Pocket Symphony

Not much to say… except I just got a new iPhone. Hopefully I’ll be posting more on-the-go soon. Here’s a picture of Inca that I just took with the phone:

On your right, you’ll see that I’m keeping track of all of the “Classic Movies” as I watch them. I imagine that at some point I’ll just show the latest 20, but since it’s only been 5 to date, you see them all.

Friday night, we watched the Woody Allen flick Broadway Danny Rose. As I unwrapped my DVD, I realize that this might only be the second time I’ve seen it since the original theatrical release (the first being the one and only time I watched my laserdisc). Since it was the weekend, we made a small party of it, and I was joined by Heather and Stephen, our next-door neighbor, who not only works in the film biz, but is a fan (you’d be surprised at how rare that is). The broad comedy of much of the movie prompted the question: “this is one of the greatest movies of all time?” - but in the end, the final feeling was that it’s a fine film (at least, that’s what I argued).

That night, I intended to watch the original Scarface, but I chose sleep instead. I wouldn’t get back to my DVD player until late Saturday night, after we returned from the Arclight Theater on Sunset where we saw the latest installment in the Batman franchise (for my opinion on that movie, you should check out the message board that I contribute to. There’s currently a lively discussion about The Dark Knight there).

A few months ago, I had a conversation with my pal Jeff about the original Scarface. He pointed out that the De Palma / Pacino movie of the same name (with script by Oliver Stone) is more of a remake than one might imagine. When I revisited the 1932 Hawks film, I went in with that in mind. And he was right. The movie is much tighter (read: shorter) than the 1983 epic, and the script is great. The entire cast is spot-on, with the one exception of Boris Karloff as a rival gangster. Maybe it’s just my expectation of Karloff in a certain kind of role, but it was difficult for me to get my head around him as a menacing Chicago gangster.

The latest movie on my list was Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon. This is indeed a cool movie. Released in England in 1957, it didn’t come out in the US for another seven months, when it appeared in truncated form as Curse of the Demon. This short version is the only one that was available in the States for many years (I think the long version was accidentally released on laserdisc at some point - but it wasn’t widescreen). The current DVD is a stunning widescreen presentation of the longer original version of the movie. As a skeptic who also happens to love stories of the supernatural, this played like a wonderful horror episode of the X-Files, albeit with the gender switch of Dana Andrews playing the skeptical Scully part. Additionally, as a pop culture fan, I was delighted to not only recognize this movie as the source for a line in a song from the Rocky Horror Show, but to spot an quotation that Kate Bush sampled for her masterpiece “Hounds of Love”.

I’ll probably not post this much about every movie I see (when would I have time to watch movies?). But if you see something appear in the list on the right and would care to start a discussion about it, I’m always game.

So last night I watched 12 Angry Men. Great flick.

With a small cast (of, um… 12 guys, mostly), and a setting that rarely leaves a single room, Sidney Lumet created what might be the ultimate courtroom drama - in his first feature film!

Then I watched Duel.

With a small cast (of, um… 1 guy, mostly), and a setting that rarely leaves a single car, Steven Spielberg created what might be the ultimate chase movie - in his first feature film!

OK… Duel isn’t the “ultimate chase movie” - I think the chase scene in Ronin is still my favorite. But it’s a damn fine movie.

What’s next? I just noticed that DeepDiscountDVD is having a “buy one get one free” deal on some Criterion DVDs… gotta go!

Before I get to the Spiritualized post, I wanted to share that as of today, I’ve decided that I’m going to join the ranks of those movie geeks who are attempting to see all of the movies on the 1,000 Greatest Films List that’s compiled and hosted by the lunatics at They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?.

Even though I’ve already seen many of the movies on the list, I’m going to try and watch all of them, in no particular order, including revisiting the ones I’ve already seen.

I’m also including the 35 films on their “must-see” list that aren’t currently in the Top 1,000 (as of the December 2007 list).

I’m going to try and make a brief post about each one I see - and perhaps have a “most recent movie” in my sidebar, so you can play along.

Tonight’s choice: 12 Angry Men.

So… lots going on. Saw a bunch of good movies - ate a bunch of good meals - took a bunch of cool pictures. That’ll all come soon. Don’t want to muck up a simple post with too much stuff….

Anyway, for 4th of July week, my pal Jeff came down from San Francisco. We took in a lot of what LA has to offer - mostly by car. During that time, I had my iPod plugged into my car stereo. We listened to some Louis XIV and The Mae Shi, because we had gone to their shows (seriously… more about that later). But mostly, we listened to the new albums by Spiritualized and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.

Depending on what level of “hipster” you are, you have either: a. never heard of either band; b. have heard them on your local indie radio station (KCRW here in LA, for example); or c. know all about them, but think they pale in comparison to their original incarnations.

I must admit that when I was a younger music fan, the running joke was “The Beatles? I didn’t know Paul McCartney had a band before Wings!” The true hipster (ok, “music snob”) rejects all that is new and potentially popular and embraces what was groundbreaking and more obscure.

I’m past being a snob, because it only serves to alienate me from cool (read: “not snobby”) people and shuts me off from experiences that I might otherwise really enjoy. But since I still have the pop historian brain - I’ll give you a little background into these two acts - just to provide some context. If you know all this stuff already, feel free to jump ahead to the videos… they’re pretty amazing.

First up, Stephen Malkmus.

Malkmus was the leader of perhaps the indie band of the 1990s - Pavement. Formed in Stockton, CA in ‘89 with his pal Scott Kannberg, aka “Spiral Stairs” - Pavement quickly became darlings of the indie rock scene. They were massive in Europe, played Lollapalooza, and were “the next big thing” several times (especially after Nirvana’s ascent from indie stars to rock gods). Their jangly guitar sound and quirky production often overshadowed their clever lyrics and brilliant song construction. I enjoyed Pavement, but I often felt that their need to be obtuse was a little off-putting. They would talk about how they didn’t know how to play their instruments and would put on “ramshackle” performances that obscured their real genius. I know many people will dispute this point, especially the fans who constantly yearn for a Pavement reunion, but I think that being in the band held Malkmus back. With their dissolution at the turn of the millennium, Malkmus “went solo” (not really, he formed a new band called “The Jicks” - but his label wouldn’t let him call his first post-Pavement record anything but “Stephen Malkmus”). On that album and the three that have come out since, Malkmus has continued his infectious songwriting and performing, while stripping away the quirkiness that Pavement espoused. Maybe it’s because he’s older - maybe it’s because I’m older - but I absolutely love what he’s done for the last several years.

His latest album, Real Emotional Trash, could be his best work yet. His love for “Loaded”-era Velvets and early ’70s Krautrock are apparent in his arrangements and perfomance - but at the heart of it all, there’s some damn fine songwriting.

While trolling through the web looking for a gem to share with you, I found this neat acoustic version of “Wicked Wanda”. The electric version closes the album. This video is Malkmus raw. Hope you dig it.

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