Creeping fear as WATCHMEN approaches

As early reviews come in, I'm still very much excited to see the film for myself. But yet I'm still very trepadatious. I think I've figured out why.

The worst thing about a bad WATCHMEN movie is that it will kill the desire of anyone to read the book, who haven't done so already. It's happened before with EVERY single other Moore adaptation. Good luck getting anyone to want to read V FOR VENDETTA, LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN or FROM HELL now. Unless they are comics nerds already they won't because they will associate them with these horrible adaptations and that's a shame.

It's a huge shame mostly because Moore is undoubtedly the medium's greatest living writer and arguably the greatest comic book writer of all time. He is an obvious choice to try and get people reading some truly monumental comic book stories and with every passing film adaptation, that has become harder and harder.

Admittedly I should of course hold judgement on WATCHMEN, the greatest and most high profile Moore adaptation ever, but if history is any lesson, the outlook is not bright.... At least it's not looking likely that this will help me convince my friend to pick up the book.

Early Works

This is an interesting website. It's a collection of rare first films from well know directors. Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Tim Burton, it's a diverse and pretty well rounded collection. These are mostly Super 8 or 16mm student films from now living legends. Amazing.

As a film programmer one of the most difficult things to look for is the potential in a young film maker's early work. It's important to remember that we all started somewhere.

This is a fabulous online resource.

Valentine's day failure

Well I blew it. I actually got one of the gifts listed on this page of the 25 worst Valentine's Day gifts. Let's see if you can guess which one I thought was funny/quirky enough...

Satelites are colliding in space!

Well, this is what it feels like to live in the future. Two satellites collided in space this week. There is no air traffic control type system set up currently for Low Earth Orbit, but it sounds like we are gonna need one soon.

My new refrain is gonna be "where's my space elevator already?"

The Film Maker's Co-Op is threatened

I'm a little late in reporting this but Karina on Spout Blog wrote here about a crisis for an experimental film archive in San Francisco.

These are the names that made me jump up and take notice of this news:
Stan Brakhage, Carolee Schneeman, Hollis Frampton, Jennifer Reeves, Jack Smith, Ken Jacobs, Michael Snow, Maya Deren, Marie Menken, Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Martha Colburn...

These and hundreds of other artists have rare prints being housed by the film distribution company Film Maker's Co-Op in their offices in San Francisco. Art Radio International renegotiated the terms of its lease of the Clocktower Gallery with MoMA recently, consequently terminating their sublease with The Film-Maker’s Co-op (FMC)

And the FMC does not even have the resources to move these fragile prints.

The FMC is petitioning Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin in the hopes she’ll help them either stay in the Clocktower or find a new space (and presumably the resources for the move)

To express your support for Independent film and write to Kate D. Levin directly at http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildcla.html

(via)

Free Parking ends for Hybrids?

Ugh. According to this report, there will be no more free parking for Hybrids in the city of Los Angeles. This sucks. I bought my Prius a little under two years ago, and this incentive was definitely one of the reasons I bought the car. Now here I am less than 48 months later and the cost of operating my vehicle in the city is going to increase. (Not a ton of money admittedly, but still...) On the bright side, the news story made me realize that I was supposed to have a sticker on my car to qualify for the fee waiver. I've been parking without the sticker this whole time and never got a ticket. Maybe the meter maids saw my eco-conscious choice and decided to cut me a break. Here's hoping they continue to.