The Other Side of Christmas

Tags

Christian, Christmas, Harlan Ellison, Holiday, Jesus, Literature, London, Opinions, Religious

Gruff Rhys – Post Apocalypse Christmas

The Fall – We Wish You A Protein Christmas

Big Star – Jesus Christ

Tracy Thorn Featuring Green Gartside – Taking Down The Tree

The Flaming Lips – Christmas at the Zoo

Frank Sidebottom -Christmas is Really Fantastic

* “Christmas is an awfulness that compares favorably with the great London plague and fire of 1665-66. No one escapes the feelings of mortal dejection, inadequacy, frustration, loneliness, guilt and pity. No one escapes feeling used by society, by religion, by friends and relatives, by the utterly artificial responsibilities of extending false greetings, sending banal cards, reciprocating unsolicited gifts, going to dull parties, putting up with acquaintances and family one avoids all the rest of the year…in short, of being brutalized by a ‘holiday’ that has lost virtually all of its original meanings and has become a merchandising ploy for color tv set manufacturers and ravagers of the woodlands.”

-   Harlan Ellison.

*Note: The author/editor of this post and blog does not necessarily agree entirely with the views of Mr Ellison, an admirably cantankerous, opinionated writer of science fiction and fantasy literature  but when one’s dreams, emotions and mental wellbeing become  so inextricably linked with one day at the end of a calendar year, a questioning of those sentimental fantasies from childhood occurs; the bracing discovery that the banal routines and traditions of adult life also buttress Christmas, making one’s  ‘faith’ waver.

Anyway….enjoy the music. Nollaig Shona.

Conversations: Bat For Lashes

The Haunted Man (2012)

Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man MusicVideo from karp821 on Vimeo.

Stark confessional

Female trill from heart to mouth

She calls for response

Male Choral Symphony cry

By Design: Nymphomaniac (2013)

My Jones for the work of Lars Von Trier – I even liked his 2006 comedy prank The Boss of It All – has been documented here having discussed Antichrist, Dancer in the Dark and Melancholia previously so it may come as no surprise that I am focusing my enthusiasm on the divisive Danish film-maker once more but I felt that this stark, simple, black and white coming attraction poster could not be ignored.

Von Trier is now such a strong brand amongst a certain type of cinemagoer that his & his name alone adorns this enigmatic teaser image rather than the name of the films leading actress Charlotte Gainbourgs who portrays the nymphomaniac in question. Very little is known about the project other than a basic outline of the story which involves Gainsbourg‘s character recounting her life story to a stranger wh finds her beaten up in an alleyway and that the film will also include real sex scenes.

But seeing as Von Trier has consistently pushed the boundaries in depicting sex and violence onscreen throughout his career, this would be less of a surprise and more of a reassurance to Von Trier devotees who come to expect such antics from the acclaimed director.

Some would say this image is provocative and suggestive but then isn’t that entirely the point? How many movie posters actually make you think?

 

Essential Sounds : That Obscure Object of Desire

Tags

Arts, Jesu, Jesus & Mary Chain, Mary, Music, Poetry, Reid, Stringed

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Something I Can’t Have (1993)

Unrequited love and frustrated desire are timeless themes from which a wellspring of art has come into existence. That unique bittersweet cocktail of abject misery and untethered joy projected onto the object of romantic and carnal longings is an infinite source of inspiration for songwriters past.

Channelling the love/hate energy endemic to a horny young male (?) seemingly forced to occupy the same space as a girl who inflames their libido, the Reid Brothers tear down the walls of their seedy bed-sit lust with buzzsaw guitars, killer melodies and a fierce existential cognisance of limited time and opportunity.

 

Farewell Mr Harryhausen (1920 -2013)

Tags

Clash of the Titans, Jason & The Argonauts, Movie Special Effects, Ray Harryhausen, Sinbad, Stop Motion animation

Clash of the Titans (1981) Director: Desmond Davis

Ray Harryhausen Interviewed by Joe Dante

Fantasy is an anchor that we cling to in our turbulent childhood years. Within the repository of our imaginations – relatively untouched by an adult worldview – hours, days, weeks and years contain a realm of fantastic possibilities. For myself, the sources of this fertile dream life were plentiful – movies, books, comics, toys, games, music, cartoons, television – but the consistent theme, that anchor lifting me out of the undertow of fear and uncertainty and fuelling my naïve little heart was escape and the films in which the late Ray Harryhausen performed his magic were great sources of joy, wonderment and pleasure growing up in a grey, non descript South Dublin satellite town.

Countless giddy after school hours were spent either alone or with friends watching a rented VHS of Clash of the Titans being awed by the incredible, stop motion creatures inspired by Greek mythology contained within; the magnificent Pegasus, the hideous Medusa and the terrifying Kraken.

In addition, television schedules of the 1980′s tailored around school and festive holidays seemed overstuffed with Harryhausen assisted classics such as Jason & The Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad & The Eye of The Tiger with startling images of lifelike skeleton armies, one-eyed centaurs and the promise of amazing adventures in exotic lands, fuelling our excitable young minds.

Compare/Contrast: Up To My Neck In You

Tags

Mark Kozelek, AC/DC, Cover Versions, Powerage, Whats Next to the Moon, Folk Rock, Hard Rock

AC/DC (1978)

 

Mark Kozelek (2001)

“Don’t ever apologize!” my old man used to say, if my father was a bleary eyed, sweaty, unshaven macho stereotype drawn from the pages of Hemingway, Bukowski and a Sam Peckinpah script. That statement in the opening section of this posts tortured paragraph is a blatant lie. I am a liar, yes and a craven apologist. Yet, I am reluctant to apologize for the lightness of verbiage contained within my blog over the past week. So I won’t.

With that idiocy out of the way…..Wait, hang on a moment. Oh shit, I’ve…yes, I’ve made some kind of link here…Macho signifiers mentioned in first paragraph. AC/DC; ultimate symbols of male cock rock attitude, unyielding, ridiculous and proud. Ok, I have it now. Give me a moment while I work out my train of though here. What’s that? You’re off to make a cup of tea, read another blog, cut your toenails? Fair enough but you are missing out on my profound observations on male gender sterotypes here but…..that isn’t the central thesis here ya muppet! Who said that? Who dares to….Oh, it was me. Sorry. Look, I’ve inadvertently apologized now. Bugger!

New paragraph, fresh start. Alright, on the left we have Aussie hard rock Gods; swaggering male-ness, good time tight boogie riffage, womanizing, drinking and good times. On the right, sensitive, eternally sad sounding indie folk legend, tender, heartbreaking ephinanies, haunted memories and finger picked minor chords.

The winner dear readers? The listener.

N.B., Quite a smug conclusion to that post. I won’t argue with that. But then I am like that sometimes so….

Essential Sounds: Heartbeats Per Minute (Haiku)

Tags

collaboration, Jimmy LaValle, Mark Kozelek, Perils From The Sea, Sun Kil Moon, The Album Leaf

The Album Leaf/Sun Kil Moon – Caroline (2013)

Painting Houses Red,

Writing stories carved from blue

winters stopping clocks.

Steadicam Tales: Birth of the New

Tags

Biographical films, Bound For Glory, David Carradine, Garret Brown, Hal Ashby, Steadicam, Woody Guthrie

Bound For Glory (1976) – Director: Hal Ashby

The first ever Steadicam shot as excecuted by it’s creator Garrett Brown on Bound For Glory, the 1976 film based on American folk singer Woody Guthries autobiographical book of the same name. Directed by Hal Ashby with the unusual but surprisingly effective casting of  David Carradine – then best known for role in the hit  television series Kung Fu – as Guthrie, Bound For Glory received six Oscar nominations in 1977, winning for Haskell Wexlers gorgeous magic hour photography.

 

Time Is On My Scythe

Tags

anxiety, Blog post, Metropolis, WordPress, Work

A  return to the 9 to 5 routine for the first time in aeons after several years exploring  facets of the arts and life, has stalled my posting here but fear not, good reader. In tandem, I will be trying my hand at the short story form on another WordPress blog which will be up and running fairly soon.  I hope. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and all that and this now constitutes a new entry, my anxiety has now been reduced by about sixty three point five percent which is pretty good all things considered right?

 

 

 

Law of 3 : Hard Times

Tags

2012 movie, Andrew Dominik, Boston, Brad Pitt, Friends of Eddie Coyle, George V. Higgins, Killing Them Softly, recession

An alternative title for Andrew Dominik‘s bleak crime drama Killing Them Softly could be’Fuck You! Pay Me!‘and indeed this mantra, reinforced both by the presence of Goodfellas alum Ray Liotta in the cast – In Scorsese‘s classic, Henry Hill‘s narration at one point includes said mantra to illustrate the mobs enthusiastic predilection for extortion – and the films closing line of dialogue as uttered by the films central character Jackie Cogan, essayed by Brad Pitt with a resigned weariness that infects the entire film.

I say ‘infects’ not to discourage any potential viewers but to emphasize a sickened/diseased pall than hangs over these characters in this story (adapted from George V.Higgins 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade) within its depressed milieu of 2008 recession hit America.

Dominik over reaches somewhat, inserting radio and television broadcasts of the ’08 US election campaign into the film ; an unsubtle commentary on capitalism and how crime is affected economic turbulence as much as any other business enterprise. Making explicit what is already implicit in the way he depicts the state of things both external – the run down bars, cars, dwellings, hotel rooms, drab clothing, grey skin –  and internally through the characters spiritually reductive, myopic view of  existence.

Why not over-reach? Too many film-makers have and will continue to take the more travelled road with the crime film so why not approach the genre with a more critical, studious eye and add a new shade of grey to a tale of violent low-life?

The virtues outnumber the flaws with Dominik extracting excellent performances framed within beautifully controlled tableaux of colourful two-shot conversations staged by DOP Greig Fraser in long takes. Not a moment wasted here and the cast seize on the material; Scoot Mc Nairy, James Gandolfini, Ben Mendelsohn, Liotta and Richard Jenkins exhibit their considerable skills.

Now, Pitt is certainly not a weak link but I found it hard to forget I was watching Brad Pitt playing a tough guy whereas I did not have a problem buying his sublime Jesse James in Dominik’s previous film ‘The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford‘. This could be a fault of mine but I think the part of Jackie Cogan needed a bit more genuine real-life grit that it may take Pitt another decade or so to aqquire.

Debt. Decay. Death. A crime picture for a default generation.

By Design: Cine Fantastique

Tags

1980, DVD, Entertainment, Fantasy, film franchise, film saga, Film Sequels, George Lucas, Home cinema, Home video, Poster, Recordings, science fiction, Shopping, space opera, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Tom Jung, VHS, Video

Sometime Back in the era of 1984/85 , when VHS tapes and machines were the dominant force in home entertainment and as a boy obsessed with all things related to science fiction and fantasy, I eagerly awaited the weekly/bi-weekly video shop visit with my dad. Cinema excursions and home video players were still a rare thing for most families in our area before the easy access multiplex age, cheap dvd players and increased car ownership – the nearest cinemas located at least five miles away – so video stores were a convenient and relatively cheaper form of movie going and being a kid , any television screen with a decent reception and a bigger than 14 inch screen was a virtual home cinema experience for an excitable kid borne of the times. Stores with names like Video Vision and NCV Videos were a common playground for my imagination with lurid posters from every genre and tall racks of what seemed giant, battered plastic video cases.

One particular store in Dun Laoghaire, a seaside town from where my family originate had many such posters adorning its shabby, cramped walls but the one that would always catch my eye was the poster above, for The Empire Strikes Back designed by Tom Jung. Back then most cinema releases take at least a year to eighteen months before getting a home video release and I believe, three years before it received a television airing so awaiting the release of a film you had missed at the cinema was a major event, at least for this spaced out boy.

A Star Wars nut, I had somehow contrived to see the first film and its third concluding chapter, Return of The Jedi on television and pirate video before seeing Empire. Every time I saw this poster, my excitement reached dangerous levels and I’m sure i pulled a few sad face, sulky tantrums to convince my dad to rent it along with the first film for the umpteenth time. My intelligence not sufficiently advanced, I  never made the connection that Jedi was the third part in the saga and so watching Empire for the first time traumatized me somewhat, seeing as our heroes ended up on the losing side and my favourite Han Solo was seemingly killed!

So when I thought of the film; the revelatory experience of watching it for the first time, this poster with its bold, cool design and it’s collation of dramatic space opera imagery always came to mind. Even now, it still conjures up the past excitements, fears and hopes of that rosy cheeked seven-year old of 1984 standing and dreaming in the local video store.