Another Philip K. Dick adaptation on the way. It's aA Scanner Darkly. I think I may have read it when I went through my PKD phase in highschool, but honestly, I can't remember. His novels all start to run together in my head when I think about them. He really didn't have that many original ideas. I think thats why he appeals to hollywood. He presents twist endings that don't really require that much intelligence and in fact become surprisingly predictable once you read enough of him. The digital cartoony effect in the trailer looks pretty neat but I still probably won't see it. Keanu Reeves is in it.

I have a message to Hollywood directors, Stop putting Keanu Reeves in movies! He is an amazingly terrible actor. Putting him in a film doesn't guarentee sales. He is not the reason the Matrix made cash. Special effects are the reason the Matrix was successful and they are the only reason anyone will go to see this film.

-Brandon

Wow, the Oscars really don't apply to me

http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2005/oscars
I browsed through the categories and saw 4 movies that I have seen out of the entire list: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Super Size Me; Collateral; and Spiderman 2.

The last two I'm surprised to even see on the list, although I can understand the sound nomination for Spiderman. I'm honestly not sure why Collateral made the list. Maybe editing makes sense, as it was a very pretty film, but other then that?

I would like to see Charlie Kaufman pick up an award for writing but since I haven't actually seen anything Eternal Sunshine is up against, I can't knowingly say he deserves it.

-Brandon

The Books are awesome

I've been listening to "Lemon of Pink" by The Books. This album is great. It's a really calming and mellow mixture of electronica and instruments. There are interspersed vocals that are more about the way the sound of the voice mixes with the music, then it is about the lyrics. Thats something I really like, too many musicians put the emphasis on voice and don't use the rest of the instruments to their full potential.

I recently read an interview with Prefuse 73 and he mentioned a planned collaboration with the Books. Sounds neat.

-Brandon

Update

Apparently the "Collage as Cultural Expression Conference" is part of a larger "Semester of Intelectual Property" which will feature speakers and debates discussing copyright law and art. In april there will be a Hip Hop week with musicians, as well as films. They'll end up showing the preview of "Copyright Criminals" that I linked before.
link

-Brandon

Copyright Criminals

My favorite copyleft promoters posted a link to a short film on sampling in music. It isn't incredibly informative, but it's cool seeing faces of artists I recognize. Prefuse 73, RJD2, and Qbert all give some commentary. Many more artists (mostly in hiphop) make an appearence as well. It was fun to watch, and it's not too long.

On the subject of illegal art (and once again linked from BoingBoing) there is going to be a conference here at the U of I on "Collage as a Cultural Practice." There are a few panels on copyright law and illegal art that I am very interested in checking out. I hope they don't interfere heavily with classes...
link

-Brandon

The Crackers

I'm sure by now most people have heard about the ridiculous 'Gates' in Central Park. Boing Boing made my day when they pointed out this silly little parody.

-Brandon

Sin City

When Violet first showed me the Sin City trailer, my first thought was "Looks pretty cool." I read some more about it and found that Frank Miller was heavily involved in the directing process, and my interests perked up. Then I found screen shots comparing comic panels to screen shots and I was amazed at the effort they were putting into staying true. I decided I was going to need to read the books.

Violet bought That Yellow Bastard and I sat down and read it straight through. It was awesome. Artwork was really cool, the atmosphere was dark, and the noir dialogue wasn't overdone. I rewatched the trailer, and I could pick out frames from the comic that had been adapted to the movie.

I got my hands on the rest of the comics, and I am now in the process of reading them. The more I read, the more I can't wait for the film.

-Brandon

Chaos Theory Soundtrack

A while back I mentioned that Amon Tobin was writing the soundtrack to the newest Splinter Cell Game. Well, apparently the soundtrack is out. You can listen to it at his site, but only one song is in mp3. The rest are Realmedia.

I wish I had the capability to listen to the 5.1 surround version of the soundtrack.

-Brandon

New Hitchikers trailer

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/104-8268415-7601517

There is finally a real Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy trailer out. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's definatly different then I imagined. It's hard to tell from just a trailer, but the humor seems far more sophmoric then I think of when I think about the book.

When I think back on it, the funniest parts of the book were generally told by the narrator. I liked the old BBC HHGG choice to make the narrator the actual guide. I wonder if they will do something similiar here, or if they fulfill my fear and cut out the narrator's voice all together.

-Brandon

Cancer Cure?

Obedient Virus

Apparently a group of scientists have altered a form of measles so that it only targets cancer cells. It seems to work on animals, but is still years from human testing. It's a very cool concept none the less.

-Brandon