Give Love A Chance

Even if you're not familiar with the band Love you have probably seen this album cover somewhere -
Whenever there is a list of the greatest albums of all time you will likely find Forever Changes on there. It's a really great album. "Alone Again or" is one of the greatest album openers ever and the following 10 tracks live up to that promise.

I didn't hear this album till about a year ago when I found it among the CDs of my long deceased uncle Gary. When he died he was living with my grandparents and his CDs are still there. It's weird - I've kind of grown up with that collection. Every few years I look through the various discs and find something new. When I was in 4th grade it was Elvis & Meatloaf, when I got to high school it was Frank Zappa and last year it was Love.

As great as the album is, I for some reason never attempted to look into any of their other albums until this past Tuesday.

On Tuesday (with change I had been amassing on my desk) I bought the Criterion edition of Bottle Rocket. Though I had seen the film at least three times before, I had never really paid attention to the music in the first burglary scene. Maybe it's due to the shitty mix on the standard edition DVD. Who knows? But anyway - this time the music stood out. I found myself wondering -

Who the fuck is this awesome band?

It sounded like if The Who were inventing punk. Quick IMDB search and I discover that the song is called "7 and 7 is" by Love. It's off their album Da Capo which came right before Forever Changes and is pretty awesome as well.

Take a listen



Most of you hip cats out there are likely already on the Love bandwagon. But those of you who are not better get jumpin' cause this is great great music.

Dig?

Warhol 2.0

"You know, the Strokes have a certain sound, and when their first album came out, it felt, to an older generation that had been around for New Wave, No Wave and all that, that their music was referencing several different bands we remembered from another time. But I've heard that Julian [Casablancas] didn't know those bands. He had a vague idea of what that sound was, but he's not a student of it. So many references, older references, are lost on young people. They're part of their subconscious, but they don't really know where they come from, because everything has been so recycled and remixed and remastered."

-Marc Jacobs

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Fuck the auteur theory. No single man or woman makes a film. A film is the product of intense collaboration between a team of talented individuals, all bringing their unique skills, in hopes of elevating the whole. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the contrast between Bottle Rocket the short film and Bottle Rocket the feature.

During the two years that elapsed between the short and the feature, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson were subjected to an intense film bootcamp administered by the legendary James L. Brooks. Over the course of those two years, Wilson and Anderson developed a much stronger sense of narrative and structure. It was also during this time that Wes met cinematographer Rober Yeoman as well as the design duo of David and Sandy Wasco.

Now I'm not saying that Wes and Owen were a couple of country rubes who were whipped into shape by the Hollywood machine. In their short you can see protian forms of everything that would eventually come to bear in the features. Especially that tone. That tone is all them. What I am saying is that with the right collaborators, good artists can become great.

Variations On A Theme (Due)

Set-up:
A group of wealthy Italians go for a cruise and decide to visit a deserted island. While exploring the island, a girl goes missing. Her boyfriend and best gal pal take it upon themselves to find her.
Sounds like a fairly decent first act to a what could be a great thriller.

Upon its premiere at the 1960 Cannes International Film Festival, Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece L’avventura was met with audible “Boo”-s.

What they were reacting to was the film’s apparent contempt for narrative. The mystery of the missing Anna is never resolved. What we as an audience are left with is the romance(?) of the two people searching for her.

While watching this film, one cannot help but think of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Serial killers aside, the films are strikingly similar. A female protagonist goes missing, her boyfriend and best friend (or sister) go looking for her, they fall in love.

It’s almost like Hitch was attempting to show that in the proper hands, this set-up could be quite the crowd pleaser. The catch is that both films were released in 1960. Neither filmmaker was aware of what the other was doing.

How do you say collective unconscious in Italian?

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

Though it has been rumored since forever...

It looks like the Bluths are one step closer to the big screen.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, series creator Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard have signed deals with Fox Searchlight to write and direct an Arrested Deveolopment movie! Time to bust out the DVDs and brush up on all the quotable goodness.

Also, I never thought I would find myself having to say this but...

Thanks Sex and the City movie! Your box office returns made studios more willing to give feature film versions of TV shows a try!

Yes I'm aware that most TV to film transfers amount to little more than an extra long episode and that it will likely be a box office dud. But I don't give a fuck. Wanna know why?

WE'RE GETTING AN ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MOVIE!!!!



source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i3727898fb2739b043733d6fbf0b66e7a

CHURCH v. STATE

I know that it seems like this is turning into a blog entirely dedicated to the issue of gay rights; but with the passage of Prop Hate and my upcoming nuptials to the greatest woman on earth, I cannot help but have marriage on the brain.

Personally I am going to try and stop using the term “gay marriage”. I believe that referring to it as “gay marriage” continues to perpetuate the idea that it is something “other”. It makes a distinction between “marriage” and “gay marriage”. It’s just a watered down version of the segregation we currently have in place with “marriage” and “civil unions”.

OK. That was all just prologue to what I really want to write about which is the separation of Church and State. Let me also make a disclaimer that the following is just an idea, just food for thought. I myself am not entirely behind it either but it is a very interesting idea and something that I would like to get some response to.

What if Government just got out of the marriage game entirely?

Now I know some of you are probably thinking that this sounds insane but bear with me. It seems to me that the big roadblock for homosexuals being allowed to marry is religion. This is best exemplified by the amount of money the Church of Latter Day Saints and other religious organizations pumped into the various gay marriage amendments across the country.

In their arguments and literature they make all sorts of claims about how allowing homosexual couples to marry would somehow hurt or devalue their marriages. I personally feel this is bullshit.

What it really breaks down to is that they see homosexuality as a sin and feel that were we to allow homosexuals to marry, we as a Nation would be condoning a sinful lifestyle and we all would be headed for hell. This idea of collective damnation is the same mentality that lead to the Salem Witch Trials. But I digress. Back to the key point…

If marriage is such an important and sacred word, let's get it out of all these legal documents floating around our Nation. Religion has no place in politics and vice versa. Here's an idea: If you want to get married you can go to a church (mosque, temple, etc), if you want a civil union (and to be recognized by the Government) you go to a courthouse.

This way religion is not allowing 'Godless sodomites' to 'besmirch' a 'sacred institution', and government can be free to grant all of our citizenry the equal protection they are entitled to under the law.

"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” - Matthew 22:21

Once again this is just a theory. But I’d like to get your thoughts on it.

the EMPIRE strikes late

Last month, anyone and everyone with a love of cinema was talking about Empire Magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time". Once the issue made it's way to the US (Empire is a British mag) it sold rather rapidly and thus it was rather difficult for one such as myself to get ahold of a copy. Fortunately today I was able to track one down (with "A Clockwork Orange" on the cover no less). I shall now regale you with my thoughts on the list.

Aside from the fact that it's a little geek-centric, and the inclusion of some head scratchers ("Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" and "Lords of Dogtown" to name a few) it's a pretty decent and diverse list. Check out the top 10:

10. Fight Club
9. Pulp Fiction
8. Singin' In The Rain
7. Apocalypse Now
6. GoodFellas
5. Jaws
4. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
1. The Godfather

Another cool feature is that peppered throughout the issue are handwritten ballots submitted by cool filmmakers like Roger Deakins and John Sayles as well as less cool filmmakers like Uwe Boll. Ever wonder what Quentin Tarantino's top 11 (apparently 10 is for lesser men) favorite films are? Wonder no more:

1. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
2. Rio Bravo
3. Blow Out
4. Taxi Driver
5. His Girl Friday
6. 5 Fingers of Death/King Boxer
7. Pandora's Box
8. Carrie
9. Unfaithfully Yours
10. 5 Graves to Cairo
11. Jaws

Somehow I did not receive a ballot in the mail from Empire. This is odd seeing as I am such a powerful figure in the film industry. Perhaps there was some sort of trouble with the international mail service. Oh well. I shant let this deprive you from my Top 11 list (screw you Tarantino I can count that high too):

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Ed Wood
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. Taxi Driver
5. L.A. Confidential
6. Annie Hall
7. The Godfather Part II
8. Chasing Amy
9. Buffalo '66
10. Boogie Nights
11. Y Tu Mama Tambien

Hopefully Empire'll get that whole mail thing worked out before it's time to compile another list. Until then...

See you at the movies.