Jun 29, 2012

I am doing

The Graydon Carter, Spy Magazine The New York Monthly hangover cure this morning.  Too much wine after inventory.

I do not care.  In fact, I have not a care in the world; I am convinced today will be magnificent.  I have the movie soundtracks to back me up.  A great wife, great cats, the greatest friends, a great job, my health; heck, even my baseball team is the best in the world right now!

And a fabulous new "book" to read, to boot!



Crucial Books, Magazine Division: Spy Magazine The New York Monthly.




All my Friday love,
Ardent(ly) Henry

Jun 28, 2012

I love how two of my friends at work (Updated 6/29/12!)

Celebrated Pride Weekend.

Both skipped the parade and thoroughly debauched their way happily, joyfully, with no guilt attached (None needed!) through the festivities.

Both spent a great deal of their time making out with complete strangers.  That is always good, in my book.  One got a date with a hot, rich (My sweet little gold digger!) choreographer, and the other might be rekindling an old romance.

"Everyone loves everyone."  That is what Pride means to me.











xxxoooxxx







UPDATE 6/29/12:  Everyone knows that the Pride Kills statement I made yesterday has nothing to do with the sort of Pride that occurs during Pride Week, right? Totally different things.  Pride Kills is the name of a song I wrote with the McClung Bros back in my Suicide Doors days.  It is the best song I ever wrote (although Boutique Women is pretty good, too, and Sex w/ Strangers) and its sentiment is just as true today as it was back in 1998/9 when I wrote it.




mds

2012, The Summer of Young Love continues.

Went and saw Turn Me On, Dammit one more time before it leaves the Bay Area.  Today is the last day here for it.  The film (print I watched?) goes to Los Angeles now.  Farewell.

The film was even more moving, lovely, wry, and wonderful than it was the first time.  And, this time I noticed the original score a good deal more, and how witty and perfect it is for the story and the little Norwegian town it comments on.

I felt so elated and fresh and special walking past City Hall on the way to BART.  I did not even listen to my iPod on the way home, read my excellent Ava Gardner book on the train, as I watched children play and talk.  One of the children was named Ava.  Was she named after Ms Gardner? They all got off at my same stop.

************

Watched The Newsroom finally upon getting home.  It was a let-down.  I will keep watching it, but it is not likely to become a huge cult, obsessive thing with me.  Too treacly.  Too sweet.  Not cynical or mean enough, Charlie Pierce nailed it in his review of it.  The best thing about it is seeing Sam Waterston's character permanently swacked on Scotch in every scene.  The walk and talks are all over the place, and still pretty frickin annoying.

I love FDR just about as much as anybody else does, but the sermonizing on the Old Great America, plus overlaid with a fruity annoying string score, is going to get old really quick.  Actually already has.

Still, nice to see Allison Pill.

************

But then it was back to a magical dreamy Summer of Young Love clutch of time.  Sweetie asleep on my lap, running my hands through her hair as I watched Submarine.

Submarine was written and directed by "Moss" from The IT Crowd (and his co-star there, Chris O'Dowd, gets a special thanks in the credits), Richard Ayoade.  The film is based on a Welsh coming of age novel that I will be purchasing soon.

Richard Ayoade.  Looking forward to his new career as writer/director.


The film for all its bittersweet perfectness is insanely derivative.  Notably Harold and Maude (just released on bluray by Criterion!) and Wes Anderson's films.  And, of course, Anderson practically owes a good portion of his career to Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude.

(Hey, Wes! I love love love love Moonrise Kingdom, but maybe you should try to make a film like Ashby's Shampoo? That could be dynamite.)

Anyhoo, Submarine is a cult film supreme, full of amazing dialogue, and young love run riot; beautiful scenes of our heroes setting fires, blasting off fireworks, and kissing while taking polaroids.  There is a great deal of pain, as well, though; bullying, death, cheating, lying, spying, desperate adult melancholy that paralyzes, and the arresting youthful fear of surrendering to love.

Alex Turner contributed six of the most gorgeous songs to Submarine.  And I have been absolutely consumed, colonized, and conquered by one of them, Piledriver Waltz.

Plus, Sally Hawkins plays Oliver's Mum.

Crazily highly recommended.  Submarine is streaming on Netflix.










Inventory Thursday.

Was going to write something about SCOTUS here but I am thinking better of it, I would rather think on Jordana and Oliver and those nervous scary moments of seduction and surrender, those polaroids, the flash, the fireworks, the fire.

Pride Kills, brothers and sisters.  It is scary, I know, but my advice to you is, get in touch with it, get out on that limb, and fear not love.  There are worlds and worlds out there, a million doors, open them all.







Yasmin Paige, born in London, England, UK.










Michael



Jun 27, 2012

My three fave swear-y

Political bloggers:

1.. Charlie Pierce (His take on The Newsroom -- which I dvr'd the first episode but still have not seen yet -- and Sorkin, and The Social Network, and The West Wing, and Sports Night is smashing good fun.)

2. TBogg

and 3.  driftglass.


I really wish I could do swear-y but I just can not pull it off.


AH

Jun 26, 2012

My two favorite Nora Ephron stories are:

How she and her husband, Carl Bernstein -- they were happily married at the time -- went behind everybody's back and re-wrote certain scenes for All the President's Men.  They were worried that heartthrob, Redford, playing Woodward was getting all the good stuff, leaving Hoffman, playing Bernstein, with nothing.  So, they totally made Hoffman catnip to the ladies and introduced a whole new element to the story which worked brilliantly.  And, of course, Ephron was such a great writer, all that stuff got left in, to great effect.



But, of course, after the film, Bernstein became a massive star and, natch, cheated on Ephron, which she wrote about in her brill novel, Heartburn.

That leads me to my second fave story, to wit:  When Ephron had finally had enough of Bernstein's philandering she pegged him right in the kisser with a key lime pie.  And, of course, as she re-tells the story in Heartburn, she gives you the recipe, to boot!






So sad.  RIP, Sister; a great novelist, essayist, culture critic, screenwriter, and director, I miss you, already.

Think Renee and I will watch Dame Meryl and the lovely Amy Adams in Julie and Julia tonight.

"I'll have what she's having."













P.S.  The peach pie recipe in Heartburn is to die for.  Renee makes it all the time and we lived on it, my folks and I, when we first moved to Austim in 1983.

Thanks to Steve A at Alexia Moore and

Kristy B at Frog's Leap (I love Ms B's North Carolina accent) for helping make the Wife and I's little getaway so much fun.  We caught all kinds of special treatment, attention, and love from everyone up in the Valley.  It was a massive good time for the both of us.  Woo-hoo!


"I know you're a shrink, but Doctor, could you feel right here? That is where it hurts."

Now, it is back to work work work; inventory, crappy politics all week -- the SCOTUS ruling on ACA, jobs reports, the GOP's War on American Women™ (Shhhh, do not say, Vagina), the GOPs War on AG Eric Holder™ -- and whatever else this week of June decides to offer me.

But our getaway should help buffer for this week.  And, I am going back to the City to see Turn Me On, Dammit one more time before it leaves us for good.  So, I got that, right?

And, I think the next film I want to loan my friend, J, is Nic Roeg's Bad Timing.  I think that could just about hit the spot and is crazy esoteric and weird enough to intrigue him.





All my Tuesday love, kids! I am gonna channel some serious Poppy and we're going to make this week one of the best evah!








AH


Jun 22, 2012

Hey, Sweetie!

Who loves you, baby?

I just bought you a subscription to Bust Magazine! You'll get the print issues for the next two years, and I bought some back issues digitally which you can read on the computer.







Looooooooove you, .... 

I think Manohla Dargis was the first

To suggest the idea of the brill Mike Leigh double feature of Naked and Happy-Go-Lucky.  They are opposite sides of the same coin, and also reflect a male (Naked:  bleak, violent, cynical, cerebral, fucked-up outlook) vs the female (Happy-Go-Lucky:  upbeat, optimistic, nurturing, empathetic, right brain outlook.)  I do not think Leigh wanted to make an "answer" film, per se, to Naked.  Leigh is one of the finest artists in cinema today and does not cater, ever, to public demand of that sort.  He is crazy dedicated to telling his stories, whatever they may be, exactly and perfectly in the manner he wants the story told.



Naked is a difficult film, for sure, plus it is long.  But I was so caught up in its Odyssean like sweep that I saw it at least four or five times in the theater when it was released, most of the time by myself.  (Hey, kids, I saw it at the old art-house in downtown Berkeley right by the campus. The theater does not exist anymore.) It is the performances in this film, notably David Thewlis, who won best actor at Cannes that year, that hook you in to Naked.  Thewlis delivers an absolutely stunning wracked version of Johnny that probably left him a husk of his normal self and messed him up personally for a short while.  But then we also get Lesley Sharp, Ewan Bremner, Katrin Cartlidge (RIP, sister.  Such a talent, and she died so young), Claire Skinner, Peter Wight, Gina McKee, etc, ... all of them expertly creating the universe that Thatcher's No Culture version of Britain will ultimately become.  Of course, the "sexy" part of Naked is Johnny's numerous monologues on the state of the universe, which are alternately despairing and hilarious.  There is certainly nothing sexy about the actual sex in the film, of which there is a fair amount.  That is brutal and joyless every single time.  Probably because of that, Naked is a Bridge Too Far for Renee.  She does not like Naked, and I do not think she has seen the film all the way through.

But, Happy-Go-Lucky, on the other hand, we saw in the theater together, and we own on dvd, and is one of our all-time favorite films.  "Enraha!" was/is an absolute secret language inside joke with us, still.  The "Johnny" character in Happy-Go-Lucky this time is, if not vanquished, at least abated, and done so with a firm yet empathetic touch of Poppy's hand.  Poppy is a single woman in her thirties who lives quite happily with her other single flatmate, both of them Primary School teachers.  Poppy, played by the striking lovely Sally Hawkins, is one of my ultimate heroes of cinema.  Whenever life is crushing me, and the dark cynical side of me bubbles towards the surface, I literally try to imagine how Poppy would handle the situation.  Ms Hawkins may never give a performance this good again in a motion picture.  It is her Party Piece, her Calling Card, just as David Thewlis has never done anything nearly as good as Johnny in Naked, either.  The entire community of Happy-Go-Lucky inhabit the opposite universe as those of Naked.  They are a community that is always looking to work together, without passing judgement, to make the world a better place. Plus, the sex scene in Happy-Go-Lucky is sweet, touching, playful and lovely.  It is a profound, joyful, exquisite work of cinema art that Renee and I (and many others) will always treasure.

By the way, one of my two favorite DPs shot both of these films, in completely different styles and palettes, Dick Pope.  Stellar work.

So, I would watch Naked first, I think.  End on a high note, right?

(Have fun, Justin.)













And, please please please, could we finally get a US dvd/blu-ray release of Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet, already? Jeez, ...














All my love,
Poppy

Jun 20, 2012

"You will feel so much better."




"To the gay community all over this state, my message to you is:  So far a lot of people joined us and rejected Proposition Six and now we owe them something.  We owe them to continue the education campaign that took place.  We must destroy the myths once and for all, shatter them.  We must continue to speak out, and most importantly, most importantly, every gay person must come out.  As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family.  You must tell your friends, if indeed they are your friends.  You must tell your neighbors.  You must tell the people you work with.  You must tell the people in the stores you shop in.  You ... And once they realize that we are indeed their children, and we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed, once and for all.  And once, once you do, you will feel so much better."

Harvey Milk











You also gotta love Governor Moonbeam whispering in Jimmy Carter's ear to tell them to vote against Prop Six.

And, I still say you should always vote No on all state propositions.  There are parts of this country that would legalize segregation if it came up for a vote.










mds

Jun 19, 2012

Turn Me On, Dammit is so sweet.

It is like molasses.  (Do they eat molasses in Norway?) Or, it is the answer, "Yes," to Renee's question for me this morning, re the film, "Is it a doorbell?"

Pikk-Alma gets ready for the party at the Youth Center.  Artur will be there!

There is so much to love about this adorable Norwegian coming of age comedy; how completely unsentimental it is; all the wonderful girl characters, the three sisters, including the pink lip-gloss addicted Ingrid, the hip college student redhead, Maria, with the cool flat and housemates in the big city, Oslo, and my fave Sara, the cynical chain smoking brunette who wants to move to Texas to abolish the death penalty and is pen pals with death row inmates; the absolute vision of loveliness that is our protagonist, Alma, desperately horny and hopelessly in love with Artur; the sweetest, nicest phone sex guy ever, Stig, who always wants to know how it is going between Alma and Artur; Alma's gentle flustered Mother, who works at the turnip factory; Kjartan (I totally want to change my name to Kjartan -- that is pronounced:  zhar-tan), the smelly, hash smoking, crap moustache loner kid who writes poems to his love, Sara, and calls her his Saralou; Alma's wonderful opening introductory litany that introduces us to her small, boring, lovely, awful little Norwegian town; the fantasy sequences; flipping off the town sign every time; the trip to the big city, Oslo, hanging with the super cool college kids, drinking red wine; the trampoline girls; Pikk-Alma; the ending; the indie rock music, especially Franz Is Dead; the whole "Smash the Social Democratic State!" fruit abuse scene; the bus shelter; and on and on and on, ...

Ever so highly recommended.  A delightful must-see.






And I bet you Turbonegro love the film, too.  They get it.






Back to work, but this week ends with a trip to St Helena, something to look forward to! Love you all, ...













AH

Jun 18, 2012

Pride Week starts today, of course.

Pride Week is when San Francisco nearly turns in to Disneyland, The Happiest Place on Earth.

I remember way back in the late nineties going to a dyke bar with Nadja K and a bunch of her friends and kissing and hugging every single girl or guy on our way to the bar to order drinks. When Nadja and I finally got our drink orders in, Nadja looked at me and said, "I love Pride Week, everyone loves everyone."

************

Cool day set up for me today:  Going to lunch with a friend at Sidebar in Oaktown; and then heading to the City to go see Turn Me On, Dammit.  So, part of my day is a Me Party, which I have been having a lot more of recently, which is great.

************

Trying to stop rereading the same books over and over, and work on reading new books.  I am kicking off this new campaign (I always want to spell campaign with an e at the end, like Champagne, and always have to lop off the e right after I type, ...) with a book I have had my eye for years but finally bought, Ava Gardner "Love Is Nothing" by Lee Server.  It is a great biography. She had a tumultuous, crazy life.  And I have always loved difficult artists.  And Ms Gardner also did not give a fuck what other people thought of her, and said whatever she wanted to say, an attribute I also always admire in others.



************

Euro 2012 is going okay.  The Russians got knocked out and the Czechs broke.  Germany is doing well, my pick to win it all.  France is looking in good form.  Spain looks great.  I still can not stand Italy, England, or (especially) Portugal, and they all look to make the Quarters, but there has been some lovely football on display at times and I am getting excited for the knock out stages.  

But I am still even more excited about next month's Women's Football Tournament at the London Olympics.  

************

The Summer is heating up and the knives are seriously out for Obama on Fox News.  Yeh, big surprise, right? I love how Juan Williams has now become the official surrogate for Obama on FNC, and gets yelled at three or four times a day, as if Williams is Barack Obama.  Of course, Williams gets paid quite a bit of money to absorb such abuse, so, you can not feel too sorry for him.  Anyhoo, ...










That is all I got! Everyone have a splendid wonderful Monday and try and do at least one little something special for yourself even if it is naughty or decadent.  







xxxoooxxx,
Ardent









Jun 16, 2012

UGH!

No, there is no GOP War on American Women!

Nope.  Nothing to see here, move on, please.







Thank you, TBogg, ...








AH

Recent Conversations with Nick C, #4

We do not get it. 

Just what is the big deal about current Vanity Fair cover girl, Kristen Stewart? She is certainly not much of an actress, and I guess I can understand how folks would consider her pretty, but Nick C and I are definitely not fans.

From an acting standpoint, Nick C and I believe she is hired for the one "look" she can provide, that of the Perils of Pauline victim, the look that says, "Why are you wounding me?" or, "I am ready to be kissed now."

Not our thing.  It is probably just us, right?

************

Meanwhile,

Turn Me On Dammit has finally made it to the Bay Area.  Let us watch that fabulous trailer again, shall we, with that brilliant creepy Orson Welles song:



I read in the Chronicle review (they sort of liked it) that the film clocks in at only seventy-three minutes.  How cool is that? That is as long as Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and his first UK version of The Man Who Knows Too Much.  Maybe this will start a whole new trend of shorter movies? That would be great, but I doubt it will happen.

Anyhoo, Turn Me On Dammit has to be great because Jezebel loooooves it, and those ladies over there hate everything.

************

Plus, the sullen sultry Aubrey Plaza, an actress possessing a wealth of considerable comedic talent, gets her first starring role in a motion picture, Safety Not Guaranteed.  About time, say I.  I hope it is a solid indie hit for her and its' debut director, and I will be seeing it very soon.






************

And, just for kicks, here is another Chelsea Handler interview I am fond of, with Evan Rachel Wood, mostly for her description of how Kate Winslet helped her get through her "first full frontal" in Todd Haynes' superb Mildred Pierce for HBO.  










All my Saturday love for all, 
Mwah, ... 















Jun 15, 2012

Recent Conversations with Nick C, #3

AUSTERITY DOES NOT WORK!


(Unless you are talking about certain types of wine, ... )

So, one of the running gags at work right now for me and my fellow Beer/Wine/and Cheese (that is what the Specialty team used to be called, and Whole Body used to be called Information -- but that was a billion years ago) teamies is a Greek wine we are selling as part of our National Top Ten program.  We think that perhaps we can save Greece's economy by selling a bunch of that wine, which is pretty good, by the way.

And I have been writing on the log of sample bottles for team members, whenever they take home a bottle of that Greek wine, "AUSTERITY DOES NOT WORK!"  


Which then led to Nick C asking me how he thought the new Socialist leader of France would or could change the French wine industry.  Which then led to our new modest proposal:

Great French Wine for the Great French People!

We propose that all the First Growth Bordeaux producers should set aside a modest amount of every vintage of their First Growths to be sold to regular working class folks of France for a set period of time, say, a week, a month, or maybe just a day, and all their finest wines for just that set period would cost ten euros.  Just ten euros.  There would be a limit on how many bottles one person or family could purchase.  I would suggest no more than two.

Let the regular folks taste the finest wines the world has to offer.

It is just an idea.







All my love,
Ardent


Jun 14, 2012

H3LV371C4, H3LP M3! (UPDATED, 6/15/12)

Mavis sleeps peacefully, Molly nearly trees herself in the bathroom window sill.  Mavis sleeps peacefully -- well, with both eyes ever so slimly open, thus peacefully for her -- Molly roots around in the wine keller.  Mavis sleeps peacefully, Molly attacks the vertical blinds of our "windoor" -- as is our habit, Renee and I, to call such a thing.  Mavis sleeps peacefully, Molly bats around a stray golf ball.  Mavis sleeps peacefully, Molly rubs intently against my bony slender legs.


It is a lovely lazy quiet day by the golf course on the top of our golden Walnut Creek hill.  I am not like the Wire song, I do not feel mysterious today.  I am drowsy and enchanted, instead.  


And Molly has finally found a sunbeam to luxuriate in, nearly stretched to her maximum length.  


************


I am ever so tempted to go see Moonrise Kingdom again today.  But I am not.  I am going to be an obscene man of leisure, and do nothing.  Probably watch the entire first season of Veep and ... well, I do not know, ... 


Speaking of Veep, they closed out with their best episode, an absolute tornado of cynicism and unbelievable swear-y greatness.  Congressman No-Jaw, indeed.  The Thick of It, In the Loop, and Veep are so salty and pleasurable and satisfying and addicting.  They are a true guilty pleasure.  Not guilty pleasure meaning appreciating bad art in a campy sort of way, but guilty pleasure in the way you find yourself perhaps indulging yourself too heartily in all the non-stop schadenfreude.  You become alarmed at your own "schadenboner" (to quote directly from S1-EP7.)  


Thank you so much HBO for bringing Armando Iannucci and his crack team of writers Stateside. I can not wait for season two.  


************


Nick C and I went and saw Citizen Kane last night.  There was nobody there, about two dozen folks, an absolute flop.  Whereas, last month, when we got a bunch people to go see Casablanca, it was a packed house.  


I do not care, really.  It was a fantastic experience, and the digital version of Kane looked and sounded way better than the digital version of Casablanca.  I forgot how funny Citizen Kane is.  It practically is a comedy, with Welles and his entire team constantly winking at us the entire time.  


The film still completely blows me away; an astonishing work of American art, the richest and most perfect satire of Twentieth Century American Pop Culture ever produced.


Last night my favorite part was the parrot, leading to the walk out, leading to Kane's devastating meltdown.  Welles was heard to say after finishing his meltdown take, "My God, I really felt it."


************






************


St Helena is so calling us right now.  We will be getting away for two days and one night very soon, staying at the Hotel St Helena, or, as Renee and I like to call it, The Big Valley Hotel.  The cable box is awful, the shower is full of character, every room has a crazy Western folk art theme, on some floors the rooms all share a community bathroom, the hotel is v old, and at one time was a bordello.  It is right on Main Street in St Helena, next to one of my all-time fave restaurants, Market.  I love the place.  Renee does, too, but prob, not as much as me.  (That shower thing.  And she has v curly hair.) The main reason I love it is because when you look down on Main Street from your window, you really do half expect to see Missy and the rest of the Barkley clan on the street.  (They are probably checking up on their Napa vineyards, I suppose, ... ) The Barkleys own all of Northern California, dontcha know?


We'll hit Frog's Leap, hopefully Radio-Coteau, and Ridge.  I want to go to Market and Bouchon. The Wife wants to try Ad Hoc, and, of course, we will hit every single foodie shop in the vicinity. Maybe I will buy another bottle of Lail Georgia? Yum.  


We need it.  And Renee has earned it, besides; getting promoted, and all.  


Last Sunday, on our way to the Mount Madonna School play, I said to the Wife, "Let's just turn around right now and go to St Helena."


She said, "No, we'll go when we are supposed to.  That way I have something to look forward to."


h/t to my facebook friend-y, Freda M, who said, "Five years ago today -- I got lucky."


So true, me too.  I got very lucky, indeed.  












































Mwah, ... 












































PS:  I just read that they have just made a film version of The Big Valley, coming to a theater near you, soon.  Ugh.  Just watch the old teevee program, that is all you need.


mds








UPDATE, 6/15/12:  I did not stay home and watch Veep.  I went and saw Moonrise Kingdom again.  


mds







Jun 12, 2012

Sunday last the Wife and I drove down

To San Jose to see Renee's nephew in his year-end school play, The Ramayana.

This is not your normal school play.  It is a lavish, expensive, giant production that involves every student at the school.

Her nephew, Camden, goes to Mount Madonna School in the Santa Cruz mountains.  There are only about two hundred and fifty students in the entire school that covers Kindergarten to High School.

They perform the Ramayana every year (in early June when the Ramayana is traditionally performed), and every student must appear in the production.  When you are young you must play an animal; a frog, a chick, a lizard, etc, ... and as you grow older you "graduate" in to larger roles.  By the time you get to Junior High and High School you have to start auditioning for the larger, major speaking/singing roles.  This is beautiful, as you can start imagining what big part you eventually would like to end up playing when you graduate.

And I imagine there are all kinds of rivalries, competitions, rumors, sweet romantic sub-plots, the typical poignant teenage angst, and drama involved with putting on this production every year.  Two of the Senior girls were crying at their curtain call.  It was a lovely thing to behold. How much of their young lives had been poured in to this production and their entire scholastic career? And now it was all over.

I tried to imagine myself going to this school.  Who, ultimately, would I have played? I am not big or muscular enough to play Shiva, or Sri Ram, or (my fave) the ten-headed Demon King, Ravenna.  I imagine I would play the lead monkey character or the comic relief part of Bonehead, except, I can actually sing, and neither of those roles are called on to sing.

It was fun to ponder all these things.  And the three and a half hour production went by pretty darn quick, actually.

(Renee and I will still prob wait to see it again when Camden is in High School, I think.)

"Pretty cool," as Anthony from Bottle Rocket would say, ...






Camden Diskowski as a member of the Bheen Tribe.  His turban is over thirty feet long!








All my love, back to work, Ugh!



Ardent Henry

Jun 10, 2012

Recent Conversations with Nick C, #2

It is all Kit Lambert's fault.

The Who were a perfectly excellent little singles group with a sense of humor that produced numerous scorching teen anthems one after the other, ...

But then Lambert, whose Da was a composer, started whispering in Townshend's ear, that Pete should start taking himself more seriously, forget the singles, and start writing Rock Operas.

What a load of bollocks!


Tommy is where I draw the line.  Before Tommy The Who were up there with the other Rock Titans.  After Tommy, with the exception of just a few tracks, they are annoying, pretentious twats.

Lifehouse? Puh-leeze, ...

Think of what could of been if Entwistle and Moon had left The Who and joined up with "Legs" Larry Smith, Neil Innes, and Viv Stanshall in The Bonzo Dog Band? That would have been the greatest rock band in history.

Plus, if that did happen, we might have seen this headline:








WHO SINGER FOUND DEAD
London, UK

Pop singer of The Who, Roger Daltrey, was found murdered in his Camden flat yesterday morning, a guitar embedded in to his head.  Guitarist, Pete Townshend, is missing.




















xxxoooxxx














Moon the Loon.


Jun 9, 2012

APRIL MARCH - CHICK HABIT

Recent Conversations with Nick C, #1

Wes Anderson is Karl Marx's nightmare.

Anderson makes films so detailed and fetishistic that he creates konsumterror in his cultish fans by creating demand for products that do not exist, are not even on the market.

Think of the Adidas Team Zissou shoes in The Life Aquatic, or the paintings and books and records in The Royal Tenenbaums.

Right now there are thousands of fans desperate to purchase, acquire Suzy's young adult fiction books (each one created by a different artist for the film), or Khaki Scouts shirts, complete with distinctive commendation badges.

It is the most ingenious and perfect sort of "Product Placement" I have ever seen in film.

Absolute genius.











Just read this.











End o' the week, hoo-ray!
All my Saturday love,
Ardent

Jun 7, 2012

Train of thought is a useful expression.

As long as you consider the multitude of switches on the tracks of my mind.

(I am starting to sound like Viv Stanshall now.  See? I just switched tracks right there? I can not help myself.)

************

Greta Garbo enjoying a Manhattan, I believe.


************

Garbo The Spy is a delectable little documentary about one of the greatest spies of the 20th century.  I really do not want to give too much away and I would rather you just watch the film which is streaming on Netflix currently.  I will tell you that Garbo was the code name provided by the British intelligence officer who "controlled" the spy, because of the spy's astounding acting capabilities.

Garbo offered his services to the British as a "walk-in", to spy against the Nazis.  They refused. Garbo then went to the Nazis and offered to work for them, as a double agent.  The Nazis accepted.  After Garbo had built a sizable network and had a few minor successes, the Nazis still clueless to his sabotage, he again knocked on the door of the British intelligence community.  The Brits turned him down again.  When Garbo scored his biggest coup to date against the Axis, he decided to call on the United States.  The US called England, asking, "What is up with this Spanish freelance spy guy?" Finally, England realized what they had and put him in London to fight the Nazis as an official state double agent.  Garbo's work was absolutely crucial to the success of the D-Day invasion (the anniversary of which was yesterday, by the way) and helped turn the war for the Allies.  The Nazis never had a clue that Garbo was betraying them.

That is all I am going to tell you.  Watch the film.  It comes very highly recommended from me.



The documentary is told in a very unusual style.  (The trailer above is not very good, or representative of the type of film the producers and director made.) The witnesses all introduce themselves and their professions in a sequence halfway through the film, well after we have "met" all of them through interviews.  As no one really knew who Garbo was, and, natch, there never is any real "footage" of spies working, per se, the film uses a lot of Hollywood movie sequences tied in to telling the story as it happens.  Plus Nazi and US propaganda films, too.  Also, both the score for the film and the songs chosen for use are not your run-of-the-mill WWII Spy Documentary History Channel music material.  They chose a hypnotic gorgeous Brian Eno song called How Many Worlds and a couple of ethereal sad music box-y Sparklehorse tracks.

The film is more like a Valentine's gift to a great, passionate, sensitive man, who never once minded working in the shadows, forced to live in obscurity his entire life.  Very beautiful.

And the track switches again, ...

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Thinking of a world and the light of the sun
And all the many lives that were ever begun,
Ever begun.
Our little world turning in the blue
As each day goes there's another one new,
Another one new.
How many people will we feed today,
How many lips will we kiss today,
If we wake up?
How many worlds will we ever see,
And how many people can we ever be,
If we wake up?
Thinking of a world in the light of the sun
And all the many lives that were ever begun,
Ever begun.




I was so intoxicated with that Brian Eno song in Garbo The Spy that I immediately sought it out and started trawling through all my old Brian Eno "records", if you will, swept up by their grace and wit and sharpness, and by Eno's impeccable style throughout his life.  It has been a marvelous little journey, these past few days, exploring all the little corners of Brian Eno's career.







(Brian Eno is on the far right side of the Roxy Music video, playing what looks like a mini-Moog.)

But, of course, you have already guessed where else this mind has wondered off to, ... 


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You probably have to endure a stupid commercial before the video below begins and the introduction is too long and more than a little unwieldy, but it is still worth it.  My favorite parts are when she is kissing the child and when she drops her cigarette.  Breathtaking stuff.









Mwah, ...
I love you all











Jun 4, 2012

The Wife made a spot-on

Observation yesterday morning.

If Renee and I had run away like Suzy and Sam from Moonrise Kingdom, the roles would have been reversed.  Renee would have packed like Sam, with hunting knives, food, water, ropes, maps, a compass, tent roll, etc, ... Whereas, I would have packed like Suzy, with a suitcase full of books, a battery-operated record player, one Françoise Hardy seven-inch, batteries, a kitten, and tins of cat food.










xxxoooxxx

We were mighty pressed for time,

Encountered two traffic slow-downs, had to navigate parking in what might be the world's largest garage, figure out automated ticket buying, settle for pre-made popcorn, find a bathroom, and find the theater in the airport terminal known as the Metreon in The City.

(What is up with the Metreon? It was Renee and I's first visit there, and both of us never want to go back.  Very strange; teenagers canoodling on tables, Prom kids -- looking very lovely -- swanning through the mob and holding court, graybeards playing pinball, indie kids posing with paperbacks, the expected Avengers crew in an Avenger length queue.  Honestly, this type of melange of humanity would normally please me to no end.  Perhaps, because we were in a hurry? Was it the popcorn problem? We shook our heads disgustedly on the way out.  Never again.)

But we made it on time, despite our adventures.  (I was off at four.  The film played at ten past five.) And there is nothing more sexy on a movie date than arriving just as the film begins.


Jared Gilman.


And what of Moonrise Kingdom? Well, I am not sure if I am in a state worthy of speaking of the film in a critical manner.  But, I will try my best.  I have not felt this dreamy, this elated, this dazed upon leaving a movie theater in I do not know how long.  The film had such a personal connection to me that I felt as if I had watched it alone, as if my Wife were nowhere near me, that the rest of the house had never existed.

Wes Anderson's style has not changed.  It is the same as all his other films: inset shots, the same pastel pallet, an extra massive plot point precisely halfway through the film, the excruciating attention to detail, the composed shots, the triumphant anti-authoritarian slow motion sequence, the quick pans and tilts, the dollhouse half sets, and on and on, ...

But it is the love story in this film, a love story of two twelve year old children, both with considerable baggage in addition to what they carry when they run away together, that elevates this particular Anderson film to greatness,  and that means Moonrise Kingdom can sit comfortably on the shelf next to Anderson's other two masterpieces, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore.

On the island of New Penzance -- an island with no paved roads; an island of sad, fucked-up misfit adults -- it takes two damaged children with the guts and passion and love necessary to create a history for themselves to save the grown-ups and their sad little corner of the world, to survive the flood and cultivate and produce a new golden fulsome harvest the next Autumn.

But in like all the best fairy tales and myths there will blood and shocks and hurts and pain.  There will be some that will not be pleased with the violence in this film.  I understand their point of view and I respect it.  But, I think it is absolutely essential to the story being told here.  Although not even remotely as violent as the film, Drive, I see Moonrise Kingdom and Drive as authentic heartfelt modern fairy tales.  Drive is a modern Arthurian legend, and Moonrise Kingdom allegorizes the Old Testament's Great Flood and the "virtuous heroine" adventure stories that our lead female character, Suzy, likes to read.   Both films would make a smashing double feature.  (But which to show first?)

And, I do not think I have ever seen a finer, more poetic, more honest, touching love scene for children in the American cinema.  It is something so difficult to do.  And, I have only been completely convinced and swept off my feet with these type of love scenes when watching french films.  The love scenes in Moonrise Kingdom reminded me of Eric Rohmer. Or Truffaut.  So, naturellement,  we will be listening to a Françoise Hardy record as these scenes play, infuriating Anderson's numerous vehement critics, crying out, "Clever clogs!" or "Precious!" Fine.  But it is beautiful to me.

I am still in a daze thinking about this film.  Just like it took me a few days to absorb and process Drive.  Both films are supremely heavy on style, yet, both films are able to transcend style and touch your heart, move you.  They are the work of two master film makers at the absolute top of their game, stunning achievements.


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Random favorite moments from Moonrise Kingdom:  the earrings; "Do the other one."; the opening sequence with a Child's Guide to the Orchestra playing; the battery operated record player; the kitten; the treehouse; the triumphant slow motion walk out of the chapel tent; the other scouts scene where they join forces w/ Sam and Suzy; "I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about."; Sam and Suzy's hilarious and poignant epistolary sequence; Suzy's expression when Sam asks, "No, what type of bird are you?"; the stellar yet awkward naive performances delivered by Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman as Suzy and Sam; the production of Noye's Fludde; the tennis ball can; Sam and Suzy's heads peeking out over the church steeple; Jason Schwartzmann; Tilda Swinton hanging up the phone; Françoise Hardy; that the adult characters are so deeply realized despite having hardly any dialogue, at all; and the film's position that children can save their parents.  What a lovely idea that is.

Kara Hayward.












All my Monday love,
Ardent