Saturday, October 18, 2014

We Own the Night (2007)



A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hit men.

Excellent crime thriller with a straight plot, great cinematography and some good performances.

Maltin***: "Writer-director Gray offers another story of fate, writ large. Not as operatic as LITTLE ODESSA or THE YARDS but considerably more effective, with pulse-pounding action scenes."


Fabiana Mayer


ph: Gustavo Zylbersztajn

New Stuff: The New Yorker


(art: Tom Gauld)

Barbara Palvin


ph: James White

Blessed (2004)

 
 
A fertility clinic visit becomes an unfathomable nightmare for a woman who's impregnated with the devil's DNA.
 
A seemingly endless deja vu with hardly any suspense and an underchallenged cast.
 

Who's That Girl?


Art: Helen Stratton

Cobie Smulders


Rarely Heard: Negativland - Christianity Is Stupid



I came across Negativland in 1987 with their Escape From Noise which is still considered to be their masterpiece, and I agree. Negativland were founded in Califormia in 1979 and relased their first album a year later. At the time I learnt about the band, they were calling their music 'fun punk', but it's better described as experimental using cut-up techniques and integrating lots of ojet trouve sound bits which pretty much intrigued me (I guess nowadays it's called sampling). and their stance was always political and provocative - alone the title of this song can still get some people all fired up even today. And they even strived for controversy and notoriety. the "band issued a disinformation campaign linking their song “Christianity Is Stupid” as the impetus behind the mass murders committed by Minnesota teen David Brom. The band continued to be dogged by controversy with its 1991 EP release, U2, a satiric send-up of the Irish-rockers peppered with profane rants from disc jockey Casey Kasem. The release embroiled them in a convoluted legal battle with U2’s label, Island Records, who sued the group for copyright violation. Negativland’s defense was largely argued around the “fair use” clause of U.S. copyright law, a theme which -- along with their various legal troubles -- figured prominently on later albums. Into the new millennium, various members of the band continued to press for alternate means of publishing as advocates of the intellectual property license Creative Commons." (Allmusic.com)

Friday, October 17, 2014

Kati Nescher


ph: Christian MacDonald

A day in the life, Oct 16


A day in the life, Oct 16, Regenburg by night

Devon Windsor


ph: Amy Troost

From my vaults: Béatrice Dalle

Tatyana Ruban


ph: Thiemo Sander

New York


Michelle Reis


First Lines: Roberto Calasso - The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony


On a beach in Sidon a bull was aping a lover's coo.

Iggy Azalea


ph: Steven Gomillion & Dennis Leupold

Ursula Kunz' Calender


Ursula Kunz has published a wonderful calender with animal photos, and it can be purchased via Amazon.de and Ebay (which also offers a view of all 12 photos).

Lieve Dannau


Thursday, October 16, 2014

Rarely Heard: Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music





As a kid I used to sing a lot to myself creating imaginary songs, and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to create a music based on the sounds you could create by singing alone. And I didn't mean some kind of scat singing, but actually creating fully new sounds unheard of before. (This explains my fascination withe great singers). When I got Meredith Monk's Dolmen Music album in 1981 it was a great shock to me: this is exactly what I had imagined, and on the title piece she had deveolped the idea in a symphony-like composition to full perfection utilizing solo and ensemble singing and minmal, but very effective instrumentation. This is definitely one of my alltime favourite compositions, and I admire Meredith Monk and her work endlessly for it. Her music stands alone for itself and is hardly comparable to anything else you might ever hear. While researching this title I found this factoid: Hip hop artist DJ Shadow sampled Dolmen Music on the track "Midnight in a Perfect World" from his Endtroducing... album in 1995.

Iryna Rozhik


ph: Lado Alexi

Window faces


Regensburg, October 2014

Liza Yermalovich


ph: Hugo Arturi

A day in the life, Oct 15


A day in the life, Oct 15, at work

Kel Markey


ph: Jan Welters

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)



Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared, when he was young, and his path puts him on a collision course with his father's former partner.

A good and entertaining adaptation of the comic, but one wonders why the story must be told all over again.

Maltin**1/2: "Watchable but pointless near-remake of 2002's SPIDER-MAN ...Stone's role...is especially colorless and underwritten."

Anna de Rijk


ph: Bèla Adler & Salvador Fresneda

New Stuff: Cecil Taylor


9 albums in an inexpensive (and inattractive box), but it's worth it considering the music.

Natalie Portman


Proof (2005)

The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity.
There are many kinds of insanity, but the makers of this movie chose the enervating kind; and don't expect to learn anything about mathematics, they didn't either.

Maltin***: "David Auburn's challenging, provocative, and cerebral play (a Pulitzer Prize winner) is well translated to film by director Madden, with fine performances all around."


Who's That Girl?


Art: Eduard Swoboda

Amber Valletta


ph: Steven Klein

Window faces


Regensburg, October 2014

Lauren Visser


A day in the life, Oct 14


A day in the life, Oct 14, window display

Natalia Vodianova


From my vaults: Moe Dalitz

Eniko Mihalik


ph: Hasse Nielsen

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

New York


Codie Young


ph: Yelena Yemchuk

First Lines: Andrea De Carlo - Creamtrain


Late night at 11:20 I saw Los Angeles below me: the endless grid of luminous dots.

Brooke Nesbitt


Rarely Heard: Laughing Hands - Seven



I had heard the Laughing Hands for the very first time on the Bavarian radio show 'Zündfunk' in 1981. It was a fascinating and weird piece of electronica, I'd say it was like the Residents playimg a Kraftwerk song, and the listener was informed it was by an obscure Autralian band named Laughing Hands. That's 30 years ago, and I've been searching for that band ever since. In those days it was really not easy to get the music you were searching for. There was no internet, you lived in a provincial Bavarian town with record stores who hardly sold truly independent music, even in Munich the specialty stores didn't sell 'everything', the same goes for mail order companies. I never came across that Laughing Hands album. Stupidly I did come across a cd by a band of the same name and bought it, I guess it was the mid 90s, but unfortunately that was a nice, but otherwise not particularly world music combo from Denver, Colorado (who are still active, it seems). Over the years I was tremendously successful: I found out that there is a Japanese cd compiling both albums of the original Laughing Hands and I ordered it. And even better: that one title that has been lingering in my head since 1981 was on Youtube - but has been deleted since! More information was to be found as well: Laughing Hands were the first band of the Australian electronic composer Paul Schütze, a legend ever since, who has produced quite a few remarkable music ever since. So this is another artist I'll be looking into more in the near future.

Juliette Binoche


A day in the life, Oct 13


A day in the life, Oct 13, standing outside looking inside

Kate Moss irrégulière


From my vaults: Virginia Dale