Stephen McBean has proven with his carefully crafted project, Black Mountain, that nostalgic bluesy hard rock (a la Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin) is the perfect antidote for the jaded and world-wearied music lover.  Now his other project, Pink Mountaintop will be releasing Outside Love (slated for next month on JagJaguwar.)  In the new lp, his rugged 70′s rock-n-roll softens into blissed out overdrive guitars, pouring out feeings both tortured and syrupy sweet.  →

I am a believer.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from Neill Blomkamp.  The Halo featurettes were interesting.  Peter Jackson’s unflinching confidence boded well.  Let’s face it: the viral marketing campaign could have used a little more thought (“Non-human Secretions May Corrode Metal” signs on plastic benches).  But once Friday came any doubts I harbored about Blomkamp’s ability quickly evaporated as I sat on edge throughout the entirety of the movie.  Watch District 9; it’ll be one of the best choices you make all year. →

Last Thursday the Independent Television Festival Awards program took place at the Laemmle Sunset 5 bringing to an end a week long run of screenings, panels and parties. The festival aimed at showcasing independently produced television pilots and web series is the only one of its kind in LA, and just one of two in the entire country →

EM: Occupation and Position

Visual Artist

EM: Could you tell us about your background?

I grew up in the middle of nowhere, on a farm  in rural England. There was nothing but trees and fields. I went to school for a while, where all I really wanted to do was draw. Then, I attended art school, on a graphic design degree where I ended up minoring in illustration. This is where I took the time to develop my kind of 3d illustration.  →

The Flux Super 8 is the first annual showcase that celebrates eight of the most exciting and emerging filmmakers, video artists, and design collectives from around the world. The inaugural Flux Super 8 will launch with a show at the Scion Installation Gallery in Culver City. The artists will develop site-specific installations created exclusively for or premiering for the first time in Los Angeles for the exhibition. →

Tinariwen
World Village
(2009)
***
God, I love this album. It’s hard to take a critical stance on a record that you take an immediate liking to, even if I’m inclined to just extol its virtues and recommend it to anyone who’s interested. This is going to be one of those indulgently self-reflective reviews that say more about the shortcomings of the writer than his proposed topic, but if you’ve already read this far, dear reader, let me go on and tell you about Tinariwen. Tinariwen is a band of Touareg musicians from the Saharan interior of North Africa. Touareg is not a model of Volkswagen car, mind you, they are a group of nomadic Berbers who have wandered the Tinariwen (“Deserts”) of the Sahara for centuries. →

This new White House that the Obama administration runs is full of spontaneity.  Take note of this recent Ambassador’s Reception that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted. They employed professional tango dancers to bust their dance moves in the midst of this social mixer. Pretty rad.

So after checking out this video of Willard Wigan speaking at the annual TEDGlobal 2009 held in the UK, I am now motivated to save up for a trip to the UK to get a dose of the TEDGlobal experience myself. This event is a fast-paced, four-day stage program and conference which features TED’s 18-minute talks by various speakers ranging from mathematicians to writers with ideas that leave the audience feelng as though they’ve left with a higher IQ and eager to come back for more. This year’s theme was ‘The substance of things unseen’ and Willard Wigan is one of the many speakers that →

It Might Get Loud, directed and produced by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, The Deadwood series), follows the passion of three legendary guitarists from different generations. I was weaned on Led Zeppelin and play guitar myself, so I was totally enthralled with every nuance of technique and gear set-up.  Yet even if you aren’t a musician, chances are that at one point in your life you were into the music of one of the subjects in this film. →

With the release of his album Cope™ in June and a national tour under his belt, Adam Freeland continues to move forward with his upcoming remix release of the full-length album. For this album, Freeland offers his fans the opportunity to create or “remix” a new design from the original album cover. →