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Real Californication
the Anthony Kiedis biopic Scar Tissue is heading to HBO
13th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
The War Is Over
....well, according to this bizarre fake copy of the New York Times, it will be. On July 4th next year.
Liberal pranksters The Yes Men are behind the fuzzy stunt apparently.
12th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Data Protection
By sheer coincidence, and a determination to distract myself from some tedious essential tasks today, I stumbled accross hard evidence of two products that I have had long designed in my daydreaming mind. First up, the pocket video projector.
At art school I mated a portable tv with an overhead projector, before evolving the idea with a magnifying glass and a video iPod a couple if years back. Both ideas were solid, but the brightness of the source let things down. Now Texas instruments have developed the concept more thoroughly, bringing out a pocket sized projector, which can throw a 60 inch screen onto a nearby white surface. Perfect for when you find yourself flying air India, or you need to show Ari Gold your reel while he's stuck in line with the valet. The 480 pixel resolution is nothing to write home about, but it's better than some of the studio previews we're screening at the ranch this Thursday.
Next up, as previously noted, digital photography is finally entering the mainstream of film production in a major way. I've often wondered what was holding video back from the high-end goodness enjoyed by the digital SLR world for quite some time. Red have taken that idea to a certain point, but now Canon have stepped in with a new digital SLR that can shoot full 1080 digital video (barrage of tech data here).
As it's a regular Canon body you have a huge choice if easily available lenses, which keeps the cost low and the f stop even lower. Check out Pulitzer winning photographer Vincent Laforet's dummy shoot for some sample footage. The clip was shot using the cameras low-light capabilities (+ helicopter + Moby soundtrack), and doesn't feature any post-production to enhance the colours and whatnot. Canon has some clips of their own here, some stills here and even a making-of video.
Michael Mann's not going to be able to sleep.
The concept's certainly building steam (witness this bulked-up camera kit) and Red themselves haven't been snoozing in this marketplace however - and a specs announcement Is due tomorrow on their new 'Scarlet' product, which is said to have radically moved on since initial word got out. Low light, plus low price and slow- mo goodness. Yum.
As a cryogenically suspended filmmaker, both of these technolgical advancements light my fire... and I'm happy to withdraw any claims on the technology.
12th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
New Hitchcock in 2009
Chimp hero Robyn Hitchcock is touring the UK next year, with songs from his forthcoming album Goodnight Oslo, out on Valentine's day. Recorded with The Venus Three – Peter Buck (guitar) and R.E.M. mainstays Scott McCaughey (bass, vocals) and Bill Rieflin (drums) – and all-round legend Ryuichi Sakamoto.
February
Sat 7th GLASGOW, ABC2 £13.50
Sun 8th NEWCASTLE, Academy 2 £12.50
Tue 10th LEEDS, Brudenell Social Club £12
Wed 11th BIRMINGHAM, Glee Club £12.50
Thu 12th LONDON, Union Chapel £15
Fri 13th BURY, The Met £13.50
Sat 14th BRACKNELL, South Hill Park Arts Centre £15
Mon 16th BRIGHTON, Komedia £12.50
Tue 17th CAMBRIDGE, Junction 2 £16.50
Wed 18th BRISTOL, The Fleece £12.50
Thu 19th CARDIFF, The Globe £9
Robyn recently headed to the Arctic with the Cape Farewell project and Martha Wainwright, KT Tunstall, Jarvis Cocker, Feist and Sakamoto - must have been some jam.
12th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Dear Zachary, Special
Dear Zachary from the Beasties' Oscilloscope Laboratories and Michael Rappaport's offbeat superhero drama Special
12th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Can't Touch This!
Amusing article over at Gawker about Bush santising his hands after shaking with Obama. From Obama's book, the Audacity of Hope:
"Obama!" Bush exclaimed... "Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family. And that wife of yours — that's one impressive lady."
The two men shook hands and then, according to Obama, Bush turned to an aide, "who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president's hand."
Bush then offered some to Obama, who recalled: "Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt."
11th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Batman Sues Christopher Nolan
love this story: the Town of Batman in Turkey is suing Christopher Nolan
11th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Van Bowl
Van Morrison's been pulling off his Astral Weeks set at the Hollywood Bowl - sounds like he's finally done the gig Dr Chimp and I have been dying to see. Roll on (and on and on) the DVD...
11th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Lost Nuke, 1968
crazy story about a US B-52 nuclear weapon crash cover-up in Greenland, 1968
11th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
12.5m to 1
The odds are low, but those damn spammers are still making a profit. Blanket coverage makes those small odds pay, apparently to the tune of $2m a year.
11th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Fanboys
Another entry in the mining-the-Lucas-experience files: Fanboys
11th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Fairly Fairey
Shepherd Fairey's Obama poster's spawned some spoofs...
10th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Feature Films Coming to YouTube
Thanks to the success of Hulu.com (a US iPlayer style site that has generated 3x the ad-revenue of YouTube), Google have re-negotiated some of their relationships with Hollywood, and MGM will be the first studio to offer feature films on YouTube. Hopefully that's all going to lead to the watch-anything-whenever holy grail that has been slowly evolving, as online movies follow the lead of the audio revolution.
CNET has the details.
10th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
OS Snow Leopard v Windows 7.0
The Onion's done the breakdown for you
10th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: What's Up?
site and trailer up for Up - Pixar's new cartoon
10th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Is Kim Jong Seriously Ill?
Some very hokey Photoshop work has cast further doubt over the health of Team America nemesis Kim Jong Il, thanks to some mis-matched shadows and blurry pixels. Surely if the party spin doctors had worked on the photo they would have done something about that jacket? BBC News has the story.
7th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Ed Templeton
Up this week is the multi talented Ed Templeton. Starting out in the mid eighties with buddy Jason Lee, Ed went on to create Toy Machine skateboards in 1993. I always liked his style as he never seemed to bother with the whole image-conscious bullshit that always plagued the sport, wearing drainpipes and sensible shoes he'd pop some of the biggest tricks and all the time looking like a grumpy bastard. Ed claims to be the pioneer of The Impossible, one of the few tricks that doesn't involve an ollie but instead is more of a pressure scoop where you flip the board lengthways around your back foot. He was also a master of the rail slide. One of his best moments came on the now legendary Toy Machine film Welcome To Hell. Soundtrack provided by Sonic Youth with Titanium Expose (above).
Ed has always partnered his skating with a love of art and photography and has, in recent years, become more famous for his involvement in the traveling Beautiful Losers show that features artists like Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey and Aaron Rose who founded the Alleged Gallery in New York. A film about the group featured at this years London Film Festival and charts the rise of these 'outsider' artists who are described as being part of one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation. This autumn sees the publication of Ed Templeton's Deformer book. It's a multimedia scrapbook documenting his life in Orange County California. It's entirely art directed by Ed and features a wealth of photographs, drawings, paintings and letters from his family.
7th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Old Boy Part Deux
Spielberg and Will Smith now seem to be attached the the much-delayed Old Boy remake, and Harry is not happy about it.
7th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Lost In Translation
Welsh road-sign translation fail: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated"
7th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Boondock Saints: The Early Years
The original might have been shoddy enough to warrant a documentary about it's uber-confident director Troy Duffy, but Boondock Saints has somehow got a sequel in the works. Details over at Variety.
Details also coming in of Universal Soldier 3, even though there have already been 4 or more in that franchise.
7th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Four Track Is Back
4 track recording may be making a come back with the new iPhone App, cleverly entitled Four Track. By feeding a line in, or even using the built-in mic, you can use your phone to lay down those future re-release rarities demos - perhaps while you sit in Starbucks sipping a Latte.
There's a 'special introductory price' of $9.99/£4.99 attached however, which may be enough to stop a fair few people giving it a whirl. More details at Wired.
The maker, Retronymns, also make one of my favourites - the excellent Recorder app, which turns your phone into a fully-functional dictaphone.
While we're talking apps, check out Classics too. A mini library of classic books (including Huck Finn, Hound of the Baskervilles and Robinson Crusoe), all included with the app.
7th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
On The Beeches
Chimp-certified rockers Beeches are back in business this month - with a 10.15 slot at the Dublin Castle 26 Nov. £5 on the door.
6th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Revolutionary Road
Trailer up for the DiCaprio / Winslet re-unite - Revolutionary Road. Novelty casting aside, it's directed by Sam Mendes and based on a great book.
6th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Oblique Strategies Question Time
he's produced U2, hung out with David Byrne and invented an iPod game - now Brian Eno will be offering up some Oblique Strategies on tonight's Question Time
6th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
R.I.P. Michael Crichton
Author Michael Crichton has died after a long battle with cancer. If only there was a way to genetically engineer a new version...
6th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
In Pictures
Nicely topical round-up of pictures of the new Prez Barack Obaba over at The Big Picture - although as noted in the comments, he's clearly taken too many steps as he heads towards this particular slam-dunk.
5th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Freedom of Speech
And I thought we got a lot of comments. Check out the monster tirade aimed at new writer Peaches Geldof's inaugural posting over at the Nylon website.
5th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
CNN Uses The Force
Obi Wolf Blitzer in action - come to think of it "Barack Obama" wouldn't sound out of place in the Cantina really...
5th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP Jimmy Carl Black
"Hi boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black, the Indian of the group..." RIP Mothers Of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black
5th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Wrestler
Clips up from the Oscar-buzzing Mickey Rourke comeback The Wrestler.
5th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Indecision 2008: The Wait Is Nearly Over
Dear American Chimps
if you've got a few hours to kill today, why not pop on down to those fun election booths and pop some chads for us? Personally, we'd go for the ch-ch-changes guy over the white-haired dude but hey, why not surprise us?
Thanks ever so much,
Links
Tags
4th Nov 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Early Xmas Presents
The Wedding Present are neatly wrapping up all the singles they would have released if people still sold singles from this year's El Rey LP - into one handy package, untitled How The West Was Won.
Remixes, acoustic versions and unreleased extras from the album's Steve Albini-produced recording sessions make up the contents - as well as a new Christmas song called Holly Jolly Hollwood from Uncle Gedge.
The box-set is available on their current tour, and will make its way onto their website next year. A split download version will be available from November 10th, with a Christmas EP available online on December 10th.
3rd Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Angels & Demons
they've actually let Tom Hanks out to chase some more spooky religious mysteries - Da Vinci Code prequel Angels & Demons is on the way... "it's Illuminati!"
3rd Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Valkyrie
Eye eye captain! New trailer up for the Tom Cruise/Bryan Singer movie Valkyrie, about a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. The conclusion might not be much of a mystery, but it looks OK.
3rd Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wilco v Colbert
Stephen Colbert interviews Wilco's "lousy capitalist" Jeff Tweedy
3rd Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
And Justice For All
Live Justice DVD and CD coming Nov 24 - A Cross The Universe
2nd Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Mark Gonzales
BC filled the void nicely last week, but I'm now back with a vengence after my sun-soaked So-Cal holiday for another thrilling installment of Skate or Die.
It wasn't all R&R, and while strolling down Sunset Blvd I spotted this Car Wash, where skate legend Mark Gonzales famously launched himself off, in the hallowed pages of Grand Royal magazine - losing an eyebrow in the process. He was already a well-established legend on the skate scene by that time (mid 90's).
Fast and fluid, Gonz brought together old school carving moves and inventive gnarliness. Always a bit left of centre, he made his name on the neon-drenched Vison Streetwear team in the late 80's, famously using the newly popular ollie to clear a huge gap at San Francisco's Embarcadero - leaving the terrain forever known as the 'Gonz Gap'. Gonz created his own Blind Skateboards, and with future movie star Jason Lee created one of the all-time top video Video Dayz, mixing arty filming with incredible tricks. Clip above.
The arty-farty world was Gonz's other passion and he has built a pretty solid reputation for himself as an artist, with shows at Alleged in NYC (along with Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Geoff Mcfeteridge etc - check out Beautiful Losers, but that's another post) and even 291 in Hackney. A giant pink cat and an a pretty mental in-gallery skate course are amongst his most famous pieces - the latter of which has been appropriated for a promo by Jason Schwartzman (see below).
31st Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Poladroid
With Polaroid film wrapping up production and disappearing fast, check out Mac program Poladroid as an even more useful alternative.
Drag any image onto the fun, floating program and it spits out a polaroid, which develops in real-time. Once it's finished, you'll have a muddy brown, hazy, nostalgic version of any photo.
31st Oct 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
The Intended
New Intended Play sampler available for download over at Matador's website. Quite a few as-yet unreleased tracks on there - including a rarity from Pavement's upcoming Brighten The Corners re-issue. Full list:
1. A.C. Newman There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve
(from Get Guilty, due out January 20)
2. Belle and Sebastian The State I Am In (BBC Version)
(from The BBC Sessions, due out November 18)
3. Jennifer O’Connor Here With Me
(from Here With Me, released August 19)
4. Shearwater The Snow Leopard (Remastered)
from Rook, released June 3)
5. Lou Reed Caroline Says, Pt. II (Live) (from Berlin: Live At St. Ann’s Warehouse, due out November 4)
6. Mogwai The Sun Smells Too Loud (from The Hawk Is Howling, released September 23)
7. Fucked Up No Epiphany
(from The Chemistry Of Common Life, released October 7)
8. Jay Reatard An Ugly Death
(from Matador Singles ‘08, released October 7)
9. Jaguar Love Humans Evolve Into Skyscrapers
(from Take Me To The Sea, released August 19)
10. Pavement Cataracts
(from Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed., due out December 9)
11. Brightblack Morning Light Oppressions Each
(from Motion To Rejoin, released September 23)
12. Times New Viking Call & Respond
(from the Stay Awake EP, released October 14)
13. Condo Fucks What’cha Gonna Do About It?
(from Fuckbook, due out March 2009)
31st Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: White Denim - Let's Talk About It
Check out this strangely focused narrative video from Austin's White Denim. Let's Talk About It.
P.S. Don't be fooled into tracking down their new US album, it's just a re-jigged and re-titled version of the European Full Time Hobby release from earlier this year.
30th Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Eye of the Storm
If you think freezing temperatures and snow in October is tough going, check out the never-ending, hexagonal, 325mph cyclones that rage across both the North and South poles of Saturn. NASA has the data.
30th Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
!K7 Sampler
sign up for some new free stuff from !K7 - Hot Chip, Carl Craig, Quiet Village and our pals in the Matthew Herbert Big Band
30th Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Confused
Saw a TV ad for "Lego Batman - The Video Game" last night. How confusing. It used to be Lego OR Batman OR a video game.
29th Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Down To The Wire
after McNulty popping up as Cromwell, Marlo as an escaped Level 5 villain in Heroes, and Bubbles as Black Hole Man, here's some more Wire cameos - they're returning Obama's support for Baltimore's finest...
#chimp71
#D.U.D.(DumbUpDudes!)
#TV
29th Oct 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
McNulty as Oliver Cromwell
site up for c4's English Civil War drama, The Devil's Whore with Andrea Riseborough, Peter Capaldi, John Simm and Dominic West
28th Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet