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This Day In Tech: The Flux Capacitor
According to archival footage, Brown was standing on his toilet seat on the evening of Nov. 5, 1955, attempting to hang a clock in his bathroom, when he slipped and slammed his head on the side of the sink. Upon regaining consciousness Brown reported having “a revelation, a picture, a picture in my head.” A picture which he crudely scrawled down on a piece of paper and subsequently spent 30 years of his life and family fortune to build.
WIRED have the story
5th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Trailer Park: Avatar
Full length trailer up for James Cameron's Avatar movie. I'd like to tell you this one doesn't make it look so much like "Jar Jar Bink's National Vacation".
30th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: The Longcut
Nice old-school promo up for the new single Repeated from Chimp favourites The Longcut.
New album Open Hearts arrived a couple of weeks back, while Repeated in out today on Melodic.
26th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Nikon Projector in Action
Check out the Helicopter Boyz making great use of that Nikon camera-with-built-in-mini-projector we talked about a while back.
And while I'm writing this Japan-centric episode of stupido, check out this awesome Marimba display from the Marimba Ponies.
23rd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Weezer
Slightly dumb/fun promo up for the new Weezer single - (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To. Welcome to Weezerville.
22nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Spiral Stairs
Just in time for the announcement of the Pavement reunion, check out Spiral Stairs new promo for Stolen Pills, from his new album The Real Feel.
22nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon has released another DSLR camera with HD video capabilities and up to 102,400 ISO film speed (!That's high!), this time it's from the top-of-the-range 1D line. Boring specs here. Great low-light film sample below....
20th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Kanye vs Jonze
There's a new Spike Jonze film online - and here he's collaborating with Swift basing rapper Kanye West. It's a slightly bizarre short, soundtracked by Kanye's track See You in My Nightmares. Kanye plays a drunk superstar.
See it here. Download it here. Looks like it was shot on one of those snazzy new Canon cameras.
19th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
New Moon OST
the New Moon soundtrack is popping up online - still a mystery why they haven't included Duran Duran's New Moon On Monday...
19th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone
Nice lo-fi promo up for the new Arctic Monkeys single - Cornerstone.
16th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Expendables
"Who sent YOU?" "Your hairdresser!" The Stallone wit lives.
15th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Stockholm Syndrome
Nice film up at Vimeo from grizzly Swedish pin-up Julian Farrar, featuring his monster-sized drawings.
9th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Me & Orson Welles
Trailer up for the new Richard Linklater picture Me & Orson Welles, featuring a well-cast Christian McKay as the big man himself, Clare Danes and that kid from High School Musical as the 'me' of the title.
8th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Matthew McRomcomedy in Standing Room Only
The Huffington Post asks the difficult questions.
8th Oct 2009 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
More Unanswered Movie Questions
Obi-Wan is stupid - "because his idea of “hiding” Luke from his father is to take Luke to the planet where Anakin used to live, to the very house he used to live in, to be cared for by Anakin’s stepfather’s son and his wife, and, as if that weren’t already akin to hanging a giant sign reading “Future Jedi Here,” to give Luke his father’s last name! Because “Skywalker” is such a common last name that nobody could possibly make the connection … if they’re complete morons. Would it have been so difficult to call him “Luke Lars?”"
Wired investigates further.
7th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Do You Love It When A Plan Comes Together?
first pics of the new A-Team up
6th Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Red Cliff
US trailer up for 'legendary action cinema master' John Woo's latest - Red Cliff. Shot in China with assistance from the top level I believe.
The western release of this Chinese history epic is literally half the length of the original cut - running 148 minutes instead of 280. I wonder is there's a half-as-long cut of Face/Off floating around?
2nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Slow-mo Celebration
Great slow-mo / stop-motion film of China's 60th anniversary parade up at Vimeo, from The Guardian's Dan Chung.
2nd Oct 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Flaming Lips - I Can Be A Frog
Nice, simple but effective video up for the new Flaming Lips track - I Can Be A Frog.
30th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: SMA Hobo Tour
Some nice home video footage of 1989's SMA Hobo Tour, with evidence that Jason Lee was a great skater. Mike Vallely and Jesse Martinez also feature, with Vallely riding his innovative double-ended board - a first.
Jason Lee is riding an SMA Jeff Hartsel - a model favoured by CJ.
25th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Top 10 Unanswered Questions in Geeky Movies
3. Gremlins: Feeding after midnight - Don’t get them wet; OK, fine. Don’t expose them to sunlight; sure, why not? Don’t feed them after midnight; um, how’s that again? If you can’t feed them “after midnight,” at what point during the day does it cease to be “after midnight” so you can feed them again? For that matter, how does the mogwai know what time zone it’s in? Suppose I get my mogwai in New York and then take a vacation to San Francisco — should I not feed my mogwai after midnight Eastern Time or Pacific Time? And what about Daylight Saving Time? Considering the consequences, these details seem pretty important.
This and other conundrums, discussed in Wired's Top 10 Unanswered Questions in Geeky Movies article.
25th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: no end to the horror revival
looks like we're in for a whole load of horror/horror spoofs over the next few months in trailer park land: get ready for Transylmania (see what they've done there? clever), The Vampire's Assistant with John C Reilly, Woody Harrelson in Zombieland, spooky babysitter thrills in The House Of The Devil and New Moon - the next part in the Twilight series
25th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hitchcock App Up
the Hitchcock storyboard app we mentioned a while back is up and running - it lets you work out film storyboards using photos on your iPhone. Vimeo demos here
23rd Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ad Nauseum: David Fincher
He might be selling Nike, but we've always got time for anything by David Fincher. Shot on a RED digital camera, by Emmanuel Lubezki - the man behind the magnificent The New World amongst others.
21st Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: This Is It
Can't help thinking that there's a kind of perverse brilliance in the last Michael Jackson performance being played out to no-one (and now everyone) - like those rumours of Diana's coffin being empty in her funeral procession. Where's Baudrillard when you need someone to decode the emptiness of late capitalism's blank heroes, the vacuum of celebrity?
This Is It Trailer.
#chimp71
#Film
#Music
#TrailerPark
21st Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
These Aren't The Hoodies You're Looking For
Religious outrage, as the Bangor based founder of the Jedi 'religion' is ejected from Tesco for wearing a hood. I actually saw some hood-based discrimination in my own local Tesco only yesterday. Seriously.
21st Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Star Status: Jeff Bridges
How does the much-loved Jeff Bridges actually 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, just cinema releases to date.
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) .... MAYBE
Iron Man (2008) .... HIT!
Surf's Up (2007) (voice) .... MAYBE
Stick It (2006) .... MISS
Tideland (2005) .... MAYBE
The Moguls (2005) .... MAYBE
The Door in the Floor (2004) .... MAYBE
Seabiscuit (2003) .... HIT
Masked and Anonymous (2003) .... MAYBE
K-PAX (2001) .... HIT
Scenes of the Crime (2001) .... MAYBE
The Contender (2000) .... HIT
Simpatico (1999) .... MISS
The Muse (1999) .... MISS
Arlington Road (1999) .... HIT
The Big Lebowski (1998) .... HIT!!!
Hidden in America (1996) (TV) .... MAYBE
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) .... MAYBE
White Squall (1996) .... MAYBE
Wild Bill (1995) .... MAYBE
Blown Away (1994) .... MISS
Fearless (1993) .... HIT!
The Vanishing (1993) .... HIT
American Heart (1992) .... HIT
The Fisher King (1991) .... HIT
Texasville (1990) ....MAYBE
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) .... HIT
Cold Feet (1989) (uncredited) .... MISS
See You in the Morning (1989) ....MISS
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) .... HIT
Nadine (1987) .... MISS
The Morning After (1986) ....MISS
8 Million Ways to Die (1986) ....MISS
Jagged Edge (1985) .... HIT!
Starman (1984) .... HIT!
Against All Odds (1984) .... HIT!
Kiss Me Goodbye (1982) .... MISS
The Last Unicorn (1982) (voice) .... MAYBE
TRON (1982) .... HIT
Cutter's Way (1981) ....MISS
Heaven's Gate (1980) .... MAYBE
The American Success Company (1980) .... MISS
Winter Kills (1979) .... MISS
Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978) .... MISS
King Kong (1976) .... MISS
Stay Hungry (1976) .... MISS
Hearts of the West (1975) .... MAYBE
Rancho Deluxe (1975) .... MAYBE
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) .... HIT!
The Iceman Cometh (1973) .... HIT
The Last American Hero (1973) .... MAYBE
Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973) .... MISS
Bad Company (1972) .... HIT
Fat City (1972) ....HIT
The Last Picture Show (1971) .... HIT!
23 hits, 16 maybes and 15 misses.
So that's 307 points out of a possible 540.
Jeff Bridges: you have scored 56.9%.
There's no doubting he makes some odd choices, and his huge work-rate brings him down with a lot of 'maybes' but even in a bad film he remains pretty much 90% watchable. If he worked at a Harrison Ford rate, he'd probably have a near-perfect record, with a serious hit every couple of years.
If you need any further convincing that The Dude is a very cool dude, check out his own great website.
If you dare make a purchase, you can do so here, allowing Chimpomatic to profit from his loss success. Check back soon for more Star Status movie maths. Same Chimp Channel, same Chimp Time...
18th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Batman Returns
(dir. Tim Burton)
Warner Bros
THEN: The seemingly perfect casting of DeVito, plus 80's babe Michelle Pfieffer made this seem like the ideal follow-up to Burton's (at-the-time) phenomenal 1989 Batman re-imagination.
A change in scheduling moved the production from London's Pinewood back to Burbank in California, where a whole new Gotham took up 50% of the Warner Brothers back-lot, which at the time provided a mixed continuity. Little did we know the inconsistency of the future franchise.
NOW: With some of the pressure off after the success of the first movie, Tim Burton created a movie which fits far more homogeneously into his directorial cannon, thanks to the the skull-headed clowns, the Christmas setting and the disturbed strangeness of the penguin. Many of the problems from 1992 still exist - too many anatagonists, the dumb Max Shreck character (Christopher Walken), the doofus Penguin - but Michelle Pfeiffer pretty much plays the definitive Catwoman (with a sympathetic Selena Kyle origin story to boot). There's also no over-the-top Jack Nicholson to chew his way through the back-lot scenery and no shoe-horned Prince soundtrack.
In retrospect, the change of shooting location made for a massive improvement in the art direction of this second movie, without the visible location repetition that shrinks the scale of the first. The result is a surprisingly organic Gotham and a much fuller world. There are still many touches of the camp comedy of the TV show - which is bizarre, considering how dark and dirty Burton's Batman films seemed at the time.
Retroactive-praise aside, this is still way too long, pretty campy and extremely dopey for a superhero movie. Action and suspense-wise it offers virtually nothing, but it can certainly take some credit for paving the way for Christopher Nolan's far more thoughtful re-boot.
16th Sep 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviews
Trailer Park: A Single Man
Good-looking trailer up for fashion maestro Tom Ford's first foray into film-making - A Single Man.
14th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Up In The Air
George Clooney racks up some serious frequent flyer miles for Up In The Air
11th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
based on the David Foster Wallace book Brief Interviews With Hideous Men is the directorial debut from American Office star John Krasinski, and stars Will Arnett, Bobby Canavale, Dominic Cooper, Max Minghella, Timothy Hutton, and Julianne Nicholson.
10th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Where The Wild Things Are: Spike Jonze Interview
interesting piece talking to Spike Jonze about getting the Wild Things project off the ground, his early skate/BMX history and losing two cameras on the Sabotage shoot
9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Adventures Of Power
New air drumming comedy Adventures of Power - starring Ari Gold - yup, he's got the same name as Jeremy Piven's character in Entourage - and also, confusingly, Adrian Grenier - aka Vince from Entourage...
8th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Sufjan Stevens: The BQE
Sufjan Stevens hasn't quite finished his project to record an album for every State in the US, but that doesn't mean he's slowed down his work rate. The next album The BQE is "a grand creative franchise-incorporating movie, symphony, comic book, dissertation, photography, graphic design, and a 3-D Viewmaster® reel" based on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway - a road in New York. It's all out in October, and is an all-instrumental affair
#chimp71
#Books&Comics
#Film
#Music
#Photography
7th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Youth In Revolt
Youth In Revolt might get round the problem of having Michael Cera riff off his Arrested Development character in every film - here he does that, but also creates a super-obnoxious alter ego who's nothing like him. Que Cera, Cera etc
7th Sep 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: How You Like Me Now?
Nice promo for The Heavy's new track How You like Me Now?
4th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Untitled
trailer up for non-Google friendly indie romcom Untitled set in the no-one know anything world of New York art galleries. starring Adam Goldberg and Heather Graham Marley Shelton
4th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
District 9
Neill Blomkamp
Aliens appear out of nowhere over the Joburg skies with a massive spaceship that hovers menacingly... and then just stays there, doing nothing. When humans finally get up the courage to go and have a look they find an alien refugee population on its last (insect-like) legs, and take them down to a temporary camp.
Fast forward some 20 years to where District 9 picks up, and the "prawns", as they've been dubbed, are living in squatter camp squalor, just another problem for the South African authorities. Responsibility for moving them on has fallen to the shadowy MNU agency, headed up by a naive official, Wikus van der Merwe (played with brilliant range from newcomer Sharlto Copley) who starts out like a character from a SA version of The Office, and ends up... well, in a pretty different place altogether.
District 9 has already been the surprise hit of the summer in the States, which is great, as it's the sort of film that might have slipped under the radar. It's a sci-fi that's got something to say and uses the genre to say it, with brilliant effects used to make both the aliens and their hovering ship blend into the washed out South African city backdrop. What it's actually saying is perhaps less clear - do the aliens unite a post-Apartheid South Africa at last? Or just add another dimension to the racial politics? Or is it more concerned with the abdication of state responsibility to private security firms?
With this and the cerebral Moon earlier this year it's probably too soon to hope that we're on the threshold of a new sci-fi renaissance here (and the Thundercats impressions of Avatar so far don't bode too well), but it's fun to see sci-fi getting smarter again - and to be giving us a story where we don't know what's going to happen.
Fans of Blomkamp's excellent short Alive in Joburg (check out our preview way back in 2006) won't be disappointed - this builds on the idea of seeing aliens land somewhere other than New York or Tokyo to great effect. Recommended.
4th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviews
More Hitler Outrage
This time he's mad about not being able to have the latest camera tech. I think this may well be the next Rick-roll.
3rd Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Men Who Stare At Goats
Trailer up for the new Psy-ops comedy The Men Who Stare At Goats, starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and a post-dude Jeff Bridges. The movie is directed by Clooney's Smokehouse Productions buddy Grant Heslov.
It's based on the book of the same name and is the 'true' story of the US Military's attempts to use harness psychic powers...
1st Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Das Avatar
Hitler is not happy with some of the early word surrounding James Cameron's new movie Avatar.
Via AICN
28th Aug 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Dogs In Space DVD
Richard Lowenstein's excellent Melbourne set, post-punk drama Dogs In Space is finally getting a decent DVD release today, following a restoration and screening at the Melbourne Film Festival. The film was a big favourite in my own film-school days - and features some of the best drug-induced party scenes going. Well worth the shipping cost of having it sent over from Australia.
Great soundtrack too.
28th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Greatest Chase Ever
A fun video up at Greatest Chase Ever - all part of a semi-subtle Converse marketing campaign. You can find an index of all the linked up sites here.
27th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
In The Studio With Jeff Koons
Nice studio tour with Jeff Koons up via the Tate, via hypebeast.
26th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Digitize
Projections have come a long way since I was hauling Super-8's around Old St in the 90's. Check out this impressive projection performance in Paris.
Via Chase Jarvis.
26th Aug 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
We'll Know When We Get There
Touching story about one fan's pen-pal relationship with the late John Hughes.
26th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet