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I saw Red Road (2006, written by Andrea Arnold with characters devised by Anders Thomas Jensen and Lone Scherfig; directed by Andrea Arnold) back in September as part of TIFF, and it was definitely one of my favourites. The director was on hand to explain the concept behind “The Advance Party“, a project/concept for a trilogy of three films of which Red Road is the first.

I didn’t know anything about The Advance Party before seeing the film, nor did I realize that Lars von Trier was involved at all, so that was a pleasant surprise. It is an intense, riveting piece and I really enjoyed how the themes and plot slowly rolled out. It was especially interesting afterwards, too, to read the character descriptions/restrictions that Arnold and the next two films’ directors were given to work with.

As the film is concluding its festival tour, Indiewire has a short article which details Red Road’s success and also sheds some light on The Advance Party, including some challenges that Arnold faced working within its structure.

On March 26, 2007, Funky Barb (aka “Concert Buddy”) and I went to check out Mew at Toronto’s MOD Club. I first heard this band through my friend Jason/Willis/Eldon/Zwerg a few years back. It’s hard to describe their music – it’s like a bunch of ex-metalheads who like fairies, girls and cute animals. (They don’t actually sing about fairies; it’s just easy to picture them flying around while you’re listening to them. Maybe it’s just me.) They are from Denmark and are apparently huge there, so that made it even cooler to see them in a smaller club setting.

Below are a couple of clips I took – enjoy!