Today at Flavorpill, we learned about one young man’s journey to live “Amish-style” for 90 days. We read about Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut, which will feature Scarlett Johansson. We enjoyed this guide to literary Tumblrs. We followed the adventures of the Devil. We voted for Batman. We listened to what Feminist Frequency had to say about the Lego Friends line of toys targeted to girls. We wanted to talk to all the guys at the male cat lovers meetup. We learned why parsley deserves to be more than just a garnish. We appreciated this call for more “slow reading.” We said happy birthday to Alejandro Jodorowsky. We loved this awesomely designed heart-shaped utensil. And finally, we tried to imagine what David Lynch’s new paintingDuckman’s Injury looked like … and then we found out why he loves ducks so much.
With Record Store Day now only a few months away, the limited-edition album release announcements have already started trickling in. Today brings word of an especially high-profile project from the ubiquitous David Lynch: He’s putting out a special vinyl box set version of Download for Good, the iTunes collection that came out last year and featured 34 exclusive tracks by artists ranging from Maroon 5 to Iggy Pop to Au Revoir Simone. Renamed Music That Changes the World, the physical release will be limited to 2,500 copies and include both a 42-page color booklet of “enlightenment art” with an introduction by Lynch and a previously unreleased Sean Lennon bonus track. All proceeds will benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which funds implementation of and research on “scientifically proven stress-reducing modalities including Transcendental Meditation, for at-risk populations.” Hey, it’s not a new movie or anything, but it’s nice to hear that Lynch is keeping himself busy doing good.
The seeds of David Lynch’s film career started germinating during his time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia where the painter created a series of animated shorts. He eventually used them to apply for a filmmaking grant with the AFI. His projects won him wider admiration, he relocated to Los Angeles, wrote a script for an adultery/madness tale called Gardenback — which Lynch felt like he quickly lost creative control of once an interested producer at Fox asked him to expand upon it more realistically — and started developing Eraserhead.
The script was around 20 pages long, and the shoot was schedule for a few weeks, but the haunting film took several years to complete — mainly due to budget restrictions. We first spotted some fascinating behind the scenes photos from the set of Eraserhead at This Must Be the Place, featuring the director (along with his long locks and signature cup of coffee), Jack Nance (and his electrifying coiffure), and everything in-between. Check out several amazing snapshots from one of cinema’s strangest and most beautifully surreal movies past the break.
Today at Flavorpill, we enjoyed this atmospheric video tribute to the films of David Lynch. We giggled through Todd Barry’s audition to be Advil’s spokesman. We read some of our favorite writers’ musings on the least important events of 2011. We danced along to Chapter 9 of Girl Walk // All Day. We adored these glamorous vintage photos of a modeling agency, ca. 1948. We appreciated this colorful video of Maurice Sendak explaining his work. We seconded each and every pick on this roundup of the year’s best grimy, scuzzy, noisy indie-rock albums. (Roomrunner! K-Holes! Times New Viking!) We thought it was very funny that NBC is recycling the costume Adrianne Palicki wore in its failed Wonder Woman pilot for use on Harry’s Law. We added these contemporary party-rock anthems — with the notable exception of the Skrillex track — to our New Year’s Eve playlist. We found these sketches of fallen childhood icons very depressing. And finally, we wished a very happy 65th birthday to Flavorpill patron saint Patti Smith — and an extraordinary New Year to our readers. We’ll be counting down our top 10 most popular posts of 2011 over the holiday weekend and will be back in action Monday.
This holiday season, Patrón Tequila came up with a great way to give something to your friends without emptying your wallet. With the “If” Tag app, you can select from a variety of hypothetical scenarios (such as, “If aliens invade, zombies attack, or the robots rise up, you’d be the John Connor to my Kyle Reese), and then select a friend who gets the honor of being your first choice for the gig. You can add a personal message, and then post the whole award right to your friend’s Facebook wall. We were having so much fun with it, in fact, that we decided to take it one step further and pick our top celebrity choices for a number of the “If” scenarios. Click through to see who came out on top for our editors, and why each pop-culture pick made the grade. And if you want to play too, just choose a scenario yourself and tell us who you want in on it in the comments.
‘Tis the season for gift guides a-plenty — and don’t worry, we’ll have no shortage of those. But let’s get real: we aren’t just thinking of others this holiday season. We’ve got needs and desires, too, dammit! With that in mind, we’ve compiled a cultural wish list of films and books we’d like to see, musical reinventions and comebacks we’ve been longing for, and TV shows we hope will make it next season (or hang it up at the end of this one). Like any such list, what we’ve come up with is massively subjective — so let us know what you’d add in the comments. Read More »
Darren Aronofsky’s unsettling crystal meth PSAs made the rounds earlier this week. The Black Swan director worked with the Meth Project Foundation to trouble us with visions of intense drug addiction, and boy did it work. Aronofsky isn’t the only gifted filmmaker who has dabbled with short-form film and the telly advertising world, however. Many auteur moviemakers found their start on TV, creating some of the most memorable works that have ever been brought to prime time. Others just enjoy creating little bites of film-esque entertainment as a break from the Hollywood machine. Whatever the reasons, the condensed screen time provides a fascinating snapshot of each director’s overall style. Click past the break for a look at ten directors who made creative commercials for the small screen. Read More »
There’s a terrific little movie coming out tomorrow called London Boulevard (it’s available now on demand as well), a tough British gangster flick along the lines of The Long Good Friday or Mona Lisa, starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley and directed by William Monahan, who wrote The Departed. But his stylish direction and their charismatic performances aren’t why I can’t get the picture out of my head. It’s because of the Yardbirds.
Three times in the film (the opening credits, the closing credits, and a key point in-between), Monahan fires up “Heart Full of Soul,” the marvelously moody blues-rocker from 1965. It’s a great song, but it’s so well-matched to the film that they’re now all tied up together in my head; it’s pretty safe to bet that any time I hear that song from now on (which, being a Yardbirds fan, will be more often than you’d think), there will be an image of Farrell on his jail cot to accompany it.
And that’s the power of a well-chosen music cue in film; when they’re properly matched, we’ve suddenly married them, and anytime we hear that song we see that scene, and anytime we think of that movie, we hear that song. After the jump, we present ten songs that are forever tied to the movies that showcased them (and, just to keep it fair, there’s no songs from “musicals,” and no songs that were composed specifically for the film in question). Agree, disagree, and add your own in the comments. Read More »
