Lisa Alisa's "Playground" solo show will have its opening reception tomorrow night at Magpie Gallery & Boutique. For more information, chek out the calendar on Magpie's website. It ends April 26th.

Thank You for Smoking opened today at the Edwards University Town Center 6 in Irvine. At just over an hour and a half, Jason Reitman's direction and writing is witty, hilarious, and perfect. I'm predicting a much wider release soon. Check the NPR movies podcast, entry for Friday, March 17th, for an interesting interview with Aaron Eckhard, the film's lead.

0 Comments Friday, March 24, 2006, 3/24/2006 08:02:00 PM

Tony Takitani, the Jun Ichikawa film inspired by Haruki Murakami's short story was released on DVD at the end of last January, 2006. Those of you who weren't able to get to Los Angeles or New York to see it in theaters will be happy to know that it is listed on Amazon.com to buy or on Netflix to rent.

Ichikawa's slick, desaturated commercial-aesthetic film, coupled with the sensitive narration of Hidetoshi Nishijima (possibly a reference to Murakami as the story teller), makes a lot of sense in the context of the film. I took the desaturated commercial-like perfection and the objective camera moving to the right througout the film to be a reference to the inevitability of the influence of American culture in post-war Japan. Maybe that's a cliche idea by now, but this film as a companion to Murakami's short story is indispensable. Murakami's often visual descriptions of women, of food, and of consumer objects translate directly to the screen; some of Ichikawa's footage in Tony Takitani(2004) looks like it's been taken straight out of a Murakami story or novel. Without this (critically well recieved) film, the story is flat and forgettable.

0 Comments Thursday, March 23, 2006, 3/23/2006 11:10:00 AM

I wrote my film essay today, on Kassovitz's La Haine, while listening to DJ Cutkiller's remix of "Nique la Police" (which was in the movie) and other assorted French hip-hop, to channel the spirit of youth France. Check out the soundtrack.

0 Comments Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 3/22/2006 06:21:00 PM

Los Angeles Times Magazine, a Sunday favorite of mine, has been recently replaced by West, with its new design and layout. Not that I thought that it was perfect the way it was, but personally I think the fonts of the new design are terrible, and the insertion of colored bars everywhere to denote different sections are distracting and ugly. I haven't found the editorial content (so far, although it's too early to tell) to be as interesting either. It makes me regret having thrown away about 50+ saved issues of Los Angeles Times Magazine a few months ago.

Here's an article on Bitter Cinema about Guy Maddin's short film The Heart of the World. Overall it's a really beautiful and enchanting film, with dark humor enhanced by soviet mind-control frenzy. Mr. Bitter Cinema provided a link to a download of the film, which I'm assuming is legal, as well as a few links including an overview of the typography used in the film.

Unfortunately, Drawing Restraint 9 has Bjork and Japanese people in it, so I'm going to have to waste money and see it. If only the director was French. I'm going to hold back my statements of "self conscious art-house absurdism and MTV video aesthetic," which is not necessarily bad, until I see it.

0 Comments Tuesday, March 21, 2006, 3/21/2006 08:27:00 PM

I've spent the last two days entirely at home, trying to study. Searching around my room I found some old negatives in an envelope stuffed in a book (a combined creative solution to never carrying a binder/folder and never having enough negative protector sheets), so I scanned those and put them on flickr. I am going to try and find a darkroom somwhere. I also found and old exercise book of mine which reminded me that the piano in my room isn't just a dust collector; I dusted it off and tried to play "Artist's Life" by Johann Strauss, a piece that still eludes me. I'm going to record myself playing it and listen to it incessantly to try and memorize it.

Spring break plans: MOCA is having an exhibition of Eric Wesley at the Pacific Design Center. Also, LACMA's exhibition "Miró to Warhol: Gifts from Robert H. Halff" looks noteworthy with works from Koons, Miro, Lichtenstein, Warhol, etc.

Some films I've seen recently: Firefly Dreams, a rather crappy and typical Japanese film not worth seeing, A Ma Soeur, which Ryan's friend called "Feminist tripe," although I liked it, and Une Femme est Une Femme.

0 Comments Monday, March 20, 2006, 3/20/2006 05:13:00 PM

"We are not trying to solve the world's problems. There can not be a happy ending to the fight between the Raging Gods and mankind. However, even in the midst of hatred and killing, there are things worth living for. A wonderful encounter, or a thing of beauty can still exist." - Miyazaki Hayao

0 Comments , 3/20/2006 03:07:00 PM