Mandy Greer at BAM

In Arts:

Mandy Greer's Dare alla Luce at Bellevue Arts Museum (through Aug 3rd) is one of the strongest shows by a local artist I have ever seen. Mandy has consistently put together strong shows ever since I became aware of her work when she was an Artist-In-Resident at the Frye (in 2002) so I had very high expectations for this new body of work at BAM. I knew that she had essentially been given the opportunity to spend an entire year creating this show and what wonders would come of it?

Plenty of them-it turns out. Dare alla Luce is essentially a dark jungle room created in the style of Greer's earlier work (like the above pictured) with hundreds of yards of woven yarn, sewn fabrics, misc buttons and shiny things, and wall painting. Her work has matured from the very direct, and blunt pieces like the lovely deer above, to a more subtle nature. Entering the room almost feels like entering the scene of a Silly String fight-that is if Silly String were a couple inches thick and green and black. It's a gorgeous, affecting piece and I can't recommend it more highly. I don't feel the need to really go into great detail all about the work-but in addition to this new work, several of her stronger works from the last several years are on display, including a video performance that she did as part of her BAM show.

The video/performance work, while earnest, honest, fun and cute, is not nearly as strong as her physical objects. While entertaining, I think it slightly cheapens Greer's work and adds a strong element of "silly" which is dicey. Greer's work already dances a line of cute vs dark and I think it needs to stay leaning towards the dark-the performance only pushes it away from that.

However, all-in-all a great show! Check it out. 4.5 Molos (I can't believe I'm still rating art shows-what a chump, huh?)

Oh, and be sure to check out the Sherry Markovitz upstairs if you make it to BAM. Sherry's decorative animal heads are stunning. Mandy owes a great debt to her-they are both UW MFA graduates actually-Sherry is a generation older.


We had another excellent First Thursday at Fat Tiger last week. Much thanks to gameover (aka Joshua) for his excellent wall painting design and mixed media work Fame&fortune. That kid has got some serious skills and moxie.

Papercuts at 108 Occidental Gallery was excellent as well. I'm very happy to have an opportunity to show some of my strange forest creature drawings in a proper gallery settings and the response was excellent. I do not like trying to have 2 shows the same night, though. This is not a good thing-bouncing from one to the other. But such is the life of a young artist I suppose. (If I can still be called that-shoots I'm 31!) Much thanks to Cait and Justin for putting this show, and this gallery together! I hope 108 continues to kick ass indefinitely.


In Film:

I haven't gotten in my review of Indy 4 yet. Let's do that now. Well, what can I say, I was entertained. That's probably the best thing I can say about it. Basically the movie felt forced. Really forced. The plot, the story, may have been ridiculous but that stuff was no more ridiculous than the previous Indy films, what was different with this one was the very uncomfortable dialog that all the characters spewed. Sure, Ford is old, but does that mean he forgot how to be a cocky, lovable goofball? Apparently so.

And another thing-what the hell is up with the soft-focus blown up colors filming? That smacks of lazy direction-hey maybe if we put a lot of soft focus lens shot in there people wont notice how old Harrison Ford is...or maybe it will be loads easier to blend in the CGI effects if the whole movie looks incredibly fake. Either way it pissed me off. But overall, still pretty fun. 2 Molos


National Treasure 2 - yep I saw it. It was exactly like the first one. Exactly. A nice piece of fluff. 2 Molos


Semi-Pro - Wow. Why? It's very hard to understand why Will Ferrell would make this picture. Why he'd do what, 4 sports-related comedies in a career-let alone a in a row? Maybe it's only 3, but it seems like 4. In any case, horrible movie. One or 2 good bits with a bear, and that's about it. So much wasted talent. If this movie was re-written by say...the Aptow guys (not to be all on the Aptow bandwagon-but basically they work hard on their movies-and write them well) they might have had something. Enough. 1 Molo


In Music

I got really excited at the record show the other day and bought like 6 albums-Giant Panda's Electric Lazer, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Local H, Vetiver, Portishead, and the re-release of Viva Voce's first 2 records. I haven't had a chance to really listen to them all as of yet, but they all sound good.

Giant Panda is a nice very good strongly produced hip-hop throwback album with a lot of west coast flavor-refreshing to my indie rock world. The new nick cave sounds excellent and so does my old friends Local H. Okay, maybe I'm not really friends with Local H, but to still be a fan of this band almost feels that way. No one still listens to them, but they are still excellent and the songwriting had matured a great deal through the last few albums. Also, the new Portishead sounds very good-I'm not sure why it hasn't been getting better response, but I guess people expect things to sound exactly the same way they did in 1994.


Best records of 2008 (that I have heard):

1 Grand Archives Grand Archives
2 Devotchka A Mad and Faithful Telling
3 M83 Saturday = Youth
4 Neon Neon Stainless Style
5 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
6 Tapes N' Tapes Walk It Off
7 Sun Kil Moon April
8 Stephen Malkimus and the Jicks Real Emotional Trash
9 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Dig Lazarus Dig
10 Portishead third
11 Giant Panda Electric Lazer
12 MGMT Electric Feel

"Ninja? more like a Non-ja"

The last few weeks of film/music/arts:

I caught Speed Racer at IMAX a couple weeks ago and I really enjoyed it! It's much better then all the blah reviews out there-plus, after all-this is a movie based on a cartoon-what are people expecting? The storyline was perfectly fine and it was a decent mix of silly goofy stuff and bits of family drama. But the real reason to see this movie is the fantastic visuals. Not just the racing scenes, but all sorts of quirky, bright, intense scenes and bits and pieces that just were dazzling. Film making is not only about telling a great story, it is often about creating a great image and this movie is light on story but wonderful on image. The best popcorn film i've seen in a long time. 4 molos

Everyone loves Ironman! I enjoyed it. Pretty good. You know what would have really made this film great-well two things-one is to not give so much of the action away in the previews, but that is the way things are these days....the other would be if it were rated R. Robert Downey Jr's excellent performance would have been so much the better with that inserting of actual realism. This guy is supposed to be a womanizing, drunk, egocentric smart-ass. Well, let's see some debauchery and swearing and all that stuff....

A las, Hollywood studios aren't stupid enough to release a film like this in a truly adult format. They'd probably make 200 or more million less. So it goes. Any who, the movie was fine, and had some funny stuff thrown in which was cool. 3.5 Molos

In Music:

Tokyo Police Club released a highly anticipated full length to their very energetic EP of a year or so ago called Elephant Shell. It's a pretty sharp, clean rock album from this young canadians. A bit in the vein of Cold War Kids except less bluesy and more post-punk. If that makes any sense. I like it okay but it does not have the same energy as their debut EP so that was a bit of a disappointment. 3 Molos

Now for something completely different but also very familiar sounding-check out the new album by Neon Neon. I was a bit perplexed by this album which is some kind of experimental collaboration between Boom Bip and thC again. Except also throw in some crazy hip hop and some crazy beats. And somehow the eclectic album works. It's the most delightful surprise I've encountered lately. 4 Molos


In the Arts:

Well I haven't seen that many shows of late I have to admit. Although the rest of the Dario Robleto show did open at the Frye, and I'd say it's very hit-and-miss but worth a look. Some of the work starts to feel overly-clever and thin too. The craftsman ship, the way he combines and reconfigures materials is very strong, but the rational, the thinking behind the work leaves something to be desired. Without the very nice staging of the Heaven show it loses just a bit more meaning and implied context. Perhaps if the works were simply presented as sculptures he made, with out the back story and the ambiguous explanations I could just take them for that....but as with most museum shows, there is plenty of museum-speak floating around.

Oh well. I've seen worse work that's for sure.


There's a lot going on at the 108 Occidental Gallery that's worth checking out, including a group show opening June 5th entitled Papercuts (all works on paper, get it?) that will include some works by yours truly. Some of the kind of light animal/nature sketches I have done. www.occidentalgalleryseattle.com

The same evening we're showing a hot young street artist at the Fat Tiger who is going by the moniker Jet Pack McLeod. He may be only 10, but his show will blow you away. In addition to his work, there's a big monstrous mural in creation that I can't really explain, but hopefully will be worth a look. But come by June 5th from say 6 - 10 to 619 Western 3floor North and check out what's going on at the tiger.





Best film I have seen, released in 2008:

1. Speed Racer
2. Cloverfield
3. Ironman
4. The Bank Job
5. Indiana Jones

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


Best records of 2008 (that I have heard):

1 Grand Archives Grand Archives
2 Neon Neon
3 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
4. Devotchka A Mad and Faithful Telling
5 Sun Kil Moon April
6 Nada Surf Lucky
7 Stephen Malkimus and the Jicks Real Emotional Trash
8 M83
9 MGMT Electric Feel
10 Tapes N' Tapes Walk It Off

The first sunburn of summer

Molo's blog has been a bit neglected over the last few weeks. I am sorry dear readers, I shall try to do better. What have I been up to you may ask? Well, I did get a weekend trip in recently to the Blakely Island (pictured above)

It's a private island in the San Juans. I don't really need to wax poetic about how lovely it was, hanging out in a barely developed NW paradise with eagles, otters and whales. Fishing for the elusive Vampire Sex Trout and drinking plenty of whisky...beach naps, fireside chats, and even a pool table in the house...kayaking and such. It was a pretty good time. If you ever have the opportunity to spend some time up there I highly suggest it! It's like the quite, more secluded and undeveloped version of Orcas Island or San Juan. No bars, but plenty of beauty.

stay tuned...

....more on this matter and recent film/music/art happens will be added soon....

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

It's APRIL!

Well, I suppose it's technically still March...but it's almost April. And it snowed, last week. What's up with that? I love the snow, I always have, however, frankly, this is a little ridiculous. I don't really want snow in April. I'm ready for the sun! Spring! Flowers blooming, love is in the air- and all that crap. Instead we get freezing rain and snow showers. Sheesh.

Plus, it's not like there was any hope of it sticking and shutting down the city-if that had happened we would have at least had a chance of not having to work.

Well, despite the weather, art goes on. We are having another exciting opening this week at Fat Tiger. The artist Jess Rees will be showing and playing music in her band, The Western Cup. Check out www.myspace/fattigergallery for details. The above photo is a few of her sculptures next to one my paintings that will be hanging on Thursday as well.


Moving on...

I'm 31 now, and one might thing that I'm beyond the days of drinking too much. Well, the events of Saturday night would sure indicate that that is not the case at all. I will not go into too much detail, except to say that the old saying of "beer before liquor-never sicker" still holds true. I do remember all the embarrassing details, so don't worry, it wasn't bad. I did find myself at the WarRoom for Hip Hop night. Late. Quite the meat market-exactly the opposite of bars I normally frequent. The insanity of the whole "why am I here" problem may have led to my last couple unnecessary drinks....social awkwardness and all. To avoid having to talk to any of the idiots in the place I mostly hung out on the rather pleasant deck. Then, to cap off the evening, I slipped on the stairs on the way out of the place.

You might say that the slippage was due to a slight intoxication level...I shall not argue the point, however you might also note that I was wearing very slick shoes, and I think that people had spilled beer all over those rubber stair, thus creating a trap!

Well, I got out of there and headed right home, but decided to stay up and watch a flick, in a feeble attempt to drink a lot of water and eat before bed. the flick, well my dear readers, let us move on to the reviews:


Rocky Balboa on dvd. COMPLETELY UNWATCHABLE, unless you are drunk, then it's only semi-unwatchable. 1 Molo

Nada Surf at the Showbox Excellent show! Nada Surf have really turned out to be a wonderful band. They played a great set, very enjoyable. They even played "Popular" dedicating it to the owner of Barsuk, which was quite amusing. (Popular was Nada Surf big hit song from their first album-the song was a #1 single I think, made 'em lots of money and they were on a major label because of it...then were dropped because they didn't make any other hits-hence being on Barsuk for their last 4 albums-and that's why it's funny-if you care) Great show though! 4 Molos

The King of Kong on DVD. You have to watch this fascinating documentary about 2 men and the high score in old school Donkey Kong. Trust me it's way better than it sounds. Completely hilarious and touching as well. Make sure and catch all the extras too. It's a compelling story and one of the best films that was released in 2007. 4 Molos

A bit of a snowy view from my window. Not really a good shot-the stuff was coming down impressively.

The New Ballard Target, opening in 2008!

I remember when I was a kid seeing some cartoon about a lady who refused to ever sell her little house to big corporations and they just built these huge tall buildings around her...I'm really glad that sort of thing never happens in real life. (thanks new Ballard Target!)


Do take note of the blue handicap street parking sign.


Well dear readers, it has been a while, hasn't it? I'm still not entirely certain if more than say 5 of you ever read this blog, but I do take it seriously and I feel as though I have let you down by not posting for a couple weeks.


Sorry about that. Perhaps it's just that February has been a dreary month and my writing has suffered because of it. I admit to being a little SAD, even if i don't actually believe in such things. (Seasonal Affective...please...) Of course it is hard to argue with the suicide numbers from Norway, right? But that could be more the isolation and cold then the darkness. Shoot in any case don’t worry, I'm not that SAD, I have just been tired/sick and had plenty of post big show let down kind of stuff. OH woe is me! Okay, enough of this tripe, I apologize.


Let me get to the reviews, as I am not sure what else I have to talk about today....


In film:


10,000 BC Dear god do not see this movie. Sean and I went, as we hold strong to the rule that we will see anything at the Cinerama. Anything. This movie was laughable. Absolutely ripped off Spartacus, Braveheart, Apocalyptico, and Conan the Barbarian...and none of those movies are exactly full of originality in the first place. The mammoth sequence in the beginning was okay, that's about the only compliment I can give it. 1 Molo


The Simpsons Movie (on DVD) Take any 3 random episodes and watch them and they will be better. Far better. I'd like to slap the writers and the people who said that this was actually good. Okay, maybe not slap, but you get the idea. It was a really long boring episode. 1 Molo


The Bourne Ultimatum (dvd) Better than I expected-basically the action romp that Bourne delivered in the previous 2 flicks, but taken up a small notch from the last one. I can't say that secret CIA black ops training stuff is all that intriguing anymore, there have been too many stories along those lines, but bourne is light and fun and has good action sequences and enough solid acting to keep on paying attention, even if 2 days later you don't remember ever watching the film. 3 molos


The Darjeeling Limited (dvd) Lovely garbage. Poor Wes seems to just want to be a fashion photographer these days. He creates great setting and lovely stylized sequences, but has no story left to tell. In fact, every single movie he has done since Rushmore has had less and less story. Less dialog even. Lots of shots of woeful looking but happy/successful bourgeois people. Oh how this movie made me sad. The characters are so poorly developed it's like we are expected to love them simply because they are interesting looking people. Or because they are famous actors maybe. The reason that everyone said that short at the beginning of the film was better (Hotel Che...something) than the feature is simply that the characters actually interact with each other and have clear motives and there is drama there. I think Wes drastically needs to start working with writers outside of his circle or do a good book adaptation. He clearly has run out of stories to sell and cant get by on quirky. 2 molos


In Music:


Vampire Weekend Self-titled These young Columbia University kids are undeniably the official certified Next Big Thing of the moment. There have appeared on the cover of all sorts of mags already and are in extreme danger of blowing their own popularity up before they even get to that successful level. I was reluctant to pick up this album...but then i listened to it at the store and golly if it wasn't just too light, fun, fluffy and originally enough sounding that I had to join the hipster masses. It's young, thin but pretty indie rock at it's best. Kind of a good follow-up to Clay Your Hands Say Yeah's first record, but less groovy. My main complaint is that they have a song about a girl who happens to be named Bryn, who is from Kansas as well. Clearly not the same B of my distant past, but I little unfortunate all the same. Oh well. 4 Molos


Ghostland Observatory Robotique Mystique (or Boutique or whatever it's called) The new one from these guys, who are amazing in concert, sounds just weird and boring. Doesn't have that energy they really need in their music. I only listened to some of it, but I was not interested. 2 Molos


Nada Surf Lucky Still one of my favorite traditional and dare-I-say formulaic pop/rock bands, the new Nada Surf does not disappoint. It's good, solid all the way through, and there are even some gems on the bonus EP. Better than their last effort I'd say. Nada Surf does sincere earnest rock so well. I enjoy it. 3.5 molos


Early Best of lists:


Best film I have seen, released in 2008:

1. Cloverfield
2. The Bank Job


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

Good old SLOG

A dear friend of mine helped me to get me a delightful mention in The Stranger's web blog, SLOG, under the Visual Arts section-Currently Hanging-posted by Jen Graves. This is a great thing! I'm very grateful for this. If you want to check it out (although, dear readers, I suspect you have already seen it if you are seeing this post) it's on www.thestranger.com. Find the SLOG, and the visual arts section, and scroll down past the picture of the naked pregnant punk-rock lady. Which has created a bit of an online stir according to Jen.

This happening just reminds me how happy I am to have a lot of wonderful supportive friends in this town (and around the world). Trying to make it as an artist is an exasperating process, one that leans heavily on networking and connections and constant promotion and to have such a wonderful group of people out there helping me along here and there when they can just tickles me pink. Thank you all so much, always! And I hope I can always return the favor, or at least buy y'all a beer.

Moving on...the Form/Space show is almost down, one more week to go. Next week I will be hanging and prepping for the bit Portrait Challenge show at Fat Tiger, and hang a few new works of my own as well. I'm moving out of my post-big-show letdown period and getting productive as well. I'm not sure why I just mentioned that. Maybe to remind myself to never slack off.

Any who, I did slack off a bit and now have a few reviews for you:

Grand Archives -The Grand Archives Mat Brooke and friends have released what may prove to be the best album of the year on Sub Pop. It's so pretty and polished and lovely. It's almost too pure. A bit CSNY, a bit Beach Boys, and of course a bit Carissa's Wierd. They only thing I'm not entirely sold on with this album is that some of the extra instrumentation, the horns, the steel guitar, seems a little superfluous. But maybe I just wanted to hear nothing but guitar and violin (as in I just want to hear new Carissas Wierd) and likely it's simply a personal taste issue. Pretty damn great though! 4.5 Molos

S, Sera Cahoone, and Grand Archives at the Triple Door - I was quite ill when I saw this show, but I had a few whiskeys and sucked it up because how could I pass on this! Jen Ghetto, aka S, Sera, and Mat were all in Carissa's Wierd, so maybe, just maybe they might play some CW songs?? Well, they did play one, it was just Jenn and Matt playing, and it was worth the ticket price all on it's own. (Actually, S played a CW song right before Mat came on stage which was great too!) In fact, S was worth it all on it's own. I love Jenn's shy, lovely stage presence and simple, rough, precious songs. Sera Cahoone was excellent as well...and by the time GA came onstage I was getting really tired...but they played through their entire album and were masterful. Great show! 4.5 Molos

The Fountain - On DVD. The last picture by Daren Aronofsky (Pi, Requim For a Dream). Came out in 2006 to a sea of baffled reviewers. This movie is far better than everyone said it was. It's essentially 3 stories in one, all related to each other and can be taken a few different ways. It's not a happy picture, being about life and the stuggle against death-Fountain of youth kind of stuff-hence the name. And I shall not try to explain the plot to you. But if you rent it don't try to super analyze it too much. Enjoy the lush imagery and really strong middle (chronologically within the plot) story. Hugh Jackman is surprisingly strong in this film. 3.5 Molos

Days of Heaven - I rented this classic Terrence Malick feature as well. 1976 I think. A young Richard Gere. Great movie. Very very Malick in story and setting. Which means the characters all are dealing with heavy, harsh realities of life-struggling against man's own violent nature and doing so in a very wonderful environments full of beauty and promise even. Man vs Nature is not quite what Malick is about-it's more about Man fighting his own nature and the natural world is very much telling us things about the characters....any who, i'm getting off track. Gere is great, the film is lovely, painful, really painful, quirky, pretty and sensual. With a young and strong Sam Shepard too. Malick is a master. 4 Molos

The Goldenrods

I just finished watching the Oscars. Which I did not intend to do, but having been sick all last week, then recovering just enough for a trip to Portland and a fair amount of um...consumption-not terrible, but enough to keep me pretty exhausted after driving back up here-I found myself not having the energy, or motivation, to do much but vegitate....

So there I sat, mildly interested.

And I recalled, that I had promised you, dear readers (all 5 of you?) that I would recount my favorite films when the Oscars had come around, under the assumption that I might have gotten around to seeing a few more of the better heralded pictures.

SO here is an update of the best films I saw in 2007:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Before the Devil Knows You Are Dead
5. Eastern Promises
6. Grindhouse
7. Superbad

With There Will Be Blood way ahead of the pack. It's Citizen Kane on Steriods. See a review in a previous blog.

The awards themselves provided no surprizes-with the execption of the French(?) actress wining-which was a surprize, for me anyhow, as I have not even heard much if anything about the picture-which probably is a bigger sign that I don't nearly have my finger on the pulse of Hollywood as much as I claim to.

But then again, how come I knew that No Country would win picture and director(s), and Diablo Cody would for original script? Very easy to predict.

Nice to see Tilda Swinton win a goldenrod-she should have won for The Deep End a few years ago.

Glad Daniel Day Lewis won. Have I mentioned that movis is excellent?

OH, speaking of TWBB, the amazing score of that film, didn't qualify for best original score, because not enough of Greenwood's music was written specifically for the film. Otherwise i'm sure he would have won it. He's the guy from Radiohead, by the way. Great music in that movie.

I wish they had the balls to give Julian Schnabel the prize for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly...such a powerfil film which so clearly was due to the direction.

Oh well.


Oh, kind of funny when they listed a lot of the best pictures-a lot os blah, boring movies that no one cares about anymore on that list, eh?

Chicago? Really? Chicago won? yikes. A Beautiful Mind? wow...Crash? dont get me started on that one...Shakespeare in Love?

that's got to be the worst of recent memory. Shakespeare in love beat Saving Private Ryan, and The Thin Red Line (one of the most gorgeous films of recent memory). Likely the two WWII films split votes, allowing Shakespeare win, but still...just silly.

Then Forest Gump did beat Pulp Fiction back in the day.


Well, enough.

Back-to-Back

Thursday brought another successful opening at Fat Tiger. This time we kept it a little more laid-back as both Cait and I both had big openings on Friday in Belltown to worry about. Both of our shows were very successful and went off without a hitch.

If you haven't been to the McLeod Residence, you should go check it out-it's a great multi-use arts focused venue right across from the Crocodile Cafe (RIP). Cait's work is perhaps too big for the space, but still fills it in a very fun and energetic way.

My show at Form/Space has left me very exhausted. I'm not sure if it's the stress from the show, or the late night from having a bunch of friends in town that really did me in, but I'm still feeling beat. Also there's the dreaded post-show depression.

It sounds silly, but it's real. Doesn't matter if you sell all your work or get a bunch of attention (press, what-not) but there is always a major let down after any large show. Maybe it's just about the process of doing all this work and throwing it out to the world for this reception party and going there and having all these disjointed conversations with really great and smart people, but how can you really talk about work, let alone your work, in any serious way, at an art reception with the crowds and the wine and the whole scene. (sorry for the run-on)
Perhaps that leads to it. Or it's just that it takes time for these shows to really sink in...like how sometimes I dont really know if I like a piece I made till 6 months later. You need to let it stew.

Any who, I didn't sit down to write a rambling self-indulgent blog and I have. I apologize. Let me just give ya'll a couple film reviews and leave the journal alone.

Oh, but don't worry, i'm used to Post-Show depression and I have a lot of big, new ideas for work...to many actually, that I have to get cranking on. Stay tuned...


So I saw There Will Be Blood a few days ago. Spoiler alert! This is one of those films that I feel like any review of it will only cloud your judgement going into the film...so I suggest this to you, dear reader, stop reading, skip down to the next paragraph, and go see this movie. But if you need more convincing, I shall share a few things with you. The movie is wonderful. PT Anderson is one of, if not the, best young directors working. Between this and the wildly underrated Punch Drunk Love (probably wasn't as heralded due to naive Adam Sandler backlash-Sandler is amazing in that film-truelly a talented actor, even for all the shit he has done) PT has made 2 of the best films of the last 5 years. The acting, the music, the filming, the story of this movie is brash and powerful and hyper-cinematic. It's over-the-top in ways so delightful it's hard to describe. The dialog of Daniel Day Lewis' character is so wonderful and demented. This is a movie that is not afraid to be a movie, that is it is both extremely realistic and historically accurate, while creating these characters that are both complex, real, and at the same time, very...extreme. 4.5 Molos. Best film I saw from 2007.


Net Flix brought me 3:10 to Yuma which is kind of the anti-There Will be Blood. It was stupid. While the acting was solid, and the direction was okay, and scene-by-scene it was fun to watch, I didnt' buy the character's motivations for one minute. Way too over the top- look at how the bad man has changed and how this other broken man is staying good despite the chance to make a lot of money...etc...just didn't make any sense. Perhaps the original worked better due to the naive attitude of the 50s or something. 2 Molos.




Everyone's favorite Canadian throwback to 70's heavy psychedelic rock band, Black Mountain, has released a new CD, In The Future. Ironically titled since it sounds so tied into the past, but it's pretty good. I enjoy it, a couple of really good songs but it's not all that amazing sounding anymore-Black Mountain. Maybe because too many other bands are doing a similar thing, maybe because they just dont have that much great music to make. I'm not sure. But if you haven't heard them before, this album is probably a great one to pick up. Think kind of Jefferson Airplane but darker, heavier, and slightly more folkly at the same time. No doubt you can hear some on myspace. 3 Molos

I haven't picked up a lot of new music lately other than that. I'm looking forward to the full-length Grand Archives coming out on the 19th. I have been listening to an older 764-HERO record, Weekends of Sound (3.5 Molos) a great deal. It's really pretty great...i'll have to pick up some of their other stuff. They are very much in the vein of Built to Spill, but a little more of an rock-atmospheric band, a lo Kinski I guess. Very PNW, very late 90s PNW and very tight. They did an EP with Modest Mouse, Wherever you see fit, that is wonderful.

That's all for now folks.