The ultimate in crowd-sourced, user-generated, globalized wiki-culture, San Francisco-based designer Brian Singer’s 1000 Journals Project is as analog as can be.
In the decade since Singer distributed the project’s first notebooks — featuring original covers by popular young artists and an open invitation to fill some of their pages and pass them on — the journals have crisscrossed the globe. Along the way, they’ve accumulated powerful, eclectic stories and art, and spawned exhibitions, a book, a documentary film, and a second round of international paper-tag.
Newly released on DVD, Blood Into Wine is both a documentary and an all-new soundtrack celebrating Tool and Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan’s brutal, bloody education in wine-making.
Described as a “rock ‘n roll version of Sideways,” this extraordinarily intimate (for the very private Keenan) film is as much about the intense relationship with his business partner Erick Glomski as it is about a season in Arizona-desert oenology and the creative inspiration of the adventure. With cameos by Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, and Milla Jovovich, it’s also pretty funny.
The macabre story of a man’s last day before he dies, The Living Wake stars comic musician Mike O’Connell as the lovably insufferable K. Roth Binew, with Jesse Eisenberg as his meek manservant, Mills.
With Mills pedaling his rickshaw, the film’s ego-bloated antihero sets out to invite his enemies to his own wake before he plans to pass away from a vague, undiagnosed illness. Set in a timeless dreamscape, the lyrically hyper-real screenplay is infused with elements of fantasy, yielding a morbid storybook feel that defies genre.
A multi-artist crowdsourced remake of the 1968 zombie classic, Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated proves that art has the power to raise the undead.
Beloved for its DIY production design and allegorical power, the original Night of the Living Dead was ready-made for interdisciplinary inspiration. NOTLD: Reanimated invited 150 artists to illustrate their favorite scenes, with the wildly eclectic results augmented by the full-length original audio. Comprising everything from photography to puppetry to painting, the project honors and builds on the dark humor, independent artistry, and enduring influence of the OG American zombie.
A collaboration between indie superstars Animal Collective and filmmaker Danny Perez, ODDSAC pairs the band’s original music with surreal imagery to create a unique work that’s equal parts eerie and sumptuous.
Animal Collective have designated ODDSAC — which comes out August 10th on DVD — a “visual album,” and, true to that label, it plays more like a concept record than a narrative film or series of music videos. What unites the songs (besides staticky intermezzos) is an aesthetic that’s both lushly colorful and achingly discordant. In fact, fans expecting an upbeat, pop-psych reprise of last year’s Merriweather Post Pavilion may be surprised at ODDSAC‘s dark core.
The latest installment of Criterion’s budget-friendly Essential Art House series features pristine transfers of six highly influential films from the massive 50-disc Janus box set.
Volume five is the strongest to date, featuring classics like Federico Fellini’s existential character study 8 1/2 and Francois Truffaut’s freewheeling love story Jules and Jim, along with lesser known but equally impressive works: Milos Forman’s breakthrough feature, Loves of a Blonde, and Yasujiro Ozu’s visually stunning Floating Weeds. David Lean’s adaptation of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter and Gillo Pontecorvo’s brutally audacious Kapo round out the collection.
Congratulations to Jonathan G. from NYC, who took home the prize in our Monty Python: Almost the Truth giveaway. But the madness doesn’t stop there: We have yet more Python goodies to send your way. This time around, our first-prize winner will receive the massive 16-Ton Megaset, featuring every single episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus plus two discs of bonus material. Our second-place winner, meanwhile, will snag a copy of Monty Python: The Other British Invasion.
It’s all syncs up with Sillywalks for Hunger, a massive event taking place tonight in LA that will find hundreds of people transforming Univeral CityWalk into a modern version of the Ministry of Silly Walks, all in support of a number of food-based charities. To enter our contest, just leave us a comment detailing a time that something Pythonesque has crossed over into your real life.
Celebrating 40 years of Monty Python, Almost the Truth: The Lawyer’s Cut brings the six-part IFC documentary series to DVD with a host of extras.
Chronicling the hugely influential comedy troupe’s entire history, Almost the Truth spans decades of Pythonism, and features tributes from the likes of Russell Brand, Jimmy Fallon, Simon Pegg, Steve Coogan, Dan Aykroyd, and Seth Green. It’s rounded out by sketches, film clips, and revelations, such as the lengths George Harrison went to in order to fund The Life of Brian.
Enter to win! We have a copy of the DVD to give away to one lucky reader. To enter, leave a comment below revealing your favorite moment from Monty Python history. Be sure to use a valid email address when entering, so we can contact you if you win.
, featuring every single episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus plus two discs of bonus material. Our second-place winner, meanwhile, will snag a copy of 
.
