YouTubing-To-Obscure-Shameless-Self-Promotion Wednesdays: You (Not You!) Fill Me With Inertia

Among the new DVD releases for this week is Stanley Donen's Bedazzled, a Faust riff starring the great team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Along with Robert Altman, '60s Donen is probably the most manhandled by pan & scan. Having traded in outsized sets and dance numbers, Donen tried to make up for the loss through filmmaking coups, most often exemplified through unexpected pans, aggressive editing, odd framing and crazy-ass zooms. (One early segment in Two For the Road features, I think, whiplash pull-outs in a row.) So there's that, and then there's the film itself, which has been hard to come by, and for no terribly good reason. In this section, Moore's sadsack Wimpy Bar cook finds one of his wishes transporting him to a '60s American Bandstand-esque show, where he's soon upstaged by the robotically purring Cook.



WEEKLY!! Back to regular, non-PFF duties this week, with a Six Pack thingie on weird sequels (2046, The Wayward Cloud, Fay Grim, etc.), plus three reviews, including Fracture, Bamako and The TV Set. Also, Rep.

This Can No Longer Be Ignored - What is That You're Drinking?

For those, like me, wondering just what in the hell was so tasty/drunk-making about that blue drink Jake Gyllenhaal gets Robert Downey, Jr. hooked on in Zodiac, wonder no more:

Aqua Velva

3/4 oz. vodka
3/4 oz. gin
1/4 oz. Sprite
1/2 oz blue curaçao
1/2 oz. Sprite

Shake vodka, gin, blue curaçao and Sprite with ice. Pour/strain into glass and top off with more Sprite.

For those not so into the taste of vodka or gin, give it a bit to settle in. It's palatable stuff.

[Hat tip: Yahoo! Answers answerers.]

About fucking time

I finally updated my Films Seen database, as well as the 2007 and 2007 sections. That includes finally putting up links to reviews of said films. It took me a lot longer than I'd like to admit. You're so very welcome.

YouTubing-To-Obscure-Shameless-Self-Promotion Wednesdays: And We Return (Sorta)

Technically, I'm on quasi-vacation, which means that I'm not at my soul-deadening day job for the week, but still doing PW stuff. What's more, the PFF rages on for another week. I've not really been going to it, as a) I watched an assload (i.e., ca. 40) screeners for the ol' PW beforehand, and b) a good friend is in town this week from L.A. How serious am I about spending not that much time at the fest? It began last Thursday, and so far I've only seen two features and two specialty programs, namely, Fantasia as introduced by Leonard Maltin and Roy Disney (!) and a quintet of silnet Our Gang shorts also introduced by Matlin. Me and cinema just need a break, though I'll try and pencil a couple in within the week that's left.

I'll try to write somethingorother about those films (plus Grindhouse and Hot Fuzz, which I'm seeing tonight [addendum: no, I did not see it last night]), but in the meantime here's the requistie YouTube extravaganza. I'm not reading as much fiction these days, but I do have a hefty backlog of comics, most of them penned by the brilliant Alan Moore. (These include Swamp Thing, Top 10 and his controversial archiac porn deluge, Lost Girls, which, believe it or not, you can pick up -- for a hefty price, that is -- at your neighborhood Borders.) Every book you get has a scary picture of Moore, a sinister looking man with scraggly hair, a long-ass beard and some freaky eyes. But this interview, performed by comic Stewart Lee and revolving around his "worship" of Macdeonian snake god Glycon, shows him to be a lot more approachable and charming than photos would suggest. Also, dude, is this guy fucking awesome.



Los PW Another batch of caps for the PFF, plus reviews of Perfect Stranger (top) and After the Wedding (fourth down). Also, Rep.

No YouTubing, Just Plugs

Like, almost twenty caps for the Philadelphia Film Festival, which begins on Thursday. Also, a Children of Men-dominated interview with First Snow director (and CoM co-writer) Mark Fergus, who kind of sort of looks like my friend Ben Trout. Lastly, Rep.

P.S. I totally forgot to mention that I interviewed Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the increasingly brilliant former child actor, for Nerve.com.

Not really in the mood right now to search for a YouTube, or really say anything else. Suffice to say, you might be seeing a lot more of me 'round these parts in the forseeable future.