AMC – Blogs – SciFi Scanner – John Scalzi’s Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design:
Stormtrooper Uniforms
They stand out like a sore thumb in every environment but snow, the helmets restrict view (“I can’t see a thing in this helmet!” — Luke Skywalker), and the armor is penetrable by single shots from blasters. Add it all up and you have to wonder why stormtroopers don’t just walk around naked, save for blinders and flip-flops.
Los Angeles Film+TV – Quentin Tarantino Serves Up Hitler’s Head in Inglourious Basterds – page 1:
Some would say he went on to make that movie over and over again, others that he’s one of world cinema’s premier auteurs. Either way, today a surprising number of his contemporaries — among them Hong Kong director John Woo, his hero from way back when — have either dropped off the map or are struggling to stay in the game. For his part, Tarantino has become a durable superstar, crisscrossing the hazy line between studio and indie darling with a steady output (notwithstanding a six-year break between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill) of big successes (notwithstanding Death Proof) under his belt. All but one of his films have come from original scripts he wrote himself, and every last one is a loving homage to the infinite elasticities of genre. The questions remain: Are his films any more than that? Do they need to be?
Q&A: Tim and Eric on Child Abuse, Diarrhea, and Yerba-Mate Tea: Eric Spitznagel | Vanity Fair:
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is one of those rare TV shows that can alienate some viewers with nothing more than the opening credits. Even for long-time viewers and hardcore fans, it’s kinda confusing. It begins with stars Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, dressed in matching red jumpsuits, dancing on their own tongues. Then there are flashing images of a fax machine, a hot dog and two kittens tongue-kissing. Tim and Eric’s respective heads explode, sending their viscera and dozens of tiny kitty heads spiraling towards the screen. If you don’t enjoy those 20 seconds of rapid-fire absurdity—which, for the record, tells you absolutely nothing about the show itself—then you need to keep on tappin’ that remote, brother, ’cause you ain’t gonna like what comes next.
regular posts will resume Saturday afternoon.
I’ll be off the grid for most of this week, so not a lot of posts for a bit.
DANGEROUS MINDS 003: metzger/nitzberg from Richard Metzger on Vimeo.
Richard Metzger interviews Julien Nitzberg about his documentary film, “The Wild Whites of West Virginia” via Boing Boing:
Julien Nitzberg, director of the documentary film, The Wild Whites of West Virginia, is the guest on the third episode of our friend Richard Metzger’s terrific interview show, Dangerous Minds.
Shot over the course of eighteen months, the film follows the often comical, sometimes tragic antics of the hell-raising hillbilly White family of Boone County, WV. Surely the state’s most notorious clan since the days of the Hatfields and the McCoys, the Whites engage in a mind-blowing array of anti-social and criminal activities with barely concealed glee. Produced by “Jackass” maestros Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine through their Dickhouse production company and MTV Films, “The Wild Whites of West Virginia” takes no prisoners and it doesn’t tell you what to think about the Whites.
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: Worst of the Worst of the Worst… of the Worst:
In my ongoing mission to torture Beware of the Blog readers with insufferable nineteen seventies kitsch I have sunk to a new low. I would have sunk to this earlier but this did not hit the internet until this week. I thought it could get no worse than The Brady Kids – Wonder Woman crossover. I was wrong. Roy Clark, jonesing for even more stomach-churning hokum than Hee-Haw could offer, called up the chick from One Day at a Time to help host a roast and celebration of Fred Flintstone. Not the real Fred Flintstone but one in a giant foam outfit. Along for the ride, defying all stone-age continuity, are other Hanna-Barbera characters in oversized cloth forms : Jabberjaw, The Banana Splits, Snagglepuss, Hong Kong Phooey, The Hair Bear Bunch and on down the line. The laugh track seems to be enjoying itself immensely (although if you listen closely you might hear a bit of a retch track). This is truly the worst thing I have ever seen
Netflix:
Both breathtaking and unsettling, this fascinating array of extreme images gathered by photojournalist James Balog paints a startling portrait of climate change using time-lapse photography shot over the course of two years. Thanks to cameras that recorded pictures once an hour during daylight, you’ll see glaciers rapidly melt and shrink and sea levels rise ominously higher right before your eyes.
dvafoto says:
David Lynch has unveiled a teaser for “Interview Project,” which will debut June 1, 2009. In Lynch’s own words, “Inteview Project is a road trip where people have been found and interviewed…there was no plan really…. [It] is a 20,000 mile road trip over 70 days across and back the United States…the people told their story….”
From A Picture’s Worth:
Best iPhone photo app ever? CameraBag. Hands down, no question, I can’t get enough of it. Seriously, it might even start causing problems in my relationship because of my new obsession with the camera in my iPhone.
From Gotcha TV – Fox News Crews Stalk Bill O’Reilly’s Targets – NYTimes.com:
Mr. Hoyt, one of more than 50 people that Mr. O’Reilly’s young producers have confronted in the past three years, said the interviews were “really just an attempt to make you look bad.” In almost every case Mr. O’Reilly uses the aggressive interviews to campaign for his point of view.
From PDNPulse: Slain Afghan Fixer Subject of New Documentary:
Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi, a documentary about the life, work, kidnapping and murder of an Afghan fixer who worked with many Western photographers and journalists, will debut April 26 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
From Ovation TV: Make Life Creative:
Ovation is running the Genius of Photography series again this week as well as some other great shows. The Eloquent Nude that tells the story of Charis Wilson and Ed Weston. Photographers at Work: Portraits has profiles of McCurry, Lacombe, Jay Maisel and others..
Submitted by Jason.
From Los Angeles Film+TV – Boxing, Sex and Madness: Mike Tyson, James Toback and the Ties That Bind – page 1:
For 90 uninterrupted minutes, there is only one talking head in Tyson, and it is one that speaks with startling alacrity and candor about the humiliating taunts he suffered as a chunky, high-voiced mama’s boy; the petty criminality that earned him street respect and, ultimately, time served in a youth correctional facility; the confidence and sense of purpose he gained from boxing; the sharply honed physical and psychological manipulation he deployed in the ring; the qualities he seeks in a woman; his inability to manage money. Above all, Tyson speaks of the consuming desire to truly know thyself.
From Los Angeles Music – Anvil! The Story of Anvil: A Canadian Metal Band’s Great Feature-Length Doc – page 1:
A funny documentary has endlessly quotable lines. An even funnier documentary has endlessly quotable lines delivered in a Canadian accent. Sacha Gervasi’s Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a chronicle of the forgotten Maple Leaf metalers and their last-ditch effort for commercial and creative success, has given the band its second wind twice: first, as a sleeper hit that made the film-festival rounds, including Sundance, last year, and now as a nationwide release. So don’t feel too bad if you don’t know much aboot Anvil just yet.
From Searching for Sonny — First Feature Shot on DSLR | Gadget Lab from Wired.com:
The team used a Canon 5D MkII for the shoot, although oddly paired with Nikon lenses — the director of photography Jeffrey Waldron has a collection of old manual glass and it was cheaper to just grab a converter than load up with new Canon optics. It also meant that the apertures could be controlled. Apparently, when the 5DMkII is is shooting video in Live View mode, the aperture goes auto, meaning no control of depth of field.
