As we complete our new book, details to come, Kevin of catch.com fame (and former Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association) will be guest blogging. He’ll be posting off and on throughout March. Be nice to him. Blogging for us, after all, will cut into his daily ritual of watching “Montel” and “The Tony Danza Show.” Thanks Kevin. We owe you one.

They are now accepting submissions. Click here for information

The Billyburg Short Film Festival is a competitive film and video festival, and a celebration of a diverse collection of short filmmakers… The BSFF is also dedicated to enriching the Williamsburg film community, a convergence of up and coming artists and filmmakers, by gathering prominent industry members to a core Williamsburg event. Early every summer, the BSFF showcases talented filmmakers, artists and musicians to an audience of peers and industry leaders to enhance the spirit of independent film. In the last two years, the BSFF has amassed over 1000 enthusiasts to one event, which exhibited over 30 films, 7 bands and a half dozen fine artists. In 2005, the BSFF received over 150 submissions from around the world and presented a select 20 at North
Six, a premier venue in Williamsburg.

This year, the event will take place at the newly restored McCarren Park Pool.

by Dave Thomas

Even with ‚”A Scanner Darkly” delayed yet again, March is looking better than January and February combined. Which isn’t terribly difficult. A single episode of ‚”24″ looks better than January and February combined.
16 BLOCKS
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Bruce Willis has 118 minutes (hey, that’s about the length of a movie!) to get a witness (Mos Def) from police custody to a courthouse.
WILL IT SUCK?
Richard Donner knows how to bring the action (the ‚”Lethal Weapon” series, ‚”Superman”) but, of late, he has only brought the suck (‚”Timeline”). The writer is fairly new, unless you remember ‚”Vamp” or ‚”Just the Ticket.” David Morse should make for a nice villain, however. Early buzz is not very good.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Now that ‚”Ultraviolet” has been moved to this weekend, the second frame of ‚”Running Scared” isn’t the only other action game in town. Expect this to be a middling Willis performer, like ‚”Hostage” or ‚”Mercury Rising.” $35mil.
—————————————-
DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Dave Chappelle holds a block party in Brooklyn and invites all his rap buddies, along with some folks from the neighborhood he currently calls home in Ohio.
WILL IT SUCK?
Caught this at Toronto. Funny. As. Shit. Also, incredible performances from some of the best names in hip hop and R&B, including Mos Def, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Common, and…wait for it…The Freakin’ Fugees!
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
A little bit of competition from the second frame of ‚”Madea,” but not much. People have been waiting for anything new from Chappelle for a while now. $102mil.
—————————————-
ULTRAVIOLET
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Futuristic dystopia with butt-kicking action – does the plot actually matter?
WILL IT SUCK?
Four years ago, a guy named Kurt Wimmer wrote and directed a movie called ‚”Equilibrium.” It bombed and didn’t score too hot with critics, either. However, over time, more people saw it, loved it, and recommended it. Eventually I saw it, too, and you know what? They were right.
Now, in the same sci-fi action genre (looks like it takes place in the same future, just with color) Wimmer’s back. So yeah, I’m psyched. Doesn’t hurt to have Nick Chilund on board as the heavy, and the return of William Fichtner (he was in ‚”Equilibrium”) as…who cares, he’s in it.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Though the Wimmer faithful will be lining up, most folks’ll write this off as an ‚”Aeon Flux” knock-off, especially with Milla Jovovich playing an ass-kicking genetically enhanced mutant for the 17th time. Plus, it was ill-advised to move this from a weekend where it had to compete with Paul Walker to a weekend where it had to compete with Bruce Willis. $50mil.

(more…)

Our favorite poliblog, Catch.com is officially signing off today. We’ll miss the site—we’ve been stealing content from it for years—but are happy that Mr. Catch, our good friend Kevin, will get a break. He’s been doing this shit forever. Forget Al Gore, Kevin actually created the internet.
The good news is Kevin has agreed to host FREEwilliamsburg throughout March while we tend to book deadlines and heavy debauchery. So as the quality of writing on this site improves dramatically over the next several weeks, you’ll know why.
Thanks Kevin. We’ll miss Catch.

This should be a great show. And since the L Train isn’t running all weekend, why not stay in the ‘hood? If you never had the chance to see the Make-Up or Nation of Ulysses perform, check out their tamer stepchild, Weird War. Front man Ian Svenonius is like Mick Jagger on crack.
Saturday, Feb 25 at HIGH FIVE loft
Weird War (former members of Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up)
with Aa / BIG A little a, Meneguar, and Professor Murder
Directions: 538 Johnson Ave @ Varick Ave | EastWilliamsburgIndustrialPark, Brooklyn
L – Morgan / B60, B57, or B13 bus / JM – Flushing + B57 bus | ALL AGES | 8PM | $8

Aquarium Drunkard has a great unreleased Ryan Adams record, called 48 Hours. Download it here. And he’s got some unreleased Whiskeytown stuff here.

by John Rickman

John Duncan / Mika Vainio / Ilpo Väisänen ‚Äì Nine Suggestions
(Allquestions)
The new studio collaboration between John Duncan, Mika Vainio, and Ilpo V√§is√§nen is an awesome, mind-melting drone experience. The threesome forms an impressive and complimentary unit that draws effectively from each artist’s wizard-like way of conjuring forth waveform environments from simple sound sources.
For conceptual sound artist and American ex-pat John Duncan, that source is a shortwave radio set. His music, typified by thick sheets of frequency modulation and shrill tones of naturally ringing feedback, is often dense and aggressive. Underlying the resultant haze, however, is a subtle touch. Duncan’s manipulations of random shortwave broadcasts evoke a kind of ghostly netherworld whose mysterious landscapes infrequently reveal planes of breathtaking beauty.
Finnish artists Vainio and Väisänen, better known as analogue electronic duo Pan Sonic, also apply an artful hand in tweaking custom-built synthesizers. The pair’s skillful ability to draw warmth from their uniquely cold-sounding machinery while harnessing alternate degrees of intensity and subtlety is equally breathtaking. That their exquisite soundscapes fold seamlessly into Duncan’s divined cosmos is not surprising.
‘Scratch Ring’ sounds like a burst of energy suspended in time and space, hovering ominously amidst an ever-expanding universe. ‘Volume’ shatters that universe with a startling charge of electricity, jolting the listener from one dimension into another. ‘The Metallic Conversation’ is a calming, rhythmic experiment set against a backdrop of silence that draws attention to the individual sounds in play. More active than ambient, each one of the nine ‚”suggestions” carries the listener through a myriad of engaging moods and movements.

Diskaholics – Live In Japan Vol. 1
(Load)
Diskaholics also consist of three innovative sound shamans. However, this improvisational trio embraces unhinged unpredictability over refined artfulness. Live In Japan Vol. 1 is a two-track tour de force that documents guitarist Thurston Moore, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, and laptop technician Jim O’Rourke jazzing free live in Tokyo in 2002.
As with all things improvised, the performances contain the usual peaks and valleys, but the same mood is more or less maintained throughout. Hair-raising feedback and squalid atonality is the operating theme, but it’s not until midway through the second track that the group eventually settles into it.
Gustafsson is the standout here and adds a semblance of soul to the proceedings. But too often his horn is buried beneath the rumble and rubble wrought by the Sonic Youth wrecking crew. The recordings teem with adventurous and exciting sounds, but they aren’t for the casual listener. In fact, this live document is for those whom harsh noise happily signals the end of all music.

RBally has a great Shins live show from 2004 available for download. In case you haven’t paid him a visit, he’s got some great shows including Ryan Adams, Jeff Tweedy, and PJ Harvey.

Cakehead has a funny story on Hooah! bars, military power bars. The Hooah! website makes it easy to support the troops by allowing visitors to send Hooah! bars to the troops overseas as gifts. (Surely they prefer porn, cigarettes, and food that’s actually nutritious). The Hooah! bar message board is worth a visit:

Dear AnySoldier who is the beneficiary of these bad to the bone Hooah Bars, hopefully you can chow these down and maybe share them with your comrades while you have your cross-hairs on some high value targets. Whatever your duties may be I hope you enjoy! Keep up the good work and always know your surroundings.HOOAH!”
“I sent Beef Jerkey too! HELP IS ON THE WAY!!!!!!!”

Read the full cakehead story here.

This is just further proof that Bush’s “tough on terrorism” stance is just posturing. From Think Progress:

The Bush administration has outsourced the operation of six of the nation’s largest ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country with troubling ties to international terrorism. The $6.8 billion sale would mean that the state-controlled Dubai Ports World would control ‚”the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.”
Some facts about the UAE:
—The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
—The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.
—According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.
—After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden’s bank accounts.

And just months ago, Bush was supportive of China’s attempt to buy Unocal, America’s ninth-largest oil company, even though the country had just threatened us with nuclear attack. We’re a fan of free markets to some extent, but holy Christ, selling our ports and resources to people who may want to attack us is not good policy. What’s next? Will we sell our military to Saudi Arabia? Or hand over the lease to the White House to North Korea?