Strong and warm and wild and free
I recently watched the 1979 film Real Life, the first feature directed by Albert Brooks. There’s plenty to say about it as a film and a comedy, especially in light of its retroactive relevance as a satire of reality-based filmmaking in a programming era in which no city’s pampered, appalling self-absorbed housewives are safe from the profitable scrutiny of Bravo’s fleet of cameras. Separate from the facets that are the usual fodder for cinematic analysis, I found something particularly striking. At two completely different points, Brooks uses the word “abortion” in punchlines. Indeed, in the second instance, the word is … Continue reading Strong and warm and wild and free
Edel, Farrow, Hitchcock, Jordan, Siegel
His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951). How many other actors completely own a genre of film the way that Robert Mitchum does film noir? It’s like he was born into a delivery room filled with murky shadows and cigarette smoke, the doctor instructing the nurse to slap his bottom by growling, “Give him what’s comin’ to him, and make him sing when you do it.” He moves through this story of scheming and duplicity at a Mexican resort as if he’s walking through his own front door, tossing of aloof wisecracks with the ease of a guy who’s already … Continue reading Edel, Farrow, Hitchcock, Jordan, Siegel
When you’re oozing in the disco, well then nothing seems to matter
Admittedly, it’s now been a while since I’ve spent time in radio, but I don’t remember anyone dressing like this: Maybe I was hanging around the wrong stations. (Due credit: This image is from a book clearly filled with wonders, … Continue reading When you’re oozing in the disco, well then nothing seems to matter
Control yourself, take only what you need from it
The thing about out-of-the-ordinary family structures is that they’re typically not odd to the people existing within them. Certainly being outside the norm of society’s rigid (but loosening) definition of what makes a family can cause some dismay and feelings … Continue reading Control yourself, take only what you need from it
College Countdown: Winter 1991, 20-16
And now…on with the countdown… 20. Erasure, “Love to Hate You” Erasure was one of those acts that I had an instinctual aversion to, beginning from a place that favored grinding guitars over drum machine beats. It was so pronounced … Continue reading College Countdown: Winter 1991, 20-16
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Twenty-Two
#22 — Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997) Paul Thomas Anderson builds Boogie Nights with the exuberant fervor of someone who may never again be given access to a movie camera. From the extended tracking shot that opens the film–a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Twenty-Two
One for Friday: Sidewinders, “Witchdoctor”
When I started this weekly feature, I decided I was going to only post songs that were entirely out of print. Eventually Tim Quirk of Too Much Joy convinced me that music’s digital availability didn’t mean a thing when it came to artist compensation, so I shift a bit to focus on songs that were physically out of print. I’ve stumbled on that front a few times, largely because my hunting to determine availability is admittedly flawed, but that’s the guiding principle. Given that, I tend to default to music that was released some twenty years ago, when I was … Continue reading One for Friday: Sidewinders, “Witchdoctor”
You could smell the heads festering in the backyard
I had a little spare time on my hands today. For only $10.95 I could’ve had a dandy craft project to occupy myself. There’s whole magazine attached to this ad, just in case you’re interested in downloading and reading it. Continue reading You could smell the heads festering in the backyard
Argento, Daves, Joffe, Judge, Moses
Dark Passage (Delmar Daves, 1947). This passable film noir is probably most notable for a storytelling gimmick that keeps the face of star Humphrey Bogart obscured for a good chunk of the film’s running time. He’s plays a man who claims he was wrongfully accused of murdering his wife. He escapes from prison and hides out in San Francisco, eventually getting some backroom plastic surgery to change his appearance. That’s when he starts to look like Bogart, so the lead up puts the star in shadows, covers his face in bandages, and, for significant stretches, employs a subjective camera technique … Continue reading Argento, Daves, Joffe, Judge, Moses
Great Moments in Literature
“Actually, we hadn’t really stepped into a clearing: it was more that the thin woods we’d come through had ended, and now in front of us there was open marshland as far as we could see. The pale sky looked vast and you could see it reflected every so often in the patches of water breaking up the land. Not so long ago, the woods must have extended further, because you could see here and there ghostly dead trunks poking out of the soil, most of them broken off only a few feet up. And beyond the dead trunks, maybe … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
