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MUSIC VIDEO: Bambu f/ Chace Infinite “Paper Thin”

September 2nd, 2010 | No Comments »

Paper Thin – Bambu feat. Chase Infinite from LightWork Media on Vimeo.

The fourth vid off Bambu’s ...paper cuts… album: “Paper Thin” featuring Chace Infinite. Directed by Lightwork Media. Check the video and behind-the-scenes photos I took during the video shoot.

In case you missed it:
Bambu – “The Queen is Dead” music video
Bambu – “Old Man Raps” music video
Bambu f/ Prometheus Brown – “Slow Down” music video

MUSIC VIDEO: The Physics “I Just Wanna Beat” dir. Jon Augustavo

August 30th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Jon Jon does it again. This time for the Seattle instant summer classic The Physics‘ track “I Just Wanna Beat.” Rapping and flirting in the library. I miss those days.

Get the track, and the whole freely downloadable High Society EP, over here.

Two In The Wave (Emmanuel Laurent, 2010)

August 23rd, 2010 | 2 Comments »

I caught Two In The Wave (2010) at Northwest Film Forum on a Saturday night right after hitting up Hempfest. Probably not the best time to catch a documentary in a small room with the hardest core of the city’s cinephiles, but I couldn’t pass up a film about the relationship and fall-out between Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

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Jon Augustavo: A Re-introduction

August 20th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Like I’ve been saying all year, there’s a lil’ rap music video renaissance going on in Seattle these days. In just the first half of 2010 alone, Jon Augustavo (aka Jon Jon, aka @jonjonaye) has dropped 2-3 music videos a month, each one showing growth from the last. He’s done joints for J. Pinder, Sol, Wizdom, Eighty4 Fly, and Roderic to name a few – all finding the rapper in their most natural element. It’s lifestyle realism, in a similar vein as other Seattle hip-hop music video directors (Zia Mohajerjasbi, Stephan Gray), but with slightly more polish and a vibe that echoes the classic YO! MTV RAPS era of hip-hop videos. Jon Jon is also the fastest interview responder ever:

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VIDEO: Missy Tone

August 16th, 2010 | No Comments »

Whilst digging for obscure 90′s R&B online, I came across this video and got introduced to the world of Missy Tone. Maybe it was the stifling heat, but browsing through her 40+ videos of her singing was a cinematic experience. You never see Missy Tone, you only hear her singing. What we see is what she sees: the ground, the sky, a laptop computer, a table, the other side of the room. She lives somewhere in Seattle, where her thick Spanish accent would stand out in most places other than a few parts in West Seattle and the Southend. She must be around my age or older, because most of the songs she sings are early 90′s classics. Her it’s-not-that-serious personality bookends the short acappellas but when she gets into a song, she goes in. She always starts with “What it do?” and always ends prematurely with a giggle.

Everybody had or has a homegirl who just sings whenever she can. Watching these videos was like a Being John Malkovich type trip through that homegirl’s head.

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Sounds Of A New Hope: Live Video Remix (Los Angeles, 8/27)

August 11th, 2010 | No Comments »

When the homie Kiwi came back from the Philippines in summer of  2007, he showed me a grip of amazing video footage of him rapping with urban poor youth, freestyling and recording in the slum, meeting up with Filipino hip-hop legends Francis M (RIP) and Gloc-9, and several jarring testimonies of barrio life from the youth themselves. It was confirmation of what I’ve been hearing about the PI for a minute – that more and more city kids are expressing themselves through hip-hop music. It wasn’t always that way, and there’s still a long way to go.

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REVIEW: Mountain Thief (Gerry Balasta, 2009)

August 8th, 2010 | 3 Comments »

I caught Mountain Thief (2009), a low-budget film about garbage scavengers in the Philippines, on the same day I saw Inception, a $200 million film about blurring the lines between dreams and reality. My cinematic cognitive dissonance was peaking, and I welcomed the return to concrete.

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VIDEO: “Blue Roses Falling” From Upcoming Jake Shimabukuro Documentary (dir. Tadashi Nakamura)

August 6th, 2010 | No Comments »

Since making a splash with his documentary trilogy (Yellow Brotherhood, Pilgrimage, A Song For Ourselves), the homie Tadashi Nakamura has been working on a full-length documentary on Hawaii-based ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukoro. The film is being produced by the Center for Asian American Media. Here’s a video preview cut from some of Tad’s footage, featuring Jake performing “Blue Roses Falling.”

Check Tad’s previous work and updates on his upcoming projects at www.tadashinakamura.com.