Eye Pop

This is your 4 minute warning?

(Radiohead,yes?)

Blanchett, who blew us away with her amazing performance as Dylan's 60's persona in the excellent I'm Not There, is worthy of an imaginary award. Hair should win best support actor, though. That was some awesome afro. I watched Todd Haynes talk at a crowded AMC near 34th St. and 8th Avenue a few weeks ago. He was affable and talked after a screening of his Bob Dylan movie about how on the set folks thought Blanchett was really Dylan. Her demeanor changed when she was off-set but as soon as she walked on, everyone would bug out because she would talk, walk and do everything else just like Mr. Zimmerman.

For that, we award you this imaginary award.

Damo Suzuki, famous singer of German krautrock band (who most recently was noted for inspiring Kanye West? WTF) is doing an intimate performance at Brooklyn's Monkeytown. October 23rd he will be joined by a backing band: Dan Hougland (Excepter), Jesse Lee (Rusty Santos/White Magic), Hisham Bharoocha (Soft Circle/Pixel Tan); Brian Degraw (Gang Gang Dance); and most likley Tres Warren (Psychic Ills). Any historian of rock music realizes how rare and great this performance will be. It should sell out pretty fast!!


What? Damo Suzuki (former lead singer of Can)


When? Tuesday, October 23 @ 9:30PM


Where? Monkeytown, 58 N 3rd St. (btw. Kent & Wythe), Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211

How Much? $13

RZA took "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" and covered it. Weird thing is George Harrison's son plays guitar on the record as he was a huge fan of the Wu. Weird track, but it works. I think. I need to listen to it more. Ghostface, don't hurt them.


Wu Tang Clan- "The Heart Gently Weeps"

(via Nah Right)

Artist and illustrator Suzy Spence was once described like this:

"Suzy Spence's most recent paintings on panel contain abstracted, figurative images of socialites and rap stars, sometimes in the same painting. This work combines disparate examples of the cultural elite to produce observations about class and race in contemporary society."

Who described her? I don't know, I didn't write the article. Okay. Get off my journalistic back. Sheesh.

But, you should check her stuff out. It's terrific.

Tired of tight jeans and flimsy indie rock? Yawn. Mark down October 5th on your calendar because there is going to be a terrific, blinding beat ceremony at the Bowery Poetry Club, no less. Fitting I saw Amiri Baraka there last year in what was one of my favorite and tender moments at a show. Fiesta Soot is the hard-to-see Filastine, Matt Shadetek and Dj /Rupture performing for 8 dollars. Plus, a Brazilian producer/DJ and the amazingly-named Reaganomics. Speaking of which, I saw Alan Greenspan by accident today. He was going to Barnes and Noble to read where there were hundreds of bloodthirsty fans. What kind of a bizarre city is this where hundreds of people show up to hear an economist speak? Let alone a self-professed Ayn Rand disciple and libertarian Republican? I love this damn city. But, regardless, show up to hear some Alan Greenspan beats tear out the hearts of the all the real-life Alan Greenspans and replace them with DJ mixers and apples.


What? Fiesta Soot

Where? Bowery Poetry Club

When? October 5th, 5$ before midnite, 8$ afterwards.

Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron directed a short film for political writer Naomi Klein. Her book, No Logo can be seen being carrieda around by scruffy-haired hippy kids like Thom Yorke or your mom--both who are fervently anti-corporate. For her latest book, The Shock Doctrine, she has enlisted the famed Mexican director to make a 6 minute short film. She said this about her new book: "I sent it to Alfonso Cuarón because I adore his films and felt that the future he created for Children of Men was very close to the present I was seeing in disaster zones. I was hoping he would send me a quote for the book jacket and instead he pulled together this amazing team of artists -- including Jonás Cuarón who directed and edited -- to make The Shock Doctrine short film. It was one of those blessed projects where everything felt fated."

Watch it here.

In a feature on the Portugese author, Jose Saramago, in the New York Times, I read that his popular novel Blindness will be adapted to film by the Brazilian director of such films as City of God and The Constant Gardner, Fernando Meirelles. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, pictured above, and Whoopi Goldberg tried to buy the rights to the book from Saramago, but were outdone by a producer and screenwriter who talked the notoriously grumpy Saramago into letting them do the film. Two titans of Latin-American art come together on what should be a terrific work. The movie will star Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Bernal and even Grey's Anatomy star, Sandra Oh. It is slated will come out next year. I'll try to fish up some more information about the film and a trailer when it becomes available.



If you want to read more about the Portugese novelist, the New York Times Magazine has a terrific feature here.

Two weeks ago, I finally met the father of cyberpunk, one of my all-time favorite, living writers. I would have written about it sooner but our server must be French because it ghosted the month of August. Nonetheless, William Gibson is tall, lanky and very English teacher-esque. He is also very sweet, quiet, humble and wears cool shoes. For someone well into their middle age, he still has the capacity to wear Vans (or some other type of skate shoe). Nonetheless, in Union Square on Tuesday, I waited for him in a packed (the most I have ever seen, except for Barack Obama---shit, there is a Presidential bill for you) room. He glided up the escalator while hundreds of folks waited for him to read. I just happened to be at the top of the staircase. After a few nervous seconds, I saw he was just standing there alone, so I walked up to him. I haven't been that nervous in years. Meeting authors is like touching ice. This reminds me of a story Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio told me once about meeting his favorite comic book artist. He dragged his Dad out to see this guy and he was a complete asshole--just an utter jerk. It kind of ruined meeting people for him. I was afraid William would be cold, but he was quite the opposite. I nerdily told him that I loved his stuff and to keep up the good work. Keep up the good work? Who am I, Bill Cosby? It was very bizarre because there were so many people that I watched him read in his scratcy, quiet voice on a television...on the same floor. It was very ironic. Add to that the passage he read from his new novel, Spook Country, about how Union Square used to be dirty and drug-ridden but was now filled with Barnes & Noble, Circuit City and Whole Foods. People felt weird. It was terrific.

Like a high school English teacher, Bill was quiet cordial that night:



(Photo Cred)

According to The New York Times, the new Todd Haynes-directed Bob Dylan biopic (the one with Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett playing the troubadour) will premiere at New York's Film Forum. I'm Not There opens on November 21 from Harvey Weinstein and company who will release this gem to a lucky few New Yorkers. The film will get a slow release with only a showing in New York and Los Angeles. Don't worry, we'll be there. As they put it:

"“INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC AND MANY LIVES OF BOB DYLAN” reads the opening title. Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale all take a crack at him; Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and Charlotte Gainsbourg appear as some of his women. But it is Blanchett as Dylan circa 1965 (think D.A. Pennebaker’s DONT LOOK BACK) and as the post-acoustic guitar rocker, who captures our imagination and runs with it at breakneck speed. As the emaciated, cigarette-smoking, nasal-voiced enfant terrible, his hair backlit to suggest a depraved angel, he torments journalists, fans and girlfriends alike. Appearances by imaginary versions of Allen Ginsberg, Edie Sedgwick, Suze Rotolo, Bobby Neuwirth, Bobby Seale, Albert Grossman and Joan Baez round out Haynes’s fever dream of what it means to be Bob Dylan."





Read more about it here.