putting the j in jjosh

sometimes the links move so fast, and the internet works so quickly and fierce, and I end up emailing things to myself, and then I have no idea how, where or why I came across something…

so here it is…

To say that I am geeked for this would be an understatement. In fact, I am so geeked for it that I'm already trying to de-hype my own brain so the film has a fighting chance of being actually good. Perhaps the idea of this film is better than any film could ever be. They've got tons of the same folks working on it, Jeff Bridges is in it, and it's in 3D. Whay do we have to wait until next December?

This is kind of spellbinding. I don't know where I came across this…the intro is kind of long so I cut it for you…make sure to see the bit with PIglet as Dennis Hopper (or vice versa)…

This vid has a fantastic soundtrack, and a story that feels like a Saturday morning cartoon gone all pcp demented. It moves from weird to weird with a beard, and this is a good thing. In another universe this would be a big hit.

It's basically about this vulture guy who has a dream that he builds an inter-dimensional car for this evil pilgrim snake, who is in turn thwarted by Magnificat who has a magical cane that can turn into things (clouds, saxophones). I think that was one of the plots Shakepeare was considering for Hamlet, but he went with the whole ghost/king/death/crazy instead.

I offer this to you to help you get through your Wednesday. Use it liberally.

this should feel good, but it makes me nervous…

really well done tho…make that tea!!

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Wes Anderson receives a special award for animation and accepts it in the medium for which he is honored.

Nice.

KFan's post on knowing random songs makes me remember…

Lisa and Lars had their wedding out in the middle of rural Maryland, near where Lars's parents had a summer house. It was the middle of nowhere, in a forest by a river. Everyone who attended camped out, the ceremony was held in the forest, and afterwords the reception was held in a clearing in the forest around a giant bonfire. Drinking and much hilarity ensued. I remember at one point we were trying to roast marshmallows but the fire was so huge and fierce that we had to get branches that were like 15 feet long to put the marshmallows on. Otherwise it would scorch your face off.

I was talking for a while to Damien G, who I didn't really know that well. We were well on the way to being drunk, and somehow got to talking about how awesome Danny Kaye is (I would love to read a transcript as to how we got to that point!)…this led to me bringing up the best DK film, The Court Jester. When my family lived in the UK and had just gotten our first VCR, one of the first things we taped was a Channel 4 airing of The Court Jester, and my sister and I would watch that thing over and over. We got to the point where we could do most of the dialogue, and pretty much all of the songs. When we came back to the US, my dad got a special VCR and TV so we could still watch PAL VHS tapes, and KT and I would have a viewing every now and then.

When I brought it up to Damien he exclaimed how much HE loved the film too. And then we were off, singing the songs and stumbling around. It was amazing, our knowledge was so solid, we were rocking the songs so hard. Everyone else was looking at us like, what the hell? It was like a moment out of a musical brought to life. You know? Like those moments where everything was moving like normal life and then suddenly 2 characters burst into song and somehow they know all the words. It was amazing.

(the last time I saw The Court Jester was fantastic, Maxine put together a whole surprise birthday for me at a Diner and everyone at the party watched it while we ate onion rings and drank milkshakes…)

Even now I sometimes find myself singing the main Jester song to myself. I mean, check the rhyme scheme, it's so sweet…say it out loud, feel how well constructed it is:

when I was a lad, I was gloomy and sad as I was from the day I was born

when other babes gurgled and giggled and wiggled, I loudly was proudly forlorn

this slice of nostalgia and niceness and decency and good old-fashioned humor should make up for the creepiness of the previous post, right?

Here's a film called "Forest" by Alison Schulnik that's a music video for a Grizzly bear track…it's chilling, surreal…I'm not sure what's going on there, but it doesn't feel like anything good…you can handle it though, right? It's Friday!

It reminds me of that time when I stayed up real late on a Sunday night to watch 120 minutes, and right around 2am when the night starts to get weird, they showed that Tool video and it got under my skin so bad…even watching it now I can feel how creepy it was…(ignore the lame begining bit with the band superimposed on everything, it goes away pretty soon)…

Watching this doc on David Lynch and it's disjointed and weird and funny and interesting and boring. Can't make it all the way through, still recovering from weekend, getting tired. Then this scene plays out, and I'm like I knew it, that's totally how I imagined Lynch coming up with some of that crazy shiz.

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from Vanity Fair:

Hoffman: “Let me ask you something else. Theoretically, is there any woman on the planet that you would not make love to? If you had the chance?”

“That’s an interesting question: Is there any woman on the planet”—Beatty paused and looked up at the sky—“that I wouldn’t make love to? Any woman at all?”

Hoffman continues: “He repeated the question, because he took it very seriously. This problem with the production was now on the back burner, and it was like he was on Charlie Rose.”

“Yes, any woman,” said Hoffman.

“That I wouldn’t … ?” said Beatty. “No, there isn’t.”

“Theoretically, you would make love to any and every woman?”

“Yes.”

“You’re serious.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Why?”

Hoffman: “He was thinking. He was searching for the right words. Finally he spoke.

"Because … you never know."

I know it can be too easy to find Indian crazy stuff to laugh at, but this clip is both laughable and impressive, I swear. The flurry of dance styles, set changes, costume changes…the Michael Jackson moves, the 50’s-style women’s outfits…the computer bloops and synths…it’s really really great.

This I love. The music is so great, the concept so simple, the execution so classy and well done. It’s kind of hypnotic, and I feel like there’s more going here somehow…watch it again…

Chocolate Bunny from lernert Engelberts on Vimeo.

[via Constant Siege, who’s been on a major roll lately]

Wow, a quick look at this guy’s other shorts on vimeo turns up this gem as well…

Revenge from lernert Engelberts on Vimeo.

Wow. More like this please. Welcome to the week.

Holy bonanza of bananas, that Tron 2 that’s been threatened for ages turns out to be a (virtual) reality, and the trailer makes it look promising. Nice to see some old faces in there, feels like it’ll be good to get back to Flynn’s. I can’t be objective about the original Tron at all because I saw it at the movies in England, and my dad came along, and I remember the 12 year old me geeking out over it about as hard as I could geek out over anything (even more than the 11 year old me (& 9 year old KT?!) going to see the triple feature all 3 Star Wars films in a row). When I first got a DVD player I was so excited when the TRon special edition came out, with the Making Of documentary that was actually longer than the film itself! Good times.

There’s probably no way the new Tron will be able to echo that 80’s early computer kid geek film feeling, but hopefully it won’t besmirch the legacy (pun intended). Check it.

I read a news item today that would make a good short story or short film. In San Diego they were preapring to have to kick these seals off a beach that they’ve made their own. This part of the beach is meant to be for swimming, so some swimmers complained about it, and a judge upheld a motion to force the city to clear the beach of seals. Various pro-seal enviros were outraged. And the seals are federally protected, so the city couldn’t kick them out by force.

The city decided they would try and run the seals out of town by having a guy walk the beach with a loudspeaker system blasting the sound of barking dogs. There was this great bit at the end of the story about how they were pretty sure that the pro-seal groups were going to be so angry, they would physically assault the guy.

I started think, who is this guy? He knows the risks, he needs the cash, he’s kind of an odd jobs guy. What makes him decide to do it? How long will the job last? And who are the pro-seal fanatics who are going to beat this guy up? It has a great sort of showdown at high noon tension to it, and there will be seals in it, and a loudspeaker blaring dog barks. Got a great feel to it.

Not sure how it ends, but definitely at some point he gets knocked to the ground and the speaker falls over, breaking a bit so the barking becomes distorted and weird and we go to a wide shot of the beatdown with this crazy noise blaring.

They were going to send cops out with him, so somehow they’ve got to become distracted, maybe the pro-seal folks stage a massive crime diversion that calls the cops away.

There’s also something I love about the idea of a militant pro-seal group.

Schwarzenegger ended up giving the seals a reprieve, sparing us all the drama and the violence, but it’s crying out to be a short film, I swear. Or maybe I’ll write it up as a short story. Hmm.

Read the original story here.

UPDATE – more ideas:

– the guy (our protagonist) ends up doing it because he’s sentenced to community service by a judge

– he got busted on drug charges and at one point has some kind of revelation about how strange it is that he was jailed for love (of drugs) and the protesters beating him up are acting out of hate (even though they are supposedly acting out of love for the seals)

– they try various other methods to get the seals out which don’t work (high pitched bubbles, etc.) before coming up with the dog barking

– maybe the protagonist is a woman? makes the beatdown even more intense