a weekly informing and recommending email
Written by J.S. Lewis
* * *
PLUG IN
Dear one, dear all! Hope y'all had a fabulous Thanksgiving ("And I'm thankful! Are you thankful?") week. You may or may not have noticed that AllMoPs took a well-deserved break last week. Well, we're back now with plugs-a-plenty! Merrymake.
* * *
MVOTW
We got a triple-feature up in here! Raise doz handz 'n keep 'em up!
Tompkin's deserves a Grammy for this. The boy's done an a cappella cover Taio Cruz's "Dynamite." He performs every vocal version of various instruments himself. Make sure you watch till the end when it breaks each sound down. An incredible song and production. This is a one-man-show that's going down in the history books fo sho.
A Jewish a cappella group in NY has done a parody of Tompkin's work. That's right, this is a variation on a variation. Some nice Jewish twists here... "spin the dreeeeeeeeeidel" is gonna be the new catchphrase on the streets folks. Eat it up!
The multiple PIPs (picture-in-picture) MV format reminded me of this gem by SOUR. This has been in my mind ever since I first saw it (thanks to Lyvia, my TMA 102 TA). The song itself is nothing to write home about, but the genius of multiple web-cam interactions is required viewing. Just imagining trying to plan this gives me a headache... Props SOUR & Co. for making one of the neatest MVs I've ever seen.
* * *
MONKEY DO
Did you know there is an Annual Monkey Festival in Thailand. Thousands of chimps are presented to a feast with over 3 tons of food, while hundreds humans watch. I hope to witness the festivities for myself someday. Story (with video and pics) here.
* * *
RANDOMONIA
Okay. Trust me on this. Plug in your headphones and listen to this. (Thanks Nancy!)
* * *
THE FILM TOME REPORT
THE TRAILER ROUND-UP
THE TRAILER ROUND-UP
I remember hearing word about this on the web months ago... I was thrilled to stumble upon the trailer just now. "The Beaver" stars Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster. The film is directed by the latter. It's hard to take the film's ridiculous premise, subject matter, and namesake seriously, but the makers ain't kidding when they declare "Genre: Drama." Something like this is easier to swallow having seen "Lars and the Real Girl," a nice small film (like "The Beaver") about a guy who overcome's personal problems and mental illness through a relationship with a doll. Like a heist plan hatched in a "Ocean's"-movie, this just might be crazy enough to work. It's good to see Gibson again.
Speaking of the "Ocean's" series... here is a doc from the mastermind (Steven Soderbergh) behind the remake and its welcomed sequels: "And Everything is Going Fine." This is a tribute for and about Spalding Gray, a zealous storyteller. All who tell stories can find something of interest herein. This came as a pleasant surprise.
"Mars Needs Moms." If you say so. This CGI-adventure from Disney is one of the most realistic looking computer animations I have ever seen. I just hope the narrative and innovations can match the visual detail.
Another good-looking CG-animated feature. This one is appropriately due come Spring. You see, "Hop" is about the Easter Bunny. It comes from the studio behind "Despicable Me," a film I thought I'd deplore and actually quite liked. (Isn't that bunny playing "The Song" by Blur?)
Toss of the Week: Did you know Earth Day was April 22nd? Well, now we both do. I've missed Disneynature's previous Earth Day releases ("Earth" and "Oceans"), but I'm putting "African Cats" on my calender. I've still yet to catch up with the "Planet Earth" series and the aforementioned Disneynature features, but believe I love love love nature docs. "African Cats" looks astounding. Cinematography and documentation at its finest. I'm thrilled!
KEEPIN' IT SHORT*
*In this all-new segment within "The Film Tome Report," I will be delivering a short film for your consideration.
Directed by Aaron Yonda
This humorous and clever bit won Best Short Film and Best Concept at the Chicago Horror Film Festival in 2006. I thoroughly enjoy perspective pieces like this. On a somewhat related note, "The Bottle Neck" by Hans Christian Anderson is a personal favorite.
* * *
UNPLUG
Chubby wombats! If you have any comments, questions, requests, complaints or threats please let your voice be heard by allmops@gmail.com. If you wish to be removed from the AllMoPs send-list, let me know. If you wish to add someone, let me know. Remember, all previous AllMoPs are available at my blog, All Manner of Posts. Start making the best of the last month of this new decade and thanks for plugging in!
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment