There used to be a guy who fancied himself as a “street musician” who would set up across the street from my apartment every night and blare obnoxious guitar riffs through a pocket amp.  He had, what seemed like, no more than a rotating 3-song setlist.  He mostly just played Jimi Hendrix covers, using the muddled distortion and the fact that he was a black man with a guitar in Seattle to his favor.  The drunken frat boys and under-dressed skanks, clopping around like clydesdales ate that shit up.  Then again, they only caught about 12 seconds of it as they wandered by in a drunken stupor.  Try putting that 12 seconds on repeat for hours.  It was a smooth move for the “guitarist” and he marketed himself wisely.  Who’s gonna talk shit to this guy around here?  Nevermind the fact that the one thing that he produced was obnoxious and that he wasn’t actually Hendrix.  This Seattle; that would be sacrilege.

Today I witnessed a video of a man who I actually would have appreciated having perform in my neighborhood.  This footage isn’t devoid of gimmicks [he's a one-man-band playing a Wu-Tang song, for chrissakes] but something about it still holds genuine.  It’s actually pretty awesome and, although this particular footage is of the musician performing a cover, he is much more than a one-note.  In fact, through my research, I’ve discovered that he’s much more than a street performer, or even a musician, but that’s not important for now.  We’ll get back to that more after the video. (more…)

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Back in March, we posted a review about the Spike Jonze-created short film, “I’m Here“.  The project, which is provided for free of charge on it’s own specially designed website, focuses on the love connection between a pair of robots, inhabiting some alternate version of Los Angeles.  Of course, there are underlying elements in the film which are much deeper than that.  The complexities of love, self-worth, social hierarchies, risk, trust, and even life itself are all explored throughout its half hour running time.

After reviewing the film we got a few comments, all relating to the soundtrack which accompanied the piece.  For those who haven’t read that last article about the project, the following excerpt should bring you a little more up to speed on the subject. (more…)

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Now that you’ve read our writer Knuckle Supper‘s review of Scott Pilgrim VS the World, you should know a little more about the project.  If nothing else, you should now know that it began as a graphic novel and have a rough idea about the manner in which it was adapted into a full-on motion picture.   It can be a big leap from the pages of a hand drawn comic book to the big screen and, in building that bridge, a few branches had to be cut.  The folks over at ADULT SWIM have decided to make that transition just slightly smoother, by providing an additional 4-minute short titled, “Scott Pilgrim VS The Animation“.  Through it’s  format alone, the cartoon helps to segue from the 2-dimensional black and white pages of Bryan Lee O’Malley‘s now classic, illustrated work to it’s live-action cinematic counterpart, but that isn’t it’s only benefit.  The short also works as a prologue, filling in and setting up a piece of the storyline that never made it into Edgar Wright‘s final movie.  The mini-film focuses on a flashback sequence from VOL. 2 of the book series, which establishes how Scott and Kim Pine originally met and began playing music together.

The network aired their brief animated contribution last night, in preparation of the the film’s release today, but we have it posted here for everyone that may have blinked and missed it.  It was produced by Jason DeMarco, and features voice work by actors Michael Cera, Alison Pill, Mae Whitman, and Jason Schwartzman.

Enjoy (more…)

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Something my brother said as we were leaving the movie theater: “Man, I’m glad that they made that into a movie, because when I try to explain Scott Pilgrim to people, it sounds soooo dumb!”

I could totally relate to that sentiment and, if you’re already a fan of the graphic novels that were the basis for the new film, I’m sure that you probably could too.  Those who are not may be asking “So, what is it all about?“  Well, Scott Pilgrim is this unemployed, Canadian twenty-something bass player who begins dating Ramona Flowers, an American hipster girl on Roller Blades (how one can remain hip while on Roller Blades is never quite explained, but it manages to work ).  It is soon discovered that for them to continue to see each other, Scott has to fight and defeat Ramona‘s ex-boyfriends.  It sounds sorta dumb, right?  I know, but there are a million reasons why its not and a million reasons as to why it is, in fact, one of my most favorite things ever.  To read through Scott Pilgrim‘s 6 manga-like volumes is to get an honest look at creator Bryan Lee O’Malley‘s tastes and hobbies.  If you have even the slightest bit of a nerd streak in you, you will instantly be able to relate.  You get references to comic books, manga, video games, and indie-rock… and the fighting ex-boyfriends thing?  It sounds silly, but look, its a metaphor.  Scott is trying to stack up against Ramona‘s past relationships.  The series itself is a really great read.

Now there’s always a danger when a beloved comic book gets adapted into a movie.  Hell hath no fury like a scorned comic book geek with a modem.  When Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was first announced, a lot of people began monitoring its development nervously.  With Micheal Cera backlash at its peak, things got even more tense when he was announced as the lead.  Still, there remained faith in director Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), and O’Malley‘s involvement/endorsement of the project.  The biggest fear, I think, was the potential to lose much of the lovable quirkiness found in the comics.  How much of the video game and comic book tributes would be lost?  These elements are integral to the feel of the series and one of the keys to its success.  A romantic comedy is all the more fun when a “save point” magically appears in the corner of the room! (more…)

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I started hearing about Harmony Korine‘s new film, Trash Humpers sometime last year.  Slowly more info and video clips would pop up, but my main focus was to find out when I would actually be able to see it.  When that information finally arrived, it was coming from an unlikely source, Drag City records.  Drag City is a record label and, as far as I am aware, this is their first attempt at film distribution.  Aside from that fact, there are actually a few reasons that make the connection between the label and the filmmaker slightly less surprising.  At the end of 2008, Drag City released a collection of Harmony Korine‘s old fanzine work and, earlier that year, they put out the soundtrack to his last film, Mister Lonely, which featured original music by J. Spaceman and the Sun City Girls.  Harmony also has connections to other Drag City artists like Bonnie “Prince” Billy, of whom he has directed a video and even appeared on recordings, while the musician made a cameo in Korine‘s Julien Donkey Boy.  When I found out that Trash Humpers would be screening on June 18th at the NW Film Forum here in Seattle, this was great news because, not only would the director be in attendance, but we have a bit of a connection with Drag City as well.

Harmony Korine is an individual that I’ve been interested in interviewing for quite some time and I had hoped that this might finally be an opportunity to make that happen.  Unfortunately, two issues got in the way of making this a reality.  The first was that I didn’t want to request an interview through our connection at the label until we had already had the last interview with Drag City artist, Baby Dee posted.  Once that was handled, I sent my last-minute request at the worst possible time.  Our contact was traveling out of town, as well as working tirelessly to promote the project, so we were dealing with auto reply emails and missed connections.  We got an encouraging email stating that there was a possibility that the  interview could definitely go down, but never a confirmation that it definitely would.  Thanks to a nearly 1/2 hour Q&A and a flip cam, however, I was able to discover some interesting information and am now able to share the footage with all of you pleasant bastards. (more…)

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When KIDS was released in 1995, there was a lot of “controversy” behind it’s explicit content involving teens, drugs, and violence.  I remember all of the hype clearly; I was 16 at the time.  The film’s writer, Harmony Korine was 22, however, he was only about 19 when he wrote it [wikipedia claims "18" Korine has guessed "20"].  I watched KIDS and thought that it was a solid film, but it didn’t change my fucking life like the nightly news had claimed that it would.  Then again, I think that any lack of shock value for me may actually be a testament to the reality that had been infused within it.  While KIDS jump started the careers of first time actors like Rosario Dawson and Chloe Sevigney, Korine didn’t quite live up to the “promise” that many had expected for him.  That’s not to say that he didn’t continue to produce amazing pieces of work or to move forward in his career, it’s just that he never seemed harnessed into the limitations and ideas that had been placed on him by others.  One way to put it would be that the “promise” that the golden boy had placed on him wasn’t a promise that he had actually ever “made” himself.  In ways, his story is Pecker-esque and, as quickly as upper class socialites might take in a troubled youth for their own self-righteous ego boost, they will toss his ass out and turn their backs on him once he lives up to his inherent nature by intentionally smashing their Fabergé eggs, getting their daughters drunk, and stealing their cars. (more…)

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