Video of the Day: Dinosaur Jr., “Over It.”
Our heroes feel the pain of everyone on this great new clip. We can only presume and hope that stunt doubles were employed.
Flaming Lips “Embryonic” Domestic Tour Dates
In anticipation of the release this fall of the 2-disc set Embryonic, the Flaming Lips just announced several dates for August. None are in this time zone, so will require road trips, jet service or teleportation. Stardeath and White Dwarfs open all dates in support of The Birth. Nice album title tie-ins, by the way.
Aug 15 Del Mar Race Track Infield Del Mar, CA
Aug 17 Greek Theater Los Angeles, CA (on-sale June 27)
Aug 18 Fox Theater Pomona, CA (on-sale July 11)
Aug 20 Edgefield Amphitheater Portland, OR (on-sale June 27)
Aug 21 Marymoor Amphitheater Seattle, WA (on-sale June 20)
Aug 23 Red Rocks Amphitheater Denver, CO (on-sale June 20)
Aug 26 Chastain Park Amphitheater Atlanta, GA (on-sale July 10)
Aug 28 Merriweather Post Pavilion Washington, DC (on-sale TBA)
Aug 29 Festival Pier Philadelphia, PA (on-sale TBA)
Aug 30 Bank of America Pavilion Boston, MA (on-sale June 27)
St. Vincent: The Lake Fever Sessions
Lake Fever Productions in Nashville invited Annie Clark to their studios for this superb acoustic set.
“Actor Out of Work” St. Vincent "Actor Out Of Work" from Lake Fever Sessions on Vimeo.
“The Strangers” St. Vincent "The Strangers" from Lake Fever Sessions on Vimeo.
“Oh My God”
Flaming Lips and Bat For Lashes Open Coldplay European Dates
Staticblog officially begs for those transatlantic comp flights: The Flaming Lips will open for Coldplay on three dates: Sept. 4 in Barcelona, Sept. 7 in Paris and Sept. 9 in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Those last two gigs, the Lips are paired with Bat For Lashes, which essentially means that I’d be fine swimming there if necessary.
I might point out that the Paris gig falls the day after my birthday. I’m cool with wealthy benefactors and Platinum donations to Staticblog.
Auto-Tune the News 5: Lettuce Regulation
Static, Episode 17: I and I
Interview
“I Don’t Know”
“The Top”
“Venus”
Olivia Munn Makes Nerds’ Heads Explode
As per Nerdage, the worldwide geek population just suffered a collective cranial detonation today when it was announced that G4’s “Attack of the Show” co-host, Olivia Munn, the reigning gadget/geek culture goddess, has joined the cast of “Iron Man 2.” As she tweeted, “Slashfilm took a guess at my role in iron man 2 and i am not playing a reporter. but that’s all i can say.”
Right about now, work at most GameStop franchises has probably ground to a halt.
J.J. Abrams and Tom Cruise To Return for “Mission: Impossible IV”
It’s generally agreed that the J.J. Abrams-directed “Mission: Impossible III,” despite having the poorest box office showing of any film in the franchise, was easily the best. Abrams was able to conjure the first installment of the series that actually made sense, bringing a great deal of the “Alias” aesthetic to the 2006 film, and the writing team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (”Star Trek”) was well suited to the project.
Now, in the wake of his “Star Trek” success, Paramount has signed Abrams to at least produce “MI:4″ for 2011 or 2012. If he were to return to the director’s chair, this would be the first time Tom Cruise and Paramount would agree to having anyone direct more than one in the series — an early stated idea was to have wildly different interpretations and styles applied to each film.
Given my “Lost” allegiance and my unabashed love for the new “Star Trek” film, I’d love to see Abrams return to direct “M:I4″ — in fact, if he could just oversee the summer movie seasons for the next five years or so, we would all feel happier about our trips to the cineplex. One caveat: any interest on Abrams’ part in directing “M:I4″ should not get in the way of him directing the 2011 “Star Trek” sequel.
While he’s set to produce the “Star Trek” film, Abrams has yet to sign on to direct that one, either. If he has to choose, he should go with “Star Trek” — this is a newly fresh franchise, and Abrams clearly knew what he was doing on the relaunch.
One possibility: with “Lost” put to bed by early next year, he could move up one of his more trusted “Lost” directors to take on “M:I4,” like Jack Bender. But Paramount will likely balk at an unproven feature director taking on the franchise.
Thoughts?
Video of the Day: These Are Powers, “Easy Answers”
Not entirely certain what Anna Barie is yammering about, but it’s oddly hypnotic yammering. These Are Powers are a Brooklyn electro-noise trio featuring one former member of Liars and an apparent penchant for burning groceries from Super Cao Nguyen.
R.I.P., “The Unusuals”
The final episode of ABC’s “The Unusuals” airs at 9 tonight, though considering the show was canceled last month and the network has been burning off episodes with little fanfare ever since, few people would know. To say this series was “quirky” is to do it a disservice. To my eyes, “The Unusuals” played like “Barney Miller” dropped into “NYPD Blue” — eccentric cops dealing with the most peculiar crimes.
A great cast, including Harold Perrineau of “Lost,” Amber Tamblyn and Adam Goldberg, could not save this show, but ABC didn’t seem to feel like giving anything at 9 p.m. Wednesday a chance this year. “Life on Mars,” a great adaptation of the BBC series, was put on hiatus for nearly two months, then brought back cold after “Lost” returned and quickly canceled — fortunately, the series producers were able to resolve the central plot, and quite beautifully.
Then came “The Unusuals,” and ABC just dropped it in and let it sink or swim. I know people who watched every single episode, but I think we were the only ones, relatively speaking: only around 4 million viewers tuned into last week’s episode.
This is an old argument, I know, but the networks are simply not giving shows a chance to build audiences. By current standards, “M*A*S*H*” would have been killed off after four episodes, and it still amazes me that, as late as 1990, “Seinfeld” was given a reprieve after desultory numbers and given the opportunity to find its footing and its audience.
Like “Life on Mars,” “The Unusuals” deserved such an opportunity. Now, what are we to do with the current format of dramatic series television, in which serialized plots or recurring motifs carry the day in every hour-long drama other than the procedurals? Why should viewers have any allegiance to a new show this fall when most are not given a chance to flourish?
The networks continue to use reality series as a cheap crutch, and shows like “Dancing With the Stars” are certainly inexpensive cash cows. But an investment of time and promotion could result in something far more durable, and reality TV is an ephemeral entertainment — each installment is only worth watching once. Losing “The Unusuals” is just another epic fail on the part of the networks, and I’ll be carefully choosing which shows I dare to follow this fall. You never know if the bottom will fall out of your time investment.
Watch the series here.
