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Director Jason Willis Talks ‘Catnip’
“Catnip is a vitamin for the brain — a groovy way to expand your mind,” whines one of the feline film stars of “Catnip: Egress to Oblivion,” a mockumentary short by first-time director Jason Willis. The film — currently making the rounds at festivals both large and small (Sundance, AFI, and more) — was created all in good (but well-researched) fun and completed in less than three weeks.
Willis modeled “Catnip” after the fanatical drug education films prevalent in public schools during the 1970’s. “I was actually featured in one when I was young,” says Willis, contemplating the origins of his fondness for the genre. “And I decided that I wanted to make a parody of them — but some people are actually taking it really seriously, like ‘I’m never giving my cat the stuff again!’”
Catnip lovers, fear not — we confirmed its harmlessness with Willis himself. Get a big kick out of the short, and then get your feline friends some tasty green.
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The Last Book I Loved: Brown Girl, Brownstones
The Last Book I Loved is an ongoing series with The Rumpus to highlight emerging Tumblr writers (and the books they love). Want to have your essay considered? Submit it here.
My dreams, for so long unrestrained by land, air, or even death — and frequently including scenes of me tumbling through the air on glossy black feathered wings or jumping into an abyss with a smile on my face — now generally take place in a building with four walls and a roof. I dream of houses. I dream of owning a home, post-Great Recession, and despite the weight of federal student loans on my back. I am frequently visited by visions of curtains that open up to reveal a cold sunlight in the morning, of a cubbyhole library, perhaps in the attic, and of backyards that lend themselves to Slip ‘n Slides and crisp autumnal leaf piles. I would dream of brownstones, except I’m in the wrong tax bracket. Crippling pragmatism happens sometimes.
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One Week, One Band: Longform Music Criticism on Tumblr
If there’s one thing that most music blogs have in common, it’s the pursuit of the new: the latest fad, the hot new single, Kanye’s most recent outfit. But there’s also room for long-form, in-depth criticism of music outside the hype cycle. And so, each week for the past year, 27-year-old German MBA student Hendrik Jasnoch has handed over the keys to his blog — One Week // One Band — and invited music critics and fans to delve into the catalog of a single artist. The musicians span the gamut (ABBA, Fugazi, Lil Wayne), and yet the writing is nearly always thoughtful, colorful, and reverent. We chatted with Jasnoch about music blogging, fandom, and why he thinks there’s still a place for long reads.
Why start a blog devoted to longform music criticism?
I sort of fell into the music critic crowd on Tumblr, where people kept discussing the evolving nature of music blogs and lamenting shortening buzz cycles and impersonal listicles. That gave me the idea to create a collaborative space that would allow for an in-depth, personal discussion of any kind of music, not just the latest mp3s. In the age of Spotify and YouTube, I don’t really need to explain to anybody what a song sounds like — but detailing why I like it, and where it sits in the wider web, seemed like something worth sharing.
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