Silkscreen posters celebrating "Lost"

The producers of Lost commissioned a bunch of poster artists around the country to make a poster of their favorite Lost moments or characters. There are some pretty cool ones. I09 has a gallery of them.

Here is Jay Ryan's poster

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Mark's Top Ten movies that I watched in 2009

I'll try to keep this to current releases but there are always films that come out at the end of the year that probably would be on the list (The Road) or that played the Chicago International Film Festival (Mother) that I did not get the chance to see, that probably would be on this list.

1. Love Exposure by Sion Sono (Japan)
A four hour film about sinning and the bible. And a character dresses up as "Female Prisoner Scorpion".



2. Thirst by Park Chan-Wook (South Korea)
For the second year in a row a vampire film made the list and neither of them are called Twilight.



3. Gomorrah by Matteo Garrone (Italy)
Amazing expose of the criminal life in Naples, Italy.



4. Ip Man by Wilson Yip
First of a trilogy about Bruce Lee's kung fu teacher. Wong Kar Wai is also adapting the teacher's story so look for it on my list in about 5 years.



5. Drag Me To Hell by Sam Raimi (USA
I was impressed by Raimi's return to his horror roots. If he makes another one I won't wait for dvd to see it. Sorry for the intro to the trailer.



6. Shinjuku Incident by Derek Yee (Hong Kong)
On this list for two reasons. Jackie Chan plays a bad guy and as a producer of the movie he refused to cut the movie's violence and scenes of criminal life to get released in China.



7. In The Loop Armando Iannucci (United Kingdom)
Some awesome swearing and put downs in this movie and it is scary how close to what really happened this is.



8. Beast Stalker by Dante Lam (Hong Kong)
The trailer has some spoilers. Good crime drama with good acting from Nick Cheung and Nicholas Tse.



9. Red Cliff 2 by John Woo (China)
The trailer is not subbed but shows John Woo's return to action.



10. Crank 2 by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Just watched this last night and it makes the list because twice during the movie I said "I haven't seen that before" Stupid over the top fun action. Much better than Transporter 3. If these directors could hire Corey Yuen to help film the action they might just find their way on to future top ten lists.



Also the worst film I saw in a theater this year was "Ninja Assassin"

Mark's Top Ten movies 2000-2009

Here are my favorite films of the last 10 years. I won't go into much detail on the films because I've probably already told you about them in the store. Or forced you to watch them.

1. Survive Style 5+ by Gen Sekiguichi (2004)
No US release in sight for this film. So many interlocking stories. Tadanobu Asano and Vinnie Jones. The director hasn't made a movie since. Here is the trailer. When you search for the film on youtube you will see several people pick segments of the film to be their favorite every.


2. Battle Royale by Kinji Fukusaku (2000) I used to import copies of the disc from the UK and sold quite a few. Oh the days before bootleg dvds.



3.City Of God by Fernando Mierelles and Katia Lund (2002)



4. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance by Park Chan-Wook (2002) My favorite of the Vengeance trilogy and the bleakest. Great performances by everybody in the cast.



5. Love Exposure by Sion Sono (2009)
My favorite film of 2009. 4 hours long.



6.Ichi The Killer by Takashi Miike (2001) It would a toss up between this and Audition if it had been released in the last 10 years. And it took me a year to find out that Yoshimi from the Boredoms did the soundtrack. Features Tadabanu Asano from Survive Style 5+. Rumor is that he will be featured in the Thor movie.



7.Memories Of Murder by Bong Joon-Ho (2003) Again a toss up between this and The Host. I prefer Song Kang-Ho's acting in this film.



8. Nowhere To Hide by Lee Myung-Se (2000) Saw this twice in one week at the Music Box. There is a US disc of this film but it is missing about 20 minutes. Two detectives tracking a mobster wanted for murder. This and Shiri were two the first Korean films that I watched.



9. 28 Days Later by Danny Boyle (2002) This was a good year for movies.



10. Mad Detective by Johnnie To (2008) I could write a list for the best 10 Johnnie To films of the last decade and still leave off some good movies.




Most of these movies are available on imported discs via ebay. You can also watch almost all of them on youtube.

Hard Boiled Update 11-13-09

Lots of good records in the store at the moment. Here are some New releases

Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree - Hour Glass LP On 12K.

Velvet Underground - s/t LP 4 Men With Beards reissue.

Post Human - Monsters Exist 12" On B12

Kirk Degiorgio - Isomer Shift 12" On B12.

V/a - B12 Archive Vol. 1 2xCD

V/a - Hyperdub 5.3 12"

V/a - Hyperdub 5.4 12"

V/a - Africa Boogaloo, The Latinazation Of West Africa 2xLP On Honest Jons Records.
The influence of Caribbean music in West Africa.

Johnny Trunk - Scrapbook CD On Trunk Records.

Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook 12" On Kompakt Records. Remixes by Gluteus and Flowing aka Thomas Fehlmann

Monolake - Atlas T++ Remix 12"

V/a - Mata La Pena LP Great comp of obscure vintage international music. On Mississippi Records.

Joseph Spence - Good Morning Mr Walker LP Bahamian guitarist. Licensed from Arhoolie Records and reissued by Mississippi Records.

Fred McDowell - s/t LP Essential Blues record. Again reissued by Mississippi Records from Arhoolie Records.

Zomby - One Foot Ahead of The Other CD On Ramp.

Group Bombino - Agadez Vol. 2 CD On Sublime Frequencies.

Group Doueh - Treeg Salaam CD On Sublime Frequencies. Their first release on Sublime Freq was one of my favorites of 2007.

V/a - Singapore A-Go-Go CD Comp of 1960's garage and pop from Singapore. On Sublime Frequencies.

Shindig #13 - Nov/Dec 09 issue

VHS Head - Video Club CD On Skam Records.

2562 - Unbalanced CD Dubstep on Tectonic.

Hildur Gudnadottir - Without Sinking CD Cellist from Iceland. On Touch Records. Played with Mum on their recent Chicago show.

Phill Niblock - Touch Strings 2xCD On Touch Records.

Van Patterson Quartet - Live At F.W. CASSETTE Another limited release on the Touch Records sub label Tapeworm.

Real Estate - s/t CD/LP On Woodsist Records.

Ras G - Destination There 12" On Ramp.

OOIOO - Armonica Hewa CD/LP On Thrill Jockey. Yoshimi from the Boredoms.

King Khan & BBQ Show - Invisible Girl CD On In The Red.

White Mystery/ Black Apple - split 45 White Mystery features Miss Alex White.

Atlas Sound - Logos CD/LP Deerhunter frontman on Kranky. Features vocals by Panda Bear from Animal Collective and Laetitia from Stereolab.

Disappears Live Over The Rainbow LP On Rococo Records.

Jesu - Opiate Sun LP.

Serge Gainsbourg bio pic

It is released in France in January but I haven't seen any word of a US release. The trailer looks very good. And it is very French so it is NSFW.

Oz parodies

Heather and I have been watching OZ and so here are some parodies.



There is a Jerry Seinfeld in Oz clip that they did for Saturday Night Live but I but NBC has taken it down from youtube.

Mark

Coen Brothers short film

This week's Onion has an article about good short films in no so good anthologies. Here is the Coen Brothers film, made during No Country For Old Men.





There are also shorts by David Lynch, Wong Kar Wai, Ken Loach and more. If I see a good one on youtube I will add it as a link.