In somewhat cheerier news: the awesome-sounding Toypunks documentary will be showing tonight & tomorrow night (August 16th-17th) at the Aurora Picture Show. Showtimes are 8PM tonight & 3PM tomorrow.

The film looks at the crazy, Technicolor world of Japanese toys, which these days blend in with fashion, design, and art in general, w/lots of interviews with influential people in the field. Houston-based (I think?) filmmakers Chris Nelson and Carl Wormley will be there to show the movie, and Nelson's doing a talk at the Menil on Sunday at 1PM called "Video Salon: From Superflat to Anime Network to Toypunks". I have yet to see the movie, but it sounds damn cool to me (and no, I'm not a Japanese toy junkie)...

(Thanks, btw, to the Domy folks for the heads-up!)

Labels: Arty Shit, Moo-vies, Random Rambling, Things To Do, Things To See

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Ran across this today on the Hands Up board & thought somebody might be interested...

Hello Musicians,

I'm with a local production team that is entering the 48 hour film competition this weekend, and am looking for local artists that would be willing to let us use their music in the film project. All types of music wanted, as we won't know until tonight what our genre/topic will be.

If you are willing to sign a release allowing us to use some songs, and could send us some digital samples of your music, please send an email to "allietcarr" at "gmail dot com"

For more info on the film competition: http://www.48hourfilm.com/houston/

Thanks!
Allie

If you're up for it, you'd better do it ASAP; the competition's this weekend, after all...

Labels: H-Town News, Moo-vies, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

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Okay, so I really should be doing, um, actual work, but I stumbled across a couple of things today that are begging me to post about 'em, even if ever so briefly. I'm not particularly up on what movies are coming down the pipe (I tuned out of the whole Cloverfield thing once I realized I couldn't tell the real viral marketing sites from the fake ones), being as I only read AintItCoolNews about once every six months for a half-hour or so, just long enough to get good and mystified as to how those people have the energy to rant about things the way they do. So these two upcoming films came as a total shock to me (despite the fact that the first one won the Prize of the Jury at Cannes; boy, am I out of the loop...):

• Persepolis: I'm totally, utterly over the moon about this one. I really enjoyed Marjane Satrapi's first Persepolis graphic novel (need to get the second) about growing up in Tehran in those days after the Shah & the CIA took out Mossadegh and right when the Iranian Revolution hit; it's a fascinating, soul-baring read, and I love how Satrapi doesn't pull any punches with regard to her childhood viewpoints on things. Now, somehow, the books have been made into an actual movie, and thank whatever deity you look to, it's a cartoon. Not that I didn't like 300 or anything, but that kind of cartoon-looking-but-real filmmaking would've fallen utterly flat here. Instead, it almost reminds me of Madeline in its overtly cartoonish style, or maybe The Triplets of Belleville; check it out:

  
  

• War Inc.: First thought: "holy crap -- they made a sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank!" Second thought: "uh, not quite..." I mean, there's John Cusack as the amoral-but-uncertain hitman who offers pithy observations on life and death and all the rest, there's sister Joan as his(?) assistant, and there's the inevitable black humor you get when an assassination attempt takes a surreal turn. There's no Martin Blank this time, though, but "Brand Hauser," which is one of the dumbest names ever handed to a character, and the film's set in a "fictional" country called Turaqistan that's pretty much totally controlled by a company called Tamerlane. Whose logo, I should add, looks a heck of a lot like a certain bright red corporate logo I used to see a lot of during my day. Anyway, I'm not sure how this'll go -- it could be great or it could really suck. Either way, I think it's worth a look...

Labels: Entertainobabble, Moo-vies, Random Rambling, Things To See

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Yep, just a couple more things up before I head off to wander the fjords and freeways of Scandinavia, in search of traces of my wife's Viking forebears -- as of this AM, we've got up a cool, cool review of the Battles/Ponytails/Sharks and Sailors show in town a month or so ago (give or take a week) by writer Brigitte, and a snarky-ish review of Rush Hour 3 by our sometime film critic Creg.

This'll be the last update for a few weeks, for obvious reasons; despite the expansion of digital connectedness to every damn corner of the globe (I've checked my email, for example, in a trashed-out Internet cafe in the Old City of Fes, Morocco, which was a little bit bizarre), I'm afraid I'm going to be a bit busy dealing with travel & sightseeing & family-type stuff to try to post any new stuff. Sorry 'bout that, but hey, I've needed a vacation for a long time, so y'know... (Beyond that, I'm feeling the need to escape the H-town summer heat that's finally crushing us down like it does at some point each year.)

But never fear -- we'll be back shortly with tales to tell (uh, maybe) and a bunch of new reviews and all that to post. Cool? And thanks to the kind efforts of Chicago SCR representative Henry (who is The Man in many, many ways besides), the shows list will indeed be updated while I'm gone. Keep emailing any shows you want listed to "shows" at "spacecityrock dot com", and he'll do his best to get 'em up there. Please be gentle with him, folks...

Labels: Admin Stuff, Live Reviews, Moo-vies, Reviews

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Some of more astute/observant out there may know by now that Space City Rock writer & co-publisher guy Mel House is not only a darn good writer and musician, but that his first real love is making horror movies -- the gorier and freakier, the better.

Despite me being a big horror flick wuss (I still have nightmares about Hellraiser, seriously), I've seen and liked some of his stuff in the past, and have eagerly looked forward to seeing what could happen once he got a little cash and a good story to work with. And going by the trailers for his soon-to-be-released latest film, Closet Space, it's gonna be worth the wait. Gory, yes, with some creepy-ass tentacles and all that, but I also dig what I know of the story -- I won't go into it here, except to say that mysterious doors to other dimensions are always cool. Check the MySpace for further details, but trust me, it's gonna be good.

Now, the reason I'm mentioning the flick now (finally; been meaning to for a while) is because, hey, it's premiering in one short, short week. On Thursday, August 23rd, at 9PM, you can check out Closet Space on the big screen up at the Studio Movie Grill at 8580 Highway 6 North & West Road. Oh, and it's freakin' free. Yes, that means "zero dollars," zip, nada. The only money you have to shell out is for the gas, and unless you're driving in from San Antonio or Nacogdoches or something, that's still cheaper than it'd be to go see a movie at the Splendifilm Googolplex nearest to your 'hood.

And yeah, okay, I've got a teeny bit of vested interest in the screening, because in addition to the main movie, Mel will also be showing the "zombie video" he just did with indie-rock hero Jonah Matranga. Which, as longtime readers (are there any?) may know, yours truly happened to be in. (Well, I was filmed for it, at least, which I know isn't a guarantee...) If I make the cut, you get to laugh at my stupid ass as I pretend lamely to be a zombie (although I'm sure it'll look good while I do it, obviously).

The song's a new one, "Not About A Girl Or A Place", and if you find me in person I can probably sing it for you, I heard it so many damn times over those two nights I was involved in the filming. (Happily, it's a good song; if you want to hear what Jonah's like in a more tuneful fashion than I can muster, check out his MySpace.) If you want to see heartfelt emo-rock set to shambling zombies, mind you, get there early, 'cause I think it's before the movie...

As if that all wasn't enough, on the next night, Friday, August 24th, Mel & co. are throwing the official wrap party for Closet Space at The Proletariat (903 Richmond at Montrose) in the best way to possibly throw such a party: by rocking the fuck out. Jenny Westbury (who I've heard really good things about but sadly keep missing) opens at 7PM sharp, followed by Mel's own band, ex-Cedar of Lebanon/Tie That Binds/etc. guys Radio Pioneer at 8PM or so, and then by Jonah, at about 8:45 PM. The show isn't free, but it's a "sliding scale" deal in typical Jonah fashion, where you pay what you feel like you can afford between $7 and $10.

That's the deal. It's gonna be awesome, I swear. Good indie horror filmmaking + silly/gory zombie rock video + full-on rock heroics = badassness.

Labels: Free Stuff, Moo-vies, Things To Do, Things To See

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The above title is true on both counts. Not only am I a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, but I am indeed also a big, big dork. Not that the one follows the other, mind you -- I was a dork long before Buffy ever aired (see: AD&D, comics, Star Wars/Star Trek, fantasy/sci-fi novels, cyberpunk, that lameass picture of me doing the Vulcan hand symbol when I was 14, etc., etc.). But the fact that this makes me really kinda excited pretty much proves that yep, I'm still a big ol' dork.

So, for the others out there like me... At midnight on Fri., 8/31, and Sat., 9/1, the venerable, doomed-to-die Landmark River Oaks Theatre at 2009 West Gray will be hosting a special "sing-along screening" of one of the coolest, most ambitious bits of TV ever to hit the little screen. Yep, it's the musical ep, "Once More, With Feeling", wholly written & composed by Buffy creator Joss Whedon as a kind of insane homage to musicals, where everybody sings, nearly everybody dances, and very few lines of actual dialogue are spoken. And, believe it or not, it works. Honest. I loathe musicals, myself, but there's enough tongue-in-cheek humor tucked away in this episode that it overrides my distaste for the genre every freakin' time. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, it's well worth watching. (Hell, it's probably on YouTube somewhere, but I'm too lazy to go look...)

Anyway, this sounds like it could be ridiculously fun. I've been to the Rocky Horror screenings at the Landmark a few times, and despite me not really being a huge fan of RH, it's always been entertaining; this, to me, promises to be a whole heck of a lot better (it's actually well-written, for one thing -- sorry, RH fans...). You get to sing along with Buffy, Spike, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head can actually sing, by the by), Anya, & all the rest, yell things at the screen, join in what's probably gonna be a panic-inducing version of Buffy karaoke, and show off your BtVS trivia skillz. More info can be found here (if you didn't find the link above, that is).

Hrm. It occurs to me that if I'm gonna go to this thing, I'd better at least listen to the songs again -- 'cause there's nothing worse than a half-assed dork, I have to say...

Labels: Entertainobabble, H-Town News, Moo-vies, Things To Do

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Argh. Why does this happen to me every freaking year? Seriously, every year for the past half-decade or so, I manage to somehow miss the start of the WorldFest-Houston Film Festival, only finding out it's going on a day or two after the fact, and this year has turned out to be no exception, sadly. Dimwit that I am, I blanked on the fact that WorldFest always starts when the International Festival starts, which means the festival kicked off without yours truly this past weekend.

Luckily, it ain't over yet, but will be continuing on all week (through Sunday, April 29th) up at the AMC Studio 30 on Dunvale. Which makes me a little sad, by the way -- I get why the festival organizers moved the show from the sketchy Meyer Park 16 up to a big, fancy-shmancy movie theater like the spaceport-looking Studio 30, but I still miss the days when the festival ran at the departed Meyerland Theater, which used to be about a 20 min. walk from my house. (To add insult to injury, not only did they rip out the movie theater nearest to me a few years back to expand the Meyerland Plaza shopping center, they still haven't filled more than a teeny-tiny bit of the expanded section. Yeah, apparently we really needed more store space, didn't we? Fuckers.)

If you've never been to the festival, you seriously ought to check it out -- they show some weird, freaky, intriguing, and downright entertaining films, most of which don't hit the "big" indie festivals like Sundance or SXSW. I've seen some very, very, very good movies (May and August, Jacob TwoTwo and the Hooded Fang) and some awfully bad movies (Hotel, some crazy movie with Holling from Northern Exposure as a guy who digs up an Egyptian queen in his back yard) at past WorldFests. Even the bad ones, though, were at least interesting, and the documentaries and short films always seem to be pretty cool ('cause hey, if you're watching a bad short film, at least it'll be over soon...). And of course, there's also the lure of second-string/has-been stars popping in to promote a flick -- a friend and I once did a double-take to see Eric Stoltz standing around the dingy Meyerland Theater lobby, glad-handing for a film he was in. Very weird.

Hrm. Okay, so now I just need to figure out how to cajole Grandma into taking the munchkin some night this week...

Labels: Moo-vies, Things To Do, Things To See

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Oh, man, this is awesome. I really, really need to go by and check out the Domy Books store, and tomorrow's installment of the Domy crew's weekly movie showings gives me even more of a reason. Hrm. Maybe I can talk the mother-in-law into watching the midget...

Why the frantic babysitter search? Well, because tonight, Wed., 2/28, those crazy Domy kids are showing both Heavy Metal Parking Lot and Idiocracy. I've seen the former, and it's amazing, a weirdly endearing (to me, anyway) glimpse back into the past -- the parking lot outside a Judas Priest concert in 1985, specifically -- as well as some hysterically funny/sad shit.

The latter's relatively new on me, but apparently it's the latest project from Beavis & Butthead/King of the Hill creator Mike freakin' Judge, which means that it logically should be really damn funny. (Oh, and it co-stars Maya Rudolph, who's one of the few truly funny people left on Saturday Night Live. She needs more work like this, O Powers That Be.) Oh, and both flicks are free-free-free, which is of course the best price in the world.

Anyway. Good movies, cool (I'm told) place, should be a good time. Heck, with a little luck, maybe my homebody ass'll even be there...

Labels: Moo-vies, Things To Do

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