nacho = love

i think i am in love with nacho vigalondo.

watch this and understand (7:35 de la manana – if this doesn’t make you fall in love with this man, your heart is cold):

i am immersed in fantastic fest right now. you can watch some of the films online, and i encourage you to do so! here

i was planning to buy a vip badge for next year, but the fuckers sold out in TWO HOURS. which is annoying because the one complaint i have about this festival is that tons of shows seem to be sold out, and then the theater will have a dozen empty seats. so, are vips picking up tickets for every screening and then not attending? oof. other than that, the festival is wonderfully run and has been a total blast. if i didn’t have to work this week, i’d probably attend screenings from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. straight through to thursday, but alas.

REVIEWS in the next post.

Fantastic Fest Opening Night film: “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”

Last night I went to the gorgeous Paramount Theatre in Austin for the first time, to attend the U.S. premiere of Kevin Smith’s new film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

I’m willing to bet it’s his best film since Chasing Amy, and if you’re grumbling, “that’s not saying much…” right now, I get it. Whatever. (Also, I didn’t see Jersey Girl or Clerks II, so there’s that.)

I’ll be honest, I have a major crush on Seth Rogen, and he doesn’t disappoint here. Also, Elizabeth Banks is pretty likable as the lovely but broke Miri (though WTF @ her hair for most of the film. SO STIFF!). There are tons of great supporting characters, especially Jason Mewes (yeah, Jay), who totally cracked me up and apparently is covered in ridiculous tattoos. So the story, for those who can’t guess, is that two childhood friends sharing an apartment in Pittsburgh are unable to keep up with their bills via their crappy retail jobs. They lose power and water on the eve of Thanksgiving, and with no family to fall back on, they jokingly, then seriously, agree to shoot a porno. Most of the film is spent in a hilarious sendup of indie (porn) filmmaking, from budgeting and screenwriting to casting and production. Smith spoke before and after the film (and yes, he acknowledged, hilariously, he has gotten very, very fat) and made it clear that the core of the film was based on his early filmmaking experiences. Of course, the sweet, goofy Zack and the sweet, gorgeous Miri are deeply attached to each other and as production gets underway, they realize their feelings for each other go beyond friendship. And in between, toss in (largely benign) jokes about gays, Indians, Blacks, men and women, strippers, porno, anal, and whatever else belongs in a movie where Seth Rogen and Kevin Smith are involved. I’ll be honest, I laughed a lot. I love artistic, challenging movies, but I can definitely get down with dick jokes, too, and Zack and Miri has those in force.

Things I loved: the comedic timing and likability of the entire cast, Smith’s use of music (very “Hollywood” in execution, but fuck it, he made fantastic use of a killer Pixies song), the setting (icy Pittsburgh heightened Zack and Miri’s ‘we are totally fucked’ situation), and the fact that this movie manages to make a pretty predictable storyline fun and engaging. Oh, and Zack and Miri’s sex scene is pretty great – the audience watches from the perspective of the hilariously unsexy film set and the more romantic world the two friends are off in. But sorry, no Elizabeth Banks boobs for you.

Things I didn’t like: The film is a pretty formulaic romantic comedy, right down to the guy-loses-girl, guy-wins-girl-back ending. The romance is laid on so goddamn thick, with Elizabeth Banks in sharp focus and slow motion during pivotal scenes. And though there were plenty of things to hate about Chasing Amy, that film packed some serious emotional punches at certain points – Zack and Miri doesn’t really have that. Rogen and Banks are believably in love, but there’s nor really any crisis beyond their own fear and uncertainty. The last twenty minutes of the film are pretty disposable, other than a funny cameo by Tisha Campbell.

Still, if you’re looking for a solid comedy that lampoons DIY filmmaking and amateur porno, Zack and Miri is worth the ticket. This is probably the only comedy I’ll see at Fantastic Fest, by the way.

today

FANTASTIC FEST!

also: texas is full of good garage punk. will report back.

david foster wallace 1962-2008

david foster wallace apparently hung himself friday night, september 12, 2008. for the first time in a very long time, i felt the death of a stranger like a punch in the gut. i’d read dfw’s writings in magazines like the atlantic monthly and rolling stone long before i read infinite jest last fall. i picked up ij knowing only that it seemed to have touched the hearts and minds of some very smart friends and acquaintances of mine. i knew i might be in over my head, i knew i might hate it, but i dropped a twenty on a paperback copy last november.

how could i have known what a hilarious, sad, strange, heartbreaking, sprawling, frustrating, moving, lovely, fun story i’d read? drug addicts and aa devotees and transvestites and teenage tennis savants and les assassins fauteils rollents (french-canadian wheelchair assassins, natch) spilled out of the pages. over a thousand pages of prose, and most of it everything i could ask a writer to share with me. how could a man practically predict the arrival of HD television and the takeover of the internet in our lives? how could a man describe recovering drug users with such empathy, love, and wry humor? how could one person conceive such a bizarre, wonderful epic of intercontinental conspiracy and teenage frustration? reading ij was like every great punk rock song rolled in to a copy of the oxford english dictionary and set on fire.

and now he’s gone. he’s taken his own life, after telling the stories of so many isolated people, so burdened by the glamour-and-fame obsession that takes up too much brain space in so many human heads. he talked about suicide, about living with a deep, encompassing psychic pain that would make anybody want to end it all. it wasn’t just his characters he was talking about, was it? he lived 46 years, fought the good fight, made so many people feel less alone. and in that, i hope he knew he lived a good life. one that won’t be lost.

i genuinely believe that if fahrenheit 451 were to become reality, somebody out there would become infinite jest, footnotes and all. telling the story of the incandenzas and the PGOAT and don gately and all the rest.

things to look forward to, sept 2008

thursday: the 1 year anniversary of the secret show. if you don’t know, now ya know.

next week: FANTASTIC FEST, a week of genre film from around the world and the premiere of zack and miri make a porno.

late september: austin city limits fest aftershows (man man and okkervil river at emo’s? THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS at stubb’s?)

november: fun fun fun fest (two days, clipse, dan deacon, DR FUCKIN OCTAGON, dengue fever, hawnay troof, ALL, bad brains, dead milkmen, frank smith, tim and eric awesome show, deerhoof, parts and labor, experimental dental school, and like 20 other bands? oh yes.)

oh and

if this blog becomes all fantastic fest all the time in about a week, deal.

ye gods, i like this town.

the long and winding road to austin

hi folks. it’s been a while. apologies! i’ve been relocating my entire life (minus most of my posessions…gas is expensive, yo) to austin, texas. i’ve been here a little more than a week, and i’m living on the east side, within 3 blocks of a fantastic taco stand (hella strong frozen sangria = $4), a great cafe where a new friend works, an indie theater, and a park. i’m slowly learning to ride my new bike (fixie with flip flop hub) in hill country, working from home (i kept my boston job, sweet!), and seeing tons of shows. eventually, i’ll be playing music again.

that said, i’m hoping to keep this and my garden blog up-to-date. perhaps a recap of some notable shows is in order!

1. joeb, king among men, my nominee for smart-as-hell-music-type-who-isn’t-an-asshole, and host of cigarette tricks at the plough and stars let me and mothra guest dj for my last night in town. i kept it pure, spinning everything from the showcase showdown to the supremes on the turntables. check it out:

i made the kids dance a little!

joeb’s record collection: better than mine.

diz and matt-L show me country

2. best friends forever played tufts’ oxfam cafe! BFF! are sweet, spastic, and hilarious. this was their first boston-area show. if you live in boston, don’t sleep on oxfam – it’s a little ways out, but totally walkable from davis square, and dan shea et al are booking FANTASTIC local and touring bands there.

3. a great show at toad, with ryan lee crosby, mike fiore of faces on film (BOY can that man ever write and sing a song), tony the bookie orchestra, and my personal favorite, mister sister (amelia bradley and friends). amelia’s gorgeous, strange voice, lovely songwriting, and fabulous banjo are awe-inspiring and bring out the gasping fangirl in me. i cannot say enough nice things about her, and i’m happy to say that amelia said she’s recording an album soon. i wish her so much success.

4. bone zone, hats & glasses and a r plovnick. i didn’t take pictures at this show, but needless to say: andy (a r) plovnick made awesome synth drones while a homebrewed video played in the background – kids sat on the floor and tripped out. supriya and elliott did hats & glasses with a cassette player for a drummer. elliott, frankly, makes a heck of a front man and it was cool to finally see them not in a basement (better sound = hey this band actually sounds good!) i have been lucky to get to know these two a little this year, as supriya is playing in earth people orchestra with me. and bone zone brought the head thrashing, which led to matt walking in to the first day of the new school year with fifteen staples in his head. those dudes don’t fuck around. just a typical free sunday show at the milky way. drop a few tears that it’ll no longer be a rock venue in a while.

5. mothra and georgia’s goodbye show at the papercut zine library. with dr. and mrs. van der trampp, bread and roses, the serious geniuses, clawjob, and ho-ag. some of our favorite bands played. i cried my little head off when dr. and mrs. van der trampp played “i don’t want to live on the moon” (from sesame street). bread and roses kicked off the less-clothes-more-music portion of the evening. the SGs were serious. genius. clawjob took it to the next level with a Speedo-clad drummer and a performance of most of their killer new EP, manifest destiny, and ho-ag gave me the headbanging, spastic love i needed. lots of people wore not very much clothing, and crusties and math rock kids danced side by side. something like that. vision of utopia on a sweaty summer evening.

nellie and kevin, singing sweet and low, probably making me cry:

morgan and adam of bread and roses, making that shit stomp:

paul of the serious geniuses, screaming his heart out:

the inimitable mike of clawjob (with the help of farhad on drums):

ho-ag’s fearless leader, matt, and mad bassist, ryan the alaskan:

kristina and tyler are generally the best dressed at any ho-ag show. KJ wore killer shorts and stockings, tyler rocked a batman t-shirt that made me jealous:

next entry, i’ll try to talk about austin music, including the fantastic phenomenon of the secret show, seeing folk music at a schmancy steakhouse, and backyard jams next to the chicken coop. ta ta for now.