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Primer Screening
Monday 8th August
Charlotte Street Hotel
19.00 – 21.00
Free for N.P.A. Members
£10 Non Members
Thirty-one-year-old Shane Carruth, a former engineer who spent three years teaching himself filmmaking, conceived, wrote, directed, edited, and scored PRIMER and also plays one of the lead roles. His impressive feature debut – set in the very world Carruth abandoned to make movies -- tells the story of two engineers who stumble upon a remarkable invention which changes their lives in unimaginable ways. Engrossing and provocative in its exploration of the dark side of human nature and science, PRIMER electrified audiences at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Prize and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award for films dealing with science and technology.
2004 Sundance Film Festival WINNER Grand Jury Prize
2004 Sundance Film Festival WINNER Alfred P. Sloan Prize
2005 Nominated for 4 Independent Spirit Awards
To book call 020 7613 0440
22nd Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wolfmother
Wolfmother E.P.
One of the hot tickets at this year's South By South-West music thing, Australia's Wolfmother are kicking out retro proto-metal - a la early Black Sabbath, with a tinge of Zeppelin and a psychadelic haze of Iron Butterfly. Like no-doubt every garage band of the late 70's was trying to do.
The first couple of tracks are properly proto-proto metal, with thumping riffs and not many lyrics. Apple Tree still has few lyrics, but is a bit more interesting and makes you realise how metal the White Stripes sometimes are. The White Unicorn is the stand-out track, which actually builds up a bit and changes pace - where the others are mainly one thundering wall of sound. Looking forward to more. Would like to see these guys live.
21st Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviewsMore Trouble in London
Seems there's more trouble in London today, with reported incidents at several Tube Stations and a Bus round the corner from Chimpomatic's city HQ.
Links
www.bbc.co.uk/news
www.guardian.co.uk
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21st Jul 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
jim aparo r.i.p.
always enjoyed this guy's run on batman in the 1980s, just read an obit this morning…
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21st Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day
Every Mother's Son by Will Oldham, from Guarapero: Lost Blues Vol.2. Never really clicked with this dude, until I aquired this from the chimp towers archive this week. Sounding very much like a classic Neil Young ballad.
21st Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wolfmother
Enjoying the debut EP from Australia's Wolfmother this morning. Their proto-rock is sounding a bit more proto-proto than it does live, but things pick up nicely with tracks 3 & 4.
21st Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Dinorsauraview
Dinosaur Jr. interview online over at Onion AV.
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20th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
SS2K
Mucho approved Weezer bootlegs available over at this fan site....
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20th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
google moon
it's google moon today. Zoom right in on the Google map for the FULL detail.
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20th Jul 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
mercury 2005
the list's up. who are polar bear?
Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Coldplay - X&Y
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV
KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
M.I.A. - Arular
Polar Bear - Held on the Tips of Fingers
Seth Lakeman - Kitty Jay
19th Jul 2005 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
csi
tarantino's CSI is finally being shown on five tonight at 9pm
19th Jul 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
samarost
cute czech point and click adventure
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samarost experimental flash game
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18th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Code Nirvana
Strictly for the geeks: "A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design."
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18th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
supergoo
new expanded version of sonic youth's classic album goo ("the major-label sellout" aka the first one you can sing along too) on the way
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18th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
plat chat
matt herbert on plat du jour in the guardian today… plus the album's available to download on the plat site now
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18th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
the b.o.b.
some info on the new dylan documentary No Direction Home coming soon; saw a clip, looks cool
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17th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Zabasearch
It's evil for sure, but if you're a Private Investigator it could be invaluable....
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14th Jul 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Album of the Year 2005
I know it's a bit early in the day for this but, for my own personal reference, here's a few contenders so far - as of July 14th 2005:
The Wedding Present - Take Fountain
The National - Alligator
The Arcade Fire - Funeral... let's just see how time fares on this one.
Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth
14th Jul 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Cameos
It's all cameos in tonight's TV. First Rudolph Giuliani and Diane Wiest turn up in Law & Order on C5, then Yaphet Kotto and Albert Popwell turn up in the The A-Team over on Living TV.
Tarantino's epsiode of CSI was unfortunately re-scheduled, due to the nature of the story and London's recent bombings...
12th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Aviator
(dir. Martin Scorcese)
I didn't have a huge desire to see this film, as I'm not a particularly big DiCaprio fan. However, I kept hearing that it was good so stuck it on the rental list and am glad that I did.
I previously knew absolutely nothing about Howard Hughes - other than the fact he had been involved in filmmaking. This story charts the first half of his life - taking us through all the eclectic events of these years, from his massive expenditure pursuing his love of aviation and movies, a brief tip of the hat to his development of a new type of bra, his relationships with his leading ladies and most interestingly his struggle with inner demons and paranoia.
The casting and acting throughout are superb. DiCaprio is excellent, as is Cate Blanchet as Katherine Hepburn. But the supporting cast all add something to the film - Jude Law makes a brief appearance as Errol Flynn and Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow.
The visual style of the film is big, in the same way that Hughes approached all his projects. Scorsese presents a very grand scope for everything and the (presumably cgi) moments with DiCaprio making the virgin flights of new aircraft are breathtaking. In contrast, the depiction of his mental health problems is also eloquently done as Hughes encamps in his private cinema.
This film is long and only covers the first half of Howard Hughes life, so presumably there is room for a sequel. The acting, directing and cinematography all add up to make this well worth watching.
12th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
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wonka neverland
some quite odd neverland parallels going on in charlie and the chocolate factory, like johnny depp is channeling michael jackson…
12th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
ICE
East Anglian Ambulance Service have launched a national "In case of Emergency (ICE)" campaign with the support of Falklands war hero Simon Weston and in association with Vodafone's annual life savers award.
The idea is that you store the word "ICE" in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency". In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them.
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12th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
gnoosic makes the people come together
quite mindless fun, you put in 3 bands, it tells you some more you might like
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11th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
superzep
a planet rock poll to make up a supergroup consisting of the all-time best ever singer, guitarist, bass player and drummer has come up with… robert plant, jimmy page, john paul jones and, er, john bonham…
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11th Jul 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
who is josh groban?
odd list of US tour $ here, really makes you realise how many acts they've got who don't seem to have dented europe. maybe oasis shouldn't feel so bad after all…
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10th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
XIV
been checking the louis xiv videos, haven't actually seen what they look like yet, bit more on the skinny tie tip than i'd hoped, but still like what i've heard so far. think it's getting a uk release a bit later in the summer
9th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
C.O.B.R.A.
do sort of feel better knowing C.O.B.R.A. are on the case. even if it stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, which isn't quite as tough as it might be…
9th Jul 2005 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day
So London is back in business today after yesterday's bombings, and all the chimp family seems to be safe and accounted for.
There's a few more police around at the tube stations and a lot more people on bikes, but the general vibe seems to be 'business as usual'.
I suppose we could pick Beautiful Day or even Velvet Morning for Song Of The Day, but that's not really our style:
We Float by PJ Harvey makes the cut.
Links
www.bbc.co.uk/news
www.guardian.co.uk
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8th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
CSI: Grave Danger
(dir. Quentin Tarantino)
While investigating a bogus crime scene, one of Las Vegas’ Crime Scene Investigators is kidnapped by a bad guy with a grudge and buried alive. Using what scraps of evidence they have, the rest of the team race against time to recover their colleague.
Since it first started, the original CSI series has been consistently good, slowly building up a loyal following. Five seasons in, and it’s really starting to reward the viewer - with strong characters that your feel like you know becoming more and more fleshed out.
The ratings are obviously paying-off too, as for this season finale the producer’s managed to draft in celebrity fan Quentin Tarantino – who came up with the story and directed this final episode. While that might seem like a dangerous move, Tarantino manages to direct the episode without stepping too hard on the established formula of the series. There are a couple of his trademark pop-culture snippets (such as two of the lab rats playing a Dukes of Hazzard board game), but generally he sticks to the program and uses the existing visual style - largely established by early director Danny Cannon.
The weight of having Tarantino on board injects an extra zap into the story, and the extended length of a double episode gives more room to build up the tension, suspense and sympathy - building up to a genuinely thrilling end.
Even Eckley comes out well in this one.
6th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
War of the Worlds
(dir. Steven Spielberg)
Across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes.. and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.
The ultimate earth invasion story gets the big screen treatment from the Stephen Spielberg / Tom Cruise double whammy, with Tom Cruise playing a regular American hero forced to spring into action when Martians decide to pitch up on earth and start blasting everything with their heat ray.
Things start off pretty well, with a tense set-up as strange electrical storms sweep the globe (Independence Day anyone?), but Spielberg pretty much skips to the end from about 20 minutes in - once the Martians have appeared. After that it’s just one long finale, as walking machines decimate everything in their path and Tom races to Boston to drop off the kids with his wife. Houses are blown away, fly-overs are annihilated and cars flip over in an endless display of stuff-we-can-do-with-computers-these-days. It’s not rubbish, and in fact it even gets a bit tense and scary in places, but it suffers mainly from being an obviously rushed production - put on a fast-track after the collapse of MI:3 left Tom's summer tentpole a bit pint-sized. Somehow it just seems a bit hollow and totally forgettable.
Now, “if you’d read the book" on the other hand… you’d know that isn’t all that satisfactory either - particularly with the ending - but it does have a lot more suspense, some awesome set-pieces and a much more universal appeal.
6th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviewschimpolympics 2012
get les rosbifs ready kids! the backpackers are coming…
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6th Jul 2005 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Mr & Mrs Smith
(dir. Doug Liman)
A suburban couple live secret lives as assassins, until one day they realise they have been contracted to kill each other.
Doug Liman’s always been a chimp favourite, so we were always giving this film a chance. It’s well shot and directed, pretty snappy and quite funny, but essentially it’s nothing new. The gags are recycled – just done bigger and better, with Angelina and Brad on top form cat fighting their way around the house while working on their marriage problems.
Rating: Well worth watching on a dodgy pirate video.
5th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Patti Smith's Meltdown: Songs of Experience
Royal Festival Hall, London
From the announcement of Patti Smith’s meltdown line-up this always seemed like one of the clear highlights. Jeff Beck, Flea, Tom Verlaine, John Frusciante and others joining Patti Smith for an evening of music celebrating Jimi Hendrix. John Frusciante does Hendrix? That sounds awesome, dude! Things started to go wrong shortly after that when Frusciante announced that he was not going to be able to make it, due to recording work on the new RHCP album.
The gig kicked off with Patti Smith and her band doing Are You Experienced? A pretty good start, but surely it would get better as more stars came on stage…. but then Patti Smith left the stage and the next act came on. Surely the logical format for an evening like this was Patti Singing with an ever changing line up of superstar backing band?!… but no, each act came on, did one or two songs and then left. There were some collaborations, like Robyn Hitchcock and Johnny Marr doing May This Be Love, but generally it was a stilted, atmosphere-free evening while people trudged on and off stage and roadies wired up new equipment.
No one really came close to hitting the high expectations: Squarepusher started OK, before twiddling and feedbacking his way into his usual freak-out-jazz-solo. Flea was a highpoint, with looping pedals repeating his parts while he built up to a trumpet final, and Jeff Beck was pretty good at matching Hendrix’s skill…. but essentially it was all a bit like watching a busker do a cover of Purple Haze by playing it on a washboard. The closest to getting the freak-out vibe of Hendrix’s playing were Finnish duo Kimmo Pohjonen and drummer Sami Kuoppamaki, who rocked out their accordian/drumkit tracks in true freak out style.
Things did end up in a kind-of jam finale, with Patti Smith back on stage, with Jeff Beck, Flea and Tom Verlaine… but Patti’s emotional recital was undermined by the fact she was reading the lyrics, and guitar-doofus Verlaine was busy tuning up as usual.
5th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Earth Is Back Online
Google Earth is back online, after a temporary hiatus due to widespread adoption of the beta. I've just wasted an entire weekend checking out the world in detail and generally seeing if I could see the crowd at Live 8.
UPDATE: It seems that they download is only available for a short time each day, maybe until it reaches a limit. Stick with it.
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4th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Investigated Crime Scene
Looks like we never got round to that War Of The Worlds review. That'll be coming soon, although you probably caught the 'buzz' by now.
We did catch a preview of the Tarantino directed finale to CSI, which is great and on C5 next week. Review coming soon. Ahem.
Links
Chimp Review Here
Usual Suspect
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4th Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
THE WINDMILL OF YOUR MIND STARTS TURNING TOMORROW
this just in from sun raf at accidental (not live 8ing then…)
Hello everybody,
James "Saxophone Collosus" Endeacott and I are putting on a few bands on at the Windmill in Brixton. We will be drinking lager, shouting and stroking one anothers enormous barnets in between, and playing some records too. We have our friend Steve "The Moocher" Philips on hand to play a few tunes too and there'll be a barbecue n' all.
THE WINDMILL OF YOUR MIND
@ THE WINDMILL
Blenheim Gardens off Brixton Hill
SATURDAY JULY 2nd 5pm til The Windmill Of Your Mind stops turning
£4. With
THE CUCKOLDS
THE HELLSET ORCHESTRA
BAXTER DURY
All this plus three totally useless DJ's playing brilliant records.
all for 4 shitters.
1st Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
NoVolta
Thou shalt not see the Mars Volta. Their Somerset House gig has been cancelled, due to 'health' problems. Draggggggg.
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1st Jul 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
U2
Cardiff Millennium Stadium
Dr Chimp's ears are still ringing after the U2 rockfest at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium last night. Very odd to be in a space that big, but with a roof overhead - a bit like being indoors and outdoors at the same time. U2 gave us two very loud hours of their greatest hits, plus about three-quarters of the latest album. Oddly, the songs from their very first album were played with far more energy than the newer material (apart from Vertigo, which we got twice). One guy standing near us seemed to have a 48-piece imaginary drum kit, which he gave a good thumping during Sunday, Bloody Sunday. And two other swaying dudes air-guitared themselves into a total frenzy during Bullet the Blue Sky. All in all, infinitely better than the limp Zooropa show that Dr Chimp and Chimp71 saw in Cardiff in 1993, but nowhere near the heights of the San Francisco ZooTV madness of '92. Very excited to see the convoy of U2 people carriers, under heavy police escort, racing past the grassy knoll by the castle on our way back to the car. But why does this feel like a farewell tour?
Dr Chimp
set list:
Vertigo
I Will Follow
Electric Co.
Elevation
New Year’s Day
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found
All I Want is You
City of Blinding Lights
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
Pride (in the name of love)
Where the Streets have no name
One
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
All Because of You
Yahweh
Vertigo
30th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviewstop five sale!
with another crop of summer sales sucking us into snapping up bargain copies of things we've already got on vhs or (ahem) tape, here's a potted top five sale items you always see… (feel free to add your own, was going to do ten, but it's too hot)
* Best Of Bob Dylan vol 2
* Van Morrison Moondance
* Donnie Darko
* Some misc Bob Marley compilation
* The Smiths Louder Than Bombs
29th Jun 2005 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day
milk and honey from jackson c frank - the track that vincent gallo uses in the brown bunny trailer
29th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day
Swingset from the Instrument soundtrack. Short and sweet. Fugazi do Sabbath.
28th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
giant chimp sighting
trailer for peter jackson's king kong up now
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28th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
bob-bucks
now dylan's done a deal with starbucks. weird. still, saw a clip from the new scorsese doc coming on bbc later in the summer, and that looked great, so, er maybe we should just ignore this.
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28th Jun 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet