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April 29, 2007
The Daily Show
Our pal John Daily is going to be interviewed on KPFK tomorrow, discussing the new crackdown on internet radio royalties, as well as some of his other creative ventures.
He's scheduled to be on at 3:25 p.m., pacific time.
Listen live at 90.7 FM or online at kpfk.org.
Posted by LYT at 5:19 PM | Comments (0)
He laughs, he cries, he eggspresses himself
Tommy Wiseau gives an extensive interview to LAist, revealing several secrets of THE ROOM.
Among the highlights:
Learn why Claudette is so casual about having cancer!
Hear the explanation for the tape recorder that remains running for days at a time!
Finally hear Tommy's reasoning behind the odd scotch/vodka cocktail enjoyed by Johnny and Lisa!
What you WON'T learn -- where the hell self-professed "Amurrrrican" Tommy is really from.
Posted by LYT at 2:02 AM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2007
Presumably this makes sense in Crazyland
"Liberals and socialists like the "Red Letter Christians," Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Barack Obama, and Al Gore are violating the commands of the God of the Bible. If they truly want to follow God, they should stop their ignorant opposition to the conservative movement in America and join it. One of the first things they should do immediately is help cut government programs for the poor."
Posted by LYT at 4:57 AM | Comments (4)
Review quick take
...on David Goyer's The Invisible.
Posted by LYT at 4:17 AM | Comments (1)
April 27, 2007
Be my coworker...
OC Weekly has a few part-time positions open. We’re looking for a couple of freelance writers: one who is knowledgeable about visual art and can describe it for readers in a way that is understandable, entertaining and unpretentious; and another who has a passion for good food and good writing and has more than a passing acquaintance with the Orange County food scene. Arts and food writer candidates should send a cover letter, résumé and writing samples to Ted B. Kissell, editor, OC Weekly, 1666 N. Main St., Ste. 500, Santa Ana, CA 92701-7417. No phone calls, please.
We are also looking for a dependable, experienced proofreader for part-time, weekend proofing. A rigorous test covering spelling, grammar, word usage, punctuation and style will be given to qualified candidates. Potential proofreaders should contact Erich Burnett at Village Voice Media, 1468 W. Ninth St., Ste. 805, Cleveland, OH 44113. E-mail Erich.Burnett@VillageVoiceMedia.com. Yet again, no phone calls.
I know some of my friends got the skillz and could use the cash. Bring it.
Posted by LYT at 2:24 AM | Comments (1)
MCG QNA w/LYT 4 MGN3
Mario "ASKED" a couple of questions about MAD COWGIRL a "FEW" posts ago on Pererro>>>>>I figured I'd answer them, but first see if anyone else has any, also.
So, if you do, post them below, and I'll answer sometime. This will be cross-posted at Pererro too.
Spoilers are okay, because if you haven't seen the movie yet, you have no excuse.
Posted by LYT at 2:03 AM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2007
Austin Stories
It's Stone Cold Steve Austin day today.
First, check out my interview with the rattlesnake:
In the wrestling ring, Stone Cold Steve Austin never displayed fear of any kind, nor did he ever back down from a challenge. But over lunch at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, he has encountered something he thinks twice about attacking—a green puree in a side dish accompanying his fish ’n’ chips. Is it wasabi? Mashed potatoes, maybe?
“I don’t have any idea, but I’m not goin’ anywhere near it!” he declares, until the spirit of challenge gets the better of him. “Well, I’ll tell you what: I will, to find out.” Gingerly poking at it with a fork, he puts a tiny sample to his tongue. “It’s peas! I never seen anything like it.” Mushy peas, a staple in England and nowhere else . . . but wasn’t Austin married to an Englishwoman back in the day? “We never ate nothin’ that looked like puke,” he says.
Then, check out the interview out-takes at OCweekly.com:
Let me tell you somethin’. We’ve been on so many overseas tours, where we’re ridin’ that tour bus and everybody’s kind of goin’ to sleep or playin’ video games and me and ol’ JBL are sittin’ there sluggin’ ‘em back. And lemme tell ya somethin’… we never turned it into a contest because it would have been too brutal, but he’s a guy who enjoys his beers just like I do. And when you’re on tour, you’re supposed to drink beer! That’s what pro wrestling’s all about!
Finally, read the review of his new movie (note: even if you've read it elsewhere, read this one, because it's a longer version):
Austin as an actor is fine, but it feels at times like he’s being held back from showing his true capability. Only in the second half of the film, when he finally loses his temper and gets down to the business of revenge, does Stone Cold truly heat up the screen. For the rest of it, villainous Jones gets all the best scenes—ironically, Austin was originally up for that role, and one wonders how much more he could have shown us, given his standout turn as a racist prison guard in The Longest Yard.
and a note for non-local readers -- The Condemned is the first full-length review of mine to be syndicated throughout the company since November. If you have a local alt-weekly that is running it this week, consider sending an email or letter with your opinion: Are you glad to see my stuff again? Pissed off that I'm not gone for good? Either way, let 'em know. Don't be rude, and don't be deceptive, i.e. if you live in Indiana, don't write to Cleveland Scene as if you're an Ohioan.
Posted by LYT at 2:22 PM | Comments (4)
April 24, 2007
Like an alcoholic at a drinking contest
I'm going to be one of the judges for this. Come on down and join in the fun.
Posted by LYT at 11:57 PM | Comments (3)
Best CD news since the Just Mes
The day has finally come: An official MAY soundtrack CD that contains a whole lot more music by Jaye Luckett and Poperratic, from a label with actual distribution that WILL get it into stores nationwide.
It's been a long time coming. Make sure you buy it when it arrives -- rumor even has it that a photo taken by me appears in the liner notes.
Posted by LYT at 6:07 PM | Comments (3)
April 23, 2007
FAQ
People ask: "Did you stop doing the rainbow hair because of moving to Orange County?"
No.
I did it to make the Jasper Boring shorts. I kept the natural hue in large part because certain friends were making movies at the time, and I thought perhaps I could expand their perceptions of the way I could look on film. I don't think that part happened, but we'll be doing more with Jasper when I have time.
Posted by LYT at 4:36 PM | Comments (1)
Reminder...
If you haven't been following my film-fest blogging over at OC Weekly's Blotter, you're missing out on some real vintage-style LYT reporting.
You can leave comments over there too.
Posted by LYT at 2:51 PM | Comments (1)
April 21, 2007
Sivertson in Entertainment Weekly
The summer preview issue of EW, with Spider-Man on the cover, has a full page on I KNOW WHO KILLED ME, with pics of Lindsay Lohan in the movie.
The quotes from Chris in the piece are surprisingly banal. I'm guessing that was the choice of EW writers and editors.
I didn't read the issue thoroughly enough to see if it mentioned THE LOST, other than parenthetically after Chris' name.
If you didn't know -- I KNOW WHO KILLED ME also costars our friends Justin Stone, Eddie Steeples, Jesse Hlubik, and Marc Senter.
Posted by LYT at 3:09 PM | Comments (2)
I think...
...the slow-loading issue is fixed now.
Thanks Matt!
Posted by LYT at 11:30 AM | Comments (1)
April 20, 2007
3:16 on 4/20
Posted by LYT at 5:59 PM | Comments (4)
You're not imagining it
Yes, the blog page has been VERY SLOW to load lately.
The same, I've noticed, has been true of virtually every blog that uses Blogads. I think the problem is on their end.
Posted by LYT at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)
More people should take my advice
Several years after I said he should start his own blog, my former editor Joe Donnelly finally got one. Love the picture at the top.
Posted by LYT at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2007
Blogging note...
I'm going to be blogging the Newport Beach Film festival; over at OC Weekly's BLOTTER. Some of what I write will end up in the print version next week and maybe the week after too, but probably not all. I have a new review up there already, so go check it out! (especially Justin -- it's a total Stone-type movie, I think).
I figure most of you read my stuff primarily online anyway; this time, you get a head start on the folks who only check out the print copy.
Also, this means there won't be much time to blog here during the next week or so.
Then tomorrow, I get to have lunch with one of my favorite celebrities. Will it be BYOB? Will I be stunned? What?
I think there's some kind of fake scripture that has the answer...
Posted by LYT at 3:37 PM | Comments (3)
Riding the race cars
Remember that photo of me in the helmet?
Here's the story to go along with it.
Posted by LYT at 2:39 PM | Comments (0)
Ten mini-reviews by me
Read them all here
Posted by LYT at 1:17 PM | Comments (1)
April 17, 2007
For the benefit of my alcoholic Angeleno amigos
There's now a new website exclusively dedicated to listing events where booze is either cheap or free on any given night in L.A.
Enjoy. I would, if I still lived 40 miles north.
(via Fishbowl LA)
Posted by LYT at 3:06 PM | Comments (1)
April 14, 2007
Go ninja, go ninja, go!
I finally got to see the new ninja turtle movie, "TMNT." It's really very good.
Much as writer Elmore Leonard always says he leaves the parts out of his books that readers skip over anyway, TMNT has very little fat. There is no origin story -- it is presumed viewers are familiar enough with the comics, one of the many cartoons or the 3 live action movies, to which this is more or less a direct sequel. There is an elaborate plan by the villain that defies logic, but since it does defy logic, they don't waste time trying to explain it. Yes, there are 13 monsters loose in the world (who have somehow been loose for 3000 years but only been noticed right now), and four living stone warriors, and catching all the monsters will make the stone warriors human again, which they don't really want any more, but why dwell on it? Point is that they're here now.
The turtles themselves are not radically reinvented. Like the old theme song told us, Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, Raphael is cool but rude, Michaelangelo is a party dude. But this time, Leonardo's gone into self-imposed exile in Brazil to learn leadership skills (how you do that without being around others is a mystery), and Master Splinter (whose new design I'm not crazy about -- looks more like a fox than a rat) has ordered that the turtles may not fight individually, but only as a team, so the rest have taken odd jobs, with only Raphael disobeying the master by becoming a masked vigilante.
April O'Neil's no longer a reporter, but some kind of architecture expert. Casey Jones, who has moved in with her, is still a vigilante at times, but mostly just her assistant. And for the first time in any turtles movie, I actually believed the attraction and chemistry between them, a vibe Elias Koteas never achieved with either Judith Hoag or Paige Turco (and where are THEY now?). Sarah Michelle Gellar and Chris Evans voice the duo here, and it's top-notch work from both.
Director Kevin Munroe, who's now apparently making a G-Force/Gatchaman movie, may have pared the story down so it's all action, but he gets the characters very well. Raphael is the argumentative a-hole as usual, but this is the first of the four feature films to actually look at why that is, and make you sympathize with his point of view, rather than simply having him be the troublemaker for the sake of conflict. And the humor is mostly smart -- there's one notable burp joke, but the rest is like the scene in which Raphael -- in vigilante disguise -- asks Casey how he knew it was him, and Casey responds that it wasn't hard, because he looks like a giant metal turtle. For a cartoon, TMNT doesn't insult the audience or pander -- one background gag is a store called "Cesare's Cabinet Makers."
And the fights kick ass, with imaginative choreography and appropriate humor. A scene where Raphael battles the Critters-like Jersey Devil would make the Yuen brothers proud.
I'm too old to have had the turtles hardwired into my consciousness as a kid, but I always did enjoy the video-games and original Eastman/Laird comics, and thought the live action movies were fun. Those who were the perfect age for the toys the first time, like my cousin Arthur, may appreciate this new rendition even more. What's missing is a theme song as cool as some of the older ones. While there's a decent tune on the end credits called "Shell Shock," there's nothing as enjoyably campy as either the original "Heroes in a Half Shell" cartoon theme, "T-U-R-T-L-E Power" by Partners in Kryme, or Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap" (though Ice has been working on a new heavy metal version of that tune).
But they do still eat pizza and say "dude." This isn't a radical reinvention; it's merely "radical, dude!"
Posted by LYT at 6:44 PM | Comments (2)
April 13, 2007
New review quick take
Scroll down this page for my LA Weekly capsule review of SLOW BURN, starring Star Trek: Enterprise's Jolene Blaylock.
Posted by LYT at 3:34 PM | Comments (0)
He's going the distance
Trying to find a helmet that fits for a drift car race.
The rest of the story will be in next week's OC Weekly.
(photo courtesy Alicia Seibert)
Posted by LYT at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2007
I Write Stuff
Here's a review of the movie PAPRIKA
Here's a preview of the Newport Beach Film Festival
And here's a review of a sushi restaurant.
Posted by LYT at 3:49 PM | Comments (3)
Offpat has a new website
And unlike his last one, the new one is comprehensible to people other than his immediate neighbors.
Posted by LYT at 1:45 PM | Comments (1)
April 10, 2007
not cool as ice
I bought a new fridge tonight, but I didn't know there was a catch.
If you put the fridge on its side at any point, you have to wait 24 hours before turning it on. Something about letting the freon settle.
What the fuck happened to instant gratification? I thought that was a hallmark of our society.
I don't know if Mercury's been in retro lately, but no plan I've made in the last couple weeks has gone as intended.
There was GRINDHOUSE, which I asked my critic friends to tell me about screenings for. They all happily went and saw it without telling me, and then the publicist told me the wrong day to to go to the screening.
There was the family vacation that the family cancelled at the last minute.
The drift car ride that I'll write about later.
Downtown Disney is even lamer than Universal Citywalk.
Anyway, I guess I can buy groceries tomorrow evening, finally.
Posted by LYT at 12:21 AM | Comments (4)
April 8, 2007
"All white dudes with beards and glasses look the same"
It's true. They all look like young Santa Claus
Posted by LYT at 1:32 AM | Comments (1)
April 7, 2007
My Grandfather's Column
Abraham's Legacy
One of the best known stories in our Bible is contained in the 22nd chapter of the book Genesis. Abraham is ordered by God to kill his only son Isaac and offer him up as a burnt sacrifice. At the last minute, just as he is about tho plunge his knife into the lad an angel intervenes and speaking on God's behalf says: "Stop it now; let him go and you'll find just over there a ram caught up in brambles. Offer that up instead." The angel goes on to say that because Abraham has obeyed God all manner of wonderful things will happen to him and his descendants. This act of faith was even more remarkable because God had already promised that Isaac would have descendants as numerous as the sands of the sea. It was this (?) great act of faith, to which the three major religions of the book - Jews, Christians and Muslims look back as a common source. I guess it was also a reason why Sigmund Freud became an atheist as well as the father of psychoanalysis.
It clearly never occurred to Abraham that his actions would traumatise his son. Sons, like daughters, were at their father's disposal. The patriarchal system meant that the father, as head of the family had absolute power over his children and could do exactly as he pleased with them. For good or ill fathers did what they could to ensure the family prospered and their own name should be honoured by posterity. For Abraham, Isaac was just a possession, very precious of course but ultimately at dad's disposal.
Strong traces of this patriarchal domination have been passed down to all the religions of the book and persist to this day. Indeed, if you believe that every word of the holy scriptures was dictated by God himself, what other conclusion could you come to? To me it is simply incredible that the Father of Jesus could have acted as the good book here tells it. Jesus it was who said that anyone hurting a child or encouraging others to do so was fit only for slaughter. Thank God that even those of us who, like myself, have all too often hurt a child are still within reach of his all-inclusive forgiveness of all those who will accept it.
The story of the would-be sacrifice of Isaac, like many others in the Bible is conditioned by the beliefs and practices of those among whom the writers lived A friend of mine once said about the Bible: "It's a gold mine, full of wonderful treasure but by no means without its dross." I say Amen to that.
--Peter Graham
Posted by LYT at 1:37 PM | Comments (8)
April 5, 2007
One of the best things I've ever written
Seriously.
I'll just offer a tease here:
"Hardine is about to teach me how to defend myself against Mexicans."
You gotta read the rest.
Posted by LYT at 3:51 PM | Comments (5)
April 4, 2007
Wow...another director dead, suddenly
Bob Clark, director of the original BLACK CHRISTMAS, PORKY'S, and one of the greatest movies ever, A CHRISTMAS STORY, has been killed in a car crash, along with his 22-year-old son, according to AICN.
Wasn't that long ago I saw him at the New Beverly to present BLACK CHRISTMAS. It seemed like the beginning of a tradition, not the end of one.
I don't know that I can name you as many as 5 other directors whose major movie I watch at least once a year. God bless ya, Bob, for your cinematic celebration of His birthday will live forever (and yes, I do mean A CHRISTMAS STORY).
Posted by LYT at 11:08 PM | Comments (2)
April 3, 2007
Dangerous Demise (updated)
I just learned today that director John S. Rad, real name Jahangi Semadi Gegahamed (spelling not guaranteed correct), was found dead in his office. Rad briefly attained cult-level fame last year with the release of DANGEROUS MEN, a so-awful-it's-awesome movie that was clearly made over several decades, with actors suddenly aging, out-of-date stock footage, endlessly repetitive synth score, and a confused Death Wish-type storyline that involved an albino villain named Black Pepper. Paul Cullum wrote about the film in the LA Weekly, and Dave White plugged it on his blog. Laemmle Theaters' Greg Gardner and Cinema Epoch's Gregory Hatanaka were determined to make it the next big cult thing.
Rad, however, seemed confused and annoyed by the fact that people laughed at his film, and distribution negotiations would reportedly fall apart when he would make demands no reasonable company could be expected to agree to. That said, it was very clearly a passion project for him, and something he spent years of his life putting together. At least he got to see it play theaters.
One day, perhaps he'll be the guy that extreme movie geeks reference in order to prove just how obscure they can get with references. Here's hoping that one day the movie will come out on DVD, and Rad's memory will live on.
UPDATE: Check out a video interview with John S. Rad and Sandra Bernhardt!
(A meeting of the minds: John S. Rad, Douglas Dunning, Gregory Hatanaka, and LYT at the LA press screening for DANGEROUS MEN)
Posted by LYT at 7:03 PM | Comments (7)
Did you miss me?
I'm back.
The power of cable compels me.
But I have very little free time right now. So just a tidbit:
Diet Coke is the first thing the vending machine at the office runs out of. It is also, however, the last thing the vending machine in my apartment complex runs out of.
Oh, and I finally, belatedly, got a picture of Cathy up on the front of the site. Been wanting to do that since shortly after the computer got packed away.
Posted by LYT at 5:38 PM | Comments (4)