Away From Her is the latest offering from Canadian director/actress Sarah Polley. I saw this movie in the wake of reading an article on alzheimers in Newsweek, which was accompanied by some incredible photos by Dallas based photographer Misty Keasler. Both the article and the film do an amazing job of capturing the emotional experience that alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers go through.

The film opens with Fiona (Julie Christie) and Grant (Gordon Pinsent) who could be any couple enjoying their twilight years, but that notion is quickly replaced when Fiona casually puts away a frying pan in the freezer while they do the afterdinner dishes together. After a few more incidents, Fiona decides it would be best if she were to go into a retirement home. The rest of the film, in a painfully beautiful way, deals with the complex emotions both Fiona and Grant have as her memory of their 45 year marriage slowly fades before his eyes. Olympia Dukakis (Marian) turns in a stellar supporting performance as a woman Grant turns to who is also dealing with the slow erasure of her husband Aubrey (Michael Murphy), whom Fiona forms an attachment to. As her state progresses she focuses her affection on this stranger rather than her husband, most of which he is there to witness.

This is by far one of the best fims that I have seen all year, and I highly recommend it. I left the theater with a more profound understanding of what grace and dignity are.

I just signed up for Netflix earlier this year due to the fact that Dallas is not a pedestrian-friendly city. By the time you make your way to the nearest video store, you find that your selection is not as varied as you would hope, and if you end up with a movie, you find yourself having to get back in the car and drive yet again across town to return it. Netflix has been a nice way to help make my efforts to live the pedestrian lifestyle in a city like Dallas a little easier. Now if only a small corner grocery would find it’s way into Deep Ellum, I’ll be set.

In the spirit of all the movie awards taking place right now, I thought it would be a nice “year-in-review” post to list of my Top 5 favorite rentals that I have received through Netflix over this past year.

1) C.R.A.Z.Y. :: Date rented – 12/19/06
I don’t remember hearing anything about this movie when it was out in the theaters. Maybe it’s because this is a gay-themed, French-Canadian movie and I live in Dallas, TX. I was all around amazed at this movie. The filming, acting, and story were so well done that I found myself watching this twice before I could put it back in my mailbox.

2) Dead Man :: Date Rented – 03/23/06
The joy of Netflix is that you get to catch up on all those movies that have been recommended by your friends, but for some reason or another had just never gotten around to renting them yet. Jim Jarmusch was high on the friend-recommend-directors-to-check-out list, and Dead Man delivered. Quarky, beautifully shot, and filled with scenes that stick in your brain.

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We are one of the 7 cities that gets Mike Judge’s new Idiocracy. What I’ve heard from my friends who are in the movie biz is that Mike Judge really pissed off the studio, and they’re showing it in the minimum number of theaters that the contract allows (125). There is no media promotion at all. No posters, no media kits, no ads, nothing.

I think the main problem is the threat of legal action from the many companies that he parodies in the movie. The plot is pretty much Sleeper mixed with The Truth about De-Evolution. Luke Wilson wakes up 500 years in the future and everybody is a moron. Everybody’s clothes are covered with ads, and most restaurants and businesses have added sex to their list of products. It’s totally over the top and very unique. If you’re a Mike Judge fan, I’d definitely check it out quick before it’s gone.

More about the movie here.

Counter Culture is celebrating a one year anniversary party at their Mockingbird store on Friday June 9, 5-9pm with free drinks, food, music, and tons of giveaways.

Counter Culture started out as a vintage store in Deep Ellum almost 6 years ago. About a year ago they opened up a second store at Mockingbird Station still keeping up with vintage, but including some artistic clothing lines as well. They support local artists, bands, and living a counter culture lifestyle. They have a rockin’ clothing line called Particle that is exclusive to Dallas, that has one of a kind vintage reconstrution clothing. Counter Culture’s parent company, Dust Factory, just moved in next door to there deep ellum location and is providing creative fashion jobs for talented fashion loving individuals.

POST SENT IN BY: Lyndsey

Just the other day I was commenting to a friend how great Myspace makes it for getting the news on all your friends. In this particular case, if one of my friends had not posted that his band was playing, then I would have missed out on their show. It got me thinking about all the ways I, and countless others, have really taken to friend sites in just a matter of a couple years like Myspace and Friendster.

My first introduction to the world of the internet show and tell sites was Friendster in late 2003. I soon had linked up with a lot of local friends, and kept in touch with those that have moved away. I even took advantage of many a lazy afternoon and browsed around for new potential friends that seemed to have things in common with me, a handful of which have gone from just virtual friends to actual new friends…
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My tech support gig has me travelling around Dallas a lot — a lot — and in between stops, I’m listening to my iPod, or local radio, however briefly. Today, while listening to JACK-FM, I heard an ad from the National Association of Broadcasters promoting… radio.

Bear in mind, I’ve worked in radio a couple of times. Up until the iPod provided a real alternative to the variety a radio station could provide, there was an arrogance in the way radio stations positioned themselves. Now, they’re truly scared about losing sizeable chunks of their audience, becoming irrelevant.

Save the comments about how Dallas radio sucks — it’s this bad all over the country. With exceptions such as KCRW, the Los Angeles NPR affiliate, radio in America has done nothing but suffered through homogenization. When the FCC allowed corporations like Clear Channel to purchase as many stations in a given market as they could afford, it opened the door for a select few analysts and programmers to make all of the decisions on what you got to listen to.

[Good Old Days Syndrome = on] Growing up in Dallas, I had KZEW and Q102 introducing me to new music. Redbeard, Jill Savage, Mike Rhyner, George Gimarc, Charlie Jones… they weren’t just “annoying DJs” filling the space between songs with mindless pratter. They were people who were passionate about music, and loved what they did. They gave me a foundation of wide-ranging styles of rock. They were that cool friend who came over and said, “Here, give this a shot.” [GODS = off]

With very few exceptions, that simply doesn’t exist anymore. And radio listeners are the ones who suffer for it… until they all move over to Sirius, XM, or their iPods.

It’s just absurd to think that someone is making a “fiddy cent” movie…ok maybe not absurd when you think that whoever is involved in making this movie is probably going to either Get Rich or Die Tryin’…I’d guess it’s a shoe-in for the rich part. Am I the only one who is tired of this bullshit? I guess not, look, I’m actually writing about it. Ugh.

Despite how talentless I think 50’s music is, I think it’s the title of this movie that gets under my skin the most over the rest of these over-glorified rags-to-riches-to-richer-to-even-more-rich stories. A poor boy, turned successful drug dealer, turned sucessful “rapper” (dare someone use the word artist), with the opening title summing up the whole point of of why you are dishing out a ten spot for a dime bag’s worth of entertainment…to help the rich get richer. I have a feeling this one is going to be cut with a lot of corn starch.

Moral: learn to hustle your way around the drug world, then apply what you have, and have learned, to the entertainment world.

Reminder: MC Hammer.

I ran across this post on the Art Prostitute web forum for these Guerilla Drive-In events taking place here in Dallas and it sounded like a lot of fun. Here’s the post:
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I am hosting a series of Guerilla Drive-In events in downtown Dallas. The films are projected onto a blank wall in different spots located throughout dallas, and you get the audio through your radio. I will be doing this for the whole month of August.

For more info you can contact me at:
gee3peeo@hotmail.com
or
http://www.myspace.com/cucumberjones

Thank you,
-Garrett S.
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I’m going to go out on a limb here to say a new movie has broken into my all-time Top 10. And it’s playing at both Angelika Theaters.

“Murderball.”

It is one of the most enjoyable, funny, interesting movies of all time. Rugby being played by quadrapeligics.

It’s nothing like what you imagine and the best thing to do is visit the Web site at murderballmovie.com

As one of the guys in the movie says while heading to the Worldwide Paralympics, “We aren’t here to get hugs, we’re here to get gold.”

It’s not getting huge crowds, so I’m doing my part to fix that. The name scares some people. As well as the topic. And it is a documentary. The language is a little rough so don’t take your kiddos. But you’ll learn things you can use in life and you’ll leave the theater feeling great.

Watch for Mark Zupan, USA Team Captain, on TV. He’s hitting the promo and interview circuit very hard right now.

Stop by and say hello to the newest member of the metroblogging family – Detroit! Tell ’em Dallas sent ya.