FUCK.

Molly Ivins has died from a long battle with Breast Cancer. Cancer is soooooo on my bad side as of late...

NEW MUSIC 01.30.07

Holy shit did a bunch of new music come out today, or what?! Let's get started...


LILY ALLEN * ALRIGHT, STILL

Get used to it, this chick is going to BLOW UP here in the States. She's going to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live next week and after that, the tidal wave shall begin. Great hooks, catchy beats and lyrics that'll make Alanis Morissette blush. Just break up with a boyfriend? Then songs like "Not Big" are just for you!!!

NOT BIG
Now listen I think you and me have come to the end of our time,
What d'you want some kind of reaction?
Well ok that's fine,
Alright how would it make you feel if I told you that you never ever made me cum?
In the year and a half that we spent together,
Yeah I never really had much fun.

All those times that I said I was sober,
Well I'm afraid I lied,
I'd be lying next to you, you next to me,
All the time I was high as a kite.
I could see it in your face when you give it to me gentle,
Yeah you really must think your great,
Let's see how you feel in a couple of weeks,
When I work my way through your mates.


CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH * SOME LOUD THUNDER

Not as brilliant as their debut, but solid nonetheless. The songs that stand out, stand out. Some, like Arm & Hammer, just don't gain any traction and feel like B-Sides. I listed their song "Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning?" as the song that won't leave my head yesterday and it still stands. Unique without being annoying, though you'll either love or loathe the lead singer's voice. Buy this one only if you've already bought their debut first!


BEIRUT * LON GISLAND (EP)

One of my favorite new bands. Discovered them on The Hype Machine, which is my newest favorist website! Can't really explain their sound, so go to THM and sample some of their tracks!


THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE QUEEN (SELF TITLED)

The latest in side projects from Blur frontman Damon Albarn includes members of The Verve, The Clash and Fela Kuti. It takes a little while to grow on you and expects at least a couple of listens before turning out to be quite an outstanding album. Perfect music to have on in the background while drawing or reading a book...wait, that sounds bad, doesn't it?


NORAH JONES * NOT TOO LATE

Jamie be damned, this album is quite good, if not a tad safe. I'm still waiting for her to bust out a little and give us something a lil' more dangerous. But, with her voice, I'd buy an album of her simply reading the phonebook...

SONG THAT WON'T LEAVE MY HEAD...

It's been stuck in my head for over a week now. So I figured, by posting it and forcing you to listen to it, it'll leave me alone and move onto other new music. So here goes...

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning?

Invisible like all the reasons
Dark and cold like all the seasons
Things are not as you would have them
I'm no man and you're no woman

I guess I hope to see you sometime
Though our paths will never intertwine again
I hope you notice
I'm no hare and you're no tortoise

And I'm touched by the same sad feeling of dread
Just to know that you can't wait to see me dead
An idea in your head and a compass in your hand
On a mission to a foreign land

So now I'm out for political favors
A salary that corresponds with labor
Big house and a morning paper
Good fences that make good neighbors

I'm at the end
This here my rope
Another year to write and read the book I wrote
No dialing out
For a good time
To bathroom wall
Toss it a dime
Dead king dead swing
Ali look out!
We have new rules
To do without
You talk of Jesus
Until I'm well red
The man is
Swimming
Swimming
Swimming in my head
Why settle down?
Why even try?
Me tiger mouth
Meet bloodless eye
So drop dead stock
What fallen tree?
I leave New York
For other cities
Which let me play
With gas and fire
Took out an ad
Best friend for hire
Know that Mama told me
Never to come
But I cam softly, slowly
Banging me metal drum
Like Berryman
Bed-wet poet fears
That better men drink taller beers
Like scientist
I lost my glove
To bloody fists
And harder drugs
So split the night
And we get young
Like sacred cow
Without a tongue who sang a song sing
"time does not cut deep but cuts most absurdly....."
so la da dum

MAYBE I'M JUST A HEARTLESS BASTARD...

But is today that slow of a news day that BARBARO DIES needs to be the headline on every major news outlet?!



I mean, get me wrong, but he was a horse...right? I mean, I'm all for horses not dying, but the same country that allows EPIC MOVIE to come in first place at the box office seems to care a lil' too much about insignificant bullshit.

DON'T WORRY...

I just felt like a change was in order. I've kept the "Jungle Leaf" theme for too long and needed something else. It's not you, it's me...

SEEING YOURSELF ON TV IS THE WORST...

Uploading the video to youtube and letting the entire world witness the trainwreck is worster. Here's the thing, I went to that MINICOMICPOLOOZA yesterday and all was going fine, until the local news station showed up.

A lil' tidbit that you're probably going to be shocked to find out, is that a LOT of comic artists and writers are shy mother fuckers who suuuuuure as shit don't want to be on TV. So when the reporter is like, "So who wants to say a little something about mini comics for the camera?" Everyone is like..."Um...not me...but you know, Travis has a big mouth and likes to hear himself speak!" I desperately tried to get Joel (the comic shop owner) to step in, but in the end I was the sacrificial lamb.

One more bit that I honestly cannot stress enough. My comic is titled "FOXYMORON." ONE FUCKING WORD!!! What is so hard to figure out about that?! It's a god damn pun of the word "oxymoron." My last name is Fox! I'm not saying I'm sexy, yet stupid therefore needing two words to describe myself, it's SIMPLY A PUN!!! I've done this damn comic for over a decade and still to this day people want to break the title in half...case in point, this news story:



And seriously...could I look any fucking fatter? I swear to Christ I didn't eat an entire bag of marshmallows before doing this interview. Just half the bag.

DAVID FINCHER IS A GOD.

The website for ZODIAC just went live and I spent 20 minutes studying the crime scene at Washington & Cherry. The flash animation is made to look exactly like Fincher's crazy-ass camera movements where you go from outside of the car, through the window down the side of the passenger seat to the carpet of the floorboards all in one amazingly seamless shot. And I dunno if these letters from the Zodiac killer and crime scene photos are real, or just props from the film, but they're disturbing nonetheless.

"Children make easy targets."

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS?!

Nick Cave has a new rock band called Grinderman?! They have a record coming out in March?! They just released a video called "No Pussy Blues" that might be the greatest video ever? Damn you all for keeping this a secret!!!



If you ever wanted to watch snakes, eagles and giraffes have sex, this video is for you!!!

IN CASE YOU CARE...

I'll be taking part in a lil' signing tomorrow out at Astrokitty Comics in Lawrence, Kansas. It's for their MINICOMICPALOOZA 2007 which is going to be just as awesome as it sounds...perhaps even awesomener...

So if you wanna pick up any of my latest comics, or just want to be able to punch me in the face, feel free to stop by!

OSCAR NOMINATIONS!!!

Well, even though you bastards let me down again and made STOMP THE YARD #1 at the box office for the second week in a row, I'm still glowing! Look at all the awards PAN'S LABYRINTH and CHILDREN OF MEN picked up! And even though I haven't seen it, I'm glad that DREAMGIRLS didn't get a "Best Picture" nod. Probably helped pave the way for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE to squeeze in there.

Best Picture
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress
Penélope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Best Supporting Actress
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Best Director
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
Paul Greengrass, United 93
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Best Original Screenplay
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Animated Film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Art Direction
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige

Best Cinematography
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan's Labyrinth
The Prestige

Best Costume Design
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen

Best Documentary Feature
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best Documentary Short
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing a Dream
Two Hands

Best Film Editing
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93

Best Foreign Language Film
After the Wedding, Denmark
Days of Glory (Indigènes), Algeria
The Lives of Others, Germany
Pan's Labyrinth, Mexico
Water, Canada

Best Makeup
Apocalypto
Click
Pan's Labyrinth

Best Original Score
Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Original Song
''I Need to Wake Up,'' from An Inconvenient Truth
''Listen,'' from Dreamgirls
''Love You I Do,'' from Dreamgirls
''Our Town,'' from Cars
''Patience,'' from Dreamgirls

Best Short, Animated
The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts

Best Short, Live Action
Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story

Best Sound Editing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best Sound Mixing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best Visual Effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

SNL...REALLY?!

I thought these exact same things when I read about Michael Vick trying to get weed in a water bottle onto an airplane...

LOST INTERVIEWS...AND CLIP...

Both are amazing and should help hold you over until the season starts up again on February 7th.

Discussion with the Cast & Producers.

A look into how and when the series might end with Co-Creator/Executive Producer Damon Lindelof.


And in case you missed it, here's the latest "Lost Moment" that aired last night...

SUNSHINE TRAILER!!!

Embed This Video | Visit Fox Searchlight

C'mon Danny Boyle, don't fail us now!!!

AMERICA, YOU LET ME DOWN...

It's award season...there's TONS of good movies to see at the box office, and yet, what comes in #1 this past weekend with $22 MILLION?!

STOMP THE YARD.

Ouch. It's one thing to make a mediocre piece of shit like Night at the Museum an almost $200 MILLION DOLLAR BLOCKBUSTER, (at least it had Ricky Gervais in it,) but to reward a movie about fancy-dancin' with millions of dollars...well, that's like electing Bush a second term...oh...wait, nevermind.

SET THE TiVOS!

Next week, the world's biggest egos shall square off!!!



NEW YORK (AP) -- It may feel like looking into the mirror for Bill O'Reilly and Stephen Colbert next week.

The Fox News Channel host and Colbert, who has essentially based his comic character every evening on Comedy Central on him, will trade appearances on each other's programs January 18.

"I'm really looking forward to speaking to a man who owes his entire career to me," O'Reilly said.

On "The Colbert Report," Colbert portrays a self-involved talk-show host who has tried to bring "truthiness" to the world. His character owes an obvious debt to O'Reilly, who holds court in the "no-spin zone" each evening.

On "The O'Reilly Factor," O'Reilly portrays a ... um, he hosts the top-rated program in cable news.

"I look forward to the evening," Colbert said. "It is an honor to speak face-to-face with a broadcasting legend, and I feel the same way about Mr. O'Reilly."

CHILDREN OF MEN

Molly and I finally saw this yesterday afternoon. We had anxiously been waiting for it to come out for months now. I even bought her P.D. James's novel to hold us over. Except the movie took the basic premise of the book, that for twenty years our world is without childbirth, down a much darker and more urgent path.



The first scene of the film, which is a part of the collection at the end of this post, is a single-take of our main character, Theo, getting a cup of coffee. As he enters the coffee shop, packed to the brim with people, he notices the televisions broadcasting the death of Baby Diego. Baby Diego, who was a few months past his 18th birthday, was the last baby ever born in the whole world. Most of the people inside the coffee shop are crying and covering their faces to hide the sadness, but not Theo...he mindlessly grabs his coffee and heads down to the newspaper machine on the corner. Not ten seconds after leaving the shop, a huge explosion blasts the entire place into a cloud of dust! The screen goes black, and with the arrival of the white letters, CHILDREN OF MEN begins.



You see, a world where there will be no future generations isn't an ideal way of life. The world has gone to shit, and England (where the entire story takes place) is a habor that kicks any and all immigrants to the curb. The UK is basically a prison where no one enters or leaves without a great deal of scrutiny. Which is exactly why Theo's ex-wife, Julian choses Theo to help a girl escape the country. Theo has connections, but does he have the interest?



Theo's best friend, Jasper (played perfectly by Sir Michael Caine) is a pot smoking, fart-filled hippy living in the woods. He lives life like there's nothing to worry about, whereas Theo seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. But perhaps there's a bit of hope left? Perhaps, Theo still has a longing for his ex-wife and her radical political agenda? So, ultimately he decides to help out Julian and escort Kee (who is somehow pregnant) to the "Human Project" which is a group trying to save humanity.



From this moment on, Children of Men becomes a chase picture. Theo and Kee flee from one dangerous situation to another. The pace rarely slows and the camerawork will leave you on the edge of your seat. Alfonso Cuaron has outdone himself with using so many long, uninterupted takes. You get a sense of realisim that elevates already tense surroundings to an even higher degree. People die right in front of you, blood splatters onto the camera lense and stays there until the end of the shot, numerous explosions and bullets fly in all different directions...you will be winded just sitting in the theater watching it all.



The only criticism I've read about the film is that it doesn't answer the questions it produces. Who are the Human Project? Why can't we make any more babies? To worry about that is to miss the point. In fact, in numerous interviews, Cuaron dismisses the criticism easily. The only reason the film takes place in the future is because the premise takes us 20 years from now. It's not Sc-Fi, it's grounded and dirty and taking the very themes of our daily lives into a new setting. Who cares why we can't have children, what interests him is what would our lives be like dealing with that dilemma. Would we turn on each other, fight and devour the ones still alive? Or would we manage to find hope? Those are the themes he needed to create this masterpiece for...not to bog it down with explanations and "happy endings."

Here's a couple clips that should give you a taste of what amazing camerawork you'll experience in Children of Men...

NEW 300 POSTERS!

Not 300 of them...but they're still damn impressive...


Check out the others here and here.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2007...

I made that post the other day where I ended it with, "Maaaaaaan in 2007 going to suck." I said that only meaning that my Dad is sure to lose his battle with Cancer over the next few months. But that's just one small sample of what the year has to offer me. Because as far as a year of useless shit that I can spend plenty of (Molly's) money on, 2007 is shaping up quite nicely!!!

**MUSIC**

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH * SOME LOUD THUNDER
January 30th


NORAH JONES * NOT TOO LATE
January 30th


LUCINDA WILLIAMS * WEST
February 13th


LUCKY YOU SOUNDTRACK
March 6th

Movie looks like utter shit, but Curtis Hanson always puts together amazing soundtracks and this one is no different:

1. Bruce Springsteen - Lucky Town
2. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Let It Ride
3. Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone
4. George Jones – Choices
5. Kris Kristofferson - They Ain’t Got ‘Em All
6. Drew Barrymore - The Cold Hard Truth
7. Bruce Springsteen - The Fever
8. Bonnie Raitt - Bartender’s Blues
9. Johnny Rivers - Positively 4th Street
10. George Jones - I Always Get Lucky With You
11. Bob Dylan - Huck’s Tune
12. Shawn Colvin - Viva Las Vegas

BRIGHT EYES * CASSADAGA
April

**MOVIES**


ZODIAC by David Fincher
March 2nd


300 by Zach Snyder
March 9th


OCEAN'S 13 by Steven Soderbergh
June 8th


THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD by Andrew Dominik
TBD 2007


RATATOUILLE by Brad Bird
June 29th


THE SIMPSONS MOVIE by David Silverman
July 27th

HOT FUZZ by Edgar Wright
April

SICKO by Michael Moore
June

SUNSHINE by Danny Boyle
TBD 2007

RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR by Chris Gorak
TBD 2007

**VIDEO GAMES**


RATCHET & CLANK: SIZE MATTERS (PSP)
February 6th


MOTORSTORM (PS3)
February 27th


GOD OF WAR 2 (PS2)
March


NBA STREET HOMECOURT (PS3)
March


JOHN WOO PRESENTS STRANGLEHOLD (PS3)


LOST (PS2...maybe PS3?!)
TBD 2007


MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE (PS3)
TBD 2007


ASSASSIN'S CREED (PS3)
TBD 2007

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV
October 16th

CAT POWER ON AUSTIN CITY LIMITS!

Anyone else catch this last weekend? No? You don't have a 2 year old and therefore were out "honky tonkin'?!" Well, try and catch it on PBS when it repeats!!!


CAT POWER * COULD WE

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'll leave you with the best Christmas present I've ever gotten from my (uber) awesomely talented wife...



...maaaaaaan is 2007 going to suck.