Brandon, Man

Man, little shit-splat towns like Brandon Rock. I went to the local Blockbuster Video to check out their previously viewed section hoping to find a few good deals.

I didn't realize I'd hit the motherload.

Va Savior - 2.99, YES, 2.99. I haven't seen it but it's suppose to be a Jacques Rivette classic.
Last Life in the Universe - 7.99 One of my recent favs
Goodbye Dragon Inn - 7.99 The incomparable Tsai Ming Liang
Incident at Loch Ness - 6.99 Werner Herzog + Faux Doc. I'm there.

Yes, readers, these are in Canadian funds and yes these smalltown folks know nothing about Cinema. I guess that's why they were sentenced here.

Actually, Brandon isn't as small as I thought it would be. It kinda reminds me of Lethbridge, Alberta. Still we drove around the entire town in about 15 minutes. We ate some food at a chain restaurant that played some amazingly bland neo-cuntry. The winter fair starts tomorrow so all hell will probably break loose. We will film some, have a meeting and come back a couple of seasoned fimmakers. This trip has been stressful but in a good way.

More as it happens

Winnipeg

My first time in this not-so-lovely city. I am involved in the filming of a documentary as we all know.

Heart of Darkness was an interesting movie. I'll let you think about that for a while.

I am tired and I will post more tomorrow.

On The Road

I am about to embark on my first Roadtrip as a filmmaker. Not that I am going anywhere exciting but it's just cool to be finally doing something creative and getting paid for it. I'm off to Calgary, Winnipeg, Brandon and finally Edmonton. My partner (David) and I are going to be interviewing several trainers for our Documentary on Herb Williams and the Superdogs. We'll also be attending the Brandon winter fair where we will see an actual Dog and Pony show. Yeah, I know, they really do exist. I'll be reporting from the road and maybe posting pictures. I'll be back here in Vancouver on the 30th.

10th Anniversary: The Hive

As you may (or may not) know, I was a founding member of Vancouver's best indie-pop studio: The Hive. Started in 1996, this studio has grown up n' out of it's humble beginnings in East Van and into the realm of legitimate business. It now resides in a 3000 square foot complex in the burbs, where on any given day, sleezeball rock stars can be seen gettin' their groove on.

Over the next several posts I will list the top ten albums that The Hive has produced. Even a couple of years ago this would only have been of local interest but hard work and not-taking-no-for-an-answer has made this shit the stuff of legends (or at least worthy of international blogdom).

Mr. Beast: the B.C. connection

Local artist manages to snare Mogwai cover. I just read about Amanda Church in the Georgia Straight last week. Glad to see she is doing well and that those crazy bastards from Scotland are taking notice to the wealth of talent in our amazing Province.

Imaginary Soundtracks

If I were to drop a "Feature-Length Narrative" into this world, right now, this would be the soundtrack-

Smog - Ex-Con
Boards of Canada - '84 Pontiac Dream
Low -Dinosaur Act
Sufjan Stevens- Pickerall Lake
Aphex Twin - Stone in Focus
Red House Painters- Song For A Blue Guitar
Pavement - Father To A Sister of Thought
Yo La Tengo - Our Way To Fall
Cat Power - The Greatest
Neil Young - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
µ-Ziq - Phiesope

Tarnation

I hate Jonathan Caouette

Reason 1:
He made the personal documentary I’ve always wanted to (albeit with a very different subject matter and aesthetic sense than I would have chosen).

Reason 2:
He stole my soundtrack. Anyone who knows anything about me knows how much music rules my day-to-day life. I have very discerning tastes and when I watch a movie I'm usually pulled out of the drama by the filmmaker’s crap music. That's not the case with Tarnation. Bands he chose include: Mark Kozelek (of The Red House Painters), Low, Iron and Wine, and Magnetic Fields. These same artists have had heavy rotatation on my iTunes for the last couple of years. Even songs I wasn’t familiar with: Cocteau twins, Lisa Germano and Marianne Faithful were expertly selected for this very stylized doc.

Reason 3:
One of my favourite filmmakers, Gus Van Sant was an executive producer. This is the dream of all young filmmakers: to have your first movie recognized by one of the greatest working directors of our time.

Reason 4:
He is so articulate and so friggin’ well spoken in the DVD commentary. This F—er is to-the-point and just goddamn succinct when it comes to explaining the themes and the overall construction of the film

Reason 5:
He put this film together using iMovie from Mac. Yes, the free software that comes with every Mac. I haven’t even opened that program on my Mac, cause I thought it was a mickey-mouse piece o’ junk. I might use it for my next short form project. Simplicity is sometimes best; that’s what Jonathon’s lesson is.

I Love Jonathan Caouette

Darkon

Darkon, beeotch, Darkon.

go here and watch it

Get me some of that, stat.

C.R.A.Z.Y. for you

Wanted to say a bit about this amazing movie. Not that the Genies (Canada’s Oscars) are anything to get excited about but this little French Canadian movie swept those little f—er’s. Director Jean-Marc Vallée is a new hero to all of us aspiring Canadian filmmakers. This ambitious 70’s rock infused tale of a father and his complicated relationship with his wife and sons takes us on a 20-year trip of visual magnificence that we can’t easily forget. This is the great family epic that Scorsese never made. All the actors in this ensemble piece are going to have great careers ahead of them. I especially liked the son Zac, ( Marc-André Grondin) He's kinda like a French Gael García Bernal, only with better hair. I should warn you that there is some CGI used in C.R.A.Z.Y but it is tasteful and doesn't get in the way of the storytelling. I hope this gets it to a broader audience because it really deserves to be seen. Recently, I have been making an effort to see more locally made flicks and this is by far the best Canadian movie I have seen in years.

Maureen Stapleton: 1925-2006

Maureen Stapleton who played Pearl, the great flush of colour in the beautifully depressing Interiors, is dead. I haven’t seen her in Reds but she was absolutely a highlight in my favorite Woody Allen drama (not a small feat considering the cast). Funny, how I just watched it a couple of weeks ago. The same thing happened with the Red Shoes last month. I watched it and the next week Moira Shearer died. I’m almost afraid to re-watch Saraband for fear of Liv Ullmann’s premature departure.

Overheard at the Hotel

Int. Bathroom - Day

An elderly woman with a cane stands above a middle-aged maintenance man. He’s installing a handle on the side of a tub so she can get in and out of the bath with greater ease.
Elderly Woman: You make sure you put that on tight.
Maintenance Man: Yeah, yeah.
Elderly Woman: Don’t you yeah, yeah me. I’ve already broken my leg twice. The doctor says if I break it again he’ll have to cut it off.
Maintenance Man: You’re lucky you’re not a horse. They would have shot you the first time.

Unfolding in Real Time: Hou Hsiao-Hsien

I have been an admirer of the Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien for about two years now. From the first time I experienced the slow motion magnificence during the opening sequence in Millennium Mambo (terrible title, I know) I knew I was in capable hands. Since then I have seen 4 more of his films: Flowers of Shanghai, Café Lumiere, Goodbye South, Goodbye and Three Times. People say he owes a lot to Yasujiro Ozu. I would venture to say this comparison is more about content than style as Ozu was not a proponent of the long take but where they do converge is the sublime moods they both create. Café Lumiere is actually a tribute to Ozu for the 100th anniversary of his birth. Of course many have noted the similarities to Robert Altman as both employ the same static camera and overlapping dialogue techniques. Jim Jarmusch considers himself a student of this great Asian master and stated recently that Three Times is one of his favorite cinematic experiences. Back in 1988 the New York Critics Society named him Filmmaker to watch or “God-Like” Filmmaker (or some such). At that time he’d already made like 6 films. I admit I am a little late getting into him but his movies are so timeless in their appeal and so far away from the Hollywood model that you won’t feel like you missed out seeing them when they first came out. In my opinion he is now making movies that are as good as, if not better than, the glory days of the 80’s.

If you haven’t seen this guy’s films you should really get out there and rent them. They aren’t accessible in the most conventional sense but this is only because society as a whole has had its’ attention span significantly shortened in the last 30 years. I would say the best place to start is where I started: Millennium Mambo. This is set in Taipei about 6 years ago. It follows the life of a couple of slackers in their early 20’s and what they would go through on a day-to-day basis. (you know…the fights…the drugs…the nightclubs). On paper it sounds pretty trite and yeah we’ve all seen it before but the way he uses the environment and off camera space is truly refreshing. You really get a sense that these events are unfolding in real time. The now requisite reaction shot is nowhere to be found in any of his pictures (the ones I’ve seen anyway, he may have used one or two in early films). So if you like movies that thrive on tone and mood and you like the colour palate of a movie as apposed to spit fire dialogue and plot twist then you should see Hou’s movies. You might not even think you enjoy movies that are done in this fashion until you actually see one.

The Vancity Theatre is going to be playing Three Times from March 17 to the 23rd. This is a must-see on the big screen and the Vancity theatre is the newest and arguably best in town.

Liam Lynch Podcast

Ever since I saw Sifl and Olly I've been a big fan. This is what podcasting is all about.

go to this link

http://liamlynch.net

or check out Podcasts on itunes and punch in Liam Lynch in the search.

Overheard at the Hotel

This will be a semi-regular column so get used to it. Keep in mind these are real transcripts ripped from the lives of actual people. The names have been changed to protect my innocence.

Guest: I want to talk to your Manager.
Front Desk Manager: I am the Manager and M'am if the world was full of people like you it would be a horrible place.

Wim Wenders: My Golden Rules

Solid stuff from that crazy Kraut who did Paris, Texas. He's got 50 of em', though he should have included 3 more
51 - Always remember: Mel Gibson is overrated.
52 - U2 is overrated too.
53 - Never work with either of them

Still, I can't wait to see Tokyo-Ga on DVD (finally) as part of the Criterion Collection's release of Ozu's Late Spring.

Good Night, And Good Luck

Clooney, you sly bastard. You managed to make a polictal movie about upholding civil liberties while pulling together something worthy of the title: Art Film. You are up there with Linklater and Van Sant now. As you might suspect I don't usually go in for these type of pictures but this is not that type of picture. It not what it seems from the ads and what people have been saying about this, for chrissakes this was shot by the guy who did all the P.T. Anderson movies (Robert Elswit). Clooney may pick a few questionable acting jobs but when he sits down to direct he knows what he's doing.

Destroyer in the New York Times

Rube finally pipes in on Destroyer's Rubies.
Good to see the ol' NYT's hip to Vancouver's greatest songwriter. I've long been a fan of Bejar and his unapproachable genius. Like Mulholland Drive or Donnie Darko we are washed of the clarity that is mediocrity with this boldy ambiguous work of art. I think fatal strategies can say it way better than I can...The Pacific-Northwest's foremost expert on Destroyer

How indie art thou?

This shit is funny. It makes Lubener laugh.

Other Music (Scroll down a few clicks until you see Other Music)

Herb Williams and the Superdogs

Saturday night and I have tomorrow off. This is a great place to be. So many options ahead of me. This will be the first Sunday I’ve had off in recent memory. I am usually stuck working the weekend. It’s usually OK cause when I do get my days off most people are at work. This allows me to write or do creative things without any distractions. What is it that I work on, you ask? Nowadays, I am working on a documentary about Herb Williams and the Superdogs. I will be traveling east soon to do interviews but for now it’s just a lot of administration stuff such as getting the contract for our subjects’ life rights and figuring out what our next move is. Yes, we are in development hell but thankfully we have a contract with the CBC and are still feeling strong about this story. It’s going to be a classic (even if it is a cult classic). I’ll keep you up to date on this as we film and research more.

The Greatest

I've had this album in my computer for about a month. Sorry to say but I'm not very female-centric in my music tastes. I do love Amiee Mann, Lhasa, Neko Case, Julie Doiron and Feist but that is about it. It's just the sub genre of music I have chosen to be obsessed with doesn't have a lot of female artists. I have however been a big fan of Cat Power ever since she came out with You are Free. Since then I went back to her covers album to find an amazing album of reworked classics. On her new album she went to Memphis and with the help of some of the best soul and R and B musicians from the 60's and 70's proceeded to record an album. This is all well documented and you will read about it on the Matador site and in every review. She's notorious for her terrible live shows two of which I've been unfortunate enough to have attended. I think I fell asleep on a table at the crocodile show in Seattle.

On album though, now this is a different story. In this forum she doesn't have to worry about all of us sweaty indie slobs eyeballin' her. That would give me performance anxiety I'm sure.

So lets get to it...

This is the album that all the Neil Young fans of After the Goldrush and Zuma should pay attention to. This is so analogue, so crunchy, munchy, fluid, and just so timeless it just can't be ignored. It's for 16 year olds who haven't yet heard of The Band or Dusty Springfield and for 46 year old who know those by rote. I think it is quite a stunning achievement and this surpasses anything she has done thus far. Her contributions on her last album were great but there were a few duds on that record. Having said that I played that damn You are Free for a good 6 months before I put it on the shelf. I burnt out on that one just like I had on Belle and Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister and the entire Pavement Catalog.

The sonic wonder of this album and my current mental state are so congruitous it's almost freaky. When things align in such a way you must write about it so you'll remember that there is still the possiblity for epiphanies in one's usually-dull existence. The songs are so well constructed yet so free of the modern radio sheen that you realize you are getting something accessable but unconventional, a rarity these days. To get to some specifics: the piano playing, the background vocals, non-cheesy horns and all that gorgeous reverb create a world that we seldom hear anymore. To quote Marshall McLuhan: "the medium is the message". Some say this is her Adult Contemporary album. I say to them take another listen cause there's more depth and soul in this little cd than a thousand Norah Jones'.