PROCRASTINATION POST

The Onion remains, if not consistently hilarious, then consistently unafraid to poke at the most sensitive and controversial of topics. Recent headlines include "Pope's Renal System Proves Fallible," "John Paul II's Last Words: 'Pope Sled'," and "Terri Schiavo Dies of Embarrassment."

MEDIA

The new, internet-exclusive Kingdom of Heaven trailer has some great-looking shots.

Kim Ki-Duk's 3-Iron looks interesting.

Night Watch looks DAMN good.

Check out the Japanese War of the Worlds trailer. More footage. And it only occurs to me now that it looks like the entire film will be from the perspective of this one family, so that has me more interested.

Here are the trailers (1 and 2) for Michael Bay's The Island, and if you're wondering why in God's name do I have trailers for a Michael Bay film linked on my blog it's this: he's been smart of late, what with producing remakes of classic cult horror films directed by chums of his (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [with an upcoming prequel], The Amityville Horror, with The Hitcher in development), and this is a good move, something Roger Ebert (I think) wrote about: remaking bad films that had good plots (instead of remaking great films [i.e. Jonathan Demme squandering his career on The Truth About Charlie, a remake of Charade, and the recent The Manchurian Candidate]). So, a good concept, with potential for Explodo (what Bay's best at), rewritten by writers from JJ Abrams's Alias. There's potential there. And apparently, the original Island was so bad it was in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The internet-exclusive Fantastic Four trailers (1 and 2) are the best of the bunch so far, but still nothing exciting.

Goddamn, that 3rd Episode 3 trailer, I'll admit it, it got me excited again. Especially that hissing Emperor. Although, I still expect that the trailers will be better than the film. Though I do expect this will be the best instalment of the new trilogy. Here are the TV spots: 1 and 2 and 3

Meanwhile, a raise should really be given to whoever's been handling the marketing of Batman Begins, everything has been classy and just whip-smart. Here are the TV spots. Check out the first. I love that they're confident enough to have a TV spot be nothing but screeching, howling bats against a blood-red sky and the emerging logo. Hardcore!

I can't wait to see this: Sarah Silverman's concert film Jesus is Magic.

If you go here, you can hear some cool authors doing readings at last year's Library of Congress Festival, including Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, Peter Straub, Lawrence Block, and Frederik Pohl.

Take a photo, apply lots of free time and fooling around with Photoshop, this is what happens. I hurt myself laughing at some, I think.

Here's the sick and wrong photo that wouldn't load for the longest time (from a previous post).

This is really for Harvey, but others may be interested: New Scientist's 13 Things That Don't Make Sense.

And this one is for Sansan, and anyone else who wants a laugh. The comments go on forever, but there are some real gems in there if you're willing to look for 'em.

And more sick and wrong.

We had this moving homily yesterday. Bishop Escaler was recounting the times he’s met the Pope-- apparently all bishops have to report to him in person every 5 years, so in the past 26 years he’s met with him 5 times. He considers it an honor that he’s had an hour and 15 minutes of personal face time with His Holiness. He recalled him as “a simple man, garbed in white, behind a simple desk… he always stood up when you entered the room, made sure you were comfortable, offered you a seat…” before they’d get down to brass tacks. The meetings went like this: first, he’d inquire as to the bishop’s own personal health and well-being, then the bishop gives his report, and then the Pope asks pretty much the same questions: How are the Muslims in your area? How is the peace and order situation? Have any members of the clergy been threatened? Are any of you in danger?

He also recounted a lunch the bishops were invited to while the Pope was visiting here, during which he remarked, “You Filipinos, you have all these problems, but you’re always happy, always singing.” He apparently loved hearing and saying mass here because of the vigorous and lively singing.

He talked about how JP II was very fond of the youth, how he was unpopular with a lot of Catholics for some controversial moves (like the Ecumenicism), how he was instrumental in the fall of communism, how he visited this Bulgarian who had shot him twice in his prison cell and forgave him. One of the coolest stories was how, by some twist of fate, Bishop Escaler was present when JP II was installed as Pope (in the Sistine Chapel? I forget) in 1978. He happened to be in Rome, a young priest, and he was invited to attend. By some mistake, he was seated IN THE FRONT ROW, along with all the Cardinals, who were glancing askance, wondering who this young Asian priest was and why he was in the front row.

Bishop Escaler broke into tears several times during the homily. He just couldn’t help himself. It surprised all of us. I wasn’t looking at him the first time it happened, my head was turned down but then I heard his voice break and waver, and I looked up and he had paused, with this look of helplessness that was heartbreaking. You could see he was trying not to cry but there was no way. You wished you could go over to the altar and console him. It really seemed to be a very personal loss for him. Several other people in church were also dabbing at their eyes.

BEDROOM BEDLAM

I really need to clean up/organize my room some day. Hopefully soon:

This bookshelf was filled up as soon as I moved in.



So was this headboard.



The top of the headboard, filled with stuff I'm reading/have to get to soon.



Unwatched DVDs. These are just TV shows. Unwatched films are in the closet. Watched films are in a filing cabinet outside my parents' bedroom.



My dead sexy bookcase, already full. :( There's Alan Moore glowering menacingly in the corner.



I haven't actually used this desk the way it was meant to be in years.



More stuff to get through.



I'm so out of room, I've got shit piled up on the floor.

In a way, I'm almost proud that my room is full of books/magazines/CDs/DVDs. It's tricky walking through it now. I wish I had the biggest room in the house. I seem to have the most stuff. No one else really reads. :(

MUSIC/RADIO

I'm looking for more new music these days. Things seem so up in the air, like you can't tell where things are heading. And a number of albums have disappointed me. I only liked maybe 3 songs from Daft Punk's Human After All (after loving Discovery), the Chemical Brothers' Push The Button wasn't bad, but didn't do anything new either; it was a bit predictable. The Prodigy's Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned I heard last year in Edinburgh and it almost put me to sleep. Moby's Hotel was a real disappointment, nothing there made much of an impression and I just ended up missing all the soul stuff. I see why everyone harps on about The Bravery but I still found myself wanting more. The new Weezer, Make Believe, also didn't set my pants on fire. M83's Before The Dawn Heals Us was a surprise, but misleading. People said Air but really they're more My Bloody Valentine. Not bad, but not what I'm looking for, I guess. Queens of the Stone Age turned in a good album, Lullabies To Paralyze. But so far the only thing I've been replaying often is Bloc Party's Silent Alarm. I am glad to announce my second great album of the year so far: Beck's Guero, which is a return to a more lively, party sound, less Midnite Vultures and more of Odelay. I think it's a good move that all his albums sound so different from the one that came before it.

Neva and I watched the Bjork performance at the Royal Opera House the other night (fucking fantastic; brought me to tears several times) and I ended up listening to Post and Vespertine again as a result. Maybe that's what I'm looking for now; at the time I heard those albums the music seemed strange and exciting and unconventional, but Bjork's voice was the anchor. And it's nice that years later those albums still play great. I should dig up Medulla again. So maybe that mix of strange and new but with something still human and-- I don't know-- organic, or natural, to it.

I really hope the new Hot Hot Heat is great. You can listen to some of the songs off of Elevator at their website. And I can't wait for the Pedicab album to be released. I don't think it surprised anyone that they got signed so quickly, but I have to admit it was a bit unexpected to hear they played at Absinth.

I was listening to Zbigniew Preisner's score for Rouge the other day and was amazed to realize that he's such a strong influence on the Final Fantasy soundtracks of Nobuo Uematsu I enjoyed in high school. A day or two later and I found myself listening to the soundtrack of Final Fantasy 6 just to make sure (was also pleasantly surprised to find I still remembered Uematsu's name right).

Joey Comeau makes an interesting observation.

Speaking of ipods, I was thinking again of finally getting one, what with the price drops. The shuffle's no good to me without an LCD display (which is why it's a shuffle, people tell me, but when you can have 16 CDs and are looking for THAT ONE SONG you're fucked). But looking up some of the competition on the web, I found that some of the Archos stuff now has video (and others are practically ipod/pdas), and storage up to 100 GB. Still expensive, though. And the recent news of Apple's battery supplier being able to triple the battery life told me that I should wait a while yet. Especially since phone companies are going to try to get into the game too. Ah, well. By the time I could afford it anyway it already would have been a couple of months. I also wonder when customizability will enter the fray.

It will also be very interesting to watch the success of Sony's PSP upon its release next week. Since it can play video and music, display photos, and of course, play games, I wonder if it's going to put more things into motion.

One of the reasons I wanted an mp3 player was to listen to longer stuff like podcasts. Most of the music I've been getting into lately I was introduced to through internet radio shows and mp3/music blogs. I listen to these while I'm working but wish I could take it with me while traveling. It would also allow for the convenience of listening to international radio, maybe some of the BBC and/or NPR stuff. Trinka sent me a link to this radio documentary, Chasing Love by Miguel Macias, and it's quite interesting (only an hour). I didn't even know there were radio documentaries. It's a 3-year-project of this graduate student (I think), where he edited interviews with lots of people about love while researching the history of romantic love and how it ties into other aspects of society like economics, psychology, culture, etc. It reminded me of Waking Life. It was an eye-opener for me (metaphorically speaking) because I didn't know you could do this sort of thing with radio. Looking around the Transom website, you'll find that there are radio zines, a beautiful, brilliant idea if there was one. Just the fact that these things exist can get me excited. I listen to the occasional radio play (the Neil Gaiman adaptations, mostly) and have the Alan Moore performance pieces, but still, it's lovely that radio (or any media, really) can still surprise you.

Here you’ll find the trailer for Palindromes, the new Todd Solondz film. It’s got a nice poster, too.

I have a new mini-mission, which is to get as many of my friends to read Alan Moore & David Lloyd’s V For Vendetta as I can before the movie comes out in November. Who knows, the movie might be great, but it could also be a flaming turd seeing as it’s the first film from a guy whose biggest credit is assisting the Wachowskis (who wrote the script!). I also disagree with the casting of anyone in the role of the main character V; he’s never shown or named in the book because the point was that he could be anybody. Also, in the film, the oppressive state of things is due to the Germans winning WW2. So beyond the shades of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, it devolves a sophisticated setup (because the crime is that the English people allowed such a fascist state to gain and keep power) into a conveniently palatable Hollywood one, wherein you have an external antagonist. And not just ANY external antagonist, but the one that virtually everyone can hate in unison: NAZIS! The only people who don’t hate them are the Nazis themselves. So that, you know, there can be ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT who the bad guys are. Whereas, in the book, just as much responsibility is placed on the passive masses.

So join my crusade! And we will all end up talking about how brilliant Moore is!

Sorta rule: be quick about it, so other people can read. :)

I've been invited to play some songs of my choosing tomorrow night (Friday) on NU107.5's Gweilo's Hour, which is at 9 PM. If you're not doing anything then, I hope you can tune in. :)

Will be playing some tracks from Bloc Party, The Radio Dept., The Bravery, LCD Soundsystem, The Black Keys, and the new Beck. :) And if we can squeeze it in, Ambulance LTD, The Arcade Fire, Razorlight, and stuff from the new Weezer and shelved Fiona Apple albums.

FREE PORN!

I have no idea what this film is but I want to see it. That's effective packaging and design. Gotta love Criterion.

Been a bit busy, but here's some cool stuff:

The Guardian sent Joe Sacco to Iraq, and this is what he sent in. It's 37MB, but damn worth it. Read it, it's only 8 pages (it's easier to direct-download it first). His brand of comics journalism is really effective. Time commissioned an article from him some time ago, and Entertainment Weekly have been commissioning comics strips from Harvey Pekar and friends. Let's hope this trend continues. Some of Sacco's books are available at Fully Booked.

The Gallery of Bad Album Covers

Top Shelf, purveyor of fine sequential art, have a massive sale until the 15th of March, wherein some of their graphic novels have dropped all the way down to $3. Now is the perfect time to stock up on those books you want. I recommend Abe: Wrong for the Right Reasons, Cicada, The Soap Lady, the Pistolwhip books, The Mirror of Love, Pinky & Stinky, A Complete Lowlife, Blankets, The Barefoot Serpent, American Elf, and any of the Expo and Top Shelf anthologies. And of course, Voice of the Fire (signed at only $40).

I know I give Halle Berry shit, and she deserves it because her film choices post-Oscar have been mostly atrocious, but it was a classy move to show up to accept her Razzie, and she deserves props.

Someone mashed up the Super Friends with Office Space, and it came out quite well. I've never seen Office Space; anyone have a copy I can borrow?

First this, and now this. What's going on here? My brain can't seem to wrap itself around the idea. The twin pillars of Moore's work that first knocked me over are being made into movies, coming out within a year of each other. Although, if you check out the V For Vendetta website, there's a transcript of the recent press conference, and hearing Natalie Portman say she's going to shave her head and lose weight (what, like she isn't malnourished already?) is a sign of hope. And her playing Evey is growing on me, despite my initial mixed skepticism. And they plan to have it in theaters this November, in time for Guy Fawkes Day. It's interesting that both productions have immediately grasped onto the iconic images of the smiley and mask, respectively, for marketing/branding purposes.

And I have to say, hearing Natalie Portman say the words "Alan Moore" kind of made my brain stand up and applaud, using its hemispheres in lieu of hands.

Trailer-wise, there is A Scanner Darkly (late, but I was waiting for the Quicktime version), the new Sin City (with Quentin Tarantino getting billing, despite working a single day [chalk it up to marketing]), the very exciting Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (and kudos to Dreamworks for allowing an unconventional trailer), and really, ALL of you need to see the 3rd, Internet-only trailer for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's lovely, and reflexive, somewhat reminiscent of the Comedian trailer. And in anticipation, I've begun reading the books.

And let's end with the sick and wrong:

PS: Franz Ferdinand are coming to Manila on Neva's birthday, and the Neil Gaiman thing is in July. As usual, these are tentative.

1827 days later and I still don’t know how it happened;
still reeling,
still going,
“Wow.”

:D

Scholastic is having a 3-day Book Fair from Feb. 28 – Mar. 2 (Mon. – Wed.) at Studio 1 Plaza (where is this?). According to the email I read, you can reserve Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince at a lower price than the bookstores are offering (which makes sense, since Scholastic is both the publisher and distributor of said book). I wish I could find out if they’ll have the colorized Bone volumes on sale…

If you go here you can read, for free, the first issues of Tom Strong, Top 10, and Tomorrow Stories, all written by Alan Moore. Good stuff.

An oldie but a goodie. Found it again while looking for something else.

National Lampoon argues quite convincingly that Superman Is A Dick.

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It is mildly frightening that some people are saying that Constantine is a good film. I generally agree with Tasha Robinson’s review. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised; I hear that there are actually some people who think the last 2 Matrix movies (aka Those That Shall Not Be Named) were movies (some of those few actually say it’s good! Imagine that, Mark Lavin.). It’s a little bit more aggravating when I hear that some of the people who recommend Constantine are comics readers. Which can be, in a way, a sort of test. If you liked Constantine, you are in no way a John Constantine fan.

It’s bad. The story’s a mess. The worst thing about it is Keanu. The best thing it’s got going is a competent, better-than-expected visual style (that unfortunately somewhat peters out at the end). That and Rachel Weisz. And I’m sorry, but when is Hollywood going to learn that the only thing less scary than CG demons is the Care Bears? The only time I remember CG creatures having a genuine effect is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But here they’re just laughable (they’re brainless, too!). And, might I add, possibly the most cliché conception of Hell I’ve seen. Oh, yes, red, fire, post-apocalyptic wasteland, etc. Souls burning. That’s bad enough, but good GOD, did you see Heaven? Actual clouds and spires! Sunlight! It looks like the most boring place in imagination! In the beginning, there were still some actual touches: Constantine not holding the elevator for Isabel, for instance. But then later, it’s like, buy him some eggs, and he’ll tell you his whole fucking life story! WHO IS THIS MAN!?

I hope people are more careful with the word “good.” You know, reserve it for what really deserves it. Because Constantine, even if I wasn’t a comic fan, even if I wasn’t a John Constantine fan, is a bad Hollywood film. And when we claim that bad shit is good, that just lowers the bar further and gives Hollywood more license to churn out shit. I’m glad that in the US, Constantine’s first weekend box office take (extended, since it came out earlier) couldn’t outperform the supposedly-also-tepid Hitch, which was on its SECOND week, for the top slot. Still, word is they’re going to try and make it a franchise too. If so, poor John Constantine (the character); he really is damned.

I know in the end it’s really just a matter of taste. I just wish we had better.

Good, on the other hand, is too small a word for Alexander Payne’s Sideways. I’m glad I didn’t read up on this; I didn’t want to build an expectation. I just knew that I hadn’t seen an Alexander Payne film I hadn’t liked yet, and this one definitely did not disappoint. I know nothing about wine, but it doesn’t matter. The film’s not about that anyway. It’s difficult for me to actually talk about; I’d rather people just went out and watched it. Experience it for themselves. I’ve found that different people take different things from it, which is certainly the mark of a great film, if anything. It works on a number of levels, but even the superficial one is meaty enough for at least 3 films.

I hope to see Aviator tonight, though that 3-hour running time is a doozy when you’re not in the mood.

For some reason, Love Me If You Dare, a film I was really looking forward to, is playing at SM City, AND NOWHERE ELSE. WTF?

I've been quoted on a banner ad for the Haruki Murakami website. How strange. And I caught it on the Bookslut blog, no less, where I often go. Cool. I was happy enough getting translated into Italian, but this is cool/weird too. It's also (so far) turned up on Stereogum and Metafilter, and get this: one on Metafilter is on a page discussing a friend of mine, resident genius and sweetheart Genie Ranada, whose costume has been seen by so many people around the world she keeps crashing picture host sites and has become her own meme.

Though I wonder how many people have curiously clicked on the link and went "Whuh--? It's just some dude's blog!"

I want to see Tetsujin 28 (known elsewhere as Gigantor). What is it about robots and boys?

Another Edgar Wright video for Charlotte Hatherley, "Summer." Her songs are a bit too long, but sometimes I'm reminded of Juliana Hatfield. And I was staring at her for a while, wondering why she seems familiar, when I realized: she's the guitarist of Ash.

Finally, the trailer for Hitchhiker's Guide is up on Amazon, this time with people. It looks good; I like the cast a lot. And the release date's been moved up to April. :)

Sin City (film) website now live.

Here's the schedule for Eiga Sai (Akira Kurosawa!) at UPFI (I'm too lazy to put this much at a time in the remember! box):
23 February Wednesday 4 p.m. Doomed aka To Live (Ikiru)
23 February Wednesday 7 p.m. The Bad Sleep Well
24 February Thursday 4 p.m. Not Yet (Madadayo)
24 February Thursday 7 p.m. Judo Saga
25 February Friday 4 p.m. Doomed aka To Live
25 February Friday 7 p.m. High and Low
26 February Saturday 1 p.m. Doomed aka To Live
26 February Saturday 4 p.m. Rashomon
26 February Saturday 7 p.m. Seven Samurai
28 February Monday 4 p.m. Not Yet
28 February Monday 7 p.m. Stray Dog

Congratulations go to Erwin Romulo for the Camiling Story premiere last Tuesday. Mel Chionglo, Eddie Romero, Lav Diaz, Ricky Davao, etc. were all in attendance. It was my first time to lay eyes on Mike De Leon. Was also nice to see some people I've not seen in a while: Cecile, Trinka, Gay, Kathy. And hopefully we've convinced (or bullied) Joey into reopening Brash. Come on, man! Shallow Grave!

I liked Camiling Story better this second time around. And the trailer for Rico Ilarde's Sa Ilalim ng Cogon made me want to see it.

"Wow. United Colors of Benetton." - Neva, upon seeing Bloc Party's members for the first time (and yes, I've still been listening to "So Here We Are" a lot)

And something funny to end this post. My favorite's "Aikin-Johnson."

If you're not doing anything at 6 PM this Tuesday, Feb. 15, trot your ass over to the NCCA in Intramuros (633 Gen. Luna) for the premiere of Erwin Romulo's Camiling Story, starring Diego Mapa! With Yvonne Quisumbing-Romulo's short Puey preceding! Free entrance, open to the public, how can you beat that deal? Not even a dress code!

Neva and I went to CDy's exhibit opening last Saturday waay over at The Cubicle. It's the first of her "Short Time" series of exhibits, and it's an interesting assembly of work, charcoal pieces of a man undressing. It slowly dawned on me that though presented as fine art (which it is), it's also sequential art, meaning the exhibit is a comic strip. As you start on the ground floor and make your way upstairs (there's even a piece hanging on the wall of the stairway, so you have to stop there too), the man gradually loses all his clothing, and the coup de gras is a powerful POV shot I hope never to experience firsthand. I think it's terrific; beyond unifying the pieces with a strong theme, it makes it more interactive, and there's more of a narrative, though you can appreciate each work individually as moments/glimpses. So it works on multiple levels. They even painted the walls of the gallery specific colors to contrast with the works and try to capture the ambience/atmosphere of a motel. Kudos to CDy! You can see some of her works at her online gallery, but if you can drop by The Cubicle to check out the exhibit, do so.

Speaking of CDy, she named a teddy bear after me! Meet Mon-Mon:

Complete with zippers and chain!

She gave me the prototype a few months back, but it hasn't left Neva's possession. I wanted to post about it, but decided to wait until it was for sale already in UFO. Which it is. Check out her other stuffed stuff at BOMBA!

I've never had a sadomasochistic teddy bear named after me before. It's quite a thrill and honor.

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Dear God. Looks like it's really happening.

Batman Begins Super Bowl TV Spot
War of the Worlds Super Bowl TV Spot
Bud Light ad banned from the Super Bowl

Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack & Rose

An eerie short, Muppets Overtime

Shockingly funny news (actually not so shocking)

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I've abandoned my Global Frequency email ad, for those who were using that to contact me. I'm still using the Hotmail and Gmail ones, and still get Friendster notifications, or you could just comment here, if so inclined.

It was a little weird. The Global Frequency account was mostly for work. But I also ended up using it as a repository for reference and stuff I thought I might need later on. Research, weblinks, addresses, etc. But cleaning it out I found stuff I'd completely forgotten about in the 2 years I've had it: correspondence from Dave McKean's producer, account info for a site I registered for but completely forgot about, a reply to someone I hardly knew who chose to come out of the closet to me, and an angry email from Neva that contained 29 instances of the word "fuck," "fucker," or "fucking." It was a bit arduous, and that was just for an account I've had for a little over 2 years. If I had to clean out my original email account, the one I've had ever since I got on the web ('94 or '95), it would take forever and be, I expect, quite painful. In this regard these email accounts are almost like diaries or photo albums. Gmail's especially structured in this way, with conversations considered one file and the ability to store a LOT of detritus.

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I finished Peter Biskind's Down & Dirty Pictures after about 2 weeks. It's a nice thick book, the one he was promoting when I met him at the Edinburgh Book Festival last August, but it was only in hardcover then and I couldn't afford it. Got it at the recent Powerbooks sale. It concerns the era during which I fell in love with film ('90s), so it was very interesting to read the behind-the-scenes dramas and hilarity concerning some of my favorite movies. Very dishy and very much worth it.

After that I barreled through Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, which Neva got me in Singapore. I loved it. It's just a short novella, but impeccably written, just a wonderful homage to the whole detective genre. I love that he really integrated the setting and times into the story, not focusing just on the "case" that the aging Sherlock Holmes (never mentioned by name, but all the hints are there in the beginning) was working on. And the triple-meaning of the title was inspired. After winning the Pulitzer for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which is one of my favorite books EVER, Chabon seems to have stuck very much to genre fiction, looking at his output: his next work was the young adult fantasy Summerland, then he edited the genre anthology for McSweeney's, and now The Final Solution. What I love is that he's brought this unabashed, unapologetic poetic lyricism to genre fiction. His writing style might strike some as too elaborate, but I like it that way. It doesn't flow as effortlessly as, say, Auster or Murakami, but that works to its advantage: sometimes you can read it out loud, slowing yourself down and just enjoying the arrangement of such-and-such sentences, or a clever turn of phrase, things that don't usually occur in genre fiction, which tends to more often than not be all about plot. Chabon's been great at introducing characterization and writing style as equally weighty ingredients to the mix.

Now halfway through Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, which so far isn't as thick or ambitious as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was, despite the press and hype surrounding the book. I realize it's more of an event than I first understood: not only is it his first book in a while (I think Undergound came out in '02?), it's his first NOVEL in a LONG while, because the last 2 books were an anthology and a non-fiction book of interviews. There isn't much of the whiz-bang descriptions I love, but the story's intriguing enough. The structure is similar to his Hard-Boiled Wonderland & The End of the World: alternating chapters between 2 protagonists, with elements of one sometimes appearing in the other, which feels slightly viral and uncomfortable sometimes. There is the surrealism I've come to expect (talking cats), and a harrowingly intense scene of evisceration. Elements of Underground have also emerged, in chapters that are basically transcripts from a strange event in WW2.

Must every book jacket declare that this is a work of the author at the height of his powers? It almost seems like a joke now.

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Saw Stacy Peralta's Riding Giants, and it was breathtaking. Made me realize how little I know about surfing, even from a distanced POV. It made you want to learn how to surf at the end, and the soundtrack is awesome. Not just in the selection of music, but when and how it was used. Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Moby, and at the end, suddenly and with great impact, Erik Satie. Like I said, breathtaking. The history of surfing is more interesting than I would ever have expected. There's this guy Greg Noll, who was an icon in the '50s, '60s. He's an old guy now, but the way he talks about surfing is so... affecting. Like he just exudes this love for it, completely and utterly believable. It's actually very sweet, especially in this part where he compares it to a woman. Then there's Laird Hamilton, whose life-story kind of makes him the Jesus of surfing. This guy's so big he was in Ralph Lauren ads and when I saw them in high school I just thought he was another male model. Then you find out he's the best surfer the world's seen, is married to Gabrielle Reece (something of an icon herself), etc. After he surfs this ungodly wave there's a shot of him crying. And the footage is spectacular, especially past the 1:17 mark (the Propellerheads song). That one wave in Teahupoo, I swear to God, looks like A MOVING WATERFALL MADE OF GLASS. If that even makes any sense. And it's just so frighteningly fast, and just massive. Go watch it.

We also saw I Heart Huckabees, which we enjoyed very much. It really shouldn't be taken seriously. Some people have decried it as pretentious but I feel it's all very tongue-in-cheek. I love Isabelle Huppert. Here's an actress literally willing to have her face shoved into mud. And dammit, she's STILL hot. But the surprise for me was Mark Wahlberg. He was so funny.

The new Mirrormask trailer is out! And it's fucking AWESOME! And I mean that in every child's sense of the word. I LOVE that last bit of dialogue at the end, with the floating head. And it's a nice mixture of creepy/spooky/fantastical! Remember the first time you caught anime and it was weird, seeing these cartoons from a culture so alien and different to the ones you were used to? It feels like that, except it's like you're watching scary cartoons from outer space, or a parallel dimension.

There's 2 things you can do on Friday night: you can belt out some tunes for Mika, or catch Belleville Rendezvous at Gab's.

These gorgeous posters are for Chan-Wook Park's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, which will complete his "Revenge" cycle begun with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy.

Have you checked out Dinosaur Comics? Do. It's basically the same clip-art pictures, over and over again, with amusing variations. Some hilarious examples, c/o Joey: one two three four five

Pao was at least good for one thing: he brought to my attention that I haven't name-dropped Haruki Murakami in a LONG time. And you know why? Because he hasn't been putting out any books! Well, maybe in Japan. And that Birthday Stories anthology. Anyway, his "new," translated-into-English novel is out: Kafka on the Shore. And here's his new website. Wow! Author as rock star. I love the Music section, and am particularly happy with the Art section. Neva actually saw this in Singapore (she's back, btw), but it was about P1600 so we decided to just wait until Powerbooks gets it, where it'll likely be cheaper (I've read that there are already copies at Fully Booked, but don't know how much). She's glad to report that it's nice and thick (like Jonathan Strange thick), which should help make up for the long months of no new Murakami goodness. Actually, I just wish they'd get to work on those translations. He has a book that came out recently, After Dark; I wonder when I'll get to read that? And I remember Jenny saying that he still has a couple of untranslated novels/stories from the early years in his career. This reminds me: when I saw Vintage Murakami in PowerBooks it was frustrating that there was a story there seeing print in English for the first time ("Ice Man") when everything else was just excerpts from novels I'd already read. So, I did what any other fan would: I stood there and read the whole short story. I'm not paying 700 bucks for that one short. Also went through 3 essays in this book, Prime Times: Nick Hornby on The West Wing, Douglas Rushkoff on MST3K, and new fiction from Mark Leyner on Hawaii Five-O. Now there's another favorite writer of mine who hasn't put out a book in YEARS.

February is Francois Truffaut month at Alliance Francaise's Video Club, whose screenings are now back to being free (and have been moved to Saturday since I was last going). March is Jean Renoir. Check 'em out.

A Volkswagen ad that was completed but never aired.

Are you a good tracer? Wanna move to Austin and work on Richard Linklater's first post-Before Sunset film, an animated adaptation a la Waking Life of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly? Check out the information below this article. Well, I'm sort of excited for this, it looks very interesting and I'm becoming a Dick fan, but part of me will always wonder how this would've looked if Charlie Kaufman penned the script. A Scanner Darkly was his dream project.

Finally, don't click on this.

UPDATE (A FEW HOURS LATER): Kafka on the Shore is at PowerBooks for PhP1299. Good thing I dropped by on the last day of the sale!

JE SUIS RANDOM

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride! Yeah! I'm more excited about this than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to be honest.

The trailer for Crispin Glover's What Is It? is insane! Like a Troma film from the New Wave! Like when other films make fun of "experimental" cinema (Ghost World's "Mirror, Father, Mirror," anyone?)! Is that not the perfect title for this movie? Warning: boobies!

Teri Hatcher has a problem that I'm sure many of us generous manfolk would volunteer to help her out with.

Hey Ciudad! And any other band who might be reading: Myspace now have this feature where, if you're a musician, you get a special page with a built-in mp3 player and you can stream your music, and offer it for download if you wish. You know, might be an interesting way to get the word around.

Perhaps the best music video I saw last year: Kings of Convenience's "I'd Rather Dance." Even if it may be old. Reminded me somewhat of Jared Hess's Napoleon Dynamite, and speaking of, he did the video of The Postal Service's "We Will Become Silhouettes."

The new ipod shuffle looks mighty tempting. I wish I could afford an ipod. But even if I could, I don't have a computer that would maximize its potential. I mean, we're still using a PC that has a Windows 98 OS (from when it was NEW, so this thing's about 7 years old) that has, uh, 11GB of hard drive? That and I'm still kind of waiting for Microsoft to launch their own MP3 player and start dem wars (but there's STILL no schedule on that, and their informal ceding of the videogame platform wars to Sony isn't an inspiring sign). Creative's Zen players get a lot of good press but just don't have the marketing oomph of Apple. But the shuffle looks interesting... I'm just wondering why, when flash drives now have a capacity for 4GB, they didn't come out with a 4GB model? Did they think it would cannibalize ipod Mini sales?

Douglas Coupland's next book is a sequel to Microserfs. There is a part of me that thinks this is a bad idea, that good works should be left alone, but there is also a part of me that is curious about what's happened to the characters, who I love (it's my favorite of Coupland's novels). The rumors of a Taxi Driver sequel, on the other hand, inspires nothing but revulsion in me. And while I'm at it, Martin Scorsese is directing the US remake of Infernal Affairs with Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon taking over for Andy Lau and Tony Leung. At first I groaned when I read it, but thinking about it, Scorsese could really do something with the subject matter. It's all in the handling, so fingers crossed. Another remake, with less potential this time, is Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow) doing Oldboy with Nicolas Cage.

Hey, hey! The Da Vinci Code is being made into a movie: Tom Hanks is the lead, Jean Reno is whatever French character, and it looks like Audrey Tautou's in the cast too... in a film directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman! Hahahaha! Sorry, guys.

Neva is in Singapore right now. Alexis is in Indonesia for 2 weeks. And I think Quark and Lia are in Bangkok right now. Weird that suddenly they're all out of the country at the same time. With Chris likely busy at AIM (being their poster boy and all), am I doomed to stay at home watching DVDs of The OC?

And yes, I am actually watching The OC. A show I would ordinarily never even go near. I remember it being on my radar only as "that show produced by McG and Doug Liman," but everything about it screamed Dawson's Creek. Or, as someone else mentioned, "this generation's Beverly Hills, 90210." I'm glad to say that it's neither of those things (I mean, there are common elements, but quality and execution-wise they are far different. I hope it stays that way, too). I only gave it a chance because Steven Grant loved the second season. And he's a guy who hates most things. Our tastes might not always link up, but he's a damn good writer so I tried and, thankfully, chanced upon the first two episodes of the first season, getting to start off at the ground floor. It helped that the first 2 episodes are helmed by Doug Liman himself. So anyway, yes, it's a soap, but what began as a guilty pleasure is now something I just can't stop watching. It's interesting to watch such a dialogue-driven show emerge as a hit in the landscape of American TV, which mostly sucks. The OC deserves props if only for one thing: reviving the career of Peter Gallagher. He was born to play Sandy Cohen. Who knew he'd be so good in this kind of role? Without him and Adam Brody's Seth I wouldn't be watching the show. Well, maybe for Samaire Armstrong I'd stick around for a while, but after she's gone I'd split. I damn near fell out of bed laughing when Peter Gallagher went "Mad props, son," pumping his chest and pointing to his kid. Oh yes, and "Yogalates," which I rewound and rewound, much to Neva's annoyance.

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UPFI sent in their next month's schedule and I've updated the box to the left. It looks like I'm a shill for them, don't it? But what are you gonna do when they show a lot of stuff I like? In the Mood for Love! Happy Times! 2046, for those who missed it! The Last Wave, which I've never seen! From out of nowhere, A Hard Day's Night! I'm really tempted to watch Eternal Sunshine, Before Night Falls, and Amelie on the big screen again. By the way, I don't just throw stuff up there; only stuff I recommend. There are other screenings I don't give a toss about; check out their website yourself in case there's something you like that I don't.

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In recent months I came across two terms that somewhat apply to me: Brinksman (which I'm trying to slowly move away from, I swear) and Sniper (though I haven't even looked at an online auction site in over a year).

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I am now good friends with Neva's dog Mittens (who has moved in with her), when before we just kind of tolerated one another. It sometimes feels like I'm cheating on my own dog, Marla.

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Watch this. You can read about it here.

There is the Fantastic Four trailer, which looks like a cheap cash-in to The Incredibles. Looks like a bad year for Marvel, as Elektra is a flop and a critical corpse. And there is the full trailer of Hideo Nakata's The Ring 2. Section Eight production The Jacket looks pretty interesting, and the trailer for the Lars Von Trier-written Thomas Vinterberg film Dear Wendy is up at its website. As expected, it looks to have controversy written all over it.

And check out the video for Charlotte Hatherley's "Bastardo," directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) with cameos by Simon Pegg & Lucy Davis (The Office).

You know what isn't such a great album? The Mars Volta's Frances the Mute. I mean, what the hell, guys? A little over 70 minutes long, track 2 is the most "conventional" at 5 minutes. Tracks 1, 3 & 4 are 12 minutes long, and track 5 is 30 minutes. Who do they expect to listen to this?

Over on the other end of the spectrum, Bloc Party's Silent Alarm is the first GREAT album of 2005 (also one of my favorite album titles in a long while). It hasn't left the car's player since it got there. And "So Here We Are" is such a wonderful, wonderful, anthemic song. A great way to start the year. It's a little strange that that's the song I've attached myself to because it doesn't sound like the songs that made me like the band in the first plce. I've actually been listening to it on repeat while cobbling this post together. The video's here (one of 'em's wearing a Pretty Girls Make Graves shirt!), listen to it and hear how great it is. It's so nice. I love it. It's so good. It's so good it makes you want to do something with your life. Or embrace sad-faced strangers in the street. Or eat sandwiches with a friend you haven't seen since grade school. And this is a song without even a chorus, mind.

They're offering some mp3's on their website. All good, but try "The Answer" & "Staying Fat" particularly. Especially since they're not on the album.

I also enjoy the fact that the singer is black but doesn't sound like it, and the drummer's a freaking tall Asian. Most. Multi-Cultural. Band. Ever.

Mad props, guys. Mad props.

Who has a Paypal account?

Wanna help a brother out?

We interrupt this blog to provide 2 images of startling power:

"Get me out of here."



"Revolution!"

Regular programming will resume shortly.

The Onion AV Club have put up their Will Eisner interview in his memory, and while you're at it, check out their quasi-year-in-review while you're there.

O: Speaking from a purely idealistic plane, where would you like to see the industry go from here?

WE: I would like to see more sophisticated material. I would like to see the comics industry reach a point where good comics material is reviewed in The New York Times and treated at a level equivalent to oil paintings and good literature. I'm hoping we'll see more of that. I believe it will happen, and I'm hoping to be around when it does.

You can find Will Eisner's biography here.

In other depressing news, the film adaptation of V For Vendetta is progressing, with Joel Silver as producer. The good news is, the Wachowski Bros. aren't directing it. The bad news is, they wrote the script, and it's being helmed by a first-timer, their AD James McTigue. Natalie Portman has been cast as Evey, which, for some reason I can't pinpoint exactly, doesn't sit well with me. I mean, there's already a teaser image. Notice how it implies that it's all a creation of the Wachowskis?

Vanity Fair's last Star Wars feature for a while has a gatefold cover that made me smile, even if Lucas has dashed his franchise's brains on a jagged rock like a baby seal.

Oh yes, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey join Brandon Routh in Bryan Singer's Superman as Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. You can figure out who's who.

I was disappointed with Kung-fu Hustle. I was so looking forward to it. I wanted lots more: more Stephen Chow, more story, more development, more humor. The fight scenes were terrific, but at what expense? There were no characters to love. And he's becoming lazy by relying too much on special effects. Another thing is the tone seemed inconsistent. I thought he'd try to make his most accessible film yet, but there's death galore, characters coming in and out, and some scenes would be genuinely scary and violent, but then leavened with an out-of-place joke or cartoony CG. Excellent casting, though.

Ocean's 12 could never've lived up to its expectations (especially with a different writer) but it was still supremely satisfying, and was a con instead of a heist. Also, as a cinephile I loved all the nouvelle vague influences. The worst thing I can say is, as expected, it was unable to consistently maintain the energy/fun level throughout every solitary second of its running time like its predecessor. Excellent turns by Vincent Cassel and Catherine Zeta-Jones, too. Even the cameos are cute, and there's a specific moment that's almost a beyond-the-4th-wall nod to the very first, Rat Pack Ocean's where even the filmmakers just let everyone in on the joke that they're just having a good time.

One of my personal heroes has died.

Will Eisner passed away on Jan. 3, after complications from a quadruple bypass heart operation. He was 87.

Most of you haven't heard of him, which is a bit of the sad part of all this.

Will Eisner was, as Alan Moore put it, "the single person most responsible for giving comics its brains."

He is often called the father of the American graphic novel, for his A Contract with God, published in 1978. I'm not exactly sure if he is (there have been works/creators vying for the title recently), but it doesn't really matter. Eisner is the man who unapologetically, unabashedly saw the potential in comics as an art form, a medium, a way to tell stories. He always treated it with respect, as a valid form of literature, even when everyone else around him sneered or made light of his efforts, sometimes even his peers and co-workers. He started his own studio of artists, giving people like Jack Kirby and Jules Feiffer their first jobs. He was one of the first people to really examine the form and craft, why this works and that doesn't and what this change will result in, and he put this knowledge to use as a teacher and in his essential books of instruction that he published himself under his imprint Poorhouse Press. He is the man who always believed that comics wasn't JUST for children, and didn't ALL have to be about superheroes. He's the man who gave the world The Spirit, which was published weekly in major newspapers, a strip aimed at adults with mature themes and bravura invention in storytelling. He's the guy who, unlike most of his contemporaries (like Bob Kane), adamantly refused to sign away the rights to his creations, a pioneer for creators' rights before there was any widespread knowledge in the industry that it was even an issue. He's the man who stopped the lucrative Spirit series to go do his part in the War, where he used his knowledge to make instructional and technical manuals for engineers in the infantry. He is the man the comics industry's equivalent of the Oscars-- the Eisner Awards-- are named after (and he's handed each award to its winner since the beginning). Perhaps most amazingly, he is the gentleman who never became a cynic through all the decades comics has seen, who was supportive of all endeavors and especially loved it when young people took an interest in making their own comics.

When he died, he wasn't just "continuing to work in the medium he so loved," he was an engine of creation. He was damn prolific for an 87-year-old. He had a graphic novel come out last year, Fagin the Jew (a biography of the character from Oliver Twist), he has a book of conversations between him and Frank Miller entitled simply Eisner/Miller coming out in April, and he had just completed what will now be his final book, to be published posthumously (obviously), entitled The Plot. In between all that he was making appearances at conventions and speaking/lecturing at universities and conferences.

He was an inspiration to most everyone he met, and millions more he didn't. At the least, he has entertained many more millions of readers through his works.

He will be missed by us all. The world is a poorer place without him. But he left it a better place than he found it, and his contributions to this world will far outlive anything we will make. In fact, the debt we owe him-- not just us fans, but the medium, the industry, and everything he has influenced-- can never truly be repaid. And you know what? He never meant for it to be a debt in the first place. He always gave freely of himself, because he loved and believed in the medium, the fans, the industry.

That's just the kind of guy he was.

WORKS:
DC have The Will Eisner Library, which includes The Spirit Archives.
Dark Horse have a sketchbook, Last Day in Vietnam, Shop Talk, Hawks of the Sea, and the forthcoming Eisner/Miller. They'll also publish his official biography in the summer, called "A Spirited Life."
NBM have his adaptations.
Fagin the Jew was published by Doubleday. The Plot will be published by WW Norton later this year.
His seminal books of instruction: Comics & Sequential Art, and Graphic Storytelling, published by Poorhouse Press, should be available in any good bookstore (I know they're in both Powerbooks and Fully Booked).