----------------------------------------------------------------- r==+- | Rational Alternative Digital Cyberzine * -\ | (c) 1995 Jeff Jolley * * | } ** | VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1""G?p | a () | Table of Contents: >< [] / | ------------------ 0 --/ | (in order of appearance) T | ^^#|-= | Luna "Penthouse" CD Review 7 oo | Ren and Stimpy "Radio Daze" CD Review oo | The Replicants CD Review 55$fz.k | State of the Nation CD Review ,> / | An Interview With Oingo Boingo : ==* | The Dandy Warhols in Concert ||___~~ * | The Rentals in Concert + | You Am I in Concert T | Slamdance Film Festival - an overview | | Sundance International Film Festival jlj r | => =R | }} t | * /0 | 2@wQb/ \ | WIN FREE CDS AT RAD CYBERINE'S WEB PAGE! ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Editor-in-chief: . . . . . . . . Jeff Jolley Managing editor: . . . . . . . . . . Su Chon Staff Writers: . . . . . . . .Doctor Buzzard Wade Chamberlain James Bonisteel Tammy Zentner Dave Robbins Christina Soong Jon Soong Josie Squid Domi --------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ Luna "Penthouse" - a CD review by Dave Robbins ============================================================ If you thought the latest issue of Bob Guccioni's Penthouse was stimulating, wait until you hear Dean Wareham's. The more I listen to this album the more I like it. Truthfully, I was very skeptical at first listening. When Luna played NYC in September (right after the album came out) they played maybe three tracks from the new one, the rest of the material was from "Bewitched and the Slide" EP. I figured they didn't know the new material well enough, or didn't like it as much as 93's stuff. I was puzzled. Penthouse really is a great one though, if you dig Dean's lifelong tribute to Velvet Underground. The guitars have almost no effects besides very basic reverb, the chord progression from "23 minutes in Brussels" are almost identical to "Sister Ray" from VU's White Light/White Heat. Wareham's lyrics are also an acquired taste. Check out "Chinatown" where he rhymes "chasing girlies" with "you go home earlies." "Moon Palace" ends with the band singing "Meow meow meow." The beautiful "Kalamazoo's" chorus is "nimney nimney nimney wha, nimney nimney nimney hey-O." The only tracks that truly falter are the ultra-boring "Sideshow by the Seashore" and the hidden track at the end, "Bonnie and Clyde," a duet with Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab. The background whoop whoops are almost too much to bear. The diehard Luna fan will love this one, maybe it will take some getting used to, but it will happen. Dean Wareham can get away with anything, and listening to him do it is a very satisfying experience. ============================================================ Ren and Stimpy's "Radio Daze" - a CD review by Wade Chamberlain ============================================================ As a huge fan of the brilliant comic duo of Renaldo Hoek and Stimpson Kadoogan it pains me to say that this one is trash. The Ren and Stimpy show is a place to turn for truly tasteless crap--stuff you always wanted to see animated as a kid. When I watch the Ren and Stimpy show now, I realize that I wouldn't have understood half this stuff as a kid. This Radio Daze thing is the opposite of Ren and Stimpy. It's bland, inoffensive, boring, uninventive, and completely uninteresting. This is something kids could show their parents to assure them that Ren and Stimpy are a-okay. They don't talk about varicose veins, farts, boogers, cosmetic surgery, ethnic stereotypes, underwear, or anything that has made me laugh as I've watched the show. It's a good thing the show is better than this because if Ren and Stimpy were like this, they would be no more. ============================================================ The Replicants - a CD review by Dave Robbins ============================================================ In case you're curious, the Replicants are members of Tool, Failure, and Triangle who got together to cover artists such as Neil Young, David Bowie, the Cars, T. Rex, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Steely Dan, Gary Numan, and Missing Persons. Why anyone would release an album of all covers is a perplexing question. If you think Tool are bad, the Replicants will make you projectile vomit The album's heavy sound pushes it way out of the realm of anything you could call "alternative." This is stuff for fans of Queensreich and Cinderella. This album just plain blows. ============================================================ State of the Nation - a CD review by Wade Chamberlain ============================================================ State of the Nation is a band with a cause. They are pissed off at the U.S. and other governments because of the racial and environmental injustices that have been committed by such institutions. This isn't just a gimmick to sell records. State of the Nation really care. They've played numerous benefit shows that I've attended and they made sure the audience was aware of what the show was for and how they could make a difference. However, State of the Nation appear to be so involved in their fight for justice that their music suffers. Their self titled release on Revelation is good, but it is not brilliant. It makes me wonder if music to them is just a vehicle to get their point across. Brothers Rob and Mark Haworth have some musical history behind them. Working with bands like Farside, Gorilla Biscuits and Inside Out which also featured Rage Against the Machine's frontman Zach De La Rocha. As in the case of Rage however, the music does fall short of the cause that drives it. Wade Chamberlain ============================================================ Oingo Boingo - an interview by James Bonisteel ============================================================ At last it was nice to see the horns back on stage with Oingo Boingo reunited with the band. Too bad it had to be the on the last tour for this band. If you ever had a chance to see this band, especially doing their Famous halloween shows, then you know what I am talking about. To me this band is not Oingo Boingo without some kind of horn section. I have said this about only a few bands in the past but this is one of them. If you have never seen an Oingo Boingo show, then you have seriously missed something in your childhood. I had the opportunity to actually talk to John Avila, one of the guitarists for Oingo Boingo, and we had a chat about the band in general and it's future and this is how it went.... ============================================================ RAD How long do you intend to play tonight? John We're averaging close to three hours per show three hours plus we're trying different songs out on different nights. But we want to give a little bit of everything, some of the older stuff and some songs we haven't played in a long time. And we're doing some new stuff...just a little bit of everything. RAD So you have the original horn section back, right? John Yes the horns are back it's great having them back. It's like the old band back together and the feelings have been very good. RAD Why have you decided to break up finally after all these years? Is it just for the fact that you have been around this long? John We just came to this decision that it was time to do it and if any band has ever given it's all to be together seventeen years, I mean just keep doing it year after year even after people said that it wasn't happening anymore. There were so many rumors in the past about us breaking up, but we would always be back doing another show. This time we decided on our own that this was going to be the time. So we're doing it. RAD So, what are you going to be doing after this? John Well obviously Danny Elfman has his film composing career. He's also getting into writing, developing scripts, and he's also going into directing. Steve Bartek is doing about the same thing as far as composing for films and producing other bands. And myself, I've been producing for the last year and a half. Other projects I have done--a couple of albums with some east coast bands. I just did a band called Sorry About Your Daughter who are from Washington D.C. I just produced their second album and I plan on doing that and keep performing. I have a few bands in L.A. I love playing with and we have been doing shows. Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez also plans to continue playing with a couple other bands. We have Warren Fitzgerald who plays with the Vandals he's the guitar player for them. RAD With Alternative music, do you think it's different than what it was before? John Personally, I became even more of a fan of just the whole music scene in the last four or five years when guitars, bass and drums all came back into the front of the stage. Not to put synthesizers down, but the sound of a thrashing guitar, the real sound of an amp--I just love that. Melodies are getting more and more interesting. I think it's a good time. RAD Are you going to be doing anything more with Food For Feet? John Food For Feet we broke up about three years ago. There are no plans for us to get back together. We were asked to play for a mutual friend of ours amongst a bunch of other bands that played, including Motley Crue and Billy Idol. We're all friends of this guitar tech who's daughter died, so we did a benefit for him and Food For Feet got together and did a show this year in Pasadena. It was so much fun, because we haven't played together in years so we never rehearsed and we went up without knowing what we were going to play but it was like we had just gotten off tour the day before. I guess when a band's been together that long, sparks just start to fly and we knocked them dead. It was like the good ol' days. RAD So how was Food For Feet originally put together? John That was actually Mike the guitar player and myself. We were touring with this german rock band and while we were there playing, we just said, "hey, when we get back to L.A., let's put this band together." We thought of it as being a trio. We went back to L.A. and did it. We used a couple of drummers before we got to Vatos. When Vatos joined the band and he stuck, and we were together about eight or nine years. It was kind of an musicians band. I remember that many musicians used to come and hang out with us and it was a fun band. RAD Out of all the songs that you are going to play tonight, which one would you consider to be your favorite? John Wow that's a tough one we do so many songs. We're doing over thirty songs per night. "Dead Man's Party" has always been kind of a special song. It was the first album I joined on and to this day, the reaction is as great as it ever was when we played it ten years ago. That's just one song that stands out. As far as performing songs, some of the old stuff that I never played is nice because it's new to me. I am really having a good time playing those songs. The song "Change" is one song that I really like performing because it never sounds the same way twice and it has this psychedelic vibe to it, it's just really fun to play. RAD Where did the name "Oingo Boingo" originally come from? John It was originally "The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo" before they were a rock band for a number of years. Before that back to around 1975 they were a live theatrical group. They did like 1930's orchestral kind of like 30's jazz. The name came from Danny Elfman's brother, Rick Elfman, who originally came up with the name--as far as I know that is where it comes from. I do know, though, that once I was in an elevator with these Japanese businessmen and the name Oingo Boingo came up and they were giggling. I said, "What's so funny?" In japanese it has something to do with large breasts. RAD Why did you want to stop in Salt Lake on this tour? John Salt Lake was a surprise Boingo town. When we first came here, we didn't know what kind of audience or how the reaction to us playing here would be. We were so surprised what a Boingo town this is. The people here have been more than enthusiastic and we have always felt a very warm feeling for Salt Lake. Since then, this was one of the prime stops we wanted to play on this tour. RAD Considering how long you have been doing this, if anybody was to ever ask you about being in this business what would you say to them? John I would say that if you're doing it for the money, don't do it. You have to do it for the love of the music itself. It has to be right up there with sex and food--the stuff that you really like. The music has to effect you in that sort of way. I mean that hard. If it does hit you that much, then I would say go for it. And after that, I would say a lot of practice and a lot of discipline. You need to love what you do and you have to play from your heart. If you do it for those reasons, then all the money and all the success that hopefully will come to you will happen. After seeing this show, I realized that it was one of the best live shows that I have ever seen. They played for three hours--the old and new stuff. Well good luck to this band. I have a feeling that this will not be the last time we ever hear their names. This is hard to say but, GOODBYE OINGO BOINGO!! Thanks for the past." ============================================================ The Dandy Warhols (on Tim Kerr Records) - a concert review by Wade Chamberlain ============================================================ My first and only exposure to the Warhols was at the Electrafixion show in Salt Lake City last November. They took the stage and the audience's breath away as they launched into their heavy set. This is a band that has a lot of fun together; it shows through in their lighthearted material. In concert Zia never stops dancing, Courtney talks to the crowd between every song. I guess it's probably hard to take yourself too seriously when you purposefully imitate other bands and sing about how small your brain is. The band actually does tongue in cheek imitations of bands they seem to have been influenced by ("Ride" sounds strangely like the British band of the same name, "Lou Weed" sounds just like something the former Velvet would have dashed off). The last three songs, a "fast-driving rave-up with the Dandy Warhols sixteen minutes'," are very reminiscent of "Sister Ray." Although ghosts of these and other bands (maybe T. Rex) float around the album, they come off sounding very fresh, new, and original. Although most of their songs are hard-edged, rumbling and heavy, songs like "Genius" and "Dick" let their quiet, melodic side show through. These are very talented musicians who add a lot to Courtney Taylor's well-crafted songs. I think they may be the most underrated band of 1995. ============================================================ The Rentals - a concert review by Dave Robbins ============================================================ Salt Lake's own Clover opened the show with their own brand of Toad the Wet Sprocket music. This is a group of very talented musicians who look like famous people (the lead singer is a cross between Adam Sandler and Helen Hunt, the bassist looks like that one John from They Might Be Giants) but play very uninteresting music. The Rentals this evening kicked much ass--more than Weezer ever could. At one point, Matt said "there's nothing left to say 'cept 'it's time to jump up and down.'" It was a night for jumping, acting stupid, and enjoying oneself. Before the show I was disappointed that Petra Haden from That Dog (who played on the album) had been replaced for the tour, but her replacement, although she didn't play the fiddle, performed like a star. I don't know who she is but she does some fierce karate kicks. Cherielynn Westrich is unbelievably attractive and a fantastic singer. Between songs Matt Sharp said he and Cherielynn "kicked the shit" out of Jim and Pat at pool, so it seems that she is, truly, multi talented. Even though the album is pretty great, the Rentals sound better live. There's a lot of energy in their stage presence; they're a group of kids just having a lot of fun, not worrying about people buying their album or conflicts with the rest of the band. Maybe because they're not really a band struggling to make themselves famous they can just relax and be stupid. As an intro to "Friends of P" Matt sings a few lines from "You Are Not Alone" from the seminal Michael Jackson. Just put "If you're down with P" in place of the title and you can sing it at home. Although Matt won't say, my guess is that friends of P are also friends of Dionne Warwick and Latoya Jackson, the psychic friends. Even the over-hyped single sounded good tonight. They played everything they know, all the songs from the album plus the "Friends of P" b side. They do a great job. ============================================================ You Am I Live Down Under with Man or Astro-Man - a concert review by Jon Soong ============================================================ You Am I have always been one of Australia's best live acts, and after the commercial success of 'Berlin Chair' and 'Cathy's Clown', it seemed inevitable that a big crowd of indeed all ages would turn up at the Adelaide University Bar. And did. But up first, American so called 'surf guitar' (whatever that means) band Man or Astro-Man. However, while some may it call it surf guitar, I call it noise. Indeed it seemed a somewhat strange compliment to the thundering rhythms of You Am I, but while the music itself may not have won over too many new fans, it was evident that the band themselves (Coco et al) did, with entertaining 'rock star' banter and a strong stage presence. Myself?, I was not too fussed with Man or Astro-Man?(ie take it or leave it), they aren't really my kind of music, but the show was kinda interesting anyway. However, You Am I, is my sort of music, and apparently a hell of a lot of other peoples'. The 'all ages' people were really jumping, and moshing was getting a bit ridiculous, with some loser half killing me before the show had even started. Hmmmm. This in effect predicted the rest of the show, with the first 8 or so rows leaping about. This kinda pissed me off a bit, as I got pushed back further and further and gradually lost sight of the band. However for the most part, Tim Rogers (lead singer/guitarist), seemed enthusiastic and energetic with trademark windmill arms and a lot of radiated power. By the end of the gig, there were a lotta happy kids, with a great (though I thought somewhat short) set being played. Conclusion? Go see You Am I for a great live performance, I like non all ages gigs, but hey that's up to you. ============================================================ Slamdance International Film Festival - An overview by Marxtyyn ============================================================ Not everyone can make it into The Sundance Film Festival. Those that did not have the budget for a pristine crew, celebrity-status cast or those that simply made superior films that didn't fit that Sundance mold are now finding an outlet in the Slamdance International Film Festival. Originally started by ten filmmakers that couldn't get into Sundance last year, this years Slamdance has grown to twice the size with twelve films in competition, two tribute films, four premieres, three foreign films, six documentaries, twenty-five shorts, and the closing film "The Sadness of Sex." Held last year at The University of Utah in Salt Lake City and a small room at the Yarrow Hotel in Park City, this year's festival was shown in several conference rooms at the Yarrow January 19-25th. After seeing some of the weaker Slamdance films last year, it was no wonder they didn't make it into Sundance; but after viewing a couple of the better ones such as "Flesh Suitcase" I began to wonder what was wrong with Sundance? So far I have seen two features at Slamdance: "The Delicate Art of the Rifle" and "The Daytrippers." PARANOIA The first International film Slamdance showed was actually a french short called "Paranoia" which is being shown before "Rifle." Noted also as Slamdance's first widescreen film, "Paranoia" is a ten minute trip in an elevator with two thugs with a time-bomb in a suitcase, unexpected guests, and more bombs. Director Frederic Forestier originally started the short in 1991 and finally finished the expensive "Filcker" in 1993 at a total of about $200,000 (mostly due to the popular French actors that were used.) Forestier later commented that having a star in his film really makes no difference on its success. Being part live action and part computer animation (via a home Amiga system,) Forestier did claim that he was able to cost his FX cost to one-tenth of the cost of pyrotechnics and other live FX by using computer animation. After viewing the short, I think more money could have been saved by not even filming the second half, which seemed somewhat disjointed where more and more people with little motive eventually bomb the entire world. A cute film, it reminds me of an old college project I did that got out of hand. "The Delicate Art of the Rifle" followed and made me really hate people that don't give films a chance. THE DELICATE ART OF THE RIFLE What seemed like a self-indulgent hokey college film in the first half, "The Delicate Art of the Rifle" well made up for itself in the second half. The rather weak actors in minor roles were in turn made up for by the main cast, starring David Grant and Stephen Grant (who also wrote the screenplay). Very loosely based on the 1966 University of Texas shootings, Rifle unfolds what appears to be another pre-teen mentality, frat-boy college project with hormonal problems. So much time is devoted to adventures of life at the University that one begins to wonder if this is not a movie about a sniper, but a promo for the University made by and represented by freshmen who live in the dorms. I began to worry that there might be people out there that would leave this film thinking the director had too much fun as a freshman in college. Told through the eyes of the rifleman's dorky roommate, who is theatre techie, there were several chances for introspection, some being forced on the viewer. There is so much narration written with thoughts on the roommate's surrounding that I was glad that Stepphen Grant understood the beauty of language, placing action second (unlike a Hollywood-ized version of a story about a sniper). But I would be more enthused to see Grant understand the beauty in picture. So much of the film is double-stated in both action and dialogue, especially in the beginning, that there began a boring problem of being able to translate a story to the screen. In one scene, for instance, not only do we see every step of a girl being carried to her room and the writing of every letter on a Post-it note telling the girl's roommates to put her to bed which she already is in, we have to hear about it in the narration as well. Perhaps if the dialogue were somehow internally related to the action with the surface of the dialogue talking about ... rifles or the sniper's obsessions or anything at all foreshadowing the sniper attacks, the movie would be much more interesting. The narration did seem to get better and not so extensive as the film progressed as did the rest of the movie. Being director D.W. Harper's first film ever and with the movie getting better as it meandered along, I thought maybe the film was shot in sequence with the director learning as he went along, which is acceptable. But it does not mean that the film could not be fixed during editing. A lesson in knowing how to cut when the realm of the self-explanatory sinks in or just watching every Bob Fosse movie ever made is at hand. The events leading to but not physically related to the shootings, such as the life in the theatre backstage, the somewhat amusing Hamlet fashion show, flashbacks, fantasy sequences, talks with the science professor, the mystery of 19th floor, etc. are told in the first half of the movie, when they can be remembered in detail in five minutes and translated to film in probably fifteen minutes. There are few scenes that really work in the first half, even with the interesting and funny variety of characters. The second half, on the roof of the sniper's habitat, is much more interesting. Here we finally have conflict and juxtaposition of a nerdy and slow college boy and an obsessive multi-talented roommate who wants to keep sniper attacks running in the family and write a book about it. Suddenly we are transformed from nerdy-boy's obsession of reaching heights in the darkened theatre to smell the ascending fragrances of the women below to the heights of the darkened world of rifle-boy picking off unsuspecting victims below. When nerdy-boy gets his hand hit by a swat-team's bullet a closer attention to detail is experienced in the film: a plastic bag is slowly blown closer and closer to the two college boys, nerdy-injured-boy looses attention from rifle-boy's preaching to a candy stuck in the crack in the roof, and several other touches that make this part of the film interesting. The best part being rifle-boy's frightening request for clumsy-nerdy-injured boy to take his picture in the rain shooting his guns - a very effective moment, and with very little dialogue. However, the ending of this scene was briefly weakened with splices of the dream sequences introduced earlier in the film of perfume women in the fields and women playing on the beach - great ideas but the look of them were so un-dream like and flat that it was only a reminder that this film was shot on Super-16. Not knowing what to expect with other films at Slamdance, I gave "The Delicate Art of the Rifle" three out of four points, mostly hurt by the amateurish college beginning and only fair cinematography. Shot on Super-16mm there was a need for more telephoto shots, filters, pastel gels, extra lighting anything to make the subjects more interesting, especially in the "dream sequences." Exciting and emotionally moving in the second half and whimsically funny throughout this film is well worth a look for anyone who can make it through the first half which isn't too hard, being that the film leaves you never really knowing where it is going next. THE DAYTRIPPERS Also shot on Super-16; but with a much more professional look, was "The Daytrippers" directed and written by Greg Mottola and starring Hope Davis, Pat McNamara, Anne Meara, Parker Posey and an appearance by Campbell Scott, who also helped finance the picture. When Meara's daughter Eliza finds a love letter to her husband the whole family gets involved; father, mother, sister, and sister boyfriend all get in the car to help Eliza solve the crisis with her husband. What sounds like another road picture full of Hal Hartley zany characters is actually much more sophisticated than that. (Speaking of which, Sundance Film Festival is premiering Hal Hartley's "Flirt" also with Parker Posey.) With clever dialogue reminiscent of Barcelona, we soon learn that this film is not just about point A to point B help daughter rescue husband; but about an eccentric yet caring family at work and reworking, interplayed and extremely interesting. An often funny tale, American older family life is finally examined in this picture where keeping the family together and solving problems takes on a whole new level of investigation. Hollywood and especially television seem to forget that family life exists outside the young couple with bratty little kids. Although the situation may be a hard swallow, I know older families that are that eccentric, and families do get involved with each other: their relationships, interests, loves, parties. Mottola has created a very real family; it may not be your family, but it is family and very self-aware. Mottola has also played close attention not to go to the other end of the spectrum: a family that grows together, stays together. These are all very distinct characters, each one doing only what their character would do. In other words, they may be family, but they definitely aren't going to hang out with each other like in some Saturday morning live-action special. I could only imagine the disaster that would be caused if the whole family, complete with binoculars, followed Eliza into the party where she encounters her husband and his new love. Not in this film: as Eliza finds out about her husband, her sister spins tension between her boyfriend and parents argue over who wants what. By the end of the film, you don't care about movie surprises or hackneyed story twists that would occur in other productions. You soon find that you know these characters, you may have even met these characters; these are fully-dimensional people that are interesting and the people surrounding them are also very real and interesting--a backdrop that further adds even more dimension to the film. Part of this realism, at least on the outside, was due to the fact that this low-budget film couldn't afford to block off the streets of New York City and had to shot several of the exteriors live. The production also wasn't without its obstacles--Mottola said that they had their motion picture camera stolen on the first day of shooting. This didn't stop the cinematographer from achieving a high quality look on a small format, which was quite impressive for this indie. With its interesting characters, sophisticated script, direction and rich cinematography, I gave "The Daytrippers" four out of four points. Hopefully people will see this film and either denounce family sitcoms all together or realize there is more to life after high school and college, and that peoples' families are not reduced to an annoying phone call by a mother or sibling. ============================================================ SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL REACHES FOR THE STARS: YEAH, WELL, KEEP REACHING - by Marxtyyn ============================================================ In the middle of a slow snow season, Redford's Sundance Film Festival opened in Salt Lake City on January 18 with Kenneth Branagh's U.S. premiere of "A Midwinter's Tale," a comedy with TV's Joan Collins and Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) about six amateur stage actors who attempt to play all of the characters in Hamlet. The Sundance Film Festival is actually largely held in seven theatres in Park City, Utah with the Sundance Institute screening room used as a small alternative, and additional screenings in a couple of theatres within Salt Lake City and, as of last year, a theatre in conservative Provo. The week of film frenzy continues until January 28th with several "independent" films, most of which are semi-commercial premieres overshadowing the narratives and documentaries in competition, which are somewhat star-inflicted themselves. Also featured this year are films on the "American Spectrum," a tribute to pioneer film director William Wellman (Wings, A Star is Born, The Ox-Bow Incident,); a tribute to indie-actor Dianne Wiest, who is often seen in Woody Allen projects; Panel Discussions, Midnight movies, "World Cinema," "New Native Cinema" (all of two programs of American Indian shorts,); three truly independent films under a "Frontier" theme; an animation shorts program; five other shorts programs; and a new Sundance addition: the New Media Center focusing on the advent of multimedia. What started more than a decade ago as a tribute to indie films made for under a million dollars has unfortunately morphed into a Hollywood frenzy of the stars. This years popular faces include Al Pacino who is premiering his directional project "Looking For Richard" starring himself, Winona (overused) Ryder, Alec Baldwin, Kenneth Branagh (this story center's around Shakespeare's Richard III), Aidan Quinn, Kevin Spacey, Estelle Parsons, Kevin Kline, Sir John Gielgud, James Earl Jones, and Venessa Redgrave. Yes folks, this is independent filmmaking. Other icons include Dennis Hopper, Amy Irving, Edward James Olmos, Beau Bridges, Sheryl Lee (who won a well-deserved award last year for her work in the indie-market,) Lili Taylor, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Burstyn, Eric Roberts, Gregory Harrison, Luke Perry, Jennifer Tilly, Campbell Scott, Isabella Rosselini, Michael Stipe, Amy Madigan, Kiefer Sutherland, Brooke Shields, Laura Dern, Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Jason Alexander, and well, frankly, that's just the top of the iceberg--or should I just say "that's Hollywood"-- there are several other faces most people will recognize as well. Over the past five or six years Hollywood has really been invading the scene at Sundance, which is why the "Slamdance Film Festival" was initiated last year to provide an outlet for the truly independent to showcase their work (see related article.) Yes, it may seem like a favor or a new trend in big names "lending their talent" to more independent work; but this only probes the question of what about those really low-budget films with great ideas and capable directors that can't get the big name talents? And is the Sundance Film Festival sending the wrong message to short-attention-span America about what independent filmmaking really is? Surely there is nothing wrong with using someone in a small film who happens to be a celebrity; but when these "independent" films at Sundance are reaching a four million dollar budget one can only wonder. The late audiences at the festival are also at question. It has become more and more apparent that the stars are what the larger and larger crowds at Park City, Utah are wanting to see. Some questions the audience members ask after viewing the selected films are often frightening, usually wondering when the film will be released, and what company is buying the film. People tend to think that such business maneuvers are instantaneous. Believe me, it's not that easy, especially when we live in a world that accepts only twenty stories to be told over and over again (not to mention that anything verging away from the constraints of Aristotle, into the experimental or making a simple documentary are completely against Hollywood rules.) During the premiere of "Threesome" a couple of years ago someone actually asked where they could get the soundtrack to the film. That just made me want to yell "this is Sundance not some mainstream market!" This was just another indication that the independent scene according to the Sundance Film Festival has fallen to such a state that even low-budget films are expected by the stoned, moronic American audience to have a distributer, an instant budget, a soundtrack of popular songs to help sell the movie, and all the commercial tie-ins and placements up and ready to go. One year during a midnight movie at Park City some stupid woman even asked the director if he thought about making his film longer than 90 minutes so that it would be a full-length movie and more commercial! All I can say to that is "Hello!" - The midnight audiences do tend to be worse than those in the daytime, mostly bubble-headed skiers who tend to stumble into the theatres during the latter shows. Hopefully this won't happen as much this year due to the dry weather Utah has been having. Did I mention that you can stumble into the theatres without advance tickets? Nearly all shows and Panel Discussions sellout weeks in advance, even with the addition of the Olympia Park Hotel theatre this year. But that doesn't mean you can't work your way into one of the films the day of the show, if you get on the waiting list at least 45 minutes before the flick starts. Nearly half of all shows sellout the first day the individual tickets go on sale (or voucher exchanges for those who bought package deals in December.) After waiting in line for six hours last year on the first day, it didn't seem worth it to jump on the idea again this year. After a few days, I found that you can still find a few shows that you want to see without waiting in line. The rest of the shows you want, you'll just have to show up early and hope to get on the waiting list (and hope some ticket holders won't show.) Let me remind you that these attention spans at this festival don't always realize what kind of movies they're are getting into nor the amount of films they really care to see. Sadly, I was told that the Panel Discussions are especially easy to get into without advance tickets--shouldn't the Discussions be the main priority of any indie-film festival attendee? Eager Film Fest Attendees trying to get into Mary Harron's "I Shot Andy Warhol" (narrative film in competition) on Saturday a half hour early were told they couldn't get on the waiting list and that several of those on the list wouldn't even get in themselves. With all sounding like a bad vacation, the festival does have some good value left to it. Located at the Inn at Prospector Square right next to the Inn's theatre (which is probably the best place to see any of the films) is the addition of the New Media Center, which brings back memories of the 1984 Sundance Film Festival (now you see why I see such a decline in the festival) when the Kimball Art Center in Park City showcased music videos of Laurie Anderson and other experimental and performance artists. This was also the year that humble actor Robert Duvall spoke at one of the Panel Discussions. Hmmm, what an informative, tranquil, encouraging time for the festival that was... This New Media Center showcases five free seminars raging from Nonlinear Editing to Interactive CD-ROMS. A demonstration gallery in one of the seminar rooms showcases Macs, Macs and more Macs with multi-media representatives at each station. This is one area of the festival that those interested in the present movement of new entertainment should definitely not miss. Here, again several celebrities have lend a helping hand to "star" in these interactive wonders; but this time these big time actors are working under an almost no budget show with filmatic conditions equivalent of a student film. Hopefully, these CD-ROM creators will continue to carry the stick over the Hollywood star-system. The Sundance film festival may have been Hollywood-ized since its modest beginnings as an educational tool for future filmmakers with a big emphasis on low-budget films in competition, but it does remain to be a film festival like most other film festivals: a place to see motion pictures most people won't be able to see anywhere else. Seeing a foreign film, a documentary or a "Wild Bill" Wellman classic in a theatre full of people, sold out, is truly exciting and somewhat promising. Whereas in the 1930s several of these films would seem mainstream, we are living in a time where the blockbuster towers over any other idea, and it is important that short-attention-span America are seeing these larger budgeted indies even if it is for just one week. The star-inflicted indies just may become the new mainstream, and the shoe-string indies just might sneak its way back into the Sundance Film Festival. If all else cliches, The Slamdance Film Festival is on the rise and their films this year are much better this year than last year's. I will probably continue to attend Sundance - just with the attitude of trying to miss most of "it" and capture the somewhat underground side of what I really care about. Sort of the same attitude I take on a film crew - if you learn to become totally unaffected by the actors, "big-wig" directors and producers and never, never, never suck up to them, if they are the least bit worth it to your career, they will always come to you. At least that's been my experience. If someone is big and they are slime, you really don't need them - it's just like a movie or the press swamping Winona Ryder: you don't have to move out of their way nor see an over- commercialized movie. If you stand your ground, people will notice, they will wonder what you are interested in, and they will follow. They will also follow the stars and the next trend, but those are always temporary. Yes, I will continue to attend the Sundance Film Festival, and just being there for what I want to do with my opinion will make a difference as well as anyone else who sees the better half of the festival and never, never, never participating in the hype. Besides, during this next week I'll write about what shows I saw and liked, and people just can't help to wonder about new films they read about. ============================================================ RAD Interactive can be found on the World Wide Web at http://intele.net/~rad ================================================ ==Rational Alternative Digital Cyberzine = RAD== ================================================ ===USE "finger rad@intele.net" for more info === ================================================