Tarantula!

Bonjour Mes Amis,

All Art is Martial Art!

Open the gates of Paradise.

I wish I was writing this from the dark heart of the night in Nashville, TN, but I must confess that this correspondence finds its way through the ether from a launch pad, on a sunny porch, on a lovely, early-summer day here in The Old South.

First, forgive me.



I have been informed by more than one of you - my faithful readers - that it has been too long since I have been back here to entice, incite, and ignite any of these oddball heresies, and for that I am truly sorry.

On that note, we move on.



Some must-tell movie tips...

Be Kind Rewind is now on DVD. If you haven't seen this film...see it! It may come as a suprise - and '08 has been a slow six months for films - but BKRW is THE BEST FILM OF THE YEAR.

Really and truly.



The central trope of the film - two morons accidentally erase all the video tapes at a down-on-its-heels video store and have to "refilm them all" to save the business - is only the beginnings of what makes this movie so good. Its true heart is a story about the intrinsic creativity that all people possess, and the community building transformations that can occur when that potential is made manifest. It is also a story about how we tell ourselves stories that bind us to other people. These myths are TRUE even when they are not TRUE.

Did I mention it's the best film of the year???



After a recent birthday - thanks...thank you - I received a copy of the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. I had seen the trailer and feared the worst. Todd Haynes is not a slam dunk director (see the embarrassing Velvet Goldmine), and I was worried, but still intrigued by the idea of presenting Dylan's story using 6 different actors in the lead role. I saw the film, and by the time the tarantula crawls across the screen (you have to see it) I found myself feeling, "I want to watch this whole movie again right now!"



Now that I have the DVD, I have watched the movie/commentary nearly 10 times. Truly amazing movie.

Highlights include 13 year old Marcus Carl Franklin's performance in the role of Dylan's childhood persona, "Woody" (Franklin is the only actor who sings his own songs), My Morning Jacket/Calexico's performance of "Goin' to Acupulco", and David Cross' dead-on cameo in the role of Allen Ginsberg.



So...

What else is going on...

Oh yeah! The rising oil prices are due to the wildly inflated dollar that no one is discussing. The Presidential election is strangely full of more and more speculation in the news about an imminent terrorist attack by the end of the year, or in early 2009. There is a new robot called Phoenix on Mars, and Albert Ayler's music sounds better than ever.



Speaking of music news, my new CD - Blue Turns Black - will soon be available on ITunes (USA, UK/Europe, Canada, Japan), Napster, Emusic, Rhapsody, and Amazon.

Check out the links below to preview the new CD, enjoy free downloads from my previous releases, and explore this site.

Be gentle in your sleepy hands on this world.
Be a killer in Heaven.

Love,
Joe Nolan

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