Somehow my face ended up in the bargain bin at a Dutch bookstore. Luckily my friend Otto liberated it and spread the good news to me. Aside from the tite of the Translation, ‘Bastard on the couch,’ I hear the Daniel Johnson piece is a pretty good read.

Honestly.

When: Saturday, August 9th, 7pm
With: Hakim and Leaving Barstow
Where: Cable Car Sinema, 204 S. Main St. Providence, RI

Purchase Tickets on the Festival Ticket Page

We’re in Baltimore with Happy New Year, a festival that likes and spotlights the short form. Last night’s opening night Program was a collection of great short pieces; it made for a refreshing opening night, inspired interaction between the audience, filmmakers and festival organizers. Before their film, each filmmaker came up to rap with Barry Levinson and made fun of the brevity of each celebrated piece.

I’m on a panel today at 3:00, and head to the theater at 5:00 for our screening. The sun is out, I’m gonna stand in it.

Simian Mobile Disco Live at SXSW 2008 from karl j on Vimeo.

There were a lot of documentaries that I enjoyed like Nerdcore Rising, Beautiful Losers and Bananaz - a film about the animated band Gorillaz. It seemed hard to find a narrative feature with a script, which became a little redundant after a while, but I was extremely moved by Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig’s new film Nights and Weekends. I feel like the piece is a departure from the ‘mumble’ of mumblecore and has grown into a more spacious and beautiful realm. It’s honesty and passion left me woozy. Lynn Shelton also turned out an extremely impressive film that is another testament to how scriptless films can work with the right planning and cast chemistry. Starring Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger fame, It’s called My Effortless Brilliance, and it appears to be thus.

There were also some unexpected surprises this year that made Austin show a little more of its character than usual. The after party for fest doc Bi The Way brought us to the Enchanted Forest. Like a tripped-out summer camp on acid, this forest blossomed many curious sights including a giant singing one-bunny-show who calls himself Strange Powers.

All said, the trip to Austin was great and the very end surprised me with a stellar performance by Siman Mobile Disco at the bar we picked to chill at. I love these guys. Video will soon follow.

Streaming will be provided by Mogulus.com.