Check out the wealth of goodies now posted at the V For Vendetta website. They held a press conference last week in advance of the start of filming tomorrow with producers Joel Silver and Grant Hill, director James McTeigue, lead actor James Purefoy and my secret girlfriend Natalie Portman wherein they discuss their plans to adapt the legendary Alan Moore/David Lloyd graphic novel to film. There’s a transcript of the whole thing and if you don’t like to read – and come on, who does? – there are also select video clips. Perhaps the most revelatory thing to come out of the to-do is the fact that Natalie will be shaving her head for the role. My goodness, I wonder how much those locks would go for on eBay…?

A bit surprised at the director on this one – I had thought the Wachowski brothers were going to be behind the camera, but they’re just given producer credits. Instead they’ve got McTeigue, whose credits to date amount to first- and second-director credits on the Matrix and Star Wars prequel films, but who appears to be a rookie when it comes to being the main guy. Hrmmm. So he’s got a lot of experience making big, loud, empty films. That doesn’t bode well.

And related – Newsarama has an essay from British comics columnist Rich Johnson about “Why V For Vendetta Matters – Especially Now”, wherein he considers the post-9/11 world, how it relates to the fascist London portrayed in the comic and the question of whether America is ready to accept a terrorist as hero. It predictably sets off a shitstorm of responses. I remember reading a discussion sometime in late 2001 of whether or not V would ever be made into a film because of the touchiness of that very idea. I was in the camp of those who thought it would not – remember, this was a time when radio stations were pulling John Lennon’s “Imagine” from playlists for fear of offending someone. The likelihood of anyone making a film about an individual trying to take down the government seemed remote at best. Guess not. Maybe it’s okay since it’s the British government in the crosshairs and not the American…? Anyway, I need to re-read V For Vendetta. And if you haven’t read it yet, you really should.

As I reported earlier, the good news is that Six By Seven’s last album, :04 (and it’s companion album Left Luggage At The Peveril Hotel), will finally be getting a North American release on May 2. The better news is that the band has just announced they will have ANOTHER studio album ready for release in the UK on May 23. I’m all for more music from great bands, but geez – apparently keeping the colonies months behind on releases isn’t good enough, we actually have to be albums behind.

There’s finally some firm info on the new Pernice Brothers record. It’s called Discover A Lovelier You and it’ll be in stores June 14. Expect Joe to preview songs from it when he plays the Horseshoe on May 4.

People have been asking me what I’m doing for my 30th birthday. Well, I now have an answer – I will be at Lee’s Palace seeing The Mountain Goats! Yay. That’s May 11, for those of you who don’t already have my birthday on your calendars. Their new album, The Sunset Tree, is out April 26. See 517? All these years without, you move away and they finally come to town. YOU KEPT THEM AWAY.

A quick reminder that A Girl Called Eddy is doing an instore at Soundscapes this afternoon at 4. I just picked up her self-titled album on Friday, and it’s quite nice. Everyone mentions it when talking about the record, but Richard Hawley’s production really is excellent. I wonder how much of the lushness they’ll be able to reproduce live? I guess I’ll find out tonight at the Horseshoe where she plays a co-headline show with France’s Keren Ann. If you’re going, A Girl Called Eddy is scheduled for 9:45 and Keren Ann for 11.

In anticipation of moving in a couple months, I finally got off my duff yesterday and sold off a huge whack of CDs that had been collecting dust on my shelves for over a year now. With it went many of the last vestiges of my blues and Britpop phases and now I’m left with what I consider to be a pretty respectable music collection that’s still going to herniate me to move. This is one of the very few times I look at my teeming shelves and think maybe the iPod crew has the right idea. But then I come to my senses.

np – Doves / Some Cities

Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.