Chimpomatic

New Spidey Poster

still not quite sure what the point of this new Spider-Man reboot is, but anyhow, here's a new poster that suggests Andrew Garfield is also getting some new shadow-play power along with the web-slinging

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12th Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

iYellow Submarine

The Beatles have a free, animated iBook version of Yellow Submarine up on iTunes. If that floats your boat, so to speak.

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10th Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Black Bananas from RTX

Royal Trux/RTX singer Jennifer Herrema is back with Black Bananas - a new version of the band (yes, it's full of scratchy 70s Stones riffs, distorto-vox and Prince-ish songs called Hot Stupid). Pitchfork have got an MPFree. Album Rad Time Xpress IV is out in Jan with other thoughtful numbers like Acid Song, Killer Weed and Foxy Playground. That party train is not stopping any time soon. Still love Trux's Waterpark:

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5th Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

It's All In the Game, Yo.... The Wire Monopoly

As noted, someone better make this quick. "Omar's coming!"

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3rd Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Community's 3 year long Beetlejuice Easter Egg

now that's planning

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2nd Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Forklift

I just got one step closer to digital nirvana, stumbling accross an album that I still only had on cassette, but which has now been uploaded to Band Camp by creator Mark Nassau.

Good buddy Ducati Sven taped a Forklift 7" for me in the early 90s, which he picked up while visiting Connecticut. My copy moved from tape to tape before settling in the remaining space on Side B of my Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge cassette. Mudhoney made the upgrade to CD quite some time ago, but Forklift had always eluded me. Until now.

"Bathroom Song" stills rocks.

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29th Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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BBTF vs Nike Update

Some more info on those Nike Mag trainers from Back To The Future. Robert Zemekis wheeled out Christopher Lloyd for a cameo-packed promo film to launch the fund-raising recreating of the shoe ... and Tiny Tempah was one of the winning bidders, paying $37,500 for the shoes that he will "never wear".

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28th Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Knebworth '90

At the turn of the 90s we were looking at a brand new decade. Clean and fresh, it would leave behind the excess of the 80s. Simple suits, hands-free technology. Things would be different.

Keep your eye on Phil Collins in this clip. When you're not looking he subtly sneaks behind the drums.

Jimmy Page coming on stage was one of the greatest musical moments of my life at that point.

Via The Cold Vein

Bonus Facts: Knebworth had a massive concrete skatepark on its grounds until the late 80s. It also doubled as Wayne Manor in Tim Burton's first Batman movie.

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24th Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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RIP: Steve Jobs

Not many people can claim to have been behind a genuine game changer in their career, while Apple boss Steve Jobs can be comfortably given responsibility for more than a handful. Most people didn't really understand what the iPod was when it debuted (see this of-the-time reaction to that announcement), and it's impossible to go into any phone shop without instantly seeing the impact of the iPhone on the design of 99% of the competition. No one even knew they needed an iPad when that first arrived. Check out this great set of Time photos by Diana Walker.

He even managed to leave one more thing: the authorised Steve Jobs biography was due to land in November, but a 40,000% increase in demand has seen it shoot to the top of the best seller list and get a bumped up release date of October 24th. Jobs gave his last interview for the book 4 weeks ago, at which point he knew his time would soon be up. It will no doubt make for an inspriing read, from a true innovator.

1955-2011

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6th Oct 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Star Status: Peter Weir

How does Peter Weir 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... No TV movies or shorts, just cinema releases to date.

After re-watching Dead Poet's Society recently, for the first time since its release, I was struggling to think of a non-spectacular film by Australian director Peter Weir.

A quick disclaimer: I haven't personally seen early efforts Three To Go or The Last Wave but IMDB rates them 8.2 and 7.1 - so I've erred on the side of caution (due to their enthusiastic rating) and rated them Hit / Maybe here.

The Way Back (2010) MAYBE
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) HIT
The Truman Show (1998) HIT
Fearless (1993) HIT
Green Card (1990) HIT
Dead Poets Society (1989) HIT
The Mosquito Coast (1986) HIT
Witness (1985) HIT
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) HIT
Gallipoli (1981) HIT
The Last Wave (1977) MAYBE
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) HIT
The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) MAYBE
Three to Go (1971) (segment "Michael") HIT

HIT 11
MISS 0 
MAYBE 3 

Another disclaimer: No generosity applied to these ratings, with the possible exception of The Year of Living Dangerously, which is perhaps merely 'good'.

So that's 125 points out of a possible 140.

Peter Weir: you have scored an unbelievable 89.3%

If you dare make a purchase (and, er I think you should), you can do so here, allowing Chimpomatic to profit from his success. Check back soon for more Star Status movie maths. Same Chimp Channel, same Chimp Time...

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23rd Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Terrence Malick breaks cover

The picture above left has served as one of the only publicly available images of reclusive director Terrence Malick for a couple of decades - but last week he popped along to the Austin City Limits Music Festival, with Christian Bale and a camera crew.

Bale must have gotten a hall pass from the still-shooting Batman sequel, as he was swanning around around the festival playing some sort of rockstar type - check out the fascinating video here. It had been announced that Bale was cast in a Malick film, set to shoot in 2012, so this shoot may have only been a test - or just grabbing the opportunity to film at a large event like this - but a possible project could be something based around the life of Jerry Lee Lewis that Malick has been working on, which would tie in with the casting of the much-younger-than-Bale Haley Bennett as the other lead. More pics and info here, here and here.

Probably the most surprising thing about all of this is that Malick still looks exactly like that archive photo, right down to the hat.

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20th Sep 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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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

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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

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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

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