Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
Dennis Hopper, one of the great wildmen of American and world cinema, has succumbed to complications from prostate cancer at age 74. Here was my immediate reaction on Twitter: I’m walking in the rain with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as images of Dennis Hopper’s indelible perfs flash thru my mind. [...]
Sat, May 29 2010 » Film, Main Page » 2 Comments
French pop giant Serge Gainsbourg and actress Brigitte Bardot teamed up in the late 1960s for this atmospheric little ditty – Bonnie and Clyde (that’s the YouTube version; this Grooveshark one has better audio but no visuals). The tune was no doubt inspired by the movie. Decades later, French hip-hop star MC Solaar would sample the shit out [...]
Thu, April 29 2010 » Film, Main Page, Minutiae, Music Monday et al, multimedia » Comments Off
Finished a DVD viewing of the film Public Enemies, and it reminded me how much I loved this song from the soundtrack – Otis Taylor, 10 Million Slaves: The ReelSoundtrack blog, where I found the above tune, has all 16 songs. Addendum I tweeted two accompanying songs: And that leads to this: The Blasters, ‘Long [...]
Tue, April 27 2010 » Film, Main Page, Minutiae, Music Monday et al » Comments Off
Saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tonight, and while not an instant classic, it’s certainly a well-above-average thriller. Here’s the Toronto Star review (and a G&M interview with the lead actress; the review has a significant factual error, so I won’t provide a direct link). The NYT was a bit more down on the film.* [...]
Sat, April 17 2010 » Film, Main Page, Music Monday et al » Comments Off
The NYT’s A.O. Scott writes about a film series on newspaper movies going on at the Film Forum in NYC (updated).
Thu, April 8 2010 » Film, Main Page, Media » Comments Off
In the course of searching for Joan Jett’s performance in Urgh! A Music War, I found this outtake of the Cramps peforming Human Fly! Lead singer Lux Interior died last year. See my Feb. 6, 2009 post A ‘twisted Elvis from hell.’
Wed, March 17 2010 » Film, Main Page, Minutiae, multimedia » Comments Off
The Globe and Mail published a decent interview with Floria Sigismondi, director of the forthcoming The Runaways, the legendary teen punk band from Los Angeles. That gives me a good-enough excuse to post this video of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performing Bad Reputation, a performance captured for the fantastic music doc Urgh! A Music War:
Wed, March 17 2010 » Film, Main Page, Minutiae, multimedia » Comments Off
Saw a few tweets fly around about actor Dennis Hopper, who has terminal prostate cancer, and it inspired me to post the following tunes to Twitter:
Sun, March 14 2010 » Film, Main Page, Minutiae, Music Monday et al, multimedia » Comments Off
From Twitter: Recently saw a screening of the great doc ‘Soul Power.’ Some sample tunes follow: James Brown, ‘Soul Power’ (live) – http://tinysong.com/deGt Miriam Makeba, ‘Click Song’ – http://tinysong.com/jk4r Fania All-Stars, ‘Congo Bongo’ – http://tinysong.com/giTT Spinners, ‘One of A Kind (Love Affair) – http://tinysong.com/hr3s If you’ve not seen ‘Soul Power,’ and you love ’70s funk [...]
Tue, February 16 2010 » Main Page, Minutiae, Music Monday et al » Comments Off
I went through some of the major reviews of the new journalism thriller (oxymoron?) State of Play, which opened Friday night. I don’t think I’ll be dropping my $13 any time soon.