on the internetz.
Oh my frikkin’ lord… I just found out that Eddie Izzard is playing Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival this year!! Huzah! Go get tickets now!!
This was also as Arcade Fire suddenly released a few tickets to their New York gigs tonight & tomorrow, but having managed to get one held in TicketMaster’s evil clutches I then decided that $15 in fees on a $35 ticket was excessive given I don’t really want their children. Eddie on the other hand… well. I think most folks know how I feel about Eddie.
Another random purchase when back in the UK, mainly due to its upbeat donut cover (why do British editions still have the best covers?). This book is an interesting blend of contempory fiction based in LA, with under-currents of many self-help books. The story follows the transition of the main character from recluse to being fully engaged with his life after a near death experience. Luckily for him he’s incredibly rich already, but those riches have come at the cost of living a life, so the story charts a trajectory that shows how having this money allows you to throw everything up in the air and see where it lands without worrying too much. Now that may sound like an un-sympathetic character, but surprisingly he’s not and the story rarely stops for long enough to indulge in any deep character analysis anyway as it’s a real page turner. It’s a great book, very up-beat and almost inspiring in the same manner as Celestine Prophecy can affect you. Having said that I’d feel more personally engaged with the protagonist if he’d affected his life and those around him without the benefit of all the money he’d built up.
Last night I finally got to see one of my favourite comedians play live, as David Cross was a guest at last night’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre’s (UCBT) ‘Un-sanctioned Tribeca Film Festival F%ck Around’. Having never been to the UCBT or seen many improvisational shows it was an interesting and fun experience. The theatre is small but well organised, and they have their line mechanics highly tuned – you sign up on an RSVP list before the show, when you get there you pay downstairs then go stand in the line with your tickets and 10/15 minutes before the show they start letting you in 20 people at a time. Oh, and they have beer. Sweet.
The show itself was based around the Tribeca Film Festival that’s currently taking over most New York cinemas. All the comedians play characters related to film, including an over-angry Harvy Weinstein and a dog loving Paul Bogdonavich (no relation). The two show comperes, Jackie Clarke and Seth Morris carry on a talk show format with the other guests – mostly based around movies, but also bizarrely around dog food – giving them questions to respond around. For his bit David Cross played a movie marketer (“not marketeer!”) and expounded on how the film industry relies on its box office figures – “Hey, you just saw Rocky and it was really great. Can you see any more? No! Because without numbers there’s no Rocky 2, or 3”. Great stuff.
Last night we finally got to see Hot Fuzz, the latest comedy masterpiece from the geniuses behind Shaun of the Dead, and it was hilariously good. Where Shaun focussed on zombie movies (with a dash of romantic comedy), Hot Fuzz focuses on cop buddy movies to great effect – lampooning classic English thrillers such as The Wicker Man and modern high octane offerings such as Bad Boys II. This blend of small town hidden cult, buddy movie and loud explosions is executed with the usual brilliance from Simon Pegg in the lead, Nick Frost as his buddy and Edgar Wright behind the cameras.
I won’t go into the plot, but my highlights include the roles from many great British actors; including Edward Woodward (the good guy in the original Wicker Man) as one of the bad guys, Timothy Dalton as the apparently too evil supermarket owner and Jim Broadbent as the friendly Superintendent. The humour is subtle but laugh out loud funny, and the interaction between Pegg and Frost is outstanding. Plus you will jump with fright at some points. An amazing blend.
One thing… If you don’t like gory deaths, don’t go see this film! No CGI effect was spared to make the deaths as bloody and shocking as possible, with the highlight being the death by falling church masonry – hilariously disgusting.
Go see it now!
Levi’s book covers the year or so that the author was incarcerated in Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp. Luckily for Primo, he was taken there just before the camp was liberated so he escaped to tell the tale. This book covers that time in the camp, the machinations between the people inside, and those outside and it makes for interesting reading. We will hopefully never experience a situation like this ourself, and reading a first hand account of it should help us stop it happening again.
Faithless @ Webster Hall: Over There
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
Last night Stephen and I went along to see Faithless at Webster Hall and they were absolutely amazing. The whole crowd was jumping around which is rare in New York – you could feel the floor moving. They ran through many of their hits and a few off the new album. When they played ‘God is a DJ’ it was almost a spiritual experience. Thanks to all of them for an amazing gig, and to Maxi Jazz for igniting the dance frenzy.
Faithless play Coachella this weekend out West, so go check them out if you can.
Oh, and I have more pics up here as usual.
This month is the 25th Anniversary of the launch of the ZX Spectrum. Although this probably won’t mean much to American readers of this blog, I’m sure all my male Brit friends are now looking up in fond rememberance of their first ‘real’ computer. The computer that set many of us on the path of increasing geekdom.
On reflection it’s interesting how social activities flourished around our computers when we were younger, in the absence of an ‘internet’. When I first got my Spectrum I created a ‘limited run’ fanzine (trans. about 20 photocopies) that used to take me every spare minute to write, draw the illustrations for and send off for free games to play. I mean review. I also used to try and create the next greatest spoof adventure game with other friends under the company name ‘MattSoft’. Then later myself and a few other guys from school created an Atari ST fanzine together that again, had limited exposure. Now all that work would probably get noticed with minimal effort it can take to put up certain sites and then run if you know what you’re doing. One of these days I hope to come across one of my old fanzines – I’m sure that will be ‘interesting’.
Jarvis @ Webster: Up There
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
Jarvis still rocks after all these years – his gig last night at Webster Hall was superb, even with Webster doing their best to sweat the audience out at the start. We love you Jarvis!
Today I is mostly liking sitting in the sun and having a picernic with Jess, Gerald and crew. Today’s special guest star was Rich, who I last saw at random in a Thai bar on Ko Lanta (he’s passing through on the way back to England from Australia). Now, as the sun sets on the end of a luverley day, I’m rocking out to Jarvis’ latest self titled offering in preparation for his gig tonight at Webster Hall – plus Beck’s ‘The Information‘ is also providing much enjoyment. It’s good to have some new tunes on rotation. Now if only the f*cking ice cream van outside would shut off the inane plinky noise of its child attracting device… Surely there’s some kind of law against it sitting and running the tune in the same location for more than a few bars? Grrr.
Vice have put together a video series discussing the pollution issues that abound in Williamsburg & Greenpoint. In it they ask whether people would want to spend so much money to move into the new condos that are being built, if they knew how polluted the air and ground around them will be. Well I live in a cheap apartment out near the sewage reclamation plant & oil polluted waterways that they film, and its certainly got me worried. Now spring is back and the familiar background smell of half-processed sewage is returning – it’s never over bearing, but after a heavy rain storm I always find myself wondering if I’ve forgotten to flush the toilet…
Watch it now but probably not while you eat your locally made pierogi.