America's Got Talent surprisingly lets the incredible Acro-Dunk go back to Houston.

Acro-Dunk kicked ass every millisecond they were onstage. Just incredible stuff.

Not that Voices of Glory wasn’t excellent — they’re amazing. And the Fab Five was alright. They were good.

But nobody’s been anything — AN-Y-THING — like Acro-Dunk, least of all in their semi-finals performance. Which culminated in an astounding multiple-flip-through-a-flaming-hoop dunk.

Oh, did I mention that the basketball hoop was on fire? So there was that, too.

Holy cannoli, spiccoli.

Now two of my favorite acts — that Indian dance group, who were stunning, and Acro-Dunk — are gone.

In my mind it’s down to Grandma Lee and Kevin Skinner. Either one would make a great story. The 75-year-old standup comic and the Louisiana ex-chicken catcher.

You couldn’t write this stuff.

I’m pissed about Acro-Dunk, though. Especially considering how it went down. The final three were Acro-Dunk, The Voices of Glory and The Fab Five, and then AD was sent home leaving the judges to select one of the remaining two.

They decided to throw the rules out and send both of them through. Cool, cool, good for both of them, but WHAT ABOUT THE BEST ACT OF THE WHOLE SHOW?

(In case I was unclear before, that would be Acro-Dunk)

I’ll never watch the show again. Not until it’s on next week. Those bastards.

Fist Full of Fur, from Ummm Productions

Fist Full Of Fur from Ummm Productions on Vimeo.

Sooo good.

Okay, now keep it up if you think the Pastels and the Vaselines are/were adorable and enjoy subjecting your significant other to “Truckload of Trouble” on long car rides.
Two hands up if you sing along.

Okay, good…

Now keep your hands up if you actually went out and laid down cash money for the Galaxie 500 box set of crappy Mid East up footage.

If your hand is still up you need to go buy The Pains of Being Pure at Hearts “Higher Than the Stars” on September 22nd – and I’m guessing that if you were raising your hands so hard and excitedly at the mentions of those adorable bands you’ll tweak over their Stuart Murdoch-esque cover art as well.

Look.

Remember to breathe!

They kick off their tour September 5th at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge.

The Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl, The Queens Of  The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin’s criminally underrated  John Paul Jones have come together to form Them Crooked Vultures.  They debuted a few nights ago at Chicago’s Metro.

Though I’ve heard neither (beyond the 14 second teaser clip posted above), this one sounds so much more promising than Chickenfoot.

Interesting, though, that 2009′s two hard rockin’ supergroups so far have fowl names.

Listening to the above youtube link as I post this.   Still greatly prefer the 14 seconds in the top clip….

Where The Wild Things Are

Adapting a beloved children’s book for the big screen is, these days at least, a very dicey affair.  For more proof see The Cat In The Hat.   Once upon a time, Hollywood was actually good at this, even if they did make changes to the source material (see the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with a brilliantly creepy Gene Wilder).

Having Spike Jones attached to this does ratchet up hope for a good flick considerably.  Then again, Tim Burton’s take on Roald Dahl’s Charlie  & the Chocolate Factory – though inspired – pales considerably to the original and is overall dissappointing.

Alice In Wonderland

Speaking of Burton, Mr. Dark n Scary (but not really) returns to his roots at Disney with another take on a children’s fave.  This time, though, unlike Willy Wonka, there is no real beloved film version of Lewis Carroll’s famous story.    Disney’s own take last time around, in 1951, has it’s moments but largely falls flat.  Burton’s take looks intriguing, even before one factors in Mrs. Burton Helena Bonham-Carter, hot actress of the moment Anne Hathaway, and resident whackado’s Johnn Depp, Alan Rickman and Crispin Glover.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Idiosyncratic Wes Anderson takes on perhaps the 20th century’s most beloved children’s writer Roald Dahl’s (author of many books beyond that chocolate factory one, and also author of one James Bond screenplay – You Only Live Twice – AND the screenplay of Bond author Ian Flemming’s own kids book turned silver screen gem, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) The Fantastic Mr. Fox is the most unexpected match of auteur and kids animation I can imagine this side of Jean-Luc Godard making a claymation version of Babar.   (and that may be the longest run-on sentence I’ve penned yet for TLOS!)

Either way this one has the potential to be the most interesting and surprising of the fair of animation coming up.

A Serious Man

Lest you think all we do here is watch cartoons and eat cookie dough right out of the container, here’s the trailer for the latest from the Coen Brothers.   After going nearly 3 years between full lengths with No Country For Old Men following up their lone dissappointment (the remake of the Alec Guinness vehicle The Ladykillers), the brothers are back on track for a movie a year with this one, described as (shockingly) a black black comedy.

I love the Coen brothers, and have since I discovered Raising Arizona back in the video store I worked in in the late 80s, but really, has any of their films NOT qualified as a “black comedy”?   Still looking forward to this one.

Also noteworthy to report:  it appears chinese director Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers, opening and closing ceremonies of last summer’s Beijing Olympics) will be directing a remake of the coen’s potent, spare debut, Blood Simple.

Wonder who will be expected to fill THAT GUY extraordinaire M. Emmet Walsh’s shoes.

[update/edit]

It seems I’ve already posted the A Serious Man trailer earlier this summer….  and so while I posted about this (and a video from it) back in the spring, here is an official trailer of

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

No, The Dark Knight wasn’t Heath Ledger’s last film.   The latest epic from Terry Gilliam apparently was.    From Jabberwocky (made around the same time as Monty Python’s Holy Grail) through the film version of  Hunter Thompson’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Gilliam was one of my favorite directors.      Then his attempt to make a film version of Don Quixote was beset with disaster after disaster and finally had the plug pulled (documented heartbreakingly in the documentary Lost In La Mancha).    Since then Gilliam has made mediocre fare (The Brothers Grimm) and then made what I can only term as a “fuck you” to film goers in general (Tideland).

I cannot recall before seeing a film from a director I loved so that appeared to be so loudly screaming “FUUUUCK YOU!!!!” to the viewer.   Filled top to bottom with vile and demented characters, Tideland centers on little girl Jeliza-Rose and how she copes with the tragedy of both her parents ODing (at different times) by going into a fantasty world.   But it’s view of humanity, despite Gilliams explanations that it’s ultimately hopefully about how children survive horror, is so dispicable and utterly without redemption, well, I’m not really sure what else to say about it.    I’ve only been able to sit through it once, and though I normally love watching Gilliam in particular over and over again, I don’t think I could sit through this again (and I have tried).

So, this will be interesting to view in light of all that’s come in the last 10 years or so of Gilliam’s career.   It received very mixed reviews at Cannes, but then even the best Gilliam films seem to receive mixed reviews.   Not everyone appreciates the man’s asthetic.     Anyhow, a new La Mancha project is back up and running for Gilliam (this time, according to IMDB, titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote), so hopefully this film finds the man back in better spirits.  I, for one, am very hopeful.  I mean, it has Tom Waits for god’s sakes!  Tom Waits!

Holy shit!

He was only 59!

Double shit!

“I can’t believe it. They fucking forgot my birthday!”

I am not embarrassed to admit that I have watched Sixteen Candles something like three zillion times. That’s a conservative estimate. And not just on-in-the-background watching, but with rapt attention. Just a perfect movie through and through.

I wished I had Farmer Ted’s confidence. He wasn’t really a farmer; he was just a geek who didn’t buy into his own geekness. And I bought into mine big-time. Farmer Ted talked a big game. Fake it ’til you make it, contrasting Samantha’s fear of going after the object of her amorous feelings — the to-die-for Jake Ryan.

Then there were the brothers, Bryce and Cliff, played by John Cusack and Darren Harris. Uber-geeky with their headsets and goggles, they’re Farmer Ted’s henchnerds, and they steal pretty much any scene they’re in.

Whatever happened to that John Cusack, anyway? He seemed to have some promise.

Anyway, I’m not here to analyze the movie or tell you about it. You know it rules. I know it rules. Let’s pay tribute to Mr. John Hughes by watching one of the best scenes right here:

Rest in peace, John Hughes. Thanks for one of my all-time favorite movies.

If you think you’re new to 4AD, or not totally familiar with their work, you’re probably wrong – check out their recent catalog and noteworthy releases – it’ll blow your mind

But then my love for 4AD faded … occasionally events like the signing of M Ward or Camera Obscura to recording or distribution deals had me applauding politely on the inside inside hoping that 4AD would again become the force that molded young music minded minds with their eclectic and fascinating acts…and then, The Big Pink happened, boasting the auditory grandeur of the 4AD heyday. Even old stand by visual genius, Vaughan Oliver, the graphic designer for such albums as Modern Englishes “After The Snow” and The Pixies’ “Doolittle” is responsible for their cover art. Also?, co-mixed by Alan Moulder late of Creation Records (JAMC producer… Ride and My Bloody Valentine mixing fame! :dies:) (also mixed by Rich Costey, who’s done some Interpol stuff and maybe some other stuff- but ALAN MOULDER YAY!)

Current video obsessions “Too Young To Love”

and “Velvet”

Current song obsession is available via their website – “Dominos”

Their debut album “A Brief History of Love” releases in the U.S. September 15th…get excited.

I purchased their album, Nature, at the show, and haven’t stopped listening to it since.  It’s a masterfully produced, lush, layered album; it’s dynamically varied, brilliantly arranged, and totally unique.

The album opens with the life-affirming “Sperm & Egg,” which starts out as a lilting, French-café style waltz in which frontman Carlos Avendaño sings sweetly about impregnation.  The track expands to include cymbal-heavy textural drums and one of the album’s constant choral motifs.  “Sperm & Egg” segues into “Worms,” a frantic, sample-heavy electronica piece about death. The song ends with a choral track and moves into “Kids, Look at the Waves,” an elegant acoustic-guitar based love song with an unexpectedly strong bridge.  The fourth track, “The Flickering Projection” is one of my favorites on the album.  Structure-wise, it’s more straight-ahead than the preceding tracks, but the dynamics keep it totally interesting, and the backing choral tracks are expertly deployed to gorgeous effect on the catchy-as-hell chorus.

Even on tracks that are less existential in nature and more narrative, like the almost precious “Willis the Fireman” and surreal “Timmy Twofingers,” Flotation Walls exhibit a musical seriousness that gives the album real heft.  There are no throwaway tracks.  “Frozen Lake”, “Body,” and the lovely paean “I’ve Seen Death and His Tremendous Pink Eyes” are all gorgeous in scope.  The only comparisons that come to mind, at least in terms of arrangement, are the vast songscapes of Sigur Ros or Arcade Fire.  Nature is a big, ambitious album, and every track feels important.  My favorite is tension-laden track nine, “The Sky Ejaculates,” which starts softly and sweetly, breaks halfway through for a beautifully orchestrated interlude, and then cracks into a spare, powerful bridge.

The album closes tastefully with the quiet acoustic guitar and piano-based “Wet With Light.”  I was surprised, at first listen, with the subtlety of the final track, but I appreciate how calmly the album ends.  It feels complete; a beautifully conceived album from start to finish.

For purchasing information please see the Flotation Walls official site.