Francis Bacon on the South Bank Show, from 1985. Fascinating stuff. 10:55 PM >>> 0 comments

This album has really be growing on me. The sound is so warm! A very good mix/balance of approaches. It's definitely among my favorites of the year so far. 10:14 AM >>> 0 comments

I feel really lucky I was finally able to see Budd Boetticher's 1951 film, The Bullfighter and the Lady, earlier this week at the Egyptian theater. It had been on my want-to-see list for an awfully long time. This was the restored two hour version as well (I don't know when it was restored though). I found it totally mesmerizing. The lead performance, from Robert Stack, burns with an amazing intensity - a real focus (at times) that I've rarely seen before in a fiction film. The documentary-type way Boetticher shows the actual bullfights and bullfighters in the movie (and the stadium and the crowds) really pulls you in (or maybe pushes away the squeamish). The use of repetition is particularly noteworthy - luxurious pass after pass of bulls towards the matador's cape - had me practically hypnotized. The love story is actually interesting. Even the supporting characters are charming, unique and fun to watch. The film has a certain hard to describe quality, a genuineness, that I found myself admiring greatly. 10:50 AM >>> 0 comments

What I liked about Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon is how straight-forward it is - no flowery poetry to his language - just effective storytelling. In this case, he's telling the story of a nuclear war between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. and the struggle to survive in a small, un-hit town in Florida. What's interesting about this book, is that it was published in 1959 as sort of a wake-up-call. It's compelling reading - and a convincing portrait of how a small, rural community, back then, might have been able to pull through the almost unthinkable. These days I'm not so sure. It's also an interesting portrait of some of the racism and segregation to be found in those small communities at the time (separate white and "colored" drinking fountains! for example). Thankfully, the book doesn't moralize, instead focusing on simply describing real seeming people going through a difficult, terrifying situation. It's a definite page-turner. 9:37 AM >>> 0 comments

Dead Rising is a broken, fucked up game - that's, at times, a tremendous amount of fun, despite some really bad game flaws - so much fun that as soon as I beat the game I actually started playing it all over again. But first to those flaws. Often you hear complaints of the game's annoying save system, but for me the real problems are the games uneven structure (too often there's either too much you're supposed to be trying to accomplish, or too little), bad A.I. (trying to lead survivors to safety is an exercise in pure frustration) and poorly conceived boss fights (usually insanely difficult until you find the broken way to beat the boss, or just stupid - shoot somebody in the head fifty times and then suddenly they are on your side & unhurt!). But...but... somehow the game is still fun and compelling - because there is so much to do... But probably mostly because it's just a great idea for a game - a semi-free-roaming sandbox type game set inside a huge mall literally drowning in zombies. Your mission - to survive for 72 hours (about six hours real time - although the game probably takes at least twice that to play, with restarts and surprise "endings") while rescuing whatever human survivors you can while digging to the bottom of what actually caused this outbreak of the undead. At first your character starts out quite weak, which makes the game near impossible, but as you play through, killing zombies, rescuing survivors, and defeating psychopaths you build up your stats so you have more health and can carry more weapons and food/health items - and you also can learn new types of attacks - some of which prove to be quite effective. The weapon system proves to be a lot of fun as well - not only do you have your expected mix of guns you can pick up at various locations, but practically anything you can find in the mall can be used as a weapon, from chain saws to sledgehammers, bowling balls, gold clubs, hockey stick, skateboards, mannequin torsos, plants and benches to parts of zombies bodies. If you find you way down to the maintenance tunnels you can build up a lot of points running over zombies in mass with various cars (to earn the Zombie Genocider achievement you must kill 53,594 zombies in one play (in my first run through the game I killed less than 4,000 - but that was a lot)). The game is extremely tough - I doubt I would have had the fortitude to play through it to the end without the help of gamefaqs, forums and even watching some of the guide videos people have posted to youtube. The game makes you want to put in the extra effort though. It took that whole first play thru to actually start to figure out what the hell I should have been doing and how to get through the game better. There was so much I didn't get to do the first time that there's actually still a lot to discover now that I've started playing through the game a second time (lots of psychopath fights I never even tried, for instance). It also helps that you get to keep you beefed up stats (and to continue to build 'em - I'm only at level 29 of 50). The one thing missing that I hope the inevitable sequel includes would be a co-op component - being able to play through the game with a friend would be even more of a blast. As it stands, Dead Rising is one of those weird, rare games that is fun despite of and sort of because it's many flaws - just like the horror movies it liberally borrows from. 2:29 PM >>> 0 comments

I was very impressed this weekend by Louis Malle's 1974 film Lacombe Lucien, which I'd never seen before. The approach is very matter of fact and not particularly judgmental. The style is very low key and straightforward - there's nothing showy about this historical drama. And it's a brutal, difficult film to watch, filled with not very good people (nazis and their French collaborators, as well as small minded villagers and self-hating jews) doing not particularly good things. What I think I appreciated about it the most, is how it told it's whole story in an amazingly objective manner and never seemed to try to manipulate the viewer - so different from most movies I've ever seen. At it's center the film is probably a meditation on the thin line between walking a good path and a bad path in your life - and as that, it provides plenty of food for thought (if you are so inclined).

The film is available on DVD as part of a three film Criterion boxset, but also in a R2 five film boxset (Louis Malle Volume 2) from Optimum that's a much better value if you have a region free DVD player. 12:44 PM >>> 0 comments

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Yet another book about "running" away from home to go live in wild, literary, late 1920's Paris!?! Probably not needed. But Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco is a little different than some of the other many similar books in that he was only 18 when he took off from Canada for France and that at first he was supported rather nicely by his father, but eventually ended up cut off and supporting himself through various odd-jobs (manuscript typing) and eventually as a sort of gigolo / prostitute. Mostly though the book is about trying to decide if one wants to be a serious writer or wants to just live life (i.e. if it's better to spend one's time playing or working). Glassco tends to be a bit catty and interesting in the way he describes the scene, Hemingway dropping in the bar, crashing a Gertrude Stein party, a visit to James Joyce's dark apartment, etc. All territory however that feels a bit overexplored. As we move further away in time, the ex-pat literary scene of 1920s Paris seems to grow ever less compelling, ever less relevant. It's a clear, decently written book, a fine book, but yeah, not terribly original - just kind of another one of those books. Okay. 10:48 AM >>> 0 comments

In The Afterlife, Donald Antrim takes some run of the mill autobiographical type stuff and manages to make it an interesting read by making the book more about how this stuff obsesses him than about the actual events he describes. Also, instead of telling his story in a linear fashion he moves around, forward and back in time and through his (not always reliable) memories in a way that keeps the book interesting and surprising. Also, he knows how to write sentences that are a pleasure to read.

The Afterlife is built around Antrim's memories of his alcoholic and possibly crazy mother, what it was like growing up in her house and how he felt when she passed away. While his memories and thoughts of her are the center of the book, he uses them simply as a jumping off point to explore his relationships to the rest of his family over the years, but even more so, his inner life - from trying to buy the perfect new bed - to his love of literature. It's a moving book too - just for showing another glimpse of the real life of real people from the 1960's to the 2000's traveling up and down the eastern edge of America, from Florida to Maine. 10:01 AM >>> 0 comments

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a game whose name seems to come up a lot in reference whenever I read reviews of games, so I thought, maybe I should give that one a try. Glad I did. One of the harder games I've ever played and beat, but also one of the most fun ones - as it's mostly about figuring out puzzles (how to get from point A to B) and the pace is as slow as you need (for the most part). The game as has lots of save points, which makes picking it up for just a little forward progress pretty easy. Another cool thing about the way the game saves, is that it tells you how far along in the game you are. For somebody like me, it's very much a relief to be able to know what percentage of the game I've completed and how much further there is left to go (nice to feel the end is within reach). Being able to rewind time when you make a mistake is also a really nice feature, that allows one to try out different solutions without worrying too much about dying and having to repeat a ton of tough shit you just were struggling through. The game's learning curve is smooth too, as you figure stuff out and get better, it's nice to be able to race through problems that once caused head-scratching difficulties. I did get sort of stuck in a few rooms trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, for longer than was probably reasonable, but it felt great when I eventually figured out the puzzle, or what I was doing wrong. The game doesn't have a lot of combat, but what there is, is probably the games weakest point. Swinging your sword and jumping over guys is kinda cool, but there just isn't enough variety to the fighting sections - and sometimes they become extremely difficult (i.e. unfun) as you are swarmed by enemy after enemy. The graphics on the xbox version are pretty nice (for a four year old last-gen game) - they're 480p, but not widescreen though - which is a bit odd. When you complete the game you unlock the original 80s version of the game, but maybe since I was playing this on the 360, the original game wouldn't display (screen turned black) - I guess somebody forget to check the backwards compatibility of the "bonus" features. Or maybe they want me to buy the remake (with slicked-up graphics) due out later this month. And I probably will. 10:45 AM >>> 0 comments

Kinda liking... 3:02 PM >>> 0 comments

Phil 7 Existentialism in Literature and Film 2:41 PM >>> 0 comments

Luc Sante on Georges Simenon 2:35 PM >>> 0 comments