Jia Zhang-Ke's "Still Life" opens in US Theatres : IFC NY : Jan 16 - 22

Nearly a year and a half since its premier at the Venice Film Festival (where it won the highest award
at the fest, the Golden Lion) Jia Zhang-Ke's poetic, beautiful, tragic and grandiose depiction of globalism
in the form of the Three Gorges Hydro Project colliding with every-day lives and the shifting, modernizing
world coming face-to-face with the rural traditions of mainland China - Finally! comes to domestic theatres:

Link to IFC New York "Still Life" site

Opening this week in New York City with a very limited nationwide theatrical run to follow. Again,
brought to our country by those fine and informed folks at the IFC. Many more words by me on
this near-incomparable piece of cinema to be found here:

Link to Previous Promulgations on the Films of Jia Zhang-Ke & Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" : Yes, but Will There Be an Original Film?

Paul Thomas Anderson's newest, "There Will Be Blood" watched as a large-writ investigation of the mythologies
that comprise the two major formative 'industries' of America, being religion and oil. But also as a character
study in which the men/institutions behind those industries go about their 'business' and to what degree obsession
and the singular criteria for success cloud the judgement/create obsession in those who go about achieving 'great
things' within the world of industry. The conversion of peoples faith, the harvesting of oil from the earth, the money,
influence and power gained through the business of these pursuits...

I have to say, my overwhelming impression of the film was that P.T. Anderson failed to depict these forces embodied
through rich characters or a complex, internally friction/conflict -filled or ultimately compelling film. "...Blood" aspires to
be of a particular tradition in cinema, namely Robert Altman, Terrrence Malick and Kubrick, but the emulation was simply
that, a surface recreation of the visual appearance, stylistic gestures (especially in the editing/cinematography) and the
dramatic mood of those significant films/historic period in American cinema. For all the praise and film-culture enthusiasm
that's being lavished on "There Will Be Blood" - I found it to be a hollow facade of an experience, and spent most of my
2 1/2 hours waiting for Anderson to introduce content that was more rich, compelling, or simply WORTH MY TIME. By
the end of the film, it had yet to deliver on any of those things. Needless to say, I'm confounded as to why so many informed, film-knowledgeable persons have come away with anything positive to say on the subject of Anderson's
newest. In essence; he's a pretender, and this film is the greatest art-cinema spurious imitation of the past decade.

The whole experience, from the soundtrack (obviously Bartok/Messiaen/Ligeti inspired homage? plagiarism? mimicry?
by Johnny Greenwood) to the film itself came across as a new generation trying to become part of an existing tradition,
but lacking the 'intellectual soul' to convincingly pull it off. At best, it could be given credit for being a intricately precise
exercise in studied auteur-recreation. Unlike a lot of other seemingly well-informed perspectives on the film, there's
nothing here to compel me to believe there's anything genuine at it's heart. Not in the least.

Link to official 'There Will Be Blood' site

David Lynch on Watching Films on the iPhone

This reminds me of reading an interview with Stanley Kubrick in which he was being candid and
joking, sometime shortly before his death, (in Sight & Sound I believe?) laughing about the
prospect of people watching "2001" on their cell phones... Sorry Stan, you thought you
were being a satirist, but the world has in fact already made your cynical joke a reality.

What is becoming of people's qualitative sense of experiencing film in a more genuine,
dedicated way? Its strange how the immediacy of 'NOW' culture (and the technology that acts
as a facilitator to those manufactured values) has reduced our three-dimensional relationship
with art to its most insubstantial surface facade. On the other hand, on the polar extreme
of that spectrum, people are re-creating the cinema experience in their homes using higher
and higher def playback and projection hardware. Mostly tho', it seems to be going predominantly
the other way, with the novelty and immediacy of handheld devices/computer screens replacing
invested, dedicated viewing in a context that offers the highest qualitative/largest quantitative
translation of the sound/image of the film. Hmmm... to say the least; I'm not a fan.

Oh, and thank you David for the profanity!

:::: ALBUMS OF 2007 ::::

HERE ARE MY TOP RATED ALBUMS OF 2007 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

V/A "50 Years of New Music in Darmstadt 1946-1996" -Reissue (Col Legno)
Bernard Parmegiani "Chants Magnétiques" -Reissue (Fractal)
Janek Schaefer "In The Last Hour" (Room40)
Pan Sonic "Katodivaihe" (Blast First)
Einstürzende Neubauten "Alles Weden Offen" (Potomak)
Oren Ambarchi "In the Pendulums' Embrace" (Touch)
Lost in Hildurness "Mount A" (12 tonar)
V/A "Hitokomakura : Yasujiro Ozu" (and/OAR)
Adrian Klumpes "Be Still" (Leaf)
Tord Gustavsen Trio "Being There" (ECM)
Ultralyd "Conditions for a Piece of Music" (Rune Grammofon)
KTL "2" (Mego)
Luigi Nono "Prometeo" (Col Legno)
Trio Mediaeval "Folk Songs" (ECM)
Gavin Bryars/Philip Jeck/Alter Ego Ensemble "The Sinking of the Titanic" (Touch)
Marcus Schmickler "Altars of Science" (surround-DVD edition) (Mego)
Zeitkratzer/Lou Reed "Metal Machine Music" (Asphodel)
Peter Brotzmann Octet "Complete Machine Gun Sessions" -Reissue (Atavistic)
Boris/Merzbow "Rock Dream" (Southern Lord)

Another pretty darn explorative year in sound, there were many works that took the ears to exciting places (especially appearing this past fall) that did so in distinct, expressive and adventurous ways. In particular appearing in the strange
crossroads where modern classical, musique concrete, improv and noise all meet. Some of these were even witnessed
out in the world in a 3rd Dimension kind of way, performed live, loud and vital.

As an aside, this year dubstep replaced hip hop as my musical candy/junkfood of choice, offering a nutrition-less but
tasty counter to the more brainy culinary-type sounds listed above:

Burial "Ghost Hardware" (Hyperdub)
Sub Version "Soul-Jah Boogie" (Soul Jazz)
Gatekeeper/Shackleton "Soundboy's Bones Get Buried in the Dirt" (Skull Disco)
Pole "Achterbahn - Shackleton Remix" (Scape)

:::: FILMS OF 2007 ::::

HERE ARE MY TOP RATED FILMS OF 2007 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jia Zhang-Ke "Still Life" (China)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Syndromes and a Century" (Thailand)
Tsai Ming-Liang "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone" (Taiwan)
Charles Ferguson "No End in Sight" (United States)
Julia Loktev "Day Night Day Night" (United States)
Abderrahmane Sissako "Bamako" (Mali)
Alfonso Cuarón "Children of Men" (United States)
Michael Arias/Himaki Ando "Tekkonkinkreet" (Japan)
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun "Dry Season" (Chad)
Chris Marker "The Case of the Grinning Cat" (France)
Guy Maddin "Brand Upon the Brain!" (live orator/orchestra version) (Canada)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder "Berlin Alexanderplatz" -Rereleased (Germany)
Shohei Imamura "Vengeance is Mine"/"Profound Desire of the Gods"/"History of Postwar Japan" - Rereleased (Japan)

Though not consistent enough to warrant whole-hearted inclusion in the list above, these two films are deserving
of a significant notable mention. Distinct for their sprawling long-duration narrative delivery, convoluted storytelling,
inventive use of DV and the conflicting/disorienting mix of pure cinema 'magic' and seemingly random instances
of 'missing the mark' when the aim is set this high:

Richard Kelly "Southland Tales" (United States)
David Lynch "INLAND EMPIRE" (United States)

And again this year, the unseen films by a few directors of note that never made it over here distributed stateside.
I suspect a number of these would have made the list, if I actually had a chance to see them:

Cristian Mungiu "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (Romania)
Andrei Zvyagintsev "The Banishment" (Russia)
Carlos Reygadas "Silent Light" (Mexico)
Paz Encina "Paraguayan Hammock" (Argentina)
Danièle Huillet/Jean-Marie Straub "These Encounters of Theirs" (France)
Ye Lou "Summer Palace" (China)

Respect and appreciation to the Northwest Film Forum and SIFF (both the festival and the new theatre) for bringing
many of these to the states, and making Seattle one of the major cities in the country for catching the best in global
film as an aspect of the urban cultural experience!

:::: VISUAL ART OF 2007 ::::

HERE ARE MY TOP RATED VISUAL ART SHOWS ATTENDED OF 2007
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Olafur Eliasson "Take Your Time" (SFMOMA)
Neo Rauch/Tilo Baumgärtel/David Schnell "Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings" (Frye Art-Seattle)
Louise Bourgeois "Bourgeois in Boston" (ICA-Boston)
Felix Schramm "New Work: Misfit" (MOMA)
Tivon Rice "Resolution/Apotheosis" (Lawrimore Project-Seattle)
Bruce Nauman "Elusive Signs" (Henry Art-Seattle)
Christian Marclay/Various "Kit Bashing" (Western Bridge Gallery-Seattle)

A number of memorable shows this year. Wishing there had been travel and opportunity to catch more, in particular
some significant shows in the eastside, namely the Dada Retrospective at MOMA NY, Matta-Clark at the Whitney and
the Takashi Murakami exhibition at MOCA along with a handful of others that were missed due to geography and
economics this year. Here's hoping for seeing more art out in the cities of the world in 2008!

"Still Life: The Films of Pedro Costa" series at NWFF : Dec 3 - 12

Northwest Film Forum brings to Seattle the films of enigmatic Portugese director Pedro Costa in this 6 film, two
week series. To be honest, I know and have seen very little of his cinema. What I am familiar with, has resonated
with my perception of such unlike-one-another filmmakers as Bresson, Jia Zhang-Ke, Bela Tarr and even, in the
case of the later films, the extended-duration documentaries of Frederick Wiseman. The highlight of this series
being the highly critically lauded, (and as yet unscreened in the northwest ) "Colossal Youth", which I have been
anticipating since the lengthy review and article on his work that appeared in Film Comment earlier this year.

Link to NWFF "Still Life: The Films of Pedro Costa" site

From the Northwest Film Forum:

"Portuguese director Pedro Costa has long been recognized as a major auteur in Europe and Asia, and has
been praised by artists as far-reaching as Jacques Rivette and Jeff Wall, but is often overlooked in North
American film circles. Northwest Film Forum is thrilled to host this long overdue complete retrospective,
which includes his latest feature COLOSSAL YOUTH, one of the best-reviewed films of the year. The series
acts as primer and corrective, introduction and redress, advocating Costa’s unique and unforgettable cinema.
Costa does away with conventional boundaries between fiction and documentary, masterfully shooting non-actors
who share the drug problems and dire straits of the “characters” they play. Influenced by directors as diverse as
John Ford, Ozu Yasujin, and Jean-Marie Straub, Costa’s fragmented narratives show us life in the most desperate
conditions. These six feature films and two shorts reveal Costa as one of the world’s great filmmakers."

30 Years of KINO at SIFF Cinema : Nov 16 - Dec 5

Some of the greatest films of the past century, showing in this three week series - all released by the distribution
house KINO in celebration of its 30th Anniversary as a significant figure in global cinema. From classics by Fritz
Lang, Von Sterberg and Luis Bunuel to mid-20th Century masters like Kurosawa and Tarkovsky to some of the
best among the ranking modern visionaries; Michael Haneke, Aki Kaurismaki and Wong Kar-Wai. Of particular
note is Andrey Zvyagintsev's "The Return" - which had a very, very limited theatrical release on its premier in
2004 - and stood as the cinema highlight of that year for me.

Link to SIFF "30 Years of Kino Films" site

All films at SIFF's McCaw Hall theatre there at the Seattle Centre, 321 Mercer Street. From SIFF: "For the next
three weeks we have the pleasure of bringing to the big screen some of the greatest films in the world, made
possible by the great independent distributor of classic and revelatory new cinema, Kino International.
Happy 30th Anniversary, Kino!"

Link to Kino Films site

Link to Kino "The Return" site

Hauschka "Prepared Paino" US Performances : Nov 3 - 13

November sees Hauschka bringing his minimal electronics and prepared piano work
into a live context to select theatre venues here in the states. His sound borrows as
much from John Cage's same-titled 'prepared piano' works and the historic
predecessors of Les Six, namely Erik Satie, along with his contemporaries in more
electronic 'pop' sounds like Aoki Takamasa, Max Richter, Swod and Goldmund. I'm
a fan, as it revives a avant-tradition and breathes a little 'lighter' contemporary air into
the form without reducing it to insubstantial appropriation or a 'pop' gesture of quotation.

Link to official Hauschka site

Link to Triple Door calendar site

Here in Seattle we have the benefit of seeing this tour hosted at the (what I sometimes
find to be rather too bourgeoisie) venue that is the Triple Door. Who's soundsystem,
theatre-style seating and environs will actually be ideal for this type of sound-work.
Rather impressive and audacious to bring this tour to the states, not to mention book
larger, more upscale venues like the Triple Door to host the performances. As outside of
avant, classical and academic music circles, I've encountered very little awareness that this
music, and its tradition now going on almost a century, even exists. So! Hats off to Hauschka
and Rafael Anton Irisarri for bringing this tour to town and making a conscious, like I said,
somewhat audacious, choice in the venue.

SUNN O))) : Northwest Tour : Nov 1 - 3

Pushing the boundaries of the absurd into the truly profound and transcendental -
and using the format of UrMetal-Doom to do it through tone-based frequency compositions
- who else would aspire to such a thing but Southern Lord mavens SUNN O))):

Link to Southern Lord Northwest Tour site

Link to Southern Lord SUNN O))) site

Last nights Seattle performance was their usual onslaught of lower-frequency building-shaking
bass barrage, slabs of cosmic-sized feedback, and more guitar-torture squall than I've seen
them produce live before. The extended lineup including Attila Csihar of Mayhem on vocals
and (either?) Justin Broadrick or Oren Ambarchi on guitar (Grimmrobes make it kind of difficult
to tell) added not only to the sheer weight and volume of sound (can you say Sound
Pressure Levels?) but brought more textural/tonal complexity to their usual proceedings.  No
shortage of Grimmrobes and the impenetrable crepuscular gloom of fake fog to be had either.
This was the second night in this short Northwest tour as SUNN O))) are in Seattle with Ambarchi
 recording with the band after his excellent sold out show at the Jewelbox Theatre and one of the
 loudest, most sonically crushing performances I've seen in my life at Chop Suey as Burial Chamber
 Trio just weeks ago. Final show of tour tonight in Portland!