New Gnarls Barkley - Run

not to be confused with the White Charles Barkley aka Team America aka Camarones
stay big Cee-lo
>>cb

So hip

umhmn

What community #20: Dangerseekers

Everybody wants to be Daft Punk. Not everybody succeeds. But this is just too cute to pass up and not spread around. And the animation is pretty dope. --RWK [via]

Songs #3: Cherry-Cola Funk (Sta remix)

Not sure how old this song is (on the bloghouse tip) but it was stuck in my head all last night -- in line (for the door and at the bar) and even later in the cab home. It's damn simple, and a little more downtempo than other hits, but it gets my limbs popping, moving along lines of chance and fate and funk and love. That vocal sample is just too catchy...

Hail Social - Cherry-Cola Funk (Sta remix) (zshare)

[Pic: I'll keep them easy until you start guessing.]

Encounter #64: Strong As I Am

From what some consider Mann's best film, Manhunter, and what (I think) most people consider the best adaptation of a Thomas Harris book. This is one of the best scenes, but the final shoot out to that Iron Butterfly song "IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA" is also amazing. There used to be a youtube clip of that but it's gone. As long as this one is up, enjoy. And know that Tom Noonan is perfect for Dollarhyde. (As much as I dig him, Ralph Fiennes shoots too big too often in his version of this story.) More words on this picture, and Mann in general, shortly, in other webspaces. --RWK

What community? #19: The Touch - Le Night Dominator

I don't know if it's "the best thing since Citizen Kane" but this is pretty good. Altho, I will say, I dig the parts without humans -- the parts with buildings getting traced by light -- better than the parts with humans -- you don't really get to see the blonde dancing, and the brunette is oddly weird looking (to me). Still, let's go to Sweden. --RWK

Encounter #63: Knocked the fuck out.

You could say this is what the Husky Boys did last night. Or you could say this is what the Coens did tonight. Or you could say this is what Daniel Day does to the field. Or you could say this is serious. "Like a shotgun." --RWK

GET BIG! HUSKY BOYS, SONS!

Although we arent quite fully locked and loaded over at myspace, two weeks will soon be one, and one will be tomorrow and Cam and Willie aka Young Aladdin aka Pager Code will kill it again. Last night -- no name on the flyer, no bills our way, but alas, Husky sons got big, stayed big (as we knew we would). ahhh, thats what killin it looks like! >>çb

Genius Marketing #7: "One of the greatest shoes of all time."

How do you rate a shoe? Such an odd object to fetishize. But here we are. We are calling ourselves "Free Nikes!" for a reason. And what's this video, and Scoop Jackson's book (not to mention this blog, ahem), but more advertising for one of the most lucrative branding projects in history?

This picture was stolen from Solepedia -- yup, a wiki for shoes. But there's even cooler pictures, providing detailed looks at how the retro release of the Fire Red 3's compares to the original "elephant skin" cement grey look, in a relatively ancient post over on HypeBeast.com, where you can also find stuff like Darjeeling Limited t-shirts. (Dig that pun!) --RWK

Encounters #61 & #62 What Community #17 & #18 "Give me the Blood, Eli."

[The sound is a bit off in these clips, but, still, while they're up, enjoy these highlights.]

It's a movie about surfaces, clearly. And depths. And the reserves erupting forth. This dynamic informs the whole of the film, including its finale, which really isn't as out of synch with the rest of the picture as detractors think it is; it's just another confrontation, but bloodier, bigger. There's a perpetual swelling. The finale is the final catharsis, after the midway-through expulsion*. Given that the film is about this oil, and equates Daniel Plainview with the oil, with modern technology pushing forward (dig that shot of the camera-as-train upon Daniel and HW's arrival in Little Boston), and with the art of movies (it's what he's working on, like a conductor, like a director), you could say, as I hinted in my year-end piece, that this is a film about film as catharsis. (Or, more broadly, art as catharsis; however I'll stick to the film being an argument about/for film since it is, of course, a film.) The working over of fears hidden by the everyday, by the will to dissimulate one's life. (Isn't that all Plainview does? Does he ever, truly see plainly? When?) Film as an the opportunity to shed light on unrealized or forgotten passions (such as love and fear and avarice and joy) is also at play in Punch-Drunk Love**, I'd argue, but that film sees film (art) as a dizziness of affect, not a skyward jet stream or a pipeline or a bowling alley. These last two PTA pictures work all too well together and I may just have to write something else about the two when There Will Be Blood hits DVD and I can capture all those great compositions. Say what you will, but I think PTA knows where to put the camera, and how to move it, in the way he wants; Blood seeps and Love glides. Both are kind of perfect to my eyes (and hilarious*** to my ears). Then again, so are those Pirates movies. --RWK

*This talk could easily slip into a discourse on sex and cumming and all that, but I'm not going there, although Keith may.

**One thing that may set PDL above TWBB, at first glance, is its explicit argument about sound in cinema, what with the harmonium and all those phones. But what's great about the new picture is its insistence on score as its argument about sound as a space in cinema (what I've called the operatics of the film; which can be seen to point towards the finale's alleged grandiloquence).

***PTA's humor always runs dark and nervy, which is why the almost slapstick spectacle of the baptism got me to guffaw, even here at home in this shitty youtube clip. But it's not all willy-nilly silly. There's consequences in PTA's worlds. And, like our world, moods shift rather quickly, and subtly, which is why I buy into the hug there at the end, when Daniel is back in his seat on the pew.

What community? #16: A famous Britwit talking about politics and two famous Krauts.

Just started reading The Gay Science this week (it's great) so I thought I'd go ahead and put an old, favorite bit up. --RWK

Songs #2: Reasons

I've been listening to There Is Nothing Wrong With Love a lot in the past month. Probably has something to do with February and all its baggage (social and personal) but I'm not in the mood to investigate that. Rather, I offer the second song on that album (maybe the best song on that long player?) as evidence of another melody (emotion) that's been on repeat in my brain. Plus, of course, it's just a great song: full of life, pathetic explosions, reasons, surprises and, yes, love. --RWK

Reasons - Built To Spill (zshare)

[Pic: Another easy one for friends of mine and fans of the flick who will instantly understand the link I've made. Still waiting for your guesses on that first image.]

Songs #1: Caecilia

A new series begins with an offering of a song from one of my favorite "writing albums." You know, one of those albums you put on to help get your brain moving for a while. I've been known to write to Fennesz on repeat he's so good. This song comes from that seminal 2001 release, Endless Summer. It's easily the most beautiful and most romantic song on the disc. --RWK

Caecilia - Fennesz (zshare)*

ALSO: Each song post will be accompanied by a screenshot from a flick. Try to name the flick in the comments. Some will be way easy, like this one, some we'll try to make hard.

*an m4a cuz I never set my iTunes back to mp3s...

Encounter #60: The worst marriage proposal ever.

Plus, T-Mac is a jerk. But that mascot is a nice guy/girl/thing. --RWK

Encounter #59: Captain Kirk, lover.

From CollegeHumor.com (I know, right?): "This explains why Star Trek fans have trouble getting women." From RWK: a guffaw.

What community? #15 Encounter #58 Sushi, The Japanese Tradition

Learn social skills straight from the source. Also: if you want some amazing fish, head over to Kiji in the Mission. --RWK [via Suzi]

Encounter #57: The Pineapple Express (Red Band)

No, not genius marketing. But it's still more promising than that clip they leaked with the release of the Superbad DVD. --RWK [via Chris at Spout]

Encounter #56: Super Man Dunking Heroics

Um, this guy can get up. And he's got jokes. --RWK

What community? # 14: Have fun in New York, Cuy.

Encounter #55: Parle à ma main. (More Yelle-ing)

Those wacky French pop stars. They're always dressing in drag and telling dudes to talk to the hand. But Yelle knows what's up: she won't give up dick: Christelle Bazooka says, "Maybe we should go homo!" and Yelle replies, "FBI: Fause Bonne Idee." That's right! Get outta here! Talk to my hand! (Yes, I know: I'm broadcasting my one-track-in-the-AM mind.) --RWK