New month, new banner.  Gotta say I'm much happier just choosing a banner as opposed to re-formatting the entire site.  I had a couple ideas to choose from this month, but in the end I just got lazy and surfed the internet, finding a beautiful shot from KILL BILL VOL. 1 that was able to fit the bill quite nicely.  I included the actual picture I cropped it from below:

My music listening has been all over the map lately, due in large part to the glut of cool stuff that's come out in the past few months.  A lot of Sonic Youth, since I'm going to see them tonight somewhere in Harlem with Indie Maven Sean, so expect a report and pics later tonight or tomorrow. 

Recently, though, I've been on a big rock-n-roll/stoner//punk/groove kick, so two bands that fit (in different ways) that bill that I heartily recommend are Goes Cube and Red Fang.  Goes Cube feels like a crazy hybrid of Torche and The Jesus Lizard, while Red Fang is a little more traditional rock, opting for a bluesy, stoner vibe a la bands like The Sword, Bison B.C. and, to a lesser extent, recent Mastodon.

Calming things down a bit, I heard a track called "Don't Ask" I really liked from the debut album by Grizzly Bear.  They have a new album called Veckatimest that's mellow and kinda psychedelic in a folksy, modern indie way that's pretty hip right now, but also pretty good.

Last, there's the latest album by The Decemberists called The Hazards of Love, which I understand is a kind of concept story that originated out of a song written based on an Anne Briggs EP title.  Confused yet?  I am, but after recently falling under the spell (after a lengthy refusal to like) the Picaresque album, I picked this up last night and so far am digging on the spacious instrumentation and Colin Meloy's voice.

Back in the next day or so with my take on Sonic Youth live.  Enjoy the weekend, have a happy July 4th, whether you're celebrating Independence Day or not!

Heck, even I didn't think I'd actually make good on my promise to get back to the Film Education Project I referred to in my earlier post, but despite delaying again for a week after watching the film, I jotted down some notes on HAROLD and MAUDE, which you can read over at Celluloid Moon.

Long story short: I loved it, and see why it holds up as a cult classic and favorite for a lot of people.

A lot of older people.

No kidding.  My mother was ecstatic when I told her I was watching it.  When I went to the store to pick it up, I needed some assistance finding it (apparently they classified it as a drama as opposed to a comedy.  Make of that what you will: it is definitely NOT a drama), and as I talked to the employee about it, we were overheard by a woman in her 60s who squealed with delight that I was getting exposed to HAROLD AND MAUDE.

Well, mysterious old lady who was there shopping for video for her granddaughter - if you're reading this, grab a hold of your knickers and cheer, 'cause liked it I did.

And, not knowing why I wrote the preceding sentence that way, I'm off to see film #2 in my Hal Ashby marathon, BOUND FOR GLORY.

Yeah, so, uh, despite some misgivings I went and saw TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. I wrote about it over at Celluloid Moon. Here's a brief excerpt that pretty well sums up the experience:

Before my brain turned to tapioca pudding during the 2 1/2 hour visual onslaught that is Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, I managed to learn or confirm the following tidbits:

1. Giants robots fighting each other = Awesome
2. Everything else = not so much

There's (obviously) more to it than that, and you can read about it by clicking here.

Warning: Yes, there IS a gratuitous pic of Megan Fox in my review.  My Y chromosome mandated it.  Sorry.

Way back in February I wrote a post called "Filling in the Blind Spots" over on Celluloid Moon.  You can read it in its entirety here, but the following excerpt pretty much tells the story:

I mentioned in my first post that I had two over-arching goals:

1. Improve my overall writing with regards to film criticism
2. Expand the breadth and scope of the films I see... and try my damnedest to erase the enormous stockpile of DVDs I have lying around the house.

 Embedded in the second item is catching up on those movies that seem to be required viewing for anyone who wants to claim to be a "cinephile" or even a "film buff" in like company. The problem is I've always been pretty resistant to people pushing stuff on me, especially when it comes with the tag of:

"You're not a real ________ unless you've seen ________."

(fill in your preferred term/film)

Time to "Man up" and admit it: There's a gaping hole in my film vocabulary that can't be completely explained away by things like scarcity or disinterest. I've been plugging those holes a few at a time, usually late at night so as to not cause a stir in the hen house that is my circle of friends/acquaintances I can discuss movies with. But in the interest of full disclosure I think I'll turn my education process into a monthly (to start) feature here at Celluloid Moon. Every month I'll take one movie and go into a little more detail than the general reviews that are posted, and talk about the film's impact both on the world of cinema and me personally.

And of course I left it at that.

Oh, I watched a lot of film.  Even had a small schedule of which films I wanted to hit, beginning with RAGING BULL, a particular sore spot considering how much I revere Martin Scorsese as both a director and a film historian.  Watched it, let a couple of days pass, and forgot about it.  

In April I picked up the Criterion edition of Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING, meaning for that to be the second in the series.  Still haven't watched it.

Things were looking pretty grim.  I was watching movies, sure, but the desire to really watch them, pick them apart and see what makes them tick couldn't have been further away.  Maybe it didn't help that most of what I was watching was on a similar level to TERMINATOR SALVATION, but this wasn't something I could lay at the feet of Christian Bale.

A few weeks ago, however, a biography of 70s film icon Hal Ashby came out.  Ashby was a director I knew nothing about.  I had heard his name before, and years ago I had seen THE LAST DETAIL during a Jack Nicholson marathon, but his filmography and influence as a whole had escaped me.  It didn't escape the people I read, though: everywhere there was talk about the incredible run of films he had in the 70s, topped only by his downfall and early death in the 80s.  The more I got to reading, the more surprised I was that I was so unfamiliar with any of his films.

So, to kick things off again, I'm starting with a look at some of his films, beginning with the cult classic HAROLD AND MAUDE, moving to BOUND FOR GLORY and finally settling on a film I have been meaning to see for years, BEING THERE.

When that's done I'll circle around back to RAGING BULL and finally get to DO THE RIGHT THING.  In the meantime, to keep my chops up I'm going back to writing short, quickie reviews for everything I watch in between.  Don't know if I'll post everything over at Celluloid Moon and refer to it here or go hog wild and post it everywhere, but hopefully this time the 2009 movie goal will stick.

As they pop up feel free to leave your thoughts, agreements, disagreements, or suggestions for films I can see to "shore up the cracks" so to speak.