04.25

Die! (Necro, 2010)

When I heard the G Rap collab I thought the monotony of subject matter was a drawback but I kind of liked it here, I think it takes a lot of a peculiar kind of skill to make an album where every song is about the same thing without it getting old; and it definitely does fly by.  There are a few variations on the theme, like violence in the context of boxing or warfare, and a couple pussy raps, but it's all basically, and I suppose appropriately given the title, about killing people.  The beats seem more complex than the Once Upon a Crime ones, and I thought his lyrics were sharper too.  I do miss triple OG Kool Gangster though.  Shouts out to my man Luis, I see you cuz.

Choice cuts: Pit, Thugcore Cowboy, Viva Necro

04.24

Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop (Anticon, 1999)

A little predictable, in that it's exactly what I'd imagine an experimental hip-hop album from the late 90s would sound like, but nonetheless, pretty dank.  If I keep this rap thing up, I think Anticon would be a good label for Anonymoose, at least better than the others I've heard things from.  Except Starks Enterprises of course.

Choice cuts: Untitled, It's Them, My Little Habbit

The Ground (Robert Beavers, 2002)

Had to watch this for both my man Sy and Susan Oxtoby of PFA fame, who included it on her Sight and Sound list.  I get the following, it's probably been a couple years since a strictly experimental film resonated with me so much.  I'm sure a lot can be written about it, I don't really have the skill or the inclination.  This is my second Beavers after a little thing tagged onto a Markopoulos series and I'm stoked to watch more now.

04.23

Creepin on ah Come Up (Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, 1994)

Not exactly my kind of rap so I found it hard to pay too close attention to but I definitely appreciate the gritty, verging on avant garde vibe it has.  And I really love Foe the Love of $.

Choice cuts: Mr. Ouija, No Surrender, Foe the Love of $

The Shining (J Dilla, 2006)

I dunno, it has a lot of energy and potential at the beginning but then it kind of fizzled out for me.  I like how the guests were chosen in a Kanye-like way, to add to the aesthetic of the album as a whole rather than to feature the best rapping, but frankly I thought they could've made better choices in that regard.  I also found it weird how they all talked about Dilla like he was still around, it would've been cool to hear something like a eulogy or even just a story about him.  Also while all the beats are obviously good, few got me stoked the way the ones on Donuts do.

Choice cuts: Geek Down, E=MC2, Won't Do

04.22

Haunted Gold (Mark Wright, 1932)

Man, the 30s even manages to fuck up ghost towns and secret passageways.  The things I do for a good song title...

Quiet as Kept (Charles Burnett, 2007)

What in the fuck was that?

Restart (Miao Xiaochun, 2010)

Pretty cool, but one of those ones that had diminishing returns as it went on.  My favorite part was the babies climbing the ladders while the world fell apart around them.  Could've benefited from a better choice of music, like none at all.

04.20

Deadfall (Bryan Forbes, 1968)

I'm not generally partial to heist movies, but this is pretty great.  There was another movie I liked recently where the heist was over fairly quickly, I think that's the way to go.  I like how it foreshadows the ending and how it builds up a lot of psychological tension that never really goes anywhere -- the one big reveal is kind of out of the blue and not that big a deal.  Nicely shot too.  One of the most suspenseful and entertaining movies I've seen in awhile.

04.19

To the East, Blackwards (X Clan, 1990)

This is some of the best shit I've ever heard.  It was like I was traveling through some Afrocentric wormhole between dimensions were the same message was being played on a loop but with small variations each time.  Vanglorious!  This is protected by the red, the black, and the green, with a key at the crossroads...SISSYYYYY!

04.17

Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous (Big L, 1995)

Enjoyable snack-like satisfaction, but nothing inspirational.  Big L's a lot different than I expected.  I love the brief periods he double-times, wish we got to hear more of that.  I found the hardcore crime stuff a lot more intriguing than the battle rap side of it.  Also Jay-Z has a cameo which gives me all the more respect for Reasonable Doubt, it's incredible that this was just a year before.

Choice cuts: All Black, Da Graveyard, Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous

Akran (Richard Myers, 1969)

Intermittently annoying in that unique way experimental films seem to have a monopoly on and brilliant.  Keep it a hundred, kind of a slog for me too.

04.14

Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005)

Oh my, this does not hold up.

04.13

Oratorio for Prague (Jan Němec, 1968) (theatrical)

Liked it more than I expect to like anything made in the heat of the moment.  Kind of reminded me of Marker.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman, 1988) (theatrical)

Something about the flow or sweep seems true to life in ways I associate more with music or paintings than film.

04.12

The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Chris Miller, 2014) (theatrical rewatch)

Fassbinder superhero flick meets Platonic Zardoz.  But not dour.

04.10

Piñata (Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, 2014)

Madlib's such a lazy producer that the strength of his projects seems to depend mostly on who he's working with.  Gibbs' rhymes are on the stale and predictable side and he doesn't seem particularly creative, but he's got enough presence to carry a pretty long album without it getting old (and I listened to the extended version).  I listened to it in the car, which isn't ideal, so I'd like to give it a few more shots before I make up my mind about it.  But for now I'll give it a tentative thumbs up.

Choice cuts: Shitsville, Robes, Piñata?

04.09

The Horse (Charles Burnett, 1973)

Pretty powerful, beautifully shot and concise.  I've never seen someone convey wasting time so well so succinctly.

04.08

Balamos (Stavros Tornes, 1982)

I could've sworn I already posted about this.  Anyhow, easily the best movie I've seen so far this year.  Pretty much exactly the kind of thing I'd most like to make.

04.07

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2014) (theatrical)

The first Captain America is easily my favorite of the Marvel movies, so I was looking forward to this one, which I found pretty disappointing.  They're both generic, but I found the classic sweeping adventure kind of story of the first way more fun than the military detective story of this one.  I think it's a combination of it being a pretty weak mystery and it lacking much scope.  I mean of course the fate of the world is in the balance, but it still feels so small.  Lame villains too, we've already got one 24 reboot.  Chris Evans and ScarJo have pretty good chemistry though.

Orinoko, nuevo mundo (Diego Risquez, 1984)

From the screenshots on SMZ I thought it was gonna be like the Berlin Alexanderplatz epilogue set in the colonization of the Americas, and then during the first couple minutes I knew it wasn't gonna be that but I got super excited cuz I felt sure it was gonna be one of those movies that hits me a certain way.  Then as it progressed I realized it was just gonna be a movie, and I accepted that and enjoyed it somewhat.  But then, somewhere around the transition from Columbus to Raleigh, it occurred to me that this would indeed be a movie that hits me a certain way.  And I ended up finding the second half just fucking awesome.  It might be superficial to compare this to Schroeter but I definitely got a similar vibe as this got increasingly nuttier.  Schroeter's style is more in my wheelhouse though.  Beautifully shot too, almost looks like Super 8?

04.04

Done by the Forces of Nature (Jungle Brothers, 1989)

One enormous step up from Straight Out of the Jungle.  At first the delivery or flow or something still kind of annoyed me, like they were too smugly aware of their own differentness, but by What U Waitin 4 I was in the groove.  The production is absolutely stellar, and a good indication of how quickly things were moving in the late 80s, which is why, as opposed to the quality of the output, I think it's really considered the golden age.  But it's also bound together so coherently by a clear vision, which is what I think pushes it above and beyond.  Not on par with A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, but probably the best of Native Tongues after that.

Choice cuts: What U Waitin 4, Good Newz Comin, Done by the Forces of Nature

04.03

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) (theatrical)

Kinda delightful, but I wasn't nearly as into it as Moonrise Kingdom.  I feel like there's a big distance between me and all of his movies except Moonrise Kingdom and The Darjeeling Limited, though there's a few I haven't seen.

Several Friends (Charles Burnett, 1969)

Not great, but indicative of great things to come.  Kind of reminds me of some of Brakhage's early work.

04.02

The Bat Whispers (Roland West, 1930)

The real bat is the camera yo.  Unmistakably the product of a certain time and place, but one of the wildest Hollywood productions I've seen stylistically.  It kind of reminds me of that movie Shura from the guy who did Funeral Parade of Roses, but much more frenetic.  I'm biased toward haunted house movies too, even ones whose outcomes are apparent from halfway through.

03.31

Ferdinand the Bull (Dick Rickard, 1938)

Really dig the message, which I could see a lot of people finding pretty odious.  I don't think I'll ever totally come around on this style though.

Fuego en Castilla (Val de Omar, 1961)

Holy shit, this was made in the 60s?  It feels about 30 years older than it is.  Maybe it's cuz it's been somewhat of a dry spell lately but I loved it.