Check out this video for “Humdrum Town” by Theophilus London. He’s going to be playing at the Mill on May 4 with Savoir Adore…. so downloand his mixtape here and start getting excited.
Here’s a cute, kinda funny short film I found. It’s called “Babe” and it centers around two recently broken up yuppies. On the surface, there’s much to love: some Chet Baker and Nat King Cole songs, an argument over who “gets the Prius” - both amidst the backdrop of a drab, black and white diner.
I’d say its trying to self depreciatingly poke fun at the urban, liberal, mildly hip twentysomethings who can often get way too caught up in themselves – basically the exact same demographic who would read a blog called “All Plaid Out”, which is where I found the film. (Did I just implicate myself?) 
David Lynch’s funny take on IPhone/IPod advertising. Note the music. What a silly goose.
Something to check out during the end of break: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The 1966 film is based on a play written by Edward Albee, who briefly attended our very own Trinity College in 1946, but was expelled (I think for failing too many classes).
I read the play first in high school and it became one of my favorites. The story centers on two professors and their wives—even if this doesn’t immediately grab you, the characters are rumored to be based on Trinity faculty, so that gives it a whole new element. The film was highly acclaimed; all four main actors were nominated for Oscars (Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis won for best actress and best actress in a supporting role). All in all the film was nominated for thirteen Oscars, and won five categories.
With its controversy and memorable portrayal of complicated relationships, Albee’s play has been referenced many times. My personal favorites can be found in lyrics from Of Montreal’s “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal” as well as in an episode of Gilmore Girls. Read the play and check out the film’s page on Wikipedia for a longer list of references you might recognize.
I just watched a promotional copy of We Love You, a documentary by New Jersey Pictures Productions from three-time Academy Award Nominated Producer Steve Kalafer and Director Jonathan Kalafer. I got a hold of it because Steve happens to be a longtime friend of my family’s.
The Rainbow Family holds gatherings each year in a democratically-selected national park somewhere in the U.S. (there are plenty of other gatherings, but I suppose this one gathering is as official as it can be unofficially be). These gatherings are the members’ attempts to emphasize togetherness with Mother Earth and your fellow Brothers and Sisters with whom she is shared. They focus on community, music, and prayer, all an attempt to show that world peace is in fact possible.
The film, which was unbelievably moving by the way, attempts to understand and communicate the ins and outs of the Rainbow-way by compiling interviews and scenes captured at the 2008 Rainbow Gathering in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. There’s really no way to describe it without being having been there I’m guessing, but I’m sure this documentary is as close as anyone has ever gotten.
I decided to do a little research and came across a whole archive of mp3’s of live music recorded at Rainbow Gatherings over the years, and like the film, these recordings are pretty magical; they’re completely unedited and don’t attempt to filter out background noise, so if you’re wearing some sweet headphones, it really feels like you’re there.
Above, I’ve posted a song called “So The Story Goes” by a man the archive refers to as Hawker - I can’t really find any further information on him, and I’m not sure if he’s the man with the guitar or the man with the microphone. It was recorded at the Rainbow Gathering of 1998 held at Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona and the track is just beautiful.
Click here to go visit the archives of Rainbow music.
Click here to visit the We Love You website.
I’ve wanted to go to Rainbow for a while, and word on the street is that it’s coming to the East Coast this year. Who’s down?
there are few who’d deny, at what he does he is the best
The extensive exhibition on the work of film mastermind Tim Burton has been open at the MOMA for a couple of weeks now, and it’s giving this Boston girl yet another excuse to head to NYC over winter break. He’s captivated my imagination since the first time I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas as a little girl at my uncle’s house, and just in case you haven’t heard… Burton has (once again) collaborated with the beautiful and eccentric (Bellatrix!) Helena Bonham Carter and (surprise) Johnny Depp, as well as Anne Hathaway, to bring us his version of Alice in Wonderland. You can watch the trailer here. I sense that we should expect a splattering of Big Fish-style, enchanting scenery and Depp’s Willy Wonka-perfected strangeness that makes him all the more delicious (see him as the Mad Hatter below) even when covered in eighteen pounds of stage makeup… Anyway, how about we schedule a Mill field trip for March 5, 2010?
Movies at the Mill presents ANNIE HALL
Come to the Mill on WEDNESDAY AT 7:30 (not 8PM) for Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.
The film, seen as a turning point in Allen’s career, is one of the most influential films of the 70s. Take a break from your finals studying and enjoy a good classic movie!
(this will be the last movie for the semester, but we will be back in the spring!)
Cool remix of Alice in Wonderland— this guy has taken only sounds and images from the movie to create a pretty dancey montage. There’s more on youtube, including an awesome mix of Sword and the Stone. Imagine this projected on the wall of a euro disco…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVMTwxLY7b4
So one of the things I love most about The Mill blog is how fresh it is - always giving me some new songs, videos, art, blogs, etc. that I may otherwise miss.
That being said, I’m going to do something a little different with my first post. I’m throwing it back to 1958, specifically the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.
For the past few months, I’ve watched these two clips of Louis Armstong and Dinah Washington over and over again. They come from a 71 minute-long documentary of the festival by Bert Stern called “Jazz On A Summer’s Day”. I was compelled enough by them that I recently downloaded the film from iTunes, and its pretty spectacular.
Along with festival itself, there are some candid scenes of American life on a hot mid-summer day in the coastal New England city: a T-Bird convertible recklessly swerving down an ocean-swept road, a man and woman dancing and drinking on a roof, four men playing impromptu jazz on a children’s merry-go-round.
I love the songs and performances, especially the end of Dinah Washington’s piece. But what really gets me is the general feeling of it all - the audience, the performers, the clothes, the movements, the carefree, cool, jazzy attitudes on everyone’s faces and in their dancing. Its a bit sad because this is one of those moments in history that is absolutely impossible to recreate.
Whenever I drive back home to Rhode Island, I secretly wish I could cross the Newport Bridge, breeze up Bellevue Avenue, and pull into the Newport Casino and suddenly I’d be back in 1958, feeling the salty breezes coming off Narragansett Bay and swaying slowly without a care in the world to Miles, Dinah, and Louis.
¡Vuelve Pedro!
Pedro Almodovar, director of Spanish classics Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Talk to Her and most recently Volver, is coming out with a new film next month.
Broken Embraces is the story of four lovers in Madrid. While the movie has many of the standard Almodovar elements (most attractive being the return of Penelope Cruz), it is also his first attempt at creating a noir-style film.
Always the lady’s man, Almodovar has crafted a killer soundtrack featuring music from Cat Power and Uffie
Check the trailer here…
