Saturday, March 12, 2011
New Stuff: Lydia Lunch
After seeing her perform here in Regensburg together with Gallon Drunk - a great concert - I thought I'd need to catch up with her music on record.
New Stuff: Rooster Cogburn (1975)
After watching both versions of True Grit I just had to get the sequel.
New Stuff: Wise Blood
Since I'm currently reading the novel, I decided to watch this adaptation again. I was quite impressed the first time I saw it in 1979/1980...
True Grit (1969)
A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer in Indian territory.
Solid and wonderfully played modern western with more emphasis on character and story.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
First Lines: Henry James - The Wings of the Dove
She waited, Kate Croy, for her father to come in, but he kept her unconscionably, and there were moments at which she showed herself, in the glass over the mantel, a face positively pale with the irritation that had brought her to the point of going away without sight of him.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
First Lines: Robert Coover - The Origin of the Brunists
Hiram Clegg, together with his wife Emma and four friends of the faith from Randolph Junction, were summoned by the Spirit and Mrs. Clara Collins, widow of the beloved Nazarene preacher Ely Collins, to West Condon on the weekend of the eighteenth and nineteenth of April, there to await the End of the World.
Thank You for Smoking (2005)
The machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son.
Good political satire which manages not really to offend despite its topic.
Monday, March 7, 2011
First Lines: Stanley Elkin - The Dick Gibson Show
(ph: Alfred Eisenstaedt)
When Dick Gibson was a little boy he was not Dick Gibson.
New Stuff: Larsen
I only recently heard of this band, since they collaborated with New With Wound on their new album. I was quite thrilled and very anxious to get this legendary album, here's the story to its production from Allmusic.com:
"In and around 2000, the quartet began wheedling artist, label head, and producer Michael Gira by sending him a series of bizarrely packaged CDRs on the 1st and 21st of each month. After the packages stopped arriving, Gira received a letter informing him of his mission: Told to arrive in Torino on the first of the following month, Gira was to spend 21 days producing the band and would return home on the 22nd. Enclosed with the letter was a round-trip flight to Italy and an advance payment. Interested due to the unique circumstances, as well as the recordings he had been sent, Gira obliged. For three weeks, Gira produced Larsen without actually seeing them -- the group played behind a screen and did not communicate directly with him. Instead, the group's assistants aided Gira and provided language translation. The producer would spend hours hearing the band play, watching their shadows, and occasionally would hear the members argue violently. When the time was right, Gira would be told to record. After the recording was completed, roughly ten hours of material were edited down with the screen again separating the producer and an engineer from the group, as assistants provided translation back and forth. Rever wound up being the end result, and Gira released the record on his Young God label in early 2002."
