Pocket Symphony

Last Monday night, I decided to watch a movie. Not really a surprise, right? I’ve admitted that I love movies, my DVD collection is pretty big, and my TiVo’s hard drive is almost always full. A couple of months ago, I made the announcement that I was going to try to watch every movie in the TSPDT list of 1,000 greatest films (plus the best of the 21st Century films so far), and I have a pile of movies recognized as “great” sitting on a shelf, just waiting to be viewed. So when I assessed my evening and decided that I had a couple of free hours, I reached for…

“Stephen King’s The Mist” by Frank Darabont.

Don’t bother looking… it’s not on the “top movies” list.

When I was a teen, I loved Stephen King’s books. The Shining, Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot… they were all greedily devoured by my young horror-obsessed mind. The Stand was an epic work that lasted an entire family vacation in Cape Cod. The movies based on King’s novels were pretty amazing, too. DePalma’s “Carrie”, Cronenberg’s “The Dead Zone” and Kubrick’s “The Shining” were and remain favorites of mine.

But then a couple of things happened. My taste in literature started to mature and King’s novels started reading more and more like fleshed-out movie treatments. I still respected the man, but I slowly stopped reading his work. The movies started getting worse, too. “Cujo”… “Christine”… and many mediocre (or worse) TV adaptations… culminating in King’s own destruction of “The Shining” in what was probably one of the more wrong-headed moves in an industry known for wrong-headed moves.

Occasionally, there would be moments of genius. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, for example. But for every good Frank Darabont adaptation of a non-horror King story, there was a bad Mick Garris adaptation of his horror work. 

So last year, I started seeing commercials on TV for a Darabont-helmed Stephen King movie. And it kinda looked like a horror flick. The ads were pretty vague… so as not to give anything away. They showed a bunch of people holed up in a grocery store in a giant cloud of fog. “There’s something in the mist!” is one of the memorable lines in the trailer. My initial reaction: “Possibly interesting. Looks like a rip-off of ‘The Fog’. And the remake of ‘The Fog’ was completely unnecessary.” I put it on my “maybe one day” list and then forgot about it.

Mark Kermode

As a former podcaster, there are still a bunch of shows that I still always download to my iPod. One of them is a weekly download from the BBC, called Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews. Not exactly the catchiest of titles, but very clear in its labeling. Mark Kermode is an outspoken film critic, and a complete and unrepentant film geek. He’s a big fan of the horror/sci-fi/fantasy genre (when it’s done right) and will always find a moment or two to praise “The Exorcist” - even in the most unlikely situations. But his criticisms can be brutal, so when a film in one of his beloved genres isn’t good - he tears it apart. More often than not, I find that his opinions about movies mirror my own, so a “must see” from Kermode is taken very seriously by me. When he reviewed “Stephen King’s The Mist” favorably, it moved the movie from “maybe one day” to “should see this sooner rather than later” (I have way too many lists).

When the movie came out on DVD, I didn’t buy it. When I bought my blu-ray player, I decided that I wouldn’t buy any new movies on the older format, and decided to wait for the blu-ray (see my previous post on “double-dipping”). My pal Jeff doesn’t yet own a blu-ray player, so he went ahead and grabbed a copy of the DVD. He’s a Kermode fan as well, so his first viewing was (by Kermode’s recommendation) of the Director’s “preferred” version of the movie - presented in black and white(!) as a bonus feature in the DVD set. After he watched it - he told me that I needed to see the movie. A nod from both Mark and Jeff pushed this movie to the top of my “I’ll buy it as soon as I can” list. Last month, nearly five months after the release of the DVD, the blu-ray was released. I bought it and promptly stuck on my shelf.

Which brings me to Monday. The evening was a little chilly by LA standards. Heather was out of town for business. I was alone with the dogs. It seemed like a perfect night for a horror movie. So I popped in “The Mist”. What a great movie. I hesitate to write too much about it because a cold viewing is the best way to appreciate it. I think the fact that I had read certain adjectives describing the ending was almost too much. However, while trying to avoid spoilers, here’s what I’ll say:

• It’s not a rip-off of “The Fog”.
• It’s definitely a horror movie - in multiple senses of the word (or multiple understandings of the genre).
• The script is intelligent and the characters are well-formed and interesting.
• The special effects (yes, there are special effects) are pretty darn neat.

This could be one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in a very long time.

Do yourself a favor. Go out and rent or buy this movie. Go for the 2-Disc version (on DVD or blu-ray) and watch the black and white cut. You can thank me later.

OK… so it’s been a little over 13 months since we moved to LA… and my love for this city is only growing. This is a good thing, because we’ve decided to buy a place here - but more on that later (as in “another post”, because you know me and tangents…).

Anyway, in April of this year, I went to my local rock club and stumbled upon The Mae Shi, who remain my favorite local band. This kind of fortuitous occurrence only happens when you go out and take chances on new things, so I’ve made it a habit to always try to get out there and try to never say “no” out of hand to any new opportunities. I know that I’ve been neglecting Pocket Symphony for a while, but had I been posting like I should, I could talk about discovering ridiculously cool artists like Walt Hall and Jennifer Lewis, attending yet more movie screenings at some amazing movie houses, seeing great comedians like Bruce McCulloch and Sarah Silverman playing in theaters of less than 100, getting to not only see Spiritualized (did I promise a video? I know I did…) in a small club, but meeting a bunch of cool people as a result… Y’know what? I better start sharing more of this stuff here… 

Anyway… back on topic.

Last Saturday night, I went to The Smell, a fixture in downtown LA for the past decade. It’s an all-ages, no-alcohol punk club. The atmosphere reminds me of a cool rec center. There are couches and comfy chairs lining the walls, there’s a bookshelf full of interesting books that visitors are encouraged to take down and read - in all, it’s less of a club and more of a community hang out. The show that night was a benefit for Obama, so the cover at the door was $10 instead of the usual $5, and the crowd was a little lighter than I expected, but the mood was festive.

I’m not going to bother describing the rest of the night… if you want to see pictures, check out my previous iPhone experimental post… let’s just say that the first two bands, Widow Babies and Bastida, were both very good. I’m not sure I’d go see either one of them as a headliner (in the near future, anyway), but I also wouldn’t show up late if they were the openers again. The audience encouraged both of them, and they played off the energy very well.

I knew that The Mae Shi were going to rock (although this was the first time I saw them in their touring line-up of 4 - generally their LA shows have 1 or 2 other local members adding to the mayhem), and they did not disappoint. But, like that fateful night at Spaceland half a year ago, the band that came on next to last were a wonderful surprise. They’re called Bad Dudes, and they’ve been around for a few years (I’m late to the party - again!). After the gig, I asked them if they had either of their CDs for sale, but since this was a benefit show, they’d decided not to bring them. Luckily, they told me that they’d be headlining The Smell on Thursday (that’s October 16th - my sister’s birthday), and they would be bringing merch. So I’m going to be going back downtown in just three days.

So what do they sound like? I think I’ll wait until the weekend to really get into a description, because their music is still sinking in (I couldn’t wait and went to Amoeba and bought their latest CD already). All I’d like to say now is that like Ratatat (who I saw open for Bjork this year), they respect the rock. As proof, here’s a video for the title track of their new album, Eat Drugs.

Another attempt at iphone blogging. I’m at a club called The Smell in downtown LA. The first (of four) bands just played - The Widow Babies.

Second band up. Bastidas.

Bad Dudes.

The Mae Shi!!!!!!!!

If you’re reading this, you probably know that among my geeky obsessions, I have a thing for Disney. And again, it’s no secret that I’m a sucker avid consumer of home video. So let me tell you a story about something called “double dipping”. In a 1993 episode of Seinfeld, “double dipping” was a term used to describe putting your chip into the dip after you’ve already had it in your mouth. It’s a disgusting thing to do. In the world of home video, ‘double dipping’ refers to something different, but equally gross.

In the last thirty years, there have been several different video formats: Beta, VHS, DiscoVision, LaserDisc (CLV and CAV), DVD, HD-DVD, BluRay… and a couple of others. At any given time, a couple of formats co-exist and invariably, the better one costs a little more and has a smaller market share. For example, in the ’90s, consumers had the choice between VHS and LaserDisc. VHS was tremendously popular, but LaserDisc was better (and more expensive). Since LaserDisc catered to a smaller but more avid group of movie fans, it was the format that first introduced things like director’s commentary tracks, surround sound and, most importantly, widescreen presentations. If you were a true film buff and were given the choice of formats, LaserDisc always won, hands down.

Now, if a movie was released on both VHS and Laser on the same day, the decision was easy. But every once in a while, a movie would be released on VHS only and then, a short time later, would be followed by the LaserDisc version. When a movie is a classic film that appeals both to kids and adults and only has a limited release period (i.e. every Disney classic), such a move forces the potential consumer to either wait out the VHS-only period (and wait out the incessant commercials and even, perhaps, the crying of their children), or buy one format and then the other. Hence the term “double dip”. And Disney was famous for it.

In the past few years, though, things have changed. LaserDiscs are gone, and so, for the most part, have VHS tapes. Pretty much all of the new releases are on DVD, blu-ray (a hi-definition variant of DVD) or delivered directly through the internet to various home machines, such as TiVo or AppleTV. With so many people owning HDTVs, more and more people are investing in blu-ray players (even the PS3 is a blu-ray player) - and until everyone abandons the physical storage of those five-inch discs in favor of internet-based delivery of media, blu-ray is as good as it gets. But those discs aren’t cheap. Which brings me to this happy post.

Over the past year, Disney’s home video arm has recognized that overt greed isn’t a good thing - and nurturing (and respecting) their dedicated consumers is a good move. To that end, they started putting a rebate coupon in some of their blu-ray titles. If you spend twenty-something dollars on a blu-ray that you already have on DVD, you can send in a coupon and get ten dollars back. Not a bad deal. Makes the double-dip more enticing. Last month, Disney released fan favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas on blu-ray. Included in the package was a special disc that allowed you to load a digital copy of the movie onto your iPod, iPhone, computer… whatever device you own that lets you watch digital movies. That was another good move. But up until last week, Disney had not released any of their “animated classics” on blu-ray - so the hardcore fans were wondering how it would shake out.

The first Disney Classic to make it to blu-ray is Sleeping Beauty. Because I’m lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, I was able to attend a special screening of the remastered movie at Disney’s flagship theater, El Capitan. The evening was made even more special by the inclusion of a panel discussion of Disney alumni and experts, including the voice of Princess Aurora herself.

The movie itself looked great - so I knew that I’d be purchasing the blu-ray as soon as it was released (for the record, I’ve owned this movie on VHS, LaserDisc, Special Edition Laserdisc, and DVD). When it came out on Tuesday, I was surprised and delighted to discover that not only did Disney release the blu-ray edition on the same day as the DVD edition, but that the initial copies of the blu-ray include a free copy of the movie on DVD stuck right on the cover. For homes that have one blu-ray player for the grown-ups and a DVD player for the kids - you now have two copies of the movie. For fans of the movie who want to see it now but don’t yet have a blu-ray player (but are planning on getting one in the near future), you can enjoy the standard-def version until you have a hi-def player. This is the opposite of double-dip. It’s a single dip… a skinny-dip. And that is a good thing. Thanks, Disney!

(Want my review of the blu-ray? Well… I’m not posting it here, so you’ll just have to ask me in person.)