Review of a Review

"Wallowing in Misery for Art's Sake"
by A.O. Scott - New York Times

It is both surprising and refreshing to me that this New York Times film columnist actually acknowledges the ubiquitous 
pretense of film festivals, being that people like him are often in close conjunction with the semantics of their production. 
Instead of an air of overall praise, he aligns himself with people like me who find it aggravating that a) the general public is 
rarely (if ever) given the opportunity to attend, b) most of the films screened (especially foreign submissions) are otherwise 
impossible to see, and c) independent films are sadly being taken off festival rosters in favor of manic depressive art films 
deemed worthy by executives (see title). 

I learned from this article that a large contributing factor to these issues is high brow film societies' disdain for "the American
art-movie economy" or "the independent sector" of festival submissions.  Scott explains that independent film companies, 
struggling along with the rest of the country from the wayward economy, have started commercializing their material, be it 
minimally and begrudgingly. Nevertheless, festival execs are aghast at the presence of any commercialization whatsoever and 
have hitherto cast a furrowed critical brow on indie gems, resulting in their gradual replacement with a slew of depressing 
featured films that display absolutely no evocation of viewing pleasure whatsoever. In other words, anything redemptive, 
American, and only-commercial-enough-to-put-food-on-the-table is rejected.  

Now, don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a despondent foreign film as much as the next guy, but those that I'm not as crazy 
about I wouldn't be able to see even if I wanted to. Scott alludes that the reason for this restriction is the executive assumption
that the general public isn't interested in these kinds of films, meaning there's no need for festivals to be made readily 
available. Neither are the films themselves for that matter, because any kind of mass distribution would certainly buck their 
"no commercialism" rule.

Mind's eye of festival execs: "If we eliminate the only films they'd be interested in attending and make every other film 
impossible to find then maybe we can make our high brow critical society even smaller..."

Thus, promotion to keep festival attendance a caste system of what Scott refers to as "a transnational fraternity of directors, 
journalists, and well, festival programmers" is in full swing.

After all that, I guess I'm just complaining because I feel left out, festival films are impossible to find, and I love indies. 

End of story.

short film.

by Arev Manoukian

so beautiful, i love the music.


Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

i am the place where i am: well, i left my heart in barcelona.

"Las Coleccionistas is a photography studio in Barcelona, which produces and disseminates visual projects. Understand 
photography as the interplay between light and emotion as a way of communicating at its most provocative, connecting with 
people and spread, but also as a form of participation, a tool that helps them find new meanings and alternative interpretations are closer to of their environment."

Those nights.

Here’s to those nights.
Those wintery nights on the second floor of the building of bird’s egg blue,
in the city we hardly saw.
Never much mattered,
sitting on that $60 couch we loved so well – bottles of yellow tail, the faux-fur blanket,
watching the mystery of Trinity unfold or the brotherhood of an Irish gang be destroyed and redeemed,
all while Figment jumped up the walls and Harmony laid on the orange chair...
gazing adoringly over at us;
those wintery nights of Angels & Airwaves and Band of Horses
when we made pasta dinner and stayed up late,
had tickle fights and talked deeply about friendships,
shared the last cigarette;
those wintery nights when we were motivated to do anything and everything.
And write.

I loved those nights…

and can’t wait for more, love.






photography by Joe Lieske
"There are stories written on the sidewalks"

The Tribond of Blogs.

New York Times Style magazine columnist Leanne Shapton may just be my new favorite writer.

Her theoretical and personal views are reflected in "We Three Things," a column that concentrates on a collective theme
amongst a trinity of objects, ideas, design, art, technology, literature, food...basically anything quirky or quintessential in the mind's eye of its author.  

My three favorites:

"Head First"



"Pass the Marmalade"




"Water Colors"



View her full collection here.

music theory by daniel hunter

c.o. Alex Wolf.

"Bands don't 'lose' the ability to make 'good' music. They simply choose to make something different than what you like. Hence the reason people always argue about which album from a band is better, newer, older, etc. Any artist in the world can sit down and use the same formulas to write the exact same types of songs again. Billy Corgan, even, could probably sit down and write an entire album that sounds shockingly like Gish, but why would he want to? Gish came out in a certain time period. It was a great album because of the context in which it was released. He's doing something different now. Most people don't like it, but that doesn't mean he should resort to copying his old material idea for idea.

Films to wait for...

Black Swan (In the vein of everything Hitchcockian that I love...loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's
novella The Double, which you can read for free online here.) Opens December 1, 2010



Blue Valentine Opens December 31, 2010



Never Let Me Go based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (An absolute MUST read...look for a review in
the next few days.) Select release September 15, 2010, but it opens in Orlando October 8--maybe look for it near you then??




It's Kind of a Funny Story based on the novel by Ned Vizzini (Currently reading and already loving.) Opens October 8, 2010

As long as we're on the topic of good old Walt...

Here's a cosmetic ode to those luscious lady libertines: Cruella, Maleficent, and The Queen.



This isn't the first time that M.A.C. has devilishly lured me with their adorable Disney devotion...
I bought this little lip gloss diddy for my friend Lyssa a while back.
Fantasia is still one of my all-time favorites.

Illustrations III: Disney Concept Art

One of the first movies my mom ever saw in theaters was Sleeping Beauty.
One of the first movies my sisters ever saw in theaters was The Little Mermaid.
One of the first movies I ever saw in theaters was Beauty and the Beast.
My cat's name is Figment (after the purple dragon at Epcot), my oldest sister and her husband live in Orlando (though he can't stand the theme parks, the rest of our family frequents them almost annually), and my favorite c.d. is a Disney compilation that one of my best friends Lyssa put together a few years back--featured are "Hakuna Matata," "A Whole New World," and "Under the Sea" to name a few.

Needless to say, when I stumbled on Disney Concept Art during my new found appreciation for illustration I became infatuated.



 

For more images...

Fall >> "Read More" for full spread.