This Saturday in Santa Monica there is an all night art festival. From the Site:

Glow will fill the hours between dusk to dawn with compelling, enchanting and effervescent sights and sounds situated in spaces and times that expand possibilities for where, how and when the public experiences contemporary art.

With the historic Santa Monica Pier and adjacent world-famous Santa Monica Beach as their space, artists were commissioned to create unique and inviting works of art that welcome the public to be both audience and actor for twelve celebratory hours. Inspired by the wildly successful Nuit Blanche in Paris, Glow takes its spirit from the fabled grunion that live in local waters and come ashore several times a year to spawn in the sand creating a momentary sensation of iridescence.

Sounds like something worth supporting to me and it could be a hell of a lot of fun to chill on the beach into the wee morning hours.

Anyone into it?

I may be 10 months late to the party but this video for Justice’s D.A.N.C.E is S.I.C.K. Always on the look out for great animation.

Good call Addy.

Only one VotW this W. Nicely embedded in their own page as well.

The hills behind Santa Barbara and Goleta are on fire and evacuations have come down over the last week for the hills very near where I used to live. But things seem to be looking better.

The fires have lead to some pretty spectacular photos – such as this one, posted on a NASA astronomy site.

Explanation: On July 5th, wandering planets, bright stars, and a young crescent Moon graced western skies after sunset. Arrayed along the solar system’s ecliptic plane, the three celestial beacons forming this skyscape’s eye-catching line-up with the Moon are Saturn (upper left), then Mars, and finally Regulus, alpha star of the constellation Leo. Of course planet Earth itself lies in the foreground, a scene dominated by the city lights of Santa Barbara, California. The smoky haze hanging over the city is from threatening wild fires still burning along the hill at the right. On Thursday evening, Saturn and Mars can be seen in a much closer pairing or conjunction, separated by only about 3/4 degree on the sky.

A few more photos here.
Photo credit: Dmitrii Zagorodnov – (Thx Peter)

Wow this out of control animation – shot on the streets of Buenos Aires – must have taken days and days. Extra props for the special attention to the soundtrack. Great find Addy.
Link

Sunset Junction is coming up August 23-24 and the lineup is definitely the best in years. Broken Social Scene (pictured), Cold War Kids, and The Black Keys will all be performing. For those of you not aware, this festival takes place on Sunset Blvd – a drunken stumble from my house (you can clearly hear the music and even see the fest from my balcony). Get your reservations in now for couch space if any out-of-towners want to join the festivities.

Hope you celebrated fortwo!

I know I have been pushing The Wackness a lot a lot – but here is more. The film finally drops in limited release in NY and LA on Thursday. Hopefully it will hit Seattle not long after. I should also mention that it just won the Audience Award at the LA Film Fest (with other top honors going to personal faves Man on Wire and Anvil).

So for some pure marketing and publicity gold, Sony has whipped up some awesome web shorts under the auspices of the main character starting a cable access show dubbed Luke’s Dope Show in his basement. They’re great. Check em out after the jump.

See the vids

We are 6 episodes into Italian Spiderman and the action is really heating up! This series has got to be one of my favorite web shorts ever done. It has lore, style, effects, and amazing dubbing. On top of all that it is frickin hilarious. Check out the Wiki for the whole story on the production. It is, of course, all available on YouTube, or just follow the jump below for the first 6 eps posted here (episode 3 is my fave).

Watch Italian Spiderman pussycat, pronto!

This animated documentary was the most interesting film I read about coming out of Cannes. From the sounds of things it tells a story in a way I have certainly never seen. From the Variety review:

Here, video-filmed interviews were used as visual references to create reportage focusing on one key historical event: Israel’s 1982 invasion of Beirut and, more specifically, the massacres of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila camps by the Christian Phalangist militia, which Folman and his fellow Israeli soldiers witnessed and failed to stop, that happened in the wake of Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel’s assassination.

Folman is effectively an onscreen (but animated) narrator and reporter here, whose interviews with other soldiers (voiced by the real people themselves, apart from two individuals) form the film’s narrative spine. Each interviewee’s story is illustrated, with often startling results.

I’ll be keeping my eye out for this one.

Site – Trailer

This British series is really one of the funniest I have seen in quite some time. The first season, made up of eight 10-minute shorts, is especially amazing. I have only watched one episode from the second season, (six 30 minute episodes) which changed up the format considerably and doesn’t seem quite as immediately ridiculous. Thanks to teh intarweb gawds as they seem to pretty much all be avail on my youtubes. More info on tehWiki. (I [heart] Imhotep and Lord Scotland!!)

More embedded for you browsing pleasure…

Friday funny is back! Here are a few things I have laughed at over the last 8 weeks. Some are too funny to throw in the mix but I’ll try to get through all this as quick as pie!

Watch som mutha fukin mo’!! (click for more WVotWs)

The LA Film Fest starts rolling today and runs through next weekend in Westwood and, new this year, at the Landmark. Featuring a number of Sundance faves and a few new indies, the rather select lineup is really quite good. It seems the documentary competition is especially interesting this year. Kudos to the folks behind the website for the fest – write-ups are packed with useful info on the film and filmmakers, links, and trailers. Here are some of the flicks I am most excited about. Check out the full post after the break for more notes.

Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe
David Choe is famous for his dirty style of art and graffiti that I have long been a fan of. This docu looks at his life and career and chronicles a recent stint in Japanese prison for vandalism. (Photo above)

Wonderful Town
An interesting looking Thai drama about a couple finding love in post tsunami Thailand.

Let the Right One in
Let me take this opportunity to most heartily recommend this Sundance flick, which I caught at the Seattle Fest a few weeks ago. It is a touching a brilliant coming of age story of a young boy who falls in love with the new girl next door in a Swedish suburb, only to discover she is a vampire! The story unfolds in a stark and subtle way that makes the eventual action so much more effective. I can’t say enough good things about this film. It has quickly joined The Wackness as one of my very favorite films of the year.

Encounters at the End of the World
Werner Herzog’s new docu examines the lives of people living in Antarctica and looks fantastic.

More, more, more!

New photos from my recent time in the N-dub are up on flickr. There are shots from my momma’s (like this shot of the Dancing Ballerina), shots from the Sasquatch Festival (also see Danz’s shots), shots from the city, and shots from the Rangerville party (and Abby has shots up on facebook – tho you probably gotta log in).

Lemme know what you think and thanks to everyone who made it such a great trip.

Reprise, a Norwegian film by director Joachim Trier, was probably my favorite film I saw in 2006 (it premiered at that year’s Toronto fest). Now it has finally come out in theaters (thx Miramax) and will be gone before you know it. I am planning to go see it tomorrow, Tuesday 6/17 at the Regency Fairfax (oh I’m back in LA btw). Anyone who wants to take this chance to see a truly innovative narrative on the big screen should come along.
Norwegian Trailer – US Trailer

Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges — including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America. I’ve never asked members of AlGore.com to contribute to a political campaign before, but this moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action.

No huge surprise that the spiritual leader of the Democratic Party is endorsing the presumptive democratic candidate – but I can’t miss the chance to put the Gore/Obama graphic on the site for eternity.

I’ll also take this opportunity to mention I just finished both of Obama’s books and really enjoyed them. I highly recommend both – but particularly Dreams from my Father (his first written in 1995) which tells his truly fascinating personal story. He has had quite a life. The latest book, The Audacity of Hope (written in 2006) lays out his wonderfully progressive yet pragmatic political platform that really has me excited for a potential Obama presidency.

Hello from Seattle!!

Close on the heels of my arrival in the NW is this years Seattle Int’l Film Festival. Welcome SIFF. The following are the highlights, according to me. I’m planning to check out a few flicks during the time I am in and out of the city (see below in bold). Lemme know if you wanna join or if you catch anything cool.

The Wackness
My favorite film at Sundance – this fantastic coming of age story follows a high schooler (Josh Peck) as he slangs dope to his shrink (Ben Kingsley) and gets his heart broken by the shrink’s daughter (Olivia Thirlby). All of this is set to a bumpin early 90s hip hop soundtrack. Check this flick out for sure! (It’ll be out in theaters this summer).

Man on Wire
This docu is definitely one of the year’s best. Unfolding like a crime thriller, it tells the story of a high wire walker as he plans and carries out his famous World Trade Center feat of 1974. I highly recommend this.

Ploy
I’m going to give Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang another shot after his disappointing Hidden Waves. Seeing this Weds. 5/28 at 9:30P.

Love and Honor (Bushi no Ichibun)
I was so excited when I saw that Yoji Yamada’s final chapter of his samurai trilogy would be at SIFF (I was lucky enough to catch the other two on the big screen) until I discovered both screenings are Memorial Day Weekend and I can’t make it!

Battle in Seattle
After premiering at SXSW, this dramatization of the 1999 Seattle WTO protests makes its hometown debut in a Gala screening. Will local audiences find it authentic? I am curious.

Continue to plenty more of my highlights of this year’s SIFF

Apologies for the quiet around here. Don’t go away forever – but don’t expect too much activity for the next few weeks. See you soon.

This great video on Obama’s true love – Basketball – is also available on HBO OnDemand (if you have such thing and prefer to watch on yer tube).