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nothingunfinished.bsky.social
Grant
@nothingunfinished.bsky.social
260 followers 190 following 180 posts
@tonemadison.bsky.social writer / editor / misc, film programmer, gamer, vegan. in limbo, on the spectrum.
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nothingunfinished.bsky.social
from the desk of a physical media advocate: take advantage of @4starvideo.bsky.social's 40th anniversary celebration, which continues for two more days this week. over the weekend, I finally signed up for a rental subscription plan (at 40% off!) and took home a few titles I'd been eyeing for a while
Three Four Star Video Rental DVD cases are displayed face up on a chair with their Blu-ray catalog cards: OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH (1972, dir. Jane Arden), HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND (1986, dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi), and GIVE ME PITY (2022, dir. Amanda Kramer).
November 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
maybe next year, for the 30th anniversary of Devil Doll's DIES IRAE, I'll finally put together that Mr. Doctor (Mario Panciera) costume. a rare excuse to theatrically slink around like a silent-movie villain.

a befitting soundtrack for your Halloween: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hech...
B/W photo of Mr. Doctor posing in Victorian attire and gothic makeup, circa mid-1990s. He extends his left arm out towards the camera and tilts his head down with a sinister expression.
October 31, 2025 at 8:18 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
✊💛
"Respect, Portland, Chicago and everywhere," writes Rafael Toral in the Bandcamp listening party for TRAVELING LIGHT.
October 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
another beautiful record from Rafael Toral, and companion to last year's transcendent SPECTRAL EVOLUTION. 50 minutes of extended "jazz covers" that ascend into mesmeric abstraction. modulated guitar symphonies of interiority. Toral's rendition of the Gene de Paul tune is sublime
An opened CD edition of Rafael Toral's "jazz covers" album, TRAVELING LIGHT, sitting atop a turntable's dust cover.
October 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
we need editors, because ineffectual sentences like this can be pull-quoted: "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER isn't really a political film, but neither is it not a political film." that shouldn't be the first thing anyone reads about the new PTA
Cropped screenshot of the Metacritic page for ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER shows an excerpt from the film's first glowing "100" review, written Ty Burr at The Washington Post.
September 29, 2025 at 4:15 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
watch this movie, and you'll never forget that August has 31 days. promise ya
American light box movie poster for Joachim Trier's OSLO, 31 AUGUST (2011)
September 6, 2025 at 3:59 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
before the day is done... a recap of the bizarre first half of 2025. yet, it forced me into musical territories and niches that would have otherwise gone unexplored. I suppose this list of 25 reflects a convoluted push-pull between the formerly unknown and those most familiar to me.
September 6, 2025 at 3:51 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
always nice to receive a record a full seven weeks early
Physical CD copy of the upcoming Webber/Morris Big Band record, UNSEPARATE, with the street date of September 26, 2025. The cardboard gatefold package sits upright on a royal-blue colored chair.
August 7, 2025 at 5:43 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
another added bonus for the Saturday screening: the first 29 people can pick up a free DEUCE baseball card
A stack of promotional baseball cards for the short film, DEUCE, are fanned out on a hardwood floor.
July 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
in 10 days, I'll be hosting this screening of Margot Budzyna's DEUCE and Carson Lund's EEPHUS at the Bartell Theatre. two Madison premieres! tickets are just $10

bartelltheatre.org/2025/eephus-...
Event flyer art by Blake Barit is dominated by grassy shades of green, with the poster designs for the films DEUCE and EEPHUS towards the center of the image. The event date and time are listed in green text below the posters: "SATURDAY JULY 19th 5:00 pm." White text at the top reads "BASEBALL DOUBLE PLAY !!! THE BARTELL THEATRE." The text at the bottom reads "113 E Mifflin St Madison WI 53703" (the Bartell Theatre address) followed by the ticket price of $10. A triptych of still images from the films are shown above that text but below the event date and time.
July 9, 2025 at 5:10 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
dark dancing with Fievel Is Glauque, who performed 27 songs at The Empty Bottle in Chicago on Sunday
Photo from the first row looking up at The Empty Bottle stage. Four band members (of the Fievel Is Glauque septet) perform in washed-out red lighting. Bandleader Zach Phillips sits and plays the keys, Ma Clément stands and sings, Simon Martinez sits at the very back and plays electric guitar, Gaspard Sicx sits and plays drums. Just out of the frame on the right is a fifth member—woodwindist André Sacalxot.
July 8, 2025 at 11:53 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
sample ballot of my 10 feature films released in the US since 2001.

though, a more useful list from the NYT would focus on the most overlooked films of the 21st century rather than the "best"
Letterboxd grid view of 10 movie posters that capture my favorite feature-length films of the 21st century. they're presented in alphabetical and not ranked order from the top left: BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN, THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018), MEEK'S CUTOFF, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, OSLO 31 AUGUST, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, SAMSARA (2023), THE TASTE OF TEA, UNDER THE SKIN
June 26, 2025 at 1:04 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
strawberries at dawn 🍓🌅
A ceramic bowl with a blue and white floral pattern contains several sliced local strawberries.
June 16, 2025 at 10:49 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
if only certain music publications could count
Twitter screenshot of Spin Magazine posting about the "best albums of 2025 (so far)," suggesting that we're six months into the calendar year instead of five.
June 4, 2025 at 11:13 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
thrilled to be presenting the first all-animation Mills Folly Microcinema program at @artlitlab.bsky.social next Wed, May 21, at 7:00p. A carefully planned collaboration with @jamiesteele.bsky.social that features her lovely and inspiring new short, GEMINI.

artlitlab.org/events/twinn...
"A girl meets a goddess." Still image from Jamie Steele Griffiths' 2020 animated short, VENUS. Part of the Mills Folly Microcinema program, screening in Madison on May 21. "A woman begins to see something unsettling hiding in the eyes of her two pet cats." Still image from Jamie Steele Griffiths' 2024 animated short, GEMINI. Part of the Mills Folly Microcinema program, screening in Madison on May 21.
May 13, 2025 at 8:46 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
two indelibly beautiful woodwind-embellished ballads for Bandcamp Friday:

Ichiko Aoba [ 青葉市子 ], "Coloratura"
ichikoaoba.bandcamp.com/track/colora...

Alina Orlova, "Winter Smoke"
alinaorlova.bandcamp.com/track/winter...
May 3, 2025 at 1:29 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
*two new additions (one a birthday gift from my brother)
Two vinyl LPs in the discography of experimental Australian musician Francis Plagne. On the left, TWO WORDS (2018), a collaboration with musique concrète artist Crys Cole. On the right, the solo endeavor, UDGE (2023). Both records stand upright. The TWO WORDS cover art by Anne Wallace, featuring a pastoral landscape and compact yellow car, overlaps with UDGE's predominantly black cover and impressionistic blue smudging within a smaller white square.
April 24, 2025 at 9:42 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
watched Godard's UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME during the film fest, and have been obsessing over the unreal beauty of Michel Legrand's herky-jerky orchestral waltz arrangements.
how have they never been part of an official release? I had to resort to ripping the audio track from the OOP Criterion DVD
Émile (Jean-Claude Brialy) and Angela (Anna Karina) are incredulous, too.
April 15, 2025 at 7:11 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
now exhibiting the deepest Francis Plagne record collection in Madison, Wisconsin (*more to follow)
Four vinyl LPs that relate to experimental Australian musician Francis Plagne. TENTH VOLUME OF MAPS (2011), FOOD COURT project (2014, with James Rushford and Joe Talia) stand upright at the top with their sketched-architecture cover art partly overlapping. FUNERAL MUTES (2016) and INTO CLOSED AIR (2023) sit at canted angles on the bottom with their covers face up, also overlapping.
April 8, 2025 at 11:15 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
@scottgordonwi.bsky.social kicks off our more in-depth 2025 #wifilmfest coverage with an endearing look at a distinctively Madison document: Erik Gunneson's MILK PUNCH, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
As a bonus, here's the original one-sheet that Erik kindly shared with us last week:
One-sheet from the 2000 premiere of MILK PUNCH. Top right quadrant shows the image of a lighter in the shape of a cowboy boot and passenger side of an old car in the bottom left quadrant. Top of the sheet reads "Pitcher Pictures Presents" followed by the title of the film below it in white text. On the righthand side, pink text reads "a film about: garage sales, skateboard parks, muskie fishing, backyard barbecues, credit card shopping sprees, highways, malt shops, postal worker fashion shows, shoplifting bait, and a 1971 Oldsmobile Delta 88."
March 24, 2025 at 10:03 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
virtual Slamdance is over. overall... less than enthused with the features, but the short films of all shades left an impression.
10 roughly ranked highlights:

DEUCE (dir. Margot Budzyna)

YOUR MAILBOX IS FULL (dir. Allie Viti)

A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY FOR THE LADY AVENGERS (dir. Birdy Wei-Ting Hung)
Poster for Margot Budzyna's outstanding short film, DEUCE, features its young co-stars Arabella Olivia Clark and Lynden Miles Ley in the grass on a summer's day.
March 9, 2025 at 3:18 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
virtual Slamdance has been a thrill thus far, in several categories. but I want to expressly mention the stellar writing and terrifically funny character dynamics in Sabrina Greco's LOCKJAW. it will be one of the better films I see in 2025

slamdancechannel.com/films/lockja...
The clairvoyant(?) Robert (Nick Corirossi) attempts to impress Rayna (Blu Hunt).
February 27, 2025 at 1:03 AM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
Petra (Rachael Crawford) playing Cupid in Patricia Rozema's lovely WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING. 🏹❤️

watch.kinofilmcollection.com/when-night-i...
A medium shot captures a woman in a plush red French beret aiming a toy bow-and-arrow at an upward angle off screen.
February 14, 2025 at 1:20 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
closing the book on 2024's second half on the occasion of today's Bandcamp fundraiser. a round-up of some fav July-December releases:
February 7, 2025 at 4:33 PM
nothingunfinished.bsky.social
average patronizing Bandcamp guy
jdelmonte71 writes, "This is what music is supposed to sound like, kids. Original music and lyrix played and sung (very well) by the band. Real drums (not software or samples) being beat like they owe the drummer $$$. Not 1, but 2 screaming guitars + bass. I drive a rideshare car in AZ rt now & have turned dozens of my riders on to this album, cuz its tasty AF! 20+ yrs since last album & still kicking much ass!!!! *E A R C A N D Y B I T C H E Z*"
February 3, 2025 at 1:25 AM