"Long Way Down"
Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite)
#1 “Uncomfortable and Funny”
From the mystical Carlosâ?¦
Uncomfortable and funny.
#2 The Amazing Songsmith
Our old friend Michael from Austin writes...
This shouldn't be real, but it is...... (I think, I havent been able to disprove it yet)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXG2uKNLIw&eurl=http://i.gizmodo.com/5128182/microsoft-songsmiths-corny-musical-infomercial
See what happens when you run David Lee Roth through the program
http://music.metafilter.com/2943/Runnin-With-The-Songsmith
Which then after hearing the David Lee Roth run through the songsmith, I felt prompted to writeâ?¦
â?¦I got no love, no love you call real!!!
Which then prompted Michael to respond back withâ?¦
â?¦which is a hilarious website with different sound bites from classic David Lee Roth songs. Oh, it's a lot of fun. And reminded me of this ridiculous website I had been referred to by a guy in LA who was the father of thumb-ass cell phone photography, a weird way of taking fake photos of the cleavage of one's finger knuckle that somehow resembled someone's butt, very weird and somehow impossible to google. Anywayâ?¦
http://www.yourethemannowdog.com/
â?¦which was begotten from this forgotten scene from the most unusual film of all of Gus Van Sant's body of work, Finding Forresterâ?¦
#3 The Hawaiian Scoop?
From OTS Insider Terriâ?¦
Have you heard of this? I certainly hope the Austin-American Statesman isn't scooping our SA papers!
http://www.austin360.com/food_drink/content/food_drink/stories/2009/01/0114luau.html
Tru Hustlas Don't Need Artist Statements
Disclaimer: In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll admit I went to see old friend Mantecatron's art opening at Fl!ght Gallery ( “Tru Hustla”) not so much as an art critic (and the next time I hit the town as an art critic will also be the first) but rather as a friend.
Ginobili!
The folly of youth.
Notice the real earrings pinned onto the image. Real bling.
In the spirit of fairness, however, I promise to describe the event in the exact same lame manner I would use to describe any other art show.
Tuesday Night Velcro Underground at Limelight (with Bart and Smart)
I had been lured in to the Thursday night events on and off again for the last two years, and in the process had pretty much forgotten about Tuesday night. With the exception of having to wake up Wednesday with a hangover and black lungs, I think it's a better night right now then the Thursday thing. For one, drinks were bizarrely cheap at $2 each. I ordered an Old Fashioned, which was fairly labor intensive for $2.
(Speaking “briefly” about the black lungs — Limelight really needs to get some sort of air filtration going on. Cutting a window into the concrete wall might be cheaper than a NASA engineered air circulation system but I think something should be done. I keep hearing stories of people not going because of the smoke. In evolutionary terms, I suppose they might be helping to select a smoke resistant population but that will take decades to determine. I say open a window for now and leave the punnet squares and oxygen/carbon dioxide reversal machines alone for the time being.)
An interesting part of the the Velcro thing, is that there are only two DJs which creates a more uniform experience. Also, the video projection is a solid touch. It suggests the mystery of lasers but really, as we all know, it's just a video loop. Still, it's something to break up the awkward statuesque “tableau vivant” (wait for the 26 second mark) that's re-enacted every other DJ night.
(Brief Power Point Re:) Gran Torino
(First, check out this video with Clint singing gracefully, though sounding a bit like Kermit.)
And then this trailer...
â?¢ Thought the script is simple and straightforward, so is Clint Eastwood's directing style. In that sense, it's a perfect marriage. The script does move forward logically and with enough surprise/reversals to please both Peoria and Hollywood, so to speak.
â?¢ On the other hand, Eastwood is terribly overrated as a director. Are we going to all conspire to forget Heartbreak Ridge? Granted, unintentional comedy all around with that one, especially from the little Van Peebles guy, but not a great film, and nowhere in that film is there a foreshadowing of true legitimacy.
â?¢ This film probably won't win Best Picture, but it's much more of a solid movie than Million Dollar Baby, a film that, yes, I did work on for one day moving inflatable dummies around for the boxing scenes, and yes did win Best Picture. Gran Torino is the film that should have won the Oscar, though that's not to say it actually deserves the Oscar, I'm just saying Hollywood got carried away back then.
â?¢ Eastwood is the last of the old school directors who actually stick to a 9 to 5 shooting schedule. He's minimal in what he does but he doesn't require a bunch of takes to get it done either. 2-3 takes per shot and then move on to the next. He doesn't even use the typical video monitor where all the producers and stars crowd around to watch the scene. He actually watches with his own eyes (somehow, weirdly, very rare these days in directing) and at worst/best has a small handheld video monitor that he'll glance at to make sure the camera moves look smooth. At least that's what everyone on the set told meâ?¦
â?¢ The entry into the Hmong culture gives the film a 1990s independent cinema feel. It is against this backdrop that the film succeeds.
â?¢ The film is fairly hilarious. Somehow, Clint spewing Archie Bunker slurs doesn't get old, at least for me.
And so goes another week on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continued...
