2008 Favorites: Michael Haneke's/Funny Games

I was so taken with this movie that I will never recommend it to anyone. Haneke American-ized his decade old Austrian mindfuck and by doing so strengthened it's impact instead of diminishing it. Funny Games is about American movies and American audiences, and the subtitles and Euro-centricities of the original distanced the film from it's subject. Now with the barrier removed it plays even more as intended: a meditation on the festering wound of the American film going psyche. The film's detractors call it didactic and exploitative. Perfectly true, but precisely the point. The moralizing tone Haneke adopts is a perversion of prestige film pretension (see: Ed Zwick and Paul Haggis), while the manipulation of space and time are no more extreme than your average summer tentpole - only here it serves to undermine the audience's expectations instead of gratifying them. The rise of the torture porn genre and other various grotesqueries in the years between the original and the remake merely underline Haneke's argument. There is no audience for this film in America.

2008 Favorites: The Dodo's/Visiter

The limitations of the two-man band only seem limitless (see: The White Stripes). And in light of Visiter's kaliedoscopic sounds, the Stripes "primitivism via constraints" theme seems more like a lack of creativity than possibility. Because where Jack and Meg are simplistic, Meric and Logan are sophisticated. Their background in Ewe Drumming and metal form the twin pillars of the record without succumbing to the cultural colonialism of the former or the potential tedium of the latter. The perfect combination syncopated drums and acoustic guitar [each given equal presence in the mix] is forceful and propulsive, yet complex and intricate. All that from a two-man band, proving once more it's not the tools of the trade, but the imagination and skill of the artist.

2008 Favorites: Fiery Furnaces/Remember

My go to Fiery Furnaces album ever since it was released, this behemoth (51 tracks!) live record is as close to a definitive statement as you could ask for on the Friedberger sibling's music. Though its a more than a little disingenuous to even call this studio edited Frankenstein a 'live' album - it's more a chaotic fever dream of their entire catalog played out as one continuous song. Looking back it seems more and more likely that their studio albums are just Rosetta Stones for understanding their electric and ever-evolving live sets. Don't believe the liner notes: this album has to be taken in all at once or not at all. One complaint: no "Police Sweater Blood Vow"

2008 Favorites: Kanye West/808s & Heartbreak

Screw the haters, the Colberts, and the fake Twitter-ers. This is a great record. Yeah, he spends the whole record wallowing in self pity, but hell, I can relate. The Auto-Tuner? Radiohead used it to buckle and bend Thom Yorke's vocals to better voice his alienation, so why can't Kanye? Sure, it'd make a better EP than an album but with myopia came focus: no skits, no intros, no outros, & no fussy arrangements. Kanye brought the songs and from where I'm sitting there ain't no arguing with "Love Lockdown", "Robocop", "Heartless" or "Amazing".

ASIFA Gallery Show

My piece for the ASIFA Gallery Show at left.

The show was great. Had to skate early, but other than that it was fun, fun fun. Glad Ambrose made it down.

k

i reckon that i save at least ten minutes a day by typing "k" instead of "ok" when talking on messenger. thank god.

Typo

Domain of proofreaders and editors. Scourge of writers and designers. Just glad it wasn't my bad this time. Poor Callie. Probably not that big a deal. Who reads a magazine ad and then contacts the company via their street address these days? It ain't the nineteenth century anymore.