please take a moment to Rock the F out to - N.E.R.D

Since I got to meet Pharrell yesterday, I figured I'd take some time to rep his tunes, now please enjoy...

Lapdance



Frontin




Rock Star

My Drive Thru feat Santigold, Julian Casablancas and Pharrell



Anti-Matter





Spaz



Yeah You



Love Bomb

Everybody Nose

You Know What

Hear ye hear ye!

ANR plays tonight for a good cause, it's a free event but all donations will be going to be art supplies for inner city kids since the budgets were completely slashed. They'll be playing form 8-10 with "The State Of." & then the party continues/charity event officially starts at The Vagabond where Junc Ops will dazzle us with their brilliance, along with the likes of Afrobeta and other great local acts.

trailer trash - Cold Souls

This looks intriguing, intelligent, potentially hilarious and mildly reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ...

when worlds collide...Pharrell meets 'Hamlet'

So I happened to meet Pharrell today...yes THE Pharrell, while overseeing a shoot at Marine Stadium today and I got to give him a safety talk, and chat with him for all of 2 seconds, but it was still incredibly cool to meet a guy who's work I so thoroughly enjoy. Later when I was recounting the story to Olivia, we somehow came up with a scenario where I would end up in Pharrell's arms and due to my general awkwardness/infatuation with her, I would end up saying Olivia's name instead of his. Of course she being the brilliant person and wonderful person that she is, remarked I'd probably find someway to combine her and his name & would probably spit out Ophelia. The mere mention of a character from Hamlet made me think of this little tidbit I saw a few weeks ago: Exclusive: 'Twilight' director Catherine Hardwicke to update 'Hamlet' with Emile Hirsch Showbiz News and Scoop Studio and Network Dish EW.com. & that's how Pharrell met Hamlet in my mind...crazy I know, but the dude sees sounds, so he probably wouldn't be too weirded out.

Anyhoozie here are a couple of shots from the shoot, which was for MTV International where a musician and an artist talk about art, what inspires them, etc. It should be pretty rad and is part of a series of 16 1-minute interviews, though I have to say 1 of the coolest moments was when Pharrell told me "Oh wow, I thought you worked for MTV." That comment alone made me think about applying for a job there (for only a second) and put him as a reference! & on a completely different note, I'm in love with the work of William Shakespeare, adore Emile and really respect Hardwicke so I hope their version is rad.

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"(500) Days of Summer" Review

I've been quite excited for the release of this film for some time and finally went on a date with myself to check it out. I thought this film was heart-breakingly deflightful, well acted, well executed and mildly depressing. It was nowhere near as extreme as the soul-crushingly brilliant Revolutionary Road, but you're informed right at the start that it's a work of fiction and that it is NOT a love story, but of course a part of you hopes that there is a happy ending, but you soon realize that this movie is most likely not going to provide you with one for the unbeliveably adorable Zooey Deschanel and positively perfectly cute Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I describe both actors with postive adejctives because their portrayals of their characters and their chemistry was fantastic, each was incredibly flawed and relatable, throughout the film that chronicles the 500 days of their relationship, which are shown out of order. Entertainment Weekly's Owen Glieberman wrote:

(500) Days is like a mood ring cued to the ups, downs, and confusions of modern
love. It's a Gen-Y Annie Hall made by a new-style Wes Anderson who uses his
cleverness for humanity instead of postmodern superiority. None of it would
work, though, without such lived-in performances. Deschanel makes the lovely,
sensuous Summer just precocious enough to know what she wants without coming out and saying it, and Gordon-Levitt, with his junior Springsteenian chin jut, 
lets
you read every glimmer of hope, pain, lust, and befuddlement beneath his nervy
facade. It's a feat of star acting, and it helps make (500) Days not just bitter
or sweet but everything in between.

And I certainly agree.

My rating: 8.9/10

"The Girlfriend Experience" Review

Last Friday I had my own Girlfriend Experience with one of the loveliest ladies I know Miss Whitney Roux, author of la poursuite de vie, when we went and saw Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience at the Miami Beach Cinematheque. Before the film began the Director of The MBC stated that this is a movie for fans of Sasha Grey & for fans of the language of cinema, Whit and I immediately looked and began to point at each other since we undeniably represent the former and the latter, respectively. I asked her to write a 5 minute review of the movie and also wrote my own.


Whitney's Review:
The Girlfriend Experience is a film that combines a thought provoking story line with an interesting telling of the story itself. Sasha Gray's performance, as a high class, independently owned and operated, escort is not exactly ground breaking. Her character is not only vacant but un-relatable. A fan of her previous, and less mentally taxing work, I found her to be nothing more than what she appears to be in real life. Her character is not only guarded, but apathetic to everything but fashion. Now whether or not she is really like that would be the deciding factor in reviewing her acting skills.
Her character and her lifestyle present ideas such as how to keep your private and professional life separate when your body and soul are so tangled in the two. Questions of female nature, and the ability to be totally unaffected by sex, and be with a man in a way which seems like love but is not. Questioning how two people who sell themselves (even not relating to being an escort) have anything left to give to someone who actually love them. There are more but those are just some that are brought up through the film.
As far as the film as a whole goes, putting all the pieces together to make the story is the best part. By splicing together all different days in a timeline that gives little insight into each situation before finally showing the conclusion of that specific situation makes this film great. Previous to viewing the film, the director of the theater reminded us to watch Sasha's clothing in order to better follow the timeline of the story.
All in all, I give this film 5.5 stars out of 10. See it if you like Sasha Gray, see it if you just like movies. Don't see it if you are bored easily or get confused a lot.



While I certainly respect and understand Whitney's views on the film, I was clearly there as a lover of the language of cinema, and not for Sasha Grey. I think The Girlfriend Experience is a movie that cinephile's will be talking about for the ages in terms of it's distribution business model, the non-linear digital format and how it fits into Soderbergh's canon because it was reminiscent of Sex, Lies & Videotape, but incredibly modern. The acting was certainly nothing special and the story follows five days in the life of high-end escort Chelsea/Christine, played with practically no effect by Sasha Grey, though her boyfriend played by Chris Santos (a squinty eyed, younger, less talented, prettier version of the wonderful Mark Ruffalo) gave it a good effort. The film itself was scattered, and a bit difficult to follow at the start, but slowly unveils itself as a deeper picture than you first expect. It's certainly not the best film I've seen all year, but certainly one of the more memorable thanks to Soderbergh's effortless direction and constantly clever camerawork.

My rating: 8/10

trailer trash - An Education

After basking in the beauty of France throughout Chéri and figuring out plans to head across the pond in a couple of weeks, the trailer for An Education makes me giddy. This film was a fan favorite at Sudance and I'm hoping it's as good as it looks.

It's Monday...

As Liev starts doing the rounds to promote Taking Woodstock there's more and more press about him, like this new People Magazine article -Liev Schreiber 'Spiritually Younger' Since Becoming a Dad - Babies, Liev Schreiber : People.com. Where he says stuff like. "I feel much older,' Schreiber told PEOPLE at the New York City premiere of his film Taking Woodstock on Wednesday. 'I'm older physically, but spiritually much younger." I just hope this movie doesn't suck.

Kelly Kapowski's too busy for a "Saved By The Bell Reunion"

In response to Zack Morris going on The Late Show, Kelly Kapowski, er I mean Tiffani (Amber) Thiessen is too busy for "Saved By The Bell" reunion.

Tiffani Thiessen is Busy from Tiffani Thiessen

trailer trash - The September Issue

I always enjoy a good documentary, but love great ones, especially those fashion related...