Da Vinci Days, movies and ice cream
Monday, July 20, 2009
I attended da Vinci Days in Corvallis on Saturday, which was the second day of the annual festival celebrating art, science, and technology. It was pretty fun. I posted some photos to Flickr and tweeted a bit.
We spent most of Saturday afternoon in Darkside Cinema at the da Vinci Film Festival encore.
I loved the feature documentary In Pursuit of Panama by first-time filmmakers and lifelong friends Garrett Martin and Ryan Swan. The film is Kerouac-like, both genuine and inspiring. It’s a truly funny, coming-of-age story about a seven-country road trip that starts in Corvallis, Oregon. I definitely recommend it, if you can find it. (Personal sidebar: The experience of watching it approximated the feel I wanted to create with my first novel . . . that I never actually finished.) See the trailer at their website.
More movies
Last weekend I also watched Timecrimes, which was very good and reminded me of Primer. I love the exploration of time-travel paradoxes. See other films I’ve rated and reviewed at Filmometer.com.
Here is some interesting news: “Neuromancer movie in the works (no, really this time!).” The attached director is Joseph Kahn. You may know him as the director of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and “Stronger” music videos. As well as Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” . . . and a Blink-182 music video . . . and a horrible feature with Ice Cube called Torque . . . and . . . I am afraid. I really want Neuromancer to be awesome.
On that note: “After Watchmen, What’s ‘Unfilmable’? These Legendary Texts.”
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus received a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival this May but has not yet been picked up for U.S. distribution. Read more: “Terry Gilliam’s Final Cut for Heath Ledger and Imaginarium.”
The Orwellian satire Visioneers starring Zach Galifianakis looks very interesting as well.
It’s refreshing that Michael Bay has progressed to this current point in his career, where he’s willing to be a parody of himself. He’s really become the ultimate artist the postindustrial world has been waiting for. See: Verizon Commercial – Michael Bay EXTENDED. Groan.
Browsing the Web from 10,000 feet
This is very cool: Pixamix. It’s an experiment that reduces any site to its core color mood (i.e., giant pixels of color).
Resignation
Vanity Fair edits Palin’s bizarre, incoherent resignation speech into publishable shape: “Palin’s Resignation: The Edited Version.” Wow.
Ice cream
Will they succeed in making ice cream fall from the sky like snow? Check it out: “The Cloud Project Would Theoretically Make Ice Cream Fall Like Snow.”
I am reminded of a few weeks ago when I ate Cold Stone ice cream that melted into JELL-O pudding (mentioned here and here on Twitter). That was fun.