MIX/VHS | Week 063
Week 063
Are you ready for the weekend a day early? You know we are. Our MIX/VHS contributors pulled together a sweet lil' mix of what they've been watching lately for you to relax & watch & pretend like work on Friday is not a thing that will be happening in your life tomorrow! Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy!!
The David Chang Show: Pre-Opening Diaries, Vol. 1
LISTEN TO IT HERE!
Known for his successful restaurant group, Momofuku, renowned chef David Chang kicks off his new podcast with Bill Simmons on The Ringer. Chang discusses his journey of opening his new restaurant, Majordomo in L.A., while we get insight into the life and craft of a restaurateur. It's great to see that he's immersing himself into the multimedia landscape, as he also has his Netflix show, Ugly Delicious. I'm interested to see how this podcast will develop moving forward with the Simmons and Chang partnership.
- Janet
Deep Rising
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE!
"Full Scream Ahead." That is the unapologetic tagline for this incredible B-Movie, a film that essentially serves as director Stephen Sommers' audition to direct the 1999 Mummy. Deep Rising is unabashedly fun, ridiculous, gory, and hilarious - a luxury cruise liner is overtaken by some creature, and a group of pirates that happen upon the derelict ship find the gory remains... and the monster. With one-liners, damsels-in-distress-in-dresses, unending-ammo, and stereotypes everywhere, it's a surprisingly witty screenplay that packs in just as many stunts as it does gore. Also, a woman dies by being pulled into a toilet. Pure cinematic escapism.
- Jake
The Week Of
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE!
No exaggeration. The Week Of (2018) is a truly hilarious and touching film which follows two fathers Kenny Lustig (played by Adam Sandler) and Kirby Cordice (played by Chris Rock) on the week before their children’s wedding. General chaos ensues as Sandler’s character— a hardworking father — struggles to plan a budget-wedding for his daughter. Rock plays an affluent surgeon who must survive the chaos that is the Lustig family. Rachel Dratch also gives a fantastic performance as Debbie Lustig, Sandler’s character’s manic wife who — as she says in the movie — “never sleeps.” If you are a fan of some of Sandler’s earlier comedies such as The Wedding Singer (1998), this film holds true to its roots (the cast, jokes etc.) but is executed in an entirely different, novel way. Definitely a must-see.
- Zoe
Dr. E. Andrew Boyd - Beyond Comprehension
WATCH IT HERE!
There are some strange, mindbending qualities of this universe of ours. It's populated by paradoxes that we'd do better to approach with humility, rather than unearned arrogance. This, at least, is the thesis Dr. E. Andrew Boyd presents in his 2017 book Beyond Comprehension. Dr. Boyd is an MIT-trained professor who teaches at both Texas A&M and the University of Houston. The above video is a talk Dr. Boyd gave in 2011, which contains the core concept of his book. That there are, in his words, "real things in our world that humans can't comprehend." These aren't things we haven't yet learned – but concepts and ideas that our minds are simply incapable of ever grasping. It's refreshing to hear Dr. Boyd's perspective. Many in the sciences are hesitant to bring attention to these strange contradictions where the finite and the infinite clash. Maybe they know from experience that others are all too quick to rush in with gap-filling theories of their own. "Zeus did it! Jesus did it! No one did it!" These explanations are all equally (un)founded in the face of the unknown. But perhaps we can learn to sit back when we're confronted with what we don't understand. After all, we should be grateful we've gotten this far, and have learned this much about our inexplicable universe. And with no guarantee we'll ever understand it completely, it's okay to acknowledge our limitations: to marvel and wonder at it all. There will be a roundtable discussion of Dr. Boyd's work held on Sunday, 11am at the Spiderhouse Ballroom. I hope to see you there!
- Matt
Oneohtrix Point Never - "Black Snow"
WATCH IT HERE!
The new Oneohtrix Point Never video is out!! The richly symbolic world of Age Of (out June 1st) is continuing to reveal itself, and it looks brilliant in that saturated red light. This video, which Daniel Lopatin directed himself, truly has it all: ornate and grotesque still life images, nuclear apocalypse and/or disaster, cowgirls in gas masks, and a devilish monster bowing a framed photograph of Earth like a violin. Musically, the song features backup vocals from Anohni as well as lead vocals from Lopatin (and unlike his past vocal performances, it actually sounds kinda like a voice!). It also apparently features an instrument called a daxophone (I was just gonna say it's got some nice synths, can you IMAGINE my embarrassment), which flutters weightlessly behind the song's sonic bulk. I can't wait to hear what the rest of this thing sounds like.
-Morgan
Kate Bush - "Running Up That Hill"
WATCH IT HERE!
I listened to this song every day for a month before I quit my last job, and I keep these images in my head whenever I think about quitting anything that I don't like doing. The eighties gave us a lot of music videos set in ambiguously large bedrooms with wantonly hung curtains and esoteric modern dance numbers, but few reach this peak of genre excellence.
-Peder
Like this mix? Tell us what you think in the comments below, and let us know what you’re recommending for us to watch this week!