Under the Bombs

I biked myself down to the Alamo South to take advantage of my Austin Film Society membership today. The movie was free for AFS members. I'm telling you, if you like film, there's just no better deal in town. Look it up and get yourself a membership.

This movie is a combination of documentary footage and narrative scenes, all shot during the 2006 war with Israel. Most of the movie making was done during a ceasefire, at great risk to the cast and crew. Their set is the recently bombed out countryside of Lebanon. It's hard to know how much of what goes on in the background of scenes is staged and how much is happenstance. It made me think of the Rossellini film Germania, Anno Zero, shot on the devestated streets of post war Germany. It's got a very Neorealist feel and ending.

In the trailer below they show the first few moments of the film, which are breathtaking. Lebanon is a very pretty country, a lot of hills and valleys. The first shot sits on a pictorial view of a hillside peppered with residential looking buildings. It's like a landscape painting until little explosions start happening all across your view and you realize it's war footage.



I enjoyed this film. There were moments when the woman's search for her son (that's the main storyline) gets a little tedious, but never for too long. It gets broken up by the antics of her improbable partner, a shady taxi driver from the south. The movie is actually lightly informative about Lebanon which was enjoyable. Some of the characters we are introduced to are Christians and you get a feel for the social dynamics at play in the country among its different religious groups. Seek it out if you can & thanks for reading.

Chasing Flies

My dog, Ladybird, is sitting beside me snapping at the fly that keeps flying around our kitchen table (where I sit typing this). I plan to make an animated movie about her (!). After spending so much time together it seems time she be immortalized for nothing more special then her everyday quirks: chasing flies, daintily sniffing flowers, sleeping in our laundry, etc. We'll see how it goes. Encouragement is encouraged.

It's weird. I've seen just a few of the m a n y films at sxsx but it turns out some of them were winners:

SXSW/Chicken & Egg Emergent Woman Award: Made in China
Documentary Feature Grand Jury Award: 45365
Narrative Feature Grand Jury Award: Made in China
Reel Shorts Winner: Thompson

So, I did stick to my plan and moved on to music this afternoon. I saw a bunch of good bands for free:

- Pete and the Pirates Their sound is not unlike Vampire Weekend but I guess more British; they seem really young in the same way too. They were my favorite of the afternoon--really good live.
- FOUND They were my second favorite band of the afternoon, I'm judging only on live performance here. Experimental pop is the title they give themselves. Compared to Pete and the Pirates and Casiokids, these guys have a bit more evolved, mature sound, though more erratic/dissonant and not as smooth though very danceable.
- Casiokids The room definitely swelled when they came on stage. There was a lot of keyboard all afternoon and so too with them. Pretty sounding, pop, dance music. Very fun to dance to.

- Anni Rossi She has a very unique presence. She's a small girl and was performing on a suitcase that had a microphone inside it. For percussion she stomps her feet on the suitcase as she plucks away, sort of violently, on her violin.

- The Proclaimers Yes. The same Proclaimers that would walk 500 miles.
- The Phenomenal Handclap Band They had a ton of people on stage. I counted 8 (from the list of band members on their website I think we only saw 10% of the band). Two girls were singing accompanying vocals and playing tambourine in high-waisted, tight, seventies jeans. Again, there was some fun keyboard (I think they actually had two on stage). The lead singer also had a seventies thing really going on with a handle bar mustache, clear aviator glasses, red suede cowboy boots. White pants pearl snap buttons and long wavy blond hair
- Golden Filter Not sure what to say about these guys. There were a lot of effects on the main vocals. They weren't that great, though they played last and were the presumable headliner. It seems like I hear a lot of hard and loud electronic/intelligent dance music but these guys have a softer sound going on which is a nice way to do it.

Reel Shorts

I'm thumbing this into my phone as I await entrance into Reel Shorts 1 at the alamo south (please forgive the poor typing and no editing). I had a little trouble last night getting into You're Going To Miss Me, but i'm undeterred. I feel like the luckiest girl to have the time to do this so i try not to sweat the little things (though all the people who work for sx and have been very blatantly letting people jump the line....that's lame).

I plan to hop off the movie train and see some music at peckerheads this afternoon. The day show will feature Golden Filter, Pete and the Pirates, Casiokids, FOUND, The Phenomenal Handclap Band and some others. I've heard some good things about Golden Filter so decided to go to this day show over the one featuring M. Ward. There's another band i hope to see called Beach House (I think that name is very full of pleasant universal memory).

I heard a very interesting thing the other day about the daughter of Eugene O'neil. I couldn't remember the details but my friend Josh and I googled it out. What I had remembered was that she had left a very famous man to marry Charlie Chaplin. I couldn't remember who the 'famous man' was.

The famous man was J.D Salinger. The age difference between the woman and Chaplin was approximately 35 years. Thanks for reading!

Los Paranoicos

I'm just going to title this post for my favorite movie that I've seen thus far: Los Paranoicos

It's kind of hard to describe what's so nice about it, minimalist and subtle as it is, but as the movie progressed I found myself moved from interested to really captivated. The acting is great from the lead male. It's basically a portrait of his character Luciano Guana a struggling, 30-something, coarse-feeling writer who appears somewhat socially isolated and wrapped up in his own neuroses. The supporting characters play into the story pretty significantly, though it remained a portrait mostly about him. The most significant of these is an old friend, a successful former classmate of Luciano's. Luciano comes to find out that the old classmate, who has since moved to Barcelona, has based his successful TV show there on Luciano and his neuroses. The main character of the TV show is named Luciano Guana.



I don't want to spoil much more except to say that there's a tension watching the film as you see Luciano's inability to speak up for himself. The tension gets released during the movie at times in the form of rage and at times through somewhat intense and raw dance sequences. Also, the soundtrack is great and should be sought out on its own.

My Buddy Josh is making a short film involving unexpressed feelings and dance. I can't wait to see it. He and I actually got up really early this morning to get in line for another film called Made in China. A roaring comedy about a naive guy with a dedication to making his great business idea happen in China with the help of their cheap manufacturing.

Yesterday I saw another movie worth mentioning called 45365. The title is the name of the zip code where this documentary feature takes place. The film makers spent 9 months filming the environment and people of their hometown. The result is open ended and sort of like having a web cam setup on the town and certain people. The filmmakers are conspicuously absent from their own film which leads one to think that perhaps they're trying to be objective or portray objectiveness.



The filmmakers were there to speak afterwards and it was hard to discern their agenda in making the film other than to be observers. The film was enjoyable to watch though stuff like this, stuff that implies the achievement of objectivism or pure observation about/on a topic, always has very basic problems. The obvious part is just that it's impossible to be objective; what you turn your camera on to film, what you decide to edit and who even allows you to follow them and thus be in the film are all realities that preclude it from being as all encompassing as the title and description would lead you to believe. If three siblings of a different heritage attempted to make the same film about the same town with the same method it would probably paint a very different picture of the culture and people that live there. It's inevitable and, you know, no big deal but I was suprised (but I guess ultimately glad since it didn't look like good answers would have come out of it) that the discussion didn't go there. Anyway go see it--whatever issues the sociologist in me has, it was a pretty and decent film.

SXSW Weekend 01

I showed up at the Thomas Prometric testing center on Saturday to take my MEP exam only to realize that I was a week too early?! It's next Saturday. Defeated as I was at not having another one over with, I decided to sit myself in a matinee movie for the rest of the afternoon. That's when I ran into the SXSW Juggernaut.

The Alamo South, just a dreamy bike-ride-away from my humble abode, happens to have dedicated three of their screens (during various time slots) to the SXSW festival. So when I showed up ready to sit through whatever old movies they had playing, I was delighted to feast upon their fresh, in some cases premiere, faire. So I went ahead and made the impulse purchase of a 70$ film pass for the weekend. Call me crazy, but the Alamo is sooo close and, well, I just caught the fever and it seemed like a great deal given I've got Mondays and Wednesdays free these days.

So at 2:30 yesterday I saw Luckey. It's a doc about a guy who creates large scale climbable sculptures for kids. He suffers an accident at his house that breaks his spinal cord and leaves him a quadriplegic. His son, who's an architect, ends up teaming up with him to keep his business going, enabling the father to continue to keep doing what he loves. This father has done climber sculptures (designing and also building) for many of the most well know children's museums in the US -- he's basically the best of his kind for what he does. There's a lot of amazing stuff in this story: the dynamics between the son, father and father's wife who is closer in age to the son (it seems), when one person in a relationship ends up as care giver to another, the relationship of two designers that have no choice but to rely on each other to accomplish the project (which is difficult and complex)...the list goes on. Anyway, it's a very real story and very fair to all parties. For people who enjoy seeing ideas come to life, these guys both design and build their sculptures so you actually see a lot of how it comes together in the field and how the crazy geometries and forms are conceived. It was very enjoyable for me.

I managed to snag a great parking spot at 9:30 pm downtown and thought the night was going my way. I shared a few drinks with some friends at Casino El Camino and then tried to catch the midnight (11:00pm actually) Texas Shorts showing at the Alamo Ritz...but I didn't get in. :(

So I then hopped back in my car, fighting traffic to get out of downtown (note to self all sxsw trips should be on bicycle), and headed back to the Alamo South, hoping to make it in time to be towards the front of the film pass line for Pontypool. Mission accomplished and with a decent seat (flying solo in these movies helps). Then came the movie. Oh my Science! It's great. Suspenseful! I can't say too much or I'll be a spoiler. There are zombies. There's a curious epidemic that must be figured out which will appeal to the sci-fi and sleuth types. There are great characters and very good acting, including a once-popular radio host who's been relocated to the small hamlet of Pontypool. I highly recommend it.

Well, I'm half way through the weekend as I write this and am happy to say that the features, docs and shorts I've gotten to enjoy have been thoroughly diverse in taste and subject, which I think is good. More on my day-two later, but on a separate note, two people in line behind me this morning mentioned that I might enjoy the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War or WWZ which is actually the next book on our book club's list...I'm enjoying the zombie coincidences.

Slow Money

The slow food movement has always appealed to me. The revolutionary aspect of it not so much, but the slow part--yes, yes, finally!! Weird as this may sound, when I first looked into the philosophy it was like I had found some kind of explanation for the way I like to live my life. More on that in some later post, but lets just say that my personality is the slow variety. In the sense that I like to wait to see how things unfold. I like to take the time to cook and experiment with cooking even if that means eating at 10:00pm. I think of any project I start, especially the creative ones, as ongoing and in some cases lifelong. I like to go out of my way. The reciprocal of all this being, of course, that I mostly don't like to be rushed or rush things...as often as that is practically possible.

Anyway, I was delighted to hear about a guy called Woody Dasch and a concept called slow money. NPR started the segment with the story of a young dairy farmer in upstate New York who wasn't able to get a loan from his cooperative for expanding his organic dairy product line. He's got no collateral save for the cows. His solution is to ask the people who buy his milk at the NYC farmers market to make loans to him as investors. $1000 for a 6% return. He needs $700,000. It's an example of investing in something local, something that will take time to mature but benefits more than just an investor by building something real in a real community. What puts this in perspective more than anything, of course, is how very, very ungrounded our financial meltdown has been--made famous by complex financial instruments with nothing beneath them but bad, bad mortgages.

For me, micro lending programs done by community groups in many third world countries sprang to mind. I'd love to hear people's ideas and thoughts on slow money. Thanks for reading.

Do the Stanky Legg

I feel I should start with an apology for how skimpy my posts have been as of late. Roger reminded me today that a week is like a century in the blogosphere. The only reason for this is that I seem to be filling my days quite full.

This has led some to say that unemployment suits me. I guess I have to say that I can't disagree. Similar to how 'high school didn't suit me but college did', I think I can now say that 'a nine-to-five archi job didn't suit me but working for myself does'. So what have I been doing with my time? Hmmm, well:

1. This video explains a little (though it's stanky not skanky):



Some first graders, whose class I visit a few times a week to help with the three R's, showed my teacher friend and me this dance a week ago during Fun Friday. They are really refreshing to be around -- keeping me on the pulse of what's cool on YouTube and aware of how much we know at such a young age. Oh and also, this dance is awesome but very catchy, be careful. So stanky legg = lazy leg? Any thoughts from y'all?

2. On Friday afternoon I ran around for The Blanton Museum, distributing fliers for their new show Birth of the Cool

I haven't seen it yet so I can't comment on it, but it certainly looks fantastic and I've run into a few people who've raved about it.

3. Catering for a friend's short film. I went out and bought myself a crock pot for the occasion. I had never used one before but realize they can be a great friend to me. Lunch was thus pulled pork from a slow roasted Boston Butt. I drove to freaking Buda to find an affordable 6 lb cut of meat. If anybody knows of an affordable butcher south of the river I'd love to know it.

4. I attended a production assistant workshop (for on movie sets). Unfortunately until film incentives are passed in TX there will be very few feature films shot here, and thus very little paid work. Since the states on both sides of Texas (NM & LA) have passed very lucrative incentives for studios, work has dried up here. One word on the street statistic I heard recently was that there are 25 films slated for LA this year and 1 or 2 for TX.

If you want to help that cause you can write to your TX senator and representative and let them know that you want the legislation passed. The Governor is actually behind the two bills being drawn up at the moment. Eventually the house and senate will vote on it and then we'll know more. The big issue seems to be funding, of course -- i.e. where will the money come from to fund incentives? What gets cut so that incentives can be offered and so more movie business dollars come to Austin....errrr I mean TX.

5. As I type this one in the 5. slot I realize I should have put it higher but there's no point in renumbering, just know this one is good and thanks to Mrs. Mosty for sharing the treasure that is Depression Cooking with Clara



It's hard to believe she's in her nineties right? Watching these made me incredibly nostalgic for my childhood and all the older ladies who used to watch us (me, my sister, my cousins & friends) and cook for us in and around Hazleton, PA. She really channels them for me. Please enjoy and thanks for reading!