Posts Tagged ‘Film’
You Miss Too Much These Days If You Stop To Think
What a beautiful way to start a strange day. It began at the Dolby screening room on the corner of 55th Street and Sixth Avenue (there behind the big LOVE statue) where 3ality Digital, National Geographic Films and Murphy PR were screening “U23D.” The 90-minute concert film (which dispenses with the behind-the-scenes and verite elements…
Read MoreTruckin’
Ask anyone. I’m not a huge fan of The Grateful Dead. At the moment, though — traveling seventy miles-per-hour on the Pennsylvania Turnpike some 37 miles west of Harrisburg — “Truckin’” is kinda’ doin’ it for me. Earlier, I remarked to my brother — who is a huge Deadhead, so huge that the only CDs…
Read MoreBlack & Gold
My brother is a quote machine. “I haven’t had a three dollar beers since college!” After last night’s $6 room service Iron City bottles, I understand and appreciate his enthusiasm. We’re at Doubleday’s on Sixth Street in downtown Pittsburgh, our third bar of the night. Every one of ’em have been absolutely throbbing with Steeler…
Read MoreNeil Young’s ‘Heart Of Gold’ Concert Doc Glitters At Sundance
PARK CITY — When rock icon Neil Young was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain aneurysm last spring, the grandfather of grunge and legendary singer/songwriter responded as only he could. In the weeks between the diagnosis and lifesaving surgery, he wrote and recorded Prairie Wind, a plaintive, cohesive song cycle of love, death, family and friends.…
Read MoreI’m Your Man
Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival, and the MTV News team is in the hotel room watching “Austin Powers.” Well, not exactly. Smita and I are working. I’m writing a piece on the hip hop doc “Beyond Beats & Rhymes.” Smita’s cutting a piece on music documentaries. Vanessa and Pat are taking a break…
Read MoreThe Squid & The Whale
Nearly twenty-four years to the day that my parents sat Chris and me down to announce their separation, I am still seeking catharsis. It was an afternoon not unlike this. The air was cool. Daylight was scarce. We gathered in the living room — a space reserved solely for guests and holidays. Chris and mom…
Read MoreLong Ride Home
Kentucky straight bourbon is not to be trifled with. And yet, here I am, trifling. 15-year-old, 107 proof Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve is aged in “deep-charred heavy oak” barrels in Frankfurt, Kentucky. It is “untouched by human hands.” It is “unhurried by time.” And it is caustic stuff. Joseph and I sprinted to the…
Read More60B
The gray turned to mist turned to drizzle turned to rain as I drove into Elizabethtown. My colleagues mock me for my affection towards Cameron Crowe. None of them share my appreciation of his forthcoming film, “Elizabethtown.” The film (which I previewed with my colleagues in the Paramount screening room two weeks ago) follows Drew…
Read MoreBlockhead
There’s a framed photo of me on a shelf in my living room. I’m wearing a white t-shirt, a backwards blue baseball cap with silver wings, and a slight smile. I’m holding a pen, and scribbling furiously on a sheet of loose leaf paper. That’s all that is evident from the photo; memory reveals context.…
Read MoreKill Your Idols
In the waning moments of the LSD trip that marks the emotional climax of the film ‘Almost Famous,’ Sweetwater frontman Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) threatens to jump from a suburban rooftop high above a swimming pool. Arms outstretched, Hammond shouts out to a throng of adoring teenage fans below, “I am a golden god!” The…
Read More