Jackson C Frank - 'Marcy's Song' - Song for the Day

 The saddest story never told...

Link:  The Guardian - The Tragic Tale of Jackson C Frank...

Images and Artist of Intrigue: Franz Kline (American Painter, 1910-1962)

I have a novice and recent fascination with Franz Kline and American Abstract Expressionism.  While I was always drawn to their work through more pop visible figures in the movement, like fellow action painter Jackson Pollack, I had never taken the deep dive.  Kline's work plays to a unique aspect of my obsessive nature, as well as my intrigue with lines and space and how they intersect.  I have a parallel visceral draw to Clyfford Still's paintings, particularly ones in which the "life line" is in balance and easily visible.  A force unto himself, and not necessarily an action painter, Still was an integral figure in the movement.  I can look thru endless images of both artists that I fully appreciate, in search of that one that feels just right, and it changes each time.  Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, as well as other abstract expressionists, have been a natural and inspiring exploration.  I hope the same for some of you.

"Franz Kline’s large-scale canvases, which feature muscular, calligraphic bolts of black paint over white fields, have become icons of mid-20th-century Abstract Expressionism. Kline helped pioneer the movement alongside artists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Joan Mitchell."  

-Artsy.net

Franz Kline Paintings:

Untitled (1950)

"...you paint the way you have to in order to give, that's life itself, and someone will look and say it is the product of knowing, but it has nothing to do with knowing, it has to do with giving."  ~Franz Kline

Link:  Franz Kline Bio - The Art Story

RIP Omar Little (MKW)

'At the entrance to paradise…the cry is echoing off the pearly gates tonight… 

”OMAR COMIN’!”'

Thank you for all that you gave us, and all that you lived.  You will be missed.

Link:  nytimes Michael K. Williams, Omar From ‘The Wire,’ Is Dead at 54

Childish Gambino - "Feels Like Summer" - Song for the Day

“Feels Like Summer” by Childish Gambino http://smarturl.it/n3g9db8 tour tickets and merchandise available at http://www.childishgambino.com/ Directed by Donald Glover, Ivan Dixon & Greg Sharp

First the video for "This is America," and now this...  Looks like we may have one of those rare savvy but honest artist types that realizes the medium of music and video can be so much more than a promotional ad or MTV rag (i think that channel still exists?).  Bravo, Mr. Glover.  I hope you keep going with it - challenging the status quo.

And, of course, he is a legit A-town artist.  I have to show some special love for the artists of Atlanta, one of the most formidable stomping grounds of my young adulthood.

Stephin Merritt - I Don't Want To Get Over You - Song for the Day

Fellowman - Sobriety (Official Video) - boy in a box productions

- directed by tod gorman and co-produced by boy in a box productions
- other well deserved credits included below the video 

Published on May 10, 2016

Directed and Edited by:  Tod Gorman (boy in a box productions)
Shot by:  Arthur Crafaik & Tod Gorman
Starring:  Joe Roberts, Harli Saxon, Bernard Hankins, Michael Monroe, Tracy Saxon, Mike White, Louis Hampton, Phil Green, Jon Fields, Dillon Koon, Ohmar, Addison Dodds and Fellowman.
Budget:  $0 - $100
Locations:  Charlottesville, VA

Fellowman - Raw Data Vol. 1 mixtape available now at http://fellowmanrap.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: Spititout Inc
Instagram: fellowman_spititout
Twitter: Spititout_inc

Special thanks to Joseph Roberts (introducing and starring), Arthur Crafaik (camera, production and all around go-to), Tracy, Bernard, Mike, Mike, Lou, Jon, Ohmar, Addison, Dillon, Harli, 
D Johnson, Ed and all of the many extras and friends that assisted generously with their time and talents, and, of course, Cullen - for driving the creative process and project, and for offering us some real hip-hop with soul.

For further info and music by Fellowman, I highly encourage you to visit the following links.

Link to Fellowman presskit:  http://fellowman.wix.com/presskit#!contact/guq4k

Link to Fellowman Bandcamp page:  http://fellowmanrap.bandcamp.com/releases

Graduation Advice from 'the peoples' pervert' - John Waters’ RISD 2015 Commencement Speech

Why can't we all be so lucky as to have a brilliantly twisted mad man of this caliber to offer us advice upon graduation from art school/film school?  The Class of 2015 at RISD was treated with face to face guidance from the master of transgressive independent cinema himself, John Waters.  I can't even remember who spoke at my graduation. Wait, was I even at my graduation?  Hmm?  Can't remember that either.  Enjoy, and be sure to watch the video posted below.

Link to full article:  Addicting Info - Best Graduation Advice Ever: "Go Out Into The World And F*ck It Up Beautifully"

If you don’t have time to watch Waters’ entire 12-minute speech, here are the top 13 take-aways.

1. Get used to rejection: “Hopefully you have been taught never to fear rejection in the workplace. Remember, a no is free.”
2. Find your partners in crime: “A career in the arts is like a hitchhiking trip. All you need is one person to say “Get in” and off you go. And then the confidence begins.”
3. Stay inspired: “If you’re a visual artist, go see the shows in the galleries that are frantically competing to find the one bad neighborhood left in Manhattan to open up in.”
4. Ask you’d make something better: “Watch every movie that gets a negative review in the New York Times and figure out what the director did wrong.”
5. Keep informed: “Read, read, read!”
6. Learn from your enemies: “Listen to your political enemies, especially the smart ones, and then figure out a way to make them laugh.”
7. Hone your sense of humor: “Humor is always the best defense and weapon. If you can make an idiot laugh, they’ll at least pause and listen before they do something stupid – to you.”
8. Use the world for artistic inspiration: “Watch people on the streets. Spy, be nosy, eavesdrop.”
9. Stay open to new things: “As you get older, you’ll need youth spies that will keep you abreast of new music that nobody has heard of yet.”
10. Don’t hate rich people: “They’re not all awful. Believe me, I know some evil poor people, too. We need some rich people: Who else is going to back our movies or buy our art?”
11. Use technology wisely: “Outrage outdated critics. Use technology for transgression, not lazy social living.”
12. Screw what others think: “Design clothes so hideous that they can’t be worn ironically.”
13. Do something fabulous: “Go out into the world and f*ck it up beautifully.”

50 Years Ago, Bob Dylan Electrified A Decade With One Concert - NPR - Artist of Interest

In the early 1960s, burgeoning folk music scenes were burbling up all over the country, and the Newport Folk Festival was their confluence.

By the middle of the decade, the reigning king was a young Bob Dylan, the man who gave them the now-standards "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'." But on this day 50 years ago, Bob Dylan did the unthinkable, the unforgiveable: He plugged in an electric guitar, and he rocked hard.

Link:  All Things Considered - NPR

Charles Bukowski - Relevant Quote/Poetry

there are worse things than

being alone

but it often takes decades

to realize this

and most often

when you do

it's too late

and there's nothing worse

than

too late.

~ Charles Bukowski

"Oh, yes" from War All the Time

Link:  Charles Bukowski, American Author

The Genius Of The Crowd: Charles Bukowski - Social and Philosophical Considerations

GUY MADDIN - The Heart of the World

Extraordinary!

The Heart of the World is a short film written and directed by Guy Maddin, produced for the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. Enjoy.

Bill Hicks - It's Just a Ride - Video

This is a documentary/live performance footage of Bill Hicks. Numerous individuals from the industry, the comedy circuit, and Bill's personal life offer interviews and insight intercut with various bits from Bill's stage act. I wish the video quality was better, but just for your viewing, comedic, and mental pleasure - Bill Hicks, It's Just a Ride.

It's Just a Ride (41 mins.)

I also encourage everyone to see American: The Bill Hick's Story - an extraordinary, more recent documentary of Bill's life, professionally and personally (really one in the same). The filmmakers utilize and interweave multiple filmmaking techniques including animation, still image manipulation, and other experimental modes as well as plenty of traditional interview footage and, of course, live stage footage of Bill. It received endless interest and acclaim on its film festival run, was picked up for a limited release, and is now being distributed on dvd. It can currently be viewed on Netflix Instant Play. I will be posting more about the film and the particularly interesting screening that I had the privilege of attending here in Austin with the filmmakers in attendance as well as an extra treat for the audience. I highly recommend the film to all.

Flaming Lips Debut Three New Songs Inside Gummy Fetus - Songs for the Day (Listen/Video)

First Posted: 7/20/11 - Huffington Post

Oklahoma psychedelic rockers the Flaming Lips have unveiled their latest madhatter scheme: gummy fetuses that contain USB drives preloaded with three new tunes. We're all familiar with gummy bears? Yeah, well these are gummy fetuses and, presumably, they are quite a bit more disconcerting to eat.
Though the band has been known to play shows under giant spaceships, and Wayne Coyne often sings from an orb suspended above the crowd, these somewhat disturbing confections might be crossing several decorum lines.
This comes on the heels of releasing four songs in a life-size gummy brain last April, which itself was encased in a gummy skull. The band has either fallen head over heels with edible gummy treats or is riding a massive sugar high. That and they have literalized the role of “music consumer.”
No information yet on where the gummies can be found, though frontman Wayne Coyne recently tweeted "Just dropped off 6 gummy fetuses at GuestRoom Records" in Oklahoma City. 
Take a listen to the songs online via @FutureHeartDay, if you feel uncomfortable eating the packaging.
Link: HuffPost Culture 


The Flaming Lips: "Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear Part 2": 

The Flaming Lips: "Steven's Moonbow":

The Flaming Lips: "Squishy Glass":

My Morning Jacket, Gideon - A Song for the Day

Watch My Morning Jacket perform live, May 31 2011

Indie rock darlings My Morning Jacket will debut their new album Circuital in style: with a performance in Louisville, Kentucky’s historic Palace Theatre. No ticket? No problem. Watch the performance live on youtube.com/mymorningjacketvevo.

The show marks the next installment of the original music series UNSTAGED, in partnership with American Express and VEVO. UNSTAGED pairs bands with iconic film directors to create one-of-a-kind live performances.

Director Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine, I’m Not There) will conduct the show. Haynes has been engaged with pop music throughout his career, crafting films that have frequently looked at music icons through an unusual lens: inVelvet Goldmine, he approached glam rock through the guise of a fictional, Bowie-like rock star named Brian Slade. In I’m Not There, six different actors inhabit or embody Bob Dylan’s many-faceted career. A subtle provocateur, Haynes has always looked to transgress social norms in his work.

As an indie band that often flirts with experimental elements, My Morning Jacket are a natural match for Haynes. The group burst onto the scene in 2001 with the release of their sophomore album At Dawn. Alt country had become the fashion among many northern rock bands, but as native southerners, these Kentucky boys came by their twang honestly. When they drenched it in oceans of reverb, what could have been relatively straightforward country rock verged on otherworldly.

Over the years, the band has evolved, experimenting with neo-psychedelia, reggae and progressive rock and even emulating Prince. Circuital sees the band returning to its early influences -- and returning home to Louisville to perform in the Palace Theatre, an ornate Spanish Baroque-style theater built in 1924. The theater oozes with atmosphere: the trompe l’oeil ceiling looks like an open sky, and a “hall of faces” features over a hundred sculptures of Socrates, Beethoven, Dante and more. The venue also has amazing acoustics -- and, according to some reports, a ghost...

Follow the Links for more info:  YouTube Blog

My Morning Jacket Unstaged

My Morning Jacket Official Site - New Album, Circuital

Filmmaker Quotes and Video: Stan Brakhage

Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, and unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception.

~ Stan Brakhage, from Metaphors on Vision

One of my favorite Brakhage pieces.

Miral, by Julian Schanabel - Featured Film of Interest - Trailer

From Julian Schnabel, director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls, and Basquiat, comes Miral, the visceral, first-person diary of a young girl growing up in East Jerusalem as she confronts the effects of occupation and war in every corner of her life. Shnabel pieces together momentary fragments of Miral's world - how she was formed, who influenced her, all that she experiences in her tumultuous early years - to create a raw, moving, poetic portrait of a woman whose small, personal story is inextricably woven into the bigger history unfolding all around her. For complete details, follow the Link.


SYNOPSIS
Jerusalem, 1948. On her way to work, Hind Husseini comes across 55 orphaned children. She takes them home to give them food and shelter. Within six months, 55 have grown to almost 2000, and the Dar Al-Tifel Institute is born. At the age of 7, Miral is sent to the Institute by her father following her mother’s death. Brought up behind the safety of the Institute’s walls, she is naïve to the troubles that surround her. Then, at the age of 17, she is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she is awakened to the reality of her people’s struggle. When she falls for a political activist, Hani, she finds herself torn between the fight for the future of her people and Mama Hind’s belief that education is the road to peace.


Miral by Julian Schnabel - Usa, France, Italy, Israel, 112'
language: English, Hebrew, Arabic - s/t Italian/English
Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Willem Dafoe, Yasmine Al Masri, Vanessa Redgrave


Links: 
Miral Official Site 
Venice Film Festival

The Cure: Fire in Cairo - A Song for Today

CREO LA MEJOR PIEZA DE ESTA SESSION - THE JOHN PEEL SESSION SHOW ON RADIO 01.04.1978

From:  THE CURE - RADIO SESSIONS 
04 DECEMBER 1978 - LONDON, BBC MAIDA VALE STUDIOS (UK)
#BBC Radio 1 - John Peel Session #1

1. Killing An Arab
2. 10:15 Saturday Night
3. Fire In Cairo
4. Boys Don't Cry


Thanks to my good friend Brent for bringing this my way.

Why 3D doesn't work and never will. Case closed. ROGER EBERT'S JOURNAL - A Letter from Walter Murch

Walter Murch

By Roger Ebert on January 23, 2011 
I received a letter that ends, as far as I am concerned, the discussion about 3D. It doesn't work with our brains and it never will.

The notion that we are asked to pay a premium to witness an inferior and inherently brain-confusing image is outrageous. The case is closed.

This letter is from Walter Murch, seen at left, the most respected film editor and sound designer in modern cinema. As an editor, he must be intimately expert with how an image interacts with the audience's eyes. He won an Academy Award in 1979 for his work on "Apocalypse Now," whose sound was a crucial aspect of its effect.

"Murch is widely acknowledged as the person who coined the term Sound Designer, and along with colleagues developed the current standard film sound format, the 5.1 channel array, helping to elevate the art and impact of film sound to a new level. "Apocalypse Now" was the first multi-channel film to be mixed using a computerized mixing board." He won two more Oscars for the editing and sound mixing of "The English Patient."

"He is perhaps the only film editor in history to have received Academy nominations for films edited on four different systems:

• "Julia" (1977) using upright Moviola
• "Apocalypse Now" (1979), "Ghost" (1990), and "The Godfather, Part III" (1990) using KEM flatbed
• "The English Patient" (1996) using Avid.
•  "Cold Mountain" (2003) using Final Cut Pro on an off-the shelf PowerMac G4.

Now read what Walter Murch says about 3D:

Hello Roger,

I read your review of "Green Hornet" and though I haven't seen the film, I agree with your comments about 3D.

The 3D image is dark, as you mentioned (about a camera stop darker) and small. Somehow the glasses "gather in" the image -- even on a huge Imax screen -- and make it seem half the scope of the same image when looked at without the glasses.

I edited one 3D film back in the 1980's -- "Captain Eo" -- and also noticed that horizontal movement will strobe much sooner in 3D than it does in 2D. This was true then, and it is still true now. It has something to do with the amount of brain power dedicated to studying the edges of things. The more conscious we are of edges, the earlier strobing kicks in.

The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the "convergence/focus" issue. A couple of the other issues -- darkness and "smallness" -- are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focussed and converged at the same point.

If we look at the salt shaker on the table, close to us, we focus at six feet and our eyeballs converge (tilt in) at six feet. Imagine the base of a triangle between your eyes and the apex of the triangle resting on the thing you are looking at. But then look out the window and you focus at sixty feet and converge also at sixty feet. That imaginary triangle has now "opened up" so that your lines of sight are almost -- almost -- parallel to each other.

We can do this. 3D films would not work if we couldn't. But it is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, difficult. So the "CPU" of our perceptual brain has to work extra hard, which is why after 20 minutes or so many people get headaches. They are doing something that 600 million years of evolution never prepared them for. This is a deep problem, which no amount of technical tweaking can fix. Nothing will fix it short of producing true "holographic" images.

Consequently, the editing of 3D films cannot be as rapid as for 2D films, because of this shifting of convergence: it takes a number of milliseconds for the brain/eye to "get" what the space of each shot is and adjust.

And lastly, the question of immersion. 3D films remind the audience that they are in a certain "perspective" relationship to the image. It is almost a Brechtian trick. Whereas if the film story has really gripped an audience they are "in" the picture in a kind of dreamlike "spaceless" space. So a good story will give you more dimensionality than you can ever cope with.

So: dark, small, stroby, headache inducing, alienating. And expensive. The question is: how long will it take people to realize and get fed up?

All best wishes,

Walter Murch

Walter Murch is also author of a preeminent guide to film editing theory - In the Blink of an Eye (with a foreward by Francis Ford Coppola).  In lecture style (and a relatively short read), he offers seemingly simple conceptual guidance that proves as invaluable wisdom to the film editor as well as all filmmakers. I highly recommend the book to anyone aspiring to understand the essence of filmmaking.

Links:
Roger Ebert's Journal - Sun-Times 
NPR Audio Interview - Walter Murch
Sound Doctrine - An Interview with Walter Murch
In the Blink of an Eye - A Book Review

John Cassavetes: Movie Directors and the Means of Production - Image of Intrigue

Thanks to (for the image) and Link: If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats: Movie Directors and the Means of Production #16: "Movie Director: John Cassavetes, Means: Camera, Hidden Camera Operator, Production: Too Late Blues (1961)"

Biutiful, by Iñárritu - Featured Film of Interest - Trailer

Biutiful (2010), the most recent film by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) finally received a limited US release on December 29, 2010. Though it seems to be riding somewhat under the radar and receiving accusations from media sources as being "too dismal" (haha, big surprise when the cinematic standard is senseless 3D action) - the ambition of the film, as well as the grueling preparation and performance by Javier Bardem certainly makes this a film of intrigue and one worth viewing seriously. Bardem received Best Actor acknowledgments at Cannes 2010 for his role as Uxbal. Above is the Official Trailer and a short synopsis follows.

Synopsis:

Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal, a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His livelihood is earned out of bounds, his sacrifices for his children know no bounds. Like life itself, this is a circular tale that ends where it begins. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life's corridors, whether bright, bad - or biutiful.

Link to Official Site: www.biutiful-themovie.com