Mark your calendars now! Animator extraordinaire and DUCK director Nina Paley will be screening her first animated feature film, Sita Sings the Blues, at REDCAT in Los Angeles on Monday, October 13 at 8:30 p.m.
In her first feature-length film, comic strip artist-turned-filmmaker Nina Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining and affecting vision of the Ramayana — the ancient Sanskrit epic and essential fixture of the Hindu canon. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920s-era jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw spin off an astonishing whirlwind of flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. The film spans continents and millennia in parallel stories of two wives being unfairly dumped, one in the American autobiographical present, the other in the mythical Indian past. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic.
We will be chatting with Nina sometime between now and the screening, so make sure to add us to your RSS feeds, or check back often.
Tickets are $9 at the door or $7 with a student I.D.
(REDCAT is housed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall at 2nd Ave and Grand Ave in downtown LA.)
One of my favorite places to eat in the South is the world-famous Cracker Barrel. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders recently shot part of their TV show there because they adore the food so much! Here’s a clip from their episode. Remember, next time you’re anywhere from Texas to Illinois, make sure to get some eggs, country ham, and grits…. only at Cracker Barrel!
Animation master Brad Bird directed the Oscar-winning films Ratatouille and The Incredibles, from industry giant Pixar Animation Studios. At the Skirball Cultural Center, hear Bird discuss his body of work and how David Lean’s celebrated classic, Doctor Zhivago, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, has influenced his art.Friday, October 3, 2008
7:30 p.m.
$10 general admission, $6 full-time students
Click here for tickets
It’s the end of the world! The economy is doomed! ATMs will have no money left to spit out. Take your money from the banks and stuff your mattresses! Congress has no idea how to solve the problem. The Street hit the panic button today!
WE ARE ALL DOOMED! If I find a window, I can’t promise that there will be an subsequent posts on this blog
I for one have decided to invest in the one commodity never affected by financial crises. Bubble gum. That’s right. Good ole American bazooka! Trust in gum and you won’t go wrong! As our founding fathers said, “In gum we trust!” It was the neoliberals who changed “gum” to “God.” Go figure!
But in all seriousness, now’s not the time to panic. You have to wonder whether the McCain camp will take a significant beating in the polls for the utter obliteration of our economy under the Bush administration.
Last night, our DUCK friend Gerard got to attend the fantastic charity event put on by world #1 men’s tennis doubles team, Bob and Mike Bryan. The event took place at the exclusive Sherwood Country Club near Thousand Oaks, CA and featured matches by James Blake and legendary retired champion Andre Agassi.
At the end of the gala dinner and silent auction, the attendees were treated to performances by Grammy-winning artists and my former acquaintances from Nashville, Evan & Jaron as well as by singing sensation Brandi Carlisle.
Below is an exclusive video of Brandi’s cover last night of “Hallelujah.” She is extraordinary and a sweetheart! Pics to come as well!
This is the final week that the LA Opera will be running Puccini’s Il Trittico. The opera which is comprised of three different one-acts, also marks seminal cinematic director Woody Allen’s first foray into directing an opera. Allen directs the final of the three one-acts, Gianni Schicchi, which is Puccini’s only comedy.
I attended the opera this past Wednesday and thought it was great. The set designs were fantastic! The orchestra was sublime. The only downside is with the extended intermissions due to the set changes, the opera overall really dragged. Total running time after the delays and the standing ovations just squeaked over four hours!
So Microsoft has pulled the plug in no time at all on the Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld team up of spots. The $300 million “let’s make Microsoft look cool” campaign so far has been a bust. Jerry’s commercials weren’t funny, much like Bee Movie. As much as I grew up ADORING Seinfeld, the two spots they made just aren’t funny.
The ad below is weird. It’s not quite funny. It’s also not cool. Above all, it’s just weird. But the grandmother is kinda funny. I’ll give Jerry that! The whole ad is cluncky. It in no way competes with the Mac vs. PC ads that Apple has been producing. CNET News.com wrote a great blog about this.
Below is the “Shoe Circus” spot. It’s the official Windows YouTube account. Notice how the audio sync is off
(Aside: I recently upgraded to Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Half my webpages basically don’t load now. So as a longtime microsoft supporter, I’ve basically given up on IE now and migrated to Safari. Everything’s much better. I’m quite dumb though: I should know Microsoft products on Vista are buggy and there is no way a beta version of a Microsoft product is a smart idea. I have got to get it together!)
A few months ago I interviewed one of our newer directors, Richard Cullen. He recently completed work as the editor of the DVD concert video by Darren Hayes, “The Time Machine Tour.” The DVD debuted at #1 in the UK around July 22. Kudos to Richard (and Darren) and apologies for not blogging about this sooner.
Next up for Richard is another DVD titled This Delicate FILM We’ve Made. It’s due out in December and will feature 13 music videos off Darren’s last album. The majority of the films will be animated with Richard having animated and directed the majority of those. I’m sure it will be another #1 hit in the UK with a large following worldwide as well!
In her first feature-length film, comic strip artist-turned-filmmaker Nina Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining and affecting vision of the Ramayana — the ancient Sanskrit epic and essential fixture of the Hindu canon. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920s-era jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw spin off an astonishing whirlwind of flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. The film spans continents and millennia in parallel stories of two wives being unfairly dumped, one in the American autobiographical present, the other in the mythical Indian past. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic.
