Status - 9/28

- Mail order is up-to-date. All paid orders have been shipped

- Things are fairly quiet as new releases are being pressed

- I saw the new Gaspar Noe film, "Enter the Void," last night. It was quite a mind-blower. It was hands-down one of the most visually striking films that I have ever seen. It seems funny to call a film "dark" when it is so "bright," but the story is pretty bleak. And the construction of the film/story is total Noe. That said, it was not a total slam-dunk for me, like "I Stand Alone" or "Irreversible" were, as there were a couple of things that I could have done without... +++POSSIBLE SPOILER+++ Oscar's full-on DMT experience towards the beginning goes a bit too far for me, as I am neither a fan of computer animation nor of 1990's fractal coffee table books, and I was fearing a "Tron" moment - or worse, some bad "Avatar" crap... but Noe reeled things in, and the hyper-saturated colors and the CGI, in general, became totally integral to the film. At the end, the biology book internal sex close-ups were a bit goofy... enough to make the audience laugh out loud, at least... and my movie date Miss Nicole cracked a "Look Who's Talking" joking. But, at nearly two-and-three-quarters of an hour in length, I was only less-than-thrilled with four or five-minutes at the most. Between the quick move to IFC On-Demand, and - I believe - an imminent DVD, I expect to see it again very soon. That said, seeing it on a big screen was a must, which is very rare for me. It just really needs to be seen in a movie theater unless you have some ridiculous home theater system at home. My old Sylvania probably cannot do the film justice. In a sense, the film transcends being a narrative device and becomes a visual feast to get lost in, but that is not to say that the story gets lost, or is of lesser value. And let's talk about the opening credits... They were just nuts! Nicole had already heard them referred to as "font porn"... The crowd even applauded when the credits concluded... pretty humorous... and they were only one of the homages to Kubrick.

All this while my doppelganger espresso machine has been warming up... and while listening to the rather mind-melting second disc of the new Swans album... I will be curious to see if the try anything as expansive at the upcoming shows... I have to skip Serena Maneesh (bummer, as their last Chicago show in March was great) tonight as I will be skipping AoH practice next Tuesday to see Swans...