Film as revolution

The Woodstock Film Festival awards ceremony reflects a heightened political sensitivity

The Festival terms itself "fiercely independent," one of its most popular awards is the Maverick, and the times being what they are, the tenor of the awards ceremony Saturday, October 4, was fiercely political with references to a variety of mavericks, honorary, honorable and...well, we know about that other one. Nearly all the honorees mentioned Barack Obama and the event's Maverick Award winner Kevin Smith brought it home when he bounded onstage and shouted "Boycott CVS!" MC Ron Nsywaner, screenwriter (Philadelphia, The Painted Veil, Soldier's Girl) and Woodstock resident, quipped that Smith is now "qualified to be a heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world."

SOURCE: TheWoodstockTimes

TVOTR's Tunde Adebimpe covers Neil Young

"…and here's TV On The Radio's singer Tunde Adebimpe covering Neil Young's "Unknown Legend." Tunde's cover comes from Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married, which stars a smiling Adebimpe. The spare, lonesome take on the Harvest Moon song's less cheerful, running in sharp contrast to the more mile-a-minute energy of TV On The Radio's current Dear Science focus "Dancing Choose." Pretty stuff."



Movie still via IMDB and Sony Pictures Classics
SOURCE: Stereogum

In Praise of the Hype Machine

Thrills and irritation about NYC’s music scene

"Most bands—even those with actual records and fans and local radio play and whatnot—seem resigned to (or find far more preferable) mere local fame, with no big tours, no Internet-ether buzz, no Making It Big. Which is, of course, in some ways, preferable to the insanity, the vapidity, the fickle schizophrenia of the hype machine, a deranged monolith that can declare the Black Kids sex on toast one week and an affront to all mankind the next." — Rob Harvilla

Photo of Brooklyn's Vivian Girls by Stefano Giovannini
SOURCE: VillageVoice