Go here if you want to see crazy, live news footage of Bobby Fischer arriving in Iceland, from last week. I’ve got to admit, I really love that when a reporter asked him for a message to the world he replied, “LEAVE ME ALONE.” 9:37 PM >>> 0 comments

Holy cow! UBUWEB has just posted their spring update and there are some amazing additions to the site. I'm especially excited about the new film area, from which you can now download films by Kenneth Anger, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's Un Chien Andalou, The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord (90 minutes!), films by Hans Richter, Man Ray, Isidore Isou, Harry Smith and lots more. I know what I'll be watching this weekend! You can access the films right here. 9:04 AM >>> 0 comments

Just a quick note to let you know my new comic book is now available for purchase in my publishers online shop. They’ve also put up a few pages of sample artwork. You can order the comic by going here and clicking on the “bookstore” link in the left hand column. It won’t be available in most stores until later this year, so now is your chance to be the first on your block with a copy. They’ll also have copies available at this year’s APE Expo in San Francisco, April 9th - 10th. And I should be there too. 8:48 AM >>> 0 comments

The increasingly amazing Ecstatic Peace website presents a 9MB Quicktime video excerpt of a Paul Flaherty concert from last night(!) March 17th with Spencer Yeh and Chris Corsano. You can view the video in their "news" column on the main page here, dated March 18th. Also scroll down to March 4th to check out a 14MB video of a Peter Brotzmann, William Parker, and Hamid Drake performance. 10:35 AM >>> 0 comments

A few years back, when I first tried to watch Tarkovsky's 1972 version of Solaris I couldn't make it but halfway or so into the film before I gave up due to boredom. It's funny how our tastes can change. In 2005, after recently watching both Andrei Rublev and The Mirror, I find myself more and more under the spell of Tarkovsky. Giving Solaris a second chance, I was completely enraptured, and of course - not bored in the least. Completely wrapped up in its imagery and sounds and silences. Completely wrapped up in the way Tarkovsky's films move like none others I've yet to see - and create their own version of cinema and the world. Particularly the lengthy opening section of the film, set on earth, with its rains and waving grasses at the bottom of the lake, horse, dog, children and parents - with its watching - with its fires - was amazing and most painting like. Perhaps the exploration of ideas comes more to the front as the picture moves out to the space station on Solaris, and becomes more of a meditation on what is love, what is sanity, what is reality, and what may be the point. The controlled aspect of the style and unnaturalness of the acting helps to take the viewer out of the typical movie experience and into a whole different world of cinema, if the viewer is open to it. The rewards can be great if we let ourselves look at the world through these different eyes. It's somewhat disturbing and heartbreaking that there are only two (or maybe three?) more major films left by Tarkovsky that I've yet to see. 10:42 AM >>> 0 comments

I finally got my chance to see the re-united Slint earlier this evening - at Avalon, which was formerly the Palace (the last act I can remember seeing there was the Ramones, which shows you how time flies). I very rarely ever go see live rock shows anymore, because, well - it seems kind of pointless. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to Slint, just because they were a band that I listened to so much in the early to mid-90s, a band that seemed to have a big impact on my ears at the time too, but like so many people, a band I never saw (they probably broke up the day after I got around to hearing one of their albums). This was a band you never would have imagined would have a reunion tour, however... recently a lot of things we’d never thought would happen seem to be happening. The first time around (as I’m sure most of you know) the band only put out two LPs and one EP, and on this tour they seem to be trying to recreate that material as closely as possible - pretty much note for note - no new songs or nothing, so in a way, the show did leave me feeling like what was the point - except it was cool to hear those songs played over-whelming loud - straight out of the bedroom and into the giant concert hall.

Much more fun was seeing two of silent comedian, Harry Langdon’s films at the Egyptian Theater earlier in the evening. I’d rate his films as a lot less entertaining than the silents of Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd or Laurel and Hardy (and maybe even Charley Chase) - but still - really fucking fun. I’d actually never seen either of these before. The best was Tramp, Tramp, Tramp - which has Langdon engaged in a walking race across America for a $25,000 prize. There were lots of crazy stunts - reminiscent of Harold Lloyd, and a cyclone scene Buster one-upped a few years later (in Steamboat Bill). Good gags, and a very nice print too. More beat-up (even though it was filmed a year later), Long Pants - directed by Frank Capra(!), was slightly less amusing, but it was shorter (only 54 minutes), so not unbearable. Less slapstick, even though the plot has Langdon dumping his girl on his wedding day to run after an imprisoned femme-fatale and drug smuggler, because Capra already can’t resist soaking the movie in his syrupy Americana sentimentality. Still., I so love those silent films. I love looking at those images, especially on the Egyptians big screen - a real treat.

I’ve recently written a few short comic book reviews for Rick Bradford’s Poopsheet, one of which has already been posted here, with the other two to probably follow shortly. I wish I had time to write (and read, and draw) more. I did finally just read Fantagraphics first volume of the collected Peanuts, which was a real treat - especially once the Sundays started, breaking up the repetitiveness of those earliest strips. Must order volume two! 12:58 AM >>> 0 comments

Kenji Mizoguchi's final film, 1956's Street of Shame, walks the fine line between an examination of the seedy world of Japan's post-World War II sex trade and straight-up propaganda for its abolishment (even the prostitutes are hopeful that the government will make their trade illegal!). It's definitely a portrait of a way of life without much hope. The ensemble piece follows the troubles and dreams of a group of prostitutes desperately eking out an existence in Dreamland, a legalized brothel. The movie doesn't focus too much on the actual work, but spends most of its time examining how each of these women ended up in it, and how they'd like to get out (or not out, in the case of one). We get the woman who is supporting her child and ill husband. The 50's hipster youth with a heart of stone. The broken hearted mother who is paying for her child's upbringing in the country (and her heartbreak when he can't get over his shame of her work). And the penny pincher, who just might make it to a new life, but only by destroying the lives of all the people who actually believe in her. There's also some scenes set aside for the madam and brothel's owner, as they worry about possible legislation that will put them out of business. After all, even though they do keep their girls like virtual slaves, saddling them with debts they'll never be able to escape, they also do make it possible for these women to survive when perhaps there was no other road left to take (at least during those understandably desperate years). It's a very solid film, with lots of energy from the actors, who help keep the piece from either becoming too dark and depressing or too overtly lost in its political message. 1:15 PM >>> 0 comments

It’s sometimes amazing to me that with all the movies I’ve seen, there’s still soooo many I’ve yet to see, so many of the great ones too. I guess it’s good to know we’ll never run out I knocked another great one of the list after I finally got around to seeing one of Kenji Mizoguchi’s most respected films, Ugetsu (from 1953). The print (at the Egyptian, natch) was stunning, as was the film. Set in Japan’s war-torn feudal past, the story follows a master potter’s quest for the dollar (or should I say, yen) and his assistant’s obsession with becoming a samurai - and also tracks both their wives efforts to survive. Separated by their various desires and by war, (without really giving anything away) it seems that everything that can go wrong, does (for the characters). There’s a strange energy running through the entire film, which is beautifully and inventively shot. Oh - black and white films! I was particularly blown away by a lengthy fogbound scene early in the picture when all four of our main characters are last together, riding a small boat across Lake Biwa. This film, essentially on the danger of following your dreams(!), somehow falls just a millimeter or two short of perfection, but comes almost as close as a film can get. Five more Mizoguchi films screen this weekend, and I’ll be seeing as many as possible. 1:10 PM >>> 0 comments

John Zorn gave a rare 25 minute interview on WNYC’s Soundcheck today (March 2nd). You can listen to a real audio file of the show in their archive. The occasion seemed to be to promote a series of concerts celebrating the ten year anniversary of Tzadik’s Radical Jewish Culture imprint. Mostly they talked about the imprint, some of their releases, and Zorn’s relationship to Judaism. They also mention the opening of the new club The Stone, where Zorn appears to be the artistic director. The Stone’s schedule of upcoming shows is fucking amazing (Milford Graves, Herb Robertson, Joe McPhee, Susie Ibarra, William Parker, Satoko Fuji, Tim Berne, Charles Gayle and Zorn all have gigs there this April)! One more reason I wish I lived in New York, as if I needed more. At least I’m looking forward to checking it out when I head out there in mid-June for a week or so (although I expect to spend most of my nights at Vision Fest Ten). 7:54 PM >>> 0 comments