I understand everyone wants their movie title to be cool. Studios do market research and find ways to make their films hip and attractive to the younger audience which is their target market. It seems that if you have a thriller or action-packed film of any kind the kids really like having numbers replace letters in the middle of words. The only problem is that often they force these numbers into the title and it just doesn’t make any sense. For instance if I was a producer on The Crazies I might consider renaming the film “The Craz13s.” The “2″ is replacing a “too.” The connection in The Craz13s is much more vague. This might be the thirteenth installment, or maybe the number 13 plays into the film somehow, or maybe it’s actually pronounced The Crazthirteens. Here are 5 films that replace letters with numbers when it doesn’t quite make any sense.

1. 5nal Destination (Steven Quayle, 2011)
The first film is the film that was the catalyst for this lists creation. Yesterday film blogs were a-buzz with the news that Final Destination 5 was being re-titled 5nal Destination. Someone forgot to tell the producers that “5nal” does not equal “Final.” But those producers are pretty clever, the porn spin-off will write itself…since it already looks like Anal Destination.
Actual title of film: If it’s not Anal Destination then it has to be Fivenal Destination

2. Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)
This isn’t as bad. But it still doesn’t make any sense. To their credit they only sometime attribute the film this way. This is one of the main ways you see this technique employed, replacing a random letter in the word of a number with the actual number.
Actual title of film: seventy-seven

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DC Comics has announced that they will be giving Wonder Woman a new look after 69 years in the leggy onesie. I’m all for changing the swim-suit get-up and giving her some real clothing, but doesn’t this kind of look like parody of itself? This could be from a re-branding scene in a sitcom. A bunch of old guys sitting in a sterile meeting room, windows lining one wall. The guy smoking the cigar says Let’s make her relevant to the youth. You know, some fingerless gloves, a leather jacket. Dress her up like the youth dress. Anyhow, there is a photo of the new outfit below along side the onesie.

via InDigest

Today Pitchfork announced plans to launch a new blog on July 7. Altered Zones will focus on DIY music, the more edgy and underground side of what Pitchfork is already trying to cover. They will review cassette only releases, bootlegs, and generally things that Pitchfork would probably bury if they covered. From the Pitchfork release:

Pitchfork is excited to announce the upcoming launch of Altered Zones, a new sister site that will focus on leftfield pop, experimental, and home-recorded sounds. In the last several years, there’s been an explosion of small-scale DIY music, and Altered Zones is dedicated to exploring these emerging musical worlds. Uniting an international team of bloggers whose individual sites have proven among the most consistently rewarding outposts for unique and leftfield music, this new site will highlight the most notable and adventurous new artists, serving as a focal point for the flood of creativity coming from deep within the music underground.

Under the direction of co-editors Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites) and Sahil Varma and Jack Shankly (Transparent), Altered Zones contributors will share their favorite tracks each week in a rotating schedule with daily posts, as well as highlighting the most compelling new albums. Altered Zones will also regularly post overlooked or undiscovered tracks chosen by its favorite artists.

Director Joel Gilbert’s new film Paul McCartney Really is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison goes beyond the basic conspiracy theories that involve hidden messages in album covers and backmasked into recordings by the remaining three members who were trying to tell the world that Paul McCartney had died. Gilbert, director of odd music docs including a few on Bob Dylan, claims to have received a package in 1999 without a return address that included two tapes marked “The Last Testament of George Harrison.” On the tapes a voice that at least resembles Harrison details the death of Paul McCartney and the extremely elaborate cover-up with MI5. It’s a story that your better judgment tells you not to believe. But gilbert wants to change your mind.

DIY conducted an interview with the director in which Gilbert was frequently evasive. It seems that he was either trying not to spoil the film or he felt genuinely uncomfortable answering the interviewers requests to substantiate his claims. A clip from the interview and the trailer for the film after the break.

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Gogol Bordello just did one of All Songs Considered’s Tiny Desk Concerts. Of course the paid little mind to what is generally a fairly subdued series. They bring a handle of gin and Eugene Hutz winds up on top of the office desks for some stripped down versions of “Pala Tute” and “Start Wearing Purple.” You can see video of the performance here or grab the audio only version here.

He’s not the only street poet out there piecing together verses for cash, but Robert Samuel Snyderman, a 23-year-old Bed-Stuy resident, is good enough at what he does that his poetry alone has been paying his bills since sometime in May.

Yes, he acknowledged, it’s a bit of a gimmick. But over the years, it has come to feel natural, rather than performative. And setting up shop somewhere like the Flea — where there are fewer tourists than a more lucrative locale like Central Park — also helps keep reins on the “really touristy” suggestions.

There doesn’t seem to be anything “touristy” about his work, which is inspired by everything from strength in the face of illness to banana peels, depending on what his patrons request.

via InDigest

As we posted earlier today, the enterprising owner of the blog From the Swamp has unearthed the garage demos from Tom Waits’ The Black Rider Sessions. You must hear this.

Brooklyn Vegan finished releasing the tracks from Sunsalute: A Tribute to Katrina & the Waves. The comp features Sam Amidon, Doveman, Deer Tick, Fucked Up, and tUnE-YarDs.

Fokly-country legend Charlie Louvin recorded a great Daytrotter session. So, did Nathaniel Rateliff.

Flavorpill put together a Northside Mixtape for the Northside Festival this past weekend. The mixtape includes BRAHMS, Drink Up Buttercup, The Wave Pictures, Memory Tapes, Twin Shadow, and others.

And NYC Taper was all over the place this week. I wanted to feature their The Fiery Furnaces set from The Mercury Lounge, but they posted great sets from a lot of bands this week and I should probably share all of them. There was Wavves at the Knitting Factory, Wilco at Wellmont Theatre, and The Melvins at Webster Hall.

You surely remember the Mozart Effect craze – the notion that by playing Mozart or Beethoven for your unborn child will make them smarter. (If you haven’t read any articles on this topic in a couple of years, it’s not true, nothing of the sort happens.) NPR looks at where this research started, and how research can be so poorly interpreted. It began from a study done by a teacher on how music immediately impacts spatial intelligence. Her limited research revealed that listening to a little Mozart increased students spatial intelligence, but only for about 10-15 minutes.

Listen to the complete story here

More famously known as Tom Waits’ 1993 album, The Black Rider was originally a stage production directed and designed by Robert Wilson, with music and lyrics by Tom Waits, and words written by beat luminary William S. Burroughs. The whole production and writing process is shrouded in some legend and some mysterywho tend to keep the private lives and creative process private (though they surely like the aura of mystery as well).

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