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Surveillance

Promo Promo: Malkmus vs Explosions In The Sky

Not collaborating unfortunately, but they both have new videos out featuring animal/monster type things. Malkmus up top, EITS below.

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11th Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Birdcage

Jamie Jones' excellent short just won Film London's 90 second film competition. It's great. Watch it here.

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10th Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Jim'll Fix It: Galactic Picnic

Someone has unearthed a borderline creepy episode of Jim'll Fix It, where a young kid gets to visit Luke Skywalker on the set of Dagobah.

I love Empire as much as the next guy, but looking back at it from this perspective there's a lot of goofy comedy in there. Just sayin'....

Via AICN

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9th Sep 2011 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Self-lacing Nikes

Since Back To The Future 2 premiered in 1989, I'm pretty sure every male that saw it has dreamed of one day owning a pair of self-lacing Nikes. Now's your chance, as Nike are producing 1500 pairs of the shoes for a special auction to raise money for Michael J Fox's Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Possibly the single best thing Nike have ever done and a possible reason to break my 20 year hiatus from buying their products.

More info here and here.

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8th Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Real Life Angry Birds Moon Cakes

Just in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival in Asia - real life Angry Birds moon cakes. Available here

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8th Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Smith

(Paul Smith is taking the Tailor role here then) via Creative Review:

Sir Paul Smith has designed a series of four silk-screen posters to celebrate new movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, released later this month. The posters (which come in editions of 50 and are signed by Smith) will be sold for £100 each, with all profits going to Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres.

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6th Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Van Morrison - Streets Of Arklow

Thanks to Dr Chimp for this excellent live footage of Van Morrison playing Streets Of Arklow from 1974, the year Veedon Fleece was released. Love the loose feel to it all, Van's timing amazing as ever

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6th Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Ad Nauseum: Volver al Futuro

Doc Brown is back in action, for an Argentinian electronics store commercial. Great Scott!

Via AICN

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31st Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Woody/Billy/Wilco with Added Yim Yames

Pitchfork is reporting that the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's birthday will see the release of a deluxe boxset collecting the two outstanding Wilco/Billy Bragg albums that put new music to Woody Guthrie's songs, along with a disc of outtakes and extras, plus a documentary. Yim Yames will also partner with Jay Farrar for a similar effort...

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31st Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Ad Nauseum: Kia by Mark Romanek

Check out the new ad 'Soul Hamster' by Mark Romanek for Kia cars. It's something of a departure from his most recent feature "Never Let Me Go".

Via AICN

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30th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Behind the scenes with Wilco

New Wilco song Dawned on Me got an airing during this photo shoot for St. Louis Magazine.

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23rd Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Undercover WIFI

Note to self: if you're on a stakeout for the Feds, don't call your van's WIFI network FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN. Luckily this douchebag didn't put two and two together.

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22nd Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Dinner For Five

The show never really made it over here in the UK (was showing on the Film 24 channel), but Jon Favreau's Hollywood-insider show Dinner For Five makes for an interesting watch, with many episodes on YouTube. Kevin Smith hosts the episode above, with Jason Lee, Stan Lee, Mark Hamill and JJ Abrams shooting the breeze.

See Will Ferrell and Eddie Izzard amongst the guests in the clip below.

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17th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Jeff Bridges and The Abiders

Fun piece up at AICN documenting Jeff Bridges' musical appearance on legendary TV show Austin City Limits.

UPDATE: Rolling Stone have a live session with the band.

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14th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Barbarians at the Gate

Great slice of 90's skate action with Josh Beagle, Ronnie Creager and Heath Kirchart leading the charge in this Spike Jonze-related skate classic which sends the under-age drinkers on an irrsponsible road-trip accross America. It starts with a ridiculous Land Rover jump and heads downhill from there, beautifully soundtracked along the way.

I've been Googling for this skate video classic every 12 months or so, and finally some conscience-free skate fan has had the decency to dump the whole thing onto YouTube as a playlist. My US NTSC VHS copy was getting a little unplayable.

Via Skate.ly - an awesome archive of online skate movies.

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12th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

10 Minute Film School with Robert Rodriguez

I'd forgotten all about Robert Rodriguez's excellent 10 minute film school videos, which are inspriring and influential in a way that his actual films have always failed to be. Also check out his excellent book Rebel Without A Crew.

Via Chase Jarvis

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11th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

360 Degree Hiroshima

360 Cities has a powerful 360 degree panoramic photo documentaing the utter devastation wrecked on Hiroshima by the first atomic bomb in 1945.

An estimated 4.7 square miles of the city were destroyed, including 69% of it's buildings. The domed building in the centre of the photo still stands today as a monument to the destruction, next to the incredibly moving museum and peace memorial which document the events.

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11th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Secret Stasi Photos

Fascinating set of photos over at www.simonmenner.com where the photographer has curated photos from the vast, formerlly secret archive of East Germany's Stasi secret police.

"In a time that is more and more defined by mechanisms of surveillance the "gaze of the Big Brother" seems ever more omnipresent. This brings me to the point to ask myself what it really is that the Big Brother sees. Can the terror such a repressive system spreads be found in these images? Or is the "gaze of evil" pretty banal and we have to attach the terror ourselves?

Mostly the results of surveillance remain hidden. An outstanding exemption is the work of the East German Stasi, which has been made widely accessible after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I believe that these archives can broaden our understanding of the function of surveillance and repression."

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10th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Like Crazy

Trailer up for Sundance winner Like Crazy, which I saw at this year's festival. Excellent, low-key romance. Girlfriend friendly.

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8th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Seat Me Right!

Even been caught short and wondered where the nearest toilet is? Seat Me Right will tell you. Surely these guys need an app.

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8th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: The Killer Elite

Another trailer up for the Statham/DeNiro/Owen SAS flick Killer Elite. I love the way that rather than him adapting to the mainstream, the mainsteam is adapting to Statham.

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5th Aug 2011 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Gravity Defying Inception

Only just stumbled accross this great behind-the-scenes film of how they shot the rotating hotel scene in Inception. Great to see someone who still shoots stuff the old school way - big and expensive.

Via No Film School. Though I am pro-film school.

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5th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Photos of North Korea

Great set of photos up at The Independent documenting life in the DPRK.

Via Gawker

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5th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

RIP: Sgt Hightower

RIP Bubba Smith AKA Police Academy's Moses Hightower. You might not know he was also a Superbowl winning NFL star.

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4th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Twixt

Dubious looking trailer up for Francis Ford Coppola's interactive movie 'experience' Twixt. Read all about the film over at AICN.

Doesn't look like it's going to be the return to form that Val Kilmer so badly needs...

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4th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Lee Harvey Oswald In John Wayne Photo

Odd Zelig-style quirk of history, with Lee Harvey Oswald in the background as John Wayne chows down with some marines on a visit. Details here

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3rd Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: PJ20

Trailer up for PJ20, a film pulled together from 20 years of archive footage by Cameron Crowe, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of chimp favourites Pearl Jam.

Watch in HD over at Apple.

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3rd Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Holy Bat-Maths!

the Batman logo in equation form (via @boingboing)

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31st Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Red Tails

Trailer up for the George Lucas produced Red Tails - about a group of African-American pilots in World War 2. Looks like it's 50% cartoon and not a patch on Memphis Belle.

Via AICN. Watch in HD at Yahoo.

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29th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Battleship

Trailer up for Battleship. I've got a lot of time for director Peter Berg and star Alexander Skaarsgard, but this looks about as stupid as you would imagine a movie based on a board game to be. 

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29th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Dude Ranch

Want to live like The Dude? Marty's entire 6 house complex in Venice is up for sale, inlucding The Dude's 1 bedroom bungalow. Rug not included.

The 6 x 1 bedroom house complex runs up an estimated asking price of $2,295,000. Anyone want to chip in?

If we're lucky they might throw in some of these replica Dude sweaters.

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29th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Daniel Craig's My Wookie Bitch Now!

The Harrison Ford revival continues, with this amusing skit from the Jimmy Kimmel show.

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28th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Inside Stereo Skates

Now this looks like a fun place to work.

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28th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Knights of Badassdom

Trailer up for your next in-flight movie highlight - Knights of Badassdom. Role Models dipped into the battle-re-enactment-comedy genre a little, this looks all in.

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27th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Nevermind 20th Anniversary

Nothing makes you feel old like the 20th Anniversary of an album from the 90's ...and September 24th sees the 20th anniversary of Grunge catalyst Nevermind, which took off shortly afterwards and went on to sell over 30 million copies. Pitchfork has details of the re-release.

That's cover star Spencer Elden in the picture, shot a couple of years back in the 17th anniversary era. He's probably even bigger now.

Down below is the band's first TV performance, on legendary show The Word (read more here). I remember the buzz spreading like wildfire from then on.

Where's it all gone eh?

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26th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Bjork 'Crystaline' by Michel Gondry

New stop-motion promo for Bjork's single Crystalline, courtesy of Michel Gonry.

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26th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Haywire

After last week's Contagion trailer, here comes another Soderbergh movie - Haywire. Looks like a strangley cliched, cheesy hitgirl thriller.

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25th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Drive

Good looking trailer up for Drive with Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Christina Hendricks and Walt from Breaking Bad. Looks like an updated take on 70's classic The Driver.

The film picked up a best Director award at Cannes for Bronson/Pusher helmer Nicolas Winding Refn - who is now attached to a Logan's Run remake, with Gosling.

Via IGN

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24th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

RIP: The Space Shuttle

Bid farewell to the Space Shuttle program, which touched down from it's final mission today. Photo above was talken from the Intrenational Space Station, as the shuttle took off.

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22nd Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: The Amazing Spider-man

Trailer up for the Spider-man re-boot. Worth watching for an ambitious POV shot at the end. Other than that it looks a lot like the 2002 movie Spider-man.

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20th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Everything In The Wrong Place

missed this meme featuring "Thom Yorke in the background of a photo taken in an art gallery"

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19th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Beastie Boys w/ Santigold

Another epic, over-long promo up from the Beastie Boys and Spike Jonze. This one features action figures.

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19th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: The Dark Knight Rises

Skimpy teaser trailer up for Christopher Nolan's final Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.

Via AICN

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19th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Contagion

Trailer up for Steven Soderbergh's star-studded new thriller Contagion, dealing with the effects of a global pandemic. Nice to see him return to making films on a large scale. Next up is his black-ops-super-soldier movie Haywire.

Via AICN

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18th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet