Tag: movies

Miscellaneous Things Done in the Last Two Weeks

Went and saw the movie Paprika. Beauty of a movie about the dream and real worlds merging. But for all its artistry, I don’t think of it as one of the great animated movies. Extremely good, but not great. For fans of animation and especially Ghost in the Shell.

Saw the self proclaimed “King of Country Western Troubadours” Unknown Hinson at the Earl. He definitely deserve the term “guitar virtuoso.”

Did 4th of July with wife and friend on top of a Downtown parking garage.

But by far the best thing I did was attend the AV Geeks collection of bizarre flicks at Eyedrum. Amber emailed me and told me about the fun to be had, and it was the best 5 bucks I’ve spent in a long time. Strange school and industrial movie gems are curated by Skip Elsheimer. He presented the movies and ran the movie projector. The show that he put together was titled “AV GEEKS Greatest Hits.

“Telezonia (1974) Kids are whisked away by a manchild in white tights, so they can sing about using the telephone. Creepy, but not in the way that you think.”

If you got the time this movie is a great example of the full-bore weirdness that is a 70’s industrial flick with a budget. Starts rather normally, but don’t let that fool you.


“Crash Bang Boom” (1970) 10 min We learn about percussion instruments featuring marching bands, dancing kids and a groovy rock band.

Malakapaladoo Skip Two (1977) 10 min A cute film for kids about using their imagination or a clay-laced, folkmusic opus to hallucinogens? You decide.

Drugs Are Like That (1979) 16 min An attempt to warn kids about the dangers of drugs using Legos and a catchy song to make its point. Anita Bryant narrates!

Shake Hands with Danger (1980) 23 min A truly inspired film that uses a country music song to illustrate the dangers of working on heavy equipment. Some fake gore too!

VD is for Everybody (circa 1970) 30 sec A public service announcement that uses an infectious song to talk about an infectious disease.”

All of these are on the AV Geeks’ Greatest Hits DVD, which would make a great gift for lovers of the bizarre, fans of 70’s fashion and me. It I hadn’t spent all the cash I had just to get through the door, I would have grabbed a DVD or two.

You can also check out some of their publicly available movies on archive.org.

This Weekend in Culture: Movies, Monsters, Authors, Puppets and God

While handing me a book, she said, “Expand your brain but don’t take too long it do it.” My wife has been reading Female Chauvinst Pigs, and between her comments and Ariel Levy’s appearance on The Colbert Report, my interest has been piqued. So I’ll be reading that sometime this coming week. But quickly as ordered so the borrowed book can be returned.

As for what we did over the weekend, here’s rundown:

Friday night, the good/not great movie Idiocracy and an unexpected viewing of Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi. Unexpected in that we planned diner and the movie at a friend’s house and after “Idoicracy” she started up the Pelosi documentary. I had only heard a little about it on Ain’t It Cool. Scary and intriguing.

Saturday night was spent in “Pan’s Labyrinth”. At Mid-Town Cinema the entrance sign to the theater just said “Labyrinth” having my wife sighed that she’d love to see the David Bowie movie up on a big screen. He was pretty dreamy back in the day. Still is, from what some of the girls are saying.

And Sunday it was “Tales of Edgar Allan Poe” at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

All in all, a nice weekend. We seem to meeting our goal of taking advantage of Atlanta’s cultural offering’s.

ATL at Sundance: "The Signal"

“This film will explode. Mark my words. It has cult classic written all over it. “

I was reading Ain’t It Cool and found this review about The Signal. Made by the Atlanta filmmaking team of David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry it also has local actress Anessa Ramsey.

I’ll be curious to see what happened to this movie. Anessa is one of the lead actresses, and a friend of me and the missus.

Screen on the Green & Getting Some Green Fairy!

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Good question, originally uploaded by mingaling.

    

Thursday night was spent with bloggers for the last Screen on the Green.  Piedmont Park was packed with people, parents and kids for Willy Wonka.

Amongst those in attendance:

bobafred
Daily Dose of Dave
Duanemoody.com
hakeber
Lady Crumpet
Mingaling
Mostly Muppet
and Mr. P’body.

Also there were non-blogging partners/spouses, bloggers I am forgetting, and Duane’s new girlfriend.  Turned out the most entertaining part of the night was not the movie, but Mostly Muppet’s crazy/cute kid and her booty shaking.  She was loving Duane and Bobafred. How can one argue against procreation when there are kids that cute?  It totally cuts down whatever arguments I try to make when one giggly dance routine destroys my resolve.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker…”

Absinthe.  A notorious liquor with an undeserved reputation for causing hallucinations, madness and violence.  Long regulated or banned since the turn of the century in America, Africa and European countries, new E.U. laws are allowing for its revival. New Orleans chemist T. A. Breaux reformulated a recipe from a rare and unopened bottle, and has since started creating several different lines of absinthe.

I am working on getting some for myself.  Specifically a bottle from T. A. Breaux’s Jade Liqueurs.  A friend visiting Germany for the World Cup has graciously said that he would try to find some while there.  While not illegal to possess in the States, the real stuff is not sold here, thus the international search.

Interesting video interview with the chemist, showcasing vintage absinthe preparation apparatus.

Wired Magazine Article The Mystery of the Green Menace

Entertainment Recap: Penguins, Spaceships & The Salton Sea

It’s the beginning of week four since our Atlanta move. Now that we are here, we get to take advantage of all the great features of the city: food, movies, music, etc… I hate that we missed Sealab 2021’s white-boy rapper MC Chris. We blew too much money furnishing the new apartment that day and had to go without a live version of the Star Wars rap masterpiece “Fett’s Vette.” Which can be downloaded from his site.

But we have seen movies:

March of the Penguins @ Lefont Theater Garden Hills – the Lefont’s a cute single screen theater in Buckhead. We parked on the street, walked a hundred feet and were in the door. The Lefont chain has one of the best pre-movie “buy-our-candy-don’t use-the-phone” movies. Most other theaters’ just suck, and why is that? Penguins are awesome, the movie was good, and one person wonders What Has Our Society Come To When March Of The Penguins Is The Blockbuster Hit Of The Summer?

Serenity @ AMC Phipps Plaza – I got the free movie pass while buying cds/comic books at Criminal Records. The movie was great, the Dragon-Con fans were loving seeing their favorite characters from the now-cancelled show (Firefly), and the two old ladies who were expecting a quiet movie (which the name would imply) left when Summer Glau was impaled in the head with some sci-fi medical device. Sci-fi fans, go see a smart movie that actually has a decent plot that pays off in the end.

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea @ Eyedrum – It took me more time than expected to find this tucked-away art space near the Oakland Cemetery, but totally worth it. This documentary was one of the last movies shown as a part of the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. The Salton Sea is a man-made lake, a mistake that has remained since the turn of the century. The movie features the folks that make it home, including “Hunky Daddy,” a drunken, Hungarian freedom-fighter who loves his bit of American paradise. The Salton Sea is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, and one that will probably happen in our lifetime.

Movies I still want to see… Murderball, Broken Flowers, Howl’s Moving Castle, Megacities, and maybe The Aristocrats.

Suggestions, reviews, contributions?