February 2008 Archives
SNL drinks your milkshake. Great skit from last night's first episode since the end of the writers' strike. The whole show was much better than usual. I imagine that might have to do with having three months to think about new skits.
I just noticed that my desktop options in Leopard now give me the choice of translucent or opaque menu bar. A lot of people (kind of ridiculously) complained about this. A pleasant surprise.
We could use these in Chicago: a storm/wind-proof umbrella. Most interesting is the asymmetry—a surprisingly beautiful example of form following function.
Short video interview with Chip Kidd in his own apartment/museum thing. I wouldn't mind spending a day rummaging through his Batman memorabilia.
Autechre has definitely opened up to the public a little more than usual with their Quaristice release. Pitchfork has landed an interview with Rob Brown of the duo.
Steve Smith and Jeff Hamilton "Drum Duet with Brushes". Watch it all. Thanks Kain.
One of the dream movie projects I'm sure for a lot of directors, and happens to be one of mine too, is finally going under production. Leonardo DiCaprio is set to produce a live-action Akira film. Yes, that's Leonardo DiCaprio (one of the best actors alive today in my opinion), and Akira (a movie I was once so obsessed with directing a live-action version myself that I created an entire unofficial movie score out of obscure electronic songs… maybe I'll post it sometime). I would normally be nervous as hell about this project, which could realistically turn into amoebic disgusting mess faster than Tetsuo's right arm… but knowing that someone like DiCaprio is behind the scenes gives me a bit of hope that maybe they'll do this right. We'll see.
From the NYTimes store, this is incredible: "Custom-printed reproductions of any front page from The New York Times from September 1851 to the present on a white cotton T-shirt. Geared to mark birthdays, anniversaries and other important life events - this makes a unique and personal gift." And it's silkscreened! Brilliant. I wonder how that process works.
Brilliant idea. A curated design/photography/art bookstore in Berlin called Bildschöne Bücher that doesn't sell anything they don't love themselves.
The NYTimes has a nice interactive graphic highlighting the political, celebrity, and media endorsements for the 2008 race. Now that looks like an entertaining party.
Added a page to the site for my films. Kinda skimpy right now, I know. I'm working on it.
A slew of free shows coming to the Chicago Cultural Center this month, which mostly looks like really good Jazz. Notable names include Ken Vandermark, Frank Rosaly, and Ben Allison, with plenty of latin in the mix too. I'm looking forward to this.
Regardless of who you're voting for or what the outcome of tomorrow's primary elections may be, when our allied countries overseas look admirably upon our diverse line-up of candidates and the amount of passion this race is igniting in all states, it is a sign that we're all doing something right as a country…and a sign that we're finally doing something right for the world.
In case you were wondering what it's like in Chicago right now.. here are some Flickr photos. Here are some more.
Living in Chicago, a city with plenty of parks that are your only natural retreat year-round, you become aware of not only how beautiful they can look in the warm seasons, but also how well, or poorly, they age in the winter. Piet Oudolf is a Dutch garden designer who has done some work in Chicago's Millennium park, and is known his attention to how a garden both lives and dies. Here's a slideshow.
He’s interested in the life cycle, how plant material ages over the course of the year, and how it relates to the plants around it. Like a good marriage, his compositions must work well together as its members age.
It also caught my attention that the hedges look like sine waves. Always an attractive form.
An interview with the rarely outspoken Autechre about their surprise release Quaristice, which became available on Bleep.com for download last week. I'm still absorbing the album, and as they say in the interview, it might be another year before I feel familiar enough to review it.
We do celebrate the futurism of that behaviour, but we’re here, it’s 2008, and kids might just presume the requirement to be hit with loads of detail and overlaid effects is there just to be valid – and I think that’s where it goes a bit wrong and people miss the point.
Guillermo del Toro, director of Pans Labyrinth among other extremely inventive films, is set to direct the two upcoming The Hobbit films. Yes! I was cringing at the thought of anyone other than Peter Jackson filming these movies, but this is great news. Jackson is still the producer, and I'm sure Weta is still doing effects, so I think a good amount of stylistic continuity with the LOTR trilogy will remain. Honestly, if Jackson were to direct The Hobbit, you can almost imagine exactly how they would be treated. Del Toro will bring a fresh perspective to franchise.
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