One of the best things about Seattle is, simply stated, Scarecrow Video. The store is one of the best video stores in the history of the USA, and that’s no exaggeration. In a town that’s movie-crazy, it stands at the center of all that’s cool about the silver screen locally. It is safe to say that no matter what you are looking for, you will find it there (although possibly already rented by someone else :)).

So for me, besides the usual escapist anime and sci-fi, they have an amazing selection of animation and music videos. Being an animation junkie, one of my all-time faves is Bill Plympton. Most may remember him from MTV hand-drawn animation back in the 80’s and early 90s, but he’s still plugging away out there and still as wacked as ever. In the past couple years he’s come out with Santa: The Fascist Years (2008); the four shorts in the Guard Dog series; and one of the MOST recent – Idiots and Angels (still waiting to see this one).

But in visiting Scarecrow to get a specific anime pic, I looked at Bill’s section (there are many DVDs and even a few old VHS titles in there to rent) and in the Animation Show of Shows series, his short ‘Eat‘ (2001) was there (Volume 11), so I got it.

This one – like many Plympton shorts – starts off in one direction, and just when you think you’ve figured out where he’s going, veers off wildly in the complete opposite way and ends up nowhere near your expectations (not a bad thing – but the rubric ‘expect the unexpected’ should be your guide).

A lonely man comes into an empty restaurant, is waved to a table, and then orders for two – when it comes, he begins fantasizing about the other plate taking the form of a fantasy date and acts accordingly.

Meanwhile, another couple comes in the restaurant, takes their seat nearby, the man orders, and then things begin to get weird. Not terribly long after, a family of four comes in and takes another table, and things take another weird turn.

I won’t spoil things for you – it’s hard enough to get people to watch BP movies with me as it is, so I encourage you to seek it out for yourself 🙂 – suffice it to say, the chaos in the last few minutes will be both vaguely familar, yet completely disturbing at the same time.

You aren’t meant to understand his short films – he lets loose in most of them fairly quickly and you are simply along for the ride at that point. But that’s half the fun! And of course the fact that he’s from Portland, OR (like me) and that he hand-draws every frame of every short/movie himself – the last holdout on that for sure – makes him truly one of a kind, even beyond the unique content of his films.

It appears from his site BP now actually has a book out, with the foreword by Terry Gilliam (one of the few people likely close to Plympton’s vision when doing those wacked Python animations long ago). I will definitely have to keep an eye out for when he comes back to the PNW, and show up for my signed copy. 🙂

In the meantime – check out some Plymptoons!

candybowl

In

Watched Ip Man yesterday afternoon. This is a martial-arts movie (somewhat) based on the life of Yip Man, a well-known and renowned kung fu master from the Fo Shan region of China – the movie is set initially around 1935 before WWII and before the Japanese invasion of China.

The movie is a bit slow in places (not unlike the early parts of Hero, another great martial-arts movie) but I liked it a lot. I hadn’t taken notice of Donnie Yen before (plays Master Ip), but will definitely have to seek out a few more of his movies. He seems less flashy than others, but has a disarming, quiet and powerful presence throughout the movie – until he lets loose against the Japanese near the end. I liked the fact (truthfully or not) that they tied his art back to the rigorous nature of his practice day in and day out.

One thing they aren’t clear about is how he actually makes a living – he seems to have the best house in town, but doesn’t work, refuses to have a martial-arts school of his own (despite beating everyone else else in town including the other kung-fu masters) and when they show him shopping with his wife, everyone gives him expensive stuff for free? Nice life. Of course he loses all of it later when the Japanese invade, the focus of the second half of the movie.

Even though this movie was made in 2008, much later than the Matrix movies – I kept thinking of several fight scenes in the second Matrix movie especially when watching Ip Man fight here. Apparently Donnie Yen is a renowned fight choreographer beyond his skill in martial arts, it wouldn’t surprise me if his earlier work had an influence on the Matrix fight choreography, and/or if the Wachowski brothers were fans of his.

Apparently the ‘real’ Yip Man had a bit of an issue with opium addiction (see Wikipedia link above) – they never talk about that in the movie. But they do mention that his later success in martial-arts education based in Hong Kong included such famous pupils as Bruce Lee among others. Yip Man passed away in 1972.

If you like kung-fu movies, check this out – it’s definitely one of the best! Apparently a sequel came out recently, will have to watch it soon.

candybowl

So finally watched The Big Lebowski, by Los Hermanos Coen. I never saw this movie the first time around, and despite its cult following, tried to watch it once before but gave up about 10 min. into the movie. For whatever weird reason, I decided to give it another chance.

So….I have to say this is one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen – and that’s even by Coen Brothers standards (Fargo or Raising Arizona, anyone?). On the one hand, The Dude (the always too-cool-for-school Jeff Bridges) is definitely a sympathetic central character, despite all the s*** (literally and figuratively) thrown at him during the movie. And Walter (John Goodman) is a complete freak from the first words out of his mouth until the very end. Steve Buscemi must have had the easiest acting job of his career – he has about one page of dialog the whole movie (mostly the same sentence over and over again which makes John Goodman scream at him) and to otherwise just sit there in most scenes. Finally, Julianne Moore is kind of wasted here as the weird art-heiress – she’s definitely one of my favorite actors, but her character just doesn’t make much sense (like most of the rest of the movie). John Turturro as ‘Jesus’ only gets a couple yelly scenes and then no big showdown at the end with The Dude (or even Walter)?

I’m not sure if this movie is an indictment or a celebration (!?) of the So-Cal lifestyle but its events likely couldn’t happen anywhere else (save possibly Monaco, to far richer and likely crazier people)? Definitely a unique look at Americana, that’s for sure.

I guess I’m glad I finally saw it, but as a Coen Brothers movie, I just don’t think it’s up to either of the two mentioned above, nor the far more recent No Country for Old Men. If it wasn’t for Jeff Bridges, there wouldn’t be much to recommend this movie, really. Definitely looking forward to seeing JB in the (really recent) Coen remake of True Grit, though.

The Dude abides…..and has left me shaking my head. 🙂

candybowl

Glenn Beck has been cancelled. No thanks for small favors (getting rid of huge douchebags). One small victory in the ongoing war against Fox News (and conservative) lying – kudos to those who made it happen.

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The US Space Shuttle program is sadly accelerating to a close. It is hard to believe that it started when I was only 9 years old – in this video, you can see the original flight of Enterprise (never went into orbit, that was left for Columbia’s first mission). Would that we got behind such a mission again, instead of all the BS, lying and corruption that passes for politics in today’s America. It’s still not too late to dream big….

link here

So finally finished watching the Firefly series on DVD, after having owned it for at least a couple years, and having watched the later Serenity movie several times (at home and I think even in the theater when it was out).

For those unfamiliar with this show, this was the short-lived (about 14-15 episodes only) Joss Whedon-conceived ‘western in space’ of several years ago. As has been said many times elsewhere, this series was cancelled WAY before its time. The show was not only well done (and certainly provided more than a bit of inspiration for the later and far more successful Battlestar Galactica remake (just think about the camera moves during special effects shots in either series and you’ll see that influence right away, there are others) but it made you actually care about the characters, had inspired casting choices, and interesting plots.

Some of the actors have since shown up in other series (Nathan Fillion is currently in Castle; Summer Glau was in the recent Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles series, for example).

Ultimately, will they do another movie? As of 2008, Joss Whedon says very unlikely – but one can always dream, no?

If you haven’t seen the series or the movie (or – shame on you – both) – get online and put it in your Netflix queue, stat.

candybowl

Back to work tomorrow – after getting ACL surgery on my right knee week before last (ski crash in late Feb), i’ve been movin’ slow the past 10 days or so. But no more – I go back to my new job (hooray!) tomorrow am, and start crutching around….wish me luck! 🙂

candybowl

In other unrelated news, I was able to pick up a ‘cabaret’ style (meaning about 2/3 the size of a ‘normal’ arcade game) Missile Command arcade game – very cool, hope to get it to Seattle later this spring….