Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

Observers and filmmakers have talked about the democratization of the medium through digital technologies but these comments very rarely define whether that is a value to cinema and the things that can only now be accomplished. While the potential for lower budgets increases, so does Hollywood’s desire to assert its prominence in the only area it can always beat the little guys: production value. The illusions only money can buy.

What I like most about Star Wars: Uncut is it is the ultimate omnibus project, a giant clash of production values, creativity and ideas. Using whatever means are available, filmmakers and fans can recreate a 15 second clip from Lucas’ film, not with the intention of hiding low budgets, but with the pure intention of having fun (and often reveling in the low-fi resources). Sometimes it is the simple means incorporated that give a viewer enjoyment.

I can sense that some may see a project like this as a travesty, giving the tools of creation to the monkeys, destroying Lucas’ vision. Let me say this: Lucas has already destroyed his vision. He continues to destroy it. If anything, Star Wars: Uncut is putting the soul back into a film that Lucas has been all too content to destroy. After all, was it that long ago that George Lucas had to use his imagination and collaboration to bring something to life on the screen because he didn’t have all the money in the world? And all the monkeys who have held a monopoly on the process (and continues to in many ways) should have their world shaken up a little bit. It’s just a good thing for everybody.

So: where’s your scene? Here’s mine.

A relic from an era when we used telephones to satisfy our shallow curiosities. Thankfully we got over all that when we invented the internet.

It did bother me.

Michael Jackson is America.  He is the best and worst of what America can be, he is the best and worst of what America means to the rest of the world, he is perhaps America’s greatest export.  If I had a flagpole it would be lowered to half-mast for no recent politician, president, religious leader or celebrity comes nearly as close to Michael Jackson in symbolic power and world-wide appeal.  He may have been past his prime, but he could sell out a 50,000-seat stadium at the drop of a hat, still make thousands upon thousands of people scream as he walked onto the stage.  You can’t buy that kind of fame.  No, fame’s not even the right word.  Legend.  Michael Jackson was America.  Maybe America’s different now.  Maybe it changed and he could no longer be a part of it.  Maybe I’ll go listen to Off the Wall again.

And again.

And again.

After June 25, 2009, there were a lot of people in the world listening to Michael Jackson records again.  Some people cried.  Others scorned such a messed up individual making such catchy, exciting music.  They liked the music, they hated who made it.  There were still others who would not go close, would not listen anymore, knowing what they now knew about Neverland Ranch…or what they had decided they knew.  In the end the ostentatious showman had been had.  Some would never forget and would always remind those who held judgments.  Such is the way, I suppose.  For what does it mean to be famous if it is not the God-given right of every human who has ever read a news article about you to know exactly who you are, exactly what you do, exactly what you’re capable of.  And what right do I have to say otherwise?

Chris

It was an intense experience and a lot of fun.

“We shot SIX videos – as well as full interviews – in one day, edited it to a 40-minute DVD in three days, and had it back to the band, ready to be pressed, by Monday. UGH!

We had fun.

Here are two sample videos of the DVD.

Song About You-

Backwards-

German Expressionism’s

Updated syntax

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)

My favorite superhero movie is Tim Burton’s debut feature film following the iconic hybrid child-man as he seeks to find his stolen bicycle in the basement of the Alamo.  Burton has obviously — throughout his career — adopted some aesthetic tendencies in art direction and costume from the German Expressionist movement but he best evokes the cinema of Murnau and Wiene when he does what the original movement was based upon: the visual expression of a character’s inner thoughts.  All aesthetics are grounded in principles, which is why Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is still the only film Burton has made that I think is truly great.  Lofty influences aside, Pee-Wee is incredibly funny in a way that could only be funny in cinema.  And like all good cinematic comedies, it isn’t afraid to point back at itself and laugh.

This film is available on DVD wherever DVDs are sold.

Cinema Haiku #0008

check out the LINK.

Oh, ! I’m happy to have paid attention to this band. They’ve been gaining some press recently because

they’ve put out a killer album Monster Head Room.

It’s so fantastic when music makes you feel this

wonderful thing that’s nearly unexplainable. It’s like when you meet someone and you instantly click, when you are just so excited to tell them everything, and your words and thoughts begin to overlap, and you start to cut each other off- not in a snotty way, but in an excited “Oh my god! Me too! I have to tell you this!” sort of way- and it goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and before you know it, you’ve been talking for hours and all your other friends have left you behind, but it doesn’t matter because you are so happy and satisfied in that moment.

Listening to Ganglians is like that.  And I’ve only just begun to devour the record.

Ok, here’s the lowdown: they’re signed to Weird Forest Records. They are based out of Sacramento. They played at SXSW this year. Stereogum has done stories (plural) about them. So has Vice Magazine and last.fm. I think “Valient Brave” is a great song, as is “Never Mine.” Listen on their myspace. Buy their record.

Formally the front man of the everybodyfields, here comes Sam Quinn’s solo project Sam Quinn + Japan Ten. Halleluiah! As sad as it may be that the everybodyfields are “taking a permanent break,” Quinn’s new project is completely quenching my thirst for that sweet and sad melancholy folk music.

They’ve only officially been a band since March of this year, so there aren’t very many tunes to check out on their myspace yet, but the few that are make the grade. “Hello” is my favorite. They are, of course, signed to Ramseur Records, as were the everybodyfields, but no word yet about an upcoming album. We can only hope a record will be released within the year. I love hearing Sam Quinn’s beautiful, quavering voice. I hope he never stops making music.

photo from freephotos.net

Finding Me (Click for an Audio of a Reading of this poem)

I wish I wrote my poems with such style

That everyone that heard would be amazed

At how the syllables danced, all the while

Enchanting  readers helpless, listening, dazed.

But I don’t do that.

I wish I was a master of spoken word

demanding my message be heard

or I’ll knock  you ’side the head with my diction

the prediction in my fiction

forcing you to grab on, hold tight,

spin around,

shaking you,

breaking you,

making you

love the mouse that roared

in my house that soared higher than  anybody

ever thought poetry could take them.

I could throw in an “ation”

like syncopation

with the nation

of anticipation.

I wanna curse

and be political,

maybe even Democrat.

But I don’t do that.

All I can do

is stand

on white tile

and bleed

and cry as I try to clean the mess

and hope

that someone who hears me

feels somewhat warmer

knowing that the coldness of the world

is shared.