$155 Million over the weekend.

This movie is already quite the success, and rightly so. It's really quite good. Well directed, far better than the first Christopher Nolan Batman. Interestingly character driven - as Batman should be. It refuses to fall into the cartoon-like realm of past superhero films. If any think, it's a little too sure of all the character's complex emotions and various developments and points them out with various dialog a bit too much...but that's jut nit picking a film that given the Hollywood parameters could not have been better. 4 Molos

One interesting point I'd like to bring up, though, is this poster above. I recall seeing this poster, or this image on Myspace, and thinking-that looks really cool, and also, man I can't believe they had the balls to use a image that is so reminiscent of 9/11. Yeah I know, I know, I'm the last person to every get pissed about such a thing, or really care at all. So I'm more just curious as to what the thinking was, there. Obviously any skyscraper/building getting blown up, especially by terrorist (such as the joker in this case) will remind us of past events-and I certainly don't think we should shy away from it. However-what I'm really wondering, is the marketing here...because that image from poster-with a gaping hole in the building, burning, was not in the film at all...not unusual for a movie poster to do such a thing-have a poster that doesn't use an actual film image. However, it's lack of being in the film (the image) makes it an even more conspicuous choice.

Did the Batman marketing team want to intentionally touch an emotional response in people with that image? Did they specifically think-this image is great for us, people will not only really pay attention to it because it reminds them of 9/11 but they will also think that the new Batman will somehow have the emotional weight of those events, and maybe even be about such a similar thing.

Which it was about- terrorism-totally anarchistic terrorism, but as pointed out several times in the picture, terrorism.

Well, food for thought any way.

PS I can't believe that I have actually ended up writing a post about 9/11 on my blog-that's the last thing I expected to ever do!



Best films of 2008 that I have seen:

1. Batman The Dark Knight
2. Speed Racer
3. Cloverfield
4. Ironman
5. The Bank Job
6. Be Kind, Rewind
7. Hell Boy 2
8. Indiana Jones 4
9. The Hulk
99. 10,000 BC

The current rankings (such as they are worth)

Best releases in music, this year (that I've come across):

1 Grand Archives Grand Archives
2 Tapes N' Tapes Walk It Off
3 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Dig Lazarus Dig
4 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
5 Sigur Ros Meo Suo I Eyrum Vio Spilum Endalaust
6 Sun Kil Moon April
7 M83 Saturday = Youth
8 Stephen Malkimus and the Jicks Real Emotional Trash
9 Devotchka A Mad and Faithful Telling
10 Vetiver Things of the past
11 Neon Neon Stainless Style
12 Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
13 Giant Panda Electric LazerPortishead third
14 Portishead third
15 MGMT Electric Feel
16 The Roots Rising Down

Big Green

OKAY ANDY, I'm back.

Apologies to you all for such a long delay between blogs-I hope that everyone has found interesting things to do in my absence. Like rollerblading in the park. Do they still call it "rollerblading"? Or did that term stay in the 90s?

In any case, I am truly sorry for such a delay, I am way behind on all the reviews of arts, music, film, and culture so let's just get to it-

In Arts:

At Fat Tiger we had an excellent show of whimsical Illustrations by Erin Kendig that was madly successful. In fact, that night in general (July 3rd) was great all around! Cait Willis' new gallery 108 Occidental did very well; I hear they sold at least 8 works that night! Between that and all sales at Fat Tiger I would like to thank the Seattle Arts community for completely ignoring all the bullshit about the economy being in the dumps and buying art!

In Music:

Sigur Ros released another excellent album a few weeks back. They are quietly building up a huge body of work-perhaps they are trying to outsell Bjork to become Iceland's most successful act of all time. But somehow I doubt it. I wonder how it would sound if the Sigur Ros and Bjork collaborated? I wonder how many people have suggested that? In any case, their new album Meo Suo I Eyrum Vio Spilum Endalaust is quite good. I little more mellow and not as insanely brilliant as say the parenthetical album from a few years ago -if you are unfamiliar, they actually did release an album with the title of () - but it is still very lovely music. 4 Molos

Are the Silver Jews becoming normal? Their new album would seem to indicate that might be the case. Either that or maybe David Berman is finally starting to sober up. No songs about K-Holes or horses with legs that "look like four brown shotguns" here. Just a solid batch of alt-country/folk songs with I'd say stronger influence from his wife and SJ member, Cassie. This is not such a bad thing, however it is a bit of a shift from previous albums. Good, but not nearly so innovative or daring, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, is David Berman growing up. I hope he doesn't grow up any more. 3.5 Molos

I caught an excellent show at the Sunset Tavern last night, Fishboy, Tullycraft, and BOAT. Hella fun. That's right I said Hella. All of these bands put on excellent shows-Tullycraft and BOAT are both local fun pop indie light-but still rocking bands with excellent stage presence. I haven't heard any of their releases, but I'm sure they are worth checking out. Fishboy was very good as well. Very good indeed. 4 Molos


In Film:

Seems to me, this year, whenever I have gone to the movies, it has been to see mainstream Hollywood crap. The last few weeks have been no exception. I caught The Hulk the other day. Not much to say about it, really. Yeah, not much at all. I really like all the actors involved, and I had high hopes...kind of...for this version of the lovable big green guy, but...sigh...run-of-the-mill. Entertainingly bland. Wouldn't it be nice to see one of these big superhero flicks really pull out the stops and make a picture? I suspect the closest thing we will ever get to such a thing is next weeks highly anticipated Batman sequel. I'm rooting for the Joker. The Hulk: 2.5 Molos

Some filmmakers are at least trying to make adult, fun, silly action flicks-like that Russian guy who make Daywatch and Nightwatch (the 2 most successful films in Russian Cinema history-despite being totally incomprehensible) who has brought us Angelina Jolie in Wanted, curving bullets left and right along with plot points, if there was a plot. I appreciate a nice silly, violent, R-rated, flick and at least it tried to deliver on those fronts. However, it really felt like they cut out about half the movie-very poorly edited. At one point, Morgan Freeman, actually utters the line, "This is the Loom of Fate". Yep, it's about weavers. 2 Molos