McSweeneys has Michael Chabon's proposed screenplay for Spider Man 2 online as a 252 page pdf

John Darnielle gives some thoughts on some songs

Stephen Malkmus on fantasy baseball and living in NY

The NY Times on Brooklyn bands

Here's an article on the new Batman movie

Ibelieveinharveydent.com has been updated

ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com has not been updated

The Wall Street Journal with a small article on the Justice League New Frontier dvd movie

The Daily Mail has an article about Sleeveface

I don't mind providing free advertising for Mission of Burma:

Jeff Mangum is the JD Salinger of indie rock, according to Slate

Stephin Merrit performs songs from Distortions on Fair Game, with downloadable mp3sw of the songs

Grizzly Bear Live on KCRW:


The Guardian on Black Cab sessions

time magazine on the new malkmus album, which is apparentlyone of "5 things you should know about":

Long a master of erudite word salads and gee-tar stews, the former Pavement leader dives deeper into his love of abstraction by jamming for minutes in search of a groove and twirling words like Bal-ti-mo-wo-wo-wore. None of it is urgent or important, but none of it is stupid, either--a Sammy Hagar album if Sammy Hagar had a Ph.D.

The NY Times on the Justice League of America movie, which is having some problems getting done because of the various actual and potential strikes in Hollywood

David Byrne talks to Thom Yorke

Stephen Malkmus interviewed by a newspaper

The new Batman movie trailer is online

Bowerbirds did a Daytrotter session; there's a new song too. And a bunch of discussion as to how they are building a house without any power tools.

The Clean played some shows.
I'm kind of surprised these happened, and more surprised about where they happened.

Brian Wilson's lost rap.
I suggest using the flash in browser player if you want to hear it; you don't really want this thing saved to your hard drive.

The Guardian on Brooklyn and Baltimore as music scenes

An overview of Haruki Murakami's works.

The Justice League movie apparently has more casting done; they have a new actor for Batman. Seems like they are going with not-really-famous people for this.

And the Heath Ledger Joker looks pretty scary. And there's another web promo thing up for next year's Batman movie.

Edward Scissorhands vs. Sweeney Todd

Aaron Sorkin's new play is apparently factually incorrect

Yesterday I watched the animated Superman: Doomsday movie on tv, through on demand, and I'm pretty sure it was more fun than Superman Returns. Bruce Timm was involved and the animated DC comics stuff that he's done has been pretty good. The look of the film is different than the Superman versions of the old WB Kids TV shows and a bit strange, but the animation is good overall.

This is an adaptation of the Death of Superman comic event, but changes quite a lot. it's also rated PG 13 and has a good amount of action-violence. I guess there is somewhat high profile voice talent in this one...Anne Heche as Lois Lane.

More exciting to me was learning that this was the first of three new DC animated movies....the next one, due in January, is a Justice League film...

Justice League: The New Frontier
bigger voice talent in this one...
Neil Patrick Harris ... Barry Allen/The Flash
David Boreanaz ... Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern
Brooke Shields ... Carol Ferris
Lucy Lawless ... Wonder Woman
Jeremy Sisto ... Bruce Wayne/Batman
Kyle MacLachlan ... Clark Kent/Superman

As you can see from the aliases, it's a back in time kind of thing, so anonymous comment leavers convinced that Hal Jordan IS the Green Lantern, this if for you...

Here's a preview on Youtube

Here's the official site for Superman: Doomsday. Definitely worth my $4.

Here's a bunch-of-tabs-closing information heavy post.

So apparently there will be a Justice League movie. Not in the Christian Bale/Chris Nolan Batman world, though. And apparently Jessica Biel will not be Wonder Woman. So many people can now spend time speculating who will be in the movie.

It seems like a bad idea to rush the script for a movie like that, but of course that appears to be what the movie people are doing.

I really liked the animated cartoon version; hopefully if this happens it will be good.

There's a bit more information coming about Jonathan Lethem's rebooting of Omega the Unknown.

“Omega sort of represents an X-ray of the existential condition of so many other costumed heroes, their dilemma at being the screen for the projection of fantasies of rescue, transcendence, and idealism,” said Lethem. “In his hesitation he's a sort of Hamlet figure. And the radically contradictory and unfinished nature of his original story left him as a kind of icon of confusion, a cloud of dangling signifiers. This was something I thought I could take advantage of.”

Bottle Rocket is going to be rereleased in a Criterion Collection version.

U.S. women's soccer controversy continues. Inept coaching continues to define the mostly inept U.S. Soccer Foundation.

The new wordpress version of Elephant 6 site Optical Atlas has a revamped gallery coming.

Here's an excerpt from Carl Wilson's book about Celine Dion.

Apparently there is a new Stephen Malkmus album coming next year. A look at the latest Matador News also has a little information on the second Cat Power covers album, Mission of Burma reissues and a new Shearwater album next year, among other stuff.

Here's an article about the new Junot Diaz book, where Diaz is gouped in with Lethem, Eggers and Chabon. I guess I'll put in my library requests. Side note: Brooklyn Public Library fills holds a lot quicker than NYPL does. I got a copy of Then We Came to the End in less than a week from BPL and was still behind a hundred people in NYPL's queue after two months.

The not really much of a trailer for The Dark Knight Batman movie was better than a lot of the Simpsons movie that came after it.

Here's a bunch of information on the 2008 movie in a preview of The Dark Knight from Channel 4 Film.

It's no joker: Leahy's in Batman: Times Argus Online
An article about Vermont Senator Pat Leahy, who was in Batman and Robin and is now in The Dark Knight.

Leahy has donated his $2,000 appearance fee from the movie to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. They also receive royalty checks annually from his work in "Batman and Robin," which amount to about $12 per year, according to library executive director Martin Hahn.

Unrelated, but comicsish:

Here's a cover gallery of Jack Kirby stuff

Also, library filters are dumb

Comic book adaptations: The good, the bad, and the future - NZ Herald

Apparently there will be a Wolverine prequel to the XMen movies.

Yesterday we saw the new Fantastic 4 movie.


I was originally so-so on the last F4 movie, but I will say that it is more rewatchable than a lot of other comic book movies. The new movie gets points for ditching the terrible soundtrack tendencies of the last movie. The premise is a bit silly with celebrity Fantastic 4 hype; the Human Torch has NASCAResque uniforms made up and The Invisible Woman has gone all Bridezilla. Then the Silver Surfer shows up. I understand the Surfer is an iconic character, but I don't find the story anything other than confusing. I guess he's supposed to be sort of tragic, but it's done in a not very compelling way. Probably because he has no personality. There are all kinds of thing to object to about the movie, like the army parts and how Dr. Doom comes back, but I'm not bothered about those things.

I mostly enjoyed this movie. It's not terribly clever or innovative, but I don't think it pretends to be. There will likely be another F4 movie at this point. And that's fine, but I'd rather not bother with the silly Galactus cloud or Surfer again. I'm not sure if there's an interesting bad guy left, but maybe there is. Maybe they could borrow Dr. Octopus.

Meanwhile, in the post Civil War Marvel Universe, the current members of the Fantastic 4 are Black Panther, Human Torch, Storm, the Thing. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman quit, I think.

For the movie:
Official Site
IMDB
Metacritic

Feist - Music - Review - New York Times
They saw Monday's show.

M. Ward's music makes you think, blink | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Matablog has Carl Newman on the outtakes he's recording for preorders

Way Back: FF & the Surfer - Marvel.com news
I really don't *get* the Silver Surfer character, but I think I'll still try and see the movie this weekend.

Marvel Universe Evolves - Marvel.com news
New ways to waste time learning about Marvel characters

Spiderman 3 is not that bad. Some people didn't find it satisfactory, but I found it perfectly likable.

Except maybe for that part when Peter Parker acts like he found the Mask rather than the venom gloop.

My favorite thing was how comic bookish Thomas Haden Church looked like regular (human not sand) Flint Marko.

I think that it felt about right for the source material. It's not like the Spiderman comic heritage is a logical, linear narrative.

The comic book movie sequence has to be something like:
Movie 1: origin story and fight a villain
Movie 2: fight a different (preferably cooler) villain OR fight 2 villains, expound on complications of superhero life
Movie 3: fight a bunch of different villains, and the stakes are higher

Of course, that's about as far as it can go and be decent. I hope they don't make Xmen 4 or Spiderman 4 with the current casts and crews, but they could redo either of them in a decade and I'd be fine with that.

If they make more movies within this sequence, it seems like they'll have to be worse. Where can they go... Resurrect old villains? Go to space? Go to another dimension? Time travel? Do a team up?

Really, the only thing that I think could even be somewhat decent as a movie is something like Fantastic 4 plus Spiderman. But that won't happen. And people wouldn't like it if it did.

Metacritic for the "mixed reviews".
official site
Spider-Man 3 is even christian approved.

Also: I'm happy they just called it Spiderman 3 without some silly subtitle.

Apparently there is going to be a Captain Marvel movie. John August is writing a screenplay and blogging about the process:

johnaugust.com » A Captain Marvel Reader

"What used to be considered dark is now just normal."

The new black | Features | Guardian Unlimited Film

Whoah, love the new outfit Spidey!" So says a press photographer in Spider-Man 3, and the general reaction from the public will probably be the same. That black costume adds a certain edge, doesn't it? The ordinary red-and-blue Spider-Man was OK, but a dark Spider-Man, that's one notch better. Like a black iPod, or a plain chocolate KitKat. As comic fans will already know, Spidey's new look turns out to be the result of contact with Venom, a slimy alien parasite that darkens minds as well as wardrobes. In part three of the lucrative movie series, Venom randomly falls out of the sky and latches onto Peter Parker - of all people. And as well as his crime-fighting threads, it transforms his daywear. From being a self-confessed science nerd, Parker suddenly starts wearing his hair in a choppy fringe over one eye, dressing in a black suit and black shirt, and even sporting what looks like a trace of eyeliner. In short, Spidey goes emo!

.....

The easiest place to spot this darkness, though, is in the recent run of reboot movies - those big blockbusters resurrecting tired old characters that were presumed to have breathed their last breath. Thanks to the miracle ingredient of darkness, they're all back, good as new! Tired of suave, smirking, product-placement playboy James Bond? Then try new hard-hitting, merciless, torture-loving Bond Dark, as modelled by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale! Fed up with camp, nipple-suited, production-overkill Batman? Then how about new tortured, fear-confronting Batman Dark, aka Batman Begins? No stomach for sunny, patriotic, squeaky clean Superman? Then watch him return as alienated, overburdened angst-filled Superman Dark!

Even kids' entertainment is going dark. The recently remodelled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles look like they could actually kill people. Michael Bay's forthcoming Transformers movie looks more like Terminator than Saturday morning TV. And in a few short years, Harry Potter has turned from a wide-eyed young magic chap into a brooding and alienated soul preoccupied with vengeance. You could argue that we live in dark times, that the world is generally on a bit of a downer right now, that we've become desensitised to violence thanks to Abu Ghraib/computer games/happy slapping or whatever. But for a generation raised on a diet of gothic-oriented pop culture (Buffy, Sandman, Marilyn Manson, The Crow, Tim Burton, etc) the parameters of what constitutes "dark" have shifted. What used to be considered dark is now just normal.

Here's the trailer to the Fantastic 4 Sequel.

I don't really get the Silver Surfer character (and trying to read about it/him is only more confusing), but it looks neat. Probably not as bad as the original.

Also, I found a streaming thing of Benjee Feree music. Pretty good stuff.

Here's Jonathan Lethem's article from earlier this year about James Brown.

Here's some Marvel comics movie music.

M. Ward article
Looking forward to seeing his solo show in January.

Stephen Colbert vs. Decemberists Feud

on pitchfork
Comedy Central Video

Britt Daniel and others on soundtracking


Bob Pollard has seven new albums and claims touring is too hard

Spiderman 3 stuff
and the history of venom

New Incredible Hulk movie

Robyn Hitchcock movie

Summer Hymns article

On the Decemberists' faux-wordly false humility

Here's a White Magic article

Robert Downey Jr is Iron Man

Here is an article/interview with Marjane Satrapi

The White Stripes done orchestral

Rolling Stone saw The Hold Steady

Pitchfork interviews TV on the Radio

"A Jonathan Lethem novel about the rock scene is rather like a Norman Mailer novel about Jesus Christ. We kind of knew it would happen eventually." Amazon has this book as out in March 2007.

The new Hold Steady album is streaming now

There's a Britt Daniel podcast on aol

Next week Cat Power is putting out an emusic ep


Superman Returns is worth $1.77

"Release of the Man of Steel’s latest cinematic adventure on DVD in China has been timed and priced by Warner Brothers to scuttle the pirates, Agence France-Presse reported. The company released “Superman Returns,” starring Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth, in China yesterday, two months ahead of its release in the United States and Europe, and the company issued it at an especially low price, $1.77 or, when packaged with a documentary, $3.54. The Motion Picture Association of America has estimated that more than 90 percent of films sold in China on DVD are pirated copies."

TV on the Radio article

Lambchop article

Mountain Goats live review