Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I just watched the CNN/youtube democratic debate and the latest Republican debate...dedcided to punish myself for being such a bad little heathen

So that was entirely painful. Jesus. I almost commited suicide twice. But I'll write about that later. I just wanted to post this link to Romney trash talking Democrats already. It's painful to watch people slinging mud and issuing their catch phrases already. (I kind of like Kucinich, but I swear to god if he points out that he's been against the war from the beginning one more time...). Anyway, here's the link to the story: From The Examiner

I pray that Republicans quit using tag lines about how the Democrats can't say "Islamic Terrorism" in public and how Bin Laden is running Al Qaeda in Iraq...



My sources (not real people) say that this photo was taken on a nice spring weekend when Romney packed up the kids and strapped the dog to his roof and dove to a cabin of his, way up north. The kids loved it. The dog has declined to comment on the incident.

Oh, yeah, and this was breaking news today, Iran has said that they will "never" stop their nuclear development programs. I thought they already said that. Or that it was one of things that's just understood. hmm. article from Reuters

UFOs



I don't believe this sort of stuff, but it is kind of interesting.This is just an article I found on the Drudge Report that's kind of interesting. From a British newspaper: people see aliens in Stratford...

Monday, July 23, 2007

Are you happy now? (David)

I'll put a comment here then. I'll comment wherever I damn well please. (because I have nothing better to do...oh, god, I miss you so much)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Winter

I've been working on and off for the last couple of weeks on Snapko's film 'Winter' again. It's been interesting because it was about this time last year that I began working on it. Before I go any furthur I'd like to note that I'm not an important person on the shoot at all, no creative input, I haven't even probably been on half of it. Just wanted that out there so I didn't sound like I was shooting a feature of my own or anything. But Jim tends to work with a really small crew, maybe one or two people in the crew and he does all of his own cinematograhy. As I continue to try to get projects the breadth of impinging forces upon the independent filmmaker becomes more evident to me. I've actually only worked on one film that's finished. Jake Yuzna's film 'Open,' which I worked on through the bulk of the summer last year isn't finished, in fact, he's flying back to Minneapolis in a couple weeks to begin reshoots. But the time it has taken to get these done is intimidating. As I work on scripts of my own I feel like they can't possibly be ready at the moment, because to work on a film for two years or more is a commitment. Not that I don't have a work ethic that would see a film through but that I feel like the passion must die. The excitement and thrill of making art, seeing what you've written come to life might die as you work, as you realize that maybe things aren't as tight as you were hoping.

I find this to be a depressing revelation.

But, I guess, it must also be a positive expereince because it makes me, well no that's a lie, it should make me want to go more in depth with my writing, to really weed out the issues, the details that don't interest me. There's a lesson in here somewhere. but I'm not sure where it went.

Monday, July 16, 2007

I'm not really too sure about this

I found this posted in a Messersmith blog post on myspace. I've never heard of this, but it's absurd and real. If anyone knows where to locate the rest of this let me know. Star Wars X-mas special...

Friday, July 6, 2007

Free the Leaves

The Soap Factory this time

I went to the new gallery opening at the Soap Factory this weekend and was a bit shocked. To begin I'll drop a disclaimer, I love the Soap Factory, I think it's one of the best galleries in town, without a doubt. Before this gallery I've never been disappointed when I've gone.

This opening was fun, as usual, cheap wine, good music, good company. Birthday Suits rocked, Seawhores rocked (though I only caught a little of their set). But the gallery was not very interesting. Entering from the double doors at the top of the stairs to the deck that room and the subsequent room where patchy. I don't want to dog the artists, because there was some really good pieces in the room, but not enough of them that it cast a glow over the room. Which, I believe, is the hope of curating. No one will ever like every peice in a room, but the room should be themed in a way that casts a glow over the room so that it feels coherent while being diverse, colored whiled being tinted and spotted. But a lot of the art in the room was trite, had trite obvious titles, images and themes. There was something everywhere that was a major turn-off about the room, and the next room. They seemed to fit together and to have very little to do with the rest of the gallery.

The large room after those two was done by Faggot. This was patchy as well, but in a much better way. I actually think this is the best room in the new gallery. The room is like a giant collage of many films, posters, signs, clothes. It's a little oppresive in it's over-saturation of objects, but it's good for an exhibit that's supposed to be a little in your face and obstructive.

The room where the wine is generally served and the music enjoyed was a huge disappointment. I'm not going to argue that concert posters aren't art (the entire room is concert posters) because they are, and there are some really great posters in there, very talented artists. But there are not enough concert poster artists in the city to have a constant gallery of them somewhere. It's the same people who have been in the concert posters galleries over and over. It's really killing the vibe. If I see a flyer or an anouncement for a gallery like that I don't go. It's getting redundant. More importantly, at an opening for a gallery like this it really creates an awful atmosphere. Concert poster artists are more driven to sell their product than other artists. I don't mind a price sitting underneaeth the information placard. I don't feel like there is any air of selling out in such practices, so I'm not going there. It's just that when you get all of these artists together who are selling concert posters and have tables in front of the displays, with catalogues of posters sitting out, it feels more like a flea market than a gallery. It's so much more aggresive than a gallery should be.

That's all I guess, I was just disappointed because the Soap Factory is usually so awesome, and it wasn't that great. It's worth checking out. But meh. Faggot is playing a show in there later this month and on the 13th they're screening a film so mayabe go then. But meh.

Oh yeah and the short films are really good. That was a great part of the gallery, better than they usually are. But I've already rambled so much I'll allow that to suffice. You should go to see the movies, good stuff, one that resembles Nanook of the North if it was a short directed by Tarantino (which I generally use Tarantino as a bad adjective, but this time I mean it in a positive fashion) and one that is like Bubsby Berekley films mixed with Gondry, very cool, moderatly confusing I don't know if there was supposed to be music and it wasn't working or if it was just intended to be a silent dance number, but it was really great. There. I'm done.

Meh.