Friday, December 2, 2016
Manchester By The Sea/Nocturnal Animals
Friday double feature. Strangely complementary. Each more compelling viewed in tandem.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Arrival/Allied
Double Feature at the AMC Castletown 14. $10 matinee ticket. $6 fountain soda. Reserved lazy boy seats.
Left the theater with a headache.
Left the theater with a headache.
Friday, November 25, 2016
Why the Band's 'The Last Waltz' Is the Greatest Concert Movie of All Time
THIS FILM SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD!
And then we begin at the end, with the weary members of the Band shuffling onstage to hoarse cheers. "You're still here, huh?" asks guitarist Robbie Robertson. "We're gonna do one more song, and that's it." Drummer Levon Helm stretches; bassist Rick Danko smokes a cigarette and wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. They've been at this five or more hours now, poring through their back catalog and backing every celebrity guest along for the ride. Along with pianist Richard Manuel and multi-instrumental mastermind Garth Hudson, they tear into a funky "Don't Do It," their customized cover of Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't You Do It." After the last note, Robertson says, "Good night. Goodbye." Exit, stage left.
Graham often said that Scorsese and company "missed it," because the lack of attention paid to the people who paid their $25 to dig Bob Dylan looking like, per Roberston, "a Christ in a white hat." There was no sense of community, he griped. But there's an incredible sense of the community onstage that gets captured by making this a performance film first and foremost, and that was exactly what Scorsese was after. The director wasn't interested, he said, in showing two girls giggling and then cutting to Rick Danko looking like a Tiger Beat pin-up; he wanted to see Helm shooting Danko a glance as they lock into the beat and go into the bridge of "Ophelia." It's as cinematic a rendering of the alchemy that musicians – and especially those five Band members – produce when they're caught in that spotlight.
Even if you don't know that The Last Waltz actually begins with the show's final number, you sense the one-more-for-the-road vibe. It's the film's very last musical interlude, however, that reminds you that you've watched both an extraordinary concert movie and something more than that. As the group plucks out the instrumental "Last Waltz Suite," the movie pulls back from Robertson's guitar to include Danko on an upright bass; we rotate and Manuel, playing a lap-steel guitar, comes in to the frame, as does Helm on mandolin and Hudson behind a bank of organs. They're playing together. The film is still playing it loud. The movie and the music are fused now. The camera pulls back farther and farther, until the shadows of these men loom larger, very large over the musicians themselves. Right before the credits roll, the Band have become dwarfed by the darkness around them, but they still keep playing. Until they don't. Good night. Goodbye.
And then we begin at the end, with the weary members of the Band shuffling onstage to hoarse cheers. "You're still here, huh?" asks guitarist Robbie Robertson. "We're gonna do one more song, and that's it." Drummer Levon Helm stretches; bassist Rick Danko smokes a cigarette and wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. They've been at this five or more hours now, poring through their back catalog and backing every celebrity guest along for the ride. Along with pianist Richard Manuel and multi-instrumental mastermind Garth Hudson, they tear into a funky "Don't Do It," their customized cover of Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't You Do It." After the last note, Robertson says, "Good night. Goodbye." Exit, stage left.
Graham often said that Scorsese and company "missed it," because the lack of attention paid to the people who paid their $25 to dig Bob Dylan looking like, per Roberston, "a Christ in a white hat." There was no sense of community, he griped. But there's an incredible sense of the community onstage that gets captured by making this a performance film first and foremost, and that was exactly what Scorsese was after. The director wasn't interested, he said, in showing two girls giggling and then cutting to Rick Danko looking like a Tiger Beat pin-up; he wanted to see Helm shooting Danko a glance as they lock into the beat and go into the bridge of "Ophelia." It's as cinematic a rendering of the alchemy that musicians – and especially those five Band members – produce when they're caught in that spotlight.
Even if you don't know that The Last Waltz actually begins with the show's final number, you sense the one-more-for-the-road vibe. It's the film's very last musical interlude, however, that reminds you that you've watched both an extraordinary concert movie and something more than that. As the group plucks out the instrumental "Last Waltz Suite," the movie pulls back from Robertson's guitar to include Danko on an upright bass; we rotate and Manuel, playing a lap-steel guitar, comes in to the frame, as does Helm on mandolin and Hudson behind a bank of organs. They're playing together. The film is still playing it loud. The movie and the music are fused now. The camera pulls back farther and farther, until the shadows of these men loom larger, very large over the musicians themselves. Right before the credits roll, the Band have become dwarfed by the darkness around them, but they still keep playing. Until they don't. Good night. Goodbye.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Grateful Dead -- Fillmore East 5.15.70 (Early Show)
a cold, november evening. a warm, acoustic set (around the fireplace).
setlist
don't ease me in
i know you rider
ain't it crazy (the rub)
friend of the devil
long black limousine
candyman
cumberland blues
new speedway boogie
cold jordan (w/ new riders)
setlist
don't ease me in
i know you rider
ain't it crazy (the rub)
friend of the devil
long black limousine
candyman
cumberland blues
new speedway boogie
cold jordan (w/ new riders)
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Horace & Pete: Episode 10
louis ck just laid down the gauntlet
cue "america"
"that's a wrap on horace & pete, everybody."
---------------------------------------------------------
Several days later from the finale, still upsetting.
Completely of it's time. America in 2016. Angry, sad, confused. Broken. Yet full of a beating heart.
Summoning the subversive, messy spirit of Robert Altman. (Now if only we could have a voice from my generation step up.)
cue "america"
"that's a wrap on horace & pete, everybody."
---------------------------------------------------------
Several days later from the finale, still upsetting.
Completely of it's time. America in 2016. Angry, sad, confused. Broken. Yet full of a beating heart.
Summoning the subversive, messy spirit of Robert Altman. (Now if only we could have a voice from my generation step up.)
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Friday, April 1, 2016
Phish - Amsterdam (Paradiso 7.2.97)
Set 2
Stash->
Llama>
(Wormtown Jam>)
Wading In The Velevet Sea
Encore
Free
David Bowie
Notes:
Stash (from 15:00 onwards...) canon of phish sets.
Stash->
Llama>
(Wormtown Jam>)
Wading In The Velevet Sea
Encore
Free
David Bowie
Notes:
Stash (from 15:00 onwards...) canon of phish sets.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Morning Dew (covered by The National)
(pastiche of sonic youth/velvet underground with leonard cohen. i dig it. no i don't. it's flacid.)
Horace & Pete: Episode 9
Ann:
Well, how am I supposed to make that happen?
Tom:
You can't. Not by looking for it. That's why they call it 'falling in love.' See, you can't fall on purpose. See I, I used to be an actor and I, uh, took a class on falling...trying to make it look like I fell...and [uh] still trying... I must've fallen over about a thousand times. Tryin' to make it look like an accident. And I couldn't do it. So...um...I quit being an actor.
Ann:
Well, that's not any help. I mean...I mean what is a person supposed to do?
Tom:
Well, you just accept. Just accept the fact that, that love is rare, and it probably won't happen to you. Ever.
Ann:
Is that what you do? You just accept it?
Tom:
No. (laughs to himself) No I, uh, walk around brokenhearted. (Pause) and I, I get drunk. I mean I hate being alone. (Beat) Some day it'll kill me.
Well, how am I supposed to make that happen?
Tom:
You can't. Not by looking for it. That's why they call it 'falling in love.' See, you can't fall on purpose. See I, I used to be an actor and I, uh, took a class on falling...trying to make it look like I fell...and [uh] still trying... I must've fallen over about a thousand times. Tryin' to make it look like an accident. And I couldn't do it. So...um...I quit being an actor.
Ann:
Well, that's not any help. I mean...I mean what is a person supposed to do?
Tom:
Well, you just accept. Just accept the fact that, that love is rare, and it probably won't happen to you. Ever.
Ann:
Is that what you do? You just accept it?
Tom:
No. (laughs to himself) No I, uh, walk around brokenhearted. (Pause) and I, I get drunk. I mean I hate being alone. (Beat) Some day it'll kill me.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Garry Shandling
"The world is too noisy and distracted to probably ultimately survive. Everyone needs to shut the fuck up. The answers are in the silence. Monks set themselves on fire to protest and to make this point. Just consider it."
A Note From Louis C.K. On A Saturday Morning (on the media)
A lot of shitty things happened in the world this week. Or, I suppose, to be more accurate, the news is full of shitty things. (That sentence had too many commas in it. In fact it still does.)
Shitty things happen all over the world every day. But which ones I'm aware of is a combination of what web sites make I seek out, based on a combination of who I choose to trust and where I get the most potent "hit" of satisfaction or whatever the part of me that I'm feeding craves.
Whenever a terrible thing happens in the world and you go to a news site to read about it, and they have a video of the terrible thing, there's this strange experience when (if) you click on the video, which is that before you watch the awful thing, they show you a little advertisement. Just for that little awful video. Sometimes it's very cheerful.
When the news used to be a single broadcast that you would watch on television, with commercial breaks. There was a sense that these companies bought advertising to pay for the news to be brought to you.
But now with sponsorship of individual moments of suffering, presented to comfortable gawking consumers, it feels like someone died in a far away place (so you don't have to!) and now you get to watch. And it's brought to you by Geico!
The thing that's hard to avoid is that where there is money to be made, money will be made there. When the news is juicy, we buy more Snapple.
The truth is that the news, if you're really paying attention, is complex and boring. I often set a goal for myself that I'm only going to read the news in the news paper and to stay away from Internet news. Because the stuff that goes up on the sites is immediate, brash and badly reported. They just scoop it and slop it and chuck it. The news paper has limited space. And they have until morning to get it to you. So there's more thought put into it. Internet news is heroin. Newspaper news is nutrition. That's MY view. Don't get all mad. I'm just sharing. I'm sure there are other avenues to the truth that are web based. When I walk into the coffee places where they are literally using lab equipment and glass beakers to make the perfect coffee, I get the sense that the young people sitting at the tables are reading blogs and sites that are quiet and thoughtful. My daughter reads a cocktail of blogs on her favorite subjects, knowing they each have a bias, and averages them out to find her truth.
But I'm 48. I actually remember Walter Cronkite reporting that Apollo Soyuz was orbiting and if you live in the north east you could look up and see white and red blinking lights together and that was them. And I ran out into my front yard in Newton Massachusetts and I saw. Wow. Now of course that was probably an airplane and maybe it was Dan Rather. And also I'm a liar.
Anyway I guess the more and more we share the day's news, the more we still have each our own personal way to see it. And to decide what's important. And what you think and feel about it.
I really hope that I didn't irritate anyone with this email.
Please watch episode 9 of Horace and Pete.
Louis
Shitty things happen all over the world every day. But which ones I'm aware of is a combination of what web sites make I seek out, based on a combination of who I choose to trust and where I get the most potent "hit" of satisfaction or whatever the part of me that I'm feeding craves.
Whenever a terrible thing happens in the world and you go to a news site to read about it, and they have a video of the terrible thing, there's this strange experience when (if) you click on the video, which is that before you watch the awful thing, they show you a little advertisement. Just for that little awful video. Sometimes it's very cheerful.
When the news used to be a single broadcast that you would watch on television, with commercial breaks. There was a sense that these companies bought advertising to pay for the news to be brought to you.
But now with sponsorship of individual moments of suffering, presented to comfortable gawking consumers, it feels like someone died in a far away place (so you don't have to!) and now you get to watch. And it's brought to you by Geico!
The thing that's hard to avoid is that where there is money to be made, money will be made there. When the news is juicy, we buy more Snapple.
The truth is that the news, if you're really paying attention, is complex and boring. I often set a goal for myself that I'm only going to read the news in the news paper and to stay away from Internet news. Because the stuff that goes up on the sites is immediate, brash and badly reported. They just scoop it and slop it and chuck it. The news paper has limited space. And they have until morning to get it to you. So there's more thought put into it. Internet news is heroin. Newspaper news is nutrition. That's MY view. Don't get all mad. I'm just sharing. I'm sure there are other avenues to the truth that are web based. When I walk into the coffee places where they are literally using lab equipment and glass beakers to make the perfect coffee, I get the sense that the young people sitting at the tables are reading blogs and sites that are quiet and thoughtful. My daughter reads a cocktail of blogs on her favorite subjects, knowing they each have a bias, and averages them out to find her truth.
But I'm 48. I actually remember Walter Cronkite reporting that Apollo Soyuz was orbiting and if you live in the north east you could look up and see white and red blinking lights together and that was them. And I ran out into my front yard in Newton Massachusetts and I saw. Wow. Now of course that was probably an airplane and maybe it was Dan Rather. And also I'm a liar.
Anyway I guess the more and more we share the day's news, the more we still have each our own personal way to see it. And to decide what's important. And what you think and feel about it.
I really hope that I didn't irritate anyone with this email.
Please watch episode 9 of Horace and Pete.
Louis
Songs from Georgia, KCRW (12.27.95)
Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Doe, & Smokey Hormel on KCRW and special guest Barbara Turner.
Setlist:
Buckets of Rain
There She Goes Again
I'll Be Your Mirror
Almost Blue
Yosel, Yosel
Setlist:
Buckets of Rain
There She Goes Again
I'll Be Your Mirror
Almost Blue
Yosel, Yosel
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