Putting the performance back in Performance Art

This is what an awesome live musical performance looks like:



People Get Ready is a Brooklyn-based group that's fusing mediums and bending genres with their musical movements. While their songs rock on their own, watching a clip of their live performance is what immediately turned me on to them.

If you live in New York, you can catch People Get Ready--along with the super awesome Solange--at the CBF festival this month!

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Roomsies, a wonderfully ridiculous webseries staring real-life roommates Jenny Donheiser and Meagan Kensil, just released the first episode of its second season today! It's hilariously kooky and has me pumped for future episodes. Check it out below!

Sadface because you're not caught up with Roomsies? Well put yourself in a barrel of laughs by watching all the short & sweet episodes here.

And make sure to follow the ladies on twitter for updates and extra giggles.

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9th Annual PEN World Voices Festival

This year, for their 9th annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, PEN America will celebrate writers who have shown bravery in their work and personal lives. The festival will host a slew of lectures, workshops, and performances that will feature numerous political and talented writers such as Judith Butler, Joy Harjo, Naomi Wolf, Yusef Komunyakaa, Salman Rushdie, and this year's festival honoree US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The festival will take place throughout New York City from April 29th-May 5th. To all my fellow lit and politics nerds: I can't recommend hitting up this festival enough! A full schedule of events can be accessed here: http://worldvoices.pen.org/festival-event-calendar-page. While a few events are free, most require individual tickets so I recommend taking a look at the lineup now and purchasing tickets in advance.

If you sadly can't make this year's festival, make sure to check back here at ATFG for festival updates and coverage!

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Coolest Shit On The Floor : Wondercon 2013 Edition

 At Wondercon this weekend? Check out the awesome items we found during our dealer's room sojourn yesterday!

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Admission Giveaway!! WIN BOSSYPANTS?! OKAY!

It's been way too long since we've had a giveaway, right? Probably? I love giving shit away. Especially when said shit includes Tina Fey's book because even if you own it already, it's pretty much the best gift ever for anyone awesome....who doesn't own it already.

Anyway, in celebration of the release of a movie with Tina Fey AND Paul Rudd in it, we are giving away TWO prize packages featuring:

·         Folder, Notepad, Pen, Drawstring Bag, Toothbrush

·         Admission (movie tie-in book)

·         Bossypants by Tina Fey

To enter, just fill out the rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Link Up!

Visit the official website

Like Admission on Facebook                   

Watch the trailer on YouTube                   

Tweet using #Admission

ABOUT THE FILM

Tina Fey (Date Night, 30 Rock) and Paul Rudd (I Love You Man, Knocked Up) star in Admission, the new film directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz (About a Boy), about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness. Straight-laced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan (Fey) is caught off-guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former college classmate, the free-wheeling John Pressman (Rudd). Pressman has surmised that Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), his gifted yet very unconventional student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption many years ago. Soon, Portia finds herself bending the rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the life she thought she always wanted -- but in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having.

Release Date: March 22

Genre: Comedy

Starring: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Michael Sheen, Wallace Shawn, Gloria Reuben, Nat Wolff,Traveris Spears, Lily Tomlin

Directed By: Paul Weitz (“About a Boy,” “Being Flynn,” “In Good Company”)

Written By: Karen Croner (“One True Thing”); Based on the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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SXSW: Even Moar Best of the Fest!

Over on Film.com, Will Goss and I made up our own SXSW awards and in the process got to honor everything that we thought was awesome about the films at the fest. But I actually had a few more random superlatives that I thought I'd post here!

Best Use Of James Franco
Pre-"Spring Breakers" Alamo Drafthouse Don't Talk PSA 

Although Franco had memorable performances in both "Maladies" and "Spring Breakers", perhaps his most fun contribution to SXSW was his recorded intro to Spring Breakers for the Alamo Ritz that had the audience in stitches. Not only did he quote Spring Breakers repeatedly ("Look at my shit!") but he quoted himself from Spiderman, prompting a warning to pop up on the screen saying everytime we talked or texted during the movie, Spiderman would kill James Franco's dad. And we don't want that. Well done, sir.

DON'T TALK - JAMES FRANCO from Alamo Drafthouse on Vimeo.

Best Appearance By One Of Our Own

Although Aint it Cool News' Eric Vespe's cameo in "Grow Up Tony Phillips" alongside his brother, lead Tony Vespe, is pretty damn adorbz, we can't help but award this honor to Hit Fix's Drew McWeeny, who makes us all look good with his intelligent, head above the rest commentary on the history and impact of the VHS in Josh Johnson's documentary "Rewind This"

Best Movie Swag

"Zero Charisma" & "Short Term 12"

One of these is obvious, one of these doesn't make sense without seeing the movie, both of these were given to me personally by the films directors and I will cherish them forever

Check out all the rest of the awards that DID make the cut at Film.com!

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MPAA Meets SXSW: All (okay fine, some) Of Your Questions Finally Answered!

Photo Credit: Indiewire

For the complete article, head to Film.com

In light of the burgeoning controversy over how the reportedly ultra-violent “Evil Dead” remake, which screened for the first time on Friday night, managed to get away with an R rating, I decided to take a brief respite from the traditional SXSW day-drinking and hit up the convention center for an event called “This Panel Is Not Yet Rated”. During the hour-long discussion, lots of myths about the Motion Picture Association of America’s iron-fisted ratings system were debunked and / or explained by the MPAA’s Classifications and Ratings head  Joan Graves, while opinions on how these ratings affect film were offered by Twitch Film’s Scott Weinberg, director Vincenzo Natali and Cheap Thrills CEO Travis Stevens. Unfortunately, while “Evil Dead” was minimally discussed (Weinberg noted that he generally doesn’t care what rating a horror film has, especially a new film, but if you’re remaking “Evil Dead”, you better make damn sure it has an R rating), Graves hasn’t seen it so she couldn’t speak to how the film managed to get away with avoiding an NC-17 (which in and of itself offers clues as to the internal workings of the MPAA). But fear not, plenty of interesting discussions were still had. Here are the 10 most fascinating things we learned.

1. Religious Organizations Do Not Participate in the Ratings Process

Graves clarified that when the MPAA was first created, religious organizations were up in arms, seeing it as the “fox guarding the hen house,” but their outrage increased tenfold when an appeals board made up of exhibitors and distributors was formed. To placate them, the MPAA agreed to let two members of two organizations have observer seats on the board, so that they may witness the discussion and see for themselves that no one has any personal interest or nefarious intentions, but they may not participate in any way — including so much as offering their opinions — and certainly cannot vote.

2. Adult Themes Don’t Cause R Ratings

When “Splice” was screened for the MPAA, Natali was concerned that he would receive an NC-17 because of what the film was about and the fact that, although it was filmed tastefully, there is an interspecies sex scene. Graves explained that theme/subject matter only plays a role up until PG-13, and from there it is only how that theme is articulated that may push it over the edge into R or NC-17. So as horrible as a a sex scene that manages to contain within it both incest and bestiality sounds, the fact that it exists only warrants a PG-13. Because of the context surrounding it and the tastefulness with which it was handled, the sex scene itself never entered into an NC-17 area.

3. Ratings Are Only For Parents – Unless Making Money Is An Issue

For indie filmmakers, they really couldn’t care less about a rating. The film is only going to be in theaters in a limited release anyway, and will eventually find more success on home video. On the other hand, for huge movies intended to be on 3000 screens and make a lot of money, the difference between PG-13 and R is enormously pivotal, and often will play a role in the creative process. Graves reiterated many times that the board has 12 parents (6 moms and 6 dads), from all over the country, and the only goal is to give parents a guideline for what might be appropriate for their children. The system is “voluntary” — if indie filmmakers aren’t concerned about money or the parents/kids market, they can bypass the MPAA altogether and still get released and distributed by certain companies ( i.e. what Killer Joe did). Graves even pointed out that when they talked to NATO and polled theater chains about whether or not they would show NC-17 films, only one chain in the entire country said they would not.

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