tales of an inadvertently intergalactic dentist -

- not entirely serious, and good fun & educational sf - as well as fully hygienic!

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Beauty in the darkness.

While this is perhaps, not the most gross, or horrific movie to look at, compared to others, it has a uniquely disturbing nightmare quality, which most closely approximates the experience of a sweat inducing, nocturnal hallucination that we all know... more than any other film I can think of.

It does it by virtue of a mood, a tone, the grimy, dingy looking cinematography, and some disturbing, horrific concepts shown through the images, rather than what the images themselves show... And what really underscores that nightmare, is the concept that, while most of us get to wake up, and shake it off, poor Jacob lives it in his waking world... all the time.

For Jacob, an ex Vietnam vet, mourning the loss of his son, finds things around him in his world, by degrees, turning very peculiar, and terrifying.

But it's not a simple horror movie, there is a purpose to the horror, as this is one man's journey through a kind of purgatory instead of hell.

For this reason, once the film is done, is feels like it has a redemptive quality; Even, a grace to it, which prompts you to reconsider, in this context, all that you have just seen in the foregoing events.

Although not a movie I'd put on for giggles, or fun, by any stretch of the imagination, I always found it strangely compelling, and needful, back in the day, to re-watch my old VHS copy, as a kind of catharsis / therapy for myself.

In fact, I wonder what an actual therapist / psychiatrist / psychologist might make of this, not least, in how closely it might resemble a genuine psychosis, or schizophrenic state...

...Not entirely sure if it would, in such a scenario, be considered advisable or not for anyone suffering from such a condition to watch it... could be, according to the new-speak: triggering.

But still, as a movie, masterfully done, and a perfectly executed, finely balanced redemptive nightmare movie.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

an sf action/adventure novel of bet yeager, ex-mazianni fleet marine, an unwilling conscript onto a spook ship selling information on the movement of mallory's capital ship (and allies and recruits) now defending the merchanters' alliance to ships of the mazianni - formerly earth company's - fleet, now more than semi-feral, and to anyone else as'll pay, finding her feet, and finding, and making herself a position in the pecking order - or failing to - onboard an unhappy ship, permanently on the edge, where the officers are out to get one another, the captain's at least half gone, and most of the crew bar one seem to be unwilling but cowed misfits - and even he agrees with everyone else that he's no bloody good -

- all set against - and sometimes at action stations in - the time towards the end of the company wars and its aftermath.

more-or-less contemporaneous with - a little after - ''merchanter's luck'' (1982), q.v., and with and a little after parts of the hugo award-winning major company wars novel, ''downbelow station'' (1981), q.v.

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A killer compilation of Lavern Baker's Brunswick sides--seven from singles with three exclusive-to-this-LP tracks, "Love is Ending," "Baby Don't You Do It" and "Play it Fair." This survey of a soul diva in the latter half of the 1960s has stunning interpretations of some country and r&b classics with new material, all recorded in the stereophonic glory of Chicago's soul-centric studios, with a powerhouse cast of producers and arrangers. There are no dated soul-funk tropes nor overdone, shouting vocals. Lavern is her fine self and sings with passion amidst sympathetic arrangements.

"Call Me Darling," the flip of "Batman to the Rescue," is a classic piece of after-hours blues with terrific choral and orchestral support. Tracks two and three on Side 2, from mid-1969, stand out because they sound more like early '70s soul. The variety of approaches is appealing; three and half singles and three unique to this LP cover four eventful years in Black music with style and grace.

It's well-sequenced and is a rousing listen. If only they'd put the balance of her Brunswick work--both sides of the '67 single "Wrapped, Tied and Tangled" would've been nice. It's an inexpensive way to acquire Ms. Baker's hot Northern Soul 45 "I'm the One to Do It" for a tenth of the current going price--and you get eight other fine tracks in the balance. A must-have LP for Chicago soul fans and r&b lovers in general.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

There's a real movie here!...

...Somewhere... I think.

Largely, an attempt at a kind of Tarantino movie (Chapter headings, among other indicators) - crossed with a languid, quirky indie flick aesthetic... Which proves to be too grand in it's production for the latter, but too light for the former.

It feels flat, for the most part, and the first section, around Hemsworth and Clark Duke's characters feels tacked on to the Vince Vaughn character section, although they both, eventually converge at the end.

Which is the first real issues with it... there's a "break in play" section later in the movie, where the story telling goes back in time to tell a tale about a couple of other characters, And I found this confusing, as I wasn't aware of an earlier section of the movie being set later than the last
(if you get my drift) until this happened. The Chronology of a bit of back story is not well integrated, or explained.

So structural story issues, and tonal issues (trying to be two types of movie at the same time, and drifting a little into neither and nothing-ness in this regard).

Two hapless nowhere bods becoming embroiled in a down-south drug ring, headed by Vince Vaughn's: "Frog", get stuck in some low level drug ring limbo, while things go wrong around them, jeopardising both their position in this organisation, as well as their lives.

The movie sprawls a bit, goes nowhere fast really, and is a bit disjointed.

However, there are elements of this that make it very worth watching:

Each of the characters, and each of the actors playing them, work very well: Hemsworth is much better than I thought he could be, Duke does his character very convincingly, as does Eden Brolin (yup, a Brolin family member) who seems to me to be a great actress in the making - she's got bags of charisma, very watchable presence - got real potential!... But I don't buy the pairing of these actors, or the characters they play, in that I can't imagine any of these three really having anything to do with each other in reality.

(I have done myself a favour by neglecting to remember John Malkovich is in this movie, because his role / performance = Jeepers! :(

But there's one real ace up this movie's sleeve:

Vince Vaughn.

Holy Mackerel, what a great performance!

Neither a fan, nor... "not a fan", I have to say, he is absolutely mesmerising here, playing a rather callous, cold, low level drug kingpin, of the "legend in his own backyard - population: 5" variety, but it's a very subtle, very understated performance giving just an occasional glimpse, or sense of a broken, and breaking, vulnerable man within.

If you could jettison the other story threads, enlarge his role, and make it about him, this would really be a great movie, as Vaughn can carry it, and hold the room. So much so, that you could probably drop his performance here into a Godfather / Goodfellas scale of story, and it would be equally at home... not out of place at all.

This is Vince Vaughn's movie, and he steals the whole show.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

"Heraclitus" was the song I bought the CD for, here presented as a solo accompanied song. The record notes by Jeremy Dibble gives an explanation of how the song came about:

Heraclitus was originally composed as the fourth of Four Partsongs Op 110, completed in 1908 and published by Stainer & Bell in 1910. Later it was published by J B Cramer & Co. as a solo song arrangement in 1918. The famous text, taken from Ionica, a volume of poems by William Johnson Cory, is a translation from the Greek of an epigram by the finest of Hellenistic poets, Callimachus of Alexandria. The poem, an elegy, tells how bitter tears were shed at the news of the death of an old friend, Heraclitus of Hallicarnassus; yet, though long dead, his memory lives on in the mind of his friend. Cory’s translation is magnificent, as is Stanford’s limpidly diatonic setting, simple in its strophic design, yet full of deft harmonic turns and modal inflections; and, with the subtle ‘interjections’ from the piano, assumes a quite different identity in its solo guise.

[YouTube Video]

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A really excellent album, if you like talented female vocalists & indiepop you should hunt down this record. As far as I can find out Alexandra made this one record and then vanished completely? Practically all the copies of this for sell online are a] really cheap b] mint condition unsold stock. Well worth tracking down.

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near-future set novel of a teen(?) in an england where social order has broken down, gangs of communists and fascists are fighting and controlling large areas of inner cities, and on top of this, super-powerful aliens dictate orders sent from their ships hovering(?) above major cities - and pel's strange, wild cousin frijja comes to stay...

- i didn't get very far into this, before i had to renew it, or return it to the library. i returned it.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Evening Standard review :read:

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Read this in a day!

Seen most, if not all the movies, so was pleased to find this in the charity shop, so I could go straight to the source at last.

It doesn't really start out that promising to be honest, as it reads in the early stages like it's going to be one of those aloof, colonial attitude pieces from the previous century or two, where the attitude of the author, expressed through his narrator might not have dated that well - more than a whiff of a kind of Shatnerian Kirk-ery:

"Captain's log... stardate _+_+_, Weeeeee've....GOT. To.... GEt, backtotheship!"

But as you read, you realise this is on purpose, as this, almost ultimate work of absolute deadpan satire, focused on just these attitudes, morals and values as expressed in those earlier kind of works are completely undermined...but again, absolutely deadpan.

...It... Apes, them :)

Some rather impressive expressions of then, recently discovered physics (albeit, the years after have rendered most. factually inaccurate).

But during the course of it's couple hundred pages of short punchy, and concise chapters, it lays out a plethora of fertile material for consideration and interpretation, so that you can see why movie makers keep going back to it...

(Remarkable, how much, although reconfigured for more modern purposes, from this original is revived even for the most recent movies - themes, names poits made etc.)

...Animal rights, psychology, sociology, social commentary, satire, allegory, metaphor, power structures, science (scientific attitudes), morality... it's all here, to be interpreted any way you like!

You could really read this a hundred times and always get something new to think about from it.

And very much like I Am Legend... nice final line! :)

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I'ts only taken me decades to do, but finally got around to watching this...

(I'd always pushed it back thinking it was going to be a cheap piece of shonk)

...And as reviews like the one below tell, I was wrong, and they are absolutely spot on!

Magnificent movie.

Very odd, though, it doesn't, aside from the basic premise of a guy sent to buy up piece of coastline for an oil company, seem to have a plot.

...It doesn't seem to have anything by way of traditional shifts in the story that would recognisably be considered "drama" - no struggles, no antagonist, or villain, no "all is lost" moment, no real act or acts of overt "heroism"... It just... is.

And what it is, is gentle, warm, lightly funny, quirky, stunningly beautiful to look at, and is a veritable warm hearth of a movie, which will henceforth, serve as a great comfort food of a movie.

Why did it take me so long?!!!

All it is, based on the premise mentioned above, is a big city business type (not objectionable in any way, or cartoonish, or a caricature) dropped in this stunning little world of this village on the coast, and it, and the people there, just go to work on him; Eroding him until he, by degrees falls in love with the place and people.

As will you, if you haven't seen it yet, and intend to watch it.

Sublime.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Evening Standard review :read:

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Camden New Journal review :read:

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this seems to be the only book published by earthlight publishers - but what a book!

almost all the fiction tom reamy wrote - one remained unpublished by the editor to whom he'd submitted it for first publication, so couldn't be included without being withdrawn - excluding only two°, plus his only novel, ''blind voices'', which was published ''completed, but unfinished'' (he was still polishing it) posthumously, after the heart attack which killed him.°

beautifully-written, oftimes ominous, threatening, frequently horror-inducing, fantasy; earth-set but not earthbound, and well worthy of being published in such a beautiful edition.

° - missing are:

jenny's friends (short story) fantastic worlds (fanzine) vol.2 #2, spring 1954
sting! (short play) in ''six science fiction plays'' ed. roger elwood (1976), q.v.
m is for the million things (short story) in ''new voices 4: the john w. campbell award nominees'' ed. george r. r. martin (1981), q.v.
potiphee, petey and me (novelette) (sold to harlan ellison for ''the last dangerous visions'' (unpublished); eventually appeared in ''under the hollywood sign'' tom reamy (750-copy limited edition h/cvr 2023), q.v.°°

(°° - this 2023 collection is sfaik the complete novellas, novelettes, and short stories bar one (jenny's friends), compilation - it incorporates all of ''san diego lightfoot sue and other stories'' - but is considerably scarcer, and liable to be pricey - it bears a $50.00 cover price. . .)

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Another stage-play adaptation (of sorts) in the Murder / Mystery category, with just three central characters (and a couple of other instrumental characters).

This time, Michael Caine takes on the role of the once successful / now hitting the skids play-write mentoring a young, prodigiously talented play-write in the shape of Christopher Reeve, at his "modest" yet cosy Windmill conversion house, with Caine's incredibly highly strung wife at his side, hosting the young prodigy.

This is a wildly hammy, mega-schlock kitsch-to-the-eyeballs, overacted , stagey melodramatic affair, but I love it :)

...Even in spite of Dyan Cannon's mega annoying character, as well as the equally infuriating and unbelievable psychic (I kid you not) nosey next door neighbour, each with the acting to match (although allowances must be made, as this was clearly on purpose).

But the real stand out here is Christopher Reeve, who, being a big guy, and an imposing enough Prescence to land him the role of Superman, put it's to great use here, not as the ultimate good guy super-hero, but rather, a truly terrifying character - You might not believe this man can fly, but you certainly will believe you'd not turn your back on him if you ever met him!

But great fun, and I've always enjoyed watching it late night in the winter months.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Still the best of it's kind for me!

This was probably my earliest introduction murder mystery / stageplay movies, and it remains entrancing to me all these years later.

Just two dudes in a room (a very BIG room.. in a very BIG manor house in the country) trying to out-wit, and out-do each other in the ultimate, deadly game of cat and mouse.

- OK, so the "twist" probably won't fool many, if any, but it's the drama, and the acting, as well as the portrayal of very specific character tropes of the time: Olivier's arrogant, upper-crust English Aristocrat gentleman sleuth novelist of leisure, set against Caine's lower class cockney / immigrant / new blood / new money, comparatively youthful type that makes this endlessly captivating.

...So much so, that you find yourself perfectly prepared to consciously suspend any disbelief you will undoubtedly have, and go along for the ride.

(As opposed to having to be convinced by the movie makers to do so, by any contrivance of theirs)

Still the gold standard of tightly focused murder mystery movies for me.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Wow, what a tedious book.

Basically about intergenerational daddy issues from overbearing, religiously, and "morally" exacting parents.

Repetitive, Dull. Boring.

I've actually given up reading this through, about two thirds in, as, although I don't like to abandon a book (especially a "Classic"), I'm getting no value from it, when I could be reading something else.

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Story idea: pretty good.

Script and dialogue: ouch!

Acting: Yikes!

Fight choreography: Mind bendingly brilliant.

It's this last that makes this fun and compelling to watch right through to the end, and makes the other less than acceptable points I alluded to tolerable.

Going on the acting and script, this would be a 3 or 4 /10 - the choreography alone adds the extra points in my rating.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

>Attention, Disillusioned Indiana Jones Fans! - look here<

Having not been inspired at all, from the moment of announcement (even before the inevitable hoo-ha) of a new Indiana Jones movie, and knowing that some / many will be disappointed with the new offering...

...I would instead, direct the attention of crypto-archaeology adventure fans to this, and it's sequel.

After Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, this is what a 21st century Indiana Jones movie ought to look and feel like!

Indeed, after much thought, I have concluded that the reason Raiders, and Last Crusade worked, and endured, where Temple, and these two newer ones don't is because those former two take a pre-existing, and enduring sources of general fascination: The Ark Of The Covenant, And The Holy Grail, whose enduring myths always draw the audience's attention, regardless of whether it is set in an action adventure movie or not, but then place an iconic Sherlock Holmes / James Bond type character capable, and dynamic enough to explore those myths, and fathom them out, in an exciting, and intriguing manner we ourselves are not able to.

So the problem, from the get- go, with Temple Of Doom (for a western audience at least) was the subject of his adventure there - stones (whaa?), Crystal Skulls (more recent modern hocum from the proto- conspiracy theorist shack), and most recently, some kind of metaphysical bullshit clock, invented by lazy writers, I imagine, who have no grounding in history, and the stuff that elicits the intrigue of an audience.

Who cares!?!

No, Indiana Jones is merely our guide to those subjects, which already hold our imaginations.

And that's where this comes in...

...Same basic set-up, with Nick Cage's geeky, reluctant Historian adventurer getting drawn into a web of historical intrigue, around just the kind of historical curiosities (albeit of more modern vintage) that were so interesting when adventuring through Ark OTC, or The Holy G territory.

And what's more, it's a cracking good ride!

(Just like Indy used to be)

Great family fun, that doesn't treat you like an imbecile.

So don't watch that worn out old pair of shoes, watch this... and get from it what you wanted from that Dial business in the first place!

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I've added a rating of 2 for this disc, not the movie itself.

I love the movie, as I grew up with it on TV (The mouthless vampire doo-dads which encompass you with their wings and eat you still give me the willies!)

No, I'm rating the print of the movie on this disc, and the absolutely horrific attempt to restore the missing footage, which looks like they found the can of film in a trashcan full of bin juice after all these years, and just plonked it in their with zero restoration, or any attempt to match anything with the existing film (already wobbly, unrestored)...

...This new footage is probably what the word "Shonky" was invented for.

Super-shonk!

Absolute crud, and a cynical, uncaring attempt to merely push this out the door on DVD.

This will disturb your enjoyment of an old movie fave.

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(This is from my 1975 diary):
We arrived at the Corn Exchange and joined the queue, which moved a bit at first but then stopped for quite a while before moving again. We paid our £1.20 to get in which was pretty reasonable. We went and stood by the stage (NB this was a standing-only venue at the time) right at the front and could see Ray Shulman behind the equipment and when he noticed us standing there he feigned a 'surprised' look - open jaw and hands held-up - so he must have recognised us from the Hemel Hempstead gig. We then went and sat down on the floor, as most of the audience was doing by that time in front of a handful of idiots who seemed to have been drinking more than they could take and were beginning to get noisy, and consequently they spoiled Michael Moore's set, which irritated us as he was good as usual. One of my friends was especially annoyed by their manner. After the interval, Gentle Giant came on and opened with "Cogs In Cogs" again, which was superb. During "Funny Ways" Kerry Minnear stepped forward to play his vibes solo, wearing an open fronted silk shirt, and behind us one of the idiots there shouted out "Oooh TITTIES!" When the number had ended, Derek Shulman came up to the front microphone and said that it was apparent that some people had come to the gig just to get drunk and make a nuisance of themselves; most of the audience at the gig seemed to agree and a ripple of applause went round the room, then Gaz (my buddy) turned round to the source of the noise and shouted at them "Yeah why don't you f*ck off you silly c*nts!" It was undoubtedly Derek's announcement that did the trick as the disruptive element quietened down (probably feeling embarrassed at being called out for their behaviour), and the rest of the performance was undisturbed and very well received. When I got back home after the gig I listed to the whole of "Three Friends" LP and I really rate GG as a very special band.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

this is a very well written, but always difficult to keep tracking, wildly uncommercial book;
and it's probably the least popular of joanna russ' books: though it's a single story, it isn't a novel.

it isn't a novel, because it doesn't - and couldn't, by its very nature - follow the rules-of-thumb that simplified longer works of fiction, making them more easily read and so more widely-saleable to people lacking the time or inclination to - for particular example - puzzle out and follow a story repeatedly jumping from one character's viewpoint to another's;

''and chaos died'' is confusing - and that's even though there is only one central character.

she's a young woman finding it increasingly impossible to cope with the emotional and spiritual crowding of inner-city life, as she becomes ever more assailed by the needs, desires, hopes, lusts and hatreds of the strangers streaming by her in the constant crush -

- she's becoming ever-increasingly sensitive mentally - to the point of feeling she may be going mad -

- she's becoming a receiving telepath -

- and she can't cut the constant bombardment of subconscious and conscious thoughts and emotions -

- or even be certain which are her own.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Although not quite as consistently outstanding as their previous two albums (Hippopotamus and A Steady Drip Drip Drip), there is still much to acclaim from these veteran funsters. They have once again taken a variety of influences and genres - Escalator is reminiscent of Kraftwerk circa 1973-77 for example, or perhaps the stuff Daniel Miller released on Mute at the end of that same decade - and melded them into their own style.

That style includes, of course, their ability to write near-perfect pop tunes allied to lyrics seeing the world from a very particular viewpoint (Nothing Is As Good... being the prime example here) and also producing the odd flash of the astonishing, such as We Go Dancing, where satirical lyrics are combined with music which at the same time is reminiscent of 20th century orchestral music and provides the creepiest earworm I think I've ever encountered. A fine album.

4/5

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

What a tedious, weak album!

If I were to characterise this, I would imagine the conversation that preceded it's creation:

"Hey guys, we've used up our one great idea about what this band is (And our fifteen minutes of fame :), so let's make an album that sounds like we're trying to be Bob Dylan (and the Band), and also, at the same time, trying to be a bit Of David Bowie, and maybe a dash of John Lennon (after the Beatles - and the non singles, album stuff)...

... But also, let's do all this as if we were a first time high school band naively trying to be those things, and really not quite getting there"

I had looked forward to finally listening to this when I found this CD a couple of weeks back, but it is painfully dull and amateurish, like The Velvet Underground trying to be like The Velvet Underground, and acting as their own crappy tribute band.

This is going back to the charity shop, as I can't afford the space on the shelf for it.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Too cool for school...

...And most definitely too cool for you... as well as just about everybody else in the world.

This quirky oddment of a movie, was, as I vaguely recall, part of a spate (I may be overstating the case) of adaptations of graphic novels / comics of the more everyday / unusual variety that occurred about this time...

(I think, Napoleon Dynamite, and perhaps that roller skating thing with (now) Elliot Page (might have been one?) among others)

It is a basic portrait of the kind of teen girl you may well have encountered, or may well know, for whom the whole world is just lame, and pathetic, as is everyone in it, and largely exists to be mocked and regarded as some kind of freak show wildlife documentary, simply there for her amusement, and to be the objects of her disdain.

...Such is Enid, who, along with her friend and observational ally Rebecca in this walk through laboratory / human zoo of life, is about to graduate from school and step into the adult world (also, indeed, especially lame), and move into an apartment together, and get their big plans in motion.

Everyone around them seems to be just drifting, like ghosts, going nowhere in particular, and doing nothing of any importance, in this nowhere town, unlike them, who have it all weighed off nicely.

...Which, of course, consistent with life's delightful way, is proven to them, well, in particular, Enid, they most certainly do not.

Enid faces changes at home, with her single father dating someone new (very threatening). Rebecca seeems to be taking the step a little more seriously than Enid - having a job etc. and so seems to be beginning to drift away from Enid a little, as well as a superflake art teacher (Veronica Cartwright giving one of her career best performances in deadpan comedic genius mode) getting her into trouble due to a picture she cynically entered into an exhibition and which she lifted form new found acquaintance / friend Seymour.

Seymour being a particular object of amusement that Enid decides to mess about with one day, being, as he is, a super - geek, as well as a collector of rare and valuable blues 78s (So particular interest for users of this site! :)...

...But as life seems to be getting away from her, and friends and people drift away, Seymour unconsciously becomes her only remaining friend... over time, and quite against her original intentions, a real friend.

Enid may not be so very cool, and aloof after all, as she discovers she may be the only real ghost in her world, lonely, and dislocated, while everyone else is getting on with living life.

This movie has that indie vibe, very much in the Clerks (with a budget) style, as we follow these two girls (primarily Enid) as they drift around town, chatting, and going nowhere in particular.

One or two things may not make the cut for the modern cancel crowd, or at the very least, raise an eyebrow, which in itself is shocking, given how relatively recently this movie was made, but if you go a little deeper in it's intentions, it's humour and sensibility, beyond the superficial, and see how these things serve the story, and plot, you find a very sharply written, minor cult classic wihch is a great watch.

Could also be re-titled:

The Disabuse-ment of Certain Erroneous Notions Of Life As Held By Enid, The Girl Who (Thought She) Was Better Than Everyone Else.

(But that's quite a mouthful, so Ghost World, will do :)

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Yay... another of my favourites found in Digipak!

This is one that I love, but have absolutely no intention of getting on vinyl, due to the nature of the music - a lot like Air: Moon Safari - in that you just want to put it on, and drift away from one end to the other, without having to mess about with flipping sides half way through your comatose state.

The CD sounds great anyway - very balanced, very expansive and spacious, as well as spacey.

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A well written overview by Ron Cook.

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Don't recall Josh Ritter playing at all (sorry Josh) but then apart from The Boss (obviously) I was just as excited to see Damien Dempsey (DAMO ! DAMO !), Irelands greatest living songwriter. Couldn't wait for Glen Hansard to finish, it had been a long time since I'd seen a set that dull.

Bruce was, of course, his usual incredible self. 3+ plus hours and the greatest little Jersey bar band behind him, how could he fail. Mid-set he played "Born In The USA" (the album) in its entireity.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Very readable and enjoyable. Finished it in a day.

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Guardian review :read:

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Guardian review :read:

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Annotation:

British reporters and press photographers in the early-mid 1960s had it made. The Beatles were among the hardest-working groups around, and were eager to offer interviews and pose for pictures amid the endless rounds of recording, performance and travelling. At this time, the Daily Mirror was Britain's highest-selling tabloid, and, being aimed at the more working class readership, the paper was quick to capitalise on the Beatles' growing success. Many of the photographs in this text are from the Mirror archive and have never been seen before; others were first published in The Beatles Files, by Andy Davis (1998), a text now out of print. Some also came from the long defunct Daily Herald, the Sunday tabloid The People, and from the agency Syndication International.

Here, Andy Neill chronicles the Beatles' live performances from what he sees as their first days to their final tour dates of 1966, accompanied by archival photographs. As such, the book begins in September 1963, which is a major pity, for the Beatles' live performances before this, chronicled elsewhere in local press accounts such as Mersey Beat and the Liverpool Echo are omitted. Therefore, while Neill accounts for stage appearances day-by- day from September 1963 with accounts and photographs from what he views as the most significant dates, information concerning the group's formative successes (not simply their formative years) is lacking.

As a result, we have a classic example of how not to chronicle anything: via expediency of suitable archive availability. Here we have the potential for an interesting chronicle, but it is all of little use, if important Beatles live activities (such as their television appearances prior to September 1963, for example) and the accompanying reportage are simply omitted on the basis of this expediency. Neill can only prove the researcher with a partial history - which is ultimately insubstantial. The reader is given the impression that the group's fame effectively 'started' when the book begins - which of course is far from the case. So it is not 'all here' (as the blurb suggests), and such claims should not be made. Daily Mirror reporter Don Short (see separate entry) provides an introduction to this disappointing text.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only.

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Another movie who's reputation and even who's title, has become a part of modern cultural reference...

...But having finally watched it, I was somewhat disappointed.

Of course, there's the great central performance by Meryl Streep, and a strong, sympathetic supporting role by Peter MacNicol, but Kevin Kline over does it somewhat, albeit, playing a deeply disturbed individual (He's giving an almost Fish Called Wanda skit, at the very least, it's very... theatre).

But this aside, it's two things that underwhelm, and detract from this tale of an immigrant with a dark and horrific secret from her past:

Firstly, it feels like a made for TV movie (Was it?), which may be forgivable, if it was, but it feels cheaper in the production than the subject and it's aspirations require.

...And secondly, it's feels oddly structured, like two separate movies tacked sequentially onto each other: The first section being like The Great Gatsby, a very jazz age tale of American urban life shared between three friends and their difficulties, then it goes back to world war two Europe, and is a Holocaust movie... The contrast in styles, and tones is jarring.

I wonder if perhaps, this was made today, an editor or director might intersperse some of the latter element in the first American section, and vice versa, in order to foreshadow, suggest, or intimate the real underlying story, and even the tone, and indeed, even out the movie itself.

Maybe it would be possible to re-edit, and restructure the existing film in that way?

Doing this, might even elevate the whole experience to something more worthy of the film's reputation.

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A tough watch, but ultimately rewarding.

What begins as a very civilized lifestyle for a gifted pianist turns, by degrees into Schindler's list, and finally something akin to the Tom Hanks movie: Castaway, as the Nazis invade, take over, then the entire city is bombed flat, to resemble a post-apocalyptic moonscape, the ruins among which, Brody's character: Władysław Szpilman, must scrape and hide to survive, all the while, avoiding being blown to bits, or captured by the Nazis.

It's essentially the story of one man's adapting to survive, and in so doing, having the layers of civilization stripped systematically from him.

A remarkable true story too.

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It's strange, watching this at a distance of some years now, in that we are as far from the date of release, as the date of release was from the events depicted in this movie...

...And yet the background mood of reactionary conservative repression created by the "squares" of the time, flinching in moral panic at the licentiousness of the sixties and seventies, and seeking to squash it out at all costs, and who's puritanical, narrow lines of social acceptability seemed positively absurd to me back then... as if the world could be so ridiculously straight, and judgemental, certainly not in the comparatively liberal and enlightened nineties...

...Thank God we're over that, I thought (!)


Indeed, it seemed such repressive society almost demanded a semi-psychotic anti-hero (and his attorney :) brandishing his wildly crazed, relentlessly drug fuelled Gonzo journalism like a wrecking ball, to smash, head-long through the social mores of the times, and break almost every taboo they could find as they went. In order that the human spirit should not entirely succumb to such impositions.

(Well, it's a fine excuse, anyway!)

Be that as it may, it seems further away from the nutty, hilariously cartoonish picture of wild exaggerated, mythologised excess, or a depraved "psyche" movie that seemed to be the culmination of the nineties style of off the wall movie that I used to watch it as entertainment, but now, rather a bench mark of just how far we seem to have fallen into the seventh circle of moral hell since that time... so much so, this new millennium at times seems to make the fifties seem like a very liberal, open minded time by comparison!

Watch this then, for all the social commentary and pjilosphophy an old fart like me might ramble on about, or watch to see a movie that you would simply sit and think: "Well, they couldn't get away with making this kind of thing anymore!", or sit and watch the brilliantly funny characterisations Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro give of two of the most improbable human beings ever to walk the earth, or just put aside the trendy wokery for a spell, and bean-bag that old brain of yours Google boy, and just have fun watching an excessive, degenerate thrill ride that will have you laughing all the way through...

...Because it's fun.

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Chaotic scenes! :shocked:

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Essentially, a western set in space, with Sean Connery's Sherriff type, thrust into the middle of a conspiracy / intrigue to do with the criminal activities of a shady corporation.

He's basically Wyatt Earp, come to bring a little law to this outpost, but unusually (and refreshingly) for Connery, while he is the standard tough guy, he is not without a sense of vulnerability here.

...And it's a film essentially brought to you by the majority of the production team that made Alien, and it carries much of that look, feel, vibe of deep space horror created there.

Very underrated in my book.

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In the S.F. Bay Area, KYA AM 1260 debuted Crying on August 7, 1961 at #55 on their Swingin' 60. Candy Man was added the following week making the record a double-sided hit. Crying was the more played of the two. In mid-October the single peaked at #5. On November 13, Candy Man was swapped with Crying as the the more played side. The single remained on the chart until December 25 for a total of 20 weeks, quite unusual for a record in the early 60s.

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Great compilation of songs, perhaps targeted more towards Wall of Sound and pop aficianados rather than oldies fans (for example, a chart hit, "Stardust," is nowhere to be found).

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Iconic nineties movie.

It's groundhog day... all over again!

But here, the now well established (and somewhat overused) device of reliving a single time frame over and over again until you get it right is contracted to the space of about an hour, where Lola must run as fast as she can, to reach her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket to get a stack of cash to replace one he lost on a train, and which was intended to be paid to the local mob.

...If she doesn't get there, and find a way to get the cash along the way, boyfriend Manni has a run in with the cops, and gets shot.

She must keep doing this until she finds the right route through this time span to get there in time with cash in hand, and so prevent Manni's doom.

A very bright, very kinetic movie (as you'd expect) that doesn't slow down much to catch it's breath, and has a really inventive, yet simple storytelling device woven in, whereby, if she does something different in her interactions with the people she encounters along the way, a series of Polaroid snaps outlining that person's new alternate future clicks rapidly through, following the legend: "And then..."

(Saves filming entire sequences, and packs the new future story into a matter of seconds).

Everyone I knew saw this in the nineties - was a bit of "A thing" back then... and more than a few people I knew had this poster on their wall too.

Great fun.

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A masterpiece trapped inside an abomination.

This is another one of those movies that less, certainly would have amounted to so much more.

In this case... less sex.

I know, how very prudish or puritanical of me! Certainly, I've never been one to consider myself as such, but find myself having more and more reason for complaint as I get older.

...And it's not, as I say, for reasons of moral indignation, but rather, for actual storytelling, and movie making reasons that I find myself infuriated by these kinds of films:

All the extra time you spend dwelling, or fixating on the sex, is, for me, time you are not telling an actual story, and cutting into the natural storytelling rhythms, that can make a movie more sublime, poetic, and well rounded, as well as more dramatic, poignant, meaningful, and impactful.

For this could have been beautiful.

...A subtly, and deftly told coming of age story of a young teen girl struggling to get to grips with her sexual awakening, as well as her sexuality. Set among the classroom peer pressures of highschool life, where she feels compelled to contain all these feelings, until she ventures out one night, and meets an slightly older, artistic, pseudo-intellectual type young gay woman, who she is instantly smitten with, if not slightly overawed by, and with whom she strikes up a freindship. leading to the inevitable relationship, and even "love".

So it is in essence, a coming of age lesbian love story.

... so far, so good.

.....But then..... damn!

Basically, they spend extensive sessions of awkward porn style pretzel sex bouts, which go on way too long...

(So as you find yourself checking your watch, as well as forgetting there was a story going on somewhere there, that for some - ahem - reason completely went out of my mind)

... as well as being disturbingly graphic... to the extent that if this is not actual sex, but merely simulated, then I struggle to see the point in having bothered to simulate it.

And of course, I see after a couple of attempts to watch this film, and get past the idea that it's just some creepy voyeuristic heterosexual male director / filmmaker using "making a movie" merely as an excuse to exploit young actresses for his own personal pleasure.

It feels dishonest.

...And makes you feel grubby, and like you are participating in this exploitation just by watching it take place - like you tacitly agree with this - which I do not.

The worst thing is, on more than one occasion, a momentary, involuntary glance at camera from one of these actresses which seems to speak of confusion and uncertainty about what they have been asked to do, only hammers this horrible feeling home to you the viewer.

It feels like witnessing a crime to watch it.

Now, the overall plot, and point of the movie is actually a really good one - in that two people who "fall in love" despite some very apparent differences between them, may well be confusing sex with love, or even infatuation with love... to the extent that I begin to suspect this is not about love, or even a gay relationship, or even a healthy sexual relationship, but more a tale of addiction. Sexual addiction, and a shared, and mutual sexual addiction at that.

This is then essentially a tale of two sex junkies, addicted to each other, and don't know how to control this need in themselves, or square it to their lives. Actually quite a tragic tale.

And told on it's own, could have been a classic, indeed, a masterpiece.

Unfortunately, it's trapped inside an unnecessarily absurd, over-long, overly- graphic, grubby series of porn flick episodes that totally detract from a, kill the wonderful tragic tale beneath.

Again... not a prude, I just feel that if a director feels he wants to make porn, then do so, you only need ten minutes of that everyone consenting, everybody happy, and you need not then try to pretend it's "drama", and porn doesn't need a Shakespearean plot under it.

Get in, get out, go home - wham, bam.... etc (so to speak)

But at least this would then be honest about, and with itself.

And at a three hour runtime, I do not exaggerate to say you could, by means of editorial excavation, lose at least half hour to forty five minutes of unnecessary movie flab, and porn, still make your points about the nature of their relationship, and have brilliant movie as the end result.

But as it is, it is too uncomfortable a watch.

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the major critical assessment of the works of robert a. heinlein (to date of publication);
imnsho this is well worth reading and thinking about the observations and analyses of this major author's sf & fantasy.

it could not, of course, consider the later works; but these are mostly a record of his sad decline - with occasional (partial) recoveries.

hated by diehard heinleinian fanatics, of which there were many; and also by robert a. heinlein - unread!

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This is an average album by the band's standards, but certainly better than the previous Spirit. There aren't really any very memorable songs on it, and after listening to it a few times I am able to name 'Ghosts Again', 'Wagging Tongue' and the best one in my opinion 'Before We Drown'.

In terms of sound, I don't deny that at times the simple/minimalist arrangements are elegant and the focus on Gahan's voice creates an intimate and close atmosphere, but the album lacks impact and one expects more from such successful songwriters as they have been.

One can also have reservations about the mastering of the digital and CD releases. In my opinion, the sound is too loud and the dynamics have been drastically reduced. As you can see, we are still living in the age of the loudness war.

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