So who's going to go see Brian Wilson performing Smile on December 18?
Christ I hope I can get a ticket today.
ObPolitics:
"So far the rest of the world has pretty much made the distinction: love Americans, hate the administration. But if Bush is elected (not re-elected) this time, will that change? I think the rest of the world still has to remember that half of the US population voted for Bush and half against him, either way - and, as a sweeping generalisation, I suspect more of those Americans with whom the rest of us come into contact, either because they're online or because they travel, are likely to have voted against Bush, because they are the ones who know what is going on in the world."
- Jack Womack, quoted on William Gibson's blog
Update:
The sting of spending $360 on concert tickets (in your face, Flanders!) was slightly alleviated by being able to waltz into Gamesman and pick up Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas without laying down a cent.
I've never looked forward to a video game nearly as much. Think I'm gonna rant now.
Browsing through the tasty little booklet it looks like there's another swag of decent voice talent involved, this time including the radio station DJs. As everyone who played GTA3 or GTA: Vice City knows, the radio stations are just about as entertaining as the gameplay in these great games.
In GTA:VC there was one celebrity DJ, real-life underground rap DJ Mister Magic as himself. This time we get more famous folks, though they're playing characters this time. The "classic hip-hop" station has Chuck D; funk has George Clinton; "classic rock" has Axl Rose; dub & reggae has Sly & Robbie.
Meantime the supporting cast includes Big Boy (from Outkast), Ice-T (curiously missing from the soundtrack), Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Penn, Peter Fonda and James Woods.
And how about that soundtrack? Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy, Ice Cube (the "Message remix" of Check Yo Self, to complement The Message by Grandmaster Flash in GTA:VC), Cypress Hill, Rick James, George Clinton, The Isley Brothers, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, KISS, Tom Petty, David Bowie, Billy Idol, Shabba Ranks, Black Uhuru, Depeche Mode, Faith No More, Guns 'n' Roses, L7, Jane's Addiction...
There's also a station of house music, a genre I know next to nothing about, and early '90s R&B, a genre I hate.
Now I'll probably go home to find the graphics are ugly, the changes to the gameplay are annoying, the story is stupid and the whole thing is generally crap.
Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed a reference to my sister on this blog a short time ago. Those who know me might have found that a bit surprising, as it's fairly common knowledge that I'm an only child. Well it's not true. I have two half-brothers and a half-sister. Not only that, but there's over thirty years from the eldest to the youngest of us. I'm not going to get into exactly how this came about, but take my word for it: my family's a little more complicated than most, and there's a little bad blood that I'd love to clean up if I'm ever allowed to (none of it my fault for once).
Anyhow, my sister is my youngest sibling and she got in touch with me recently. We've never actually met - a long story, and again you're not going to hear it here. But she is coming to Wellington in November so we'll get to hang out.
I don't know about anyone else, but I think that's far more interesting than the usual inconsequential nonsense I write about here.
Heh heh. Cussing in Spanish.
Watched the rest of Firefly. It got a LOT better, especially once I got into the characters. By the end I was sad to see it go - one movie won't be enough to adequately wrap up all the loose ends. Favourite character: Jayne. I never really liked Adam Baldwin before (he's not one of the Brothers, is he?) but he was great here.
Next up is Hayao Miyazaki's early film Laputa: Castle In The Sky. Then I plan to O.D. on Cassavetes.
Been reading The Thin Man by Dashiel Hammett. Great stuff. There's a whole string of Thin Man movies, which I am super-keen to see if they're even half as witty as this book, which is now over seventy years old. Next up is another crime yarn, probably by James Ellroy or Sara Paretsky depending how I feel.
"Someone gimme a straight cigarette." - Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels
I got to see Sleepless on the big screen on Saturday night. I'd never seen a Dario Argento movie at the movies before.
This was not a good one to start with.
The original Italian title was No Ho Sonno, which translates as I Can't Sleep. Shoulda been I Can't Act. Even taking dodgy English dubbing into account (and why the f**k did they get a dubbed version for the Italian Film Festival?), this movie had some of the most atrocious acting I've ever seen. Max Von Sydow was the sole exception as usual - there seems to be no acting obstacle that guy can't hurdle.
The story made even less sense than usual. The characters made no sense too - the killer's motivation was particularly "What the hell?" Argento didn't even bother to imbue it with his idiosyncratic visual style - apart from one striking shot of some carpet, anyone could have directed this. Many elements (including Goblin's score) were ineptly re-hashed from Deep Red. A scene on a train towards the start was good, then it went all downhill. There was plenty of gore, but it was nastier and less fun than usual. One murder scene involving a musical instrument (repeated a bit too often) was at least unique.
This was hands-down the worst Dario Argento movie I have seen. The whole front row was full of fans, and we all hated it. It sucks. Don't see it.
"We never know how high we are - till we are called to rise."
- Emily Dickinson
"We never know how stoned we are - till we are baked like a cake."
- Joey Narcotic
So what's happening for Hallowe'en?
Usually I'd have a huge-arse party with hundreds of people dressing up. This year I have no venue, but I hunger for Hallowe'eny action!
Is there a good party?
Or perhaps the zombie hordes could invade Wellington Botanical Gardens? That'd be fun. Especially in the company of the gorgeous Lady Sarah Diethylamide.
Let's hear your ideas, you lovely people.
“If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.”
- Quentin Crisp
“I am an Artist; and should be exempt from shit.”
- P.J. Proby
“There are three intolerable things in life - cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.”
- Orson Welles
“Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves.”
and
“Belief is the enemy of intelligence. Only the madman is absolutely sure.”
- Robert Anton Wilson
“The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.”
- Harlan Ellison
“But what is the greatest evil? If you are going to epitomize evil, what is it? Is it the bomb? The greatest evil that one has to fight constantly, every minute of the day until one dies, is the worst part of oneself.”
- Patrick McGoohan
“After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say "I want to see the manager."”
- William S. Burroughs
and:
“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”
- Virginia Woolf
I've now watched 3 more episodes of Firefly. It's yet to grow on me. There are good moments, but overall it's just another crappy sci-fi show. And yeah it is sci-fi as opposed to science fiction - meaning it's all "Hey COWBOYS IN THE FUTURE!" instead of bothering to make any sense of its future society. So we get naff ideas like futuristic billiards & cattle rustling - yawn.
The duelling scene was a particular low point. One of the worst sword fights I've ever seen - right up there with the one in that Beastie Boys video, but at least that one was supposed to be funny. And whatever happened to Joss Whedon's deft touch with dialogue?
The Western elements continue to jar. I think the whole idea is misconceived. I mean, the main characters are captain & crew just like on a boat - except there aren't any boats in Westerns. Stoooopid.
Battle Beyond The Stars is looking better and better. That was The Magnificent Seven meets Star Wars, Roger Corman style. It made the Western element work. Firefly doesn't.
I've just seen the pilot to Joss Whedon's Firefly. I have to say, I hope this show gets better than the pilot. It was terribly disjointed and full of awfully cheesy dialogue.
There were a few funny lines but not as many as I've come to expect from Joss. There was a bit of an overdose of exposition too - I know they had a whole universe to set up, but as every writing teacher in the universe says "Show, don't tell!" The Western trappings aren't well integrated either.
I'm gonna stick with it for a couple more episodes and see if it improves, but if I wasn't such a huge Buffy fan I'd be giving up now. At least the acting was better than the community theatre stylings you usually get on tv science fiction.
Looks like there's gonna be horror content given the description of the Reavers. But the biggest horror moment was the theme song. Uurgh!
So far it makes sense that it got canned, and NO sense that they've made a big-budget movie version. We'll see how things progress.
Brian Wilson presents SMiLE!
He does, he does. He presents it. I thought he never would. Even when Chris Knox gushed all over a live performance, I thought "You're on drugs, it never happened."
It happened. It exists on CD. The fabled lost Beach Boys album, finished after most of the Beach Boys are dead. Brian Wilson started it when he was 24, now he is 62 and he's finished it and it sounds exactly like a Beach Boys album recorded 38 years ago. Only better, better better better.
If you liked Pet Sounds... If you liked Good Vibrations but aren't too attached to the lyrics... This is a must-listen. Maybe you should wait until summer, because SMiLE clearly expects it to be summer. It is a happy happy happy album, and I hope Brian Wilson really is this happy 'cause he's been unhappy for an awfully long time.
Five stars. Anything less would be petty. Best '60s psychedelic album since Around The World In A Day by Prince. Likely to provoke a backlash.
I'm loose! Hahahaha!
Our favourite long-haired beardy skirt-wearing carnivorous plant-growing body decoration freak has put up a post about tattoos.
His point number four has a fatal flaw: any tattoo, even if it's under an inch square, is going to make the wearer look well 'ard if it's on their face. Like the dude I saw today who had about 5 small different colours tattoos on his cheeks, all of which seemed to be variations on The Blob. I wouldn't f**k with that boy. Even if he did say "Excuse me" in a girly voice as he pushed past me into a phone booth.
This has been a Joey Narcotic exclusive.
Tom Waits's new CD, Real Gone, is a damn good album. We're talking Rain Dogs good - hell we're talking Bone Machine good.
At first glance I thought this would be another Mule Variations-style album; entertaining enough, but hardly groundbreaking. But the more I listened, and the closer I listened, the more I found.
There is uncredited use of samples on many tracks. You don't notice it first because it's mostly looped samples of Waits's own voice. His unique gravelly groans, roars and chants dominate the background of several tracks, often turning into a bizarre sort of percussion. It's a brilliantly Waitsian use of technology. There is also heavy use of turntable scratching on several tracks courtesy of his son Casey, which contributes to the swirling ambience. God only knows what records Casey is scratching, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're all his dad's voice too.
The whole album is co-written & co-produced by Kathleen Brennan, who happens to be Waits's wife. Longtime fans know that Waits's music became exponentially weirder when he hooked up with her, and the only album she wasn't involved in since then - The Black Rider - is probably his weakest from this period.
Waits uses the full range of his voice here. He'll probably never write another song as conventionally beautiful as A Soldier's Things (from Swordfishtrombones, his first really experimental album) but Green Grass is the best showcase for his crooning growl in years. Other tracks utilize his more traditional roaring and rumbling, though there's precious little of his nails-on-blackboard falsetto shriek - which will relieve some people.
Trampled Rose is a trademark Waits spoken story track. Make It Rain is a blues guitar-driven lost love song. The ten-minute-plus Sins Of The Fathers is a great low-key growler, and probably his longest ever song. Other highlights are the hilarious Don't Go Into That Barn and the final track Day After Tomorrow, which seems to be from the point of view of a young soldier in Iraq.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. If you've been waiting for an opportunity to jump onto the Waits train, this is a great one.
I. I I I. Me. Mine. I. ME!!!
Link. Link? Link. Link! Link?! (WTF?)
Me. Sex. Mine. Iraq. Me. News. Me.
Her! (Me.) Sex? MINE.
The good folks at Umbrella have released three Italian zombie movies. (Mmm, human ravioli.) Presumably this ties in with their release of the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead, which kick-started the genre. (The remake comes out tomorrow on dvd in a director's cut.)
First is the granddaddy of all Italian zombie flicks, Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (aka Zombie, available here under it's English title Zombie Flesh Eaters). If you only see one Italian zombie movie it should be this one - provided it's uncut. There are two scenes here that make this a must-watch and only one is a gore scene. Fulci's zombies are some of the coolest ever put on the screen, being so gross and rotten-looking you can almost smell them. Blood gooshes everywhere. It's a classic.
Second is Zombi Holocaust, perhaps better known under the US release title Dr. Butcher M.D. ("He's a depraved, homicidal killer...and he makes house calls!" as the posters screamed). Directed by Marino Girolami, a hack who'd been directing movies since the early '50s but was nearing the end of his career, it's a messy movie in more ways than one. (Incidentally Girolami was the father of Enzo G. Castellari, director of the Bronx Warriors movies loved by every kid in Naenae in the '80s.)
Third is Burial Ground, directed by one of the horror genre's worst, Andrea Bianchi. I suspect the problem comes from his parents giving him a girl's name, he's never adjusted. Ramsey Campbell reckons it's good for a few laughs. Iv'e avoided it to date. The charming Mariangela Giordano stars, so I might check out this new release... someday.
The discs seem to be direct ports from the region 1 Shriek Show editions. SS aren't exactly known for their quality control; eg their Slaughter Hotel dvd plays sound from the wrong scene at one point, and their Faceless dvd returns to the main menu from the movie for no good reason. Hopefully they've worked the bugs out of these ones.
Rodney Dangerfield & Russ Meyer both died recently, both aged 82.
Dangerfield was an hilarious comedian who specialized in putting himself down ("I don't get no respect" was his catchphrase), but sadly is best remembered for a series of appalling movies. Meyer was a director & editor whose technical brilliance was overshadowed by his obsession for women with enormous breasts.
Two tainted geniuses. RIP.
Recommended viewing:
Rodney Dangerfield in Back To School (he was funnier in Caddyshack but this is a better movie all around)
Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat! Kill! KILL! (a genuine masterpiece - no, really)
Horror movie fans are able to claim a new level of respectability for our beloved genre with the excellent swag of DVDs that have been released in the last wee while. Movies that have been traditionally placed at the bottom of the barrel (when they're usually better made than the average blockbuster) are now being released in prestige editions to critical acclaim.
The best of the new batch is Anchor Bay's Ultimate Edition of the original Dawn of the Dead (region 1 only). It contains all three versions of the movie, each lovingly remastered. Disc one has George Romero's director's cut (this is the original theatrical version). Disc two has the pre-release rough cut screened at the Cannes film festival, featuring a lot more footage and a different score. Disc three has the European version, re-edited and re-scored by Dario Argento as a faster-moving more action oriented film. The differences between the three versions are fascinating for long-time fans of this movie, which belongs on any well-considered list of the greatest movies ever made. There's also a region 4 release from genre film champions Umbrella, which only includes the director's cut but has a generous helping of the set's extra features. The Anchor Bay version is probably the most lavish single-movie dvd set ever released overall, also including a great new documentary, commentary tracks on all the movies, a vintage doco directed by Roy (Street Trash) Frumkes, and all the usual junk. The Lord of the Rings extended editions come close, but they had the advantage of having their supplements produced concurrently with the movie and the disadvantage of not having distance to reflect on the movie.
Blue Underground has been releasing a lot of movies directed by Jesus Franco, a Spanish filmmaker previously much derided but now undergoing a major reevaluation. Franco is possibly the most prolific film director in the world, with at least 150 movies to his name (some claim the true figure is as high as 300, but it's hard to be sure). Each release is uncut and most of them are in pristine condition. Almost all BU releases are region free. Umbrella has released the movie many claim to be his masterpiece, Vampyros Lesbos, in as good a condition as we're likely to see for region 4 viewers.
Anchor Bay UK has released a 4-dvd set of the first three Hellraiser movies, with Clive Barker's two early shorts Salome and The Forbidden on the bonus disc. It's Region 2 only, but if you're a fan of this horror superstar it's a must despite the inclusion of the rather daft Hellraiser 3 not once but twice (there's a full-screen version on disc 4 for convoluted reasons). The movies are nicely remastered, with a good range of audio options including the original Stereo track.
Warner Bros. has released a three dvd set of Larry Cohen's great It's Alive movies. Each movie contains a commentary track by the iconoclastic writer - producer - director. A Larry Cohen commentary is like a mini film school, and this massively talented and hugely independant filmmaker is due for a renaissance. This set is only $40 for all three movies.
The Criterion Collection recently released a superb edition of David Cronenberg's supremely icky think-piece horror masterpiece Videodrome. It goes nicely with their equally lovely Naked Lunch dvd, and with the superb Canadian eXistenZ dvd we have prestige editions of Cronenberg's whole "Media Reality" trilogy.
There are plenty of stinky horror dvds being released, but the cream of the crop are far better than the sterile major-release dvds with all their puff-piece crapumentaries and back-slapping commentaries.
The mysterious glitch preventing me from commenting on Morgue's blog is providing me with things to write about. 'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.
This time he talks about a lovely-sounding BBC-organized thingy. It's here. Go read it, it doesn't really matter if you don't come back. But in case you do...
Flashmobs never really worked because it's impossible to organize large number of people to do anything without actually organizing them. Part of the central design - no central organizing hub - made them unworkable from the start. And with nothing at stake noone feels any pressure to come up with any good ideas, or even to turn up. (I always thought there should have been an implication that you could meet fun members of your preferred gender attraction there. In the '60s people used to go to peace marches to get laid; according to John Waters they went to race riots for the same reasons. Why not play on the name Flash Mob t the same effect?)
Meanwhile the BBC has oodles of organizational power emanating from a central hub, and if this had failed someone's career was probably at stake. Add to that the presence of trained singers and tv cameras, and people actually have a reason to stand around and gawk, if not to get involved. (The possibility of sex could might helped here too.)
I am reminded somewhat of Hakin Bey's would-be inspirational TAZ. Which I will refrain from being too rude about because I know some people silly enough to think it's workable. I thought it was pretentiously written and quite naive, but never mind.
Nevertheless, I am definitely a big fan of disparate people getting together for no reason other than to have fun. But because people are people, any such get together needs some kind of incentive beyond "It'll be fun." Live music is a common one, but it can probably be anything - maybe an excuse more than an incentive, but it helps if you have a "Well if nothing else I'll be able to enjoy X or Y."
How come there are hardly any hip-hop covers? I don't mean those dreadful hip-hop versions of popular hits, I mean covers of hip-hop songs.
The only covers of hip-hop songs I can think of are:
Lodi Dodi by Slick Rick, covered by Snoop Doggy Dogg
99 Problems by Ice-T, covered by Jay-Z
Bring the Noize by Public Enemy, covered by Anthrax with Public Enemy
The third probably doesn't even count. It's more of a different version with guests than an outright cover.
So what gives? Especially in a genre so keen on recycling other songs.
Tom Waits' new album, Real Gone, is out.
I saw him perform one track off it on David Letterman last week. It sounded great. Tom's face was weirdly line-free, so he looked like a botoxed cadaver. Very unnerving.
The lyrics booklet has a little flip-book of Tom singing or smoking or something.
There's more Primus than usual on this album. Usually they get at most one track, here all of them are on 2 tracks and some of them are on more.
I haven't listened to it yet. But it's Tom Waits - he can do no wrong. It's all co-written & co-produced by Kathleen Brennan, his wife, and all his best stuff is in collaboration with her.
If you haven't yet jumped on the Tom Waits train, what are you waiting for? Yeah I know, "His voice sounds awful." You'll get used to it, and you'll even come to love it. Stop being such a baby.
Did everyone catch the news about Keshia Castle Hughes starring in Prince's new video, Cinnamon Girl? She plays a suicide bomber, ooh what Controversy. Naturally people are slagging it already, and the Purple Fiend is saying (via lackeys) that his motivation was that he wants people to talk about the issue. (And maybe sell a few records?)
The song isn't great - certainly not one of Prince's best - but nobody cares about that. A seventeen year old girl I worked with recently doesn't even know who Prince is, and everyone knows that seventeen year old girls are the barometers of good music.
I just saw a movie called Marquis De Sade's Justine, from 1968.
Holy Schnitzel!
I thought I had seen Jack Palance overact before. In the interview section of the dvd, director Jesus Franco said that Palance started drinking red wine at seven in the morning. I think Franco was being kind.
Palance was only in it for a few minutes, but everything else fades from memory in comparison. I've never seen anything like it. He seemed totally insane. Now I doubly want to see the Che Guevara biopic from around the same time (titled Che!) - "You haven't lived until you've seen Jack Palance play Fidel Castro" (Leonard Maltin).
The movie was quite good, very classy and blackly funny. It downplays the more perverse elements of Sade's book, and totally bungles the ending, but is better than most adaptations of his idiosyncratic work.
Woot! I'm still banned from commenting on Morgue's blog.
He made a post about Dave Sim.
Dave Sim is a crazy person.
Not in a good way either.
Sim's major work Cerebus the Aardvark is of course largely imitative of Steve Gerber's shorter-lived, more famous, and far superior Howard the Duck.
The issue of Cerebus quoted from in the above link seems to be Sim's varient on HTD #16, where Gerber used a missed deadline as an opportunity to turn out a philosophical essay. Except that unlike Sim, Gerber didn't use his essay as a vehicle to attack women.
My sister says that Busta Rhymes hit on her at Auckland airport. Her response was to say "Ewww" and walk away. Fair call I reckon.
Morgue has a great post up that echoes my thoughts on Tony Blair. No matter how unhappy I am with our own PM, it doesn't compare to Blair's treachery. And there, like here, it's still the best of a bad bunch.
Was there ever a time when politicians were truly admirable? Or is all that, as Jello Biafra put it, "nostalgia for an age that never existed"?