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First things first: Pinup girl Bettie Page dies at 85.

Just imagine how good the movie will be: Feast your sore eyes on the ass-tastic poster for the upcoming The Unborn, which was written and directed by David S. Goyer, whose writing credits include The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, the Blade trilogy and Jumper. I could say a few dissertation-worthy things about this poster as an example of our culture’s ambivalent feelings toward female sexuality and evil. But why get all serious on a flick that features Gary Oldman as a Rabbi performing an exorcism and a character whose last name is Hardigan, which, if you ask me, is truth in advertising right there. “Evil will do anything to live.” And I want to be bad. So very, very bad.

Sounds great! Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, will voice the computer of the Enterprise in the upcoming Star Trek film. Which I found of interest only because it permits me to include a Star Trek update in this post.

How did the Hollywood glitterati react to the Golden Globes nominations? Variety has their thoughts here.

ScreenRant rants about the Dark Knight snub at the Golden Globes and Cinema Blend chides awards givers about overlooking the Batman. (Money quote: The Golden Globes are “a vague entity run by a strange and mysterious European shadow organization.”)

Speaking of Dark Knight: It’s breaking more records.

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"Palace" by Dolores Coe

Ed. note: This piece, by Kevin Costello, will appear in next week’s Creative Loafing.

After 100 years of evolution, abstract art continues to nourish our emotional and intellectual needs in ways representational art simply cannot. Abstraction is an invisible vessel of the imagination that pours out subterranean truths about the nature of human experience that representationalism can only reveal, but not explore. Abstract painting is visual poetry - oblique and enigmatic, circumscribed in its effect only by the limitations of the creative force and the physical dexterity of its creator.

The three artists currently on view at Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art - Dolores Coe, Carla Poindexter and Josette Urso - give evidence of the expressive plurality of abstraction. Each in their own way use conceptual strategies based on felt experience to fuse the complexity of the modern world into concise statements of line, color and form.

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The 2009 Golden Globes nominees have been announced. Tell us who you think will win/ shouldn’t have been nominated/ was looked over.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Leonardio DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

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Consider it a Christmas miracle: I was resigned to putting up the trailer for Dragonball: Evolution, until I finally came across a Terminator Salvation trailer that I could embed in this post. (And no, I won’t even link to the Dragonball trailer. If you want to burn your retinas, search for it yourself.)

Los Angeles Film Critics have Wall-E and Dark Knight at 1 and 2 for Best Picture of the year. Read the rest of their picks here.

Brad Pitt to star in Lost City of Z, about British explorer Percy Fawcett, who was one of the inspirations for Indiana Jones.

Keanu Reeves goes samurai in 47 Ronin

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A.C. Newman: \”Submarines of Stockholm\”

(Courtesy Matador Records)

Despite a gazillion positive reviews out there, The New Pornographers have never won me over. In the past, I’ve found the indie power-poppers’ music to be impeccably constructed, flawlessly performed… and almost entirely forgettable. But I do admit to a soft spot for New Pornos frontman A.C. Newman’s 2004 solo disc, The Slow Wonder, a tight little collection of admittedly slight, but nevertheless pleasant tunes.

Matador Records is now gearing up to drop a second Newman bomb this January (Get Guilty arrives on the 20th), and is teasing us with “Submarines of Stockholm.” The track is about what you’d expect: cheery, thigh-slapping pop-rock with plenty of “La la la”s sprinkled throughout. Is it gonna’ change your life? Probably not, but it’s great to hum along to.

(Bonus info: Head here to download a free 13-track sampler with songs from a bunch of Matador artists, such as Mr. Newman himself, much-love-getting post-hardcore act Fucked Up and Bradenton-connected Jennifer O’Connor. The most intriguing song, though, is the entry by Condo Fucks, being debated in the indie world as a possible nom de rock for indie stalwarts Yo La Tengo.)

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First things first: It’s that time of year when movie critics issue their best-ofs, and here’s three of them. Time magazine has published its Top 10 films of 2008, and it’s a doozy. Over at the nation’s capital, D.C. Area Film Critics announce their best of 2008. And, not to be outdone, Roger Ebert has his top 20 of 2008.

New on DVD/Blu-ray today: Horton Hears a Who, Man on Wire, and the film we’ve all been waiting for: The Dark Knight, whose Blu-Ray edition will feature, live, interactive commentary from director Christopher Nolan.

Back to the Waters edge: John Waters has written a treatment for Hairspray 2.

More sucking: Tween vampire flick Twilight sequel will have a new director for New Moon.

Boll-ed over: Director (and I use that term very liberally) Uwe Boll, whose films consistently get awful reviews, lands Luke Perry and Lauren Holly for his latest piece of garbage.

Ripley, believe it or not: Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott have been talking about another Alien film. But without the Alien.

Dead as the dinosaurs: Jurassic Park 4 is a no-go.

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Ed. note: This piece, by Mark E. Lieb, will run in this week’s Creative Loafing.

Every play, musical or not, needs a hook, a premise that grabs the spectator and leads him or her to care about the proceedings on stage. In a classic musical like West Side Story, it’s the question of forbidden love between two members of warring clans. In The Music Man, it’s the fate of a con man who feels more and more sympathy for the folks he’s scamming, and in Cabaret it’s the fate of an innocent young Englishman thrown into the chaos and amorality of Weimar Germany.

In every case, something profound is at stake, something not only in the lives of the characters under the lights but also in the value systems and hopes of the audience. If the musical doesn’t strike a deep chord in our hearts, we won’t much pay much attention to the melodies of its denizens, however exuberant.

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Ed. note: This post comes courtesy of Eric Snider.

The Loaf music staff, Snider and Tatangelo, will be issuing our Top 11 albums of the year later this month, but the ball is already rolling. Here are the year-end best-of lists from Time, New York and England’s The Guardian. Click on the name of each mag and it’ll take you directly to their survey.

Time
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
2. TV On The Radio, Dear Science
3. Metallica, Death Magnetic
4. Girl Talk, Feed The Animals
5. Vampire Weekend
6. Kanye West, 808s And Heartbreak
7. Santogold
8. Portishead, Third
9. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey
10. Duffy, Rockferry

New York
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
2. TV On The Radio, Dear Science
3. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
4. Portishead, Third
5. Hercules & Love Affair
6. Santogold
7. Fleet Foxes
8. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War
9. Beck, Modern Guilt
10. Vampire Weekend

Guardian
1. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Amadou and Mariam, Welcome To Mali
3. Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid
4. Glasvegas
5. Kings Of Leon, Only By The Night
6. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
7. Vampire Weekend
8. Kanye West, 808s And Heartbreak
9. Portishead, Third
10. TV On The Radio, Dear Science

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If you feel even the slightest affection for the electric guitar and all the wonderful varieties of noise it can produce, you basically owe it to yourself to run out tomorrow (or log on to your computer thing-y) to purchase the latest double-disc Pavement reissue, Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed.

Yep, Matador Records is pulling out all the stops yet again, taking Pavement’s fourth studio disc and ladling on the goodies: remastered sound, a 62-page luxe booklet, 32 bonus tracks culled from session outtakes, B-sides, radio performances and live dates. For Pavement fetishists (i.e. yours truly), picking this guy up is a no-brainer, but these two discs deserve wider renown, for the original 1997 album’s innate quality, sure, but also because all those accumulated extra songs reinforce the conclusion that this is the album where Pavement just decided to fucking shred.

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And the winners are: National Board of Review announced this year’s best in film. Slumdog Millionaire — Best Pic, David Fincher — Best Director (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Clint Eastwood — Best Actor (Gran Torino), Anne Hathaway — Best Actress (Rachel Getting Married). Read the rest of the winners here.

Frank Miller says Sin City 2 is written and may start filming in April.

Big Man Japan: It’s kinda like Hancock. But Japanese. And way weirder.

Speaking of Hancock: Will Smith there’s going to be a sequel. His mission: Make a film that doesn’t suck as bad as the first one.

Welcome to hell. Remake hell. First, Russell Brand in Arthur.

And Romancing the Stone:

And John Carpenter’s They Live:

Warner Bros. to re-release Dark Knight in late January.

Man from Atlantis: Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) to direct Atlantis Rising: So when it turns out to be a shitty film, you’ll know why.

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