A long time ago, there was a movie called “The Cell“. It had Jennifer Lopez before she had kids, Vince Vaughn before he started doing dick-joke comedies, and Vincent D’Onofrio before he was on Law & Order and was only known for Full Metal Jacket. It was visually very strange, even beautiful. It was directed by Tarsem Singh—who pretentiously goes by Tarsem—and was his first feature-length film. I think the plot had something to do with being stuck in a serial killers mind but that’s not important. The visuals were really amazing. Check out the trailer at the bottom of this post.

In 2006 Tarsem made his second film “The Fall” which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and freaked out all the distributors and got buried, never again to see the light of day. (Editor’s note: At this rate, his next film will be called “The Hill” followed by “The Poll”. I can play with vowels and consonants!) Now David Fincher and Spike Jonze have thrown their support behind it and it’s getting a limited re-release. It also helps that the lead, who was an unknown in 2006, is Lee Pace who is now much more marketable having gained success as the lead in another whimsical role: Ned the Piemaker on Pushing Daisies.

Here is the trailer:

Watch that again. And again. And again.

Damn. This movie has the same crazed, artistic cinematography as The Cell. Apparently the director shot the movie piecemeal, financing it out of his pocket and piggybacking on commercial shoots in remote locations (which is pretty punk-rock.)

Maybe this movie was ahead of its time—since 2006 we’ve had a few blockbusters that rely heavily on visuals (300, Pan’s Labyrinth, Sin City) so that could mean that America is finally ready for Tarsem.

I need to figure out what “limited release” means exactly. Why’d I move to NYC if I can’t go see movies that only play “in selected cities” (that phrase was, incidentally, the bane of my existence growing up in a small town.) Anyone know when/where this movie is showing in the city?

via WWTDD and NY Mag

The Cell trailer:

You might know Tarsem from his earlier music video work. Such as this classic:

Continuing their holiday tradition, Old Navy has a new commercial featuring a great song by a female singer. This time, it’s a song called “February Air” by the band Lights. Here’s the ad:

and here’s the video for the song:

In my research I found that the band “Lights” is actually the girl “Lights”. And she likes triceratops. This is her (via her MySpace):

So not only is she a great pop singer, she’s easy on the eyes. This is the part where I usually supply a link to iTunes so you can buy the song but that link does not exist, it seems like Lights is a new, underground, up-and-coming artist and is still waiting to get into iTunes (so says her MySpace blog). Until then, check out her MySpace page everyday so you’ll be able to buy all of her music as soon as it’s available.

Here are the lyrics for “February Air”, in case you’re into that sort of thing:

If you don’t believe me
If you don’t like my plans
You mustn’t tell me
I know your face like the back of my hand

To walk the city
I talk to you understand
So won’t you tell me
I know this place like the back of my hand

My arms get cold
In February air
Please don’t lose hold of me out there

And I know you’re near me
I know you understand
Say that you’re with me
Do you know my face like the back of your hand

My arms get cold
In February air
Please don’t lose hold of me out there

My arms get cold
In February air
Please don’t lose hold of me out there

yeah yeah yeah yeah

Out there

yeah yeah yeah yeah
hey yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah
hey yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah

My arms get cold
In February air
Please don’t lose hold of me out there

My arms get cold
In February air
Please don’t lose hold of me out there

There
There
February air, air
And i know this place like the back of my hand

As I watched the Oscars last night I was wishing that I was at home, with my Tivo, so I could fast-forward through all the crappy commercials. Then I saw the following JCPenney ad:

(Apologies for crappy audio, listen to the entire song here.)

This song was used in a few JCPenney commercials throughout the Oscar broadcast. I immediately recognized the song—“Killing the Blues” by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss from their album “Raising Sand”. You can buy it, and the rest of the album, from iTunes (and you should, click the album cover below.) A wonderful album across the board, this song stands out as the best track.

Buy now from iTunes

Here are the lyrics, if you’re into that kind of thing:

Leaves were falling, just like embers,
In colors red and gold, they set us on fire
Burning just like moonbeams in our eyes.

Somebody said they saw me, swinging the world by the tail
Bouncing over a white cloud, killing the blues.

Now I’m guilty of something…
I hope you never do
Because there is nothing
Any sadder than losing yourself in love.

Somebody said they saw me, swinging the world by the tail
Bouncing over a white cloud, killing the blues.

And then you’ve ask me… just to leave you
To set out on my own
And get what I needed.
You want me to find what I’ve already had.

This ad follows the trend JCPenney borrowed from Old Navy over the holidays—using a dramatic song as the only audio throughout a TV spot.

“American Living” is a new JCPenney brand developed by Global Brand Concepts, a division of Polo Ralph Lauren.

So, it finally happened today. I got spam on my Facebook wall. Maybe this is common, but it’s the first I’ve seen of it. I thought something was suspect when a guy from my High School wrote on my wall apropos of nothing. Turns out he wanted to let me know about a site with great free ring tones.

I know it’s naive but these spamming fucks really get me down. This is why we can’t have nice things. I stopped using MySpace because of all the spam, and one of the reasons I love Facebook is because, up till now, it’s been spam free.

Hopefully this won’t become a trend.

This music was created using only sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98. It’s a lot better than you’d think. I’ve listened to it a few times.

via Larissa Meek