I watched the Watchmen

The Watchmen. For the record I had only recently read the graphic novel, and I read it because I saw this preview for The Watchmen, back in the fall, and it had all these amazing looking scenes and a great, eerie song playing-looked like a dark, disturbing, mysterious and beautiful film. Plus the director of 300-and one would assume the art direction would be on par as well.

So to it's credit, the movie did get me to read this amazing and seminal graphic novel.

So I did not go into this movie with the fan zeal of thousands of bloggers out there I'm sure. I did go in with my usual critical eye, and with recent knowledge of the source material.

And to put it shortly, I understand perfectly well why Alan Moore has kept his name off this, and all of his graphic novels that have been stripped of all their wit, punch, and smarts in movie-form. Although I'm sure he did write his name on the checks.

It's a real flat film. Too long, too focused on Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (no idea who these characters are? Oh...nevermind), too soft.

The movie alternates from scenes of gruesome violence (very well done, and my action sensibilities were pleased by this) and a sort of a dark, bleak world that is attempting to be gritty but somehow ends up too polished. Much of the story is camp, it all is a play up of the genre of superheros, and the director/writer of the movie version just doesn't have the chops to pull it off.

I read that Darren Aronofsky was attached to this project at one point-now that could have a been a masterpiece.

There were some great scenes, and all the stuff with Rorschrach was pretty well done-esp the prison scenes. There was life in the way that was handled. The rest of the movie fell flat.

3 molos for trying though, it's a tough one to pull off.

March is upon us!

So come on down to The Baby Seal Club and see some art, drink some wine, and eat some Red Vines. 619 Western, 3rd Floor-South Side; Seattle, WA. Work by Kate Protage, Chris Sheridan, and Ryan Molenkamp (that's me!) will be on display.

The first image here, Place Sketch 4, is a piece I reworked and will be hanging at the lovely bar and art installation called The Hideout, up on Pill Hill (at Boren and Madison). Ya'll should come by and check it out-there are works on display from my studio mates as well as a ton of other great Seattle area artists. Plus the bartenders are really cool.

The second is one of my recent small works, 55 Place. On display this Thursday at TBSC.

And the Oscar goes to....

The Oscars. Didn't see them. Have no idea how Wolverine did as host. Don't really care either. I do want to see the new Wolverine movie though. That will be good. Despite not watching the 'scars, I did, just now, tally up my guesses and found that I only picked 12/24 looks like. 50%. That's terrible!

I am very surpized! Granted, about half of my guesses were pure random. I did only see 7 of the films that were nominated in the main catagories-so I guess 50% ain't all that bad. (those 7 include Wanted, In Bruges, Ironman )

I was glad to see Kate Winslett win an Oscar. Half of the time it seems like they just give out these awards almost like "make-up calls" in basketball. Like, we really should have given you an award years ago, for when you were really really good, but we were dumb, so now you can have this for when you were just okay. (see: Martin Scorsese) Winslett was the winner this year in that vein. Perhaps some day Gus Van Sant will have his turn.

Shame that Mickey Rourke didnt' get the nod. I figure that a couple things happened with that. One, he is kind of a scary freak and just a bit too rebellious for those voters. Two, probably a bit of backlash, after his winning the Spirit Award and Golden Globe, and all the allocades...I think that maybe people had just heard enough about Mickey, so they went with the always stellar Penn. Okay, fine. Whatever...

So, here's to the most bland Oscars in recent memory, with the least exciting bunch of movie nominated!

At least I won my bet and now Cristin owes me a buck.

Molo's Oscar Predictions

Best Supporting Actress will be: Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler.

Best Supporting Actor will be: Heath Ledger for Dark Knight. Duh. This isn't even a contest.

Best Actress in a Leading role: Close call between Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. I think Hathaway will come away with this one.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Mickey Rourke has this locked up.

Best Animated Feature: Wall-E. Duh.

Art Direction: who cares? Oh wait, I'm an artist I should care...but this never seems to go the most artful picture, it always seems to be some kind of technical category, like this was the most complex art direction...so let's say it will be...Benji Buttons. After all, with 13 nominations it must win some awards.

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design: I have no idea how they figure this one out. The Duchess, sure, why not.

Directing: Hmmm...sometimes, rarely, they give the directing prize to a film that doesn't win the best pictures. This year is such a year, and I'm going out on a limb and saying that Gus Van Sant will be given this award.

Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

Documentary Short: Who sees these? The Final Inch, based on nothing

Film Editing: Benji Buttons

Foreign Language film: Watlz With Bashir

Make-Up: Buttons

Music (score): Buttons

Music (song): one of the 2 Slumdog songs...."O Saya"

Short Film (animated): This Way Up (random guess)

Short (live): The Pig

Sound Editing: Dark Knight (can you believe "Wanted" got a nomination???)

Sound Mixing: What is the difference between this and Editing? The Dark Knight

Visual Effects: Buttons

Writing (adapted screenplay): Doubt

Writing (original): Milk (I hope it goes to In Bruges though...)


and finally....



Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

artful lighting and light-art

IN FILM:

The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford.

What a mouthful of a title. What kind of idiot marketing squad came up with that one? I mean, yeah, it's probably based on a book or something, but sheesh. On the other hand, it is a good description. It speaks to the idea that...here is a story about Jessie James, one of the most famous, interesting, colorful gunmen from the wild west...and we are going to tell you a story about him getting killed, in cowardly fashion, by some chump named Robert Ford.

Really, in that sense, it's a perfect title.

This movie...though...my god it's quite awful. Really it's quite beautiful for about....40 minutes. If you rent this movie, watch it just after the point of the train robbery, then shut it off and save yourself 2 hours. There are some lovely shots, really quite beautiful, but they are all in the beginning, then the rest of the movie just repeats these same style of shots...it gets old fast. But great use of light and clever lens tricks.

Pitt is passable, his usual self. And yes Casey Affleck is fast becoming the best screen actor of his generation. (have you seen the film his brother directed, Gone Baby Gone? He's great in that movie). Even his stellar performance can't hold this movie for nearly 3 hours.

It's not the material-Jessie James, his enigma, and this wannabe "coward" who idolizes him-there is plenty of good stuff here. But the slow pace, the heavy handed stylized shots, and the lack of action and thin dialog just drag this attempt at an art house western down.

1.5 Molos

IN THE ARTS:

I caught the show at Western Bridge the other day, Light seeking Light/Untitled (a brink if infinity), which essentially is a bunch of work, some of which is rotating, from the collection that is up this winter. I shall not go into great detail here, but I'd say you should got check it out. It's worth it to see the piece by Anthony McCall (Pictured above). McCall's work is not smart, clever, or unique-it reminds me a great deal of going to see laser shows at the Science Center when I was in high school-that smell, of the smoke machine. Such an odd smell, kind of a good smell, but what exactly is that substance? In any case, the work really is just a nicely done laser show. Simple, elegant, and peaceful. Worth a look.

There are several other strong works in the show worth seeing. I wasn't all that interested in the centerpiece of the show: Mary Tempel's faux shadow wall painting. It's a clever trick, and well executed, but the imagery wasn't interesting or visually pleasing enough for me to have more than a simple-hey you fooled me for a second-type of reaction.

3 Molos

IN MUSIC:

I haven't been hearing a lot of new stuff yet this year, but the kids are all way into the new Animal Collective record, and I have given it a listen myself, and I actually like it a lot better than previous efforts of the band. It falls into that kind of multi/eclectic instrumental noise mess indie rock, like say, Broken Social Scene. Done well, though, and with a stronger sense of purpose this time around. It's called Merriweather Post Pavilion. 3.5 Molos

New Vetiver comes out this week, I'm sure that will be a lovely album.

2008 round-up

Yes, my blog has been ignored. Really I think this is because I lost all my pirated internet wifi connections at home, and my promotion does not afford me the same opportunities to play on the web.

But I can still sneak in a little, you know on "lunch".

So 2008, I didn't see nearly as many films as I had in previous years, but I did catch a few. Heard some good music too. So here's my roundup for top 10 so far. I'm sure the film one will change drastically as I finally catch the better movies on DVD.



Top 21 albums released in 2008 that I have been introduced to:


1. The Walkman - You and Me
2. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
3. The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale
4. Cold War Kids - Loyalty to Loyatly
5. Restiform Bodies - TV loves you back
6. Neon Neon - Stainless Style
7. Sigur Ros - Meo Suo I Eyrum Vio Spilum
8. Astronautalis - Pomegranite
9. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
10. Local H - 12 angry months
11. Grand Archives - Grand Archives
12. Portishead - third
13. Tapes n' Tapes - Walk it off
14. Brian Eno/David Byrne Everything that Happens will Happen Today
15. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
16. MGMT - Ocular Spectacular
17. Fujiya + Miyagi - lightbulbs album
18. School of Seven Bells Alpinisms
19. Nick Cave - Dig Lazarus Dig!
20. Steve Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
21. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Top 10 movie films I saw in 2008:

1. Batman - The Dark Knight
2. The Wrestler
3. Speed Racer (yeah that's right-the visuals in this movie are stunning!)
4. Gran Torino
5. Red Belt
6. Man On Wire
7. Cloverfield
8. Be Kind, Rewind
9. Iron Man
10. Death Race (he he he)

There's a lot of crap on this list, well not crap, but not exactly great either...I missed a lot, like these good/intriguing films that might make the list:

Milk, slumdog millionaire (everyone seems to love it, so it must be good, right?), The Changling, Choke, benji button, RockNRolla, The Reader, Revolutionary Road....etc etc...

fill me in if there are things I should be on the look out for. I heard something about some pretty good animation films this year, but they are slipping my mind.

2009 looks amazing, at least for entertaining movies!

Not exactly Best Western

Appoloosa

I love westerns, no doubt about it. I'll watch just about any western. I feel the same way about any post-apocalyptic sci-fi film as well. So I rented Appoloosa the other day. Sigh. Ed Harris is no Clint Eastwood. He has neither the acting nor directing chops of Eastwood. I only bring up the venerable Eastwood because this movie feels so much like Harris is trying to pick up that mantle.

In any case, the movie film is just not all that interesting. The best it has going for it is Viggo Mortenson, especially Viggo's facial hair. Jeremy Irons is somehow ingorable, Ed Harris is boring, pretty much everything is boring about this movie but the sharp looking western suites that Viggo and Ed sport.

Oh, and to top it all off, there is all this drama around a ghoulish-looking vamp played by Renee Zwelleger. She is simply ugly in this movie. Frankly she was never all that attractive, but here she looks outright scary. And her character is horribly written.

And, there's really not even much in the way of a good shoot out.

Only Viggo makes this picture watchable, he is a strong actor. You have been warned.

2 Molos

I love the Press!!!

Sorry, just have to pimp myself for a second, and thank Regina and the PI!

Every Empire Falls

What do these two images have in common?



EMPIRE



You may not recognize either one, but the top image is from the early 90s powerhouse rock band, Queensryche who's hit album, entitled Empire, dominated the modern rock charts for months. You remember, Silent Lucidity..."hush now don't you cry, wipe away the tear drops from your eye......" I could sing you the song, but I don’t have an audio blog...yet.

The other image is from a video installation called Funk Staden, which is part of the recent show at the Frye Art Museum also entitled Empire.

The reason that it is called "Empire" is the Frye is also showing Napoleon on the Nile, which is a very interesting historical show about Napoleon's failed attempt at invading Egypt with emphasis on the cataloging of Egyptian culture that happened along the way. An immense amount of knowledge was gathered and put into a volume called "Le Descripton de L'Egypt" or something like that. The images created by artists on that journey spawned a huge Orientalism movement in France and Western Europe. Any who...I'm getting off track.

That show, Napoleon on the Nile, though, is essential the reason that if you travel to the back of the museum you will encounter another "Empire". Empire is a collection of 5 different video installations. They have about as little to do with each other as they do with Queensryche’s Empire.

The show overlaps itself. Sound conflicts with other sound, Installations are not given enough time to breath. With the exception of 2 pieces, there is little that makes one think of Empires, whether it be Napoleon's or Queensryche’s. One of those is an oddly enjoyable real-time video recording of a wasp nest. 90 days worth. The other is the one pictured above, Funk Staden, which does deal with interesting ideas, although it turns them into flash and entertainment, with heavy-handed symbolism. Looks like the kind of video art that was really fun and interesting for the artists to make, but when the viewer experiences the work, they have a completely different experience.

Which, granted, the artists admitted to enjoying when I saw their lecture. They mentioned the "ripple effect". As an artist you do something, make or create something...then there is the ripple of the different ways it goes out into the world.

That's a lazy and convenient way to avoid having to answer whether-or-not your work has an intended viewer response. And if so, if it was successful in achieving that response. That is does the work do what you want it to do?
One thing Funk Staden does do is entertains. It is a massive, excellent installation.

Any who, this is a long, rambling "review" of the show Empire and I do apologize. I hope you can get some interesting info in here.

There are 2 pieces i the show that are not remotely art works. They are simply short documentaries and should be treated as such. Both are fascinating and should you come to the Frye before Jan 4th, make sure and check those out. A good critic would give you the titles and info here, but I suck so you will have to visit the website yourself.

Empire 2.5 Molos (lousy show with some interesting works in it)
Napoleon on the Nile 3.5 Molos
Queensryche’s Empire 4.5 Molos if I could travel back to 1990 and read my 13 year-old-mind. 1.5 if forced to listen to it today.

The Frat Boys never rest

Do not be deceived by the juvenile album cover art picture above, go out and buy this album by Restiform Bodies called TV Loves You Back. It's remarkable. Especially if you like weirdo experimental hip hop. I saw RB play several weeks ago when they opened up for that band Why at the Vera Project and I wasn't blown away at the time. However, I think that had more to do with the distraction of this random group of like 7 ex-frat boy-looking douche bags who were ridiculously dancing and virtually ignoring the music. Seemed like one of them had scored some E or something, I don't know. I mean this was the Vera Project. Not a drop of alcohol in the place. Just a bunch of enthusiastic kids there to see Why and these goons kind of ruining it for everyone. It was rather odd. I realise this has nothing to do with band's music which I'm supposed to be reviewing at this moment. Sorry about that.

It was just the thing I really took away from that show. That and the lead's spasmodic dancing. In any case, I finally picked up a copy of their album and it's a multi-layered treat! Definitely not for the casual hip hop fan, but give a shot and you will not be disappointed. Great music to drive to. 4 Molos