April Showers bring May Flowers

I had better explain this photo right off the bat. It's from the delightful film, Southland Tales. The latest, now on DVD from the creator of Donnie Darko. And yes, Justin Timberlake is in the movie. So is the Rock, Sarah Michelle Geller (as a porn star), Sean William Scott aka Stiffler, the guy from the Princess Bride who says "inconceivable" a lot, the scary short lady from Poltergeist, Amy Poeller, Cheri Oteri, John Lovitz, the swarmy lawyer from Night Court, Mandy Moore, and even Christopher Lambert (the Highlander himself). The movie is a absurd, hilarious, dark talk of a dystopian future. Totally insane and almost unintelligible. At one point 2 cars have sex with each other. I highly recommend it. 4 Molos


Visual Arts:

May is nearly here, which means only one more month until summer! Not that you'd be able to tell from the weather...but at least it seems to have stopped snowing. However, if you want to hold on the your dark winter gloom a little more, come check out the wonderful new work at the Frye Art Museum by Dario Robleto. Heaven is Being a Memory to Others. Part 1 of a 2 part double exhibition that will be up through July or so. Dario has created new works that are, essentially, reflections on the life of Emma Frye. They are installation/sculptural works that are integrated with paintings he chose from the collection. The works, about love, unfulfilled motherhood, immortality and beauty are based on research Dario did while in residence here last year. Not much is known about Emma and her personal life, especially, but there is a great deal of lore and certain jumping off points for conjecture. Whatever liberties he may have taken, the show is surprisingly gorgeous and I'm thoroughly impressed. A rare treat. 4 Molos

However, I do recommend coming to visit the show after the 2nd part opens, which is to be Dario's 10 year retrospective show, Alloy of Love, which will open May 17th.


In other arts news:

New work at Fat Tiger this week...we are showing work by the artist Don Farrell. His work can be seen on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/dionysusapollo . Cait Willis will have work up, as well as myself. Cait will also be showing at Gallery 108 Occidental.

I built a new wall in the Tiger Cub Gallery space...well I should say I'm building a new wall. Mudding drywall is very hard. It seems to involve a lot of learned skill. I now understand why people specialize in mudding. Pain-in-the-ass.

I'm also looking forward to my friend Chris Sheridan's show at La Familia gallery, One way of looking at it, which opens this Thursday as well, and runs through the month.


In Film:

Other than Southland Tales I have not seen a lot of great movies lately. Well, except I finally saw Annie Hall (4.5 Molos), which was great. But you probably already know that.

Oh, I can certainly not recommend the movie Revolver, the latest half-assed film by Guy Richie. Madonna must be getting to him, because whatever talent he had, washed out after Snatch. This movie is lousy, and annoying. It's not good when a film annoys you to watch it. Plus, Ray Liotta? This is the second lousy film I've seen with both Ray Liotta and Jason Stathom lately (the other one being the semi-kids movie called something like Dungeon, A Seige Tale...or some such thing-which was chalk full of B-Actors...). I no longer understand how Ray Liotta ever had a career. I mean I guess he was great in Goodfellas, but that was just a great move...now he's just taking his weird creepy whinny attitude guy to all these bad guy characters, and just ruins whatever scene he is in. Revolver- 1.5 Molos

In Music:

There's have been a lot of exciting and good releases of late, notably the new Tapes 'n Tapes, Tokyo Police Club, Portishead (April 29th), Neon Neon, Fleet Foxes (out soon...I've got an early copy) and Sun Kil Moon that are all worthy of reviews, however I have been too swamped to really be able to give any of them a proper listen. But keep you ears open....












Best film I have seen, released in 2008:

1. Cloverfield
2. The Bank Job

(I really haven't been going out to the movies at all...)


Best records of 2008:

1 Grand Archives Grand Archives
2 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
3 Nada Surf Lucky
4 MGMT Electric Feel

5 Stephen Malkimus and the Jicks Real Emotional Trash

6 Throw me the Statue Moonbeams

7 The Supreme Beings of Leisure 11i

(to be added: Tokyo Police club, Sun Kil Moon, Tapes 'n Tapes, Portishead, Neon Neon, etc etc..)

Maybe I should just rename this Molo's Movie Blog

It seems like often times that's all I care to write about. Movies. Films, etc. Screw art, fiction, poetry. Who needs it when we have 2 hours of mindless fun approaching? A new blockbuster every week? That's right folks, it's just about time for the summer movie season!

Summer Movie Season Preview:

It's almost here-the time of year that movie buffs love to loath, but secretly salivate over-the summer blockbuster season! There are a lot of tantalizing pictures that will surely be big disappointments but I can't wait. Here's a list of the films I'm most looking forward too:

Ironman - Looks totally fun! I'm pleased to see Robert Downey JR in this role too-he's a great actor and I'm sure will make this movie great

Speed Racer- the Matrix Brothers (Warjoski-sp??) are responsible for this. The film looks like nothing I have ever seen before-like a film version of Sonic The Hedgehog. It looks visually dazzling. I may have to go to IMAX to see this.

Indiana Jones 4 - I hope the script is good

Batman-The Dark Night - Everyone is going to turn out for this requiem to Ledger. Strange, but with the painted face of the Joker, gloomy setting, and death of Heath, I'm getting flashbacks from The Crow. Of course the Crow borrowed from Tim Burton's Batman-so it all ties together. And Heath didn't actually die while filming. But still, it's kind of eerie.

The Incredible Hulk - Can't say that I'm all that thrilled for this one...but Ed Norton, who knows...maybe it will be good.

Plus, we've got X-Files 2, Hancock, Wanted, Hell-Boy 2, Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay, Tropic Thunder, and no doubt a lot of other stuff I'm not thinking of. Maybe even some really good films.

Remember when superhero movies were just for kids? Like all of the 80s? I'm glad those days are over.

Reviews:

Devotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling A lot of brilliant bands like Devotchka seem to write more and more accessible albums as their popularity grows. I'm not sure what that is all about-but I think it has a little bit to do with how they started off their careers...that is if they came from basically underground and had to develop a huge fan base, that has grown with each album, like Devotchka has, then they get kind more-and-more mainstream. But in that people become familiar with their music and their music becomes more poppy and easy to listen to. This new album, while very nice and strong, is a prime example of this trend. It is a good album, but like the most recent albums of Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, and others, it is kind of a light version of the band. Devotchka Light, though, is still better than a lot of other crap out there. 3.5 Molos

Funny, bands that start out really successfully from the get-go often do the opposite-they become stranger and more experimental as they make albums, not unlike say Pearl Jam. I guess it all has to do with making a living.

Gone Baby Gone - Directed by none other than Ben Affleck and starring his brother, Casey, who is fast becoming on of the strongest actors of his generation. This is a good movie, full of energy and care. The story is intentionally uneven, refreshingly actually. It feels a bit like the under-the-radar Jack Nicholson film The Pledge, if you happen to be one of the few who saw that movie. Gone definitely makes my top 10 list from 2007 and I'm curious to see where Ben Affleck goes with his career from here. 3.5 Molos

1 Molo is not good

5 Molos is amazing