Pixar Interview: “The Blue Umbrella”
Arts writer Soojin Chang sits down with the director/writer and producer of “The Blue Umbrella,” the Pixar short that will open “Monsters University.”
SXSW 2013: Daily Cal coverage
Arts writer Soojin Chang SXSW 2013′s film, interactive and music festivals and conferences. Featured were Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Harmony Korine, Sarah Silverman, Dan Novy, Major Lazer, and Snoop Lion.
SXSW showcases creative spirit
Lauded music festival brings artistry and entertainment diversity to Austin
SXSW had a series of short comedies that were shown before each feature. The one I remember most fondly played during my first morning in Austin after the red carpets for “Mud.” An out-of-town festival attendee is in a theater, talking with disdain about how he isn’t sure if the Read More…
‘Spring Breakers’ exudes debauchery
Parties, drugs, sex and violence make for a heady high in Harmony Korine’s film
More than being just a dizzying odyssey of ass and bong rips, Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” captures our beautifully tragic train wreck of a youth culture in all its first-world glory. Read More…
SXSW hits Austin March 8 to 17
Soojin Chang and Rahul Pandya give us a heads up on SXSW coming this week. Read More…
SXSW Wednesday: “Much Ado” about music, animation and Pills
Wednesday was the official first day of the music festival at SXSW. The interactive conference was wrapping up, and the mood in Austin definitely shifted. The temperature went up to the high 80s, trendier outfits are strutting through, music is blasting everywhere, and thousands of people are roaming around downtown. Read More…
Film produces unwanted side effects
Herman Melville, who lived during the rise of patent medicine and the appealing vernacular of its advertisements, marked that “the great art of telling truth” is best practiced through telling lies. Human nature and the desire for preservation make us want to believe in such cures, especially digestible solutions that Read More…
Making art in a smartphone: Artists discuss digital media at SLATE Contemporary
The smartphone has democratized art, making it possible for any user to point-and-shoot and mimic the professional craft of photography. With a touch of a button, the foam on a cappuccino, imbued with a dramatically nostalgic tint, can now be shared with the world in a range once unheard of Read More…
SXSW: Conventional knowledge, scouting Shaq, and ‘Don Jon’s Addiction’
Austin, TX — Tuesday morning began at a conference titled “Asian Entrepreneurs Struggle with Fear of Failure” in the Austin Convention Center. At first I was skeptical because I figured that a fear of failure is universal, regardless of ethnicity. Richard Min — a Korean-American from Boston and the CEO/Cofounder Read More…
SXSW: ‘Spring Breakers,’ famous people and questionable apparel
Austin, Texas — Sunday was my first official day at SXSW and it was a non-stop whirlwind of events in downtown Austin. I started the morning at the red carpet event for Jeff Nichol’s newest movie, “Mud,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon. I met a photographer, who lived in Read More…