Crown Heights Bedtime Music

You know, some people have to resort to CD players or clock radios for music to lull them to sleep.

I, on the other hand, have booming hip hop from the street to create my perfect nighttime soundscape.

Upcoming Events, Jun 2007

• Animal Collective outside tomorrow night as long as it doesn't rain.
• Bang on a Can Saturday into Sunday.
• The Naked Kiss, The White Dog, The Big Red One at MoMI if I can finally make it out to their Sam Fuller retrospective.
• The Clientele live next Friday. Certainly one of my most favorite current bands I've never seen live. Right up there with Panda Bear, June 18.
• A preview screening of Johnnie To's Exiled at MoMI.
• Richard Thompson & Ralph Stanley in Prospect Park, June 21 & 22, respectively.
• Cabiria, The Thing From Another World, and Morocco at MoMA.
• 12:08 East of Bucharest at Film Forum.
• At IFC: Lars Von Trier's The Boss of It All, Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche
• They're not listing the full lineup yet, but a terrific selection of films will be showing at Lincoln Center under the banner of 30 Years of Kino International (the indie/foreign film distributor). Chaplin's The Great Dictator, Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels, Claude Chabrol's Les bonnes femmes, Bunuel's L'age d'or, etc.
• Lindsay Anderson's If... at Anthology, Knocked Up somewhere

17th Five Films, 2007

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Monte Walsh (William Fraker) as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective at Walter Reade Theater. One of the questions after the film (co-star Mitchell Ryan was on hand) was related to the editing, since there were four of them credited in all. Apparently the studio wrested control of the film away from director William Fraker, resulting in a shorter, more jumbled cut. The pacing seemed less than skillful, and I felt a bit confused at the beginning, as the characters' actions seemed motivated by nothing more than the fact that they were playing parts in a western, but that kind of made sense as it became evident that this was a eulogy for the old West via Lee Marvin, the last cowboy standing. Jack Palance plays his partner, and the scene in which he gently breaks it to Marvin that he's going to be getting married and settling down is one of my favorites in any Western from any era. Also superb is the scene where Marvin, after the wedding, tames the grey horse which Mitchell Ryan's boastful bronco buster had no luck with. Before finally giving in, the horse destroys nearly every front storefront on the street, tossing Marvin from the saddle multiple times.
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The Killers (Don Siegel) as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective at Walter Reade Theater. Clu Gulager makes a strong case for his pretty minor character as Marvin's talkative sidekick. Also interesting to see Ronald Reagan's final acting role, 16 years before he became president. Overall, I recall enjoying the 1946 version starring Burt Lancaster, directed by Robert Siodmak, a lot more.
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The Professionals (Richard Brooks) as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective at Walter Reade Theater. I didn't find the story to be that terrific, but I did enjoy Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster, and this film may contain some of the most beautiful color photography I've ever seen--almost certainly a new print.
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Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen) in Keene on DVD. Chepina thought she hadn't seen this when I picked it off the shelf at the video store then realized later that she probably had. The dialogue felt really dense (in that there was a lot of it, not that the writer was thickheaded) and there were a lot of good small roles: I particularly liked Max Von Sydow's misanthropic, demanding artist. Woody Allen's character is almost always my least favorite thing about his movies, but I did like the scenes depicting his hilarious quest for religion.
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The Magic Mirror (Manoel de Oliveira) at Anthology Film Archives. I've heard Oliveira's name a lot in magazines, online, etc. so I felt like I ought to check this film out, though as Nathan Lee points out in his Village Voice review, this is one of the least accessible films in recent memory. I incorrectly described this to Charles as boring; I can get into slow, "boring" movies, but this is full of talking that goes in circles, or nowhere. I didn't find a lot to get excited about visually, either.

Memorial Day Wknd., 2007 (Selected)

Took the train to Springfield, Brian drove me to Keene by way of the Northfield Drive-In and a brightly lit diner (New England clam chowder, strawberry rhubarb pie).

Next day, along with Chepina, we had muffins, watched an excellent high school baseball game in an idyllic valley near a babbling brook, and returned to Keene by way of the small town of Newfane, host to a stereotypically pleasant village green, the larger town of Brattleboro (patronized the co-op, did not see naked people), and the Forest View Restaurant, where they serve a mean bacon cheeseburger and apparently defrost their refrigerator slightly less frequently than the Red Sox win World Series. Later on we had hot chocolate at Burdick's in Walpole, bought some more groceries, and ate the first half of a kielbasa.

Sunday we ate more muffins, marinated the brats in some beer, and eventually set up camp by a grill with a picnic table in a stand of pines at a surprisingly underpopulated Wheelock Park, throwing the frisbee, grilling and simmering the brats (w/ beer, butter, onions), eating them on New England-style frankfurter buns, and drinking Moxie, America's first mass-produced soft drink ("Since 1884"). That evening, while Brian filed his story on the game, I took a nap before Chepina showed me around Keene, stopping at the coffeeshop where we looked out onto what is allegedly America's widest Main Street while I slowly regained consciousness with the aid of a fine latte. We also viewed the college, the private school where she teaches, and some nice old houses. Back home, we watched Hannah and Her Sisters and ate popcorn, eventually joined by Brian who helped finish off the kielbasa, along with some rather old cheddar. Abby, the dog, partook of the brats and the popcorn, but not the kielbasa, nor the cheddar.

Today I was introduced to Lindy's Diner (eggs benedict), surrounded by a parade and filled with holiday visitors. I also saw Bellows Falls, which had a nice divided, bi-level downtown, below which was the train station where I boarded just before noon for a six hour, twenty minute journey back to New York.

Music This Weekend

So, yes, I'm excited about Animal Collective kicking off the summer concert season this Friday, but perhaps more noteworthy is the absolutely deranged Bang on a Can marathon. Here are what seem to be points of interest at first glance:

~10.45PM
The Books
with Todd Reynolds

12.42AM
Brian Eno : Music for Airports
Bang on a Can All-Stars

~2:30AM
Juana Molina

4.32AM
Steve Reich : Music for 18 Musicians
Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble

~11.30AM
Clogs

~8.00PM
Yo La Tengo

16th Five Films, 2007

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The Big Heat (Fritz Lang) as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective at Walter Reade Theater. Gloria Grahame gives one of the most enthusiastic peformances that I've ever seen here. She gets almost all the good lines and visibly/audibly savors every one. Hollywood has produced its share of possibly unintelligent beauties who try to play smart by keeping quiet, but Grahame seems a clever sort playing this hilariously self-aware ditz with great relish. Her death scene, like the whole role, is touching because it's just slightly different from what you'd expect, yet perfectly fitting. She's a perfect foil for both the sadistic Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) and the almost comically determined (Glenn Ford). Ford (The Asphalt Jungle, Superman) seemed to me the absolute worst part of the picture, delivering almost all of his lines as growling threats.
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The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer) at Anthology Film Archives. A big, multi-generational turnout for this one. Missed just the first minute or so of the image (background music was playing) due to some projection problem or other. The print looked pretty good (it's in their collection), though the intertitles were weirdly off-center. Odd that the sets were apparently quite expensive (according to iMDB) since for most of the time only a blank wall is visible behind the face of the character, with nothing but close-ups for most scenes.
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The Wendell Baker Story (Luke & Andrew Wilson) at the AMC Empire 25 for a Stylus review.
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I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang) at IFC. I fell asleep during about four consecutive lengthy shots in the first half hour, but it started to gel later on when I figured out the connections between the characters and static shots carried more emotional impact. The intensity built really powerfully toward the end, climaxing in the final shot of the three main characters floating into view at a glacial pace on top of the ever-present mattress.
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Garden State at home on VHS thanks to Charles. I found Zach Braff and Natalie Portman to be less attractive than in their other roles, though maybe that's just because I so rarely watch movies on tape anymore. Neither the writing or the directing seemed particularly inspired, though I did enjoy the post-party body-writing gag, particularly when it reappeared in the doctor's office.
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5 Favorite Tracks of 2007

Inspired by this thread on ILX, here you have it:

• Eluvium "Ostinato"
• Junior Boys "FM (Marsen Jules Remix)"
• LCD Soundsystem "Someone Great" / "All My Friends"
• The Mary Onettes "Lost"
• Pantha du Prince "Asha"

And the runners-up:

• Andy Stott "Handle With Care" / "See in Me"
• Junior Boys "Like a Child (Carl Craig Remix)"
• Panda Bear "Comfy in Nautica"
• Ripperton "10a"
• Timbaland "Give It to Me"

Kode 9 and Shackleton played Dub War at Love on Saturday night. Shackleton's set seemed all right, though I thought he got into a groove toward the end. Kode 9 did a live PA which felt really fresh at the start and then seemed to bog down for much of the rest of it, with too many long breaks between beats filled in by the Spaceape. Far be it from me to disparage the Spaceape's vocals, but this was a club, and Kode 9 just didn't seem to have a coherent set put together. His DJing started out a bit rough, though he really got the crowd moving toward the end.

I'm not sure about the system. There seemed to be a few issues with sound going out from time to time, and there was definitely a rewind* or two, but the music seemed to stop or at least hiccup far too often. The bass was powerful, but not quite clean enough for my taste; ie the room vibrations sometimes seemed as loud as the subwoofers, which isn't really my cup of tea.

*I think this comes from dub/reggae, but basically the DJ picks up the needle and starts the tune over if he deems it worthy. By the end I was craving some seamless 4/4 mixing: techno, disco, whatever.

Notes on The Big Heat

Gloria Grahame gives one of the most enthusiastic peformances in The Big Heat that I've ever seen. She gets almost all the good lines and visibly/audibly savors every one. Hollywood has produced its share of possibly unintelligent beauties who try to play smart by keeping quiet, but Grahame seems a clever sort playing this hilariously self-aware ditz with great relish. Her death scene, like the whole role, is touching because it's just slightly different from what you'd expect, yet perfectly fitting. She's a perfect foil for both the sadistic Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) and the almost comically determined (Glenn Ford). Ford (The Asphalt Jungle, Superman) seemed to me the absolute worst part of the picture, delivering almost all of his lines as growling threats.

Summer Music Out of Doors

I'm quite excited about seeing Animal Collective in an outdoor setting. Is Television any good live in 2007? Hopefully.

Animal Collective
June 1 | South St. Seaport

Bang on a Can Marathon
June 2 & 3 | World Financial Center

Television
June 16 | Central Park Summerstage

Richard Thompson
June 21 | Prospect Park Bandshell

Ralph Stanley
June 22 | Prospect Park Bandshell

Fujiya & Miyagi
July 6 | South St. Seaport

Spoon
July 11 | Rockefeller Park

Decemberists/Grizzly Bear
July 16 | Central Park Summerstage

The Hold Steady
August 9 | Prospect Park Bandshell

Ted Leo/Thermals
August 12 | McCarren Park Pool

NEW The National
August 17 | South Street Seaport

NEW Camera Obscura
August 24 | South Street Seaport

NEW Battles
August 31 | South Street Seaport

Record Carless Time

Brian mentioned something in an email about the fact that I rarely ride around in cars these days, much less drive, and I was prompted to try to recall my lengthiest period without riding in a personal automobile. At college I would have maxed out at about 10.5 weeks, but I think last year in Seattle I got close to three months. I drove back with Charles in a Volvo from Golden Gardens park in mid to late August, and rode along in the Westlake's van with Trent, et al. to pick up a Christmas tree at Lowe's on what I believe was the day after Thanksgiving. However, I think I also caught a ride to a church service at Evergreen Mennonite as late as September 10, so my maximum may only be 10.5 weeks after all.

15th Five Films, 2007

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Point Blank (John Boorman) at Walter Reade Theater as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective. Boorman spoke before and took questions after both this and Hell in the Pacific. He has a slow, drawn-out delivery, but a lot of wonderful anecdotes about Marvin and Hollywood in general.
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford) at Walter Reade Theater as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective. I'd been going to see The Steel Helmet at MoMI until I found out after boarding the R train (the V train doesn't run on weekends and the G never seems to run correctly either) that it would be running express at least 40 blocks past where I needed to go. So I headed back to Manhattan and caught the second and third of my eight Lee Marvin films. I liked this a bit less than in Carol Donelan's senior seminar, as it seemed a bit mawkish and not very exciting the second time through. I also can't shake the idea that I'd seen it before in color, even though I think it's only black and white.
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Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman) at Walter Reade Theater as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective. The very minimalist story of two guys, Marvin and Toshiro Mifune (star of many a Kurosawa picture), stranded on an isolated stretch of beach on a desert island at the end of World War II with an insurmountable language barrier between them. They manage to build a raft and sail to another island, but apparently the print we were watching had mistimed sound for the penultimate reel, which made for a very avant-garde arrival on and exploration of the new island. Most of the audience seemed annoyed, but I thought it was pretty fun.
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Woman Is the Future of Man (Hong Sang-soo) ** at home on DVD. Not as delightful or intelligible as Woman on the Beach, the awkward, sexually charged interactions are still full of memorable moments.
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Zoo (Robinson Devor) at IFC. I've read a few good reviews of this but GreenCine's interview with writer Charles Mudede will probably give you the best idea of whether you want to see a movie about a group of zoophiles based near Seattle. Beautifully shot (on video) with a haunting soundtrack.
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14th Five Films, 2007

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Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder) at BAM with Charles and Kevin. Not my favorite Barbara Stanwyck role (that wig!), although I love how Fred MacMurray plays against her. Edward G. Robinson's powerhouse scene in the president's office really stood out this time around. I'm not sure at this point how I feel about Wilder as a director, other than that he probably knows best how to showcase his unbelievable dialogue.
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Year of the Dog (Mike White) at Angelika Film Center for a Stylus review.
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The Billion Dollar Brain (Ken Russell) as the first part of a double feature at Film Forum, which has tasty, if expensive, popcorn. Not outstanding in any way, although I did like Oskar Homolka's character quite a bit. I failed to recognize him while watching from Ball of Fire, which I'd seen less than two weeks prior, although he did seem somehow familiar. This was really just the B-feature backing up...
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The Ipcress File (Sidney J. Furie), potentially an all-time favorite. I was reminded of Michael Caine's droll appeal particularly from Get Carter, although I've enjoyed him in several lesser roles as well. Hoping basically for something slightly livelier than Billion Dollar Brain, I was not at all prepared for Furie's extreme upward angles, excellent use of natural light, very capable staging, and integration of food into the plot and mise-en-scene, always a soft spot of mine for some reason. (Incidentally, Election also featured food/eating to good effect.) Hilarious, beautiful, riveting, and delightfully British.
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13th Five Films, 2007

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Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks) at BAM. I found it odd how much Barbara Stanwyck played to the whole group of scholars rather than to just Gary Cooper. This was sharp and hilarious, but not as bristly as I expected the Hawks/Wilder collaboration to be.
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Tape (Richard Linklater) at home on DVD. I generally couldn't stop thinking how much Robert Sean Leonard looks like Jim Carrey, but when I did I noticed that this didn't feel like a Richard Linklater script. I didn't really care that much for School of Rock, written by Mike White and directed by Linklater, although I did really like Bad News Bears, which I'm guessing owes a lot to Billy Bob Thornton and the group's ability to riff on the original from the seventies. I love all Linklater's scripts, though I still need to see The Newton Boys.
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Croupier (Mike Hodges) at home on DVD. This solidified my Clive Owen fandom and was also really enjoyable, but didn't feel substantial somehow. I wonder how I'll feel upon repeat viewings.
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Gosford Park (Robert Altman) at MoMA. This is great every time I see it. On the big screen I noticed that pretty early on, Ryan Philippe's character leans over and reveals "Property of Fox Studios" on the waist of his pants, even before anyone suggests that he seems to be a queer sort for a valet.
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Election/Triad Election (Johnnie To) at Film Forum. I was reminded of how briskly Hong Kong crime films move, something I've noticed with Infernal Affairs and As Tears Go By. Neither of these really stole my heart, but I did like the ending of the first, as Simon Yam's ascendant Triad leader ruthlessly solidifies his position, echoed to hilarious effect in the second film. Triad Election was certainly the more beautiful of the two, particularly the scenes on Jimmy's property in China.
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Lee Marvin Retrospective

I just realized that I will probably be trying to see eight Lee Marvin films over the next few weeks at Walter Reade Theater. I definitely want to see three of them ($33) and a series pass for eight is only $40, so it would be kind of dumb not to get one. (Note: as this overlaps with MoMI's Sam Fuller retrospective, I think I might get a full year's worth of on-screen manliness by Memorial Day.)

These I most want to see:

• The Big Heat
• The Killers
• Point Blank

I will skip The Big Red One since I can see that at MoMI, and so will probably also see these:

• Paint Your Wagon
• The Professionals
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

So, what I need to know is, have any of you seen any of these remaining titles, and if so, what can you say about them?

• Attack
• Bad Day at Black Rock
• Cat Ballou
• The Comancheros
• Emperor of the North Pole
• Hell in the Pacific
• The Iceman Cometh
• Lee Marvin: Personal Portrait
• Monte Walsh
• Prime Cut
• Seven Men From Now
• Shack Out on 101
• Ship of Fools
• The Spikes Gang

Gilded Palace of Sin

You know, I think I've had the Flying Burrito Brothers' first album for up to three years but managed to never actually listen to it, which was apparently an enormous mistake as I stumbled upon it tonight and have been captivated all the way up through maybe the last track, "Hippie Boy," which I'm not quite so excited about.

And as I was browsing through someone's library the other day on Soulseek I decided to download the Durutti Column's LC, which I also liked a lot. Very atmospheric, with a lot of rambling pieces and only a few verse-chorus songs; kind of like Eno's Another Green World with bigger drums.

Odds & Ends

I noticed in the paper today that of the top six vote-getters in the NBA sportsmanship award, three were Duke alumni: Luol Deng, this year's winner, Shane Battier, and Elton Brand, who won last year. In 2004-2005, Grant Hill won.

The Comoros have had 19 coups since gaining independence from France in 1975. That's an average reign of about 20 months.

The most recent two P.G. Wodehouse novels I've read, Something Fresh (1915) and Mike and Psmith (1909), share a striking number of similarities. Plotwise, both hinge on a break-in scene at night in which the perpetrator, our hero, knocks over a can of paint while creeping about where he shouldn't be at such an hour. The protagonist is not actually guilty of the accusation leveled against him in either book, each time by an insanely determined self-appointed detective. The detective finds the paint-stained shoe, but in each book a loyal companion of the protagonist absconds with the shoe just before it's shown to the main authority figure. In each novel, the amateur sleuth compares himself to Doctor Watson, and Wodehouse even reuses at least one paragraph almost verbatim, though the whole ordeal is very similar. There's also a reused passage regarding the old adage which goes, "Early to bed, early to rise, ..." I wonder if there are more connections to be found within his work.