#sean stevens

[kevinames]

Photographer of the Day: Sean Stevens

Photographer of the Day: Sean Stevens

Category: Beauty

Photographer: Sean Stevens “Brii“

The beauty category turns away from the traditional and embraces NEON! And Photoshop. The wonderfully “S” curved shape of Brii is enhanced with alternating green and fuchsia neon-like tubes surround her as she dances. It’s easy to see why this combo of photography and interesting finishing in post production is today’s award winner.

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[theblitheringidiot]

CD Club Top 25 of Summer'13

So I admit it.  I once belonged to a CD Club.  It was a good CD club. We could never come up with anything more original for a name, so it just stayed "CD Club".  Lasted for a long, long time, almost a decade.  That is, until the group of friends finally got old, and busy with life, and finally gave up on it.  One could say a particular friend in the club (I'll just call him, "Phil Schmoldman") may have killed the club when he lost his hard drive and never turned in his CD.  But no one was to blame, it was time.  So now to keep the fond memory of that club, I still make the CDs, or at least playlists now.  I loved putting them together and discovering new artists in the process, and so the club lives on in the online form.  I still really enjoy music, so I figure, what the hey?  This is my list for Summer' 13 in really no particular order.  I put in my commentary, or liner notes for the top ten.  The liner notes were fun because I'd always end up finding out weird stuff about the artists,  as well as scrounge up links to cool videos or live performances.  So if you want to hear the song click the link?  Long live CD Club.  Damn you Phil:

10.  Bring the Noize - M.I.A. - Single

I'm a Maya apologist.  Seeing her live one time at like 1am @ 9:30 Club is still one of my favorite shows of all time.  I had to have lost 10-15% of my permanent hearing @ that show.  I could see this song not lasting with me, but I still love how original her stuff sounds.  The video isn't bad either.

9.  1998 - Peace - Delicious -EP

This song is just a ten minute assault.  Long slow buildup to an amazing crescendo.  I'd love to see it performed live someday.  I'm not super in love with the rest of what I've heard from the band, from Worcester, UK.  But if you like dueling heavy guitars and sick extended heavy drum sequences.  Might be my favorite song in the list. 

8. The Beauty Surrounds - Houses - A Quiet Darkness 

The origin of this band is a crazy story.  A couple that meant in serious drug rehab of all places.  They have a super mellow, brooding electronic sound, and the band name has something to do with an idea of going around and visiting abandoned houses along a Cali highway.  

7.  Part 1: What I've Learned - Bear Hands - Songs From Utopia Vol 1

Bear Hands are a pretty straight-forward indie, post-punk band I just liked the sound of.  I feel like this retro-sounding song, also called Vietnam, sounds like the voice of someone much older then these young guys who met at Wesleyan University.  Lyrics remind me of a crazy grandpa's rants about a crazy, messed up war, set to music the kids can rock out to?  Or something like that?

6.Left Alone (feat. Chet Faker) - Flume - self titled

Dont get me wrong, I like the electronic/DJ artist Flume, but it's the great vocals of fellow Aussie, Chet Faker (who incidentally looks a little like he could be in the cast of Duck Dynasty?) that really make this song.  Definitely the best kind of chill music to sit back and sip a stiff cocktail to.  The best I could find for a video was just a fan produced one with animation.  Doesn't do the song much justice?

5. Banks and Ballrooms - The Lonley Wild - The Sun As It Comes

The Lonely Wild seems like a indie-folk band that should always be on the score of a spaghetti Western.  Certainly visuals of horses and wide open landscapes should be around?  This is a pretty undiscovered LA based group.  (I discovered them on Noisetrade/kickstarter-type campaign)  It always makes me sad to know there are lots of great artists out there that have to practically beg online for money to keep making great music.  Sign of the times, I guess?

4. All That's Gone - Tom McRae - From the Lowlands

Now we begin the Prozac portion of my playlist.  I've been accused of listening to too much depressing stuff, but come on.  Sad songs just rock way more then happy music.  Not even sure what that is, Katy Perry?  McRae is a phenomenal singer/songwriter and this song sounds like a guy getting ready to put away his guitar for good.  I really hope not, he writes just phenomenal lyrics.  "Somewhere in our history/ The future's shining bright" and "My soul never found a buyer/ Unlike all my guitars."  Here's hoping he keeps one or two guitars around?

3. The Bed Song - Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra - single

Low blow to follow up the last song with this one, and I'm not sure what's sadder the song, or the video.  Amanda Palmer, formally of Dresden Dolls is just a bad-a$$ (watch this video for proof: Amanda Palmer: Dear Daily Mail - YouTube) and one cool thing I learned about her while putting playlists together was that she's married to Sci-Fi writer Neil Gaiman?!  Cool couple.  This sad song's obviously about a lot more then a bed though?  Brace yourself.

2. To Your Health - Keaton Henson - The Lucky EP

Heard this guy over the closing credits of a BBC shoe about zombies called, In The Flesh.  Cool show you should check out, thats actaully about a lot more then zombies as the main character is also gay teen and coming out to his family. Seems difficult especially when you're dealing with, you know, also being undead.  This song reminds me of a guy who has some dad issues, and is maybe saying goodbye at his deathbed. Really, really  haunting lyrics over solo guitar chords.  The video is basically a live performance behind a balarina's slow moves.  "Here's to you, you miserable f---."   Says it all.

1.  Ghosts and Creatures - Telekinesis - Dormarion

Rounding out the top 10 on a less sad note.  I really digged the sound of this one man band, Telekinesis.  i feel like he has a sound thats a little bit 80's retro complete with electronic beats.  Love the video which features an office romance with a old 80's era PC?  With a girl trapped inside of course.  Seattle indie kid with a little help from one of the guys in Death Cab. Had a cool song a few years back, Please Ask For Help.

11-25 (Honorable Mentions):  Just a list and links.

11. Miracle Mile - Cold War Kids - Dear Miss Lonleyhearts

12. Brennisteinn - Sigur Ros - Kveikur

(proving they can actually go hard?!)

13. Give Her a Name - Trevor Menear - Some Kind of Sunshine

(Beautiful song from TV show, Shameless)

14. Float Away - Donora - Play Nice EP

15. Spotlight - LEAGUES - single

16. Love is Blindness - Jack White - Ahk-Toong Bay-Bi Covered

(Nice U2 cover from Great Gatsby Soundtrack)

17. Lightning Bolt - Jake Bugg - single

(Amazing Blues from a friggin 19 year old Brit??)

18. In the Air (feat. Angela McCluskey) - Morgan Page, Sultan, Ned Shepard & BT - In the Air

19. Demons - The National - Trouble Will Find Me

("When I walk into a room/ I do not light it up./  F___!" No one writes better lyrics then Matt Berninger)

20. When We Were Young-BenjaminDunn &TheAnimalOrchestra-single

21. Borrowed Time - Ulrich Schnauss - A Long Way to Fall

(German electronic master, and great workout music?)

22. Smalltalk (Four Tet remix) - Ultraista - self-titled

23. Currents - Eisley - single

24. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead - Live at Tramps

(my fave from little known band from UK)

25. Hurt - Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around

(just because I can.  And one of the greatest covers of all time!)

[theblitheringidiot]

My Top 10 Films of 2012

First off, I love movies. Unfortunately as the father of two boys under 5, my movie watching time has reduced drastically in the last few years. I did better in 2012 the I did in 2011 and managed to find some time to get back on the horse and watch a fair amount of good stuff. People ask me what I’ve seen, and what my favorites of the year are so I put together this list, along with a little commentary on each film. It is probably worth noting that since I’m always playing catchup, a few of these are a year or two old. Anyway, in my humble opinion these were the top 10:

10. Life of Pi

This was not a film I was exceptionally excited about. I’d heard mixed reviews of the book from many, a number of which said it was too spiritual and pseudo-religious for them. Instead I found it to be the first movie to really use 3-D to advance the story, and not just feel like it was a needless effect forced into certain scenes for no good reason. The cinematography in this film is like an impressionist painting, creating another world. Worth seeing in 3-D and a must see for anyone that appreciates visuals in their films. Plus the ultra-realistic, yet mostly CG tiger is a main character, and is definitely worth the price of admission. Plus the great Irrfan Khan and a weird carnivorous island of meerkats?! Who doesn’t want to see that?!

9. The Impossible

This makes my list as a film that I think very few audiences saw, since it came out late in the awards season. Thats a shame. This is an incredible survival tale of one family stuck in the middle of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. I know a fair amount about film production, so it takes a lot to amaze me in terms of how something was filmed. That said, I honestly have no earthly idea how they shot the tidal wave sequences, and the death and destruction that the director (Juan Antonio Bayona, The Orphanage) puts his actors right in the middle of. The carnage and damage that the wave surge causes just looks horrifyingly realistic. Just the sounds are haunting. The acting is also very strong , and especially gut wrenching performances by Naomi Watts (the mother), and her oldest son played by Tom Holland in his first onscreen performance. It is incredibly sad at times, but really a film worth checking out. It also might make you feel a little differently the next time you stare out at the ocean from a quaint beach resort hotel pool?!

8. Looper

First off, I’m a big fan of writer/director Rian Johnson, (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) in that I think he’s incredibly original and a really promising young director. That said, I did enjoy this flick even though I had a couple of problems with it as well. The need to add heavy makeup prosthetics and or digital effects to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s face to try to make him look a little more like Bruce Willis for plot reasons was very distracting and unnecessary. Also I thought the first half was a bit weak and confusing as far as the storytelling went. The second half, which features more of Emily Blunt, I thought was exceptional. Johnson also does a lot more really original things visually in the second half as well. I generally enjoy good Sci-Fi & time travel films, and this film also has an incredible, and original ending which really sealed it for me. A really interesting ending for a film totally makes it, or breaks it for me. Mostly because in 2013 it’s just extrememly hard to be original in closing a film. Looper finishes very strong.

7. The Queen of Versailles

Do NOT sleep on this documentary?! It is truly hilarious, sad, shocking, horrifying, and a testament to the absurd nature of the filthy, disgustingly rich. It’s a really great documentary about a unbelievably wealthy Florida family in the midst of a real estate (the husband claims to be the King of timeshares) boom of the early 2000’s. The title refers to the husband’s plans to build the largest home in the world as a likeness to the palace of Versailles in France, as a tribute to his wife. The US economic bottom (really) drops out, mid construction of the mansion and as their funds dwindle they try to keep a stiff upper lip amidst the horror of having to do things like shop for themselves at Walmart, and do simple things like actually feed their own children themselves?!!! Or even give their pets water to keep them from dying?! You really have to see this film, especially if you’ve ever watched/shamefully enjoyed any reality show that makes fun of the insanely wealthy. This flick is great because their fall is so, so far and you almost feel a little sorry. But only almost.

6. Incendies

This is film that was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film of 2011, and took me a while to catch up to. It’s the only foreign film on my list, which is too bad because I’m sure I’ll catch with several more from this year and want to add them to the list. It’s a really dramatic story that spans over several generations. Siblings that are trying to make sense of their mother’s life after her passing and leaving behind a strange last request. I remember a really amazing scene as gunman take over a bus full of settlers, and a mother has to make a horrible decision. It’s set in the Middle East, but the story is amazing, yet a really a difficult film to watch,

5. Zero Dark Thirty

All of the controversy surrounding this film was sort of much ado about nothing, I thought. Or much ado about very little actual glamorized torture? The torture couldn’t be left out of the story or it would be absurd. What is depicted isn’t egregious, and the film very clearly shows that the important information gathered about Bin Laden did not come from torture, but instead came from feeding, rewarding, and having casual conversation with a detainee. Anyway, it’s another really greta film by Katheryn Bigelow, who deserved a nod for best director. The storytelling is riveting, and Jessica Chastain is fantastic as the female agent who ultimately is the one who finds UBL, It’s pretty cool to see what happens when a bunch of CIA agents and soldiers persevere to find a needle in a haystack against all odds. I also think a lot of the harsh critics of this film probably only saw the trailer or have some other agenda?

4. Project Nim

Or, what happens when people love their wild animals juuuust a bit too much?! In the hopes of teaching a baby chimp how to communicate via sign language, a number of people adopt and then pass on a chimp named Nim. They go way too far and try to treat the baby chimp as if it were human. Shockingly (?!), this all goes terribly wrong. These highly educated folks are sort of trying to do a good thing, but many of them have holes in their own lives that they try to fill with this poor monkey. I think we all know what happens when cute baby monkeys grow up and become pretty pissed off adult monkeys. It’s actually a very touching and sad documentary, which inexplicably got let off the Oscar nominee list. This excellent film makes a great double feature with the dramatic version of the sort of similar story, Rise of the Planet of the Apes?!

3. The Grey

Let’s start with how horribly wrong this film was marketed. It is not in any way a sequel to Taken. I caught up with it late because the way it was advertised as a forgettable action flick was way way off. It actually has a really interesting Jack London, man vs the wild theme, combined with a really cool sort of search for God and meaning of life mixed in. Liam Neeson is awesome as always, but there are also a number of good supporting characters as well. This movie also successfully incorporates realistic looking wolves, which seems like something a ton of films do a terrible job of. Either they botch CGI versions, of just all round fake ones, and I’m not sure how much of this film used real vs effects, but they were at least realistic looking. Check this film out, it’s far more interesting and thought provoking then you might think. And it’s even got a really cool poem?! I bet Taken 2 doesn’t have that?

2. Argo

I think my top three were pretty inter changeable and could have been in any order. This probably isn’t number one partly because it already won best picture, and it’s clearly been seen by most folks. I remember leaving this film and just thinking wow, that was just a really really solid, well told film. Affleck somehow is just a strong, no nonsense director. It helped that the film looks so good, managing to pull off the exact look of the late seventies right down to the tweed coats and fat ties. It says a lot when a film depicts something like the scene at the airport, where you know full well from history that the group will get on the plane successfully, yet it’s so well done that the suspense is still damn exciting. The epilogue that credits the real agent, as well as gives props to Carter for his uncredited (for decades) role in green-lighting the dangerous plan to retrieve the hostages. I thought, for once it was entirely worthy of Best Picture.

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild

It’s not hard to pick this film as my number one. But it’s damn hard to describe the film and to describe why I liked it so much. It’s kind of a magic realism version of the story of a father and daughter living on the Bayou in extreme poverty, battling an event like Katrina. There’s a number of first time or non actors, such as the two leads, but they all just do an incredible job. If you see a lot of movies, it becomes hard to find something that’s really truly completely original, but this film undoubtedly is. It had me thinking about it the most after viewing, and I’m still pretty excited to see it again to see if it effects me the same way? Everything about it, even down to the low end, but very cool special effects feel original. The music is excellent, and the little girl (Quvenzhane Wallis) is incredible. You're never sure if the film is supposed to be reality based in any way, but she is good enough that you’re content to just watch and enjoy.

Honorable Mentions:

Silver Linings Playbook - I enjoyed a lot and the performances are great, but when I made this list I realized I just didn’t have any strong urge to watch it again. Still a great film about real mental illness.

21 Jump Street Really surprisingly funny, funny movie.

Warrior A movie about MMA? And it doesn’t suck?!!

Fair Game 2010 film I finally caught up with. Another story of Valerie Plame where you know all the facts, but the movie is still strong and very watchable anyway.

Worst Film of the Year

Cloud Atlas

Didn’t even have to think on this one. As I already stated, I personally tend to give science fiction extra credit, even for only mediocre films. If there’s imaginative, creative stuff going on, I’ll forgive some cheese. Halle Berry in “white face”, and scenes where well known actors like Tom Hanks and Berry are speaking only in some futuristic dialect of barely intelligible jibber jabber do not a good film make?! There are some well done aspects of this film, I especially liked the scenes directed by Tom Tykwer where a love story unfolds between two composers, but so much else is just unwatchable. I think Tom Hanks is horribly miscast in most of his roles, especially as a cockney gangster (?!) for one, and since you just have so many characters (most played by Hanks/Berry) you feel like you’re distracted and being pulled out of the film. I will say the film looks good, I just think this might have been an un-filmable story? And I’m not sure multiple directors has ever worked well onscreen? Thinking back on it I’m not sure this film doesn’t time travel onto my list of the worst films of all-time. Not trying to be mean, or a film snob. It’s that bad.

[damageintomp]