Dismember the Alamo 2009

September 21, 2009

This year’s Dismember the Alamo zombie film fest is starting to take shape–and it’s looking good.

There hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but I noticed (during my weekly rounds putting together the film listings for Austinist–I’m not obsessive or anything) that three show pages have been added to the Alamo Lake Creek site: one for Thom Eberhardt’s Night of the Comet (aka Teenage Mutant Horror Comet Zombies. Seriously.), one for Bruce McDonald’s slow-burning zombie talkie Pontypool, and one for Tommy Wirkola’s much buzzed about nazi zombie flick Dead Snow.

I’m super excited about Dead Snow, which I’ve been dying to see since it premiered at Sundance earlier this year.

Herzog + Lynch = Meh?

September 17, 2009

On paper, Werner Herzog’s newest, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, is amazing: produced by David Lynch, starring Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe and Udo Kier. Unfortunately, it’s not getting fantastic reviews (it’s played at Venice and Toronto sofar). I’m not letting that get me down though–I still have high hopes for it.

For reasons probably having to do with lawyers, the trailer has been pulled from YouTube. But you can check it out here while it lasts.

Stuff About Stanley Kubrick

September 16, 2009

[Stuff About Stanley Kubrick]

Wow–I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without knowing that a huge archive of Kubrick-related links existed. I could seriously spend hours looking through all of this and never get bored. Kubrick was a rare bird, and I’m deeply intrigued by him–what’s surprising, though, is the sheer volume of critical and biographical material he’s inspired.

David Byrne, Austin, and the Bicycle Diaries

September 15, 2009

bicycle_diaries If you know me well, you’ve probably heard me yammer on about my interest in urban planning and traffic. And from those conversations, you’ve probably surmised–correctly–that I know absolutely nothing about the subject.

Still, that doesn’t stop me from being deeply interested in cities. And I was jazzed to hear that Talking Head, Visual Artist and Author David Byrne will be visiting Austin this month to discuss cycling, cities and the urban experience.

The appearance is part of an 8 city lecture tour promoting Byrne’s new book, Bicycle Diaries, which comes out this Thursday (Sep. 27) here in the States. The book details Byrne’s adventures as an avid, traveling cyclist (he has one of those wacky folding bikes) and an enthusiastic admirer of cities in general. And at each stop, he’ll converse with a local civic leader, urban theorist, and bicycle advocate.

The tour also includes a stop in Toronto, where Byrne will chat with NDP leader Jack Layton, among others. That’d be great. Of course, the Austin stop is smack dab in the middle of Fantastic Fest, which kinda sucks. But this seems like too cool an opportunity to pass up, so, yeah.

[More Info] [RSVP for the Austin Event]

Link Roundup for September 13th through September 15th

John Waters’ One-Man Show Coming to Austin
Probably a lot like This Filthy World. Could be good.
Should publicly funded content belog to the public?
I love the idea of all that great CBC and TVO content being public domain, and I think it should eventually be (though I'd say 7 years is a more reasonable time period). But for projects merely SUBSIDIZED by government money, I'm not so sure. (What better way to drive artists south than to shorten the potential commercial life of their work?) But I do think that some eventual concession makes sense–maybe lifetime of the artist?
Fantastic Mr. Fox Behind-the-scenes
Cool little behind-the-scenes feature about the new Wes Anderson flick, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. The film is based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name. (via Aint It Cool)
Cronenberg on Cronenberg
This may very well be my next book purchase. I wonder if he talks about his role in Nightbreed. Probably not.

Link Roundup for August 24th through September 2nd

September 2, 2009

Tiny Desk Contert: Bill Callahan
Austinite Bill Callahan (formerly known as Smog) performs three songs for the folks at NPR. Unbelievably good. I was lucky enough to see Callahan perform at a tiny Austin club with Joanna Newsom a few years back, and it was easily one of my favorite shows ever. (Via Tom Thornton)
Beavis and Butthead Return to Promote Extract
Austinite Mike Judge has brought beloved animated slackers Beavis and Butthead out of retirement to promote his new film, Extract. (via @donswaynos)
Frank Kozik’s Top 10 Criterion Films
(via @fluxistrad)

Home

Angry Robots