(art: Eric Drooker)
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
A documentary on the late Vivian Maier, a nanny whose previously unknown cache of 100,000 photographs earned her a posthumous reputation as one the most accomplished street photographers.
Excellent documentary revealing a sensational discovering of an hitherto unknown master of photography and intriguing as investigation about a quite mysterious person.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Rarely Heard: The Deviants - I'm Coming Home
In the late '60s, the Deviants were something like the British equivalent to the Fugs, with touches of the Mothers of Invention and the British R&B-based rock of the Yardbirds and the Pretty Things. Their roots were not so much in the British Invasion as the psychedelic underground that began to take shape in London in 1966-1967. Not much more than amateurs when they began playing, they squeezed every last ounce of skill and imagination out of their limited instrumental and compositional resources on their debut, Ptoff!, which combined savage social commentary, overheated sexual lust, psychedelic jamming, blues riffs, and pretty acoustic ballads -- all in the space of seven songs. (Allmusic.com)
Leader Mick Farren was an (in)famous anti-establishment figure and found some early publicity organizing an anti-festival on the other hill of the legendary Isle of Wight festival. Later he was an acclaimed rock critic and author of science fiction and fanatsy novels. Online I managed to have some contact with him through his Doc40 blog. Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
First Lines: Francesco Colonna - Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
The Author beginneth his Hypnerotomachi, to set downe the hower and time when in his sleepe it seemed to him that hee was in a quiet solitaire desart, and uninhabited plaine, and from thence afterward how he entered unaduisedly before was aware, with great feare, into a darke obscure and unfrequented wood.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
New Stuff: Finding Vivian Maier
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I missed seeing this documentary at the movies, so I needed to get it on DVD.
Cadillac Man (1990)
A fast-talking car salesman who is down on his luck and in over his head until being taken hostage by a madman forces him to use his sales skills to save lives.
Neither a real comedy nor a satire the star cast do their best to entertain you, but the result is mostly enervating.
Halliwell (no star): "Frenetic farce that is rarely funny."
Maltin**1/2: "Wildly uneven film swings from comedy to melodrama, dragging and then picking up again."
Rarely Heard: Vic Chesnutt - Splendid
In a better world Vic Chesnutt would be famous and his suicide would be mourned by millions of fans. "Chesnutt released 17 albums during his career, including two produced by Michael Stipe. His musical style has been described by Bryan Carroll of allmusic.com as a "skewed, refracted version of Americana that is haunting, funny, poignant, and occasionally mystical, usually all at once". Injuries from a 1983 car accident left him partially paralyzed; he used a wheelchair and had limited use of his hands. (Wikipedia) he lived in constant pain, but still managed to write his beautiful songs and to perform. Ironically, his greatest succes was a tribute album of mainstream artists covering his songs, Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Rarely Heard: Bakersfield Boogie Boys - I Get Around
In 1980 my favourite Bavarian radio music journalist presented a weird and quirky EP by a mysterious band from Bakersfield who named themselves Bakersfield Boogie Boys. There's not much known about these 3 boys and a girl, and there are only 4 songs on the album. But their versions of popular songs like I get Around, Gget Off of My Cloud and Okie From Muskogee made a lasting impresssion on me. Their only original song, Flying Tigers, isn't bad either.
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