Showing posts with label Fight Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fight Club. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Hump Day & Chill - Tom Connan


Multi-Faceted artist Tom Connan has just released a remix of his song "Chaos" which tackles the subject of drug addiction in a very direct and realistic manner. I just had to know what inspired Tom to "go there" so without further adieu let's Hump Day & Chill with Tom Connan!

MSI love your song Chaos, obviously it resonates with many others as you did a "Black Mix" of it and a whole new video. What made you decide to do a song addressing drug addiction?

TC: I wanted to make a song addressing drugs because several friends of mine fell into that trap, went to rehab etc. It's a horrible phenomenon which is also closely linked to everyone's personal history. Nobody takes cocaine or things like that just because it's "fun". I see a lot of people feeling depressed and trying to escape with drugs. To my own point of view, I think our modern society creates a lot of psychological frustration which sometimes become a real pathology. It's not exactly the same as alcohol, even if it's also some kind of drug, after all. But with cocaine, or heroin, people are looking for something new, some brutal effect in order to erase their negative thoughts. Except it doesn't work. However, I have a lot of empathy for drug addicts as life can sometimes be a very sad and tough experience.

MS: Requiem For A Dream is one of my favorite films. I am guessing you have seen it based on the video. What are your thoughts on it?

TC: I love Requiem For A Dream and I'm very happy that you mention it. I was a child when I first saw it, but then I saw it again a few years ago and I was absolutely fascinated. Not only because it's so realistic, but also because it has this ability to grab you and force you to see what you don't want to see. I think this is precisely where cinema is the best among any other arts. With the combination of music and images, you can't help but looking at it and being focused. Of course normal people feel bad when they see that kind of movie, but sometimes we need to see embarrassing things to increase our awareness about something. I enjoy feeling embarrassed. All the time we watch stupid shows and stupid ads on TV, and it's easy for the mind. With movies like Requiem For A Dream, or Fight Club, or Eyes Wide Shut, we really learn something and become someone new -at some level.



MS: While you show plenty of skin in the re-mix video, you showed a little more in the video for the single. Why did you decide to leave your booty out this time?

TC: Lol, I don't want to show that booty too often. More seriously, this new video was something like the "dark" side of the first one. With the original video, I was trying to show the recreational aspect of taking drugs, which is obvious for everyone. With this second one, I wanted to describe how it can evolve. I have the feeling that in any phenomenon, we can find a "positive" and a "negative" side -we all know that-, but also that we can't delete one part for the other. You can't have the positive if you don't want to take the risk associated with it. If you want to have fun, you have to accept that, at some point, you can put your life at risk. It's the same in love affairs. Love can be a fantastic experience, but when it ends -which happens quite often- it can drive you nuts, so nuts that you want to kill yourself. Love is dangerous, drugs are dangerous, life is inherently dangerous.

MS: Your look in the video is very reminiscent of David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth. Especially when you are shirtless, am I on to something?

TC: Honestly I don't know very much of David Bowie, I was more into singers like Michael Jackson (or even Marilyn Manson). That said, I'm a big fan of transgender and genderfluid pop icons like Bowie, Cher or Prince. Playing with feminine and masculine sides of the human body is so interesting. My own body changed quite a lot the last few years, and I enjoyed all the different levels, if I can say so. We only live once, for me, we need to experience different versions of ourselves. French poet Arthur Rimbaud said something like that in the 19th century.



MS: I love that Tom Connan has gotten freer and more out there creatively.

TC: I think you're totally right about the "freer" person I became. Back a few years ago, I was obsessed with other people's opinion. Now, I just don't give a fuck. My work is not understood by everybody, including in my family, and I think that's good. If you follow what your parents or your brothers want you to do, you'll never achieve your dream. We need to stick to our own model, that nobody can copy. There are tons of singers and artists out there, I don't want to look like them. I want to express my personal, and radical freedom. Otherwise it's absolutely useless.

MS: Spill about your other ventures outside the music world.

TC: The last two years I worked a lot on other ventures outside the music world, I changed the project name many times, and I finally decided to simply choose one name for every division of the brand: Connan. That's simple, that's neutral, that's honest -it's my real last name- and there's no confusion with my full artist name. It's currently a website (connan.io) when you'll soon be able to find different cultural products: music (not only mine), tv, books, fashion and art. I'm currently working with other artists for the music division, as well as authors for the publishing division. It's super exciting as I'm working on several levels at the same time: my next novel will be published by a well-known French publisher called Albin Michel, but I will also publish myself other authors as an entrepreneur. It's great to have this opportunity to work as an author as well as a publisher. The best is yet to come. 

MS: If you could be any famous person fictional or not, who would you be?

TC: I'd love to be Tyler Durden, that Fight Club character played by Brad Pitt. He's gorgeous, he's radical, he's clever, he wants to revolt against society. That's a role model for me. No joke.

Get social with Tom at:
https://connan.io/

Sunday, October 20, 2019

You Don't Talk About Fight Club...

Slide!
Zoe Kravitz & Karl Glusman
With only 11 days left until Halloween, I promise not to talk about Fight Club, but I will talk about Zoe Kravitz & Karl Glusman dressed as Marla Singer & Tyler Durden for the High Holy Day.

Fight Club stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton as Tyler Durden and Helena Bonham-Carter as Marla Singer for those of you out of the loop on that. From the looks of it I am guessing Mr. Glusman is going more for the Brad Pitt "Durden Look" than the Edward Norton version.

Kudos to Zoe Kravitz for really nailing the body language Helena Bonham-Carter used in film.

With Halloween closing in, do you know what your costume is going to be yet?

Me either, start conjuring up something, and conjure it now!!!

Fight Club on Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club  

Saturday, June 21, 2014

An Ode To Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter
For those of you who think Ms. Helena Bonham Carter only has a career because of her partner Tim Burton, that just proves how Mother F#cking young you are!

She has been around for a while and has had a quite successful acting career long before that.

I first remember seeing the amazingly talented Helena in the great film "A Room With A View" if you don't know it, check it, with my friend Jennifer DiMartino of the "Americana With Twisted Roots" band, The Drews, she is a fellow Helena fan, FYI.

Not to mention the lovely film "Howard's End" and one of my all time favorites "Fight
Club."

Helena's career has been a unique one, she has always marched to the beat of her own drummer and ALWAYS let her freak flag fly!

Here is what she has to say about why she does not have a stylist:
"I've had a stylist once or twice, but it doesn't really work out because basically, I don't like being told what to wear. I don't like being told what to do, so there's no point. A lot of people suggest that I should."
Keep on bucking the trends and keep being you Helena, we will always love ya!

XOXO

HBC on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000307/?ref_=fn_nm_nm_1

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Reel Life: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Rooney Mara, Rooney Mara, Rooney Mara….

Where do I start? Having not seen the Swedish version of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and not having read the book, I went into David Fincher’s version with no real expectations whatsoever….Rooney Mara.

This is what I came away from it with, TGWTDT is and adult movie with a capital “A” … and I do not mean for it’s violent & sexual content (we will get to that later).

It is a film for grown ups who like character exposition and plots you have to pay attention to. The first half of the film is dedicated to establishing who Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) & Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) are as people before their two paths cross. At first I thought this part of the movie to be a tad long, but the more it sat with me, the more I loved it!

When I see a movie and I think about it after the fact, well that is a good sign to me, it is better than it being disposable. 


Thus TGWTDT is a fascinating character study. My only quibble is, I wished Mikael Blomkvist was as interesting as Lisbeth Salander. Rooney Mara, OK, time to move past it, David Fincher has directed some of my most favorite in your face movies “Se7en” “Fight Club” & “The Social Network” …which, is one of the things I find quite interesting about TGWTDT -

The sex and violence are quite subdued…. Seriously lets site a couple of Jodie Foster films that illustrate intense quite well, Oscar winner “Silence of the Lambs” way more freaky violence wise, and “The Accused” a rape scene that had me so upset I wanted to lay it down on the next guy I saw on Hollywood Blvd. who even gave a woman that look.

Yeah, TGWTDT is quite tame by the abovementioned standards. So one of my fave directors, Fincher, has remained true to himself, yet oddly grown up. Did I like TGWTDT? Heck yeah! It was a really great film for adults…and in case I did not mention it Rooney Mara is amazing!

Note: Hey Mr. Fincher - you never disappoint, however, next time you want to be a big boy, a little up in people’s grill would be a nice addition.
 
http://www.dragontattoo.com/site/