Scorcese Does Hitchcock

This is a very cool short film. It's produced by a wine company and there is some straightforward product placement towards the end, but I think it's a good example of internet video that's paid for by a corporation but still retains a unique artistic vision. I don't think you could find stuff like this on television, but there will hopefully be a lot of cool stuff like this on the internet over the next few years. I'm taking a class on New Media so I've got this stuff on the brain. Check out the shot that starts on the violin strings - Holy Shit!

http://www.scorsesefilmfreixenet.com/video_eng.htm

Official North Korean News Release

From KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY of DPRK

Kim Jong Il Praised as Most Famous Person of World

Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il enjoys highest praises as the great man, political leader and famous person ranking first in the world for his great ideological and theoretical feats and wise leadership, noble personality and virtues.
In the last century the "Eurasia Joint House" Association in Russia acclaimed Kim Jong Il who was wisely leading humankind toward the victory of the cause of independence as "Man of the Year, 1994" and the Development Supporting Association and the Development Promotion Association in Peru as "Man of the Year, 1997".
World media are becoming louder in the 2000s in praising him as the most prominent leader.
The Intellectual Research Group put his name on the top of the list of 10 famous persons in the present-day world.
"Al Ahram" and "Al Akhbar", Egyptian newspapers, listed him as "Man of the Year, 2006."
The Iranian paper "Tehran Times" called Kim Jong Il "the most famous person of the world" and the Russian papers "Patriot", "Byvor" and "Poditiya" highly praised him as "a great man", "a consummate politician of the present times" and "the world's brilliant commander of the 21st century".
The U.S. magazine "Time" praised him as the most outstanding statesman among the world's famous politicians in 2004 and an excellent leader in 2006. And this year it listed him as the leader who has the biggest influence on the change of the world and the best reputed leader in the world.
In the opinion poll held in the United States for selecting world's famous persons and deciding their ranking, most of the pollees put Kim Jong Il on the top of the list and defined his character as strict principle, superb diplomatic talent and outstanding commanding art.
An Internet site of China extolled Kim Jong Il, saying his decision and practical ability, humorous sense and talent were beyond the imagination of the West.

New Year's 2006 (?)

To keep up the level of excitement...

New Year's Census

There are 2 polls that should be informally conducted for the extravaganza.

1. Comment to this post to RSVP if you're coming and if you could guesstimate how many others you'll invite/bring.
2. Also mention if you're bringing a car. Johnny/Joel's house fits 4 cars but the po-po come at midnight at ticket anyone on the street. If there are extra cars we can leave them at my parents house 2.6mi away and shuttle you drunkards to the party.


P.S. Tricia mentioned a good technical point based on my breaking of Grahams zip-line 2 years ago. Let go of the tow-rope/ zip-line when things start to go wrong. We'll be drunk so this'll be hard to remember. Dax once dragged me about 50 feet on a icy road when I clenched up to the station wagon he was driving b/c the sled got knocked out from under me. I kept screaming and he thought I wanted him to go faster...... true story.

3 things

1) New Year's party! So excited.

2) Many of us are on this weird page which I found while googling Brian. I was trying to figure out the name of the company he works for. Yes I now see that there is a link to it on the side of this blog.
I don't usually find much when I google myself, due to my name not being as uncommon as it sounds like it should be, and some German porn star sharing the same name as well.

3) Jane, what's up with these French teenage punks? Are they sooooo mad that the transit strike made them late for their 9-5?

New Year's Party

Yo--the party's in East Lansing. It's open to anyone...bring everyone. To show y'all how excited I am, I'll show you this paragraph I just wrote to Adam and Johnny:

Yeah, invite everyone. It's gonna be a fucking blowout. I don't think anyone will be in our neighborhood, so we can probably get away with murder (or GORO can get away with ritual sacrifice). I plan on getting really drunk on whiskey and having someone pull me on a sled behind their car.

So just start thinking about it. Let the party planning committee (Johnny, Adam, and myself) know how you want to do it.

David Byrne Interviews Himself

Tren Brothers

Saw this on pitchfork and wanted to share.

Flans - No Controles

At my cousin's Thanksgiving fondue party his wife and her friends reminisced over this song:

Cousin Buttman

This Thanksgiving, we talked about some of the relatives we've lost touch with, like Cousin Buttman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stagliano. This summer another cousin that works at Wal-Mart had confirmed that we are, in fact, related. (He also knows what happened to Hoffa, but isn't talking.) We were all suprised to know we had such an important cousin.

He's pretty well known. I first encountered a full-page photo of him in U.S. News in middle school and wondered, but now I know. B.K. is a big fan.

Maybe someone from Film & Video would be interested in his work? I could try to help.

Holiday Movies

What are some of your favorite holiday movies? I'm trying to build a library.

Christmas
- Claymation Christmas Celebration
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- It's A Wonderful Life
- A Charlie Brown Christmas
- Scrooged
- A Christmas Story
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Home Alone
- Santa Claus: The Movie
- Ernest Saves Christmas

Halloween
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Claymation Comedy of Horrors
- It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
- Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Thanksgiving
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Easter
- The Last Temptation of Christ

Veteran's Day
- Apocalypse Now
- Paths of Glory
- Platoon
- Patton
- Sahara
- The Best Years of Our Lives
- I haven't seen it, but Coming Home is supposed to be very good

Labor Day
- On the Waterfront
- Hoffa

Independence Day
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

President's Day
- JFK

And then there's the all-purpose musical Holiday Inn.

Happy Thanksgiving

FoI at Scene Metrospace, East Lansing

Scorpions

They've just found a scorpion that was bigger than a man.

FoI thanks

Brian,

Thanks for coming last night. It was good to see you. If anyone else was there and I didn't see you, thank you too.

The Blind Pig liked us and wants us to play again sometime. I'll let everyone know when it happens.

-Joshua

Roma music + more

As I recall, several of you were into Roma and Eastern European music a few years back. If the interest is still there, you might like this. It's the collected field recordings and digitized LPs of a UCI Anthropology professor. Lots of old Asian, Eastern European and Latin American recordings.
-Joshua

i didn't know before today that being able to change quickly is considered art, so this blew my mind. especially the sparkles at the end. how do they do it?!

Thanksgiving in Pullman

It snows on Thanksgiving every year in Pullman, WA . I didn't believe the students until today.

Love and miss you all.

-Carlie

Murder City

In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private research group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics...

Detroit was pegged the nation's murder capital in the 1980s and has lost nearly 1 million people since 1950, according to the Census Bureau. Downtown sports stadiums and corporate headquarters — along with the redevelopment of the riverfront of this city of 919,000 — have slowed but not reversed the decline. Officials have said crime reports don't help.

Full story.

Fields of Industry @ the Blind Pig, 11/20

Hi everyone.

Whether you're in Ann Arbor because that's where you always are, or if you're in Michigan early for Thanksgiving, I'd be happy to see you all at Fields of Industry's Blind Pig debut on Tuesday 11/20.

The show starts at 10:00pm, we play fourth, so maybe 11:30?

With this being our first time playing there, we're asked to play on one of the showcase nights with a handful of other bands playing for the first time. We're expected to demonstrate our ability to draw an audience.

If all goes well, maybe next time we'll be opening for Esham.

-Joshua

Holy shit!

Pat yourselves on the back, swimclubbers:

Get a Cash Advance

DVN Episode 6: "Streetball"

Episode 6: "Streetball" from Dax Visits Nicole on Vimeo.

for adam et al.

What is it?

I'm back from Turkey and everything is right on track!



While in Turkey, I made a side trip to Georgia. Although Mtskheta is a World Heritage site and the seat of the Georgian Orthodox Church, the UNESCO people left this red bulbous gem off of its list




But what is it?


Behind the giant vases, these lovable creatures made me nostalgic for a type of childhood I didn't have. But some vandal chopped off the middle one's fingers, exposing his rusty, metal bones:















This is a video I took of the interior:

That day I vowed to restore this pod palace and make it mine. The way things are going here, I still might!

Churchy Mtskheta --even these Georgian girls are bored:

13 Women

Nimrod Nation

Hey Tristan -- you're right! This series is about Watersmeet, U.P. Go to the website and watch the series overview, it's pretty good.

Here's a couple clips:

Episode 2 Promo


The Zelinski Brothers (in which they discuss Yooper secession amongst other topics)

Norman Mailer, RIP

Norman Mailer passed away.

Here is the obituary.

Back to Ann Arbor

To get away from the traffic and $1200/month rent, I'm
thinking of moving back to Austin. But I need to be near
a school where I can take classes to get recommendations
for grad school.

Here's a sure option: UM. As a graduate, all you have to do is
submit a two-page form and you are ready to go as a "non-degree
seeking" student.

As you might imagine, that feels like a step backwards. But
compared to the banality of corporate life and the struggle to
gain recognition in the startup world, a university setting is kind
of appealing.

I could probably find a spot at one of the co-ops. Ha. Just
kidding.

Romance at its best: the rope of mucous.

Jesus balls.

I really wish he'd stop doing stuff like this. It's getting harder and harder to idolize this guy.

Hagiography isn't as fun when the patron saint of popular music rides around in a gaudy and unspeakably boring SUV, pitching the products of a rapidly failing corporation. Escalades are for rappers and insecure upper middle class dads. About 5 years ago, Dylan was still mysterious and ghostly. Not anymore. I'm not giving up on him, but it's impossible to appreciate him the way I used to.

His Last Request

He spent his days on end alone in his squalid room. His friends deplored his wasted talents and helped him as much as he would let them, though he would accept nothing that he thought was offered out of pity. Then for two days no one saw him. Two of his friends went to see what had become of him and found him lying on his straw bed in a state of indescribable filth, paralysed in both legs and unaware of what had happened. He was taken to hospital where he became rapidly weaker, and on the 1st November, 1907, he died, at the age of 34. His last request was for a toothpick.

Gun Club - My Dreams - German TV, 1984

Into the depths

Up from the depths