Category: Movies

Star Trek

Whenever we finally get around to setting foot on an extrasolar planet, I’ll be severely disappointed if it doesn’t look like Vasquez Rocks.

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100% roxor. Star Trek 2009 accomplishes the impossible feat of making a aged pop culture reference relevant again. Only Casino Royale and maybeDoctor Who have managed to pull this off as successfully.

I have to admit to a bias though… I’m a forty-three year old orthodox original series Trek fan (no Reformist Next Generations please) so the old-style sound effects, designs, implied “We come in peace… shoot to kill” attitude, and the not-too-effecty effects, hit all the right spots. The cast felt like they had been working together for awhile without just imitating the roles (Karl Urban’s McCoy isn’t imitation, but an amazingly eerie invocation/inhabitation). Finally, for once in the entire history of the franchise, Engineering looks like actual engineering takes place there.

A modest suggestion to Star Fleet operations: you may want to consider sending in a reconnaissance shuttle first before sending in your entire fleet… in case it’s an ambush. Just saying.

Center For Visual Music’s “Essential Visual Music: Rare Classics”

I’ve shouted at length here before about Oskar Fischinger, MOCA’s Visual Music exhibition, and the occasional program from the Center For Visual Music. CVM shows are kinda rare and extremely worthy. Well worth the effort to attend.

Here are a couple of highlights from tonight’s “Essential Visual Music: Rare Classics” show at the Hammer.

Muntz TV Commercial, Oskar Fischinger, 1952

Mood Contrasts, Mary Ellen Bute, 1953

Cibernetik 5.3, John Stehura, 1960-1965

Running The Numbers II: 2008 in Movies

What I watched in 2008. Only counting things I saw for the first time.

  1. 28 Weeks Later (2007)
  2. American Gangster (2007)
  3. Arabesque (1966)
  4. Atonement (2007)
  5. Australia (2008)
  6. The Bank Job (2008)
  7. Battle Beneath The Earth (1967)
  8. Beautiful Losers (2008)
  9. Brass Target (1978)
  10. Breach (2007)
  11. Burn After Reading (2008)
  12. Charley Varrick (1973)
  13. Cloverfield (2008)
  14. Control (2007)
  15. Crazy Love (2007)
  16. The Dark Knight (2008)
  17. Disturbia (2007)
  18. Enchanted (2007)
  19. Encounters At The End Of The World (2007)
  20. The Enemy Below (1957)
  21. The Fast And The Furious (1955)
  22. The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967)
  23. Flawless (2007)
  24. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
  25. The Good German (2006)
  26. Gran Torino (2008)
  27. I’m Not There (2007)
  28. In Bruges (2008)
  29. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008)
  30. Into The Wild (2007)
  31. Iron Man (2008)
  32. Jandek On Corwood (2003)
  33. Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)
  34. The Last Woman On Earth (1960)
  35. The Laughing Policeman (1973)
  36. Leatherheads (2008)
  37. Man On Wire (2008)
  38. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2008)
  39. Pacific Rendezvous (1942)
  40. Paris, je t’aime (2006)
  41. Persepolis (2007)
  42. Phenomena (1985)
  43. Pineapple Express (2008)
  44. Quantum Of Solace (2008)
  45. The Rat Race (1960)
  46. Recount (2008)
  47. Revolutionary Road (2008)
  48. Serenity (2005)
  49. The Sniper (1952)
  50. Someone’s Watching Me (1978)
  51. Speed Racer (2008)
  52. Sweet And Lowdown (1999)
  53. The Ten (2007)
  54. There Will Be Blood (2007)
  55. Tropic Thunder (2008)
  56. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
  57. Viva Las Vegas (1964)
  58. WALL-E (2008)
  59. What We Do Is Secret (2007)
  60. Word Wars (2004)
  61. The X Files: I Want To Believe (2008)
  62. You Kill Me (2007)

Separated At Birth, Part VIII

Audience at last night’s My Bloody Valentine show.

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UFO watchers from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

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(MBV photo via Ned)

In his blog Ned alludes to how this show (especially the combo of Spectrum & My Bloody Valentine together) is a resetting of the clock – both groups effectively being the Year Zero for so many bands that followed in their wake.

However, I can’t help but notice just how many bands who list MBV and Spacemen 3 in their MySpace profiles completely miss the point – as if all you need for shoegaze glory is 250kg of off-the-rack effects pedals, some designer amps, and enough time for a smoke break while everything feedsback. Sure, Kevin Shields has the most complex rig I’ve ever seen on stage anywhere, but there’s a purpose to it and coupled with a good sound system that otherwise non-stop autistic tweaking of sound pays off.

I’ve seen an Apollo Saturn V launch. I’ve seen the Swans. I’ve seen Survival Research Lab performances. I once got to see a SR-71 flyby on full afterburner and that gets pretty close to the total frequency response generated on stage. It’s a structured event with ebbs and flows, an endless acceleration of Shepard Tones, and enough VLF to affect every whale and nuclear submarine on the planet. It’s entirely possible that this was all auditory illusions going on in my head.

Attention any other bands who are contemplating reunions: The bar has been set pretty high here. I can’t think of any other band who’s taken sixteen years off and have come back sounding as vital as the day they left. Maybe they’ll even get around to that third album.

R.I.P. Duke Of New York

hayes_escapeny.jpgI have a vivid memory of watching the 1971 Oscars telecast and being disinterested in much of the proceedings (well, except for anything about The French Connection) until Isaac Hayes came on and turned everything upside down. I imagine it’s like watching the Ed Sullivan show night after night until suddenly Elvis shows up.

The other thing that stands out in my head is Hayes’ role as crime lord The Duke in Escape From New York. Campy? A little, but maximum bad ass cool in a movie full of attitude. Hot Buttered Soul is on repeat play today… R.I.P.

Oscar v80.0

Congratulations guys!

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Occasionally something wins that utterly deserves to. Outside of There Will Be Blood, Once was the only movie that I unequivocably loved. No arguments with the winners, but Jeff Daniels really should have been nominated for The Lookout and The King Of Kong and Deep Water should have been nominated in Best Documentary.

I also discovered that I’ve seen 53 of the best picture winners.