Audrey and her classmate Jesse are shooting a short film on 16mm this month and we all went out location scouting on the banks of the Delaware River just north of Port Richmond in Philly, nearly under the Betsy Ross Bridge. We just happened to stumble upon this fabulous little old overgrown jetty that was simply magical.
See the whole set here:
There’s another excellent night of avant/psych music at my friends’ house in Fishtown. Come on, feel the noise. From the desk of my friend Brooke:
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21
8:30 PM
@ 2037 FRANKFORD AVENUE
(between Norris + Susquehanna Aves. Enter around back on Sepviva Street)
$5 donation
byob
Hope to see you,
Brooke
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lungfish’s guitarist Asa Osborne is back with an instrumental record chock-full of eerie fuzzed out loops and droning drums. Released under the pseudonym Zomes, this debut album is dark and cinematic with influences ranging from library music to East-German electronica.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My friends Scott and Liz (and several hundred friends and co-conspiritors) put our a ‘fake’ edition of the New York Times yesterday. It’s one of those mega-stunts that gets all over TV and the Internet. They got meme’d. I’m psyched to see such an awesome, underground, progressive message breaking into the mainstream news cycle.
Copies of the paper are already selling on eBay for almost $100.
Read the digital edition here.
I wanted to share two awesome bands I’ve seen recently.
I’ve been a fan of Matt Gangi’s music for something like two years, having completely randomly stumbled upon his MySpace page through friends. He’s an amazing songwriter and his sounds are completely 21st Century, but rooted firmly in the psychedelic era of the 60’s. He’s got an amazing ear and his partnership with Lyle Nesse on drums/drummachine/synth forms a killer duo. I’m so glad to have seen them play a small show at the studio/rehersal space/party house Inciting HQ last night - a complete treat.
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Magical, Beautiful is the band of my buddy Chris Keener whom I met years ago at True/False in Columbia, Missouri, his home town. He now lives in Chicago and collaborates with these fellas. We went to see them play at a small house show they booked, and I was blown away. Dualing synths, deep drums and what might be described as Joy Division-style vocals.
They just came out with their first music video recently:
Both of these bands are completely DIY operations, neither is on a record label. If you dig their music, I encourage you to click over to their websites and purchase their records. I have them, and I highly recommend them. Support indie music!
My good friend and mega-talented painter Mike Yoder just hung a solo show of new paintings on at Lycoming College Art Gallery. He does stunning work, with vivid, in-your-face color that slams you with a dichotomy of the beauty and the horror of fiery images of war.
On Facebook, you can see a photo gallery of the show here.
If you’ve ever been to my house, you’ll know that we have one of Mike’s paintings (a slightly older work done during an artist residency in Marfa, Texas) hanging proudly in our living room:
I’ve written about the work of my friend Ben Knight here before, and I’d just like to give him more props for getting another excellent video onto the New York Times online front page.
This short film is about champion mountain biker Dave Wiens as he recently took on a late entry by Lance Armstrong into the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race.
…but you have to do it anyway. That’s the title of my good friend Dorothy Robinson’s new book. If the title alone doesn’t make you want to buy one, you must have a heart of a stone! They’re pretty inexpensive over on Amazon, and being that Dorothy is one of the funniest people I know (just check out her blog for example), I highly recommend picking up a copy. Support your local author!
Our good friends Cameron and Lauren are working on a new documentary film project called The Delegates. They will be traveling to Denver for the Democratic Convention later this month with several different party members and explore the people and process behind the American party nominating system. With an historic convention this year, and I’m excited to see how the project turns out. Here’s a short clip they recently posted to the film’s blog:
If you’re interested to learn more about their project, please read their full treatment/press release after the jump, including links to help contribute money, time or resources.
(more…)
Audrey walked onto this backyard scene just now and said, “whoa, welcome to manland.”
My life has been slowly becoming more and more like this. Especially this summer. I kinda like it.
No comment (except LOL!).
Audrey recently acted in her friends and fellow students Tom and Tyler’s 16mm short film “The Pauper and His Wife“. I sure love that black and white film look. Audrey and I have been working with film and archive film for a couple weeks so look for it in coming projects from us!
As many of you know, Audrey’s in film school at Temple. She’s been doing lots of fun projects for class, and this is one of her first big final projects. I’ve been meaning to post it here for sometime, and I just remembered this morning. The film stars our friend Patrick Gouveia and features the music of our friends Make a Rising (they’ve got a great new album, btw - buy it at their label High Two). Enjoy!
We were lucky to spend the weekend up near Wellsboro, PA to celebrate our friends Andy and Darshana’s wedding. Andy’s folks have this amazing farm right on the edge of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, which I have never seen before. We camped out there, falling asleep to the sounds of wild nature - toads and owls and all sorts of cool sounding beasties.
We took a hike out to the rim of the canyon, swam in one of their small lakes, played mad bocce ball, ate awesome vegan goodies until stuffed to the gills, and built huge campfires. An A+ event, for an A+ couple. Happy day!
[UPDATE: the Red Gold team just launched their official website.]
My favorite film of the 2008 MountainFilm Festival was one that I had the honor of projecting its World Premiere: Red Gold. It also happened to be directed and edited by my good buddy in Telluride, Ben Knight. He’s an amazingly talented photographer and this is his first feature film. It took home the well-deserved Audience Award as well as the Festival Director’s Prize.
Ben and his filmmaking partner Travis Rummel created a beautiful portrait of Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most precious natural areas in the world, as it’s residents battle the encroaching interests of a massive copper mine that will heavily impact the region.
Here’s the trailer. I will definitely update this when I learn of their distribution plans (good luck, guys!).
We had a fantastic day adventuring in the pine barrens with orchid and rare plant fanatic Lord Whimsy on Sunday. It was a rainy, cool spring day, but that didn’t dampen our rare plant finding enthusiasm one bit. Whimsy, his wife Lady Pink and friend Bill were joined by Audrey, Norm, Heather, Brandy and me. Here is a video and some photos of the day. See the whole set of pretty photos here.
Among all the other crazy stuff going on today, my good friend Steve’s first book just came out today, and I highly recommend everyone picking up a copy. It’s getting fantastic reviews all over the place and it’s great to support a new author. The hardcover is only $16 on Amazon right now, but you can also pick it up at your local bookseller (support the indies!).
From Entertainment Weekly:
In this aptly titled tome, journalist Kurutz relates a year in the lives of two rival New York-based Rolling Stones tribute bands: Sticky Fingers and the Blushing Brides. The subject of copycat acts has been covered in various media almost as extensively as the Jagger/Richards songbook, and Kurutz doesn’t offer any fresh insight. But this is still a funny, poignant look at people who may believe that, to quote the Blushing Brides singer, “we kick the Rolling Stones’ asses live” - though they have to do so at an Elks Lodge. It’s only a book about fake rock & roll, but we like it. B+ -Clark Collis
Good luck, Steve.
[UPDATE: Listen to his interview today on Talk of the Nation on NPR]
And much to my chagrin, she still doesn’t have a blog! So I’m reposting this great story she emailed her friends last night. By the way, she lives in the Mission in San Francisco, for geographical context.
today was also the day of crazy homeless and/or cracked-out people being nice to me. i crossed the street on a red today, because it was a one-way, and i could clearly see that there were no cars coming, for blocks and blocks, and HOLY SHIT! flava flav was totally also doing the same thing, coming toward me. so flava stopped, frantically spread out his arms, looked both ways and he stood in the road and pretended he was stopping traffic for me. pantomime. hugely hammed up.
i gave him that point-the-finger-at-you-cause-i-represent coolness, and nodded with a smirk, and he was all “AH HA HA! you have a nice day!!!”
i was like, you too, buddy.
you think i am making this up, but there is a cracky homeless guy who patrols our neighborhood looking EXACTLY like flav, and he must know it, because not only does he look just like him in the face area and body area, but he appropriates his style of dress by wearing the humongous clock around his neck and generally wearing oversized jackets and stupid sunglasses. (sans the spendy gold grill, of course,) the resemblance is kind of eerie, but then you think, well, how many times have i thought that the ACTUAL flava flav looks just like some crackhead in my neighborhood? and then it all makes sense.
yes. that special street person chose me today, out of thousands. and i was damn glad.
i don’t know what it was about me today, but even the cops who stand at the top of the escalator in the light rail system, checking for people who don’t have transfers, in order to give them $150 fines (because it is ridiculously easy to hop on the trains through the back door and get a free ride – until!), but even they were, “i hope you have a transfer, cause we don’t wanna give you a ticket, little lady. that’s a nice smile you got.”
then the small policeperson complimented my purple plastic seashell belt. the one my brother says looks like a stick-em-up-on-the-wall air freshener, which, in fact, when we were children were indeed called “stick-ups.” i remember the commercial, and it must have affected me deeply. (I just checked with google, and they’re still called that.)
[me, Audrey, David Wilson & Scott Beibin]
Audrey and I spent the weekend in good ol’ Columbia, Missouri to hole up in a dark theater and watch excellent indie documentaries. It was my third (and her second) time to the fest in their five-year history. We hope to be there every year until their twenty-fifth and beyond! It’s truly one of the best doc festivals in the country - relaxed vibe, great parties, wonderful films all held in a super rad town. If you’d like to know more about True/False, check out this great podcast interview with my friends and festival founders Paul Sturtz and David Wilson on Joel Heller’s blog “Docs that Inspire“.
Some of the highlight films for me were Joy Division, the new documentary hot on the heals of the fantastic biopic Control that came out in theaters late last year - The Order of Myths, a subtle story about race and the Mardi Gras traditions in Mobile, Alabama - and Gonzo, the Alex Gibney portrait of Hunter S. Thompson.
Echoes of Home, though, was by far my favorite film of the festival. It’s the story of a few musicians who are pushing the art of yodeling to new and powerful forms, but also reaching back into the history of this ancient skill. One of those kinds of movies that makes you tear up because it’s so beautiful. Okay, at least I did.
We saw some old friends and made some new ones, too. Like seeing our old buddy Chris here sitting and rappin’ with ramblin’ musician ‘Gramps’ on 10th Street.
True/False also does a crazy parade every year:
And those folks sure know how to throw a jammin’ party:
My friend Pearl just started blogging. It’s pretty entertaining stuff, you should check it out. She tells great stories about living in Philly - like going to see Rambo with her parents at the Riverview or having crazy rides on SEPTA. Plus, she loves drawing cartoons. That lil’ fella above, for example. He’s Lonely Zombie, and he can’t get a good date ‘cuz he keeps eating their brains! Poor guy. Click through to read the whole strip.
One of my best friends from college, Steve Kurutz, has been an arts and entertainment writer since we both joined up the Daily Collegian Arts Staff at Penn State (wanna see my funny bio from back then? {click here} I guess Steve never wrote his.). Since those glory days, he’s gone on to bigger things in New York City, writing for Details, W, Playboy and Spin and doing a stint as a staff writer for the New York Times.
Steve’s just finished his first book, an exploration of the strange phenomenon of ‘tribute bands‘. In it, he follows around a couple of Rolling Stones tribute bands from bar to bar, club to club and reveals the strange culture surrounding them. I haven’t read it yet, though ‘cuz it’s coming out in a couple months (on Broadway Books, part of Random House).
He just set up a blog to help publicize the book, so head over there and give him some friendly comments. I’ll let you know when you can buy a copy for yourself.
