From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V7 #302 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Monday, January 7 2008 Volume 07 : Number 302 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] excellent (and cheap!) headphones [Scout82667@aol.com] Re: [loud-fans] excellent (and cheap!) headphones [Scout82667@aol.com] Re: [loud-fans] Meanwhile, over at the Multiplex... ["Stewart Mason" ] Re: [loud-fans] this one goes to 11 [Jenny Grover Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Meanwhile, over at the Multiplex... - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Sallitt" > 2. THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS (Bruce McDonald, Canada) Definitely one of the best movies I saw all year. She was already the buzz of the festival because of JUNO (which we still haven't gotten around to, now that I think of it), but Ellen Page so completely owned this movie that it was clear she was going to be a star. S ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:56:54 -0600 From: Jack Lippold Subject: [loud-fans] this one goes to 11 11. M COAST - "Say It In Slang" 10. APPLES IN STEREO - "New Magnetic Wonder" 9. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular 8. SHALINI - "The Surface and the Shine" 7. KRISTIN HERSH - "Learn to Sing Like a Star" 6. SHINS - "Wincing the Night Away" 5. PETER, BJORN & JOHN - "Writer's Block" 4. NEW PORNOGRAPHERS - "Challengers" 3. FIERY FURNACES - "Widow City" 2. MITCH EASTER - "Dynamico" 1. OF MONTREAL - "Hissing Fauna, You are the Destroyer" Notable carry-overs from '06 that were not mentioned then: LUCKY BISHOPS - "Unexpect the Expected" MATTHEW FRIEDBERGER - "Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School" Holy Grail of the Year: HALFNELSON: 1968 demos ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:44:44 -0500 From: Jenny Grover Subject: Re: [loud-fans] this one goes to 11 Jack Lippold wrote: > 11. M COAST - "Say It In Slang" > I got this as a promo and it is a fun album. I like that kitschy retro lounge kinda thang anyway. For those who don't know, this band used to be called Marshmallow Coast. Jen ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2008 17:29:44 -0800 (PST) From: zoom@muppetlabs.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Meanwhile, over at the Multiplex... > 1. The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang) Ah, the only Ming-liang cinematic feature I haven't seen. How does this stack up against his other work? > 4. Vanaja (Rajnesh Domalpalli) Liked this one too, though perhaps not as much as yourself. See below. Here's another Top Ten list from Village Voice affiliate Seattle Weekly: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-01-02/film/the-10-best-films-of-2007.php ...and of course I wouldn't be having fun if I didn't measure myself against the dominant paradigm (the Voice, in other words). My picks in order, followed by each pick's rank, total points, and total mentions in the Voice poll: 1. KILLER OF SHEEP (Charles Burnett, USA--completed 1977, first wide theatrical release 2007) 8 161 22 2. OFFSIDE (Jafar Panahi, Iran) 16 97 17 3. MY BROTHER'S WEDDING (Charles Burnett, USA--rough cut 1983, final edit and first wide theatrical release 2007) 87 (six-way tie) 8 1 4. THE BET COLLECTOR (Jeffrey Jeturian, Philippines) (did not chart) 5. ZODIAC (David Fincher, USA) 3 314 47 6. ZOO (Robinson Devor, USA) (did not chart) 7. NOTES ON A SCANDAL (Richard Eyre, UK) (did not chart) 8. PAPRIKA (Kon Satoshi, Japan) 48 27 6 9. BEFORE WE FALL IN LOVE AGAIN (James Lee, Malaysia) (did not chart) 10. CONTROL (Anton Corbijn, UK/USA/Australia/Japan) 43 (two-way tie) 31 6 Vague consensus on six, "Never Heard Of 'Em" on four. Sounds about right. I turned in an article on the Ten Best Asian/Asian-American movies of 2007 to "The Northwest Asian Weekly," which published it in somewhat fractured form. You'll find what I originally wrote as the .sig below. Next you'll tell me Air Supply covered Bruce Springsteen, Andy 1. "Offside" (Jafar Panahi, Iran) In the shadow of an Iran-Bahrain football (soccer) match played in Tehran, Panahi follows several young women who struggle to pass as men in order to watch the game. They fail, but their detention, and the never-ending banter with their captors, wryly sketches a monolithic society crumbling under the advancing streams of humanism, and football (soccer) lust. 2. "The Bet Collector" (Jeffrey Jeturian, Philippines) One woman in the belly of the whale that is Jueteng, the Philippines' national underground numbers racket. The woman, Gina Pareqo, rushes along the town's narrow corridors taking bets, joined in everybody's business, but separated from her family. The local constable berates her, threatens her with prison. Then he quietly asks to put some money down on the pad. 3. "Paprika" (Kon Satoshi, Japan) Still not quite sure what this riot of oneiric anime imagery adds up to. But everybody seems happy in the end, the detective cures his fear of movies (always a plus), a man's head bursts into scores of translucent blue butterflies, and we celebrate the essentialism of love, acceptance, and the shredding of shiny but shallow personas. 4. "Before We Fall In Love Again" (James Lee, Malaysia) Two men share a woman, then share their impressions with each other after the woman goes missing, then discover they didn't know her at all, either one, then decide to go look for her together. I'm not sure what happens at the end but James Lee holds you hypnotized in natural slow motion as he gets there (see "I Don't Want To Sleep Alone" below) and his sepia-tone cinematography (life through a dirty aquarium) assures you'll never look at color the same. If you go back to it. 5. "Climates" (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey) Two fantastically dashing and self-absorbed people making art out of ignoring each other. Will they ever waken to the big picture, i.e. each other? One of them admittedly, looks great in a skintight one-piece at the beach. 6. "I Don't Want To Sleep Alone" (Tsai Ming-liang, Malaysia/China/Taiwan/France/ Austria) A pool of seeped water in an abandoned factory. A homeless, beaten, man, meeting salvation in the grimmest of hallways. A woman pining for her comatose partner. Celestial slow motion making us feel every inhale and exhale, every breeze on every hair. Winking, blinking tiny lights on stalks. Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang returned, here, to his native Malaysia, but found his longstanding distinctive vision waiting as he landed. 7. "The Ferryman" (Chris Graham, New Zealand/UK) Grim, grotesque, and not blessed with "Sweeney Todd"'s press agent. Conundrum: what if you found yourself transported from your young, ripped, hunky young body into a corpulent, grizzled, swollen-livered body; and furthermore marooned on a derelict watercraft one long stretch from your old boat, your sweetheart, and the murderous demon inhabiting your rightful shell...? 8. "Vanaja" (Rajnesh Domalpalli, India/USA ) Mamatha Bhukya, rookie actress plucked (just barely) from a casting cattle call, dances beautifully, yet the real story lies in her resolve. She faces down mundane horrors with high-spirited conniving. 9. "Crossing The Line" (Daniel Gordon, UK/North Korea) Joe Dresnok is not a very nice person, and may have smoked and drank himself to death by the time you read this. But he's the last American Army deserter left alive in North Korea, and that leads to a story worth telling. 10. "Ten Centimeters Per Second" (Shinkai Makoto, Japan) Barely over an hour, and I agree with the "Weekly"'s Brian Miller who says the last ten minutes look more like a music video than anything else. But Shinkai masters light and hues, even in this realistic setting, to draw gasps. Forget his bothersome nickname "The New Miyazaki," much as that helps sell him; it ignores how distinctive his own work looks onscreen, bolstered by his themes of separation, isolation, and lonely trains. Maybe he still hasn't made a masterpiece. More reason to stay tuned. ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V7 #302 *******************************