Walkie Talkie Blog
You're Next's first offense comes swift and unexpectedly, as Lou Reed's beautiful "Perfect Day" scores the opening moments of a truly lousy trailer to what will assuredly be an even lousier movie - creating an effect similar to a pig wearing makeup (more on that later, unfortunately), or a turd
Walkie Talkie Blog
OLSEN BROTHERS > OLSEN TWINS >>> For weeks, I've been trying to shake the images of Ich Hunger from my brain. Made by local filmmaker Isaac Olsen, Ich Hunger is a German expressionist freakout concerning a "creature boy" who lives in the forests of Germany and eats people. Saturday, as
Walkie Talkie Blog
WEAK AND WEARY >>> Great news, guys! It turns out that 2012 is the year of historical fan fiction! Later on in the year, we'll get to experience the origin story of Scientology in The Master, as well as the re-imagination of Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter (in Abraham Lincoln:
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LOL >>> The film is called Think Like A Man, and the trailer opens with renowned woman-hospitalizer Chris Brown gleefully skipping out on a girl post-coitus. Ha ha ha ha barf. Thanks, movie, but if that's thinking like a man, er, uh, I'd rather not. Are you ready for some Adaptation-style mind-freaking?
Walkie Talkie Blog
JUST POKE ME IN THE EYE NOW >>> To watch the original Three Stooges shorts these days can be a little disheartening. Somehow, it's not as funny to me anymore to watch aging vaudevillians hit each other with hammers. I distinctly remember being a kid and getting kinda disturbed by a
Walkie Talkie Blog
ROSE KILLED JACK >>> Something happened, recently, that never needed to happen. I re-watched Titanic at three in the morning, on HBO. Another thing that never needed to happen? Titanic getting re-released in gloriously miserable 3D. I hope all of you are looking forward to seeing that CGI iceberg (which, by
Walkie Talkie Blog
A BATHROOM BREAK ISN'T OUT OF THE QUESTION >>> Note: It is time, once again, to provide a definitely biased and possibly unfair review of a trailer for an upcoming film. Here is something that the lunatics that actually liked the Clash of the Titans remake will be interested to hear: this
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FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>> I've tried to make it a point, when writing about local music, to avoid talking about the ages of the members of the bands I highlight. But I must impress upon you how young the members that make up Gig Harbor garage two-piece
Walkie Talkie Blog
READ ALL ABOUT IT >>> Book clubs are one of the last vestiges we have of formally engaging conversations for groups of strangers. You can discover a lot about a person by learning their opinions on any piece of art, but books prove to be especially revealing. Take, for instance, King's Books'
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EXPERIENCING THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW >>> I remember taking a friend to the Blue Mouse Theatre to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was a "virgin," as they are so called. Additionally, he admitted to me as we were finding seats that he had never even seen the actual
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THE ART OF VOLUNTEERING >>> It's been part of the dating dogma for many a year that the perfect place to meet someone is in a non-threatening, low-pressure environment. The usual examples are grocery stores (weird) and museums (weirder). Why not get to know new people in a place that's both fun
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THE TACOMA CULT MOVIE CLUB >>> The culture of watching bad movies because they're so terrifically bad has been growing, outside of the light, insidiously, for years and years. Edward D. Wood Jr. conquered, very early on, the art of having such awesomely misplaced judgment in one's own talent. In his
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Nappy Roots made a modest but significant impact in the early 2000s with the release of Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz, a sharp and effective statement of purpose that established the group as simultaneous party-starters and fierce advocates of their native Kentucky. Their hit single, "Awnaw," was a ferocious slice of
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IT'S A BENEFIT >>> Something seems so right about the marriage between punk rock and the washboard. Skidding your hand along the grooves of a washboard elicits nothing more than a visceral rattle - a crude affront to the idea of percussion and what it means to be
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NO STRANGERS TO MULTTASKING >>> At first glance, Strange Vine is a typical rock 'n' roll two-piece. Consisting of Ian Blesse on drums and Toby Cordova on guitar, the really intriguing aspect of the band comes when Blesse - while still manning the percussion with his right hand
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APEPOCALYPSE NOW >>> With the exception of some fleeting nods to fans of the Planet of the Apes series, very little exists to connect Rise of the Planet of the Apes with its namesake. Fans may giggle at some knowing references, but the film is otherwise a self-contained story, and
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MAJOR MOVIE REVIEWS STRAIGHT FROM TACOMA >>> Things have been fucked for a very long time in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Since Harry's first year at the magical boarding school of Hogwarts, there has been a steady slide away from the whimsy that marked the first couple installments, and
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FILM REVIEWS LIVE FROM TACOMA >>> I was going to start this review of Horrible Bosses by stating that the movie's main problem is that the titular bosses are too cartoonishly awful. Then, I thought about whether the notion of the film's heroes becoming so exasperated that murdering these bosses is their
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VOTE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER VOTED BEFORE >>> It's been surprisingly exciting over the last few weeks to watch Tacoma's Vicci Martinez rise through the ranks of NBC's singing competition, The Voice. It's been must-see TV, from those first electrifying moments in her audition when she nailed Adele's "Rolling in the Deep,"
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THE SOUTH SOUND'S ONLY LOCAL FILM CRITIC >>> A funny thing happens toward the end of Incendies. In a film that truly centers on the nature of revenge and the vicious cycle that can arise from calling for an eye for an eye-after we see how cruel and senseless this inevitably