and they fail to get any input from Charles Sampson, which would be like making a documentary about hockey without interviewing Wayne Gretzky. And yet, for all the film's flaws, there was enough onscreen to keep me interested. Grade: C

7 Virgins - This tale of an unruly teen out for sex, drugs, and kicks while on a 48-hour furlough from juvenile detention for his brother's wedding is pretty much a tamed-down Kids set in suburban Spain. Okay, so maybe I'm selling the film short with that description, since it's well-acted, nicely shot, and fairly entertaining. That doesn't mean that it's not a pretty straightforward tale of youth run wild, though. Grade: B+

Little Athens - The story of how Kevin Smith saw Richard Linklater's Slacker and then went out and made Clerks has become, over the years, indie film lore. Well, apparently Smith isn't the only guy from New Jersey inspired by Linklater, as fellow New Jerseyite Tom Zuber has attempted to craft a Dazed and Confused for the Garden State generation (hey, isn't "the garden state" New Jersey's motto?!?). Unfortunately, Zuber's talented young cast (including Hustle and Flow's DJ Qualls and Lost's Jorge Garcia) appear to have been instructed to deliver their lines in a wooden, staccato delivery reminiscent of Mark Borchardt's line readings in American Movie. A colossal disappointment. Grade: C-

Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal - Seven years in the making, director Kelly Duda takes us down the rabbit hole as he uncovers the awful truth of Arkansas' blood donor program. Running from 1964 until the early 90's, the folks in charge of the program allowed just about anyone willing to donate blood (including drug users and homosexuals with multiple partners) to earn a few bucks for themselves -- and a whole LOT of $ for the state. As a result, thousands of blood and plasma samples were tainted by the donations of prisoners with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, passing their illnesses to countless recipients of blood transfusions in Canada, Europe, and Japan.

Perhaps scariest of all, there appears to be every indication that the state government (including 12-year governor William Jefferson Clinton) was well aware of what was going on, yet due to the vast amount of money involved (Arkansas' prison system, apparently, was the only prison system in the US at the time that was entirely self sufficent, with the blood donation program being its largest source of income) was perfectly content to sit back and allow tainted blood to be shipped and sold overseas as part of "Factor 8", a drug designed to treat bleeding disorders.

Though his film lacks the fancy flourishes or production value that you normally get from an Errol Morris or Ken Burns, Duda should be hailed for risking his life and livelihood to relentlessly pursue the truth and bring this abominable disgrace to light. Grade: A-

AFI, Day 4

2005-11-08T11:15:11Z

Celebrities spotted: none
Movies seen:

Ryna - This Swiss film tells the tale of a Romanian girl who works as a mechanic in her shady father's gas station. Prohibited from growing her hair out or wearing dresses, Ryna longs to get out from under her domineering father's shadow and establish her own identity. A tad too granola for my tastes, Ryna also surprised me when it suddenly shifted from being a pensive little slice of life tale to a high-tension melodrama in the final fifteen minutes. Grade: B+

The Gigolos - Oh my, what a fabulous film! Sacha and Trevor are flatmates in London; while Sacha brings home the bacon as a male escort, Trevor serves as his "gent" -- paying the bills, booking the clients, etc. While some might find the film's handheld, close-up heavy style a bit too claustrophobic, I found it to be a crucial component in immersing me within the lads' unseemly world. Also, as a fan of British band The Clientele, I couldn't help but feel like the film's hazy afternoon shades and brilliant green and red streetlights at night created a cinematic atmosphere eerily similar to the group's music. Grade: A

C.R.A.Z.Y. - Other than the fact that it's a French-language, gay-themed film, this slick, stylish coming of age story has crossover smash written all over it. Kind of like Forrest Gump meets Velvet Goldmine, C.R.A.Z.Y. follows the life of Zac, an attractive young man who struggles with his sexuality while grooving to all the coolest songs and embracing every trend (glam, punk, disco, new wave) while it was at its peak (I almost expected Zac, at the film's end, to wag an index finger at the camera and declare "But I was there!" James Murphy-style).

My big problem with the film is that it's a whole lotta flash and not very much cash. Despite the fact that its title is an acronym comprised of the first letter of Zac and his four brothers' names, only Zac and his brother Raymond are given any depth. One brother's sole purpose is to strategically fart and pick his nose for laughs, while another is a one-dimensional nerd who, apparently, goes ten years doing nothing but reading the labels on food packaging. A third brother, born when Zac is 7 or 8, is only there to make Zac seem more effeminate because he's capable of calming the baby down when it cries (only to become the pesky little brother out of central casting who pesters Zac to no end when the baby leapfrogs into adolescence). As for the parents, while Michel Côté gives an outstanding performance as the boys' father, perhaps it's because he had much more to work with that the mother (Danielle Proulx), who is pretty much reduced to being a toast-ironing religious zealot.

If I could offer the director a word of advice, it would be to spend more time working on his characters than his soundtrack. Grade: B

Dead Run - Today's Wacky Business Award goes to this head-scratcher from Japan. We start off with a middle class family with two sons (one of whom encounters a local gangster and his gal), leading me to think, "Okay, I see... Ozu meets Seijun Suzuki." The film then strays waaaaaay off the beaten path, coming off more like an offbeat psychological thriller (not unlike some Hammer horror films from the early 70's that we saw at the Egyptian theater) before wrapping up as a Badlands/Natural Born Killers "doomed young couple in love" story toward the end. Not bad, necessarily... just not something that I found very fulfilling. Grade: C

AFI Fest, Day 3

2005-11-07T10:26:58Z

Okay, so briefly updating what I saw on my third day at the AFI fest. First off, no new celebrities, so the count stays at five. As far as movies, today's lineup looked something like this:

Life With My Father - Canada's Oscar nominee for this year bears many similarites to Denys Arcand's Canadian Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film in 2004, The Barbarian Invasions. I was ready to give this film an A rating and rank it as the best movie I've seen so far until the last ten minutes, when I was totally disappointed by the ending. *SPOILER* I just hate it when you have a character in a movie who's a writer and at the end of the movie you get the whole "and the story they were struggling to write became the movie that you're watching" device; it's been done to death, folks! Grade: A-

Wrong Side Up - This offbeat Czech romantic comedy seemed to be pretty popular with the (mostly) older crowd that I saw it with. While, yeah, this comedy about an airport worker and his peculiar circle of family and friends is funny and well executed, I thought it was more "hehe" funny than "bwahaha" funny. Think of it as what you would get if the folks behind Good Bye Lenin! made an R-rated episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond." Grade: B+

On the Other Side - Interweaving a trio of immigrant stories set in Mexico, Cuba, and Morocco/Spain, On the Other Side is Mexico's Oscar nominee for this year. The film attempts to garner sympathy by showing how immigration affects the children of those who go off to earn a living on "the other side." However, director Gustavo Loza lays on the social realism a little too thick, producing a leaden "After School Special"-caliber picture in dire need of an artist's light touch. Grade: C-

Pablo - The Poet's Lives Oh, man... this thing was an absolute train wreck. To the filmmakers' credit, it's not their fault that the lab completely screwed up their print of this documentary about poet Pablo Neruda, forcing them to premiere their film by showing a grainy DVD. As bad as the presentation was, though, it wasn't nearly as bad as the content within -- offering scant biographical information and reference materials (only 3 photographs of Neruda are seen in the entire film), the filmmakers opted instead for a more elliptical, Koyaanisqatsi approach, heading to Chile to shoot in and around the locations where Neruda lived.

While they get some nice footage of the people and the desert, their unfortunate decision to work without a script and apparent lack of preparation (according to director Dario Baldi, they only ran into a friend and biographer of Neruda's by accident, minutes before they were supposed to board a plane and return to Italy!) is downright painful. Grade: D

AFI, Day 2

2005-11-06T10:58:51Z

Okay, so today was Day Two for me at the AFI Fest. My overall "celebrity" count has shot up to five, as I saw Patrick Swayze and (I think) Anthony Lapaglia coming out Andy Garcia's new movie, The Lost City. I also saw Debbi Morgan (best known for her Independent Spirit Award-winning performance in Eve's Bayou) at the entrance to the Arclight.

So, here's what I saw today:

A Dios Momo - Shot on DV in Uruguay, this fable about an illiterate paperboy who dreams of becoming a soccer star combines neorealism and fantasy in a way that is reminiscent of DeSica's Miracle in Milan. Though its heart is in the right place, the execution's just not there: the boy who plays the main character is certainly a cute little fella, but he doesn't have the chops that the film demands.

Also, there are a number of shots that came out pixelated (including all of the footage from a crucial sequence of shots of the kid at the end of the movie). Additionally, though the framework of the story seemed promising, many of A Dios Momo's scenes fail to deliver to their full potential. Grade: C-

Tsotsi - Already picked up for distribution by Miramax, this movie must either be getting great reviews or a lot of hype, because the screening sold out and they had to close the doors five minutes before showtime and turn people away. It seemed like everyone sitting around me was wearing one of those red "industry" passes (producer-types, etc. apparently), so this certainly has to be a hot property.

Well, given the atmosphere surrounding the film, I have to say that I was sorely disappointed by what I saw. In the first 10 minutes, we're introduced to a petty crook named Tsotsi (which literally means thug in the local language) and his gang, setting up a promising bunch similar to the gangsters from City of God. After Tsotsi comes away from a botched carjacking with a baby, we get some Three Men and a Baby action that isn't all that amusing.

From there, the movie sleepwalks from scene to scene, squandering one chance after another to thrill, amuse or provide much insight into the main character's often-puzzling actions. After the movie, the director stated that the novel the film is based upon spent a lot of time explaining the character's thoughts and motivations, and even offered some insight into one of the scenes in the movie. Well, I'm sorry bub... you can't go to every multiplex in America and explain what's going on in your movie; if you didn't get it on celluloid, then it doesn't count. Grade: C+

Swimmers - The best film that I saw today was Swimmers, a character study whose pitch-perfect dialogue reminded me of films like In the Bedroom and The Station Agent.

Set on Maryland's eastern shore, the film concerns a family whose youngest child, 11-year old Emma, suffers a serious ear injury. Soon thereafter, as if they weren't facing enough financial turmoil, the father's boat sinks and the insurance company only offers him a small settlement. Having lost his boat, the father bounces from job to job and struggles with drinking too much. While all this chaos swirls around her, Emma befriends Merril, a grown woman (Deadwood's Sarah Paulson) who is dealing with issues from her own troubled childhood that has recently moved back to town.

Driven by characters more than story, the beauty of Swimmers (unlike the first two films I saw today) is in the execution -- incredibly knowing, well-written dialogue that rings true as a bell, actors who thoroughly understand their characters inside and out, and a lyrical (yet understated) visual presentation that cares more about conveying an authentic sense of place over flash. Grade: A-

An American Haunting - In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not much of a horror aficionado. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that my wife is a big fan of scary movies, I almost certainly would've been seeing something else. She seemed to think this was pretty solid (giving it a 4 out of 5 on those little voting slips they hand out), but I was considerably less impressed than she.

As far as the story, it's supposedly based on "the only time in US history where the government has acknowledged that supernatural forces were responsible for a man’s death." After her father (Donald Sutherland) loses a legal dispute with a neighbor who's reputed to be a witch, young Betsy Bell begins to undergo a nightly regimen of torture at the hands of some supernatural force. She has nightmares, is chased by wolves that may or may not be there, and gets tossed around her room like a rag doll (or Mrs. Ike Turner).

I hardly found the film as "terrifying" as the program coordinator seemed to intimate that it would be (although, it's not like she was gonna tell a room full of people that the movie sucked, even if it did). I don't know; rather than trying to tell a story, it appeared to me like the filmmakers were just trying to string together a bunch of scenarios which would allow them have something creepy pop out at someone with the volume cranked all the way up, or throw poor, screaming Betsy around the room a few more times. Grade: C