maybe it's just me

The Village

Why does M. NIght etc. insist on sabotaging his own movies? Everything was going pretty darn good until the girl goes over the wall & all of a sudden it's the Jurassic Park ride. Walker Wildlife Sanctuary? Damn. It sure looks amazing the whole time, though. If I see Roger Deakins on the street I'm giving him a high five, maybe a hug.

The Trashbin of Culture

My neighbor's Rob's brother Colin was in town this weekend. He works in TV. Among the things that we discussed in brief (the merits of Miami Vice 20 yrs on/NCAA madness/mash-ups/ex-mats) were movies in pre-production. Of these (Nicolas Cage in the remake of Wickerman (directed by Neil LaBute)?), he mentioned that Colin Farrell has been picked to play Arturo Bandini in the movie version of John Fante's Ask the Dust.

I would punch myself in the face but I think this requires multiple, perhaps coma-inducing jabs/hooks/round-houses. Serious inquiries only to my email.

First Day of Spring Linkdump

You're wondering what Roger Ebert thinks about a movie? + Do you remember after Dogtown & Z-Boys came out they said there was going to be Hollywood-ized version? Watch the trailer. + Photos by Keith Sirchio. + Eating pizza at one of my NYC favorites 2 weeks ago reminded me of the pizza weblog, Slice. + A while back, WBEZ in Chicago was giving away a Chris Ware DVD that I wanted semi-desperately. After reading this making-of thing my desperation is rekindled. + Billy Bob Thorton stars in the remake of The Bad News Bears. Instead of the silent Mexican kid who was in NOFX, there's a kid in a wheelchair. + Photographs by Trish Morrissey. + Japanese commercial for the new Biz Markie doll. + Pocket Calculator's Vintage Boombox Museum. + Photographs by Elinor Carucci. + Go see the Tragic Beauty show in Chicago & tell me how good it is. + I can't go because I have to go to a class I can't skip but someone should also go to see the Stephen Shore/Thomas Struth lecture on "Contemporary Photography and the Definition of Place" at the Architectual League in NYC & tell me how great it is. Or maybe I'll skip class & see you there. (We can check out the Thomas Demand show at the MOMA beforehand.) Also coming up at the Architectual League, Joel Sternfeld & Sally Mann. + My friend Arthur Jones is on tour with some of his animated shorts. He'll be in Boston next Wednesday. + Not exactly on the cutting edge of this news but the NY Times had an article about home recording studio today. + Can't remember if I mentioned Miranda July's web project Learning To Love More. Reminded by the tinyluckygenius. + Paintings/Illustrations by Jeana Sohn. + The MOMA Store has lots of cool stuff for people who have money in the bank. + Photographs by Robert Maxwell. Check out the rest of the photographers that they represent while you're there. + Photographs by Olaf Blecker.

I know you like that movie. Now shut the fuck up.

Thanks to a certain movie, I've received my 200th comment while at the same time recently averaging less than one entry per week. Thanks. I liked the movie too. Now shut the fuck up already.

And P.S. you spell poorly.

The Kids Are Alright

What if I made brief mention of all the movies I watch, just like my friend Kyle? (Although I have a hard time believing that he hasn't watched a movie in 5 days)

I watched The Kids Are Alright the other night. In a word (2 actually): a revelation. I like the Who but goddamn they are were fucking good. My favorite bits include the "in the studio" version of "Who Are You" which obliterates every last thought of CSI and how the intensity of Pete, Keith & Roger make John look so very boring & bored. And he plays his bass all high.

Spring Broke

Guh.

The Linkdumpiest

An eye-opening article about SUVs by Malcolm Gladwell from a year ago. Be prepared to hate them more.

Those folk-tronicists (sorry), the Books, have a nice little site full of surprises.

Gallery of straight-edge/vegan tattoos.

The Bostonist is a Gothamist spinoff.

My friend Angelina Gualdoni is a pretty good painter.

Night landscapes by Frank van der Salm.

There is a hobby called "Reborn Dolls". It is creepy.

The top 100 gadgets of all-time.

Ricky Jay has a website. I highly suggest reading the New Yorker profile in the archive section.

An interview with David Foster Wallace.

Paul Shambroom had a show in Chicago a year or two ago. I like the "Meetings" images.

Mapping Sitting.

Deitch Projects finally has a site and it's pretty great, although I'd suggest switching off the music almost immediately.

Sad Ghost Salt & Pepper Shakers by Marcel Dzama plus other stuff.

?uestlove from the Roots & his sister show off his ginormous record collection.

Photos by Wang Qinsong. Do not be dissuaded by the front page.

Photos by Mitch Epstein.

Spend some time with Hamburger Eye's stable of snapshooters, the Blackhole.

I wish there was more work at Ryan McGinley's site.

Aside from his photographs, I appreciate the handmade-ness of Stephen Gill's site. Mr. Gill had a book called Field Studies published last year sometime.

Photos by Hellen van Meene.

Photos by John Divola. I'm particularly infatuated with the Isolated Houses series in the "1990's" section.

Scene From My Life group photoblog. (And yes I still hate the word "blog").

More than 1000 Blue Note covers. Includes more than a few crappy ones, too.

Are you in Minneapolis? New work by Alec Soth here. Also on the internet.

Listen to Dungen.

Ivan Brunetti has a Doodle-a-Day weblog.

Yale graphic design MFAs have a website. It's design-y.

Engineers devise invisibility shield.

Listen to Death From Above 1979.

A.C. Dickson - eBay PowerSeller.

Drawings by miniminiaturemouse.

Maybe you already know but Superman is a Dick.

My friend Nick Butcher has some work in the the 2nd issue of the webmagazine Blir.

When people tell him that music today sucks, Sasha Frere-Jones says the following,
"That’s like going to the bodega on the corner and being like, ‘They don’t make milk anymore.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because they’re all out of milk.’ Dude, just go to a different bodega. There’s still milk in the world.”
The rest of the interview is here.

A photoblog (still hate it) by Heather Champ.

Drawings & other stuff by Nigel Peake.

Spring photo show preview by Vince Aletti. I am 100% excited for 100% of these shows.

And in related news, Nicole Kidman to star in a Diane Arbus movie? Robert Downey Jr. plays Allan Arbus?

Paintings by Chad Robertson. Presented by Jason Lee.

Flip through a collection of photos from the Chicago Sun-Times spanning the last 60 years. Introduction by Robert Ebert.

Terry Gross interviewed the RZA on Fresh Air the other day. You can listen to it here.

Control

I can't remember this guy's name. Sorry.

UPDATE - Instead of being 100% lazy I took a second & looked for the link to the painting above. The guy's name is Chris Lindig & I saw the work on the website of the Swedish magazine Loyal which is worth buying if you're into magazines that cost too much a lot of money. There are some other paintings by Chris here and a book that Nieves put out here.