Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
haven’t posted in a long time. I get it.
Well, read on,
MacDuff, and find out more!
Quote of the
Month(s):
“Train hard. Fight easy.”
Lemme tell ya,
training to be a NYC high school English teacher is tough! And keeps you
really, really busy. And dealing with the neo-pedagogical zealots? Ay-yi-yi! A
colleague/next-door neighbor told me, “Don’t trust anyone under 30!” And so it
goes…
Meanwhile, I am a
twisting ball of tension, a rubber band stretched too tight. Finding it hard to
take it easy. Eeeeeeeeeeeee!
(But writing this is
one way I’m trying to chill—hey, I should probably eat something, too!)
Cthulhu knows when
I’ll be able to get back to any sort of realistic, reliable and/or respectable
publishing schedule. Maybe in a year or two…
Which is why this
post is illustrated with pix of TVs—because I haven’t been able to watch any TV
lately. Which may be a good thing; we’ll see…
That said, I have
noticed my moviegoing/viewing habits are certainly getting eclectic—I think
it’s because I am either more discriminating, or just want old
favorites—especially those I haven’t seen in a while.
When I was a kid, I
used to be amazed by friends who, unlike me, didn’t see everything indiscriminately.
These were people who saw five or six movies in a theater per year—as opposed
to five or six per month (and when I became a teenager, five or six per week).
Nowadays, most of my
viewing is either something that “Library Roulette” has coughed up, or else a
flick off my huge list of “To Watch” at Nettttflicx. And there are literally
countless movies that I’ve started then stopped—a variation on channel surfing
I suppose—or else I’ll pop in a DVD just to watch one specific scene, like the
earthquake destroying Tokyo from Japan Sinks (1973), a film
that is otherwise too boring to sit through from beginning to end without
fast-forwarding. (I wish someone would dig up—or bootleg—a copy of Tidal Wave, the Roger Corman/New World Pictures version that edited out all the boring bits,
left in the destruction footage, and used Lorne Greene as Mr. Exposition—much
in the same way Raymond Burr was used in 1956’s Americanized Godzilla—and more
about that in a moment.)
Additionally, when I
do get free time, I pursue genuinely hanging out with flesh-and-blood friend
rather than the “TV Family.”
So what have
I been managing to squeeze in viewing-wise in-between learning about teaching
and being devoured by the stress monsters in my tummy?
Let’s go!
MOVIES SCREENED IN
APRIL 2014
Jane Eyre (2011; Cary
Joji Fukunaga) A fabulous movie, thoughtful and detailed, with some top-notch
thesping, especially from lead Mia Wasikowska in the titular role. Much of her
performance is silent, delivered via facial expressions and body movement, and she
feels completely natural.
A very intelligent
and soulful semi-autodidact, unfairly ostracized at a young age, Jane is an
inspiration to man and woman alike, a figure well ahead of her time (although
as a creation of Charlotte Bronte, Jane is utterly a figure of contemporary
time: the young, educated woman chaffing at the restrictive role society is
laying out for her).
I’m not familiar with
Ms. Bronte’s source novel—a moody, gloomy, quite Gothic story—but this film
feels complete, as if not much was cut out to make the story fit a two-hour
film format. Visually, the film is transfixing, absorbing your attention
utterly:
Elegant and beguiling
compositions—which often try to reproduce the Barry Lyndon-style only-natural-light source mood—often feel like
reproductions of paintings from the early-1800s.
Aside from claims of
keeping up with “high quality” cinema, I screened Jane Eyre to play catch-up with some of the gaps in my literary
education: if I’m going to be a high school (or middle school) English teacher,
it behooves me to be at least familiar with this novel.
Ich-Ein Groupie
(a.k.a Higher & Higher; 1970; Erwin C. Dietrich & Jack Hill, uncredited)
SqDave turned me on to this flick—it’s a Euro-road movie
disguised as a trashy borderline nudie-cutie about a dopey groupie (she really
does have a poor learning curve, or else serious daddy issues: she keeps
falling for these rocker dudes who obviously only have one thing on their
minds, but she can’t—or won’t—see it, thinking that they “love” her. Sigh…).
But what makes the
flick great is the music—there is no incidental music (lots of sound effects
and ADR to fill the audio track, all excellently done) except when someone
plays the jukebox or turns on a radio or record player, or a band is playing at
some gig—
and these bands are
great! Lots of the neo-psychedelic garage rock sound; plenty of heavy electric
blues on display.
If you like Iron
Butterfly or early Black Sabbath, you’ll love this soundtrack. A great lost sleazy
“Rock” movie that needs to be rediscovered.
Funeral In Berlin
(1966; Guy Hamilton) The second Harry Palmer is much more like a genuine
“spy”/“espionage” story—legwork, surveillance, intelligence gathering,
intrigue, lies, double-crosses, self-righteousness, etc. tied into a very dark
and cynical look at a “mission” of dubious value; in other words, a very
realistic spy story—than about gadgets or weirdness. It’s also probably the
last Guy Hamilton flick that isn’t over-the-top or whiz-kid bonkers.
Some fabulous footage
of East and West Berlin compliments the location photography, Michael Caine (the
coolest; cooler than James Bond because he feels real) is always fun to watch, and Oscar Homolka steals the show as
a wily Russian intelligence officer. He growls at Caine’s Palmer, “Is it worth
it to be a tool for the generals? A tool for making trouble? Trouble makes
arms. Arms make money.”
Ahhh, genuine
political truths! Gotta love ’em when they occasionally show up in a flick.
SMASH TV: Gunslinger
(2014) A beautiful mash-up of cowboy movie imagery with an incredibly
appropriate soundtrack. Watch on VIMEO.
GHOUL FRIDAY
(programmed by me!) At midnight on Good Friday, I programmed at the Spectacle Theater a neat little program of shorts, both live-action and animated,
that concerned the Supernatural (’cause it was Good Friday, maaaaaaaan!).
Here’s some of what I
wrote about it for the Spectacle’s website:
On this day a
gazillion years ago, after the Romans pulled some Takeshi Miike-style
ultraviolence on Him, the Baby Jeebuz was ressursusitated and came back as
Zombie Jesus, Undead Son of God! (Or
something along those lines; the story’s open to interpretation…)
So come down to the
Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn (the borough only the dead know) at the Witching
Hour where it’s not Good Friday, but GHOUL FRIDAY: A Series of Short Films Celebrating
the Supernatural!!!
Spectacle presents a
soul-stealing selection of seldom-seen supernatural shorts to shatter your
sanity and send shivers down your spine. Not to mention deliver some laughs,
too! In a 90 minute program, highlighting 22 films—from 4 seconds to 14 minutes
in length—ranging from bittersweet to surreal to side-splitting, these movies
unleash fiends, ghosts, vampires, psychos, spirits, sorcerers, hobgoblins,
yokai, demigods, mutants, madmen and a host of other creepy-crawly critters!
In tonight’s shorts,
along with a slew of hungry zombies, Cthulhu will be there, joined by ferocious
feline phantasms, a singing frog, Count Dracula, an eel girl, a tell-tale
heart, even Death herself! And you just might learn the secret history of the
world, courtesy of the stone heads of Easter Island…
And zombies, lots of
zombies. In his excellent 2011 textbook War,
Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film, Marc Di
Paolo of Oklahoma City University writes, “One of the appeals of the zombie… is
that they give angry Americans something to shoot at…. Since the pleasure
provided by killing a zombie [sic] is escapist and regressive, it offers little
hope of any real solution to such abstract problems.” (p252)
But what Professor Di
Paolo misses is that the lack of a “real solution” adds to the delicious
frisson that the hordes of the flesh-eating dead are truly unstoppable and will always win, thus
granting us the sweet release of that unexplored dimension of the afterlife.
An international mix
of films, made in a blood-splattered kaleidoscope of styles, GHOUL FRIDAY
features many unknown, unseen and uncanny short films, and a couple you might
know all too well—from your nightmares!
Bwah-hah-hah-HAH! Tonight’s show has adaptations of masters like Poe and Lovecraft,
while also showcasing some of the best contemporary artists fascinated with the
macabre and unholy. There’s even Slenderman, the new meme-monsters stalking the
kids!
—So,
only about three
people showed up for the show, but those three paying customers were BLESSED!
Milius (2013; Joey
Figueroa & Zak Knutson) While semi-hagiographical concerning John Milius’
talent, the documentary pulls no punches in suggesting that the
writer/director’s (pre-heart attack) “blacklisting” was much his own
fault—burning bridges and being a loudmouth can only get you so far. Milius is
still one of my favorite screenwriters, but I am disappointed that he allowed
himself to get shut out. Oliver Stone still gets to make movies, and Milius
doesn’t? On the other hand, pre-stroke Milius could’ve tried to score
independent financing, right? While fun, perhaps this doc doesn’t dig deep
enough…
Genocide (1968; Kazui
Nihonmatsu) How can you not love an anti-war, left-wing nihilist sci-fi/horror
about the insect world’s preemptive strike against mankind? This film is the
kissing cousin to The Hellstrom Chronicle (an excellent, little-seen film) and
The Swarm (Irwin Allen’s bloated “killer bee” disaster movie), but is also a
one of a kind movie: a fast-paced mood piece with many emotional moments, aided
by crisp and colorful widescreen cinematography. Not great, but definitely
worth seeing for weirdness value alone.
Goke, Body Snatcher
From Hell (1968; Hajime Sato) Inadvertent camp is the result in this bleak
sci-fi/horror weirdness: A flying saucer causes a jet airliner to crash, and
the survivors must fight the blob/vampire that takes over one of their party.
Logic takes a backseat to mood and pacing, aided by some crisp cinematography
that utilizes a lurid color palette.
Nice left-wing
anti-war vibe, but also the pulpiest of writing: two-fisted and propulsive, and
written to fill a pagecount more than any themes. B-movie madness! This would
be a crowd-pleaser for a bunch of drunken midnight movie patrons.
Macbeth (2010; Rupert
Goold) Patrick Stewart and the Fascist Macbeth— This could have been
Peckinpah’s Macbeth—it’s like a combo
of Cross of Iron and Ian McKellan’s Richard III…
The Bard was so ahead
of his time: this play tackles
psychological themes (what’s in the mind and not); philosophical—it’s deffo
existential—and even socio-political (with what it means to be a king). Then
it’s tied up into both a war and ghost story! Awesomeness abounds!
The Devil Is a Woman
(1935; directed and photographed by Josef von Sternberg; screenplay adaptation
by John Dos Passos, continuity by S.K. Winston, based on “The Woman and the
Puppet” by Pierre Louys)
So the blessed NY Public
Library delivered a Marlene Dietrich collection of DVDs, and proceeded to watch
all of her collaborations with Josef von Sternberg…
This one is an exquisitely
detailed and adult film—with crackling dialog: “You know, I used to work in a
cigarette factory.” Great last line.
And Dietrich is
RADIANT. Every frame with her in it could be used as a photograph and mounted.
The camera LOVES her.
The flick is a crazy,
senseless melodrama—von Sternberg is like Baz Luhrmann: just an excuse for
beautiful images and sounds. The use of masks is impressive and expressionistic.
Groovy erotic insanity.
Morocco (1930; Josef
von Sternberg) All of these Dietrich/von Sternberg films are NUTS! The only one
that’s made any sort of sense was The Scarlet Empress, and that felt like
an evil Wizard of Oz.
Very young, very
handsome Gary Cooper is a horndog Legionnaire in this salacious pre-code
melodrama. Marlene introduces her tux-wearing lesbo swinger act, and lots of
stuff almost happens is how I could
best describe it…
Blonde Venus (1932;
Josef von Sternberg) This is the David Lynch movie that Lynch never got to
make—made before he was even born!
This film would be a
perfect double-feature with Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (another neo-Lynchian
fever nightmare), and is utterly bonkers, but paced like a racehorse with a
series of scenes that are best described as “unconsciously connected.”
A flick that needs to
be seen to be believed, that’s what Blonde Venus is. Genius!
Books Read in April
2014
(* = read before)
(* = read before)
Nemo: The Roses of Berlin by Alan Moore & Kevin
O’Neill (graphic novel; 2014)—Moore & O’Neil continue the adventures of the
new Captain Nemo, the daughter of the one who fought the Martians in previous League of Extraordinary Gentlemen stories.
In this installment,
Nemo finds herself involved in WWII, and must visit the great Berlin Metropolis
on a personal rescue mission. On the way, she encounters Germany’s “Twilight
Heroes:” Mabuse, Caligari and Maria the robot.
This is an incredibly
dense story, reaching Pynchon-like heights of demand for audience effort—but
completely worth it! A wonderful, fantastical book that I will be rereading
often.
*) The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo
Jose Cela (1942)—As existential (and important) as Camus’ The Stranger, this novel is more Catholic in its obsession with
blood and its spilling, but also feels more dreadful and doomed: A brutish and
slow dirt-farmer plods along his path towards self-destruction, all recounted
in a long letter to a nobleman, the farmer obsessing over his actions (or lack
thereof).
Author Cela won the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989, and I am looking forward to reading more of
his work.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2005) Wow,
it took me forever to read this; it depressed me so much! While very different
in specifics, the general details of Ms. Walls memoir about her ridiculously
dysfunctional parents are quite similar to my own experiences (which shows
Walls power as a writer), and as such was painful to get through. I wound up
teaching much of this book to two classrooms of 10th graders.
100 Characters From Classical
Mythology: Discover the Fascinating Stories of the Greek and Roman Deities by Malcolm Day (2007) Brushing
up on my Classics! That Trojan War was certainly intriguing!
MAY 2014 MOVIES:
The Getaway (1972;
Sam Peckinpah; script by Walter Hill, based on a novel by Jim Thompson) One of
my faves—because Peckinpah was reined in, maybe?
Great compositions in
the cinematography: notice how Doc and Carol are always at the side of the
frame!
One thing I love is
that the police aren’t really a factor—it’s the other crooks that are more of a
hassle.
The “reality” of her
starting the car too soon and knocking him to the ground is hilarious—capped by
McQueen’s looking around to see if anybody saw that he wasn’t “cool” for a
moment.
A flick I needed to
see to cheer myself up at a down and tough time.
THE REVENGE OF GHOUL
FRIDAY—programmed by ME! A sequel to April’s Ghoul Friday (see above), and just
as much fun (with just as many patrons, too: sigh….).
Here’s some of my
description for the Spectacle Theater website:
Like a severed hand
with a gypsy curse, THE REVENGE OF GHOUL
FRIDAY: Another Series of Short Films Celebrating the Supernatural! will
crawl through nightmare swamps to get you!
It’s the follow-up to
April’s sacrilegious smash-hit, GHOUL FRIDAY, and like all good horror sequels,
THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY doubles the mayhem and the stupidity!
With more than 20
shorts in an approximately 90 minute program, be the first kid on your block to
experience unfathomable and indescribable evil; all for the low, low prices of
$5—and your immortal soul!!!
Attend tonight’s show
and you will witness the End of the World many, many times over: Flying
saucers, the cannibalistic undead, hellish relics, killer robots, homicidal
maniacs from beyond space and time, rabbits, hungry monsters, ancient
demon-gods, vicious aliens, mad and horny doctors, murderous mutants and
various Lovecraftian beasties all do their part to destroy civilization and
devour humanity! Even God, the greatest serial killer EVER, makes an
appearance! And y’know what? He’s bringing His two sons along…
Unspeakable satanic
ceremonies? All the kids are doing it! Undead, unholy, supernatural, hilarious,
nightmarish, sacrilegious, absurdist, magical—it’s all here!
Like Dan O’Bannon’s
zombies, THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY can’t be stopped with a bullet to the
head—after all, you can’t kill something that was never alive!
Risk your immortal
soul and slither into THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY: Another Series of Short Films
Celebrating the Supernatural!
Godzilla (2014;
Gareth Edwards) The more I think about it, the more I think this movie is one
of the worst of the year.
Here’s what I wrote
on Twitter: “Saw the new Godzilla flick. It sucked: The Big G. isn't American,
nor should he be the world's policeman.”
Add to that generic
CGI—gosh, that stuff is SO BORING now!—and you’ve got a flick that made me
grind my teeth.
Captain Kronos,
Vampire Hunter (1974; written and directed by Brian Clemens) Fun, but very
smart Hammer flick that comes off as a light-hearted cross between Witchfinder General and the 1960s
British spy show, The Avengers (which
makes sense since director Clemens used to work for that show). This movie is
obviously an attempt at creating a franchise, and I for one wish they had tried
to make at least one more. A good way to waste an afternoon.
Outrage (2010;
Takeshi Kitano) Incredible movie! A brilliant and ultraviolent metaphor for the
current business world in Japan and America: ruthless greedhead psychos playing
us all one against another as they eat up the pie.
Godzilla: King of the
Monsters (1956; Ishiro Honda, with Terry Morse) I love the first Godzilla: He
looks like an evil, gnarly pit bull with alligator skin—or pocked and scabbed
burn victim flesh…
And the Raymond Burr
sequences are not so bad, nor is the anti-war message blunted as much as
critics/purists claim—the flick is streamlined, that’s all.
Watched this to get
the taste of the new version out of my mind: blech!
The Terminator (1984;
James Cameron) The classic flick is still exciting and lots of fun—actually
watching it now was extremely refreshing: the stunts, car chases and effects
are for the most part done physically—there’s no CGI in the flick, so every
frame feels kinetic, sometimes grainy and gritty. This flick is very influenced
by 1970s action flicks, while setting new standards for the action/sci-fi sub-genre.
Books & Stories
Read in May
Too busy to read
anything for myself really, except a handful of classic short stories—all of which can/are
taught in classes….
“The Landlady” by
Roald Dahl (1959) (story)
“Only the Dead Know
Brooklyn” by Thomas Wolfe (1935) (story)
“Button, Button” by
Richard Matheson (1970) (story)
“Pickman’s Model” by
H.P. Lovecraft (1926) (story)
“Araby” by James
Joyce (1914) (story)
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