Thank you, Mr. Hughes

There isn't much that I can say that hasn't been said already, so I'll echo other's sentiment and say that I can't think of another director who so perfectly captured the gestalt of a decade and spoke to teen angst without ridiculing it.

"Hello. My name is Leonard Lowe. It has been explained to me that I've been away for quite some time.I'm back."

Ok, so my name isn't Leonard Lowe, but I've been away for quite some time. There's a Star Trek review coming, but otherwise I've got a little writers block.

So what do you want to talk about?

"And the book says, 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"

"I want something peppy, something happy, something up-tempo. I want something snappy."

I'm not going to lie, when my friends make art, I get excited. I've got a tattoo of one piece, I've got about six pieces hanging on my walls and when the kids at LOONER sent me this new single I just about lost it. Here's the new track with fun video from this rad duo, directed by Nicole Barnette. Post, repost, tweet, retweet.. in short tell everyone you know:

"Before leaving the ship, I consulted the computer library to familiarize myself with the customs associated with 'camping out.'"

So here's what I did this weekend in celebration of a friends 25th birthday:

headed out for an interesting weekend, I'll be live micro-blogging my first camping trip in 25 years, stay tuned

and we're not even in the car yet, not an auspicious start

Welcome to New Jersey

I dont really know anyone in the car that well, could this be a ruse like Hostel?

We've arrived, in the distance I hear an effing drum circle, I am not kidding

just discovered that we left all the booze in Philly

discovered drum circle is just hippies, liqoured purchased, all is well

quote of the night, "was he chinese?" "no" "then he's not a monk"

Morning kids, raining and ugly, but theres bacon

trivial pursuit 90's edition, pwning these kids

making "mountain pies" my understanding is that its a hillbilly panini

our group has just decreased by half, ergo so has our chances of survival

rain again, but raspberry pancakes

things to do while camping, eat , drink, hike and... get a haircut

back 2 the illadelph, buh bye yurt

Wawa pork roll and cheese bagel, also there's a man in a robe just hangin out

and home again.. shower, nap, movies

"Break her face, Ramona! Break her horsey ol' face!"

So I thought about creating a "Women We Love" type column here in Monkeyland that would coincide with the same piece that Esquire runs. Realizing that A.) we're not as cool as Esquire, and B.) it's a little creepy, I've decided to keep it to fictional characters only (which, you know, isn't creepy at all)... so all that said, my current love interest is a comic book character. Say hello to Ramona Flowers.

Scott Pilgrim is a six volume story of a 20 something slacker who falls in love with Ramona, but in order to date her he must defeat her seven evil ex boyfriends. That description hardly does it justice, but what ensues is a witty and fun story that reads like a live action video game. I've been obsessed with the Scott Pilgrim books since I heard that Edgar Wright was making a movie and I wanted to read the comics before the flick came out, so um, yeah, that's how I fell in love with Ramona... see, so not creepy.

"I growled and I roared and my rabbi did as well, it was a rocking werewolf zoo at Temple Beth-Emmanuel."

Today is sunny and 85, so I'm skipping the interwebs today in favor of wandering the Philadelphia sidewalks. However, I can't leave you empty handed so here's the full version of the classic "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah"

"You lost today, kid. But that doesn't mean you have to like it."

I swear I did not post this:

Today, I got approached by a hot young lady in a bar. After joking around for a few minutes she said "hey I love your jacket, where'd you get that?". I then proceeded to tell her that it's actually a replica of the Indiana Jones jacket. This is when she remembered that she "had to go somewhere". FML

"I don't know, I kind of like him. He's the exact opposite of everything I really hate. In a way, he's such a clueless dork, he's almost kind of cool"

I believe I have some photos that I could submit to these guys at Dork Yearbook, time to buy a scanner.

Bee Tee Dubya kids, this is not me, but I had those curtains.

"How about a magic trick?"

It’s April and I got a little behind on these, but here’s number eight on the Top Ten Movies I Saw Last Year list. Remember that this list is the movies that I saw in 2008, not necessarily movies that were released in 2008. The mini reviews will probably also contain spoilers, but if you haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet, I’m not sure you’re the kind of person that would enjoy my blog anyway.

So I make no bones about the fact that I’m a comic book fan, but some people seem to think that I’m a comic book nerd. While I have no qualms about being labeled that way I have to say that there are folks out there that are far more comic conversant than I. I haven’t bought an actual comic in a couple of years now, instead opting to wait for trades to be published and in those cases they’re typically Marvel properties. I tell you this only to illustrate that I don’t have a huge investment in the character of Batman. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of the character and of all the DC properties he’s the only one I’ve consistently kept my eye on, but I don’t get as wrapped up in continuity and fidelity to the character as the true nerds. As a matter of fact, my favorite Batman is Frank Miller’s over-the-top fascist from The Dark Knight Returns and more recently All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, but that Batman will never be committed to film.

The Dark Knight is the second entry in Christopher Nolan’s more realistic reboot of the Batman franchise and stands in stark contrast to the highly stylized world that Tim Burton and Anton Furst created the first time we saw The Caped Crusader on film. Comparing the two is pretty apples and oranges, but I have to say I love them both for different reasons. The new films contain little stylization at all, with Nolan opting to shoot on location and update all of the design and technology to reflect the real world. I think this is a great choice for a character that is human and generally fights more “real” foes, as opposed to other comic characters that battle supernatural or alien forces.

Much love went out to Heath Ledger for his performance as the Joker and I think it was well deserved, but I want to point out the smaller supporting roles as well. In particular, I love Gary Oldman’s turn as Jim Gordon. Oldman plays the role in a great understated way and beyond that I’m amazed that he also seems to physically look like the character from the books. More than other actors of his generation I’m consistently surprised at how he truly inhabits any character he plays.

My only qualms with the film center on the subplot involving Harvey Dent’s transformation in to Two Face. I think the revision of his back-story works for the film, but there’s not enough time left in the movie to really explore his change from hero to villain. The movie could have ended with the resolution of the Joker storyline and hinted that Harvey would be returning in the next film. Instead we have an abbreviated segment that kills off the character just as he was getting interesting.

"This is heavy."

I checked in with the The Cupcake Brigade this morning and learned that The Ritz at The Bourse is a repertory theater. For six years I've been bitching that there aren't any great theaters here and it turns out that this place is running old movies! I've got the next seven Saturday nights planned, come join me for any of these.

Saturdays at Midnight at the Ritz at the Bourse!


Michael J. Fox goes Back to the Future · May 2
Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining · May 9
Ron Perlman in The City of Lost Children · May 16
Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark · May 23
James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window · May 30
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd & Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters · Jun 6
Jeff Bridges in the Coen Bros' The Big Lebowski · Jun 13
Original Japanese version with English subtitles:
Hayao Miyazaki's anime hit Spirited Away · Jun 20

"These go to eleven."

Help the Victor Victor Band win Deli Magazine's Band of the Month!!

Listen to them here:
http://victorvictorband.com/

Vote for them at
http://www.thedelimagazine.com/philadelphia/snacks.php

"It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of the Force... but by our skills with a lightsaber."

I've had a day to rival Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad one. Lulubird is having trouble at home, ScrambledEx is fighting OK DHS to no avail, Ivana Chicago just found out that her father's cancer is back after remission and in my little corner of the world has just been a shitty, rainy, gray day. All things considered, my piece of this is small and I should count my blessings, but I'm worried about my friends.

To cheer myself up I searched the web for something to make me smile. It's slightly vile, almost NSFW and silly, but there's something about the combination of lightsabers and underpants that made me grin. So join me in my two favorite obesessions; women and sci-fi and let's pretend that everything is going to be ok for everyone. BTW, bonus points for the Wilhelm Scream... look it up

"Man, you don't have a clue what I'm talking about."

The IFC News podcast recently did a piece on the Devil in film (is devil capitalized?) and in subsequent feedback one of their listeners mentioned Gary Oldman's portrayal of the Devil in the BMW short "Beat The Devil". As part of "The Hire" series, "Beat The Devil" was put out a few years ago as a web short and BMW hired, a then unknown, Clive Owen to star in films directed by major name directors. This sounded interesting so I sought it out. What ensues is a bugnuts fucking crazy Tony Scott film featuring Owen, Oldman, James Brown, Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson with a mescaline fueled Vegas take on the Robert Johnson crossroads story. Holy Jebus!

"None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."

Since I rarely go to the movie theater anymore, it's rare that I have a review that's timely. However, I couldn't miss seeing Watchmen on the big screen for the full effect. I've seen it twice now and I have to say that I enjoyed it thoroughly both times, but it really didn't stick with me.

Watchmen is beautiful and technically proficient. It slavishly reproduces the panels from the comic. All of the performances are on point, especially Rorschach and The Comedian. It's a fantastic film. The problem is that I've been living with this story and these characters since the 90's. Watchmen is one of those novels that I re-read every year and as such, there were no surprises. The changes made were minimal and so I knew every beat before it happened.

On top of all of that I feel like we've been living in an age of deconstructed superheroes for awhile now and so even that aspect of the story is not new or original anymore. I love the book and I love the movie, but there close enough to being one and the same that I can't rave about either anymore.

Finally, on a sad note, I feel like my prophecy on this flick was fulfilled. It opened large the first weekend... then as people realized that it was dark and challenging and not for kids, it fell off. That's a shame because I think more people should have seen this. Oh well, there's always DVD, right?

"Just a big boy, with a big bike, and a big bitch..."

I absofuckinglutely love this video, but I'm not sure about the song. This video has been bouncing around the Twitterverse all day, but despite ?uestlove and Q-Tip's support, I just still don't know if I like the actual song... you tell me:

"She took it from his lily white hand, Showed no fear she’d seen the thing, In the young men’s wing at Sloan-Kettering."

To further illustrate just how out of touch I am, here is my new favorite song. My friend Ivana Chicago made me a mix and dropped this on there. I knew Vampire Weekend has been around for awhile, but imagine my chagrin when I realized this album came out in January of 2008. What's happened to me?

"I'm guaranteed to rock I make the ladies scream and shout, I'm bound to wreck your body and say turn the party out"

My mother likes to joke that it's not her birthdays that make her feel old, but rather mine. While I have no kids of my own I can almost understand that sentiment as the performers that I loved when I was kid age noticeably. I remember seeing the Beastie Boys at the Festival Pier a few years ago and thinking, "they look old". However, as long as though performers continue to produce great work I could care less.

Happy 45th Marcel Theo Hall! Nobody beats the Biz.

"You have outlined our new syllabus, Betty, thank you. What is art? What makes it good or bad, and who decides?"

Having spent four years in art school I have a unique understanding as to how subjective judging the quality of art can be. However, the folks at the MOBA have no such qualms. Click on the title above to visit their website and pick up a piece of history.

Since 1994, the Museum of Bad Art has been dedicated to bad art. It is only through the efforts of the worldwide Friends of MOBA that we have been able to carry out our mission: to bring the worst of art to the widest of audiences.

MOBA maintains this website as well as the largest network of theatre-basement exhibition venues on Earth. That is, we have not one, but two bricks-and-mortar galleries in the basements of the Somerville Theater in Davis Square, Somerville, MA, and the Dedham Community Theatre in Dedham Square, MA. Through traveling exhibits, special events, and changing exhibits, we share the best bad art ever assembled in one or two museums.

Our collection numbers almost 400 pieces, but due to limited exhibition space, we show 30 to 40 at a time. Each piece is presented with the kind of descriptive narrative you will find with the art here.

"You may have been a good smuggler, but now you're Bantha fodder."

If you haven't figured out by now, I pretty much love all things Star Wars. I especially enjoy when people take the characters and images and recontextualize them. Sci-fi blog I09.com posted a link to these yesterday, but I wanted to highlight them as well too. As an art history major I had a blast surfing through these. Click on the quote to see a bunch of these from SomethingAwful.com, but in the meantime feast your eyes on Henri Rousseau's "The Dream" reinterpreted:

"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!"

"You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination, but all the while you hear the creature creepin up behind, you're out of time!"

Apparently the King of Pop is indeed out of time and is liquidating his posessions:

An array of treasures from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch ranging from Michael Jackson's iconic white-jeweled glove to the grandiose entry gates to Neverland Ranch are up for sale in a tour de force auction boasting more than 2,000 items in a live auction conducted by Julien's Auctions. Beginning with a highlights tour to major cities worldwide, Julien's Auctions will host a 7 day museum quality exhibition at 9900 Wilshire adjacent to The Beverly Hilton open to the public on Tuesday April 14th through Monday April 20th, the auction begins on Wednesday, April 22nd and runs through Saturday April 25th.

Click on the title above to check out the auction catalogs and figure out what you're going to buy with your pocket money.

"Shoot the glass."

I was cruising around Slashfilm today and they had posted the newest tee shirt available on Threadless from designer Olly Moss. I've always liked this artists work for it's simplicity (like the Die Hard poster below), but also for it's tongue-in-cheek geekiness.



The tee below and other great ones are available over at Threadless where Olly posts as Woss.



http://ollymoss.com
http://www.threadless.com/profile/484182/Woss

"I got a letter from the government, the other day, I opened and read it, it said they were suckers"

I bought myself a late birthday present. The qoute below was all it took to get me to buy tickets. Come out with me for this one:

And in a very special performance, Public Enemy will perform It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back along with Antibalas and The Roots – the first time this album will be recreated backed by a live band. Q Magazine summed up It Takes a Nation best when they said, "5 stars. Indispensible - the greatest rap record of all time. A landmark. A classic.”

"Now I want you to take a step back... and literally fuck your own face!"

2008’s Tropic Thunder just made it in under the wire for my TTMISLY, but I’m glad it did.

Parody and farce have gone down the shitter in this country lately. Movies like “Date Movie” and “Meet the Spartans” have created a lowest common denominator type of comedy that passes as farce but is, in fact, just a collection of pop culture references strung together with a bullshit plot that loosely name checks a recent film or genre. As far as I’m concerned, and I know I’m not alone, the only people consistently doing it right are the kids that made “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”. They know the genres that they are poking fun at intimately and are able to offer a sharper, pointed parody then any of these imitators could. I’m happy to say that I can lump Tropic Thunder in to that latter category of sharp parody. Although in the case of Tropic Thunder it’s primarily lampooning actors rather than a genre. If you go in to the movie with that understanding then it’s hysterical.

The film starts with a series of movie trailer parodies that make fun of everything from the aging action hero to the fat suit comedies of Eddie Murphy. It then jumps right in to the story of a bunch of actors making a Vietnam War film that is going terribly wrong. The story evolves from there as the director decides to scrap a big production and shoot the film gorilla style, but what really works is the performances. Ben Stiller is surprisingly ungrating, as is Jack Black but the two standouts are Jay Baruchel and Robert Downey Jr. Jay Baruchel is quietly making a name for himself as a character actor in various comedies and he does a great job here as the lone sane person in a cast of misfits. Robert Downey Jr. on the other hand is off the rails as a method actor so deep in to his craft that he has his skin darkened to play a black character. It is both sublime and insane and deserving of the Academy Award nomination that he received. The other fun bit in this movie is Tom Cruise’s turn as an obnoxious studio head, from whom I got the title quote for this post. While it doesn’t necessarily redeem Cruise from all the crazy shenanigans he’s been up to, it’s refreshing to see an actor cut loose and act silly.

"Oh, it isn't someone's birthday is it?"

Jack Kerouac: March 12, 1922



Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas : March 12, 1931



Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano: March 12, 1945



Liza Minnelli: March 12, 1946



Frank Welker (Voice Actor): March 12, 1946



Ron Jeremy: March 12, 1953

"Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?"

2007’s The Mist is next up on the TTMISLY list. A surprisingly good adaptation of a Stephen King novella, I loved this movie. Normally the only good King movies are the ones that aren’t explicitly horror movies. Think The Shawshank Redemption or Stand By Me and you’ll have the right idea. When you start wandering in to the dark territory you end up with Maximum Overdrive or The Lawnmower Man. However, The Mist was directed by Frank Darabont, who also direct Shawshank and totally gets Kings deeper interest which is the human terror as opposed to the external threat.

The Mist excels at this deeper human threat by putting us in a normal everyday situation and then slowly ratcheting up the drama. After a nasty storm the titular mist rolls in to a small town while everyone is at the grocery store stocking up on supplies. It’s revealed that there are monsters out in the mist. Big bloodthirsty monsters. The movie isn’t really about that though. The characters in the grocery store slowly start to break down and split in to two camps. One camp which is trying to be pragmatic in the face of unreal circumstances and the other which believes the events are a sign of the apocalypse and want to resort to so Old Testament style sacrifice. If I have a complaint its that King’s a little heavy handed with the religious zealotry and the political overtones are pretty obvious too, but it’s a fascinating view of the human condition in the spirit of Lord of the Flies.

I would be remiss if I didn’t weigh in on the ending since that seemed to be the focus of 75% of the reviews when it came out. The ending is a two fisted brutal sucker punch. Most people I know hate it, but I thought it was a fantastic way to end this really dark film. Not everything is sunshine and light.

Raccoon Rapist's Penis Bitten Off

Again, I think the title has this one covered, click on it to see this actual news article.

“When I saw the raccoon I thought I’d have some fun,” he told stunned surgeons in Moscow."

I've never been this drunk:

"A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They're just backing away from life."

This is another of those TTMISLY that somehow got by me for 30 plus years, Harold and Maude (1971)

This movie is a weird macabre delight that ultimately celebrates life. It’s one of those movies that when you’re done watching it you evaluate your life and decide you could be doing more. That’s not hyperbole, I bet Ryan Seacrest watches this and says, “I could be doing more with my life”.

In any event, the film is about Harold, an upper class teenager who is so bored and dissatisfied with his life that he periodically fakes a suicide. This is the kind of kid who attends funerals for fun and it’s not in that ironic Goth way. This kid is truly not interested in life. Then he meets 79-year-old Maude, who truly lives life to the fullest. The polar opposite of Harold, Maude almost greets life with a kind of anarchic glee. Also sporting a score by Cat Stevens (when he was relevant and interesting) I don’t think a movie this dark and moving and interesting could ever be made now. Check it out on Turner Classic Movies 11:45 pm on Monday, March 9th.

"What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me."

So apparently this blog is just an excuse to let my geek flag fly. While that wasn't my intention, I would be remiss if I did not give a big shout out to Jeremy Bulloch, the original Boba Fett, who turns 64 today.



Oy vey, I may be an even bigger geek than this person: