2009

13 December

blog

Film Do-It-Yourself Empowerment - the short but great IPRC Documentary by Kate

Do-It-Yourself Empowerment: The IPRC is a 10 minute introduction to the Independent Publishing Resource Centre in Portland (US). The center has been running since 1998 and, like many great things, it all started with a photocopier. Now the IPRC holds workshops in media analysis and creation as well as providing an exensive zine library and zine-making facilities.

And if you’re feeling inspired after watching the documentary but find yourself on the wrong side of the Atlantic to get involved, the zine library at the 56a Infoshop in London is a similarly rad space.

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2007

06 December

blog

Film Wachowskis' Speed Racer by Nick

The first stills from the film are out and they look amazing — promising a kind of sixties fantasia of colour, abstract shape, chimpanzees, and fast cars.

Link: First look: ‘Speed Racer’ wheels into live action, via Kottke

18 June

blog

Activism Quick Links Dump by Nick

• Open, a bi-annual journal about art and the public domain. Via space and culture
• Photo gallery about the Suffragette Movement. Includes rare archival photos. Via Bitch, PhD
• Kottke’s review of Pixar’s latest, Ratatouille

28 March

reviews

Film Film Review: Itty Bitty Titty Committee by Kate

The Itty Bitty Titty Committee is the latest film by Jamie Babbit and opened this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Babbit’s directorial style remains intact; the abrupt scene jumps, (dyke)pop culture references, humour and a glossy, music video finish. This approach has served her well most recently in episodes of The L Word and it works well here for a film that takes a light-hearted (and occasionally self-mocking) look at awkward adolescence. That is, the awkward adolescence experience by newly political disenfranchised young queers, an experience that has until now remained far removed from any kind of general cinema release.

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20 January

blog

Film Superheroic Digitalia by Nick

Does anyone remember the amazingly awful, yet oddly hilarious homophobic nerd panic that gripped US fanboy culture a few years back when Ang Lee announced that the Incredible Hulk might appear naked in Hulk? One of the entirely unfounded concerns was that large portions of the movie would feature the Hulk smashing cars with his, and I quote from memory here, “giant wang”. The main issue, of course, was the incredible discomfort straight male fans were having with their own reactions to the notion of a beloved male super hero in a potentially erotic context.

We might be gearing up for round two of that little fanboy forum freakout, with the publication of an Ain’t it Cool News item entitled Silver Surfer’s Got Nards!!. Turns out an enterprising digital animator has added a couple frames of silver alien genitalia to the beloved Marvel superhero. Luckily, perhaps, it’s going to be in the Fantastic Four sequel, so no-one will actually have to see it.

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