Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Also, I think it'd be great to have a backup feel good live action movie in mind (preferably one a local company holds the domestic rights to) in case Toho says no or just never responds; they're in Tokyo and may have more important things to worry about.

I heard back from The Bell House. They offered April 18 and May 23. Do you think we can get our shiitake together by the 18th? I'm afraid people will stop caring by May.

Also, The Bell House also suggested The Green Building, so I emailed them, but I don't think they have a bar or anything either: http://www.thegreenbuildingnyc.com/

GAH! I meant to post this yesterday:

I told the Bell House Passover won't work and they offered Sunday the 17th during the day. Does that work for people? I'd like to book that with them by early afternoon, if that's OK with everyone.

Sounds good!

GAH! I was just coming back to say I realized I made a mistake. The person had referred to the 18th as "the day before Passover" so I thought she meant the 17th. After that, the closest day is May 23.

OK, here's a more complete, unrushed, literate update of what's been going on:

Location
The Bell House is the only place that's gotten back to us for pretty much free. The earliest date they can give us that isn't Passover is Monday, May 23. They may have some dates earlier in the month open back up in the next week. I said we'll take it, since it's not like the problems will be fixed by summer. As long as we start advertising while people still give a shiitake, I think we'll be fine.

Movies
Grave of the Fireflies - I've emailed everyone and their grandmother about this and haven't heard back from anyone yet.
Ikiru - I've emailed two different Toho International addresses but haven't heard back yet. If I don't hear back by midnightish, I'm going to call. Criterion distributes the DVD in the US, so I've emailed them, too.
Princess Mononoke - Just for shiitakes and giggles, I left a message with Miramax
Howl's Moving Castle - I got through to someone at Disney who's supposed to send me a form to fill out. There's a fee, but they may waive it because it's for the Japan relief effort.
Seven Samurai - Also Criterion.

If you're wondering where the last three came from, they're just the only Miyazaki and Kurosawa films I'd heard of (I also tried for Spirited Away, but they didn't have it). Hope that's OK.

If anyone has more suggestions of anime and live action films that would appeal to a mainstream audience and are distributed in the US by people I haven't contacted yet, please let me know.

There will be a planning meeting tomorrow at 6:30 at Earth Matters on the LES, if anyone's interested in attending.

Marcos, TheMediaSays and I met last night and here are the basics:

1. The fundraiser will be the evening of Monday, May 23 at The Bell House.

2. We (and anyone else who'd like to) will review the following catalogs and choose two movies by Thursday:
http://parks.swank.com/
http://www.janusfilms.com/

Film suggestions from either of those sites are welcome. We're looking for one anime, one live action, total watching time under four hours.

Everything below needs to be approved by The Bell House, who I will email in a few minutes (I will also ask about the ticketing procedure, if refreshments need to come from a commercial kitchen, etc.):

3. We hope to open the doors around 6:30, welcome everyone at 7, start the first movie at 7:15, done by midnight.

4. How does $15 sound for admission?

That's pretty much it. Once we get the structure of the event settled, we'll work on refreshments, raffles, advertising, etc.

shiitake. The Bell House just emailed me: the person who told me the 23rd was available was not correct. So we have no date, no venue and wasted a whole heap of time. Balls balls balls.

Just a minor setback -- we'll find a new place soon.

In the meanwhile, I think as far as movies go, Janus Films has Ikuru, which we talked about. I think it'd be pretty sweet.

As far as anime:

Swank has Metropolis, or, rather, the Japanese anime remake of Metropolis. I've seen it before and I count it as among my favorite animes out there. I'm amazed, though, that it's only about 100 minutes. Maybe I have the director's cut? The plot moves kinda slow at the beginning, but it goes wild toward the end. I highly recommend it. Downside: SPOILER ALERT!!!! The city gets destroyed at the end. BUT they make it clear that they WILL rebuild! Still, I don't know how that will go down.

Swank also has Howl's Moving Castle. I have not seen it, but I've yet to see a single bad Miyazaki film, so I'm pretty sure it'll be good. Plus, his movies tend to be more accessible.

Swank also has Tokyo Godfathers, which is about three homeless people who find an abandoned baby and try to find the mother. I know nothing about it, but I watched the trailer on YouTube and it looks fun, though, again, I know nothing about it.


If we decide to forego the anime route, Swank also has Oceans, which is Disney, so it would be subject to the same rigmarole we talked about, but I hear it's actually pretty awesome AND it's only about 100 minutes, so it would be a nice light thing after Ikuru. There's also Babies, which apparently got great reviews.

It looks like Southpaw may be an option. We're currently engaged in a rousing game of phone tag. SP is in Park Slope, walking distance (by everyone's standards, not just mine) to Atlantic Terminal, so it's easy from the D, N, R, 2, 3, 4, 5, B, Q and LIRR. It's also not a terrible walk to the A and C and if you're wearing good shoes and it's nice out, you can even walk to the G.

For live action, let's try for Ikiru.

I could swear I saw Metropolis, but I just watched the trailer and it doesn't look familiar at all! The city in the movie is far enough removed from current day Japan for me to not feel awkward about it getting destroyed. Does that make sense? If so, let's try for that one for our anime.

Both Swank and Janus require the date, location, etc. of the event on the application, so we can't request them yet.

Any other venue ideas? Someone suggested Brooklyn Bowl, but watching a movie while people bowl seems like a bad idea to me and I don't know how they'd feel about stopping the bowling for the fundraiser.

OK, I just got off the phone with the person from Southpaw.

Available dates: Wed 5/4, Tues 5/10, Sun 5/29
Doors would be around 7 PM and we have the space until 2 AM
We can either sell tickets at the door or through Ticketweb (or both)
There will be no room rental fee, just the house fee of $400 to cover the staff. We get 100% of door
She's going to double check, but food probably has to come from a commercial kitchen. I think we should be able to get plenty of donations.

I need to get back to her STAT to confirm the date. What say you?

I say that Southpaw is a great location. It is easier to reach than Bell House.

As for the date, since you, Chris and I had already set an organizers' meeting date for May 2, May 4 would be too soon. May 29 falls on the Memorial Day weekend. Therefore, let's apply for May 10.

May 10 at Southpaw is go!

More details coming soon!

Does anyone graphically inclined want to help out with this thing? Please?

PM me.

edit: fork it, i'll just PM you.

In unrelated news, sometimes I never want to post in the other forums and just hide in this one. People get weird and mean and PM mean things in other forums. I like this one, it's safe and comfortable.

Really? That sucks, f_m. Sorry.

you know what? grow up.

Wow. You guys are AWESOME.

Apparently it's acceptable for a mod to have a sarcastic personality, but when someone else has one, oh no no no no...

ANYWAY...

It looks like we'll be showing Kwaidan and Dj3dg will be spinning. We're working out the logistics for Terry's food demo and may have a musical guest! We just started soliciting food donations and are going to get on the raffle prizes ASAP. Woo!

i really wish i could go/help out for this! but i will be out of town by then : (

This sounds like SO MUCH fun! Let me know if you guys need anything from me, even though I'm not there. I can definitely donate books, but if you think of anything else I can do just holla.