MMM

ION, my favorite NYC-area low-budget broadcast network, is showing The Neverending Story tonight at 8pm. Hell fucking yes.

K, I've kinda noticed that my blog has been a little overly negative in recent weeks (months? years?). I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing - where better to air your grievances than in public - but I thought it might be nice for me to do with some enforced positivity. I also had a nasty migraine yesterday, so the usually attractive idea of starting my day out with a Mafoo Blog rant doesn't hold the same excitement as it often does. Right now thinking too hard makes my entire skull hurt.

So I thought I'd devote an entire week to things I like. Or rather, I'll have an entire week free of things I hate. Ya know, things like... Uph! Nope, not gonna do it.

To commence my wade into the waters of happyland, here are a few recent things I like:

1. I like watching low-budget slasher movies (grindhouse films) on YouTube. I watched two last night, Pieces and Scream Bloody Murder. I'd provide the link, but I don't want them to be found out and removed. Search YouTube for them though if you are interested, they shouldn't be too hard to find.





2. I like the Bershire Fringe Festival. Spent the weekend there, caught a couple shows, and hung out with some good friends.

3. I like the International Music Score Library Project. This is serious shit, check it out. Worth a whole post of its own.

4. I like the Montauk Monster:


5. I might might MIGHT be softening my hatred for Wraps. I still think they are weird bastardized burritos, but I had a couple this weekend that were ok...

Huckabee has a good take on McCain, guess he's out of the veep running...

L.A. knows what's best for those pathetic low-income areas (sarcasm-alert!).

NYPD strikes again (short ad before the video).

Judy ain't gonna sit around and deal with no earthquake's bullshit.

Apparently the gunman in the Knoxville Unitarian Church mass murder was a big fan of... you guessed it: Savage, Hannity, and O'Reilly.

Jack White and Alicia Keys are recording the new Bond theme? Nice.

For the record, RNC plus humor equals awful.

That's some good police work there Lou.

Bennigans slowly dies, much like my soul the last time I ate a Bennigans monte cristo.

I'm sorry, but this just looks retarded. From what I've seen and read about it, it just seems like the standard "Bush is an idiot" crap that you get from much of the left. Stone bought the best actors he could buy, shoved them into the roles of the top players in Bush's family and cabinet, and pushed it through the production process as fast as he could.

Look. Yes, Bush is a dreadfully incompetent president, probably one of the worst ever. I know it, Stone knows it, half of the country knows it, and this is a movie for that half of the country.This movie will not change anyone's mind, it is just candy to make people who hate Bush feel good about themselves. Fuck that. I don't want to see that. I want to see something that challenges my beliefs and ideas, not affirms them. Propaganda does not make good art, I don't care how much I agree with it. And this looks like a pile of crap.

I'm way over Oliver Stone, btw. He's a fucking 90s director. He's like Ron Howard with a chip on his shoulder. He makes romantic, idealistic films - especially his biopics - that fictionalize his characters into neat little dramatic packages. He started the trend of romanticized biopics that create superficial deities of his subjects, whether good or evil. But you can tell that he still thinks of himself as this maverick film maker. Yuck.

Anyway, the problem with this film is that it gives fodder to the critics on the right who tend to portray people on the left as sour, elitist, and mean-spirited. You'll never persuade someone with insults, no matter how good it makes you feel or how justified you feel. All you will do is perpetuate the fight.

Wow, fuck you NYPD:

7 Funniest Green LOLCats:

Sigh...

Ya know, this whole Carin'-for-the-Environment craze is getting old.

What? Huh??

Yeah, sorry. It's a fad. It's temporary. Give it another year or so and we'll be back to our old wasteful selves again. People are simply too selfish to endure minor inconveniences on a mass scale in order to help Save The Earth.

Don't think so?

Hey. Remember the 90s? After the excesses of the 80s, the early-mid 90s was a time of unusual social consciousness. I remember being taught recycling in schools, Earth Day was a hit, Captain Planet was chillin with the Planeteers, and people were cutting their plastic soda can holder thingys so fish and birds wouldn't get caught in 'em. Yeah, that whole thing went away a few years later when the economy started doing better ( music follows this trend as well: top band in 1992 - Nirvana; 1998 - Backstreet Boys ).

The economy sucks right now. The country is fucked because of Bush. It makes perfect sense that people will start caring about causes (that they will not be caring about in about 5 years). I just don't wanna sit through it.

Still not convinced that this whole carin' 'bout da environment/global warming-worrying thang is merely a fad?

Then here you go:



Two symbols of decendence, excess, and waste teaching us we ought to learn to restrain ourselves and be more conscientious about the impact of our actions. Yeah. Really. It's a show. Don't miss it.

Cuz nobody will care in a few years.

Run for the hills!!

Ok seriously, here is an article in the Canadian Times Colonist about my condition, HHT. The article is oddly titled, The Nosebleed Disease. Umm, kinda catchy I guess. Definitely better than Osler-Weber-Rendu:

Rating 2T [HHT] is characterized by the presence of arteriovenous (artery-vein) malformations (AVMs) that involve direct connections between arteries and veins without the usual intervening capillaries. These AVMs can vary in size from a pinhead to a pea. The tiniest AVMs are called telangiectases. Telangiectases that are close to the surface of the skin and mucous membranes in areas like the nose are very fragile and tend to rupture easily and bleed.
...
For the most part, people with HHT have a normal lifespan, Vethanayagam says. But large AVMs can bleed in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, brain, spine, lung, liver and other sites and create major, sometimes life-threatening, incidents such as a stroke or brain abscess.

Jerome, who needs a blood transfusion every six months, counts himself lucky that he doesn't need a transfusion every five weeks, like his dad, who also had internal bleeding.

He dismisses his disease "as an inconvenience" because he says he doesn't want to come across as a whiner and because he is a private person. He's only talking about HHT because he thinks it may help people who haven't yet been diagnosed to notice similarities with their own situation."

I have an HHT Google Alert set up and it's surprising how rare it actually makes the news. But know you know about it. And knowing's half the battle.

With Knol.

I've been loathe to post on this, mainly because I think that publicity whores like Michael Savage should not be given more press, but I found a productive reason to post. AFLAC (ya know, the commercial with the duck) has decided to pull its advertising from Savage Nation. That's a good start.

In case you're unaware of the scandal, here's some of what Savage said:

You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.

What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, "Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."

Autism -- everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, "Don't behave like a fool." The worst thing he said -- "Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry." That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have.

Yeah. I mean, it's really too stupid to even comment on. Really, just so wrong in so many ways and so misinformed, sigh...

Jeanne from Charlie in Wonderland takes up the banal task of explaining why he is so very, very wrong:

Savage is clearly unaware of some basic facts about autism:

* Half of all people with autism never learn to speak

* More than half of people with an autism diagnosis have an IQ that places them in the mentally retarded range

* The number of children diagnosed with autism has increased at a rate of about 15% per year for the past twenty years.

* 60 years ago autism was thought to be a psychiatric disorder caused by bad mothers, even though no evidence was ever offered to support that theory. This theory was rejected by responsible observers in the 1960s.

Regarding the call for a boycott: I am very against censorship. I don't think Savage should be arrested for what he said or forcibly silenced by the government. However, I think businesses should be accountable for which programs they air during, and people should be encouraged to put social pressure on those businesses who fund programs like his. Savage lost his show on MSNBC for telling a gay caller to "get AIDS and die". Remember that? This clown needs to be removed from the airwaves and people should pressure his supporters (his advertisers) to withdraw their funding.

For the record, I still believe in public pressure for causes in which I don't agree. A few years ago, when anti-war voices were being silenced by cowardly advertisers, I hated it, but I defended their right to do pull their funding.

UPDATE: Home Depot has also pulled its advertising from Savage Nation

UPDATE on the UPDATE:
"Sarah from Home Depot" says:

Just to clarify. We are not advertisers on the Michael Savage program.

Awww... I find this so adorable. The candy corn as fire made my day. It's kind of like an Americana Svankmajer animation.

Watched the Dark Knight last night. Overall, a great comic book movie. I'm not exactly sure how much it 'transcended the genre', as many reviewers have put it, but that's not exactly a bad thing. The important thing to remember is that Batman as a comic never transcended the genre, even in its Frank Miller days, on which much of this particular Batman is based. Perhaps it was because of the overhype of the film - and it was plenty hyped, Jesus - but I went into the movie half-expecting the first big budget arthouse-style superhero movie. It's not. It's a really good superhero action movie. But yet, the critics keep insisting it be more. Why must it be?

Ebert writes:

“Batman” isn’t a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That’s because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production. This film, and to a lesser degree “Iron Man,” redefine the possibilities of the “comic-book movie.”

“The Dark Knight” is not a simplistic tale of good and evil. Batman is good, yes, The Joker is evil, yes. But Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City are in an uproar, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others. And the Joker is more than a villain. He’s a Mephistopheles whose actions are fiendishly designed to pose moral dilemmas for his enemies.

What these reviewers seem to be missing is this: many comic books are this smart. TDK is not necessarily better than its roots, and I believe that Christopher Nolan was careful not to let this happen. Let's leave the transcending for the Watchmen movie, which is based on Alan Moore's expansion of the comic book mythology into the world of realism.

The most striking facet of the film, that kept it firmly tethered to its pulp roots, was the dialog. From the opening scene, the bad guys spoke as bad guys and the cops spoke as cops. Well, the grunts on both sides tended to have the primary deficit in eloquence. It wasn't quite so bad as the 60s Batman-style "Gee, Boss! What're we gonna do now?" thang, but Nolan kept them in their place. Sometimes, though, the dialog seemed a might too stodgy. Batman, especially when in character, growled through his usual two-dimensional morality, but with a bit more depth. The Joker probably had the best dialog of all, but it was purposefully cartoony and Ledger played it artfully.

Sidenote: Ledger was very good in the role, bringing a convincing mania to the character. I dug the grimy, lip-smacking, creepy vibe he gave off, which was in direct contrast to Nicholson's polished upper-crust parody. Still, I don't think it is Oscar material (whatever that means anymore). He's very good at becoming the character, but it is primarily a comical character. There simply isn't that much depth to the character, and Nolan kept it that way. The closest we get to a motivation is a vague description of his 'anarchic' philosophy - which is actually not an anarchic philosophy in my opinion (for the record, anarchy and chaos are not the same thing; anarchy means literally: no ruler). But Ledger will win the Oscar. Why? Because he died. There, I said it. If there is one thing the Academy cannot resist, it is sentimentality, whether in film or in real life. I will bet 20 dollars to the first person willing to take it. Ledger will get the Best Actor Oscar. Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe the role is Oscar material, seeing that Oscar material tends to require forces unrelated to the actual performance in the film.
/cynical rant

I'm a huge fan of Gary Oldman in the role of Gordon. His bland, mustachioed cop that you can't help loving is exactly what the pulp adaptation needs and he plays it to perfection. The more I see and read of Oldman, the more he strikes me as the seminal professional actor. Outlandish in roles that call for it and subdued in the roles that call for him to step into the background. He never steals a scene, but yet gives you a few moments to say, "Fuck yeah Gary Oldman!, I mean Police Chief Gordon, I mean Commissioner Gordon."

K, to sum it all up: great performances, so-so dialog, plenty of nail-biting moments, lotsa explosions, beautiful cinematography. Definitely go see it in the theaters.

I went to the Wordless Music show in Prospect Park last night, featuring Metropolis Ensemble and Deerhoof. I had heard good things about the Rite Remixed project (Stravinsky's Rite of Spring arranged for electronics, percussion, and brass) and I'm a big Deerhoof fan. Make it free and booyah!, I'm there. Nice.

Let's start with Deerhoof. Fucking awesome. There. Oh wait, more? Ok. Well I've been spending practically all of my time arranging The Little Death for a five piece rock band for an upcoming performance in about a month (I'll post an official announcement soon), so exploring the colors of a standard rock ensemble has been my modus operandi like fer sure. Jesus. Deerhoof. 4 people. Two guitars playing a lot of unison, a bass, and a 3-piece drumset. But what a huge fucking sound. Damn. I felt like I was in school the entire time, learning how to create a massive sound from limited means. I've been stressing over hihats and rides and crashes and shit, and their drummer just killed it with a kick, a snare, and a ride. Pretty incredible. See 'em live if you get a chance.

K, so The Rite Remixed, The Rite Remixed... Let me preface this with the fact that I was in a pretty bad mood when I first arrived at the concert, for reasons I shan't delve into. My mood definitely affects my perception of a performance, a bad one can amplify my cynicism and make me less skeptical of a performance/concept/performer. So, in the aftermath I've been analyzing my thoughts on the project and trying to be honest with myself about how I feel about it.

Ok, so the performance of the Rite consisted of a full brass section (well actually a few people short of the original), extra percussion, and two guys on laptops a-doin' their thing. The brass and percussion sounded great, straight-up. There were several good friends of mine in the horn section, who I know as killer players. I think it was mostly Juilliard alumni, with some Manhattan Schoolers sprinkled in. Really strong loud brass playing, although the there were some balance issues related to the sound system/guy. It was kind of hard to hear the trombones, ironically, and I could have used a bit more percussion.

It soon became apparent though that this performance was not about the brass and percussion. The two guys on laptops, who arranged the piece, were the focus, both visually and musically. One was sitting (Leo Leite I think), and the other was standing and essentially being 'laptop performer extraordinaire' (I believe this was Ricardo Romaneiro, but since I'm not positive I'll refer to him as LPE). So LPE came out just before the performance and I let out an involuntary "Oh, goddamnit!". He was decked out in full hip hop attire: Kangol hat, preppy polo shirt, black sunglasses. Now if there is one thing I despise in classical music, it's when classical people try to act cool. Just... just, don't. Embrace your inner geek. Being a classical composer will never be cool. Sorry. For the entire performance LPE played the role of the... well, of the Laptop Performer Extraordinaire. He bopped with the rhythms as if he was DJing at a deep south crunk party. He did the customary tweak-the-knobs-as-if-you-are-trying-to-save-a-child's-life thing (ya know, how they'll grab the knob of their MIDI controller - likely controlling a simple filter-sweep - and turn it like it weighs 300lbs). He generally acted as different, and above, the standard black-clad musicians behind him as he could.

Now, I know what you're thinking right now. 'Damn Matt, that's, um... that's just kind of bitchy. Tearing apart the appearance of a performer at a concert? That's so Gawker.' Well, Dear Reader, I believe I prefaced this "review" by saying I was generally in a bad, sour ass mood when I saw the performance. My little rant was just to indicate my thoughts on the overall appearance of the performance, which was one of minimizing the contributions of the brass and percussionists - to be honest they looked like ringers or a back-up band, rather than part of the Ensemble - and focusing on the soloists. The problem with the performance musically, was that this focus became apparent in the music as well.

As I said, despite my minor gripes about a couple sound issues, players sounded fantastic, but they were constantly being buried underneath the electronic arrangement. The backing track - there seemed to be an attempt to make it appear live, but it was primarily on track, with some minor tweaks here or there (filters sweeps, cuts, etc.) by LPE - consisted of the orchestral parts of The Rite of Spring, played by analog-modeling soft-synths. I mean these were serious old-school sounding synths. Whoever did the primary programming and sequencing has a hardcore analog fetish. And most of the synths sounded good, but they were way too high in volume, essentially burying the orchestra. Couple this with the fact that many old school synths sound to most people actually quite silly (sorry synth geeks!), and it made for a strange overall timbre for the piece. Pretty much the entire backing track was synthesis, and all of it these audacious old school sounds. After about halfway into it I had reached synthesis overload. I wanted to hear some beats, some noise, some samples, something other than what my Moog-freak friends would get off on.

The overall effect seemed to resemble a Wendy Carlos-style Switched-On Bach synth arrangement, but with real brass and percussion in the background. The synths were so loud, and LPE was so much the focus visually, that it resembled more of a vanity project than an effective arrangement. Many sections sounded really cool (I mean, I am kind of a synth geek myself), and at times the combined timbre created very unique textures. I thought to myself: 'Maybe the fact that they "remixed" this in such an old-school fashion is actually really far-out', 'Maybe I'm just being a sourpuss'. I'm not sure though, which I guess means I'm not convinced. Its audacity was certainly admirable, both in ambition and in style. I asked Mell, who was with me what she thought. "It sounded comical" was her take. I have to agree, the whole thing came of as comical: sonically, because of the overemphasized silly analog-style synths; in appearance, because of the obvious attempt at impressing the cool hipsters of the crowd who, for the record, seemed to be somewhat entertained by the spectacle, but mostly eagerly awaiting Deerhoof. Btw, Deerhoof kicked ass.

Damn.