Saturday, February 20, 2010

¡Sufre... mamón!


Hearing this song on the radio nostalgia bombed me right to the eponymous debut album from the popular 1980's band Hombres G. Those already was already familiar with Devuelveme a mi chica will be pleased with the rest of the album.  The cool, lighthearted lyrics of David Summers coupled with the occasional rock n' roll sound and 80's feel present throughout rest of the album make it an enjoyable listen.
I got that and Los Prisioneros' Corazones (of Tren al Sur fame.)

Friday, February 12, 2010

Communism, violent camerawork and surreal landscapes.

I am Cuba
"The movie's acrobatic tracking shots and idiosyncratic mise en scene prompted Hollywood directors like Martin Scorsese to begin a campaign to restore the movie in the early 1990s."

It's a shame that the Soviets didn't save a copy of the film in its original language. It might be the unfamiliarity with the Russian language, but contrasted with the overdubbed romantic sounds of my native tongue the unenthusiastic voice acting done by no more than two actors sounded harsh and only appropriate when the characters were angry. The film had a constant sense of visual surreality--most memorably in the apocalyptic scene featuring a recently disenfranchised farmer of Don Quixote quality burning his plantation and belongings in defiance towards the businessmen destroying his Cuba. The film explores the different levels of Cuban life which the film-makers perceived were being tainted through the proto-globalization of the time: morality, education, business... There were a few occasions in which native characters were depicted as a more civilized variation of the noble savage, but for the most part the film stayed away from caricaturing either side of the struggle of the valiant proletariat against the bloated bourgeoisie. 
Like many of their great works (I'm looking at you Upton Sinclair,) the film contains a pretty heavy anti-capitalist message.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

That's not a knife

Flight of the Conchords. Great great stuff.
Suddenly New Zealand's "fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo" is a little more/less underground.

Here's a joke:
Q. How many hipsters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A.  It's an obscure number you've probably never heard of. POW BITCH