Visual / Sonic Art Events : Promulgation of Adventures in Sight / Sound

:::: FILMS OF 2011 ::::

2012-01-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

TOP FILMS OF 2011 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
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Raúl Ruiz "Mysteries of Lisbon" (Portugal)
Terrence Malick "The Tree of Life" (United States)
Pedro Almodóvar "The Skin I Live In" (Spain)
Lars Von Trier "Melancholia" (Sweden)
Takashi Miike "13 Assassins" (Japan)
Hiromasa Yonebayashi "Arrietty: The Borrower" (Japan)
Andrew Ross "Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times" (United States)
Göran Hugo Olsson "The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" (Sweden)
Tomas Alfredson "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (Sweden/United Kingdom)
Werner Herzog "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (Germany/France)
Michel Hazanavicius "The Artist" (France)
David Cronenberg "A Dangerous Method" (Canada)
Patricio Guzmán "Nostalgia for the Light" (Chile)
Michael Madsen "Into Eternity" (Finland)
Sion Sono "Cold Fish" (Japan)
Martin Scorsese "Hugo" (United States)
Rafi Pitts "The Hunter" (Iran)

The past 12 months again yielded great discoveries outside the expected sources and return artists creating works outside their established form, a year of finding new record labels and film distributors, authors of choice returning with some of their finest writing to-date, making connections between screenplay, director and soundtrack that were previously inconceivable; 2011 was a good one. Some of these combinations generated exciting, unexpected new hybrids of styles, genres, sensorial vocabulary and narrative voice. Malick returned from his usual hiatus of many years with one of his greatest visual and sonic narratives ever constructed, though highly imbalanced in it's chapter-content, "Tree of Life" still stood as a work of moving-pictures storytelling of a nature that just about nobody in american cinema even attempts. Lars Von Trier returned with a stunning, cosmic, spectacle of nihilistic wish fulfillment in the form of "Melancholia" and Raul Ruiz' final film, a labyrinth of timelines, characters, intrigue, history, class struggle and the world imbued with magical possibility as seen by a child in the 19th Century period piece that was the masterwork "Mysteries of Lisbon" ...and Takashi Miike reigned in some of his more absurd indulgences and delivered what is easily one of the most powerful, visually precise, yet traditional of Samurai films of the past couple decades in "13 Assassins". More unexpected in 2011, that a black and white, silent, period piece would be one of the best-acted, emotionally moving experiences on the big screen thanks to Michel Hazanavicius' "The Artist". And lastly, who could have predicted that Scorsese would make not only a children's fantasy in the form of the adaptation of the young-adult novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" but that it would be a holiday hit ranking in attendance alongside the glut of CG-fart jokes, cynicism and video game tie-ins flooding the market as the standard in offerings for the younger set. So thank him and the consistently artful, richly complex moral/emotional beauty of Studio Ghibli and their "Arrietty" for offering genuine stories about the world in which we live, as the fantastic.

This year's Seattle International Film Festival hosted only one or two of the films listed above, as opposed to previous years, where SIFF dominated the field by screening most of the best films of the year during the course of the festival. By contrast, SIFF's offerings were their weakest this year of many a decade, so good thing for the independent cinemas here picking up the slack. With indie cinemas closing around the nation, it was that much more important to support the local theater opportunities such as the (newly expanded to four screens!) SIFF Cinema the Landmark Theatre chain, the Grand Illusion Cinema and what's proven itself to be the paramount indie screen in Seattle, Northwest Film Forum. Many of the best films seen this year, when they did come to the theater, had runs that lasted no more than a week. Others were never to return to the cinema again or as a domestic DVD/Blu-Ray release or even online in any digital context, official, bootleg or otherwise. Again proving the wisdom of getting out there, seeing the city and prioritizing the art/music/film that we're fortunate to have in our urban cultural crossroads.

Lastly, the unseen films by a few directors of note that never made it over here distributed stateside (at least not 'yet') or even made a less-desirable appearance as an online release. I suspect a number of these would have made the list, if I had an opportunity to see them:

Sion Sono "Himizu" (Japan)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" (Turkey)
Jafar Panahi "This is Not a Film" (Iran)
Pema Tseden "Old Dog" (Tibet)
Béla Tarr "The Turin Horse" (Hungary)
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne "The Kid with a Bike" (France)
Steve McQueen "Shame" (United Kingdom)
Guy Maddin "Keyhole" (Canada)
Masahiro Kobayashi "Haru's Journey" (Japan)
Huang Weikei "Disorder" (China)
Alexander Sokurov "Faust" (Russia)
Asghar Farhadi "A Separation" (Iran)
Gerardo Naranjo "Miss Bala" (Mexico)
Julia Loktev "The Loneliest Planet" (United States)

:::: ALBUMS OF 2011 ::::

2012-01-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

TOP ALBUMS OF 2011 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
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Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto "Summvs" (Raster-Noton)
V/A "The Tree of Life - Soundtrack" (Lakeshore)
Elaine Radigue "Transamorem - Transmortem (1973)" (Important)
Deaf Center "Owl Splinters" (Type)
Jacaszek "Glimmer" (Ghostly Intl.)
Tim Hecker "Ravedeath, 1972" (Kranky)
Ben Frost & Daniel Bjarnason "Solaris" (Bedroom Community)
V/A "Music for Merce Cunningham (1952-2009)" - Box Set (New World)
Nils Frahm "Felt" (Erased Tapes)
HTRK "Work (Work, Work) (Ghostly Intl.)
Richard Skelton "The Complete Landings" (Sustain-Release)
Mountains "Air Museum" (Thrill Jockey)
Leyland Kirby "Eager To Tear Apart The Stars" (HAFTW)
NHK "YX aka 1CH aka SOLO" (Skam)
Boris "Attention Please" (Sargent House)
Boris "Heavy Rocks" (Sargent House)
Liturgy "Aesthethica" (Thrill Jockey)
Vladislav Delay "Vantaa" (Raster-Noton)
Cyclo "ID" Book/CD-Rom Edition (Raster-Noton)

A curious thing has transpired in the past two years, and in-particular this past year in my listening habits; I've dramatically decreased my listening of music on the go, though headphones and on the ipod and have more and more, made dedicated home listening on the Hi Fi just about my singular source context of sonic input. Interesting in the age of seemingly most-everyone doing the inverse, and the home hi fidelity dedicated stereo being a thing of the past in most music consumers lives. Even at 320kps and above, the MP3 doesn't deliver on the level of the old 16bit 44mhz CD, and yes, lossless FLAC and WAV can bring you some real listening benefits... assuming you have a quality digital-to-analog converter and a very high end pair of headphones to compliment. Otherwise, even the 'outmoded' CD format (not to mention the LP and a quality turntable combination) is still kicking fidelity ass over all of the laptop/ipad/iphone/pod listening that has consumed more and more listeners. And even then, with a quality DA and a multiple hundreds of dollars headphones and headphone amp... you don't have true stereo reproduction and stereo image in as extension of the more abstract, intangibles of your listening experience. Even then, with quality gear and tech, your largely hearing a detailed, finely tuned, precise representation of the 'surface' of the work... and that's where my shift in listening has become most pronounced. I'm less interested than ever in the 'surface' of the experience... but more the overall space, ambiance, physicality, abstraction and intangibles that come of sound-in-space. Good thing then that the music that I've most occupied myself with these past few decades is largely concerned with replicating, molding, defining and manipulating those intangibles!

Continuing from the films list above... in the year of sounds there were many works that took the ears to exciting places, and that did so in distinct, expressive and adventurous ways. Particularly at the strange crossroads where modern classical, lo-fi folk, musique concrete, improv, metal, ambient, 'noise' and avant jazz traditions are all meeting as hypermodern, as-yet unnamed genre mutations. The bizarre math-rock, hardcore, avant-noise meets metal rumblings of the new Liturgy stands as a good example, as does the disorienting fusion of hip-hop, noise and electronic minimalism that was Kouhei Matsunaga's NHK release. To these ears Keohei's unquestionably the one of the more adventurous visionary torchbearers for the post-Warp era of beat-oriented electronic music of this past decade. His works have almost consistently been on par with the most advanced of the late-90's/early-00's Warp visionaries - it's no wonder he's found a home on labels like Skam and Raster-Noton and last year saw him in collaboration with both Autechre's Sean Booth and Mika Vainio of Pan(a)Sonic.

Live sonic adventures were heard around the Northwest, and all across the continent in it's major cities. And good thing for the travel too, as this year (for the first time in two decades) I didn't attend Earshot Jazz Festival due to the serious dearth of compelling Avant performers. Also, with Decibel Festival not really looking to challenge as much in their exploration of the 'fringe' and non-dancefloor oriented sounds, good thing Substrata Festival had the foresight to see the void not filled and choose to be even more conceptually exacting and theory/aesthetics oriented in their hosting and curation. Between Substrata and New York City's increasingly adventurous Unsound Festival, I was wanting for nothing in exceptional, dynamic, powerful live realizations of neoclassical, ambient, instrumental, electronic, sensorial experiences in fitting, complimentary, sometimes almost dreamlike, settings. Special note to Morton Subotnick's surround sound audio-visual "Silver Apples of the Moon" with Lillevan and Ben Frost, Daniel Bjarnason and Sinfonietta Cracovia performing "Solaris" both at Lincoln Center during Unsound. As well as the Decibel highlight of Simon Scott's brilliantly abstract guitar work in collaboration with the deep, gorgeous, vague immensity of his perfectly complimenting visual artist Tana Sprague. Oren Ambarchi bringing the heavy and resonant (as usual) for Substrata along with Nils Frahm delivering some of the most, nimble, dynamic, emotionally crushing works for prepared piano that I've heard in my life. Deaf Center in a cathedral at Midnight and Olafur Arnalds at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco were easily worth the travel as well. Metal brought it this year too, with Wolves in the Throne Room descending deeper and deeper into crepuscular Doom sounds beyond category and Boris, returning (again!) to bless us with the joyous insanity of their hyperfrenetic Psych-Metal-Shoegaze whirlwind.

Richard Skelton's 'new' album "The Complete Landings"

2011-12-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

This far into the game, I think it's safe to say this one's going to make my 'albums of the year' list for 2011. The story of "Landings" is an unusual one, as it originally came out in 2009, was then rereleased on the Type label as a LP with bonus CD of expanded material, and then in late 2011 released again as a further expanded edition titled "The Complete Landings", along with a Print edition, a Poetry series by Richard Skelton and lastly, a Muitimedia Edition for gallery. Building a cycle of works creating a larger, interlocking, unfolding narrative; what the Germans would call a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' collectively in it's execution. What originally struck me, and even put me off a bit initially, was that the plucked and bowed guitar and string technique of Skelton, didn't jibe with any improvisational 'Avant-Garde' sense I was really accustomed to. Instead I perceived allusions to Folk, Western, Americana... (and ahem), even a hint of New Age stylings in the approach. The latter soon faded into the abyss on further listens (what was I thinking?). Now what I hear is a heady drone and timbre focused concoction of ambiance, textural 'scapes' and fluid structures that are as much composerly as improvised in their loose, natural subtlety. His work, in-particular this one, is inspired by, or influenced by the rolling, open landscape of the northern UK where he lives in rural near-isolation. A avid naturalist and daily trekker of the landscape of Standish, just north of Wigan, his work draws on a vivid feel for location, where the music’s origins are tied to a physical sense of place as well as an emotional state. As he described it in the in-depth article in the April issue of The Wire; “Rediscovering the places I’d known where I grew up - connecting with landscapes that at once seemed ancient and intransient, and yet also ravaged by change - played a big part in my recovery.” His sounds are seemingly less 'about' the place and more 'of' the place, the relationship with landscape being the internal dialog that his work then relates to the listener. As well as being a Naturalist and lover of the 15th Century Unkoku-Rin school of Japanese landscape painting and poetry, he's done readings of his own work and is a follower of the Northern English and Welsh poets. It's no real conceptual leap then, but for all the references cropping up in modern visual/sonic art to W.G. Sebald's "The Rings of Saturn" which is a meditation on history through a walking tour of the open, austere, uninhabited expanses of Suffolk as though it were a haunted or dreamlike 'zone' (not dissimilar to those found in the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky) that have manifest as recent works for Film, as Soundtracks and as Albums - that it's Skelton who I envision wandering that landscape, recounting the history/fiction/memory/ghosts of the land as the protagonist when I consider the novel now ...and his music that has become the soundtrack to my memory of the book. Somehow, I think Sebald would approve.

Lars Von Trier's new film "Melancholia" at Landmark Theatres: Nov 11 - Jan 20

2011-11-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

Finally, finally being distributed stateside! It needs to be said though, with delays between the premier of films of this caliber in international festivals (Cannes in May, Venice in Sept) and the three, four, six months between then and hitting the screen, it does nothing but fuel the already distribution-compromising online bootlegging/torrent culture. To cite an example that contrasts this trend, Terrance Malick's "Tree of Life" was premiered at Cannes, and prints already made and in a complete edit, prepared before it's premier, were being distributed and the film was on-screen within a month. That said, very excited for the new Von Trier. For all his ill-conceived misbehaving at Cannes this year (that sadly overshadowed the press on his film), the reviews of "Melancholia" have made it out to look his best in a very, very long time.

Check J. Hoberman's review from Cannes for the Village Voice with the headline of 'Wow' along with Nicolas Rapold's review from the NYFF in the most recent Film Comment which depicts it to be the mapping of one persons life-destroying personal depression projected on a global scale as world-destroying inevitable cataclysm - successfully! A grand Von Trier style melodrama that hits all the right notes and delivers again on the blending of dark miserablism, immense scale and the absurd that Lars has been missing from much of his recent work. Lastly, but not least-lauded, Amy Taubin rated it the best drama seen at all of Cannes for Film Comment, for her, even surpassing the aforementioned Palme d'Or winning "Tree of Life". So where the Malick was a grandiose existential inquiry into the Cosmos' cyclical designs of Light, Time, Beauty, Rebirth and Destruction - the Von Trier is more a gorgeous, fatalist, Cosmic melodrama about wish-fulfillment, Moon-bathing, Lunacy (literally) and Doom. Curious to see some of the most notable names in film criticism finding their passions more stoked by the latter. Can't wait!

Link to official Magnolia Pictures "Melancholia" site

Link to Landmark Theatres "Melancholia" site

New Films by Pedro Almodovar, Goran Hugo Olsson, Sean Durkin & Jeff Nichols at Landmark Theatres: Oct 14 - Nov 24

2011-10-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

After a particularly dry summer, the Fall/Winter sees a season of exceptional cinema coming to the Landmark Theatres again! The newest Pedro Almodovar is apparently his foray of sorts into genre film, in having (yeah!) Antionio Banderas play the 'mad scientist'/antagonist role in a variation on something between "Eyes Without A Face" and his own "Frankenstein" story. No surprise that "The Skin I Live In" involves feminine beauty and (extreme) pathology between the sexes, this is Almodovar after all. And that gender ambiguity he loves? Expect that to be taken to it's most profound, literal, conclusion. Speaking of pathology, two of the highlights from Film Comment's coverage of the Venice Film Fest and Sundance included these two explorations of extreme trauma's effect on domestic life, both pieces of homegrown independent cinema. The reviews cited them as being largely influenced by the Malick/Kubrick schools of American cinema, so I'm intrigued. From the director of "Shotgun Stories" we follow the life of abstract threat and unease at the hand of a looming disaster that shadows the protagonist in "Take Shelter" and the life of recovering from the traumas of Cult-induction and identity obfuscation in "Martha Marcy May Marlene" which has been described in reviews as a unnerving and subjective narrative, fraught with a tensely disconcerting dreamlike tone.

In less pathological of-the-mind and instead real-world concerns... "Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" is nearly a perfect documentary in every sense, seriously, see it while it's still playing. You owe it at least to your own sense of the disparate contrast between what it meant to explore civil liberties in public during those decades vs. our current nationwide movement. By 'nearly perfect' I mean just that, this film isn't the absolutely flawless document in tone and content it could have been, yet the core material it presents is as relevant and important now as it was in it's time. This 'core' being the original documentary footage and editorial objectives of the Swedish news crew, material which in the decades since, has since been left largely untouched in a Swedish TV station’s vault. Spanning the years 1967-1975 and largely consisting of just everyday scenes of urban life, in the streets, in small business, in neighborhoods, in people homes, throughout black Americans are pictures socializing, going about their business, often in mixed-race company, primarily in urban settings all across the US. Vibrant color scenes of 70's Harlem, black & white footage of 60's Chicago to the neighborhoods and community centers the Bay Area and the 'Panthers community-building in Oakland. Had it just been this footage, edited together by director Goran Hugo Olsson from what he calls "20 hours of really good material", these original interviews, street scenes, and observations, with no need to ad contemporary commentary and 'contextualizing' by the current pop and cultural players contributing voice-over, it would have been a totally flawless work of documentary filmmaking. Two personal highlights; Young, articulate, deeply troubled black youth expressing their concern about the evident purging of the progressive elements of American that were the same-year assassinations of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, who at the time, was lying in state at St. Patrick's Cathedral a block away. The interviewees attending the viewing and ensuing public wake. Second highlight; The brilliant, true, treasure trove that was both the person and establishment of Lewis Michaux and his African Memorial National Bookshop. Powerful, intimate, moving, revealing interviews and personable moments with founders of the movement Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, Martin Luther and Corretta Scott King and Eldrich Cleaver, among others. Together with the footage of the everyday, it rounds out the image of the time and the nationwide movement in this docu's depiction of both the above-ground manifestation and the core of the movement from behind-the-scenes, all set within the larger cultural questioning and public 'awakening' of those decades.
Also at Landmark in the coming months! The two most notable films of the Cannes and Venice film fests we've not yet had the privilege to see (due to the achingly slow theatrical distribution of) David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" with Fassbender and Mortensen as Sigmund Freud vs. Carl Jung in the birth of modern Psychotherapy and what looks to be a directorial highlight, among his many, in the form of Lars Von Trier's gorgeous, fatalist, Cosmic melodrama "Melancholia".

Boris US Tour: Oct 8 - Nov 12 & Earshot Jazz Festival: Oct 14 - Nov 6

2011-10-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

By contrast to previous years, not a lot going on in the Northwest as far as live music this Fall. Indicative of this is that, for the first time in nearly two decades, I'll not be purchasing a single ticket for any performance in Earshot Jazz Festival. As this year, there's simply nothing of the caliber or international scope that they've traditionally hosted. Previous years have seen fringe loosely-defined-as-Jazz avant luminaries and improv adventurers like Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Nels Cline, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Paul D. Miller, the Chicago Thrill Jockey improv label-scene, Ikue Mori with Zeena Parkins, the electrified Congo in the form of the ensemble Konono No.1 - to name a few personal highlights of the past half-decade. No such things going on in this year's curation. Much less any of the more classic standard names we've come to expect; no Cecil Taylor, no William Parker, no Ornette Coleman - none of that stuff. So correspondingly, no attendance from me... this sounds unduly critical, but that's just where it's at this year. Wish it were otherwise.
Good thing for Boris live then!! Unlike Earshot this year, Japan's Heavy Rockers are another story. Essential attendance for the promise of their blasting of-the-sun rock brilliance and cynicism-crushing intensity. Every time I've seen them live they've delivered the next variation on their own particular ever-mutating mix of Doom Metal, Heavy Psych, warped J-Pop, dysfunctional Bro-Rock and more recently, their own thrilling new form of Shoegaze. Yeah, the latter we first glimpsed on their Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" series and more recently refined on the near-perfect "Attention Please" which I had a abundance of words to say on the subject specifically the tri-album recording/release blur that was the barrage of this past summer. Anticipation is stoked for what will no doubt be some serious HEAVY ROCKING next week!

Decibel Festival of Electronic Music: Sept 28 - Oct 2

2011-09-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again! From September 28 to October 2 our little urban center of Seattle will host the second-largest electronic music festival in the United States; the Decibel Festival of Electronic Music and Visual Media taking place in venues all over the city. Decibel's whole raison d'etre is about being the global showcase for all things electronic, in the most progressive, all-inclusive sense, regardless of genre or style, whether on the dance floor or in the seated auditorium. And with being just two weeks away (!) it seemed it was time to put one of these together! In exploring the finalized lineup, it must be said though, there's distinctly less going on this year for me on the 'essential' end of the spectrum. Decibel's need to host larger showcases that have sold-out nights, therefore paying the bills and keeping them from being too far in the red this year, has meant bigger names, and less of the sprawling 'fringe' that has made the festival as expansive as they have been in past years. That said, there's still an abundance of quality to be found over the (now 5 days) of the fest. WEDNESDAY Decibel Opening Party featuring the post-Dubstep ambiance and rhythmic complexities of the UK's Zomby who's most recent on 4AD (of all labels) needs to be heard for a sense of where this genre is going, future/pastism for sure. Atom TM put in a smart set of hardware ultra-funk with Ascii visuals in New York for Unsound earlier this year, expecting more of that, Seattle Jon McMillion has been ultra chameleonic this past year, fusing warped house with some gloomy psychedelia. THURSDAY For all the corporate sponsor name, the Red Bull Music Academy Presents is going to warp/destroy minds. What Amon Tobin plans to unleash on the audience in the form of his audio-visual installation of "Isam" is going to be as memorable as if you were at 'Devil's Peak' when a certain gathering of UFOs happened. Trily. Opening act Baths play a fuzzed-out garage rock informed blend of psychedelia, lo-fi hip hop and downtempo beats and electronic textures that are organic and fluid. FRIDAY Optical 1 hosted again this year at Benaroya Hall, home to Seattle Symphony, is the ideal setting for the post-Shoegaze ambiance, melodicism and audio-visual work that is Ulrich Schnauss along with legendary Shoegaze band Slowdive's drummer and composer Simon Scott. Also on the bill, the face of new Ambient Americana; Mountains who are currently making the most languid, pastoral, perfect fusions of longform Indian Raga, acoustic guitar plucking and electronic soundscapes. Warm Oscillations showcase at the Crocodile featuring the mutant-hybrid sounds of Ghostly Intl. artist Mux Mool's hiphop and fractured downtempo beats along with Italo-Disco influenced, lo-fi, retro hardware sounds of oOoOO and the Blurring the Lines showcase later that night featuring the Dubstep, Ambient Techno and Deep House sounds of genre innovator Martyn. SATURDAY Optical 2 right off, gotta say, this was going to be the most anticipated highlight of the whole festival for me, that is, until the one-of-a-kind audio-visual innovations of Ryoichi Kurokawa was dropped from the lineup. Nonethless, there's still what will likely be unmissable new sensorial work of Markus Popp as Oval and the electric guitar and electronics pointilist/expressionist work that is the gorgeous sounds of Christopher Willits. Later at the Crocodile, Community Bass Session will basically be acting as a Planet MU label showcase, featuring the hiphop informed hyperprogramming of Machinedrum and the smooth gliding synth and Dubstep-influenced beats of Ital Tek. SUNDAY Bit Pop showcase on the exceptional in-house soundsystem of the Triple Door , notable for the debut of the new collaborative work between Kranky recording artist, Benoit Pioulard and and the ambient post-Shoegaze of Rafael Anton Irisarri together as Orcas. Sunday also features one of the finer longstanding traditions in Decibel, the Decibel in Dub showcase this year hosting the return of studio/hardware wizard Mad Professor and longtime On-U Sound mixing board maestro Twilight Dub Circus. Between these, and the bounty of showcases I'm putting in an appearance, to check out, (let's not forget Decibel in the Park if the weather's nice, just cuz), see what's going down, hopefully find some surprises along the way, Decibel will be a long, diverse 5 days. As with every year though, I'm sure it will seem premature by the time it's conclusion comes, there I will be, yearning for more. Ushering in the end of Summer as it does every year since 2004.

The Ouroboros Ring Around the World: Arcanum vs. Incorporated (or) Science vs. Magic in Grant Morrison's Batman

2011-09-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its
own tail. It comes from the Greek words oura (Greek οὐρά) meaning "tail"
and boros (Greek βόρος) meaning "eating", thus "he who eats the tail". The
Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense
of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things
perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (the mythical phoenix
has a similar symbolism). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related
to something existing in or persisting before any beginning with such force or
qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious
and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in Alchemical
illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the Alchemist's opus. As
well, it is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism. In alchemical
texts dating as far back as the 2nd Century such as 'The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra',
Alexandria encloses the words 'hen to pan', ie; "one is the all" in it's black and white
halves that represent the Gnostic duality of existence. As such, the Ouroboros could
be interpreted as the Western equivalent of the Taoist Yin-Yang symbol. The
Chrysopoeia Ouroboros of Cleopatra is one of the oldest images of the Ouroboros
to be linked with the legendary opus of the Alchemists, the 'Philosopher’s Stone'.
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the Ouroboros as an archetype and the basic
mandala of alchemy. Jung also defined the relationship of the Ouroboros to
alchemy: "The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature
of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through
the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. The Ouroboros has
been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the
Ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a
circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima
materia (or Philosopher's Stone) of the art was man himself. The Ouroboros is a
dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the
shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality,
since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life,
fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes the One, who proceeds
from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima
materia which unquestionably stems from man's unconscious."

But enough with the ontological history lesson. And here, discussing a comic book,
you ask? Certainly! If that comic is written by Grant Morrison. So, it should be
iterated at this point, this is a post for the readers. If you've not done the reading
on Morrison's run on Batman Incorporated, do not proceed with this post.
SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS.
That said, and warning given, year 5 in his ongoing Bat-tale has met with a lot of
hiccups along the way, namely editorial and publishing-based. Subsequently he's
had to do re-writes and issues have been narrative-crushingly late, but the big picture
is starting to form on this, Morrison's final 'season' (as he's been calling it) or book, in
his 6 year tale. Where the first book was about, in-part, a meta-premise: "The entire
written history of the character as the extraordinary and surreal life of one man. What
kind of toll would such a life take on his mind, and what if there was an ultimate villain
who knew and exploited that history?" the second was based on the larger mythological
theme: "Man's primordial battle with evil; the tyrannical monarch, the wolf, the dragon
- and the creation of his own myth in the face of such evil. A myth where Ultimate Evil
turns it's gaze on humanity and humanity gazes right back and says... gotcha." The
overarching concept of the third and final book is finally beginning to coalesce as the
meeting of two factions; one a crimefighting Global Corporation of finance, know-how
and technology as it prepares itself for the other; a dark Cabala of Druidic Magick,
Arcane 'superscience' Cults and the fallout of Shadow Organizations like Department
Zero and Spyral under the employ of post-WWII western governments. The first
obviously being Bruce Wayne's global crimefighting organization; Batman Incorporated
and the latter, like a ultimate-evil version of 'Operation Paperclip'; that spawned it and
sheltered the 'mad scientists' and 'wizards' of DC Comics Cold War history at it's core;
the international shadow-cult Leviathan.

Of Leviathan's prominent antagonists, the Ouroboros has particular significance to
one Doctor Dedalus. Shown early on in issue #5 as being initially under the guiding
hand of the Reich, discovering and employing various arcane Magicks and artifacts
to the Axis cause, later on, preempting the War's conclusion and under the guise of
researching and excavation of pre-Celtic Arcanum in a tomb in Scotland, (where we
see that he gains his 'powers' and 'Cloak of Smoke' as it were), then surrendering
himself to the British. In his surrender to the Brits he reveals his research into a "fifth
form of matter," "lost to prehistory and the fall of primordial, unknown empires." To
reference primordial, unknown, pre-Celtic empires in Grant Morrison's version of the
DC Universe, you need look no further than the origin of Arthurian culture as was
depicted in his Seven Soldiers. A book which intertwined Welsh and Jack Kirby
mythology with a time-spanning epic fight against the Sheeda/Sidhe, fairies who
turned out to be not from a 'other' dimension but rather, the far future (the Celts
called it "Annwyn"; Morrison terms it "Unwhen"). Dedalus then in their employ,
forming the UK espionage and supersceince organization Department Zero, which
later became Spyral and was deemed 'too dangerous' for the modern world and
disbanded (with force) by the UN para-military with aid from their existing roster
of metahumans. Of significance, the metahuman's job as depicted in issue #3
is to lock Dedalus in a tower, echoing the actual myth of Daedalus in which he
was locked away in a tower to protect his knowledge of the Minotaur's Labyrinth.
The Minotaur and the Labyrinth being themes we will be seeing again shortly.
Dedalus for decades after (still dressed in his 'Cloak of Smoke') imprisoned on
the Falkland isles, by a metaphysical weapon of his own devising. Yet even
here, in oration to/with himself, it's shown that he's far from powerless;
(it's no coincidence that Morrison chose to have Dedalus' semblance resemble
that of the 'Magician' card in the Tarot) in the midst of his rambling about the
ultimate superweapon of his conception, "the ring around the world": Oroboro
- we're then witness to his uncanny weather-changing abilities, out of a blue sky,
right on cue.

Which brings us to dualism and back again, to the Ouroboros. As themes of
aspect and counter-aspect arise in the book, the serpent and "it's black and white
halves that represent the Gnostic duality of existence" become the repeated image
over a narrative that spans decades, where Kathy Kane the Silver Age Batwoman
and her legacy tie into Department Zero and connections with modern-day events
in Argentina. It's revealed that the intelligence organization the then 'Agent-33'
(who is the modern day hero of Argentina, Gaucho), has worked for is none other
than Otto Netz aka Doctor Dedalus' twin-shadow organization; Spyral. Gaucho,
having done no small amount of investigation into the post-Spyral underworld
has discovered a (again) decades long conspiracy and secret organization operating
out of Argentina. An organization who's doctrine and fictional 'history' are lifted
almost directly from the works of Jorge Luis Borges - himself a real-world author
who's darkly florid fiction, explored the fluid 'between' states of mind, perception,
and experience, most well known for his plumbing of the subconscious though the
metaphor of the Labyrinth and as one of the progenitors of the literary genre which
came to be known as 'magic realism'. So there's the Labyrinth again, and there he is;
Jorge Borges. First with the Daedalus and the Minotaur reference and now quite
literally quoted structurally in issue #3, from Borges story "Death and the Compass"
...not to mention, you knew it was coming; "El Oroboro" - the name of a fictional
book written by the Florida Group (of which Jorge Luis Borges was a collaborator
and contributor) under the collective pseudonym Espartaco Extrano (ie; 'Strange
Spartacus'). Much like Extrano's life, the Florida Group was itself an artifice, the
product of a literary feud between itself and their ficto-literary adversaries, the
Boedo Group. Again with the duality. Again with the mirrored-self, the mirrored
-fiction, the mirrored-organization. The fictions reflecting reality, reflecting fictions.
The reflected-selves together comprising the whole. The Yin-Yang. The Ouroboros.

This theme also informs Morrison's obvious dualistic, mirror, positive/negative
critique of Capitalism; Batman Incorporated represents a example of a ‘good’
business form, where profit can be equated with helping others and the
company’s gross worth with the net result of its ability to save - or in real-world
terms ‘better’ - society. Leviathan is the ‘bad’ model, the old post-Colonial/
Military Industrial Complex model, where Capitalism is a blind machine that
finds its moral base only within the whim of the market and exists not for the
betterment of society or the human condition - but singularly for the reproduction
of itself. Both simultaneously mirroring one another in the establishment of
factions/representatives from each organization, geographically creating a
ring around the world and in doing so, strategically targeting Argentina, Japan,
Hong Kong, Australia, England, France and the Great Plains of the United States.
There's also a curious, secondary interpretation to these two approaches; where
Incorporated is about building that legacy and continuing the work beyond Bruce's
own investment/participation/lifespan as the enduring 'concept' of Batman -
the idea of immortality as living on through others, where knowledge, skills,
values are passed from one generation to another - the benefits of which belong
to all of society. Leviathan by contrast is the old bromidic Capitalist 'material'
solution, the single-minded attachment to the physical world, the hiding behind
the accumulation of 'things'; life as objects, power, money, influence. Like
Leviathan's brainwashed consumers, as vehicles for their drug/virus, far from
ensuring immortality, this attachment serves only to substantiate those very
fears and anxieties about the world. And in-particular about mortality and death.
It's revealing then, that Leviathan's logo development described by Grant in the
commentary pages of Batman: The Return is that it should resemble the sigil of
Kali's Yantra. Kali, the Hindu goddess who's name is derived from Kala, literally
translates in various interpretations as "black, time, death". The correspondence
between the logo, and the Tantric sigil is striking, and no happenstance in their
shared symbolism. As a further reduction of the Capitalism metaphor; in the
end with Incorporated vs. Leviathan, it’s down to competing products and their
marketing being the divide between exploitation or appealing to a beneficial
need. And don't overlook the fact that it's predominantly children who are getting
hooked on Leviathan (note the significance), children, and teenagers in 3rd World
cultural and economic crisis; the drug cartels of Argentina, the gangs of Native
American reservations in North America, the armed 'tribal purging' of South Africa.
These are all of the places that Leviathan is offering their 'product'... at the cost of
life-enrollment in the World Serpent.

Link to DC Comics: "Batman Incorporated" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.9

So at the conclusion of the first 'season' as Grant Morrison is calling it, we've seen
these two forces embodied by the Incorporated and the Arcanum - each with their
own agenda to create a 'ring around the world' in the establishing of their influence,
reach, and even as it could be called, branding. Where Bruce Wayne's motivation
was gained in a (yet undisclosed, but often referred to) future-vision from his time
traveling Fourth World jaunt that was last year's The Return of Bruce Wayne.
Leviathan, other than what's been discussed here, has yet to play or even fully
reveal their hand. Or their identity. Some of the villainous cast we know; we have
the Operation Paperclip ex-Nazi superscientist and spy Doctor Dedalus, we've seen
the product of one of Leviathan's Middle East meta-human enhancement facilities
in the form of The Heretic in Batman: The Return, yet, who is this white-cloaked,
monk-like mastermind that is directing the 'magic spell' that will change the world
with the creation of the Oroboro? Who (or what) is Leviathan him/itself? Two
significant clues have been laid down by Morrison; the first being in The Heretic's
confrontation with Damian Wayne in the issue noted above, he states "I know you...
but... that day has yet to come. When it does...You will know me. But not... yet."
implying a specific tense that alludes to Leviathan's knowledge of future events.
Heretic bearing a striking resemblance to Michael Lane, the 'Satanic' Batman of
issue #666 who, if you'll recall, not only is depicted in that future-flash-forward as
having developed metahuman abilities, but referenced closely in the possible death
/sacrifice of Bruce Wayne and Damian's ultimate decision in making a deal with
the 'Devil'. (or, with Grant there's always an or; is The Heretic instead Talia Al-
Ghul's genetically engineered 'perfect' version of her son, last seen in "Batman &
Robin" issue #12 in an embryonic state, given metahuman abilities and born from
the carcass of a dead whale, again in "Batman: The Return", who was after all,
referred to as 'he who is called "Fatherless"). Corresponding with this, Leviathan
has spoken in confidence with Doctor Dadelus of Bruce's time traveling and his
ordeal at the hands of Darkseid and the Omega Sanction. In referencing these
events, (largely only known to those close to Bruce Wayne) Leviathan dispels
the rumor that in returning from such a cross-cosmos quest, that Bruce Wayne
has returned a 'god'. The Second major clue, also lies in matters of time. This
one in the hands of Incorporated; we see in issue #1 that in his first mission
under the Incorporated banner, Bruce seeks out a object "more precious than
diamond" which he then infiltrates and steals from the laboratory of one
superscience mastermind Doctor Sivana. This object? The Suspendium Gem
which last time we saw in the DC Universe, was in the hands of Sivana to the
purpose of performing experiments on another DC science-villain; the larval
Mister Mind in the DC event book "52". Experiments that, you guessed it,
imbued Mister Mind with a time-altering, quantum consciousness that warped
the nature of the 4th Dimension itself. Of note, the original appearance of
Suspendium - which was designed by Doctor Sivana in the 1950's Golden Age
comic of the Marvel Family - was to create a Stasis Bubble in which events
were frozen, unaltered, untouched, trapped in time.

In riddling out all of that, with yet another whole year until the tale's conclusion,
where do we stand? Right in the fray of a sprawling time-warping puzzle of 'tenses',
labyrinths, historic political intrigue, superscience, global Magick spells, international
conglomerates vying for markets, metahuman manufacturing, building of armies and
a baffling, new, inscrutable 'unknowable villain'. A villain who's massive Machiavellian
aspirations are being cast on the world as though he were the very architect of the story
itself... or someone who has certain knowledge of it's outcome. And where might that
knowledge come, if not... from the future? (or is Leviathan simply an old nemesis in the
form of Ras Al-Ghul's Sensei, the believed-deceased leader of the League of Assassins? -
I can't decide which, but the latter seems just far too literal considering this story's tone).
And with that half-educated stab in the dark, I'm going to part with words from the one
individual who knows with certainty the future of this tale; the author himself. It's all
you from here on out Grant: "[Batman Incorporated] is the return of Bruce Wayne to
the Batman persona, and so I thought; 'what would Bruce bring to that'? It took off again,
and I got really into the notion of doing [Incorporated] as a team-up book... in doing ten
issues of these super-intricate stories, in the midst of which I noticed all the threads I'd
left untouched. As I decided to tie up and pay off every thread from my Batman run, I
realized there was still one big, final story to tell and it goes right back to the beginning
of my time on the book. I wanted to bring them all together and do this absolute grand
finale, a 12-issue rollercoaster ride through Hell, the biggest Batman story I could think
of to wrap up my six years on the book. That's what the second 'season' if you will,
became -- these twelve issues that will finish everything, dotting all the I's and crossing
all the T's, and leaving no stone unturned. I'd found the epic finale for my whole run
and I can't wait to write it..."

Link to DC Comics solicitation for "Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes!"

Link to DC Comics solicitation for "Batman Incorporated: Leviathan"

Link to Comics Alliance 'Grant Morrison Talks About Action Comics, His Batman Mega-Story and Mothers'

Link to Rolling Stone's 'Grant Morrison: Psychedelic Superhero' article

Sounds on Rotation - Aug / Sept - Books in Circulation

2011-08-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Been a while again since I've done one of these! So here's whats been playing at my place on the hi-fi/on my pod these past couple months or so. Have been particularly enthused again with the current summer batch of new albums I've acquired. These being (as per usual) mostly dissonant, minimal, abstract, avant and atmospheric type sounds. Consisting of random modern composer titles, the notable soundtrack to Terrance Malick's newest, few choice electronic releases, a couple new avant-jazz/improv recordings, noise, post-rock, garage, psych stuffs and a couple of metal records on the more doom/space end of the spectrum. Indeed! New sounds make such an excellent compliment to the encroaching end of the Summer. Looking forward to the changes, both seasonal and otherwise that Fall will bring!

Alva Noto & Sakamoto, Ryuichi "Summvs" (Raster-Noton)
V/A "The Tree of Life - Soundtrack" (Lakeshore)
Deepchord "Hash-Bar Loops" (Soma)
Okland, Nils & Apeland, Sigbjorn "Lysoen - Hommage a Ole Bull" (ECM)
Eternal Tapestry & Sun Araw "Night Gallery" (Thrill Jockey)
Baker, Aidan "Still Life" (Primary Numbers)
Fennesz "Seven Stars" (Touch)
V/A "Invasion Of The Mysteron Killer Sounds" (SoulJazz)
Jasper TX "The Black Sun Transmissions" (Fang Bomb)
Biosphere "N-Plants" (Touch)
Hertta Lussu Ässä "Hertta Lussu Ässä" (Destijl)
HTRK "Work (Work, Work) (Ghostly Intl.)
Cindytalk "Hold Everything Dear" (Mego)
Sun Araw "Ancient Romans" (Drag City)
Jóhannsson, Jóhann "The Miners' Hymns" (Fat Cat)
Bardo Pond "Bardo Pond" (Fire)
Kangding Ray "OR" (Raster-Noton)
Barn Owl "Ancestral Star" (Thrill Jockey)
Lippok, Robert "RedSuperStructure" (Raster-Noton)
Boris "Attention Please (US & Japanese Editions)" (Sargent House/Daymare)
Boris "Heavy Rocks" (Sargent House)
Mathieu, Stephan "To Describe George Washington Bridge" (Dekorder)
Cantu-Ledesma, Jefre "Conversations with Myself" (Shining Skull)
The Men "Leave Home" (Sacred Bones)
Hell, Rene "Terminal Symphony" (Type)
Jesu "Ascension" (Caldo Verde)
Liturgy "Aesthethica" (Thrill Jockey)
Moon Duo "Mazes" (Sacred Bones)
Pale Sketcher "Seventh Heaven" (Ghostly Intl.)
Carousell "Black Swallow & Other Songs" (Digitalis)
NHK "YX aka 1CH aka SOLO" (Raster-Noton)
Chaton, Anne-James "Evenements 09" (Raster-Noton)
Grails "Deep Politics" (Temporary Residence)
Hecker, Tim "Ravedeath 1972" (Kranky)
The Thing & Yoshihide, Otomo "Shinjuku Crawl" (Smalltown Supersound)
The Thing & O'Rourke, Jim "Shinjuku Growl" (Smalltown Supersound)
Vainio, Mika "Life (... It Eats You Up)" (Touch)
Sanso-Xtro "Fountain Fountain Joyous Mountain" (Digitalis)
Six Organs of Admittance "Asleep On The Floodplain" (Drag City)
Tiago Sousa "Walden Pond's Monk" (Immune)
Vladislav Delay Quartet "Vladislav Delay Quartet" (Honest Jon's)

Books in question being split between a couple authors, the David Foster Wallace was a second-read recently completed with the aid of a group of friends convening for our Pale King Book Club semi-weekly. As a unfinished work by Wallace, and his final novel, it stands as a powerful, sad, commentary on our 'society of diversions' and the seemingly incessant state of being entertained that western society has been seeking out since the time of the book's setting in the early 1980's. Bolano I feel like I am finally ready for again, almost a year after the massive, intimidating, overwhelming experience that was "2666". Harbach's "Art of Fielding" has been recommended by many friends and authors in the know, as a amazing first-time novel, the additional stamp of approval from the fact that David Foster Wallace's editor, Michael Pietsch did the editing on this one. The Ballard is a ongoing on/off again dipping in/out of in the midst of other books as it's his short fiction collection, and has a vast abundance of ideas, best taken one at a time. How I do wish Murakami's "IQ84" was released stateside by now! I've been ready for this one for nearly a year, at this point it's near at least; we're looking at a early October date for the English translation. The others being pop/pulp adventures to satisfy that appetite, comics supplying a important counterpoint to the headier lit:

David Foster Wallace "The Pale King" (Little, Brown)
Chad Harbach "The Art of Fielding" (Little, Brown)
Roberto Bolano "Savage Detectives" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
J.G. Ballard "The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard" (W.W.Norton)
Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" (DC comics/Vertigo)
Grant Morrison "Supergods..." (Spiegel & Grau)
Grant Morrison "Action Comics" (DC Comics)
Jonathan Hickman "FF" (Marvel Comics)

...And the new July/Aug issue of Film Comment, Sept issues of The Wire, Sight & Sound, Artforum, N+1, Frieze and McSweeney's 36 have all made for good reads.

Yes, We Know You Hate the City: Cryogenic Culture Shock, Gonzo Journalism & A Election of Greater Evils in Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan

2011-08-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a unusual post for me, as I'm making it before having finished the reading.
After having spent since 2004? 2006? searching for a complete set of the issues that make
up this story, and neither wanting them trashed as many of the beret wearing post-post Mod's
tend to leave them second-hand, or even the damn difficulty of finding all the issues in one
place, much less not wanting/being able to afford 60+ issues at three dollar cover price... my
patience, perseverance and pissed-off-ed-ness paid off! Warren Ellis' "Transmetropolitan" in
it's entirety for about 1/4 of cover price an issue. And the previous owner even took care of the
books! Alright, enough on me and my find, here's the 101, or in this book's case, the 100001:
Created by Warren Ellis back in 1997 and inspired by the 1969 science fiction novel by
Norman Spinrad titled "Bug Jack Barron", the series covers the work of Gonzo Journalist,
Vulgar Misanthrope, and all-around Total Bastard of the Hunter S. Thompson mold, Spider
Jerusalem in a sprawling futuristic/Dystopic vision of New York, so chaotically, over-
reachingingly advanced that outsider subcultures splice genes with alien refugees, previous
era's cryogenic deep-freezers are hit hard by culture shock, matter re-compilers are as common
as microwaves (and get hooked on mechanical 'dope') and new media-religions are invented
every few hours. Spider's story begins with him returning The City after a lengthy self-imposed
state of exile from the madness, as a Nixonian thug nicknamed The Beast prepares for his
re-election to the presidency (the reason Jerusalem went into exile in the first place), and a
primary battle is heating up between a virulent racist and a charismatic senator whose rictus
grin masks some seriously warped realities. And of course, claiming to 'Hate The City' all the
while, Jerusalem delves into the machinations of the race, and in doing so, breaks into a web
of conspiracies that threaten the future of the country. Ha. And that's just within about the
first 13? 17? issues of what I have read.

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.1

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.2

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.3

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.4

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.5

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.6

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.7

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.8

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.9

Link to Vertigo Comics Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" - Vol.10

It's curious, as Ellis' work, especially outside the mainstream superhero realms, from around
this period, ie; late 90's to mid 00's has been all of his strongest writing. At the time of it being
initially published, for a confluence of reasons, "Transmetropolitan" struck me as a pretender
to the throne in a cool-Postmod, Anarcho Journalism, Political Satirical, hyperactively
Dystopian, sprawling Meta-City, kind of way. The 'Hunter S. Thompson-ness' of it just too
much. But having begun some years ago to delve into the meat of the book, I've found it
significantly more rich, original and compelling than my initial assumption that Ellis was
just flaunting those concepts while doing a bit of Grant Morrison coattail riding, in themes
and style. I since recognize that I was totally amiss on that assumption. So here it is. A
decade later I finally get to read/own the thing. What those-in-the-know have described
as Ellis' greatest or second-greatest work only to "Planetary".

Link to DC Comics Warren Ellis "Planetary" - Vol.1

Link to DC Comics Warren Ellis "Planetary" - Vol.2

Link to DC Comics Warren Ellis "Planetary" - Vol.3

Link to DC Comics Warren Ellis "Planetary" - Vol.4

Which is, to me, easily one of the pinnacles of comic book storytelling this decade. "Planetary"
being tales of the historic legacy of the 'Archeologists of the Impossible' through the centuries,
but more precisely what it is, is the greatest of meta-literary explorations of the history of 'Pulp'
ever written. In comic book form. Tarzan, Lone Ranger, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula,
Godzilla, James Bond, Land that Time Forgot, Journey to the Moon, 2001: A Space Odyssey,
Hong Kong action films... you name it... as the 'shadow history' of the human race. If Transmet
even begins to deliver qualitatively on par with Ellis' other higher-ranking works, finally
finishing the reading of this book is going to be a wild, great ride.

Raúl Ruiz's new film "Mysteries of Lisbon" at IFC: Aug 5 - 11 Opening at Landmark Theatres: Aug 18 & SIFF Cinema Sept 30 - Oct 13

2011-08-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

Highlight of the Seattle International Film Fest, to the extent that I expect it will be a serious contender for the best new film seen this year! Spanning three generations, dozens of characters, seven narrative voices, a whole century of intrigue, mountains of sacrifice, scandal, war, loss, mystery, misery, revelation, piracy, conquest, the high seas, early colonialism, the age of science, 19th century decadence, class struggle, and lasting nearly 5 Hours this is one that defiantly disproves that literature can't be translated to film... it just involves the massive undertaking of all of the above qualities, a director who's deeply immersed in the tale, has decades of directorial skills established and has assembled a almost-impossible perfect cast of actors capable of portraying an ensemble-cast of characters, many of them over the course of decades of change, metamorphosis, epiphany, revelation into the persons they become through the trials and tribulations of life... and what a almost 'mystical' life it is! Adapted from the novel of the same name by Camilo Castelo Branco, who's work is often compared to a hybrid of Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Tolstoy, and I'd say in this cinematic adaptation, expansive enough to also include such far-flung literary styles and content as Conrad, Melville and the decadent surrealism of characters like those that populate Thomas De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater". This is exactly a piece of literature that would be deemed 'unfilmable' by most. What Ruiz delivers is instead labyrinthine, complex to a you're-screwed-if-you're-not-paying-attention degree, mesmerizing in it's multifaceted structure, this is a true life-like puzzle as multiple identities are stripped away to uncover startling revelations in the best traditions of both literary and cinema melodrama and mystery.

That it's a period piece exploring the mad world of the 19th Century takes away not at all from richness of the material, and certainly the more 'stuffy' social conventions of the time(s) are explored at length to reveal their mirror-opposite and other face, usually over time in the lives of the very same character. The characters of this century in all their mysticism meets colonialism, meets revolt, meets the age of science, meets the age of high adventure, meets the end of the era of piracy - meets all-together in the mind of a young boy caught within the convolutions of the adult world. It's intrigues, it's family and class struggles, the monstrosity of the aristocratic system, the bourgeoisie, and his own life having been denied a family due to being born a 'bastard' son, as this delirious, dream-like fugue of a film/tale. Ending with, what is one of the greatest sleight of hand I've probably ever seen in cinema (and inverting what is probably the worst of narrative gimmicks that exists), which on the surface appears to be a cliche', but in exploring it's dualism/multiplicity there's a epiphany that comes as almost a revelation... especially after the 4 1/2 hours that proceed it. A Massive achievement. Almost faultlessly executed and paced, to the extent that at almost twice the duration of your average film, it's propulsive layers-upon-layers of story-within-story, elapse in what seems like half it's time. For lovers of great tales, and especially those who know their history (both established, eccentric, literary and factual) this is probably the current definition of 'Cinema Magic' right here, in that way where you come away feeling that fiction has just 're-written' history itself.

From Tony Pipolo's review in Film Comment: "To recount the plot of the film is to engage with its reflexivity, as each story stumbles into another and points of view shift in a continual spiral that is less a matter of digressions than the irresistible lure of storytelling. Were the film to continue for 50 or 100 hours, one imagines it might subsume all possible stories from the period of its setting—late 18th- to mid-19th-century Portugal and France—into a tapestry threatening to extend geographically with Borgesian design, a human comedy to surpass Balzac’s."

Link to official "Mysteries of Lisbon" site

Link to IFC distribution "Mysteries of Lisbon" site

Link to Landmark Theatres "Mysteries of Lisbon" site

Link to SIFF Cinema "Mysteries of Lisbon" site

Link to Tony Pipolo's "Mysteries of Lisbon" article in Film Comment

Substrata 1.01: Sound & Visual Art Festival: Jul 15 - 17

2011-07-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

Exceptional, literally exceptional, three day mini-festival (two nights of performances, third day field recording workshop ) of precisely curated sounds by Rafael Anton Irisarri from the 'heavy' end of the ambient, neoclassical, immersive-avant spectrum, in an intimate setting of the Chapel Performance Space with a explicit audience in attendance (no loud rock bar, and hangers-on here) and a dedicated sound engineer. Exactly as a festival of these sounds, with the corresponding audience and venue should be curated, hosted and assembled. The festival also bringing together associated aesthetics and theory in a booklet published featuring essays by Irisarri, Jon Wozencroft, Lawrence English, and others. Along with complimentary photography by Wozencroft, Phil Petrocelli, and Thomas Meluch. Check that lineup: Biosphere - Oren Ambarchi - Nils Frahm - Rafael Anton Irisarri Trio - Benoit Pioulard - Marcus Fischer - Eluvium - & Crys Cole - Here's hoping this is the first of many!
From the Substrata site: "Substrata seeks to explore varying perspectives of scale though the use of sound, composition and visuals - an international showcase featuring accomplished artists working in the cutting edge where structural abstraction meets physical dynamics. By creating compositional spaces dealing with a sense of mass, along with openness of structure, the perspective of scale and the listener's place in relation is shifted to allow for greater a sense of 'place' beyond the environ of the performance in the interplay of the moment and physics of the larger world. Wherein the most minute of gestures are made significant, or massive planes of perspective become revealed, as dynamic interplay builds these spaces that are as much acoustically sensed, as perceived in the mind's eye. Each showcase features distinctly different takes of the potency of this kind of minimalism, varying between weighty combinations of bass and tonalities used to sculpt out atmospheric ambiance, or powerful dynamic structures made up of the subtlest filigree of sonic building materials."
Photo design/credit: Petrocelli Designs LLC

Cannes Film Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

2011-07-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

Link to official Cannes Film Festival site

Link to Cannes 2011 Festival Prize Winners

Cannes Film Festival being one of the major preview/heralds of film to come in the next year, judging from what I'm seeing here, 2011/ 2012 looks to be shaping up in pretty awesome fashion.That is, assuming we get these films distributed stateside. Cannes 2010 saw very little in the way of the major films from the fest ever appearing in theatres in the US, let's hope this coming year we see otherwise. New ones by some of the worlds greatest cinematic orchestrators of shock, beauty, subtle entrancement, rapture and genre-transcendence. Links below to some of the notable Directors works and prize winners from this years festival. Unfortunate that very little of them made it into the West Coast SIFF/SFIFF Fests this year (the exception being Terrance Malick's "Tree of Life" which is already here stateside at the time of it's premiere). After doing reading on the festival in both Sight & Sound and Film Comment, the abundance of curious and atypical works by established directors suggests there are some major surprises to be had in the coming year. This just being a small selection of some of the dramatic works by known directors, see the 'Out of Competition' for a number of what look like exceptional/curious documentaries:

Link to Terrance Malick - "Tree of Life" at Cannes site

Terrance Malick's Palme d'Or win this year is both a bit of a surprise and very much deserved for this longstanding American director! Flying in the face of the age of postmodern detachment, cynicism and irony -- we get this deeply personal, emotional, existential, spiritual, audacious, COSMIC tale from Malick. His most abstract to-date. No one in all of American cinema is making films like this, a visual spectacle with a 'soul' belonging more to traditions of quasi-religious questing ala Bergman & Tarkovsky. Profound almost transcendental cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki (DP on "The New World"). Yet, not quite the masterpiece it could have been, I suspect the Palme d'Or is more for the sum total of his filmography than just this work alone. There is also rumor of a 5 hour cut, to be released on Blu-Ray before the end of the year, which I suspect will lend some insight into the seeming imbalances of the theatrical cut. Still, the film is deserving of the highest accolades. Congratulations 'Terry'!: Synopsis: "The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith."

Link to Lars Von Trier - "Melancholia" at Cannes site

After the absurdity and time-wasting spectacle that was Von Trier's idiotic missteps in interviews at Cannes, the more significant and better spectacle is going to be his newest, when we finally get to see it. From what I've read it looks to exceed "Antichrist" in it's surrealism and storytelling potency. Gotta love how terse and brief this synopsis is too. Synopsis: "Justine and Michael are celebrating their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of her sister and brother-in-law. Meanwhile, the planet, Melancholia, is heading towards Earth..."

Link to Nuri Bilge Ceylan - "Once Upon a Time in Anatonia" at Cannes site

I've been following this Turkish director for about half a decade now, and increasingly he's become a cinematic voice to recon with, "Climates" and his previous, "Three Monkeys" were particularly notable and some of the better films seen each of those years. Significant for the weight of their atmosphere, the subtlety of the acting on display and the competency of storytelling. Synopsis: "Life in a small town is akin to journeying in the middle of the steppes: the sense that "something new and different" will spring up behind every hill, but always unerringly similar, tapering, vanishing or lingering monotonous roads..."

Link to Paolo Sorrentino - "This Must Be The Place" at Cannes site

Sorrentino, who's "Il Divo" was one of the best things I saw in SIFF that year, is back with a bio-drama about... ahem... Sean Penn as Robert Smith?? Synopsis: "Cheyenne is a former rock star. At 50 he still dresses "Goth" and lives in Dublin off his royalties. The death of his father, with whom he wasn't on speaking terms, brings him back to New York. He discovers his father had an obsession: to seek revenge for a humiliation he had suffered. Cheyenne decides to pick up where his father left off, and starts a journey, at his own pace, across America."

Link to Takashi Miike - "Ichimei aka Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai" at Cannes site

After the near tone-perfect nature of Miike's serious investment in period drama that was "13 Assassins" he's back with another adaptation of a classic piece of Samuria cinema based on the previous film by Hasaki Kobayashi and Yasuhiko Takiguchi's novel. Synopsis: "Seeking a noble end, poverty-stricken samurai Hanshiro requests to commit ritual suicide at the House of Ii, run by headstrong Kageyu. Trying to dismiss Hanshiro's demand, Kageyu recounts the tragic story of a similar recent plea from young ronin Motome. Hanshiro is shocked by the horrifying details of Motome's fate, but remains true to his decision to die with honor. At the moment of the hara-kiri, Hanshiro makes a last request to be assisted by Kageyu’s samurai, who are coincidentally absent. Suspicious and outraged, Kageyu demands an explanation. Hanshiro confesses his bond to Motome, and tells the bittersweet tale of their lives... Kageyu will soon realize that Hanshiro has set in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against his house."

Link to Naomi Kawase - "Hazenu" at Cannes site

Kawase's last two films "Mourning Forest" and "Nanayo" were amazing exercises in subtlety and ambiguity in tone. Her depiction of the uncertainty of relationships being about paramount. Some of the more gorgeous cinematography and natural splendor caught on screen I've seen this decade too. Synopsis: "The Asuka region is the birthplace of Japan. Here, in ancient times, there were those who fulfilled their lives in the midst of waiting. Modern people, apparently having lost this sense of waiting, seem unable to feel grateful for the present, and cling to the illusion that all things will move constantly forward according to one’s own plan. In ancient times, there were three small mountains that people believed were inhabited by gods. They were Mt. Unebi, Mt. Miminashi, and Mt. Kagu, and they still stand. In that time, a powerful official used the mountains as a metaphor for a struggle inside his own heart. The mountains were an expression of human karma. Time has passed into the present. Takumi and Kayoko, inheriting the unfulfilled hopes of their grandparents, live out their lives. Their tale continues a story of the ages, representing the uncountable souls that have accumulated in this land. "

Link to Jeff Nichol - "Take Shelter" at Cannes site

New young director who's film was highly lauded in most press I've read, and that's about as much as I know on this one. Synopsis: "Curtis LaForche lives in a small Ohio town with his wife Samantha and six-year-old daughter Hannah, who is deaf. Curtis makes a modest living as a crew chief for a sand-mining company. Samantha is a stay-at-home mother and part-time seamstress who supplements their income by selling handmade wares at the flea market each weekend. Money is tight, and navigating Hannah’s healthcare and special needs education is a constant struggle. Despite that, Curtis and Samantha are very much in love and their family is a happy one. Then Curtis begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm shelter in their backyard. His seemingly inexplicable behavior concerns and confounds Samantha, and provokes intolerance among co-workers, friends and neighbors. But the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within the community doesn’t compare to Curtis’ private fear of what his dreams may truly signify."

Link to Sean Durkin - "Martha Marcy May Marlene" at Cannes site

The exceptionally positive reviews have been placing this between the better aspects of "Eyes Wide Shut" and the sense of existential American landscapes that make up the work of Terrance Malick. I'm ready! Synopsis: "Martha Marcy May Marlene is a powerful psychological thriller starring Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a young woman rapidly unraveling amidst her attempt to reclaim a normal life after fleeing from a cult and its charismatic leader (John Hawkes). Seeking help from her estranged older sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy), Martha is unable and unwilling to reveal the truth about her disappearance. When her memories trigger a chilling paranoia that her former cult could still be pursuing her, the line between Martha's reality and delusion begins to blur. "

Link to Nicolas Winding Refn - "Drive" at Cannes site

The "Pusher" trilogy and "Valhala Rising" Refn is back. Gotta say though, this subject matter looks significantly less compelling to me. Synopsis: "Drive is the story of a Hollywood stunt driver by day, a loner by nature who moonlights as a top-notch getaway driver-for-hire in the criminal underworld. He finds himself a target for some of LA's most dangerous men after agreeing to aid the husband of his beautiful neighbor, Irene. When the job goes dangerously awry, the only way he can keep Irene and her son alive is to do what he does best-Drive."

Link to Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmaseb - "This is Not a Film" at Cannes site

What happens when you have been banned from making films for 20 years in Iran and you're under state issued house-arrest for 6? Apparently when you're Panahi, THIS. Synopsis: "A day of the life of an Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, before the celebration of the new Iranian year (NORUZ)."

Link to Dardenne Brothers - "The Kid with a Bike" at Cannes site

The masters at making the everyday dynamic, unexpected, passionate and intensely visceral are back. The disparity between reading their synopsis and what one envisions as the prototypical result from formulaic Hollywood, vs. what we will be getting with this film, is an exercise in visual storytelling potency itself. Synopsis: "Cyril, almost 12, has only one plan: to find the father who left him temporarily in a children's home. By chance he meets Samantha, who runs a hairdressing salon and agrees to let him stay with her at weekends. Cyril doesn't recognize the love Samantha feels for him, a love he desperately needs to calm his rage."

Link to Mohammad Rasoulof - "Goodbye" at Cannes site

Bit of a total mystery for me, as this is Rasoulof's last film before his being banned by Iran from making films for 20 years along with his compatriot Panahi. Previous to this, his "White Meadows" in SIFF 2011, was one of the better films seen this year. So the ambiguity is compelling. Especially with no synopsis offered by Cannes.

Link to Hagar Ben Asher - "The Slut" at Cannes site

New young director who's film was presented only in the 'Critics Week' section, but universally praised in the articles read. Synopsis: "Tamar, 35, a beautiful young woman, lives alone with her two daughters. She can’t restrain her sexual appetite and gives herself to several men of the village. Shai, a young man, just moved back in the region to handle his dead mother's assets, but as he meets Tamar, he decides to stay. They soon fall in love, but will Tamar be satisfied with only one partner?"

Link to Michel Hazanavicius - "The Artist" at Cannes site

Expecting very, very good things of this. Won 'best actor' for Jean Dujardin as Valentin. Synopsis: "Hollywood 1927. George Valentin is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. "

Link to Pedro Amlodovar - "The Skin I Live In" at Cannes site

Almodovar takes on the Frankenstein myth in his own spin. Of all the 'premise for his recent series of films, this I'm most excited for. Especially the blending of genres and tone I expect he'll carry off masterfully. Even the title is great in it's implications. Synopsis: "Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig..."

Link to Andrey Zvyagintsev - "Elena" at Cannes site

In contemporary post-Tarkovsky cinema, this young director has been a rising star to watch. His "The Return" and more recently "Sacrifice" were two of the better films from the post-Soviet Union I've encountered this decade. Deeply existential, quasi-religious and visually poetic, it's no surprise he studied under Andrei. Synopsis: "Elena and Vladimir are an older couple, they come from different backgrounds. Vladimir is a wealthy and cold man, Elena comes from a modest milieu and is a docile wife. They have met late in life and each one has children from previous marriages. Elena’s son is unemployed, unable to support his own family and he is constantly asking Elena for money. Vladimir’s daughter is a careless young woman who has a distant relationship with her father. A heart attack puts Vladimir in hospital, where he realizes that his remaining time is limited. A brief but somehow tender reunion with his daughter leads him to make an important decision: she will be the only heiress of his wealth. Back home he announces it to Elena. Her hopes to financially help her son suddenly vanish. The shy and submissive housewife then comes up with a plan to give her son and grandchildren a real chance in life."

Link to Hong Sang-Soo - "The Day He Arrives" at Cannes site

Another new Hong Sang-Soo! Is this a film a year now from him? He's seriously forming up to be the postmodern Bergman of South Korea. No doubt, more bummer times and the people who make that their lives, will ensue. Synopsis: "Sungjoon heads to Seoul to meet a close friend who lives in the Bukchon area. When the friend doesn’t answer his calls, Sungjoon wanders around Bukchon and runs into an actress he used to know. The two talk for a while, but soon part. He makes his way down to Insadong and drinks makgeolli (rice wine) by himself. Some film students at another table ask him to join them--Sungjoon used to be a film director. He soon gets drunk and heads for his ex-girlfriend’s house."

Link to Gus Van Sant - "Restless" at Cannes site

Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" was about ten times the film I expected it to be, after kind of having given up on the guy after "Gerry" and "Elephant", I came away shocked at his collaboration with Christopher Doyle for both it's artistry and realism. Synopsis: "Annabel Cotton is a beautiful and charming terminal cancer patient with a deep felt love of life and the natural world. Enoch Brae is a young man who has dropped out of the business of living, after an accident claimed the life of his parents. When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. For Enoch, it includes his best friend Hiroshi (RYO KASE) who happens to be the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot. For Annabel, it involves an admiration of Charles Darwin and an interest in how other creatures live. Upon learning of Annabel's imminent early passing, Enoch offers to help her face her last days with an irreverent abandon, tempting fate, tradition and even death itself."

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 'new' film "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" at Northwest Film Forum: Jun 17 - 30

2011-06-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

Mesmerizing, dreamlike, hypnotic, playful, quiet, often reflective, dualistic, multiple-narrative cinematic wanderings through the Thai landscape, urban centers, outlying rural expanses, caverns of the dead, and deep jungles, through the eyes of their key progressive cinematic voice. Contemporary culture also plays a large role, often just as a foil to contrast the natural splendor and life of the people and their relationship with the vibrant green spectacle that is the jungle. Often surreal, or hinting at the metaphysical (or as in "Tropical Malady" direct interaction with the spirit world) his films both describe the life of a people as they are, as they once were (first chapter of "Syndromes and a Century" for example) and in the more abstract passages, suggesting how they could be, both in waking and dreaming. Beautiful capsules of cinema that remind the viewer of the small insights into the otherworldly that take place in the everyday ...the films of Apichtapong Weerasethakul are possibly summed up by his most recent here, the Cannes Palme d'Or Winning "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives". Finally landing in Seattle after showing in New York, San Francisco, Portland and most of the west coast this past Winter and Spring. Thank you Northwest film Forum for having the insight to make it a two-week screening!

From the Northwest Film Forum: "Winner of the Palme d'Or (2010 Cannes Film Festival, jury headed by Tim Burton), Uncle Boonmee is a dreamy, gently reassuring tale told by a man at the end of his life as he contemplates reincarnation. A ghost story told with the calm and patience of a prosaic tale of country living, the film concerns the final days of Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar), an aging farmer suffering from a kidney disease. The film moves at the tranquil pace of a lazy afternoon, and this quiet grace allows the frequently outrageous and bizarre elements of the story to blend seamlessly into reality, appearing as natural as the background hum of insects or the gentle murmur of the wind. Boonmee is the latest and most memorable of Apichatpong’s tender, poetic, supernatural and semi-autobiographical reveries."

Link to Kick The Machine - Official Apichatpong Weerasethakul studio site

Link to "Uncle Boonmee" Cannes Official site - Palme d'Or

Link to Strand Releasing Official "Uncle Boonmee" site

Link to Northwest Film Forum "Uncle Boonmee" calendar

Takashi Miike's new film "13 Assassins" at Landmark Theatres: Apr 17 - Jun 30

2011-05-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Rather than just my usual 'informing' style post, this one's going to be in the form of a review, as not having written anything in advance of having seen the film, now that I've seen it, I feel it's noteworthy to the extent that it deserves a deeper investigation/presentation. Rare thing to want to call a film a 'masterpiece'. I almost never engage in that kind of nonsense, especially within genre-film. Well, we've got just about exactly that here. Takashi Miike reigns in most-all of his indulgent sensibilities and delivers a (largely) straight-up, stoic, refined period-drama set in the last couple decades before the beginning of the Meiji era, the twilight of the Shogunate and the end of feudal Japan. A tale of a widower in his later years, who after decades of peace has begun to yearn for death. Suddenly he is approached with the most audacious of missions; bring down a corrupt lord, half-brother to the Shogun, who has, in his sadistic misuse of power and stature, starved, tortured, enslaved and reduces hundreds to misery, loss of property, their families, their homes. This mission from within the Shogunate itself. Bushido preventing them form outwardly acting against the half-brother of the Shogun, yet knowing his power-mad sadism with reduce whole prefectures to desolation, those within the parliament of the Shogun know they need to prevent this corrupt Lord from joining their circle of policy-making influence.

This mission falls on ex-Vassal to the Shogun, now turned contemplatively domestic, the definition of 'Twilight Samurai' living on his stipend of Koku; Shimada Shinzaemon, in what he perceives as his own 'waning years', idling them away with reading and fishing, his own Dojo, now only attended by one pupil. Shinzaemon immediately knows this opportunity for what it is; to end his own life definitively, with with honor in the most righteous, justice-driven series of events he has ever known... as a 'walking through the eye of a needle' where the odds are against him and any that he may recruit to his cause. The corrupt Lord in question; Naritsugu is known and reviled by many for his deeds, so it's of little difficulty for Shimada to find those sympathetic within his kin for the mission, especially with a secret order issued from Lord Doi among the Shogunate, and the startling 'evidence' of Naritsugu's crimes that Doi presents to Shimada.

What ensues is both a prototypical Samurai revenge tale, (not unlike classics such as "47 Ronin"), wherein the cast of 'assassins' is hurriedly assembled for their suicide mission to oppose the bureaucratic disaster of a corrupt Lord's coming to power, while also being a film that only Miike himself could have made. A tour de force of the power of justice, the insanity of violence, the righteousness of retribution and the need to decisively act against those who themselves exploit the infrastructures of bureaucracy and power to mask their own personal desires to inflict suffering and war in a play of ego and arrogance. And then there's the closing confrontation between these forces. I've been told that the swordplay that closes the film is 40+ minutes long, yet the choreography, the pacing, the cinematography and the dramatic flow of events is so well assembled, that even after having seen the film, I'm skeptical. Which lends much credibility to what is one of the most powerful sword-on-sword action sequences dedicated to film. This is followed by a in-the-throes-of-death dialog and series of events that could only have been made effective by what proceeded it, all 40+ minutes. Beautifully shot (even some of just the damn light quality in this film is startling for it's precision), immaculately well acted (in-particular by Kôji Yakusho, who has had many great roles, but this may be his finest) and mostly evenly-handled in it's adherence to the traditions of the Jidaigeki Chambara (period drama swashbuckler) genre, this is Miike's first real grab at a larger cinema legitimacy since 1999's "Audition". And hopefully the beginning new more 'formal' period of stylistic/cinematic exploration by him.

Link to Landmark Theatres "13 Assassins" site

Link to Official "13 Assassins" Japanese site

Boris' new albums "Attention Please",『New Album』& "Heavy Rocks" released May 24

2011-05-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Some Summer tunes! Do I dare announce such a thing? Are we actually gonna see more than one week of Sun now that it's the end of May?? ...So who else is rocking this hard? Nobody? Ha. By rocking, I mean just that, there's all kinds of bros and chicks doing the Metal that are bringing the heavy these days, just about nobody thinks to make the rock as blastingly 'from the sun' as Boris. Not only that, but three albums of such rock blasting released simultaneously. "Attention Please" being their full-on exploration of all things Shoegaze and fuzzed-out heavy pop, yeah, pop. It's light and airy and fluorescent in exactly the way many of the "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7"series was, but more substantial in the variables played with and a good bit more rich in it's construction... and then of course there's the ladies. Wata in all her subtle, breathy Japanese is the vocal focus of this one. Curious tale in the construction of this album, as the recording sessions it was drawn from produced the Japanese-only raved-up J-pop of "New Album" and then as a bi-product, the seriously Metal/Bro Rock stylings of "Heav(ier) Rocks" which acts as a brilliant companion piece of sorts, as 'Heavy' is exactly that. A counterpoint of sorts to the fuzzed-out high altitude glide of 'Attention' where the dynamics have been turned Waaaaaaay up and the drumming, juxtaposition of the rhythm section, the Otoko on vocals and just pure riffage take front stage. Check that: "Attention Please came to be following Boris touring the world in 2008 in support of their last album, Smile. The trio set about recording new material and a new album was completed, then abandoned. The band sought to challenge themselves further, and the end results are two new albums of dramatic growth and the most powerful extension to Boris' unparalleled creativity, Attention Please and the all new Heavy Rocks (not to be mistaken for their earlier 2002 release, Heavy Rocks)." - Taken together, these albums are damn near perfection. Can't think of a better release to hit first thing as the season changes.
All three of them.

Seattle International Film Festival : May 19 - June 12

2011-05-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Link to Seattle International Film Festival site

First off to address grievance/concern with the curatorial direction SIFF seems to be taking as a trend since 2009; AGAIN this year, rather than the usual post expressing my ebullient enthusiasm in an exclamatory tone, this post is to begin with criticism. As a paragon of International World Cinema in the United States, even on occasion eclipsing San Francisco, Chicago and New York in scale, depth and dictionary-definition diversity, the Seattle International Film Festival has established itself over the course of the past decade+ (I can really speak for previous decades, having only seen them in print and not attended in-person) as a focal-point of visionary cinema curatorialship. Admittedly, years like 2009 were even then, a bit thin, but even then I found some 22 films of gravitas or curiosity worthy of attending, by both directors of note and new developing artists. Overall not a bad year, but not on par with the stellar run we'd seen spanning 2001-2008. Figuring it was a one-off lapse and the recession and funding issues with SIFF having opened their new theatre and home to their film archive and offices, I assumed it was a product of the times and singular qualitative dip on their part. Even then, not a significant one, as I saw much, much great cinema that year in the festival (also see the posts here from SIFF '07 or '08 for reference).

This year, immediately when the schedule was posted on Thursday May 5, there was a visible void of progressive, inventive, notable, names, titles and works in the New Global Cinema category (customarily SIFF's largest and richest) that one would expect (and have become accustomed to) in seeing self-evidently there when doing that quickly browsed shortlist. Off the top of my head, doing a run-down of the films I've known have been out there in international fests awaiting arrival in the states and looking to SIFF to hopefully bring them to our city; New Cristi Puiu? No. New Andrei Ujica? No. New Hong Sang-Soo? No. New Zhao Dayong? No. Masahiro Kobayashi? No. New Kazuyoshi Kumakiri? No. New Takashi Ishii? No. New Catherine Breillat? No. New Jia Zhang-Ke? No. New Sergei Loznitsa? New Li Hongqi? No. New Takashi Miike? No. New Kaneto Shindo? No. New Michelangelo Frammartino? No. Things like the new James Benning docu or the new Huang Weikai docu? No and No. Or for instance, one of the most lauded Japanese films in a decade, that has yet to play anywhere near our city; Kôji Wakamatsu's "Caterpillar"? Definitely a No. And I'm not even going to inquire about the film that won the world's most prestigious cinema award of 2010, that we've still not seen play here; Apichatpong Weerasethakul anyone? So, yeah. You get the idea. My usual 20-30 films annually in SIFF reduced to this in 2011. Grateful as I am to have an ongoing annual International Film Festival in my town, as far as the sum totality of everything I'm going to/am curious to see, this is a pretty sorry sight:

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Friday, May 20
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11:59 PM - André Øvredal "Troll Hunter"
Egyptian Theatre
TROL2011A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44304&FID=206

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Saturday, May 21
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6:30 PM - Mike Cahill "Another Earth"
Egyptian Theatre
ANOT2111A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44460&FID=206

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Saturday, May 21
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10:00 PM - Paddy Considine "Tyrannosaur"
SIFF Cinema
TYRA2111A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44454&FID=206

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Sunday, May 22
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9:00 PM - Takeshi Kitano "Outrage"
Neptune Theatre
OUTR2211A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44233&FID=206

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Tuesday, May 24
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7:00 PM - Sophie Fiennes "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow"
SIFF Cinema
OVER2411A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44265&FID=206

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Wednesday, May 25
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7:00 PM - Aleksei Fedorchenko "Silent Souls"
AMC Pacific Place 11
SOUL2511A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44306&FID=206

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Saturday, May 28
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1:00 PM - Raul Ruiz "Mysteries of Lisbon"
Egyptian Theatre
MYST2811E

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44273&FID=206

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Saturday, May 28
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9:30 PM - Various "Animation United" / Damian Nenow "Paths of Hate"
SIFF Cinema
ANIM2811A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44516&FID=206
http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44619&FID=206

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Sunday, May 29
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10:00 AM - Mahamat-Saleh Haroun "A Screaming Man"
AMC Pacific Place 11
SCRE2911M

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44263&FID=206

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Wednesday, June 01
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6:30 PM - Rafi Pitts "The Hunter"
Admiral Theatre
HUNT0111A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44238&FID=206

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Thursday, June 02
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7:00 PM - Mohammad Rasoulof "The White Meadows"
Egyptian Theatre
MEAD0211A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44226&FID=206

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Sunday, June 05
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9:00 PM - Sergio Caballero "Finisterrae"
Harvard Exit
FINI0511A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44372&fid=206

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Monday, June 06
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9:30 PM - Tsui Hark "Detective Dee & the Mystery of The Phantom Flame"
Egyptian Theatre
PHAN0611A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44307&FID=206

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Wednesday, June 08
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4:30 PM - Sivaroj Kongsakul "Eternity"
AMC Pacific Place 11
ETER0811M

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44364&FID=206

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Saturday, June 11
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6:00 PM - Anh Hung Tran "Norwegian Wood"
Egyptian Theatre
NORW1111A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44268&FID=206

Eccentricities Flourishing in Bureaucratic Immensity: How Transcendental Boredom & Immersion Will Save Us All in David Foster Wallace's The Pale King

2011-05-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Finished the new David Foster Wallace today at the park! Obviously, this post differing the one of last month when the book was solicited, as this is impressions after the read itself. No doubt I'll be reading it a second time, almost immediately when the Pale King Book Club is ready to go. For now, what I have to say is damn, it was nice out there with all the solar-inductive vitamin D, to be immersed, yes immersed in this kind of depth of intellectual/existential life-affirmation through the tedious lives of the ultimate bored; employees of the IRS. But really, let's begin with a quote; "Bliss - a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.”

This in a sense, not only being the theme, but also, almost in a meta-literary sense, Wallace's objective with the (unfinished) novel. From The New Yorker "The Pale King" expands on the virtues of mindfulness and sustained concentration. Properly handled, boredom can be an antidote to our national dependence on entertainment, the book suggests. As Wallace noted at a 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, true freedom “means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.” In the new novel, a character comments, “Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain, because something that’s dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way, and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from.” - This is the concept explored here, to the extent and genius that Wallace explored entertainment, habit and addiction in "Infinite Jest". As David's notes, shared in the editorial at the end of the book state; “They’re rare, but they’re among us. People able to achieve and sustain a certain steady state of concentration, attention, despite what they’re doing. Midwest meditation semifinals. Contestants hooked up to EEG -- it's who can achieve and maintain Theta waves for the longest period of time. It's the ability to be IMMERSED".

That very thing, we have right here, in this book. And Wallace is suggesting, that through that kind of discipline, anti-distraction, self attention, and again; "because something that’s dull fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way" we're made to face our-selves in a way that's seemingly less and less common in daily life with all the noise, distraction, media, texting, spectating, digital documentation of ourselves having experiences, having dialogs about our spectation of experiences, banter, hyperbole, hysteria and the braindead megaphone of the media, that most-all of us seek to fill a larger, and larger part of our time on a daily basis. This novel explores the antithesis to that and is, in itself, in a way, both meta and literal, that very thing. Transcendental boredom seems a radical answer to what we're missing from our daily content of life, but hell, if that's what it takes to break us free from the cycles of near-addictive entertainment and distraction, maybe it's the unsavory antidote to what is really ailing our twitter-brains. Good luck.

Unsound Festival New York : April 1 - 10

2011-04-03T10:31:00.001-07:00

Like last year's fest, the second annual Unsound Festival New York is a cross-cultural coming together of the Polish/Eastern European scenes and their corresponding central European, UK and American equivalents in electronic experimentation, early electronic avant garde and 20th Century composition (and this year including the nether-regions of Doom Metal on the closing night). Largely featuring seated performances in exceptional environs like the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the cathedral at Judson Church and Abrons Art Center. Prominent names in the fest this year include Ben Frost with Sinfonietta Cracovia performing his newly composed "Music for Solaris" and pieces by Steve Reich and Krzysztof Penderecki, Svarte Greiner supplying a live soundtrack to Murnau's "Nosferau", Demdike Stare doing a A/V piece in the "Cinema for the Ear" series, Deaf Center interpreting their most recent works from "Owl Splinters" along with Sinfonietta Cracovia performing chamber symphony pieces by Henryk Gorecki, Morton Subotnick performing a live multi-channel realization of his defining 1967 piece "Silver Apples of the Moon" with visuals by Lillevan, a night of psychedelic analog synth musics hosted by Emeralds, Dubstep and Bass culture until the sun rises by Appleblim, Kode9 & Badawi, an 'Ocean of Noise' created by Marcus Schmickler, Ivan Pavlov aka COH, and Burning Star Core's C. Spencer Yeh, and the afore-mentioned Doom night of Mayhem's Atilla Csihar aka Void ov Voices with a rare North American live event by Lustmord. That not enough for you? Well then, there's more days and nights of seminars, films, tutorials and talks than one could possibly have hours on the clock to fill. Combine this with the arts to be seen at MoMA, PS1, New Museum, The Whitney, Guggenheim, Cooper-Hewitt, The Met and all the smaller galleries of Chelsea, along with the Cinema of Anthology Film Archives, Film Forum, Film Society at Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, and the time spent hunting through otherworldy record and bookstores like The Strand, Academy Records, Time Machine, Other Music and Downtown Music Gallery and all the unearthly eats to be had throughout NYC - you've just entered into the abstract mind-crushing realm of a couple days worth of Negative-Time.

David Foster Wallace new (final) novel, "The Pale King" : Published April 15 - at Independent Booksellers Now

2011-04-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

On the shelves at bookstores this week! One of the literary events of the year (decade?); the new David Foster Wallace novel! His first posthumous (and rumored to be the last major work) to be published and his first novel since 1997's late-century defining "Infinite Jest" apparently edited from nearly three times as much material, into "The Pale King". Significant pre-read contextual insight from the extensive New Yorker article of 2009: "From 1997 on, Wallace worked on a third novel, which he never finished—the “Long Thing,” as he referred to it with Michael Pietsch. His drafts, which his wife found in their garage after his death, amount to several hundred thousand words, and tell of a group of employees at an Internal Revenue Service center in Illinois, and how they deal with the tediousness of their work. The partial manuscript—which Little, Brown plans to publish next year—expands on the virtues of mindfulness and sustained concentration. Properly handled, boredom can be an antidote to our national dependence on entertainment, the book suggests. As Wallace noted at a 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, true freedom “means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.” By then, Wallace had become convinced that the literary contortions for which he was known had become an impediment to this message. Franzen says of Wallace, “There was a certain kind of effulgent writing that he just wasn’t interested in doing anymore.” In the new novel, a character comments, “Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain, because something that’s dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way, and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from.”

Wallace was trying to write differently, but the path was not evident to him. “I think he didn’t want to do the old tricks people expected of him,” Karen Green, his wife, says. “But he had no idea what the new tricks would be.” The problem went beyond technique. The central issue for Wallace remained, as he told McCaffery, how to give “CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness.” He added, “Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.” "The Pale King,” the name Wallace gave to the novel that, had he finished it, would have been his third, was one-third complete, by an estimate that he made to Nadell in 2007. The novel continues Wallace’s preoccupation with mindfulness. It is about being in the moment and paying attention to the things that matter, and centers on a group of several dozen I.R.S. agents working in the Midwest. Their job is tedious, but dullness, “The Pale King” suggests, ultimately sets them free. A typed note that Wallace left in his papers laid out the novel’s idea: “Bliss—a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious—lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.” On another draft sheet, Wallace typed a possible epigraph for the book from “Borges and I,” a prose poem by Frank Bidart: “We fill pre-existing forms and when we fill them we change them and are changed.”

Link to New Yorker "The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace" article

Link to Little, Brown's "The Pale King" site

"Patricio Guzman's Chile" series at Northwest Film Forum : Apr 1 - 7

2011-03-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

Patricio Guzman's "Nostalgia for the Light" a philosophical investigation (rather than a straight 'documentary') connecting the farthest reaches of the Cosmos, the Astronomical Observatory at Atacama, the Desert itself, Salvadore Allende's Socialist Revolution and the following nightmares of Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile. Made many, many 'Films of 2010' lists from notable sources, (Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Cineaste) expecting something pretty richly contemplative and exceptional here. Along with the intensely investigative (and rarely seen) documentary in 3 parts, "The Battle for Chile". From the Northwest Film Forum: "Veteran Chilean director Patricio Guzmán continues to find new and extraordinary ways to never forget the harsh brutality of the Pinochet regime. Using the vast Atacama Desert, its astronomical musings and its archeological and anthropologically pristine treasures as the latest entry, Guzman’s Nostalgia offers up the most varied discussion of Chile’s haunted past yet. While astronomers at the nation’s finest observatories examine distant galaxies in search of probable extraterrestrial life, at the foot of the observatories, the women of Calama are digging through the desert soil in search of their disappeared relatives. A blend of science, philosophy, and politics, this urgent documentary is about the act of looking, which after all is the foundation of cinema."

Link to NWFF "Nostalgia for the Light" site

Link to NWFF "Patricio Guzman's Chile" site

How 'Fixing Everything' Will Break the Universe: Parallel Realities, Probability Engines & Family Values in Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four

2011-03-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Having found at the Emerald City ComiCon the last remaining issues of Jonathan Hickman's Jack Kirby-loving, time hopping, multiple-universe, science/ethics/society/family? tale that is his run on Fantastic Four I finally got to do the last of the reading. And boy-golly, what we have here is a piece of fiction that not only pays homage to the traditions withing comic/pulp writing, but knows it's contemporary literature and cinema enough to inherit their best qualities and discard the soul-less sensationalism and bombast of our times. Somehow, he's crafted a 'family' tale that crosses generations, worlds, eras, realities, time, potentiality, and the cosmos ...ha, what comes to mind for me is Terrance Malick. Yeah, really. This thing may very well end up being the "Tree of Life" for the Marvel Universe. For me, as a guy who's not given a damn about most anything published by Marvel since Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men of some years ago, this imagining by Hickman of Marvel's 'World's Greatest Comics Magazine' seriously comes as a nice surprise.

Link to Marvel Comics Jonathan Hickman "Fantastic Four" - Vol.1

Link to Marvel Comics Jonathan Hickman "Fantastic Four" - Vol.2

Link to Marvel Comics Jonathan Hickman "Fantastic Four" - Vol.3

Link to Marvel Comics Jonathan Hickman "Fantastic Four" - Vol.4

Jonathan Hickman, who went straight from political indie comics like "Nightly News" is now writing a lengthy, multilayered, cross-time tale that begins with a probability engine called The Bridge created by Reed Richards that samples from various parallel universes, outcomes different from our own, designing at getting at compiling a 'ideal' reality (read; imminent disaster). ...after which, it then goes all cosmic. The only real criticism here is that the book was far from needing the gimmick that Marvel chose to conclude the first chapter of the many-year tale with. For such an inventive, sincere adventurous penning of a long standing comic book franchise, to end the chapter with the most-cliche-of-the-cliche, was confounding. I'm holding out hope that Hickman's going to go all pseudo-meta on us with this and reveal later some reversal of the expected that's a smart wink-wink/nudge-nudge as the traditions of this storytelling cliche and resolve it in ways totally unread/seen for the form. The book is that good, and deserves as much. Don't give a damn about comics? Unfortunate, because you're missing out on the rare exceptional storytelling reinvention of the pulp form like this... and some of the better explorations of 'high concepts' in all of sci-fi. +Cool drawings from some of the finest in Marvel's employ, including Steve Epting and Dale Eaglesham ...and you do like cool drawings, right?

Nick Cave's "Meet Me at the Center of the Earth" Exhibit & Performances at SAM : Mar 10 - Jun 5

2011-03-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

Visual/performance artist Nick Cave's 'Soundsuits' finally arrive in Seattle as a full exhibit at SAM! A mindboggling composite of household, clothing arts, organic and post-consumer waste objects into total EXTRATERRESTRIAL bright, bold, surreal, assemblages of anthropomorphic forms. Seriously, it's as though peoples from another world thought to create 'clothes' as to better fit in with the populace here on earth. These are vibrant, aural, textural, otherworldly constructs by this US performance artist where the 'Sound' aspect of the 'Soundsuits', was a unexpected bi-product discovered in his wearing/performing in the early incarnation of these pieces. Finally here for a complete exhibit after showing at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco in 2009 to stellar reviews. We got a smaller exhibit of his work at SAM last year (4 pieces) but this is now the complete 'Meet Me at the Center of the Earth' exhibit. Have I said 'Finally!' enough?

Link to official Nick Cave site

Link to SAM "Meet Me at the Center of the Earth" Nick Cave exhibit site

How to Beat the Arrangement: Sephirothic Magick, Wicked Slingshots & Torah Studies in Adam Levin's The Instuctions

2011-02-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin with this one? First of all, you'll have to excuse the run-on sentences and use of all caps that's invariably to come of my attempt. "The Instructions" is sprawling in almost a David Foster Wallace (or the over-long Pynchon/Delillo books) kind of way, and I mean that more in the sense of it's style, rather than content or form. It's subjects are Junior High/High School kids set in outer Chicago suburbs, their cultural origins are of Yiddish/Jewish/Scholarly leaning, the Torah figures largely and you learn how to make various weapons to defend yourself from persecution and the assaults of others... including how to apply the Sephiroth in the arrangement of it's 'sphere's phonetically to create a telepathic weapon. So yeah. Does that help? Ok, let's try again, Gurion ben-Judah Maccabee is a Junior High School kid who's been shuffled across the greater Chicago Jewish school system, not because he's a poor learner, the kid's frickin' BRILLIANT but instead because of that very factor, his brilliance, he's managed to influence others to the extend that his elders and even the Rabi who instructs him in after-school Torah study, is concerned about his ability to lead and the strength of his convictions and what end that may effect the local Jewish youth if unguided by their intents. So, of course this system 'the arrangement' as the kids know it, in it's attempt to guide this young protege' does little more than constrain, discipline, dogmatically oppress and manipulate him into situations of acquiescing their superiority and that he should submit to tradition and be humble in his reading of the scholars and study of Torah. Yeah, a A+, inventive, inquisitive, curious, charismatic, Torah-obsessed, young man who sees himself as a Israelite Warrior, caught in the school system, expelled multiple times, placed in a program for the learning-impaired, (ie; AAD/ADHD 'trouble kids'), set back 2 grades when he should be forwarded 5 due to his intellectual competence... what's gonna happen here? Of course: He wants to DAMAGE THE ARRANGEMENT. Of course: HE'S GOING TO USE HIS TORAH-BASED PHILOSOPHY TO FORM A VARIABLE OF HIS OWN. Of course: HE'S GOING TO LEAD THESE KIDS BASED ON THAT PHILOSOPHY. Of course, the modern world is going to label him A TERRORIST...and for as goddamn delusional as he seems sometimes, and for as much as I'm not a fan of Dogma (judea christian, jewish, muslim, you name it) - his sense of logic and justice are often infallible. And after having been a pivotal figure in the lives of kids spanning three High School systems, of course he becomes the very leader THE ARRANGEMENT has been doing their damndest to prevent him from becoming. And this book is a documentation of that process. As the 'Instructions' he's recorded for his brothers, friends and fellow Israelites for their DAMAGE on THE ARRANGEMENT, or as he sees it; Scripture. 1300 Pages of it. Depicting the events of 4 days. And the disastrous and revelatory conclusion of one brilliant fictional kid's battle for justice and freedom within an arrangement that only allows/desires it's participants a set degree of both. By the end it's language infected my mind and I felt divided about the length/need for this degree of hyper-exposition in plumbing the psyche of the protagonist and his world... but I couldn't imagine it otherwise... but yeah, don't just listen to me, consider what these fine establishments had to say on the subject:

Link to The Village Voice review of "The Instructions"

Link to The New York Times review of "The Instructions"

Link to The Washington Post review of "The Instructions"

Link to The London Observer review of "The Instructions"

Link to The San Francisco Chronicle review of "The Instructions"

Godspeed! You Black Emperor & SWANS - US Tours: Feb 17 - Mar 29

2011-02-12T10:43:00.000-08:00

So, what happens when you have a series of pretty much genre-creating postrock albums, tour with Rachel's and Labradford in the late 90's/00's have some great shows at the Crocodile in Seattle, release a new album in '03 and tour for it in usamerica, wherein you're detained by Homeland Security because some yokels in Oklahoma think you're 'terrorists', you then release a bunch of cryptic political statements via the interwebs and don't release a new album or return to the US in over 7 years? Well, guess we'll find out this month when they come to town! As a definitive progenitor of a sound that has since been overplayed by the post-rock copyists of this past decade, I'm not quite sure what they themselves are going to bring to transcend that, but have powerful curiosity and anticipation of new material and hopefully a new album in the works.

Even moreso potentially stunning of a return, Michael Gira's defining heavy, heavy, heavy, rock band of the 80's/90's, SWANS is back on tour, after a 14 year hiatus in which Gira led his acoustic folk wanderings of the Angels of Light, he's reformed the band with a hybrid of the original lineup and a expanded percussion section from 'Angels. Again, the initial response is one of hesitation/curiosity on my part, as SWANS truly were a one-of-a-kind monolithic sonic icon in their time, producing the heaviest, body-crushing onslaughts of electrified sound any rock band in history had ever produced. Really, the hyperbole applies, their performances of the 80's are legendarily abusive/transcendent and earned them the comical 'loudest band in the world' tag for many years running. To my ears, it's their recordings of a bit later, when Gira began to infuse that weight, with more elaborate orchestrations that referenced the work of his NYC post-punk cohort Glenn Branca along with passages of acoustic songwriting that were clearly influenced by older american folk traditions - where it all came together for me. Ending with the 1997 world tour documented on their "Swans are Dead" live double album. To see them back together now, not as a nostalgic b.s. 'reunion' as Gira refutes this reforming is, is curious. I expect them to utterly destroy the last bit of hesitation I have concerning the potential relevance of his project playing live again, some 14 years later, or at least that's the hope formed from the incomparable shows I've seen by SWANS in the past. February! It's going to be heavy! And likely epiphanous!

Link to Showbox venue Godspeed! site

Link to official Godspeed! You Black Emperor site

Link to Neumos venue SWANS site

Link to official SWANS site

"Nuremberg" & "Shoah" : Defining Documentaries of the Past Century at Landmark & IFC Feb 4 - May 13

2011-02-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

Two of the most significant Holocaust and post-Holocaust documentaries ever produced, both re-released by IFC & Landmark Theatres and screening in cities across the US in the coming month! Suppressed by the US War Department in it's 1947 release, the english subtitled print never completed, the film never shown in domestic theatres. "Nuremberg" is a defining, unseen document of the most significant trial in modern history, one which established our current definitions of war vs. crime, the objectives of the military industrial complex, and culpability, both 'theirs' and 'ours' in these world-changing events. "Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today depicts the most famous courtroom drama in modern times, and the first to make extensive use of film as evidence. It was also the first trial to be extensively documented, aurally and visually. All of the proceedings, which lasted for nearly 11 months, were recorded. And though the trial was filmed while it was happening, strict limits were placed on the Army Signal Corps cameramen by the Office of Criminal Counsel. In the end, they were permitted to film only about 25 hours over the entire course of the trial. This was to prove a great impediment for writer/director Stuart Schulberg, and his editor Joseph Zigman, when they were engaged to make the official film about the trial, in 1946, shortly after its conclusion."
Next, but no less significant for it having been seen by a (somewhat) larger audience, the daunting, yet essential collection of postwar accounts by Holocaust survivors and Reich supporters that is the sprawling, humanistic, crushingly empathetic, aesthetically rigorous work that is Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah". Don't be daunted b y it's 9 1/2 hour duration, this is not only essential viewing, but also deeply rich and descriptive of life lived through the era depicted, but also the landscapes, places, minds and hearts, defined, destroyed, erased, changed by the incommunicable that took place on earth under a regime comprised of *people*, which is the point of insight into this dark historic labyrinth that Lanzmann never let's us forget. Excellent article in the January/February edition of Film Comment thanks to Kent Jones, assessing the Godard vs. Lanzmann vs. Adorno stances for those that wish to read further. From the IFC site: "Twelve years in the making, "Shoah" is Claude Lanzmann’s monumental epic on the Holocaust featuring interviews with survivors, bystanders and perpetrators in 14 countries. The film does not contain any historical footage but rather features interviews which seek to ‘‘reincarnate’’ the Jewish tragedy and also visits places where the crimes took place. Growing out of Lanzmann’s concern that the genocide perpetrated only 40 years earlier was already retreating into the mists of time, and that the atrocity was becoming sanitized as History, his massive achievement-at once epic and intimate, immediate and definitive-is a triumph of form and content that reveals hidden truths while rewriting the rules of documentary filmmaking. "Shoah" remains nothing less than essential."

Link to "Nuremberg: It's Lesson for Today" site

Link to Landmark Theatre's "Nuremberg: It's Lesson for Today" site

Link to IFC's "Shoah" site

Link to Film Comment's Jan/Feb Issue "Shoah" article

Ólafur Arnalds & Ensemble with Barn Owl and Others - US Tour : Jan 24 - Feb 4

2011-01-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

Fans of Max Richter, Hauschka, Johann Johannsson and Neo-Classical Composition take note! Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds is touring the US with a string ensemble and backing musicians this early winter. The west coast aspect of the tour doesn't include Portland, Vancouver or Seattle dates, so... I will be traveling to San Francisco for this one! Safe to say, that fans of the kind of cinematic, somber, minimalist/sublime sound heard at this past year's Johann Johannson performance at Triple Door, this is very much 'your thing' as Arnalds work is exactly the form of neo-classicism one would expect of the names mentioned above, with many of his own flourishes, these often being electronic, ambient... or in the case of his most recent work... Metal. Ha. Should be gorgeous and memorable and the San Francisco show in particular with their tour-mates Barn Owl, is in the lushly gaudy classic theatre setting of the Great American Music Hall.

Link to official Olafur Arnads tour site

Link to Erased Tapes Olafur Arnalds site

Ryoji Ikeda "Datamatics" Multimedia Performance: Feb 3 - Vancouver

2011-01-18T10:39:00.000-08:00

Ryoji Ikeda the audio-visual maestro who in the late 20th Century redefined the parameters of what digital sound art could be with his "Matrix" series along with simultaneous collaborative performance-based work for Osaka based multi-media group Dumb Type. This couple year span being particularly memorable as they toured the world bringing their ultra-visceral explorations of perception, time, memory, sight, sound and the body to stunned and enrapt audiences (really, the hyperbole here is diminished, the shows were blinding) - is back in North America. A rare thing, as he's only performed in the states some half-dozen times in the last decade, either limited to San Francisco, New York or Chicago each time. His last Northwest shows were as far back as 2002 at Seattle's On the Boards. So take note! Ikeda presents his new work "Datamatics" in Vancouver as part of the Push Festival. Most, most certainly worth a trip across the border!

Link to Push Festival "Datamatics" Performance site

Link to Ryoji Ikeda official site

"Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary" at MoCA LA / Performances of Major Works at RedCat Theatre: Nov 6 - Feb 4

2011-01-17T10:21:00.000-08:00

A defining artistic and scientific voice of the past Century; architect, mathematician and composer Iannis Xenakis exhibit at MoCA is in it's closing month. As with the opening month, nights of performances of his major electro-acoustic/orchestral/magnetic tape pieces are being hosted in the prime setting of the RedCat Theatre. Even for Xenakis being a defining voice in modern composition and architecture in the 20th Century, it's still a exceedingly rare thing to get to see these works performed, as they are 'unkind' in the most visionary sense, and even with decades passing, have lost none of their sensorial attack and genuine unearthly qualities. Truly not to be missed! Any of you anywhere near LA should note that this is road-trip worthy, both for it's rarity, historic cultural import and the visceral modern intensity of the work. The MoCA exhibit also featuring architectural plans and scores. As among other architectural achievements in his time, Xenakis studied and worked under Le Corbusier, their most noted construction being the Philips Pavilion for the 1958 World's Fair - significantly with a audio-visual interior scape composed by Edgard Varèse and experimental film by Le Corbusier as the world's first completely electronic composition and 'music video'; the renowned "Poème Électronique".

Link to MoCA 'Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary' Exhibit site

Link to RedCat Theatre Xenakis Performance Calendar site

:::: FILMS OF 2010 ::::

2011-01-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

Getting all organizational-hierarchical on you with the viewing of moving images - the annual excuse
to make a list of amazing cinematic art that transpired over the course of the past year!

TOP FILMS OF 2010 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
-------------------------------------------------------

Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" (Thailand)
Sion Sono "Love Exposure" (Japan)
Tsai Ming-Liang "Visage" (Taiwan)
Gaspar Noe "Enter the Void" (France)
Claire Denis "White Material" (France)
Corneliu Porumboiu "Police, Adjective" (Romania)
Bong Joon-Ho "Mother" (South Korea)
Lu Chuan "City of Life and Death" (China)
Banksy & Shepard Fairey "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (USA)
Gideon Koppel "Sleeps Furiously" (UK)
Olivier Assayas "Carlos" (France)
Philippe Grandreiux "Un Lac" (France)
Jai Zhang-Ke "I Wish I Knew" (China)
Christopher Nolan "Inception" (USA)
Anand Tucker/ James Marsh/ Julian Jarrold "Red Riding Trilogy" (UK)
Anoch Suwichakornpong "Mundane History" (Thailand)

Looking outside the expected sources, finding new record labels and film distributors, making connections
between author, director and soundtrack that were previously inconceivable. Some of these combinations
generated exciting, unexpected new hybrids of styles, genres and form. The most vibrant of these
unexpected convergences being the work of French director Gaspar Noe's (visionary, yet deeply flawed)
piece of psychedelic-noir, "Enter the Void" (with soundtrack by Thomas Bangalter) an immersive,
mind-altering, multi-sensory, hyperkinetic, drugged-up Tokyo death fugue. Though there were other works
that achieved in more consistent, fully realized, qualitative ways, Noe's film stuck in the craw and refused to
be dismissed. Other directors further established themselves with their finest work yet, Weerasethakul, Sion
Sono and the unexpected blockbuster (that asked his western (read; American) viewers to be cognizant) in
the form of Nolan's 'dream heist', all prominently come to mind.

This year's Seattle International Film Festival hosted only one or two of the films listed below, as opposed
to previous years, where SIFF dominated the field, screening most of the best films of the year during the
course of the festival. With indie cinemas closing around the nation, it was that much more important to
support the local theater opportunities such as the SIFF Cinema, the Landmark Theatre chain, the Grand
Illusion Cinema and the paramount indie screen in Seattle, the Northwest Film Forum. Many of the best films
seen this year, when they did come to the theater, had runs that lasted no more than a week. Others were
never to return to the cinema again or even as a domestic DVD release. By example, one of the single finest
films of this decade, the Cannes Palme d'Or award-winning "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives", which played in international film festivals around the country, still has yet to get a proper theatrical
run or even a DVD/online release (with rumors of it not appearing until as late as spring 2011). Again proving
the wisdom of getting out there, seeing the city and prioritizing the art/music/film that we're fortunate to have
in our urban cultural crossroads.

Lastly, the unseen films by a few directors of note that never made it over here distributed stateside or even
made a less-desirable appearance as an online release. I suspect a number of these would have made the
list, if I actually had a chance to see them:

Cristi Puiu "Aurora" (Romania)
Sergei Loznitsa "My Joy" (Russia)
Lee Chang-Dong "Poetry" (China)
Mohammad Rasoulof "White Meadows" (Iran)
James Benning "Ruhr" (United States)
Jerzy Skolimowski "Essential Killing" (Poland)
Sophie Fiennes "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" (UK)
Tetsuya Nakashima "Confessions" (Japan)
Anh Hung-Tran "Norwegian Wood" (Taiwan/Japan)
Koji Wakamatsu "Caterpillar" (Japan)
Tsui Hark "Detective Dee & The Mystery of the Phantom Flame" (China)

:::: ALBUMS OF 2010 ::::

2011-01-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

Second annual excuse to make a list of the year's most notable works!

TOP ALBUMS OF 2010 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
---------------------------------------------------------

Thomas Koner "Nunatak Gongamur/Teimo/Permanfrost" (Type)
Supersilent "10" (Rune Grammofon)
Jesu "Heart Ache & Dethroned" (Hydrahead)
Boris "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol.1-4" (Southern Lord)
Max Richter "Infra" (Fat Cat)
Rafael Irisarri "The North Bend" (Room40)
Ultralyd "Inertiadrome" (Rune Grammofon)
Cloudland Canyon "Fin Eaves" (Holy Mountain)
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma "Love Is A Stream" (Type)
Yellow Swans "Going Places" (Type)
Pan Sonic "Gravitoni" (Blast First)
Kouhei Matsunaga "Self VA/3 Telepathics/Processing the Dead Minotaur" (Important)
Ben Frost "By The Throat" (Bedroom Community)
Johann Johannsson "...And in the Endless Pause Came the Sound of Bees" (Type)
Frank Bretschneider "Exp." (Raster-Noton)
Various Artists "Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers" (Crammed Discs)
Thomas Bangalter/Various "Enter the Void - Soundtrack" (Roulé France)

Continuing from the films list above... like cinema, the year in sounds there was the curious repeat theme;
2010 was again a year for diggers. Wherein, many of the great recordings of the year appeared from
otherwise unknown origins and artists that some years ago were just establishing themselves, often under
other monikers. That much more reason to 'keep the ears to the ground' as it were and be that much more
looking out for the new and unheard.

There were many works that took the ears to exciting places, and that did so in distinct, expressive and
adventurous ways. Particularly at the strange crossroads where modern classical, lo-fi folk, musique
concrete, improv, metal, ambient, 'noise' and avant jazz traditions are all meeting as hypermodern, as-yet
unnamed genre mutations. Ultralyd's most recent album, "Inertiadrome", stands as a good example, as does
the disorienting fusion of hip-hop, noise and electronic minimalism that was Kouhei Matsunaga's trilogy of
albums. Perhaps the most hyper-hybrid of them all was the giddy fusion of western indie rock and electronic
sounds meets amped-up African world music in the "Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers" compilation.

Live sonic adventures were heard around the Northwest, with Decibel Festival offering some of the best
electronic performances of the year (Ben Frost, Pantha Du Prince, Fennesz) and Triple Door hosting the
chamber symphony and electronic night that was Johann Johannsson and Rafael Anton Irisarri Trio. There
were astounding metal shows this year, including Boris, Nadja, Wolves in the Throne Room, Shrinebuilder
and Neurosis, and many fine things heard in Earshot Jazz Fest including the Paul D. Miller Ensemble and
the sublime piano minimalism of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The Medium is the Message & We Are Become It: Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media

2010-12-19T10:34:00.000-08:00

McLuhan, considered a contemporary of Roland Barthes (who I know many of you have read), delivers his defining treatise here. As much as "Understanding Media" is behind the times (published in '64) in the particular technology cited, the book is stunningly with/ahead of the times in it's assessment of tech's growing prevalence in western society. It's extrapolation on media's role in our lives, the nature of language altered by manufactured trends brought to us in the vehicle of media, spectatorship and it's influence on behavior/values, is as prescient/applicable now as when it was written. (In fact, moreso). Depicted in a literally visionary (ie; having the prescience to not only know what was to come in the world of media and technology, but also to foresee Western Consumer Society's reaction/assimilation of/into said media) overview by Marshall McLuhan TRULY ONE OF THOSE BOOKS THAT YOU WILL ONLY READ SOMETHING OF IT'S KIN LESS THAN A HALF-DOZEN TIMES IN THE ENTIRETY OF YOUR LIFE. Forget Guy Debord, forget Deleuze and Derrida like those cats from this era , McLuhan's intellectual exploration is one of both theory, philosophy and citing specific trends, behaviors, values and actions from the time. Tracing the course both far back into their origins (psychologically, politically, philosophically)... and accurately into the future in which we live. Unlike the company mentioned above, it's not impenetrably labyrinthian and nearly opaque in the metaphor/language used to explore the trajectory(s) of these ideas. Yeah, this one's essential. And very readable. Don't be daunted by the names/postmod company mentioned above. McLuhan's in a class of his own.

The Earth is Watching, Careful How You Tread: Elementals, American Gothic, Interstellar Travel & Interspecies Love in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing

2010-12-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Much like the "Sandman" re-read of last year, this year's tale to re-tackle was making it through the totality of Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing" and like the above-mentioned book by Neil Gaiman, this is a DC Universe defining piece of lit from the 80's wherein Moore came along (with the rest of the 'British Invasion' including Morrison, Gaiman, Milligan, Delano) and wrote a 'mature readers'/'sophisticated suspense' title from a long-standing fringe DC mystical/horror title of the 60's/70's. What he did for this book laid the groundwork for the authors mentioned above to both explore adult themes/contemporary societal issues, but also significantly for storytelling within the DC Universe, Moore brought together all the various tethers of metaphysical/mystic/magic/kabal aspects of the 70 year history of comics published by DC and gave them a shared history and place within a modern setting, dealing with modern issues. These being ecological, political, existential, philosophical and of course since it's Alan Moore we're talking about here... 'Magickal'.

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.1

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.2

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.3

Redefining the character of Swamp Thing as a Elemental being sharing a aeons-spanning role in being a caretaker/arbiter of earth's ecological concerns being only a small part of this. Curiously, since this is before the Vertigo imprint of creator-owned and mature readers titles had been set up, it's also set within the same 'universe' of stories as DC's superhero work. So, when Moore depicts the fallout from the DC Comics 'event' book "Crisis on Infinite Earths" it's as John Constantine coming along and enlisting a group of outsider mystics to do the mop-up on the spiritual plane from the cosmological Multiverse fallout of the battles with the Anti-Monitor and all that racket. Clever, Alan!

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.4

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.5

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.6

And where those themes take this story is truly cosmic in nature, both 'spiritually' as well as literally. This is a MASSIVE, epic work, that on it's own is a powerful defining work in the comics medium (from a time when just about nobody was writing stories of this kin, ie; '84-87). Also significantly, without the groundwork being laid down by Moore, the following decade of Vertigo and some of the greatest major imprint (and indie!) comics tales of the following decade, would not have had such rich ground to flourish and grow. Defining, groundbreaking, cosmic, philosophical, creepy, suspenseful, deeply emotive stuff... about a guy who's body dies due to corporate sabotage of his ecological work - and he becomes reborn as a living Earth Elemental representing The Green. One of many, spanning centuries as The Parliament of Trees. Indeed, only Alan Moore could have written this tale.

Lovecraftian Horror Rises from the Desert: Europe at War, a Mythological Author & Mass Murders as a Artifact of Globalization in Roberto Bolaño's 2666

2010-11-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

Crushingly inventive. What a damn novel this proved to be! Finished it late last night and was veritably stunned when the last book of the five that comprise the novel was completed, not for any revelatory conclusion, but instead the sense of cumulative wrapping (or more exactly, warping) together of a world and a century that "2666" does. Sad, moving, dark, passionate, psychological, methodical, piece of fiction made that much more moving/believably atrocious by it's inclusion of fictionalized interpretations of historical events, namely WWII on the Russian front and this ongoing series of sprawling, nightmarish mass-murders in Mexico. Having come to Bolaño in the past year through friend's recommendations and later through the massive accolades the man's received from major literary sources and contemporary authors of note, including this excellent review from Jonathan Lethem it's been a process of discovery for me where I found I was reading it reading at a slower and slower rate to be able to properly absorb and digest along the way, which is the inverse of my usual approach as I delve into a book. His contemporaries have called him the anti-Gabriel Garcia, for me, he's more the next-gen Borges, as these are tales that riddle out the passions, obsessions and deeply tricky maze that is where the mind meets the world and the peoples who populate it - as a ever unfolding, slowly revealed, labyrinth. "2666" here, the first book by him I've read, has tones of traditional lit like Borges, or even the sense of humor of Dostoyevsky (really), but with a both more modern sense of narrative construction (the five open-ended novels that comprise the whole of the hardcover) that reminds me of some of the conscious 'gaps' in chronology/information that Foster-Wallace has so frustrated some of his readers with ... and weirdly, in combination with a almost Lovecraftian sense of looming dread.

Olivier Assayas' new film "Carlos" full cut at Northwest Film Forum : Nov 5 - 7

2010-11-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

A perfect way to spend a loooong, cold, raining Nov night. This weekend only at NWFF, the *full cut*
of Olivier Assayas' 5+Hour biopic of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. Sanchez, a world renowned terrorist' and
mercenary with involvement in causes ranging from pro-Palestinian activism to the Japanese Red Army
was at once a figure of the extreme left and later an opportunistic mercenary in the pay of powerful governments.

From Northwest Film Forum: "Carlos tells the story of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (played by Edgar Ramirez),
a central figure in international terrorism of the 1970s and 1980's. He lived several lives under various pseudonyms,
weaving his way through the complexities of international politics of the period. He formed his own organization,
basing it behind the Iron Curtain, and was active during the final years of the Cold War. A daring and amazing
biography of a still-living figure, delving into international politics, terrorism, history, religion, sex and much more.
Assayas handles all the issues with staggering dexterity, intelligence and skill. The film is nothing short of a must see!"

From LA Times: "Think of The Bourne Identity with more substance, or Munich with more of a life to it, and you begin to
have a sense of what Assayas has accomplished with this globetrotting and epic look at one man's rise to the station of
international guerrilla leader and terrorist celebrity."

Link to IFC's "Carlos" site

Link to Northwest Film Forum's "Carlos" site

Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Paino" tour & Earshot Jazz Festival : Oct 15 - Nov 7

2010-10-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

That time of the year again! Earshot Jazz Fest, running Oct. 15 - Nov. 7 has announced this year's lineup including, yeah, that's right Ryuichi Sakamoto of YMO and later innumerable solo classical, electronic and soundtracks, performing solo piano pieces at the Moore. Some of you know him from his way-back-when YMO work, but it's his most recent musics that I find the most compelling/moving such as his newest "Playing the Piano" as well as collaborations with Christian Fennesz and Carsten Nicolai of Raster-Noton and soundtracks like that of the Haruki Murakami adaptation "Tony Takitani" - his is a consistent musical voice of minimalism spanning decades. Other names of note in the festival include Thrill Jockey artists Chicago Undergorund Dou performing electo-acoustic improv works and good 'ol Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) conducting the Odeon Quartet in a series of conceptual Chamber Symphony works exploring the themes of ecological exploration and the vast open seas that were once (just decades ago) the ice shelf of the Arctic.

Link to Earshot Jazz Festival site

Link to official Ryuichi Sakamoto site

Sounds on Rotation - Oct / Nov - Books in Circulation

2010-10-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I've done one of these! So here's whats been playing at my place/on my pod
this past month or so. Have been particularly enthused again with the past couple months of new
albums I've acquired, these being (as per usual) mostly dissonant, minimal, abstract, avant and
atmospheric type sounds. Consisting of random modern composer titles, few choice electronic
releases, couple new avant-jazz/improv recordings, noise post-rock psych stuffs and a couple
doom-ish metal records. Indeed! New sounds make such an excellent compliment to the change
of seasons, as the Fall/Winter is definitely here with the torrential rains, sunset at 6pm and the
changing leaves falling from trees. 5 more months of spectacular off-and-on crepuscular
Northwest gloom, here we come!

Supersilent "10" & "11" (Rune Grammofon)
Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld "Mimikry" (Raster-Noton)
Cloudland Canyon "Fin Eaves" (Holy Mountain)
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma "Love Is A Stream" (Type)
Ultralyd "Inertiadrome" (Rune Grammofon)
Max Richter "Infra" (Fat Cat)
V/A "Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep" (Rune Grammofon)
Peter Broderick "Music For Contemporary Dance" (Erased Tapes)
Earth "Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular-Extraction" (Southern Lord)
Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino "Synergy Between Mercy & Self-Annihilation Overturned" (Blast First)
Marcus Fjellström "Schattensieler" (Miasmah)
Hildur Guðnadóttir "Mount A" (Touch)
Grails "Black Tar Prophecies - Vol. 1-4" (Important)
Boris "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol.1-4" (Southern Lord)
Rafael Anton Irisarri "The North Bend" (Room40)
Philip Jeck "An Ark for the Listener" (Touch)
Emeralds "Does It Look Like I'm Here?" (Mego)
Nadja "Autopergamene" (Essence)
World's End Girlfriend "Seven Bastards" (Virgin Babylon)
Jasper TX "Singing Stones" (Fang Bomb)
Kemialliset Ystavat "Ullakkopalo" (Fonal)
Goldmund "Famous Places" (Western Vinyl)
Aaron Martin "Worried About the Fire" (Fang Bomb)
Benoit Pioulard "Lasted" (Kranky)
Brian McBride "The Effective Disconnect" (Kranky)
Morgan Packard "Moment Again Elsewhere" (Anticipate)
François Couturier "Un Jour Si Blanc" (ECM)
Arvo Part "Symphony No.4" (ECM)
Tord Gustavsen Ensemble "Restored, Returned" (ECM)
Pale Sketcher "Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed" (Ghostly Intl.)
Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Paino" (Toei Music)
Svarte Greiner "Penpal Forever (and Ever)" (Digitalis)
Jon Meuller "Whole" (Type)
Kangding Ray "Pruitt Igoe" (Raster-Noton)
Heavy Winged "Sunspotted" (Type)
Hauschka "Foreign Landscapes" (Fat Cat)

Books in question being split between a couple authors, the Bolano was recently completed
and near mind-destroying in it's depth, intensity and duration. The Ballard is a ongoing on/off
again dipping in/out of in the midst of other books as it's his short fiction collection, the others
being pop/pulp adventures to satisfy that appetite:

Roberto Bolano "2666" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
J.G. Ballard "The Complete Stories of j.G. Ballard" (W.W.Norton)
Jonathan Lethem "Chronic City" (re-read) (Knopf)
Jeff Noon "Vurt" (St. Martin's Griffin)
Audrey Niffenegger "Time Traveler's Wife" (Houghton Mifflin)
Daniel J. Boorstin "The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination" (Vintage)
Alan Moore "Swamp Thing" Hardcover Vol.1-3 (DC Comics)
Grant Morrison "Batman & Robin" & "The Return of Bruce Wayne" (DC Comics)

...And the new Sept/Oct issue of Film Comment, Oct issues of The Wire, Sight & Sound,
Artforum, Frieze and McSweeney's 34 have all made for good reads.

Photo credit: http://petrocellidesigns.carbonmade.com/projects/2652935
Petrocelli Designs LLC from a series for the Rafael Anton Irisarri release "The North Bend"

Gaspar Noe's new film "Enter the Void" at Northwest Film Forum : Oct 8 - 14

2010-09-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

Coming to Northwest Film Forum! From the director of the single-most-difficult piece of cinema I've ever seen,
not due to duration or glacial slowness or high-concept hoobaloo, but simply that the events depicted were of
a brutality and believability that I've never seen in cinema, before or since. Yep, we're talking Gaspar Noe's
"Irreversible", which at the time, friends and I spent a month debating it's potential merits and reasons to see it
knowing the premise and questioning the objective, relevance and result... and guess what? When finally seeing
it the film stands as a paramount, transformative, powerful piece of cinema like no other in the history of the medium.
Honest. That said, his previous film, "I Stand Alone" watches like a bit of postmodern comedy now, complete with
shock-value 'get out while you can!' mechanism that in the 90's was probably effective and original, but hasn't
weathered quite as well as "Irreversible" overall, yet still retains much of it's original brutality. My review of his
newest, "Enter the Void" begins with a lengthy string of qualifiers, but make it past those and you'll see my point here:

Even for it's dippy drug user 20something protagonist and his wayward sister (read: self-endangering, damaged),
even for the corniness of the '2001: A Space Odyssey' cosmic baby/vagcam nonsense of the end, even for it
exploring pretty literally the whole setup of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as alluded to be the extended opening
sequence discussion of the three Bardos of 'Life, Death & Rebirth', even for all it's overlong redundancy, even for the
all first-person literalism - this was truly one of the most hallucineogenic, cosmic, tripped out explorations of perception,
sex and mortality that I've seen on screen in many years. From Chris Norris' fairly brilliant overview/article on the film in
the Oct. issue of Film Comment: "Noe calls the film's genre 'psychedelic melodrama', but it also falls into the much older
tradition of 'void' tales, whose tellers run from Dante, to Dickens, to Poe to Thornton Wilder. But the feeling I found in the
wake of Enter the Void was an ineffable sense of devotion - to craft, experience, perception, consciousness - whose only
meaning is likely in the topography Thorton Wilder saw gazing into Bardo: a land of the living, and a land of the dead,
bridged only, and tenuously, by love."

Link to Northwest Film Forum "Enter the Void" site

Link to IFC "Enter the Void" site

Link to Film Comment Sept/Oct Issue

Cary Grant Singlehandedly Averts the Cold War, Proving McCarthy to be the Fool He Is: MI6, Yugoslavia & Alfred Hitchcock's Unmade Film in Wu Ming's 54

2010-09-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Any novel that begins with this prologue:
"'Post-war' means nothing.
What fools called 'peace' simply meant moving away from the front.
Fools defended peace by supporting the armed wing of money.
Beyond the next dune the clashes continued. The fangs of chimerical beasts sinking into flesh, the heavens full of steel and smoke, whole cultures uprooted from the earth.
Fools fought the enemies of today by bankrolling those of tomorrow.
Fools swelled their chests, talked of 'freedom', 'democracy', 'in our country', as they devoured the fruits of riots and looting.
They were defending civilisation against Chinese shadows of dinosaurs.
They were defending the planet against fake images of asteroids.
They were defending the Chinese shadow of a civilization.
They were defending the fake image of a planet."
...and follows it on the back cover with reviews like this by the London Times Literary Supplement:
"This new work amply confirms Wu Ming's talent... Utterly convincing. What emerges is an epic about identity and celebrity, communism and corruption... A stupendous, charming, provocative and profound novel. It makes most modern books seem paltry in comparison."
...has my attention. A almost Pynchon-esque post-WW II depiction of the Italian/Yugoslavian 'zone' after the division of the territories and the partisan armies fighting both the Fascist forces in Italy and the encroaching German horde on the Communist border. The result? The amorphous postwar time/geography where the United States, Russia, the UK and Italy were all vying for a foothold as criminals, opportunists, political factions and espionage on all sides working the angles. Told from the generation who saw the very end of the war and attempts to reclaim their familial and cultural heritage from these competing factions, "54" by Wu Ming collective takes off from these political realities to spin a 'alternate reality' tale akin to Chabon's "Yiddish Policeman's Union" set in the era of the birth of the TV, the Suburbs, the postwar influence of America's Dream being the only dream, Hollywood's battle with McCarthyism and the nationwide witch hunt that was the 'Red Scare', the very beginnings of Vietnam and the decades of the Cold War that was to follow. So entrenched in reality and history, that when the events to detour, I often went to check my facts, especially when as we're reaching the culmination of the ensemble-cast threads all beginning to converge, Hollywood, British espionage MI6, Tito's Yugoslavia, Cannes, Italian Mobsters, Alfred Hitchcock and... Cary Grant all find themselves in the most unlikely (totally plausible) ciaroscuro of history, commerce, entertainment, politics, and postwar rebuilding fervor. Pretty darn brilliant. As a young collective of authors, this being an early work of theirs, already ranking near Chabon or Pynchon, if they've got more of this in them, expect Wu Ming to become known.

Decibel Festival of Electronic Music : Sept 22 - 26

2010-08-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again! From September 22 to 26th our little urban center of Seattle will host the second-largest electronic music festival in the United States, the Decibel Festival, taking place in venues all over the city. Decibel's whole raison d'etre is about being the global showcase for all things electronic, in the most progressive, all-inclusive sense, regardless of genre or style, whether on the dance floor or in the seated auditorium. Showcasing its diversity, the festival is broken down into thematic events, which this year include, but are not limited to:

Three 'Optical' audio-visual showcases featuring ambient, neoclassical, and experimental musics, with a strong visual parallel, often supplied by the composers themselves Ghostly International label showcase featuring the rich roster of this US label, rocking the ambient space, while moving the dance floor in the most intelligent of ways. Australia's Room40 label showcase highlighting the composerly, cinematic experimental music of this Aussie staple. UK's Planet MU label showcase - Delivering on all things bass, rhymes and rhythms, Planet MU is the home of some of the leading artists in what's become known as the 'UK Bass' sound. Red Bull Music Academy has its own showcase featuring the bewildering skills of some of the finest international dancefloor techno, with maven digital graphic artist Pfadfinderei supplying the visuals. The Flylo & Friends showcase highlights domestic producers working the spaces between hip-hop, beats and urban soundscapes. This year there are two 'Decibel in the Park' showcases, free and open to the public in the pastoral green climes of Volunteer Park. The second, on Sunday, highlights the most progressive of the 'UK Bass' sound. And of course the two 'Opening' and 'Closing' galas, Sunday's closing gala featuring powerful dancefloor techno of a 'dub' persuasion, from around the globe.

Artist highlights include German dancefloor mavens Modeselektor, Pantha Du Prince and Monolake; heavy body-quaking bass from the dubstep and grime scenes supplied by Scuba, Plastician, Starkey, and Distance; urban beats and and atmospheres by Flying Lotus, Lorn and Mount Kimbie; and splendorous ambient experimental and neoclassical soundscapes from Murcof, Robert Henke, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, Fennesz, Oneotrix Point Never, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Grouper and Lawrence English. These and many others, in innumerable genres and styles, will perform in numerous types of venues - from club dance floors, to after-hours lofts, to the symphony hall - through the course of this five-day festival featuring over 100 artists Check the Decibel site for ticket info, full artist listings, bios, showcase descriptions and times. Previous years have seen showcases at capacity (or even sold out at the door), so advance ticket/pass purchase is advised.

Boris, Red Sparowes & Russian Circles - US Tour : Jul 24 - Sept 5

2010-07-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

Japanese heavier-than-heavy psych-rock outfit return to the US again for the 5th
time in a decade! Previous tours have seen them opening for Doom-Metalers SUNN 0)))
on the "Altar" tour and being the headliner with Damon & Naomi supporting their
collaborative album with Michio Kurihara, "Rainbow". This tour sees them back in the
headliner position delivering what has become less Metal, less Psych, and more just
outright BLASTING pop of the rocking variety. It's been a curious journey to observe,
from their earliest Melvins & Earth (they derived their name from a Melvins track)
inspired Doom-tunes as heard on "AbsoutEgo" and "Amplifier Worship" to the Psych/Bro
Rock of "Mabuta No Uta" and "Heavy Rocks (Orange)" through the quiet, yet epic, finger
-picking Folkish styles of "Flood" to the outright Psyche Pop of the aforementioned
"Rainbow" and "Pink" to the most recent mutant strains of fluorescent brutal Pop of
"Smile" and almost violent-Shoegaze of the recent "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7"
series.They've delivered some of the most completely passionately delirious concert
experiences (and crushingly loudest too) I've ever witnessed, so I expect no less
this time. Fans of Doom Metal, Heavy-Psych, epic Rock ala Grails/ Explosions in
the Sky, Shoegaze, and anything just damn loud, vital and hysterical you can do
with a electric guitar, bass and drums - take note!

Link to Southern Lord Label's - Boris US Tour site

Link to Official Boris site

Link to Boris - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" Series site

Cannes Film Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

2010-06-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

Link to official Cannes Film Festival site

Link to Cannes 2010 Festival Prize Winners

Cannes Film Festival being one of the major preview/heralds of film to come in the
next year, judging from what I'm seeing here, 2010/ 2011 looks to be shaping up in
pretty awesome fashion.That is, assuming we get these films distributed stateside.
Cannes 2009 saw very little in the way of the major films from the fest ever appearing
in theatres in the US, let's hope this coming year we see otherwise. New ones by some
of the worlds greatest cinematic orchestrators of shock, beauty, subtle entrancement,
rapture and genre-transcendence. Links below to some of the notable Directors works
and prize winners from this years festival. Unfortunate that none of them made it into the
West Coast SIFF/SFIFF Fests this year (the exception being Apichatpong's "Letter to Uncle
Boonmee" which played in the SFIAAFF). After doing reading on the festival in both Sight
& Sound and Film Comment, the abundance of curious and atypical works by established
directors suggests there are some major surprises to be had in the coming year!:

Link to Apichatpong Weerasethakul - "Letter to Uncle Boonmee" at Cannes site

Weerasethakul's amazing Palme d'Or win this year is both a bit shocking and very much
deserved for this Thai director! Congratulations Apichatpong!: "Synopsis: Suffering
from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded
by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife
appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form.
Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his
family to a mysterious hilltop cave -- the birthplace of his first life..."

Link to Lee Chang Dong - "Poetry" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Mija lives with her middle-schooler grandson in a small suburban city
located along the Han River. She is a dandy old lady who likes to dress up in flower
decorated hats and fashionable outfits, but she is also an unpredictable character
with an inquisitive mind. By chance she takes a "poetry" class at a neighborhood
cultural center and is challenged to write a poem for the first time in her life.
Her quest for poetic inspiration begins with observing the everyday life she never
intentional took notice of before to find beauty within it. And with this, Mija is
delightfully surprised with newfound trepidation as if she were a little girl
discovering things for the first time in her life. But when she is suddendly faced
with a reality harsh beyond her imagination, she realizes perhaps life is not as
beautiful as she had thought it is..."

Link to Abbas Kiarostami - "Certified Copy" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: This is the story of a meeting between one man and one woman, in a
small Italian village in Southern Tuscany. The man is a British author who has
just finished giving a lecture at a conference. The woman, from France, owns an
art gallery. This is a universal story that could happen to anyone, anywhere."

Link to Mahamat-Saleh Haroun - "A Screaming Man" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Present-day Chad. Adam, sixty something, a former swimming champion,
is pool attendant at a smart N’Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new
Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful,
he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel
forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population
contribute to the "war effort", giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off
the assailants. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution.
But Adam is penniless; he only has his son...."

Link to Jia Zhang-Ke - "I Wish I Knew" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Shanghai, a fast-changing metropolis, a port city where people come
and go. Shanghai has hosted all kinds of people – revolutionaries, capitalists,
politicians, soldiers, artists, and gangsters. Shanghai has also hosted revolutions,
assassinations, love stories. After the Chinese Communists' victory in 1949, thousands
of Shanghaiers left for Hong Kong and Taiwan. To leave meant being separated from home
for thirty years; to stay meant suffering through the Cultural Revolution and China's
other political disasters."

Link to Cristi Puiu - "Aurora" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: An apartment kitchen: a man and a woman discuss Little Red Riding Hood,
their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping in the next room.
A wasteland on the city’s outskirts: behind a line of abandoned trailers, the man
silently watches what seems to be a family. The same city, the same man: driving
through traffic with two hand-made firing pins for a hunting rifle. The man is 42
years old, his name - Viorel. Troubled by obscure thoughts, he drives across the
city to a destination known only to him."

Link to Sergie Loznitsa - "My Joy" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: "My Joy" is a tale of truck driver Georgy. Georgy leaves his home town
with a load of goods, but he is forced to take a wrong turning on the motorway, and
finds himself in the middle of nowhere. Georgy tries to find his way, but gradually,
against his will, he becomes drawn in the daily life of a Russian village. In a place,
where brutal force and survival instincts overcome humanity and common sense, the
truck driver’s story heads for a dead end..."

Link to Olivier Assayas - "Carlos" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, Carlos is a central figure in the history of
international terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, from pro-Palestinian activism to
the Japanese Red Army. At once a figure of the extreme left and an opportunistic
mercenary in the pay of powerful Middle Eastern secret services, he formed his own
organization based on the other side of the Iron Curtain which was active during
the final years of the Cold War. This film is the story of a revolutionary
internationalist, both manipulator and manipulated, as he is carried along by the
currents of contemporary history and his own folly. We will follow him to the end
of his road, relegated to Sudan where the Islamic dictatorship, after having
protected him for a while, handed him over to French police."

Link to Alejandro Inarritu - "Biutiful" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: « Biutiful » is the story of Uxbal. Devoted father. Tormented lover.
Mystified son. Underground businessman. Friend of the disposed. Ghost seeker.
Spiritual sensitive. A survivor at the invisible margins in today’s Barcelona. Uxbal,
sensing the danger of death, tries to reconcile with love and save his children, as he
tries to save himself. Uxbal’s story is simple: just one of the complex realities that
we all live in today."

Link to Ken Loach - "Route Irish" at Cannes site

"Synopsis:Liverpool, August 1976. 5-year-old Fergus met Frankie on his first day at
school. They’ve been in each others’ shadow ever since. As teenagers they skipped
school and drank cider on the ferry over the River Mersey, dreaming about traveling
the world. Little did Fergus realise his dream would come true as a highly trained
member of the UK’s elite special forces, the SAS. After resigning in September 2004,
Fergus persuaded Frankie (by now an ex-Para)to join his security team in Baghdad.
£10,000 a month, tax free. Their last chance to "load up" in this increasingly
privatized war. Together they risked their lives in a city steeped in violence,
terror and greed, and awash with billions of US dollars. In September 2007,
Frankie died on Route Irish, the most dangerous road in the world."

Link to Hong Sangsoo- "Hahaha" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Filmmaker JO Munkyung plans to leave Seoul to live in Canada. So days
before his departure, he meets his close friend BANG Jungshik, who is a film critic.
After a few rounds, they find out coincidentally, they have both been to the same
small seaside town Tong-yung recently. They decide to reveal their accounts of the
trip over drinks, under the condition that they only stick to pleasant memories.
Not realizing that they were in the same place, at the same time, and with the same
people, the two men’s reminiscence of a hot summer unfolds like a catalogue of
memories."

Link to Lucy Walker - "Countdown to Zero" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: From Participant Media and producer Lawrence Bender, who last teamed
for the Academy Award® winning An Inconvenient Truth, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO is a
stunning documentary about the escalating global nuclear arms crisis. Written and
directed by Lucy Walker (Waste Land, Blindsight), the film is a fascinating and
frightening exploration of the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of
present day threats and featuring insights from a host of international statesmen
and experts. Among the voices are President Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez
Musharraf, Tony Blair, former CIA Operations Officer Valerie Plame Wilson, the
Ploughshares Fund’s Joe Cirincione and Stanford political scientist Scott Sagan.
COUNTDOWN TO ZERO traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the
present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities
and others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could
be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. It makes
a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever
with President Obama and other world leaders working to revive this goal today."

Link to Sophie Fiennes - "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: The film bears witness to German artist Anselm Kiefer’s alchemical
creative processes and renders as a film journey the personal universe he has built
at his hill studio estate in the South of France. In 1993 Kiefer left Buchan, Germany
for La Ribotte, a derelict silk factory near Barjac. From 2000 he began constructing
a series of elaborate installations there, comprising 48 buildings, a labyrinth of
tunnels, bridges, lakes and towers. Traversing this landscape, the film immerses the
audience in the total world and creative process of one of today’s most significant
artists. Shot in cinemascope, the film constructs visual set pieces alongside
observational footage to capture both the dramatic resonance of Kiefer’s art and the
intimate process of creation. This polarity - in terms of scale, sensibility and time
- animates the film, creating a multi-layered narrative through which to navigate the
complex spaces of La Ribotte. Here creation and destruction are interdependent; the
film enters into direct contact with the raw materials Kiefer employs to build his
paintings and sculptures - lead, concrete, ash, acid, earth, glass and gold..."

The Quantum Metropolis is Everything You Imagine it To Be: Stalking Tigers, Mythic Record Collections & Metaphysical Ceramics in Lethem's Chronic City

2010-05-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

Finished the re-read of the newest by Jonathan Lethem! Who's work spans just about everything in the McSweeney's genre-lexicon of fiction forms, from "Motherless Booklyn" (Modern Noir), "Fortress of Solitude" (Hip Hop/Superhero Pulp), "Amnesia Moon" (Surrealist Road Story), to "Girl in Landscape" (Sc-Fi/Not Sci-Fi) and has again and again been labeled a 'genre bender' of a assimilationist due to his aggressively inventive blending of literary, pulp and popular (read; pop-culture) writing. His newest is an exploration of an alternate reality not unlike that of Michael Chabon's "Yiddish Policeman's Union" in which it's not quite america as we know it, it's not quite Manhattan, New York City as we know it, it's not quite a city that has 'Tigers' running loose, underground tunnel-drilling robots as we know how they work, alternate histories of cinema as we know them, the Criterion Collection offices (again, as we know it - I wish!), the possible lapses into ellipsis depicted may, just may, be visions unto/into another world... possibly our own? Or is "Chronic City" simply the expression of the Quantum Metropolis? From Doubleday: "Chase Insteadman, a handsome, inoffensive fixture on Manhattan’s social scene, lives off residuals earned as a child star on a beloved sitcom called Martyr & Pesty, Chase is adrift, in a vague routine punctuated by Upper East Side dinner parties. Into Chase’s cloistered city enters Perkus Tooth, a wall-eyed free-range pop critic whose soaring conspiratorial riffs are fueled by high-grade marijuana, mammoth cheeseburgers, and a desperate ache for meaning. Perkus’ countercultural savvy and voracious paranoia draw Chase into another Manhattan, where questions of what is real, what is fake, and who is complicit take on a life-shattering urgency. Along with Oona Laszlo, a self-loathing ghostwriter, and Richard Abneg, a hero of the Tompkins Square Park riot now working as a fixer for the billionaire mayor"

Seattle International Film Festival : May 20 - June 13

2010-05-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Link to Seattle International Film Festival site

First off to address grievance/concern with the curatorial direction SIFF seems
to be taking as a trend since 2009; this year, rather than the usual post expressing
my ebullient enthusiasm in an exclamatory tone, this post is to begin with criticism.
As a paragon of International World Cinema in the United States, even on occasion
eclipsing San Francisco, Chicago and New York in scale, depth and dictionary-definition
diversity, the Seattle International Film Festival has established itself over the
course of the past decade+ (I can really speak for previous decades, having only
seen them in print and not attended in-person) as a focal-point of visionary cinema
curatorialship. Admittedly, last year was a bit thin, but even then I found some 22
films of gravitas or curiosity worthy of attending, by both directors of note and
new developing artists. Overall not a bad year, but not on par with the stellar run
we'd seen spanning 2004-2008. Figuring it was a one-off lapse and the recession and
funding issues with SIFF having opened their new theatre and home to their film
archive and offices, I assumed it was a product of the times and singular qualitative
dip on their part. Even then, not a significant one, as I saw much, much great cinema
that year in the festival (also see the posts here from SIFF '07 or '08 for reference).

This year, immediately when the schedule was posted on Thursday May 6, there was
a visible void of progressive, inventive, notable, names, titles and works in the New
Global Cinema category (customarily SIFF's largest and richest) that one would expect
(and have become accustomed to) in seeing self-evidently there when doing that quickly
browsed shortlist. Off the top of my head, doing a run-down of the films I've known
have been out there in international fests awaiting arrival in the states and looking
to SIFF to hopefully bring them to our city; New Tsai Ming-Liang? No. New Gaspar Noe?
No. New Brillante Mendoza? No. New Nicolas Winding Refn? No. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang?
No. New Lou Ye? No. New Alain Resnais? No. New Jia Zhang-Ke docu? No. New
Apichatpong Weerasethakul shorts? No. New Lav Diaz? No. Things like the second
Neon Genesis Evangelion film since they played the first one last year or the new
Mamoru Oshii? No and No. You get the idea here. My usual 15-25 films annually in SIFF
reduced to this in 2010. Grateful as I am to have an ongoing annual International Film
Festival in my town, as far as the sum totality of everything I'm going to/am curious
to see, this is a sorry sight:

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, May 22
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Luca Guadagnino "I Am Love"
Egyptian Theatre
IAML2210A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7334

--------------------------------------------------
Sunday, May 23
--------------------------------------------------
11:00 AM - Anocha Suwichakornpong "Mundane History"
Pacific Place Cinema
MUND2310M

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7355

--------------------------------------------------
Monday, May 24
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - Hirokazu Kore-eda "Air Doll"
Neptune Theatre
Ticket Code: AIRD2410A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7393

--------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 25
--------------------------------------------------
6:30 PM - Lu Chuan "City of Life and Death"
Neptune Theatre
Ticket Code: CITY2510A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7399

--------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 25
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - Hong Sang-Soo "Like You Know it All"
Pacific Place Cinema
LIKE2510A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7413

--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 26
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Peter Strickland "Katalin Varga"
Uptown Cinemas
KATA2610A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7424

--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 26
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - "Alternate Waves" / Guy Maddin "Night Mayor"
SIFF Cinema
ALTE2610A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=Guy Maddin166&id=7432

--------------------------------------------------
Friday, May 28
--------------------------------------------------
12:00 AM - Noboru Iguchi "RoboGeisha"
Egyptian Theatre
ROBO2810A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7454

--------------------------------------------------
Sunday, May 30
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet "Amer"
Egyptian Theatre
AMER3010A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7567

--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, June 02
--------------------------------------------------
9:15 PM - Jessica Oreck "Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo"
Harvard Exit
BEET0210A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7709

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, June 12
--------------------------------------------------
6:00 PM - Lixin Fan "Last Train Home"
Pacific Place Cinema
LAST1210A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/reserve.aspx?fid=166&id=7652

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, June 12
--------------------------------------------------
9:00 PM - Johnny To "Vengeance"
Harvard Exit
VENG1216A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?&FID=166&id=43961

Johann Johannsson w/ String Sextet & The Rafael Anton Irrisari Trio at the Triple Door : May 12 / US Tour Apr 30 - May 15

2010-04-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Unquantifiably-amazing bill of the Rafael Anton Irisarri Trio (Rafael, Kelly Wyse of the Seattle Pianist Collective
& Phil Petrocelli on Percussion) opening for Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson who's touring with his most
recent album of grandly melancholy Neoclassical compositions. Which (to these ears) is proving to be his greatest
work to date. "In the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees" finally officially released on Type Records in
April as a soundtrack to Marc Craste’s animated film "Varmints" highlighting his usual Chamber Symphonic work
for strings, piano and voice, but in a more sombre, subdued and crepuscular tone that the the last two consciously
grandiose, knowingly 'epic', (what I felt were a bit bloated), albums for 4AD. Highly anticipating the upcoming US
tour, especially considering that the Seattle show is with Miasmah/Immune recording artist Rafael Irisarri and his
new 'band' as a trio expending and interpreting both his, and Arvo Part's works as a minimalistic interplay of
Classical, Doom-Rock and Electronic refinement delivered with both great weight and subtlety. Check the Type
Records and Johannsson sites for tour dates throughout May.

Link to official Rafael Anton Irisarri site

Link to official Johann Johannsson site

Link to Studio AKA "Varmints" site

Link to Type Records "In the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees" site

Link to Triple Door Calendar site

Werner Herzog & Bela Tarr's new films "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" & "Man From London" at NWFF : April 5 - 16

2010-04-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

Two masters of the 'slow & difficult' are back with new ones this week at Northwest Film Forum!
Bela Tarr's most recent was released internationally a couple years ago, so it's been overlong to
appearing stateside. "Man from London"'s premise appears to have a good bit more 'going on' than
"Satantango" or some of his other recent work, being a noir murder witness/detective tale... but don't
expect action or suspense, Tarr's work is fundamentally about atmosphere and time. Slow, slow, slow
time... but often exceptionally shot in a manner that the weighty gloom of the works create an enveloping
'place' experienced. Werner Herzog is back with another drama! His recent run of documentaries have
been significantly more successful than his dramas, their absurdist take on truth/event/perspective/
subjectivity have revealed his own distinct perspective on society in ways his dramas have failed.
"My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" looks to be working that very same absurdism, especially that
David Lynch is involved with the project, yet I remain uncertain going into this one. The cast also gives
me some hesitation, especially the combination of Dafoe & Sevigny, but curiosity is going to win-out!

Link to Northwest Film Forum 'Man from London' site

Link to Northwest Film Forum 'My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done' site

Morgan Thorson & Low "Heaven" at On the Boards : April 1 - 4

2010-03-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

It's been some years since I was at the height of being compelled by the music of Low, around the time of their
excellent "Secret Name" & "Things We Lost in the Fire" albums, but in the setting/context of this new Modern Dance
piece by Morgan Thorson, who's last major works toured such esteemed galleries as P.S.122, Walker Art Center and
ICA Boston to excellent reviews, I'm intrigued. "Heaven" looks to be compelling for both the opportunity to re-examine
Low in a new/different setting, along with the costume design, the sets and of course; the choreography. The themes
of the piece; the sublime, rapture, religious elation and epiphany are explored in analogy and parable, rather than
literal theological terms, making for a modern work that walks that tightrope between the conceptual premise' as
metaphor and personal expression as embodiment of those archetypal themes.
From the On The Boards site: "Integrating live music and vocal work into dance, Heaven is a collaboration between
rising choreographer Morgan Thorson and musicians Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of the indie band Low. "Heaven"
considers each of its participants equally in solo, duet and choral arrangements to evoke an emotional and physical
ecstasy more commonly associated with religious practice. Heaven premiered at DiverseWorks in Houston in October
of 2009.Thorson visits Seattle after enjoying national acclaim for her last project, "Faker", which was seen by audiences
at PS 122 (NYC), ICA (Boston) and the Walker Art Center's Momentum Series at The Southern Theater (Minneapolis).
Formed in 1993, Low has garnered a worldwide cult following for their minimalist soundscapes and achingly beautiful
harmonies."

Link to On the Boards "Heaven" site

Link to official Low site

Link to Village Voice 'White Out' review article

The Ultimate Villain Revealed: Immortality, 18th Century Decadence & Devil Worship in Grant Morrison's Batman

2010-03-13T10:44:00.000-08:00

Unlike the previous Bat-post of last year, this one's for those that have done
the reading on the book; you can't proceed here until you've read issue #10
Seriously. If you've not done the reading, do not proceed with this post.
SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS.
That said, Morrison is finally back to writing the core of the tale after a number
of slippery detours to seemingly lead us off track through the course of
"Batman & Robin " - only now to return to the original story with issue #10.
Having read it just last night, I'm going throw a bunch of things out there
that all connected after reading and following some historic/literature threads
online that lead to crazy connections/parallels. ...Ready for this?

issue #666, which I think at the time we all took as a kind of a 'lark' and
him having fun with the premise of getting to write the six hundred and
sixty-sixth issue, is now more than just a glimpse at a (the?) possible
future, but also totally pivotal to the whole tone of things/themes to come.
With issue #10 Simon Hurt/El Penitente is (basically, essentially) revealed
to be Thomas Wayne, after all. Just not *the* Thomas Wayne we know as
Bruce's father. This Thomas Wayne is an 18th Century ancestor of the
Wayne family (Time travel? Immortality? Deal with the Devil?) and for
reasons revealed, the 'black sheep' of the family as it's told. Who, among
other things dubious, was apparently a known (in fact infamous), Devil
-worshipper. ...Who can say they saw that one coming? Nice one Grant!

Link to DC Comics: "Batman vs. Robin" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.5

Link to DC Comics: "Batman & Robin Must Die!" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.6

The clues were there all along: Some of them hidden right in plain
sight (as Morrison is apt to do). The 'satanic' Batman-replacement of
issues #666, #672-74, #681 from the Gotham Police Force who had
been groomed/conditioned by Simon Hurt - that at the time seemed
just too 'literal' to be an objective interpretation? Well once again,
he's craftfully hidden an answer right out in the open - and due to
the question not yet being posed to the reader, we weren't aware of
it's significance in the narrative, even with all the ominous
forbearance of that character's warnings to Bruce Wayne of things
to come. Yep, the Devil's in the details. Ha! Couldn't resist.

An then there's this!: Back in "R.I.P." Là-Bas or "From Below"
appeared at first to just be a French phrase dropped in the
middle of a sentence from Black Glove henchman Le Bossu in
issue #677, but in fact it's the name of a novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans
by the title of "Là-Bas", (or "The Damned" as it has since been
translated into English). Guess what it's about? Gilles de Rais and the
history of Devil Worship in 15th to 19th Century France. The novel
crafts a elaborate spin on the child murders/Devil worship accusations
the historic personage of De Rais was condemmed for at his trial. In this
little bit of 18th Century Decadence, De Rais' ultimate goal was to summon
the Devil, but whenever they attempted it, something went nightmarishly
wrong. The men around him, his assistants in the evocations, would
die terrible deaths.

Link to DC Comics: "The Return of Bruce Wayne" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.7

Now here's the part where we probably should all pay attention;
The historic figure of Gilles de Rais wasn't just anybody; he was the
closest ally of Joan of Arc. He was virtually a saint. As a pious soldier
of God, de Rais was the kind of man that society at the time idealized
as the purest of form. He was a paragon of goodness. Until Joan was
killed, that is. After which, his spirit was corrupted by the event, his
belief in his faith destroyed, he was witness to the church burn a
'messenger of God' at the stake. He turned to Satanism (whether
historically true of not, is unknown). A complete reversal of personal
beliefs, the noblest spirit of 15th Century France became a child
murderer, rapist, and definitive 'Satanist' of his day. (the details
of which, again being partially fabricated/elaborated in Huysmans'
novel). It's a going theory that it's this piece of literature around
which Morrison has based the fundamental premise of his tale.

Back to "Batman & Robin": Heavy Catholic intonations have come
to the fore in recent issues, most prominently in reference to El
Penitente and the representatives we've seen from his Mexican drug
cartel back in issue #4. Now in issue #10 there are a number of prominent
Rosicrucian symbolic images/themes; the belt of Orion, the Rosicrucian
rose, the suits of armor with the Symbol of the Rose as their crest.
Ad that to the Demons mentioned in the same issue: Barbatos - is shown
on the wall of the Satanic Church/Bat-Cave. Belial - is mentioned by
name by Hurt/El Penitente. The 3rd Hierarchy - is a particular group of
demons, of which Belial is a member. Duke Zepar - is another one of
the 3rd Hierarchy demons, apparently clad in red, just as the character
is depicted in the book. Where's all of this going? The Black Glove,
Simon Hurt, El Penitente, Thomas Wayne. Satan.

Link to DC Comics: "Time & The Batman" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.8

So is Thomas Wayne currently possessed by/or in the service of Satan?
Or, what I'm beginning to suspect is more and more the case: is Thomas
Wayne looking to (attempt to) summon the Devil itself, once again,
into the modern world? And why is this character driven so fervently
to orchestrate the ruin of Bruce Wayne and the corruption/destruction of
Batman? Possibly, like with Gilles de Rais' 'inversion' to evil, it would be
the ultimate statement. What is it that The Black Glove promises to it's
wealthy patrons as 'the ultimate work of art' in issue #677?: "Nothing
less than the complete and utter ruination of a noble human spirit".

And the 'Devil' in question is who? Or what? Thomas Wayne here is
evidently of more than one time period, and those that he's been witness
in effecting with this 'dark crusade' have spanned centuries. Beginning
as far back as the 1700's according to the Wayne family lineage and
curiously, in the DC Comics 'Silver Age' as a character appearing in
a issue of "World's Finest" issue #223 - as none other than Bruce Wayne's
mentally ill, institutionalized, older brother. Time travel, family myth,
'histories' being fashioned to torment the protagonist? All of this has
the distinct thematic stain of the Omega Sanction... I suspect we've
not seen the last of Darkseid. Might he not be the 'Devil' here in
question? No greater evil force has Bruce Wayne ever encountered and
with him currently caught within the trappings of the Omega Effect,
could all this Devil Worship, family history corrupting, 'soul destroying'
dark refashioning of the Batman mythology be Darkseid's doing? As Bruce
is being manipulated through time and history creating new lore as he
progresses? Hurt/Penitente/Thomas Wayne in the service of Darkseid?
Unwitting or no? It makes a kind of definitive sense in the context of
this tale being the conclusion of events begun in "Final Crisis ".

At this point in the tale all signs (appear) to point to this being Hurt/
Penitente/Thomas Wayne's whole 'Raison d'Etre': The ruination of Bruce
Wayne as the ultimate realization of the 'triumph of matter and duality
over spirit and unity' - a profound expression of Satan's (read; Darkseid's?)
influence over mankind (even after his 'demise') and the ultimate conversion
of a 'noble human spirit' into evil. Continue on Brave Reader! This Coming
Summer to Fall not only sees the realization of the end of "Batman & Robin"
, but simultaneous with those events Morrison begins writing on the eponymous
Batman title once again as "The Return of Bruce Wayne" begins serialization!
Indeed! Grant Morrison has a Tale to Tell and even with these major revelations
4 years into it being spun, it's far from over!

Bong Joon-Ho's "Mother" at Landmark Theatres : Mar 12 - Apr 18

2010-03-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

Bong Joon-Ho's newest finally comes to the Landmarks! Rented this one at Scarecrow many months ago,
and am enthused to see it on the big(ger) screen. This is the director of the campy/disturbing noir-detective
tale "Memories of Murder" and the family drama/mutated giant tadpole flick "The Host" again back in the realm
of detective/crime/murder drama with "Mother", but the spin this time is rather than bungling bureaucracy; we
have sexual predation (and murder) of underclass teenagers by the the local community being overlooked by
the inept prefectural police department. The protagonist, in an attempt to prove her son's innocence in being
implicated in these crimes stumbles on the whole twisted circle of events and attempts through single-minded
determination to take it on as a concerned (read; absolutely obsessed) Mother. One of the better crime investi
-gation/police corruption/class struggle plot-twisting thrillers of some years. The single-mindedness of the
titular protagonist under the direction of Bong alone (as played by Kim Hye-Ja), is something to behold!

Link to Landmark Theatres "Mother" site

Link to Magnolia Pictures official "Mother" site

Skull Disco's Shackleton, The Sight Below & Daega Sound at Nectar Lounge : March 5

2010-02-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

Skull Disco label maven and post(?)-Dubstep producer extraordinaire Shakleton plays a rare West Coast live set
here in Seattle after reports of him stunning audiences at Mutek Montreal last year. Of particular interest to my
person; Rafael Anton Irrisari will be opening in his The Sight Below moniker promising a Chain Reaction/Basic
Channel inspired set of Dub Techno and the opening act of Daega Sound spinning select and VIP Dubstep cuts.
Shackleton's characteristic mix of ethnic hand-drums, 90's style ambient gloom, radio noise and vocal snippets,
massive basslines and some of the sparsest production heard in the post-Techno world are a heady mix. The
austerity of his arrangements opens space around the various elements creating an aural vacuum that the
booming percussive detonation resonate within, shocking the head and body as the higher-end percussive
details ride over in a speeding pseudo-psychedelic blur. This is complex, abstract stuff for the dance music
world, but simultaneously engaging to the body in the way the very best 'techno' is. My only hope/concern
for this night is if the soundsystem at Nectar is up to the task! One for the dance music community (and
anyone interested in the further extremes of BASS) not to miss!

Link to official Skull Disco label site

Link to Decibel Festival event site

Link to The Wire's "From Rave to the Grave" Shackleton/Skull Disco article

Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker's "Red Riding" Trilogy at Northwest Film Forum : Feb 26 - Mar 4

2010-02-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

Seeing the promotions for this film nearly omnipresent in New York last month thanks
to IFC - it's an ideal coincidence to find it here in Seattle upon my return. "Red Riding",
a trilogy of films adapting David Peace's fictionalized crime investigation/Yorkshire serial
murder novels, each film by a different director, each set in a different time period, as
the grinding, meticulous, bureaucratically compounded investigation comes up against
corruption, money and the powers that-be (both within law enforcement and without)
that want to bring it to a standstill again and again. Realized in the best tradition of recent
detective cinema (think David Fincher's career highlight; "Zodiac") as a complex puzzle of
events wherein we the viewer know as much (or as little) as the historic and/or fictional
character's dedication (read obsession) drives them to seek justice and resolution within
a tangled labyrinth of facts, fabrications, dead ends, lies and hidden connections over the
course of decades of investigation, where with the passing of time, truth becomes more
and more obscured.
From the IFC site: "Sure to be one of the cinematic events of the year, "Red Riding" is a
mesmerizing neo-noir epic based on factual events and adapted for the screen by Tony
Grisoni from David Peace’s electrifying series of novels. 1974 - (directed by Julian Jarrold)
centers on a rookie journalist investigating a series of child abductions and murders with
possible ties to corrupt police, business, and politicians. 1980 - (directed by James Marsh)
finds the police and the public still baffled that the “Ripper” remains at large and may have
inspired a copycat killer. In 1983 - (directed by Anand Tucker), Detective Maurice Jobson
notices a number of powerful similarities between the abduction of another young girl and
cases he had investigated back in the ’70s - for which a man was convicted and sentenced."

Link to Northwest Film Forum's "Red Riding" Trilogy site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding" Special Roadshow Edition site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1974" site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1980" site

Link to IFC Films "Red Riding - 1983" site

Portland's International Film & Jazz Festivals : Feb 11 - 28

2010-02-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

This year's Portland Jazz Festival features a number of names worthy of the drive or train ride down to
PDX. Rune Grammofon artist In The Country, ECM's Christian Wallumrod Ensemble and the legendary
man himself, who needs no label-affiliation introduction; Pharoah Sanders, among others. Check the lineup.
Also, happening during coinciding weeks, the Portland International Film Festival includes enough quality
cinema to clench it, PDX is the place to be in February 2010. New ones by; Luca Guadagnino's "I am Love",
Ken Loach's "Looking for Eric", Hong Sang-soo's "Like You Know it All", Bong Joon-ho's "Mother", Corneliu
Porumboiu's "Police, Adjective" and Jacques Audiard's "A Prophet". Northwestern-ites, I'd say this makes it
more than worth the drive/the train down there being particularly gorgeous now that we're entering pre-Spring.

"Link to Portland Jazz Festival"

"Link to Portland International Film Festival"

Sion Sono's new Film "Love Exposure" UK Release & New York Screening

2010-01-16T11:15:00.000-08:00

Time to break out those All-Region DVD players! Sion Sono's most recent get's a British release and a New York
screening thanks to the Japan Society this summer/fall! Near-impossible for me to give a proper synopsis of this
one, it's truly a cinema experience like no other. Which I realize, immediately sounds hyperbolic, but "Love
Exposure" is that rare film that lives up to the 'incomparable' tag. Part Boy/Girl love story, part Catholic inverse
-moral play ("I Need To Sin!"), part Tokyo Yakuza/ Japanese Religious Cult underworld tale, part modern-day
(Panty-Shot) Grail Quest, part an exploration of the extremities and diversity of the definitions of Love itself (in
all it's forms, both 'healthy' and NOT). As the film progresses and all these elements converge ...and they do,
it's in ways initially comedic and pulp-like (think Manga, Japanese Anime High School dramas) and later as
a EPIC and deeply, deeply effecting Tragedy. ...But even all of that doesn't really do "Love Exposure" justice.

Review from the January issue of Sight & Sound: "It's almost impossible to imagine that a over four-hour-long film
featuring castration, transvestism, religious cults and catholic guilt complexes originating from Japan could be so
darn passionate, so uplifting, so edge-of-the-seat engaging and entertaining. A one-off, indescribable experience"
--Jasper Sharp (Midnight Eye), 2010.

Link to official "Love Exposure" site

Link to Japan Society's "Love Exposure" New York Screening

Link to Third Window Films UK release of "Love Exposure"

:::: FILMS OF 2009 ::::

2010-01-02T10:49:00.000-08:00

:::: ALBUMS OF 2009 ::::

2010-01-02T10:26:00.000-08:00

Second annual excuse to make a list of the year's most notable works!

TOP ALBUMS OF 2009 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
---------------------------------------------------------

Leyland Kirby "Sadly, the Future is No Longer What it Was" (HAFTW)
V/A "Open Strings: 1920's Middle Eastern Virtuoso Recordings" (Honest Jon's)
Iannis Xenakis "Orchestral Works" - Box Set (Timpani)
Thomas Köner "La Barca" (Fario)
SoiSong "qXn94" (Soisong)
Black Dice "Repo" (Paw Tracks)
Mountains "Choral" (Thrill Jockey)
Hildur Gudnadottir "Without Sinking" (Touch)
Alva Noto/Ryuichi Sakamoto "Utp_" (Raster-Noton)
Jim O'Rourke "I'm Happy & I'm Singing..." - Rerelease (Mego)
Nadja "When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV" (End)
Bohren & Der Club of Gore "Dolores" (PIAS)
Black to Comm "Alphabet 1968" (Type)
Sunn O))) "Monoliths & Dimensions" (Southern Lord)
Kreng "L'Autopsie Phenomenale De Dieu" (Miasmah)
Max Richter "Waltz with Bashir - Soundtrack" (Virgin France)

Continuing from the films list above... like cinema, the year in sounds
there was the curious repeat theme; 2009 was again a year for diggers.
Wherein, many of the great recordings of the year appeared from otherwise
unknown origins and artists that some years ago were just establishing
themselves, often under other monikers. That much more reason to 'keep
the ears to the ground' as it were and be that much more looking out for
the new and unheard.

Overall again, this was another pretty darn explorative year in sound.
There were many works that took the ears to exciting places, (some, from
new totally unknown sources) that did so in distinct, expressive and
adventurous ways. In particular appearing again in the strange crossroads
where Modern Classical, Musique Concrete, Improv, Metal, 'Noise', Ambient
and academic Avant traditions all meet. Some of these were even witnessed
out in the world in a 3rd Dimension kind of way, performed live, loud and vital.

TOP LIVE MUSIC SHOWS OF 2009
---------------------------------------

Frank Breatschnieder - Decibel Festival, Seattle
Mountains - Decibel Festival, Seattle
Benga - Decibel Festival, Seattle
Echospace - Decibel Festival, Seattle

As an aside, once again this year Dubstep & Hip Hop filled in as my musical
candy/junkfood of choice, offering a less 'nutritional' but highly flavorful
counter to the more brainy culinary type sounds listed above - and an ideal
soundtrack to public trekking/transportation in the urban 'scape:

King Midas Sound "Waiting For You" (Hyperdub)
Anti-Pop Consortium "Fluorescent Black" (Big DaDa)
V/A "5: Five Years of Hyperdub" (Hyperdub)
Goth-Trad "Law/The Clown" (Deep Medi)
King Midas Sound/Flying Lotus "Cool Out" (Hyperdub)

Michael Haneke & Corneliu Porumboiu's new films at Landmark Theatres : Jan - Feb

2009-12-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

Art returns to Seattle in 2010! Two major new pieces of cinema that premiered
at Cannes some six months ago now, are forthcoming at the Landmark, both opening
in January. The newest film from the current Romanian New Wave that brought last
year's harrowing "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and 2007's "Death of Mr. Lazarescu"
by the Cannes Jury Prize winning Corneliu Porumboiu; "Police, Adjective" - as a
investigation into law, language, interpretation, perception and moral conscience
in the context of the then-changing cultural/political climate of Romania. Also!
the highly-highly-highly anticipated, 2009 Cannes Palme D'or winner by Michael
Haneke; "The White Ribbon" - where Haneke creates his first period-piece as a
vehicle to explore his often addressed themes of the ambiguity of external
morality, societal culpability and the role of the individual. This one being
particularly curious as it's setting is pre-WWI Austria, the protagonists are
children, they are a religious youth faction indroctrinated in a new spin on
an old-world philosophy/morality and the film's subtitle when screened in
Europe is "A German Children's Story"; anyone who knows the work of
Michael Haneke will no doubt see the mischief in this!

Link to Landmark Theatres "The White Ribbon" site

Link to Landmark Theatres "Police, Adjective" site

Link to IFC's "The White Ribbon" Cannes 2009 site

Link to IFC's "Police, Adjective" Cannes 2009 site

25+ Films of the Decade : It's 2010, Do You Know Where Your Cinema Is?

2009-11-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

Wong Kar-Wai "In the Mood for Love" / David Lynch "Mulholland Drive" / Terrence Malick "The New World" (Extended Cut) / Edward Yang "Yi Yi" / Michael Haneke "Time of the Wolf" /

Tsai Ming-Liang "What Time is it There?" / Lars Von Trier/Jørgen Leth "Five Obstructions" / Andrey Zvyagintsev "The Return" / Lucile Hadzihalilovic "Innocence" / Gaspa Noe "Irreversible" / Jia Zhang-Ke "Still Life" / Hayao Miyazaki "Spirited Away" / Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Syndromes and a Century" /

Roy Andersson "Songs from the Second Floor" / Yoji Yamada "Twilight Samurai" / Alfonso Cuarón "Children of Men" / Pedro Almodóvar "Talk to Her" / Richard Kelly "Southland Tales" / Park Chan-Wook "Old Boy" / Takashi Miike "Audition" / Joel & Ethan Coen "No Country for Old Men" / Aleksander Sokurov "Russian Ark" / Jim Jarmusch "The Limits of Control" /

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang "Last Life in the Universe" / Michel Gondry "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" / Hirokazu Kore-eda "Nobody Knows" / David Fincher "Zodiac" (Directors Cut) / Carlos Reygadas "Silent Light" / Hou Hsiao-Hsien "Three Times" / Abbas Kiarostami "10" /

New Films by Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl and Lisandro Alonso at NWFF : Nov 5 - 19

2009-10-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Exceptional abundance of cinema all-at-once over the course of two weeks beginning Nov. 6
at the Northwest Film Forum! Firstly, the most recent film by "Trouble Every Day", "The Intruder"
and "Friday Night" director Claire Denis; "35 Shots of Rum" which, every review I've read, from
the Village Voice to Sight & Sound had good things to say, suggesting this may be her carrier best.
The most recent by Ulrich Seidl; "Import/Export", following on his Cannes Jury Prize winning "Dog
Days" with more beautifully shot, brutal depictions of life in a Eastern Europe and the Global labor
market's exploitation of the post-communism underclass. Lastly, there's the work of Lisandro Alonso,
whose series here, "At the Edge of the World: The Cinema of Lisandro Alonso," includes his most
recent trilogy of films, concluding with 2008's "Liverpoo". Much lauded by Film Comment, Alonso is
considered one of the major new director finds of the past decade, and has been advocated by many
of the other major international cinema publications, following awards in festivals, from Vienna to Oslo
to Rotterdam to Russia. Despite the accolades, his work is rarely seen (this marks his first-ever
screening in Seattle), and an entire series of his work is quite a cinema event. New ones by Denis,
Seidl and a Alonso series, making for two weeks of rarely seen, highly qualitative, new global cinema.
...And just in time to act as a respite from the annual season of rain n' gloom that's descended!

Link to Northwest Film Forum "Import/Export" site

Link to Northwest Film Forum "35 Shots of Rum" site

Link to Northwest Film Forum "At The Edge Of The World: The Cinema of Lisandro Alonso" site

Parkins & Mori "Phantom Orchard" / Earshot Jazz Festival - Seattle : Oct 16 - Nov 8

2009-10-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Seattle's answer to an International Jazz Festival - Earshot is back this fall for its 21st installment.
Highlight for me this year, (and quite a surprise) is Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins "Phantom Orchard"
project who's 2003 release on the Mego label still stands as one of the finest fusions on improv
/electronics/electric instrumentation to be released in the past decade. Really. Fans of Evan
Parker's Electroacoustic Ensemble, the Improvised Music From Japan movement, Mori's other
collab project; Death Ambient on John Zorn's Tzadik label, the Polweschel ensemble and the
whole UK Sound323 scene take note!

Another significant show, also hosted by Nonsequitur thouh not directly in Earshot, is that of
Rachel Grimes from the neoclassical chamber-ensemble Rachel's. - check the Earshot and
Nonsequitur sites for other noteworthy goings on throughout the months of October/November:

Link to Earshot Jazz Festival site

Link to Rachel Grimes on the Nonsequitur site

Link to Parkins & Mori "Phantom Orchard" on the Nonsequitur site

Lars Von Trier's new film "Antichrist" at Landmark Theatres : Oct 23

2009-09-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Lars Von Trier's Cannes-shocking newest is (finally!) opening in San Francisco, NY, LA
and Chicago in the month of October. Reports from both Cannes and the New York Film
Festival suggest "Antichrist" to be a return to form (and possibly a new twist or two on the
whole Psychological Horror genre) from the director that delivered one of the worst films of
the early 2000's in the form of "Dogville" and it's sequel, the nearly-as-abhorrent "Manderlay".
Right off, the look of "Antichrist" stands out for its stunning cinematography and intricately
detailed capturing of color and light - quite removed from the post-Dogme rigours of his
recent films. Let's not forget though that Von Trier is the mastermind behind an abundance
of incomparable cinema over the past few decades, as this is the director of "Element of
Crime", "Europa/Zentropa", "Breaking the Waves", "Dancer in the Dark", "The Kingdom"
and "Five Obstructions" that we're talking about - so you've got to cut the man some (a lot
of) slack for just *two* heinous misses in such a singular ouveur. Check both the IFC and
landmark sites for release dates/cities as well as prominent article in this month's Film Comment:

Link to "Antichrist" article on the Film Comment site

Link to IFC Films official "Antichrist" site

Link to Landmark Theatres "Antichrist" screening schedule

Decibel Festival of Electronic Music : Sept 24 - 27

2009-08-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Now in it's sixth year, Seatte's Decibel Festival of electronic music and media is back
with an even more audacious and expanded lineup. Second in the U.S. only to Detroit's
DEMF as far as scope and scale, Decibel seeks to be a showcase for all things electronic,
regardless of genre in the most progressive, inclusive sense. Again this year, featuring
showcases curating genre and stylistic themes that introduce new forms to a larger
audience and redefine existing ones. Showcases of note include the three 'Optical' audio
-visual showcases featuring ambient, neoclassical and experimental musics, the two 'Decibel
in Dub' showcases of newdub, dubstep and electronic dub mutations, 'Decibel in the Park' at
Capitol Hill's beautiful Volunteer Park, 'Bass Lovers Unite' showcase of heavy-end dancefloor
Bass exploration and a opening gala Ghostly Records showcase to start the festival off right.

Highlights of the individual artists gracing Seattle for the festival include dancefloor mavens
Robert Hood, Alter Ego and Wighnomy Bros., splendorous ambient soundscapes from
Mountains, Sawako, Goldmund, The Sight Below, Frank Bretschneider and William
Fowler-Collins, nocturnal urban rhythms from Dubstep producers Benga, Pinch, Martyn
and Mala, grandious techno-dub hybrids from Echospace, Boxcutter, DJ/Rupture and
Move D along with nearly innumerable others, in various genres and styles, from the dance
-floor to the seated theatre, through the course of this four day, over 100-artist festival.

Check the Decibel site for full artist listings, bios and showcase descriptions and times.
Previous years have seen showcases at capacity (or even sell out the night of), so
purchase in advance for festival passes and individual showcase tickets is often:

Link to Decibel 'Optical' showcase site

Link to 'Decibel in Dub' showcase site

Link to 'Decibel in the Park' site

Link to Decibel 'Bass Lovers Unite' showcase site

Link to Decibel 'Ghostly Records' showcase site

Roy Andersson's new film "You, the Living" at SIFF Cinema : Sept 11 - 17

2009-08-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

The fourth film in almost 30 years by Swedish auteur Roy Andersson caries on from the
macabre spectacle of the bizarre that made his "Songs from the Second Floor" so singular
in all of cinema. The fantastical surrealism of Fellini, the wide-open alien austerity of Kubrick,
the humor of Terry Gilliam and an impeccable sense of timing and Andersson's own particular
obsession for elaborate artifice (his sets!) which convincingly fool the mind and eye - that are
all his own. Where "Songs from the Second Floor" was a genre-film defying modern 'Living Dead'
tale about society's absurd yearning for 'end times', "You, the Living" is more concerned with the
'Dead, Living'. You know what I mean, we're witness to these people every day; the Dead, Living.

Link to Official Roy Andersson site

Link to SIFF Cinema "You, the Living" site

Claire Denis' new film "35 Shots of Rum" Opens : Sept 16 - NYC

2009-08-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

Claire Deni's newest "35 shots of Rum" where her explorations of urban life are told through
images of everyday events; transportation, rest, work, home, social activity, quietude - depicting
the daily mundane as scenarios consisting of their fundamental beauty, light, sound and motion.
It also is a keen exploration of race and minority on the fringes of sprawling Paris, told through
the slowly revealed history of one family. Many of Denis' same visual techniques and concerns
are at play throughout "35 Shots...", but here they make for extended threads of compositional
interplay that are more perfectly aligned than any of her previous work.

Link to official "35 shots of Rum" site

SUNN O))), Pelican, Eagle Twin, The Accüsed - Southern Lord West Coast Tour: Aug 5 - 14

2009-07-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

No need for me to get verbosely hyperbolic on this one. What is going to be *The Metal Show* of this year in
Seattle is happening over the course of two nights the first week of August. In particular, the quartet of Eagle Twin,
Pelican, Earth and SUNN O))) on Thursday. Considering the weight, volume and majestic Doom Metal virtuosity
to be on display by any one of these bands, the combined effect promises to be Truly Crushing. These west coast
shows should really be called: The Sonically-induced Structural Damage to Buildings Tour. SUNN O)))'s motto:
"MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS" to be realized in cities up and down the West Coast this summer:

Link to Southern Lord's SUNN O))) West Coast Tour site

Links to The Wire's "Monoliths & Dimensions" SUNN O))) interviews site

Ulrich Seidl's new film "Import/Export" Opens : Jul 31 - NYC

2009-07-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ulrich Seidl's newest finally get's a (very) limited Us release, a year and a half after it's Cannes
premiere. Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson has described the work of Ulrich Seidl as "the
closest thing to hell that I've ever seen on film". His new one, "Import/Export" which premiered
at last year's Cannes, induced a state of late-night torpor (after eating 4 1/2 lbs of oranges all at
once) in me... but that have have been the oranges. Truly desolate. It was beautiful though, both
in the technique and the visual content of the landscapes the drama unfolds within. The 'Hell' of
post-Communism labor exploitation in set in the 'Heaven' of the Eastern European landscapes
(urban nightmare-slums aside). Nearly a decade late, inspiring to see Seidl continuing on with
the ideas first explored in his Jury Prize winning "Dog Days" of 2001.

Link to Ulrich Seidl filmography site

Link to official "Import/Export" site

Cannes Film Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

2009-06-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

Link to official Cannes Film Festival site

Link to Cannes 2009 Festival Prize Winners

Cannes being the major preview/herald of film to come in the next year, judging from this, 2009/ 2010 looks
to be shaping up in pretty SPECTACULAR fashion. New ones by some of the worlds greatest orchestrators
of cinematic wonder, shock, beauty, subtle entrancement, rapture and genre-transcendence. Links below to
some of the notable Directors works and prize winners from this years festival. Unfortunate that none of them
made it into the West Coast SIFF/SFIFF Fests this year. After doing reading on the festival in both Sight &
Sound and Film Comment, the abundance of curious and atypical works by established directors suggests
there are some major surprises to be had in the cinema in the coming year!:

Link to Michael Haneke - "The White Ribbon" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: A village in Protestant northern Germany. 1913-1914. On the eve of World War I. The story
of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron,
the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers. Strange accidents occur and
gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all?"

Link to Lars Von Trier -"Antichrist" at Cannes at Cannes site

Absurdly literal synopsis of the events in the narrative for this Von Trier: "Synopsis: A grieving couple
retreat to ’Eden’, their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and
troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse..."

Link to Tsai Ming-Liang - "Visage" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: A Taiwanese filmmaker makes a film based on the myth of Salomé at the Louvre. Even though he
speaks neither French nor English, he insists on giving the part of King Herod to the French actor Jean-Pierre
Léaud. To give the film a chance at the box-office, the production company gives the role of Salomé to a world
famous model. But problems arise as soon as filming begins... Amidst all this confusion, the director suddenly
learns of his mother’s death. The producer flies to Taipei, to attend the funeral. The director falls into a deep
sleep where his mother’s spirit does not seem to want to leave her old apartment. The producer has no choice
but to wait, alone and lost in a strange city. As after a very long voyage, filming will resume with all who were
lost in the underground of the Louvre."

Link to Park Chan-Wook - "Thirst" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Sang-hyun is a beloved and admired priest in a small town, who devotedly serves at a local hospital.
He goes to Africa to volunteer as a test subject in an experiment to find a vaccine to the new deadly infectious
disease caused by Emmanuel Virus (E.V.). During the experiment, he is infected by the E.V. and dies. But
transfusion of some unidentified blood miraculously brings him back to life, and unbeknownst to him, it has also
turned him into a vampire. After his return home, news of Sang-hyun's recovery from E.V. spreads and people
start believing he has the gift of healing and flock to receive his prayers. From those who come to him, Sang-
hyun meets a childhood friend named Kang-woo and his wife Tae-ju. Sang-hyun is immediately drawn to Tae-ju.
Tae-ju gets attracted to Sang-hyun, who now realizes he has turned into a vampire, and they begin a secret love
affair. Sang-hyun asks Tae-ju to run away with him but she turns him down. Instead, she tries to involve Sang-
hyun in a plot to kill Kang-woo..."

Link to Gaspar Noe - "Enter the Void" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Oscar and his sister Linda are recent arrivals in Tokyo. Oscar's a small time drug dealer, and Linda
works as a nightclub stripper. One night, Oscar is caught up in a police bust and shot. As he lies dying, his spirit,
faithful to the promise he made his sister that he would never abandon her - refuses to abandon the world of the
living. It wanders through the city, his visions growing evermore distorted, evermore nightmarish. Past, present
and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom."

Link to Brillante Mendoza - "Kinatay" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Peping, a criminology student, is recruited by his schoolmate, Abyong, to work as a part-time errand
boy for a local syndicate that collects protection fees from various businesses in Manila. The easy money Peping
earns is spent mostly on his girlfriend, Cecille, who’s also a student. Peping decides to marry her, but in order to
do so he’ll need more money. Abyong contacts Peping to join a "special project" that pays more than normal..."

Link to Pen-Ek Ratanaruang - "Nymph" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: A LONG TIME AGO IN AN UNNAMED FOREST a beautiful young woman was wandering alone
when she fell prey to two men. Shortly thereafter, the lifeless bodies of the two attackers were found floating
down the nearby stream. No one knew what happened to the men or where the woman was, or who or what
might have saved her life. Flash forward to today. May is a city woman who has everything she could ask for.
Things are looking stellar: her career is on the rise, and her long-time husband, Nop, a professional photographer,
showers her with love and attention. But fate or desire play tricks on the couple who watches as their lives drift by
without much thought or reflection, and soon May starts an affair with Korn, another married man. One day Nop is
assigned to take a trip into the forest to film the wildlife. He decides to bring May along. But the journey slowly reveals
how the invisible weight of their urban lifestyle haunts them like a spectre, since May insists on behaving as if she
were still in the city. Her sole concerns are her laptop and her phone, and instead of working from the office she now
works from the tent in the middle of the jungle. Meanwhile, Nop treks into the forest to take pictures of wild deer and
forgotten cobwebs, and along the way he stumbles onto a sad-looking tree – a lonely, mysterious specimen deep in
the heart of the woods."

Link to Alain Resnais - "Wild Grass" at Cannes site

The synopsis from Cannes here for the new Resnais is almost comical in it's brevity: "Synopsis: A wallet lost and
found opens the door - just a crack - to romantic adventure for Georges and Marguerite."

Link to Andrea Arnold - "Fish Tank" at Cannes site

And another one where they give us one sentence: "Synopsis: Fifteen year old Mia’s life is turned on its head when
her Mum brings home a new boyfriend."

Link to Bong Joon-Ho - "Mother" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Widowed for a long time, a mother lives alone with her only son, Do-joon. He is 28 years old, a shy
and quiet young man. In the aftermath of a terrible murder, the woman’s hopeless, helpless son becomes the
prime suspect. There is no real evidence against him, but the police throw groundless suspicion at him simply
because there is no way he can prove his innocence. Eager to close the case, the police are happy with their
cursory investigation and arrest the boy. His defense attorney turns out to be incompetent and unreliable,
making a convictionseem inevitable. Faced with no other choice, his mother gets involved, determined to prove
her son’s innocence."

Link to Hirokazu Kore-eda - "Air Doll" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Hideo, who lives alone, owns a life-size “air doll”, which suddenly finds herself with a heart. Everything
is new to her in the world outside Hideo's house. She meets all kinds of people. The world is filled with so many
beautiful things, but everyone seems to have some kind of hollowness, just as she has. In the morning, she pumps
herself up, and takes a walk. One afternoon, she meets Junichi who works at a rental video store, and instantly falls
in love with him. A first date. New words she learns from him. She starts working with him at the store, enjoys talking
and being with him. Everything seems to be going perfect, until something unexpected happens to the doll."

Link to Lou Ye - "Spring Fever" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Luo Haitao has been hired by Wang Ping’s wife to spy on the passionate relationship between her husband
and another man, but slowly loses control of the situation. With his beautiful girlfriend, Li Jing, he is drawn in to the affair,
overcome by the fever of drunken spring nights. All are possessed by an exhilarating madness of the senses, a dangerous malady that leads the heart and head astray..."

Link to Ken Loach - "Looking for Eric" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers...His chaotic family, his wild stepsons and the cement
mixer in the front garden don’t help, but it is Eric’s own secret that drives him to the brink. Can he face Lily, the woman he
once loved 30 years ago? Despite outrageous efforts and misplaced goodwill from his football fan mates, Eric continues to
sink. In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend from foreign parts to challenge a lost postman to make that journey into the most perilous territory of all - the past. As the Chinese, and one Frenchman, say: "He who is afraid to
throw the dice will never throw a six."

Link to Pedro Almodovar - "Broken Embraces" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: A man writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car crash on the island
of Lanzarote. In the accident, he didn’t lose only his sight, he also lost Lena, the love of his life. This man uses two names:
Harry Caine, a playful pseudonym with which he signs his literary works, stories and scripts, and Mateo Blanco, his real
name, with which he lives and signs the film he directs. After the accident, Mateo Blanco reduces himself to his pseudonym,
Harry Caine. If he can’t direct films he can only survive with the idea that Mateo Blanco died on Lanzarote with his beloved Lena."

A Multiverse of Narratives: Grant Morrison's Final Crisis of Humanity & What Lies Beyond the Edge of the 'Page Bleed'

2009-06-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

This is a companion post to my "Vengeance, Mortality & the Multiverse" on Grant Morrison's
currently running Batman story of the past couple years. That narrative intersecting in no
small way with the Sturm und Drang of his simultaneously published Parallel Universe riff
on the Jack Kirby created Cosmic celestial realms of his New Gods stories of the the 70's in
combination with the DC Universe 'event' book of the 80's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" which
I'm currently reading now for the first time since High School. As Morrison's own mutant
hybrid of those two works, "Final Crisis" reads as a brilliant, mesmerizing, surrealist, meta
-cosmological fusion of Superhero Comic Book Mythology, Cabalistic Magick, and Quantum
Cosmology. One that is his own culmination/condensation of Jack Kirby's 4th World New
Gods mythos and the 75 year of stories told in the 52 Parallel Universes of the DC Comics
publishing legacy, as a channel-surfing, innumerable characters, many 'Earths', history of
the cosmos and man's introduction in the Paleolithic Era to the nature of storytelling (thank
you Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"). Spanning from the time of our introduction to
'narrative' (thanks here according to Morrison as contact with 'higher beings'; ie Metron) to
the present day where all of the Multiverse is being dragged down onto our Earth, by the fall
of these same-said higher beings and the aftermath of their (unseen by us mere mortals)
Ragnarok. And yep, the 'bad guys' show up on Earth first.

Link to DC Comics Absolute "Final Crisis" - Deluxe Edition

Link to DC Comics Absolute "Crisis on Infinite Earths" - Deluxe Edition

Better said by far in Jay Babcock's intro in (the now sadly defunct) Arthur Magazine: "Final
Crisis is a major achievement of 21st century imagination and craft in mainstream media,
works on countless levels, far too many for me to enumerate here. Final Crisis is so good that
although it’s part of a continuing, decades-in-the-telling saga involving countless characters,
you can follow the plot and dig on the ideas and the dialogue and the sheer spectacle of the
events that spiral from the trash up into the transcendent, even if you’re not familiar with all
the backstory. (Rest assured that there are detailed annotations available online regarding
previous references to Darkseid’s hatred of music, which parallel earth Nubia and where her
Wonder Horn comes from, and so on…) Of course, that’s the way it’s always been with DC
Universe comic books: you don’t always know everything about everyone, and sometimes
you miss stuff, and sometimes you only suss out later what something was really all about.
(Same is true for life in the real world, actually…) Final Crisis continues in that tradition,
but as you’ll see, it’s at a higher dose - a different pitch, a denser signal - than usual, one
that mirrors the world we are living in, when too many things really are going terribly
wrong all at the same time, when headlines really do scream about catastrophe, turmoil,
doom, collapse and apocalypse. And maybe that’s this audacious work’s genius, even more
than its elegant architecture, its overwhelming dazzle, its virtuoso artwork by J. G. Jones
and Doug Mahnke: the way that it shows us a path beyond the current situation, out of
economic cataclysm and endless horrible wars and ecological peril and unchanging red lights."

Link to DC Comics "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus" - Vol.1

Link to DC Comics "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus" - Vol.2

Link to DC Comics "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus" - Vol.3

Link to DC Comics "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus" - Vol.4

These Are the Secrets of Death We Teach: Vengeance, Mortality & the Multiverse in Grant Morrison's Batman

2009-05-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Serialized beginning in 2006, this four volume and-counting story in
which Grant Morrison (best known as the author of the groundbreaking,
outre', anarchistic “Invisibles” & "Doom Patrol" titles in the 80's & 90's)
reinvents Batman for the 21st Century as a ‘psychedelic noir’ tale drawing
on the entirety of the written history of the character, as though it were
the chronicle of the extraordinary (and bizarre!) life of one man:

Link to DC Comics: "Batman & Son" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.1

Link to DC Comics: "Batman: The Black Glove" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.2

Link to DC Comics: "Batman R.I.P." - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.3

Link to DC Comics: "Batman & Robin" - Grant Morrison's Batman Vol.4

Volume one begins with three maniac cops masquerading as Batman
'haunting' Bruce Wayne as his potential replacements, coinciding
with these events the epiphany of Bruce Wayne's son, Damian, is
revealed by/with the daughter of his arch-nemesis Ras Al-Ghul of the
League of Assassins. All of this spun as a James Bond-esque world
-trotting adventure. Volume two entangles the 'Caped Crusader' in a
series of ominous mysteries as the ultimate villain; ‘The Black Glove’,
who orchestrated both the recruitment of the Batman 'replacements'
from within Gotham Police Department as well as a scheme from
decades past, in which the they employed one Dr. Simon Hurt in
a series of sensory deprivation experiments that Wayne underwent.
Unbeknownst to Wayne, now years later, these were designed to implant
the subconscious seeds of the Black Glove's plan to exploit the deepest
secrets of his personal history, make him doubt his mission, question
his sanity and ultimately in volume three… bring about his demise.

We also find in volume three, that possibly in anticipation of the
Black Glove's threat, Wayne has sensed that his own mortality is in
question and begun a deeper psychological/spiritual pursuit of his
understanding of "Death, After-death and Reincarnation" through the
49 day meditational ritual of Thogal in the isolated Tibetan monastery
known as Nanda Parbat. What we the reader don't see forthcoming at
this point in the tale, is that this threat to his existence doesn't come
in the form of mortal men, or even the material plane, but instead the
New God of anti-life, submission, dominance and despair by the name
of Darkseid. Batman's confrontation with this cosmic force is told in
Morrison's simultaneously released, time traveling, theoretical cosmology
spanning, DC Universe-encompassing meta-narrative title; "Final Crisis":

Link to DC Comics: "Final Crisis" - Deluxe Edition

Link to DC Comics: "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus - Vol.1"

Link to DC Comics: "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus - Vol.2"

Link to DC Comics: "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus - Vol.3"

Link to DC Comics: "Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus - Vol.4"

Catch all of that? As if all of that wasn't enough densely layered
detective mystery, crime thriller, existential horror and consciousness
riddling cosmic space-epic for 24 issues of a monthly comic, there's
also Morrison's penchant for random surrealism, oblique, strictly
visual references and seeming (at the time) confounding non-sequitur,
which more often than not, are revealed to be foreshadowing of the
larger overarching narrative concerns of mortality, consciousness,
memory and identity. So now we're up to speed? And just in time!

This coming June sees the beginnings of volume four, serialized as
the new ongoing monthly "Batman & Robin". Right-off continuing the
various threads of the previous books, retroactively giving perspective
not only to the Black Glove and Damian Wayne stories, but through
"Final Crisis" also entwining the mythos of Batman into the legendary
creations of Jack Kirby's "4th World" hierarchy of comic deities and
cosmic folklore. What has become of Bruce Wayne? In his awareness
of mortality has he prepared himself for disembodiment ...and eventual
reincarnation? Possibly to return as a different man altogether? Leading
finally, to that ultimate of questions; what becomes of the mind after
the death of the body? As the delirium induced hallucination(?) of 5th
Dimensional entity Bat-Mite informs Bruce Wayne midway into issue
#674 of the second volume: "These are the secrets of death we teach.
We came all the way from Space B at the Fivefold Expansion of Zrfff to
prepare your Passage." ...But considering the extra-dimensional nature of
his guide, passage to where? And when? And what? Indeed! Mysteries abound!

Link to Publishers Weekly Grant Morrison "Batman R.I.P." launch interview

Link to Village Voice "Batman R.I.P" article

Link to Newsarama Grant Morrison "Batman & Robin" launch interview

Link to IGN's Grant Morrison "Batman & Robin" interview

Seattle International Film Festival : May 21 - June 14

2009-05-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

Link to Seattle International Film Festival site

Yes! Its that time of the year again. Amazing that this little town of ours has one of the largest film festivals in the whole
of usamerica. In fact, the largest in *North America* for that matter! Schedule was released online May 8 and ticketbooth opens for sales May 9 to the general public. Make sure to get on it in advance if there are specific films you dont want to miss, as the week(s) leading up to the festival can be rather insane and films can sell out within days of going on sale.

:: Some of What I Intend on Cacthing in This Years Fest ::

--------------------------------------------------
Friday, May 22
--------------------------------------------------
4:30 PM - Olivier (Will He Suck As Much This Time?) Assayas "Summer Hours"
SIFF Cinema
HOUR2209M

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28770&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Friday, May 22
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - Esther Rots "Can Go Through Skin"
Pacific Place Cinema
CANG2209A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=29007&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, May 23
--------------------------------------------------
11:00 AM - Andy Bichlbaum "The Yes Men Fix the World"
Neptune Theatre
YESM2309M
http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28926&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, May 23
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Hirokazu Kore-eda "Still Walking"
Harvard Exit
STIL2309A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28802&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, May 23
--------------------------------------------------
12:00 AM - Tommy Wirkola "Dead Snow"
Egyptian Theatre
DEAD2309A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28867&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Sunday, May 24
--------------------------------------------------
1:15 PM - So Yong Kim "Treeless Mountain"
Pacific Place Cinema
MOUN2409A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28815&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Sunday, May 24
--------------------------------------------------
6:45 PM - Sergey Dvortsevoy "Tulpan"
Pacific Place Cinema
TULP2409A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28784&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Monday, May 25
--------------------------------------------------
11:00 AM - Ondi Timoner "We Live in Public"
Egyptian Theatre
WELI2509M

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28899&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 26
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Duncan Jones "Moon"
Egyptian Theatre
MOON2609A
http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28916&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 26
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Lee Anne Schmitt "California Company Town"
Northwest Film Forum
CALI2609A
http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28852&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 27
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Peter Greenaway "Rembrandt’s J’Accuse"
SIFF Cinema
REMB2709A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28851&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 27
--------------------------------------------------
9:15 PM - Catherine Breillat "Bluebeard"
SIFF Cinema
BLUE2709A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28984&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Thursday, May 28
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Carlos Reygadas/Various "Short in the Dark"
Northwest Film Forum
SHOR2809A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=29116&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Friday, May 29
--------------------------------------------------
7:00 PM - Lucrecia Martel "The Headless Woman"
Harvard Exit
HEAD2909A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28787&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, June 03
--------------------------------------------------
6:45 PM - Yoji Yamada "Kabei"
SIFF Cinema
KABE0309A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28767&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Thursday, June 04
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - Kanji Nakajima "The Clone Returns Home"
Uptown Cinema
CLON0409A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28910&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Friday, June 05
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - Marcel Sarmiento/Gadi Harel "Deadgirl"
Kirkland Performance Center
DEDG0509A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28875&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, June 6
--------------------------------------------------
9:30 PM - Guillermo Arriaga "Burning Plain"
Egyptian Theatre
BURN1409A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28811&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, June 13
--------------------------------------------------
3:00 PM - Chen Kaige "Forever Enthralled"
Cinerama
ENTH1309A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28945&FID=123

--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, June 13
--------------------------------------------------
9:15 PM - Paolo Sorrentino "Il Divo"
Cinerama
ILDI1309A

http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=28781&FID=123

Mutek Electronic Music Festival : May 27 - 31 : Montreal

2009-05-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

Its approaching Mutek time again! Not only that, but this year marks the 10th anniversary
of the festival (yes, it's been a decade since the first venture in Montreal) for this now world
-renowned electronic media and arts festival:

Link to Mutek Festival Lineup site

Rather than go on and get all wordy, Im just going to condense this one down to a shortlist.
Inspired anticipation for these artists this time around!:

Ryoji Ikeda
GAS
Carsten Nicolai
SND
Byetone
Deadbeat
Moderat
Ghislain Poirier
Appleblim
Raster-Noton label Showcase

Highligh this year being the A/Visions Showcase aspect of the festival featuring advanced
intersections of sound and video medias:

Link to Mutek Festival A/Visions site

Earshot Jazz presents Peter Brötzmann Trio and Mats Gustafsson's The Thing at Cornish College : Apr 28 - 30

2009-04-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

Earshot Jazz Festival brings to town two performances this week as a double-strike of the world's most
intense purveyors in destructed improv skronk / free jazz. The godfather of blasting post-post-bebop punk
-informed sax destruction Peter Brötzmann on Tues April 28 *and* Norway's Mats Gustafsson w/ The Thing
delivering sweltering blistering blasts of HEAVY metal, rock and punk saturated improv on Thurs the 30th:

Link to Smalltown Superjazz Label site

Link to Earshot Jazz Festival Spring Concert Series site

Visual / Sonic Art Events : Promulgation of Adventures in Sight / Sound

:::: FILMS OF 2011 ::::

:::: ALBUMS OF 2011 ::::

Richard Skelton's 'new' album "The Complete Landings"

Lars Von Trier's new film "Melancholia" at Landmark Theatres: Nov 11 - Jan 20

New Films by Pedro Almodovar, Goran Hugo Olsson, Sean Durkin & Jeff Nichols at Landmark Theatres: Oct 14 - Nov 24

Boris US Tour: Oct 8 - Nov 12 & Earshot Jazz Festival: Oct 14 - Nov 6

Decibel Festival of Electronic Music: Sept 28 - Oct 2

The Ouroboros Ring Around the World: Arcanum vs. Incorporated (or) Science vs. Magic in Grant Morrison's Batman

Sounds on Rotation - Aug / Sept - Books in Circulation

Yes, We Know You Hate the City: Cryogenic Culture Shock, Gonzo Journalism & A Election of Greater Evils in Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan

Raúl Ruiz's new film "Mysteries of Lisbon" at IFC: Aug 5 - 11 Opening at Landmark Theatres: Aug 18 & SIFF Cinema Sept 30 - Oct 13

Substrata 1.01: Sound & Visual Art Festival: Jul 15 - 17

Cannes Film Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 'new' film "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" at Northwest Film Forum: Jun 17 - 30

Takashi Miike's new film "13 Assassins" at Landmark Theatres: Apr 17 - Jun 30

Boris' new albums "Attention Please",『New Album』& "Heavy Rocks" released May 24

Seattle International Film Festival : May 19 - June 12

Eccentricities Flourishing in Bureaucratic Immensity: How Transcendental Boredom & Immersion Will Save Us All in David Foster Wallace's The Pale King

Unsound Festival New York : April 1 - 10

David Foster Wallace new (final) novel, "The Pale King" : Published April 15 - at Independent Booksellers Now

"Patricio Guzman's Chile" series at Northwest Film Forum : Apr 1 - 7

How 'Fixing Everything' Will Break the Universe: Parallel Realities, Probability Engines & Family Values in Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four

Nick Cave's "Meet Me at the Center of the Earth" Exhibit & Performances at SAM : Mar 10 - Jun 5

How to Beat the Arrangement: Sephirothic Magick, Wicked Slingshots & Torah Studies in Adam Levin's The Instuctions

Godspeed! You Black Emperor & SWANS - US Tours: Feb 17 - Mar 29

"Nuremberg" & "Shoah" : Defining Documentaries of the Past Century at Landmark & IFC Feb 4 - May 13

Ólafur Arnalds & Ensemble with Barn Owl and Others - US Tour : Jan 24 - Feb 4

Ryoji Ikeda "Datamatics" Multimedia Performance: Feb 3 - Vancouver

"Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary" at MoCA LA / Performances of Major Works at RedCat Theatre: Nov 6 - Feb 4

:::: FILMS OF 2010 ::::

:::: ALBUMS OF 2010 ::::

The Medium is the Message & We Are Become It: Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media

The Earth is Watching, Careful How You Tread: Elementals, American Gothic, Interstellar Travel & Interspecies Love in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing

Lovecraftian Horror Rises from the Desert: Europe at War, a Mythological Author & Mass Murders as a Artifact of Globalization in Roberto Bolaño's 2666

Olivier Assayas' new film "Carlos" *full cut* at Northwest Film Forum : Nov 5 - 7

Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Paino" tour & Earshot Jazz Festival : Oct 15 - Nov 7

Sounds on Rotation - Oct / Nov - Books in Circulation

Gaspar Noe's new film "Enter the Void" at Northwest Film Forum : Oct 8 - 14

Cary Grant Singlehandedly Averts the Cold War, Proving McCarthy to be the Fool He Is: MI6, Yugoslavia & Alfred Hitchcock's Unmade Film in Wu Ming's 54

Decibel Festival of Electronic Music : Sept 22 - 26

Boris, Red Sparowes & Russian Circles - US Tour : Jul 24 - Sept 5

Cannes Film Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

The Quantum Metropolis is Everything You Imagine it To Be: Stalking Tigers, Mythic Record Collections & Metaphysical Ceramics in Lethem's Chronic City

Seattle International Film Festival : May 20 - June 13

Johann Johannsson w/ String Sextet & The Rafael Anton Irrisari Trio at the Triple Door : May 12 / US Tour Apr 30 - May 15

Werner Herzog & Bela Tarr's new films "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" & "Man From London" at NWFF : April 5 - 16

Morgan Thorson & Low "Heaven" at On the Boards : April 1 - 4

The Ultimate Villain Revealed: Immortality, 18th Century Decadence & Devil Worship in Grant Morrison's Batman

Bong Joon-Ho's "Mother" at Landmark Theatres : Mar 12 - Apr 18

Skull Disco's Shackleton, The Sight Below & Daega Sound at Nectar Lounge : March 5

Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker's "Red Riding" Trilogy at Northwest Film Forum : Feb 26 - Mar 4

Portland's International Film & Jazz Festivals : Feb 11 - 28

Sion Sono's new Film "Love Exposure" UK Release & New York Screening

:::: FILMS OF 2009 ::::

:::: ALBUMS OF 2009 ::::

Michael Haneke & Corneliu Porumboiu's new films at Landmark Theatres : Jan - Feb

25+ Films of the Decade : It's 2010, Do You Know Where Your Cinema Is?

New Films by Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl and Lisandro Alonso at NWFF : Nov 5 - 19

Parkins & Mori "Phantom Orchard" / Earshot Jazz Festival - Seattle : Oct 16 - Nov 8

Lars Von Trier's new film "Antichrist" at Landmark Theatres : Oct 23

Decibel Festival of Electronic Music : Sept 24 - 27

Roy Andersson's new film "You, the Living" at SIFF Cinema : Sept 11 - 17

Claire Denis' new film "35 Shots of Rum" Opens : Sept 16 - NYC

SUNN O))), Pelican, Eagle Twin, The Accüsed - Southern Lord West Coast Tour: Aug 5 - 14

Ulrich Seidl's new film "Import/Export" Opens : Jul 31 - NYC

Cannes Film Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

A Multiverse of Narratives: Grant Morrison's Final Crisis of Humanity & What Lies Beyond the Edge of the 'Page Bleed'

These Are the Secrets of Death We Teach: Vengeance, Mortality & the Multiverse in Grant Morrison's Batman

Seattle International Film Festival : May 21 - June 14

Mutek Electronic Music Festival : May 27 - 31 : Montreal

Earshot Jazz presents Peter Brötzmann Trio and Mats Gustafsson's The Thing at Cornish College : Apr 28 - 30

Olivier Assayas' new film "Carlos" full cut at Northwest Film Forum : Nov 5 - 7