End.

This blog is long since officially retired.

You can find me, mainly, at Chained to the Cinematheque.
- Dave

the Pitchfork Elvis(es)

The Arcade Fire is indie rock's Neil Diamond.

{Win, that's (mostly) a compliment.}

NYT Magazine article here

Neon Bible out now.

This Is The Relaunch

I want to be back here (as well as there).
So...
I'll write about what I like and see where it goes.
This won't be your site for hip bands.
Posting will be as frequent as I want to be. I'll write about what strikes my fancy.
Air quality. Economics. Falling in love with girls on the subway. Crime. Dissonance. Whatever.
My real focus is still at Chained to the Cinematheque, but I'll put in appearances here as I see fit.

JLT/JLT Year in Review

Josh and Teresa at JLT/JLT are hosting their First (Hopefully) Annual Year in Review discussion on the year in movies, music and everything else. I'll be one of the participants, as will a number of other writers and critics whose work I admire; it's definitely worth checking out. Running all week at JLT/JLT.

Zizkek vs Groucho vs Me

I've been cited in a recent Language Log post following up on Slavoj Zizek citing the Marx Brothers.
Read the post here:
Marxist quotation.

I Like You But I've Chosen Paris

Literally.

Welcome to RyanAdams.com motherfucker

I already like his rap career much better than that other thing he does ("So Alive" excepted).

cinema(theque)

I've started a new cinema blog. Not sure if I'll be duplicating content here but I'm hoping this helps me regain my film-focus.

Chained to the Cinémathèque.

[if you'd like to join the team, let me know.]


on a (vaguely) related note, I'm leaving for Paris next weekend for a while. and, as you'll see on the new blog, thinking about breaking some cinematic records.

réalisé sans aucun trucage ni accéléré

which usually translates to "made without special effects or fast motion"
but in this case means "completely and totally insane"

this film has been an underground classic since it premiered in 1976. It's a 9-minute high-speed race through Paris, shot in one uninterrupted forward-facing shot. made with no permits, no streets blocked off, many red lights ignored, a few one way streets driven up the wrong way, and a some pedestrian and automotive near-misses, this is Claude Lelouch's finest hour (yes, that Claude Lelouch). he was arrested after the first screening. he claimed he had hired a Formula 1 driver for the film, but would never release the name of the driver. the audio on the film is of a Ferrari engine, and based on the soundtrack fans have speculated that the car was a Ferrari 275GTB. rumors abound that he's hitting speeds of 140 MPH on the residential streets of Paris. I can't say whether this was intended as an art-film attack on the synthetic Hollywood action of, say, Bullitt, but it comes off as one. enjoy Claude Lelouch's "C'était Un Rendezvous":












now that you've seen it you should know: Claude himself was the driver. The car was his Mercedes. he probably never went faster than 85 or 90 mph. but... WOW.

If YouTube's not enough for you, please go buy the dvd:

KillerMike4Prez

I am not even kidding I am writing in Killer Mike for President in 2008.

this is the reason: "That's Life"

He once held an opponent's wife hand / in a jar of acid / at a party

He'll save children but not the British children.

Washington, Washington:

It's Gotta Be Now

the best half hour of TV I've seen in some time was tonight's episode of Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) on Sundance channel. The episode is called "It's Gotta Be Now" and it's my new favorite portrayal of teenagers and the weird mix of love and lust that swallows them in the presence of the opposite sex.

Typical Girls

The Slits are coming to the United States!

Nov. 1 2006 New York, NY - Knitting Factory as part of CMJ, playing with the Apes

every magic trick has 3 acts

The Prestige (hat tip andrea)

jewish superheroes

Salon recently had an article about how Jewish men were no longer the kind of commanding masculine cultural presences as they have been in the past (see: Leonard Cohen). It has this throwaway line on how Hollywood's "Jewish women have never been better represented. Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Amanda Peet, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Selma Blair."

Leading to the "!!" moment of "Scarlett Johansson is Jewish!" (yup.)

Salon's sidebar article was on the 10 Jewish leading men who could break through and return Jewish leading men to masculine prominence.
Let me just say: I'm often compared to #1 on looks, #5 on style, and I lost the lead in Rushmore to #4.

Michael Chabon (Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) nearly wrote a script for the Fantastic Four movie. here's his pitch.
He also made a pitch for the 1st X-Men movie. I haven't read this yet but I'm imagining a "wow" moment on par with the Scarlett Johansson revelation above.
Thanks Cinematical.

Amanda Congdon, formerly host of Rocketboom, was pushed out the other week. She put up an explanation at Amanda UnBoomed (further details here). The new girl is just OK as her replacement - which is overwhelmingly disappointing. Amanda, you're too smart to go away for long.

Since by now I'm completely off topic, Michael Bay is directing a movie version of the Transformers and the website has a teaser trailer with what looks like some stock footage, 12 frames from the film, and the name Michael Bay at the end.

If this were a manifesto I'd sign it

My official foreign policy platform:
An American Foreign Policy That Both Realists and Idealists Should Fall in Love With by Robert Wright

Feline Soul

those 'funny' videos on the internet are always really stupid.
except for this one:
Independent Woman, played by kittens.
thanks Gina.

Hamdan

the Hamdan decision came down today. "NYTimes: "The Supreme Court today delivered a sweeping rebuke to the Bush administration, ruling that the military tribunals it created to try terror suspects violate both American military law and the Geneva Convention."

jagshemash!!

Pitchfork's 100 Awesome Music Videos is tons of fun.

Sometimes, I wonder if there's a pool around Fork HQ to see who will next revive the apparently-defunct "Pitchfork Line of the Day". Ryan Schreiber, you are our lucky winner:

At seven years old, watching this on "Friday Night Videos" was one of those super insignificant media-consumer rites of passage, like seeing your first hockey fight or throat stabbing or man getting fucked to death by a horse. The world never looks the same.


the trailer for the film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake looks better than I thought it would.

but it's really hard to compete with the Borat movie.

continued

Yes, the hiatus is ongoing, but you cannot miss this.

PS - my pics from last night's quasi-secret Rapture show are up