19 Year Old Hip Hop Artist Goes Viral
Region: NJ
CHICAGO, IL, October 07, 2011 -- As a tribute to one of the most influential hip hop artists today, 19-year-old, hot new artist, Nick Carter Green, debuted his remix to Drake's "Headlines" to explosive views on the highly trafficked www.worldstarhiphop.com, on Sunday, October 2nd. The two minute, black and white video, utilizes mirror image technique set against a Chicago Skyline backdrop to show a brief, introspective look into the budding talent of this hardworkin... more
Views: 1146Woodstock Film Festival: "Paper Birds"
Region: New York
I love everything about this movie except its title (which perhaps works better in Spanish.) It takes place just after the Spanish Civil War, which is clever. The war has already become a restive memory, but a recent one. The main character, Jorge, is a deathless archetype: the miserable clown. His wife and son died in the war, and he is empty, entirely bereft. Jorge hates Franco, but also is no fan of The Opposition (which is never precisely named, though it must be the Communists). My old f... more
Views: 987Ini, Emem Premiere "I'll Take My Chances"
Region: NigeriaThe premiere of the eagerly anticipated dance movie, I’ll Take My Chances took place in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State (Nigeria), on Saturday, September 24, 2011. The movie was premiered at the new Akwa Ibom State Banquet Hall in Uyo. The movie, which stars Ini Edo, Bryan Okwara, Ashleigh Clark, Ini Ikpe, and the late Sam Loco, was jointly produced by Ini Edo, and veteran producer, Emem Isong. The event was attended by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state and members of... more
Views: 891Lubbock Fair Concerts end in a Halestorm
Region: TXSouth Plains Fair, Lubbock Texas; the Fairpark Colliseum was host to a timeline of Rock and Roll. For those of you who aren't familiar with the South Plains Fair concert practices, each year around the middle or last of September the city of Lubbock Texas has this big county fair with all the trimmings including listener appreciation concerts from most of it's radio stations. Since, so many Lubbock stations offer free tickets for concerts each year; it gives Lubbock li... more
Views: 1432Woodstock Film Festival: "Bunny"
Region: New York
One of the short films I saw was "Bunny." It was about a bunny named Benny, and it might have been entitled "Differential Pet Care Strategies Among Social Classes in Philadelphia." The bunny belongs to a boy of about eight (John Barbieri). It is small and brown. The boy takes Benny on walks, where he meets a vicious blond fellow his age. The blond boy steals Benny! The plot continues, but that's not what concerns me. What I remember, obsessively, is the small, pretty rabbit... more
Views: 1253Woodstock Film Festival: An Interview with Jane Gull
Region: New York
While waiting to see a series of shorts entitled "Lost & Found," I spoke to the woman sitting in front of me. She was blonde, young, and had an English accent. When I discovered she was a filmmaker with a piece in this festival, I pulled out my tape recorder and began interviewing her. Sparrow: Has your film been in any other film festivals? Woman in front of me: Three weeks ago, it was in Colorado. Sparrow: You went to that? Woman in front of me: I went to... more
Views: 1288Woodstock Film Festival, Day Three: Susan Seidelman
Region: New York
Saturday, I attended the panel "Amazing Women in Film" -- though I got there late. I did hear the question: "Did you have difficulties being accepted as women directors?" Susan Seidelman replied, "When I was making Desperately Seeking Susan, I was very young, I'm 5 feet tall, and there were no women directors. People were constantly coming onto the set and asking me to get them coffee. "So I would get them coffee, then I'd tell them I was the director." more
Views: 1150Woodstock Film Festival, Day Two: "New Skin"
Region: New York
Today I saw the most films I've ever seen in one day: eight. Admittedly 7/8 of them were "shorts" -- what used to be called "short films," but are not anymore, because all of them (I suspect) are videos. These "shorts" often look videoish -- TV soap opera glossy. Others resemble impressionist paintings. (I'm thinking particularly of "New Skin" by Vladimir de Fontenay. Vladimir is French and an NYU student. Afterwards, I saw him talking to a guy with a beard about cameras: "The H320 looks like... more
Views: 1138The Changes at Netflix
Region: NYWhen Netflix starts billing separately for DVD's and movie streaming, DVD rentals will go the way of cell phones. There will be fewer providers of rental DVD's, as well as fewer places online to stream movies. Is this really the direction we want to go in? All this will accomplish is further pirating of movies and television shows. The film industry will then find itself in the same predicament as the music industry, where people who want to see new or recent releases are for... more
Views: 983Woodstock Film Festival, Day One: "Downtown Express"
Region: New York
Downtown Express may be the most musical movie ever made. But I don't mean just music, I mean performed music. There isn't a precise word for this in English (though the word "performative" is lately used -- an ugly adjective). I mean something like: "Downtown Express is the most MUSIC PLAYING movie ever made." In almost every scene, even walking down 57th Street (much of the movie takes place in Manhattan), a Scottish bagpiper in a kilt will materialize, or three brilliant African-American p... more
Views: 2642
