The Beatles: Rock Band

First footage from Harmonix's upcoming Beatles game, release 9/9/9.

Meat Puppets Interview, circa 1993

Meat Puppets: Too High to Die

...or speak coherently, for that matter. The Meat Puppets breezed through town last spring with opening band Scrawl, and I had the misfortune of meeting them before the show. What follows are excerpts from an almost hour-long interview, during which Curt and Chris babbled a lot and smoked an illicit substance from a plastic honey-bear. Things started off okay, but deteriorated quickly.

Chad: So is touring still exciting, or is it now just a necessity?

Chris: A little of both. Actually, what's exciting is walking down a street and passing a club we play at and NOT going in.

Chad: So it's a power trip.

Chris: Well, no. There's no power. What really excites us is the opportunity to be lazy twenty three and a half hours a day, then get on stage, rock, and consider that our living, and then go along with our business. Now this (interview) is hard work.

(a pause. a long hit.)

Curt: You gotta come into a strange town and ask people what's up with every fucking little aspect of your life because you don't know shit about their stupid fucking city. It's like, here we are, okay, know where we can get some food? It's like being an alien every single night. The kind of human excitement people are into just doesn't exist in this lifestyle.

Chris: It doesn't exist in theirs, either.

Curt: Right. They got little coordinates and special patterns that are followed as mood elevators or whatever, but we don't get to do that. In order to indulge ourselves artistically we go through this really sick way of life which touring is.

Chad: So it's a job.

Curt: Well, no. Musicians who play jobs are like those cocktail lounge people. Nobody looks at it as a job. But we're called the Meat Puppets because we don't understand ourselves. It's as though we're controlled by forces from outside. Possibly hatred.

(another, longer hit. At this point, Chris and Curt begin interviewing each other.)

Curt (to Chris): So how many shits do you take a day? Is it thirteen?

Chris: I take, on average, three. Mr. Kirkwood, I...

Curt (interrupting): From this point on, I would prefer to be referred to as James Football.

Chris: Okay. James Football, I understand you had a run-in with the actor James Woods in Virginia. Could you delineate that?

Curt: Uh, yeah. He was there to shoot his new autobiographical story, The James Woods Story, in which he plays himself, actually, and we went out for a while.

Chris: Did you fight?

Curt: We fought bitterly, actually.

Chris: Regarding your professional life: when you sit down to write a song, do you generally write the song on guitar or the spoons?

Curt: I put the song down on my dogmascope first. Then I have it transcribed onto an old-fashioned tin neo-type and I have that delivered by 3:OO P.M. to some anonymous person in Iowa. If, by some whimsical chance, they happen to eat the neo-types, then we have a new song. But really, how often does that happen?

Chris: I think that's all my questions.

Curt (to Chris): So, when is the last time you shit your pants?

Chris: I do it nightly. On stage.

Curt: When you strike your instrument, is it each individual blow that's important, or is it the sum of the blows at the end of the evening?

Chris: I think it's the blow at the end of the evening that's important.

(a third, and the longest, hit.)

Curt (abruptly): Hi there listeners! Eat shit! Go die! Don't buy our stuff! Hahahahaha!

Chris: And if our stuff comes on the radio, change the dial! (commotion downstairs; Chris gets up to investigate.) Hey, is that Scrawl? HEY SCRAWL, COME HERE!

(The three women who are Scrawl arrive and settle onto a couch.)


Chris: Do you have any questions you ever wanted to ask us? We're running out of questions for this interview.

Sue: You wanted us to come up here to ask questions about YOU?

Chris: You could ask questions about yourself, too.

Sue: Okay. I have a question for Curt. I'd like to know: what is your favorite place to shop?

Curt: Um, first of all, I need you to reiterate the question and ask me using the name James Football.

Sue: Okay. Mr. Football, what is your favorite place to shop for shoes?

Curt: I like, actually, my favorite place to shop for food, er, shoes...

Sue: Either or.

Curt: ...is under the tree at Christmas. Because then you have a more realistic choice. I like shoes with big, elevated toes on them. I want to have a pair of shoes made out of frisbees. You know: nice, round shoes. You never see anyone with round shoes.

Sue: People don't have round feet, Mr. Football.

Curt: Mr. Football has just been informed that people don't have round feet. His disappointment is such that he has decided to go on a hunger strike.

Chad: Mr. Football, do you have a refutation question for Scrawl? Because they're all heading downstairs.

Curt: No. Actually, I was going to commit acts of sexual harassment on them.

Chad: They're still leaving, though.

(Amid a flurry of farewells, Scrawl was gone.)

Chris (to Curt): If this interview comes out illegible, which part would you feel the most sorry was not captured?

Curt: I was feeling poorly about what I said a few minutes ago about our listeners. I just wanted to say I'm really sorry. Really.

interview by Chad Thomas

The Soul That Grows in Darkness

The Axton Endowment

in conjunction with 

The English Department

U of L’s Student Activities Board

The Louisville Film Society

The Derby City Film Festival 

and The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities

PRESENT

THE SOUL THAT GROWS in DARKNESS:

The Axton Festival of Film and Verse

April 9-11 & 21^st, 2009

— ALL EVENTS ARE FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC —

APRIL 9 

Putting the Auteur Back in Author:
A Poetry Reading from Wayne Miller and Larry Goldstein
7:30 PM - BINGHAM POETRY ROOM, Ekstrom Library, U of L’s Belknap Campus

Wayne Miller is the author of two poetry collections: The Book of Props
(Milkweed, 2009) and Only the Senses Sleep (New Issues, 2006). He is also coeditor of the anthology New European Poets (Graywolf, 2008) and translator of Moikom Zeqo's I Don't Believe in Ghosts. The recipient of five Poetry Society of America awards, the Bess Hokin Prize and a Ruth Lilly Fellowship, he teaches at the University of Central Missouri and edits Pleiades. His long poem “What Night Says to the Empty Boat: Notes Toward a Film in Verse” is included in his most recent volume.

Laurence Goldstein is the author of three books of literary criticism, most recently The American Poet at the Movies: A Critical History, four books of poetry, most recently A Room in California, and the editor or coeditor of eight other books, most recently Writing Ann Arbor. He is Professor of English at the University of Michigan, and editor of Michigan Quarterly Review.

APRIL 10 

“Dangerous Glamour: Poetry, Movies, and the Public Imagination”
A Talk by Laurence Goldstein
3:30 PM - BINGHAM HUMANITIES, ROOM 300, U of L’s Belknap Campus

From his time growing up in Culver City, California to his recent blog for The Best
American Poetry online, Laurence Goldstein has explored, with both scholarly insight and a filmgoer’s appreciation, the developing confluence of American poetry and film. This culminated in the 1995 publication of The American Poet at the Movies: A Critical Study, which Philip French called “a discerning book, combining criticism and social history. It satisfies scholarly standards while appealing to general readers.” Goldstein begins with Vachel Lindsay’s infatuating gaze (directed toward thr starlet Mae Marsh) then maps American poetry in the cinema century— up through Jorie Graham’s treatment of Lolita in “Fission.” The co-editor (with Ira Konigsberg) of The Movies: Texts, Receptions, Exposures (1997) he continues to write and publish about film.

APRIL 10

The Big Show: The Premiere of Three Collaborative Poetry Films
and Jean Cocteau’s First Film, The Blood of a Poet
7:30 PM - FLOYD THEATRE, Student Activities Center, U of L’s Belknap Campus

Working directly with Louisville filmmakers, two University of Louisville students
will premiere films based on their original work. Jake Snider’s poems “Bookbinding: Pt. Deux” and “Last Winter” have been adapted for the screen by Steven Matthews. John David Baumgarten’s poem “The Third Sister: A Universal” has been adapted by Chad Thomas. The filmmakers and poets will be available for questions following the screening.
Le Sang d'un poète (The Blood of a Poet) 1930, 55 min. 16mm film
A landmark of surrealist cinema, Cocteau's first film attempts to reveal the inside of a
poet's mind, using a panoply of trick effects and extraordinary juxtapositions
to do so. Lee Miller portrays a statue that comes to life, opening the way to a world
beyond. Enrique Rivero plays the poet.

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was a poet, filmmaker, artist, journalist, dramatist, and designer, as well as a celebrity and provocateur. He was a creative force at the center of the Parisian avant-garde from before World War I, through the surrealist 1920s and 30s, and beyond. His films exemplify the surrealist movement in France. They are dizzy with fantasy, mythology, melodrama, and unhinged experimentation. Nowhere is this more true than in his so-called Orphic Trilogy - three films inspired by the figure of Orpheus, the poet and musician of ancient mythology. For today's viewer, the trilogy opens doors to Cocteau's incomparable poetic consciousness.

Chadwick Jefferson Edward Thomas III is a University of Louisville alum with a B.A. in Communication. He is the former editor and publisher of the Calligraffiti Literary Journal. He has published over two hundred interviews and articles in LEO Weekly, Velocity, The Courier Journal, The Louisville Cardinal, Burt the Cat Fanclub Newsletter, and others. He is one half of the rock band Naked Monster Tyson and the only Lebowski Idol. Chadwick is also the manager of Just in Time Films LLC. He has written and directed four short films, including 2008's award-winning “Hootenanny” (Best Use of Genre, 48 Hour Film Project, Louisville competition).

Steven Mathews, a Georgia transplant, has been working with film production for several years. He has developed a reputation for pouring his heart, passion, and often his wallet into his projects. Since his recent arrival in Louisville, Steve has been busy freelancing. He’s worked on 40 short films in the last year.

APRIL 11

Cocteau’s Orpheus and Testament of Orpheus

Screenings at FLOYD THEATRE, Student Activities Center, U of L’s Belknap Campus

5:30 PM

Orphee (Orpheus) 1949, 95 min. 35mm film 

Considered by many to be Cocteau's best film, Orphée is based on the ancient myth in which Orpheus (Jean Marais) descends into the underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice (Marie Déa), from death. Cocteau's vision of the afterlife is rooted in modern realities: a bombed-out urban landscape, for example, and messages from the other side communicated through a car radio.

7:30 PM

Le Testament d'Orphée (The Testament of Orpheus) 1959, 80 min. 35mm film

In the film that completes the cycle, Cocteau plays an 18th-century poet who travels in time. This is a wry, self-deprecating work, with the 70-year-old poet portraying his dreams, his friends and lovers, and fictional characters. The cast includes Pablo Picasso, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jean Marais, and Yul Brynner. Cocteau's final film is an open coda to a unique career.
Both films will be followed by a Q and A hosted by The Louisville Film Society

APRIL 21 

Film on Poets, Poets on Film: The San Francisco Renaissance

7PM/9PM - 21C Museum Hotel, 700 W. Main St. Louisville, KY 40202 / (502) 217-6300

Brought to you by The Louisville Film Society, this collection of nine shorts films feature some of the biggest names in the San Francisco poetry scene and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E School of Poetry. The program includes interviews and/or images of: Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, George Barker, James Broughton, Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Jack Hirschman, Etheridge Knight, and Ezra Pound. LFS will screen the films at both 7 PM and 9 PM.

For more information, please visit www.louisvillefilm.org

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING the EVENTS, PLEASE CONTACT DEREK MONG in the ENGLISH DEPARTMENT:

dcmong01@louisville.edu / 502-852-4742

The 2008 Sore Thumbs Awards

Its that time of year again! The game world is morphing. Consoles have given way to handhelds, handhelds are feeling pressure from cell phones. There's now a PC game market, a console game market, a mobile game market, a portable game market, and a casual game market. I can't cover them all.

So my old rule remains: To be considered for inclusion, a game must have been released in the 2008 calendar year somewhere in the world for either a console or a handheld game platform.

Instead of a top 10 or top 20 list like I've done for the past few years, I'm going to switch back to the category-style awards that I used in the early years of this century.

I'll be adding to list through the end of the year; the full list of awards winners will be available on New Year's Day.

The 2008 Sore Thumbs Awards

2008 GAME OF THE YEAR

Grand Theft Auto IV

Take Two (PS3, Xbox 360)

Anyone who says this isn't the best game of 2008 is trying to be "edgy." Rockstar continues to work in a world of virtual reality that no one else is even attempting. It works even better on this generation of consoles. The story of Nico Bellic was rich and engrossing, superbly acted and ultimately much too long. But even without the plot, the game was a marvel. You could watch stand-up performances by virtual versions of Katt Williams and Rickie Gervais, take in a tribute to a Russian vaudvilian show, shoot pool and play darts and bowl. And, of course, you could toss grenades around a hospital ICU while perparing for a last-stand gunfight with Liberty City's finest. Classic.

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHICS
Wipeout HD

Sony (PS3)

Its the little things like the videoscreen in the cockpit and the graphic equalizer embedded in the track that elevate Wipeout HD to the devine. Mix that with TrueHD 1080p graphics moving at a glitch-free 60 frames per second and a killer soundtrack remixed entirely in 5.1 and you have the best adaptation of the Speed Racer movie that you could've hoped for. Shame the game's so difficult mere mortals can't play it.

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE IN SOUND
Korg DS-10 Synthesizer
XSEED Games (Nintendo DS)

I have a four channel mixer connected to my receiver with inputs from a turntable, an iPhone running Bloom, a DS running Electroplankton, and a second DS running Korg DS-10. Korg DS-10 is the first fully-functional synth app for a handheld gaming device. It is a blast to play and sounds spiffy too. It is also the kind of game that never gets released in the US. Thanks for bringing it to our shores!

BEST ONLINE FUNCTIONALITY
LittleBigPlanet
Sony - PS3
LittleBigPlanet was trounced saleswise by the bigger holiday titles, but the online community building around the game virtually insures its long term success. I expect it will sell well for the next year and wind up as a pack-in game with the PS3 console next Christmas.

LittleBigPlanet offers console players an unprecedented level of freedom in creating their own levels within the game. Thousands of player-created levels have already been uploaded. Many are terrible, some are great, and a few are astonishing. It is not at all a stretch to say that a few future developers will get their start tinkering with the tools available in LBP. Good for them, better for us.

RUNNER UP - Burnout: Paradise (EA, PS3 and Xbox 360)

BEST ONLINE MULTIPLAYER
Resistance 2
Sony - PS3
I've played plenty of 2 and 4 player online games that don't run as lag-free as Resistence 2 with 60 players. The 8-player cooperative story mode is a nice plus.

RUNNER UP: Left4Dead (Valve, Xbox 360)


MOST INNOVATIVE
Wii Fit
Nintendo - Wii

Wii continues its global domination through products like WiiFit that attract an audience previously uninterested in videogames. Those genuinely looking for a workout will find one, while those who aren't will woggle the remote and cheat and wonder what all the fuss is about. Companies have been trying for decade to marry fitness and videogames; I think it is fast to say that Nintendo is the company that finally made it happen.

Runner Up: Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, Playstation 2)

BEST ARTISTIC DIRECTION
Mirror's Edge
Electronic Arts - Playstation 3, Xbox 360

Few games this year provided the heart-stopping thrills of Mirror's Edge. Making it first-person was genius; I experienced moments of vertigo when I was high above the ground. And yet outrunning pursuers while leaping across rooftops and scurrying through hallways wouldn't be nearly as exhilerating if you couldn't make some sense out of the expasive open-world map. And luckily, due to a deft color-coded design choice, you can. The targets aren't usually glaringly obvious, but a splash of color on an otherwise unremarkable building, pipe, or door catches your eye and steers you in the right direction. The upcoming downloadable maps do away with the city and go for pure abstraction. They look amazing and will hopefully give legs to this innovative title.

Runner Up: Prince of Persia (Ubisoft - Xbox 360, Playstation 3)

THE AWARD WINNING Hootenanny

Hootenanny: Special Edition DVD

No, you can't have one, so quit asking. Unless you worked on the film. If you worked on the film, then you're in for a real treat: your very own ridiculously comprehensive Hootenanny Special Edition DVD! This beauty is packed to the gills with behind-the-scenes footage and ephemera, including the original storyboards, rejected story ideas, rough draft read-throughs, interviews, two photo galleries, artwork, original music, and not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE different cuts of the film, all buried within some of the most arcane DVD menus ever to be burned to disk.


If you didn't work on the film, then watch your local Museum of Digital and Modern Art, Wild and Woolly Video, or Barnes & Noble Bookstore to secure your very own slice of the celluloid history pie.

Hootenanny: The Final Cut

Sporting over 50 changes since the original version, the seventh cut of Hootenanny should be the definitive, Final Cut. This version features remastered audio and video, new music, and a glistening sheen of awesome. Hope you enjoyed the previous versions because they're going into the vault, never again to be seen by human eyes. Unless you get your hands on the ridiculously comprehensive DVD, that it.

As for The Final Cut, I'll be updating this site with the locations where it can be seen throughout the remainder of this year and into the next.

Museum of Digital and Modern Art

My record store has expanded! In addition to GEMM, the Museum of Digital and Modern Art can now be found on its own website and on eBay. Right now I can only accept PayPal, but in a couple weeks I hope to add support for all major credit & debit cards and Google Checkout.

Pay a visit to find rare releases from A Place to Bury Strangers, Thom Yorke, Sun Kil Moon, My Bloody Valentine, PJ Harvey, UNKLE, Colin Meloy, and more! And beginning in August, you'll find the debut releases on my very own label. These are exciting times indeed.

But first, Crazy Monkey reconvenes for its second entry in the 48 Hour Film Project. Stay tuned for screening info.