Vertigo

Ever wonder what its like to go down a long hill at fast speed with nothing but a thin piece of wood and 4 little wheels under you? well, here's your chance! this video was shot as a promotion piece for menswear designer, Adam Kimmel. 3 skateboarders dress in suits, get driven to the top of a long hill (in Claremont, CA) and proceed to hand a video camera back and forth to each other while filming their POV and each other. I find my body becomes rigid and I hold my breath when I watch this, meanwhile they're laughing, relaxed, fluid, and enjoying themselves. I can't figure out how they got the film to be so steady considering this is hand held. The coordination and ease at which they pass the camera around while going at very high speeds is impressive. (The action starts at 2:30 if you just want to skip ahead to the good stuff.)

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

Broken Embraces

Watched the new Pedro Almodovar film, Broken Embraces. It was very enjoyable (not counting the woman with stinky perfume sitting next to me for over 2 hrs. yuck!) Back when she was trying to be an American star and was dating/married to Tom Cruise (?) I couldn't stand Penelope Cruz, but under Almodovar's loving lens and attention she really shines (although I thought she was good in Vicky Cristina Barcelona also) which is good because Broken Embraces is pretty much all about her. The film is layered with multiple characters and the storyline isn't linear which shouldn't be new to any fan of Almodovar's.

Here's a synopsis from the film's website:

The story of Mateo, Lena, Judit and Ernesto Martel is a story of “amour fou”, dominated by fatality, jealously, the abuse of power, treachery and a guilt complex. A moving and terrible story, the most expressive image of which is the photo of two lovers embracing, torn into a thousand pieces.

I'm a survivor

Spacious Thoughts

been running across really kool animation lately. this one has been making the rounds because of the music of Kool Keith and Tom Waits which is actually completely uninteresting in this video. for me, the merit is in the incredible future forward animation done by Fluorescent Hill.

freaky

this is some sports I can get into

This video is AWESOME. It's about Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Dock Ellis and a game in which he pitched a no hitter while flying high on LSD and various uppers. Not only is it a funny story, but the animation by James Blagden, is just wonderful and fresh and exciting. A true pleasure to watch.

bellies full of plastic

I came across these amazing photos by a guy named Chris Jordan of dead baby albatross birds. Apparently the birds parents feed them plastic, thinking its food, and then the birds die from obvious complications. the content matter is very sad and generates alot of thought about humans and their responsibility/impact on nature. if you detach from the content, the pix are visually beautiful in a strange exotic way. from the artist's statement:

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

random Fall

I'm being watched.

this was right outside the subway entrance of my stop.

hilarious.

seems like just yesterday I was taking pix of the first burst of green

in Central Park and now I'm taking pix of everything dying. sads.

at least Fall is colorful that's the compromise I guess.

get ready for grey, grey and more grey for the next 6 months. yeah!

Animals

The Animals consistently pumped out really soulful music that totally belied their ultra white, ultra square appearances. Some of these performances are so.... dull. The 60's, rockin. and it seems alot of the stage setups were some cheesy take off the "animal" name like circus and head mounted gogo girls. The music though, is solid.









and kinda unrelated I feel compelled to add this video of Paint it Black with Brian Jones rockin' the sitar. awesome.

the Tao of RZA

the RZA aka Bobby Digital was actually on the Colbert Report. talk about culture clash. all in all I think the interview went well aside from the sunglasses and baseball hat pulled down low, but I understand.

ah, New York

0))))))))

my friend Nicole inspired this post by sending me this video:

now I can't decide if I should trek all the way out to mofo brooklyn to see the Sunn O)))/Earth show next week? tempting but, brooklyn, not so much.

Trash Humpers

I dunno. This just looks scary. Its seems like watching Harmony Korine's new movie, Trash Humpers, would be like being trapped in someone else's nightmare. I'll probably see it one way or another just out of curiosity.

official statement?:

A film unearthed from the buried landscape of the American nightmare, TRASH HUMPERS follows a small group of elderly Peeping Toms through the shadows and margins of an unfamiliar world. Crudely documented by the participants themselves, we follow the debased and shocking actions of a group of true sociopaths the likes of which have never been seen before. Inhabiting a world of broken dreams and beyond the limits of morality they crash against a torn and frayed America. Bordering on an ode to vandalism, it is a new type of horror; palpable and raw.

and now for a brief musical interlude

death is the theme lately

Summer of Death™ (or is it fall now) has claimed another 80's icon.

DFW 1962-2008

This afternoon I just happened to listen to a podcast of David Foster Wallace reading a story about 9/11 at the Walker Museum. I had not even realized today is the one year anniversary of his death. sad. There is movie version of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men directed by John Krasinski (random) being released soon (I think). My copy of Infinite Jest is still sitting on my nightstand virtually untouched.

Here's a quote from Wallace from a speech at Kenyon College in 2005:

"learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.

This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger."

The Hunger

What better way to commerate 09.09.09 than with a blog post? I recently watched The Hunger. Classified as a horror film, directed by Tony Scott (who did Top Gun and True Romance) in 1983, I found this to be a surprisingly delightful gem. Catherine Deneuve while always gorgeous, looks particularly stunning in this movie. She's a vampire (yes, this is where the cheese comes in) whose lover is the handsome, talented David Bowie, a cello player who is also a vampire thanks to Deneuve. From what I can gather, Miriam (Deneuve) then falls in love in Susan Sarandon, a sleep specialist, and when this happens David Bowie then starts to lose his immortality because it only lasts as long as Miriam is in love with her lover. He rapidly withers away (he is hundreds of yrs old after all) and soon there's some lesbo action happening btwn Miriam and Sarandon. Miriam infects Sarandon, confusion ensues, Miriam invites Sarandon to be her lover in everlasting immortality but alas Sarandon rejects her and hence Miriam then dies herself. Gothic rock group Bauhaus opens the movie, Ann Magnuson and Willem Dafoe make cameo apperances. There's some 80's footage of Times Square, Central Park, and upper east side. The sensuous atmospheric quality, cast, and hypnotic Deneuve makes this a surprisingly delightful film.
Its on Netflix and also looks like someone posted the whole movie on youtube.

destruction and devastation!

Apparently a microburst rolled through Central Park last tuesday, (and I didn't even know) leaving a swath of destruction in its path. All of this was in the northwest corner of the park where I oft go to sit in the quiet shade of the trees. imagine my surprise and shock when I first walked upon those said trees to find them scattered all over the ground. there really was alot of damage done and they're still cleaning it up days later. I walk through the park every single day and I felt alittle sad seeing all the trees and surrounding areas destroyed, but I guess it will just clear out the area for some new growth. what a weird weird freak occurence. nature is fascinating.

from Central Park's website:

More than 200 trees fell, with hundreds more damaged. Tree canopies were simply wiped away. The most severe damage occurred between 90th and 100th Streets, including a 40" London Plane tree which fell across the East Drive. The Central Park Conservancy deployed 60 operations staff and 17 contractor crews to remove debris and secure affected tree limbs.

The staggering cost of clean-up is estimated at several hundred thousand dollars, but it is impossible to attach a monetary figure to some of the losses. "We had a wonderful chestnut tree at 100th Street and Central Park West," said Neil Calvanese, VP of Operations for the Central Park Conservancy. "Records indicate the tree was planted by the Park's designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, more than 150 years ago." The tree was devastated by the storm and will be removed.