February 20 V-Log

Cole Smithey on February 26, 2009 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CheUnderground Band Reunion Shout-Out

Pop the pimples and set the controls for the heart of the sun: The Che Underground’s quarter-century reunion looms ever larger — so large, in fact, that one night just couldn’t contain it.

Now scheduled for May 29 and 30 at Tim Mays’ legendary Casbah Club in San Diego, the event will comprise:

Friday, May 29:
The Answers
The Gay Dennys
(featuring members of the Tell-Tale Hearts and the Crawdaddys)
Manual Scan
Everybody Violet

Saturday, May 30:
Hair Theatre
Noise 292
The Wallflowers
The Mirrors
DJ P-Man

Check out the action at CheUnderground.com

Cole Smithey on February 26, 2009 in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sally Jupiter: Watchmen

Cole Smithey on February 21, 2009 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Silk Spectre: Watchmen

Cole Smithey on February 21, 2009 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 13 V-Log

Cole Smithey on February 20, 2009 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New Watchmen Photography Book by Clay Enos

Cole Smithey on February 18, 2009 in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

She & Him Smack Down Joaquin Phoenix

While Joaquin Phoenix usurps his publicity tour for "Two Lovers" by mumbling about some doomed hip-hop project that Casey Affleck insists on making an equally doomed documentary about, humble Zooey (pronounced Zoe) Deschanel and her "She & Him" bandmate M. Ward made an impressive appearance on Elvis Costello's show last week. It's a perfect example of promising less and delivering more. From the look and sound of "She & Him," Deschanel and Ward are real muscians whose lyrical music speaks for itself.

It's too late for Joaquin to rally any respect by letting his music speak for him, and therein lies what amounts to a big smack-down by an unassuming duo called "She & Him." If you didn't know Zooey could sing as well as she acts, I highly reccommed checking out her recordings and videos. Rock on Zooey.

Cole Smithey on February 18, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Watchmen

Cole Smithey on February 17, 2009 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 6 - V-Log

Cole Smithey on February 12, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Vindication

I bought Elvis Costello's "My Aim is True" when I was fifteen, living in Richmond, Virginia, when I was going to an alternative high school where musicians like Aimee Mann, Ira Marlowe, Jimi Gore, and a bunch of other musicians, hatched plans to take over the music business. I never missed buying every album Costello put out since. 

By the time I saw Elvis for the first time in Blacksburg in February of '81 on the "English Mugs Tour," with Squeeze performing opening duties, he was already onto his fifth album ("Trust") and I sensed that he would be around for a very long time. My love of Costello's music and my faith in his musical ambitions and depth of creativity has met with fierce resistance and insults from certain music teachers that I've studied with over the years, but watching the progress of his terrific music and interview show on the Sundance Channel "Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..." puts his many gifts out there for all to see. From punk rock icon to modern-day Duke Ellington, Elvis Costello is a 21st century maestro on a tear. Every episode of his show is an inestimable lesson in music. I really do feel vindicated.

Cole Smithey on February 8, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 30 V-Log

Cole Smithey on February 6, 2009 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

47TH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

2009 SELECTION COMMITTEE AND SIDEBARS ANNOUNCED

The Film Society’s premiere festival returns to Alice Tully Hall:

Sept. 25 – Oct. 11

NEW YORK—The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today (2/4/09) that the New York Film Festival will return to its traditional home, the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall, for its 47th edition, Sept. 25 – Oct. 11. This year’s selection committee also welcomes a new member as film critic Melissa Anderson joins The Film Society’s Richard Peña and Kent Jones and critics Scott Foundas and J. Hoberman in choosing the approximately two-dozen features that will make up the 2009 slate.

“Melissa Anderson is one of the most perceptive critics writing in America today,” says Peña, program director at The Film Society and New York Film Festival selection committee chairman. “She will, I’m sure, be invaluable to the New York Film Festival.”

Anderson has been a film critic in New York since 2000, when she began writing regularly for The Village Voice. She was film editor and a film critic at Time Out New York from November 2005 to January 2009. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and a frequent contributor to Film Comment magazine.

“The New York Film Festival has always been—and will always be—the premiere cinema event of our city, one where I’ve had some of my most fantastic movie-going experiences,” says Anderson, who is introducing a Saturday, Feb. 28, screening of Robert Aldrich’s “The Killing of Sister George” during the Film Society’s Film Comment Selects series. “It’s a true honor to serve on the selection committee.”

She replaces Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum, who completed her five-year term on the selection committee last year.

Additionally, the 47th New York Film Festival will mark the 60th year of the People’s Republic of China with the first major U.S. retrospective of the remarkable cinema produced during the so-called Seventeen Years. The period, between establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 and the beginnings of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, was a time of intense political and aesthetic ferment when the arts, film in particular, were searching for a relevant and influential voice within the newly Socialist society.

Also scheduled for the 2009 New York Film Festival is an expansive tribute to Hindi director, producer, and actor Guru Dutt, frequently credited with ushering in the golden era of Indian cinema in the 1950s and ’60s. These sidebars will screen during the festival at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.

Presented by The Film Society, the 17-day New York Film Festival presents a select perspective on the state of contemporary cinema by handpicking the best new works by both emerging talents and internationally recognized artists. All filmmakers regardless of experience are invited to submit work. Visit filmlinc.com for more information. This year’s slate will be announced in early September.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Advancing this mandate today, The Film Society hosts two distinguished festivals—The New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films—as well as the annual Gala Tribute and a year-round calendar of programming at its Walter Reade Theater. It also offers definitive examinations of essential films and artists to a worldwide audience through Film Comment magazine.
 
The Film Society of Lincoln Center is located at 165 West 65th St. between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway.

Cole Smithey on February 4, 2009 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack