Mister Lonely

First of all I'm already biased about this film. When I saw Gummo ,10 years ago, It blew my mind. I think its one of the best films ever made. Then there was A Crack Up at The Race Riots, a book that Harmony Korine wrote. It was just so unique and thought provoking. Putting forth taboo subjects and humorous anecdotes. Then Julien Donkey Boy came along with the same feeling but much more darker. I have been reading about the production of this movie for what 3 or 4 years now. Luckily I live in Japan, where its showing now.

So going into this film my expectations were really really high. And to be honest I was disappointed when I was watching it. But afterwards and a couple of days later, It all sunk in. I remember the first time I saw Gummo, I thought "What the fuck is this", but then it became the best movie I had ever seen.

Mister Lonely, is quite different from Gummo or Julien Donkey Boy. However if you read A Crack-up at the Race Riots you can see some connection. Anyway, we can see some maturity here in his work.

The is about these people who want to be something else than they are. During the film Michael Jackson narrates that we all are trying to better ourselves. He doesn’t want to feel like he’s just a part of the sheep herd. He wants to find his purpose in life.

In the beginning of the film Michael goes and performs at an old folks home. He screams “You can live forever!”

We are all human, we are all born from mothers and we all die like brothers. There are six billion people on this planet with billions more thoughts. We all lack something. We all feel the pain in some way or another.

A lot of people want to be famous. To feel like they are not a part of the sheep herd. Michael Jackson is just an imitation of Michael Jackson. But he gets to be famous in his mind for those moments he imitates Michael Jackson.

In this film all the famous celebrities like Diego Luna and Samantha Morton are playing impersonators of famous celebrities.

The other fake narrative that runs through is that of nuns in Brazil. One of the Nuns falls out of a plane during a food drop. We see her plummet from high in the sky all the way to the ground. However she manages to live. Werner Herzog plays the priest.

So Michael Jackson meets Marilyn to live on a commune of impersonators in Scotland. Sammy Davis Jr., Abraham Fucking LIncoln, The Queen, The pope, Little Red Riding Hood, Buckwheat, The Three Stooges, Shirley Temple, Madonna, Shirley Temple, and Charlie Chaplin live there. We see them tend to their sheep, ride horses, and ride tractors.

I don’t want to give it all away.

Theres a great scene where the stooges are killing all the sheep with shotguns. We don’t see the sheep get slaughtered. We can only imagine it, which I think is one of the great aspects of this film. In cinema we are so used to seeing everything without leaving anything to the imagination.

My other favorite part, so far, is when Charlie Chaplin leaves his wife in the sun to burn. “You let me burn!” she screams at him.

I have only seen this film once so far, but I can’t wait to see it again. The main reason why love Gummo, so much is that you can watch it out of order. The film is a collection of interesting charchters and great scenes. I think Mister Lonely is the same way, however it also functions as a traditional narrative, which I think is an advancement for Korine’s oeuvre.

Mr. Korine has really raised the bar. A lot of time has passed since Julien Donkey Boy, but I think its been worth the wait. I think this film destroys all other cinema of our present time. If you know any other better films please let me know. If you don’t agree with me, I’ll be happy to be a fool. Long live the old folks.

P.S. See the movie, and try to cop ANP quarterly issue with a fantastic interview with Harmony Korine by Aaron Rose and Ari Macropolis. And buy A Crack Up at the Race Riots, you won’t be disappointed unless of course you don’t like Tupac, Jessica Tandy, Tom Petty, and suicide notes

Empty Spaces

This is an empty space.

During the mornings and evenings, to some degree throughout the entire day, this space is passed by frenzied flocks of representatives of our corporate society. The masses migrate in an apocalyptic rush to and from Shinjuku Station, to and from their posts of occupation, to and from their homes. The city's participants pass this space by without a second glance, most without even a first.

But this space was not always empty.

He stood there, in that space, in the oasis of sun that snook through the buildings and pavement to reach this sub-terrainean walk way. His hair wretchedly dirty. His clothes showing years of city scavenging, hiding, surviving. Day after day, morning after morning, he stood in the same space, in the same pose; his back to the sun, his face towards the underground walkway, with a cigarette in his left hand and his right in his pocket. He carried a suitcase full of scavenged treasures; half-empty bag of potato chips, remnants of a bottle of tea, a piece of chocolate. The winter air frigid, his teeth shivered and rattled as he spoke, constantly, to himself, to the people passing by, to the nothingness that separated him from everything.

i pass this space with my usual expectation of his presence; a reality check for what this society is and what it does to those who can't keep up. i realize my own sense of disgust or fear towards those that society has deemed sub-human. In turn i feel a disgust towards myself, i feel a certain sadness for existence in general. i keep walking to my office.

But the other day this space was not home to this homeless man. Instead, it housed only the rotating red flashes of an ambulance's sirens.

This space is now empty.

cities within cities no.1

Frederic Wiseman Retrospective 2008

Athenee Francais have Frederic Wiseman Retrospective now.
http://www.athenee.net/culturalcenter/schedule/program/wiseman/frederickwiseman.html
I saw Deaf, and it's very interesting to me.
I think the way of how he makes documentary is opposite of Michael Moore's.
Wiseman has been filming American daily life by the kind of boring way, not dramatic,
but it left me impressive feeling. And every cut is very cool.
I want to know how americans like you guys feel from those.

Dave Chappelle "Sesame Street"

Primal Scream "Kill All Hippies"

Shitdisco "Ok"

My Milk Is Your Shit

The 10 Most Physically Modified People in the World

http://damncoolpics.blogspot.com/2007/08/top-10-physically-modified-people-in.html

Cao Fei

I went to the UBS art exhibit at The Mori Art Museum yesterday. It was a nice exhibit spanning about 60 years of art around various themes and mediums. One of the most inspiring pieces, was that by Cao Fei . The piece is called "Whose Utopia?" The video is 3 parts. The first part documents the manufacturing of light bulbs. The second part documents the workers. And the third part shows some of the workers living out their dreams inside the factory. We see some people dancing and playing the guitar during working hours.
We live in a world of consumption, where goods are made all around the world. These goods are made by people, yet when would you ever think that someone who dreamed of being a dancer helped make the light bulb in your ceiling?

Alleged Airplane Hijacker

from the Japan Times Sunday February 10th,2008

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand. (AFP-Jiji) A 33-year-old Somali refugee appeared in a New Zealand court Saturday on charges of attempting to hijack a small passenger plane and stabbing its pilots, reports said.

Asha Ali Abdille was remanded in custody for a psychiatric examination after her court appearance on charges of injuring with intent and trying to take over the plane during a flight on New Zealand's South Island on Friday.

Abdille, the first person to face a hijacking charge in New Zealand, allegedly stabbed two pilots with a knife during the midair attack on a short Air National flight from the town of Blenheim to Christchurch.

She allegedly demanded the pilots fly to Australia and also claimed she had bombs on board, though military bomb disposal experts did not find the explosive devices on the plane, police have said.

The wounded pilots managed to safely land the 19 seater despite Abdille trying to grab the controls. She was arrested at the airport.

Abdille has been described as having a history of battles with authorities sating back to her arrival in New Zealand from a refugee camp as a 19-year-old in 1994.

Current Foreign Minister Winston Peters used parliamentary privilege that same year, when Abdille tried to bring 14 family members into the country, to reveal that she had several convictions.

Peters told Parliament she had also threatened to pour gasoline on a Red Cross staff member and had thrown a bucket of feces over a policeman since arriving in New Zealand.

Abdille told media at the time her actions were a result of trauma that she had suffered in the past, including being raped and beaten during the three years she spent in a Kenyan refugee camp.

The midair drama has led to calls for tighter air security measures in New Zealand where screening of carry-on-luggage is carried out only on domestic flights with more than 90 passengers.

Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven said that was in line with overseas practice and the government would wait until recieving reports into the alleged hijacking before wider security measures would be considered.

However, opposition Member of Parliament Ron Mark said the attack demonstrated how a serious incident could arise from a lack of screening procedures.

"Its a hell of a lot more inconvenient to have an aircraft go through the roof of your house, or have the whole airport shut down just because of the lack of screening at an airport in Blenheim," he told The New Zealand Herald.

One of the pilots recieved severe cuts to his hand and underwent surgery, while his co-pilot was treated at hospital for a foot injury and discharged.

The other six passengers on board were evacuated safely. One suffered a minor hand injury in the incident.

Animal Collective and La Blogotheque

Animal Collective, here is amazing, and aslo La Blogotheque. read their story and check out there web page http://www.blogotheque.net/takeawayshows/

About Takeawayshow.com

You meet a band. You take them outside, in the streets, and ask them to play there, shoot the movie in one unique shot, whatever happens. Those are the Take-Away Shows, the weekly Video podcast from french weblog La Blogothèque.


The Take Away Shows are a Video Podcast produced by the french weblog La Blogothèque. Every week, we give away a session, shot with a band, in an unusual, urban environment.

Sessions are always filmed as a unique shot, without any cut, recorded live. We usually haven’t much time to record them, so the groups have to be spontaneous, to improvise, play with what they have with them, and with their environment, whether there’s a public or not.

The Take Away Shows are produced by La Blogothèque, based on an original idea by Chryde and Vincent Moon. They are directed by Vincent Moon, and supported by Kidam, who lends us the cameras and shot some of the sessions.

Our partner for the english version is the wonderful american site Daytrotter, who gives away twice week incredible audio sessions from the bands they love. Go and check their site !

Sufjan Stevens

I've never gotten into his songs before, but I like this one without any singing. And maybe its the video looks really rad.