Some Blogathon Notes

I haven't kept up my ongoing blogathon page for the last year - partly because it seems to be a trend that has passed. They are few and far between these days. But they still come up, and can provide a good deal of focused reading, as well as new links - so - Ivan G. Shrive's offered up a couple links, that I will more or less shamefully repeat...

There's a John Huston blogathon going on now at Icebox Movies - a blog I don't think I came across before. So this one has borne fruit already! Though like everything on the internet, you usually find out it's been done before - though I don't see any evidence anyone but me knew that blogathon existed.... Huston is a very interesting figure, so there should be plenty to chew on...

UPDATE: Let me add the roundup links, since this is well under way: Day 1... Day 2.... Day 3... Day 4... Day 5....

Ivan also mentions a Summer Movie Blogathon at another blog I'd never heard of, Silents and Talkies. This one takes place on August 16-18.

Finally - also in Ivan's post, though I knew about this one already, Tony Dayoub is hosting a David Cronenberg blogathon the second week of September - 6-12. Cronenberg, I fear, is not quite my cup of tea - though that shouldn't be an impediment to enjoying this blogathon, since part of my problem is that I find him more interesting to read about than watch. So that should work out!

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!

Weekend Roundup

I am going to keep trying to maintain at least a basic schedule, Friday(ish) music and links post, if nothing else. I have to do it tonight, though, for reasons which might as well be the first link: Lisandro Alonso will be at the Harvard Film Archive this weekend - I want to catch as much of that as I can, starting tomorrow.

I suppose I should say something about the elections this week - Maine's rejection of gay marriage is disappointing; Washington's acceptance of domestic partnerships (just not calling it marriage) is more encouraging, and instructive: it's hard not to think that it comes down to the word, "marriage", motivating the bigots enough to come out and vote... The substance continues to move toward marriage equality - the language is likely to follow soon enough. Though as an aside (though an important point) - I do not like the idea of putting civil rights to a vote. There's a reason the Bill of Rights was made a condition to the passage of the constitution: equality, protection under the law, etc. should not be dependent on the will fo the majority. We all know it is, in fact - but it shouldn't be.

The rest of the voting is more routine than it got credit for - I think there is a lot of interest in politics these days - momentous decisions needing to be made and so on. These issues keep interest in politics high - people are paying serious attention to otherwise routine elections, reading all kinds of things into them. The one you probably can read something into was the NY-23 race - a disgraceful episode, best dealt with by Roy Edroso, with some postmortem from Lance Mannion as well.... That one is interesting. The loony right (the very silly party) seems determined to wreck their own party, and apparently the country - Mannion has a good take on it. Ego mixed with posturing, without much in the way of any policies. (Colbert sums it up - "I have no clue about that" - "the GOP's vision of the future".) I suppose we can count on foreign adventurism, authoritarianism, and as much race baiting and any other bigotry they can cram in will be there... I doubt that race will be the end of the very silly party - they are likely to become more and more radical, and less and less electorally relevant, and may take the rest of the GOP with them.... though they can still do a world of harm, especially if the Democrats cannot deliver. The Democrats need to pass some good legislation - they need to do something that moves the health care system - even if it isn't all that big to start with; they really should do something to rein in banks and the crookeder parts of wall street - they need to do things that have palpable effects on people's lives, as well as demonstrating willingness and ability to act. They are much worse off if they don't pass health care laws than if they pass half-measures. If they govern well, the Republicans could self-destruct, in the short term anyway.

Anyway, meanwhile - in the sporting world, alas, Evil has once again triumphed. Though they did it, the bastards, by using their money intelligently - after a decade of dumb signings, lots of bloated salaries on the downward slope, they brought in the 2 best players available, 2 prime of their career stars - they developed their own players and got performances out of them - they acquired useful parts like Nick Swisher... And there's something to be said for a team that has what - Pettitte, Rivera, Posada, Jeter - 4 guys with 5 rings, on the same team? Anyway.... last week, I saw Damn Yankees - very nice film, but a reminder that there's nothing new about the Yankees' domination. Hell, I've had it good - I've lived through their 2 worst droughts, the late 60s/early 70s, and the 80s - and this mini-drought, in the 00s... they've only won 7 championships in my life, compared to 20 in the previous 40 years. 7 is still more than anyone else, but...

There's a neat article about the aesthetics of baseball coverage at TCM's blog. I can't say I obsess over the world series when the Sox are not in it, but I watched some - with the sound turned very low... and have to say, they were very well put together...

That's enough... Music, now - random 10! here goes....

1. Arcade Fire - Black Mirror
2. Pylon - Go - one of the great, mostly forgotten bands...
3. The Red Krayola - Chemistry - another one...
4. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Mickey's Monkey
5. Brian Jonestown Massacre - (Baby) Love of My Life - just a scrap of a song...
6. Tom Verlaine - New - instrumental...
7. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - you gotta love this, 12,500 songs and 2 come up from the same record...
8. Fleetwood Mac - Go to Move - Jeremy Spencer workout, from the Boston teaparty...
9. The Distillers - Beat Your Heart Out - not altogether sure why I own this, to tell the truth...
10. Husker Du - Ice Cold Ice - live... better than the record; I loved Husker Du in the 80s, but thought Warehouse, Songs and Stories was dull and drab through and through - partly because of songs like this, with lyrics that sounded almost as cliched as mid-80s U2... "ice cold ice"? - but they could ratchet that stuff up enough live to make it work, almost...

Video? A very cool video of the Arcade Fire playing "Neon Bible" in an elevator...

Music and Miscellany

Another Friday - and to try to keep a hand in, here's another random ten, plus a couple links....

Wildgrounds lists his ten favorite scenes in Japanese cinema....

Via Pullquote, reminder that the Stuart Street Playhouse is a movie theater again.

And Glenn Kenny and David Cairns both plug a new Mabuse edition (region 2? that link anyway...), whilst quoting song lyrics...

And finally? Music, this Halloween weekend:

1. Big Star - Way Out West - those first two big star records are just so beautiful...
2. Sigur Rus - Samskyti
3. The Decembrists - Red Right Ankle
4. Led Zeppelin - Black Dog - hey! there's a fine Halloween song... ghosts and devils and drums, oh my!
5. Fire Theft - Summertime
6. Hoodoo Gurus - Bittersweet - oh, my yes.... I couldn't be that strong, that used to be my favorite song... sometimes bands, more or less decent, get everything exactly right and produce a song that vaults into the stratosphere... that's just perfect. This is one.... I hold you like a sword and you won't cut me, cut me like you did before....
7. Flaming Lips - Suddenly Everything Has Changed
8. Billy Bragg & Wilco - I guess I planted
9. OOIOO - Ah Yeah! - nifty piece of Japanese avant-pop, I guess you'd call it...
10. Jonathan Richman - The Origin of Love (reprise) - from Wig in a Box, a Hedwig and the Angry Inch cover album... nice...

Video? Maybe I should do something Halloweeny, but I dunno, why bother? Let's take something simpler - Dave Faulkner looks like he's got indigestion in this oh so 80s video - but shit, if this ain't a great song:



Though then again - courtesy of a neat essay at Bright Lights After Dark - here's the Headless Horseman song, from Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow...

Summer Vacation

Well, here I am, back from vacation, a week in the rain, with little hints of sun there toward the end. Sun's out today, though - a bit confusing and all. Meanwhile, the blog world rolls along - there are events and blogathons, planned and spontaneous - going on now, or recently concluded...

The blog world rolls along: Cinemastyles celebrates Ed Wood and the 50th anniversary of the release of Plan 9 From Outer Space with The Spirit of Ed Wood blogathon.

Edward Copeland, meanwhile, is watching and writing about the films of another low budget maverick, Werner Herzog.

And - being out of town - I've barely glanced at Radiator Heaven's Michael Mann week, which was, I'm afraid, last week.

There are also a couple posts I need to catch up on for the Film of the Month Club's June film, ...No Lies. And discussion of this month's film, Hands over the City, is underway...

Finally - keeping track of all the film related special events on the blogs is a daunting task - Ed Howard is the latest to take a crack at it, posting a Film Blog Calendar...

Finally: the joys of a month of rain - a hole in the middle of the road: [Updated, since I seem to have left out the hole in the road first time...]

Links and Anticipation

Just stopping by - a few links on a Wednesday evening...

At the Film of the Month Club, a new film for June - ...no lies, by Mitchell Block - the film (16 minutes long) is embedded at the site, for the time being anyway - if possible, watch it before jumping into the conversation on the blog. Reasons will become clear when you've seen it, I think. Peter Rinaldi hosts this month - an interview with Mitchell Block, the director, will appear in the upcoming days....

Roger Ebert celebrates John Wayne on the 30th anniversary of his death.

The Nagisa Oshima retrospective is coming to Berkeley, and MIchael Guillen has details, and a long interview with James Quandt.

Pacze Moj has Oshima links, for those of us not in Berkeley.

And that's a reminder that Wildgrounds is hosting a Japanese Cinema Blogathon, starting Monday - I shall be diving into that...

Blog? What Blog?

Closing in on two weeks since my last post? That doesn't seem possible.... there are reasons, I suppose, but as usual, they aren't very convincing - I'm not convinced. Anyway, with nothing profound to add here, I will provide the barest kind of links roundup:

A comment from Sean Axmaker on the coming DVD release of Cronenberg's M. Butterfly - a film (or rather, play) very much relevant to the lack of blog content in the last couple weeks.

Joseph B. on films missing from DVD.

Bright Lights after Dark on Marlene in The Scarlett Empress.

Almost a week ago - Ed Howard's take on Yesterday Girl - German films are on my mind.

...one of which just won Cannes - German language, anyway. Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon.

...not to mention, Kristin Thompson's comments on Lotte Reninger, the German animator... and some other new DVD releases from the archives...

Girish's post on John Ford and Undercurrent's Ford issue is more than a week old... modern drama and Spring have cut me off from the web in terrible ways.

And finally - the first issue of Unspoken: Journal for Contemplative Cinema has been online for 2 weeks itself. A project growing out of the Unspoken Cinema blog, and featuring some very interesting work on Bela Tarr.

Hopefully, my next post will come before June...

Quick Bloggage

The holiday season is here in all its time consuming glory. With weather promised for tomorrow - fun fun! I have been eye deep in Oshima for the last couple weeks - almost over, though there are a few shows left. Including Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, which is one of the 2 or 3 I most wanted to see - but won't be around for. Blast it. But the rest has been glorious. I will try to post comments - whether capsules or mini-essays or just, I don't know - something - we'll see. If it wasn't 11:30 PM, I might try something quick now - I'd note, say - the way he seems to pick a style, a formal principal, with every film, and see what he can do with it. His career is wildly eclectic - I mean, his style shifts with almost every film (though some things remain the same: gorgeous compositions, radical storytelling, political engagement, distancing devices) - one may be rough and loosely structured and the next tight and carefully laid out; one may be color the next black and white; one may be tightly scripted the next semi-improvised - but the shifts are from film to film. Within films, he's very consistent - along with the widescreen compositions, which are always impeccable, he sets himself a fairly well defined set of devices that he uses: the cool formalism of Boy and Ceremony; the disruptive editing in Violence at Noon; the use of lighting and theater in Night and Fog in Japan - and so on.... It's good to see him getting some airing - I think this series is traveling - I hope others get to see it, beyond NY and Boston. And I hope Diary of a Shinjuku Thief comes back to Boston soon...

Meanwhile, before I go - a few links to tide you over....

James Urbaniak on Peter Schiff's prescience. This is as close as I have seen to what it would look like if a time traveler came back in time and went on Fox news. It looks like a fake - Schiff basically describes the summer and fall of 2008 in 2006, and a bunch of nitwits laugh at him. Oops! Oddly, the same morons are still on TV - hasn't Ben Stein been banished yet?

David Cairns on Brazil.

What the hell? The Bush family Christmas video card - starring a dog, though not a shoe, at least not in the minute or so I lasted...

Ed Howard cites Alison Bechdel's rule for movies - 2 women in the film, who talk to one another, about something other than a man. Oshima doesn't come off too well, though he sometimes seems to critique the social patterns that cause this kind of problem, isolation of women from one another etc. Night and Fog in Japan makes an interesting point, a bit accidentally - there are two major women characters, who don't speak to each other and only speak to the crowd about their relationships to the men (to Nozawa, the communist turned journalist who is marrying one of them.) There's also another woman, an older woman, who stands with the girl getting married in the film - she never says a word - she just drifts through the shots - though at the end, during the Stalinist's harangue, she gets a lot of the camera time - it's as if Oshima is making a note of her, of her silence and marginality here... Though he never really makes films about women, the way Ozu or Imamura, let alone Naruse and Mizoguchi did. All fo them have their issues, but they hit this standard a few times....

And finally - the Film of the Month Club is back inaction, with Absolute Beginners as this month's film. A neat choice for a host of reasons,bot least, the consideration of the 80s' place in film history. It's ging to be a while before I get to see the film - but it's a good discussion going on....

Friday Miscellany

Friday night - I'm fighting off a cold, feeling tired and icky... I hope to put up another sort-of-review post soon - real content! a novelty! Having done a certain amount of self-medicating with the good Dr. Macallan (not much better than scotch for this kind of low key, nagging cold), I'm not up for anyting too taxing to the brain or fingers: instead, let's try some links and maybe a Friday Random Ten.

Links? Start with Slacktivis - Fred Clark's weekly Left Behind posts have turned to the movie- a godawful wreck, that manages to improve on the books (though how could it not) - and to catch, every now and then, a moment of near competence - the end of this week's installment is, in fact, The Rapture itself - which is handled with quite surprising grace. We see Captain Rayford Steele about the kiss Mrs. Kirk Cameron - we cut to an old woman, waking up - she turns, doesn't see her husband - chats with Cameron "Buck" Williams, Ace Reporter, and tell him her husband has "gone off naked" - in sum, a quiet, creepy, disorienting little scene, nothing new, but pretty much how you slip into something like that.... The rest of the clip is more the kind of hackwork you expect... Anyway - always a good read...

Elsewhere - a new Girish post, rounding up good online reading.

And at Screengrab, Leonard Pierce promises a 12 Days of Christmas series of Christmas movie posts, starting with the excellent A Nightmare Before Christmas.

And The Bioscope offers a neat post about George Bernard Shaw and the movies.

Roger Ebert let's us know what he thinks of Expelled.

David Bordwell on Douglas Fairbanks.

And Tom the Dancing Bug explains a comic, in great detail.

And I run iTunes:

1. The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
2. The Melvins - Lizzy
3. Sleater Kinney - Ironclad [not a big fan of this record - still got a great sound, did they, but sounds to me like they were running out of things to say. The last 2 records sort of continued the slow fade...]
4. Erase Errata - C. Rex
5. Keiji Haino/Tatsuya Yoshida - Gheuebhessip [just got this, haven't really listened to it, though a couple songs have come up on the iPod: it sounds like it's pretty good stuff - they're first rate performers, in their very strange way... this one has a flute in it!]
6. Leo Kottke - Embryonic Journey [I keep forgetting I have some Leo Kottke on the machine - I should try tolisten to this more...]
7. Fugazi - Facet Squared [I can't say I love Fugazi, but they are absolutely reliable - anything they do is worth listening to...]
8. The Magnetic Fields - In an Operetta [I haven't warmed to them, as I have to some of the bands they are compared to.... but they are pretty good.]
9. Neil Young - Old Man [well, obviously a great song.]
10. Tragically Hip - At the Hundredth Meridian [I like this song - I like this record,but it's the only Tragically Hip record I ever bothered to buy, not sure why.... get Ry Cooder to say my eulogy...]

And YouTube says: Richard Thompson - the live version of Shoot Out the Lights, from his Austin City Limits record a couple years ago came up on the iPod tonight - ah: I can't get it out of my head. (And really, the whole post is here because I wanted to post a video of it.) I couldn't find any video of it, but this is a decent substitute. There are a few good versions of the song on YouTube - this one has some of the jaggedy guitar playing he really expands on the Austin record...

Back to School Linkage

And again at the turning of the seasons comes another of Dennis Cozzalio's oh so excellent quizzes - Professor Zachary Smith's Lost in the Space at the end of the Summer Quiz. These are not things to be entered into lightly, though there are 16 answers up already since yesterday (as of this posting.) But no, this can't be rushed...

Elsewhere - Girish lauds Manny Farber.

Moviezzz urges critics to see more foreign movies. He's also been reading Haruki Murakami - my own gateway drug to Japanese literature, and probably Japanese movies. Not to mention a comment on the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention - in connection with the Chicago 10 DVD. I should Probably watch that film - given the attention paid to 1968 in France by filmmakers, it's interesting to wonder what came out of 1968 in the states - Medium Cool, which is a hell of a start.

Things are going a bit better for the country these days, at least as far as the Democratic National Convention goes. I haven't said much about politics here lately - I don't know what I am supposed to say. I can think of no excuse on earth not to vote for anyone the Democrats nominated - and don't see much point in quibbling about who they nominated - as long as they win. Bush has nigh on demolished this country - and completely demolished the Republican party. In 2000, I could see John McCain as president without feeling all that distraught about it - now? he's spent 8 years groveling t some of the worst people in American political history, and now represents nothing but more of the same, with possibly a bit less raw stupid at the top. Plenty of dishonesty and raw privilege though...

But that aside: not only is it a great relief to have one of the major parties nominate a Black man for president (narrowly beating a White woman in the primaries), and that (both of them, really) a sign(s) that we are, in small ways, still capable of doing things right - better than we used to anyway... But this is the first time since, probably, Gary Hart that I have felt that someone with a reasonable chance of being president is someone I would, on balance, like to see as the president. Kerry, Gore (in 2000 at least) both Clintons, Dukakis, any of the other major contenders - Bradley, Brown, Edwards - were all people I'd settle for. (And back in the day, I voted for Jesse Jackson, without thinking he had much chance - but hoping he'd get some pull at the convention. But I don't think I'd have wanted him as president.) But Obama - runs on programs I can support (mostly); and seems like someone who can get people to follow him. That counts - presidents ought to have charisma - they ought to be able to command respect and admiration, even from their foes. I can see him doing that, and putting it to good use.

So that's my political speech for the year. (Far cry from 4 years ago - all politics, all the time!) And I guess it brings us to the obligatory music video - probably a boring choice, half the internet's going to be linking to it, but hey, it's good enough for the Dems, so - the O'Jays, with Love Train:



[And let me add: it's the O'Jays! why shouldn't half the internet link to it?]

Another Links Post

Here are some things to have caught my eye - and things to look forward to.

Don't forget - starting tomorrow, it's a Movies about Movies blogathon, at the Goatdog blog.

UPDATE: Goatdog's main blogathon page.

Elsewhere - Ted Pigeon looks back at the films of 2007.

Bioscope looks at the history of Kinemacolor - part of its series on color (since they're British, I guess that's colour), and other things.

Screengrab takes a look at the 20 best animated films.

Spoutblog looks at some underrated fictional music.

East Bay View lists his favorite jazz records since 1970 - and before 1970. It's making me think about my own interest in jazz. I have an odd history with jazz - didn't listen to it much at all until the early 90s, though what I did hear I liked, though I didn't quite get - then - I went to New Orleans n the fall of 91, spend a couple nights wandering around Bourbon street mostly popping in and out of jazz bars, came home and decided to listen to Louis Armstrong and was, more or less immediately, completely converted. I listened to jazz, and almost nothing but, for the next five years - almost systematically, though tending to radiate out from Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Coltrane, moving forward through time - until, mid-90s, I'd reached fusion. Sonny Sharrock and Electric Miles and John McLaughlin - and that led back to rock... to Richard Thompson, specifically, but then, to everything else. Since then, jazz has mostly been on the back burner, except for where it meets avant garde guitar players... Saw Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue this weekend - documentary about Miles Davis and electric jazz, with his performance at the Isle of Wight the centerpiece: boy oh boy, but I like that stuff... I don't know where this comment is going really, but it might lead to a video...

It might lead to a meme - Samurai Frog offers up an iTunes game - iTunes as magic 8 ball, really. Basically:

1. Put your iTunes/ music player on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must put down the song name no matter what.

That might lead somewhere too.

Though not before noting - fafblog's The Medium Lobster has a new gig!

And now? Since I've stopped doing the Friday Random Tens, I haven't posted much of anything about music. Alas! Miles and company can rectify that - this being a performance of "Ife" from 1973. Broken in two - part one:



And Part Two, which is where things really get me: right now, my jazz world really revolves around Pete Cosey, who lets it rip on 12-strong here....



And good night - and see you at the movies about movies blogathon!

Link Day Links

Wednesday upon us, so with nothing much to say, let's post some interesting bits...

There's this - the story of Shanta Rao Dutt, film Pioneer - maybe. Via Bioscope, a blog I've started reading only lately, and find quite wonderful.

Or this - films in films Christopher Campbell at Spoutblog wants to see. Me too, for quite a few of them.

UPDATE: I want to add a similar project Andrew Osborne at Screengrab posts a series devoted to the best movies about movies. I've written a longer post on it at the Film & Discussion blog, but I want to note it here too - it fits too well with the previous two items.

Or - a blogathon announcement - James Bond blogathon, at Lazy Eye Cinema, November 5-7. Should be good.

And - welcome back, Edward Copeland - here's hoping his health problems are on the mend. I've missed him.

And of course, another week, another interesting post from Girish - this one on Creative Geography. Extended, as usual, in comments...

Meanwhile: I haven't been watching the Olympics - with football season starting? I jest, of course - though if that game got much worse, we wouldn't be joking about Youilis kicking a field goal, we'd have been making cracks about hitting a three pointer. You gotta love the Rangers - in that game and the previous one, they combined to score 32 runs on 40 hits - and split. Counting the 9-0 and 9-1 losses to Baltimore over the weekend and tonight's 8-4 loss, they've given up 52 runs in 5 games - scoring 37, even with the shut out.... Great fun. I should be more concerned with the Boston bullpen - taking a good shellacking last night, and one of the few who didn't fuel the flames coming in tonight and offering up a quick three run homer... but the main starters and the end of the pen are so good (Lester dominant again tonight), and the offense still so potent that things look pretty good for the local 9. Even with guys hurt we're catching the breaks - we lose Lowell, but Tampa loses Langoria and Crawford - all this just as Ellsbury starts hitting again, Jed Lowrie comes up and looks like the real thing (leading all SS in RBI since the all star break - couple more tonight) - it's good.

So - that's it for tonight. Some film stuff to read, and Baseball - what else can you ask? (I should write up some of the films I've seen lately - nice weekend of films, though I did miss one I wanted to see - Kon Ichikawa's last film - thanks to a monsoon; I did see an excellent documentary on Ichikawa, directed by Shunji Iwai; along with Man on Wire, Boom, the La Chinoise DVD and some William S. Hart. Maybe over the weekend - there are a couple more playing in town. Mourning Forest, say. We'll see.)

Links July 30

Being completely lazy and without discipline, and trying to work out the best way to use Newsfire (since it rather messes up my favored Save-It-For-Later device, the Shared Google page), I shall have recourse to a links roundup. Of course as usual, this takes as long as a real post would have....

Budd Boetticher's Seminole DVD - Glenn Kenny, at the Auteur's Notebook.

Watching silent movies online, from The Bioscope.

David Cairns explores the horror of Sea Monkeys.

TCM's blog examines Written on the Wind.

Grand hotel Screenshots at Sixmartinis and the Seventh Art.

And a Rug Rats Blogathon, I just found.

In other news, Orson Scott Card is crazy.

Pacze Moj writes about the Olympics, politics, and money.

And oh yeah - new Tor site, with an all star cast.

Finally - and anticipating a real post here, I hope -Dennis Lim's history of the fight scene in Slate is getting a lot of attention. For example - Glenn Kenny - Screengrab - David Cohen at Anne Thompson's Variety blog - to pick three I remembered to bookmark.

Lawyers, Guns and Money, meanwhile, takes on both Lim's fight post, and A.O. Scott's dismissal of the superhero film. Putting the two together like that reminds me: Lim's big How To Stage A Fight Scene example - Oldboy - IS a superhero film. At least as much as any Batman is.

Kurosawa Blogathon (etc)

Since I jumped the gun by a week, it's probably no surprise to learn how excited I am to see the Kiyoshi Kurosawa blogathon up and running at the Evening Class.

Also, the X-Files blogathon at South Dakota Dark is running another day.

Meanwhile - one of the ongoing threads in online writing about the film world is the continued hand wringing about the fate of critics: Philip Lopate weighs in at Film in Focus.

And another, from Nathaniel Rogers. This article also joins the ongoing debate over the Dark Knight (the "cons" are starting to gain on the "pros", I think), and contributes to a Dangerous Trend - St. John of the Cross Puns!

Weekly Post

This is getting awful. I am back on my summer schedule, lucky to post once a week... I don't know. I can blame vacations or the heat or watching the Red Sox or playing softball, but who knows...

All right: keep a toe in until I get some energy back.... The Film of the Month Club has moved on to its new film: The Fireman's Ball. I look forward to this - Czech new wave is one of those things I have never really explored - in fact, I don't know if I have explored it at all... This is a perfect excuse. Assuming I can muster the energy to sit down in front of the TV and watch a movie...

There are other blogathons going on, coming, or just concluded - check out the blogathon page to the right. The one I'm itching for is Maya's Kiyoshi Kurosawa blogathon (mentioned down at the bottom of this post) coming on the 19th. That's coming up fast: if Im going to show some life it had better be quick.

The year is halfway through: I should make a list or something... the year so far. Others have. Maybe I should make a list of the films that have played in Boston, possibly for the only time in years - that I was too lazy to go to? Boarding Gate? Chaotic Ana? God - how can I face myself?

The best I have seen? Quite a few of this year's releases made it onto last year's retrospective lists - so this is only since the last list post. 2008 releases, best since May:

1. Edge of Heaven
2. My Winnipeg
3. Chop Shop
4. Up the Yangtze
5. Gonzo: Life and Works of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
6. Speed Racer
7. Operation Filmmaker
8. Monkey Warfare
9. All For Free
10. The Tracey Fragments

Heavy on the documentaries and Canadians, as usual this time of year. I have to write some of these up, if I ever get the energy to sit in front of the computer for a couple hours... Right.

And music? Haven't been buying a lot of stuff, down from usual. But some recent good stuff... new Beck record (Modern Guilt) sounds pretty good, though I just got it... And the Melvins have a new one out - I've been listening to the Melvins a lot lately. Working backwards from Boris, I guess you'd say. New one is called Nude with Boots... And I've been digging up Mark Stewart records when I can - Edit, the new one, is pretty interesting. And Sigur Rus - who in the last couple years have become one of my favorites. Haven't quite gotten into this one yet, but they usually come... Still - overall, I haven't been buying that many records this year: the best all year are probably the Earth record (Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull) - with Bill Frisell! and the latest Nick Cave (Dig, Lazarus, Dig!)

All this of course is an excuse to post a video - easy material! Let's use live Earth - Engine of Ruin. Another beautiful song...

Summertime Links

Yes, it's high summer, with its holidays and vacations and heat and softball games (and attendant aches and pains, for I have become old), and so there's not much blogging being done here. There's plenty going on elsewhere though - so here are some links:

First - a couple blogathons: Culture Snob's Self-involvement blogathon starts today. I quote: "Most film writing is movies filtered through the self; I want the self filtered through movies.”

At the Valve, John Holbo is hosting discussions on Douglas Wolk's book, Reading Comics. A first day round up here.

And though it was scheduled to finish on July 3, there are still posts coming in related to the New York films blogathon at 12 Grand in Checking. This one, for example, from the Self-Styled Siren.

Meanwhile: the midyear roundups are starting to appear - multiparter at Fin de Cinema, starting here. And Larry Aydlette sketches the first half of the year in several media. I may join that party one of these days...

And - another obituary: Bruce Conner has died. GreenCine, Ray Pride round up links and notes.

Miscellany

I wish to apologize for the last post. I don't know what could have happened there. Some strange disturbance in the universe. Who can explain? In expatiation - this month's Wire cover boy - Mark Stewart, in Pop Group, doing Boys from Brazil...



Anyway - with Piper's folly out of the way, there's not much time to start on the next blogathon I know about - New York in the movies - starts Sunday, runs all week. A subject I need to work something up for....

As for the regular blogosphere - another interesting conversation, about received ideas about films and filmmakers, over at Girish's place. Lots of conversations going on about Entertainment Weekly's new classics, and the AFI's latest list show - but I might as well link to the other blog I'm on - another excuse to post counter lists, always welcome.

And the Film of the Month club is continuing - discussion of DeMlle's 1915, The Golden Chance. It took forever for the damned thing to arrive from Netflix, but it finally did, and I'm looking forward to jumping in. A very eat film, too, if you can get it...

And - another music video, another bit of penance for the last post...



Hell - Bobby Darin, too: this might atone for My Humps...

Quick Hits on Friday

Lots going on, on the blogs:

For father's day, the Dads in Media Blogathon is up and running, at Strange Culture. Good stuff to be had.

The second month of the Film of the Month Club is underway. Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 film, The Golden Chance is on the menu for June - plenty of good stuff should be forthcoming over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, outside blogs and movies, Tim Russert has died. I don't know what to say, other than extending condolences to his family. He's one of those public figures I read about every day, more or less, but might well not have been able to identify from a photograph. Teevision news is not something I take very seriously.

On happier news - I haven't done much blogging about the Celtics, and - strangely enough, have barely watched them since February (a habit I developed in their lean years that seems to have come back this year; I suspect the real answer is - once the baseball games start, basketball is just a distraction.) But they are one game away from a championship. Defense wins, especially if you can score too, and the Lakers do not seem to have the defense they need.... Though 1 game isn't a given at that level: ask the Indians.

And in the real world:



They were shooting a movie last week, on Mass Ave. Pedro Costa is right - shooting a movie is like an invasion: trucks up and down the road, wires everywhere traffic diverted.... This is the tail end, breaking down - still junk everywhere. I don't know what film they were shooting, but I doubt it will be very good. There's something creepy about shooting on location and turning the location into a sound stage - with all that crap, what else can they do? You move away from the artifice of the studio, but then recreate it on the street? Gah...

And, sort of finally - treated myself to a concert last night - Damon and Naomi at TT The Bears, with Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh opening. A fine time was had! I tested my camera - I'm curious about how it works in bad light: some digital cameras work very well - this one, I'm afraid, does not. At least, I haven't found the right setting. This is about as good as they get:



Though this one, of Espvall, gotten by monkeying around with the settings in the dark, looks very cool:



Anyway - enjoy the weekend, and I hope I make it back here with a father's day post before the weekend is out...

Quick Links

I don't have much to say here today - just a few links and such.

Start with a blogathon I somehow managed to miss - Indiana Jones! run by Ali Arikan.

And coming up beginning of next week - the Production Design blogathon at Too Many Projects Film Club... And Girish kicks off the Film of the Month Club's discussion of The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On.

Then - plenty more Whither Criticism?/Why Blog? type posts - Tucker - Culture Snob - and Andy Horbal does his part to make blogs and criticism work better together, by means of a custom search engine.

Meanwhile, the great cartoonist Will Elder has died - Quiet Bubble has an appreciation.

And, somewhat to my surprise, the movie that seems to be generating the most conversation on the blogs right now - Speed Racer. It's got Jim Emerson's attention - he's been circling it, rounding up other comments and looking into what it reveals about criticism... All the talk got me to go see it myself - and maybe more surprising than the amount of discussion is how much I liked it: what a great looking film! yeah -it's all surface, all motion, all craft - but damned if it isn't a treat. And not just to look at - the story may be tried and true, but it's done straight, with wit all through - the story-telling (jumping around in time and all) is both slick and effective and formally entertaining on its own... oddly enough - even the dialogue seems to be clever and well written... A treat, to my complete surprise.

And oh yeah - something's happening over in France. Greencine can explain.

Blogathons, Lists and Coming Attractions

A couple quick blogathonic notes, and some links this Sunday night:

Ferdy on Film's Invitation to the Dance blogathon is underway. I suppose this is an excuse to post a link to my Busby Berkeley notes from a couple years ago, though I hope I can come up with some more. This should certainly bring some fine reading...

And coming up later this month, Jeremy Bushnell will host a Production Design blogathon, which looks like a very interesting project. A chance to post more Princess Raccoon screen captures anyway.

Also:

Don't forget the Film of the Month Club - Pacze Moj posts links to access May's movie, The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On. I confess to having one of Netflix's copies at this moment, but will return it as soon as possible...

And the Self-Styled Siren takes on Joseph Breen, via Thomas Doherty's biography.

And so on. Hopefully this week I will manage to write up some more reactions to Secret Sunshine, and Lee Chang-dong's films; I'm thinking as well it might be time for a more definitive version of my Best of 2007 list. 1/3 of the way through the new year - a reasonable number of last year's films have made it to Boston, so the list is something closer to fair. We'll see.