Xpress-rated: Video sneak peek at the Aug. 6 Xpress

In this week’s Mountain Xpress, look for an update on the sentencing in federal court of former Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford, an in-depth look at Asheville’s Downtown Master Plan process, a survey of merchants on their hopes and fears regarding the Haywood Park redevelopment, and the weekly line-up of opinion pieces and letters to the editor.

On the Arts & Entertainment front, you’ll find columnists Ken Hanke and Anne Fitten Glenn and stories about the Trinumeral music festival, the Pigeons of the Park multimedia concert and much more.

— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor

 

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17 thoughts on “Xpress-rated: Video sneak peek at the Aug. 6 Xpress

  1. Let’s get Ken Hanke in here, the tunnel sequence moves this film up into the art area … I leave the full explanation of this amazing juxtaposition of depth, darkness, and bad audio during that scene to the master.

    Otherwise, as ever, an informative and inspiring video extravaganza.

  2. Ken Hanke

    Let’s get Ken Hanke in here, the tunnel sequence moves this film up into the art area … I leave the full explanation of this amazing juxtaposition of depth, darkness, and bad audio during that scene to the master.

    Well, it’s either one of those out-of-the-darkness-into-the-light things or some sort of Freudian thing. The Laverne and Shirley reference clearly suggests some kind of Sapphic overtones in such a setting, meaning that this thing is just all over the place in genre bending. Possibly just a hint of Bunuel by way of Fred Olen Ray.

  3. ah… yes… exactly.

    But might we not also look at it as a cinematic rending of the “reality tunnel” concept — a term coined by Timothy Leary but popularized by the late Robert Anton Wilson (which might also tinge things with Illuminati precepts, the eye on top of the pyramid here being only implied). Two kindred spirits move through an artificial darkness seeking the natural light at the end of the tunnel. Their talk we can barely hear but can believe is of vast cosmic impact. The camera remains fixed, indicative of that fact that we mere mortals can only watch such a powerful duo walk away, we have no chance of keeping up with their blazing pace of both thought and locomotion. The use of cheap consumer camera, useless internal mike, and not attempt at proper lighting –rather than distract — becomes an auteuric statement of vast implications relating to life and the tunnel it traverses.

    I am awed.

  4. Ken Hanke

    Sometimes a tunnel is just a tunnel.

    But a good cigar is a smoke…no, wait, that’s a different quote.

  5. Sometimes a tunnel is just a tunnel.

    but not in a MountainX production, fraught with symbolism and layer upon layer of deeper meanings.

  6. cigar quotes, Ken? okay:

    “Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman – or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.”
    –George Burns

    ” Mr. Burns comes out and flips cigar ashes on his shoes, and makes up about 90 percent of what you hear.”
    –Bobby Darin

    “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
    -Sigmund Freud

    Which brings us back to tunnels for both tunnels and cigars need a light…

    Which only points out the genius of Ken Hanke as a discerning critic and the incredible artistry of MountainX’s Fine Film Division.

  7. Ken Hanke

    “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
    -Sigmund Freud

    Proving that ol’ Siggy never saw the cigar smoking scene with Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser in Gods and Monsters. (Being dead perhaps precluded that possibility for him.)

    Which only points out the genius of Ken Hanke as a discerning critic and the incredible artistry of MountainX’s Fine Film Division.

  8. wutang fan

    Steve, did I really just hear you say “G – Z – A” when talking about GZA? It’s pronounced “Jiz-ah”. Aren’t you the A&E;Editor?

  9. chuck

    Steve- It’s pronounced “Jizza”

    Also, Boots from the Coup will be there.

    And of course, GFE

  10. Laugh Your Asheville Off

    oh man. Please no more Medford articles. Makes me want to eat coffee grounds with a spoon.

  11. [b]Steve, did I really just hear you say “G – Z – A” when talking about GZA? It’s pronounced “Jiz-ah”. Aren’t you the A&E;Editor?[/b]

    I’m not much of a Wu-Tang fan, obviously. I’ve failed you all.

  12. brebro

    Just to help prevent any future faux pas (pronounced “fo’ pause”) let me point out that Jay-Z is pronounced “jay zee” and not “jaze” as some would think. Also, Sade is “shar-day” and Kenny G is pronounced “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”.

  13. Ken Hanke

    All of which raises the question of whether the British — assuming they find the need to speak of them at all — call ZZ Top “Zed Zed Top.”

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