CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 6

I wasn't sure how much of the Fest I was going to do today. Last night I only stopped in briefly at the street party stuff, enough to see some of the Basil Wolverton art at a gallery downtown--but I had a friend in town and we ended up hanging out instead.

This made sleeping in all the more appealing, so I missed the early morning programs. The presentation by Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas and James & the Giant Peach, was too good a prospect to pass up, however, so I headed over in the early afternoon for that. They showed a clip reel featuring highlights from his films, as well as early shorts and promo spots he did for MTV that just about everyone has seen but probably never realized was his handiwork (I was surprised). He then talked at length with David Walker. I don't know if it was just the angle of the lights where we were sitting, but Selick appeared to have his eyes closed nearly the entire time. It was kind of creepy, giving him this trance-like, hollow look.

The true lure of the session came at the end when he showed us some script doodles, character designs, maquette models, and very brief test animation from his current project, the feature-length stop-motion film Coraline. It looks incredible. I'm stoked for it. (No pics, sorry. They took our phones and cameras before we could go in.)

When it was done, I saw that a band was setting up for tonight's closing party. Except it didn't look like a band, it looked like a bunch of junior high girls. Turns out Smoosh is performing. This may be enough to get me to go to the shindig, but once I get comfortable here in the house, I may not want to go back again. A gap of four hours is a long time between things.

It wouldn't be so long a gap if the last program I sat in on had been better. I lasted less than half an hour in the Internet Shorts Competition. I kind of got what I was expecting: lame political humor, inside jokes, and poorly rendered fantasy stuff. There's a reason I don't watch such things in the privacy of my own home at my convenience, so there wasn't much compelling me to stay.

All in all, if that is it for me and the Platform International Animation Festival , I've had a good time and have no real complaints. I am not sure I necessarily enjoy the nonstop go-go-go of a fest, and can't imagine what it would have been like with a paid pass where I felt I had to get my money's worth, but all in all, it was a good program with a wide variety of material. If it's to be a regular event, this is a very good start.

Current Soundtrack: Smoosh, She Like Electric

Current Mood: drained

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 5

My biggest must-see next to Tekkon Kinkreet was the 1941 Chinese film Princess Iron Fan. Based on a portion of the mammoth Journey to the West, this vintage black-and-white cartoon featured the Monkey King and his cohorts as they tried to pass through the mountains of fire!

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little disappointing. It wasn't horrible by any means (though the image quality was; restored in 1994, I'd hate to see what it looked like before it was cleaned up!), it just turned out to be more of a historical curiosity than the sort of old school 'toon that woos you with its primitive charms. You could definitely see a Walt Disney influence, particularly Silly Symphonies and how they used music, as well as some Betty Boop in the character designs, leading me to think there was a time lapse in maybe what was making it to China. There were several action sequences where a particular movement was repeated a couple of times as if the animators were trying to show off, and even two singalong, follow-the-bouncing-ball songs. I'm glad I saw it, as it's a rare outing of something very few have likely heard of, let alone seen, but not all that I had hoped.

That clip is pretty much what it looked like in the theatre, too. Even that weird panning that made me think sometimes it was a film of the film being projected on teh screen, like how people used to film live TV broadcasts off the TV. We had subtitles, though. Someone also posted the first 8 or so minutes on YouTube if you want to search for it.

While waiting around for my next pogram to start, I sat in on the first four shorts in the 6th round of the competition. Outside of a commercial called "Speech Bubble" (it's balloon, moron!), they were all really good. "Small & Deep Love Stories" (Taiwan; dir. Hsin-Ping Pan) was a cutely designed series of vignettes where things like clocks fell in love and teacups kissed each other. It reminded me of comic strips you might see in an indie anthology. It was followed by "Naked (Sex)" (Netherlands; dir. Mischa Kamp), which combined rotoscoping and home-made art-styled hand animation to illustrate monologues about two young boys and their misconceptions about sex. It was very funny, though not as amusing as the fact that it was entered into the "TV for Children" category. Oh, you crazy Dutch!

Super awesome was "Wolf Daddy" from South Korea, directed by Chang Hyng-yun. It's about a wolf who is a novelist and who has several women show up at his door and drop off children he's sired. It's like a "Fractured Fairy Tale" redo of Miyazaki. But don't just take my word for it:

I should have stayed when I was on a roll, but I was curious about the "Viva Cuba" program, a retrospective of state-sponsored animation from our southerly neighbors. Boy, what a load of dross. I got through a half-hour of music videos that were seemingly cobbled together with clips of long cartoon series, corny gag shorts that felt like they were ripped off wholesale from Mad Magazine, and informational factoids for children before I left. I could see some government messages buried into the material (a strange gag with a black vampire and KKK members, the anti-Imperialist undertone of a foppish French king into S&M, etc.), but the limited animation wasn't appealing enough to weather through the weak writing.

On the way home, I stopped in at PNCA to see some of the installations: mainly, animated pieces projected on walls. The most interesting was the one you see when you first walk in. It has three different loops of action, and when you walk around to the back of the screen, you discover that the action is being created live. Cut-outs of the backgrounds and characters were put on a spinning wheel, and a camera captures the simulated movement as they turn at high speeds. Very cool.

There is a street party tonight that I may go to, but a friend is also in town. I'm actually pretty burnt on going out. There's been a lot of it this week. If I had my druthers, I'd stay in and watch the last three episodes of Studio 60.

Current Soundtrack: Pulp, Peel Sessions; Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad

Current Mood: exhausted

HEADLESS AND ALL ALONE

THIS WEEK AT THE THEATRE...

* Broken English, an amazing Parker Posey can't even save the debut feature of Zoe Cassavetes (daugther of John)

* Ratatouille, the crowd-pleasing new Pixar movie directed by Brad Bird

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Echo & the Bunnymen: Dancing Horses, a new DVD of an excellent 2005 concert

* If.... - Criterion Collection, the subversive British classic from the late 1960s

Current Soundtrack: Jamie T, Panic Prevention

Current Mood: interrupted

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 4

As I noted was likely to happen, I skipped the Platform programming yesterday to get some work done. I also wanted to go down to the Central Library here in Portland, where Douglas Wolk was presenting a panel called Appreciating Comics. It consisted of comics people of all stripes: Gail Simone, Colleen Coover, Jen Manley Lee, Dylan Meconis, and Scott McCloud. (Rather than me link to them all, go to the library page on the event.) Since this is Portland, there were also plenty of local creators in the audience, like Diana Schutz, Steve Lieber, and more. I went with Joëlle, and we enjoyed listening to an in-depth talk about our art form. I particularly liked how each creator introduced him or herself by showing some of their favorite pages from their own work that they felt used the comic book form to its most unique advantages.

It was also gratifying that the presentation room filled up as soon as they opened the doors about half an hour before the panel was set to start. Many people were turned away, including some professional comics folks. I think just about everyone who got in walked away with a crush on Colleen Coover, though. She's too cute and funny.

I made my way back to Platform today for a couple of studio presentations. The first was from Aardman, the people behind the Wallace & Gromit movies and so many others. The basic outline of the program was talking about the history of the studio from its earliest days up until now, and using the stop-motion Curse of the Were-Rabbit and CGI Flushed Away to compare and contrast various aspects of production, both traditional and modern. It was a decent event, but one downside of the DVD age is that there was very little by way of special information for the speaker (producer David Sproxton) to impart that wouldn't have already been familiar to anyone who has spent some time with animation discs. I'd even wager some of what we saw was from the Flushed Away DVD.

Still, there were some great clips of very early Aardman efforts, as well as neat promo reels. They showed some of Nick Park's live action enactments of scenes from Were-Rabbit, and a great little how-to demonstration on slapstick put together for a silent film festival. (I looked for this last thing on YouTube, but did not find it.) He also brought along the actual clay models of Wallace, Gromit, and the female lead from the movie (though, I imagine there are many different ones.)

After that, it was a program by Pixar Studios, run by Gary Lyndstrom, an award-winning sound designer and the director of "Lifted," the short that is running in front of Ratatouille. Where Sproxton felt like he was giving us something conventional, Lyndstrom really knocked out a special program. To start, he showed the first four Pixar cartoons--"Luxo Jr.," "Red's Dream," "Tin Toy," and "Knick Knack"--all of which Lyndstrom did sound for. Most of them I hadn't seen in years. He followed this with "Lifted," and from there he walked us through the creation of "Lifted" piece by piece, including reference materials and hilarious videos of the animators experimenting with hair gel to create the substance the alien characters would be made out of. He also isolated sound effects to illustrate how unconventional sources can lead to exciting audio, and showed the construction of various shots in the cartoon.

Best of all, though, is he showed "Lifted" again immediately after, and it was amazing to see all these elements at work. I heard the sounds differently, I saw the visual things I hadn't noticed the first time, and most impressive of all, even though he had exposed the seams, the finished animation still flowed smoothly. The true magic was making all of the mechanics disappear.

I skipped out again on the evening events. Let's just say, something else came up. Joëlle Jones got to see the new Harry Potter film, and I'm doubly cool because I got to see it with Joëlle Jones, who is so kick-ass we should just call her Hermione. Weep in envy, muggles!

Special thanks to the mega-swell Sam Humphries for hooking us up!

Current Soundtrack: various Arctic Monkeys and Erasure

Current Mood: relieved

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

CAN'T YOU JUST ADORE HER?

Much belated birthday card scans. Joëlle Jones and Terry Blas both made me cards featuring our dear Audrey.

Joëlle

Terry

Inside: "Hope Your Birthday Isn't One of Those."

Current Soundtrack: Mandy Moore, Wild Hope

Current Mood: bitchy

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

ARRANGEMENTS OF SHAPES AND SPACE

Matt Fraction put out the call today to have people take pictures of their desk space. Unlike most of the people, I didn't clean. They totally cleaned. I showed the carnage in full.

For the full set of photos, including Matt, Warren Ellis, Laurenn McCubbin, and more, jump in the pool. The above actually contains explanatory notes when you view it on Flickr.

Current Soundtrack: The Good, the Bad & the Queen B-sides

Current Mood: indifferent

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 2

Today was the day with the event I was most excited about. I headed down early to make sure I could get in to see Tekkon Kinkreet, the anime adaptation of the manga Black & White by Taiyo Matsumoto.

This film definitely lived up to expectations. A surreal story set in a squalid future (or was it the past?), it involves gangsters, super fighters, and two homeless brothers who rule Treasure Town. The Cat Gang, using the monikers Black and White, basically live as if the world is their oyster, but their connection has some deeper, metaphysical overtones that lend the movie a philosophical weight. They are the yin to each other's yang. The movie is a genre explosion, including exciting action and a completely mindblowing third act. The animation style preserves some of Matsumoto's line work, but pulls back on the detail to a degree, giving it life, movement, and color. It's mainly hand-drawn animation, with some effective use of CGI.

Interestingly, Tekkon Kinkreet was directed by an American, Michael Arias, and he came out for the screening. After the film was done, he sat down with David Walker for a thirty-minute chat.

I stuck around after for the third round in the competition of short films. Ten movies from around the world, and naturally, a mixed bag. The best were "God On Our Side" (dir. Uri Kranot & Michal Pfeffer), a cut-and-paste film from the Netherlands that showed the horrors of war by taking pieces of Picasso's Guernica and bringing them to life; Ian Gouldstone's "Guy 101," a British-produced student film cleverly using online icons to describe an online encounter, which takes a strange turn that held the audience in a tight grip; and Sweden's "Never Like the First Time" (dir. Jonas Odell), animating four different real monologues about how the speaker lost his or her virginity, using a different style each time.

Also noticeable was Andreas Hykade's "The Runt" from Germany, which was an unsettling look at the personal travails of rabbit farming, and Nick Mackie's "Cold Calling," a British man's real audio of him giving crap to telemarketers. On the bad side were two other films from the UK. Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley's "Who I Am and What I Want" was poorly drawn and nigh incomprehensible from a narrative standpoint, and it's bodily function jokes just got more obvious the longer it went on. The Welsh-produced "Dreams & Desires - Family Ties" (dir. Joanna Quinn) was better drawn, reminiscent of Bill Plympton in its style, but overly frenetic. Plus, a gauzy soundtrack made it impossible to understand the thick accents. I was also annoyed by the fact that Quinn established a POV of her main character running a video camera, but then allowed the scenes to morph into fantasy. You can't lock down the conceit of a real-world POV and then suddenly have angels and orgies.

The screening was almost marred by the fact that I had sat in front of three industry insiders who talked rather loudly about how they had seen most of the films before the lights went out, and then proceeded to complain about the ones they did not like during the actual showings. Tip of the Day: You never want to sit by industry insiders at an industry function of any kind. They are full of themselves and won't shut up. Don't sit next to me at a comics function for just that reason. I'm unbearable!

Also, slightly overweight bald men who like to wear baseball caps, listen up. If your cap is going to make you sweat and itch so you have to pull it off every five minutes to air your dome, don't wear it. And don't sit in front of me at the movies!

Anyway, not sure how much I'm actually going to catch in the next two days due to other things. If you don't hear about more of this Fest until Friday, don't fret. That's just the way it is.

Current Soundtrack: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found: One Kiss Can Lead To Another [Disc 2]

Current Mood: alone

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

IF THE JAMIE SHOULD FAIL TO FALL APART

As noted in my last post, yesterday I put some time into revising the script for Love the Way You Love vol. 6, the last currently on the schedule. I actually wrote the first draft a couple of months ago, when Marc Ellerby was first going to start vol. 5. My process on the book was to be sure I wrote a new script just as he was starting the preceding issue, that way there would never be a lapse.

When I finished it, though, I kind of looked at the final page and thought, "What the fuck did I just do?" Sometimes, you finish something and you know it's good. You Have Killed Me, The Everlasting, vol. 4 of Love the Way. Those I knew. I finished them and I knew.

Other times, you type "The End" (or, as it were, "# # #") and you have no clue. Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? is one I got done with and felt kind of perplexed about. Did I hit it? Or did it hit me? Only time and a future reading can answer the question (it's one that must be answered by the author, outside opinions can only do so much). For Horizon?, I was pleasantly surprised. Even in the many later readings, sections of the book made me cry (though I only have now come to realize it's because that section is a letter from myself to me as much as it is a central part of the narrative), and the novel managed to surprise me the right way. When I am done with this blog post, I am going to read the first draft of This World and Body in hopes that it won't inspire me to want to throw myself off a cliff in a bad way (the writing is lame), but make me want to throw myself off a cliff in the way I'm supposed to (it's a dark, dark book).

So, Love the Way You Love #6. It's a strange one. I have a character come in and kind of act like the angel from It's a Wonderful Life. There are no fantasy elements, but what I mean is this guy shows up and he leads Isobel around and talks to her and they kind of hash over what has happened between her and Tristan. As I was writing, the scenario kind of took over the writer, and dialogue between them felt like it was coming independently of me--which is very cliche to say, I know. I hate when writers speak of their characters as telling them what they want to do or anything like that, for me it's really that something more metaphysical called "story" takes over. I often liken it to reaching into the air and snatching the tale from the sky, or plucking it from a tree.

The problem is, when that happens, the work flows easy, but when I'm done, I'm completely baffled by what has come out.

Thankfully, I'm rather pleased to say that vol. 6 is pretty fucking good. Whether I knew I was doing it or not (I can't remember, honestly), I think there is a lot of symmetry between the first issue and the last. Things get resolved, discussed, recontextualized, and everything feels right. Tristan is the hero, and he's totally swoonworthy, and I think what Isobel goes through is honest and true. If this is it, if there is no more (and I do think I'd like there to be more), I believe readers will be satisfied. They get their promised happy ending, nothing is really left dangling, and all is right in the Jamieverse. (Maybe for the last time, too, if my notes and plans continue to take the path they're taking. What is that line about "writing songs I can't believe"? Not that I don't believe these others, they were all meant (I did say "honest and true"), it's just I'm changing, yeah? Bear with me. I know I'm being complicated and vague.)

I think we're talking October for this, so not too far off. Oni has a provisional page up for it, though I wasn't sure that was the cover and the page says September. I'll keep you posted. Plus, if you read that description, you will have a #5 spoiler in your possession!

For now, though, I'm a goddamn genius.

Currently Reading: The Nightmarist by Duncan Rouleau

Current Soundtrack: The Glove, Blue Sunshine

Current Mood: cynical (no, really)

CARTOON BLUES: PLATFORM ANIMATION FESTIVAL, DAY 1

Last night was the opening party for the Platform Animation Festival in Portland. I had gone down midday to pick up my badge and various stuff, including the super swell messenger bag they packed all of the pre-reg' goodies in. The guy handing out the materials recognized my name and pulled one of the most regular faux pas (pases?) comic book editors encounter.

"I like your comics," he said.

"Thanks," I replied.

"Are you still writing?"

"Of course. I've had a bunch of new stuff recently actually."

"Really? Are you still doing comic books with Chynna Clugston? I love Blue Monday."

This is a step up from the usual, "So, as an editor, you do what? Write all the bubbles?" First of all, if you call them bubbles, you're an idiot. Second, I'd like to know, if I introduced myself as an editor at the New York Times, would they ask me if I wrote all of the articles? If I said I was an editor at Simon & Shuster, would they inquire what novels I write? Is it that hard to understand how a comic book editor is an editor like any other?

Anyway, I didn't make the first night round of shorts. I had thought I would, but I got to working on revisions of Love the Way You Love vol. 6 (more of that later), and when I looked up, it was too late. I did go down for the party, however, as my DVD Talk editor was going to be there, and they had free champagne, which was the perfect mask for my otherwise dark mood. A few other people I knew showed up, including the whirling dervish Plastorm. (Check his blog, he saw last night's cartoons and can give you the skinny.) He had a friend named Slater, but it was loud in the party hall and I heard it as "Spider," and so baffled everyone with my seemingly rude question, "Is that the name it says on your birth certificate?" Later we goaded Spider (that's his name now, I decided) into hitting on a young lady he was admiring, and as he did so, hung back and did a play-by-play commentary as he impressively worked his way into a group conversation, eventually jettisoning the other members of the group. It was a special kind of work. We thought it was over when a guy in a strange combination special needs helmet/Mexican wrestler mask tried to move in on the action, but he was thwarted, too. It was an inspiring sight for two married guys and the walking dead to witness.

(Yeah, the walking dead would be me. What of it? Like you couldn't smell the rot all over me. It was nice of you not to bring it up, though.)

Naturally, I forgot my new camera, beginning the string of what I am sure will be a long line of me forgetting my camera.

Current Soundtrack: Echo & the Bunnymen, Siberia

Current Mood: morose

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

NEW FRENCH GIRLFRIEND

So, Paris is soon to be all abuzz with love for Douze Raisons de L'aimer by Jamie S. Rich and Joëlle Jones.

Joe Nozemack brought by some copies today, and I decided to do that trendy thing and take a picture of them, simultaneously showing off my new digital camera and that I'm a published author in France.

I have to say, I'm pretty thrilled. The book is a tad bit larger than the U.S. edition and hardback. I only got three of them, so no sharing. Sorry. I guess German and Brazilian editions are also on the way. I am not sure if anyone knows good ways to find foreign editions of U.S. books, because I am pretty sure there is a Spanish Dark Horse Book of the Dead I've never seen, and there is also a version of Sexy Chix that Joëlle and I really want to find. (Colleen Coover posted the vastly superior cover on her journal here. Glenat is publishing it, but I can't find order info on their site.) Oni takes care of us, though, it's just these anthologies that we never see (nor get paid for...ahem).

The reproduction of the art is awesome, and it amuses me to see certain phrases in French. I can kind of make out what it originally said by reading the balloons in a bad accent. Needless to say, Reason Huit threw the translators for a loop. That's where Gwen tells jokes. I used Babelfish to sort out what she says over there.

1. What did the leper say to the prostitute? You will take your foot.

2. What is the #1 advantage of a nymphomaniac compulsive eater? She is always ready to pass the pan.

3. What is the most common means of contraception in the world? To be gross and ugly.

Compare and contrast to the original version for the humor. I don't even know what the second one means. Is that some French idiom? And the third one is so much softer than the harsh joke she tells in America. I understand the need to change some things culturally, but are domestic violence jokes actually appropriate in Europe, and so people would say, "Oh, that's not so bad. Why's Evan upset?" I'm not mad, it makes me laugh. (Besides, there are some mangaka who may have read one of my rewrites on their books and wondered what the hell happened. I can just imagine Kou Fumizuki putting a line from Ai Yori Aoshi into Babelfish to find out what Tina means by "Beer O'Clock.")

My favorite line of the whole thing to see in French, though? "Mes nichons serant durs et je pourrai couper du verre avec." Haw haw!

Sadly, the best joke they could have pulled didn't happen. The ends scene goes to black and you see the single word "Fin," my nod to my beloved French New Wave filmmakers, and a bit of pretentiousness on my part. (It even says so in the script: "because I'm a pretentious fuck.") How hilarious if the French version had translated it back into English? "The End." Like a John Ford western!

Anyway, cheers to the folks at Treize Étrange for the effort in putting the book out. It looks smashing!

Current Soundtrack: Dot Allison, We Are Science

Current Mood: giddy

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * Last FM * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

FAST AS YOU CAN

Well, after several sleepless nights and a rally cry to the Internet, most of which was still spending all its time giving lip-service to things they don't like rather than praising what they do, we created our own little slice of awesome here in the Love the Way You Love world.

And by "we" I mean me sitting back and watching Marc haul ass and recruit folks out there who took the time out of their own busy schedules making good comics to give us a hand. Big thanks to Sarah and Zach Trover, Steve Rolston, and Chynna Clugston for pitching in on the graytones. Seriously, what an awesome thing! And to Sophie for apparently pulling Marc off the window ledge.

What does this mean? It means Love the Way You Love #5 not only puts the book back on schedule, but it will be out for Marc and I to tear up Comic Con International next month (and then in stores most likely the week after, August 1). It's going to be Marc's first U.S. con, so the boy deserves to have a newly minted comic sitting in front of him at the Oni Booth.

And what can you expect to see?

Aren't you glad we cut your wait shorter?

(And, yes, that's two con debuts for me. Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? is also on track for the show. Barring acts of God, printing plants, and customs officials. Oh, and yes, Joëlle Jones will be there, too.)

Currently Reading: Clubbing by Andi Watson & Josh Howard; Good as Lily by Derek Kirk Kim & Jesse Hamm

Current Soundtrack: Manic Street Preachers, "Your Love Alone is Not Enough" B-sides; Amityville, downloads

Current Mood: ridiculous

PICK ME UP, UPPERCUT

THIS WEEK AT THE THEATRE...

* A Mighty Heart, a surprisingly guarded film from Michael Winterbottom, featuring an incredible performance from Angelina Jolie

* Sicko, the new film from controversial filmmaker Michael Moore is touching, poignant, and enraging--and all in a good way

* You Kill Me, a dry hitman comedy from John Dahl, lit up by Sir Ben Kingsley

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built, a toe-tapping documentary that will send you scrambling to iTunes

* Bryan Ferry: Dylanesque Live - The London Sessions, a runthrough of the Roxy Music main man's Dylan covers album

* Hell and High Water, Sam Fuller and Richard Widmark team for some submarine action

* Late Ozu - Eclipse Series 3, bringing together five of the Japanese master's last films

* The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Friendship Edition, a straight Disney reissue of their classic cartoons with the bear with very little brain

* Peach Girl, vol. 2, continuing the romantic soap opera based on the Miwa Ueda manga (a big influence on my book, Love the Way You Love)

* The Peter Sellers Giftset, housing four previously released Sellers movies in a keen box

* WR: Mysteries of the Organism - Criterion Collection, Yugloslavian avant-garde agitprop that leaves this critic baffled

Current Soundtrack: "Mod-ified Music" Podcast

Current Mood: cheerful

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

I CAN SEE IT NOW

Why is this man smiling?

Because the novel about him just put to bed and is going to the printer.

That's right, after days and days of proofreading and design, the monster has finally been subdued. Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? is going to press.

I have a special preview of the second chapter of the book, which gives a rundown of who Percy is and what happened to him. Download it, read it, love it!

Note that this is a special chapter, one of two that are "reprints" of magazine articles. The rest of the book is pretty standard as far as prose, though I think how I've chosen to tell the story will surprise and hopefully delight.

Now we're in a race to see if we can pull off Love the Way You Love #5 before the San Diego Con window shuts. Marc has worked his ass off to move this book back to being on time, but the toning is getting away from him. If you have digital toning skills, read his post. He's looking for help.

Addendum: I was just reading a piece with Morrissey on True To You, mere moments after posting here. He is answering reader questions, and one seems eerily apropos to Horizon.

What is your most important inspiration when you write songs?

Maria Eliana
Santiago, Chile

"These days it's unashamedly my own emotional position, which I now admit to being quite odd. When you're 23 you have poetic license to be searching and confused and obsessed with suicide and greatness in equal measure. But I am now 48 and can no longer be said to be developing a philosophy of life. Things, by now, are meant to be settled. For me, they aren't. I'm still trying to make sense of a world that makes none. As far as romance is concerned, my life has always been absurd, so it's only by the power of song that I attempt to keep body and soul together."

Replace the word "song" with "literature," and you have Percival Mendelssohn.

Current Soundtrack: The Editors, An End Has a Start

Current Mood: relieved

BE HEAR NOW

I've joined LastFM.com.

Now my stalkers can be much more in tune with what I am listening to. (Though only when I'm listening on my computer. The rest of the time, I roam free!)

Current Soundtrack: Battles, Mirrored (LastFM can actually back me up on this; it's like my sonic alibi!)

Current Mood: blush

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

SAY YOU, SAY ME...

Karaoke watch!

Tonight, Mason West and I joined Eliza at the Green Room for some Sunday night karaoke to celebrate the end of Eliza's semester, and the fact that Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? is not yet uploaded to the printer (it was supposed to be to celebrate it being done, but alas...).

I took the opportunity to road test some new material, performing two Morrissey ("First of the Gang to Die" and "You Have Killed Me"), one Blur ("Charmless Man"), and one Jam ("A Town Called Malice"). Of those, "Malice" may become a regular, and "Killed Me" has potential. I wasn't prepared for the post-chorus bridges in "Charmless Man," and that messed up that performance.

Mason slayed all comers with the Strokes ("Reptilia"), Maroon 5 ("This Love"), Beck ("New Pollution"), and "Cuban Pete." I don't know who performed it first, but you might remember it as the Jim Carrey song in The Mask. It was awesome.

Eliza was slower to start, but delivered some "Copacabana" and Madonna's "Like A Prayer."

Special shout-outs to the bartender Trixie who could perform Journey, Julie Brown, and Public Enemy/Anthrax while still delivering drinks and food. Wireless mic'? No problem! Also, props to Catherine (or is it Katherine?) and Grant for joining us in chasing off creepy Assistant KJs. Catherine is also the queen of the room. She just rules.

Added props to Ian Shaughnessy for the best text message during karaoke. You need to learn to control your behavior, kid.

I had the Killers' "When You Were Young" on the request desk to close the night, but alas, time ran out. I did get to talk to one of my super video store crushes, though, so life has a funny way of balancing out. *le sigh* Too bad I was so f**king snookered. But, befitting the sentiment, the dude she was with wore a sports shirt with the number 2 on the back. That's right, buddy. Second place!

(And yes, I'm aware she may find this, but do I look scared to you?)

Current Soundtrack: Amy Winehouse, Back to Black ("It's not safe for us, not even in the evening, because I've been drinking...")

Current Mood: cuckoo

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

THE WAY WE WERE...

My last two purchases at Ozone Records...

The Mancini is double vinyl, cost me $1.99. Neil Diamond cost $0.40. The cover is designed like a file folder with a string clasp. Unfortunately, between buying it and getting it home, I lost the bottom of the clasp. Bummer. But he covers both Jacques Brel and Leonard Cohen on it.

Current Soundtrack: Mya, "Ayo;" Muse, Black Holes & Revelations

Current Mood: scrumptious

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich