Reading List: Jänner

Fiction:

A.L. Kennedy: What Becomes.
Daniel Woodrell: The Ones You Do.

Films:

True Grit (2010, Ethan and Joel Coen) ****.
Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010, Stuart Beattie) **.
Ghost World (2001, Terry Zwigoff) ****.
The King's Speech (2010, Tom Hooper) ***.
Blue Valentine (2010, Derek Gianfrance) *****.
Salami Aleikum (2009, Ali Samadi Ahadi) ***.
Tangerine (2008, Irene von Alberti) ***.
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010, Banksy) ***.
Dustbin Baby (2008, Juliet May) ****.
Mammoth (2009, Lukas Moodysson) ****.
Incendiary (2008, Sharon Maguire) **.
The Believer (2001, Henry Bean) ****.
The United States of Leland (2003, Matthew Ryan Hoge) ****. 
Die Fremde (2010, Feo Aladag) *****. 
Rabbit Hole (2010, John Cameron Mitchell) ****.

Series: 

Miranda.
Sherlock.
Justified.

Episode One. New start, yeah?

 

foals | red sox (various production remix). caribou | jamelia. crystal castles | year of silence. dj shadow | giving up the ghost. skream and example | shot yourself in the foot again. lightning dust | castles and caves. yeah yeah yeahs | rich. foals | after glow. 

livestream here.

liveblogging, kinda...

Columnize my randomness 27/1/11

Politics: 

Hosni Mubarak, who has been president of Egypt for the past 30 years, might have to resign soon, following widespread protests.

The reality that emerged from interviews with protesters — many of whom said they were independents — was more complicated and reflected one of the government’s deepest fears: that opposition to Mr. Mubarak’s rule spreads across ideological lines and includes average people angered by corruption and economic hardship as well as secular and Islamist opponents. That broad support could make it harder for the government to co-opt or crush those demanding change.

NY Times: Violent Clashes Mark Protests Against Mubarak’s Rule, January 25, 2011

The Blätter der deutschen und internationalen Politik analyze 50 years of failed foreign aid to Africa and givesa prognosis of the future.

Former Austrian finance minister Grasser "forgot" to declare speculation gains while he was in office.

Pop Culture: 

Skins UK premieres tonight. Meet Franky, the artist, who breaks the tradition of starting off a new generation with an "Everyone" episode. 

In randomly related news, something incredible happened: two previously completely unrelated things in my life are now linked because Luke Pasqualino is going to play young William Adama in Blood and Chrome. I guess now the sky's the limit? Can't wait to see Lisa Backwell in Parks and Recreation, Lily Loveless in Mad Men, Ollie Barbieri in The Big Bang Theory and Megan Prescott in Desperate Housewives. Also, does that mean that Jane Espenson is watching Skins?

Anne Hathaway and James Franco are the hosts of this year's Academy Awards (on 27 February).

PopMatters has an interview with Corin Tucker (again with a "she's a working mom" headline).

I thought that The King's Speech was a very well-made movie with good performances, but this article has kind of spoiled the experience? I'm all for dramatic license, but not if it white-washes a character for the sake of making him more relatable for the audience.

"There is always going to be something just out of reach."

Interview with Michelle Williams about Blue Valentine and Meek's Cutoff.

[also, an interview with Peter Weir, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, David O'Russell, Tom Hooper and Derek Cianfrance, who talks about censorship and the process of filming Blue Valentine which is really astonishing]

Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die.

We proceed not from the idea that teenagers are inherently likely to misbehave, but rather that they are intensely moral and disposed to make judgments on their own and others' behavior. Sometimes, but not always, they get things wrong. In this teenagers are remarkably similar to adults. Their morals may not be the same as those of their parents and teachers, but they are nevertheless highly developed and active in their world.
When viewers have taken the time to watch the show in a little more depth, they are less concerned about the behavior of the characters. Teenagers can be loyal, supportive, dedicated, focused, and capable of making informed value judgments about their lives.

MTV: 'Skins' Creator Speaks Out

 Also, this is hilarious.What exactly makes The Big Bang Theory that much worse than 30 Rock (REFERENCES TO MASTURBATION AND ANATOMICAL REFERENCES?)

"Personal insights quietly acknowledged"

To view Skins as a literal representation of modern adolescence is to declare a blizzard when only a few interesting snowflakes have fluttered before your eyes. To be sure, there is noise and bombast to be found in this series. It’s not a perfect show. Skins has always been messy, inconsistent, exasperating, lazy, over the top, fails to live up to its potential, lacks subtlety, etc. et al.  Yet, it is precisely because of these flaws that the show astonishes. It presents its truths without announcement, declares its emotions without pleading, and explores its characters and their stories without fear of failure or need to please. It’s comfortable with not knowing and pushing on.
Beyond the controversial storylines what truly distinguishes Skins, and has made it such a hit with fans and critics, is the show’s relentless pursuit of authenticity (in all its glorious imperfections) of modern adolescents. With its propulsive, kinetic and unpolished tone Skins breathed new life into a genre that has always threatened to suffocate itself and elevated the art of teen melodrama in the process.

PopMatters: The Audacious Trust of Teens in 'Skins: Volume Four'

In other news, interviews over interviews over interviews over interviews, and some other endearing stuff.

Where young people go to retire

But music for me is not a joke. I think there are things in both that are about exposing a universal truth. When you listen to a song or a band, and you think, “Finally, someone has explained this phenomenon, this feeling to me, and I could never express it myself.” I do think there’s something about comedy too, where you can also do that—where you can watch a sketch or see a comedian onstage and realize that they are telling you something about a phenomenon that you already knew about, but they’re finally able to explain it to you. That ineffable quality, they’re able to say it.

A.V. Club Interview: Carrie Brownstein

Two songs

Low - Point of Disgust, used in the seventh episode of the second season of Skins. 

Grizzly Bear - Foreground, used in Blue Valentine

Can't Wait Can't Wait Can't Wait.

Well, in a time where seemingly every British, Australian, or Canadian show with a vaguely interesting premise is getting remade for the American audience, we might as well start asking that question of television remakes, too. Just eight days ago, we saw an interesting remake of the British series Shameless, one that is struggling a bit to get on its own two feet, but one that is clearly finding lots of fun in adapting the series it’s based on. Tonight, remakes of both Being Human and Skins launch, and the similarities between the two are so striking that if we had a system that easily allowed for posting dual reviews of TV shows, I’d just write one piece for the both of ‘em. They’re both promising. They both have moments when they seem like they’re finding their footing and escaping their parent series. They both struggle with moments that are pretty much shot-for-shot remakes. They’re both shot in Canada. And so on.

The A.V. Club: Being Human US - "There Goes The Neighborhood, Part 1"

Strangely, when I watched the original pilot for Being Human which was re-shot with (mostly) different actors later, I couldn't picture anyone but Andrea Riseborough and Guy Flanagan play the roles of Annie and Mitchell - and it was especially hard to imagine Lenora Crichlow in a role that is the exact opposite of Sugar in Sugar Rush (the only other thing I've ever seen her in) - but it took me about half an episode to completely forget about Sugar, and about the performances in the original pilot. I guess (since the first episode of Skins is probably going to be an almost exact remake of the first UK episode, judging from the trailers) the success of these shows is going to depend on how long it takes me to forget about how the original cast played the characters, how soon I stop thinking about it as "Britne Oldford playing Hannah Murray's Cassie", which I will do even if I try not to.

Showtracker: 'Skins' creator Bryan Elsley on why the MTV show isn't 'dangerous' for teens (despite the sex and drugs)

Das Lied zum Sonntag

Mount Kimbie - Before I Move Off

Linkliste unbehandelter Themen

Politics:

Foreign Policy examines what WikiLeaks reveals about a number of states that can be categorized as "failed".

An article on openDemocracy argues that extended power of the executive is the result of a self-interested bureaucracy more than an actual attempt to secure the safety of the citizens.

The referendum for South Sudanese independence ends today. This picture shows the ballot: English, Arabic and a pictogram.

While Queensland continues to battle the water, Brazil is hit with one of the worst natural catastrophes of its history, and an almost completely unreported flood hits the Philippines.

Demonstrations in Tunisia forced the president of the authoritarian regime into exile in Saudi-Arabia. EU member states like Italy and Spain relied on the regime to prevent migration. (Guardian, NY Times, statement by the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the Vice-President of the European Commission).

Pop Culture: 

Dichen Lachman and Lauren Ambrose join the cast for the new (and American) season of Torchwood. 

Debra Granik, director of Winter's Bone, is rumoured to work on a possibly dark take on Pippi Longstockings. This sounds too good to be true and I suspect it will go where the Jack & Diane version with Ellen Page-Olivia Thirlby is dwelling comfortably: in the place in my head for things that are too awesome to actually exist. 

Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) is going to be in an upcoming episode of Community. Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) is going to direct a (presumably different) episode. This would be a really good place for Summer Glau after The Cape is cancelled (It's a terrible show. It should be cancelled.)

Parks and Recreation aka the best comedy series currently airing returns to NBC on January 20th.

SKINS US ON MONDAY. Where did the year go?

Well, of course there would be guns and explosions...

Dakota Blue Richards: Franky Fitzgerald | Will Merrick: Aloysius Creevey | Alex Arnold: Rich Hardbeck | Freya Mavor: Mini McGuinness | Laya Lewis: Liv Malone | Jessica Sula: Grace Violet | Sean Teale: Nick Levan | Sebastian De Souza: Matty

Thoughts, predictions that will absolutely not come true and can be freely ridiculed later, etc...

Rhetoric of Violence

Im Wahlkampf vor den Midterm-Elections fand sich Gabrielle Giffords auf einer "Abschussliste" von Sarah Palin wieder. Die Republikanerin aufgerufen, 20 Sitze von den Demokraten zu gewinnen und dafür 20 Abgeordnete ins Fadenkreuz gesetzt [...]. Die betreffende Grafik [...] wurde mittlerweile von SarahPAC.com entfernt.

DerStandard: US-Kongressabgeordnete Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona angeschossen, 8. Januar 2011

During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a controversial map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were noted by crosshairs symbols like those seen through the scope of a gun. Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map. 

NY Times: Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson, January 8, 2011

Interview with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she received death threats for her vote on the health care bill.

Personally, I've always preferred Mr Jenkins over his son.

Mr. Elsley, 49, a Scottish-born television producer with a gentle voice and sleepy eyes, recalled in an interview how he and his son Jamie Brittain created “Skins” about five years ago out of “a slightly irritable conversation across the dinner table.”
“He was acquainting me with my age,” Mr. Elsley said of Mr. Brittain (he uses his mother’s last name), then 19, “and my boringness and the mundaneness of what I did.”
[...] “Jamie wouldn’t mind you knowing that he is, in fact, Sid,” Mr. Elsley said, “and he would take great pleasure in telling you that his ridiculous, shout-y Scottish dad is in fact me.

NY Times: ‘Skins’ Will Arrive Soon on MTV, Baring All That It Can, January 3, 2011

• I don't exactly mourn the loss of explicit swearing, since British swearing is way better anyways (and Skins has, among many other things, considerably contributed to my vocabulary)
• I wonder which "legendary show runners" Bryan Elsley talked to. 
• I really like how articulate the cast is about the show and the characters and the UK version.
• The second episode will be Tea's, there'll be 10 episodes. Counting Eura (the US version of Effy), there are nine main characters. From the original trailer thingy (which was removed promptly) it looks like Tony's, Stanley's (Sidney) and Chris' episodes will be very close to the originals.
  

In which I try to understand the Hungarian Media Law

The Hungarian ruling centre-right party Fidesz, using its parliamentary supermajority, has enacted two bills and a constitutional amendment on Tuesday (21 December) that will tighten the government's grip on the media.
The ruling party calls the changes the country's "new media constitution".
The new laws impose a strict supervisory regime on all print, broadcasted and online media, including "online media abroad that has been located in another country in order to circumvent stricter regulation in Hungary".

EurActiv: EU speechless over Hungary's contentious media law, December 23, 2010

Basically, the chairperson of the new Media Council is appointment by the Prime Minister and supported by a council elected by parliament, and has the authority to fine radio, television, newspapers (which the OSCE deemes unusual since "traditionally, regulatory authorities govern broadcast media only"), websites and "private persons" for what is referred to as "unbalanced coverage" or "breaches of the rules on coverage of sex, violence or alcohol" (I'd feel more threatened by the presence of an armed xenophobic and anti-semitic militia than by all those things Skins does so well).

It also allows the Council to force journalists to disclose their sources, and comes with a merging of public TV, radio and news agency under one management which "will only rely on news of the government-controlled news agency" (the merger was actually passed in summer, when it prompted considerably less news coverage).

A balance within each program is to be ensured (Section 12 (2)) which is, as we all know, impossible, unnecessary and so far unknown to media theory. Media theory recognizes internal and external pluralism, where internal means that each channel must be balanced. But even this cannot be ensured, for there are those well-known biased media providers; which, in the age of information society, is not objectionable until the external pluralism is achieved; that is, until all media are to serve a single political scenario. Currently, due to the effects of this very act, this danger is imminent.

This from an English translation of an article written by Hungarian journalist Judit Bayer (by a German Member of the European Parliament for the Green Party) about "the Problem with the Hungarian Media Law".

Neue Musik für das neue Jahr

Dark Dark Dark - Wild Goose Chase

Dark Dark Dark sind eine "chamber folk band" aus Minnesota. Ihre Daytrotter Session von letztem Jahr ist fantastisch, vor allem Color/That Light. 

"They present themselves, both in the pictorials on their album and in the words and music they write, as people most interested in the chilliest howls that love can blow and in the starkest ways that we let ourselves get handled by our emotions and those of others."

  (2009 I / 2009 II).

I don't know what it says about me that the first post this year is about this movie...

Evelyn Salt is the kind of character normally reserved for male actors and, in fact, was originally ‘Edwin Salt’, with Tom Cruise initially envisioned in the role. One of the few distinguishing characteristics of the movie is how little the role appears to have changed in the transposition from male to female. There are only one or two moments where it is difficult to imagine the action unfolding any differently with a man in the lead as opposed to a woman.
One of those moments might be the opening scene, which occurs two years before ‘the present day’, in a North Korean prison. Salt has been stripped down to her underwear and is being stretched out and tortured by her captors. Despite the near nakedness, the scene does not read as having been shot or staged for titillation. Cuts are quick, the action is discomfiting, and the camera is not used to fetishize Jolie’s body. Whether Tom Cruise, or some other male actor, would have been exposed in the same way is difficult to say, but the lack of sexualization to the scene suggests a staging that is largely indifferent to sex or gender.

PopMatters: 'Salt': When a Spy Is Just a Spy

I saw Salt back in August, only a week after a failed attempt which ended in the catastrophe that was Letters to Juliet. Action movies are one of my "exception" category, as in, "I listen to almost all genres of music, except metal" - so my usual instinct of comparing movies to make sense of them doesn't really work, since there is barely anything to go on. The quote above sums up why I found this movie rather astonishing fairly well, and I had a discussion afterwards with two friends about how female heroes are common in shows (never having actually seen the first show that came to my mind, Alias, I can't really judge how accurate that perception is), and have been for quite some time, but this hasn't really translated into movies yet. On the other hand, there's Besson's original La Femme Nikita (and Besson in general - Léon and The Fifth Element), which also follows this idea that the main character would actually prefer a normal family life to what she is forced to do but this isn't necessarily coded as gender-specific, just a general idea of breaking out of something that was forced on her for something else that seems peaceful (but then, again, there is also this weird "preserving the innocence of the female main character" theme in every single one of Besson's movies, so maybe that's actually a really bad example that negates the interchangeability of male/female characters). 

In completely unrelated news, if Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone), Michelle Williams (for EXISTING, but more specifically for Blue Valentine which I can't wait to see), Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, which I really can't recommend enough) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan) all get nominated for an Academy Award, I couldn't possibly pick who deserves it most. While compiling my annual Best Of List I realizes that this has been a pretty spectacular year not necessarily film-wise, but when it comes to individual performances.