Categories
Debaser

Some Kind of Wonderful

It’s not my favorite of the Hughes films (and he produced/wrote this, didn’t direct it), but it’s still a film I enjoyed re-watching. Sure, everything in this movie is telegraphed a mile ahead, but hey, the music is good, and I like seeing these actors together, and at that age. Mary Stuart Masterson was especially great — and strangely, it feels like she never really had much of a career outside of this, at least that I can remember.

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Debaser

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Visually, I think this movie is outstanding — just like with Besson’s The 5th Element, I love seeing a sci-fi world that is just so inventive and fun, and inspired by European comics. I wasn’t a big fan of the original comic when I was a kid — I think it was a bit too dark and wordy for me at the time — but I recently decided to revisit the series, reading the first 8-9 books, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Watching the film, on top of the great visuals, I thought the story itself was a decent one for this kind of film (of the species trying to survive) but what was a huge disappointment for me was the casting of Valerian and Laureline. I don’t mind these actors generally, but here I thought they were horribly miscast, especially Valerian. And on top of that, I found that the two had zero chemistry together, which made their whole “relationship” feel extra weird (why would these people be interested in each other at all). I can say that I enjoyed watching the movie because of the eye candy, but it’s a shame that they went with these leads.

Categories
Debaser

The Dark Tower

I went into this with extremely low expectations — I knew it had bombed and didn’t review well, and I’ve been “considering” watching it for a few weeks now, which is also a sign that I wasn’t really into it. But I finally did decide to watch it — I found myself in the mood to give it a chance — and, well, I can’t say that it was particularly good. I read the first two books in King’s Dark Tower series when they were originally released, which is quite a while ago, and means that I really don’t remember much about the story, but in my mind I imagined it being more of a cool spaghetti western mixed with fantasy kinda thing than what is presented here. There are tiny glimpses of interesting things here and there, but not enough to make this a decent movie (even though I think the source material could have formed the basis for a fun film). It’s a shame really, because Elba as Roland is inspired casting, but he doesn’t really get the chance to be the awesome Gunslinger I was hoping to see. Oh well.

Categories
Games Music

Chip Tanaka’s Django

Chip Tanaka (better known as Hip Tanaka) created the gaming soundtrack to your childhood, and this week he’s releasing his first full-length solo chiptune album, called Django (and he’s present on the newly released Diggin’ in the Carts compilation). The Japan Times has published a great piece looking back at the man’s career.

Categories
Debaser

Neo Yokio

I gave this a try when it was released on Netflix, and couldn’t get into it. I thought the idea of doing an artsy take on anime to be an interesting one, and I do like the Wes Anderson-like opening credits, which really clash with the bombastic openers we’re used to seeing in anime. But after watching the first 2 episodes, I was just plain bored. It’s supposed to be a sort of parody of anime, but it’s neither funny nor saying anything particularly interesting. It might be a series that finds its footing later on in the season, but I just wasn’t interested — or cared enough — to watch any more of it.

Categories
Debaser

Thor: Ragnarok

This week I went to see a movie for the first time at the theater this year (the last one was Rogue One back in December), and it was Thor: Ragnarok. Why this? I’m up and down on all the Marvel movies, and I don’t usually have a big urge to see them quickly, but the fact that Taika Waititi directed it was exciting for me, and since the early buzz seemed so great, and the trailers looked so fun, I decided to go see it, and I’m so glad I did. This is really the kind of movie that benefits from being seen at the theater, and I even really dug the 3D (again, I see like one 3D movie a year, because it’s not really something I seek out). I had such a fun time watching it, laughed so much, and loved so many of the characters (like Waititi’s rock dude, Valkyrie, the Grand Master, and even Banner). This is by far my favorite Marvel movie so far, beating out the Guardians movies for me. I didn’t much care for the first two Thor movies, but this is something on entirely different level, and I’m sure it’s all because of Waititi. I only watched What We Do in the Shadows this year, and it’s one of the funniest movies I’ve seen, and I’m now adding Waititi to my list of favorite directors.

Categories
Music Web

Soichi Terada (Toco Toco)

It’s as if Toco Toco could read my mind. Earlier this year I discovered and fell in absolute love with the music of Soichi Terada (through the music of Shinichiro Yokota) — his Sounds from the Far East compilation is the record I’ve listened to the most this year (and I’m listening to it right now as I write this). Imagine my very pleasant surprise when I find that the latest episode of Toco Toco — my favorite documentary web series — is all about him. Thank you, Anne.

Categories
Personal

Pooch in the Media

My dog Confiture — who I always refer to as “pooch” on social media — has been getting quite a bit of media coverage in Montreal of late. It all relates to the fact that since early 2016, we’ve been basically crowdsourcing walks for him, using a private Facebook group we created that now has over 1000 members (with hundreds more still waiting for approval). It’s mostly done through McGill University students, and so he’s almost turned into an unofficial mascot on campus — if you walk him in the area, you’ll probably get a few people telling you, “hey, that’s Confiture!” A couple of weeks ago, the McGill Tribune, the university’s student newspaper, published this piece, and then this article was published this past Saturday in La Presse, Montreal’s biggest newspaper — I was also contacted by the CBC.

It’s a bit funny to see how much of a local celebrity he’s turned into — he’s certainly the happiest he’s ever been.

Categories
Design Web

New Territories Part II

In other Anne Ferrero news, the other video series that she’s involved in, New Territories, released a second episode a few weeks ago, and it’s another visual treat.

Categories
Art Design Events

Designart Reports

Designart has come and gone (held in Tokyo last month, October 16-22), but here are a couple of reports to read on the event that was, from The Japan Times and Dezeen. So happy to see Mark and Astrid (Klein Dytham architecture) be involved in this, and it sounds like it’s the start of a great new series of art & design events for the city.