I've been a bit busy. Last week we finally watched Pandora's Box, a German silent from 1929. You would like it. A lot. You won't watch it, cuz you think it sounds boring and foreign and silent. It's not. It's way better than whatever else you've got at the top of your queue. Sorry I don't have a lot of wisdom. If you want wisdom, go here. Destroyer. That's Louise Brooks. She knows you. It's creepy, but she does.
I just found a pretty cool website. The Criterion Contraption is a fella who has set out to watch each and every film released by Criterion, and to write about them. The posts about each film are long and detailed, not short and shallow like wewilldie's blurbs. They're actually interesting and well-researched. His take on The Third Man is pretty neat. I'll be spending some hours reading through that site this weekend.
Not a new discovery, by any means, but this is a strange pairing.
Anatomy Lesson, Rembrandt
I couldn't find a better copy online, but this is a famous picture of the murdered Che Guevara.
I apologize for silence.
Movie Night 3-14-07
Little movie called Silent Movie. Little and dumb, but pretty fun. One pretty smart series of scenes about alcoholism that was both funny and sad. Next week, if i can force my will, we're watching a true silent called Pandora's Box.
Boxes
In connection with the pretty picture over there, this is a pretty neat little article about the evolution of two designs for criterion releases. I've been a big fan of the packaging these guys do for a long time now, so it's kind of neat to see and read how they work.
Baskets
The tournament started today and i'm excited to get home and watch Weber St. and BYU play. I picked Weber State to go final four, so cross your fingers.
I don't want to overstate this. David Lynch's late career work, so far, presents what may be the most complete, unique, and powerful individual artistic vision in film history. I'm not a scholar, so correct me if you can. He's had an amazing career, of course, but it seems like he's finally truly following up on Eraserhead. I don't know where this guy comes from. Inland Empire is absolutely the darkest, scariest, most unpleasant movie I've ever seen. Lynch takes a cue from Von Trier and shoots with a cheap digital cam. It's the perfect medium for Inland Empire, the most solipsistic and personal of Lynch's films. He says he's never going to use film again. Fine. He's got the largest filmic vocabulary of any director out there, and his new tools give him the freedom to use it all. His choice to use perhaps less sophisticated equipment doesn't limit him, it frees him. Try to see it in a theater. Bring a security blanket and something to puke into. David Lynch is moviemaking's Shakespeare. That may be an overstatement.
I got new phones. Sound is great. B was hyper-excito, so I leashed her up, wrapped a scarf, and plunged into the purple dusk. It was purple, see below. I chose a brand new one this time: "Grindstone" by the Norwegian band Shining.
Things were good at first -- prog-jazz versions of Bach in my head, young couple sharing a cigarette on the street, B marching right on beat. Came across a sketchy looking alley that we certainly would have skipped were it not for the newly Sabbath-y sounding demons in my phones. B dodged a gasoline puddle, ate some chinese, and barked mean at a caged pit bull. We made it. Changed directions. Shining got a bit boring. They think the moody blues are cool in Norway?
We ended up near Trolley Square. Another black metal alley. There is actually an old Trolley car in someone's yard over there. I took a pic with my cell phone but it's too dark to see. So, did they ship trolley's here from San Francisco or something? To make this weird theme mall? People got shot here not long ago. Came to have dinner and didn't think for a moment that they weren't perfectly safe.
Music sounds like Miles Davis's "On the Corner", but much less violent, less everything.
STATS
Time Elapsed: 45 min.
Songs Heard: 12
Favorite Track (tonight): Asa Nisi Masa
Pieces of Garbage Eaten by B: some chinese; something else
Landmarks: weird little alley; someone apparently bought a lot that included a real trolley car
Notes: new Shining is not very good
