My two cents (OBO): I not only think the film is fiction, I actively HOPE Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and the rest, developed the plotline.  Not because I can’t bear the idea of living in a world where events and people like those depicted in the film exist, but rather because I hope this film came from the frustration Banksy and Fairey both express at the movie’s end: If street art is no longer an illegal, renegade act of defiance, but a marketable (not to mention insanely profitable) enterprise, with enough recognizable elements anyone can start to spray paint by numbers and set the art world aflame, well…what’s the point?

I want these 21st century artistic icons asking themselves this question.  I want them worrying about it, worrying about it so much they have to invade a completely new artistic medium just to try and express their own baffledness.  I want this so badly, because I believe this question being asked at this time might be the first step towards a new 21st century attitude.

I realize what I’m about to say is a broad, generalized, debatable statement, so in case the fact that you’re reading it on MY PERSONAL BLOG isn’t enough of a clue into the fact that this is MY PERSONAL CONTENTIONS and nothing else, well…there, now I’ve been more blunt about it.

I think in many ways art in the 20th century was defined by the question of Why not?  Why not paint a face with the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth twisted stretched and out of place? Why not just drip paint on the canvas? Why not make a career out of painting soup can labels? This attitude (arguably) began when Marcel Duchamp and the Dada movement at the century’s beginning submitted a urinal as an example of sculpture, but the same sense of curiosity at possibility could be found in other artistic media as well.  Composer John Cage, for example, composed the infamous 4’33” a classical musical piece for piano in 3 movements, all of which are silent.  Cage said the noise made in the room then became the music, so the piece was actually a different symphony of sound every time it was played. And why not?

In literature, e.e. cummings wrote poems that rejected conventional attitudes toward grammar, spelling, punctuation, and even the idea that reading is done top-to-bottom, left-to-right. And why not?

By the 1950′s the beatnik generation began to see the existential beauty in anything being art and art being everything.  In many ways it seems artistic minds throughout the 20th century were building for the moment Andy Warhol forced them to look at the things they were already forced to look at on an everyday basis as being the art of modern life.

Punk proved not knowing how to play an instrument (much less what words like stanza or fortissimo mean) should not be a hindrance if you really want to be a musician.

Followers of outsider art insist that the only people capable of creating great art these days are those who know nothing about it.

In these and countless other ways the beatnik dream has now been realized.  Congratulations, if you have a blog you are a writer, if you have a youtube account you’re a filmmaker, if you have an iHome you’re a DJ, but that’s just when you’re not being a real musician with Garage Band.  We are all artists and everything we do is art, damn those who don’t “get it.” Isn’t it wonderful?

Well, maybe not when the top read blogs are about celebrity sex habits, the most viewed youtube videos involve cute puppies, kittens, babies, or some combination there of, and have you heard the crap coming out of most iHome’s and Garage Band programs these days?

As a generation we have had national tragedy and war, but we have not exhibited the selflessness that defined the “Greatest Generation.”

We’ve had political unrest and social inequality, but we have not stood-up to demand change like those still glorified idols from the 1960′s.

We’ve watched our last remaining romantic ideals fall in the waves of cynicism, but instead of creating punk rock we sold it to Disney and the Jonas Brothers.

Admittedly, I’ve moved a bit beyond the frustration of the street artists in the “documentary” that began this post, but I feel that frustration is at the root of these issues as well.  To quote another great film of the 21st century, “When everyone is special, no one is.”

I hope the street art community is able to regain its ideals as it transitions from anarchic movement to established institution.  I hope they find new guidelines, new beliefs.  I hope they re-learn how to say: “This is art and this is shit,” with unhesitating unity.  And perhaps when they do, one of them will create something that will inspire, enrage, and enthrall a generation so in need.

Favorite Song/Album:

Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes/Merriweather Post Pavilion:

Yeah, yeah, a guy in his 20′s with facial hair likes Animal Collective, I know, big shock.  But I really can’t get sick of this song.  I guess I’m just a sucker for a good love song that’s more interested in talking about being in love than trying to define what love is (also it’s nice when they avoid words like girl, baby, or even love).  This is a song that captures the simple joy of being with that special someone doing nothing particularly special at all, and in the end walking around in our summertime clothes sounds way better than dinner and a movie.

The album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, came out in January and I’ll be honest I wasn’t very impressed at first.  But as 2009 grew so did the album’s appeal, it may lack the variety of some of their earlier work, but it traded it in for something the band’s detractors have been looking for all along: cohesiveness.

Favorite Hip-Hop Song/Album

With apologies to DOOM, and Jay:

Mos Def – Supermagic/Ecstatic:

Seriously, is there anyone on planet earth as cool as Mos Def (the eternal and obvious David Bowie exception always withstanding)? Such a great track to kick off such a great return to form.  Watch that video and try to go the rest of your day without mumbling “supermagic, black origin, freshly out of dopeness” under your breath.

Favorite Music Video:

Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart:

So many great videos this year!  But head and shoulders above the rest for me is this one.  There is so much atmosphere in each shot you might choke on it.  Director Andreas Nilsson captures everything wonderful about Fever Ray/The Knife’s music–it’s sense of wonder, it’s magic, it’s mystery–and presents it in one chilling, yet beautiful package.  God I hope I can figure out how to write a story that captures this mood.

Favorite Live Show:

Devo – Palladium Ballroom 3/09:

Booji’s Beautiful World:

Saw a handful of stand out shows this year, but nothing could top the classic tunes, on-stage costume changes, and duck-billed platasynth of DEVO!  If you watch the imbed you can clearly hear my “YEAH!” right before the end.  These guys rocked so much harder than a lot of bands I’ve seen who are half their age (including the TERRIBLE local boys who somehow got to play the opening spot).  Such a great time, good to know they still got it.

Fave Film:

Where the Wild Things Are*

Ok, giant asterisk by this one since I’m still desperately playing catch up with a lot of my ’09 must sees.

I’ve seen some amazing films this year: Inglorious Basterds, Up, Hurt Locker, but I think the thing that sets WTWTA apart for me is there has been no other film this year I’ve had as much fun talking about with people.  I really think psychologists could start gauging someone’s reaction to this film as a substitute for the Rorschach test.  I’ve heard people describe it as a divorce allegory, I’ve seen people nearly weep as they describe the hidden past traumas that this film brought to the surface, and then I’ve seen people smile and say the film made them want to be a kid all over again.  The opus Jonze and writer Dave Eggers have made out of a few brief sentences is humbling, magical, and though no one can say where to, it is undeniably moving.

I would love to talk about best book, comic, TV show, etc. but sadly I’m way too far behind on all of them to honestly evaluate.  But off the top of my head:

Best Book I read this year: Dhalgren by Samuel Delany

Best TV show I started watching for the first time: 30 Rock (yeah, yeah, always late to the game)

Best Comic: OUTLAW TERRITORY! No, really, probably Scott Pilgrim vol 5, but everyone and I mean EVERYONE needs to check out this book by my good friends Len Wallace, Michelle Silva, and Dave Tuney.  It is awesome.

So goodbye 2009, goodbye 00′s, I look forward to spending the next 10 years drinking you out of my memory.

http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/back20090922.shtml

Reminiscent of 3:10 TO YUMA, this story of a reluctant lawman coming to terms with his inevitable showdown with a bad, bad man is well paced and has a nice twist ending. The tender moments where the lawman talks about life and death with his son and the last moments he spends with his wife make this typical tale atypical and memorable.

Short, sweet and flattering.  Follow the link to read the rest of his thoughts on the book then go here and BUY IT ALREADY!

Then we went past 35 to this little sidestreet called Roselawn.  We followed it for a few miles before coming to a large cemetery. My mom made the usual inquiries at the office and they told us where to find the people we were searching for.  I can’t tell you exactly what relation I am to the people in that dirt, many of them had names I would never identify as being tied to my own, but I was told about each of them in turn, usually accompanied by a funny or tragic anecdote.

I have a weird relationship with cemeteries. Let’s be honest, if you think about it practically they are the biggest waste of real estate in the world. Acres of land taken up by decomposing bodies just so one, maybe two, generations will have some place to come and mourn. Once the flowers have wilted there is no more use for the place.

But there is this romantic appeal to them. This vast space where the gone and forgotten lay with nothing but a stone thrown into the soil screaming, “I was here, damn it! I lived, I loved, I was kind and I was terrible, and look at me now!”

I went back to that cemetery by myself a few days ago. I couldn’t remember where my family was so I just drove around slowly. I thought maybe I’d find good material for a story, or at the very least the tombstones could provide some better character names than the ones I’ve been coming up with lately.  What I found instead was a story already told. I found Hunter Ray Brooks.

Hunter was born 7/29/01 and died 10/24/01, five days after my dad’s death. New toys were placed carefully next to the rock and there was even a cake made of paper flowers with a number “8″ candle. His parents had bought one of those three in one tombstones with Hunter in the middle and space on either side for Mom and Dad (their names and birthdays already eerily waiting for their final piece of information). The parents still came to visit their first born, they will one day be united again, but their lives have continued in the last 8 years, and a sign above Hunter’s picture informs him and everyone that he is now a “Big Brother.”

I left thinking about cemeteries, about Hunter and his parents, I left thinking about my grandad who showed me this place. His health has been failing this year, and everytime my Mom’s name pops up in my caller-id I expect it to be “the call.”  He’s 81 years old, widowed by my grandmother and remarried, he once lived in Denton and built houses with his Dad, worked at a JC Penny nobody even knows used to be there.  Soon, sooner than I like to think, all these years and experiences will be summarized by his name on a rock and a few feet of dirt. It seems so inadequate.

It seems like such a waste.

Having said that, I really don’t know if I’m more interested to hear how you did it, or how you thought you could get away with it.  The overly romantic viewpoint, the band t-shirts (both the fact that they are being warn and the bands that were chosen), the elaborate fantasy dance sequence, it is beyond obvious that the character of Tom has been based directly on me.  Don’t bother denying it, nobody will believe you.  I’m actually flattered that you would cast Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play me.

I don’t know how you managed to follow me for your research and getting into my head to view my fantasies is frankly rude, and even though I feel it went to a good cause, I simply cannot let this pass.  Also, why did you feel the need to make it “500″ days when your research should clearly show the same arch actually happens in half that?

I did enjoy your film and hate to think my discovery of your illegal (not to mention supernatural) surveillance might prohibit others from doing the same. Simply begin sending me my royalty checks and I promise you will hear no more about it from me.

Sincerely,

P.J. “Tom” Kryfko

First, here I am as the Dread Pirate Roberts at a recent masquerade party:

This is me in costume for my cameo appearance in the 48 Hour Project, “This Time Around”:

Not really a costume, but me holding scary demon face:

Me masquerading with a somewhat exhausted expression:

And oddest of all here is me pretending to be some sort of writer or something:

For those of you curious to see “This Time Around” it is available in the VIDEOS section of my Facebook profile. If we’re not friends on Facebook then please stop cyberstalking and add me via the link on my Contact page.

This past weekend was another extremely exciting adventure in my matinee missing life, I was a member of team Celluloid Heroes in the Dallas 48 Hour Film Project.  Each team is given a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue, then they have 48 hours to write, cast, film, and edit a short film incorporating all of those elements.  As part of the writing team I helped forge the epic struggle of Oggie Henderson and his comedic romp through purgatory, then I even got to stick around and carry lightstands back and forth during production.  There were many ups and downs during production (almost all of which were captured for posterity by an on-set documentary crew…yay?), but the film came out beautifully and if you don’t believe me then you need to come to the 9:30pm screening tonight at Dallas Movie Grilll.

Big congratulations to my fellow sleep deprived teammates (did I mention around hour 30 with no sleep I went to a job interview?) as well as to the cast and miscellaneous other people who showed up to help out on set.

Now what’s this I hear about a 21 Day Film Project………