HAPPY HALLOWEENSDAY

It was funny last year, it's funny this year. Happy Halloween, friends.

BQE

In light of my most recent post on The Dead Chinchilla, entitled "BQE,"I thought I would share this little video from Pitchfork. It's a rehearsal of Sufjan Stevens' "BQE," which will premiere in part this Sunday on David Garland's "Spinning on Air" radio show.

Wes

It might be a little canny, but I like it. Good take on an old idea. Oh, and Wes Anderson is in it.

Awwwwwwww FUCK YEAH!

Yeah! YEAH! YEAHH!!!!!!!! FUCK, GOD YES!!! Man, all these young kids, they're SO GOOD at stuff nowadays. This takes me back to my hair-metal days... Jesus, this kid makes me want to freak out and throw shit out my window. In a good way.

Umbarella

Ok. So I hate this song. But this video (and the kids responsible) is FUCKING INCREDIBLE.


Umbrella - Rihanna (lip dub in High Definition) from TP CMM on Vimeo.

BoH

How can I love the Band of Horses so much, and yet still I don't think a single one of their videos is anywhere near as good as their songs? And they ALWAYS do videos for the best ones!!!

(Here is a link if the embedded video below doesn't work... I've had problems viewing it with my browser.)

Ingo

I saw this guy's work at the Smithsonian a while back, and I'm intending to go again a couple of weekends from now. I figured I should share him with you.

http://ingomaurer.cooperhewitt.org/

William Hundley

This guy does some very interesting photography. It's almost surrealistic, but I enjoy it because it is ultimately purely documentary photography or portraiture. No effects or anything special.

http://www.williamhundley.com/stream.html

Hotel Chevalier

If you go into iTunes and search for "Hotel Chevalier," you'll uncover a short film by that title. It is a teaser, part 1 of the Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson's upcoming feature. This short stars Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman.

What begins as a typically Wes Anderson-esque film rapidly spirals into a drama with characters and dialog that rival Mike Nichols (and I'm not just saying that because Natalie Portman was in Closer). Anderson's two-dimensional walking-idiosyncrasies give way to two characters with very deep hurt, the kind that comes with a long history of emotional pain with someone, and the relationship and all it entails reads on their faces the moment their eyes meet and Natalie Portman nestles her head next to his.

Their dialog has equal hyper-familiarity, and they do absolutely nothing to curb their blunt honesty. One of Jason Schwartzman's lines stopped me dead in my tracks, and my eyes widened. I could not believe that any line written by Wes would not be draped in velvety sheets of facade and contrivance (facade and contrivance that I deeply enjoy, mind you).

The film is only 12:58, and in that short time Anderson manages to break himself out of a pattern of filmmaking, weaving a story and people that are truly remarkable and to whom I can easily relate, creating a beautifully orchestrated vignette that gives me newfound hope for the quality of The Darjeeling Limited.

The entire short film is available on iTunes for free download. Prepare to be heartbroken. The good kind.