The Watson Twins

I don't know much about The Watson Twins and I am not going to pretend to look it up on Wikipedia and quote some obscure factoids. I do now they were obviously apart of the obviously named "Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins" lineup. I have that album, and I like it. I have them doing a tune called "Fernando" live from Conan show that I particularly enjoy.

I am here about the twins though. They have an album coming out at the end of June that is really good. They do a cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" that is unbelieveable. I am/was never a fan of The Cure. Lots of you probably are and I think you will enjoy this version tremendously.

The album as a whole is great as well. It's something good to relax to, draw to, read to...if anything, you will like The Cure cover.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zztxjemw9ue


-- dan

Make it fit.

Assemble
Bummer.
Cut.
Screw.
Fit.

Okeeydokes.

Nice city view last week after the rain.


Sexy Legs
-Jag

Radical Rick

I stumbled upon a cool site called BMXmuseum.com. I was telling someone about this Redline 500B i had in 1984 and how I rode it throughout my elementary, teen, college, and part of my post-college years. How I loved that bike! I think it was 2002 when I finally let go of it, leaving it out with the trash in South Philly and watching a crackhead get siked on it as he rode away into a dark alley. So I googled 'Redline 500b" and out spewed this website from the fog of search results.
Above and Below: Some tricked out Redlines.
Haro Banana Bike
Haro FST
Anyone Remember CW?
Aside from the Redline RL-20 I think this was my dreambike back then, the Hutch Pro Racer(I really jocked the Trickstar back then too.:
-Jaguar

Dead Sound

If you're looking for something fun to do tomorrow night(Wednesday) check out my friend Vic's DJ night at L'Etage 6th and Bainbridge. 10pm-2am Vic/Maxwell & Special Guest Thom of Broadzilla.

Harmony Korine's Faves List

In a 1999 Dazed and Confused magazine article Korine listed his top ten films as: Pixote by Hector Babenco, Badlands and Days of Heaven by Terrence Malick, Fat City by John Huston, Stroszek by Werner Herzog, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes, McCabe and Mrs. Miller by Robert Altman, Out of the Blue by Dennis Hopper and Hail Mary by Jean-Luc Godard.

A great list, my only real beef is deferment to my favorite Cassavetes Faces over The Killing of a Chinese Bookie... any day. -Jaguar

Rocket Man

This guy is a Herzog documentary waiting to be made.




Fusion Man link.

My buddy Mike Frank of Beast Infection had an opening for his paintings at the Last Drop last week. His stuff should still be up, so if you're in the area near Dirty Frank's you should definately stop by, and while you're there get some good coffee too. Last Drop Coffeehouse is at 1300 Pine Street -Jaguar M.

Some good stuff showing at the ICA right now. I missed the openings a few weeks ago but hopefully I can make it on one of my lunch breaks to take a look. Here's a summarized glimpse at the exhibits stolen from the ICA webpage.
This spring, the Institute of Contemporary Art is home to “Mike's World: Michael Smith & Joshua White (and other collaborators),” the first major retrospective of internationally renowned performance/video/installation artist Michael Smith and his New York-based collaborator, director/artist Joshua White. This extraordinary exhibition features some 30 years of videos, installation environments, and other performance-related materials detailing the adventures of "Mike," a sweet but hapless Everyman character created by Smith, and his amusingly ineffectual search for a piece of the American Dream. "Mike's World" will be on view April 25 - August 3, 2008.
"Also featured is a site-specific installation by Trenton Doyle Hancock on view in ICA’s Ramp and Project spaces April 25-August 3, 2008. Since 1997 Trenton Doyle Hancock (b. 1974, Oklahoma City, OK) has created a body of work that has evolved into the sprawling, mythic tale of the Mounds, a gentle, human-plant hybrid, and the Vegans, an evil, tofu-worshipping mutant species of ape man who want to destroy all Mounds. Each of Hancock’s uniquely crafted exhibitions is an opportunity for him to further develop a particular chapter or incident in the narrative through his paintings, drawings, prints, wallpapers and installations. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is pleased to present the first U.S. solo museum exhibition of Trisha Donnelly’s work, on view April 25-August 3, 2008. Using sculpture, drawing, photographs, text, sound, video, and painting, Donnelly has composed this installation, her first U.S. solo museum exhibition, using works made between 1998 and 2007.  In a breathtakingly spare gallery, twenty-four works of art are closely hung on a horizontal line. The works on display, which also include one sculpture and three different sound works, propose a reconfiguration of the past constructed from a rigorous, distinctly personal selection. -Jaguarman

Jim and the Infidels Screening

Screening for a film we helped out a little with. The guy John who directed it has worked with Judo Airlines blog contributors on other film projects. There was a preview a week or two ago that we missed. Another screening, for those who couldn't make it, will take place this friday at 6pm at Temple. In Annenberg Hall, room 3 (in the basement). Annenberg Hall is on 13th Street, between Diamond and Norris. D.Kremer will screen his film beforehand at 5pm.

The Pacquiao Report: David Diaz Blog

Manny Pacquiao is continuing to set records and has now won the World Title Belt in 3 different weightclasses. And after his most recent sweep of the superfeatherweight division, he's moving up yet another weight class to take on the next group of champs in the Lightweight division. His upcoming fight is against David Diaz of Chicago, and its going to be a good brawl since both boxers are very forward, aggressive, southpaws. The Current WBC lightweight champion Diaz (34-1-1) is the naturally bigger fighter and has only lost once earlier in his career. Over the last few weeks Diaz has been writing a regular diary for The Chicago Sun-Times as he prepares to defend his title against Manny Pacquiao on June 28 in Las Vegas. You can read his experiences here:
David Diaz Diary

Transparent Things

I enjoy Fujiya & Miyagi's website. And although I don't have much of their stuff I've always liked that song 'Ankle Injuries'. See look listen here. -Jaguarman

New Link

For the skaters that check out this blog, here's a link to a very informative philly-area as well as international skateblog. Its quite popular so I'm sure you've heard of it, but if not, you should get to it. I've been on checking this site now for about half a year and they always have excellent posts. Important things I learned today: That there is a new skatepark modeled after FDR about 15 miles from my girlfriend's hometown. Also, that along with the Girard/2nd St. spot the tranny spot on 9th and Vine is now R.I.P. Haveboard.com -Jaguarman

Stroszek

Great ending to this film by Werner Herzog.
-Jaguarman

Rediscovering Lynch

I recently stumbled upon a copy of David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980). I have actually never seen this film before in its entirety. As a teenager, I got into the works of Lynch for the first time and was a huge fan. As I grew older and became more filmically educated/enlightened, I realized that I wasn't really into his cinema and felt I had grown out of it [with the exceptions of Blue Velvet (1986) and Wild at Heart (1990)].
***I was not aware of it until recent years, but Lynch usually does his own sound design, which is EXTREMELY rare amongst directors. He takes great care in the sound recordings, mixing, ADR, music, and score; which goes perfectly well with [and enhances] the images/effect [the sound scape to Mulholland Dr. (2001) is quite astonishing from what I remember].***

I was deeply moved by The Elephant Man; though delicate, subtle, and amazing, it is a truly depressing film which lacks the usual Lynchian humor. Regardless, it is one of the most humane films I have ever seen. It combines elements of his earlier, darkly surreal shorts as well as the "studio" sensibility and conventional [as close as Lynch can get] narrative form. Upon watching this, I was compelled to watch, and re-watch the rest of his oeuvre in chronological order [with the exception of his Sci-Fi debacle, Dune (1984), which I do not have much interest in seeing at all, and Eraserhead (1977), which I'll see asap].

After watching [and weeping like a schoolgirl to] The Elephant Man, I purchased and re-watched Blue Velvet, which I think is an American masterpiece. It is the best showcase of Lynch's talent, themes, and universe. I then purchased and re-watched Wild at Heart which is a surreal, high paced, perverse modern day Romeo&Juliet, chase/road movie; it is HILARIOUS. He shot the latter during the production of the second season of his series, Twin Peaks (1990-91).

A friend who works at a record store gave me the new version of the Twin Peaks set; The Definitive Gold Box Set Edition. Years ago, I bought the first season, but gave up on it due to the fact that it took forever for the second season to be released [I think because of distribution issues]. Lynch stated: " I think this is a great definitive Twin Peaks Gold Set..."
I finished the entire 29 episode series last night and it is absolutely amazing. [Lynch personally approved the audio&video transfers]. I never really understood Lynch's humor before. He has an incredible talent for blending terror and hilarity. I love his imagery, whether it makes sense or not, and his subversion of narrative form and Americana; his unique portrait of a disturbing, absurd, and hilarious perverse Americana. He shows us typical American places/towns and through his "typical" and also insanely eccentric characters [and his camera of course], strips the veneer of a healthy neighborhood/society away, digging deep beneath the surface, revealing the sickness beneath and within that lurks everywhere; a sort of ubiquitous surreal absurdity that is tied up with or even contained in/stems from, dreams/dreamworlds [for lack of a better term or expression].

Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Dr. are the best examples I have seen of this.
I have just finished watching Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), which is the feature film prequel to the series. DO NOT watch it if you haven't seen the series [also, do not watch the International Pilot either, for it includes an extra 10 minutes and spoilers not included in the US Pilot]. Fire Walk with Me is certainly one of his darkest, surreal, and most disturbing films. I still am not sure how I feel about it after watching it for the first time since I was 15. The DVD transfer looks really nice though. It is a film filled with drug use, teenage promiscuity, deception, sex, rape, incest, murder, and dreams. If your into any of that, than you'll love Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

I am now going to re-watch Lost Highway (1997) which I have always felt is a horrible film [maybe my mind will change now], and onto his latest feature, Inland Empire (2006). If you have the chance, take the next week or so off, and buy, or rent, the entire series of Twin Peaks. You won't be disappointed. It is the greatest soap opera ever made and it's a shame how the network ruined it [details possibly later]. I have always been haunted by the images of Twin Peaks from when watching it as an 8 year old child. I would convince my mom to let me stay up extra late every week when it was on, so I could watch it with her, my step-dad, aunt and uncle, trying to be a "sophisticated adult", only to go running into my room whenever Bob came on screen. One scene in particular has been burnt into my mind ever since.
David Lynch Feature Filmography:

Eraserhead (1977)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Dune (1984)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Wild at Heart (1990)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Lost Highway (1997)
The Straight Story (1999)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Inland Empire (2006)

......More info next week on the latest film by Swedish director, Roy Andersson...
...and a video clip of David Lynch when I learn how to upload YouTube clips...


Posted by J. Diaz