In interviews, the members of Phox have a conversational style that reflects the Wisconsin band’s music—it’s playful and thoughtful, serious in its ambitions, but seriously fun when all is said and done. With folk-like delicacy, jazz-like precision and a very indie sense of irreverence, the group’s self-titled Partisan debut is one of the best underground-pop records of the year. These high-school friends will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on them.
While it’s so very easy to trash Nick Cage (we don’t even call him Nicolas anymore), you’ve gotta admit, the guy works a lot. But the Charlie Kaufman film, Adaptation, starring twin versions of Cage, is undeniably competent and moving. It’s a self-recognizing film about its screenwriter (Cage) adapting a book into a film (itself). The process basically admits there’s no exchange rate for converting one medium into another. Film is to literature, as film is to pottery. How can one medium transmogrify into another without admitting it can’t be too much (anything?) like it’s source material?
In other words, in Ghost World, why didn’t the namesake graffiti scene happen in the film adaptation?
