I recently re-watched THE HUNGER while in Tejas, & I forgot what an amazing movie this is. Check out Willem Dafoe's cameo in the beginning of this trailer! Peter Murphy of Bauhaus sings "Bela Legosi's Dead" at the beginning of the film... it's so good. It's so hard to see Bowie getting old and whithered. This movie really bent and re-realized the ideas and traditional vampire themes and that made it so fascinating for me, plus the hyper-dramatized editing style made it so surreal. & Susan Sarandon!

The End of 2010

RIP Kimbell Lawn
So many amazing memories under all these trees. There is a 50ft deep hole where the entire lawn used to be, including the trees. Seeing the empty hole where the lawn used to be was pretty depressing.

OMG! Jeff Bridges & Karen Allen recorded "All I Have To Do Is Dream" for the STARMAN soundtrack!

2 Incredible new records in my collection. This Talking Heads CBS Sessions LP is blowing my mind. I always wanted to find "Sugar On My Tongue" & "I Want To Live" on LP... and there are so many amazing versions of all their songs as a 3 piece all acoustic. & I am really glad I asked Ange about the new Group Doueh record because he told me he thought it was their best and about how different it was (it's also acoustic). The songs here use more traditional instrumentation, but the performance is really frantic and psyched out man!

thank you Issac Mayes!



http://www.musicvideos.the-real-africa.com/

I love my BuckyBalls

The new version of Charles Portis' novel TRUE GRIT was fantastic! I remember the original w/ the Duke, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper being good... but not this good. The Coen's do an amazing job of making this film seem really realistic, and 14 year old Hailee Steinfeld almost outdoes the rest of the actors. I'd really like to read this book.

after all this time wonderin'...

One of the #1 Dad's in the World

Best Xmas song ever?

"Surprisingly Good!"

In the past few days, Formo & I have gone to the movies.
Last Friday we saw TRON LEGACY in "Real D" 3D, my first "new" 3D movie, and it was pretty fun. So much better than I had expected, especially cause I am such a big fan of the 1st TRON movie. Here we have Daft Punk in a promo shot. They have a great scene DJ-ing in a party scene.


Tonight we saw THE FIGHTER, David O. Russell's first film since I HEART HUCKABEES. It was the true story of Micky Eklund & his older brother Dicky who had knocked down (or he may have slipped?) Sugar Ray Robinson. Christian Bale kind of stole the show, but Mark Wahlberg definitely brought it. The best part of the movie were the 7 Eklund sisters. It was a really interesting portrayal of Lowell, MA too.

END OF A BLOGGING ERA - RIP #1 BLOG DOG

& make sure to check out the best new web log on the interweb at: http://benjaminparrish.blogspot.com

Hi-jinks from my favorite Cat Dad!

This is one of my favorite singles in the world. I could listen to it over & over again. The guitar part right at 3:00 is so awesome.

Really bizarre Larry David sketch "Apartment Includes An Audience" featuring Michael Richards!

Larry David as John Lennon's substitute in "Temp Beatle"

This live performance always kills me. RIP CJRD.



In other news, Smokey finally learned what a laser is.

RIP CAPTAIN

After watching PATHS OF GLORY last night, I am obsessed w/ watching every movie w/ Timothy Carey I can find. Whoa. I really regret missing THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER at the OFF 2002. This guy is amazing. I realized he was in a couple of movies I had previously seen like THE KILLING, EAST OF EDEN, & THE WILD ONE. What a maniac.

Pen & ink drawings by Tadanori Yokoo in 1975, for Genka ("Illusory Flowers"), a historical novel by Harumi Setouchi that recounts the struggles of Tomiko Hino, the wife of shogun Yoshimasa Ashikaga (1435-1490).

I bet you can't just watch it once. Imthewiz.

Kepler's face at 7:27 is so funny... I love this scene.

Toshirō Mifune, #1 actor of all times?

"ALLL ABOARD! Ride Freedom Riders If You Want To Be Free ... RIDE ON!"

Last night I got 3 Volumes of "Space Poetry" that Norton just released. They put the "I Am Strange" 45 out a year ago or so, w/ the B Side "I Am An Instrument," which is equally as haunting and bizarre. It's going to take quite a while to take all of this in. I also finally got a copy of the Musical Linn Twins 45 "Rockin' Out the Blues" and I'm gonna wear it out ASAP! &&& my Los Saicos 7" box set came in from Munster! Too bad I have this final project to finish up this weekend and I've limited myself to very little time w/ my records.

I forgot to post this earlier! Lil' Demon is 8 years old & obviously kicks Milky's ass!!!

Peru's finest Rock 'n' Roll outfit! LOS SAICOS! After I heard the A SIDE to a tape Robert Komets made of South American R'n'R & Psych, I was out to get me some Los Saicos. Rainy Day even happened to have one copy of the 7" box set left that Muenster put out, but I couldn't buy it because it was on hold for one of the employee's (who apparently was never actually going to buy it) and I went home empty handed (except I got a bunch of other records!).

HOLY SMOKES! The YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA covering "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & The Drells! This vocalist is so funny.

Famous composer Dick Hyman let's loose w/ his cover of James Brown's "Give It Up or Turnit A Loose." Joey played this song for me at a party in Seattle last August and the speakers were only putting out half the song, but even then it blew me away. The funky-jazz beats w/ the heavy moog chops are soooooo weird!

I re-watched EASY RIDER last night, and I have to say it was so much better the 2nd time. Aside from some of the corny classic rock tunes, it's a really beautiful movie with some really long panoramic shots, and some really great acting by Hopper, Fonda, a bunch of random hippies & hillbillies they found along the way, and of course, Nicholson. I remember feeling like this movie wasn't so great the first time I saw it, maybe it seemed too kitschy or something. A lot of the transitional flashing edits were really nice, and most of the script was actually just made up (not that hard to believe). I think the 2nd viewing was better because I was prepared for a sad story, & not some fun-loving-stoner movie. This movie is not fun-loving. It was surprising to hear Captain America quoting Voltaire "if God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him," and to also see the film touch on individual freedoms in the U. S. of A. and how most people (hicks) are so scared to really be free, and when they see an individual who is free they want to KILL! KILL! KILL!

"I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace." - George Hanson (J. Nicholson)

Phil Spector has a cameo in the beginning as "Connection" the coke buyer, I noticed that right away. What a funny looking guy. You can just see the "wall of sound" in his eyes. ha.

My little brother Travis loves this scene of Jack saluting D. H. Lawrence w/ his first shot of the day. "INDIANS!"


The psychedelic scene in the graveyard is also really interesting. Apparently the film was accidentally exposed, giving it the trippy colors and whatnot. Fonda & Hopper got in a lot of trouble for shooting in that cemetery because they didn't ask permission, which makes me really appreciate the approach to directing Dennis Hopper took. If you haven't seen this in a while, or never seen it all all... I recommend that you do.

I can't embed this, so click on this link if you want to laugh at The Evergreen State College.

"smooth, but not a criminal"

(I did not make this)

LONG LIVE THE KING

Hey all you Bat Cavers, just say the word & I'll mail you a killer WINTER SALSA - Cumbia Pop mix tape I made last night! I can't keep these positive jams to myself in this bleak icy winter weather! I just want to share the spice of winter!

(click)

"everybody wants to see me dead!!! hahHAHHAahhahHAHAH"

This Mike Nichols film from 1971 is really good. It's stars Jack Nicholson, Ann Margaret, Arthur Garfunkel, and a very young (& amazing!) Candace Bergen! If you want to watch a beautiful and awkward relationship movie, this is the one for you. Early Jack is always entertaining to me, damn he is good in this movie. Art G. is really good too, I was pretty surprised. I need to see every J. Nicholson movie, except the new ones, that BUCKET LIST movie looked horrible!

Today in class we watched VERTIGO, which is one of my favorite movies. The Bernard Herrmann score was so loud and watching it this time gave me a really strong feeling of anxiety, it might have been the best viewing I've ever had of this movie. I also realized I had missed a couple of key elements to the story from previous viewings... this movie is so deep!

Anways, after I got home from class Ange & I went running at Grass Lake as it was beginning to get dark at around 4:30. It was cold & rainy and the trail was overgrown & it was the first time I have run in the rain in my sandals and I could really feel them taking shape to my feet which was nice.

I just picked up a chuck eye steak which I will marinate w/ Big Daddy's special family (secret) marinade! I am also going to experiment with blending my famous pico de gallo recipe, instead of mincing it. Should make it a lot faster!

I am really stoked because this Sunday night I am finally going to get a chance to see The HALO BENDERS perform! I wonder if they'll play any new songs?

Tomorrow night is the HORNET LEG record release party in Olympia & I am about to start dubbing tapes for Robert Komets. Tomorrow night is also going to be the Kung-Fu double feature presented by that dude from Portland, OR of Grindhouse cinema, who recently showed THE 8TH DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER a few months back. Oh shit! By the way, MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE was amazing.

Also I just noticed in this poster on the bottom for VERTIGO, it shows Scottie choking Judy which never happens in the film! Why would they make that up? Have all of my friends seen this movie?