World Wide Wangtag:worldwidewang.org,2007-08-22://12009-11-10T00:15:51ZSurfing the Web so you don't have to.Movable Type Publishing Platform 4.01-beta1Yang Yangtag:worldwidewang.org,2009://1.4562009-11-09T23:19:32Z2009-11-10T00:15:51ZAgain, its been ages. But recent events has stirred a Taiwanese culture Renaissance in me. So i felt a great need to write something... beyond 140 characters.So last night i went to the Taiwan film night festival thing brought on...melchoir So last night i went to the Taiwan film night festival thing brought on by the SF Film Org. It was a pretty crappy little fest, in which one of the most crowded film was on a broken DVD and we got refunds for. But the highlight of the evening is when i saw this film:
Yang Yang Trailer:
Let's just say, it frakkin blew my mind. I'm luving it and easily putting it in my top 5 movie of the yr. My movie going companion hated the film. So i can't say everyone will like this film, but somehow, i luved it.
The gist of the film is about a young women dealing with life, her step sister, love, etc. The whole movie existed in some weird intimate space shot by Jake Pollock (a cinematographer that seems to do a lot of chinese films.) whom is closely becoming a the next Christopher Doyle for me. Pollack decided to do this film in a hand-held only style, which leads to the intimate framing of conversations & scenes. I also rather like the lighting in this movie. Asian cities tend to have this huge contrast in lighting, and bluish tint brought on by most of the florescent lights that illuminate the city (Example). This movie uses a bunch of back lite shots which really illustrated the contrast in both day and night shots.
But my favorite thing was the audio, or the lack of it. The only distinct audio sound in the whole movie was the sound of breathing. A theme used in many of the scenes that involved running, fighting, dancing and sex. Those scenes just happened to b some of the best non-verbal scene since Lust, Caution's infamous sex scene. I swear, i demanded a cigarette after this one dance scene... Also the only soundtrack to the movie was some beautiful post-rock tracks composed by a Giong Lim, whom i shall be searching for right now.
All this still wasn't enough to make this movie the best thing i've seen this yr. There was some great acting. I'm always surprised by the actor/actress from Taiwan. I've seen many many Taiwan films, and as long as they arent a teen drama, the indie movie acting are always awesome. Yang Yang's main star is Sandrine Pinna a french/taiwanese actress, whom seems to have been in many TW indie films. Here's an interview from her. She seems rather ditzy in the interview, idk if that's the real her, or she is doing the same thing in does in the movie... scary.
Also after truly enjoying this film, i came to an odd theory that i seem to grok these Taiwanese films a lot easier than say, an Italian film. idk, is becuz of the background? or my asian upbringing? or deep down, this IS the culture of my people?
The other big thing that sparked this great interest in Taiwanese culture is the current music Taiwanese indie music scene. First of, i just saw one of my fav, TW indie bands, WonFu @ the Cafe Du Nord a few weeks back. Marking the event of seeing a chinese band live for the 1st time. And it was a fun experience for just mere fact that i know their songs well and that the lead singer had a level of cuteness that can only be described as distinctively Asian. There just seems to be a easier bonding between me and the Chinese music. I mean i've seen fav bands in Japanese & English, I just don't seem to connect as easily. Who knows, maybe I need to visit Taiwan more. Or perhaps, subconsciously i just miss that island. But the music, oh the music... The Taiwanese underground scene is now populated by indie bands like 1976, Tizzy Bac, Shin Band (broked up), Sodagreen, & too many to name here. They all followed in the foot step of MayDay, whom dominated the TW pop charts in the early aughts, which lead to the popularity of this band movement in the culture.
All this has made me totally excited to be going back to the Asian video rental stores & trying to find more Taiwanese music. Hopefully this is only the beginning. Or hopefully, like the character in Yang Yang, this is some sort of round about way, for me to discover who i really am, by searching into the past.
or that i'm just getting old...
BONUS: a trailer from the same director of Yang Yang, "Do Over":
]]>
Blogs are so 2004.tag:worldwidewang.org,2009://1.4552009-07-15T18:18:14Z2009-07-15T18:28:53Zmelchoir
Since i've not updated this thing for month & that I needed an outlet to post this, i figure this is a good way to come back with a post of sorts. I think these days I spend most of my days on Tumblr. I wish there's a way to auto-tumblr links to Movabletype. I'm sure there's a plugin somewhere, i'm just too lazy to look it up.
So besides all that how is everyone? I totally miss the big Coachella update for the year. I'm sure everyone that reads this has already seen my Flickr set for it, if not, here's a link. It was the Coachella w/ the largest entourage, for me at least. I dont think i've ever been to Coachella w/ that large of a crowd, meeting other crowds, etc. etc.
So ya, I blame Twitter and Tumblr for not allowing me to post much on the Ye'Old Blogs. Blogs are like so 2004. ]]>
I want...tag:worldwidewang.org,2009://1.4532009-02-20T00:28:48Z2009-02-21T01:55:00Zmelchoir (via minnima)
and all the love
all the love inside you
it's for me
in the dooms in the tall grass
you said and smiled
you're the only one
that could ever tease me
]]>
Microblogging and other social nuisances...tag:worldwidewang.org,2009://1.4522009-01-18T23:43:01Z2009-01-20T21:57:34Zmelchoir
Twitter. It is probably why this blog hasnt gotten many posts in the last few month. Perhaps its laziness. Though reading this article kind of made me feel that i need to write something slightly longer than 140 characters. Activities of self-realization are subject to increasing marginal
utility: They become more enjoyable the more one has already engaged in
them. Exactly the opposite is true of consumption. To derive sustained
pleasure from consumption, diversity is essential. Diversity, on the
other hand, is an obstacle to successful self-realization, as it
prevents one from getting into the later and more rewarding stages.
Its made the Wang think about how we just consume everything from music, movies, web memes, to nodes of information, that we barely even absorb them into our reality. We r so set on the process of getting access to stuff, when we do get stuff, we dont really do anything useful w/ it. The Wang blog here is clearly a culprit. In the days of old, The Wang did nothing here but aggregate stuff. We rarely commented, besides the minor snide quips. Still, the move to more written post was one of time constraint rather than profound observations. I guess its one of those old issues about content vs. the aggregation of content.
Wang thinks that in the end it is about critical thinking. Its an amazing ability. And The Wang think it is mostly a absent talent on the internet, or in this day in general. The Wang hopes that it is a skill that is practiced more by everyone, including the Wang himself.
But The Wang still will be posting random stuff on the micro blogging sites, perhaps we'll reserve this old fashion ( I like that...) blog for more detail thoughts... So until something fascinating sparks the mind of the Wang, u can follow us here for the mindless stuff:
The Wang @ Twitter The Wang @ Tumblr Or just feed it all from FriendFeed ]]>
A letter to Ben Gibbardtag:worldwidewang.org,2009://1.4512009-01-09T20:34:46Z2009-01-09T20:46:09Z Dear Ben Gibbard, I, like many of the late comers to the indie music scene all treat Death Cab for Cutie as some sort of gateway drug into the world of not-so pop music. Your band was pretty much...melchoir
I, like many of the late comers to the indie music scene all treat Death Cab for Cutie as some sort of gateway drug into the world of not-so pop music. Your band was pretty much the quintessential Indie Pop of the aughts. Then u dropped us with the wonderment of Postal Service; sucking me into another genre of music where i normally dont tread. I'm must confess my jealousy of u working with indie greats like Jenny Lewis and Feist. And was rather a fan boy of the Postal Service gems like "Such Great Heights" and "This Place is a Prison".
I say to u sir, "It is on, like Donkey Kong." I will end u.
Sincerely, ur luving fan,
The Wang
P.S. U should get off ur fraking ass and release another Postal Service Album before i find u.
]]>
Why yes officer, those ARE bullets in my window...tag:worldwidewang.org,2008://1.4502008-08-19T21:50:32Z2008-08-19T21:58:52Z SO yes, once again the Wang mobile was involved in another crime. A few month back, the Wang mobile got broken into and an unknown person, whom was nice enough to leave a box of cigarettes on my floor,...melchoir
SO yes, once again the Wang mobile was involved in another crime. A few month back, the Wang mobile got broken into and an unknown person, whom was nice enough to leave a box of cigarettes on my floor, removed few of our loving electronic gadgets. Amongst the missing items were my beloved D70, a 4g iPod, Best Buy gift certificates, and the seldom played DS, or as the Wang calls it, the Nintendog machine.
But that's actually old news. It was like months ago. The Wang alrdy got his insured new camera alrdy.
So once again, the Wang was traveling in the search of great treasures and booty in the land of Berkeley of the kingdom of California. The Wang mobile was placed on a street that was semi shady on the GTA4 scale. But the Wang figures that, "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world." After some roughing around with the lovely hosts of the evening's entertainment, the party clearly heard the sound of continuous popping. Now the Wang was educated once that if random popping sounds happen in the neighborhood, one should just assume its car back fire. But if it is continuous and without rhythm, it is probably gunfire. So the Wang hosts and the Wang agreed that it wasn't the normal strand of Chinese firecrackers either and decided to call the sheriffs of Berkeley. The sheriff were a cheery lot and responded with some typical 'boxed' questions about, "If we seen anything, beside the sound," or "Heard anything AFTER the gunfire." Eventually they responded to us by saying, they've alrdy gotten calls and they will checkout the area in haste. I guess that eased our worries and we continued in our merry ways of pillaging fantastical lands with our paper people.
It wasn't till the evening came to an end and the Wang returned to his faithful steam wagon, did he notice the shattered windows. From there, the Wang went through the regular procedures and called the sheriffs back for an report. In which that's when the audience learns about how the earlier shooting was, in fact a real shooting, in which, no one was hurt. But they documented the fact that the Wang mobile was in fact, damaged. The bullet went in at an angle and hit the back of the passenger front seat. Also made a mess on the back seat with layers of powdered glass. The Wang was informed that if he discovered the bullet, it might be good to bring it back to the Police department, but all the Wang can find is some sort of deformed metal. One would assume that bullets do deform a lot, but all that the Wang found was a scrap of bent metal, perhaps it is a bullet, or maybe just some random robot dandruff.
The Wang is sure that he'll probably get another one of those recorded voice messages from his insurance company about watching where to park. Sometimes, just sometimes, the Wang really misses the safety and comforts of LA's south central. At least u know after an heated crime scene incident, u can drive over and get some good Roscoe's chicken and waffle to ease the trouble soul.
More Photos of the Wang mobile: Flickr Set
]]>
The Longest Post Evah! + Coachella 08tag:worldwidewang.org,2008://1.4492008-06-24T01:39:11Z2008-06-24T02:08:09ZIt has been soo long since the Wang's last post, that even the Wang himself don't remember much. But since u gentle readers all sit patiently glued to ur RSS feeds of WWW, The Wang figures its about time for...melchoir
It has been soo long since the Wang's last post, that even the Wang himself don't remember much. But since u gentle readers all sit patiently glued to ur RSS feeds of WWW, The Wang figures its about time for another infamous update. Of course, like a good blogger, the Wang keeps notes for things he wants to blog about. But as a bad blogger the Wang will dump the entirety of 1.5 month of stuff in one giant post. This might get long... That's what she said!! (and it might include a lot of random links like that one there.)
First off, the almost two month old post that the Wang should of wrote for Coachella 08'. Since it is very late, The Wang will cut it short.
Some of the memorable moments include The Flogging Molly Mosh out, the Gogol Bordello Mosh Out, which lead to famous drum riding, and yes, you r right, one of those hands holding up the drum is, in fact, of the Wang. The Wang was up front and right. When the the drum flew, the Wang brought forth his super human strength and carried the Gogol Bordello Dancing girl, by himself with the aid of a few.
The Wang and friends, camped this yr @ Tent City which basically involve staying up late and waking up tot he heated tent fighting for a shower spot. Mr. Starfizzy did battle with the electronic charging wall daily. He is an avid documentor with a very small battery.
Other things of note:
-Best Video Ass Shaking.
-Roger Water Lost his Pig and then found it.
-Prince did his "Second Coming" thing and played for like 3 hrs. The Wang Squad enjoyed it from a distance, safe from the rabid fans. But we did miss the epic music momemnt of him covering "Creep". being Prince, he proceed to remove every video on Youtube of it... thank god the internet is beautiful place. So here it is: Prince Covering Creep.
-The Wang does regret not being able to be at multiple places at once... or to have the willingness to stay late enough to see Fatboy Slim
Of course the rest of today's Giant Panda Post will be paw style... one after the other. A lot of crap. Feel free to skip around or go back to your pron. Also, some of these things might be month old news.
The Wang's most-est favorite director plus 2 "!!", Wong Kar Wai is re-doing on of his earlier art films: Ashes of Time Redux
10 yr Old Sungha Jung plays the hell out of a guitar doing With or Without You
An article translated from a "removed" article on South China Weekly about the shady digital crack that is ZT online.
This either gives MMO a bad name, or points out exactly what type of
games that the Chinese gamer want. ZT Online basically allows anyone to
buy, legally, their character to the top levels.
Firstshowing.net brings us this trailer for The Go-Getter, starring Zooey Deschanel. Hopefully a few good indy films can bring her rep back from "The Happening".
Jesus Phone Round 2. But why do we keep letting Apple get away with
this crap though? the Wang thinks that if these were the specs for
iPhone 1, we'd all be worshiping the new Apple religion, but really to
release the iPhone 2 one year after that stepping stone, known as
iPhone 1 is just an insult to consumers. Specially now with stuff like 4G tech rolling around.
We
really need to stop giving Apple the free pass on coming out with
mediocre tech, slapping an Apple logo on it, and call it the next
coming. Innovation people, Innovation!
P.S. The Wang is getting ready for the July 10 iPhone line infront of
the Apple stores, who's with us?!
Internet Culture Alert: Failwale Stalker Girlfriend. You either know what that means or clearly don't Twitter enough.
Wow, that was a load of stuff, If you are still with us, I applaud you, if
not, we'll see u next time the Wang's text files is filled and must be
dumped into a blog post. Actually, we should have one up pretty soon.
As the main motivation to this post, is because the Wang wants to
review a pair of movies that is so awesome, that it almost rivils the
Awesomeness of Fantasy Mission Force" but with 20 gallon more blood, PER scene!!
]]>
2 Things I hate about SF/"My Bluueberry Nights"tag:worldwidewang.org,2008://1.4482008-04-07T22:53:50Z2008-04-07T23:03:11Z The Wang has almost been in the City by the Bay for 1 year now. The relocation and new gig is one of the reason that the blog is getting less luv than its glory days of daily posts....melchoir (photo by Antman)
First of, the Wang takes a nice and laid-back drive to work, daily via the beautiful stretch of the east side of the SF proper. This involves passing through the middle of tourist travel routes to the pier 39, the Ferry Building, The Infamous Giant Spider, and the Hell of Pedestrians, (The Chinese have like 18 Hells...) AKA Pacbell ParkSBC Park AT&T Park. Now the Wang isn't one to comment on baseball. He was rather bored at that one game which he was invited to go see the SF Giants @ the park, he really could care less about Berry Bond's "allegations" of steroids use (though the whole Elk semen thing is rather funny.) and he clearly wasn't impressed by the famous hot dogs at the park. So, pretty much the whole Giants and AT&T park existence has brought nothing to the Wang's happy life, but misery. This bring us back to the Hell of Pedestrians.
The AT&T park is located in a nice stretch of the 2nd largest freeway exit area for Downtown SF. Basically, the cooler hipper 280 exits right on to the street that leads to the ballpark. This is also the gathering spot for the Caltrain and the end of the line for a pretty well used Muni light rail. So with all this, this means that the none-car-loving SFians love to walk fill up the 3 small intersections that spans between the park and the Caltrain station. This of course, backs up all the cars trying to exit the 280 freeway. Now this is going one way. The other way of the street is jammed packed with people trying to park, more pedestrians, and the general slowness of the cars in the area. So come baseball season, (and why cant they play on Sundays like the football ppl do? They r nice enough not to bother me...) the whole area in front of AT&T park becomes an even lower level of hell, The Hell of Slow Traffic. One can see an example of this on the 405 between the I10 and El Segundo in LA, but then LA is like a whole other lvl of Hell. (That's needs an entire blog post of its own, one day... Don't get me wrong, I luv and miss LA, no hate man) So baseball season, though happytime for some, utter chaos on the Wang's schedule. And this is the main reason why the Wang has the Giants Schdule as a bookmark, just so he can keep track of the times where baseball becomes the national traffic time.
The 2nd wine and cheese moment for today's post is the whole issue of "Limited Releases". Now when a foreign, indie, art house, or early release of film gets a "limited release", they usually mean LA/NY. So being once a melancholy citizen of the greater LA metro, the Wang was happily partaking in the early release of films that others won't see for weeks to come, or at all. With places in LA like Laemmle chain, the Arclight, and other art house theaters, LA was pretty much a Mecca for films that the studio won't market to large Cineplexes. It took awhile before the Wang discovered all the art house theaters in SF, but they r there, just buried in neighborhoods less traveled. Most of the time the Wang isn't a rush to catch films early, but the Wang has like 2 favorite directors from the 90s, and 1 of them is Wong Kar Wai. Mr. Wong's latest film after his epic 2046 is his English debut, My Blueberry Nights. So the fact that its Limited release means that its is shown in LA RIGHT AT THIS FRAKKING MOMENT and not in SF till 4/18 is pissing the Wang off, only slightly less than the fact that the Giant's baseball season has started.
Now we move to the less whining and more comment portion of the post.
The Wang has always been a fan of Wong Kar Wai, even though some of his films r truly hard to digest. But as w/ 2046, the Wang followed and waited for all the rumors and news about My Blueberry Nights. Much like the matrix and any other esoteric things, Wong Kar Wai's movies are best experienced. So here's a beautiful clip from the My Blueberry Nights... I guess it might be a spoiler since it shows who and who hooks up, but I doubt any of his movies really lives story progression.
The Kiss
This of course is a scene between Jude Law and Norah Jones. Yes Ms. Jones not only lends her sultry voice to the soundtrack, but also her debut-acting gig. This movie is supposedly done in parts, dealing with difference couples and their stories of love, relationship and companionship. As with all Wong Kar Wai films, he enjoys slow slow editing, saturated lighting, layering of subjects and defining music. And since the lucky folks of NYC and LA have alrdy have their limited releases... (note rant above), the Thighmaster has alrdy graced the web with his review. The Wang hasn't seen it, but much of Wong's films do not disappoint if u r in a certain mindset to absorb all his stuff. Though slow and chaotic, he tends to shine in scenes, characters and ambience, rather than grand stories and plot. So if u don't live in LA or NYC check ur local weeklies or movies showtime sites and see if u r lucky enough to be graced by My Blueberry Nights.
Here's another one Wong Kar Wai's latest work. He did a series of short movie/commercials for Philips Aurea HDTV:
And in case u still haven't gotten enough, here's a great MTV for the Nationals' Fake Empire, which really carries a Wong Kar Wai feel, and should have been directed by him anyways:
]]>
Battlestar Galactica season 4 @ 4/4tag:worldwidewang.org,2008://1.4472008-04-04T02:44:33Z2008-04-05T01:06:10ZAre you ready for the final season of BSG? Don't forget, tomorrow night will be the 2nd coming.And the best way to recall last season is this: And in case need more reasons to watch BSG, here are 10 more,...melchoir
In case you missed te first three seasons, here's Sci-Fis very own "What the Frak is going on." ]]>
A Good Weekend for Musictag:worldwidewang.org,2008://1.4462008-02-27T02:28:32Z2008-02-27T02:51:22Z So this past weekend was the end of the big GDC event which blurred right into WonderCon, the tiny sister of ComicCon. The Wang wasn't really involved with the GDC, cept by proxy of a visiting WoW friend. But...melchoir
So this past weekend was the end of the big GDC event which blurred right into WonderCon, the tiny sister of ComicCon. The Wang wasn't really involved with the GDC, cept by proxy of a visiting WoW friend. But the WonderCon did lure the Wang with some panels, that were minorly related to the Wang's work. Which turned out to be completely unrelated. But the whole potential lead the Wang to learn about professional free pass for WonderCon. So free cons = good cons.
We're not really going into a WonderCon review, but the Wang will note that he sat in a J. Michael Straczynski panel. JMS is most well known for Babylon 5, which is a legendary TV show. It had some of the best television seasonal arcs. But unfortunately due to crappy art design and dated special effects, it might be really hard for anyone to pick up the DVD sets and start watching it these days. JMS now is doing a lot of comic work and might be involved with a lot of future movie scripts. Specially with all the new comic to movies that are coming out, all these famous comic/TV writers are getting great exposures.
Now back to the main topic of today's post, the Oscars. Yes, here at WWW we're looking at the Oscars. Normally we flee from this type of direct media coverage reserved for The Daily 10, Defamer, or any of Perez Hilton's blogs. But this last year was actually a pretty good year for film. So in old school style, we jump right in to the paw listings.
Mahalo Daily's Monday post: Oscar in 60 sec. A great list but they miss a few important gems, one of which is the win by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová's for their great song "Falling Slowly". Here is their Oscar live performance, which the Wang thinks that Glen toned down his usual vein popping performance during the high climax of the song. This of course lead to the best moment in Oscar history where John Stewart brought back Markéta Irglová to let her finish her cut-off-ed speech. She proceed to give one of the evening's most memorable speech about how hope unites us all. Here are the texts to the full speech for both Glen and Markéta, from Firstshowing. And if all this coolness isn't enough to convince you to go see this gem of a indie film then you are dead to me and might as well take you RSS feed for this blog off you readers. So go watch Once, or prepare for the burning wrath of the Wang.
I hate transformers, but really Visual Award? At least thanks to the Onion, Michael Bay gets his Oscar @ the cost of a $120m digital production. He did make that "AWESOME!" commercial. how the frak did Golden Compass win this? Really? I mean the Wang digged the airships, but it was clearly no match for the 10,000 pieces of moving metal fighting another 10,000 pieces of moving metal that is Transformers. And Bourne ran off with 3 technical awards. Great movie, but it felt like they gave it to Bourne for the trilogy, not Ultimatum.
I was rooting for Ellen Page for Juno. But since every prediction and their mother's prediction was for Julie Christie and the fact that the movie, Away From Her, was directed by Sarah Polley, The Wang was swayed... But I guess it is good that Tilda Swinton got it in the end, which shocked everyone. And ended the Wang's internal struggles. Because there's enough Wang for both Ellen Page and Sarah Polley. Email me. (makes phone gesture.)
Great Speech Quotes:
Joel Coens: "...letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox"
Plus who knew, Clooney was the man. He predicated most of the acting nods. He's truly as they say, "old Hollywood". He's got it all, class, style and devilish smile. The Wang aint gay, but if George showed up an bought us diner, hey u never know... I'm just saying, not gay.
On Monday night, the weekend ended in a really fun concert with Missy Higgins @ The Independent. She was rather funny with a few Aussie/American jokes, some humor about how her Target bought Bra kept falling of her shoulders (ZING!!), how she finally got her song into Grey's Anatomy and the overall comments on the American accent, which she demo-ed for the audience. Fun times were had and the Wang probably had the fun-est time at a "Pop" concert. There was something about the happy upbeat energy that Missy Higgins was going off on.
And in the end all this seemed make a really fun music weekend for the Wang. And in the recent artistic posting line, we end the day on a grammy winning music short dedicated to Johnny Cash:
THANKYOUs:
My Extra Life, Firstshowing.net, Vulture
]]>
Windowtag:worldwidewang.org,2008://1.4452008-02-01T01:12:19Z2008-02-01T01:26:51Z "I was the shadow of the waxwing slain by the false azure of the windowpane; I was the smudge of ashen fluff -- and I Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky. And from the inside, too, I'd...melchoir
"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
by the false azure of the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff -- and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.
And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate
Myself, my lamp, an apple on a plate:
Uncurtaining the night, I'd let dark glass
Hang all the furniture above the grass,
And how delightful when a fall of snow
Covered my glimpse of lawn and reached up so
As to make chair and bed exactly stand
Upon that snow, out in that crystal land!"
Juno+tag:worldwidewang.org,2007://1.4442007-12-19T11:07:08Z2007-12-20T22:25:55Z( photo by: [Zakkaliciousness]) This of course is the artistic mindset left by the music of one of the Wang's favorite movie of the year, Juno. The general gist of the movie is that 16 yr old, sarcastic high schooler,...melchoir ( photo by: [Zakkaliciousness])
This of course is the artistic mindset left by the music of
one of the Wang's favorite movie of the year, Juno. The general gist of the movie is that 16 yr old, sarcastic
high schooler, Juno finds out she's pregnant and goes on the movie length
journey of understanding love and maturity. Director Jason Reitman of Thankyou For
Smoking fame, brilliantly delivers this indie darling of a film with a witty script and slightly off-the-wall
comedy.With Quotes like these
gems:
Rollo (Rainn Wilson): That ain't no etch-a-sketch. That's one
doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet.
=========================
Juno MacGuff: You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear
they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them
in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.
=========================
This movie comes around the corner with its witty, brilliant
acting from everyone; from Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, & even Jennifer Garner, in
seemingly small role that turns a whisper of a character into a pretty nice
side plot of the story, that seems to comment on the whole question of maturity
and relationships. J.K. Simmons as the funny and understanding dad has got to
be one of the best dad's in movie history. The Wang only wishes that his future
father-in-law would have that kind of humor and open minded-ness. Of course
seeing that the title character Juno is pretty much the witty equivalent of a
wet dream center fold, plus indie guitar playing skills.
This leads us to the soul of our musing, the soundtrack. The sound
track is mainly filled with the works of Kimya Dawson, in her many guises. She's either performing with her old claim-to-fame, The Moldy Peaches, or her solo stuff, or her recent co-lab with The Antsy Pants. Kimya Dawson is labeled as Anti-Folk. Which at first, the Wang was lost to the labeling and genre. Of course after an evening with the Moldy Peaches titular album, smack the concept home in its wordy, witty, & experimental sound. Though overall, the music used in Juno tend to be what the Wang originally felt as some sort of kiddie-folk or twee-folk. With lyrics about love, life, hamburgers and vampires all fueled by Kimya Dawson's childish voice. Her seemingly young and innocent voice is instantly shattered when one noticed the lyrics and topics that smartly flow off her folk-style guitar like verbal syrup.
Also included in the Juno soundtrack is a few songs the
movie use to hammer home the character's love of music. Juno of course prefers
the 1977 punk era, as her counter point, Jason Bateman defends the grunge era
of 1993. Songs include "All the You Dudes" by Mott the Hoople and "Superstar"
by Sonic Youth. Check out this great entry by Indiemuse.com
which include a few tracks. (SPECIALLY check out Kimya Dawson's Loose Lips) Kimya Dawson really adds to the movie, from its
title-opening track to the ending song which cements the movie, "Anyone Else
But You" cover by Ellen Page and Michael Cera, originally a Moldy Peaches song
by Adam Green and Kimya Dawson.
Ellen Page: [Juno director] Jason Reitman and I were meeting
for maybe the second or third time and he simply said, "Well, what do you
think Juno would listen to?" Immediately I said the Moldy Peaches, and he,
I guess, wasn't familiar with their work, so I hopped on his computer and I
played the Moldy Peaches for him. The next thing I knew he'd fallen in love--
rightfully so, they're awesome-- and he was in contact with Kimya Dawson, who
is the female in the band, and he added the song at the end of the film, which
is a Moldy Peaches song. That song's been in my life for years, actually;
there's a lot of sentimental value there. And the next thing we know Kimya
Dawson is doing the music for the film. It was really incredible how that all
worked out because it just feels perfect.
So the Wang puts two paws up on Juno, and the soundtrack which is
now available on iTunes, and in Jan. in hardcopy. Of course you can just get
some Kimbya Dawson stuff to work you over till then.
Tabula Rasa may
not be the best MMO around, nor may it be top dog, but the Wang
donated some time, and gives it its just deserves. But what really hits the
sweet spot is the fan base that took Richard Garetts new world to heart and
created more fanfic and roleplaying than any Tauren cow cosplay will ever do.
Here's an example from Massively
on Remembrance Day. And from tabularasaroleplayers.comof their fan gathering on Dec. 21,
Remeberence Day, basically a memorial honoring the day when Earth fell to
the alien invaders, The Bane.
The year end round up video games and games of the year is
too long to keep track of. But the Wang was sorely entranced by the Gaming Club on Slate.com.The
Gaming Club is a mimic of Steven Totilo of MTV's Multiplayer Blog andN'Gai
Croal of Newsweek's Level Up Blog 's usual vs Mode. Its normally a series of emails that would
debate/discuss a specific game or video game related subject. This time for
their big year end round up they included Seth
Schiesel of NYT and Chris Suellentrop (most currently of Slate) into their mix. They brought forth an email
roundtable that talks from everything from game design to the criticism of
video games. Specially in the light of the recent events involving Jeff Gerstmann, which
promoted the entire industry a new to critically comment on the field of Video
Game Journalism. None the less, this was a great read about video games, industry, and and what it means to be
critical.
Also related to video games, the MTV Multiplaer Blog's
Tracey John also wrapped up last weeks great series of article of Women
Working in Games. Tracey goes off and
interviews Morgan Webb (X-Play/G4TV), Janet Pickard (Game Girl Advance),
Elspeth Tory (Ubisoft), Brenda Brathwaite, and Tali Fischer (Sega). Of course
hidden under the subtlety of the general interviews is the questions about the
recent Jade
Raymond incident. But overall it's a great set of interviews about the
whole industry from journalists to developers to PR. Sure the topic is about
women, but it gives a nice view of the field and the people in it. Personally,
the Wang comes to the conclusion that the industry seems to be embracing the
female influx, but the it's the webtard players that seems to be dumbing it up
for the male populace by scaring off most of these women from forums and
comments.
On that note, here's a nice review of Bioshock
from the Mighty Pony Girl. Yes it has a female perspective. I give her
credit for reading Fountainhead before
playing the game, just to get the full experience.
And since the Wang hasent been blogging about everything
that was cool of recent, here's a cool link to the
semi-spoiler-best-ending-ever-for-a-video-game-credit-sequence of Portal: GlaDOS - Still Alive
(Youtube link). Of course if you have not experienced it, please give it a
try, Portal is one of the best games this past year. Plus its short, fun and
well written. It comes in slightly around 3 hrs. (without the repeatable time
trials) and packs a great subtle story telling all wrapped in witty
dialog. Of course the entire Orange Box is pretty worth it, for it
contains Portal, Half Life, HL: Episode 1 & 2 and Team Fortress 2. TF2 is the bastard child of
The Incredibles and online multiplayer mindless fun. Plus if you have the
time, you should check out the "Meet the ____" videos on YT. Some of them are
hilarious.
THANKYOUs: Level Up Blog,
Massively, MTV's Multiplayer Blog, [Zakkaliciousness]]]>
It's a stupid thing we say cursing tomorrow with sorrow.tag:worldwidewang.org,2007://1.4432007-11-05T22:15:56Z2007-11-05T22:22:50Z There were never any good old daysThey are today, they are tomorrowIt's a stupid thing we sayCursing tomorrow with sorrow. Gogol Bordello -- Ultimate Photo: John...melchoir
There were never any good old days They are today, they are tomorrow It's a stupid thing we say Cursing tomorrow with sorrow.
Photo: John]]>
I'm Not Theretag:worldwidewang.org,2007://1.4422007-11-01T20:44:17Z2007-12-20T22:20:03Z So the Wang usually does drop album reviews. Specially since the Wang enter the music scene rather late in life and is still sending half of his time catching up on the old rock legends and classics. So seeing...melchoir
So the Wang usually does drop album reviews. Specially since the Wang enter the music scene rather late in life and is still sending half of his time catching up on the old rock legends and classics. So seeing stuff about the upcoming movie about Bob Dylan, "I'm Not There", the Wang was naturally happy to see the story of another musical icon via some indie film introduction. Since the late arrival on the English music scene, the Wang had to had most of his musical experiences with the icons like the Beatles via movies like Across the Universe and with Walk the Line for Johnny Cash. And for a new generation, the Wang included, these things may be an insult to some of the older hardcores, but there r a great way to get the new folks a slice of these icon's greatness. Covers songs re surge a interest about the original singers. Though the Wang have this weird theory that the first version of a song u listen to, tends to be the one u like more. But that's just personal opinion. Since "I'm Not There" isn't released in the US till Nov. 21, the Wang has very little to say about it except links to the Wikipedia entry and a Youtube trailer. The movie does have some strong actors/actress portraying Bob Dylan at different personalities. Amongst those are Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Heath Ledger.
So the topic of this post is mainly about the Original Soundtrack of the said movie. Never having much encounter with bob's music cept maybe the closest would be The Wang has heard some Wallflower songs... (yes, I said Wallflowers) Which of course is no where close to Bob Dylan's music, cept being from the same gene pool. So there Wang was, a collector of sound tracks and random music. The "I'm Not There" soundtrack pops out with names like Karen O, Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Jeff Tweedy, Yo La Tango and even the duo from the Swell season, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Amongst many more. U might as well just check out the Wikipedia entry for the full list. Not to mention the super guitar group called the The Million Dollar bashers, which includes the guitarist from Sonic youth and Wilco. Some of the guitar in the songs smack of old school rock classics and brings a modern twang to some of these songs. Not the Wang has much to compare to with the old, original Dylan stuff. But he's definitely going to be on the lookout for some old tracks just to get a mix and feel for things. If one thing he's learned in his old age is that, any experiences is perceived differently, at different ages. So a song u heard when u were 12 probably means something completely different to u at age 30. So the Wang recommend all u old Dylan purist to give the album a try also. Why not, some of it can be good. I mean Karen O, Iron and wine really brings their own flavor to some of these really good songs. Even Mark Lanegan of Queens of the Stone Age brings a Johnney Cash esque cover of The Man in the Long Black Coat.
There r just too many good tracks, so the Wang will post the first one that came up in the random shuffle which caught the Wang's attention:
P.S. Rabbit! Rabbit! ]]>
Media focuses on Geekstag:worldwidewang.org,2007://1.3782007-10-10T02:10:06Z2007-10-10T02:32:58Z Sometime in the future, we'll all look back, and some how realize that 2007 was the year the network exec, decided to target the geeks. The Wang has always been saying for the last 7 yrs, that Geeks are...melchoir
Sometime in the future, we'll all look back, and some how realize that 2007 was the year the network exec, decided to target the geeks. The Wang has always been saying for the last 7 yrs, that Geeks are the nerds of the Aughts. In the 90s, it was the decade for nerds to shine in their dot com bubbles of the late 90s, where every computer nerd could of ended up with a trophy wife from their IPO stock boom. But some how that bubble popped a bit for most of the latecomers. So then the mosaic-esque web techniques gave birth to the Web 2.0 of today's interweb where every geek can have their own blog, Youtube pages, mySpace, Facebook, and even a webcomic if u r up to it. All u need is a sense of humor and some spare time, there's a website out there that built just to host ur Web 2.0 content.
Of course, Hollywood, being ever the trend whore, wanted in on the geek-pop-sphere. I guess one too many Kevin smith movies makes Hollywood think that they can hit up any geek culture with the right amount of humor. But why they seem to forget is that, they need directors and writers that know their material, not a Hollywood intern given a laptop and a Myspace account and asked to go "research" geeks. The Wang cant proclaim any great amount of geekdom but does know shit when he sees it. And by Shit, I mean this new crop of fall shows that seem to somehow target the geek-mass.
So somehow during the Fall season of 07, networks decided that, "hey have u heard about this internet thing, my daughter is talking about? Or whats this wow?" And of course, 8+ million users later, ever one in it for the cold hard cash is trying to link themselves to WoW.... But I digress, thought that new Toyota commercial with wow is pretty funny... (I AM THE LAW GIVAA!!). So Hollywood, who thinks computers can do everything... discovers the internet and go hey, we need to target these so-called geeks, because, u know, they work and have money. Things that Men's magazines like Maxim and FHM have know for decades, is that men around our age have a lot of money and we don't fall for the usual crap of advertisement. But funny thing is that we really do... I mean why else would every geek out there be buying the same LCD monitor they read about on Engadget? We just didn't want to be main stream. So things were geeky cool when they weren't mainstream. Back when Gizmodo and Engadget was only known in the inner circle. Still, the point...SO Hollywood targets geeks. SO this fall, the Wang does his usual, check of the fall season and what does he notice... we get shows like, NBC's Chuck and CBS's Big Bang Theory. Thought there good stuff too, the Wang is happy to see Sci-fi making a come back in primetime... but don't get me started on Heroes... a poor excuse for a superhero show.
So back to the shit @ hand: We have Chuck, Best Buy wannabe geek squad sale dude turn into super spy because he opened an mind altering email. Well he didn't turn into a super spy, more so he became a super geek, a walking knowledge base with super hawt protection in the name of Yvonne Strzechowski , aka hawt aussie. Though Adam Baldwin (not related to THE Baldwins) does pack in his usual quirky strongman role. The Wang thinks that Josh Schwartz, after finishing his comic geek character on the O.C., now he claims knowledge over all geekdom, and gives us Chuck. As crappy as Chuck's portrayal of a geek, it gets worst in Big Bang Theory.
So the big bang theory seems to be a sitcom about 4 caltech researchers. The theme is about a super geek character trying to go after the new blonde neighbor across the floor. That's about it. Throw in some physics/math jokes and a jab at MMOs here and there and u have it. How Hollywood views geeks. Though the show is from Chuck Lorre, of Dharma and greg fame. But the Wang isn't a vegan yogan chick, so I have nothing to complaint about his previous show. Still, somehow I think the attempt at the geek populace just isn't as smooth as the attempt on the Slacker populace. With shows like the Reaper and movies like Knocked Up they seem to hone in on the slacker generation in the riding on the tail coats of older movies/shows of the past. Reapers aint great yet, but at least Kevin Smith himself is doing a few episodes, hopely he, being of his Cleric/mallrat/Chasing Amy fame should know a thing or too about slacker comedy. Mean while writer director Judd Apatow does seem to have his genre and humor down. The Wang has heard good things about Superbad...
So in general, this was more a rant of Hollywood typecasting/stereotyping ppl as usual. I guess u can do humor on that easily, as comedians have always proved. Still, its achingly painful to watch some of these shows... not knowing if the writers of these shows are making fun of geeks, or they just don't get it. While the slew of Sci-fi shows are pretty much riding some sort of Lost/Heroes fame also. Hopefully they don't fall down the same Hollywood exec-hole, in where they just become mystery novel with no revelation, hooking u like an MMO timesink.
BTW. Comments seem to be still weird... i'll still be looking into that. Anyone know anything about mySQL?
