• Spanish

WHAT: Lucky Bastard
LINK: www.luckybastardmovie.com

By Lizandro Melean / @lizandro_melean

The found footage sub-genre, popularized by The Blair Witch Project in 1999, should be dead already, although it’s still alive and well with offerings like Paranormal Activity part 20, is dead and buried in my book. I must confess I still watch the Paranormal movies just for fun, I see these movies as a Halloween haunted house attraction of some sorts, but Lucky Bastard has brought life into the sub-genre focusing on a subject that goes hand by hand with it: porn.

Director Robert Nathan has created an obscene film, full of nudity, sex, hardcore scenes, simulated penetrations, sex acts that are there to offend you and it also offers performances that make you believe everything that’s happening on screen.

Betsy Rue is someone you should pay attention to. She has the look of a white trash porn star and knows how to act like one; she even reminds me of the real porn star Sylvia Saint. The movie is so great it takes the time to develop her role as Ashley Saint. Lucky Bastard shows you the dark side of the porn industry, it tells you what happens after the fake moaning ends and it transforms into sighs that ask for a better future. It’s a social critique that lies beyond the nudity.

Another actor that makes this movie succeeds is Jay Paulson, who plays a fan of a website called Lucky Bastard, and in the movie he wins a contest “to be with” Ashley Saint. His role is multilayer at times, and although we don’t know the reasons for his behavior, we know people like him live in this world.

This film is a spit on the face to the porn industry, to their makers, their actresses, and ultimately to their fans. Lee Kholafai and Catherine Anette are two other actors that are worth mentioning. Kholafai looks like an upcoming porn star and Anette has something that makes her shine in every scene she’s in. She has one of the best solo scenes with Paulson’s character, I truly enjoyed “their moment” after the “restaurant scene”.

Hollywood is afraid of this film, no one wants you to watch it, but Lucky Bastard is having great chances in festivals and in certain independent movie theaters that believe, like I do, that true films are sometimes cooked outside the cookie cutter Hollywood system.

Lucky Bastard is crude, polemic, dirty and sick. 90 minutes of sex, blood, and violence, the kind of violence that makes you think about the world we’re living in, not like the fake violence portrayed in movies like Die Hard 5. To me this movie is beautiful; a critique to the porn industry, a documentary about how hard it’s to be a porn star, and how a sick bastard can ruin your life

If you have a chance, you must see it…you’ll be a Lucky Bastard.

Click here to find out if the movie is playing in a theater near you.

• Spanish

WHAT: The Melt
WHERE: 6290 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
LINK: http://www.themelt.com

Text and Photos by Lizandro Melean / @Lizandro_Melean

The mouse was the cheese’s best friend… until today. Thanks to The Melt the human will be now the best friend of this milk derivative, which is the main ingredient in this sandwich franchise that it’s (hopefully) here to stay.

With several locations across the California, The Melt is using a clean and minimalist decoration where technology and organic collide to create an exquisite and unique flavor in one of the best cheese sandwiches  that the West Coast has to offer. If you’re a sauce lover, forget about them! You certainly don’t want to ruin the flavor of a fine Brie cheese with ketchup or mayo, this is not about that.

All the ingredients are organic and the vegetables are cut in front of you. You don’t need to wait in line for your sandwich, that’s old school! The Melt has a huge state of the art board that tells you when your order is ready, so you can bite it like you mean it.

You can choose between The Mission (for the jalapeño lovers), The Italian Job (all about provolone, The Swiss and other specialties. I decided to get The Italian Job, some chips and a Spicy Black Bean Soup. The chef made each combo with detail and dedication so each soup completes the cheese you’re having in your sandwich.

The menu is not that big like in other fast food places, but The Melt is all about sobriety and simplicity and they nailed it with that neat concept. Although is not than cheap, it’s not super expensive neither.

If you’re walking around Sunset Blvd., or around any of their California locations, don’t forget to recharge your batteries eating one of the best-grilled cheese sandwiches in town. This is a step forward in the fast food industry: still fast, but with fresher and healthier ingredients. Bon Appetit!

• Spanish

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Follow us: @ CoolHProject

Coolhunting Project, estuvo en la pre-inauguración del primer hotel de Lego de los Estados Unidos, ubicado en Carlsbad, California.

Los Directores Creativos de este site, Greta y Lizandro, se alojaron en una habitación temática de Piratas y grabaron todas sus aventuras para que tú fueses cómplice de ellas.

Un elevador discoteca, más de 3.500 modelos de Lego, 250 habitaciones temáticas, entretenimiento para adultos y niños, piscina y hasta un castillo lleno de piezas coloridas de Lego, todo esto y más te brinda el hotel que se encuentra frente al parque temático: Legoland California. Sin duda alguna un spot que no debería faltar en tu próximo viaje familiar.

Coolhunting Project was in the pre-opening of the first Legoland Hotel in the United States, located in Carlsbad, California.

The site’s Creative Directors, Greta and Lizandro, stayed in a Pirate-themed room and they recorded all their adventures so you could be their accomplice in this bricktastic trip.

A disco elevator, more than 3.500 Lego models, 250 themed rooms, entertainment for kids and adults alike, a swimming pool, and even a castle full of colorful bricks. All this and more  is what the hotel has to offer to its guests. Don’t forget that is located in front of the Legoland theme Park, which makes it an unmissable destination on your next trip to California

• Spanish

WHAT: The Lords Of Salem

By Lizandro Melean / @lizandro_melean

The new movie from horror maestro Rob Zombie is his most stylish and haunting film yet.

The Lords of Salem tells the story of an ex-junkie and radio DJ called Heidi (played by Zombie’s wife/muse Sheri Moon Zombie) who receives a package with a strange album in it from a band called “The Lords”.

This is one of those movies that needs to be seen with little to none knowledge about it. The flick is not for everyone, Zombie knows it and that’s why it’s so genuine. He’s not trying to please large crowds, he always had the creative control of the piece and it shows on screen. Thank you for that!

This is a return to form for the horror genre where cheap scares are replaced by a slow, atmospheric and eerie ride that worth the price of admission. This is one of those movies that make you shiver while you’re watching it. This is a modern horror masterpiece full of psychotropic textures, colors and masterfully done shots (you gotta love the hallway’s tracking shots)

The acting department is flawless from Sheri Moon Zombie, who owns the screen, Jeff Daniel Phillips (who looks A LOT like Zombie), horror-veteran Ken Foree, Bruce Davison, and the oh-so-fabulous Dee Wallace.

Zombie is the Tarantino of horror movies. A director that loves the medium with all his heart and his movies are an original homage to everything that inspires him. That’s why “Lords” has influences from masters like Argento, Bava and Polanski, but with a lot of salt and pepper from Zombie’s kitchen cabinet.

The film’s soundtrack is amazing and catchy. It gets under your skin and stays there. Movies like Paranormal Activity are trying to kill the power of music in the genre. Jaws, The Omen, and The Exorcist were movies that had a great and haunting score that are still relevant. Zombie, using his vast music knowledge, has made a new soundtrack that will be remembered by horror fans in the future.

The movie is filled with a lot of Freudian concepts and religious questions and critiques to the church establishment, and although it doesn’t have a lot of blood and gore, it doesn’t need it. The movie takes shelter in the unknown, in powerful acting and in a script that makes you dive deep in this world of the macabre.

Rob Zombie is one of the few modern horror directors that understand and make love to the genre the right way. The horror genre is hated by the conventional Hollywood system, but ironically it sells tickets and fills movie theaters. It will continue alive and well (the right way) while minds like Rob Zombie are lurking to mind-fuck-you like you deserve it.

If you want to see the director’s Q&A in the Los Angeles premiere hit play below.

• Spanish

WHAT: The Star Wars Matryoshkas
Link: http://www.astattmiller.com/

By Lizandro Melean / @lizandro_melean

We can bet you that not a single geek or sci-fi fan in the world has ever turned to see a matryoshka doll…until now. The illustrator and graphic designer Andy Stattmiller knows that nesting dolls are far from interesting nowadays, that’s why he has created two incredible matryoshkas sets using the characters from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope to make them interesting once again.

The figurines are made out of wood and they’re painted with acrylic. Its sizes run from 0.75 to 8 inches. The first set comes with the heroes: Chewbacca, Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, C3PO, R2D2 and the lovely Princess Leia; the second one comes with the dark side of the force: Darth Vader, a Storm Trooper, Grand Moff Tarkin, a Tie Fighter pilot, a Tusken Raider, Greedo & a Jawa.

We’re sure that Stattmiller is one of those artists you need to be following right now. He may surprise us with another cool invention in no time!

• Spanish

WHO: Robert DeLong: Multi-instrumentalist Electronic Music Artist
LINK: www.robertdelong.com

By Luís Arturo Perdomo / @c00luis

Robert DeLong is a multi-instrumentalist artist from Seattle that moved to Los Angeles to start a career as a musician. He just launched a new album on February 5^th titled Just Movement. You can hear a variety of genres in the record, but the electronic side of the equation leads the way. The impressive part of this debut effort is that DeLong played every single instrument in it, even the percussion, synths, drums, keyboards, and consoles. He also plays all these instruments live.

Just Movement was launched via Glassnote Records, a record label that has a pretty interesting catalog of artists under its sleeve. Really well known bands like Mumford & Sons, Phoenix, Two Door Cinema Club and The Temper Trap shares the label with new offerings like Daughter, CHVRCHES and DeLong himself.

Towards the end of 2012 he launched a promotional video for Global Concepts, his first official single (below). If you hit play you can see (and listen) how he plays the keyboard and the percussion.

I invite you to join this unusual electronic offering that will surely be something to talk about this year.

Don’t you believe me? Just click play below so you can see how he rocked on the David Letterman late night show.

You can listen to Just Movement in its entirety, courtesy of Billboard, clicking here.

Follow Robert DeLong @Delongmusic