Tuesday 28 August 2007

Films & Things

Hello!

A quiet day at work means i'm thoroughly bored and thinking about various things not strictly (or in any way) work related. Mainly films.

We've recently seen the latest Bruce Willis Die Hard film, which was great. I can't recommend it highly enough. There's barely any real plot to speak of, but there's action sequences involving pretty much every kind of vehicle you can imagine. And yes, he does say Yippee-Ki-Yay Motherfucker.

We also saw the most recent Bourne film, which is also really quite good. As with the other Bourne films there's a lot of great scenes (fighting assassins with a book is a goodie) and some slightly preposterous moments (Sneaking into the CIA with a "look over there!" style ruse) but it's well worth watching overall.

THEN, last night we saw my favourite film I've seen recently, Knocked Up. Emminently quotable, dumb but with a heart, it's a really great film. The basic premise is exactly that, basic... a fat stoner guy gets a blond hottie pregnant and they deal with the fallout. It's what happens in and amongst them and the supporting cast that make this film worth seeing. All the characters are interesting, the storyline has something more of an ensemble feel than your usual rom com and it lets you take the rough with the smooth. So you see them falling in love, but you also see the unhappy marriage of her sister play out. It's interesting and more intelligent than the adverts would have you believe and also very funny.

Other things I've been enjoying recently include:
  • Tribe with Bruce Parry - just AMAZING, even if (like me) you don't go in for "National Geographic" style programming usually
  • Heroes - Who isn't? And don't you just love Hiro?! He's so cute!
  • Trauma Centre on the Wii - Anders, I'm going to turn our living room into an O.R!
  • Wollaton Park - Lovely when the sun's out!
  • Birthday compilation CDs made by friends - Thanks so much Ang & James, Tez and Han & Pete! They're brilliant!
  • Clips of Tom Whalley (NotinNottingham's finest) reporting for BBC Nottingham from some country show... "Look out for an escaped falcon, don't approach it, just notify the authorities"... brilliant!


Love Becky
x

P.S. We Supernight-folk are away for a week from (early) tomorrow morning, loving the Portuguese sunshine. Then, we'll be celebrating Anders' 30th on Saturday the 8th with a crawl of pubs close to our house! Brilliant!

Monday 20 August 2007

Jeffrey & Jack Lewis need you!

Jeffrey & Jack Lewis (who I'm a big fan of and who you can check out here: http://www.myspace.com/jefflewisband) are about to tour and are asking for film clips to accompany them onstage, read on...

---------

WE NEED YOUR SHORT FILM CLIPS! (No longer than 2 minutes - on a disc or as an email attachment)

Hi all! The Jeffrey Lewis Band plans to compile about 50 minutes worth of short clips of interesting footage into a montage film of images which will be projected while we perform on our next tour, and we need you to send footage to us! Anything of short duration, from a single image to a 30 second clip, but no longer than two minutes. If 100 people send us 30 second clips it'd be perfect. We'll be "splicing" it all together via the iMovie program.

Please send clips to us either via email attachments (to
JeffLewisBand@Gmail.com ) or on a disc to Jeff Lewis, P.O . Box 282, Cooper Station, NY, NY 10276, USA.

The following file formats should be fine: .avi .mov .mpg
Please do not send the following types of files: .mp4 .3gp .wmv

And finally, someone might choose to send a drawing or a photo - should definitely be in
.jpg and not too huge.

What we need:
Political rallies,
Old black and white footage of anything,
60s-style Psychedelic blobs or patterns,
Factory workers,
Animation clips of anything,
Time-elapse footage of anything,
Obsolete advertisements,
Home-made science fiction,
Home-made advertisements,
Nature footage,
Industrial wastelands,
Soldiers,
blurry movement,
sped-up footage of anything,
slowed-down footage of anything,
Art installations or people making art,
Or ANYthing interesting... Or even anything UNinteresting!

Due to the nature of the project we won't really be able to credit people, but we won't be selling this stuff, just projecting it behind us while we play. If you want to include your name and street mailing address along with the disc or attachment you send, I promise to mail an autographed copy of my brand new comic book Fuff # 6 to everybody who sends us usable footage. BUT we must receive your stuff by August 31st if it is to be included!

THANK YOU!!

Jeffrey Lewis & co.

---------------

SO, for everyone who makes animations, films, has old footage from the sixties and so on, send your stuff to Jeffrey Lewis & get it seen all over as part of his tour. If you haven't heard or seen him then you should definitely check him out. His "Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song" (based on a Leonard Cohen tune) is a particular favourite of mine and Becky's.

Have a great day!

Anders
x

Monday 13 August 2007

Party highlights and lowlights...

I know Anders has already said it, but THANKS for coming to our party! We had a great time!

So, I wanted to share with you a couple of the highlights and lowlights of my evening:

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Dancing around (wildly) to Sound and Vision by David Bowie (thanks Nick, I love that song!)
- Enjoying a bit of acoustic music in the caves (thanks to ALL the acoustic acts)
- Watching the NotinNottingham boys enjoying some NiN-branded Birthday cake (courtesy of Asda)
- Getting so many great entries for the Make Your Own Bunting competition
- Seeing the most random entry to the competition which simply stated "Louie pukes bloob" on a torn piece of green bunting. I voted for that to win, but I was shouted down on a "lack of artistic merit" point.

LOWLIGHTS:

- Having some fat guy in a shirt and tie come in the room just after we finished decorating, looking at the bunting-strewn ceiling and saying... "I'm curious..... is that a new ceiling?" ...WHAT?! A new ceiling?!?! What about the beautiful, glorious handmade artist's bunting we just spent an hour and a half putting up?! Philistine...
- Hearing the first strains of SuSuSuSussudio by Phil Collins come out of the speakers while Tom and Spencer from NotinNottingham were DJing. This wasn't the lowlight (although it wasn't a high point either!), the lowlight was having some guy walk through the room and shout "Tune!" thereby proving my "anti-Phil Collins, everybody hates him" rant wrong. I hate being wrong.
- Post-party hangover. Always.

Anyhow, hope you had as much fun as I did?

Love Becky

x

Sunday 12 August 2007

New Michel Gondry film!

Check out the trailer for the new Michel Gondry film.

I read about this a lil' while ago and couldn't wait.
I won't give anything away here except to say it's got Jack Black AND the mighty Mos Def in it.

BRILLIANT!

Enjoy...


x anders

---

Sorry to hijack your post Anders, but I just wanted to add a couple of links in for people who might not know Michel Gondry's work. He's a genius, check these out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWHyNnsjsJQ&mode=related&search= - White Stripes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMpsnDxNbqQ&mode=related&search= - Daft Punk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYOQN37wst4 - Beck

If you can get hold of the DVD compilation of his work then do, it's great!

Becky
x

Thursday 9 August 2007

Party tomorrow!

In case you haven't heard, we're partying tomorrow at Loggerheads from about 9 o'clock and it would be lovely if you came along!

It's looking like it will be a really good one, with some of our friends and favourite acts playing acoustic spots in the caves and a riot of DJs in the main room.

PLUS I just spoke to one of the boys at Loggerheads and there will be a brand new cocktail menu for partygoers to road test. All that and it's my birthday (oh ok it's next week, but I'll be celebrating tomorrow)!

If you don't know where Loggerheads is go here
http://www.theloggerheads.co.uk/ and then come to the party!

Love Becky
x


---
THANKS!

I just wanted to thank everyone that came along to the party, played tunes (on the decks or in the caves), took part in the bunting competition and generally made it a great night.

A big Thanks to everyone at Loggerheads. And congratulations to Rob who won took away the goody bag for his bunting entry.

CHEERS EVERYONE!
x anders

Thursday 2 August 2007

Every town has its ups and downs..?

Our good friends at Not in Nottingham are gathering tunes for their next podcast.
If you're in a band, or know of any brilliant musicians that aren't getting the exposure they deserve, get in touch - tom@notinnottingham.com.

If you've yet to check out the podcast then just click the link above and enjoy the best hour you can ever spend with a bunch of complete strangers. Unless you're into dogging that is, in which case it's the second best hour...!

Ta very much
anders x