My favourite kind of 'to do' list

5!

Happy Birthday Rosebud!

TWO / OUT

Took the kids to see Red Dog a few weeks ago. So good to sit in a 'packed' cinema for a Australian film, and one you can take the kids to see too. Red Dog is a lot of fun and I can see why audiences have been going to see it in droves. But rather than this be a post all about Red Dog, I thought it could be a good excuse to post one of my all time favourite short films. Two/Out which is directed by Kriv Stenders, who also directed Red Dog. Two/Out was a bit of revelation to me when I saw it for the first time. There was and still is something so compelling about the simplicity of this film, which is so brutal and raw, yet at the same time, so warm and human.

Every now and then I go and chat to film students and I always try and show them this film in a hope to inspire and acknowledge that you don't need much to make a great film. If you have a good story, all you might need is two characters, one room and a single locked off camera. Can't really get more simple than that.

PROGRESSIVE OBSESSIVE

If you have no interest in 70's inspired jazz-fused-prog-rock... you might want to click somewhere else. But if you do, you might like to listen to this 8 minute 'edit' of the 23 minute epic from Steve Wilson's new solo album Grace For Drowning. All of it, the flutes, melotrons, saxophones, guitars, pianos, choirs, it's nerdy as hell but I'm totally obsessed with it right now. Steven Wilson - Raider (edit) (full track from Grace for Drowning) by Kscope

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIK

Along with another great album that's also having a significant anniversary, I can't believe this week marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

This is an album that had a real effect on me. It defined a very distinct time and place in my life.

I was already a huge fan of the Chili Peppers with Mothers Milk, and I was literally counting down the days for the release of Blood Sugar. A friend actually got an advance copy on Cassette(!) and I can distinctly remember the first time I listened to it. I was in Newcastle, studying design at University, living right on the beach in a tumbling down terrace. My girlfriend and I sat on our lounge room floor vying for the sweet spot directly in-between the speakers.

I remember being quite struck by how different it sounded. This wasn't the Chili Peppers I was expecting. The punk / funk was gone and it was more like funk and hip hop and had it had a 'rawness' to it. It sounded more like Public Enemy than say, Bad Brains. But by the end of that first listen I was totally and utterly hooked. An album so epically broad and appealing and yet so intimate and warm. It's an album that introduced me to a world of sounds, musical ideas and influences. Blood Sugar Sex Magik went on continuous rotation and quickly became the official soundtrack to my summer of 91-92.

I think the album still stands today. And although I feel old in saying this, it's now a 'classic', where sadly most (all?) Chili Pepper albums post Blood Sugar have not been.

But this post is really an excuse to put up Funky Monks a film documenting the recording of the album. It's easily one of my favourite rockumentaries. There is something immediate, organic and very cool about it. And perhaps because the album has become such a classic, Funky Monks serves as an oppotunity to be a fly on the wall to witness the alchemy taking place.

When I was in L.A a couple of years ago I went and found the mansion that Blood Sugar was recorded in and subsequently Funky Monks was filmed in. Listening to the album you can 'hear the rooms'. It gives the record such a unique ambience and tone.

I went and stood outside the house like a stalker it was some kind of sacred site. I peered through the cyclone fencing in the hope of hearing a distant echo of Blood Sugar being recorded, but all I could hear was traffic... just like at the very end of THIS TRACK (turn it up right at the end!)

Happy birthday Jim

No greater inspiration.

Dear Photograph

I do love a good picture of a picture. And I do love this Tumblr site Dear Photograph. The visual mix of the past and present and the simple written thoughts create wonderfully whimsical and sentimental moments. I'm such a sucker for this stuff...

Thanks Dylan!

DRIVE BY SHOOTINGS

They have been around for a while, but I'm still loving these seemingly random photographs of drivers by Andrew Bush. You can see all 66 Drives here.

WM3 ARE FREE. FINALLY!

So good hearing the West Memphis Three were finally released from prison over the weekend after 18 crazy years. I have kept up to date with the three guys over the last fourteen years or so after I first saw the documentary Paradise Lost back in 1997 at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I remember that night very clearly. I remember the cinema (The Forum) the seat I sat in (6 rows from the front, middle section, two in from the left aisle) and that I don't think I moved from the edge of my seat from the very first frame, till the last, I don't think I breathed either. Quite simply, Paradise Lost changed my life. It's one of the most, if not the most engaging film I've ever seen, it's the film that convinced me to quit my job and apply to film school.

If you haven't seen Paradise Lost, stop what you are doing right now and begin. Or better still buy it here and enjoy part two Paradise Lost 'Revelations' as well. I can't wait for Part three 'Revelatioins', which I'm sure will be getting a re-cut right about now. A trilogy 18 years in the making, and now with a happy ending!

Hard to imagine how these guys can adjust to any kind of 'normal life' after losing their childhoods and for one Damien, spending seventeen out of the last eighteen years on death row, for a crime he (and they) did not commit. I wish them all the best!

Tons of info about their release and the campaign to set them free over the years over at wm3.org

Also, where I be today without the soundtrack to Paradise Lost!?

MONSTER CHILDREN

Monster Children has been my favourite magazine for years. So I was pretty chuffed to be asked to do a couple pages in the latest issue (#31). They usually publish two different covers, which is cool in itself, but I was particularly excited to see both covers for this issue featuring past heroes of mine. Dennis Hopper on one cover as there is a great article about Hoppers photography and David Carson on the other, who when I was a graphic designer was like a god to me.

Featured  in the spread were a couple of snaps of my very own monster children, Ollie and Rosebud.

These kids are more than alright...

...they're amazing!

Via Nick Turpin via The Guardian.

ON THE STREET

I've had a 'fancrush' on photographer Joel Meyerowitz for many years. His street photography is amazing, but for me it's the way he observes and captures particular qualities of light that keeps drawing me back to his work. The other day I watched this film made about him in 1981. Shot in New York, it's one of the best films I've seen about the discipline of street photography and what draws an artist like Meyerowitz to the street to photograph. The films camera sits back and observes Meyerowitz at work for extended sequences where he freely discusses his process to writer/curator Colin Westerbeck.

Click HERE to the view film, where it's featured on Nick Turpins great photography blog.

There are so many great moments in the film. If you don't have 57 minutes to watch the whole thing, scan through to 28mins 50 secs and watch for 5 mins or so where they move to a particular street corner. Meyerowitz gives a running commentary of the real theatre of street life playing out. The people and their actions seem so well placed and timed like it's all been planned out that way. New York presents this constant swathe of characters like no other city can, but it does remind me to look for similar rhythms and movements and moments where ever I am. It also makes me think that Meyerowitz is one of these people that not only instinctively knows where to be, but also one of these people where things just happen where he is. Or perhaps it's just as he says, he's out there taking the 'risk'.

The last 10 minutes are also incredible. Meyerowitz and Gilberg are sitting chatting in the studio and Meyerowitz says he's "getting antsy cos the light is beautiful outside..." (I so know that feeling!). They go out onto the street where the sun is getting rich and golden. It's fascinating watching Meyerowitz walk with his huge plate camera across his shoulder accessing the street and the light and again intuitively feeling where the right spot to set up and take the single shot will be. Being compelled myself to photograph in and around first and last light, I found this sequence, which is pretty much shot in real time absolutely incredible. The way that Meyerowitz sits down after he gets the shot and writes detailed notes describing the colour, tone and quality of the light for him to refer to during development to me was so fascinating.

The film is a bit of time capsule for many reasons, but rest assured, Meyerowitz is still out there today doing what he has always done.

WHAT A WONDERFUL (google) WORLD

At first glance these images could be mistaken for great fine art or street photography. But they are sourced from an altogether different type of documentation. Similar to this other guy I blogged about a while ago, Jon Rafman who has created 9-Eyes must spend hours (months?) traversing Google Maps discovering the beautiful, bizarre, surreal and spontaneous moments of poetry and drama that daily life brings with it. All these 'scenes' are captured by the nine lenses perched on top of the Google vehicles as they drive around the world collecting data for Googles street view. It's well worth taking the 15 minutes or so it takes to scroll through the collection.

THIS TOOK MY BREATH AWAY...

...not sure how this could ever be a 'planned' scene, unless those birds are CGI. But I like to think it's a wonderful example of a cast and crew working intuitively and responsively to any given moment. A process where everyone is in synch. Where the director creates an atmosphere and gives 'permission' for moments for this to occur and develop. I think it's about being open to every moment and ultimately being well and truley 'in the moment'. Which with all the pressures of time and money and in this scene, fading light, I find as a director the absolute hardest thing to be... but moments like the above remind me to keep at the forefront of my mind. Regardless of what I'm expecting, planning or needing from a scene, ultimately the most important thing to happen, is the thing that is happening right there and then.

MURUNDAK, SONGS OF FREEDOM

My friends Rhys and Tash over at Daybreak Films have recently released their latest feature documentary 'Murundak'. The film tells the story of the 'Black Arm Band' a super-group of legendary Aboriginal musicians from the past and present.  In showcasing the talents of the individuals the film charts the history of the Aboriginal protest movement and it's unique and very defined relationship to music.

I really didnt know what to expect from the film, I have no special interest in Aboriginal protest music nor is it something I would actively seek out. But Rhys and Tash have created a film that is so rich with the spirit of 'music' in general and not just a particular genre that I was soon swept away into a world I knew nothing of, but was really keen to explore and learn much more about.

The surprising thing for me and I'm sure for others, is even though I know very little about Aboriginal protest music, I have actually been quite happily exposed to it through far more popular music over the years. For example, I knew some of what the song Solid Rock was about. As a kid growing up in the 80's I loved it, but the film showed me the song in a new and very different light. It's way more than a forgotten mega hit of the 80's. It's relevance and power is just as significant now, perhaps even more so. The live version of that song that is performed in the film will stay with me for some time. Another song I'm quite familiar with is 'From Little Things Big Things Grow' which forms one of the centre pieces of the film, again I really like that song, and who doesn't, but never knew of it's history and it's significance to Aboriginal people. I like how these songs and more, exist in the mainstream and yet are very powerful political messages. I can't imagine a song like Solid Rock making it to the top 10 these days.

Having followed the making of the film from afar over the years it took to make, I know the guys really struggled in particular with the editing of the film. I think Rhys nd Tash were stuck in the edit suite for over a year (!) Trying to find the right balance of performance, interviews, historical footage, the history etc. And perhaps most importantly trying to shape a film which welcomes you in a way so you want to learn more (as apposed to a lot of films which become just advocacy for an 'issue') But watching it I could see no evidence of this creative struggle, in fact to their credit the film feels effortless in the way it flows. In this way the film actually feels like one whole piece of music.And making something so hard, look so easy is part of the filmmaking process these guys have nailed.

Murundak is currently in cinemas, check here to see if it's playing near you.