Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Great documentary chronicling the influential, yet chronically under-appreciated band, Anvil.

Nerdcore Rising

A good week for music documentaries. See my review below…

The Proposal

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynlods bust your gut and melt your heart at the same time!

Trick ‘r Treat

Horror anthology with Dylan Baker, Brian Cox and Brett Kelly — that’s right, THE Brett Kelly, an absolute Luisa fave and best known as Thurman Murman from “Bad Santa!”

American Violet

Drama from director Tim Disney. Starring Alfre Woodard, Nicole Beharie, Charles Dutton and Will Patton.

Local Color

Starring Armin Mueller-Stahl. Festival favorite lauded by the likes of Leonard Maltin and Jeffrey Lyons.

O’Horten

Deadpan comedy from Norway.

PVC-1

Shocker from director Spiros Stathoulophoulos. A woman has a PVC bomb strapped to her neck and  84 minutes to get it off!

Audition 10th anniversary edition

Takashi Miike’s 1999 shocker -as potent today as it was ten years ago- gets the royal treatment courtesy of Shout Factory.  Commentary by Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan and interviews with actors Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina.

Reviews of soon to be released DVD’s. By no means a complete list — merely an array of titles that may be of interest.

The following reviews originally appeared in the Fall ’09 issue of Filter Magazine.

WINGS OF DESIRE

CRITERION

The Criterion release—a new high definition digital transfer—of this watershed 1987 Wim Wenders film is long overdue. This modern-day fable, shot before the fall of the Berlin Wall, deals with the separation between angels and the mortals they watch over. Bruno Ganz gives one of the greatest performances of the ’80s as angel Damiel, who struggles with the paradox of pursuing love as a human, or maintaining his divinity yet remaining forever removed from the beautiful trapeze artist Marion. Beautifully shot by legendary cinematographer Henri Alekan and masterfully directed by Wenders, the film is a wondrous ode to the power of love and longing, and what it means to be human. Extras include a making-of documentary, deleted scenes, and a host of others…and thankfully, no Nic Cage City of Angels outtakes.

NERDCORE RISING

B-SIDE

At times resembling the seminal punk documentary, Another State of Mind, Nerdcore Rising isn’t interested so much in hardcore as it is “Nerdcore”—the mash-up of hip-hop and, well…nerdi-ness. Negin Farsad’s documentary follows the progenitor of the movement, MC Frontalot, on his first-ever tour of the U.S.; what follows is a big-hearted, rollicking tour movie chronicling the ups-and-downs of a band on the road. Although sexually frustrated and dealing with chronic back pain, Frontalot and his “crew” never lose face, and the fans, many of whom are avid gamers, are refreshingly open and eager to support this movement that seems to cater just to them. This is an endearing and refreshingly real examination of mutual respect between performers and their audience; with Weird Al, Prince Paul, and Brian Posehn on hand to provide both the hip-hop and nerd perspectives, respectively.

TREELESS MOUNTAIN

OSCILLOSCOPE

Beautifully wrought and touchingly poetic, So Yong Kim’s follow-up to In Between Days unfolds deliberately, like a gentle breeze. Treeless Mountain tells the story of Korean sisters Jin and Bin (magnificently played by actresses Hee-Yeon Kim and Song-Hee Kim). Heartbreakingly adorable, they are left with a succession of relatives as their mother tries to locate their estranged father. The ingenuity of the girls and the faith the sisters have in one another serve as the basis of this thoroughly humanistic tribute to the power of sisterhood. The storytelling is wonderfully rich, and the execution mannered, with the stellar camera-work serving to detail aspects of childhood that could only occur when an artist has such an affinity for her subjects.

THE ACHIEVERS: THE STORY OF THE LEBOWSKI FANS

K-MAN

Think you know a lot about The Big Lebowski? Think again, Dude. The Achievers, a documentary by Eddie Chung, will send even the most ardent fans of the 1998 Coen Brothers film scurrying to a remedial class to brush up on all things Duderino. Following the humble beginnings of a fan-gathering known as “Lebowskifest”—its followers call themselves “Achievers”—we watch its rise from small get-together at a Louisville bowling alley to the 8,000-strong convention it has become. Frequently hilarious, it has the appeal of people-watching at a horror movie convention, wherein the vaguest of Nihilist references or manual jerk-off nods becomes fodder for costumes. Fans of oddball docs like Darkon and The King of Kong will eat up this funny and offbeat film.

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD

MAGNET

Man-on-kangaroo fights, copious nudity, exploding cars, and yes, a mouse in a baby werewolf costume are just several of the jaw-dropping set pieces in the little known genre of Ozploitation. Starting in the 1960s with the easing of the censor code, Australia churned out some of the best of the worst movies ever made: Stork, Razorback, Turkey Shoot, and Stunt Rock, just to name a few out of the dozens covered in this very funny, fast-moving documentary written and directed by Mark Hartley. Totally fresh and completely engaging, you’re going to want to keep a pen and paper handy to track down these lost “gems.”

TAKE OUT

KINO

Shot very much in the neo-realistic spirit of cinema vérité, Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s Take Out often resembles the work of the Dardenne brothers—only transplanted to New York City. The film follows a day in the life of illegal immigrant Ming-Ding, a deliveryman working tirelessly to support his family back in China who has one day to repay the predatory loan sharks who financed his passage to New York. Ultra-realistic and austere in its execution, the never-patronizing film plays out in a completely believable manner that utterly involves the viewer in Ming-Ding’s plight. Pitch-perfect down to the smallest detail, Take Out is a powerful and compelling drama.

30 ROCK: SEASON THREE

UNIVERSAL

The record 22 Emmy nominations scored by 30 Rock’s latest season should come as no surprise to any regular viewer of this groundbreaking comedy series. The Rock is proof positive that not only is the network sitcom alive and well, but thriving, thanks to series creator Tina Fey and her talented crew of writers and performers; among the regulars are Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski and the inimitable Tracy Morgan. The season follows Fey’s put-upon Liz Lemon as she deals with a serious case of baby fever, and Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy as he romances a fiery Latina played by Salma Hayek. Guest stars include Oprah, Steve Martin, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Aniston, and the always-wonderful Elaine Stritch returning as Jack’s irascible mother.

MONSOON WEDDING

CRITERION

Considering the recent spate of truly awful wedding disaster movies, the Criterion edition of this fine Mira Nair film arrives like a breath of fresh air. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, Monsoon follows the members of a large family as they gather in Dehli to prepare for a lavish Punjabi wedding. Traditional values clash with modern ideals as the story unfolds in this thoroughly engrossing drama, which at times resembles the best of the Robert Altman multi-character studies. Nair’s deft and delicate touch involves us in the emotion and chaos of the wedding as if we were part of the party. Criterion’s “director-approved” features include many short films by Nair, as well as commentary and interviews.

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE

MAGNOLIA

Among the oeuvre of Steven Soderbergh’s films, The Girlfriend Experience is more in the spirit of 2005’s Bubble rather than his more mainstream fare (see the Ocean’s franchise). Experimental, largely improvised, and shot during the months leading up to the 2008 presidential election, the film created quite a stir with the casting of a real-life porn star, Sasha Grey, in the lead role. As high-class call girl Chelsea, Grey specializes in giving her clients the complete “girlfriend experience”—not necessarily sex, but intimacy—allowing her well-heeled clients to complain to her about the impending economic crisis. Reminiscent at times of Godard, the thought-provoking film serves as an astute, somewhat cynical view of the sea change that was taking place all around us in 2008.

Despite the slower game release schedule this month, it’s been a good week in other ways. Finally landed my first print feature for a major gaming mag. The issue will be out in November-ish.  I’m not going to say much about it yet, so I don’t advertently jinx myself. Needless to say I’m excited, and it’s extremely gratifying to finally be getting some non-digital ink flowing again. Writing for a newspaper is fun, but seeing your work in a glossy mag on the newsstand is very different. There’s a possibility several other print opportunities will solidify in the near future. However, I’m waiting on baited breath to see what happens.  I also recently started doing some casual gaming coverage for Gamezebo, which is a nice change of pace.

Aside from the day-to-day freelance work, there’s a lot of interviewing and research going on behind the scenes in my spare time. I’m making a lot of progress with contacts and info/quote gathering for the book project. Finally got a chance to check out Nerdcore For Life (thanks Dan L.), which is a great film about the geekier (RE: awesome) side of hip-hop. If you’re into that kind of thing, also check out Nerdcore Rising. Anyhow, back to work.

The LFC’s summer film series, Cinema at Studio A, continues tonight with a music documentary that attempts to answer the question, “Can a hip-hop MC who raps about things like Star Wars, Magic: the Gathering and video games be taken seriously by his more mainstream music contemporaries? Is there really a market for a genre that calls itself nerdcore hip-hop?”

Nerdcore Rising, an insightful and often hilarious film produced and directed by Negin Farsad, follows the godfather of nerdcore hip-hop, MC Frontalot, and his band as they set off on their first whirlwind tour across the US. Weighing in on the origins, present state, and future of nerdcore hip-hop are early trailblazers like “Weird Al” Yankovic and Prince Paul as well as current performers like MC Chris and Optimus Rhyme.

Will MC Frontalot and his band attract a busload of groupies like AC/DC? Will they be able to sell out venues bigger than the local arcade or comic book store? Will they survive life on the road?

These questions and more will be answered when the LFC screens Nerdcore Rising tonight, Thursday, June 25, beginning at 7 p.m. The screening will take place at Lowell Telecommunications Corporation (LTC), located at 246 Market St. in downtown Lowell (nextdoor to the National Park Visitor Center).

For more information on Cinema at Studio A, including a full list of films screening this summer, click here.

As always, please remember these three things about Cinema at Studio A:

• Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and seating is on a first come, first served basis. Studio A seats approximately 40 patrons.
• There is no charge for films, but a suggested donation of $5 is appreciated!
• Studio A creates a true screening room atmosphere. For everyone’s enjoyment, we encourage attendees to arrive on time. Thank you!

Like many of my blogging contemporaries I grew up watching the Revenge of the Nerds movies in the 80’s. I guess I’ve always considered myself more sympathetic toward Booger than Poindexter, or even Gilbert. Recently I had a shocking realization of my Gilbert-ness while working on my blog and listening to one of my favorite geeky NPR audio segment shows, To The Best Of Our Knowledge.

The TTBOOK broadcast for the week of Sept. 10th featured a show called “Nerds.” After listening to the segment a few times I’m looking forward to the impending video release of Negin Farsad’s Nerdcore Rising: The Movie, which features the antics of computer programmers, gamers and glasses-clad academics proudly posing and rapping about their ability to be ultra-nerdy. The most talented of these performers is MC Frontalot. Great stuff.

More on Nerdcore Rising to follow in future posts.  A component of the PR for Farsad’s film has been a youtube segment called Nerd of the Week. Here’s the most relevant segment, describing the Blogger Nerd…

Nerdcore rapper MC Frontlot’s latest album Final Boss is out (has been for a month).  It features Toad the Wet Sprocket’s Glen Phillips on a track called “Scare Goat” and Wil Wheaton (aka Wesley Crusher aka wilwheatondotnet blogger) on a track called “A Skit about Vocations.”

“Scare Goat” is awesome… it makes me wanna get the whole album.

You can download the song “Wallflowers” from MC Frontalot’s website here:
MC Frontalot – Wallflowers

~Dan – np: MC Frontalot & Glen Phillips “Scare Goat” from Final Boss

Há algum tempo podemos acompanhar a “invasão nerd” na cultura pop mundial. O hype gerado em torno da outrora exluída tribo é tanto que suas influências tiveram repercussão em praticamente todos os aspectos da cultura global. Destas influências, entre várias outras novidades, surgiu o Nerdcore, também chamado de nerd rap ou nerd-hop.

O Nerdcore nada mais é que o bom e velho hip-hop abordando temas de interesse do público nerd, utilizando-se de diversas referências em meio às rimas para agradar esse seleto grupo. Porém, a criatividade e inabilidade natural dos artistas deste meio fizeram com que o sub-gênero fosse apreciado por um público diverso e muito maior que o esperado.

O músico MC Frontalot pode ser considerado o “pai” do Nerdcore, tendo como primeiro rebento a música “Nerdcore Hiphop”, que fala, basicamente, de rap e nerds. O termo, criado por Frontalot, passou a ser sinônimo das músicas de temática ou referência nerd com batidas e samples que vão de Vanilla Ice à Mozart.

Apesar de parecer uma festa, o Nerdcore é bem organizado. Os artistas desse gênero passam por uma imersão forte e apenas os considerados dignos podem se proclamar pertencentes ao grupo. Com o passar dos anos, diversos artistas surgiram para reforçar as fileiras do divertido gênero musical, como Optimus Rhyme e Mc Chris, famosos entre os devotos.

O Nerdcore só ganhou força e expressão após 2004, na primeira Penny Arcade Expo (convenção organizada pelos criadores da web comic homônima). Tímido neste primeiro momento, o gênero ganhou força nas edições dos anos seguintes, com shows e espaços dedicados somente à música nerd.

Em 2006, o rapper High-C criou o primeiro site dedicato totalmente ao Nerdcore, o NerdcoreHipHop.org. O site tornou-se rapidamente o centro virtual do gênero, parecido com o que o Hype Machine é para os indies. High-C também criou a primeira coletânea de nerd-hop, a “Rhymetorrents Compilation“, que tornou-se uma tradição para os seguidores do gênero.

Tamanha foi a repercussão do Nerdcore que dois filmes/documentários foram feitos sobre a trajetória do gênero em 2008: Nerdcore Rising e Nerdcore For Life. “Rising” acompanha a primeira turnê pelos EUA do precursor MC Frontalot e “For Life” faz uma análise do gênero e conta com a participação de mais de trinta músicos. É um ótimo ponto de partida para quem quer conhecer melhor o Nerdcore.

Para ouvir:

MC Frontalot
MC Chris
Optimus Rhyme
YTCracker
NerdcoreHipHop.org
Rocket Propelled Radio (rádio online do selo EMPulse Records, que apóia o Nerdcore)

Para ver:

Teaser Nerdcore Rising
Trailer Nerdcore For Life (mais vídeos no canal do YouTube)

*Texto revisto e melhorado no Per Raps.

YouTube – Nerdcore Rising Announces the PAX Screening in this VIDEO

“Nerdcore Rising” – a documentary about Nerdcore hip hop – stars a bunch of folks like MC Frontalot, Weird Al Yankovic, Prince Paul, and Brian Posehn. But, none are more influential, inimitable, or god-like to gaming nerds than Tycho & Gabe of the Penny Arcade. Therefore, it is with joyous heart and a gamer’s carpal tunnel that we would like to announce, in catchy video format, that the West Coast Premiere of “Nerdcore Rising” will be at the Penny Arcade Expo on August 30, 2008, 4pm, at the Seattle Convention Center.

Please be entertained with the same exact message by watching this video!

[neatorama]

Wenn die äußeren Formen von Kommunikationen erstmal eine gewisse Popularität erreicht haben, dann ist deren Fremdverwendung in anderen Kontexten meistens unumgänglich. Deutscher Hip-Hop und sich auf moralische Grundsätze berufende Unternehmen sind da nur zwei Beispiele von vielen.

Aber nicht in allen Fällen muss die Anknüpfung an systemexterne Formen den Bekanntheitsgrad der ursprünglichen Formen erreichen. Ich habe meiner Begeisterung für Nerdcore (das Musikgenre, nicht das Blog) schon hier und hier Ausdruck verliehen, und aktuell gibt es bei Wired ein kurzes Review der von mir ebenfalls angetrailerten Dokumentation über das Phänomen mit dem schönen Titel Nerdcore Rising.

Und schon in den ersten Sätzen wird da wieder gemutmaßt, wann denn Nerdcore wohl im Mainstream auftauchen wird. Das scheint mir eine Überschätzung zu sein, da der Sinn davon eher bei der Binnenkommunikation unter Nerds und der partizipativen Kultur des Internets zu finden ist. Nicht bei klassischen Publikumsmodellen, die auf einer allgemeineren Durchsetzung von globaler Populärkultur beruhen.

Soviel dazu, eigentlich wollte ich ja nur wegen Ähnlichkeiten zu kürzlich geschehenen Ereignissen im Bekanntenkreis diesen tollen Song von den TSA Gangstaz zum Thema Flugsicherheit verlinken. Danke und Gruß dafür gehen in die irische Hauptstadt, was aber rein gar nichts mit dem gestrigen Tag des heiligen Patrick zu tun hat.

Check out trailer for the upcoming documentary NERDCORE RISING

[source]

Even a passing glance at this blog will tell you that it is written by a hardcore nerd. I love science fiction, fantasy, the series of tubes, RPGs, video games, cyberpunk and things that can be described as ‘cult’.

I have a girlfriend by the way. Just so you know.

Until recently there has been no genre of music devoted to the nerd subset. Perhaps because other subcultures – metalheads, punks, goths, ravers et cetera evolved because of the music, not separate from it. Now there is a slew of genres and artists catering to the nerd. From Jonathan Coulton’s awesome lo-fi indie/folk to Chiptunes’ 80’s nostalgia trip.

The most prevalent genre however is Nerdcore Rap. Essentially the same type of music as regular rap but as Schaffer the Darklord puts it so well – ‘I don’t rap about bitches and trolls, I rap about witches and trolls.’ Yes – Nerdcore rap is rap about the geekiest subjects imaginable, and it rules hard!

Nerdcore Rising – The Movie has finally got a premiere on the 9th at SXSW fest and goddamn I hope it goes down well. It follows MC Frontalot – the daddy of Nerdcore around on tour and explores the genre in depth.

Appearences from the real life Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade (They don’t look like their comic book selves, but are just as funny.) Weird Al, Jello Biafra and Brian Pohesn beef up the cast.

I WANT this to succeed very hard. Because I want a British premiere and Nerdcore to break big. Because it rules.

I think I’m gonna do a regular feature on a favourite Nerdcore artist each week. I’ll start tomorrow.