While Brazil parties like it’s Carnival in the wake of its 5th World Cup victory, other countries across the world (particularly Spain and Italy) sit around and pout about poor refereeing that cost them victories. Do they have a point? Sure they do.

Slate points the finger at FIFA President Sepp Blatter, calling him The Man Who Ruined the World Cup.

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I just received a catalog in the mail about UCLA’s performing arts program this year. I already bought a bunch of tickets for shows this year, including more Elvis Costello, a show with Brian Wilson and another for KODO, the Japanese taiko drumming troupe.

Anyway, I’m perusing through this mag and at the end it has a one page ad for All Tomorrow’s Parties 2003. Last year, the curator for the event was Sonic Youth. This year… it’s Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama. What the hell?!?!?

Posted in From Blown Speakers 1 Comment »

The Flaming Lips just started streaming the entirety of their new album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots from their website.

It’s been a while since The Soft Bulletin, and the both records are worth a spin or two.

More importantly, I’m glad that more bands are embracing the internet as a promotional tool instead of looking at is at a giant piracy warehouse (which in all fairness, it is too).

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I’ve finally moved into my new webspace, that I share with my friend Linus. While I moved, I jumped ship from Blogger over to Movable Type as my backend Content Management System (CMS).

I’ve used Blogger for so long that switching was kind of a pain, but Movable Type is a really nice software package, and I’d recommend it for anyone that wants to get a really solid blogging package up and running. The only caveat is that it’s fairly complex to install, relative to something like Blogger, which is much more user-friendly for non web-techie types.

I’m still working out little kinks here and there, but most of it should work. I’ve trimmed quite a bit of stuff, but all the old logs are there. The photos are available from the sidebar, and commenting is available on all the posts now (click on the comment button at the bottom of the post). So you can all yell at me now.

Posted in Endless Whining 1 Comment »

Minority Report dropped into theaters this weekend, promising high tech thrills from a pretty decorated pedigree (Spielberg and Cruise, working from a short story from Philip K. Dick). The premise revolves around a pilot program for “precrime,” where cops can stop murders from being committed before they take place. On the verge from going national, the program starts to show it’s cracks, the big one being that their police chief (Cruise) looks like he’s about to murder a stranger in two days.

Once the movie gets going, it’s mostly about Cruise rushing headlong into his predetermined fate and the question becomes “Will he do it?” While Cruise runs from the police and tries to find proof of his innocence, the movie is a really smart, fun ride. The movie starts to sputter towards the end, when the narrative becomes more deliberate and less urgent. Still, it holds up much stronger than the standard summer fare and is definitely worth watching.

On a technical level, Spielberg builds a completely convincing world and the computer images are seamlessly integrated. The overlit, coler-desaturated look of the film seems to be a logical extension of much of the work Spielberg has done since the black and white Schindler’s List. It’s all very impressive stuff, and Minority Report never looks cheap or boring.

For a movie called Minority Report, I could have done with more actual minorities in the future, but that’s a minor quibble.

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That’s an overhead shot of a bunch of South Koreans gathering in the streets to watch their World Cup victory over Italy… that’s just a bunch of Koreans.

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Of all the the movies in the current marketplace, the one I really wanted to see was The Bourne Identity. Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) steps up from his low budget roots to pilot this Matt Damon vehicle, obstensibly a story an amnesiac trying to find his identity. This isn’t some kind of introspective character piece though, as Damon quickly finds himself caught up in an international spy conspiracy and goes on the run through Europe with Franka Potente in tow.

The story isn’t all that complex, but it is tightly written and continously interesting. It mixes elements from The Fugitive and the military notes of the Tom Clancy films and offers a fun ride of its own. The action sequences are brief, but well done, and deliver the promise of making Matt Damon a thinking man’s action hero. I couldn’t quite tell if Damon was good in this movie or not, since his character is supposed to be a blank template, and empty vessel. As a result, it’s hard to tell what part of Damon’s work is the writing or bad acting, what parts are bland and what parts are purposeful.

The only question now: When does Damon team up with Affleck for the Jason Bourne/Jack Ryan crossover summer monstrosity?

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The South Park Figure Generator

This was really fun although… they have nothing even close to approximating my hair.

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Conversation I had on the on the corner while waiting for the light to change:

Crazy Guy: Look!
Me: Hunh? (I turn around to look)
Crazy Guy: Don’t look!
Me: Um, OK.
Crazy Guy: You’ll go blind!
Me: From what? Masturbating?
Crazy Guy: The Sun!
Me: Masturbating at the sun?
Crazy Guy: The eclipse!
Me: Masturbating at of an Eclipse? Like a Mitsubishi? Wait, don’t answer that, I gotta cross the street.

Five minutes later: Why didn’t anyone tell me there was a solar eclipse? I’m always the last to know.

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Many, many years ago, a few documentarians hit the parking lot of a Judas Priest concert and put together Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Needless to say, the thirty minutes of footage features some of the most glorious mulletude I have EVER seen, as well as repeated rock signs and alternating chants of “PRIEST RULEZ!” and “DOKKEN RULEZ!!!!” It’s a hilarious look back, when hairspray was used by the metric ton and no one thought that Rob Halford might be gay, despite his odd predeliction for tight leather chaps.

The short is circulating around the country now, attached to showings of Chris Smith’s Home Movie. “Home Movie” didn’t really rock my world, but “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” was worth the trip. You can get VHS or VCD copies of HMPL from www.heavymetalparkinglot.net.

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Also viewed was the new Tom Clancy technothriller The Sum of All Fears. A really good, tense political thriller that has a less than stellar resolution. The flaccid ending lies mostly at the fault of Ben Affleck, who can’t quite make the turn from likeable rookie CIA guy Jack Ryan into hard as nails, save the world Jack Ryan. His presence simply doesn’t have the authority needed to pull off the two or three mini-monologues in the finale.

While the film is well done, I had a hard time finding it entertaining in light of our unstable world climate. When all you hear is terrorism and nuclear war, a movie about how stateside terrorism, rash decision making and poor information flow may lead to high-speed escalation between the two nuclear superpowers seems a bit too close to home, and will probably be nightmare inducing for those more sensitive to such matters.

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