Created and run by Gio Tonineli from Pondpatrol.com, GI JOE FEST has provided a forum for enthusiasts of both stop motion animation and the classic Hasbro action figures, since 2007.  What the festival entails is fairly simple: each year open-submissions are accepted for anyone (internationally) who has created a stop-motion film, which includes at least one character represented by a GI JOE action figure.  The submissions close around July, when a pre-selection screening for the festival takes place.  In October, the films are judged and screened at the infamous, Alamo Draft House in Austin, TX.  Beginning early the following year, the final selection of films begin their limited city tour as a festival.

Tonight (Feb. 10, 2010) marks the kick off of the 3rd annual GI JOE Stop-Motion Film Festival, (more…)

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LSD…  it’s a helluva drug.  Back in the day, I did my share (and, perhaps, the shares of a few others).  Some believe that it has the potential to help turn you into such a super genius, that you appear freakishly insane to anyone else that’s not “on your level“.  Then again, it’s always possible that the reverse is happening and they really are going so ape-shit crazy, that it only leads them to believe that that they have a growing mental superiority.  One thing’s for sure; these chemical roller-coasters have the ability to twist up and whack out a synapse, like eating a parasitic egg-salad-sandwich from the vending machine of an interstellar truck stop bathroom.  The reality is that, even with all of the epiphanies and life lessons that one may obtain during these odysseys, there is really no scientific control for the experimenter/guinea pig and, short of a clone or view into a parallel dimension, no one can ever really know if they would have arrived at those same conclusions without the “aid” of the hallucinogen.  The good part is, since there is no way to make that determination, it doesn’t really matter and there are more detrimental things in the world than examining the differences between arrogance and confidence, exploitation and opportunity, respect and glorification, inspiration and contrivance, hustling and…well, hustling.  Despite the blatant self-aggrandizement implied in his stage name, Sean “Har Mar Superstar” Tillmann seems to have an incredibly firm grasp on these concepts and plenty of others.  Of all the electric realizations that I had, however, there is one specific principle that truly epitomizes Tillmann’s career for me: “Regardless of how clearly, simply, honestly, or directly you express a pure truth, it doesn’t mean that anyone else will, necessarily, hear, believe, or even understand what you are trying to relate to them.” (more…)

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David Lynch is best known as an Emmy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe nominated Writer/Director/Producer.  He is the creator of such films as The Elephant Man, Dune, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet , Wild At Heart, and Mulholland Dr., as well as of the television series Twin Peaks.  With such a prolific and influential career in film making, it’s easy to understand why any of his outside ventures may be over shadowed.  Last year Lynch made one such venture with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, in which the director provided vocal contributions to the Dark Night of the Soul album, as well as accompanying photographs for the project.  A subsequent gallery show of the photographs took place at Los Angeles‘ Michael Kohn gallery from May 30 – July 29 of 2009.

With the hype surrounding EMI’s refusal to release the music for DNOTS, we posted an extensive two-piece article about the project.  Unfortunately however, we entirely overlooked the fact that Lynch had a completely unrelated gallery show  later in the year.  “David Lynch : New Paintings“, was held from at the William Griffin gallery in Santa Monica from Sept. 12th – Dec. 12th, 2009.  Although Lynch was actually a painter, prior to ever beginning his film career, this collection represents the first of Lynch’s original paintings to be displayed in the United States in more than a decade.

Due to our past coverage of Lynch’s art, we were contacted and offered the opportunity to premiere the following footage by DFL.TV (The David Lynch Foundation).  The video not only contains exclusive coverage of the gallery opening, but celebrity interviews as well.  Among those interviewed are actress, Laura Dern, award-winning film-maker, Roger Corman, and even Lynch himself. (more…)

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This month has proven to be a particularly great one for me as a Wesley Willis fan.  Not only was I offered an original piece of art by the late, great artist/musician, but I was also mailed a copy of an amazing documentary about Willis for review.

I first discovered Wesley’s work when I was in high school and I was immediately drawn to it (pun intended).  Clearly the man had some obvious points of comic appeal, such as extreme moments of profanity and graphic references to bestiality, but there was definitely something deeper to him, even if it wasn’t always easy to determine exactly what it was.  The documentary Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides has successfully managed to capture and express those difficult to verbalize qualities, which made Wesley such a remarkable and inspiring individual.  One quote from the film, which most aptly sums up this phenomenon, was made by Willis‘ friend/art patron, John Stulgate, who said,  “You could see people’s hearts through their interactions with Wesley Willis.”

Although I had been a long time fan, I didn’t get a chance to see Wesley live until 2002.  The show took place in Seattle at The Graceland (now, El Corazon) and Grand Buffet was opening.  I’ll never forget walking from the bar through the doorway into the venue.  I saw Wesley immediately; he was staring frighteningly out of the corner of his eye and in my direction from behind the merch table.  Due to his immense size and weight, Wesley could be a daunting figure and his breaths were loud and heavy like a tranqued hippo.  I, eventually, made my way over to the table to say hello.  I had brought a sniper deployment manual and a 25¢ hardcover book about rottweilers for him to sign, in lieu of my Book of Mormon and 100 Deadliest Karate Moves books, which I had temporarily left in California.  He signed the sniper book but, once he got the rottweiler book in his hands, he was mesmerized.  “Can I keep this book“, he asked.  “Sure“.  After that, it was like I wasn’t even there, so I slipped away as he focused intently on pictures of similar looking dogs.  When the show ended, Wesley headed back behind the table to flip his wares.  I bought a live EP and asked him if he liked the book.  “I got that right back here!” he said.  Then he added, “I wrote a song called ‘Suck a Rottweiler’s Ass‘.  I’m gonna write a song called ‘Suck a Rottweilers Dick‘!“  So I told him, “You need to write a song called ‘Suck the Stripes off a Zebra’s Dick‘.” (more…)

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[Scroll to bottom for MP3 Download of 11/19/94 "Parking Lot show"]

Years ago, when I lived in Olympia, Washington, something odd happened.  I couldn’t receive any television stations, so I attached a set of bunny ears to achieve a  few of them.  One day I decided to move my furniture around, which included plugging my TV into the outlet on the other side of the room.  When I did that, I lost all of my stations but, when I disconnected the bunny ears, a whole bunch of extra stations came through for the first time.  One of the benefits from this was that I wound up with two different PBS stations and PHISH was scheduled to be featured on Austin City Limits.  I was excited to watch the program, but I had a birthday party to attend, so I set my VCR to record it and blasted out to the soirée/BBQ.  When I returned home to check the video, I was treated to an unexpected surprise.  Although I had successfully recorded an episode of Austin City Limits, it wasn’t the episode with PHISH on i.  Apparently, at the exact same time, the WILCO/Bela Fleck Bluegrass Sessions episode was airing on the other PBS station and I had recorded that one.  Bela Fleck was performing with Tony Rice, Sam Bush, Vasser Clements, etc and the error turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  Over the next year or so, I watched that footage excessively and it became one of my favorite things to space out to in awe.

Tonight, while my sister was visiting, something equally as fortunate took place in reverse.  She has recently become increasingly interested in Bluegrass music and, after her ringtone of a bluegrass breakdown went off, I decided to search out the version of “Salty Dog” that Fleck and his crew had performed on ACL all those years back.  To my surprise, after typing “Bluegrass Sessions” into a YouTube search, I found a PHISH video instead and this whole scenario came full circle.  Many of us are aware of the Vermont 4-piece’s remarkable ability to transition through various genres and their penchant for busting out favorites like “Uncle Pen” and “Old Home Place” but, although they had demonstrated those influences in the past, this video displays a time when the quartet truly began to focus and venture seriously into such Bluegrass territory.  Posted by Youtube user jlaughli, the clip is from 1994 and was the first part of a 9 part “documentary”.  Fans of the group should really enjoy viewing this home footage, which features Mike on banjo, Page on upright bass, and even drummer, Jon Fishman playing the mandolin.  The youtube poster did not create the documentary, it was filmed by Rev. Jeff Mosier, but we’d like to give him huge props because, it is really nice to finally see it all in one place and so easily accessible.  To make it even easier to locate and view in it’s entirety, we have provided all 9 parts of the full documentary footage below.  Seeing as yesterday marks the 15 year anniversary of when the recording of this footage originally began, I feel that there is no better time for us to put this up, than now.  Enjoy! (more…)

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Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Sufjan Stevens earned his most notable success through 2005’s Illinois album.  The 22-song ode to the Prairie State launched both Stevens and his “50 States Project” into the public eye.  In 2006, he followed it up with The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album and a 5-disc box set of Christmas music but, since then, the releases have pretty much ceased.  There’s a strange conflict created in the logic of many of Sufjan’s fans because, although they want to hear a “new” project from him, they are also focused around what the next installment of the last (50 States) project is gonna be.  People would often prefer to buy the same album over and over again than risk having an artist grow in a direction that is uncomfortable for them to deal with.  For anyone with logic and reasoning skills, it’s clear that Stevens will never write an album for each of the 50 states, unless technology and/or his work ethic changes drastically.  I don’t think that the artist’s intentions or claims are dishonest but, even by churning out an album every year, it would still take him until the age of 82 to finish the project.  Music aside, I am acquiring a growing respect for Sufjan’s approach to the creative process, which involves healthy doses of patience, a virtue that I have trouble possessing.  His focus seems to be more about the process than the result and, whether or not you enjoy those results, his dedication and sincerity is undeniably commendable.  He seems to be content with investing as much time to create, or even re-structure, a project until it’s just the way he had envisioned.  In fact, October 6th marks the release of Run Rabbit Run, a reworking of his 2001 Chinese Zodiac-themed, electronic album Enjoy Your Rabbit; this time, with all string instruments.

Recently, I had the opportunity to view one of Steven’s most ambitious projects yet.  In usual Sufjan fashion, The BQE is based around a very specific theme; The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.  Like the 50 states Project, it’s geography based, and the music is completely instrumental, like that of Enjoy Your Rabbit.  There is one aspect that puts The BQE in stark contrast from any of his previous work, however, and that’s the fact that it’s also a film. (more…)

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