Origami Fail

Canon EOS 500D

New Camera. Played around with it a bit.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson's defiant and simplistic adaptation of this classic Roald Dahl tale about a wily fox and his chicken-stealing exploits is as clever, neurotic and strangely moving as any Royal Tenenbaums or Darjeeling Limited fan would expect. Amidst a filmic landscape crowded with super high-quality, three-dimensional children's CGI movies, Anderson's first feature length animation presents us with an adorably old school stop-motion similar to that of Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep. The wiry, bristling fox fur makes no latest-technology promises, but instead provides a simple charm and character that no computer-generated Pixar flick could offer.

Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and his family display all the endearingly dysfunctional qualities I've come to love in Anderson's films, and this is key to the expansions on the book that have been made. Mr. Fox, an overbearing father figure, struggles to connect with his self-loathing son, Ash (Jason Schwarzman), who wants so desperately to be athletic but seems to fall at every hurdle. The situation is made worse by the arrival of Kristofferson (Eric Anderson), a distant cousin who proves to be a natural sportsman, martial artist and ladies' man, stealing precious, parental attention away from Ash. Mr. Fox recruits Kristofferson, along with several other animals of the community - all of whom are either given more attention than in the book, or until the film had not even existed - to help him outsmart the gruesome local farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. All this is sighed over by Mr. Fox's disapproving wife (Meryl Streep), who - after a near-death experience during her last chicken theft - is at her wit's end.


Those offended by the Americanisation of British classics may want to tread carefully, since the good guys in this film are exclusively American and the evil farmers all have distinctive British accents. I didn't read this as a demonisation of the English though; the world above ground where the humans live is clearly an Olde Englishe setting, but the animals all go to an American high school and play a game very similar to baseball. I think this is to distinguish some kind of binary between the humans and the animals, staying true to the English backdrop of the book, but establishing a kind of otherworldliness in the animal community. This is taken further as Anderson effortlessly tosses the animals between serious, human emotion and base, animal behaviour as Mr. Fox, a newspaper columnist with an array of autumnal-toned suits devours his breakfast in under ten seconds, leaving shards of toast scattered across the table. This struggle between human and animal within Mr. Fox represents a greater struggle between human and animal in the world of the film. It also serves as an excellent platform for Anderson to show off his capacity for both sophisticated depth of character development and sharp, knowing wit.

To an adult filmgoer Anderson's adaptation strikes a beautiful balance between inventive, nostalgic visuals; smart, indie humour; and heartwarming, family narrative. However, while its kooky charm does translate well into the realm of children's films, the intentionally static qualities of the dialogue and low-tech animation may prove wasted on children accustomed to today's action-packed, attention-holding supermovies. I hope this isn't the case but it is a risk Anderson has taken; not that it will matter though, this is a movie destined to find a wide adult fan base whether it reaches the kids or not.

Lamebook

Lamebook.com is great. It's a huge compendium of Facebook lameness, where people have sent in screenshots of their favourite embarassing slip-ups, typos, and arguments across the world of Facebook. Very similar to fmylife.com, but entirely devoted to facebook related funnies, it's definitely worth checking out.

Complex's Top 100 Tees of the 2000's

Complex Magazine has just released its top 100 t-shirts of the past decade, and it's definitely worth a look. Theres a little paragraph for each one about its significance, how the design came about and what the tee stands for. The number 1 spot was take by the Supreme "Kate Moss" t-shirt, a worthy champion, I'm sure most would agree.

Check out the whole article here when you've got some time to look through it all. There's a few in there that I wouldn't buy myself, but a lot of memorable pieces I'd forgotten about and I'm now wishing I'd picked up.

Mike and Paul love Nando's sauce

Looks  like McCartney and Jackson have been hustling villagers all over the wild west with none other than Nando's peri peri sauce..

The only thing wonderful about that potion is how delicious it makes yo' grilled chicken. Boy, are those folks in for a treat!

The Kids Don't Stand A Chance

Recently we've been seeing trailers for a number of children's films suitable for a more high brow audience. I'm getting more and more excited by the day for the release of Where The Wild Things Are; getting Spike Jonze in to direct is going to draw an older crowd, and I think those kids might struggle to get their tickets before they all sell out.

Here's a trailer and a featurette to get you hyped for the release, I wish we didn't have to wait until December.

I also can't wait for Fantastic Mr Fox. Directed by Wes Anderson and all done in stop motion, it looks sure to be as fantastic as its title character. It looks charming, sharp, very well cast, and it won't be long until its release!

The Party Saga Continues..

Andrew WK is now a fan of All About The Benjamin..

http://twitter.com/AndrewWK/status/3136361770

get to know.

Andrew WK is my boy

Tonight was epic..

Taylor (in the black hat) uploaded this photo of me (far right), him and two other friends with a box of totally rockin' party chips onto twitter. He then sent the photo to Andrew "Party Hard" WK's twitter page.

Andrew WK then reposted the photo and told us he was proud of us..

Andrew flippin' WK!

I will die a happy man.

click here to see his post.

Copped..

Jumpstyle

I'm really feelin' these Europeans going crazy over jumpstyle. Imagine some super-intense happy hardcore with a bunch of suckers in weird clothes doing some kind of highland fling/martial arts/cripwalk crossbreed. When theyre all doing it in sync it looks insane, we caught a huge group of kids going at it in Alexanderplatz, Berlin. I don't know if you can see in the second picture, but the guy in the matrix shades and cyberdog UFO pants with the neon green skull? He was their leader. The Lord of the Dance if you will. When he turned up they all went nuts and hugged him, and his girlfriend was hot. He never got up and danced though, shame.

These videos will give you a better idea of what it's all about.

Melt! Festival 2009

Earlier this year, when all the festival tickets started to burst the internet floodgates, I had to make an important decision. Did I want to opt for the matching lads-on-tour polo shirts, extortionate ticket prices, and comparatively weak line-up of Benicassim? Or did I want to get my snob on and find something a little less "bait" but inherently more enjoyable?

Naturally, I went with the more pretentious option and settled on Melt! festival, which, although supposedly just outside Berlin, is in fact about 2 hours away on the train. However, the journey is completely worth it because the arena is bonkers. Whoever thought of putting stages, tents and some food stalls in a disused industrial site is a genius. The snappily named "Ferropolis" - or "Iron City" - is an old German ironworks, and is covered in enormous cranes and rusty old machinery which are all illuminated at night. Epic.

Also, you really can't go wrong with an £80 ticket, especially when it includes Röyksopp, Aphex Twin, Rex the Dog, Skream & Benga, Simian Mobile Disco, Boy8Bit, Phoenix, Erol Alkan & Boys Noize, Diplo, MSTRKRFT, Patrick Wolf, Brodinski, Tiga, Passion Pit... I won't even go on, there were just so many impressive names.

Anyway, again, I lost a lot of photos on the ruined film, so here is some of what I managed to salvage from the other rolls.

German Japery

Made a return to Berlin for a couple of days either side of Melt festival the other week. Possibly my favourite city in mainland Europe, you just can't fault it. I took a bunch of pictures of graffiti and this awesome punk squat on the last day, then found out my film hadn't hooked on properly which was a major bummer y'all. However, I did manage to successfully snap a few others which didn't come out too bad.

Sigg Jones

"Sigg Jones" is a 3D animation movie by three French film students which should be coming out soon and looks incredible. The makers are really into their sneakers, and much of the film revolves around footwear. The main character gets superpowers from his pair of "Magic Dunks" - an impressive dunk/jordan/air trainer cross breed in pink and white. Aside from that, the animation looks top drawer, as this seven minute fight scene shows:

Also, Sneaker Freaker managed to get an interview which you can read here.

Upper Clapton Dance Video

I think the song's been around for a while, but Professor Green has just put the video for his super serious "Upper Clapton Dance" up on Youtube, to coincide with the song's release on itunes music store in early July. I really like the song, and the video is extra fly, even if it does make me want to never leave my house again.

LDN - Summertime

Home for summer and it feels good. Went to Richmond Park along with some other stuff, the last two photos were taken by Kingston Bridge.

Beef baby, anyone?

If you google "Beef Baby" it comes up with some well appetising stuff..

The South

More Lomo after my weekend in Brighton.