Saturday, May 28, 2005
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Weird and wonderful book alert! Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, originally published in 1926 is one of the oddest books I’ve read in a hell of a long while. The set up lulls you into the world of an aging spinster with no desire to be anything else, but she’s caught up in living up to her family obligations, without really knowing why. About halfway through the book she finally breaks out on her own, moving from London back to a small country village, similar to the childhood home she’d been forced from after the death of her beloved papa. It’s here where the book really takes a turn into the weird. Hard to believe that when originally published it became an international best seller. I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to spoil the books twist for, and if you pick up the book, DO NOT read the introduction, but if you’re looking for a nice little bizarre read, I heartily recommend Lolly Willowes.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Another great night of music at LACMA, this time performed by the New York Chamber Soloists. It was a pretty eclectic program, from Bach to Elliot Carter(!), and with works by Mel Powell, Antonio Vivaldi, Handel and Manuel de Falla. What all the pieces had in common was that they all featured harpsichord. That was especially cool for me because I don’t think I’ve ever heard a harpsichord played live before - and I really enjoyed it. Obviously a considerably softer sound than the piano that our modern ears are much more used to. All the pieces were nice, but the one that really stood out for me was the final, by Manuel de Falla, the one composer who I’d never really even heard of on the program. It was his Concerto for Harpsichord from 1926 - also with flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, and cello. An energetic and exciting tune that I’ll try to track down a recording of by the weekend (with any luck), and I will definitely be checking out more info on de Falla.
Monday, May 16, 2005
I’ve been reading a lot of praise in the last few weeks for Orson Welles semi-documentary, F for Fake, which has recently been released on R1 DVD by Criterion, and am happy to briefly add my voice to the chorus. I’d actually never seen this wildly energetic film before, essentially Orson Welles last completed feature, from 1972 (tho he managed to stick around until 1985). It would be wrong to call it a meditation, because the pace and editing is far too frantic, but it is an exciting and funny film, almost a philosophical treatise on the nature what is or isn’t real, and if it even matters. The bulk of the film seems concerned with charming Hungarian art forger, Elmyr de Hory, and the man who wrote a book about him, Clifford Irving, who also wrote a fake book purporting to be an autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles himself of course figures prominently, performing magic tricks to open and close the film, and recounting the tales of his own War of the Worlds radio hoax (or not hoax depending on who you listen to). While the look of the film varies as it’s from a variety of sources, much of it is actually very beautiful to look at (some shots of Los Angeles possibly from the year I was born were especially attractive), but the real star of the picture might just be the editing. It’s very cut up, and very fast paced - I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it had more edits than any film released up to that time. Also of note are the DVD’s fantastic selection of extras - including the 1995 documentary Orson Welles: One-Man Band, which I’ve been wanting to see again for a decade, as it includes many lengthy samples from Welles unfinished later films, including some great footage of him reading passages from Moby Dick (if I remember correctly). There’s also a 52 minute doc on Elmyr de Hory and an interview with Clifford Irving that ran on 60 minutes in 2000 - both of which I hope to find the time to watch in the next few days.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
This was one of those weekends when there was so much I wanted to do it was really hard to pick and choose what to do. It was also quite hot - the first really hot weekend of the year, I think.
The best choice I made was to catch some Buster Keaton films down at UCLA Sunday afternoon. I’d seen ‘em all before, but it has been a while - and it’s always best to see these things in the theater (even if the crowds can be a little annoying). First they showed The Goat, which has to be one of Keaton’s best shorts. Mostly it's simply an excuse for him to be on the run from the cops - first he hits a cop in the head with a horseshoe he is supposed to be throwing for good luck, then he is mistaken for an escaped convict. The Love Nest, another short (20 minutes or so) is less memorable (it actually took a while until I was even sure I’d seen it before), features Keaton on a somewhat surreal adventure, sailing around the world after he is dumped by his beloved. After a break we got to the main feature, College, still pretty short tho at just over an hour. A very gag filled picture, lots of sports gags, that for the most part are lots of fun. Here Keaton is playing a boy just off to college, a nerdy boy, who tries to get into sports, ‘cause the girl he digs wants a more sporty fellow. While it's a notch below his best works, it still a fun picture. Apparently it’s somewhat a knock-off of an earlier Harold Lloyd hit - and Keaton was to some extent forced into making it after the commercial failure of the world’s more ambitious, The General.
After the movie I was hoping to catch Eric Bogosian giving a reading down at the Hammer, but they ran just a little too long, not leaving me quite enough time to get down there. God - I also missed Bresson’s A Man Escaped playing down at LACMA last night (I’ve seen it before, but only on video) and This Land is Mine. And I was thinking of seeing L.A. Plays Itself on Saturday, but missed, although I believe there are still a few more screenings coming up. Instead I was watching Looney Tunes! And reading comic books!!!
This morning I finally started reading Nicholson Baker’s A Box of Matches, and I’m loving it. I’m totally jealous of the suburban happy world the main character seems to be living in. Each chapter is a little piece of each morning, when the author gets up before his wife and kids and drinks a cup of coffee and lights a little fire in their fireplace (it’s winter) and muses to himself. Unfortunately it’s a very quick read - I’ve got less than fifty pages left. In a weird way, it kind of reminds me of what I like about Peanuts, perhaps because I just finished reading the second volume of Fantagraphics complete Peanuts last night. I don’t know if other people have talked about it, but what I really enjoy most about reading so many Peanuts strips in chronological order, is the sense of time passing, the sense of seasons changing. I love to see another set of strips on October and Halloween, or when suddenly the kids are playing baseball again and you know it’s April. It’s hard to believe it’s still going to take about eleven more years for Fantagraphics to put all those strips out (at the rate of two books a year). It so amazing and inspiring to me what Schulz was able to accomplish in his lifetime. I’ve got to order volume three right now.
Friday, May 13, 2005
Finally got the chance to see Sam Fuller’s controversial 1982 picture, White Dog, at the Egyptian (part of their Movies Not Available on Video series). His widow, Christa, was even there to introduce the movie, which never got a theatrical release in America. Although they like to blame that on the film being misunderstood as being racist, I have to think that part of the reason had to have been that it just isn’t very good (although apparently it won some awards in Europe). It’s definitely a weird, dark little picture though - and probably worth tracking down. Besides being a movie about a white dog that has been trained to attack black people (and the efforts of a black man and white woman to cure the dog of its race hatred) - it stars the eternally unconvincing Kristy McNicol, and features a large supporting performance from Burl Ives(!?!) as head of a firm that trains animals for films. Further hurting it’s chances of a US release in the happy go lucky early 1980’s had to have been (spoiler warning) its incredibly dark ending that implies there’s probably no ultimate cure for racism (a viewpoint I sadly have come to identify with). People are fucked up!
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Here's a lengthy, excellent, interview with Frank Tashlin from 1971. It mainly focuses on his work at Termite Terrace, but also includes a few samples of his early newspaper comics. I'm on a bit of a cartoon kick this week - finally watching the first Looney Tunes "Golden Collection," which has been sitting on my to be watched shelf for far too long. Laughter is good! I've just ordered the second volume (as well as a few other classic cartoon discs).
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Monday, May 02, 2005
It was another nice night out at LACMA - this time around I was seeing the Penderecki String Quartet. They performed three medium length works by three different composers. First (and best) was Wiltold Lutoslawski’s String Quartet (from 1965) - a great work that is available on a Kronos Quartet CD (as well as probably other places). Next up they played an almost new work (from this year!) by Omar Daniel called Annunciation. This was kind of interesting because Daniel was also there manipulating what the quartet was playing through his computer. Thus the sounds often echoed and doubled back on themselves. Not completely exciting, but not completely w/o merit. They also projected slides of the seven Renaissance paintings that inspired his work behind the musicians. Finally (after an intermission) they played Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite, from 1926. I enjoyed it. It’s good to hear this stuff live, where you can give it all your attention. Sit back and relax. I’m going to try to make tomorrow night’s show by the same quartet, playing works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Haydn. A little more “traditional” evening, I guess.
