LOU O' BEDLAM

When I asked her to dance, I assumed she’d shake a little,...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:08:04 -0700

When I asked her to dance, I assumed she’d shake a little, make a face, understated. We’re in public, there are many eyes watching us! I probably would’ve just said no.

Whitney did not just shake a little. She GOT DOWN. Got down to the sounds of three teenage siblings belting out mediocre pop songs on the Santa Monica Promenade while their dad worked the tiny soundboard, their braces no doubt contributing to the strange shapes their mouths made while they gyrated uncomfortably for the awestruck crowd.

I, meanwhile, was awestruck by Whitney’s utter lack of self-consciousness. Completely alien to me, it is.

aprilhanslow: Lou O’Bedlam louobedlam.com Secrets to creating...

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:00:11 -0700

aprilhanslow:

Lou O’Bedlam

louobedlam.com

Secrets to creating good rapport with your subject:

let them hit you
stumble upon a hoarder’s backyard
be warned about rattlesnakes
hide amongst the bushes and talk about people taking pictures over themselves
hike in the wrong shoes
have them manipulate the wind with their mind

louobedlam: copycats: “Black Hole Sun” by Paul Anka originally...

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:25:00 -0700

louobedlam:

copycats:

“Black Hole Sun” by Paul Anka

originally by Soundgarden

(via topherchris)

Listening to a lot of covers today, and this one takes the cake. Paul Anka fucking TEARS BLACK HOLE SUN APART.

This is what a cover is all about. It’s not just singing the song, it’s not just maybe adding an inflection or two.

Anka pulls a Six Million Dollar Man on this song, taking it apart, rebuilding it with his own personal bionics.

Anka Owns this song for me, now.

(via topherchris)

I don’t even know when I posted this, but it’s still fantastic and deserves more attention.

I hide ever so well amongst the legions of tourists. No ones...

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:41:45 -0700

I hide ever so well amongst the legions of tourists. No ones knows that, instead of capturing Rachel’s face for the slideshow that’ll accompany my Adventures in Los Angeles, I’m actually making art!

All of you visitors with your cameras and your eyes gone wide from the madness that is my city, you are my camouflage.

Today! April Hanslow

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:19:04 -0700

Today!

April Hanslow

Photo

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:53:46 -0700

Train Announcements : The New Yorker

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:45:19 -0700

Train Announcements : The New Yorker: “Attention, passengers: we have a very full train today...

sugar-factory.tumblr.com

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:36:00 -0700

sugar-factory.tumblr.com

mollycrabapple: In LA, I stayed at what can only be described...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:29:39 -0700

mollycrabapple:

In LA, I stayed at what can only be described as a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tiny house at Chateau Marmont. It even had a tiny kitchen.

Lou Noble took this photo.

The episode of Last Call with Carson Daly that I’m on airs on the 16th

Oh how I would love to do one a them Strobist diagrams for this shot:

“On the left I had a lamp I found in the bedroom. It had…um, some kind of bulb in it? Next to that, just to the left of me, I had another lamp, also found in the bedroom, same bulb mabye. My assistant, Emily, was holding that, pointing it at Molly. Then I had ANOTHER lamp, found that one in the living room, that was off to the right. Ooh, then there were the lights in the kitchen walls, those were on. And everything was kinda pointed at Molly?”

And oy vey, a challenge getting all that just right. There was a food tray on that table on the left, that had to go, had to get that red…what is that, a sari? That had to be just right.

See, usually I just shoot, kibbitz, keep it loose. But once we had Molly up on the counter, there was a specific shot that slowly formed in my head, and once it appeared, it had to be Just Right.

Molly was a real trooper about it, my butt probably would’ve falled asleep, up on that counter. Tons of fun shooting her.

Sometimes…sometimes I just feel like Jim Rockford walking...

Sun, 12 May 2013 19:44:55 -0700

Sometimes…sometimes I just feel like Jim Rockford walking along the beach at night, cigarette in hand, adidas on his feet, looking out at the water, ya know?

Always get a kick out of visitors to the city squealing with joy...

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:06:00 -0700

Always get a kick out of visitors to the city squealing with joy when they jump into the ocean.

Gravity (2013) - Teaser Trailer This is the kind of teaser I...

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:18:29 -0700

Gravity (2013) - Teaser Trailer

This is the kind of teaser I want. Make ‘em like this, Hollywood.

Iron Man 3 (2013) I came out satisfied, but that’s because...

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:09:00 -0700

Iron Man 3 (2013)

I came out satisfied, but that’s because I went in drunk.

Drunk and with a head filled with a bad NPR review.

All that going on, all I wanted was some Boom Boom and some Yuck Yuck. Which I got, and was happy about.

Then I sobered up and started thinking about it. More I think about it, the worse it gets. I was John the Baptist on the way out of the theater that this was the best of the three Iron Man films, the action’s loud and crazy, it’s got Don Cheadle instead of Hustle & Flow guy (who I never care for, Ever. Fuck Hustle & Flow), Gweyneth Paltrow actually gets to do some action stuff, I’ve always liked Rebecca Hall, and how can you not like something Ben Kingsley’s in.

But the more I think about it, the more I find it’s not all that difficult to not like something Ben Kingsley’s in. The motivations are supermodel-thin, I’m rather sure Guy Pearce’s character actually had No Reason Whatsoever to be a bad guy (had he just given it some time, he’d have gotten everything he wanted through entirely legal means), Tony Stark gets some vague Anxiety disorder that’s fixed Because and that, apparently, is his entire character arc this time around? AND WHY IS THERE A BUDDY COP MOVIE WITH TONY STARK AND A KID IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS FILM? The kid did just fine, but what? Why? The entire movie is a series of Because The Plot Demands It, rather than things springing organically from each other.

More I think about it, more it turns to dust in my hand. Thinking about this movie is the wave, and the movie itself is a shitty sand castle made by your brother, who you love deeply, but who was never very…you know, good at anything.

Damn movie swallowed Shane Black whole, while we’re at it. Not as bad as Branagh with Thor (which I consider the worst of the Marvel Studio films, just everyone involved on autopilot), but bad enough. This one reeks of Lethal Weapon 2, where the serious/comedy balance was all out of whack, and it’s similar here, where folks are cracking wise at all the weirdest times. You can tell he polished the dialogue, it’s smarter than anything it’s referring to in the actual film, but the story itself, the plot and characters? Either he didn’t bother working on ‘em, or he realized it just wasn’t necessary. It was enough to not mess anything up.

I’m sure, as always, that the cast & crew worked hard on this film, and it is a big success, they should take pride in that.

But as cinema? It is a machine and nothing more. Which may be all they’re after for the “we are here to keep Marvel in your thoughts until Avengers 2” films, but damn, that’s some pathetic shit. ”Let’s go make us a placeholder! And remember, we just have to make it not awful, gang!”

That should not be the rallying cry each day they begin filming. And yet that’s exactly what it feels like.

Grade: C+

heyheyadi: Lou O’ Bedlam came by my studio last week to do a...

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:49:15 -0700

heyheyadi:

Lou O’ Bedlam came by my studio last week to do a little shoot. We walked around the charming neighborhood of the fashion district and he eased me into taking some portraits.

I wasn’t worried about Adi’s unease with having her picture taken, mainly because I was wondering which of the downtown folk we were walking by I’d have to stab.

Downtown LA, sure sure, they’ve got it all gentrified, got all the hipsters living in the fancy converted lofts, dropped a Ralph’s supermarket and a new-fangled Targe right in the middle of it, but I know, I know the REAL downtown.

I know that even though all we got were grins and the occasional odd glance, behind every charming piñata store is a town seething with violence. I remember the downtown of old, where Skid Row was miles long, and you never went near the joint unless you had diamonds to sell or a transexual prostitute you wanted to buy.

Hell, my dad still goes down there for $50 suits. YOU CAN’T TRUST A NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE YOU CAN BUY AN ALL-WHITE SUIT FOR $50, DON’T YOU SEE?

With all that on my mind, it was easy to shoot Adi. She’s lovely and free baked cookies can’t give you as warm a feeling as chatting with her for an hour. Her slight discomfort in front of a camera is nothing compared to sizing up every stereo salesman for that glint in the eye that tips you off to his imminent attack.

"I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody,” Thompson said in a..."

Sun, 05 May 2013 08:03:00 -0700

““I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody,” Thompson...

Having an assistant is very helpful: “What am I doing,...

Sun, 05 May 2013 07:23:00 -0700

Having an assistant is very helpful:

“What am I doing, what’s this called? Where I make the shot all cock-eyed and the thing and with the background not being straight?”

(looks at me like I’m crazy)”Dutch angle?”

“Yeah, that. I wanna do more of that.”

"I don’t like being manhandled, even by young women who look like something out of mythology when..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 21:52:40 -0700

““I don’t like being manhandled, even by young women who look like something out of mythology...

Samantha Wright (photos by Kait Privitera) (discovered via...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:48:00 -0700

Samantha Wright (photos by Kait Privitera)

(discovered via Laurenn and Meredith)

Strength is impressive. More than that, competence is impressive. More than that, mastery of skills is very impressive.

And yes, physical beauty (a form that is both visibly powerful and graceful, preternaturally blue eyes) is also impressive, though not as much so, because hey, that one’s just a random gift from the god that is genetics.

Dead lifts, gymnastics, handstands, cartwheels…some ladies I would like to meet and woo. This lady I would like to watch Do Her Thing until the sun tipped its hat and exited the stage.

V/H/S (2012) This one snuck up on me. It starts off whatever,...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:59:58 -0700

V/H/S (2012)

This one snuck up on me. It starts off whatever, then a bit too much whatthefuck, but ends ohwhat! enough that I dug it.

The individual stories began to gather steam, first getting me used to the Found Footage approach, then bringing me into the increasingly interesting stories themselves.

None of them were Great, but by the end I noticed I’d stopped rolling my eyes and was, rather, waiting to see what happened next.

Had me interested enough to go see when the sequel comes out. Because as annoying as Found Footage Films can be, there is an element that makes me feel closer to what’s going on, and when it’s done even halfway-right, I gotta find out how it all resolves.

Also, I love this poster. Back in the 80s, my mom had…hm, thinking back on it, my mom had an unusually high number of film nerd friends who’d have shelves and shelves of VHS tapes. But instead of it being creepy (as it is now that I remember it WHAT THE FUCK), it was insanely cool to li’l me. All those movies, all those stories, at their fingertips whenever they wanted. It was like Scrooge McDuck’s vault of gold coins. MMMmmmmmmm.

Grade: B-

Jenny is far braver than I. Oh sure, I SAID I’d be glad to...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:41:00 -0700

Jenny is far braver than I. Oh sure, I SAID I’d be glad to climb up onto that rock, BUT THAT WAS A LIE, I USED FALSEHOODS TO GET HER ONTO THE GREAT ROCK GOD OF ROCKS, TO LURE HER INTO ITS NEVER-SATED MAW.

That the Rock God of Rocks refused my tribute…well, rock gods are fickle, and I got some good photos anyway, so all’s well that ends well!