Life is Weird. Also beautiful.
In which John Green describes his years-long relationship with Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, which began with the James Joyce novel Ulysses and now includes the top two spots of the new York Times bestseller list.
What a blessing indeed.
Music Recommendation
“Heartbeat” - Childish Gambino
Hell yes.
Love the video, hate the bleeped out curse words.
I should be a film editor. I’m a magician. And if I’m good, it’s because I should be a film editor. Bach should have written opera or plays. But instead, he worked in eighteenth-century counterpoint. That’s why his counterpoints have so much more point than other contrapuntalists. They have passion and plot. Shakespeare, on the other hand, should have been a musician, writing counterpoint. That’s why his plays stand out from the others through their plot and music.Teller, of Penn & Teller fame
The Obama Show on Saturday Night Live impersonating The Cosby Show Intro
Yes!
(via leatherpumpkin)
Sexist Scam Alert of the Day: This dude is pretty intense (and very not-safe-for-work), but he speaks the truth: Those honeypot “cleavage reaction videos” are the worst thing on YouTube. And that’s really saying something considering everything else that’s on YouTube.
[reddit.]
Oh, I really want him to be a character on a TV show now. There’s this theme right now in TV of “the douchebag with a heart of gold” (Jean Ralphio from Parks & Rec, Tom Haverford from Parks & Rec, Schmidt from New Girl, etc.). I feel like this guy could start the trend of douchebag characters that are a pretty smart but super rough around the edges. Gosh, this video makes me laugh.
UPDATE: Ok, so I’ve been watching more of his videos and I’m gonna scratch the whole “pretty smart” thing I was saying early. But OH MY GOSH he is so funny. I’m really not sure if he is a real person. I really want him just to be a character that someone has been working on for 3 years. I’ll post some of my favorites of his soon.
For the love of quality television, watch NBC’s Awake when it airs Thursday March 1st at 10 pm. The peacock’s revered comedy block, though full of the best comedy on TV, is not going to give it much of a lead in ratings wise. While those who read trades, obsess over TV and follow trends are surely aware of it, the show seems to be lacking a wide marketing push and populous buzz. This is a shame considering the show is one of the more imaginative, original concepts to push through on network television in recent memory and deserves to be seen.
Its script is packed to the walls with promise and drops enough of its concept to fascinate, while eliciting the viewer to dream up conspiracy theories. Jason Isaacs is doing a terrific job in his portrayal of the more unfathomable and in some respects carries a Don-Draper-esque quality. The character’s choice at the end of the pilot is the mark of great writing and acting. Where a lesser show would immediately put its hero on a path to normalcy, Awake intentionally throws it out the window. The production design plays wonderfully into the duality of the concept, and brings to life its themes in a stated and noticeable but nevertheless fun color scheme.
Isaacs is portraying a detective who solves crimes, which is a major concern as it lends itself to the procedural. Too many hour long dramas this season have claimed to be high concept and end up just being crime procedurals (ahem Person of Interest, Alcatraz). For now, it’s too early to tell if this is where Awake is going. Also, it’s unclear how its concept will play out long term. The pilot is strong but what does this show look like in episode five?
Awake is a big risk, even more so than creator Kyle Killen’s last flop Lone Star. Its concepts are higher and its network is worse off. There’s a very scary possibility that it will fail and be gone within weeks, which in this broadcast landscape would be a real blow to singularity on network television. So watch it now online or watch it when it airs, tune in week 2. Whatever you have to do, for the love of quality television.
you can watch the first twelve minutes of the film ‘Sound of My Voice’ here. it was written by my brother Zal, and Brit Marling. my brother directed it and Brit stars in it. I wrote the score. the film is in theatres april 27 2012
Just watched it.
I posted this earlier but I took it down because as soon as you went to my blog it would play without warning, which is a bit abrasive.
I cannot wait to see what follows these 12 minutes. So good.
I saw this movie at SXSW last year and it was amazing. Brit Marling is so fantastic in this. I wasn’t a huge fan of Another Earth but I was thinking about Sound Of My Voice for days and days after I saw it. Can’t wait till I can really talk about it with people.
.@rejectedjokes Ben Schwartz is a hot mess http://instagr.am/p/HCme4-BvYy/
Dear Lord, b-l-e-s-s that mess.
Christ Jesus amen.
Boy howdy.
Poster: SOUND OF MY VOICE (dir. Zal Batmanglij) 2011*
i caught this at SXSW last march and it’s a doozy, a remarkable debut feature that represents the best of contemporary American indie cinema. clever and elusive but never self-insistent, and anchored by a marvelously enigmatic performance by Brit Marling (this is gonna be a tough performance for her to stop, even though she’s going to be getting a lot of chances to do so over the next few years), Sound of My Voice is *finally* coming to theaters in April, and you shan’t miss it. i’m just bummed it wasn’t picked up by IFC so that it could be groomed for an eventual Criterion release. c’est la vie.
and yeah, it’s got a pretty sweet handshake. i think i’m gonna go as that handshake for halloween.
Sound Of My Voice
I suppose as far as teaser posters go, this is relatively intriguing. The first poster released for this film piques my interest more. Regardless, I’m definitely going to watch this so put that in the “win” column for the Sound of My Voice marketing team.
30 Rock: Season 4, Episode 13 - Anna Howard Shaw Day
(via leatherpumpkin)
Language Of Love of the Day: Multi-lingual strangers on the streets of London are asked to say “I love you” in their native tongue.
[thd.]
by Chad Perman
If you decide to watch a movie on Valentine’s Day - and we here at BWDR obviously strongly recommend that you do - choosing one can be a bit of a minefield. The straight-forward Hollywood rom-coms of the past twenty years (at least) are usually god awful, the predictable and…
