9/26/2002 01:16:54 PM

I caught a free sneak preview of Das Experiment last night. It stars Moritz Bleibtreu of Run Lola Run fame (it took some serious self-discipline to not yell out “Maaannniiiiii!!!!!” when he appeared on the screen) and the story deals with a bunch of ordinary German men involved in a psychological prison experiment in which half the men are designated prisoners and half are designated guards. I’m sure I’m not giving anything away by divulging that shit goes horribly wrong, and I did raise an eyebrow at the haste with which said shit went wrong until I read up on the Stanford Prison Experiment, upon which the film was loosely based and which is a fascinating story in its own right. The film wasn’t quite as heavy-handed with its artistic license as one might expect, so the realism heightened the tension significantly. Good cinema.

9/23/2002 05:00:15 PM

Apparently a 2-disc Faith No More tribute album called Tribute of the Year: A Tribute to Faith No More was released in July. Considering the numerous superstar nü-metal wankers that cite Faith No More as a major influence, I would have expected this thing to be soiled by Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, et al, but instead it’s soiled by a bunch of obscure industrial bands. Real Player crashed my computer when I tried to listen to some sound clips on CDNOW and I think for once Real Player had my best interest at heart.

9/21/2002 11:37:43 AM

There was much rocking this week.

Saturday night was Andrew W.K. in Jersey, at this weird sprawling complex filled with teenagers called The Birch Hill Concert Hall. Not quite as much fun as the last A.W.K. show since it was so packed and I couldn’t be bothered to wade through the masses to get on the stage. Still a good time, though.

Sunday night was Technician and Dysrhythmia at the Pontiac, and I’m really glad these guys are from Philly so I have plenty of chances to see them. Dysrhythmia: Complicated, technical mix of math rock, metal, punk, jazz and prog. Sounds unlike anyone else. Technician: Often compared to Shellac. Very stripped down, winding and unpredictable song structures. They’re touring together this fall, so check ’em out if they come to your town.

Monday night was Andrew W.K. again, this time in Allentown at a super-cheesy club called Crocodile Rock. Best A.W.K. show yet, in spite of a stage-diving mishap that had me walking funny for the rest of the week. That guy’s energy and charisma is amazing.

Thursday night was Wire and Oxes at Gasoline Warehouse. Oxes put on a great wireless show as usual – this time with no setlist – though they were clearly displeased with the Philly scene’s usual mundane lack of participation. As for Wire, I know they’re legends, but I just never listened to much of their stuff before, so I didn’t really have a frame of reference for their performance. From what I understand, they did mostly new stuff, with a handful of old favorites thrown in. I did enjoy their set quite a bit, so I’ll be looking into picking up some of their more essential releases.

Friday night was a packed screening of Stan Brakhage’s The Text of Light at the International House with a live improvised score by William Hooker, Christian Marclay, Lee Ranaldo and Alan Licht. It was very cool, but the hypnotic, non-objective nature of the 80-minute film somehow heightened my awareness of just how horribly uncomfortable the seats in that place are.

I then headed over to the Balcony to see The Trauma Queens, who are always a great time.

9/16/2002 10:13:20 AM

Big congratulations to my good friends Kim and Kevin, who decided this weekend that they’re going to get married next year.

9/10/2002 11:48:42 AM

While I’m sure all (3) of my regular readers are enjoying my media critic pretensions, the About section does say something about the intentions of this site aimed at keeping people informed of what I’m up to creatively, so I think some relevant news is in order.

Lately most of my time has been been spent working on version 2 of the BREDSTIK Entertainment site, including a brand-new design and a bunch of new content. It is tentatively scheduled to launch on September 30th, two days before we leave for the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Once the site is up, the work doesn’t stop. We will be updating frequently with films, comics, games and more.

In the evenings, I devote about about an hour before bed to version 3 of robweychert.com – a more compact design with some new features, including a public events calendar and a search feature for the News Archive. The recently released Netscape 7 really seems to hate this site, too (at least the Mac version does), so I guess I’ll have to do something about that as well.

Otherwise, the Rorschach experimental video collaboration that’s been in the works since May is temporarily on hold until BREDSTIK 2.0 goes live and yet another web site collaboration is made public in October. Further down the road are plans for a new animated short and a new zine, among other things.

Oh, and I’m thinking about selling my G3 tower and using my iBook full-time until I get a new G4 tower (hopefully sometime in the next year). The upside is the portability factor, added desk space, faster processor, more memory, and bigger hard drive. The downside is the loss of the dual monitor setup, maximum screen resolution of 1024x768, and the need to purchase a couple peripherals, such as a USB Zip drive.

9/2/2002 02:56:17 AM

Oh man, this Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights album is soooo good; I cannot stop listening to it. Spacey, melancholy, shoegazey rock with touches of goth and ’80s influences like Joy Division and The Cure. The singer sounds like the offspring of a secret marriage between Peter Murphy and Michael Gira from Swans. I’ve never been a huge fan of any of the bands I just mentioned (not that I particularly dislike any of them), which is why I’m pleasantly surprised to announce that this has a good chance of being my favorite record of the year.