Devin's New Gig... - Page 3

You haven't lived until you've done at least two of the following three:

1) Flagged someone for being a talker/texter during a movie, then seeing the problem being taken care of with extreme efficency
2) witnessed Tim League banning someone for life from the Drafthouse
3) witnessed Lars executing his zero tolerence fuck you pay me rule against talking. Him telling two doucheholes next to me to get the fuck out so the rest of us could continue enjoying BLACK ZOMBIE made the enjoyment of BLACK ZOMBIE all the more possible. Spoiler: the film's monster was not a zombie, and the actor was not black.

Devin's going to fit in just fine working with a company like these folks.

I miss Lars so much.

I miss his lion's mane of hair.

The site seems pretty great.

By all the gods it sounds like heaven.

I miss it so...

Good luck Devin!

That's incredible. But, admit it, you put that Warren Oates piece up there ,along with the piece on Two Lane Blacktop, to lure Phil over there.

I bet you'll have a new retrospective of the Apes movies next.

Chewer thieving bastard.

Seriously though, congrats.

I remember going to the Alamo around the time it first opened, attending a screening of "Penitentiary" where the gimmick was that they gave you a 40 oz. of Schlitz with the purchase of each ticket. The next time I went was for some documentary series Linklater organized. After that, an all-day spaghetti western spaghetti buffet. You have to understand how quickly this joint became a home away from home for my weird film fan friends and I during undergrad in Austin. The Alamo is/was a great place to see a movie and for all its cool houses, L.A. has nothing that bests it.

Great company and I'm sure Devin will fit right in there.

For those of you who aren't near a Drafthouse, "Badass Cinema" is a mantra on Drafthouse shirts I see at least five times a day in Austin. Sure, I'm on campus most of the day surrounded by thousands of people, but it's overshadowed in popularity only by burnt orange Bevo shirts.

"Badass Digest" is about as natural a name as any.

Bravo, Devin. Hope this means you'll hereby be flying in for every Terror Tuesday and Weird Wednesday.

Devin, I will ensure you stay in Buckingham Palace on your next UK junket if you talk the Drafthouse guys into opening a London branch.

We've got the Prince Charles. Not as fun as the alamo sounds but still pretty good. Watching WRATH OF KAHN there recently was a blast.

Of course, not much good if you don't live in London.

Actually the Showcase "Directors Lounge" cinema chains come pretty close but they are still very mainstream.

I love the name of the site BTW I just think it's a bit to much of a niche site to be of interest to anyone outside the USA.

Was badasscinema.com taken? And if so, by who?

Site is meh right now. Hopefully it will flesh out with a better user interface. I dislike the comment field having to register with an entity that is not the main site. If you're reading this, Dev, tell them to put the page number links at the bottom of the pages across the top of the articles as well so you don't have to scroll down to go to a different page.

And I hope to God that Mr. League hasn't given Devin free reign to spew his politics like a few of the articles seem to have already hinted at. I would imagine Austin isn't a hotbed of liberal activity and Devin's views not sitting well with conservative Texans. But then again I could be wrong as it does have quite a youthful music scene.

Yeah, Austin and Houston are 2 HUGE liberal basins in Texas. Way off base.

I believe it was Patton Oswalt who called Austin a "Bubble of sanity" in Texas. So yeah, Liberal.

Heh. Nice.

Bookmarked. An awful lot of great content already (liking the pre-set report for GREEN LANTERN and the article about the OVER THE TOP toys) so I'll keep checking for a while, though CHUD.com is still my first port of call.

And I'll echo my fellow Limeys by saying that 'Badass Digest' isn't a great name if you're not familiar with the Alamo Drafthouse, so Tim should bring the franchise over 'ere

I think you can comment without registering.

Site looks great. Bookmarked. Now i'm going to register there and talk about nothing but food.

Seriously though, sounds like a great move for you, and best of luck to all involved.

This is a joke post, right?

Right?

If not.....you think they hired Devin because of who he isn't?

They have boards? Man, I have a Taco Bell thread that I'm just DYING to put there...

Yeah, you really don't know much about Texas or Austin do you? Austin is referred to by many conservatives in and out of Texas as The People's Republic of Austin. It is always the liberal center and it has to do with a lot more than the music scene.

I take it's just a coincidence that Devin reveals his new gig and Princess Kate appears to be MIA.

Yeah, she only made nine posts this morning. I think you're onto something.

Just wanted to quote this for emphasis.

Go to 4:35 in this clip to hear Patton Oswalt's riff on Austin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1otPZdd1TnQ

If you don't think Austin is liberal, here's two little McNuggets for you:

1) If you're found with less than a certain amount of pot, all the cop can do is write you a ticket for possession. It comes out to about as much as a speeding ticket.

2) Travis County voted to repeal the Patriot Act. That's right, the shitty rights-infringing stuff made legal under the Patriot Act is, in fact, illegal here in good ol' Austin.

And, as a bonus, inspecting your vehicle in Travis County also includes a higher standard of emissions test. If your vehicle doesn't meet it, it won't pass, and if it's an older car, there's an emissions tax that goes with renewing your registration. So yeah, pretty pinko commie liberal around here.

ETA: It is also on the books saying that women, should they choose to, can walk around topless same as a guy. This is the town I live in.

How much?

The standard is usually an ounce. Sometimes 20 grams.

How often does this take place?

I have only been to Austin once (for two nights). And I saw topless women both nights. Both instances were confined to a single group of girls (not like there were naked chicks everywhere), but it was still a bit surprising. And, you know, awesome. That more than salvaged my impression of the city's coolness factor, after it lost some points based on the number of Segway gangs I saw (a lot).

There's usually a few hippie chicks in Zilker park wandering around during the summertime. Sadly, these aren't the ones you'd normally be pining to see topless in the first place.

Devin, please cover that crazy bat thing that happens in Austin at sunset near that thing. That looks dope as hell.

The Bat Bridge? It's pretty awesome to behold, although timing can be tricky. But if you've ever wanted to see what 5,000 bats heading out for food at the same time looks like, that's your ticket.

Just don't sit downwind of the bridge. Place smells funky.

Those bats swarm forth so that they cross over the main interstate highway. Not having any clue as to what was going on, it's an awesome spectacle to break up the monotony of sitting in traffic on I-35.

That's it, I'm going to Austin.

I was so glad I rarely had to take I-35 when living there. I usually hit 183, 290, or 360. Or surface roads.

I am digging the new site for the Warren Oates stuff alone. I look forward to it. I don't get the "I have too many film sites" comments or the negativity. If you have too many film sites, then maybe films really aren't your passion. And if you just feel the need to be negative: why? Do that shit in private.

Looking forward to more and it has been added to my daily list of reads.

They had a "bat house" in Gainesville (still do I'm sure) when I was in school there. It was pretty cool. Not sure if it's 5,000 though it damn sure looks/feels like it. Takes them like 15 minutes to all stream out of the thing.

ETA: A Google claims the Gainesville Bat House releases close to 100,000 (!) bats at dusk.

ETA2: Apparently it reached close to 200,000 in '09 and subsequently collapsed under the weight. I'm guessing they've rebuilt it so I'm not sure what the bat population is up to now.

And.... /derail

Impressive.

I've always been a fan, so I'm rooting for him. But that Maximum Overdrive review, it wounds.

Just remember, the people that most often take advantage of things like this are the people you do not want to see topless.

Firstly, congrats on the new gig, Devin. Good to still see you writing about movies

Secondly, yes BTSMGL, I too dislike hearing about the ADH. Compared to the theaters around here it does no doubt sound incredible, but still: I don't like hearing it's name constantly bandied about ad naseum. Maybe if I lived in Texas it would mean something to me, but I receive no pleasure from hearing about an insider's movie house where the cool kids watch their movies on the other side of the country. It just makes me feel like I'm missing out on the fun, like there is a cool party down the street but I've not been invited. I'd rather read about movies without my nose constantly being rubbed in the fact that I'm missing out on a movie theater experience that 99% of readers can never realistically hope to attend. This is why I came out against the idea of a "best theaters in the nation!" list idea on the THINGS CHUD.COM SHOULD DO thread. I don't want to spend my time thinking about cool places I can't go.

Devin,

As for the idea they're "expanding"... you mean they might come to NYC or something? Well that's equally meaningless to me. I live dead center between NYC and Boston, and for me right now those cities require so much effort to get to I can't imagine what movie would have to be showing for me to fork out the better part of 100 dollars (along with many hours of my life) to travel to some theater to see it.

As someone who watches most films on DVD and prefers it that way, I dislike the fetishism for theatrical film exhibition that often gets foisted on movie website readers. I get it, you have a movie house utopia in your back yard. Please stop rubbing it in

EDIT: And yes, my official guess for Devin's next gig was wrong. Congrats to anyone who guessed correctly

Complaining about movie sites pimping the Alamo is like complaining about music magazines pimping CBGB's in 70's (or what have you). I think people are missing the context.

I'm not really complaining, sorry if it came off that way. Like I said, it sounds awesome and it's a place I'd love to go one day.. It's just that I know that day is not any day soon, and for now I don't really enjoy the feeling I get from reading about it: feeling like I'm missing out on the fun. I can understand why it gets mentioned (events are hosted there, ETC), I'm just saying that I wouldn't want to be on a website primarily dedicated to talking up the ADH at every opportunity. IMHO it would be a little opressive.

Hope that makes sense. Not slamming Devin's gig or his new site, just calling it like I see it.

It is a weirdly jockish, kind of desperate name, more suited to a dopey MMA brand than film stuff, and the layout could be better, but everything else I've heard about The Alamo Drafthouse seems pretty cool, and the bottom line is that if Devin's writing on there I'll be reading it.

Most encouraging thing I've heard yet about the site is Devin saying on his formspring that he's tired of negativity and is aiming for a more positive focus with this site. I've always been of the view that Devin's best writing came out of sincere enthusiasm and also thought his bile had gotten way beyond tiresome by the end of his Chud tenure, so that development sounds good to me. I also like the eclectic subject matter they seem to be covering (that Black Frances Golem soundtrack etc).

To be honest my issue with 'Badass' in the title is that, like someone else said, it makes it sound like another AICN. It would be a decent name for someone with a niche perspective like Outlaw Vern or someone, but seems a slightly weird fit for Devin who I thought was interested in branching out beyond the insular world of 'geek movies' that the likes of AICN specialise in. I mean there's no reason why he can't do that with the new site, its just that name happens to reek of geek.

It's more like music magazines constantly pimping a really good record shop in Chicago. Sure, it's probably great, maybe you'll check it out if you happen to go visit, but the topic is always going to be of limited interest to most people who don't live there.

Yes, truly one's film fandom is measured by the number of sites he reads variations of the exact same news stories from.

That would have to be some record shop. I think such a comparison is downplaying the relevance of the Alamo within the film world. Though I guess this all illustrates that this relevance is not felt or recognized outside of the film world.

I have to confess, I can only take Austin in small doses, but I haven't been in awhile (last time was for a Ladytron show I think, and maybe one more time after that with the ex) and all this talk is giving me a hankering to revisit.

So two things:

1) We're a geek site. Or more specifically a nerd site. We love nerdy stuff. We try to highlight cool, fun nerdy stuff. Yeah, the name is a little silly but we don't take ourselves too seriously. I guess we could have gone for a more mainstream name, but I like what we have. And you're posting on a site called CHUD while critiquing the name of another site, for the love of pete.

2) What's with all the Alamo hate? Comparing it to a record store is silly, since the Alamo is a communal experience. The CBGBs thing is probably more right. But beyond that - where are all the Alamo-centered articles on Badass? I don't see any. At all. I see some pimping of our movie, which will open in eight major markets and I see some Mondo articles, same as every other geek site, and where you can order stuff online. There are zero Alamo articles at the moment.

Relax. You're invited to the party. Come by and have fun. Stop posing like the outcast. We're for everybody.

I don't think anyone's got anything against the Alamo, and the record shop thing wasn't meant as a knock. It's just for us overseas types it's always been this vague thing going on 'over there' that you only hear about through sites like this. Things are a little different now they're expanding and doing obviously significant things like picking up Four Lions, and I do love them just for doing that. And the name business is just a personal taste thing as much as anything. It's all good. Best of luck with it really.