Friday, October 31, 2008
Go: See Zack and Miri with a fullhouse
Go!!
And do yourself a favor - see Zack and Miri in a crowded movie theatre, with lot of others laughing their heads off. It's a group experience you won't want to miss.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Newspapers, the primal love along with radio and movies
The Media Equation
Mourning Old Media’s Decline By DAVID CARRPublished: October 28, 2008The news that Google settled two longstanding suits with book authors and publishers over its plans to digitize the world’s great libraries suggests that some level of détente could be reached between old media and new.
If true, it can’t come soon enough for the news business.
It’s been an especially rotten few days for people who type on deadline. On Tuesday, The Christian Science Monitor announced that, after a century, it would cease publishing a weekday paper. Time Inc., the Olympian home of Time magazine, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated, announced that it was cutting 600 jobs and reorganizing its staff. And Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, compounded the grimness by announcing it was laying off 10 percent of its work force — up to 3,000 people.
Clearly, the sky is falling. The question now is how many people will be left to cover it.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Michael Barnes on Paul Woodruff's "The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched."
The Statesman page isn't linking properly, but I found this particularly interesting:
“People need theater,” Woodruff writes. “They need it the way they need each other — the way they need to gather, to talk things over, to have stories in common, to share friends and enemies. They need to watch, together, something human.”
Woodruff ranks theater alongside religion and language as essential distinguishing human characteristics. I’d add socializing to the list, for many of the same reasons.
Both kinds of watching and being watched, social and theatrical, start early in life. “We hardly take ourselves very seriously unless we can get others’ attention,” the slender, hesitant Woodruff says at rain-splashed Mozart’s Coffee Roasters on Lake Austin Boulevard. “The first thing we know as an infant, after finding a mother’s breast, is how to get her attention. And newborns are excellent at that.”
Yet the process doesn’t stop there.
“Learning how to give attention is a little harder,” he says. “We are naturally wired for getting it more than giving it.”
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thriller in Austin syncronized worldwide
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK Highly Recommended!!
In this time of decreasing art house audiences, megawatt blockbusters, and fractured niche comfort zones, I wonder how much room there is for a movie like this. This is a movie that I find so utterly satisfying. This is a movie that I know is not for everyone. But this is a movie that totally speaks to me. Go see it.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Order of Myths w Margaret Brown in person. Highly Recommended
THE ORDER OF MYTHS
With Director Margaret Brown In Attendance
Monday, 20 October 6:30 PM | The Alamo South Lamar (1120 S Lamar)
Tickets are $4 for AFS Members and $6 for Non-members. Buy Tickets>>
The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2007, it is still racially segregated. Filmmaker Margaret Brown (“Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt”), herself a daughter of Mobile, escorts us into the parallel hearts of the city’s two carnivals. With unprecedented access, she traces the exotic world of secret mystic societies and centuries-old traditions and pageantry; diamond-encrusted crowns, voluminous, hand-sewn gowns, surreal masks and enormous paper mache floats. Against this opulent backdrop, she uncovers a tangled web of historical violence and power dynamics, elusive forces that keep this hallowed tradition organized along enduring color lines.
Watch the trailer for THE ORDER OF MYTHS>>
Buy Tickets>>
Official Film website: http://www.theorderofmyths.com/
THE ORDER OF MYTHS opens theatrically at The Alamo South Lamar on October 24. Tickets are available at http://www.originalalamo.com
The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2007, it is still racially segregated. Filmmaker Margaret Brown (Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt), herself a daughter of Mobile, escorts us into the parallel hearts of the city's two carnivals. With unprecedented access, she traces the exotic world of secret mystic societies and centuries-old traditions and pageantry; diamond-encrusted crowns, voluminous, hand-sewn gowns, surreal masks and enormous papier-mache floats. Against this opulent backdrop, she uncovers a tangled web of historical violence and power dynamics, elusive forces that keep this hallowed tradition organized along enduring color lines. Prize winner at Silverdocs, and official selection at Sundance, SXSW, Full Frame, Edinburgh and LA Film Festivals.
http://www.cinemaguild.com/orderofmyths/
FILM FESTIVAL LIST:
World Premiere, Sundance Film Festival, 2008
Winner, Cinematic Vision Award, Silverdocs, 2008
Official Selection, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, 2008
Official Selection, Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2008
Official Selection, Los Angeles International Film Festival, 2008
The film’s running time is 80 minutes; it is not rated.
CRITIC'S PICK! "A WISE AND SOBERLY AFFECTING DOCUMENTARY.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“BRILLIANT. HEARTBREAKING. A WINNER!”
– David Edelstein, New York Magazine
“BRILLIANTLY CAPTIVATING. AN INVALUABLE PORTRAIT OF US-AND-THEM AMERICA, A SMART, GENEROUS, POIGNANT, QUIETLY DISTURBING MOVIE.”
– Robert Abele, LA Times
“THE KIND OF ILLUMINATING WORK THAT SENDS AUDIENCES STUMBLING HOME IN A WIDE-EYED STATE OF ASTONISHMENT. A HAUNTING AND IMPORTANT DOCUMENTARY.
– S. James Snyder, The New York Sun
“THE ORDER OF MYTHS IS THE BEST DOCUMENTARY IN AGES, AND ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR.”
– Jeff Reichert, Reverse Shot
“HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED NONFICTION FILMMAKING. WONDERFULLY VIVID.”
– Michael Koresky, Indiewire
“AN INTIMATE EXCAVATION OF THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN RACISM.” CRITIC’S PICK
– Logan Hill, New York Magazine
“QUIETLY SHOCKING. DEFT, ENGROSSING.
– Vadim Rizov, The Village Voice
“REMARKABLY ASSURED. A LEVEL OF CRAFT THAT STUNS.”
– A. J. Schnack, Indiewire
“SMARTLY EDITED, UTTERLY ENGROSSING AND AS INTELLIGENT AN EXAMINATION OF AMERICAN RACE RELATIONS AS I’VE SEEN.”
– Pete VonderHaar, Film Threat
“A MOVING AND SURPRISING DOCUMENTARY.”
– Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
“A RICH PORTRAIT… BROWN PRESENTS A COMPLEX, PROVOCATIVE VIEW; AND SHE ENDS WITH ONE OF THE MOST MYSTERIOUS AND CHILLING TAG LINES EVER.”
– Andy Klein, LA City Beat
“A GREAT REMINDER THAT, EVEN IN THE YEAR OF OBAMA, WE REMAIN A NATION DIVIDED BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE.” CRITICS’ PICK
– David Fear, Time Out New York
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Late Bloomers. NYer piece by Malcolm Gladwell.
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Annals of Culture
Late Bloomers
Why do we equate genius with precocity?
by Malcolm Gladwell
Sunday, October 05, 2008
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It's a question of engagement
Very much enjoyed the experience of seeing Che at the NYFF press screening at the Ziegfield. Soderbergh said:
It's a question of engagement. Participate or observe? We have to make this decision everyday.