Frederick Wiseman’s State Legislature is now out on DVD. Like his other films, it is self-released through his Zipporah Films imprint. It is 3.5 hours long and well worth the investment- I saw it in the theatre and was glad to see it at one go.
I really picked a bad weekend to be out of town- among other things, Wire is playing- for free- at South Street Seaport. The only other upcoming chance to see them on this continent seems to be in Calgary.
Since his brilliant but oh-so-of-its-time satire Generation X, Douglas Coupland has embarked on various endeavours, some interesting, some baffling, some just sort-of dull. But now it seems he has come up with the basis for what looks to be a truly crazy television show- starring Alan Thicke. Bring this to America, please!
The “advance” price for tickets used to be a nice deal you could get for hitting the box office early- and by proxy, letting bar owners know what the take was looking like, staffing needs should be, and if additional promotion was necessary. These days, the “advance” price is an offset, though not usually at par, to the hefty “convenience fees” charged by any advance-selling agency, even, increasingly, the box offices themselves. It’s not that I object, exactly- there is something ingenious and ballsy about selling something in advance at a higher cost to someone else that would be worth less if sold day-of (or obviously not at all). For this reason it seems as though venues or shows with higher risk factors would do well to mitigate this discrepancy with a greater advance discount. Geez, maybe all Tonic needed was a lot more people buying in before it was too late. So to speak.
AMC will be running a “Best Movie Marathon” on February 23- showing all 5 Best Picture Oscar noms and throwing in a large popcorn and unlimited refills on pop. (Oh, and a “collectible pass”). By the time you actually get to No Country for Old Men, the last of the bunch, you should be so caffeinated, hyped on sugar, hydrogenated, and generally ready for action that you will have no problem agreeing with the vast number of critics (and laypersons like myself) who found it superlative. Or else, you will just need some Tums.
If you want the cookies, you will have to go to that Reeler party.
For no apparent reason, the movies I can remember seeing in 2007, in the order I recall enjoying them. For brevity’s sake, I have left off repertory cinema- and probably a bunch of things I might as well have forgotten anyhow.
1. No Country For Old Men
2. There Will Be Blood (this could be 1, it seems to depend on the time of day)
3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
4. Ratatouille
5. 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days
6. My Winnipeg
7. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
8. Still Life
9. Margot at the Wedding
10. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
11. Michael Clayton
12. Tears of the Black Tiger
13. The Bourne Ultimatum
14. I’m Not There
15. No End in Sight
16. Paprika
17. Persepolis
18. Control
19. The Lives of Others
20. The Bothersome Man
21. Darjeeling Limited
22. Away from Her
23. The King of Kong
24. American Gangster
25. Stellet Licht
26. Billy the Kid
27. Lust, Caution
28. Manufactured Landscapes
29. The Golden Compass
30. The Great World of Sound
31. God Grew Tired of Us
32. Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwriitten
33. The Simpsons Movie
34. Live Free or Die Hard
35. Happiness
36. Flight of the Red Balloon
37. Secret Sunshine
38. Air Guitar Nation
39. The Cats of Mirikitani
40. My Kid Could Paint That
41. Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
42. Rescue Dawn
43. The Host
44. Congorama
45. I Just Didn’t Do It
46. Volver
47. Pan’s Labyrinth
48. Day Night Day Night
49. Once
50. Election
51. Crazy Love
52. The Protagonist
53. Belle Toujours
54. Sicko
55. Shoot ‘Em Up
56. Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix
57. Tuli
58. Fracture
59. In the City of Sylvia
60. What the Sun Has Seen
61. War
62. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
63. Undoing
I can’t imagine why you’d be shopping this time of year, but if you are, PayPal is giving you 20% back in cash for purchases made using their services at the following eMerchants: Barnes & Noble, Blue Nile, Dell, EastBay Sports, ebags.com, Electronic Arts, eToys, Guess, GbyGuess, HP, Newegg.com, Overstock.com, Ralph Lauren, Ritz Camera, Wolf Camera, Boaters World, eAngler, OuterBank Outfitters, Camera World, Photo Alley, ShopAtShark, InsanitySauce, Sharper Image, Sierra Trading Post, Skymall, Smartbargains, and Toys R Us.
It’s only up to $50 back, but it’s still a nice little bonus.
Chris Anderson at The Long Tail on the new economy of free stuff: is it free, isn’t it great, and where do I get my $10 plane ticket to Glasgow?
The legal system may be bringing more freedom to Asia- yet another surprise from the Lust, Caution juggernaut.
Meanwhile, the law is getting a little less free in Canada, at least for those who were happily downloading music from P2P networks (and apparently buying some too) with no regulation at all. Could this be related to the new tax on “legal” downloads? Hmm…
In 1991, I nearly had my ears blown out by the double bill of J. Mascis and My Bloody Valentine at the auditorium at UNC-Chapel Hill, shortly before the disintegration of the shoegazing supergroup. Hell has finally frozen over and MBV is playing UK dates next summer- in theory, anyhow. What the hell, I’ve always wanted to see a show is Glasgow.
Thanks to Time Out New York, I’m aware of the Great American God-Out, which suggests that one spend today behaving as though there were no god. According to the organizer, this is not an excuse to murder small babies (though it’s not clear if that’s forbidden) but rather a chance to “dine with…dance with… and get to know [Atheists].”
TONY took the opportunity to ask some locals what they might do on a day without God. The President of the Catholic League, Bill Donahue, explains, “I’d give my debating nemesis Christopher Hitchens a call and we’d go drinking. And then the very next day I’d demand equal treatment and demand that he go to mass with me.” Which does demand the question- are atheists willing to pony up for a god-in?
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