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The word Micmacs, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) explained before the screening of his new film, is slang for “shenanigans,” a word which sounded impossibly playful in Jeunet’s thick French accent. “Impossibly playful” is also one way to describe the film, which is as sweet and joyful and imperfect a revenge fantasy you might hope to see. Continue reading
I honestly thought I’d be blogging every day from SXSW. That’s the most laughable idea I’ve had in ages. Since Friday, I’ve been in Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest, which is hard to sum up in just one sentence: It’s a long-running music, film and nerd festival (the nerd track is loosely called “Interactive”) at which many of the things I write about overlap and converge (what a goddamn buzz word that is). I’m here to see bands, learn about Austin’s music scene, watch movies, go to panels and, well, write about them all. Continue reading
Yes, you could go see Alice in Wonderland this weekend. (I certainly plan to.) But you could also do something a little different and hop over to DIVA for one of the screenings of this year’s Oscar-nominated short films. Pick animated only, live-action only or go all-out and watch both — though if you have to pick, for my money, the animated set is the way to go. Continue reading
More former Eugeneans turned Los Angelenos are doing nifty things. This time, it’s the women of Warpaint, who debuted a new video yesterday. Continue reading
It’s not every began-in-Eugene-but-moved-to-the-big-city (in this case, L.A.) band that comes back to town for a month of Sunday shows. The Parson Red Heads have done residencies at a few L.A. venues; next month, they’re settling in three cities at once, playing Mondays in Portland, Thursdays in Seattle and Sundays here, at Sam Bond’s. Continue reading
Canadian singer-songwriter Serena Ryder opens for Howie Day at the WOW Hall on Jan. 15. With any luck, she’ll play her gorgeous, plaintive cover of Band of Horses’ “The Funeral,” which you can listen to on her MySpace page. Or you could just watch the live version: Continue reading
As promised in print, here are the mix CD track listings from The Procrastinator’s Gift Guide — with links for listening. Many of the links go to YouTube “videos” with audio only; some go to Stereogum and other places where you can stream or download songs; some, when the individual song wasn’t available, go to MySpace pages; some go to live performances or official videos. If you find a broken link or have a better one for us, please let me know! Continue reading
All photos by Todd Cooper. See the whole gallery here Well, I was totally wrong about that first song. Continue reading
My colleague Suzi Steffen and I have long disagreed about which Scott Westerfeld series is better. Suzi votes for his Midnighters books, about a group of teens in Bixby, Okla., who are awake for midnight’s magic hour, when clocks freeze but those born at midnight can move freely (if warily; strange things lurk in the midnight hour). Continue reading
Oh, internet. Continue reading