Monday, June 30, 2008

i'm so young



i am laying in my bed, maybe drunk, maybe not, swooooooning hardcore over this song: i'm so young, by the students.



someone...anybody...please, write me into a 1950s doo-wop movie where i can dance to this song with the boy i'm going steady with and have a beehive maybe, or at least capri pants and red lipstick.

maybe we should just remake cry-baby. i'll be a drape.

danny and galen



danny weiss has new pictures up. i especially like this one of galen.

i look at you

i look
at you and i would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world


-frank o'hara

(found on personism)

brighton beach wins



although i was stranded out there in the rain for the bulk of yesterday, i cannot complain about brighton beach. did the heavens start pouring rain within five minutes of us disembarking the train? yes. did we spend a mere 45 minutes actually laying on the sand before we were forced to follow the russian crowds onto the boardwalk in escape from the approaching electrical storm? yes. but am i complaining? not at all. why? because brighton beach wins.

it wins because where else, other than 80s t.v. shows, do you see women flaunting the thong-ikini? it wins because where else can you find a real-life borat, only fatter, to halt you from his mini-van yelling, "whoa whoa whoa! sexxxy woooomen. ALRIGHT!" and lastly, it wins because you can get soaked and stranded on the main avenue wearing a backless bathing suit and shorts, still be welcomed into a fine dining establishment and be seated among long family-style tables with locals dressed in their sunday best, receive the most child-like treatment befit only for an imbecile by your waiter named boba, and come out unscathed and alive.

the primorski restaurant in brighton beach, everyone. eat like a winner.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

como un errante




i am a tad drunk, having just returned from a busy night's work at bacaro, where i capped the night off with what they call a venetian manhattan.

i am also a tad obsessed with this one song that is always on the playlist while i'm there. unfortunately, i couldn't find a viable link to the song that i could post here, meaning this may become somewhat fruitless. unless, you have such faith in my inebriated and impassioned postings that you will go through itunes and purchase this beautiful song. it's called "como un errante", performed by freddy fender, an influential tex-mexican musician.

please, please download the song. it reminds me of a 1950s school dance on a hot and humid evening, where girls and boys are too tired to socialize, so they just sway back and forth resting their weight on each other. it's an impeccable song. it also reminds me of cry-baby, which is a huge plus, since i am hopelessly addicted to that movie.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

just like heaven




stumbled upon this cover of just like heaven by the watson twins on yellowstereo. i've always thought it was an awesome, but never paid much attention to how sweetly melancholy it is. this cover does justice to the lyrics. i'm so in love with this.

"Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream" she said
"The one that makes me laugh" she said
And threw her arms around my neck
"Show me how you do it
And I promise you I promise that
I'll run away with you
I'll run away with you"

Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
And dreamed of all the different ways I had
To make her glow
"Why are you so far away?" she said
"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you
That I'm in love with you"

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Just like heaven


heavy water



am listening to heavy water/i'd rather be sleeping by portland band grouper. it reminds me of a dream sequence in a movie that you can't stop thinking about, something romantic and childlike. it also has this early 90s grungy sound that i find irresistible.

meanwhile, the new york city waterfalls are on view starting today. there are multiple locations all over the east river and a bunch of different vantage points along the water. one of the waterfalls is actually right by the restaurant i work at, bacaro, below the lower east side, at pier 35.

read more about olafur eliasson and the nyc waterfalls at nymag.

the waterfalls are on view daily from 7am-10pm, except tuesdays and thursdays 9am-10pm. they are lit up at night. check the official website for maps and directions.

Friday, June 20, 2008

a reprise on 'reprise'


finally saw reprise today. verdict: incredible. it's up there with diving bell on my list of most personally satisfying favorite films. i'll see it again. who with?


What I wanted to do with REPRISE wasx depict a very specific cultural environment, with characters that I know intimately. I wanted to make a film about friendships and aspirations that fail. I wanted to make a film that was as full of contrasts in its form as the lives of the characters in it. I wanted to use cinematic language that reflected the narrative culture in some ways typical of a gang of 23 year old men, full of anecdotes and digressions, searching and open, but with pain and disappointment lying just below the surface.

I wanted to show a group of young men, exposed and vulnerable, with all their dreams, their doubts and illusions, world champions and children at one and the same time. Without smoothing any of the rough edges I wanted to show their complex and often fearful relationships with the opposite sex. I wanted to "shoot inwards" and examine that particular type of contempt (often self-contempt) which is often--paradoxically enough--part of the glue that holds a gang of friends together.

What is intended to be different about REPRISE is the use of contrasts and contradictions in the material, the mixture of humor and seriousness. Everyday, lightweight situations are mixed with darker and more poetic scenes. Passages of tenderness alternate with frantic montages from the gang's past (or possibly their future?). REPRISE should seem as rich in ideas and enthusiasm as young men of that age are.

REPRISE is intended to be both light hearted and sad, amusing and melancholic. That's why its frame of reference extends from Punk rock to French poetry.


--Joachim Trier

Thursday, June 5, 2008

reprise

i am dying to see this movie, reprise by norwegian director joachim trier. anyone seen it yet?

The freewheeling passion of youth and the unpredictable perils of fate are both the subject and the breathtaking form of Joachim Trier’s lean and kinetic journey through friendship, love, madness and creativity: REPRISE. Trier viscerally captures the way life takes off at rocket-speed in the beginning of adulthood – and the what-ifs and why-nots that both drive and haunt us as the unbridled hopes of youth come to a screeching halt. The fast-moving story kicks off just as Phillip (ANDERS DANIELSON LIE) and Erik (ESPEN KLOUMAN-HOINER) stand at the mailbox, two cocky, grinning rebels full of 20 year-old verve and dreams, their whole lives hanging in the balance at this singular moment. Each is about to ship off his first novel to publishers, each is hoping to become a wildly influential "cult author," each has visions of a new life of non-stop intensity, brilliance, romance and nightclubbing. Fast-forward six months. These reveries have crashed, hard, into reality. Phillip, whose novel garnered instant acclaim and turned him into a mini-celebrity, has had a terrifying breakdown and is just about to be released from a psychiatric hospital. Erik, who never sold his novel, is still pecking away, determined to follow in the footsteps of his undying hero, a reclusive but idolized writing genius, no matter what it takes. REPRISE explores not just what happens to Phillip and Erik as they pick up the pieces but what might have happened to them, what they imagine could happen, what they fear will possibly happen and what they can’t see actually happening. Nimbly moving both backwards and forwards in time – via a dazzling mix of flashbacks, rapid-fire editing, philosophical voiceovers and comical flights of fancy — the film traces how Erik and Phillip arrived at this precipice where exuberant youth runs into the harsh light of day … and witnesses the emotionally gripping aftermath.