The Furnace

Mug's iphone video journal

2011-07-11T18:08:00.002-04:00

Hopefully, we'll have more of these in the future. For now I just wanted to do something with my growing library of iphone footage and iMovie provides a fairly simple and straightforward solution.

random quote

2011-06-03T20:02:00.000-04:00

Writing from the great Rod Serling from his teleplay "Patterns."

"On our level you don’t get fired, you know that. After thirty years of productive work, they can’t say to a man like me, “Alright, now get out!” They just can’t do that. So what do they do? They create a situation. A situation you can’t work in and finally that you can’t live in with this tension, abuse. Small humiliations. It all starts out on a scale so subtle, so microscopic that at first you can’t really believe it’s happening at all. But gradually the thing begins to take shape. The pieces fit together - all the little bits. And it becomes unmistakable. They chip away at your pride, your security until you begin to have doubts, and then fears."

The In-Between

2010-11-08T12:12:00.000-05:00

Here is a short musical I had the opportunity to direct in April 2010 for RIPFEST #11. RIPFEST is a non-for-profit group that annually teams together filmmakers, writers, editors, and actors and give them two weeks to write, shoot and edit a short film. I've twice participated as an editor for RIPFESTS in the past and this time I got to be a director. Woo-hoo!

The In-Between was shot on my Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera and edited on Final Cut Pro.

the in-between from Matthew Glasson on Vimeo.

RIPFEST #11 / Team 6

The creative team behind The In-Between is...
Director… Matthew Glasson
Producer… Josh Asen
Writer… Lori Fischer
Composer… Casey Black
Lyrics by Lori Fischer & Casey Black
Directory of Photography… Davide Montecchi
Editor… Susan Ades
Actor… Rachel Richards
Actor… Pamela Sabaugh
Actor… Douglas Crawford
Actor… Stephen Graybill
Assistant Director… Rick Brown
Film Score Composer… Jeff Peters
Choreographer… Amy Hall
Sound… Tim Crossley
Gaffer… Marc Mayer

For more info about RIPFEST and the various projects they have created, go to http://www.ripfestfilmproject.com/about.html. You can also contact them if you're interested in participating in any future upcoming events, which I highly recommend for those aspiring to get involved in production or to just work on a cool creative project!

Change Has Come

2009-11-28T11:15:00.004-05:00

Change Has Come music video from Matthew Glasson on Vimeo.

My friend Dave Ohliger recently commissioned me to make a music video for his band Will Pilot. The song is called "Change has Come" and was shot in the North Brooklyn areas of Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick using the my fancypants Canon 5D Mark II camera. If you have the bandwidth, be sure to watch it in HD!

Lee walks in Greenpoint

2009-07-30T09:46:00.002-04:00

Lee walks in Greenpoint, originally uploaded by mugsniffer.

The Love Stalker short and the 48 Hour Film Project

2009-07-13T23:30:00.003-04:00

Hey all - as I'm sure most of you faithful readers have noticed, I recently participated in the 48 Hour Film Project in St. Louis when we made the short called LOVE STALKER. It was a great experience overall, so here is part one of a two parter on the whole ordeal (or lack thereof).

My long-time friend and collaborator B. Bowls MacLean wanted to do a 48 Hour Film Project so he registered a few months back (under the name Filmbender Entertainment Group) and contacted me to ask me if I would be interested in flying out to St. Louis to help him out. I figured since I was "between" gigs it was a good opportunity to visit Bowls and St. Louis and have fun making a little film. Also, I felt like I owed him a favor since he came out to NYC to help me and Ben when we were making our New York Stalker trilogy of music videos. I booked my ticket (with a little stop off in Chicago to visit the fam) and we were off.

When I arrived in St. Louis, Bowls informed me that his kitchen ceiling had partially collapsed from heavy rainfall, all within seconds of my plane landing and me calling him on the phone to get picked up at the airport. As he pulled up in his Chevy Corolla, a sense of dread filled me as I saw the front seat was covered in empty cigarette packs and empty coffee cups. "You couldn't have at least made room for me in the front seat?" I snapped. The theme music for The Odd Couple immediately sprang to mind.

We dropped off my stuff at his apartment, which he was avoiding because he was very distressed about the kitchen ceiling situation. I told him it was going to be fine - we just needed to deal with cleaning the crap up so that we could move about the kitchen if we had to. He seemed embarrassed by the situation and didn't want to get his hands dirty in the process. Cue Odd Couple theme music as Mugwump begins picking the place up...

Now before we go further, I should lay out what the rules are for the 48 hour film project for those unfamiliar... On the launch day, your team is randomly assigned a genre (drama, comedy, horror, etc), then the room of team leaders is given a line of dialogue, a character and a prop to incorporate into the film and you're off. You then have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and deliver your movie. You can be prepared with a cast and crew, of course, and some basic ideas depending on what genre you get, but any writing and shooting has to take place in the given 48 hour window of time.

So after I arrived, we went out for lunch to discuss some potential ideas about the project and to pick up some cleaning supplies to deal with the kitchen. Bowls had a basic premise based on his own experience of semi-stalking a girl bartender with whom he was infatuated. The idea was basically our hero would be outside her work talking to a friend on the phone, explaining that second shift should have started so he wouldn't see the same people as before when he went in. Then maybe he goes in, orders a round, but a co-worker who was there from earlier spots him and blows his cover. Later on, two detectives are interrogating him regarding the girl at the bar because she's gone missing. While he claims he's innocent and knows nothing about her disappearance, he becomes uncertain when the detectives show him the picture of the girl a second time only to reveal that she is a different person. He begins to doubt his own sanity. I thought it was basically a good idea (aside from having a detective scene in the short which I felt was going to be cliche and unbelievable), but then again I wasn't worried about what we were going to do... I figured it would come together when it was go time and didn't want to think things through to thoroughly depending on what genre we picked at the launch.

Over the next two days, Bowls continued to touch base with his cast and crew to make sure they were on board for the project. One girl actor dropped out the night before the shoot, one bar location was no longer available for us, and some of his friends were suddenly MIA. It turns out the girl that dropped out was a blessing in disguise because he found a new girl, Erin Wiles, who worked at a restaurant/bar that Bowls frequented. She had a boyfriend, Aaron Dodd, who was also available to act in the film, plus the downstairs of her restaurant was rarely used and could serve as a bar location. Sometimes, things happen for a reason, or, at least, they force you to come up with a different solution which may have been better all along. We had a meeting with the cast and crew Thursday night to discuss the basic premise and a couple of "what if" scenarios. Nothing was discussed in too great of detail aside from our basic premise, but we realized we should shoot pictures of the two girls in case we wanted to do something with those props during the shoot (this was actually a loophole in the rules of the 48HFP - they say you can use any photographs you shoot before the start of the project provided that you own the rights to the picts).

So the day of the kick-off was upon us. We met up with Erin & Katie that afternoon and, without discussing it beforehand, they showed up both wearing the same style of top. This was going to bode well. That night, we went to the kick-off meeting. The 48 Hour Film Project in St. Louis is a huge deal, even moreso than in New York or Los Angeles - there were 74 teams in total so they had to break up teams into different groups for the screening night. After a prolonged intro about what one can or can't do and all the appropriate sponsorship shout-outs, they called the first group up to pull their genre. Not only were we in group one, but we suddenly found ourselves the first in line to pull a bingo ball from the cage. Bowls turned the cage and pulled out the white ball... G-55. We looked up at the chart being projected on the screen.... Musical/Western. Bowls turned to me with a scowl on his face. The crowd erupted into cheers. Apparently, whenever someone pulls the musical/western card, everyone is relieved that it wasn't them. I raised my fist in solidarity with the crowd as though we had planned this all along.

We sat down and waited while the rest of their teams got their respective genres - quite a wait since there were 73 teams to go after us. Finally, with the last of the teams having gotten their assignments, they announced the three "elements" that each film needed to include:

1) Charactor: Ashton/Ashley Brown, Expert
2) Prop: Photo of mom and/or dad
3) Dialogue: "Have you ever seen anything like it?"

We had the option of going for a wildcard where you can trade in your selected genre for a random "sub-genre" of 6 or so choices. Dreading the idea that we might end up pulling "Holiday Film" from the wildcard, we stuck with musical. Both the lead actor, Pete, and myself were musicians and felt we could whip something up, but as co-producer Mike said, "Musical adds a whole other level of work that doesn't exist with any of the other genres," and he was right. The idea of spending a lot of time on the music was going to be time not spent on making the film, so we needed to cut some corners to make this feasible.

Bowls had long since abandoned hope of not going into full-blown panic mode as we left the launch party. He began calling everyone and trying to organize a meeting with the group at his place to quickly get something in place. I started kicking out some random lyrics for our lead character to sing out. When the group organized to discuss "what the fuck are we going to do?" we were already pretty settled on trying to adapt the existing idea to the musical format. When Pete showed up with his buddy Kjle (pronounced Kile), he already had his notebook out and sang a verse of what was going to become the first song in the film...

If I can learn to fly
Kiss my mortal shell goodbye
Beside you I would lie
And in my arms you'll die...

"You're not supposed to kill her, Pete!" Bowls snapped.

It was worth a good laugh, but Pete had gotten off to a great start (and better than the half-assed lyrics I had knocked around earlier). As we discussed the musical further, I began playing with some loops in Garageband to underscore the song Pete had written. Even so, ideas were getting desperate: auto-erotic asphyxiation (RIP David Carradine), roofies, banana peels, but the piece had begun to take a basic sort of shape. Pete's character would sing about his dream girl in the car after talking with his friend about his crush, then he would go in, try hitting on girl unsuccessfully while she flirts with someone else, eventually he leaves and meets up with his friend, realizes that the picture of the girl he had was someone else, and begins to doubt his own sanity. THE END.

It was basically there, but some pieces still needed to come into play. We were concerned that our idea wasn't going to be "musical enough." I suggested that we try doing some experimental musical ideas with the editing during the bar sequence. People weren't exactly enthusiastic about it but in lieu of spending the night on writing and recording a musical score, it would have to do. Pete came up with a little ditty for the ending tune and hammered out some lyrics right there and then. In his first attempt at singing it, he nailed it... I had absolutely nothing to add to it. He and his friend Kjle left to go record a piano part for the ending while Bowls, Mike and myself began to hammer out a script. After an hour or two, we had the basic draft down and turned in for some shuteye before the big day.

When Saturday rolled around, I wasn't really feeling so up to the task of making this film. The familiar dread of, "Why am I doing this again?" crept in as we were loading in our gear and I began drinking all the coffee within reach. But it became clear that with the right people on your team, those concerns will quickly be set aside. Virginia Lee Hunter, photographer, was a huge help in setting up the lights and gels and brought her boyfriend along for the experience. She was also operating the boom during the shoot - two things were taken care of that I was dreading the most!

The shoot was very quick and largely effective. As we were approaching the end of the bar scene shoot, we went upstairs in Mangia and tried to grab a bunch of bar patrons to participate as extras for one shot. Amazingly, it worked and we got our extras. Bowls got to get in front of the camera to play an ornery bouncer... a roll he was seemingly born to play.

We bounced out of Mangia and headed over to our next location: Matt Kriege's house for the Love Stalker's "friend." Matt wasn't around but he lent Bowls his keys so we got there and figured out where to set up. The problem was, we didn't have an actor to play the Love Stalker's friend. Well, guess what, Mr. Glasson, you've just been promoted! It had been a while since I'd been "acting" in front of the cameras but as I sat down with Pete to run lines for the scene, I was reminded how much I missed it, how nice it was to have people running around taking care of the technical concerns of the shoot while I concerned myself with getting a good performance out of Pete and myself.

At last, we finished at Matt's and went to shoot the opening scene of the film where Pete, the love stalker, is sitting in his car and sings a song to a picture of the object of his affection. We weren't really prepared with lighting for a night scene on the street but the 3-chip camcorder we were using (The DVX-100B) is pretty decent in low light so we improvised a solution by placing my laptop in our actor's lap and turning up the brightness on the screen to give him a decent, low-light fill. We knocked the scene out in a few takes and went home to begin the edit.

It took some energy shots and a shitload of coffee but the editing was not too brutal. Remarkably, Bowls and I both managed to squeeze in some shut-eye during the whole process AND I finished the cut with enough time to do some color correcting before running our final output. We turned the film in with about 30 minutes to spare.

When the film played in the festival, it screened as the first film in the first group (out of 72 or however many actually turned in final films). We thought it played well against the competition and, as it turned out, we did get selected as one of the "Best of" for the entire festival, which was an unexpected honor. I wasn't able to stick around in St. Louis to see how we played against the other "Best of" films but Pete, our lead actor, nabbed the prize for best performance, which I took some pride in knowing that editing is always partially responsible for the acting that appears on screen.

As Bowls dropped me off at the airport, I said to him, "You know, this went pretty well for a quick little one-off. We should think about doing a feature film together, just like this." Bowls agreed, and after bouncing many leftover feature film ideas back and forth, we settled on an idea that neither of us previously had: a feature film version of LOVE STALKER.

And well, that's a whole other story that needs telling...

the ezsqueeze

2009-07-06T19:07:00.007-04:00

As those who know me well would likely attest, I can be a bit anal-retentive with regards to certain things. Namely keeping a clean house and perhaps even being slightly compulsive with my organizational methods. One thing that always gets my goat is the manner in which people dispense toothpaste from the tube. The ideal, in my anal-retentive drive for perfection, is to squeeze from the bottom of the tube and slowly flatten it out as the toothpaste gets used over time. So you can easily imagine how it drives me momentarily batty when a house guest uses my toothpaste and just leaves a big pinch in the center of the tube or worse, at the top. I mean, what are you people thinking?

Fortunately, my mother recently gave me a wonderful gift to help reduce the anxiety over maximizing toothpaste-squeezing-efficiency by including this blue toothpaste clamp in my Xmas stocking last year called EZ Squeeze (yes, every year mums always takes great pride in coming up with new and inventive chotchkies to put in our stockings. One of my favorites is a wind-up robotic heart alien monster, but that's a story for another time). Anyway, the deal with the clamp is you fit piece onto the end of the toothpaste tube and turn the knob to roll up at the flap and slowly squeeze it out towards the front. I don't even have to turn the clamp time I want toothpaste, I just turn it when I want to expand the volume of toothpaste in its tube. It's really quite a simple tool that will leave you feeling like you really got the full benefit from your toothpaste purchases!

Below is the first tube that I used the clamp on. As you can see this toothpaste tube was left as dead as a doornail. Here's the link to the website... www.ezsqueezetube.com - apparently they make collapsible tubes convenient!

Great gift! Yay mums!

Tapioca Tundra

2009-06-12T13:37:00.002-04:00

Since not everyone out there is on facebook, I thought I'd post some of the songs I've been recording on my profile. This one is Tapioca Tundra by Michael Nesmith which was released as a Monkees song off of "The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees" album in 1968.

LOVE STALKER

2009-06-08T19:41:00.001-04:00

Matty & Ben Show

2009-04-23T14:16:00.001-04:00

I guess it's a little late to be getting word out on this, but Benny C and myself are performing tomorrow night in the East Village. Here's the mass email that I sent out yesterday...

Please join myself & big Benny C this Friday for our triumphant return to the stage from retirement at the Teneleven bar on Avenue C. We will both will be performing solo songs from our respective repertoires (including a God The Band music revue from Mugwump). The irrepressible Frankie Wood presents!

Friday, April 24, 2009 at 10:00pm
@ teneleven
171 Avenue C between 10th & 11th St.
New York, NY
212-353-1011
* NO COVER CHARGE *

Should be a good time! Then again, it could be a complete disaster...

What in the hell-hath-no-fury happened?

2009-04-23T00:19:00.002-04:00

I have nothing to publicly say on the matter of my most recent relationship and the fallout therein. However, my former seems to feel differently and so while I am tempted to dissect or analyze the matter in this forum, it feels inappropriate and distasteful for me to do so. I wish her the best in getting on with her life and finding her way and can only hope that she does not choose a destructive path in her self-discovery.

"Bob? Looks like we're gonna need a bigger crane..."

2009-03-16T21:13:00.003-04:00

The FDNY poises itself against the horizon of the Edge building and Northside Piers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Two prime examples of the leftover (and hollow) excesses from the real-estate boom of North Brooklyn.

My Sebaceous Cyst reaches landmark 50,000 views online

2009-03-09T18:00:00.001-04:00

In 2005, I had a benign clump of tissue that was situated square in the middle of my back removed by a dermatologist. The process was fairly straightforward, but I wanted to document the cyst with my camera so I asked the nurse if I could take it home and they obliged. Using my Canon Powershot mounted with a macro lens attachment, I took several pictures of it as well as they stitched in my back and posted them on Flickr. Views came in slowly but steadily and at this point, I average 100 views a day. There's a reason for this: if you go into Google or Yahoo images and type in the word "sebaceous cyst," guess who shows up right at the top of the page?

Well, I guess a lot of people are trying to self-diagnose cysts out there because it is undoubtedly my highest viewed picture in my photo stream on the site. In October of last year, someone wrote to me from Vice magazine for an online feature about "gross stuff." The interview is included below...

How did you first notice it?
I noticed it in 2002 when I felt a bump on my back between my shoulder blades. I thought it was a pimple at first or an ingrown hair and so spent a lot of time putting pressure on it and trying to squeeze it out. I also had my girlfriend give it a go, with no success.

Were you worried about removing it?
I was only worried about removing it myself, which is why, once I had health insurance, I went to the dermatologist and had them check it out. They explained it was a cyst and could be surgically removed without too much fuss.

Did it hurt when you had it removed?
No, they shot in a local anesthetic and then went about carving a hole in my back while i lay on my stomach. I remember the doctor saying at one point, "Wow, this is more blood than I expected," which is exactly what you don't want to hear as they're cutting into you, but they got it under control and it was over soon enough. After stitching me up and putting my shirt back on, I asked the nurse if I could see it. She looked at me blankly and opened the trash can and pulled out a little bloody tissue holding the small nub of flesh that was my cyst. "Would it be possible to take it home with me?" I asked her, and after laughing about it, she fetched a small vial and placed the extirpated cyst in it with some formaldehyde, advising me not to drink this as it would make me sick.

Where do you keep it?
I kept the vial in a small jewel box located on my coffee table. It sat there for a month or two when I finally got around to taking pictures of it with my macro lens. I then popped it back in the vial and returned it to its sacred box.

Why do you keep it?
I keep it as a reminder of that which is foreign that emerges from within. I'm actually a fairly squeamish person, but I can be obsessed with infectious diseases, skin conditions and/or malformations of the body. I have surgically removed skin tags from my scrotum using a Swiss army knife pair of scissors, but they are not nearly as photogenic as a sebaceous cyst. I also keep a pin cushion filled with cat whiskers that my kitties shed that I find laying around the apartment.

OK, truthfully, I did embellish my answer about "keeping it" etc as I tossed it in the garbage a short time after I got my picts of it. I mean, after all, what sort of things can I expect from the cyst in the future?

Well, in honor of my cyst's enormous success online, I am posting a picture of a raw tooth nerve that I had removed earlier today during a root canal. Funny timing, huh?

Capsule reviews... 3.2.09

2009-03-02T14:25:00.000-05:00

DEATH PROOF - Quentin Tarantino continues to work within his familiar love of violent exploitational cinema, but no one does it quite as well and as effortlessly as Tarantino.

CARS - Exceeded expectations both as a story and a technical accomplishment, and I'm not too much of a fan of those CGI animated features so that says something.

THE HAPPENING - My hope for some sort of M. Night Shyamalan redemption was quickly dashed within the first 15 minutes of this environmental hoo-ha starring an uncomfortably miscast Mark Wahlberg. I still maintain that Mr. Shyamalan is a talented filmmaker, but a talented storyteller? Not so much.

ROB ZOMBIE'S HALLOWEEN - In a sign of truly desperate times, they've attempted to reboot the Halloween franchise by having Rob Zombie pick up the reigns. As a serious fan of the original two Halloween films, I found this very difficult to sit through. I don't want or need to know the Michael Meyer's backstory, and Zombie's over-reliance on graphic violence for shock and horror is repellent.

SOUTHLAND TALES - OK I liked this, but then again I sort of expect to do so after everyone said they hated it. It's undeniably a bit of an incoherent all-star mess, but I always appreciate it when a film is willing to take some risks and go off the deep end a bit.

THE BANK JOB - I'm Jason Statham, and today is the day... I rob a bank... with sideburns. I actually quite enjoyed this loosely-based account of a real bank heist in swinging seventies London with all the twists and turns we've come to expect from films of this genre.

REDS - There are times in REDS that feel so Academy Award approval-seeking, it hurts, but that might just be because it's a masterfully directed and acted epic film, the likes of which we don't see anymore.

ALICE SWEET ALICE - I feel shame that I hadn't seen this before. It's really quite awesomely creepy and twisted! It's also most definitely an American lifted giallo, but when the results are this effective, I'm not one to complain.

KUNG FU PANDA - Again with the CG animation films that exceed expectations! This was (of course) beautifully animated and well voiced, but the filmmakers also exhibit a great understanding of the action genre which makes this an exciting, not to mention hilarious, movie to watch.

KILL BILL - Both volumes, taken in tandem, have their merits. I was aware of this the first time around, but the second time, on bluray, I could enjoy everything without wondering how it was all going to play out. I think there's some weak spots and to call Tarantino "indulgent" is a bit obvious, but on the whole, the two are extremely entertaining and a lot of fun.

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE - Spike Lee doesn't pull any punches against the Bush government for their dismal and incompetent response after Katrina hit, but are we surprised? This certainly hits home just what a travesty the response was and puts a very real face on the tragedy through the locals who survived the hurricane. Having said that, it goes without saying that this one is a bit of a downer.

WANTED - If you enjoy seeing slow motion bullets defying the laws of physics and logic through the magic of modern CGI, then you'll LOVE Wanted. But for those of us that feel exhausted of the CGI action fantasy bullshit that Hollywood churns out these days, who cares...

HELLBOY II - Definitely better than Hellboy 1. Guillermo Del Toro is clearly a film maker who has grown more confident in his voice as a visionary director, and we are all the better off for it.

TROPIC THUNDER - It's disappointing that a movie so desperate to deconstruct Hollwood cliches and racist stereotypes manages to undermine its efforts through some lazy screenwriting. Watching some of the supplemental material, you would think that the actors and people involved were making the most hilarious film ever made. This is not it.

furnace linkage 2.7.09

2009-02-07T14:30:00.002-05:00

OK time for another batch of links that I found in my surfing adventures... this week's edition will be entirely YouTube-oriented...

This is a good example of "when good movies go wrong" as Casper van Dien resurrects his Johnny Rico character from Starship Troopers to deliver a PSA about... child molesters? Most ominous is the ending line "You know what to do..."

"Imagine, if you will, sitting down for your morning coffee, turning on your home computer and reading the day's newspaper..."

Anyone remember the classic video game-inspired masterpiece Joy Sticks? Bowls MacLean definitely does! I wonder if Joe Don Baker is available to record a DVD commentary...

I don't really get into Star Wars mash-ups on YouTube, but this video is hilarious, if anything, for its insight into James Earl Jones varied and colored career...

Tim & Eric have outdone themselves with Dance Floor Dale. It's quite... wow. But FYI - it is way Not Suitable For Work environs or by people with low tolerance of pornographic material. Having said that, I loved it, of course...

Brooklyn By The Sea

2009-01-30T15:57:00.004-05:00

I was going to include this in the weekly linkage but decided it was so awesome that it deserved its own space. Brooklyn by the Sea is a short film from 1979 by Arnold Baskin based on the song of the same title from Mort Shuman. It's essentially a documentary music video featuring footage shot by Baskin along Brighton Beach and Coney Island in the late seventies. I particularly love the photography and editing in this piece and the variety of people that he manages to capture at that time and place. What a beautiful little time capsule! Definitely worth the five minutes of your time it takes to watch it. Thank you, Mr. Baskin!

furnace linkage 1.29.09

2009-01-29T12:30:00.001-05:00

While I have a little free time on my hands these days, I'll be sharing some of the better stuff I find while surfing upon the interwebs.

For starters, here's Errol Morris's piece for the New York Times on the significant photos of Bush's presidency. It's an interesting read and a good side by side with photos.

SPASMO is celluloid goodness. The trailer, is especially SPASMO-tastic. I'm thinking... REMAKE!

This article from Gawker, about the faux-earnestness of award-recipient speeches, gives some insight into the academy's voting tendencies and is hilariously spot on.

Here is a beautiful short doc made in 1973 about Coney Island and shot on 16mm. This features some great footage of a bygone era - plus shots taken from the front seat on the Thunderbolt rollercoaster. Speaking of which, ever wonder what the parachute tower looked like when it was operating? Well, now you know!

And I need to include a special shout-out to Jeremiah Moss at Vanishing New York and Ray Pride at moviecitynews.com for sharing my article on the tragic closing of Mondo Kim's.

More to come!

Preparing for the great media holocast AKA Why am I stockpiling all of this media?

2009-01-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

In preparing for a recent "capsule review" entry regarding my recent round of media consumption, I realized that the list of films I had been viewing was so great and vast that to begin writing capsule reviews for each of them was going to require a major commitment of time. In so reflecting, I began to think of all the "catching up" I had to do in terms of the various DVD's I have ripped and sitting on my media server in addition to the 2-at-a-time unlimited plan I have with Netflix for watching the latest blu-rays releases. For my birthday, my girlfriend's mom, Fran, purchased two-months worth of Netflix membership (a gift no doubt suggested by my current, Sherry) and in redeeming it, I decided to up the membership to 3-at-a-time unlimited, at least for the two months that I'm getting a decent discount, courtesy Fran Wasserman. In addition there has been a steady stream of DVD's coming home from the library both from myself and from Sherry - she has her own "queue" going at the library that is keeping the flow at a maximum capacity. We often have to rip the DVD's that we didn't have time to watch before returning them which is creating a backlog of movies for us to watch. To top it off, I'm currently getting Skinemax in HD for free (thank you Time Warner for fucking up in the best way possible). This means having a movie on even if a movie isn't on the menu for the evening... it's too hard to say no to free movies!

It doesn't take a blind man to see that I'm living in a self-created world of media over-saturation! I noticed this pattern before, sometime around 2005, when I was at a crossroads in my life and was trying to "refill the pitcher" as it were. This may or may not be one of those crossroads, but I think it's more to do with the ease in which we watch media these days has infiltrated our lives. And even more to the point, how I've embraced this mass media consumption and tried to make it even easier to watch (or even passively observe) film and TV media.

In an effort to hold myself accountable for all of this consumption, I'll be periodically posting up short reviews of some of the material that's passing through my head... below is the beginning.

EQUINOX - Family Tie star Phil Anzelmo has a good track record with recommending fun B-movie entertainment from yesteryear, but this one was a little tough for me to sit through. Cheezy enough to be bad but not bad enough to be funny and not fun enough to really be good. Definitely better as a background movie rather than as a dedicated experience. One has to wonder "what was Criterion thinking?" when they released EQUINOX as a two-disc special edition, but then again they are fans of Michael Bay, so I rest my case.

TWO MINUTE WARNING - At its most reductive, it's a '70s disaster movie about a sniper at a football game, but as it quietly recedes into commercial film obscurity, it stands as a creepy how-to guide for psychotic killers in a society that is unaware of the threat and unable to protect itself against it. Timely indeed, but prescient? Probably not... The all-star cast includes Charlton Heston, John Cassavettes, Gena Rowlands, Jack Klugman, Beau Bridges and a ton of others.

BENJAMIN BUTTON - Exceeding expectations which were admittedly skewed after hearing critical response both for and against the curious case of Benajamin Buñ, but they were quickly waylayed in the darkened theater as I found myself fighting back tears that weren't even earned in the first 15 minutes. It's a film that is steeped in emotion and heart. It's also a film written by Eric Roth, the guy who wrote the screenplay for Forest Gump, and there are undeniably similarities between the two in their narrative devices. But as I was consistently impressed with the outstanding yet subtle CGI FX, I was taken into the story, sometimes kicking and screaming, but going along the whole way.

28 WEEKS LATER - OK, not bad considering it had some big shoes to fill from the first 28 days of infected zombie mayhem. The cast definitely carries the material and Robert Carlyle clearly earned his paycheck on this one, but in the end no one can escape that this is a familiarly hokey horror yarn.

CANDY - Lovable like a child you wish you didn't have, CANDY has a lot of camp appeal and '60s zaniness overindulgence but is worth the trip for the insanely over the top performers of the all-star cast of Richard Burton, Walter Mathau, Ringo Starr, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, Charles Aznovaur, John Huston and John Astin (and no I didn't need to imdb that shit - it's all stored upstairs).

SHARKWATER - Without getting preachy about conservation efforts, I recommend this film unequivocally. While I felt the film was a tad manipulative and cheesy in its voice-over narration, the message and story of the journey these guys take in skark-conservation-efforts is powerful and truly moving. Statistics alone are horrifying - see the movie and witness firsthand how bad things are getting for marine life out there.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS - Some movies are hailed classics for a reason, and this is definitely one of them. Featuring the outstanding black and white photography from James Wong Howe of NYC and Times Square in the '50s, SSOS is a smartly written and well acted character study on the underbelly of tabloid journalism. It really says something when a film still resonate fifty years later - check it out!

PARASITE - OK I knew this was going to be bad going in, but I was hoping it wasn't going to be THAT bad. The creature FX are fun, but there were too few to go around. This movie definitely gets some additional laughs from a few gratuitous 3-D shots, and the lead actor was so weird looking and wooden in his acting I kept waiting for him to die. I guess since a very young Demi Moore found him attractive and helps him kill the parasite, he was the hero. For '80s horror completists only...

EVENT HORIZON - Newly released on bluray, I decided to take in this sci-fi horror film from the late '90s to see if it was any good. There are definitely some creepy moments in the film and when things start going really wrong, it's fun watching shit go haywire. The CGI work is pretty crude for today's standards, but the good cast helps elevate the b-movie material, which makes this movie feel an awful lot like Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE from last year.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Summertime Edition: East River State Park

2009-01-26T00:02:00.003-05:00

As we're in the throes of wintertime blues and subzero weather, I thought I'd post some of these picts I snapped off from early September during an afternoon jaunt with Sherry over to East River State Park in Williambsurg (or North Side if you want to get specific). These were mostly shot with my zoom lens but I used my wide angle for a few street shots as well. It won't be long before we are able to return to wearing short shorts and sitting in the midday sun, but in the meantime, some summertime picts will have to suffice. Enjoy!

Goodbye Kims: a store, along with an era, closes its doors...

2009-01-22T01:05:00.008-05:00

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day of this week, I headed over to the East Village to run some basic errands: Auggies Blend coffee, rain scented glycerin soap, and I wanted to get one last look at Mondo Kim's on St. Marks Place before they shuttered their doors. To the uninitiated, Mondo Kim's represented a vast selection of esoteric movies and music, and at its peak, operated four floors of the building on St. Marks Place for its retail and rental operations. The top floor was a film fanatic's wet dream of hard-to-find films on VHS and DVD for rent. If there was a film that you couldn't get on Netflix or at your local video shop, Kims was likely to have it in their collection... if not on DVD then surely on VHS. As an example, my most recent rental there was a hitman noir film called "The Outside Man" from 1972 starring Roy Scheider and Ann Margaret. Apparently the film is not available on DVD and is out of print on VHS, but sure enough, Kims came through for me and thus was able to watch a movie I would otherwise have been unable to find. I remember about a year ago having a sudden "burning" curiosity to see the cheesy kids-getting-hacked-in-the-woods movie "The Burning" (starring Jason Alexander!) and it was only available, at that time, on a bootleg VHS at Kims. Of course, now you can see "The Burning" in all its tacky badness on DVD, but in that moment, speaking as someone who was hungry for some early '80s horror schlock, it was a godsend having Kims as a last resort for digging up some obscure or out-of-print films.

And so it is a sign of the times that Kims has had to close its flagship store on St. Marks. I think it's due both to increasing rental costs and decreasing demand for traditional video rentals - everyone uses Netflix these days, including me! The whole business model for media delivery is in a state of flux, something of which I've had my own hand in professionally, and hopefully media will get easier and easier to access in the months and years going forward. For Kims, however, this meant giving up that huge rental collection, so they ended up donating it to some film institution in Sicily. Now instead of rentals, they opened up a small retail outfit on First Avenue to continue selling obscure cult classic DVD's and foreign films. But losing that amazing movie rental collection is a hard blow to the dedicated cinéaste in NYC.

Anyway, back to my Monday adventure, in which I dropped by Kims only to find that the place was in the process of being emptied out. I tentatively entered, to which a distinguished Asian gentlemen said, "Sorry, we are closed." I asked him if I could take some pictures of the store and he gave me permission to do so. It then occurred to me as I was going about my photo-snapping that maybe this Asian gent was none other than Kim himself, who, back in the day, founded the minor rental store that ended up growing into a film-buff's treasure trove. I approached him and asked, "Excuse me, are you, um, THE Kim?" And he lets out a shy laugh and says yes he is Kim. I gushingly profess my fanship to his store, saying how sorry I am to see it closing and what a pleasure it was to meet the man behind this important and significant collection of films to which he replies, "You like drama, eh?" I quickly explain, "Yeah that's why I was such a good customer for all those years. I love drama and movies!" He didn't mind me taking pictures of the store as it was getting cleared out, but he didn't want me to take any pictures of him. On the whole, he was extremely nonchalant and un-sentimental about the whole thing which, I suppose, isn't too surprising... for him it was just a business venture. Still, to have been given a chance to document some of the last moments of Mondo Kim's was a privilege for sure - it's no time soon that I will be forgetting the myriad of film delights I've unearthed in that building during my tenure as a denizen of this city.

Thank you Kim! Your Mondo shop will sorely be missed!

Because I Can! aka... Network Streaming Feats on Guernsey Streets

2009-01-17T15:55:00.001-05:00

Here is a short one-shot video of me streaming movies and media to 5 of the computers in my Greenpoint, Brooklyn apartment... all using Apple's Airport Extreme! The first film we see streaming is the 1969 film CANDY running from my media server wirelessly to my Macbook, then on the main display is THE GRADUATE, which is running over the wired gigabit network (tho to be technical, the network port on the mini is only 10/100 and doesn't support gigabit datarates). After that we take a walk through my studio where the British TV series SPACED is running on my Mac Pro tower and Fox Soccer Sports channel is streaming over the internet on an Acer PC laptop for work. Lastly, we end up in the bedroom, where the classic horror film ALICE SWEET ALICE is playing off my old Powerbook (now converted into a media playback hub) on the LCD facing my bed. You can see just a hair of buffering at the end, but considering the amount of traffic that the network is supporting, it's pretty damned impressive!

New Years Eve in Times Square

2009-01-03T13:39:00.002-05:00

Another year and I've now twice had the pleasure of being able to spend new years in the Vivi-office overlooking Times Square. This years celebration was a little quieter than last year's ball dropping and the temperatures outside were undoubtedly a bit more freezing. Still, when the ball did finally drop and the confetti got dumped from the rooftops above the street, there's no denying the excitement was palpable. I ran another camera to capture some time lapse footage as I did last year, so I will be posting that video once I've had a chance to put something together with it.

2008, my year in pictures

2008-12-31T17:01:00.003-05:00

This is a selection of pictures that I've uploaded to Flickr this last year that represent some of my experiences and observations through the lens of my photography. They are a mix of personal favorites and significant milestones in my life's experience. I would provide a running commentary but time is short and I think it's best just to let the images speak for themselves. It's only about 30 pictures altogether... some you may have seen before and others maybe not. To watch the slideshow, I believe you need to click on the image to move to the next in the series. Enjoy!

My Best and Worst of 2008

2008-12-31T15:42:00.002-05:00

This is a submission to an online contest "Best and Worst Photo of 2008" on Flickr. The idea is to take your best picture of the year and juxtapose it with your worst. Picking a "best" image can be tricky when you are doing the judging. I had a lot of favorites and off-the-cuff portraits that mean something to me, but do they translate to other people as well? I love my cats dearly and felt like I had some breakthrough photography with them as subjects, but does anyone really care about tabby cat photography? Ultimately, I went with my gut instincts in picking something simple but effective.

Defining "worst" is much harder than establishing some basic criteria for "best." This got me to thinking about what my "worst" photo is... Worst technically? Worst composition? Least flattering portrait? Most of what I would consider really short on technical or other contributing factors get deleted right away. Nevertheless, this was the year that I went DSLR and, as a result, took on a volume of shooting that was unprecedented heretofore. Part of this was the learning process of getting to know my camera and firming up my own aesthetic as a photographer. Another part was just embracing the ease and joy of snapping off picts at a rate that was never available to me before. As a result, there were a LOT of unnecessary, uninteresting or "ugly" images in my catalog.

Going off of both criteria, I selected the "Red, White & Bug" picture on the right, taken at our campsite in Iowa during a camping excursion in late August. I think it is a simple and uncomplicated image, but the silhouettes of the two insects bring a deeper context which is entirely subjective to the viewer. In other words, I wasn't trying to "say" anything with it as it just happened, but someone looking at it might see some deeper meaning in it.

The picture on the right was one of those moments that, in retrospect, did not call out for photographic documentation for any future or current generation's betterment but merely happened as a result of me being a bit trigger-happy and lazy with my camera. It was taken on the same camping trip when Jody playfully tried to bite her husband's butt while in the river. I can't exactly say it makes me proud as a photographer and I found myself wondering why I hadn't deleted it earlier, but then I wouldn't have a "worst" picture as good as this one.

Photo restoration

2008-12-19T13:47:00.003-05:00

Here was a fix-up I did for my ex, Samone, as part of a Christmas gift she's sending out to her family. It's a picture of her mom and sister from 1951 and was clearly showing signs of its age and was even torn in half and taped together. I was happy with the end result... click on the image for a larger version.

Camping in Iowa 2008 Edition

2008-12-14T23:09:00.002-05:00

So another year has passed and another trip has been made to the secret camping spot along the Maquoketa River in Iowa. I took pictures last year as well, but this year I had my new Canon 40D SLR camera and the assortment of lenses to accompany me. Needless to say, I went a little overboard in documenting the proceedings, but I think some good pictures came out of it. I shot nearly 400 pictures camping and another 100 or so on the road which have yet to be posted. It was an extremely difficult task weeding out the pictures that weren't worth posting, but I think this better gives a sense of the overall trip through the highlights. There are stories attached to the images of course, and I did my best to include some anecdotes on the website.

The Dark Knight's kind of town

2008-12-13T10:56:00.002-05:00

My friend and co-collaborator Scott Greene has recently purchased a Flip camera so he could start making and posting short videos to YouTube. Above is one of his first videos: a short tour of the Chicago locations used in the latest Batman film The Dark Knight. If you've seen the film (and let's face it, who hasn't?), then you might enjoy getting the inside scoop from a real Chicagoan. The Dark Knight is more Chicago than Gotham City and Scott Greene is here to present the proof. Nice one, Scott!

urban arrogance in motion: a day in the life of the EDGE

2008-12-07T18:02:00.005-05:00

HD Version

NOTE: You may want to playback and then allow the film to buffer (load) before playing through so it doesn't stutter during playback.

High Quality YouTube version

Flickr Version

Here are the results from my first time-lapse experiment with my Canon 40D Digital SLR camera. I pointed the camera out of my living room window towards the large and unwieldy EDGE building in Williamsburg. It has been topped off, but there's still a lot of construction of the building underway. Using the software that came with the camera, I ran a USB cable from the camera into my Macbook and set the camera to shoot one full resolution JPEG every 30 seconds. My tripod is cheap and shoddy and it took a few bumps during the day, mostly I'm sure from the cats playing around it and batting at imaginary insects. I then exported these JPEG's into a new project in Aperture, applied a basic contrast and color enhancement, cropped to a satisfying 1920x1080 size frame (it was definitely more than I would have liked), and uniformly applied these adjustments to the whole album. This was then exported as an image sequence of JPEG files, imported into Final Cut Pro and dropped into a time-line so each image was set to a value of 1/30 of a second. I added a soundtrack using different sound bank elements, trying to find a dark counterbalance to the daytime cityscape.

But most excitedly, this was my first foray into the world of HD video; it's a real treat to see all the detail that the camera picks up at full resolution. Of the three embedded versions I've posted, I like Flickr's the best at full-screen as the compression artifacts are a lot less noticeable. As I have a bit more time on my hands these days, hopefully I can make some more of these in the days to come...

The Violent Death of Joe the Plumber

2008-10-16T23:19:00.003-04:00

Due to the sudden popularity of "Joe the Plumber" and his political "relevance" after this week's presidential debate between Obama and McCain, I thought I'd share a movie clip which tells the story of the "real" Joe the Plumber from the 1981 horror film "The Beyond" by Lucio Fulci....

Keep in mind that with McCain's tax cuts, this type of situation with the real Joe The Plumber would be entirely plausible. Vote Obama '08!

TOXIC

2008-10-11T19:46:00.000-04:00

for jen

What a shitty week... let's watch some movies!

2008-09-26T09:42:00.009-04:00

Ugh. That's the operative word (or is it a sound?) for my existence this week. It's been a rough and difficult emotional roller coaster and I've been ornery and temperamental as my poor Sherry can attest. Not that I've taken anything out on her directly, but I've not exactly been a box of sunshine to be around. How does this differ from normal Muggy behavior you ask? Well, let's just say I destroyed a piece of furniture by kicking it to death in the living room. It was an ottoman. The cats were not pleased.

But all this leads me to one conclusion: please let's escape these depressing doldrums by watching some movies! I have several, nay, dozens to watch at home both in standard def and that superior bluray format. But as I was lying in bed this morning looking out at the grey and ashen sky pouring out its sad, cold rain, I remembered a movie from the early '80s that I never got around to seeing called Parasite (which was originally released in 3-D). It stars a very young and hot Demi Moore but honestly I was more interested in it for the creepy creature effects. Anyway, it seems like a good day for some hot Parasite action, but it's an even better day for me to crank out some capsule reviews. So get out your pen and paper and get ready for some quality suggestions for you all to add (or delete) in your Netflix queue (or hell, maybe visit that mom & pop rental store down the street - they could use the business).

Having lived in New York on 9/11, I was curious to see how Oliver Stone was going to treat the subject in his film World Trade Center. And while there were some powerful scenes and painful moments of watching the two characters suffer as they try to survive being pinned beneath the rubble of the towers, the end result of the film was surprisingly maudlin and sentimental. I suppose it's hard not to be sentimental given the miraculous story of the two characters, but even so it felt a little overbaked. But on the subject of mass destruction of NYC, the JJ Abrahms Godzilla re-hash Cloverfield was a nice try at re-inventing the large-scale monster movie, but it ultimately fell short in its "Blair Witch" cinema-verite technique and the thinly conceived characters. It's possible the actors are to blame as well as they couldn't really inhabit the roles and pull them off convincingly. Some critics seemed to think there was some clever social satire buried in there but ultimately it was just more young, hot actors getting picked off in a genre film. I will give it points however for having some intense action scenes and a nice dark ending.

Speaking of darker material, I just re-watched Pennies From Heaven with Steve Martin from 1981. I've seen this movie several times over the years and know it inside and out, and there's a reason for that - it remains one of the most criminally neglected masterpieces of modern times. The manner in which the director Herbert Ross and writer Dennis Potter weave in these musical numbers (all of which are lip-synched to tunes from the thirties) to underscore the character's psychology was a brilliant and daring ploy that was ahead of its time (Chicago, eat your heart out). And the tap-dancing by Steve Martin is sublime, awesome stuff. Can you name another film that features Christopher Walken as a pimp tap-dancing on a pool table? What a unique and unusual film in the pantheon of Hollywood's history. If you haven't seen it yet, there is a gap in your life that needs filling. Fill it. Now.

We know that Joseph Gordon Leavitt is a good actor as evidenced by his work in the teen noir flick Brick, and he continues this trend of solid performances in the smartly written film The Lookout, where he plays a young man who is mentally handicapped after he gets into a fatal car accident and finds himself a pawn in a bank heist. Good performances all around and a well constructed story make this a highly recommended taut thriller. With similar praise I recommend last year's Foreign Language Best Picture The Lives Of Others though tonally, it's very different from The Lookout. The heart of the film is in the work of lead actor Ulrich Mühe, who becomes obsessed with the writer and his lover whom he is spying on. Some of the film felt just a little contrived to me, but Mühe's performance is heartbreaking and it really stuck with me in the weeks after watching the movie. It's a shame it turned out to be his final curtain call, as he was an incredibly gifted actor.

Some other great acting nods were well-deserved by Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt in The Assination of Jesse James by the Coward Bob Ford. I was familiar with the Jesse James story from the Walter Hill's The Long Riders and the lesser-seen made-for-TV film The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James starring Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash as the elder James' brother (some inspired casting if there ever was). But this film takes the Jesse James myth and really turns it on its ear. I love me a good western, but what I really love now is a good revisionist western wherein the myths and legends of the west are given a more realistic and ambiguous treatment. I've always subscribed to that famous lyric in that song about "that dirty little coward who shot down Mr. Howard" but imagine my shock and surprise when I began to sob uncontrollably at the end of the film out of sympathy for the Bob Ford character. It's nothing shy of great Shakespearean drama. Highly fucking recommended.

The western do-over 3:10 to Yuma was pretty good, too, though I wouldn't call it "revisionist." It is well acted and smartly directed by James Mangold and is a good action movie, but it's fairly faithful to the genre from which it descends. At its core, it is a very good and fairly simple story. The Proposition, on the other hand, is what I'd call "revisionist western" written by Nick Cave (yes, the one with the bad seeds) and starring Guy Pearce (Memento), Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) and Danny Huston (son of John), it's a story that really dives into the murky territory of not-so-good guys vs. not-such-bad guys, twists your emotions and doesn't give you a clear-cut hero in the traditional sense of the word. My type of movie! Life is never so simple so why should our fables be any different? Similar to "Assassination" I finished the movie and then cried like a baby. I love it when a movie can be cooly understated and subtle and then hit you over the head when you least expect it. Danny Huston is also one of my favorite character actors out there now, so keep an eye out for anything he's in - that's a good sign the movie isn't going to be bad.

One not so great (but not terrible) movie with Danny Huston is 30 Days of Night - that vampire movie where a cult of vampires takes over a small Alaskan town during the dead of winter and feast on the inhabitants. One thing to note is that this all happens on Sarah Palin's watch... and people want her to be our next VP? The movie has some disappointing horror movie conventions, some forced character development and drama, but it's a somewhat watchable slice of horror, buouyed no doubt by my man Danny Huston's diabolical vampire leader.

I'm a very big fan of Darren Aronofsky and am excited to see his new film The Wrestler which was all the buzz at this year's Toronto Film Festival, but I have to say that his third film, the epic The Fountain was quite a letdown on the second viewing. I saw it in the theaters when it came out and found its structure and visual style very compelling. I contemplated the film for days afterwards, piecing the fractured narrative together in my mind. It was one of those films that I told myself would be much better the second time around, but it turned out to be the opposite. The structure felt forced, the pace slow and the romance flat. Oh, and Hugh Jackman's protagonist was a jerk so it was hard to really care about his obsession to cure his wife's cancer. Really, the thrust of the film seemed to be much more about Darren Aronofsky's obsession with making this film in the first place, so it ultimately feels more about healing the director's ego.

On the topic of filmmaker pretension and hubris, M. Night Shyamalan's Lady In The Water was something I checked out purely out of curiosity to see "just how bad it is." And while I'd love to give the film an visceral shredding, not everything in the film is horrible - he's a filmmaker with undeniably sharp chops. That is not to say the film is good - it's plenty bad, but there were some well staged scenes and nice camerawork. Obviously this does not a good film make, but as people are quick to jump on the bandwagon of how horrible a film it is, I did want to point out that there's some redemption in the film, albeit through technical mastery (and I'm not talking about the fake looking CGI grass dogs). But really the most ludicrous and laughable aspect to the film has to be M. Night's casting of himself as a writer who will, according to the title character, "write a story that a boy will read who will grow up to change the world." It's just painful to watch, especially with all the talented actors signed on doing their best to inhabit these roles seriously. Clearly, the director's ego needs to be put in check here. I mean, I never thought I'd be one to side with Disney, but I think they were spot on when they turned his script down and complained "too much M. Night" in this one. No shit.

But sometimes director (or in this case director/actor) hubris is not such a bad thing. Who knew that RAMBO, Sly Stallone's fourth outing with the John Rambo character was going to be such a romp? Who knew!? I mean, this movie pulls no punches in the graphic violence department, easily outdoing any of the films preceding it in the series. I hate to sound like a teen boy with a love for giant machine guns and exploding body parts, but this movie tapped right into that vein and kept the juices pumping. You have a great formula for a good action movie here: a) sexist, misogynistic, brutal villains b) lots of big guns and explosions and c) a very pissed off, stoic Rambo. It's a bit campy for sure but I can't deny I had a great time watching the body parts fly when Sly mans that humongous Gatling gun towards the end of the film. Even Sherry, who was opposed to watching Rambo from the get-go, seemed to enjoy the visceral thrills that come with watching despicable characters get their bodies torn apart by machine gun fire. Hilarious, blood-pumping, testosterone-soaked fun. Definitely the best sequel of the bunch!

Oh, how could I write a lengthy entry doing capsule reviews of recent movies without mentioning the way overhyped Dark Knight? I was underwhelmed and a bit disappointed. To be fair, Heath Ledger gives a very good (tho shy of great) performance as The Joker. But this movie suffers from a very common issue in these comic-book movie adaptations: too-much-itis. The third act really falls apart with the unlikely development of (SPOILER ALERT) Harvey Dent's villainous turn. Really, I just got anxious for the whole thing to end and stop making all that noise. Now that summer's over it seems like it finally has.

Couple other quickies to wrap this up: The Bank Job with Jason Statham far exceeded my expectations and was a fun, dark thriller. David Mamet's Redbelt was exactly the kind of boring, talky action film that I would have mistakenly seen as a kid thinking it was going to be a cool martial arts fight film. Well, as an adult viewer, it was still really boring. I finally got around to seeing Donnie Brasco after all these years - mainly because I wanted to see some of my neighborhood, Greenpoint, featured in a mobster film. The movie's not too bad in the end, though some scenes reeked of Hollywoodism. Persepolis was beautifully animated and drawn (by hand! old school!) and was a great story to boot - that is a must-see for sure and it's a shame that it's a footnote in my entry here but I think I've done enough writing for today.

Stay tuned for the next installment in which I'll review that 1980's gem Parasite at long last. Until then, happy viewing...

I'm Different

2008-09-14T20:45:00.004-04:00

This was a re-edit of Ben's first video in his series of "One week/one song/one video" in which he takes on the touchy topic of public masturbation (this was "sex" week). Originally, the video was a re-hash of outtakes from the Broken Girl video, but as this was Ben's baby I helped him out when I could and let him do as he wished. I wasn't thrilled with the original result but, having liked the song and some of the moments from the original video, I told him I'd have a go at re-editing the piece, excising the "broken girl" outtakes and integrating more of the PSA film "The Child Molester." The result is dark, as is our wont, and somewhat jumbled and intentionally sloppy. I'm happy with it, even tho it is somewhat unsettling to watch. It definitely preys on the notion that what you don't see is more terrifying than what is actually revealed.

RNC Protest Teargassing footage

2008-09-06T09:58:00.004-04:00

Don't know the circumstances leading up to the police's decision to teargas the protesters, but it seems excessive from this clip. There was a lot of RNC protest arrests going on that the media paid no attention to whatsoever (surprise surprise), so here's the real deal. Incidentally, this was forwarded to me by Scott Greene, so thanks for keeping an eye out, buddy.

image overload

2008-08-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

There's lots been going on of late in a myriad of areas of my life. But rather than try to encompass lots into little space, I'll focus on one of my most recent investments - a digital SLR camera. The Canon EOS 40D is just about everything I could want in an upgrade into the DSLR market: it's fast, versatile and effective machine. And it's a beauty...

The Canon EOS 40D with Sigma 17-70mm lens

For those that think, "why do you need that? you already have a good camera and take good pictures." I say thank you, but what the reason for the upgrade is that I want more out of the pictures I take - more detail, more tonal range, more resolution - basically pictures that could exist on "the next level" Ultimately, a camera is only as good as the person behind it, but I wanted more range in my voice as a photographer, and the Canon 40D fulfilled that call (though, truth be told, were money not as much of an issue I would have rather gone the extra mile and picked up the Nikon D300, but that was substantially more expensive).

Anyway, here are some links to new sets I've set up to catalog some of these new shots I've been getting with my new camera. The entire workflow has had to change from my basic P&S/iphoto ways into a RAW/Aperture workflow that will take some getting used to. And as I am probably an hour away from leaving to go on my camping trip in Iowa where I'll be taking even more pictures, I figured I should get the jump on distributing some of these picts forthwith...

Note these picts lead to my general Flickr library, which has many other shots from these photo sessions for you to browse...

Clouds Over Brooklyn

Sherry's birthday shenanigans

The Amazing and Talented Buñ

Another trip to Coney Island

BBQ Funs

Co-workers (and former co-workers) from Vividas

Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg... keep coming back for my latest pictoral observations. In the meanwhile I gotta get outta here - there's some pictures waiting to be taken...

i piss in your mccarren pool

2008-08-17T20:14:00.002-04:00

Today, i piss in mccarren pool.

McCarren Pool - "The Good Old Days"

It was bad enough to deal with the influx of foot traffic, loud drunk asses and general noise pollution, but tonight my tolerance for the hip and happening McCarren Pool sunday parties reached a new low (or is it high?). Armed with my new Canon 40D DSLR, I headed over to the free Sunday show to snap off some "fancy schmancy" picts of the hipsters and squares with my new toy. After waiting in line 10 minutes, I was told at the gate to "talk to that woman over there" who then told me "you have to walk around to the back of the pool and talk to security." She was unable or unwilling to explain exactly why I needed to see security other than "that's how they're doing this now." After a long trek around to the other side of the pool, I found the VIP guest entrance and had to wait in the disorganized line to see the disorganized girl with the VIP guest list. "I was told to come back here from the front gate." "Oh he'll need to tag your camera." she directed me to the security guard next to the table, who then finally explained "We need to hold your camera for you, if you go in there they will confiscate your camera. You need to be on the Fuller list." Flummoxed and beset, I tore the green tag off my camera. Agitated: "Sir I just TOLD you you need to turn this in before you can go into the pool." "I'm not going in." I snapped back, and walked out of the entrance, throwing the bright green tag into the trash as I passed it.

Fuck you, McCarren Pool, I said, flipping the bird to the back of the mainstage as some bad sampled hip hop beat pounded the air.

I piss in your pool.

The Rubber Room

2008-08-04T00:49:00.003-04:00

This was the last of Ben's "song/video of the week" experiment focusing on the theme of rage. We shot Ben against a green screen in my living room using an old VHS camcorder with a manual zoom lens and plugged it to record directly into the mac mini in my entertainment center. The footage is public domain movies that Ben pulled down from archive.org. The four films used include a PSA type short about dealing with troubled children and other examinations of mentally disturbed people. The video closes with a film which was essentially an extended "relaxation" drug commercial for the day. The song, written and recorded in under a week by Ben Warren, is entitled "Rubber Room." The video represents about 5-6 hours of work and is mostly effected through analog methods (i.e., physical materials and not digital enhancements).

PS - This edit is slightly different from the original one that Ben posted within the "one week parameter." I cut down the mosquito bit from the ending and tweaked some of the background edits during the song itself. I'll be reposting the other videos that we worked on together after I've done some other minor fixes in the days to come...

Ben's Alcohol music video

2008-07-21T19:43:00.004-04:00

As part of Ben's Sex, Drugs, Alcohol and RAGE experiment, he's been doing a fresh song each week accompanied by a new music video. Without any prodding, I volunteered to help out however I could, mainly in post-production, to facilitate his ambitious goal of a song/video each week, but this last week's entry had me a little more hands-on as I agreed to take on the task of shooting and editing the video this last weekend. I heard the song for the first time Friday night and said to him, "I see you on a roof - MY ROOF - performing the song in a single static shot that would feature you acting out the song in different capacities." What I meant by that is that we'd set the camera in a single fixed position and then let Ben act out the song say dramatically with a girl, alone with guitar, with bottle, etc..

What ultimately happened is the result above - I quickly realized that the lighting on my roof (in 100 degree heat much less) wasn't going to suffice for a fixed camera approach, and so the handheld multi-pass jumble was the logical compromise. Ultimately, it gave us both more freedom to do what we needed to get the job done. Sherry got lassoed in at the last minute to hold a flexi-disc to bounce some light onto the subject while I captured him with my mini-DV camera sporting a cheap fish-eyed lens. I did the edit as a multi-clip pass in FCP, then had to spend some time re-syncing the individual clips because his performance was slipping out with the mixed track once I got down to editing it. All in all, probably four hours spent making it...

decisions, decisions

2008-07-10T23:49:00.003-04:00

Things owed myself (if not this blog)...

2008-07-08T23:36:00.001-04:00

- an explanation of the events of July 4th
- a general life summary/assessment
- a clear articulation of my future goals
- a rejection of misguided politics and public interpretation of world events
- a recipe for a tasty and spicy vodka infusion
- a formal review of my pioneer plasma display
- a love letter to my cats
- a clearcut examination and explanation of my choice in the digital SLR camera market (once I have made one)
- a story regarding the short-term effects of conquering my skin disease tineas versicolor
- a collection of capsule reviews related to my favorite action movies of the '80s
- something unrelated to this list

Matt & Ben have coffee part 1

2008-05-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

Ben & I recently sat down for coffee to discuss the recent NEW YORK STALKER project and our future plans. It was sort of a way for us to make an assessment of the experience and hopefully shed some light on what inspired the whole thing and where we want to go next...

M: Let's start with the songs themselves... can you tell me about writing the song "Broken Girl"

B: Sure, "Broken Girl" was written about my ex, Christina. We had a long and very dysfunctional relationship which was fertile soil for songwriting. She wanted marriage and kids and I wanted to be a rockstar...it became living hell from which we barely recovered. Actually, she recovered well enough to get married and have kids with another man.

M: So you wrote this while you were still in the relationship with her?

B: Yes, she actually liked the song. When I showed her the video, she loved it; she said she knew it would take three girls to accurately portray her. She always hated you...

M: Yeah I think she suspected I was after you from the start. Maybe it was the skirt I was wearing when we first met.

B: Yes she knew something was up even then...she was like, "which skirt is it going to be - him or me?"

M: Well, I'd say you chose the right skirt.

B: My question to you is what made you think that song was ripe for video?

M: It immediately struck me as a very dramatic and intense song. There was a lot of self-loathing to the lyrics and the music itself was very dark - I liked how the song feels like it's building towards a certain doom, an inevitable bad ending of sorts. At least that’s the feeling the music and words kind of gave me. I liked it.

B: Well, yeah - the song becomes a self attack, I didn't want it to be a finger pointing song, so the chorus becomes more of a "you thought I'd save you from the wreckage of your life but guess again , I'm just as fucked up as you."

M: When I first described the plot of the video to you - that you would be walking around as a serial killer as we witness your prior victims being discovered - did you think "of course - that's perfect" or did it take some getting used to?

B: I thought, "Of course, that's perfect MATT," and I'm sure Christina thought the same thing... "that fucking pervert!"

M: There is an odd use of our girlfriends and ex-girlfriends with this song and the video project. You wrote the song about your ex Christina, then in the video you employed your current girlfriend Gina to play a corpse that gets dumped in a garbage heap. My ex Jen Rock played the first victim and I have to give her credit and say Jen was totally essential to us doing that video since she really liked the idea for it and agreed to take on the task of handling the make-up.

B: Oh sure Gina and Jen were huge. And Jen really rocked the makeup. When you first hit me with the idea, I remember her saying, "I want to be a dead girl!"

M: Well, she got her wish. Of the three videos we did - "Broken Girl" is the most pure horror. Were you concerned about being involved with something that could be viewed as misogynistic or hateful towards women?

B: Not at all, if you follow my career, through the What's Up Show and so on, you can see a pattern emerging: a distaste for all that is feminine and an interest revolving around seeing them made to suffer. Mom, goddamn you! Goddamn you! No, in all honesty, I think creation is creation. It has nothing to do with all that PC shit....Were you afraid that you would be considered anti woman?

M: I knew people could misconstrue my intent or otherwise think me a creep for making such a video, but what do I have to lose? People see what the want to see. I have my own values and beliefs and they're not always going to necessarily be reflected by what I create. It really helped to have the support of our girlfriends with the project in that regard - their "being OK" with the material was definitely a vote of confidence to me in moving forward. But really, at the end of the day, I don't think when you watch "Broken Girl" you get a feeling of "yeah, man, strangle that bitch!" The video's not an experience for the viewer to vicariously experience the thrill of stalking and/or killing. But this raises an interesting question in terms of the material, do you have any stalker in you when you walk the streets of NYC? Like have you ever found yourself following a woman that you're attracted to?

B: YES. I can literally walk the streets for hours behind a woman who looks particularly good from the back. I just watch though - I don't touch! It is the best free entertainment in the world - just follow a beautiful girl... WAIT that rhymes -

M: Well this segues nicely into the second song of the trilogy - "Seen a Girl." How long have you had that song kicking around your catalog of tunes?

B: Since you rejected it from God The Band!

M: Oh, is that true?

B: Don't you remember I was playing it to you and Danny Rockett in the kitchen of our house in Hatfield, PA. Everyone liked it but some were afraid it didn't "fit."

M: Hm... I don't remember that, but even so, I don't think the song would have fit with the GTB mold, if there was one. But Danny did write some similarly themed love-song tripe that managed to make the grade. I'd say it probably didn’t get picked because we didn’t want you taking over the band, Ben. We were God The Band - not Flies of the Marketplace.

B: Ouch. Well, regardless I always liked that song and was thrilled when you expressed interest in making a video for it.

M: Well, I liked the song, too, though it's not the kind of thing I would normally gravitate towards in adapting it for music video.

B: Right, it's a Beatlesy, happy thing...

M: Exactly - and it could make for a Beatlesy, cutesy sort of video if you wanted to play it safe. It’s obvious when you hear the song that you’re being sincere – it's a sweet and heartfelt little ditty. There isn’t that level of menace or twisted irony that comes off in the video.

B: Did you find some parallels between that song and "Broken Girl"?

M: No, not really. I wasn’t really seeking to make those types of connections at any point. I mean, there was a thematic connection between the ideas, but it wasn't originally worked up as a trilogy of stalker incidents. It wasn’t like “ok, we have Ben as a serial killer, now let’s see what he’s like with his mother and so on.” I think as it happened I had volunteered to work up some music video ideas for some of the songs off some of your albums and “Seen a Girl” one came out of one of those brainstorming sessions. I still have the little piece of paper where i wrote out the idea for it. Originally you were supposed to be accompanied by a trio of black female back-up singers as you were stalking your mom. Kind of a “Little Shop of Horrors” touch.

B: Damn! I miss that idea...oh is that mysogonistic?

M: No, actuallly, it was out of budget. But that’s fine - if we did have the resources to shoot the back-up singers for the video, it would have taken on a higher level of camp which would probably have been too cutesy for my taste. The way it ended up, it’s a somewhat unsettling video – especially with the revelation that this poor old woman you’re following around is your mother.

B: Who do you like in terms of horror directors?

M: Well, i think what Polanski did with the genre is somehwat unparalleled - he's easily one of my film gods, both in terms of horror and otherwise. I do like some of the Italian directors like Fulci and Argento, but they run the gamut from brilliant to just bad. You kind of need to check your brain at the door when watching that kind of stuff. It's funny - we acknowledged all these horror films that the trilogy was "paying homage" to when we sent out the press release and really, the only one with any real direct point of reference to me is John Carpenter's Halloween with all those shots of Michael Meyers stepping into frame... seeing "the shape" ominously juxtaposed against wide shots of unsuspecting victims going about their business. That stuff still gives me chills.

B: I love John Carpenter too, I just watched "The Thing" which I borrowed from you a few weeks ago and it's just amazing, gets better with age actually...someone just recently told me that the movie Halloween was shot in just a few weeks. I was like "you have got to be kidding..."

M: I notice you've written a lot of songs with the word "girl" in the title. Was "Seen a Girl" always a standalone piece or did you write it as a companion piece to something else?

B: It was written as its own song. I remember (surprisingly enough) seeing a girl on a bus and it was just love at first sight. It's weird isn't it how you can love the way a person looks and imagine what they are like and what personality they will have just by their features and expressions? You construe their intellect, their values...it's so cool, none of the bother of actually really going through a messy relationship.

M: So true - from that standpoint I'm the biggest slut of New York City.

B: Right. For me, who is generally a voyeur, that's how i exist. I go through a 5 year relationship in 30 seconds, come in my pants and then I transfer to the L train.

Matt & Ben have coffee part 2

2008-05-27T12:05:00.000-04:00

M: OK moving on.... "Like You Do" sounds deceptively simple at first - like a basic rock blues riff but it goes off somewhat unexpectedly in the lead-in to the chorus - was this something that came natural to you in the writing or did you go through a lot of trial and error in getting it to sound right?

B: I like that part - it actually came easily to me when I was writing it chord-wise, but the lyrics took longer. But back to the blues riff, you know something weird, when I was learning guitar I would go into this guitar shop to play some amps. I was really young and this guy was playing just a blues vamp, the same as the first few notes of that song, and I was totally captivated, bum bum bum... I was standing in the middle of the music shop transfixed. I looked at his fingers to try to learn from sight what he was doing, and I STILL LOVE the sound of just the simplest blues chords...but I HATE the blues.

M: Right well you use that standard blues riff as a sort of springboard - you abandon it pretty quickly and that's where the song gets interesting. One thing that really sticks out to me with "Like You Do" is the production - the song sounds really amazing as it swells up to the chorus.

B: Two words, no three...Caleb "KBC" Sherman - he produced it.

M: You guys have quite a history together as performers from the "What's Up" band and as musical collaborators afterwards. What exactly is his role in producing a song like "Like You Do?"

B: I gave him "Like You Do" with NOTHING - just the chords and no vocals. He gave it back to me LIKE THAT! It's scary...he should be the stalker!

M: So you didn't really play any of the instruments on that song?

B: Nada. Nothing. Nil. Netay.

M: Wow, how very Monkees of you.

B: I excel at taking undeserved credit. But that build-up to the chorus, in the video you have that shot panning up to all the photographs on the wall - truly a moment. What was your inspiration there?

M: My inspiration was basically "wouldn't that look cool?" I don't think I was consciously lifting anything out of a specific film or anything like that. Really, the inspiration, in this case, would be the music - it has a wonderfully demented build-up right there. I thought that would be wicked to kind of mirror the dementia of the music with a simultaneous reveal of the frightening extent of your character's obsession. Can you tell me what the song is really about?

B: Russ Irwin! Russ was a member of the semi-legendary underground comedy troupe Whats Up with me and Jason Paige. Now he's playing keys with Aerosmith. He went on to fame and fortune as I collapsed in the corner. So you have the makings of a pop song right there: jealousy, regret, envy. He goes everywhere, tours all over the world making bank, as I read online tutorials about how to legally rob banks...so I tried to make the song about hanging out with him, but as three people: me, him and my jealousy.

M: Are you still jealous of his success?

B: I'm positively livid! No, I was upset when he left the show...but he was absolutely right to join Aerosmith of course! But I am that single minded - I was like what about the public access show! I realized i was being childish and the song really taps into that childlike sort of world revolves around me, i don't think I'm that envious now though...10 years later...his life probably has just as many plusses and minusses as mine....THAT MOTHERFUCKER!

M: Well to me the video, if not the song, is about self-obsession as much as it is about your preoccupation with the subject. That’s why it translated well into this idea of you stalking yourself. Did you realize that the whole idea of this video was to mock you and your self-importance as an artist?

B: Sorry to say that I've lost all feelings of self-importance a long long time ago, I've gone from wanting to take over the world to wanting to take out the trash...c'mon Matt admit it, you're jealous of my awesome talent!

M: Well I remember recording the RAWK! album with GTB and having to concede that you could play that one guitar riff in "latch key kids" better than me - but I don't know if I was jealous really. More frustrated with the limits of my abilities.

B: I'll take that as a simmering pool of unxpressed envy. We'll use that for the NEXT video, but with "Like You Do"...did you storyboard that video out?

M: I didn't write out a shotlist or phsyically draw storyboards - it only leads to humiliation and mockery when people see my ragged stick figures and ask "what the hell is that?" But it was mentally storyboarded - I had nearly every shot and edit worked out beforehand, especially in the first half and that happens from listening to the song over and over again, envisioning the video as the song plays out. That's a very exciting time for me because there's no limits at that point - only what your mind can conjure.

B: Did you run into any major problems during shooting aside from needing a better looking star?

M: Hell no, Ben - I like the way you look - I'd much rather work with someone who has interesting features than just another pretty face.

B: Oh fuck off!

M: The biggest problem with the "Like You Do" shoot was the limited time we had to do it. We did all three videos over a 4 day weekend in September and "Like You Do" was the last video we shot and so it was foolishly relegated to one day of production.

B: Right. Three days of the condor. What would you change if you could?

M: Well I just think a lot of shots are below my standard of what passes for good. The end product and the video that was in my mind were two different things. The video we ended up with isn't bad, it's just compromised. And this is very much due to the fact that we were cramming everything in to one day - we had to keep things moving forward so my standard was lowered from "that's good" to "that's good enough."

B: Sure but I think everyone thinks that...John Carpenter probably still doesn't like that looney bin parking lot shot in Halloween either.

M: So back to writing about your jealousy, did this translate to you at all when making the video?

B: Well sure, I mean putting a visual to an abstract feeling in a song is always settling on a particular choice and I thought this choice - stalking myself - was a bold and interesting choice so i thought it was going to be fun to see what we ...WE came up with. I still don't think anyone watching the video will really follow it like a linear story which is fine. It's like all those videos we used to watch at the beginning of MTV that they spent so much time trying to make a story and basically kids just kinda glazed over and bopped along oblivious.

M: I like story-driven music videos - they're much more interesting to me than "let's shoot the band playing in 10 different locations and cut it together." Blah.

B: During the shoot, I saw a different side of you - you were relaxed and precise with things. I'd like to see you directing much more, actual TIME doing thing after thing. You were in the zone.

M: Well thanks for that, though I’m of the opinion that if it’s a good shoot and the director is being clear with his vision and the actors are comfortable and doing good work, then there has to be a good crew supporting the whole endeavor. This shoot was definitely a success because of the people who were supporting the project by volunteering their time to do it.

B: How crucial was Bowls MacLean?

M: Oh absolutely crucial! And not just because he was lending us his VX100-B camera to the cause. I think his presence definitely helped keep me relaxed because of our own history from working together. There wasn't any tiptoeing around our egos when it came time to do the thing, which makes everything flow much better. And Bowls is hilarious - he has a gift for saying funny shit... just a fun presence on the set. It was great having Anthony "Zonalpony" Lopez shoot those picts of you dressed up as "Lee Ann" for the "Like You Do" video, too. It's really cool to have all of these friends' various talents come together like that.

B: You need more things to direct, check out fuckben.com for more songs!

M: It seems there's a disparity between what these songs were about or where you were mentally when you wrote them - do you feel that now when watching the videos?

B: Not really...whenever you draw something in the sand, through a song or a video, you know all those thoughts or feelings are going to change, except with anti-Bush songs! Feelings are fleeting, get em down and move on...so what are you going to do now?

M: I don't have anything in the queue production-wise - just trying to get more people to see the stuff that's already done like Family Tie and the stalker trilogy. But I'm working on a feature length horror film screenplay which has been getting kicked around the noggin for a few years now, so hopefully that will take some shape in the months to come.

B: What's the film about?

M: It's about a bunch of 20-somehting adults living in Brooklyn who are getting murdered for other people's amusement - basically a post-modern slasher film for a hip young audience. It's a hipster bloodbath.

B: Well living in Greenpoint must be great for inspiration.

M: Yeah i'm in the thick of it. I'd love to try something non-violent, non-dark one of these days but you know, they say, "write what you know" and that kind of stuff never comes naturally to me. And what about yourself - what's next on your agenda?

B: Gotta play live more, probably do solo shows with a twist...recording an album with Caleb Sherman called "C The Deuce" about a white guy who has a 'race-change operation to launch a career in the entertainment industry, and I still have 10 songs on my hard drive that I'm calling a "new album." but in actuality I've been recording it for years.... It sucks to be constipated.

M: But it seems like you usually have a few things going on simultaneously - you let projects simmer so that the flavor is all the richer when it's ready to be served.

B: And i want to collaborate with you MATT!

M: You want to do everything like I do.

B: Ha.

M: Well, let's start with this new album - any good stalker material for me to run with?

B: Only if I’m stalking myself.

Mug's May Movie Digest

2008-05-25T09:15:00.003-04:00

So here are some capsule reviews of some movies I've seen lately. Some of them are new new, like in the theaters new, and others are only semi-new, or on Bluray HD DVD new, which is nearly just as good as seeing the movie in the theater in my opinion (sometimes I would argue even better). So without further ado and in no particular order...

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skullfuck turns out to be an adequate, if not entirely fulfilling, entry in the series. Maybe I wasn't disappointed since I went in with very low expectations and found myself enjoying the major action sequences in spite of myself. Yes, the bombast of some of the bigger scenes nearly crushes the film beneath it and no, this is not Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it's an enjoyable, if not ultimately dismissive, two hours at the movies. No doubt many loyalists will disect the film from start to finish with issues and while it's far from perfect, it works as mindless entertainment. Harrison Ford does a good job reviving the character and he still moves quite well for someone his age (at least, that's what the magic of the movies would have you believe). Now if only they could have had a less turgid plot and some more believable FX, they might have had a gem instead of the B-grade fodder they ended up with.

But on the subject of action-film bombast, I sat through Live Free or Die Hard last night on Bluray, which was something I was kind of dreading as, like Indy, I have very strong feelings and childhood associations about the first film in the series. Turns out I was right - this was, by far, the weakest entry in the series and it feels virtually interchangeable with any other big budget action vehicle save for the occasional John McClane wise-crack or in-joke reference to the first Die Hard movie. The introduction to John McClane's character is just painful to watch as he accosts a young man making a move on his now grown-up-and-very-hot daughter and it doesn't get much better from there. Justin Long is enjoyable in his role as a computer hacker as is Timothy Olyphant's steely-eyed villain, but director Lens Wiseman has a very poor sense of camera placement when shooting dialogue and some of the editing is simply out of control. Like Indy 4, Die Hard 4 was clearly a process of "filmmaking by committee" and the end product clearly suffers as a result.

Even more self-consciously bombastic in its over-the-top action sequences is Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen and Paul Giammatti. Both of these guys are extremely talented actors, so seeing them in a cheesy action film should elevate the material to at least some level of cool, right? Not when you have a sexist director who is gun-obsessed and has the gall to try to fit in a "guns are bad" message amidst the never-ending cascade of squibs and rat-a-tat gunfire. It seems they were trying to make something that was self-aware of its ridiculousness so they pushed it further and further and it ended up being just as dumb (if not dumber) as the action movies it is purportedly sending up. It's like they're saying, "We know this material is really stupid (wink-wink) but here's some more brain-numbing action scenes because we're smart enough to deconstruct it." Well they failed miserably. The end result is tedious, tiresome, and gratingly stupid.

All three of these action movies suffer from the same fundamental problem: how can you get "caught up" in the tension of an action scene when you know for absolute certain that the hero will emerge unscathed? We all know that CG effects are out of control in the modern blockbuster movie, and these films are no exception: the obviousness of their special FX, green-screen compositing and over-the-top stunt coordination makes the whole experience feel like a computer generated "virtual" rollercoaster ride. If this is the best that action movies are going to give us in this decade, then it's a genre I'll gladly skip.

On the positive side, I saw a movie called The Fall several weeks ago which is only now getting a wider distribution. Director Tarsem Singh (The Cell, music video for REM's "Losing My Religion") took 10 years to develop and shoot this movie which is sort of a cross between The Princess Bride and Lawrence of Arabia. It's a "story within a story" film that has a paralyzed stunt man (Lee Pace) telling an improvised fairy-tale to a young girl from his hospital bed so that she can get him pills for him to end his life. The movie switches into these gorgeous and exotic locations all over the world as it visually realizes the story being told from the little girl's perspective. Dramatic parallels between the two realities unfold within the fantasy world and the "real" world that these characters inhabit. It's a stunning and beautiful film - an accomplishment all the more praiseworthy for the unexpected emotional punch it packs along the way. It seems, critically, that this movie has had some mixed reviews and the effect of it on audiences is somewhat polarizing, but for myself, it is nothing shy of brilliant, inspired film-making and I recommend it unequivocally. Watch the trailer below... Tarsem Singh is a visionary.

And earlier this week, in an attempt to give my brain a break from action-movie overkill, I bumped up the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room in my Netflix queue which was a mind-blowing portrait of corporate greed and excess. I didn't know the details of the Enron scandal other than some shady accounting practices and insider trading from the corporate head honchos ultimately acted as their undoing, and that, as it turns out, is only half the story. It's a tale of greed and hubris for sure, but it also is a tragic character study as well; one that probes into the human nature of the situation in a capitalist society such as ours. Some scenes were really eye-opening like the revelation of their involvement with the infamous rolling blackouts in California in 2002. In several cases that the documentary makes, these were often the result of some of Enron's day traders calling up these power plant facilities and asking them to "get creative" to find reasons to shut the system down so they could create a higher energy demand and drive their stock price up even higher. Pretty amazing stuff that sounds like it's out of a James Bond story except this really happened! Not only that, but it begs the larger question of, if Enron is a case that got out of control and ended up being one of the biggest corporate scandals of our generation, how many other corrupted business practices are being made out there now? How many Enrons do we need before some of the leniency afforded corporations by our government demands reform? Pretty thought-provoking stuff, and, as a film, it never feels stodgy or too clinical and features great use of archival footage from the corporation's own in-house video productions.

Some other recommendations before I sign off would be 3:10 to Yuma, the western remake with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe was fresh, exciting and not entirely predictable. Ratatouille is another very well done animated story from Brad Bird that's not quite on par with The Incredibles but is extremely enjoyable and is gorgeous to look at. The sci-fi horror film Sunshine is also one of the best-looking films I've seen in a while and is a good entry in the genre of "doomed space expedition movies" even tho it falls off a bit in the final act when it goes slasher. And No Country For Old Men is better the second time through - a lot better, in fact.

with god on our side

2008-05-20T00:27:00.002-04:00

matt, originally uploaded by sara bizarro.

My friend Sara Bizarro (yes that's her real name) surprised me by illustrating a portrait of me based on one of my myspace portraits. it's part of a series of portraits she's done, the results of which can be seen here. You rock, Sara!

The Family Tie at Film Fest Reloaded

2008-05-19T21:50:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow night, "film guy" Bill Woods is hosting his weekly Film Fest Reloaded show in Staten Island and will be screening THE FAMILY TIE along with several other of my shorts and videos including the NEW YORK STALKER trilogy. Here's the release for the event...

Thanks Bill!

This Tuesday, May 20th, we welcome filmmaker, Matthew Glasson.

The filmmaker brings in an ultra violent black comedy romp, The Family Tie, about a young man who witnesses the destruction of his family at the hands of a psychotic business partner of his father’s. Swearing vengeance, the boy seeks out to destroy John and will stop at nothing.

Glasson, born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Mt. Prospect, IL, Matthew Glasson began allocating his energies at an early age as a performer, writer and filmmaker. He went on to attend film school at Columbia College in Chicago before moving to New York City to start a rock group called "God The Band."

During this time, he kept his filmmaking chops fresh by directing and producing music videos for the band and developing other short films. He currently lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where he works as an editor and filmmaker.

For the film’s website, check out www.familytiemovie.com.

For the trailer, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY5GFTBQ9xY.

So please join us this Tuesday, May 20th with filmmaker, Matthew Glasson at FilmFest Reloaded. Admission is free.

See you at 8 PM at Karl's Klipper, 40 Bay Street, across from the St. George post office in Staten Island, just 1 block south of the SI Ferry Terminal.

Thanks for jumping in...

Bill Woods
FilmFest Reloaded
www.filmfestguy.freewebspace.com

Blues By The Beach

2008-05-12T19:30:00.002-04:00

This is a trailer I recently cut for a documentary film "Blues By The Beach" about a night club bombing in Tel Aviv in 2003. There was a film crew doing a light-hearted documentary on the bar when a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the establishment. It's a pretty powerful and amazing film and it has been an honor for me to be tasked with the responsibility of cutting it together. You can watch the film online by going to the movie website bluesbythebeachfilm.com.

THE NEW YORK STALKER RETURNS! (and then he goes away)

2008-04-25T00:58:00.004-04:00

Today’s juicy episode of THE NEW YORK STALKER brings us to the final chapter in the series. In LIKE YOU DO, Ben’s attentions are focused on a mysterious blonde with whom he appears to be “excessively pre-occupied.” In a performance that channels the great Lon Chaney Jr., his few remaining strands to reality are visibly disintegrating as he follows her on the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Who is this striking blonde and what is the secret of her allure that holds him in such a twisted grip? There are no safe answers in the demented fantasy world of LIKE YOU DO.

This video definitely required the most post-production work of the three videos and was the one I spent the most time on mentally mapping out in my head. In that sense it was a similar experience to General Queer in that I could see a lot of the edits before I began shooting any of the footage. However, as a result of our ambitious shooting schedule of the trilogy (3 videos in 4 days), LIKE YOU DO ended up getting saved for the last day of production so it got rushed and feels slightly compromised (at least to what it was like in my head). Still I think given our limited resources and budget, on the whole we did pretty OK for four days of work. And looking at LIKE YOU DO, I'm amazed that we knocked that one out in one single day of shooting.

Funny tidbit of trivia - Ben's object of obsession, the blond (we were calling her Lee-Ann), was played by four different people including Ben. We had our buddy from the neighborhood Peter Hood drop by to lend us his trenchcoat and don the wig for a few shots with Ben following behind on Guernsey St.. Then we had Bowls wear the wig and jacket for the final approach when Ben is moving in closer at the end of the video. Ben's girlfriend Gina Leone came out of her way to Brooklyn to play the feet in high heel shoes for the tracking shot in the middle of the video. With this many "actors" inhabiting the role, this character must be quadrophenic.

I need to thank everyone again who helped out and supported the endeavor and for making the whole process go smoothly and efficiently. And, of course, special thanks to B. Bowls MacLean who lent us his camera, talents, body and sense of humor.

THE NEW YORK STALKER STRIKES AGAIN!

2008-04-20T19:44:00.002-04:00

In part two of THE NEW YORK STALKER trilogy, Ben Warren, serial killer/rock star, continues his search for fresh prey throughout the boroughs of New York City. This adventure finds him slinking along the side-streets of Astoria Queens after he sees an older woman riding a city bus. There’s something different about her that compels him beyond restraint and drives him to follow her home. What happens next is likely to shock, terrify and haunt you for years to come… VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK!

THE NEW YORK STALKER is a three-part music video trilogy directed by Matthew Glasson adapted from the music of Ben Warren. It is based, in part, on the stalker/slasher sub-genre of horror films of the ‘70s and ‘80s such as the original FRIDAY THE 13TH, John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN and The Weinstein Brother’s THE BURNING.

And now a few notes from the director...

Of the three videos, this one was definitely the smallest scale of the lot, hence it was dubbed "the throwaway video." I had a basic conceit (Ben sings a love song about seeing a girl but his object of affection turns out to be a geriatric woman) but when I told him about the idea and we discussed who could play the part of the older woman, Ben's mom (Jeannette Warren) seemed a likely (and only) candidate. Suddenly, the whole piece took on an uncomfortable, oedipal sort of tone. Perfect! It clicked.

We went to shoot this up near Jeannette's apartment in Astoria, Queens without any sort of storyboard but I had a few basic shots in mind as far as Ben's "reveals" were concerned. The idea was simple and we didn't want to overshoot the video to keep it in line with the minimalist approach to the song. The worst part was definitely getting the bus scene in the beginning. Obviously we weren't asking permission prior to shooting so we were "winging it" both on the streets and off. As a result, the bus footage (nearly 30 minutes of it) was largely shakey, unusable and had no continuity. It's a minor miracle that the scene came out at all.

Jeannette's a sweetheart and was very easy to work with. At times she seemed a little impatient but ultimately I think she really loved doing this. I have no idea what she thinks of the final result, but like most moms she thinks anything her son does is gold, even if it's stalking her and nearly suffocating her with a pillow.

THE NEW YORK STALKER IS ON THE LOOSE!

2008-04-11T01:18:00.003-04:00

Ben Warren has become unstuck from sanity.

THE NEW YORK STALKER is a trilogy of music videos following Ben Warren’s lurid journeys through Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens on a misguided quest to connect with humanity. Director Matthew Glasson (God The Band’s “General Queer”) creates a fractured and darkly comic portrait of Ben’s obsession as he succumbs to his madness. With each video, a new side of Ben’s deranged mind is explored as he stalks another potential victim and falls further away from his own sanity.

THE NEW YORK STALKER steeps in a nostalgia for the grindhouse slasher cinema of the 1970s and 1980s set on the mean streets of New York City such as MANIAC (Joe Spinell), DEATH WISH (Michael Winner) and Lucio Fulci’s NEW YORK RIPPER. It both embraces and sends up the genre that shaped the videos and is complementary to Ben Warren’s raspy voice and intense musical stylings.

OK enough PR pandering, here's the real deal...

"Broken Girl" was an idea so fundamentally twisted and wrong that naturally I was compelled to do it. The idea came to me as I was brainstorming different music video ideas for Ben, and felt the dramatic bleakness of the chorus in the song lent itself to some nice unbroken slow-motion shots of dead serial killer victims being discovered by innocent bystanders. I was actually pretty cautious about treading in the whole mysognistic/serial-killer territory because a) it's totally played, b) it's ethically shaky and c) it's a nasty place to mentally reside. Oddly enough, it was my then girlfriend Jen Rock who was most supportive of the idea and agreed to help make the video by taking on the task of handling the make-up. I discussed the idea with Ben (who is always down for doing anything that involves putting himself in front of the camera) and found a willing actor in Laura Baron (whom I contacted through myspace) as his newest target. The remaining cast was made up from friends and actors who either wanted to work with me or friends who were willing to get dressed up and play dead.

My tendency is to always inject a little bit of subversive (if not downright slapstick) humor in my work, so the challenge for "Broken Girl" was establishing and maintaining an utterly fatalistic and bleak tone. This was to be true "horror" and would not have any winks to the viewer to let them off easy. The initial cut of the video had some pretty hokey acting in it (priceless for a blooper reel) but after showing that to Ben and some other people and hearing them laugh out loud, I went back and found some more subtle reaction shots as his victims are discovered.

The biggest irony with this song and the video that it inspired is that, lyrically, it's about a guy who is suffering in a disfunctional relationship with his girlfriend ("broken girl/you're my world/every waking moment that you spend drowning by my side"). But that didn't bother Ben, who, by all accounts, enjoyed putting on his black hoody and sulking around the streets of Alphabet City as "The New York Stalker."

The death of the XLII... the death of the mix tape...

2008-04-08T00:42:00.003-04:00

Last night, I checked my email and was dismayed to see the following message from Tapes.com...

"Maxell has discontinued the XLII series of audio cassettes-60.90, and 100's- please review your needs-there is still a limited supply available- but once they are are gone, there will be no more- thank you- www.tapes.com"

So that's it? No more gold labeled XLII tapes to rely on for good audio quality when compiling an inspired collection of sweet tunes for your favorite crush? Yet another example of how the obsolescence of technology is forcing us to evolve in our efforts to woo a potential mate.

So long XLII's - thanks for the Memorex.

Turtle Love

2008-03-12T23:47:00.001-04:00

I've always secretly been a fan of The Turtles, not the least of which reasons include my own fondness for the reptiles of the same name, both living and decorative. But no, in this instance, I refer to the pop band from the late '60s best known for their infectious pop masterpiece "Happy Together." I mean, in spite of whatever you might feel about the group or the music from this era, this is a staple song of the sixties that continues to be a hummable, brilliant piece of music. There were a couple of other hits that they had, like the haunting "You Showed Me" or their bubblegum take on Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe." I knew of some of their work collectively and individually, but, as yet, had not really proclaimed myself a "Turtle fan."

But a few weeks back, I got curious. Maybe it was sparked after freshly revisiting Mark Volman (Flo) and Howard Kaylan's (Eddie) contribution to the adult cartoon oddity "Down & Dirty Duck," or their short-lived collaboration with Frank Zappa & The Mothers, best "documented" in the free-form misfire that is "200 Motels." But I thought I'd look them up again, mainly to see how I could find a copy of the soundtrack to "Dirty Duck" (which apparently you can't do - WTF?). My curiosity was piqued enough for me to buy two of the Turtles albums from iTunes: "The Turtles Presents the Battle of the Bands" and "Turtle Soup." This turned out to be a very wise decision. Both albums work on their own terms in complete and conceptualized album form and are, in my opinion, both overlooked gems from this era of music, which I have always been fond of.

"Turtle Soup" was produced by Kinks front-man (and songwriting hero to yours truly) Ray Davies, reportedly after the group heard the Kinks album "Village Green Preservation Society." Interestingly, "Soup" really plays as a step-sister to "Village Green" with its wistful melodies and nostalgic themes of simpler times gone by. But like "Village Green" the songs have grown on me like a pleasant fungi that I prefer to keep - even to the point where i find myself humming what would otherwise be considered dismissive tracks.

The album kicks off with the raucous "Come Over" which sounds like a rock band just hanging on the edge of having fun while jangling on their guitars and pushing that carefree sound that is a staple of the Turtles' sound. The album, more or less, goes in a melancholy direction with tracks like "House on the Hill," clearly providing a strong link to the contribution Ray Davies was bringing to the table as a producer (like, why are the Turtles singing about having people "over for tea" all of a sudden?). It is in the middle of the album that it finds its peak, in the upbeat country flavors of "Torn Between Temptation" with fantastic, warbling vocal performances from Kaylan and Volman, and "Love In the City" - an ambitious psychedelic anthem with searing vocals and sweeping orchestral and horn arrangements reminiscent of the Love album "Forever Changes."

"The Battle of the Bands" album intrigued me because of the conceit in which each track would be produced and performed as though each song were by a different group. Naturally, the results or somewhat mixed but it's still quite a bit of fun. This album is also noteworthy for containing the classics "You Showed Me" and the sardonic wit of "Elenore." Amidst these two gems, The Turtles manage to cover country, surf, rockabilly and their trademark pop hooks. As a result, the album never finds a comfortable coalescence amidst all these styles, but regardless, the journey is quite enjoyable.

I like how Howard Kayland and Mark Volman always sound like they're having buttloads of fun while they sing these songs. The two have always struck me as likable and smart guys - as though they were always in on the joke of rock superstardom (perhaps to a damaging effect). But while they were willing to satirize their "rock star" status, they still remained fully committed to what they might be doing in any given song or genre of music.

The long and the short of it is that I am now, officially, a "Turtles fan" and highly recommend these two albums for people that are fans of obscure psychedelic masterpieces. At times, "Turtle Soup" (arguably the better of the two albums reviewed here), does feel like a companion piece to some of the Kinks work from the same era, but this is hardly a bad thing for a die-hard Kinks fan. In the end, my feeling after getting more familiar with some of their work, is that The Turtles belong in the pantheon of great under-appreciated artists from that golden era of rock music: The Zombies, Love, and, naturally, The Kinks.

Lycanthropy

2008-03-06T14:19:00.003-05:00

ly·can·thro·py /laɪˈkænθrəpi/ –noun
1. a delusion in which one imagines oneself to be a wolf or other wild animal.
2. the supposed or fabled assumption of the appearance of a wolf by a human being.

Here's a classic from the film student archives. This was done for my "visual effects" course taught by teacher/friend Pete Hartel at Columbia College in Chicago. I think the point of the course was to do more green-screen/animation type stuff, but I was a fan of doing multiple layering opticals at the time so I went with my gut. While this is a very short piece at around 30 seconds, there's a lot of images buried in the mix to evoke a sense of this man's struggle to maintain control over his sanity. Included in this collage is the naked body of Nicole Weisner bathing in slow motion, a close-up of the calico fur of Repugnance the cat, Tor Johnson examining his feces in a toilet (this is run backwards), Scott Greene doing push-ups in the buff, and centrally the backwards "transformation" of werewolf into man. Oh, and then there's the lettering for the word itself, which I charred my dad's garage floor trying to shoot with gasoline and sand (note to self: you're a dumbass). The audio was grabbed from a plastic vinyl insert in a Spiderman comic book which had a scratch in the groove so that it looped the line "I wish I were insane..." ad nauseum. When you hear something like that and it occurs naturally, you know you have something special.

Apartment 2.0

2008-03-01T19:54:00.000-05:00

Out of date: the way things used to be...
With the recent departure of my former roommate and girlfriend, it's been a good opportunity for me to make-over some of the place - primarily in the entertainment/living room area. My TV and stereo components were a bit bulky for the space of the room and technologically were out of date. So in upgrading the set-up, I wanted to integrate the whole console into the wall with shelves that could contain the TV and stereo components as well as some of the media collection itself.

I found my answer in Elpha shelves from Container Store, which is a customizable set of different shelving pieces that create your own unique "shelving solution" depending on your needs. In my case, my needs were going to change dramatically with the mammoth TV I was planning to acquire... the Pioneer PDP-5010.

Now I had been planning for some time to finally upgrade the TV and join the hi-def game for many months before Jen and I had decided to part ways. So, if you think I bought a plasma to replace my girlfriend, you'd be wrong. Mostly. Let's just chalk it up to a coincidence (not to mention a confluence of beneficent financial circumstances).

Suffice it to say, this Pioneer set is a monster. It's a 50" 1080p plasma display that pretty much makes everything look amazing, not just material that's in high-def (which is still largely in the minority of mass-media produced). I wanted to get something capable of such visual awesomeness that the viewer could experience "ocular ejaculation." But more on that later...

In addition to the 50" monster, I was integrating several electronic peripherals including the stereo receiver, DVD player, PS3 (Hello, Blu-Ray!), a Mac mini and, of course, the phonographic record player. The ceilings are pretty high up at around 10', so after consulting the "Elpha specialist" (basically someone who enters in your specs into a program to design your best solution), I purchased all of the pieces to put this bad boy together.

Plasma TV Take 1

My initial thought was to have the TV on its stand resting on the shelf as part of the unit, but once the entire thing had come together, the TV felt pretty precarious sitting on a shelf. With a total weight nearing 100 lbs, I wasn't exactly comfortable with the security of the set, so wall-mounting made the most sense. This was also a new sort of undertaking for me, but the process was fairly straightforward and logical. Alas, finding the studs in the wall proved to be not so simple, but once it was in, it' was in, and it helped open up the room just a little bit more (not to mention my peace of mind).

The surrogate gf is mounted

If it sounds like this happened in a matter of days, it was more like weeks. It's important that I take a moment to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Anthony "Zonalpony" Lopez in helping me move the 100 lb. TV to and fro. It's really pretty crazy that it is virtually impossible to move the TV without the help of another person, but for this beast, that's how it is. I should also take this opportunity to thank my buddy Katie Hawbaker, who not only offered her input on furnishings and glassware, but called in favors to arrange not one but TWO cars for me to run some of the various errands to Container Store and Bed Bath & Beyond (and separate shout-outs are, in turn, due to Jeremiah and Joyce for providing your vehicles - you guys restore my faith in humanity).

With everything hooked up and "live" it became apparent that something needed to be done about all the wires dangling from all of the devices. I picked up several plastic "cord channels" at Home Depot and sought about making everything look as seamless and unobtrusive as possible. This process was so confusing and overwelming to me initially that I had to write up a diagram of which components were where and what direction all of the wires would be going in order to keep everything as organized as possible. When it came time to actually start nailing the channels into place and getting all of these wires in their proper containers, I endured perhaps the greatest physical stress of the entire process. Lots of grunting, cursing and physical exhaustion were the order of the day. On the bright side, this grueling process represented the finishing touches on the entertainment center make-over.

The war of the cables is over...

Having all of this finally in place, one would assume that would be enough to make me happy. Of course not! Once you "step up" and start the slippery slope of upgrading your gear, it inevitably leads to additional costs and acquisitions in an effort to put everything on the same par as everything else. But, I'll do my best to behave and live with what I have, until the time is right for me to strike again and make one step closer to perfect media assimilation.

New Years Eve Special

2008-02-27T22:43:00.004-05:00

For new years eve ('07-'08), my co-worker/buddy Katie Hawbaker (now ex-co-worker... *sniff*) and myself organized a little get-together at our office on 46th and 7th, overlooking Times Square and all the chaos of new years on the streets below. As I've been into taking advantage of the phenomenal view during workdays by shooting time-lapse footage from the windows above, I set up two cameras to time-lapse capture as much footage as I could of the scene below. It took me a little while to get around to editing it (as these things tend to do), but I've had a bit of my own personal chaos to sort through these last two months... www.us.vividas.com/NYE08/

You can also view this on youtube (below), but I definitely recommend using the Vividas version of the clip since a) it's full-screen and b) the quality is superior to that crappy flash player they use on youtube. The music is "Exactly Where I'm At" by Ween off their album White Pepper.

Also notable of this evening were the pictures taken by my friend Anthony "Zonalpony" Lopez with his Nikon D80 SLR. The resolution on his camera is so vastly superior to that of what our DV video cameras could capture, not to mention the color saturation and temperature. These shots are well worth a look.

Created with flickrSLiDR.

It's not every night that you have a VIP seat to watch performers Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock and Jordin Sparks do their thing while observing one of the largest organized cattle calls of humanity ever assembled (estimated over one million people freezing their asses off on the streets below). It was quite a party!

goodbye broken heart

2008-02-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

As most of you probably are aware of by now, Jen Rock and I have separated. He was 75 years old.

It was a long and rewarding relationship in many ways, and so the decision to part was certainly one neither of us took lightly. Fortunately, our separation was very amicable; i think both of us wanted to keep things as peaceful as possible between us while we were still living together and I'm happy to say that went smoothly. Nevertheless, it is unlikely we will be able to resume a friendship for some time.

It's always disappointing or a bit of a letdown when you get to the place where you have to admit that the relationship was a failure and need move on for both parties' betterment, but i think we did so gracefully and as drama-free as possible. We've been down this road a few times before so we've had more than enough practice. Only this time feels a bit more final and definite. You can't push a relationship harder than sharing an apartment or home with them - there's nowhere to hide anymore so you either shit or get off the pot. For us, the pot needed to be replaced, and so here we are.

There's a lot of history between jen and myself. We've been involved, on and off, in and out of relationships with each other over the last 5 years. There have been great highs and lows, emotional desperation and assurance and plenty of great sex. And to the naysayers who were always skeptical, dubious or judgmental of our involvement with one another (and there were a few), fuck you. It was never any of your business to begin with and last i checked, we are all human.

I've been swimming in apartment make-over (more on that craziness a little later) and so I haven't had a chance to really let the loss completely sink in. Keeping busy is a good way to postpone it, but I dread the day when the pied piper of heartbreak comes along to collect his kids. Hopefully, i'll be out of town when that happens.

So long, Roy...

2008-02-11T16:02:00.000-05:00

Roy Scheider was always an actor I admired and looked up to as a young cinephile. Yes, he's most well known for his role as "Chief Brody" in the two first two Jaws films, though, notice how the obits only talk about the original and never the sequel, which i thought was a pretty good ride in and of itself. There were times when I felt Roy Scheider might have been trying to overextend himself as an actor such as his roles in Naked Lunch (his first appearance as the seemingly benign Dr. Benway is priceless) and Romeo is Bleeding (the latter a shit film in spite of Scheider's efforts). But it was really the '70s where he had hit his stride with roles in French Connection, Klute (as a pimp!), the two Jaws films, The Seven-Ups and All That Jazz. Of course, who could forget his work with William Friedken in the ill-fated movie Sorcerer (of which I was always a fan). I was 10 years old when Blue Thunder (1984) came out, and I thought that was just about the coolest movie I'd ever seen (it actually does hold up pretty well, plus it's got a good villainous turn from Malcom McDowell). Roy Scheider's work in Blue Thunder, by all means a routine renegade-cop action film, showcased how he could really bring his trademarked intensity to an otherwise conventional role and elevate the project as a whole. He was awesome.

Roy Scheider always possessed a very unique and unmistakable quality that was both disarming and completely likable. Even when playing less than savory roles - his presence always made me fond for him as a person. I felt like he was, in many ways, my "cinematic dad." He was the father figure in the first two Jaws films and there was just something indelibly old-school in his charm that, I suppose, reminded me of my own father.

I harbored aspirations to meet Roy Scheider and tell him how much he meant to me as a performer, actor, and all around cool person. I wanted him to sign a copy of his headshot I had picked up a few years ago on ebay and flaunt my collection of Jaws 2 baseball cards (trust me, i have plenty to flaunt). I'd probably make him laugh, maybe even quote him from some of his films, and then tell him something he'd never see coming... "I'm going to write the new Jaws film and we want to bring Chief Brody back and pretend that Jaws 3 & 4 never happened. It'll be called Jaws 5000 and will feature gigantic flying sharks that attack people in water, air and land." My enthusiasm would win him over and I'd be on my way to a successful hackneyed career in B-movie Hollywood. That dream died last night.

Roy - i'm gonna miss you! Thanks for being.

Have yourself a scary little Christmas

2007-12-25T15:32:00.000-05:00

Meant to post this on Xmas, but chances are most people have seen this already since i emailed it out as my annual creepy Christmas greeting. People tended to respond like "Yuck" and/or "you are dark" but, y'know, what can i say. We all could use a little darkness on the brightest, most energy intensive holiday of the year.

For those that are curious, I composited the image from a self-portrait I shot Xmas morning and the tree, shot at the same time. The images of Ebby & Buñ (forehead and mouth, respectively) were taken from a few shots I'd posted on Flickr, and the cat eyes were taken from a very handsome shot of Buñ.

cheers

Happening NOW

2007-12-06T23:32:00.000-05:00

NOW as in happening nearly three years ago. This was the last of Jacob and my roommate adventures, and probably the best one at that. I really relished playing a deadbeat wrong-headed roommate after so many years of living with them, plus this was probably Jacob's most relaxed performance of the bunch. The most truthful part of the whole thing is the title that comes up at the end "Matthew is moving out in February." Well, that and the Neil Diamond.

So that was happening THEN, and this is happening NOW. The Family Tie is screening its premiere next Wednesday, December 12 7:30 at Hope Lounge in Williamsburg. Should be interesting to see if anyone shows, but i'll be relieved when the whole thing is over. And then, and only then, can the true Christmas magic begin.

Happy Thankskilling!

2007-11-22T23:19:00.000-05:00

While Thanksgiving is consistently a memorable holiday, this year's festivities definitely have to rank up there. On the one hand, I was dealing with the web launch of THE FAMILY TIE and on the other, there was the obligatory holiday feast, which we were hosting this year at our relatively small Brooklyn apt. Jen's folks came down from Maine and were accompanied by their friend Irene (whom I adore) and Jen's brother Andrew for a feast that Jen had prepared entirely on her own. It ended up going about as smoothly as one could have hoped: no major disasters or quandaries of seemingly unsolvable proportions were faced. All in all, it was an impressive feat given our somewhat limited resources, but Jen Rock planned and executed with a professional efficiency that would make the Food Network envious. In the end, it really was a tasty, warm and comfortable Thankskilling dinner. Which reminds me...

I saw my friend Jason Paige's stand-up/music show last weekend, and early in the set he pulled out this jazzy riff and began extolling on the dubious virtues of the holiday, entitled "Thankskilling" with the obvious connection between young America's slaughter of the Indians and the grim irony of celebrating it annually. One lyric that stood out to me was "this country's first genocide" which sadly strikes a chord of ugly truth that we decorate with lies.

I thought it appropriate enough to the occasion of releasing FAMILY TIE that I ripped off the "Thankskilling" with the email salutation "Happy Killsgiving!" which got sent out. But make no mistake, the "Killsgiving" of FAMILY TIE and the "Thankskilling" of Jason Paige's world are two entirely different places, and Jason Paige's world is one that's definitely worth visiting from time to time.

And to that occasion, HAPPY THANKSKILLING!

Every year at this time we are toasting with wine
Giving thanks for the friends we have made
Celebrating the season but what is the reason
For all this hub-bub and parade

Does anyone care why we have this affair
In this great land we've claimed
Do I dare to make you aware
And suggest that this day be renamed

Thanks-killing
Thanks to all who unwillingly died
For some recipie's and pumpkin pie
Whipped crème on the side its true

Thanks –killing
That's what happens when colors collide
In this countries first genocide
History books lied to you

But it's OK
Look at this land we have today
Though some did get away
From extermination
They're on a reservation

Thanks-killing
All the blood that was spilling for years
As the white man was cleansing his fears
Oceans of tears would fall

It's chilling
They're fulfilling the countries aim
Built our nation through warring and pain
Nothing has changed at all

So be warned
It's not about the turkey and the corn
This land upon which I was born
Was stolen no debate
That's why I celebrate
Thanks-killing

The Family Countdown

2007-11-14T22:59:00.000-05:00

I can no longer pretend that The Family Tie is something that i'm going to have to deal with later, it's all happening NOW! It's now exactly one week from the date when I anticipate going live with the film online. And while it feels somewhat anti-climactic to release the film on the web with little proper fanfare, I'm looking forward to being able to brush my hands off and not think about this much more (of course, then there's the film fest thing which I'll still be dealing with, but one thing at a time). I did another blog entry about the final stages of the process if you care to read it on the family tie blogspot.

For Jen, countdown to Thanksgiving means scrambling to make sure the recipes and dishes are in order for the big meal. We're having her mom and step-dad David, along with her brother Andrew and their friend Irene over for turkey day and it's going to be an interesting feat considering the size of our place, but we'll make do ("Lots of charm," we tell ourselves). I am admittedly excited about the meal, knowing Jen and her creativity in the kitchen (not to mention enthusiasm), it's going to be delish.

Well, time to get back to editing email addresses and thinking completionist thoughts. Check you all later...

Ebby & Buñ Slideshow

2007-10-20T13:12:00.000-04:00

Created using flickrSLiDR

I figured it was high time I embeded a slideshow featuring the best picts of my two favorite kitties. The slideshow app has some cool features in it - you can control the speed of the show and if you click on one of the picts, it displays title and description info. Nice!

Incidentally, fellow Flickrers, I discovered two really cool website tools to make life better for us Flickr users. The slideshow above was created using flickrSLiDR, which is pretty basic as slideshows go - this just mirrors the same layout as the flash-based slideshows you can access within the Flickr page, but using this service allows you to embed the slideshow into your blog or web page by copying some HTML that flickrSLiDR generates. The second website (and incredibly helpful tool) is Picnik.com. Using a flash app within the website, you are able to make adjustments to the photos on your flickr account - all online. This is great for doing basic color adjustments or cropping, but they also have some fun features like effects, text bubbles, and different borders and frames. They have a "premium" service which they charge for, but all the basic editing tools (which is all you're really gonna need if you're taking decent picts in the first place) are totally FREE. Handy if you've uploaded something in haste only to realize that it needs a bit of work after the fact.

Bowls' MacLean's "Dream"

2007-10-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

Here's a blast from past pulled deep from the annals of "Bowls & Mugs". This was a short that Bowls directed where I got to participate almost exclusively as an actor (which, afterward, gave me just pause to pursue it as a career!). I also helped "score" the movie on my 4-track tape recorder using my new guitar effects pedal. You can even hear Bowls whispering, "This ssssucks!" on the audio track, but somehow, with enough reverb, we managed to keep in. This was shot in the apartment that we shared with Chris Sebela and Scott Greene in Edgewater, Chicago, which was more like a house with its downstairs rooms (both occupied by Bowls and myself... art imitiating life, hmmm). My belovedly deformed cat, Repugnance, was a new resident at our duplex and so we naturally worked her in as well. I was finishing up shooting FAMILY TIE and mentally getting ready to move out to NYC and start up GOD with Danny.

Truth be told, I had nearly forgotten about this project until years later when Bowls told me that he'd finally edited "Dream." I was like, "You edited what? When did we do this?"

But probably the best story about DREAM is how I managed to use perscription eye-drops for one of the cats to generate some tears. The solution dilated my pupils to painfully wide black holes in spite of whatever light was in the room. This happened the night before Chris and I were set to go on a road trip to Kentucky to see Ray Davies perform, then up to Sandusky, OH to spend a day at the amusement park Cedar Point. The constantly blinding sunlight beneath my sunglasses on top of sunglasses wore me out mentally and physically. It was a lesson learned the hard way, even though, as an adult male, it should have never happened in the first place!

The Family Tie Poster

2007-10-17T00:17:00.000-04:00

After a few revisions, this is the first official run of the poster image for FAMILY TIE. It's "official" because I've placed an order for 250 color postcards with this image that I'll be picking up when I'm out in LA next week for Vividas. It may yet change because I don't want it to forever say "THANKSGIVING 2007" and i'd like to make it a goal to get rid of these by the time the launch happens next month.

Thanks to Alan Greene and Bill Watson for chiming in with some helpful suggestions along the way, and of course Anthony Lopez who helped stage and shoot the poster image.

But this is kind of exciting because somehow with the poster image in place, it feels more and more like it's really a done and finished project (I originally wrote 'product' but decided that felt too cynical). It will feel good to have this weight lifted when i can move on to something else.

Family Ties

2007-10-10T00:05:00.000-04:00

yay! my movie THE FAMILY TIE is FINALLY FUCKING COMING OUT! it's been a ridiculous sort of long process between making it, thinking about it, editing it, doubting it, then saying "fuck it" to finally releasing it, but the wait is gonna be worth it (or not). more on this coming soon, obviously...

oh and check out the official site - familytiemovie.com

Ben Warren's "Trilogy of Terror"

2007-09-20T20:58:00.000-04:00

This weekend we (and we being the operative word here) shot three music videos over four days for my friend Ben Warren. This was my first foray into producing and directing a video production for several years, so it was an interesting ride to say the least. Even so, I found myself enjoying the feeling of working on set and this was largely due to the support everyone lent to the process. Brian "Bowls" Maclean flew out to NY from St. Louis for the weekend to lend his hand and DVX100B camera to the production - both his camera and on-set help were key to us pulling the whole thing off. My girl, Jen Rock, agreed early on to help out with make-up for the dead girls (in addition to wanting to play one) in the "Broken Girl" video, which was key to inspiring the production. Ben's girlfriend Gina was a good sport in agreeing to be the "garbage girl" and all around support system. She even came out to Greenpoint at 4:30 after a tiring day at work so we could get a crucial shot of a woman's feet walking in high heels - Woohoo! Columbia College alumni Hilda Karadsheh offered her afternoon, even though she felt ill, to help us pull off our first day of shooting. The acting team included Ben's mother Jeannette Warren, who was good-humored and patient through her day of shooting, Chris Farmer (a friend I met when I picked up Ebby & Bun - he was their previous owner), Laura Baron (an actress I found on myspace who was a genuine delight to work with), Wojtek Zablockei (a Polish friend from Greenpoint who is an aspiring actor) and Gina's friend Jane (who selflessly agreed to be another "victim" at the last minute) all get major kudos for coming through and giving their time and energy to the project.

And of course, to Ben Warren, without whom none of this would have been possible.

Here's a sneak peak behind the scenes of Ben Warren's "Trilogy of Terror" as we shoot a scene from "Like You Do."

Ben has posted some pictures from the shoot on his blog... www.bwarren.com

Ulyssess S. Rant

2007-09-10T23:41:00.000-04:00

In preparation of this weekend's upcoming video shoot, I'm posting this video I did with Ben back in 2004. I believe the motivation, at the time, was to take advantage of my friend Bryan's amazing roof view overlooking midtown and to give life to a monologue that Ben wrote but never actually performed onstage (in hindsight, that doesn't seem like such a bad decision). It was all shot over several hours in one afternoon, but the editing dragged on for months afterwards as I tweaked the performance and sound design. All in all, I was happy with the result... I posted it on the website Triggerstreet to get some feedback and got the "brilliant!" and "unwatchable!" and "pointless!" sorts of reactions that tell you it was something special. And then some douchebag registered a complaint with the website for my "illegal" use of Bach's Air on G String and they took it down... UNTIL NOW!

And yes, as previously mentioned, Bowls MacLean is coming into town to help us shoot three music videos this weekend. It's going to be quite a production as Jen has offered to both do make-up effects and play a corpse! Will keep you posted with updates, if not during, then immediately afterwards.

Repugnace LIVES!

2007-09-07T00:01:00.001-04:00

Somewhere in brooklyn...

Coming Soon...

2007-08-29T00:28:00.001-04:00

Lethal Weapon, originally uploaded by Glasson.

Three new music videos featuring Ben Warren to be directed by yours truly. Shooting will take place over the third weekend in September. Stay posted for more details.

Sex World

2007-08-25T11:26:00.000-04:00

It's official! I've now had my hand at editing porn! Generally, my work as a production coordinator involves a lot of video encoding, HTML editing and managing workflow, but occasionally the odd assignment will crop up where I get to play editor. As we now have a division dedicated to adult content (called Evotum), we were looking for a sample demo clip that represents some of our new direction. Enter VCX, an adult film company specializing in the restoration of porn "classics" (yes, who would have thought such a category could exist) including titles like "The Devil in Miss Jones" and "Debbie Does Dallas." We will now be streaming 10 of these titles online at vcxlive.com - not sure if it's live yet or not, but I believe the door is open for business. Inspired by the title track of "Sex World" (one of the 10 classics we are now streaming), I put together this little hodge podge of clips from the assorted films. It's fairly soft, save the occasional boobie, as per the suggested Evotum policy of not showing too much for free. All the same, scanning through a bevy of movie clips of hard cocks and wet pussies in search of "safe clips" is not anything I ever expected to get paid for. And with the way my computer monitor faces the room to co-workers, some of whom are female, I can honestly say I feel myself blushing with embarrassment during such workdays. But I digress - this was a blast to do!

The Dishwasher

2007-08-21T19:50:00.000-04:00

One by one, I'm posting the 5 "happenings" I made with my former roommate Jacob Naim. "The Dishwasher" was the second of these - definitely the most "scripted" of all the happenings - and Scott Greene was in town at the time so he volunteered to operate the camera. We literally did it in about three hours on a Saturday afternoon in Greenpoint: hopping into some of the different stores along Manhattan Ave., exploring some of the more colorful side streets and even jumping onto the G train for a line referencing CHUD.

People often think after seeing this that I'm an OCD slave whose very tightly wound when it comes to doing the dishes. While I would like to disagree with them, I am admittedly very particular about how I do the dishes. Living with Jen Rock, for example, I find myself doing the dishes 95% of the time. Partly this is because she does 95% of the cooking, and partly this is because she is lazy about household chores, but more than anything, it's because I know if I'm the one doing the dishes, they will get done RIGHT!

As for the other part about Jacob "slipping me a mickey," obviously this was not an everyday occurrence. However, once "broken in," he no longer had to drug me to get me into his bed.

Zoomquilt 2

2007-08-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

Just saw this bizarre site, basically a collaborative project between 30 or so artists which zooms across the twisted terrain of their creative landscapes. Feels like something out of a bad acid trip at Disneyland, but still quite badass. FYI - you can control the speed of the never-ending zoom with the bar on the top left side of the screen. Enjoy!

Coney Island Baby

2007-08-12T22:32:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to put these picts up for a while - a set of assorted shots I've snapped off over the years at Coney Island. Some are more recent than others (and those should be obvious) but I was eager to preserve some of the Astroland pictures, since it's closing next year.

Here is the other significant video I shot while at Coney Island besides the ride on the Cyclone: the puking man with squirting butt - an oddball attraction if there ever was, but this being Coney Island, it feels right at home.

The Cyclone

2007-08-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

Went to Coney Island yesterday with Jen Rock and decided to ride the front seat of "The Cyclone" - one of the two rides in Astroland to have landmark status (the other is "The Wonder Wheel" - featured in the opening of "The Warriors"). Thank god these two will be saved next year when they tear down Astroland and start building a "water recreation center" and make way for trendy overpriced condos.

Poor Jen was on the outside of the car - which meant at all the sharp turns she was getting crushed by my weight (I think at one point you can hear her calling me a bastard but it's hard to hear amidst all the screaming). It's a tad difficult holding the camera still and pointing it straight on such a bumpy ride, but you get the idea. After having ridden the cyclone many-times-over since my move to NY, I'm a little jaded by it, but that first drop can still deliver!

ALL IN in Atlantic City

2007-08-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

At long last, here is an assortment of photos from our trip down to Atlantic City, NJ, where we were to have our hand at playing some games of chance. If Ben's expression is any indication, you can guess how well we fared.

Ben Warren's "Every Other Day Jam"

2007-08-04T11:55:00.000-04:00

Ben has decided to take on the challenge of writing, recording and releasing a song every other day during the month of August. Thus far, he's posted one song (that being on Aug 2) entitled "Charity" which sounds pretty promising considering the length of time that he dedicated to the task. He has been toying with the one-a-day song writing challenge for a little while now and this has inspired songs on Harry Potter, mangos and stealing pot from his mother's boyfriend.

To check in and see what Mr. Warren is up to - head over to www.benwarrenmusic.com.

Stay tuned for an exciting announcement about some new music video projects between Ben & myself...

The iPhone is a piece of shit and so is your face

2007-08-01T11:09:00.000-04:00

Saw this through a user group - a rather irate review of the iphone comparing it to Nokia's E70. I still hold out hope for the iPhone in that they'll make some very basic improvements in the next generation (storage, network, video - for starters), but of all the Apple naysayers out there, this review is pretty hilarious.

Walk Score

2007-07-31T10:18:00.001-04:00

I found this site from one of my daily email digests and thought it was kinda fun... walkscore.com Basically you enter in your address and it calculates a "walk score" based on how close you are to various amenities and business in your area. Obviously, this site is designed more for the urban dweller than the suburbanite, and I think it's more for checking out areas before you move, but it's still a fun little gadget for a 2 minute diversion.

Incidentally, my address of 135 Guernsey comes up with a walk score of 91! Beat that, suburbia!

Smokey's Sad End

2007-07-24T00:32:00.000-04:00

A few posts ago, i told the tale of Smokey, Jen's stepfather's whiskerless cat who wobbled when he walked. Sadly, on Friday, Jen received news of his death. Apparently, after an evening of his not returning home, (he was generally an outdoor cat, though he wouldn't usually wobble very far from his homebase), Jen's mother alerted the neighbors, and they found him between some rocks directly off of a cliff, still alive, with his leg, pelvis and tail broken. He had been bitten by an animal as well, though it was unclear whether or not his injuries were a result of the attack or after an accident. They managed to get him to a vet, but at his late age (21 years) and terrible injuries, it was going to be too much for the cat to bare: he was put down. In spite of this, Smokey was purring to the end.

Somewhere in Maine, a very special cat's wobble is missing, and it makes me incredibly sad.

Smokey, two weeks before his departure, in Maine

Iowa

2007-07-15T12:15:00.000-04:00

Recently went camping in Iowa with Phil Anzelmo (star of "The Family Tie"), his girlfriend Staisey and their friends Ben, Jodie, and Cary. It was, undoubtedly, one of the nicest camping experiences I ever had: we had an area right along the Maquoketa river all to ourselves. Granted, we had to dig a hole in the ground when we had to shit and there wasn't any running water, but fortunately everyone came prepared as they had a shovel and many a bottle of water. This was a far cry from the camping getaways typical of New Yorkers heading up to the Catskills or Poconos for the weekend with their screaming children and bad music: this was the real deal, a true slice of heaven on earth.

I've posted a handful of pictures on my Flickr which also details some of the activities from the trip.

Smokey - Wobbly Cat

2007-07-11T00:38:00.000-04:00

Jen Rock's old cat Smokey lives in Maine with her mother Carolyn and step-dad David. As a result of some brain damage, Smokey wobbles when he walks, sometimes falling over in the process. When he was a kitten, one of Jen's brothers snipped off his whiskers with a pair of scissors and they never grew back properly. At 21 years old, he is now completely deaf and only really responds to touch and whatever he can muster up with his poor eyesight. In spite of this he remains blissfully ignorant of his condition and is adorably content with his lot in life. Even at the ripe age of 21, he aggressively pursues my affections as you can hear from his purring in this video. Everyone in Jen's family expected Smokey to pass on years ago, but he somehow manages to keep hanging on, or at least keep his balance long enough to find his way to the food dish. Somewhere in Maine, Smokey is wobbling, and knowing that makes my world a little brighter.

The Gay Pride Sell-Out of '07

2007-06-26T00:13:00.000-04:00

Click on the above photo to have a look at the slideshow featuring selections of the Gay Pride Parade along 5th avenue in New York. It wasn't all Diet Pepsi ads tho it goes without saying that some floats worked better than others. Among the highlights, a truly monstrous "Bee Bitch," Wonder Woman and Supergirl as a lesbian couple, the NYPD Gay and New York state senator Chuck Schumer (who I've learned doesn't respond to calls of "Chuckie!" in public).

Memorial Day 2007

2007-06-03T23:23:00.000-04:00

The above image links to the slideshow of picts from the day's festivities at Anthony's pad in Greenpoint. And below I've embedded a video clip taken during the $5 buy-in Texas Hold'em tournament we held the same day. FYI - I emerged the victor of said tournament and walked away with a $15 prize. Ben came in second with $10.

Ben Warren is Famous

2007-05-29T23:22:00.000-04:00

Truly. Famous. Opulent decadence. Celebrity fanfare. Magazine covers and talk shows.

How about simple? Really simple Ben. Let's run with that.

This little ditty came about a few years ago when i was finishing up audio work on "Family Tie." The deal was Ben would do my sound mastering and I would produce/direct/edit the video for his song "Famous." Looks like someone got a good deal.

No, but in all seriousness, this took two and a half years to complete. I guess enthusiasm was in short supply. But finally having "finished" it, I'm happy with it. Tho I do wish the editing were a little tighter...

Big smiley face :-)

Something everyone should see...

2007-05-13T19:23:00.000-04:00

Here's a video Scott Greene made with his brother Alan when he was visiting him in Colorado. Alan's really gotten into making his own steady-cam gear and this shows off how pro he's able to make his camera move. Ah... if only we had one of these for The Pubic Muffin!

mums

2007-05-13T11:02:00.000-04:00

Banzai!

2007-04-20T12:12:00.000-04:00

Everyone should see the work of Takeshi Kitano, not just because he's an extremely talented and hilarious director/writer/performer, but because he has created his own niche in the world of film with his deadpan yakuza gangster outbursts of violent cruelty. His newest film, Kantoku: Banzai! (which translates to "Hooray for the director!") has him playing a film director working in seven different genres with himself as the star. It's definitely a more comical side to Kitano that we're seeing here, but judging from the trailer, it looks like it could be some wacky Japanese fun. And that's something that all of our lives could benefit from.

Going Pro...

2007-04-01T18:43:00.000-04:00

After much deliberation, I have finally "gone pro" on Flickr so I can host unlimited pictures and organize sets and all that good stuff. It's $25 a year, but it really does seem like a fair bargain for archiving your still library online. I already could host on my web hosting server, but Flickr provides a very accessible and versatile way to collect and grow your online still photo collection. Not having ever really given my catalogue a proper assessment, I'm hoping this will give me the inspiration to begin going through the thousands of pictures I have shot (not including 35mm, but eventually).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugpictures/

So i'll be dropping pictures on my blog here from time to time as usual but you may want to bookmark the flickr page as it's a "picture blog" of sorts and i'll be keeping a fresh line of new stuff going up there now that I have "no limits."

Best Commercial Ever

2007-03-25T10:51:00.000-04:00

Things I learned from watching this: The flea market... Montgomery... it's just like... a mini-mall, and if you do a little step to the left and a little step to the right you're doing the "flea market shuffle." I watched this flabbergasting commercial again last night wondering if this might be a staged hoax, but I'm convinced more than ever that it's not. If there's ever a reason that God invented YouTube, you needn't seek any further to find one than this precious gem right here. This misguided flea market owner seemed to think his customers just needed a little rap and a little dance to excite them on down in Montgomery (Alabama?). And I must say, if I ever do find myself down there I might just have to drop in to ask for an autograph. Simultaneously frightening, hilarious and sad, I give you... the BEST COMMERCIAL EVER!!!

Ebby & Bun Eat Dinner

2007-03-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

The final entry in the "eating trilogy" with my cats has Ebby & Bun chowing on some dinner time yums under the infrared green glow of nightvision. For whatever reason, this piece has failed to take off in the number of views compared with "lunch" and "breakfast." Is it because the nightvision makes the image quality murky? Is it because E&B eating videos are so "2006" or maybe the cats are really just playing this one by the numbers. In any event, i encourage you all to watch and enjoy, because, you know, my heart and soul is in this work and i feel that it's evident.

the restaurant where we had our first kiss...

2007-03-20T11:35:00.000-04:00

...like our relationship, has gone out of business.

This is the site of the location where Kat and I had consumated our mutual interest so many years ago, sealing it with a kiss (or several, if memory serves). Alas, time has not been kind to the Manhattan Chili Company of Times Square. Though to be fair, their food was ridiculously overpriced and their happy hour margaritas weren't all that happy. I suppose, in retrospect, it was just a matter of time before the whole operation went busto.

The Scott Greene Workout

2007-02-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

Among the pleasures in my adventures in archiving my assorted VHS tapes is finding bizarre footage of the incomparable Scott Greene. This clip was discovered on a tape featuring raw footage for several super short sketches for the intro of a failed Split Apple project entitled "Empty V." I should probably post the intro in its entirety at some point, but I found this particular bit of Scott glaring into the camera while squeezing his hand grip tool to be particularly hilarious/disturbing. I've obviously done just a touch of editing in presenting this clip out of context; in turn I've taken the liberty of listing this on Youtube as "a quick and basic workout to help lose some of those extra pounds, get your blood pumping and get your energy up." I'm hoping for some good hateful feedback for the misleading description, so if you feel inspired, hate away...

Oscar Picks

2007-02-25T10:19:00.000-05:00

I guess i'm a little late in posting these, i mean being the day of the Oscar ceremony, but I feel I should go on record anyway. BTW - this isn't a list of my picks for who should win, only who I think will win.

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg Yeah, yeah - Eddie Murphy's a shoe-in. But I tell you what's working against him besides those ubiquitous Norbit billboards and an ill-timed release of said film, it's his reclusivity. If he does win, it will because of all those early years of work in great films like 48 Hours and Trading Places. I don't think Eddie Murphy "plays the game" whereas Mark Wahlberg only "plays the game." Wahlberg gave an unexpectedly great performance and nearly steals each scene that he's in. I feel like Hollywood favors young actors in standout roles when they're still fresh in the game, but Wahlberg's been at it long enough to prove he's got chops and personality to stick around for a long time to come. Murphy is likely goingt o abandon further dramatic roles for the time being to do classy fare such as "Daddy Day Care 2" or another installment on "The Haunted Mansion."

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson This one is a shoe-in for 'Dreamgirls.' Total rags-to-riches story and best supporting actress awards almost always go to newcomers. Don't ask me why, it just is.

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker Another guy here whose been around for a long-ass time busting his chops in supporting roles (anyone else remember him as "Jefferson" from 'Fast Times At Ridgemont High?') and here he's got a meaty, larger-than-life role that's based on historical fact. I hate to play the race card but I think his blackness will help him out on this one, too. Leo may be an upset but I doubt it, and O'Toole just got an honorary oscar two years ago.

Best Actress: Helen Mirren Everyone's said this one's a lock and it really looks that way. Helen Mirren's been doing the acting thing since the '70s and has always done outstanding work, but little of it in American cinema. Regardless, i'm sure she's getting some votes split towards Meryl Streep, but they won't be enough to make a dent in 'The Queen.'

Best Director: Martin Scorcese Or at least it better be. I will cry if they don't give it to him; I will cry if they do. Either way, expect some waterworks from Muggy. But seriously, I was convinced that three years ago he was gonna get it for 'Gangs of New York' then two years ago he was a sure thing for 'Aviator' which Eastwood snagged away with 'Million Dollar Baby.' In both cases, it would have been a sympathy vote. This year, he deserves it for his great work in 'Departed' plus he just deserves it for all those years he's been snubbed ('Raging Bull,' 'Taxi Driver'). This will be our year, took a long time to come.

Best Picture: The Departed It's a tough year to pick best picture, though honestly, the last few years have had a number of unexpected winners (i.e., the heinous 'Crash' or the frivolous 'Shakespeare In Love'). But as the critics have rightly pointed out, not everyone loves on-screen violence like Scorcese or myself, so a lot of votes will go towards safer fare like 'Little Miss Sunshine' or 'Babel' but because of the weigth of the director's race leaning in Scorcese's favor, i'll go with 'Departed.'

I'll be the first to admit these predictions could go wrong for me, but generally i'm able to guess with approximately 80% accuracy. Speaking of which, anyone want to place any bets before the show begins? Come on now! Let's make some money!

Chicane Rhames Eats

2007-02-24T21:11:00.000-05:00

In my recent efforts to consolidate my VHS collection into bare essentials and archive my personal home videos, I found this piece of footage showcasing my pet snake devouring a large mouse. The snake was named Chicane Rhames - Chicane short for chicanery and Rhames after the actor Ving Rhames because he was so badass in the ubercool Pulp Fiction movie which had just come out (late 1994). You can hear my brother and then-girlfriend Jen Yarling briefly exchanging words before the mouse meets its grim fate. I've cut this down actually quite a bit - the raw footage spans roughly 20 minutes or so - and I found a piece of music which was approximately the same length as my edit: Nico's Chelsea Girls.

Chicane was a nefarious sort of creature. She (yes, it was a she) was very moody and was prone to wrap herself around the arm or neck of whomever was holding her. I remember a few times starting to fear for my life as i felt the blood rush to my head and my air flow was slowly cut off as she tightened her muscles around my neck. Chicane had also snapped at me a few times when i went to take her out of her cage. As you can see in this video, when the snake strikes it's very quick and violent and it's not fun to be on the receiving end of such a bite. After all, snakes got lots of little teeth! After two years of caring for the snake I found a new caretaker (aka sucker!) in my friend Lee Nachtigal. Apparently she struck at Lee a few times as well and so, after owning her for a year, she called the department of animal control and they took Chicane away. Where she is now is anyone's guess.

Karmageddon

2007-01-20T11:57:00.000-05:00

My friend Carrie-Ann forwarded these to me, and admittedly im' not a fan of forwarded email humor in general, but these are pretty damn funny.

The Washington Post's Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
9. Karmageddon (n): It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the litter-ature:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Mugs in reverse

2007-01-12T11:49:00.000-05:00

So here's my retrospective montage of self-portraits and other shots of me spanning the last five years. It's about 350 pictures in under 3 minutes and plays in reverse chronological order. Starting with pictures i even took as recently as yesterday and going all the way back to before God The Band recorded RAWK! and starred in Hedwig & The Angry Inch. The music I used is called "Joy" by Apollo 100, a rocking version of Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man" piece. It's been used in Boogie Nights and recently The 40 Year Old Virgin. I wanted to do some more work on finessing the slideshow, but there's only so much Mugs that Mugs can view when working on a Mugs picture show.

today i am 33

2007-01-10T11:51:00.000-05:00

Well, today it's happening. I can no longer claim to be 32 nor can i claim to be 23, though that stopped a while ago. I've been practicing at calling mysef 33 for the last month or so, preparing myself mentally so that it wouldn't sting as much when the day rolled around. And the truth is, it doesn't sting at all, but for some reason this feels more important than turning 25 or even 30. The whole 'quarter of a century old' gag doesn't seemimportant when you're too busy having fun. But this one seems different. like the double-digit collection of 3's is some sort of barometer marker on the game of life and i'm hedging past the first portion. certainly i know more now than i did 10 years ago, or at least i feel like i know people better than i did back then. And certainly I don't have the youthful fancy of hope in trying to be a successful celebrity as I did then, but then again, i still feel like i have a ways to go before i willconsider myself a success.

i recently looked over the last 5 years of my life as i was importing all of my digital photos into a comprehensive iphoto library and can't help but notice signs of aging in my face and body. in fact, i can think of no other period in my life where i noticed my physical aging as quickly as i have in these last few years. i can only assume it goes quicker from here. i do have more white hairs now then i did even a year ago and my figure has decidedly lost its svelt propensities. As recently as last weekend, Jen and i hopped into a bar and the bouncer asked for our ID's but as he took a second look at me he said, "No, you're ok..."

OK? Yikes... apparently my mediocrity rises in direct proportion to my age.

Perhaps this sounds negative, but it's not. i'm not bitter about turning 33 nor do i look back at my life so far with regret. Well, ok - maybe some regret here and there, but nothing that i feel justifiably would call for the use of a time machine. i've made good decisions and bad decisions and i am the sum of those parts. i do wish that some of my relationships with some of my former friends were in better shape, but wisdome dictates only time can do that healing since i can't control how otheres perceive me. On the other hand, my relationship with jen rock continues to grow and evolve in ways that continue to surprise me. it's ironically becoming my most mature relationship to date.

I'm far from satisfied professionally or artistically, but I'm inspired to strive for that greater fulfillment. There still exists within me a hope to accomplish bigger and better things, and things that I am probably unaware of even wanting to accomplish in the first place. Values do tend to change over the years, and as I round this cornerstone I am confident that more change and evoloution lies ahead. I've been through a lot in my life so far, and I am grateful for the chances and opportunities that this life has given me. Now I need to start making some new ones...

Well, without getting too preachy or pretentious I should just wish myself a happy birthday and try to enjoy what's left in the day. After all, you only get to turn 33 once...

m

PS - stay tuned for a self-indulgent slideshow of self-portraits!

The Christmas Experience 2006

2006-12-31T12:46:00.000-05:00

These photos were taken during my annual trip to Chicago for the Christmas holiday. Each picture has a caption including some sort of explanation of the circumstances of the photo. Please note I did not post the majority of these photos on Flickr as I am limited by the number of picts I can upload since I have a free account so I've opted to post them here.

There were also several videos that I shot at the same time I was taking pictures with my Canon which are included below. Note that some of these files are large and will take a moment to download before they'll play for you...

The Christmas Tree on Wego Trail

McParlands Xmas Sketch with my nephews Danny & Johnny

My dad with Fluff

Christmas Eve Chaos

Christmas Karaoke

Phil & I bowling at Arlington Lanes

Stay tuned for a quicktime slideshow of the christmas photos.

Buñ beats up on Ebby

2006-12-29T11:00:00.000-05:00

Admittedly, not the best looking footage but it essentially captures what a brute Buñ can be on occasion to his sister Ebby. Like his daddy, Buñ will sometimes just start up some shit because he's bored.

MR. WILSON GOES TO WAR

2006-12-10T16:58:00.001-05:00

As you may know, I've been playing with my buddy Ben Warren for a while now, mainly on bass, but for his newest album we wanted to take the performance to another level. Inspired by the war in Iraq and the current cultural climate of cozy indifference, I'll be playing "VJ" for the first time in my performance career as a visual mixer, editing and effecting a mass media bin of video clips on the fly. It's a new type of artistic expression for me, and I think Ben's music is very suiting to the visual mix of media abstractions that playing “VJ” can provide. John Crotteau (aka Johnny Onomatopoeia) will be joining us on drums and Ben Warren, of course, on guitar and lead vocals.

To give you an idea of what this might look and sounds like, here’s a mash-up sample for...

MR. WILSON GOES TO WAR...

MR. WILSON GOES TO WAR
is an explosive indictment of the government and mass media's role in 'spreading the disease' - championing our democratic agenda while underhandedly profiting from war.

MR. WILSON GOES TO WAR
A mixed media overflow refracted through an abstract lense.

Please come see us take on this monster as we launch a series of these one-of-a-kind performances during the month December.

Monday Dec. 11th @ 7pm
Trash Bar - Williamsburg, Brooklyn
256 Grand St. between Driggs and Roebling

Friday Dec. 15th @ 7pm Club
Midway - New York, NY
25 Avenue B (bet. 2nd + 3rd St.)

Monday Dec. 18th @ 7pm
Trash Bar - Williamsburg, Brooklyn
256 Grand St. between Driggs and Roebling

MR. WILSON GOES TO WAR
a live performance of the concept album manifest destiny
video by vj mugs audio by ben warren and john crotteau

ALSO

GTB may be no more, but their music still lives on! For Xmas ‘06 get both ‘GOD’S GREATEST HITS VOL. 2’ and RAWK! for only $5. Yes, you’ve read correctly – TWO CD’S FOR ONLY $5! I know God the band is probably a little past it’s expiration date, but seriously, I’ve got boxes of these things and I hate to see them get thrown out. To receive the gift of GOD this holiday season, paypal your payment of $5 (Plus $1 S/H) to matt_glasson@yahoo.com and include the shipping address where you would like the CD’s to be sent.

getting smaller

2006-12-02T18:26:00.000-05:00

is not

time

squeezing

widdling

me down

Kramer Flips Out For Real

2006-11-21T22:53:00.000-05:00

I can't help it - I'm totally obsessed with this clip of Michael Richards losing his shit big time at a stand-up gig and letting lose a racist tirade the likes of which are rarely seen in public. Seeing his apology on David Letterman last night was actually very difficult to sit through, which makes me all the more fascinated. I guess you could say I can relate to someone who takes something waaaaaay too far and then is shell shocked when they realize how much of a mess they've made and how to deal with the aftermath. In spite of the abhorrence of his words and the justification in the backlash he will receive, I feel sorry for the guy.