Weekend Update

Bunch of small news items to cover today.

Phoenix Tickets

Damn you working during the day! I'd been waiting to see when tickets for Phoneix's August 7th show at Bowery Ballroom go on sale and it turns out that they went on sale at noon today, so I missed them. I'm hoping to track down tickets somehow, if anyone's got any extras, drop me an e-mail: patrick@respectfilms.com. You would be my best friend. And if you get a chance to go the show, definitely do so, their last show at the Bowery Ballroom was awesome. Let's hope they kept the same drummer.

Gnarls Barkley/Peeping Tom Show

I may miss out on that show, but last night I grabbed tickets for the August 17 Gnarls Barkley show in Central Park. When I heard about the show, I was thinking about going, but I decided that it wasn't quite worth it. However, yesterday I saw that Peeping Tom was going to be supporting Gnarls at the show. Peeping Tom is Mike Patton's newest album, it's pretty good, though a bit routine for Patton. However, he's one of my favorite singers and I've never seen him live, so this is the perfect opportunity. Plus, I am psyched to see Gnarls, I saw Cee-Lo at Wesleyan Spring Fling in 2005 and he was very entertaining. So, this should be a good show.

True Blood

HBO did a press conference yesterday to announce their future plans. There's one bad piece of news, that the new season of The Sopranos has been delayed until March. However, in good news, Alan Ball's new series, True Blood is moving forward for a probable Autumn 2007 premiere. Six Feet Under is my third favorite TV series of all time so I am quite excited to see what he does next. He has an uncanny ability to create characters who are totally real and a wonderful mix of flaws and virtues. At the end of SFU we may hate Nate's choices, but it's easy to see why he does what he does. Plus, it'll be cool to see Ball tackle vampires, his casting in season four indicates that he's a Buffy fan, so how will this crew of undead compare to Buffy's? We'll see, but I do know that this is my most anticipated film project.

Popeye

I've been on a big Altman kick the past couple of posts, hailing the man's virtues like it' going out of style, but it's not all good. I watched Popeye a few days ago and was not impressed. It had some trademark Altman elements, but Altman works best when he shoots in a documentary style, drawing you into a believable world. The fact that every line Williams speaks sounds poorly ADRed is the first strike against this film, and the awful townspeople are the next. That said, it was cool to hear "He Needs Me" in its original form. It made me want to give Punch Drunk Love another viewing.

The Youth Speak!

I'm running a broadcast news workshop for teens now and it's interesting to hear them talk about films. I heard a couple of people mention how they're sick of the fact that everything's a sequel or remake. Hollywood, this is your demographic, they want new stuff! However, they did see all these sequels or remakes, so even if people complain about it, they still go see these films.

Upcoming Dates of Note
7/21 - Clerks II released
7/22 - Elysian Fields at Joe's Pub
7/28 - Miami Vice released
8/3 - New Pornographers at Summerstage
8/7 - Phoenix at Bowery Ballroom (Hopefully)
8/8 - Manderlay on DVD
8/17 - Gnarls Barkley at Summerstage
9/22 - Science of Sleep Releated
9/24 - The Flaming Lips at Hammerstein
10/13 - The Fountain Released
10/20 - Marie Antoinette Released

Related Posts
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (5/11/2006)
Phoenix @ Bowery Ballroom (5/11/2006)
Nashville (7/7/2006)