3/10/10

Check out Jesse's new excursion into bizarre territory.
_____

The reason I took James out of the will:

Text from Me: "Hey, I feel snow coming."
James: "Gross. That's Mom's dog's name."
_____

Here's my take on the whole Toyota Mysterious Acceleration thing: The problem is not mechanical, it's spiritual - the cars are being possessed by ANCIENT JAPANESE SAMURAI  DEMONS!!!

I'm simply asking you to consider it.

3/9/10

This Netflix thing has to stop. 

For the past month I've done NOTHING except watch documentaries and movies. Which was fine, for the first three or four thousand hours. But now it's time to pay whatever's month rent is due, shovel out the kitchen, see if I still have a job, etc.

I saw:

Fitzcarraldo - Just one of the great works of art directed by German genius Werner Herzog. Film students who deny themselves this film and Herzog's earlier Aguirre: The Wrath of God are crippled among us enlightened ones who have suffered his bug bites and come out of his films wanting to kill and eat some slithering, disgusting reptile.
Burden of Dreams - A film about the making of Fitzcarraldo. Yeah, they really did pull that ship over the mountain. Yeah, Kinski really was a dick. (So much so that the actual native chief in the film offered Herzog to have Kinski killed for him.)
My Best Fiend: Klaus Kinski - Herzog's documentary about the maniacal actor Klaus Kinski, who played the lead role in Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre and other Herzog classics. 
The Silence - Perhaps the greatest filmmaker of all times, this is Ingmar Bergman nearing the height of his creative genius. Following this film he did Winter Light and after that Persona, which is on my list of the 10 Greatest Films of All Time.
CSA: Confederate States of America - What if the South had won the Civil War? This mockumentary nearly gets mired in its own cleverness toward the end, but it's definitely worth watching.
Caligula - A ridiculous attempt by Penthouse Magazine editor Bob Guccione to merge porn and Hollywood. This Netflix version cuts out much of the hardcore porn shots which, sadly, was the only things that made this pig worth watch waddling. 
Antichrist - One of those films you can't get out of your head. Willem Dafoe stars in this surreal bellyflop into the collective psychic goo. A film by the amazing Danish auteur Lars von Trier. 
Inside Deep Throat - An in-your-face (sorry) documentary about the social implications of the film.
The Story of O - Oh...
Dead Snow - Nazi zombies. What more do you want?
Snuff - A mildly interesting documentary about snuff films.
Maid-Droid - If you thought the Japanese were weird before...
Sex and the Cinema - a documentary about...
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema - Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek puts David Lynch, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx and others on the couch in this heady, enlightening and entertaining essay.
Fausto 5.0 - A wonderful Spanish surprise. Never heard of it before. 
M - Fritz Lang's first "talkie" from 1931. Peter Lorre as the cinema's first serial killer.
Examined Life - A collection of philosophers talking mostly over my head.
Solaris - The Russian sci-fi classic from the early 70s.

2/27/10

I just watched the documentary "Zoo." Later, I went for a ride out in the country where I encountered this group of horses and I noticed that this one was, like, totally checking me out. So I said, "Hay."
_____

This website set a new daily record last Monday: 1607 hits.

2/25/10

I can't believe everyone's freaking out about this woman who was killed by a KILLER whale. She got into the water with a KILLER whale - a KILLER whale who had killed before.  Gee, what a surprise; she was killed by a killer KILLER whale.

2/19/10

I'd tell Tiger Woods to kiss my ass but I wouldn't want him to mess up his "therapy." 

2/18/10

Yo, Joe. Why didn't you just write a song about flying a plane into the Austin, Texas, IRS offices instead of actually doing it? Huh? Think about it from your purgatorial perch. You would have gotten lots of attention. No doubt some gun ho, mid-level, governmental administrator would have made it his personal mission to rid society of your likes by abusing his power to make things even tougher on you than they already were, which would have undoubtedly went bad and been exposed by some equally gung ho, young Austin journalist - and you would have gotten even more attention. Having read your manifesto, it's obvious you were relatively sane and quite articulate. You would eventually have become a regular on the Alex Jones Show, and/or you could have written a book, or at least you could have sold survival packets or water purification tablets or some other dumb fucking thing on the side and you would have reached thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people who, like you, have a bona fide bitch about the IRS. 

But, furthermore, your daughter would still have a father. Your wife would still have a husband. And you, Mr. Andrew Joseph Stack, would be 100 percent less dead.

Still, you selfish, misguided son-of-a-bitch, may you rest in peace...

2/10/10

D'oh!  I just realized that Donald Sutherland played Homer Simpson in John Schlesinger's cinema classic "Day of the Locust." (And I shop at Boo Radleys to boot.)

2/6/10

I've long been saying that video games are one of the signs of the collapse of world culture and general sanity. Here's more proof.
_____

Arp and I built my super-computer last weekend, but he won't give it to me yet. He claims it's "a bit unstable." I told him that I'm also a bit unstable at times and that he shouldn't sweat it. He says there may be a fairly simple software fix (for the computer, not me). I'll keep you posted. 
_____

Also, been pumpin' some iron...

2/1/10

Yes, I know it's obsessive, but I can't help it. It's a phase; bear with me.
More amazing films I've seen lately: 

"C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bites Dog)," by Remy Bevaux (1992). A black and white, French film which was strangely billed as a comedy. (Well, maybe a very, very dark comedy.) As a serial killer creatively applies his "art," a film crew records the exploits and eventually becomes intimately involved. Very entertaining, but with some truly horrifying scenes.
"Julien Donkey-Boy," (1999) by Harmony Korine. The surreal exploits of a schizophrenic teen and his ultra-dysfunctional family. This film is similar in style to Korine's amazing film, "Gummo," from two years prior. "Gummo," impressed me like no other movie since Fellini's "8 ½." (The sound you just heard was the collective gurgled chagrin of professional film critics.) Even if you don't like Korine's bizarre style, you should see "Julien Donkey-Boy" if only for the performance of legendary German director, Werner Herzog, as the abusive father.
"Quarantine," (2008). While shadowing L.A. firemen, a reporter and her cameraman get trapped in a quarantined apartment complex with a slew of rabies-infected zombies - while the camera rolls on. Okay, okay, it's yet another zombie flick. But this one rises above the fray in that the entire movie is seen through the lens of the entrapped cameraman. 
_____

OtherSpokane.com total hits for January: 16,206

1/25/10

I just got NetFlix, so I've been watching A LOT of movies lately.
Here are the ones that really impressed me:

"Following," (1998) by Christopher Nolan. A beautiful, complex, black and white film about a man whose obsession with following random people draws him into a dangerous criminal underground. Few people have seen this film, maybe because it was overshadowed by Nolan's next movie, "Memento" (an even better film). Both projects are similar in their use of a non-linear timeline.
"The Brood," (1979) by David Cronenberg. Violent and grisly, but intelligent - one of his early horror films, and his first film using quality actors. This film is currently being remade by a different director.
"Inglourius Basterds," (2009) by Quentin Tarantino. A mad, ingenious, new kind of fairy tale by a mad genius/fairy tale character. 

1/23/10

Conan's last show TOTALLY ROCKED LAST NIGHT!
_____

More Arp links. I think the boy has seriously lost it:

1/22/10

1/17/10

Just watched three amazing films:

 "La voie lactée (The Milky Way)" - by Luis Bunuel. (1969) His uber-original take on religion. I don't understand the charges of blasphemy against this film. The portrayal of Jesus is right on, as far as the gospels are concerned, and (smilingly) refreshing. 
"Unser täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread)" by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. (2005) A dialogue-less documentary about modern food production. Amazing digital filmmaking. Who'd of believed that industrialized hog slaughtering could be a thing of beauty?
"Bruno" (2009) - It's possible that I damaged myself internally from laughing at the final scene.
_{_____}

Here's the computer that Arp and I are building. (We don't actually have it yet - the parts are in the mail.) Any thoughts?

     ¶ GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5 ATX Intel Motherboard
     ¶ CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
     ¶ Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
     ¶ CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory
     ¶ Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
     ¶ SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 100283L Video Card
     ¶ Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders

1/15/10

My prediction regarding the late night talk show war: LETTERMAN WILL RETIRE! and will bring Conan in as the complementary butt cheek in his Worldwide Pants - pitting him chin to chin with Leno at 11:30. 

1/13/10

Early this morning.

New Year's Eve (?)

The last time it was really, really cold.

1/12/10

So, I asked my friend Arp Xigar to do some research into building a new computer for me. Revelation: Be careful what you say to a computer nerd. I need something to edit HD video, but Arp is considering the long term probability that I might need to someday travel back in time, or hack NORAD, or control hurricanes. Knowing I have the technical wherewithal of a salamander, here's some of the links he's sent me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9MGreSRG0c 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZezTOXxBAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK_elZ0sxAE&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsw9wMikp_8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY15hOBM9do 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1adBBwHMnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnL0PFIcnN4

1/09/10

Here's North by Northwest's YouTube site of all entries to the 48 Hour Film Fest.

1/08/10

Here's something I shot a few weeks ago when I first got my camera. It's not HD, and I really didn't know what I was doing; and still, it's clearer than anything I shot with my other cameras.

1/05/10

1/03/10

We're preparing to shoot something very dark and very creepy. Most of the story takes place in Riverfront Park (the working title is "RiverDark Park") with a few scenes to be shot in a local coffee shop or tavern. If you've worked with us before and/or you want to be involved, get a hold of me or Jesse. 
_____

(Shhh! I'm trying to get my friend, Arp Xigar, to build me a computer so I told him I'd publish his web recommendations. Just play along 'til I get my riggin'.)

Omniscience For Everyone,
     Let’s begin the New Year with an overwhelming appreciation of those that make our everyday lives a little more exciting... Here’s a tune to get into your head Monday morning... And remember to be Joyous in your Industry; they are watching you and your productivity: Get ‘er done! And as Friday comes around, how about a grateful indebtedness towards our benevolent overlords. Also, Stik Mann needs a new computer! Let’s all help him build the greatest ENIAC we can! Punch cards and vacuum tubes are a must. Here's to the New Year!
     Your Humble Servant, Arp Xigar

(Remember esteemed readers, sometimes a Xigar is just a Xigar.)

Click Here to go to Arp's CowFacts, Arp's collection of facts about cows.

1/02/10

Yeah, yeah, okay. Jeez. Here's the winners:

Best Picture - Project Greenman
Runner Up - Exposure

People's Choice - Prove It
Runner Up - Exposure
_{_____}

Duuuh Department:
It's been brought to my attention that 0 plus 9 equals 9, not 10. That's right, this website - which was born at 11:59 pm on 12/31/99 in the midst of the Y2K scare - just celebrated its NINTH anniversary, not the TENTH. So, all that stuff I wrote earlier - forget about it until next year.
_____

Total hits to OtherSpokane.com on New Year's Day: 991
Total hits for December: 11,488

1/01/10

Happy New Year!

First, the bad news: The Spokane 48 Hour Film Fest's Best Film award went to someone who wasn't us. Similarly, the People's Choice award went to other non-us participants. 

The good news is that it was nonetheless an AWESOME experience. There is nothing like the rush of hearing people enjoy and applaud your work. I was at the first showing and the City Hall auditorium was packed full. The line waiting to get into the second showing stretched up the stairway and into the street. Well over a thousand people must have seen the eight finalist films throughout the course of the evening. 

A big tip of the official OtherSpokane artsy-fartsy director's beret goes to North by Northwest Productions for the expertise, time and expense that must have been required to make this extraordinary event possible. 

This just in: Because of the popularity of this year's contest, there's going to be a SUMMER 48 Hour Film Fest. Sincerely and ominously we say with our best Arnold scowl, "We'll be baaack."

12/31/09

If you're going to First Night in downtown Spokane tonight, be sure to visit the auditorium at City Hall to watch the finalists in the Spokane 48 Hour Film Festival. Our film, "bag," is one of the eight to be shown -  repeatedly - starting at 7:00 pm. Happy New Year!
_____

As of 11:59 pm tonight, this website celebrates its 10th anniversary! 

12/29/09

Wow! There's something to say about persistence. For the first time in 10 years, this humble website has topped the 10,000 mark for monthly hits. Yesterday set the record for daily hits with 731. 
_____

More fun with my camera...
(Click for a larger pic.)

12/28/09

Here's Jesse's new video in celebration of the new year. 
Come get your LOVE JOB.

12/18/09

This just in. Our film "bag" was one of the eight selected - from the 27 submitted - to be shown at Spokane First Night! Here's a list of those eight in alphabetical order:

1.  Blackbox Pictures - "Prove It"
2.  Breakfast Productions - "Exposure"
3.  Brundlefly - "The Abomination"
4.  Gonzaga Film Club - "Gotcha"
5.  OtherSpokane Productions - "bag"
6.  Seasoned Eagles - "Dust to Dust"
7.  Shorty Heaven - "Project Greenman"
8.  Wool Knit Cap - "Half the Battle"

These films will be shown in five different screenings on New Year's Eve in the City Hall Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. They'll be awarding First Place and Runner Up in two categories: Judge's Choice and People's Choice. Show up and vote for your favorites! The winners will garner a spot in the nearly-illustrious Spokane Film Festival.

12/14/09

Click here to go to Jesse's YouTube favorites for a collection
of currently posted Spokane 48 Hour Film Fest entries. 

Some images emerging from the haze of those fateful 48 hours:

Jesse explaining why we need three different types of fake blood.
     "One is mostly non-toxic so you can put it in your mouth in case we need gurgling and spitting..."

The reaction of the bookkeeper at Luigi's when she walked in the back door and came face to face with Brynne covered in blood and holding a large knife.

John's on-camera rendition of "That's Amore." 
Which we didn't use (yet).

12/07/09

Here's our entry to the 48 Hour Film Fest. God help us all.

12/06/09

Just turned in our entry to the 48 Hour Film Fest. Look for the short film from OtherSpokane Productions entitled "bag." It's so bad it's good. It's insane and inspired. It's so good it's bad. Jesse was up all night doing the final edit. When I last saw him he said something about angels in drag and ended the sentence with something about Nazi death camps. We could all use some sleep.

12/05/09

We're in the middle of the Spokane 48 Hour Film Contest!
All twenty or so teams must include the following in their movie:
Prop: A zip lock bag
Location: A restaurant (!)
Dialogue: "It is your head, arms, legs, what? Just tell me!"
Each team drew a separate genre. We drew HORROR!.
(Wish us luck. The clock is ticking.)

12/03/09

I was having a drink with John after work when he morphed into one of the alien creatures from that Twilight Zone episode where the humans find one of the alien's books and translate the title "How to Serve Man" only to later find out "It's a cookbook! It's a cookbook!"

12/02/09

A local restaurant gets an unintended boost to its advertising buck.

11/25/09

Police divers practicing in Riverfront Park.

11/24/09

Jesse just entered us in the Spokane 48 Hour Film Festival. A contest where participants are given a universal theme, a prop and a line of dialogue that must used. Teams then have exactly 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a 3-5 minute short film. 

11/23/09

Been playin' with my camera...

     
     Jesse                                                       Nikki

   
      Matt Kelly                                     WillWill

11/22/09

The last thing I remember last night is working eleven hours without a break, stressed out, running up and down stairs, people tossing pans, people screaming, babbling, bleeding. (I work in a busy restaurant.)

No, wait... The last thing I remember last night is leaving work, dazed and confused, and having two drinks too many at Mootsys tavern.

No, wait... The last thing I remember last night is staggering home through the cold and the wet and laying in a very hot bath. Oh, yeah. Finally, life is good...

No, wait... The last thing I remember last night is being in the Arctic regions, snow and icy wind whirling about me, chilling me to the bone. A herd of penguins surround me. One of the horrid creatures says to me, "Dude, you look like shit." It never occurs to me that penguins can't really speak.

No, wait... The last thing I remember last night is waking up at 3:30 in the morning in ice cold bath water, shivering, shivering, shivering...

No, wait...

11/18/09

"Dude, this place is great."
James in Austin, TX   

11/15/09

Just got a new camera.
See?... 

11/14/09

11/09/09

Trip Clip. Trip Clip. Trip Clip
Descent into the Valley of Death

11/04/09

Another Trip Clip:
Ghost Town

11/01/09

I did another Trip Clip: 
Antelope Near Devil's Tower.
(See the others in the sidebar.)

10/29/09

Here's Jesse's Halloween video offering: A Leroy Lovegun Halloween. Leroy goes on an epic trick or treating adventure. Goofball awesomeness abounds. For more Lovegun goodies, click here.

10/26/09

Skull Studies (with smoke and mirrors)

I found this skull while on a bike ride in 
the Turnbull area near Cheney...

Where I always discover something new...

And unusual...

 Mysterious...

And strangely satisfying...

10/26/09

Here's one of our video offerings for Halloween: GUNTher - Ein fest fur GUNTher. 

GUNTher and friends come to realize that it's possible to party themselves...TO DEATH!!! 
Featuring Professor Terrington and Mr. Needles as their inimitable selves.

10/24/09

James' new ride - the Lite Foot Bike. He drives around Texas on this.

10/22/09

Unless you were at the Big Dipper last night, you missed out.

The Hold Steady - a Brooklyn-based, riff-heavy, post-punk band - rocked a relatively small group of Spokanites and groupies in an intimate setting that few are likely to ever experience again. (So intimate, in fact, that lead singer, Craig Finn, stopped the show to apologize to a girl who he whacked in the head with his mic.)

High volume, sweat and steam, bizarre religious imagery, wide-eyed groupies, an animal lib freak who stormed the stage, a lead guitarist with an array of impressive weaponry, a keyboardist who looks like Gomez from The Addams Family, and tight, hyper-fun, upbeat, lyric-heavy rock and roll - what more do you want for a Wednesday night in Spokane?

10/20/09

What is this?

I found it on the South riverbank, a few 
miles downstream of the Bowl & Pitcher

Aboriginal net weight? A relic from Spokane's industrial past? 

10/15/09

Okay, dudes, get a grip. The following video - HR 8791, the Homeland Security Preparedness Bill - is a hoax:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlvxIdSI7V4
It's from The Onion - a satirical "news agency." 

10/11/09

Snapshots from the Leroy Lovegun Halloween shoot:

10/09/09

POTUS to-do list:
1. Win Nobel Peace Prize
2. Expand war in Afghanistan

10/08/09

Yet another stuck truck. Downtown. About 3:00 pm. 
Maybe not all that dependable.

10/07/09

Begins here account book of Chuck Palahniuk "Pygmy" by editor me. Easy read no. Style English broken. Boy Pygmy with group spies sent evil America so instigate Operation Havoc. Esteemed Palahniuk typical wallow in own cleverness perhaps excessive so yet wondrous still work much. Much enjoyed by editor me. 

10/06/09

Here's James being prepped 
for Jesse's short film, 
"Pussy's in the Well."

You'll never look at nursery rhymes 
the same ever again...

10/05/09

Right when you think it's about to climax, the Hardin thing just gets stranger and stranger.
___

I'm still amazed at the lack of press coverage of the violence at the G-20 conference in Pittsburgh just over a week ago. Few people are aware that police used sonic weapons on American citizens, or that a scene like this could happen on an American street. 

Dig Wesley's take on the G-20.
___

I just watched a lecture by one of my favorite Northwestern personalities, Pastor Chuck Missler, from Coeur d'Alene, ID, about UFOs, and how the Nephilims of the Old Testament could actually be extra-dimensional beings. Awesome.

10/04/09

Text from James:

I am at the site where David Bowie 
and the Spiders from Mars successfully defended 
a pile of rubble from one million Vietnamese. 

10/03/09

Upon seeing that I had befriended (on MySpace) the criminally insane, convicted murderer,  Phillip Paul (see 9/29), my non-murderer friend Jesse James Hennessy had a revelation. Last year he and my daughter-in-law Karen were out doing some promo work for his film "Leroy Lovegun" when they interviewed an unusual man playing guitar on the streets of Spokane. 

Check it out here at 1:46. The video was taken on August 10, 2008. Shouldn't Philly Willy have had some kind of Hillbilly supervision?

10/02/09

10/01/09

The Hardin story just gets bigger and bigger. (Sorry, I can't help it - see 9/30.)

Alex Jones claims that American Police Force (APF) in Hardin, MT is a Blackwater Front Group.

Even Michelle Malkin wrote about it. And yes, tried to blame it on Obama.

This just in: The Montana Attorney General announced that the kingpin of the APF is a Serbian immigrant with a long criminal record and that the AG is going to investigate the whole shebang. 

9/30/09

What's going on in Hardin, Montana? 

(First of all, let's be careful how we pronounce Hardin - it's "Hard-in" - despite the fact that it's near where Custer had his "last stand.")

Neil Katz at CBS News reported that "American Police Force, a little known company which claims to specialize in training military and security forces overseas, has seemingly taken control of a $27 million, never-used jail, and a rural Montana town’s nonexistent police force."

Google for yourself. (And don't miss the videos.) It's all quite unnerving. 

9/29/09

People are already lining up to buy Sarah Palin's memoir, "Going Rogue." Scheduled to be released November 17th from publisher HarperCollins.
___

Remember Phillip Paul, the criminally insane escapee from the Spokane County Fair? He just accepted my friend request on his MySpace page: Philly Willy and the Hillbillies. 

I can't get his very poignant song out of my head: "Rockin' and a rollin' in a mental institution. God only knows it's against the Constitution."

9/28/09

I wrote to Jennifer DeRuwe, from the Spokane Police Department's 
Public Information Office, about an extraordinary claim by Austin, TX, 
radio talk show host, Alex Jones, during his 9/23/09 broadcast.

After bemoaning government opposition to personal gun ownership, and the
rise of warrantless searches - which he called "knock and talks," he
claimed that Army officers have been assigned to the Spokane Police
Department "intelligence office" to investigate local threats to
security.

Here's the quote:

"Three or four or five Army liaison officers from the regular army, from
Homeland Security, have been given as a federal grant to Spokane WA
to...the police department, and they're gonna be assigned to the police
intelligence office, looking for local threats."

I asked DeRuwe if there was any truth in this. Have armed service personnel of any
sort been assigned to work with the SPD in any capacity whatsoever?

She wrote back:

"After checking, there really is no truth to those statements. We do not
have any Army officers working for us."

9/27/09

New cool tool! 

AM/FM, weather channel, powerful flashlight, cell phone charger, solar or crank powered. $30 @ rei.

9/26/09       

I tried, I tried to kill Stik Mann. But he wouldn't stay dead.

Blame this guy -

- the first cop, for the first time on American soil, to use the LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device), a sonic weapon - previously reserved for Iraqi terrorists and Somali pirates - on his fellow citizens.

On us.

His THOUSANDS of buddies - shipped in from all over the country to "keep the peace" at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh - joined him in the Benedict Arnold-a-thon, spraying tear gas, firing bean bags from shotguns, and tossing flash-bang grenades - at their fellow citizens. 

At us.

Please read the OtherSpokane DISCLAIMER

Stik Mann's OtherSpokane and all content within
Copyright © 2009, Steven J. St. George
(unless otherwise noted or as obvious as a
LRAD sonic weapon device at a G-20 protest).