John Keefer from 51deep.com

NEW 51DEEP MOVIE/MASSACRE!!!

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:06:43 -0400

NEW 51DEEP MOVIE/MASSACRE!!!

The Danger O’s “Not Your Man” Watch it and...

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:33:15 -0400

The Danger O’s “Not Your Man” Watch it and love it and love me because I love you!

Businessmen Invent Culture

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:09:00 -0400

I do not believe in conspiracy theories since most of them seem to be really poorly thought out plans relying heavily on coincidence. If you are in a position of power it stands to reason your planning skills are acute enough to not leave things to chance. That’s why most actual conspiracies are just straightforward crimes, a big pay off if you avoid getting caught.

Most conspiracies are actually an unintended consequence of the best available plan of action. Here I refer specifically to the state of pop culture. For instance, if you run a business it would make sense that you would want to advertise for it. So you place advertisements in the places where people’s attention is drawn, say on TV. Being a business you would naturally value your reputation as it can directly impact your profits. So if there is a TV show you’re paying for, or are one of the bodies paying for it, you would want to make sure that show is in keeping with the general sweep of, “Everything’s okay enough for you to want to buy things”. This isn’t necessarily reflective of the actual state of things but it would not benefit you to put out an ad that says something like, “Once you are able maybe you would want to buy this car…or maybe a cheaper one, I dunno.”

This seems almost too obvious to state but it struck me the other day, while I was watching Hardcore Pawn as I do from time to time, that without money mass entertainments would not exist. Again, I know, I may as well be telling you the sky is blue and Pluto is far far away. But doesn’t it strike you as kind of strange? Say for instance you find yourself overtaken by some strong emotion during the course of your day, either in the positive or negative, and you are in a situation where you’re not so concerned with how you appear in that moment. The stops have been removed and you are just pure expression. In that moment you could be cruel or maudlin but you are also uncensored. We could call this honesty, in the moment honesty. So I would say that anything that is constructed consciously is inherently two-faced. The dual nature of our arts, our commerce, our neighborhoods is not commonly acknowledged, only in part and only the part that could be interpreted as positive in the broadest sense. This is to do with the nature of reality and holograms.

I remember hearing some new age bullshit once about the nature of holograms, I think it was from Deepak Chopra. I’ve taken to calling all new age thought bullshit because I realize it all actually is. This thought was also inspired the other day by the episode of Unsolved Mysteries I was watching when Hardcore Pawn went to commercials. The topic was fortune tellers and…what? Yes, Unsolved Mysteries is still on. Crazy, right? And now Dennis Farina is the host! Anyway they were talking about fortune tellers and one of the lines was something like, “This bogus fortune teller..” and I thought, well yeah, they’re all bogus aren’t they? Because no one can possibly know the future. So really they should just say fortune and we should understand, “bogus”. But the nature of a hologram is that the smallest part of the hologram is a microcosm of the whole body. In other words the smallest unit of this thing contains the entirety of what the thing is. I think Chopra then went on to prove the case for God or related it to whatever self-help philosophy he was peddling, that we humans are the smallest unit of God or something like that. But he doesn’t really know that. You inherently cannot know that to a certainty but you would like to believe it, just like we would all like to believe the good half of all things that are constructed and rarely acknowledge the bad half in the same capacity. But this is not conspiracy, just an outgrowth of the best plans we can come up with.

So going with the hologram analogy the individual human is not usually going to let everyone around him or her know everything about them. Namely the dark secrets, fantasies, longings, selfish desires that stew beneath pleasantries. Again, this is not a conspiracy of self but rather an outgrowth of advertising for the self. The dark side is there but remains unacknowledged in the individual. If you extrapolate this out to large groups it’s part of the reasons politicians lie, McDonald’s burgers look good in advertisements, and why the most popular forms of entertainment are rarely the best examples of what that particular entertainment is capable of.

This leads me back to the title of this piece. Most of the things you watch, read, ingest are things deemed appropriate for selling other things by businessmen. So in order to create a landscape in which things can be properly sold certain myths are promulgated and the full nature of things are hidden or glossed over. But businessmen know mostly about business, not art.

That’s not to say you couldn’t find a jazz lover amongst the suit and tie set. Just that when it relates to business the concerns of business will trump any unforeseen circumstances of deciding that certain artistic expressions do not help to sell things. This is the cost of business. But most people are largely unconcerned with the state of any particular art form because most people are not artists. This isn’t a condemnation, just how things are. Most people are concerned with the act of living, something that confuses or frightens most good artists. They have families, mortgages, hobbies, lovers on the side, skeletons in the closet, fatal diagnoses, etc. Real life type stuff. The entertainments that guide them to sleep on the couch every night do not concern them because they are just lifestyle accessories at best. Most people like good things by accident basically, because they don’t spend too much time concerning themselves with knowing the history of an artform, it’s greatest leaders, appreciating and understanding aesthetics, searching their souls to discover why a particular piece speaks to them so profoundly and they certainly never ever return to a piece that doesn’t win them over the first time. I speak from experience because I saw Hostel II twice in theaters and later bought it on DVD and I did not like that movie at all. This may sound stupid to you and it probably is but I wanted to know why I hated it so much because I love cinema so much and at the time I thought Mr. Roth could be a good thing for the horror genre and maybe there was just something I wasn’t seeing. If there was such a thing I have yet to find it.

So in thinking and considering and practitioner-ing in this particular art form it strikes me as odd that money should have anything to do with expression. And yet, it is because of the money given by businesses to advertise their products and services most pop culture gets created. And in order to appeal to this thing that expression becomes compromised even though it is not necessarily the aim of the business to compromise the expression. They just want to get the word out about their widgets.

The only reason you see anything on TV is because there are things to be sold. If the only thing on TV were documentaries you would still watch them. Movies are owned by corporations that just don’t want you to be offended but art must offend your preconceived notions in order for you to actually enjoy it. If movies were all about nice people being nice they wouldn’t be very entertaining so the more they offend the more they may actually be entertaining you. Or at least be better at distracting you. Or maybe I’m just depressed that I don’t make movies for a living. That could be the source of the above rant. Please don’t stop eating at McDonald’s or smoking or attending Regal Cinemas. Please continue what you are doing.

Poor Astronaut (by 51deep.com)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:00:34 -0400

Poor Astronaut (by 51deep.com)

New Old 51Deep! What’s New? The aspect ratio! What’s...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:03:48 -0400

New Old 51Deep! What’s New? The aspect ratio! What’s old? Us! Enjoy Sebastian Valentine: Dracula Slayer!

POOR ASTRONAUT!!!

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:18:22 -0400

POOR ASTRONAUT!!!

Community IS back you Ingrates!

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:50:00 -0500

If you’re one of the faithful then your patience was rewarded when Community finally returned to the ailing peacock’s airwaves last night. Was it the greatest thing that ever happened in the history of ever as recorded by human beings? No, but why would you expect it to be something like that and when exactly did this sense of entitlement take over the pop culture landscape? I have no answers but I’ve got plenty of rambling bullshit so let’s go.

I couldn’t help myself, I read a review before seeing the episode. This one to be exact: http://www.avclub.com/articles/history-101,91985/

This kind of review gets me antsy. It’s a natural response to wishy-washy sentiments. Did you like it or didn’t you? Did it succeed, based on the criteria of success you were able to glean from the content, or didn’t it? Just give it to me straight Doc am I gonna live? No. You’re going to die, I mean, but not right now. In other words I know Dan Harmon is no longer with the show but that shouldn’t be such an impediment to seeing what’s right in front of you. Community is back and that’s what you wanted but it’s not exactly like you want it, meaning the circumstances surrounding aren’t exactly how you would like it to be, therefore, naturally, the viewing experience is tainted. But reviewers gotta fight through that shit because the ‘soul’ of the show still seems firmly in place.

Last night’s episode was yet another trip into Abed’s mind, a happy/sad place filled with happy/sad things. Nostalgia is the new irony. Remember the 90’s and irony? Well now nostalgia has taken that place in terms of hanging heavy over all of pop culture. But what Community’s greatest strength is is taking a lazy approach to stealing your eyeballs away from other things and finding the heart behind it. The above mentioned review seems to have missed that very thing in last night’s episode (understanding it was reviewing two episodes one of which I haven’t seen).

Sitcoms, and similar pat entertainment, are an insidious evil inflicted on the public consciousness. The evil I speak of is one of hyper-identification with a reality in which there are no consequences. A show like Breaking Bad can take this convention of television and turn it on its head, turning consequence of action into the new “same thing that happens every week” and it’s brilliant. In last night’s episode Abed retreated to his happy place when confronted with the idea of change, the antithesis of most sitcoms, which was the sitcom version of Community complete with the hollow laugh track of the dead. (It used to be that laugh tracks were just re-used so that in sitcoms of the last 30 years or so you would be listening to dead people laughing probably at Sid Caesar) There was even a moment when Annie says, “I’m thinking of taking Forensics” and the laughter kicks in despite the fact that you couldn’t really call what she said funny. Go back and watch an episode of Full House or Family Matters and you’ll see the phenomena repeated over and over again.

This is the kind of insight Community is so good at and it speaks to why last night’s episode was a great episode of Community. Again it wasn’t the greatest thing to happen in the history of everything great that has ever happened but why do you think you’re entitled to the entertainment of the gods? What have you ever done to deserve such sweet nectar?

I apologize, that was unfair. But still, this is what Community does and has done well for it’s lifespan: exposing the undercurrent and wrapping it around a big old red beating heart. If you’ve ever obsessed over anything you’re probably familiar with the feeling of having gorged yourself, having gone too far. Sitcoms exploit this in an interesting way. You’re presented with a universe that does not resemble reality in the slightest. I don’t have a laughtrack, I don’t have theme music, every other thing I say isn’t witty or constantly moving a plot forward, I’ve never had a whacky neighbor, if something goes wrong it’s only hilarious years later, I have a sex drive, I hear and say horribly vulgar things, people die, things change and there is ever abundant beauty in the world. But the sitcom makes a devil’s bargain with your subconscious. It appeals to the part of you that wishes life was not like that. The part of you that wants witty retorts and a laugh track and easily solvable problems is lazy too and will latch onto the below-average at lightning speed. Why do you think The Big Bang Theory is so popular anyway? Seriously why, I’ve never laughed once at that fucking thing. I’m just glad David from Roseanne is still working. And why am I glad about that? Because David was put-upon on Roseanne but he really loved Darlene so you felt for him. Except he wasn’t real and dammit that sitcom got me didn’t it? Probably because it looked much more like my actual life except my parent were and are in much better shape thank god.

So last night we get this kind of an insight and yet we give it a B? Because our good buddy Dan Harmon isn’t around anymore? Fuck that I say. The above-linked review seems to buy into the auteur theory and I used to despite not reading the original Sarris treatise on it because I’m lazy and dumb! More and more I think the one-man one-voice thing is bullshit (see I’m already misunderstanding Sarris) because it negates the idea that the creators are at the service of the medium, not the other way around. If you push breath passed your lips into a new thing then you have given it it’s initial push. You got it up on its feet and now look ma! No hands! At least the article kinda sorta admits this bias before kinda sorta backing out of it and saying, “Yes but despite this Harmon is my friend and I love him and he understands me and I him and everything’s great in my sitcom happy place”. Now I’m thinking Harmon’s departure is an intentional bit of meta-commentary, Dad leaves first and we’re forced to grow up and grow apart. That’d be amazing but that’s probably not what happened.

Who knows, maybe the Jon Lovitz episodes of News Radio were actually funny. I never watched them so I wouldn’t know. Harmon leaving certainly isn’t anywhere near the loss of Phil Hartman because Harmon’s still alive and will go on making amazing awesome stuff, I’m sure. So let’s not treat this like a death. Let’s sit back and watch it develop and see where it goes because this is how Community has always been. I only ever watched the show after the fact, shotgunning episodes on Hulu like a speedfreak because it took me to that happy place but at the same time explained what the happy place was actually doing and suggesting getting passed the happy place all at once. I got caught up mid-way through the third season and it was strange watching just one episode instead of my usual five in a row. It seemed different, lighter somehow, but still funny, still the show I loved. So if I were to have turned around at that moment and said, “Eh I’m kinda done with this now” I could have rightfully been labeled an entitled asshole.

For God’s sake just make up your mind about what you love. Are you in or out?

The Need for Myth: Star Wars vs. Star Trek No More

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:01:24 -0500

I am not a fan of science fiction. This does not mean that I don’t like science fiction or won’t watch it. Just that I’m not a fan. Growing up there was little room left in my little fan heart for anything other than superheroes and as a fan I felt it was my duty to ignore anything else that wasn’t my singular obsession.

That’s why there was a little room in my little fan heart for the Ninja Turtles, they were basically superheroes, even better a TEAM of superheroes. Same deal with GI Joe, who did not convince me to join the military so it must not have been part of an evil conspiracy to recruit the youth, rather an evil conspiracy to move vast amounts of plastic that had been molded into little men. God bless those brave little men. Ghostbusters were different, they had a movie with really funny people. And laser guns nee proton packs. Things that were on the periphery of superheroes were welcome. And of course Winnie the Pooh.

So the news that JJ Abrams, who seems like a charming former fat kid, is going to helm a new Star Wars film should fill me with a sense of utter indifference. And it does. But what I am curious about is what this not-actual melding of the franchises means for fans and for the future of cinema. Welcome to the Toy Box.

Toy Box Cinema, as I now invent and define it, is the amalgam of generation-defining Icons of youth, steeped in nostalgia. It may also be the last hope for innovation in mainstream American cinema.

For the past few years there’s been an odd push-pull when it comes to progress and the movies. New technologies have made our wildest dreams profitable realities but they have yet to define themselves. I’ve said before that CGI is not yet a new color in the cinematic palette because it only serves as a digital stand-in for techniques long in development. So instead of an actual matte painting we now have a digital one. What I’m looking forward to is about twenty years down the line when the kids of today, who will have subsumed the language of digital, making it apart of themselves and fusing it to their dream life, will make good new use of the technology. Right now we’re just dealing with how these new toys are making our mainstream cinema seem so disposable. Digital characters lack weight and when they’re in a totally digital environment I could care less about the work that went into creating them. Really I could care less unless there is a story that’s pulling me through the movie but more to the point the availability of media now makes the whole proceedings seem less interesting than a game of Angry Birds or, my personal favorite, Happy Jump. When movies occupy the same place on your phone that apps do they seem to be brought down rather than elevated. You don’t need to own a TV to watch TV and that’s quite astounding.

But how will innovation come from Toy Box Cinema? While it would be too much to hope that a new Star Wars movie would consist of Abrams sitting on his living room floor playing with a vast array of action figures it’s not too much to hope for a big-budget version of this. Now I know that there won’t be any crossovers, though I’m sure they’ll be trying to work something like that out for a 2020 release, but what we may end up getting is something like an insight into what it has meant to be a fan of popular mainstream culture for the last 20 years. Since we seem unwilling to slay the old gods and dismember their corpses to come up with some new myths, which we still really need to do, perhaps then we can find out what our connection to these things really meant. If we’re intent on looking backwards while we sprint forwards maybe we should close our eyes while we do it and remember what it was to be a child and why it was important for us, when playing with these little plastic men, that the Ninja Turtles be friends with the Thundercats and team up to fight a common threat. How have we been hobbled by our overwhelming myths of childhood? What area of playtime was not dominated by some version or another of our heroes, from video and board games, vehicles, playsets, cartoons, movies, Colorforms, Halloween costumes and cereals? And when the Star Wars nerds and the Star Trek nerds are forced to put down their phasers and sabers and confront the fact that they are just money machines for greedy older versions of themselves will they unite or revolt or just queue up for more?

It just seems that we’re not going to be getting away from this nostalgia thing anytime soon so we might as well dive deeper into the wormhole and hopefully this desperate plunge will reveal something of ourselves to us so that we can finally grow up and move on. Movies are getting smaller, mainstream movies, in scope thanks to the weightlessness of digital and this constant looking backwards. So maybe something new, that is at the same time old, but at the same time totally different from what originally birthed this thing will cause some sort of apocalypse, albeit on a pop culture level.

Then maybe we’ll get something new like how we used to get something new: by stealing old stuff.

MOW

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:56:34 -0500

MOW

One is too many and six is clearly too much.

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:11:08 -0500

One is too many and six is clearly too much.

Finally started working on a NEW 51deep movie this...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:00:37 -0500

Finally started working on a NEW 51deep movie this week…here’s an OLD 51deep movie.

Exactly How does one Fill a Glass?

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:07:24 -0500

Exactly How does one Fill a Glass?

Yanniger the Yeti Hunter REDUX…he hunts yetis…good...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:34:15 -0500

Yanniger the Yeti Hunter REDUX…he hunts yetis…good god we were young.

The proper way to use YouTube.

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:05:32 -0500

The proper way to use YouTube.

Shannon and the Clams - Oh Louie

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:22:07 -0500

Shannon and the Clams - Oh Louie

Top Ten Old Movies Watched During 2012

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:56:00 -0500

If you’re anything like me you hate top ten lists. More so, you hate how critics bemoan having to do top ten lists at the end of every year. They hate it because, if they’re any good, they know that qualifying or quantifying art is pointless. There is no “best movie of 2012”. There is no “best movie of all time”. It’s art, not sport. Victories cannot be measured by the opening box office, or initial critical reaction. Take for example all the scum-bag British critics who panned Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom. The bad reviews didn’t exactly help him out and, according to modern historical interpretation, helped bring an end to a brilliant career. Brilliant is an understatement, the man was a Saint of the Cinema, the only kind I pray to. Fucking scum-bag 1960’s British critics whose names I don’t know but I do know Michael Powell’s name and work so why am I angry at them?

Sorry. Anyway, I thought it’d be cool to do a top ten list of movies I saw during 2012 that were not released in 2012 because that’s how these things work. The critic will have an opening salvo about how they hate doing top ten lists or, more likely, about how 20__ was a GREAT year for cinema and OH MY what a diverse group of lovely blah blah and some wonderful underrated duh duh duh and some mainstream hits they may not survive further scrutiny in years to come blow my brains out. I spend way too much time on the Internet but that’s because I have a boring job where I’m on a computer all day so there’s not much else for me to do other than grow some balls and quit.

So without further ado here’s some movies I saw during 2012 that I enjoyed. But why should you care? You really shouldn’t care.

10) From Beyond (1986)

This fun whacked-out bit of Lovecraft from Stuart Gordon hit me in the nostalgia sweet spot. I’d never seen it before but it felt like a million movies I saw as a kid, watching TV on Sunday afternoon in the halcyon days where nothing was on on Sunday afternoon so networks would dump all the package movies they bought that year onto kids who should not be watching this kind of crap. But the movie is a tight little venture about aliens or creatures or whatever racist metaphors Lovecraft came up with. Jeffrey Combs is in it and awesome as always. If you liked Re-Animator then you’ll like this. Or maybe you’ll hate it, how should I know?

9) The Funhouse (1981)

Another horror movie already! Dammit, this list is going to be terrible. But this, along with another movie I’ll mention later, is the kind of horror movie that makes me sad. Not just because of the put-upon deformed creature who lives under the funhouse but because Tobe Hooper…I don’t know what happened to Tobe Hooper. This and Texas Chainsaw and Poltergeist…waitaminute. Poltergiest. It was Spielberg! He somehow turned Hooper from an exciting young provocateur to an old hack! Damn you Spielberg! There’s room for everybody, does your ego know no limits? Must you consume and destroy all young talent around you you Norman Rockwell mother fucker?! He did the same thing to Phil Joanou! Damn you Spielberg I love you!…But check out The Funhouse if you’re in the mood for early 80’s horror that’s cool, efficient, and just a little poignant.

8) Defending Your Life (1991)

Finally finally finally saw this and oh baby! How can you not love Albert Brooks? Yes I’m asking you you boring piece of shit! This movies is the apex of high-concept comedy, something it seems we used to be much much better at. Now our idea of high concept is, “Oh this stoner got this boring hot girl pregnant, that’s mildly unboring.” This film manages the afterlife with genius since Albert Brooks is one, avoiding pitfalls so well you don’t even think about the pitfalls of religion and belief and dictating a mode of living that can come up once you step out of known reality. It’s extraordinarily difficult to be funny when all the rules have been thrown out the window. More precisely, it’s extraordinarily difficult to create an afterlife that’s funny since you can’t ask anybody what it’s like. Unless you’ve actually been dead this whole time. What a twist! Anyway I cried in parts and will volunteer to be Meryl Streep’s human ottoman once the other guy retires.

7) The Celebration (1998)

Man, I feel bad for these Danes. They’re all…fucked up. But this movie, extracted from the fervor of Dogme ‘95…was there really much fervor? Was anyone aware that it was even going on outside festival circuits and with critics and…oh whatever. Well it happened and this movie kicked it off nicely. Tense, harsh, and beautifully beautifully liberated cinema. It’s a bummer but a glorious one. If you like making movies this one will make you want to immediately grab a camera and start shooting something. Then you’ll stop and realize you need to prepare a bit more because your improvising sucks. Then you’ll sit down and start actually putting the work in but then a Pawn Stars marathon will be on and you’ll just say “Fuck it” and forget you saw this awesome movie. You sick bastard.

6) Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)

Japanese Dracula! I love me some Guy Maddin and I thought that the Red Shoes was THE movie to get you into ballet but this one might take that position in my mind now. To rediscover a story you’ve heard, seen, been told 18BILLION times is quite a gift and this movie gives you Dracula in a way you haven’t been given it ever. It’s not just that it’s in a new form, the new form reveals layers unknown, new flesh seizes around old bones and the body dances! Maddin’s the man and the only man who could have brought this to the screen. The obviously fake bat that flies by at one point early on brought such joy to my heart I cannot even tell you despite the fact that I just did. If you think it’s boring it’s because you are dumb, just accept it and move on.

5) Comic Book Confidential (1988)

I was a big comic book nerd as a kid and it was a huge waste of time. BUT! This documentary made me feel like it wasn’t. It goes from the stuff you know, Superman and the like, to the weirdo Art Crumb underground scene and other bizarre scenes I was familiar with only in passing, Love and Rockets and such. The arc of the entire thing is mainstream to nostream and it’s almost shocking how gradually it sneaks up on you. It’s a perfect map of obsession.

4) Return to Oz (1985)

If you want a kick in the nostalgia pants then look no further. I had never seen this movie before but the look, the effects, the kinda fun but also kinda dark nature of it sent me screaming back into short pants and wonder. And finally all the references to Ozma I’ve encountered over the years finally makes sense! (bands, songs, dog names, et al) And this may be the only movie where Faruiza Balk isn’t creepy. Well it’s kinda creepy when she does the little Dorothy Gale introduction curtsy, like she’s channeling Judy Garland or has her trapped in a room somewhere and is drawing psychic energy from her and…I’ve lost it. I enjoyed it, CGI is bullshit. Real special effects are magical, just ask Cocteau.

3) Leave Her to Heaven (1946)

Gene Tierney is evil. Way evil. Evil and Beautiful and Evil. There’s some absolutely chilling stuff in this that you won’t know is chilling because there isn’t 18 gallons of blood and a soundtrack blaring drones and stingers in your face but trust me, it’s chilling. Plus Vincent Price!

2) Martin (1976)

This may be further down on the list because I had too many horror movies up front or because I really loved it. I’d say both. I also should have pointed out that I’m putting this together in no particular order from my Netflix activity but it’s way too late for that now. Anyway, what happened to you George Romero? Your ass used to be beautiful! A viewing of Night of the Living Dead previous to watching this film confirmed for me that, if the fucking zombies hadn’t branded him for life, Romero should have been making subtextual horror movies that exposed what was really going on behind the pointy teeth and rubber masks while at the same time being entertaining horror movies. This one’s set in Pittsburgh so the locale of row homes felt very familiar and homey to me. But there’s palpable love in this one and goddammit, those zombies ruined him. He had a VOICE! And it rang beautiful in your ear, but all we want from him is more zombies. What bastards we are.

1) Electra Glide in Blue (1974)

2012 was a great year for movies because I saw Electra Glide in Blue in 2012 and this movie is so good that whatever year you see it will be the best year in cinema. There’s no over-exaggerating it, this may be the best film I’ve ever seen. Now the whole reason I did this stupid list, with a bunch of movies that I probably forgot I saw this year, was because movies exist now and forever. The year is never important. What’s important is that you saw it and you experienced it and you loved it or hated it or need to see it again or want to talk about it or want to forget it completely and go do something else. There is no “best”. It’s an ocean of pure love. You can tread water, you can dive into deep trenches, but it is all one and it is all encompassing. That being said this may be one of the best films I’ve ever seen. Certainly one of the best of the 70’s if not the best, that’s right I said THE BEST. Am I being contradictory? No, and the reason why is that you can have all sorts of beliefs and points of view and personal experience and whatever that you use as a filter to process life through. But if Jesus Christ came down from heaven and tapped you on the shoulder and said, “Hey I love you let’s party” then you’d have to throw out all that stuff because it wouldn’t apply. That unlikely experience is this movie. And if you don’t like it, even a little, I never want to talk to you again in this life.

So to recap an arbitrary list of movies I can remember seeing or Netflix told me I saw:

10) From Beyond (1986)

9) The Funhouse (1981)

8) Defending Your Life (1991)

7) The Celebration (1998)

6) Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)

5) Comic Book Confidential (1988)

4) Return to Oz (1985)

3) Leave Her to Heaven (1946)

2) Martin (1976)

1) Electra Glide in Blue (1974)

Now jumble up the order and I’ll still agree with the ranking. Take that you indecisive bastards! Now go watch old movies because what’s new and popular is very rarely good. At least according to Huey Lewis’s dad. I love you.

If you watch one End of the World movie today, make it this...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:46:54 -0500

If you watch one End of the World movie today, make it this one!

Housewarming…next time just bring a gift.

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:27:12 -0500

Housewarming…next time just bring a gift.

MY ROLLING STONE KEYNOTE ADDRESS (VIDEO)

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:37:44 -0500

timheidecker:

Last night I had the honor of speaking at the LA Food Bank Charity Event. I spoke about my plans for the Future of Rolling Stone. (also stay tuned for a surprise ending!)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH

Thank You Scott.

Good Evening Ladies and Gentleman and thanks for having me at this really wonderful and very funny event… I’ll tell ya - The LA Food bank is where I keep all my food. why just the other day I made a twenty-five pound deposit of corn and flour… just a little joke.

(pause for laughter)

Seriously, It’s a great cause and I’m really excited to be here with you tonight.

Two days ago I replaced Jann Wenner as editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone Magazine. I can only imagine that those familiar with my work in television and films were, shall we say surprised at the news. It’s a position that frankly I didn’t even see in my future, even though I’ve been a long time subscriber since the age of 13.

(play to audience: any RS subscribers out there??)

Read More

largeheartedboy: Philip Glass & Blondie mashup, “Heart of...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:58:45 -0500

largeheartedboy:

Philip Glass & Blondie mashup, “Heart of Glass” (of course).