Long Blondes

I almost forgot to mention that on Friday night we stopped by infamous Don Hill's to check out The Long Blondes second show. Erroneoulsy thinking that Cause CoMotion was going to be the opening band again (they did open at the Knitting Factory the night before), we showed up around 10PM...

What a big mistake... There was a horrendous sounding band that imitated Limp Bizkit (however it's spelled) and not only that but they had the balls to completely destroy the coolness of Seal's song (never gonna survive... the one on Cindy's workout).

Although I do not agree with Josh when he says the show was amazing and that "every girl under 25 was taking note while every girl over 25 was feeling jealous." I must say that it sounded good and that Kate Jackson (the frontwoman) has good showsmanship skills. Her flirty high pitched voice is playful and aggressive...

but since I'm no music critic here's a real review (or preview)by Kevin Wolfe

"People think I'm being perverse on purpose / But they don't know," Kate Jackson sings coquettishly in the first moments of "Fulwood Babylon," the flip side of the Long Blondes' latest U.K. single. Though the line is sung in character, as one of the many protagonists that populate this Sheffield, England, five-piece's compositions, the group's own kinky swagger arises by clever design rather than affectation.

Jackson and her unversity chums - guitarrist Dorian Cox, bassist Reenie Hollis, keyboardist Emma Chaplin and drummer Screech- formed the Long Blondes in 2003 as a sort of "fantasy" pop group, which in their case meant looking to Nico, Nancy Sinatra and Bryan Ferry for inspiration. Setting their sights disproportionately high above their initial musical profeciency, the band relased a string of memorable singles (including the dance-floor cult "Giddy Stratospheres") overflowing with ooky melodies and literate lyrics, and bearing innate punk edge. The group's charm crystallizes on the fame-for-love tale "Lust in the Movies" (from a forthcoming EP on NYC label What's Your Rupture?), in which rumbling bass and booming drums give way to a torrent of guitars and the shout-along refrain, "Edie Sedwick! Anna Karina! Arlene Dahl!/I just want to be a sweetheart!" Onstage, teh band cleaves to the wry glamour of its lyrics, eschewing casual indie aesthetics for Hitchcockian chic.

Lady in the Water

A dos años de haber mostrado La Aldea (2004), M. Night Shymalan, el joven director Hindú que en 1999 capturó la atención de los estudios Hollywoodenses con la multipremiada película El Sexto Sentido, está perdiendo momentum.

Lady in the Water (2006), su séptimo filme, cuenta la historia de Cleaveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), un hombre viudo que en sus rondas de superintendente descubre a una extraña joven nadando en la alberca del multifamiliar en donde él que trabaja. Al hacer contacto con ella, se desencadenan una serie de situaciones verdaderamente chuscas -que no tenían la intención de serlo- y la presentación de unos personajes secundarios estereotipados y politicamente correctos. Juntos, el superintendente y los inqulinos tratan de decifrar el misterio de Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) la pálida y mojada adolescente que necesita de su ayuda para sobrevivir y regresar a su mundo submarino. El resto, es una elaborada historia que por intentar ser original peca de barroca y redundante.

En estos tiempos en los cuales se glorifica al actor “indie”, Shymalan cambió a Bruce Willis y a Mel Gibson por el calvo y poco atractivo Paul Giamatti. Sustituyó a los primeros extraterrestres de Señales (2002) ( que parecían muchachitos en Noche de Brujas vistiendo el último disfraz disponible en el supermercado) por un perro con piel de zacate y unos simios digitales de baja calidad.Pero esto no fue suficiente, ya que en Lady in the Water Shymalan actúa en el filme caracterizando a un escritor prodigioso que predica con sabiduria.

Por otro lado, para todos aquellos que presientan que Lady in the Water es una historia de amor platónico, cabe mencionar que Shymalan siempre ha mostrado tensión sexual, pero está pasa a segundo plano puesto que los personajes en cuestión están interesado en combatir el mal. Quizá Shymalan nos quiera mostrar que no existe el altruismo puro, ya que con en sus historias pasadas, el héroe tiene un secreto escondido, una culpa que expiar o una pena que le urge desahogar y esa es razón por la cual se siente obligado a ayudar, defender y decifrar misterios.

Esperemos que Lady in the Water sea la “señal” para Shymalan busque un guionista y aprenda a no desaprovechar sus herramientas. Es evidente que no se percata del potencial de los actores y el crew. Ni el peso de Paul Giamatti ni la experiencia del cinefotógrafo Christopher Doyle pudieron rescatar esta desangelada leyenda.

I've fallen for The Fall... Thanks Charles Atlas!

Last nite, I went to check out one of the programs that SCANNERS: The New York Video Festival was featuring. I didn't expect much but a bunch of Avant-garde videommakers and their trippy projects, but I was quite entertained during The World According to Charles Atlas.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CHARLES ATLAS
Series: Scanners: The 2006 New York Video Festival [July 26 30 2006]
Country: USA, Runtime: 90

A video artist at work for well over two decades, Atlas continues to explore, nurture, and often vaporize the boundaries of electronic art. In this micro-survey, we are happy to flashback excerpts from his 1986 Hail the New Puritan piece in which Mark E. Smith and The Fall appear onscreen and provide the music for deliriously libidinous choreography by Michael Clark. And then, after an ethereal Antony and the Johnsons interlude, Atlas will perform live on the Walter Reade Theater stage, accompanied by his guitar and laptop partner in crime, Chris Peck. The title of the piece (like the work itself) is priceless: The Intensity Police Are Working My Last Gay Nerve.

The benefits of PS1's Warm up

I was planning to go check this years PS1 Warm Up installation until August 19 (Jeremy Campbell from Tropical Computer Systems will be spinning!) but I ended up going yesterday (Sunday July 29th).

Apart from enjoying the heat wave and the people watching, I was very pleased to see this year's installation. Compared to the one's of the past two years, BEATFUSE! by the New York based OBRA architects, was functional, space savy and aesthetically good looking. These domes made out of wood and white see through fabric were a good idea to filter the menacing sun rays from all this raving cosmopolitan crowd.

But my rave is not only about BEATFUSE! I think that for $10, going to the Warm Up, and checking out all the exhibitions inside PS1 is completely worth it. You can sweat for a while, and then get in and one of the video installations to zone out in the A/C. While doing that, I checked out a very interesting and evocative piece that catched my eye. It's a video installation called Subway Sessions by Drew Heitzler. The video was projecting old 1970's footage of some beach on the Far Rockaways (NY). The texture provided by transferring super 8 footage to video was grainy and beautiful. Songs by bands such as Lightingbolt provided the soundtrack to the surfer sequences... Excellent editing. You see a piece of New York's beach, plus all the specs and hairs that film atracts with time. Those imperfections make the footage real and perfect.

Rockdocs!

I'm proud to present:

Play It Loud: RockDocs 2006
August 2 – 10, 2006

Rock documentaries take center stage at the Walter Reade Theater this summer as the first edition of “Play It Loud: RockDocs 2006” debuts with a nine-film collection of New York, U.S. and North American premieres. Films featuring rock 'n' roll subgenres from the psychedelic rock of Roky Erickson's 13th Floor Elevator to European electronica and heavy metal will screen. Olivier Assayas’ concert film Noise and Julien Temple’s Glastonbury will give us glimpses into music festivals, and we get a virtual backstage pass during the reunion tours of Mission of Burma and the Pixies. The series will offer the first chance to see on the big screen Martin Scorsese’s seminal documentary on Bob Dylan. And Stewart Copeland will host a special screening of his film, Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out.


www.filmlinc.com

Power and Justice

"Those who dispense Justice are far from where the shots are fired, pulling the strings of unemployment and the national wealth, steering the whole lot into the darkness from which it will presently reappear in the form of a world war. They raise and lower the curtain of humanity on ropes of speculation, arms dealing, pay and price manipulation, inflation, racism, and warmongering."

Wonderful Wonderful Times
Elfriede Jelinek

DADA at Moma

Daddy and Mommy... No. It's the recent Dadaism exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

I tried to focus on the films only, but still other stuff would catch my attention. Although this artistic movement is not my favorite, I can recall that the way the exhibition was put together was great. The Dada exhibit is divided by countries. Showing the paintings on the walls, the sculptures in the center of the galleries and the films on hanging screens in between rooms or inside a dark room. My favorite country was Germany. I am used to watching Dada from France, New York and Zurich, so it was enriching to check out Berlin. I bet many of the 80's post-punk crowd relates to this art...Specially when it comes to collage and propaganda.

The film that caught my eye and remained in my memory was The Ghost Before Breakfast by Hans Richter. Bomber hats flying, guys with suits climbing ladders, targets, guns, cut outs, lots of repetition, order and then chaos, positive and negative and movie magic of appear, disappear. I bet many of the music videos of the past decades have been influenced by Dada.

Go check it out before Sept.11

Just a thought...

Am I modeled after the films I watch or are these modeled after me?

Benny's Video

Still fascinated by Haneke...
I definitely think that Benny's Video is the most violent film that he has directed. Half of the people in the theatre walked out. Could we say that Benny's Video is the modern day Peeping Tom?

Los buenos hábitos de Simón Bross

Probablemente no debo escribir sobre la ópera prima del señor Bross, pues aún no está terminada... en el DVD que recibí en el trabajo claramente decía con letra gruesa de Sharpie -o Esterbrook- "Work in progress, Sound not HNM, Music not final, no color correction, Subtitles Temp."

Simón Bross es mejor conocido en el ámbito de los comerciales y videos musicales. Sinembargo, con MALOS HABITOS está por probar que no nadamás es el rey de los comerciales. Este filme es un verdadero ejemplo de lo que se puede hacer en México, si uno tiene buen ojo, y se rodea de gente talentosa. No cabe duda que el cine es una labor colaborativa, sinembargo, el líder o visionario tiene que ser un buen head-hunter.

Simón Bros no solamente supo contar la historia, sino que supo contar con su crew y su reparto. Desde el guión co-escrito con Ernesto Anaya, las actuaciones de la ya mujer Ximena Ayala y la revelación de Elena de Haro, más la excelente fotografía y edición...

Esta es una historia muy ad-hoc con lo que sucede en el país. MALOS HABITOS es el retrato de la clase media alta, de la anorexia y la bulimia, de la excesiva religiosidad y la doble moral.

No se la pierdan!

71 Fragments

Last night I went to see Michael Haneke's 71 Fragments at Anthology. I was really excited and decided to take some notes (thanks D.Boyle). This is Haneke's 3rd film and it feels like the prequel to Code Unknown. You see fragments of urban life in Austria. The portrayal of solitude and indifference to other's grief. Of course there's social exclusion, displacement. We see it with the foster girl and the 13 yr old illegal homeless immigrant. I love how the kid becomes invisible and no one gives his charity -or gives a shit-, until he is carrying a camera on his neck. Why does that get him noticed? I could also clearly appreciate the cuts, the steady framing, the long one shot sequences and the lack of dialogue in some of the fragments. Another thing I notices is that there's stealing. In all of Hanekes movies there's stealing... Or invading others objects and personal lives. The use of news broadcasting clips is omnipresent all along the film, only this case it shows a lot of the Bosnian War.

There's also video manipulation (with the student that's analyzing his ping pong playing skills). All the mediation, the war on TV, surveillance and all these fragments that build up to show how something so simple as not having enough money to pay the gas, can make a youngster loose it and start shooting in a bank.

American Breakfast

"Classic American diner breakfast: eggs, toast, and hash browns (or grits). Having traveled the world now, I'm well aware of the fact that there are amazing meals to eat in other countries, many of which are better than what we eat here, but it's hard to find asatisfying breakfast. I don't think it's a cultural thing, because I know a lot of foreigners who get excited about our breakfast."

Brian "Geologist" Weitz
musician, Animal Collective

Dear Young Artist,

Wandering around the bookstores, I found a great option for a gift for my talented 18 yr old cousin Pablo. Not that he needs one, but I immediately thought of him -- and then many other people I know.

Stuart Horodner's LETTER TO A YOUNG ARTIST contains 23 diversely established artists that have responded to a letter seeking advice about art and life in New York.

I really liked Joseph's Grigely's advice:
"Learn a foreign language, learn things about other people, go places and do things that have nothing to do with art - because it's the stuff that has nothing to do with art that has everything to do with art."

About Experience

"To experience the same thing twice puts the first under erasure and makes the second redundant. It creates a preclusion of hierarchy."

Meg O' Rourke

"The Al Gore Movie"

I was not planning to see this film, but a couple of people convinced me. Jay, my vegetarian-activist-law-student-roommate started talking about An Inconvenient Truth on a very hot summer night. We were discussing the crazy temperatures that have taken over the world due to Global Warming. As many people, I got used the term but -shamefully- didn't know much about that.

Hence, to combat the 100F heat that embraces New York, I got in the 7:20PM screening of "The Al Gore Movie" at BAM. I prefer watching fiction over documentaries... but sometimes there's stuff I have to watch (conversation, actuality, film geek stuff) and this was the case. This film is a long slide show about Global Warming, accompanied by small vignettes about Al Gore's life (when he ran for presidency and lost, when his kid got hit by a car, when his sister died and many other stuff that frankly, added emotion). There were times that the film got kind of slow, but in the end it all paid off...

So now, I will restart my recycling habits in the house, and set the ac two degrees higher than what I'm used to...

Check http://www.climatecrisis.net/

Featuring Selma Fernández

Selma Fernández es una fotógrafa Regiomontana que admiro y respeto. Su talento surge de la aridez de nuestras tierras, en las cuales es difícil ejercer la creatividad debido a la falta de apoyo artístico. Selma, sinembargo sabe utilizar su cámara. Su último estímulo son las ferias y los circos, eventos y centros de recreación que por suerte aún existen.

Radio Macabro

Después de meses de escuchar por internet (www.turola.com) la estación de radio capitalina Reactor, decidí entrar en contacto para felicitarlos por su excelente labor.

Me contestó Oskar el productor de Reacción "El programa de Investigación" y me comentó sobre Radio Macabro. El saber que aún existen concursos de guiones audiofónicos en México se me hizo magnífico.

Para todos aquellos que estén buscando que hacer este verano, no es mala idea juntarse un par de noches para escribir un guión radiofónico, recuerden que una cosa puede dar a otra y estoy segura de que en el país hay mucho talento -un poco escondido-.

http://radiomacabro.imer.com.mx/convocatoria.html

Happy Fi News!

Ya hay disco de arizona, niña, dendron y la live band!
www.happyfi.com
www.mixup.com
www.saharis.com.mx

Cómprenlo ya! ( y luego me lo pasan para subirlo a mis itunes! o me los traen cuando vengan a visitar a NY).

Tiramisú

B-day wishes

Tomorrow I will be turning 28. I feel like 21! -and probably act like 17 sometimes-
Hence, the yearly b-day wish list. I will start with the American Apparel scoop back leotard (Yes, size Large cause Dov designs these clothing articles for famished hipsters). I already tried it on and promise not to use it with horrendous translucent pink tights.
The next thing I want and almost anyone can get for me is the Marc Jacobs perfume. Not the eau de toilette or the lotion, I want the long lasting perfume. I really love the smell of gardenias, it reminds me of my mom. I asked for it on Christmas and didn't get it, so it's back on tha list. I been looking for cool black jeans, cause "I need them" and the best fit is Acne Jeans. They're a tad pricey, but they're probably on sale at Barneys Co-Op by now. When it comes to shows and theatrics, It's sad to accept the fact that I have never been to a Broadway show on Broadway (saw The Producers in LA!), but I'm not interested. What I would like to go see is Cirque du Soleil's Corteo. Last but not least and possible my most ambitious gift wish (no, it's not a trip to Kuwait) is an Ipod nano. I have had the shuffle for a year and I love it, but I really would like to know which song is playing and who performs... Sometimes I upload too much stuff (thanks Joshua) in my i-tunes and end up knowing the lyrics but not the title or the artist.


I'm not asking for DVD's or Cd's cause I have no room to store them, so at the moment I'm not collecting, plus Josh can get me almost any record for free.

But I would appreciate books.
any from Jelinek, Bataille, or Nussbaum would be perfect.

Woman and Human Development by Martha C. Nussbaum
Marriage and Modernization: How Globalization Threatens marriage and what to do about it. by Martha Nussbaum.

Music Recommendations by Joshua Gabriel

Evangelicals “So Gone”

Oklahoma’s Evangelicals’ debut “So Gone” seamlessly blends a colourful array of wayward musics into an evocative tapestry of pop, psychedelia and prog. Brandishing a miasma of high-energy synth/keyboard explosions, raw nerve guitar distortion and singer Josh Jones’ steady falsetto the trio’s opening salvo “A Mouthful Of Skeletons” perfectly sets the ensuing tone: schizophrenic melodic pop characterized by off center acid-drenched imagery. Mind you such imagery isn’t necessarily distilled through LSD consumption as much as a legitimate enthusiasm for alchemical studio experimentation. Tracks such as “Hello Jenn, I’m A Mess” and “Another Day (And Yoor Still Knocked Out)” address the pop balance guided by subtle Zombies-esque baroque hooks and deliriously caustic guitar leads; A highly impressive first impression.



Hot Chip “The Warning”

The superlative follow up to 2004’s notably confident debut, “Coming On Strong,” finds Hot Chip maintaining their trademark lyrical playfulness while breaking new ground fusing both melody and pop to the sensual austerity of house and new wave. “The Warning” stands thusly: a stylish call-to-arms requiem for a generation informed of laptops, I-pods and casual seaside weekends sporting khakis and linen dinner jackets. “Colours” and “(Just Like We) Breakdown” perpetuate the certainty by way of lean, undulating rhythms, neither dominating nor subliminal instead leaving the arrangements spacious and versatile, creating both perfect atmosphere and decadently smooth pop. Conversely, “Careful” and “Tchaparian” quirk and jump like the best disjointed electronic acts, simultaneously recalling Basement Jaxx and Aphex Twin.


BOTH REVIEWS WRITTEN BY JOSHUA GABRIEL, MY FAVE MUSIC CONNOISSEUR
thejuly24@hotmail.com

4th of July

Belle and Sebastian at Battery Park

Happy Fi 2 y 3

Hace mucho tiempo que quería terminar estos reviews. Bitle escribió y me acordé.

HAPPY FI 1999 DISCO 2
Bubba
1. Ay Bubba - suena a cortina de un space show de los 60’s. Ameno, fresco.
2. Love to have a great big burning swastica on stage - siguen los soniditos electrónicos, como si R2D2 estuviera tratando de decir algo... el riff de la guitarra cruda no me late, no me gusta que la canción núnca explote... está muy larga, válido intento de psych rock.

Pistol Chunky
3. Amanda - broken heart trovadour de San Pedro. Seguro ya sabe mucho más de producción de audio que cuando grabó esta rola, ya que ahora reside en Nueva York y trabaja en uno de los mejores estudios.
4.Camara Lenta - necesita un diccionario de sinónimos, suena bitlesco. Naif. Rimas cute.
5. Casey 1 - bastante digerible, road trip song. excelente!

Sport
6. yokovibe - too mellow for me.
7. be my rainbow - no me laten los efectos electronicosos de los 80’s

Mario
8. en un rincón del alma - más experimentos con la guitarra y el sinte.
9. kermesse - sweetness, “ahora tendré que esperar otro año para poder casarme contigo” me gusta su narrativa. esto es más él. o más bien, esto conquista más chicas.
10. inquietudes - no sea inquieto, ese sampler de órgano de The Doors o theme song de un sitcom de 70’s no es original.

Goma
11. Ola - el preámbulo está muy largo. me laten los ecos. muy alegórico.
12. Twinkle - me recuerda a pink floyd (dark side of the moon)

Yokovibe
13. Tony Hawk- suena a niña con sintes.
14. So late - si transmite esa pasividad... move at a glacial speed...como si te estuvieran untando porcelana.
15. tonyhawks - suena a niña con sintes.



HAPPY FI 2005 DISCO 3

1 Sport. - Detour - no soy muy paciente con las instrumentales
2. She’s a tease -Long Time Roll - mis favoritos de happy fi! soy fan. Me encantan esos riffs, son neo new wavers mexas con una mezcla de reggae. Que Block Party o Testicicles ni que nada. A parte mantienen la atención del público al 110%
3. Bastian Marley - Scenic Road - very cinematographic. buen score de algún trip
4. Ronnie Ezpino- Watch Henry Play - música de lounge mexa
5. Quiero Club - No coke - Muy buena y divertida, but overrated.
6. Mario - Quiero que tengas mi reloj - está bien, pero quiero que se abra la rola, show a little bit of angst. Too mellow.
7. Niña - Sistema Perfecto - perfecta para la radio. El que persevera alcanza! Catchy, cheesy lirics. La rola si se abre y hay guitarrita punketa.
8. Niña - Black Forest - Experimentos
9. Ca5 - Sexy Tsunami. Musicazos... excelente, I headbang to this song.. Tiene la duración perfecta.
10. d3ndron - melodía de where the streets have no name...darketina, sufridora, emo. si rifa.
11. Arizona - Take da keys - mi segunda banda favorita de Happy Fi. me encanta el principio, spooky. Y luego ese blow up, onda black sabbath al principio, pero después punkette. Me recuerda a Rocky Horror Picture Show....
12. Pistol Chunky - How to Move on - ya suena mejor que en el disco dos. Con más influencia country.
13. Laredo - tango mango slow rock . nada especial
14. Gino - Wasted. mucho emo...
15. Bubba y sus carros eléctricos - don’t quit your day job buddy.
16. Panorama - Sway - no está tan lejos de la realidad williamsburgense... me gusta la voz de la chica.