Chimpomatic

News

Reviews

Articles

Surveillance

Star Wars Uncut

results coming in from the Star Wars Uncut project - Ep IV chopped into 15 sec chunks, and reworked by people all over the internet. no end to the time on their hands there is

#chimp71
#Film
#Websites

27th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Search

Touring Band

Nice bit of timelapse photography up at Wilco World from a recent show. Shows what a small piece the actual gig plays in the puzzle.

#BC
#Music
#Photography

24th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Tony Kaye vs Seth Rogan

Advertising bad-boy Tony Kaye has been making some tentative steps back towards Hollywood, following the debacle surrounding American History X.

He's made a short film in support of Kevin Smith's Zach & Miri Make A Porno feature, which you can watch over at Vimeo.

#CSF
#Film

24th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Monsters of Folk Folks On Tour

The Monsters of Folk (AKA Jim James, Bright Eyes & M. Ward) are heading out on tour to support their forthcoming album - and that will include European dates. Tickets on sale July 27th.

2009 Europe

11-12 Stockholm, Philadelphia Church
11-14 Berlin, Huxleys Neue Welt
11-15 Copenhagen, Vega
11-17 London, Troxy
11-18 Paris, Elysee Montmartre
11-19 Koln, E-Werk
11-21 The Hague, Crossing Border
11-22 Antwerp, Crossing Border

 

#CSF
#Music

24th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Dumpster Swimming Pool

I guess in England, we'd use a skip for this.

Update: Oops. Too late.

#CSF
#Tech

24th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Japan's Smart Phones

why isn't anyone else into Japan's smart phones?

#chimp71
#Tech

24th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Coldplay

Lovely, ingenious video up for Coldplay's new track Strawberry Swing, directed by animating legends Shynola.

Trailer below, but you can see the whole video over at Babelgum.

#CSF
#Music
#PromoPromo

23rd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Best Title Sequences Of All Time

Nice run down on 30 of the best title sequences of all time over at Creative Review. Not sure all my favourites are in there, but it's a pretty thorough list.

We all wet our pants at film school when the Se7en titles first rolled out. Stan Brakhage goes mainstream.

#CSF
#Film

23rd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Data Overload

Interesting article up at Wired about tracking and documenting every facet of your life - a situation I'm sure countless people have found themselves in recently with the barrage of easy-to-use web apps.

I've been trying to cut back and streamline my own activities for many of the same reasons.

#CSF
#Tech
#Websites

23rd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Making Of

A lot of celebs seem to be investing online these days. Natalie Portman is one of the creators of film website Making Of - with behind-the-scenes film community type stuff to help and inspire potential film makers.

#CSF
#Film
#Websites

23rd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

De-spotify

Microsoft look set to launch their own competitor to Spotify, with the focus seeming to be to draw attention to their iPod rival, Zune.

With Spotify itself not actually operating in the US, there's certainly room for something like this - although if Apple flipped the switch to allow full stream playback in iTunes they'd be in a pretty superior position themselves.

More info at the Telegraph.

#CSF
#Music
#Tech

23rd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Taxidermia

freaky-looking Hungarian comedy Taxidermia

#chimp71
#Film
#TrailerPark

23rd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Dude 2.0

The Dude himself made a satellite appearance at the latest Lebowskifest, reporting live from the set of the Tron sequel.

I attended Lebowski Fest here in Seattle last night and it was great, man. The Dude made a special "satellite appearance", apologizing for not making it since he's up in Canada doing that whole Tron revival thing. I didn't watch my friends die face down in the muck to let this picture go unviewed, so I present it to you.

Calmer than you are,

Walter Sobchak

AICN has the full details.

 

#CSF
#Film

22nd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: Despicable Me

New cartoon w Steve Carrell, Russell Brand and Jemaine Clement on voice duties.

#chimp71
#Film
#TrailerPark

22nd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Light Test

Nice collection of pre-shoot camera tests up at Light Test. Rather than leaving these tests in the bin, assistants and photographers are making something of them and giving them a life of their own. 

#CSF
#Photography
#Websites

22nd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Feed The Monster

Web 2.0 has really been picking up speed recently, and with Twitter seeming to catch up with Facebook in terms of mass popularity, let's have a look what else is out there.

Tumblr is somewhere between Twitter and a full blown blog, and in terms of customization it's pretty nifty. You can totally customise the code, and pull in data from other sources (e.g. our main content feed). Their business plan seems to involve ads on the home page, which like Twitter is made up of posts by other people you are following (e.g. Look At This Fucking Hipster). Check out ours and follow us here.

That following aspect is the big selling point for us, as a way of dragging new readers onto the mothership (www.chimpomatic.com), as well as adding some bonus data on the move, as Tumblr and Twitter are very iPhone friendly. In order to keep all our feeds and so on alive, we're using Twitterfeed, which can pull RSS content from any source and auto-Twitter it for you - hence our always up to date Twitter feed. That Twitter feed is then handy to post everything to your Facebook page.

Yahoo's Fire Eagle and Google's Latitude are likely to take off next, allowing you to easily update your location for selected people to find you. While there's something of a privacy issue, I don't think too many people will really care - or will select exactly who they wish to share that data with. Several location based social-networking services are already using the Fire Eagle service - for example Dopplr (there's that dumb spelling again), which is a travel based info-sharing service. Haven't quite got my head around that one yet, but will keep you updated...

#CSF
#Tech
#Websites

22nd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Freaky Details

Track listing and details up at Sub Pop for the Flight of the Conchords' second album - I Told You I Was Freaky.

Sugalumps, You Don't Have To Be A Prostitute, Demon Woman, Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor - they're all in there.

The bad news is it won't be arriving until October 20th...

#CSF
#Music
#TV

22nd Jul 2009 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Byte Size

Here's some ideas for today's lunch: Scanwiches.

#CSF
#Photography
#Websites

22nd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Nest Wrecker!

San Francisco Zoo's gay penguin couple have had their lives turned upside down recently, with Harry leaving his manpenguin-friend partner of 6 years - Pepper - and moving in with recently-widowed Linda. Sky news has the story.

#CSF
#CurrentAffairs

22nd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Augmented Reality

'Augmented Reality' is one of the buzz words of the moment, with location aware hardware and applications allowing you to add layers of data over a real-world interface. Check out this demo, where a GPS and Compass enabled iPhone can tell where you are and which way you are facing, before overlaying data and directions to nearby Tube stations. The App promises to be launched when iPhone OS 3.1 launches.

More data on Wikipedia.

#CSF
#IPhone
#Tech

22nd Jul 2009 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Goth Cruise

Goths on a cruise? Doesn't it mess with their no-tan policy? Maybe they only come out at night...

#chimp71
#TV

22nd Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

New Lou

Lou Barlow has a new solo record - Goodbye Unknown - out in October, and will be supporting Dinosaur Jr on their forthcoming tour - backed up by Mike Watt's 'Missingmen', minus the Minuteman himself. Sign up at Domino (or below) to hear the track Gravitate.

   

#CSF
#Music

21st Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Moviedrome

Caught myself reminiscing with someone recently about Alex Cox's excellent Moviedrome series from the late 80's / early 90's, where Cox would introduce a (usually rare) film, followed by a screening.

The Last Picture Show, Coogan's Bluff, Rumblefish, Rope / 84 Charlie Mopic (double bill!) and THX1138 were among some of the more main-stream US movies, while more obscure screenings like WeekendThe Spider's Stratagem (outstanding), Q The Winged Serpant, Vamp and Yojimbo provided otherwise unseen screenings.

It's hard to believe there was ever a time when you couldn't watch anything you want whenever you want to, never mind even further back (pre-VHS), when film makers like Coppola and Scorcese would have pulled all their knowledge from actual cinema screenings.

Check out an archive listing of what was screened here, and a list of DVD-available titles over at Lovefilm.

Alex Cox is also on YouTube. And I heard rumours of a Repo Man sequel, entitle Repo Chick.

#CSF
#Film
#TV

21st Jul 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Please, Please, Please Let Me Zooey What She Wants

Zooey Deschanel and Monster Of Folk dude M Ward cover Please, Please, Please on new indie kookcom 500 Days Of Summer.

#chimp71
#Film
#Music

21st Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

New Jam

new Pearl Jam jam streaming over at NY Mag's Vulture

#chimp71
#Music

21st Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

5 Bike Apps

People are coming up with all sort of ingenious uses for the iPhone - typically as a means of replacing some other piece of hardware. WIRED has a round up of 5 bike-tech replacement apps.

#CSF
#IPhone
#Tech

21st Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Where The Eagle Landed

Just in time for the 40th Anniversary of the moon landing, NASA has released some images from the Lunar Reconnaissence Orbiter, which is mapping the moon.

The images show various landing sites from the Apollo landing - and you can even see the footprint trails between the lander and instruments test site in some.

#CSF
#Photography
#Space

21st Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

MJ 2000

twitpic has thrown up this projection from Ebony magazine in 1985 predicting what Michael Jackson might look like at 40, in the year 2000

#chimp71
#Fashion
#Music

21st Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Houston, We Have A Problem

Some bad news from the Beastie Boys... Best wishes to Adam Yauch.

#CSF
#Music

20th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Ad Nauseum: Samsung Jet

You might have seen this lovely new ad for Samsung's new Jet mobile. I have no doubt that it's being pitched as an iPhone killer, but the ad's nice at least.

Ad up top, making of below. Some boring details here.

#CSF
#AdNauseum
#Film
#TV

20th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Attack of the Clones

South Korea has deployed cloned sniffer dogs at it's main border points. Woof.

#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Travel

20th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Man In The Mixtape

Epic Michael Jackson mixtape up over at dnbeentertainment.com

#CSF
#Music

20th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: World's Greatest Dad

Robin Williams in an OK-looking comedy? Look forward to other movies based on greetings cards and bumper stickers: World's Greatest Boss, You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Work Here, Happy Birthday etc etc

#chimp71
#Film
#TrailerPark

20th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Nasa Hi-Def Moon Fail

has Nasa really taped over its hi-def moon footage? hate it when that happens

#chimp71
#Space
#TV

20th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Monsters of Folk

Free download of the the debut single from the super-ish group featuring Conor Oberst,  M.Ward, Mike Mogis and the newly renamed Yim Yames.

#marmot

18th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Lastest Squid News

Giant Squid terrorise the Californian coast

#marmot

17th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Star Status: Andy Garcia

A recent screening of The Untouchables brought Andy Garcia into the sights of Star Status, and it's a mixed picture. He's actually been in a lot of TV stuff and a lot of stuff that I for one haven't seen - so quite a few of these scores will be coming from the over-generous IBDB voting system. No TV, so his appearance in the pilot of Murder She Wrote won't count I'm afraid.

So, how does Cuban-born Andy Garcia rate in the Chimpomatic Star Status Movie Maths Generator?

It's 10 points for a Hit, 5 for a Maybe and 1 for a Miss... 

The Pink Panther 2 (2009) .... Vicenzo - MISS
City Island (2009) .... Vince Rizzo - HIT
La linea (2008) .... Javier Salazar - MISS
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) (voice) .... Delgado - MISS
Ocean's Thirteen (2007) .... Terry Benedict - HIT
The Air I Breathe (2007) .... Fingers - HIT
Smokin' Aces (2006) .... Stanley Locke - MAYBE
The Lost City (2005) .... Fico Fellove - MAYBE
Ocean's Twelve (2004) .... Terry Benedict - HIT
Modigliani (2004) .... Amedeo Modigliani - MAYBE
The Lazarus Child (2004) .... Jack Heywood - MISS
Twisted (2004/I) .... Mike Delmarco - MISS
Confidence (2003) .... Gunther Butan - MAYBE
Just Like Mona (2003) - MISS
Ocean's Eleven (2001) .... Terry Benedict - HIT
The Man from Elysian Fields (2001) .... Byron - MAYBE
The Unsaid (2001) .... Michael Hunter - MAYBE
Lakeboat (2000) .... Guigliani - MISS
Just the Ticket (1999/I) .... Gary Starke - MISS
Desperate Measures (1998) .... Frank Conner - MISS
Hoodlum (1997) .... Lucky Luciano - MISS
The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca (1996) .... Lorca - MAYBE
Night Falls on Manhattan (1996) .... Sean Casey - MAYBE
Steal Big Steal Little (1995) .... Ruben Partida Martinez/Robert Martin/Narrator - MISS
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995) .... Jimmy 'The Saint' Tosnia - HIT
When a Man Loves a Woman (1994) .... Michael Green - MAYBE
Jennifer Eight (1992) .... Sgt. John Berlin - HIT
Hero (1992/I) .... John Bubber - HIT
Dead Again (1991) .... Gray Baker - HIT
The Godfather: Part III (1990) .... Vincent Mancini - HIT
A Show of Force (1990) .... Luis Angel Mora - MISS
Internal Affairs (1990) .... Raymond Avilla - HIT
Black Rain (1989/I) .... Charlie - HIT
American Roulette (1988) .... Carlos Quintas - MISS
Stand and Deliver (1988) .... Dr. Ramirez (Educational Testing Service) - MAYBE
The Untouchables (1987) .... Agent George Stone / Giuseppe Petri - HIT
8 Million Ways to Die (1986) .... Angel Moldonado - MAYBE

HIT 11
MAYBE 11
MISS 13

So that's 178 out of a possible 370

Andy Garcia, you have scored a (perhaps surprising) 48.1%

If you dare make a purchase, you can do so here, allowing Chimpomatic to profit from his loss. Check back soon for more Star Status movie maths. Same Chimp Channel, same Chimp Time...

#BC
#Film
#StarStatus

17th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Death By Twitter

Looks like Twitter is not all mindless. Time magazine are claiming it is responsible for the huge drop in box office from Friday > Saturday for hilarious new comedy Bruno

#CSF
#Film
#Websites

17th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Cinemash: Sid & Nancy / Zooey & Joseph

500 Days Of Summer (the latest indie romcom by numbers) stars Zooey Deschanel and Joesph Gordon Levitt have a go at Sid & Nany

#chimp71
#Film

17th Jul 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Seinfeld Map

It may have been filmed mostly in LA, but Sony have still managed to put together a Google Map of Seinfeld 'locations'.

#CSF
#TV
#Websites

17th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

We'll Always Have Casablancas

Still no word on a fourth Strokes album, but lead singer Julian Casblancas is bridging the (possibly endless) gap with a solo record. Phrazes For The Young will arrive this autumn on Rough Trade, and you can hear a preview right now - over at julaincasablancas.com

#CSF
#Music

16th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Brett Ratner v Hong Kong Phooey

now Brett "X3" Ratner's going to remake Hong Kong Phooey... Is nothing sacred?!

#chimp71
#Film
#TV

16th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

I'm Not Here To Make Friends

no-one wants to make friends in reality TV land...

#chimp71
#TV

16th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

New Thom Yorke Song

.... streamed over at Stereogum from the forthcoming  'Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy'.

Enjoy.

#marmot

16th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Cheech & Tron

Cheech & Chong Tron mashup that's also a handy guide to the current economic situation

#chimp71
#CurrentAffairs

16th Jul 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

MCFC.co.uk

They may not be top of the football league, but Manchester City are streets ahead in the website league - with a new site developed by Poke. Creative Review has more info.

#CSF
#Websites

16th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Death Cab For Cutie

Interesting story from Atlantic Records regarding the new Death Cab For Cutie promo for - Little Bribes.

The film was put together as a time-lapse showreel piece for film maker Ross Ching, who included a 'looking for work' note on his Vimeo page. Death Cab saw the video and liked it so much they decoded to use it as their official promo.

#CSF
#Music
#PromoPromo

15th Jul 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

V-boot Trailer

Coming to a low-rent channel near you, the no doubt soon-to-be-cancelled reboot of 80s Sci-Fi 'classic' V.

Julliet from Lost takes one for the team.

#CSF
#TV

15th Jul 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet