So Matthew Leutwyler and the people in his production company put together this movie. Michael Mosher and Richard Redlefsen were all like “yeah, we can bring the gore” and Ever Carradine went like “I can bring my uncle” and Oz Perkins was all like “I’m related to Anthony Perkins” and Jeremy Sisto was definitely all like “I am going to hold this goofy movie together with the sheer force of my charisma” until he gets whacked, oops. But he was way successful up until then. ...

“We’re not Oingo Boingo, but it’s a dead man’s party.” This is a pain for some, because it’s Flash, but here’s what you do: go to the Dead and Breakfast official site (original). Click on the poster. Blah blah lengthy Flash intro which you can skip some of. Stick with it. Eventually it comes through with a menu. Select “Music”. Woo hah! Hit “comin to kill ya.” That’s what I call a country/rap splatterpunk groove, baby.

Followup: the Navy turned down (original) Judicial Watch’s request for an investigation of Kerry’s medals. This came after an examination of the available evidence.

There are three basic approaches one could take to a documentary about Jandek, and none of them are what one might normally attempt in a documentary about a musician: the man is nearly a complete mystery, so you can’t tell the story of his life. You could delve deeply into his music, performing an extended critical analysis that serves as an introduction for newcomers and a reaffirmation for the loyal fans. You could film the mirror, capturing how people react to him and what they read into the Jandek blank slate. Or you could try and unearth the answer to the mystery. ...

Criminal, the remake of Nine Queens with John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Ju-on, one of the best Japanese horror movies of recent years; Shaun of the Dead, zombie comedy; Bright Young Things, Stephen Fry doing Evelyn Waugh; and of course the three Boston Film Festival flicks I want to see this weekend. Kontroll is getting mixed (original) reviews (original) from Toronto, but who doesn’t like “ a cute girl in a bear costume (original)?” This is what I get for, um… deliberately rekindling my enjoyment of movies.

I’m not posting this scenario because I intend to run it. I’m posting it because I like to think. Truth? I’m better at coming up with concepts than running them anyhow. This one’s a freebie; steal as you like. It’s 1972. World of Darkness. Miami. Cuba smells like revolution and the Democratic National Convention smells like a boxing ring. McGovern has a legion of young, angry, active delegates behind him. They’d rather fight than think. Humphrey has the Machine, a political creature made of motor oil and money. To the Machine, the present moment is the last hope of traditional politics. ...

Not that this will convince anyone, but Lt. Col. Killian’s secretary says she didn’t believe in the CBS documents (original). She says, as has been hypothesized, that she would have typed the documents for him and that she doesn’t remember doing so. She was very specific about the typewriters she had available. She also verified the content of the memos, and said that they accurately reflected Killian’s opinions about Bush. This all jibes pretty well with the theory that Bill Burkett (original) was the source of the memos. He believes he saw Bush’s records being purged (original) back in 1997. He’s highly pissed off about the whole thing. I’m ready to believe that he made a stupid mistake, and that he recreated (or perhaps simply retyped) memos that summarize how Killian felt at the time. ...

Jandek On Corwood, 9:30 PM, Coolidge Corner Theater. More here.

If you want to see the Sin City footage shown at Comicon, you can. It’s being filmed in digital on digital sets, and the trailer is really oriented towards demonstrating how well Robert Rodriguez is capturing the look of the comic book. (Answer: quite well.)

This line from a CNN story on the explosion in North Korea amused me: “The White House insists diplomacy is still the best strategy, although officials say the president never takes military action off the table.” So I have this image of aides patiently explaining that Canada has been an ally for a long long time, and that it really doesn’t make sense to invade them just because they won’t send troops to Iraq, and Bush is looking all stalwart and determined. “I just don’t think we should take military action off the table. You never know.”