Friday the Thirteenth, is It?

Another Friday - I've had a more productive week than usual, thanks to internet goofballs and some significant anniversaries... I have another paper to write and am procrastinating on that, so I might get a few more posts up here in the next few days... Still - habits are useful, so let's maintain this one.

Links? there have been a ton in the past week or so - I should have plenty... the high point for film writing is probably David Cairn's Vertigo post from last week - actually the culmination of a series of posts on Vertigo, itself the high point of his ongoing Hitchcock series. He's already on to North by Northwest... I would hope everyone is already following along...

Dennis Cozzalo is the latest to take issue with Richard Schickel's attack on Robert Altman. I've commented on a couple of the earlier remarks - at Scanners, and at The Moviezzz Blog - I don't have anything profound to add to the other comments (especially not to Cozzalio's outstanding essay), just that anyone who thinks that Altman made careless, shoddy works needs to pay more attention. Dennis mentions someone who was turned off by Altman's excessive control - I don't quite buy that, but at least I understand the argument. A professional critic writing of Altman "How did a man with no interest in the fundamentals of film get taken seriously for as long as he did?" - is guilty of professional malpractice.... (And whoever paid him for a book review should demand their money back - Schickel barely mentions the book.)

And - one more - another marvel from Roger Ebert. Whatever he was as a film critic, as a blogger and columnist, he is on a very short list of the best there are.

And end it with some "too-easy blog fodder" (cause god knows I need all the help I can get), a random ten:

1. Danielson - Five Stars and Two Thumbs Up - I think this is the last thing they released as a band - kind of too bad, they're good...
2. Daniel Lenoir - Agave
3. Outkast - Humble Mumble
4. Asian Dub Foundation - Naxalite
5. fIREHOUSE - Down with the Bass
6. The Mars Volta - Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus - today's shameless guitar wanking, though Omar Rodriguez can wank with the best of them...
7. NIel Diamond - I Got the Feeling (oh no, no)
8. Beastie Boys - Shadrach - always good to hear from the beastie boys, especially this, one of the great record...
9. Velvet Underground - Black Angel's Death Song
10. Bob Dylan - On the Road Again

And video, since - video is good: look! fIREHOSE!