"Chasing The Lotus" Screening Nov. 14

This Saturday, I'm hosting the LA premiere of the surf doc "Chasing The Lotus" at the Bel Air Film Festival. The film is a fusion of rare super 8mm film, photo stills and contemporary interviews blended together to be the most in-depth look at surfing discovery ever made. Directed by a friend of mine and fellow Gaucho Gregory Schell, it's also narrated by the dude, Jeff Bridges, who's starring in the new upcoming "Tron Legacy"! Here's the flyer..

"King of Hollywood" / Ike Turner

Another vignette from "King of Hollywood" I wrote/directed in 2006. This time with the late great Ike Turner and his son, Ike Jr. He had just got off a plane from NY and was exhausted. So exhausted that he had to read his lines off cue cards! No joke, here's the video..

Babelgum Competition

Babelgum.com, a very dope online channel, is having a contest where the best videos are displayed in NY Times Square during Xmas..



Please vote for my 2 video entries. The first is one that Kofie, Flying Lotus, and I put together called XXL MEDIUMS, where Kofie illustrates how everything around him is a medium. The second video is Rachele & Taz, a hybrid short/experimental video where a mysterious girl stalks Taz in his dreams. You can vote once/day and there's no sign up. All you do is hit the 'THUMBS UP' and that's it. Takes a nano-second, support your dude!



Oh, that's an early-morning snap of me that was featured on The Hundreds yesterday. Bobby is everywhere, you can't hide!

"Collapse"

The real 2012, a documentary by Chris Smith centering on the theories of Michael Ruppert, as Tribeca Film describes him, a former LAPD cop who believes that the current economic climate is a sign that industrial civilization is on the precipice of a complete meltdown. Who know what's to happen in what's only 3 years away. Here's the trailer..

"Where The Wild Things Are"

I'm sad to report, but I wasn't a fan of Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are". The book was coincidentally the first book I ever read, rented it from the Gardner Public Library when I was 5. I couldn't put it down, I ate every word like it was candy. The book was a creative awakening for me..



The film just didn't live up. My biggest beef with it was Carol and the crew's voices. They sounded more like the cast of a multicam sitcom than a fantasy film. The nasally voices never lent a single element of danger, which always kept me in a safe place I felt bored to be in. I would've loved to have heard deep, dark, ominous voices (similar to the Ents in "Lord of the Rings") where they were good guys, but you still had a degree of unease and felt harm was never out of arm's reach..



I was a kid at one point and the argument that it might've scared an 8 year old doesn't sit with me. Turn on the TV at any moment and it's all right there. Check out my recent Aug. 3rd blog on "Return to Oz", now that was a scary kid's film! Secondly, there was simply not enough narrative, just a bunch of frolicking. Although visually an accomplishment, the film's script just wasn't right. The dialogue distinctly felt like adults trying to write as kids, and in my book it failed miserably, every line feeling monotonous and lackluster. "Where The Wild Things Are" felt like a classic case of too much carte blanche provided to a director, who whilst undoubtedly talented, might have not been the right guy for the job. Tim Burton or Michel Gondry might've done better, maybe even Joon-ho Bong. Sorry Spike, I can't go with you on this. Nor the Kanye short film you did. Back to the drawing board please. By the way, I was Max for Halloween..



Good times on Saturday. Follow me on twitter why don't you? @dannylee78

Yippeee!

Today heard a big bang on my door, sounded like the cops. But it was just the Fedex dude..



Ripped the box open and it was my free copy of DJ Hero, courtesy of the kind publicists over at Activision..



Thank you Jordan Dodge in particular. I was dubious at first, but the game proves that it's not only really fun and well thought out, but truly an accomplishment in just its existence!

Tagbanging

Wow, this brings back memories. As a teen I dabbled with tagging, bus bombing, typical LA adolescent behavior. But when it got to this level, I opted out. Here's a video of how stupid in retrospect, the early-mid 90's phenomenon called 'tagbanging' was..