Sunday, November 30, 2008
Kaufman, Hoffman, & A World of Weird
I conclude that Synecdoche, New York is probably one of the oddest films yet made. And Charlie Kaufman has certainly had his share of screenplays in the literature of quirk: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. But Synecdoche, New York is stranger yet. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays theater director Caden Cotard whose life spirals downward in a curious, furious series of Mobius encounters with his personal life, professional life and private muses. His life is pretty much a crappy mess and his body betrays him throughout his movement of loops within loops.
Alot of Synecdoche, New York reminds me of Fellini's 8 & 1/2. Like that reflection to the creative process and the male libido, a huge set and production plays a role especially in some of the fantasy example. It also reminds me of the the way that the Gare d'Orsay (later the Musee d'Orsay) in Orson Welles' The Trial Is it just coincidental that one of the warmer in the film, ticket office worker Hazel played by Samantha Morton is reading the Trial and wants to impress Cotard with that fact.
What the film gets right are little details of how someone feels when there is dread. Long domestic discussions take place if a four year old's green poop is something to be concerned about. And Hoffman, of course, is responsible for many of the films lifelikeness moment of truth occurrences. This actor is every man and a disarmingly simple reaction shot from this gentleman can fill volumes. Most notable in this film in this regard involve the departure and subsequent delivered updates of the Berlin exile his expressionistic miniature portraitist wife. No one makes loneliness and despair feel more real than Philip Seymour Hoffman.
By the end of the film there are actors playing the actors and the original characters interacting with other actors. You just kind of have to ride with it, even when there is this kind of strange gender switching such as when Hoffman takes on the work and identity as a chambermaid. Or later when his directorial persona is transformed by a Diane Wiest character who is directing an actor in the play who is playing Cotard, the Hoffman character. But then Hoffman is seen next with a hair do just like Wiest's presumably helping her direct.
This is a strange ride indeed. Samantha Morton lives in a house with flames coming out of the walls. Hoffman is vulnerable to any physical malady you can think of during the course of the film. And a large dirigible comes over the Manhattan skyline at one point. Hoffman's last words in the film are "I know how to do this play now." One can make a reading that this film is primarily a meditation on the artist's journey.
I celebrate a bit when material as experimental and on edge as this one actually gets made into a studio movie with big name actors and everything. It will likely be a part of the film canon of psychologically focused cinema. I would not be surprised at all to see this film included in the Northwest Film Center's Frames of Mind program. There is a lot of content in Kaufman's script which would be worthy of a follow up viewing, but only after a scouring of various fan web notes and Kaufman interviews about Synecdoche, New York. And it is somehow reassuring that there still aren't rules or borders for determining when something is too weird or baffling. And director Kaufman, this time not interpreted or delivered by Michel Gondry or Spike Jonez could be seen ask kicking the game up a step or two higher, faster, and more outworldly.
posted by well-executed buffet at 3:00 PM
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Saturday, November 29, 2008
More Light and Fog
More smoke than fog on this Friday night sunset
Going Home
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:52 PM
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Friday, November 28, 2008
Dogwalk at Dolan's
It wouldn't have been a trip to Orleans without a morning Pamily walk with Shadow at Dolan's Bar. Here Erin is taking Shadow to the river because he got a little close to nature. But that's a dog's life in Orleans
This is Pam receiving messages from the clouds
A Post-Dolan's breakfast is especially rewarding.
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:40 PM
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Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving on the River
The weather was absolutely amazing this time and made every walk memorable. It is a little less than 2.5 miles between family holiday destinations for Thanksgiving.
One think that has struck me about Orleans is that the community infrastructure has a tradition of DIY and really has to be that way. I don't know the backstory of this particular tower. But community water is still local here. Another water tower's back up system was stolen while we were there.
And the break in at the water station wasn't the only news. There were a couple of highly public casualties that hit this community. And pets are getting hard by an active cougar. I think the town should figure out a way to light up the tree in the Cathedral intersection. Solar collectors actually would have done well when we were down there.
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:20 PM
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Down By the River, Day One
We arrived about 3:30 or so. I visited and took an awesome nap to rival the turns of Grayback Pass and 96 on a pretty perfect day. When I woke up, I walked to the river and took these pictures
posted by well-executed buffet at 10:28 PM
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thoughts On A Digital Matte
Is there a name for the study of mattes? The science of mattes and environmental backgrounds?
A day that helped change my life was a full afternoon presentation with Linwood Dunne. Basically he is the Bill Monroe of matte painting, matte printing, and special effects. He did work on King Kong and is credited with the opening composites for Citizen Kane.
Under pretty optimal screening and lecture conditions at the old Seattle Center Playhouse this seventy five year old defined how he literally created and refined movie magic.
Dunne actually lived for twenty years after I saw him. I need to do a search at American Cinematographer to see if he went on the record about digital before he died in 1995. I just have to wonder what Linwood G. Dunn would of thought of finding swamp essence colors and throwing them into storms from beyond pixels of Mars.
I've seen a lot of this lately. Annie Leibovitz's Vanity Fair stuff is like the Cronenberg and David Lynch. And my students collected short films on a blog and I saw even more in class. Then there is Stash 50. I'm definitely on the outside but so many of these environments seem like he sky is shod by god with a backlit chaser.
The matte and digital extreme are a strange intersection or byway. I know there are scientists trying to create hypno voodoo effects extremis. I definitely saw some of that at Siggraph.
The good news is that I have seen some really amazing natural wonders this autumn of hope and twilight of some nasty nasty godhead. No more Quincy Adams tricks. Ever.
The cloud effects at Andersen lodge opened the eye up. But a month of seeing and checking out work of Art Speigelman, Todd Haynes, Spain Rodriguez, Lynda Barry, Annie Leibowitz and other adventures probably helped too. Maybe also a response to visual extremism digital, who knows? Time to go down to Frenchman's during clear weather when the sun is going down and look and maybe even set up my digital cricket box or butterfly net.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:41 PM
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Monday, November 24, 2008
One Good Thanks Deserves Another
Dumbfounded. Horrified. I can't even get words around this since I saw it linked on the Slog earlier this afternoon. Thank You Sarah Palin is a political advertisement presented by the Our Country Deserves Better PAC. (Several online have already commented on the irony of there choice of organization title as well as curious to what the black cowboy guy is doing with these other folks.)
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I say one thank you deserves another especially with Thanksgiving week. So not only thank you Sarah Palin, but Thank You Masked Man. And Thank You Lenny Bruce. There is a strange kind of connective membrane between these two sentiments of thanks. But I will let the sublime stand without further cross examination.
Viewing tip. It isn't exactly Dark Side of the Moon meets Wizard of Oz, but if you start the bottom clip at around the three minute mark and run the top clip, you will get a very strange mix of statements of gratitude. Mosh it Up with Lenny and Sarah's friends.
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:28 PM
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Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Way We Watch
The purpose of this link is primarily to put up a link to this week's Sunday New York Times magazine. I'm still working my way through the issue. Most notable so far is Kevin Kelly's essay on Becoming Screen literate has been the highlight so far. But have also enjoyed A O Scott's rumination on how we watch movies and David Lynch's usual feistiness. (Thanks to the creator for Zen. This guy always seems very tightly wound. One can only imagine what he is like when he doesn't practice meditation) Basically what they have done is taken this year's Fall Hollywood issue and focused it on how our media is delivered and also who (all of us potentially these days) are delivering it. There may be another helping from the buffet stemming from this issue sometime soon.
posted by well-executed buffet at 7:20 PM
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Saturday, November 22, 2008
Damnation of Faust HD from the Met 11.22.08
Canadian man of theatre Robert LePage calls Opera the great mother art. But he doesn't stop with its fusion of theatre, acting, music, and sometimes dance. He brings more art and technology into the mix; video projection, circus staging, and utilizes the blueprint of the opera as a means to turn the whole into a kind of self-standing experimental fantastical film like presence of its own. Opera might be the great mother art, but the other parent, the fraternal element of what the production of The Damnation of Faust I saw in HD broadcast from the Met (another technological wonder in its own right) could be attributed to the likes of George Melies.
Or visibly at one point, Edward Muybridge. Faust and the devil ride horses of Muybridge frames down to hell near the end of the opera. But the trip does not have the sense of a fall directly except through the acceleration of Berlioz' score. The frames of the horses they ride are horizontal as we are use to seeing Muybridge images reproduced like frames from a Zoetrope. A kind of magic.
On a page profiling the Met's production Robert LePage explains some of the interactive video technology he utilizes in the production:
It is a very tricky thing, but when it works, it really works wonders. It is not recorded images. The images are somewhere in a memory bank and are triggered by the performances of the singers–whether it's their body movements, their heat, the pitch, the tone, or the variations of their voices. All the imagery is triggered by anything they do, so you never lose touch with the performer. It's not some kind of new razzmatazz gadget that blurs the production or gives the performer a second role. It actually enhances his performance.
There is a moment in the HD presentation where this use of technology proved to be quite effective. Faust and Mephistopheles are in a natural setting and the foliage behind him is moving in conjunction with his movements. It was a kind of magic presence you would expect of the devil and was quite effective. Melies would have loved it. And I also am impressed in how the delivery of the HD has improved in the past year. Despite the very low light conditions of some scenes, all was visible, much clearer than last year's Peter Grimes HD telecast.
I understand that Berlioz did not intend La damnation de Faust to be a fully staged work. It is a collection of set pieces, which makes it even better for LePage's approach because there can be unique episodes which move along the circumstances, not the formal story. The multi layered stage is cubicled at times showing sectional glimpses into the scholarly life or bacchanalian and sensory. Among the most phenomenal sequences were soldiers scaling a wall to freefall in the laps of maidens. Vertical repelling was also a component of when devils came to tempt and intimidate maidens. And, of course, the intriguing video technology that was a part of the production was present even if these sections perhaps were more reflective of LePage's Cirque du Soleil production credentials.
I can't remember the last time I took a bath. I am a vertical shower spray guy. But 19th century French music in the classical tradition always triggers a metaphor of being enveloped in a warm tub of perfectly warm hot temperature. Beyond the staging, unique visuals, and technology that delivered them, it is evident that this music stands tall on its own merit and still sounds very contemporary at times over a century and half past.
posted by well-executed buffet at 5:35 PM
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Friday, November 21, 2008
The Hunter Movie
Films of Hunter S Thompson were already a kind of sub genre prior to the release this summer of Alex Gibney's biofilm Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson Of the lot, including Bill Murray and Johnny Depp's portrayals of Thompson, this film will stand as a kind of definitive record, maybe even more so than any written biography on Dr. Gonzo either past or present. This film had the right budget, care and focus to be one of the key documents folks will check out when they want to check out what Thompson and what he as was as a writer, cultural phenomena, an least importantly, celebrity.
The subtitle of this film "The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" is appropriate. I was impressed that the main body of the film focused on a chronology of his writing. In particular, the 1972 election gets a lot of screen time. It is treated as the peak of his career, influence and output as writer and journalist. This included the rumor he planted that Ed Muskie getting doses of the exotic drug Ibogaine and the entire rise and fall of the McGovern campaign. The film includes footage of McGovern, Pat Buchanan, Gary Hart and Jimmy Carter.
Carter is credited in the film as being discovered by Thompson in the early days of the 76 campaign. Special coverage was given to the Carter speech to Georgia lawyers and judges where he expressed his great concern in disparities in the system. Thompson called it a "King hell bastard of a speech," where his ears and interest of what he was saying piqued by hearing Carter quote Bob Dylan.
The film will surprise a lot of folks who might drop the film into their DVD player to witness all kinds of tales about Hunter S Thompson's legendary excess. Sure there is a component of that in this film. Yet, instead, we get a film that seems quite earnest about delivering a complete portrait of a talented writer and crusader who finally delivered on his promise of self-inflicted excess in the midst of the Bush II era. A time as one of interviewees said where "he could have wielded a pretty effective sword right now."
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:59 PM
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Thursday, November 20, 2008
Annie Leibovitz at Portland Arts & Lectures 11.20.08
Annie Leibovitz's presentation at Portland Arts and Lectures was by that of an author as well as a photographer. Her new book is Leibovitz at Work She said it began as something she was going to slip in as a requirement to her Random House contract. What began as a short book that she thought she could use for teaching someday that would profile the background of a few photographs became a 240 page book that featured well over a hundred. But mostly it is a project where she feels, with the aid of the editor she worked on with for her massive retrospective A Photographer's Life, she found her voice as a writer.
So she read to the audience sitting in a red arm chair stage right as her life's work was displayed on the screen of the Schnitz. She would occasionally embellish her text with some extemporaneous comments, but for the most part she read her solidly crafted prose. Topic organization structured temporally gave her the opportunity to cover a lot of ground and the audience to experience the breadth of her work as a photographer. Leibowitz at Work came out this week and I sense it is something she is quite proud of. She talks how they literally had to pull the manuscript away from her this past July 30 to meet publication date.
The thing that impressed her about photography as an arts student in San Francisco was that the experience was different every time. It also gave her an alternative to other art studies, which at that time she says was populated by lots of angry abstract expressionists, a space she didn't share.
Our whirlwind tour through Leibovitz At Work had stops on her early experiences of working with Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, which was quite a study in contrasts. Thompson didn't really want a photographer around. Wolfe helped her gain access. Wolfe never sweated. Thompson was constantly in drug sweats and thought he was dying when he wasn't. When Nixon resigned, Thompson stayed in his hotel and never filed his story. Leibovitz's photographs are probably the most important record of the event and she received an eight page photo essay in The Rolling Stone.
Her 1972 Rolling Stone tour story was most interesting to me not for stories of hanging with the Stones, but of the young woman in her early twenties standing in awe of legend Robert Frank who was filming his notorious documentary at the time. He told Leibowitz "You can't get every picture." But she adds, "somehow, he did."
She spent some time discussing the conceptual portraits she is most noted for. The most interesting of these encounter anecdotes was the series of portraits she did of Queen Elizabeth. She talked about the challenges the shoot provided her because of the queen's late arrival and how she gaffed by calling her tierra a crown. But somehow two professionals connected and got the job done.
One of the most intriguing elements of her discussion for me regarded her remarks about the medium of digital photography. Leibovitz feels that with digital you are not working with black and white or color. She loves the portability and freeing nature of it, especially when working with low light conditions is concerned. Her Vanity Fair Hollywood portfolio work illustrated how she can move through time and space with digital, including two subjects shot in different locations and different days. But most of all you get a sense by looking at these images and hearing her speak, she is impressed by the ability of digital to defy and create a new reality.
As I looked at these recent fantastic images of hers, I recalled that this was the building I saw Mary Poppins in forty five years earlier. I don't think I ever really liked it, but one can't deny that it is about life's possibilities and giving them a go. Leibovitz is no Mary Poppins or Julie Andrews, for that matter. But her message to young photographers is not necessarily in a completely different time zone. "A Picture is more than about the content. It is important that you care about it."
On our way across the street to the Gus Solomon Court House for the post PAL lecture reception, Pam mentioned how she was pleased that this would be the last time we would have George and Dick glaring at us as we enjoyed our wine and evening snack. This lady may have shared the same sentiment. Maybe this image shares some kind of spirtual link to the Leibowitz image of soldiers rolling the carpet as Nixon's helicopter departed.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:29 PM
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Snapshots from a Documentary Before the Encounter
Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens is a documentary on Annie Leibovitz directed by her sister that appeared on American Masters last Spring and has now been released on DVD. It is not a great film but is a solid document of her sister's life and work. Even if it isn't the greatest non-fiction biofilm in the world, I wonder if anybody but her sister would be able to get some of the intimate moments that are captured here. Regardless, it has been really cool to have such an accesible portrait available as pre-viewing for Thursday's Arts and Lectures. The last time we had such an opportunity was when screening the Maya Lin documentary before her appearance.
Here are some snapshots for review prior to Annie taking the stage.
Definition as she drives looking through the frame of her windshield: "What is a photographer's life? It's just a life looking through a lens."
Her young daughter Sarah will hang out with the Obama girls someday. "The man whose picture I have to take, George Clooney is going to be here and I'm going to talk to him and as soon as he goes away, I can spend some more time with you."
Gloria Steinem says:"She is the tallest and most authoritative uncertain person I have ever seen."
Cars and Travel: Would it be possible for someone as on the go as Leibovitz not to grow up in a car? As she drives and talks to her sister. "I like cars, your body is taken care of and your mind is free to drift." So much of her childhood was on the move another sister interviewed talked about how they saw the world through the frame of the windows of a car.
Her work was always good: Whether it be her earliest images when she lived in the Philippines or her first attempts at street journalism in sixties San Francisco, there was an individual quality and style that shined through in her photography. Rolling Stone gave her the opportunity to expand and define herself, but there was already something deep with her vision from the outset. Somehow I think about the die being cast with the novelty recording Elvis made for his mama.
Fortunate Zeitgeist She was formative young woman developing in the right place at the right time--Rolling Stone Magazine in 1966-67. Her working style developed at this point, she never presume something about a person and situation until she got there. The film does a great job of capturing the time and some of the early subjects that she was responsible for--Lennon, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon Interview, and Nixon's resignation.
Cleaning up and Getting Back On the Horse: You can't be so connected with rock 'n roll as Liebovitz was without getting some on you. There was a point where she went to rehab. But she apparently took it like a champ. Annie coming back reminded me of Ray Charles or Robert Mitchum who doing their possession charges and returning without a lot of the soft mealiness of rehabilitation celebrities as today. "I just took a deep breath and moved on." said Leibovitz. Impressive.
Mentors and Influences The film does a good job of showing some of the mentors and teachers in Leibovitz's career. The influence of fashion photographer Richard Avedon and dance portraitist Barbara Morgan are discussed. But one of the most intriguing relationships revealed in the film is her relationship with designer Bea Feitler's influence in helping a stronger editorial eye. There is a most memorable example in the photograph she took for the No Nukes rally and how she was chastised by Feitler for not finding a way to take a potentially important subject to another level.
More than the Conceptual Portraits and Magazine Work The film focuses in on her work from the late seventies and beyond. The iconic images that are so well connected with her, whether a pregnant Demi Moore, Whoopi in a milk bath, or Bette Midler on a bed of roses are covered pretty thoroughly in the film, but it also takes time to show Leibovitz as complete photographer with both her public and private work. The latter we know and recognize. The former images of her family including the unblinking images of Susan Sontag and her father in their final days. I don't know how tomorrow's lecture event will fare, but somehow I believe it could be quite memorable.
posted by well-executed buffet at 8:21 PM
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
I Don't Know About Sunday, But Certainly I Was Never Quite the Same
You may know about my love of music but you may not know who my first love was (musically.) Her name was Elaine, but the world knew her as Spanky and she had the ability to out sing Mama Cass, in my opinion. And unlike Cass, I found her very attractive -- whatever that means to a ten year old in the sixties.
When I saw Spanky and Our Gang on the Ed Sulivan show, maybe this clip, but probably Lazy Day, I knew this was it. I was kind of fascinated with the Indian on the drums and her mustachioed friends who got to sing with her. I think on some level I wanted to be one of those guys. Check out McFarlane's wide-eyed determination in delivering this song, even if she is lip-synching, it is quite impressive.
Later that Christmas, I received the first Spanky LP. I think it was my first grown up album, along with Incense and Peppermints by the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Best of Sonny and Cher. I was getting sick of books about animals and Disney family comedies at this time. So images of adults younger than my parents dressed up in colorful and different clothes who seemed to be having a pretty good time interested me a lot. I figured they all lived in a big house together with colorful stuff also on the walls like the Beatles did in Help! or like those Jefferson Airplane people I saw in a family friend's Look magazine.
I played that first album many, many times. I loved Lazy Day, their take on the Trouble from Music Man ("Words like Swell and So's your Old Man or Bon Voyage Titanic! --What's that have to do with it?") They did this mock commercial about....well,mmm an illegal substance that I didn't really understand but was entertained by. Her soulful version of Brother, Can You Spare A Dime served as kind of Great Depression history lesson Also they had a song with lyrics consisting of the Webster dictionary definition of love. But my favorite of all was (It Ain't Necessarily) Byrd Avenue I still appreciate its lyric:
Cherry blossoms lost their bloom in the autumn,
You lost your cool in the fall,
You stumbled and you fell, right down to the bottom,
Nobody cared at all.
But for me --You would have stood their with egg on your face
The bitter taste of old champagne,
Up to your neck in rain.
A few hits followed after the first album, but theirs was a meteoric rise and fall at the end of the sixties. Leaving the world with clear, clean vocals and tight harmonies which became a big part of the template that made up much of seventies pop. Regardless, I still think they sound great as I tap into all three of their albums from time to time.
posted by well-executed buffet at 7:30 AM
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Monday, November 17, 2008
Eight Miles High in Das Leben Wilde
Das Leben Wilde (American title Eight Miles High) is an account of cultural zeitgeist and a biopic curiosity. Its subject is a decade and a half of the life of Uschi Obermaier, aka Chrissi Malberg, a German model and celebrity phenomena. This life opens itself up to a three act structure in which she first drifts into a Berlin Commune, parties with the Rolling Stones and has an affair with Keith Richards, and then travels the world in a customized bus with a wild night club owner and adventurer.
What makes this film interesting is not necessarily its characterization of Uschi, who in a brief interview on the DVD bonuses is far more engaging than the screen portrayal of her by German singer and actress Natalia Avelon. What gives it life is the attention to the details of the time, particularly in its German settings of Berlin Commune life and Hamburg's hedonistic St. Pauli district. One gets the impression that director Achim Bornhak and the production team spent an exceptional amount of care on trying to authentically reproduce the circumstances of Obermaier's life. German film awards for costume and production in the film are testimony to this. As is the real Uschi's comments about how close they came to recreating the bus that she and German night club owner Dieter Bockhorn, perhaps the most intriguing personality in the film, spent traveling the world in for about eight years.
The notion of "Don't dream your life live your dream" and goal of persönliche Freiheit run a little thin, because this is ultimately a story of a celebrity model on a wild ride. Avelon is stunning to look at in either the nude (you see a lot of that) or in an endless array of slinky outfits. Uschi is not a wallflower or victim, she is a picture of willfulness. When Bockhorn slaps her, she strikes back. This is a woman striving live life on her own terms and she can be a force to be reckoned with. There was some tragedy in her life, but she did not end up tragically. That resonates with me greater, and helps really create the energy that dwells in this film.
I would like to see an extended interview film with the real Uschi Obermaier. She is now in her sixties, designing jewelery in California and still looking amazing and possessing a sense of intrigue. And I sense she has many more great stories to tell beyond those that are recounted through the filter of biopic dramatization.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:23 PM
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Sunday, November 16, 2008
Light and Fog
Fog, light and shadow from a high vantage point can create the most amazing wonders. One almost wished the sun would have stood still just a little bit longer to admire this scene. I was reminded a bit of traditional Asian Art and brush strokes that tried to emulate scenes like this. There were many fine moments and highlights at the Anderson Lodge outing, but this was one of the finest during the hours spent there.
posted by well-executed buffet at 6:32 AM
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Saturday, November 15, 2008
Pre Holiday Funky Retreat Slumberparty Getaway
For the second year some good fine acquaintances put on weekend party at Andersen Lodge nested in the foothill region of Mt St Helens where Highway 503 meets with the road that takes one to Cougar, WA. It is less than an hour a way from Vancouver and Portland, but even in this era of mass Clark County commute to PDX and McMansions where there were farms, it still felt like the northern Clark, southern Cowlitz country as it always has been, enhanced even more so by cool dry fall weather.
The lodge is quite impressive and is the central component of the Anderson lodge complex. The last image in this sequence really doesn't give the great room and its double fireplace the justice it deserves. The group had the room mostly set up for dancing and hula hoop cavorting and so forth. There were three active DJs in the group, one a professional, and a bunch of us with our IPods because in this day in age it seems everyone is a DJ, or thinks they are. There was also a Wii set up and the room was laid out later for an amazing two week before Thanksgiving like dinner that couldn't be beat.
The complex also featured a hostel style bunk house, but I chose to sleep on one of the couches in front of the amazing fireplace. Additionally, there was an entire outbuilding dedicated to games like pool and table tennis, and a wonderful little fire pit amphitheater. Anderson really is a full service retreat center in the Euro-Swedish tradition.
These people came to play. At night there was fire dancing (yes, and a little fire eating as well) It was great to be able to less than an hour from home and only away from the house for maybe 20 hours, but it felt like a kind of true and complete get away.
It was great to be both out in the woods and with just about every amenity you would want. I resisted all temptation to drag my laptop along. A few other folks confessed to bringing theirs, but I never saw one boot up. The presence of televison would have kind of ruined this time and place.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:59 PM
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Friday, November 14, 2008
Another Seventies Moment
Both of their careers were at a difficult stage when they got together for this tour and album: A Man and A Woman: Isaac Hayes and Dionne Warwick. It was well after the days of the unstoppable Bacharach hit diva and Shaft meets Black Moses. But long before Scientology and Psychic Friends Network. Or foul mouthed cartoon characters and superstar friends singing about their other friends with AIDS.
I thought I had heard everything Ike had done until I stumbled across this artifact. It is more showroom schmaltz than Hot Buttered Soul and is far less painful than listening to him struggle for notes at the Waterfront Blues Festival just weeks before he died. Actually, having two stars interweave their hits reminds me of back when television featured variety hits and specials with their one time performances with special guests. The fire is in the fireplace and it must not be a school night because the show started at 10pm.
This mini series of seventies artifacts is hereby closed until further notice or until I can uncover the likes of Gregg Allman and Cher and their Allman and Woman project.
Isaac_&_Dionne_do_dueling_hits.mp3
Isaac_&_Dionne_do_dueling_hits.mp3
posted by well-executed buffet at 7:30 AM
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Another Sound from 70
This track makes me smile big time. It is the show opener from an Expo 70 concert by Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66. As with yesterday's 5th Dimension track, we are not necessarily talking about any kind of major hipness here. Sergio like the 5D played the Nixon Whitehouse. I wonder if they stopped and did any USO shows in Vietnam on their way back from Osaka.
This track starts out with a breakneck speed on a Bacharach tune that you think they might get derailed until it heads into one of the group's hits. Lani Hall has a very strong and distinctive voice, she really was important to the Sergio sound. Here she pretty much overwhelms the other female voice in the group, Karen Phillips, but there are a few moments where their voices blend in that very unique Brasil 66 way. And then Sergio joins in a couple times with his strong Portugese accent when pronouncing "world" and during a lalala chorus later on. But also pay attention to some of his keyboard flourishes, some of them are quite fine indeed.
As for the messsage of this music: "I know we can make a pretty world for me and for you." What the hell is wrong with that?
Sergio_expo70opener.mp3
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:10 PM
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Sounds of A Time
The 5th Dimension sang at Nixon's White House and appeared in a Frank Sinatra special called Frank Sinatra Does His Thing. Could one say they were ever hip? Probably not. But then again, they did a lot to popularize Laura Nyro's best pop songs and Up, Up and Away is one of the great pop records of the sixties along with Pet Clark's Downtown.
Regardless, I heard this big ambitious suite they did the other day and found it oddly moving, considering last week's historic content. I'm pretty sure it is out of print so am throwing this low res copy out there for y'all. I don't want to say much about it, but if your reaction to Elvis' version of American Trilogy was ever somewhere between a tear and an oh my god guffaw, you should probably check this out. And if you do, check out the whole thing. They don't make records like this anymore. That's for sure.
5thdimension_big1970medley.mp3
posted by well-executed buffet at 10:14 PM
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Clash Live: Revolution Rock, A new DVD Collection
You can't be a prophet in your own country. And that's a Fact -- Joe Strummer
Legacy/Epic has released a DVD of live Clash performances which, I believe, is some kind of cross-product tie-in with the recent CD release of the Shea Stadium concert. I approached this with a bit of caution. Posthumous Clash product, unless raw and booted uncut has been a kind of mixed bag from the live CD that came out several years ago to the hagiographic Joe Strummer cinematic tribute misfire from last year from Julian Temple called The Future is Unwritten. Dick Rude's Let's Rock Again was a better film, but one limited to Joe's Mescaleros period, a fine and solid act in a rock and roll career, but so sad because it was his final one.
So where does leave this latest offering? Still a mixed bag. I kind of assumed that Don Letts, the dreadlocked DJ who was responsible for their prior videos was going to be involved in this effort, and it turns out, he was. You might remember him from Mick Jones' post-Clash band Bland Audio Dynamite. (using my Joseph Cotton rest home voice from Citizen Kane here) Oh, excuse me, Bad Audio Dynamite. He also directed the Clash's videos. Oh the MTV flashback horror of the sheik chasing the Hasidic jew around like bad cartoons in Rock the Casbah!
There are twenty two songs in this DVD's hour, which actually does a pretty good job of spanning the band's meteor ride. If you are a fan, especially one that was at the edge of the fire back in the day, you've probably seen almost all of it. If one doesn't know the story of the Clash, there is an optional voice over narration, I think by Letts, that gives the vitals.
The authorized music videos of the Bob Weir, oh excuse me, Mick Jones songs Train in Vain and Do I Stay or Do I Go are here as is the best concert footage from the odd Rude Boy feature. The on stage single camera footage from Rude Boy of London's Burning to a full park full of punks at an anti-skinhead rally is still about as good as it gets but is unfortunately cut off into a continuity bridge before the tune is through. There is another early in the game performance of Police and Thieves that I can only describe as the moment where rock ate reggae. It is full of explosive energy with Paul Simonon in a fish net shirt, Mick with a lot of hair and Joe before the teeth got fixed in a multi-zippered quasi bondage jacket and going to floor when there was nothing left to give.
There are the performances from the ABC show Fridays, and their appearance on Tom Snyder. There are a few things that seem like they were staged for the camera. The Clash Live: Revolution Rock does not contain any holy grail surprises, but does manage to unveil that explode beyond packaging and time and capture "the band that matters." The footage of Clampdown, in particular shows a band fully in charge and one of the few pieces that shows a song where all cylinders are firing and each member of the group is contributing their 100% or more. Joe has some great dub shout outs near the end and there is this great point where he says "Let me take you to the engine room" and Topper is given a little bit of room to show what he does on drums.
Strange and sloppy that when the credits role on the film, Terry Chimes is not given any drum credit although he is featured in some of the clips on both ends of the band's career. I had hoped, but knew there would not be too much new or unseen in this collection. So I guess it is back to some cruisin' for boots to see if their are any bottled combustibles I may have missed or worth rediscovering and eventually see how the Shea Stadium reissue turned out.
And here is a buffet bonus! It is not a performance by the Clash but the way Billy Bragg and the crowd get into this version of White Man in Hammersmith, to my mind, ears and soul sensibility, very much captures what this band was all about.
Bonus Audio:Billy Bragg Does the Clash: White Man in Hammersmith
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:55 PM
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Monday, November 10, 2008
Sunday 10.09 at Wordstock 08
I had plans to the only catch some of the afternoon and evening readings at the second day of Wordstock, but had a change of plans when I saw that film writer David Thomson was on the schedule. So I found a street parking despite the attendance of local churches and the holiday food and gift show that was also at the Convention Center. I'm kind of glad that I didn't go with late afternoon plan because masses of folks came in to the Rose Quarter for the annual holiday Trans Siberian Orchestra extravaganza.
I worried at first when I saw the large screen of the Powell's stage when my ticket was taken. The rough hewn cartoon artwork that appeared on the screen looked very much like Lynda Barry wasn't scheduled to come on til 5pm that evening. So what gives? Did she have to come on early? Is she doing two talks? Well as it turned out, it wasn't Lynda Barry at all, but lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechtel giving a talk about the anthology of her strip Dykes to Watch Out For. I checked it out for a few minutes, but found that if you weren't a fan already, you were probably going to be lost. There were lots of folks there at the 11am hour on Sunday to see her. Well, as Allison said on her website "Portland is such a hotbed of comics and also of queerness, it was quite overwhelming."
David Thomson came on at noon. His New Biographical Dictionary of Film is one of my favorite books. It contains hundreds of essays about the works and lives of hundreds of actors, actresses and directors. All of the entries are quite distinct from each other and offer his own unique personal evaluation of their work. He opened his presentation on Sunday by talking about how he tends to be personal and on the importance of having an opinion.
Have You Seen...? is the title of his latest book and it is already probably the most significant film book of the holiday season. It offers roughly a thousand one page essays on films both obvious to be in such a volume and many not as clearly a candidate for such a collection. Sure, Roger Ebert has done this a couple of times already with his Great Movies books, but the one page/1000 essay format of Thomson's makes for maybe more of an infectious browse when you flip through it.
Thomson is a sixty seven year old Englishman living in San Francisco. I may be a bit of a simplification but I have found public talks by Brits not to be as interesting as their work itself for the most part. In the late eighties and early nineties I saw James Burke speak a couple of times and the best part of his talks were when he would wind up and do Connections bits, much like the scripts of his BBC documentaries. Here the best part of the talk is when he read his essays on Chinatown, Duck Soup, Seven Samurai and Brief Encounter.. Although he did say some things that a true believer in the power of film (like your buffetmaster here) would agree with but others would find a bit overstated such as the declining interest in foreign films having "such an hostility especially with young people and it is one of the most devastating things to happen in this country." Or how British people didn't embrace cinema's capability to be both so real and so fantastic.
Thomson later signed my copy of "Have You Seen... ." in this weird writer's corral arrangement they had for the signing sessions. I told him I hoped to enjoy his new book as much as I had the New Biographical Dictionary of Film. He said he hoped I would too. I told him I very much appreciated the economy he had in his writing. He then said something that seemed like a Non sequitur, "If you write a lot, you have to be tight"
Nothing at the 1pm hour seemed to work for me, so I decided to walk over to the exhibit halls at the Memorial Coliseum to the Portland Comic Book Show I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of Star Wars toys. It was a strange subcultural experience, but after about three times around the track and scoring a copy of Scorsese's Mean Streets DVD for practically a give away price, I kind of had enough and returned to Wordstock.
William Least-Heat Moon and Andre Dubus III, probably the two most successful and generally recognized literary names at Wordstock this year were both scheduled for 2pm. I spent the first half of my time at Least Heat-Moon's appearance because Dubus was in the midst of reading from his latest novel when I arrived. Least Heat Moon's latest book is entitled Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey, it is a return to a book of travel on the road, the subject and setting that gave him is greatest success in his first book Blue Highways
This time he is not traveling alone, but with his wife, who he refers to as Q, and the travels are finite and planned. Quoz is a funny word. The urban dictionary says it is slang for something good. My Webster's Unabridged says it is something odd or queer. Least Heat-Moon claims it means a persistent and silent energy, like a book, which is ready to give you energy when you engage with it. Sometimes this engagement means there is "some assembly required" such as with his second book PrairyErth which I remember trying to get into many years ago. He said that book had a vertical structure vs. the horizontal structure of Blue Highways. He admitted that many people found it off-putting, that folks either loved it or hated it.
As soon as one of the most well known of travel writers received the question "What is your routine for writing" I knew it was time to move on over to Dubus, whose Q and A session I found immediately engaging. He talked about some of the moral ambiguity of his characters such as Colonel Behrani in House of Sand and Fog. His philosophy is that there is no darkness, just lightness twisted. He first apologized for quoting Tom Waits because he knew it would offend someone but then said "There is no devil. There is just god when he is drunk."
Dubus impressed me as someone who learns about his characters as he writes. He quoted Grace Paley: "We write about what we don't know about what we know." His intelligence and dedication to his work impressed me. I bet attending workshop session on Writing for Discovery would have been a great experience.
Sandra Tsing Loh gives new meaning to the term activist parent. Her high energy and passion for involvement in the schools was quite a striking perspective. She doesn't understand why a mothers involvement in PTA could not be considered an act of feminism. When I arrived I saw her talking about how Hispanic kids had to learn that bubble multiple choice tests were not like the games of chance and lottery they saw their parents teach. She also talked about how Democrats need to support public schools by letting their children attend them, Obama included. I recall the incident where Tsing Loh was fired for saying the f--- on KCRW public radio, but didn't know anything about her. I don't know if I'll pick up her book, but I found a few essays online I'd like to read now that I am familiar with her energy and her voice.
Mike Mignolaspent his time in art school wanting to draw monsters. After ten years in the comic biz at DC and Marvel, the Portland area's own Dark Horse comics gave him his chance to do that. It turned out to be the wildly successful Hellboy series. Mignola had a vibrant, Quentin Tarantino-like energy about him as he was interviewed by one of Dark Horse's founders in the next to last event of the day. If you were one of the comic nerds over at the Coliseum Expo Hall you would have been in hog heaven. But I always try to do right to acknowledge and appreciate one's passion, especially of an artistic ilk.
God bless Lynda Barry. We have heard her tell a lot of the same jokes and stories maybe four or five times now, but they are always delighful. And the message of her talk, the need to find what she and her former Evergreen professor called the image as a focus for creative work, is something that everyone should reacquaint themselves with from time to time, in my humble opinion. I think Dubus would have agreed with her that she feels that we write in order to have an experience. She also believes we all become a little bit crazy when art becomes an elective and there is no longer any recess.
There is always a lot of joy in a Lynda Barry appearance. But this one was maybe more joyous still because of last week's election. She said she would temper her langauge this evening bus would be likely to say balls. And she said its nice that lesbian and evolution are no longer cus words. She received a standing ovation at the end of her talk. It seemed like a fine enough way to end a very full weekend of ideas and creative folk. Full as i was, I was certainly ready to drive home and put away a volume of tacos.
posted by well-executed buffet at 6:54 PM
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Sunday, November 9, 2008
Saturday 10.08 at Wordstock 08
The Wordstock event in Portland Oregon is far more than the behemoth book expos which are featured on CSPAN2 on the weekends. It is a largish event, to be sure, but its board and mission hold greater value to bringing readers and authors together under a big tent (well, actually a couple of exhibit halls in the Oregon Convention Center) in celebratory fashion where one can explore the booths of small publishers and book community resources as well as have exposure to plenty to writers and others involved with books.
For your five dollars you can have access to the equivalent of about two months worth of author readings at Powell's and Annie Bloom's. And, somehow, although the event is held in large cavernous halls, it can feel kind of accessible and intimate. But you may still need to take your time to get into the groove of Wordstock. I started out by cruising by a Rock 'n Roll smackdown talk between Guns and Roses biographer Jason Porath and Curt Cobain biographer Charles Cross. ("You can't possibly mean it when you say that Guns and Roses is the most influential band of its time") and watched a bit of Ann Packer's Q and A, which seemed kind of awkward and self-conscious to me. Basically, I was just killing time to connect with Pam to see Spain and John Hodgemam.
Spain Rodriguez is one of the artists along with Robert Crumb, Vaughn Bode, Bill Griffith, Gilbert Sheldon, Art Spiegelman and many others who created the breakthrough undeground comic book scene of the sixties and seventies. He turned out to be an interesting fellow to spend an hour with. The story of his formative years was much like the one that Spiegelman shared at his appearance in Portland last month. He was drawn to the medium quite early, Plasticman being a personal favorites. He watched the Werthem purge and the McCarthy-esqe hysteria that surrounded it that somehow Mad magazine was able to weather. He hated the comics code as a kid and was able to act against it as the artist as a young man during the sixties as a number of like minded others did in the movement we call underground comics, at the same time that rock and roll became a social change agent in the sixties.
Spain very much keeps those sixties sensibilities in his art. He still creates promotional materials for the San Francisco Mime Troop. He showed some radical materials he had created for the political support activities Jim Mitchell of the Mitchell Brothers portraying Arnold Schwarzenegger as a exotic dancer for a police and correction workers union party. And his latest graphic novel (he winced slightly when he used that term--"We still think of ourselves as comic book artists") is a comics presentation of the life of Che Gruevara.
Spain's draftsmanship is impressive. His style reminds me more of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon escapades or Hal Foster's Prince Valiant than Crumb and Sheldon's Furry Freak Brothers. He approaches his work differently from a production stand point these days. He drafts in pen and inks using the computer and PhotoShop. He told the story of a reunion panel where folks were carrying on how things hadn't changed much since the good ol' days until the subject of color separations came up and the group got silent.
He is not a natural public speaker but he became more relaxed and engaged as his presentation continued. In his display of pages from Che he talked about the challenges of portraying complex economic and political ideas in comics form. And he became most excited when he talked about the opportunities to draw the stuff guys like to draw planes and trains. A sequence in Che called for an armored train. He could not find an example of a train on the Internet like the raided by Che's revolutionaries so drew his own. Later he found a picture of the train, but he said quite proudly, "I think mine was cooler."
John Hodgman the resident expert of the Daily Show proved to be exceptionally entertaining. He appeared with his friend musician Jonathan Coulton who he described as a strange bearded man. Coulton started out the presentation by singing a theme song about Hodgeman. The first verse was about his Daily Show activities primarily. A second verse was about Hodgman as a guy who sells computers. To the latter, Hodgman corrected him as being not exactly correct despite the highly successful PC vs Apple commercials that have brought him a high degree of recognition.
Hodgman's journey from literary agent and author of a humor book where his resident expert persona was in full effect to widely recognized mid-level television personality was the primary content of the afternoon's presentation. He accomplished this mostly through a reading, well more like a performance of an essay in his latest book More Information Than You Require where he claims to explore his expertise of the world's knowledge and "when I have not bothered to learn it, I made it up."
The set of circumstances that have flung him into the public spotlight may have been somewhat serendipitous and accidental, but his success and talent are no accident. His comic timing and quickness in responding to questions and circumstances were a wonder to behold. And when he was asked about Jon Stewart, his gratitude and admiration of the Daily Show host was quite genuine.
The afternoon session ended with The Zombie Song by Jonathan Coulton, which was the request of Riley, a primary grader in the audience. Lots of others in the crowd seemed to know it as well. Somehow a crowd of folks singing together about being zombies coming to eat your brains seemed a weirdly logical way to conclude a session with a talented "expert" who has the ability to poke at both our brains and its connections to what make us laugh.
posted by well-executed buffet at 8:17 AM
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Saturday, November 8, 2008
Dr Atomic at the Met in HD
"The things we are working on are so terrible that no amount of protesting or fiddling with politics will save our souls." These words end Edward Teller's first set of lines in John Adams Opera Dr Atomic. The last English line in this production was right before the first Trinity atomic bomb text took place was J Robert Oppenheimer's words "Lord, these affairs are hard on the heart."
In some ways, John Adams aand Peter Sellars' version of J Robert Oppenheimer is a bit like Oliver Stone's take on our current President in W. There is truth here, but it is a big epic poetic version of life of this scientist. Just as with the W biopic, reality is stylized and choices are made so that it will not become confused with a fully realistic portrayal. For instance, in Dr. Atomic, General Leslie Groves is cast with an African American. If there had not been poetry in Oppenheimer's life, there may have been a bomb, but there wouldn't be this opera. Poetry is most prominently displayed demonstrated with the set one closing aria based on John Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV, the one that begins with "Batter my heart, three person'd God," which everyone read if they ever took and English literature course.
Deep poetic searching continues at the beginning of the second act. Kitty Oppenheimer comes off at first as a woman with too much wine. But her aria is almost a direct extension of the first act finale, except instead of Donne, her text is from Muriel Rukeyser. Then comet comes through the sky and later becomes a drawing of equations. Pasqualita, the Oppenheimer's Tewa Indian maid first seems another media manifestation of the mystical spirit indian, the kind that Sherman Alexie lacerates. But I'm thinking it is far more sophisticated than that. There is a brief moment where a visual moment of Madonna and child when she comforts Kitty. But she plays a bigger role as a part of the exploration of man vs nature. We hear this in the songs she sings and also in the role the storms of July played on the first test.
The storm becomes a character. Robert Wilson one of the primary scientists sings at one point "This weather is really something you don't want to be in with a bomb nearby." But it also provides the god vs man and god as man themes to develop. It also shows levels of perception about the mission and what it needs. With Pasqualita and Opie there is a kind of awareness of the world we are entering. General Groves responds to the weather as superficial annoyance. The storm also ushers in the chorus sings a chorus of the Bhagavad Gita.
At the beginning of Dr Atomic one is first impressed with the set. Three stories containing 42 five by nine foot cubby holes first with official mug shots of 1945 Los Alamos government army employees then revealing each of these individuals in each container. Yes for a moment it did feel a bit like the set of Hollywood Squares. I think there was a hierarchy represented with scientists on the top story of 14 units with some doing calculations on chalk boards, lots of WACs and support folks on lower floors. Later in the second act, it takes on a whole other level clearly a creating a visual allusion to Indian cliff dwelling in New Mexico. There is also a rain effect in the second act tha involving worsted film on what looks like many layers of equations.
There are indeed some stunning on stage visual effects but these characters and their poetics, their solid questioning, their discussion of big ideas. July 16, 1945 was a kind of point of no return. Man had a new and most dangerous capability.
Adams score builds and builds to a climax of the explosion. At the time of the explosion you hear Oppie say "Lord, these affairs are hard on the heart" a light screen comes over the stage and you hear Japanese, most notably the voice of a mother. "Please give me some water. My daughter needs some water." Shortly thereafter, everyone leaving the movie theater featuring today's HD Met broadcast seemed to overwhelmed and stunned.
posted by well-executed buffet at 7:31 PM
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Friday, November 7, 2008
Kaurismäki's Proletariat III: The Match Factory Girl
Aki Kaurismäki's 1990 film The Match Factory Girl is the third film in what is known as his Proleteriat Trilogy. In this film as in Shadows in Paradise and Ariel, it begins with imagery of work: as a sanitation worker, a miner, or in this case an assembly worker in a match factory. This time the film is set in Sweden instead of his native Finland. These films take their own sweet time in revealing characters and circumstance. In The Match Factory Girl there is no dialog from the characters at all for 14 minutes until Iris, the girl named in the title, orders a beer.
Kaurismäki utilizes an assured sense of economy to show his characters and their circumstances. In less than ninety minutes in each of the films (Match Factory is just a little over an hour long) we are not so much told stories about these folks as much as shown their lives. As I mentioned before in my remarks about Shadows in Paradise, the characters just seem to fall into a new set of situations over time, and not necesarily better or more positive ones.
And he does this by taking his time,. At one point in The Match Factory Girl, Iris (Kati Outinen, also in Shadows in Paradise) plays Brand New Cadillac on the jukebox in the apartment of a rockabily cook acquaintance that gives her shelter. And she sits and smokes. The shot is long, but it feels like it could be longer because it is somehow just right for this lost Goldilocks. There is an interesting connection between the characters in a Kaurismäki film and music. They seem to be near orchestras, radios, and jukeboxes which play international pop songs that might be ironic, but certainly somehow underscore the condition in which they find themselves.
His films are less like feature films than evocative novellas, long short stories that show place, individual, circumstance, and some event or events. And then the experience of this northern cold working person is over and you think about them for awhile.
Labels: Kaurismäki
posted by well-executed buffet at 4:55 AM
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Thursday, November 6, 2008
PDX Jazz Festival 2009
The 2009 lineup for the Portland Jazz Festival was announced today. In September I was astounded by the news they had disbanded operations because of a budget shortfall which essentially claimed they couldn't put on a quality festival with less than a 700k budget. A few weeks later Alaska Airlines came to the rescue, and now the lineup of the festival's ten major ticketed shows.
Here are the ones not to miss this year, in my opinion.
Bobby Hutcherson plus Lou Donaldson: Saturday, February 21, 2:00 pm, Crystal Ballroom. The most interesting show is in the festival's second week Saturday matinee. These are both jazz legends who are very likely to pull out some very groovy sets. And of all of the shows listed this year, this one comes strongest to the promise of being a tribute the legacy of BlueNote records and their 70thAnniversary. Hutcherson redefined the vibraphone and the boogaloo hard bop of the 82 year old Donaldson is exactly what I hoped PDX jazz would have more of. Great choices.
Joe Lovano’s Us5 plus Jacky Terrasson: Saturday, February 14, 2:00 pm, Portland Art Museum Ballroom. Oh yes! Lovano's double drum group is pretty intense and dynamic. I had the good fortune to see them at work in Philadelphia last spring. I believe I have seen Terrasson before and it was a lively enough set, but solo jazz piano doesn't stick to my ribs or memory banks. The museum ballroom (formerly the Masonic temple ballroom) can feel a bit cavernous and chairs chained together on a flat floor can be kind of pain for sight, comfort and leg room. But it sounds like a nice way to spend Valentine's afternoon. And Lovano is a standard bearer of the saxaphone tradition with a vocabulary from Hawkins and Webster to Trane and Eddie Harris.
Cassandra Wilson plus Jason Moran & The Bandwagon: Friday, February 20, 7:30 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Maybe. I have always dug Cassandra, but am not always into her concept records. My absolute favorite recording of hers was the Blue Skies album from 20 years back with Mulgrew Miller. It would be a pleasant evening and some of the work I have heard from Moran sounds promising. But it just doesn't seem as essential as the two shows I mentioned prior.
There are also a few other big Schnitzer shows planned. A Tale of God’s Will (Requiem for Katrina) Terence Blanchard Quintet with full orchestra plus Gonzalo Rubalcaba Quintet. I love Rubacala and respect Terry Blanchard, but will probably pass. There is also another Sunday afternoon show with Lovano combined with McCoy Tyner and wacky dreadlocked clarinet man Don Byron as opening act. There are some other shows Patricia Barber, John Scofield, Pat Martino, Lionel Loueke, Diane Reeves. I don't see myself being at any of these shows. But I know indeed where I plan to try to be on a couple of Saturday afternoons in mid February.
posted by well-executed buffet at 1:58 PM
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Painting the White House and Other Observations
George Clinton is one of those artists whose live shows are usually pretty stunning but whose studio recorded output is a mixed bag, at best. Fifteen years ago he was briefly tied to Prince's Paisley Park organization and put out a so-so record called Hey Man, Smell My Finger. An unsubtle title, to be sure. And almost as unsubtle was the idea that they would play on the concept of having a Clinton in the White House, but why shouldn 't it be George instead of Bill? Paint the White House Blackisn't a bad funk tune, but it sure isn't Atomic Dog or Knee Deep or Flashlight.
It is likely inevitable that George will pull it out again after Tuesday's development. I think it could work quite well in concert, but another mix with 2008 rappers coming in for Dre and the others might not be so successful. Anyway, one of my work colleagues mentioned this song today. I started humming it and here it is in the Buffet.
The day after the election has been a strange one. We don't have many cultural shifts in this country and folks are finding their own way it seems. I was in a meeting that had some extra tension. It was harder than usual for myself and my classes to get focused. Sure, maybe Paint the White House Black is a trifle, but the day before yesterday we lived in the the reality of Grateful Dead's New Speedway Boogie. "One way or another this darkness got to give." I only hope that now, as a result of Tuesday's election results, it is beginning to.
posted by well-executed buffet at 8:23 PM
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Election Night: Party Because The World Has Never Seen This Before
First, A Quick Reprise of some of My blog entry of 5.18..
I wanted to show up today because I'm impressed and supportive. I also was hoping it was going to provide insight to see his It factor. I hoped it was going to kind of be like the experience I had from the difference between seeing Magic Johnson or Jesse in person vs. seeing them on television. I knew it was going to be stump speech with some topicality. But if nothing more the pacing, the intersecting of ideas and a man a work was going to be a strong and interesting experience. He ackowledged Hillary and how hard and historic it has been with her. He made Bush and McCain morph into one. I believe that image is a major key to Democratic success.
They had listed all of the members of the Decemberists as going to appear also.
I guess they came on before 2:15 or didn't play at all. They could have used something during the twenty minutes of canned music that came on after Earl Blumenhauer. But the exit music was pretty cool. Stevie Wonder's Signed Sealed and Delivered followed by Curtis Mayfield's Move on Up. After Obama, those tunes confirmed that I feel life is having some interesting possibilities lately and it is about time to let the good guys win so the good times can roll a little bit easier.
And Now it is party time. I say Stevie Wonder should be at my own private Obama victory party. And what a show I found, his 1989 birthday concert in London. I start off, of course, with Signed, Sealed and Delivered because it still gives me the chills since leaving the Obama rally in May, but neither Stevie nor I can stop there. Not now.
If you want to see assure your day and our days will get better, then these clips are for you. But tonight, they are the soundtrack for a most important, hopeful and wonderful new day.
posted by well-executed buffet at 10:01 PM
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Monday, November 3, 2008
El Cochecito
Don Anselmo is a fairly unpleasant old man. And he is left out of a scene he wants to be a part of. One of his old crone friends has recently received an ambulatory scooter, which actually look kind of cool and home shop hewn in 1960 urban Spain where El Choecito, a comedy by Mario Ferreri takes place.
Don Anselmo may be unpleasant but his family is even worse. His son is a profitable attorney who doesn't want to do with his father and his grandaughter insists on playing her Learn French records when he's trying to rest on his bed. Anselmo whines and moans a lot and commits theft of the family jewels for one goal: To get a Cochecito, and he wouldn't mind a high performance one either.
Films of fifties and sixties Europe capture an eternally hip time of style and attitude. Sun glasses never looked better and people move with assurance, but, oh so much with fashion and style. The film that probably captures this best, of course, is La Dolce Vita. But from the Alec Guiness comedies to films like Big Deal on Madonna Street, there is this something special in contemporary European cinema, a kind of energy, really that is great to feel but hard to explain. It is certainly present in the scenes where Don Anselmo has his various encounters with the cochecito people, either out at a picnic where he gets stranded or at a big street race where folks are kicking it hard in their powered wheel chairs.
I recently chatted about a documentary about Marco Ferreri which had the subtitle: The Filmmaker from the Future. He certainly was ahead of the curve here. The world is now filled with motorized cochecitos, and they sometime can be hazardous, especially on sidewalks. Marco Ferreri and screenwriter Rafael Azcona were evidentally making a tart commentary on the fact we are headed for a world where we need little cars for our mobility, A theme we recently saw in Wall-E. But to me my interpretation of this little film that started Ferrei's career is that it really is just about an old man who just wants to have fun. And that ultimately we are just boys who will always want their toys.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:29 AM
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Sunday, November 2, 2008
Le Doulos
Le Doulos is a 1962 film by French filmmaker Jean Pierre Melville. It is definitely noir with a capital N. There are moments of intense surprise and shock, especially in the first hour. None are as intense as the ear-cutting scene in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, but they deliver that same kind of visceral kick because the story consistently keeps the viewer off kilter and directs and redirects the viewer in a kind of off base manner.
It is a world of hoods and cops that has been appropriated from the American gangster films in much the same way Leone appropriated the western. It is definitely a man's world. In the Criterion extras, Melville proteges Volker Schlöndorff and Bertrand Tavernier talk about how Melville received much criticism for the dearth of strong women actresses in his films. He even would recruit his secretary because she had the right look. But Doulos has Belmondo in his prime and cinematic glory, so who is really looking at anyone else?
Schlöndorff talks about how Melville was able to create a kind of Manhattan in Paris. Tavernier also discusses how he is able to create his own world, quite literally. He lived in a loft above his studio. Even though I was a bit put off by the characters in this film, I truly appreciated Melville's craft. In interrogation scenes, his camera moves with the characters and the questions that are thrown at them. The shadows are very dark in the alley ways and dark corners of unlit apartments are foreboding and dangerous. And indeed, danger often is lurking in them. I don't think anyone would really choose to live in the Melville world of criminals, but a visit there can certainly provide a vicarious kind of thrill.
posted by well-executed buffet at 6:21 PM
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Saturday, November 1, 2008
Leon Ware and His Soul Music that Defies the Gravity of Time
A rainy day when the sun is out can remind me of the cover of What's Goin' On by Marvin Day out there crossing a schoolyard with his tie and trenchcoat. Many years ago I remember a Richard Pryor interview, I believe in Rolling Stone where he talked about the space in his life between chitlin' comedian and token black doing his Rumplestilkin bit on talk shows and what his uncompromising comic art later became until the country learned what free-basing was. Anyway, I somehow will always recall how he said that one of the things he grasped on during this period was a nearly incessant playing of What's Goin On.
I was thinking about What's Goin' On and also I Want You, which is my second favorite Marvin Gaye Album. The title song has the ability to make time kind of stand still. And the lyric has this slinky floaty word play that sort of snakes around itself: I want you, the right way I want you But I want you to want me too Want you to want me baby Just like I want you
Leon Ware, the collaborator of I Want You is, at 68 years old, my new favorite soul singer. My interest peaked when I read a review of his concert last week at New York's Blue Note. This motivated me to check out his latest album, Moon Ride through emusic and I am seriously hooked. The album was released as a part of the Concord Jazz label's Stax label. And in this case it befits the other artists and legacy from that iconic company.
Many of the songs are mood portraits. Lady in Blue is the story of the lady with a blue dress in which Leon observes Now I know its true, they say the hottest fire is blue. I appreciate folks who invent new words, When Leon talks about how he could be Smoovin' the meaning is obvious. Urban Nights is cautionary and impressionistic drive down a major city boulevard. Ware creates a world out of the vocabulary of urban rhythm, hook and harmony.
In the NY Times review John Pareles describes Ware's music: "It’s sensuality in suspended time, lingering in the moment, with singer and band savoring every intimate nuance." This is describes him well. He is a soul scientist who can keep time from falling when he delivers a song. Many of his songs sound like the work on I Want You, but that is a contribution to music and to the world that should not be diminished. Consider Bo Diddley and John Lee Hooker. They are not noted for their variety in style and mood.
Here is a version of I Want You featuring Carleen Anderson, a daughter of the James Brown organization, who went to England to be one of the great soul voices of a country en masse who understands soul better than her own homeland does. Ware of course sings the song like he owns it because he does.