Vacation Movies

December 29, 2009
The End of The Year is always packed with film for me. Free time and good films go so well together. In the past few days I have seen Sherlock Holmes and Invictus, which I thought were both excellent Hollywood efforts. I particularly enjoyed the story of Nelson Mandela and the South African Rugby Team's triumph in the 1995 World Cup. I love a good sports story and this one occurred at a very important time in the struggle for equality, just after the fall of Apartheid. Sports can be a powerful bond and they create community, providing a single…

Avatar

December 22, 2009
IMAX 3D is a pretty amazing experience. I used to go to The Omnimax at The Museum of Science in Boston, which was always exciting, but the movie fare was limited to one hour documentaries. Although the screen does not actually wrap around the audience as in Omnimax, the glasses and 3D effects of Avatar make it seem so; it is a truly unique viewing experience. A virtual reality movie about virtual reality, the story revolves around a soldier remotely operating an alien replicant on a distant moon in the distant future. Said moon contains vast deposits of a rock…

Happy Together

December 20, 2009
I am lucky to have friends whose media recommendations I can always trust... I had never seen a Wong Kar Wai film before "Internet Poster Person/Stringer Bell" introduced me at BAM and it was quite an experience. Happy Together tells the story of the dissolving gay relationship of two Hong Kong expatriates living in Buenos Aires; it is chaotic and disorienting in the same mostly great way that foreign travel is and the cinematography captures it perfectly, using different speeds and color techniques to make it one of the most visually remarkable movies I've ever seen. There is a beautiful…

Goodness Becomes Sadness

December 17, 2009
I attended another amazing Vimeo offline event at Monkeytown last night and was extremely disappointed to learn that the space is closing due to "landlord issues". Without a doubt this was my favorite performance/party space in the city. It was truly unique in its four-projection surround screen setup and its affordable and delicious gastropub food. I had the pleasure of performing there many times as VJ, DJ and bandmember and will always remember it as a perfect storm of social supergoodness; it opened up so many artistic possibilities from the typical NYC venue. It seems like a successful business so…

Who are you, Tiger Woods?

December 14, 2009
Here is yet another example of a prominent public figure destroying himself with illicit sex. Usually it is a politician doing the nasty with someone inappropriate and they are outed, publicly shamed and forced into exile. Tiger is not a politician, but if golf were a government, he would be king and his self-imposed exile is deeply troubling. His actions are sad, pathetic and infuriating and while I believe he has a right to a private life, he has no right to cheat on his wife. As fans, we are also involved in a relationship with him and while we…

Memphis

December 9, 2009
Rock was born from the Blues and Memphis delivered it. As our holiday party for Music Together of Park Slope, we went to see this new Broadway musical and I was definitely inspired by the voices and story on stage. It is about a culture clash divided along racial lines and the few who fought to bridge the gap. A white disc jockey is determined to bring black music to the masses and refuses to compromise his morality in the face of unrelenting hatred. He falls in love with a black woman and though his crazy antics are what bring…

The Dead Are Alive!

December 9, 2009
I saw Furthur play at Hammerstein last night and was feeling nostalgic for a time before I was born. Grateful Deadians Bob Weir and Phil Lesh led a great Dead cover band through a classic set, drifting from heavy blues to deep funk and utter confusion to euphoric resolution: I: Truckin > Dire Wolf > Doin That Rag > Ramble On Rose > Reuben and Cerise > Looks Like Rain > Cosmic Charlie II: King Solomon's Marbles > He's Gone > New Potato Caboose > The Other One > Days Between > Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain >…

The Road

December 5, 2009
From start to finish, this film emotionally abused me. I have never felt so consistently sad watching a movie; The World presented here is bleak and life seems to lack any purpose beyond simple survival. Through flashbacks and dreams of the life before, we become aware of the contrast and how much has been lost -- not just in terms of human life, but in terms of human values. Aside from anything that sustains life, which includes food, shelter and love, everything precious is now worthless. I found one of the most devastating scenes to be a flashback sequence of…

Phish Surprise!

December 3, 2009
Alaina and I were in line to buy tickets to The Road when the call came: would you be interested in seeing Phish at MSG tonight? We quickly postponed our apocalyptic film plans for one of my all-time favorite concert experiences. This was no ordinary ticket miracle-- it was free, courtesy of a friend of a friend at Bank of America and their corporate luxury box, including food and drinks and an amazing view perched near the ceiling. Tempted though I was to call out our hosts on their shameful industry-leading financial support of CO2 coal-burning operations, I opted instead…

3:10 To Yuma

December 2, 2009
Who doesn't have a fascination with the Wild West? I hate murder more than anything in the world but justice can be sweet... This movie (2007 remake) tells the story of an outlaw captured and taken to prison while his henchmen attempt a violent rescue. At once a villain and a hero, he is confronted by an Everyman, a broke rancher playing a mercenary guard for morality. It is a head-to-head, psychological chess match between two great actors, Russell Crowe as corrupted Ben Wade and Christian Bale as family man Dan Evans. Westerns are about Honor more than anything else,…