| The Darjeeling Limited |
[Oct. 20th, 2007|10:40 pm] |
I saw The Darjeeling Limited tonight. It was amazing. Really. And this isn't just coming from a Wes Anderson-phile: it was a really good movie. It's actually pushed past The Royal Tenenbaums and become my favorite movie, not just of his, but in general. Some critics have been kind of ambivalent about it, but from what I can tell, most of the arguments are against Anderson's style, in general. If you love his style, you'll love this movie, like I do. If not, you'll probably really like it.
Go see it. Seriously. |
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| Owen Wilson |
[Aug. 29th, 2007|04:33 pm] |
Even though I don't know him personally, I still wish Owen Wilson to get well soon as if I did. It's impossible to imagine what he, his family, and everyone around him is going through right now, and I would be a liar and a monster if I considered myself anywhere near them. However, I truly worry about what has happened to Owen and sincerely hope he makes a full recovery and then some.
There is some rampant and horrible speculation coming from places that should be thought of as not just inconsiderate, but frankly, inhuman. Certain publications are already building on this tragedy for their own gain, and the rumors that they are spreading are coming from sources that, if speaking this early on, are anything but truly concerned for him: Whether or not these third and fourth-hand sources could actually be considered credible, along with the tabloids they've approached, is very suspect. Until Owen informs the public, if he chooses to do so, about what happened and the details around it, we have no right to speculate about the circumstances surrounding his private life, especially the ones that led to something like this.
Get well soon, Owen. |
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| City of Lost Children |
[Jun. 24th, 2007|05:56 pm] |
After a friend of mine espoused about the fantastic-ness of "The City of Lost Children," I thought I ought to actually watch the movie. So I did.
I really liked it. I think that I missed a few subtitles at the beginning of the movie (it's in French, and even though I "speak" French, well... I "speak" French), so I was a little confused about some of the plot (a quick trip to Wikipedia afterwards clarified that). Still, I really enjoyed it, not just stylistically (very vertical, kind of a mix between "The Triplets of Belleville" and "Brazil," and very anachronistic, to be brief), but also in terms of the story, which I thought was simple, complex, and in-between. All in all, it was fun to watch, interesting to ponder (lots of subtext and metaphors), and overall just a good movie. Though not close to being exactly the same, if you like Terry Gilliam movies, especially "Brazil" and "Baron Munchausen," then I'd definitely recommend it. |
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| Les Couleurs de l'Eau |
[May. 12th, 2007|02:08 am] |
"Les Couleurs de l'Eau" ("The Colors of Water")
I entered this into the 72-Hour Film Competition, put on by the Grand Cinema, this year.
A little while back in French class, while we were watching "Les Quatres Cents Coups" ("The 400 Blows"), we watched brief snippets of "Sit and Be Fit" while the video was turned on and then switched from cable over to DVD. So Joe Doherty, a classmate of mine, and myself thought it would be really funny if the class made a French work-out video. We kept talking about doing this, as a class final or something like that, but it did not seem like anything was going to happen.
So, along comes the 72-Hour Film Competition. I think: Hey - what if... and so it was. I tried to write in as much to make it pretty "French," including a lot of references to New Wave films from the 60's (plus, some other, more obvious stuff). All of the 30-ish teams showed their five-minute or less films for the competition on Thursday at this theater, The Rialto, and after all is said and done, I'm pretty content with it.
Hope it isn't boring or incomprehensible! |
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| Site redesign, and a new movie! |
[Apr. 22nd, 2007|01:12 am] |
So, I really haven't updated that in a while. That'll have to start changing. Sometime.
Anyway:
The website, radioactivehat.com, has a new design! (Watch me be hip and call it "version 2.0"). The code for it is a little clunky (I made it on iWeb because, for starters, I just got a new computer, and I thought it'd be cool to play around with. Cool interface, but the programming part is a little unpolished), so the site is a hair slow loading up in some places, but aside from that I'm basically quite happy with it. iWeb isn't Dreamweaver or anything (that's what I used before), but with enough workarounds and what not it should be fine.
So yeah, go and enjoy!
Also, I made a new movie this week. It's called "Blank".
The Seattle Times does this contest where they ask people to submit 3-minute films they have made in the past year. I was telling my dad that, even though I wanted to do it, I didn't have anything that short. He told me I should make a movie with our two kittens, Belle and Pierre, as a joke. Because of that, I kind of laughed and forgot about it. A few days later I was outside reading a magazine, and I noticed how nice the day was and how pretty my backyard seemed. So, on a whim, I went and shot some footage, with and without the cats, around our garden and whatnot. Thinking that it would enhance the beautiful scenery, I intentionally blurred all of the footage while shooting, which has good and not so good receptions from my family. But anyways...
I hope you get a kick out of it. If not, it's only 2 minutes 10 seconds long.
Oh, and one more thing: The dialogue is a little quiet, so that might need to be turned up before hand (or, may be not: I don't know).
Enjoy! |
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| Canadia |
[Mar. 13th, 2007|07:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  comme ci comme ça | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Gronlandic Edit - of Montreal | ] |
Over the weekend, in Vancouver, B.C. , all of the bands played at a music festival at a place called Willingdon Church. The place wasn't exactly a megachurch, or close to one, but it was big (it had its own espresso stand inside the church, just in case someone needed a side of caffeine to go with a side of religiousiositynessality). Anyways, the only people there were really other bands adjudicators. This guy with an afro from Toronto named Colin, really a nice, smart, and funny man, gave us our clinic after we (Concert Band) had played. The only thing about him was is sweat. I mean profuse amounts of sweat, buckets just pouring down his face. It was like a fountain. But really, he was a cool guy (no pun intended).
Afterwards we went to the mall called Metrotown which is supposed to be one of the biggest in Canada or North America or something like that. It was pretty interesting to roam around in. I bought myself a pocket square for $6 Canadian, which would have been even awesome-r except for having to deal with a very ineffective, or at least out of it, sales clerk. But I wasn't an ass to him or anything, so that's no big deal (I beat myself up after I act like a douche most of the time). Friends of mine, friends of friends, and I walked around for a little while, finally catching up with our band director in the food court, eating Thai food all alone. We took "pity" on him and sat down, and eventually we all went to Red Robin had dinner with him, talking about band, politics, and miscellanea. He's a really cool guy, but I can't imagine how he deals with all of his stress sometimes: If there's one job I couldn't bear doing, aside from being president, it would be being a high school band director, especially with bands that travel and put on concerts often. We owe him one.
Anyways... the next day we went to a place called "Watermania," which was a semi-large indoor pool facility. After an hour I went to an arcade, spent a few dollars on House of the Dead 4 and that Sega one with the helicopter and the machine gun in NYC that was made in '96 or something, and then went across the street to a movie theater with another arcade in it, met up with the group of friends from the previous night, blew $5 Canadian trying to play a game-o'-skill to win "Babel" on DVD, and watched a few people play DDR (One quite well). After some Subway which followed some crummy pizza, we all went to the facility for a few minutes and then back on the buses for a long-ish drive down to Tacoma.
We stopped, both to and from, at a place called Izzy's, which is a buffet style restaurant with some really, really good pizza (this was in Bellingham, but I think there's one in Olympia and Everett, too). Ice cream/frozen yogurt however... Didn't even taste it. Looked like a brown prism and just... yuck.
For some reason on the way up, I thought it'd be a cool thing to start using my cellphone's texting-esque internet browser, signing myself up for more monthly fees along the ways, plus airtime charges. Really worthwhile.
...
At the mall I bought the new "of Montreal" CD on the cheap. It's pretty good (I haven't listened to any other full albums of theirs, so I guess I couldn't really compare).
...
I've been kind of sick the past three days. On Sunday it was a mild-ish cold, then Monday it was weird head pains and a sore throat (bad cold), so I left school early, and today the head thingies went away, but the sore throat is there (a little worse? I'm not sure), so I went to school (wouldn't usually because of not wanting to get other people sick, but it's WASL time, which means we 10th graders are given the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, supposedly the 3rd hardest state asessment test in the nation, but it's really, for me at least, more tedious than anything else. It's passing is "required" to graduate, though the state legislature has basically said that half of it really doesn't count. Oh well. I'd have to wait another full year to retake it, so...).
...
Barton Fink is a good movie. |
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| Saudade |
[Feb. 11th, 2007|02:11 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | film, music, saudade | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  awake | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Song for Myla Goldberg | ] |
I recently saw "Notes on a Scandal" and "Volver" back-to-back on the Grand on Saturday. I thought they were both pretty good, but personally I think I prefer "Notes": The performances of Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, and Bill Nighy were fantastic, really breath-taking. "Volver" was well acted, too (Penélope Cruz did a fine job), but I thought the story was a little meandering and melodramatic at times. But still, it was a good movie. They were both good, all in all.
...
A while back, during Sundance, I saw a short film called "The Oates' Valor" streaming online. It's written and directed by a 27 year-old named Tim Thaddus Cahill, and it was Wes Anderson/Noah Baumbach-esque at times, which I enjoy. Still, it was unique, too. It was more or less about a boy and his (as every synopsis online says) "militaristic" dad, and one last chance at them settling differences. It was definitely worth seeing: I hope this guy goes places.
The 14 minute film featured some music by a band named "Beirut". This, in turn, is the work of a 20 year-old who dropped out of high school at 16 and lived in Europe for a while before moving to Brooklyn. It really is a fantastic sound, with bits of Portuguese and aux-Roma music, and other European influences. It's very wistful.
...
"Saudade" is a Portuguese word that is quite awesome. It's one of the hardest word's to translate, so I won't. Still, look it up on Wikipedia: You won't be disappointed. |
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| Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? |
[Jan. 11th, 2007|10:11 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | band, cliché, computer, film, music, pets, power, school, snow, solitaire, weather | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  comme artiste | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Thank You For Sending Me An Angel - Talking Heads | ] |
Happy New Year!
So...
I haven't updated in over a month.
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| Logan |
[Dec. 3rd, 2006|10:17 pm] |
Logan Whitehurst has died.
This is so awkward, phrasing these kinds of thoughts through type. I don't know exactly what to say.
Even though we all saw this coming, it's still hitting hard.
Logan was a fantastic musician, and what would seem to be a amazing person. I wish I could have known him personally. I feel that I understand a little, little, about him through his music: He had a great sense of humor, melody (in song and in life), and was warm-hearted.
He was only 29 years old. Much too young for anyone to go, let alone someone like him.
You will be missed. |
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| RADIOACTIVE HAT PRODUCTIONS |
[Nov. 24th, 2006|01:12 am] |
Finally, a real site to call its own!
Radioactive Hat Productions, the company/moniker that I make short films (and, hopefully, other types of projects) under, has a new website. And now, it isn't some geocities site like 2 years ago or a Google Pages site like that past 8-9 months.
No, this is an actual, real, true ".com' website. I know that might not sound like a lot, especially in this day and age, but for me this is a big achievement, to have an actual ".com". For instance, I no longer need to say a long URL string when people ask me where to see any of the movies I've done, like "gopherguy500.googlepages.com" or tell them to go to Youtube (which is fine and dandy, but still). No, now I can tell that hobo accosting me on the street to go to:
radioactivehat.com
and everything'll be swell!
I |
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| "I'm about to get crunk, but first I need to return these books to the library" |
[Nov. 13th, 2006|09:22 pm] |
The subject line is from a button that someone was wearing at the grocery store where I work. He said that it was something the he just made up, and a friend turned into a button.
I really like my work: It's pretty easy (compared to some things), the pay is nice, and the people are fantastic. It can get surreal, though: You run into a lot of people that you know, or at the least people that are really interesting. Just the other day one of the customers was wearing a t-shirt for the Stranger's Genius Awards. he said he got it from his brother, who won for filmmaking. Turns out his sibling is the creator of Wiggly World Studios, up in Seattle. Who woulda thunk.
...
I saw "Babel" and "The Queen" at the Grand on Friday. Both are excellent films, yet even though they are completely different types of film, I liked "Babel" better. Overall, I thought it was poignant and powerful (yes, powerful, I know how corny that sounds, but still), and the performances were fantastiques. Helen Mirren, on the other hand, was amazing as the Queen. She somehow humanized the Queen, who's always seemed like a lofty figure for me, and the other actors helped show the Royal family as that: a family, with a the bickering and squabbling to boot. But in the end, her performance was top-notch. I'm positive that she'll get at least an Oscar nod for it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 30th, 2006|04:31 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | film, job | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Natural's Not in It - Gang of Four | ] |
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| La science des rêves |
[Sep. 29th, 2006|10:11 pm] |
I saw "The Science of Sleep" today.
Go see it. It is much, much better than the reviews have been saying, really. It's a fantastic film, and I really liked, perhaps loved it.
So yeah. See it (please). |
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| Oh Bu-Jeebus... |
[Sep. 13th, 2006|10:15 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | film, grand, school, stadium | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  Wha-wha-what? | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Steady, As She Goes" - The Raconteurs | ] |
So, I volunteer at a local art-house cinema, The Grand Cinema, something I probably alluded to in the past. Well anyways, recently, the Managing Director was ousted/resigned, the Artistic Director set his resignation for October, and I just got an e-mail from Volunteer Coördinator saying that she had announced her resignation, effective immediately.
Wow.
I have been hoping for a while to be able to work (you know, for real money, not as a volunteer) as a projectionist there for a while, seeing how I love the Grand, love film, trust-wrothy and responsible (to a certain degree, I think, or at least that's what people tell me, so I guess I'll believe them, though I'm always skeptical about those kinds of things), and am turning 16 soon. I heard that some people were thinking about leaving in the fall, but this is monumental. These changes, plus that the Board of Directors is considering moving the Grand to a different (and, if so, permanent) location, make it seem as if the fate of the Grand, at least after the Tacoma Film Festival, is completely up in the air.
What makes me feel terrible is how preoccupied I am, and how I can't help out the Grand in this time of, I would guess, severe need. This is because right now is the Stadium High School (my high school) Centennial Celebration, and that plus our building is newly renovated after two years, is the center of what will be huge celebrations this Homecoming week, and since I play in the band, this is going to be a hellish week, so I'm basically booked through the weekend. Afterwards things'll calm down, but still...
Sorry, I just kind of needed to write that. |
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| Logan Whitehurst |
[Sep. 1st, 2006|12:22 am] |
I read ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) binsybaby's post on Logan Whitehurst's brain cancer resurgence, and I followed a link in the comments to Logan's post on Myspace about it.
Sadly, Logan has, as he's said "within a year" before he dies.
This really floored me. Logan is too young, too talented, and too good a person for this.
After Emmy's post, I commented about how he/we should try to make the best out of what's left, because even though he will be gone soon, he isn't yet. And until the cancer debilitates him too much, he must try to get out and do whatever he dreamed of doing, because there is no tomorrow. Only now.
After looking around some more on Logan's myspace, I read that one of his goals was to perform on Conan O'Brien. In the vein of that previous commentary on his life (and, I guess, life in general), I started to mull trying to get him on Conan in my head. Logan is a very talented artist, much like They Might Be Giants and other artists who Conan O'Brien has featured on his show. Logan has released many albums on indie labels and has been featured on the Dr. Demento show many, many times, so it's not as if he's completely too far-out. Besides, Logan's an all around awesome guy, it seems. What better time than now?
I wrote a post on the Conan O'Brien boards about this, trying to convince anyone who will listen to help this cause in any way possible.
( The post is up at this link.)
I'm not sure what everyone can do. Writer NBC? Try to locate/write the producers of "Late Night"? Conan himself? I don't know. But I'm sure anything would help. So please, if you can do anything, do. Logan more than deserves this, and there is not time than now.
Thanks, and good luck Logan. I hope you beat this disease and live to be as old as you want. |
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Yippekiyay!
It's been 16 years...
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wow...