The Pendulum Effect
Gratuitous James Wolk
Shower Thoughts
Last week someone died trying to convince a stone age tribe to believe in iron age mythology. Today we landed a spaceship on another planet.
Amazing
Angel City Choir: Africa
Released 35 Years Ago Today
Eurythmics: Touch (1983)
(Very) Late to the Party
Even though the film came out sixteen years ago, I’d never seen The Hours in full until today. I ran across the soundtrack sometime during 2005 while browsing at the public library and it became my go-to writing music for quite a while, without ever really knowing the story behind it. (I love all things Philip Glass so that point was moot.)
Several months ago I noticed it playing on IFC one day while channel surfing, but it was nearly over so I set the DVR to record the next showing. I attempted to watch thereafter but I fell asleep halfway through. (It wasn’t the movie’s fault; I was exhausted.)
Today I started it over and watched the whole thing. All I can say is “Wow.”
I’ll leave it to a review I found online that mirrors my own feelings about the film:
“…it is impossible to fault at any level: Acting, dialogue, costumes, locations, soundtrack, scenery, settings or storyline.
“Films like this don’t come along too often–beautifully made in an almost understated way, it relates to no major event or cataclysm, it chronicles no turning-point in history and it poses no worrying conundrum for the future. It is simply a quietly-told story that will criss-cross between various points in time and take you deep into the characters’ emotions and portray the effect that they have on their lives. When you have seen and come to understand the events that take place, by the time it concludes it will leave you feeling refreshed and perhaps a little better in touch with the emotions in your own life–just like good films should, but sadly, so rarely do…
Easily 9 out of 10–If you watch this one, you will not regret the time spent.”
Unintended Consequences
For those of you who’ve seen the final episode of AHS: Apocalypse…
I beg to differ on the point of Cordelia not getting sick. According to AHS canon, when a new Supreme rises, the existing Supreme must die. Since we know Mallory proves herself to be the next Supreme, Cordelia will–at some point–have to die.
I’m Going to Hell
“The girls just bet me that you wouldn’t suck me off to get these 50-yard-line tickets to Sunday’s game. Prove ’em wrong, buddy. Right here, right now.”
Gratuitous Alex Rich
I Am Incorrigible
It’s the Secret Sauce!
Gratuitous Armie Hammer
Armie Hammer by Brian Bowen Smith for The Hollywood Reporter, November 2017
Fuck. Armie’s. everything.
I’m Sure He’s Quite Popular in the Barracks
Be Careful What You Ask For
Vintage Audio Porn
I’m Going To Hell
Body of Work
I used to paint. A lot.
My earliest recollection of putting a brush to canvas was in high school, although it wasn’t until years later that I began to do it with any sort of seriousness. Like with so many other things in my life, the arrival of Star Wars is what lit the flame. A lot of my sci-fi work also served as illustration/inspiration for that never-completed always-in-progress novel I started in my 20s.
After my move to San Francisco in the mid 80s, I was surrounded by all sorts of new…ahem… “inspiration” that prompted not only new subject matter but a completely new style altogether.
My last work was the portrait of Ben from ten years ago.
For some reason the Muses have sequestered themselves out of sight after that was completed, but as I’ve written before I’m not too worried about their absence as I’ve had long dry spells before, only to have them broken with a tsunami of new work. Maybe this coming year will bring that tsunami, because I’m tired of friends saying, “You’re so good! Why aren’t you painting?” and I have to explain that it’s not just a matter of sitting down and having inspiration magically appear.
So here, with apologies for the low quality of some of the photos (and to be honest, some of the actual paintings themselves) for the first time ever, my (nearly entire) body of work. You’ll notice some common themes repeating…
There are maybe a half dozen others done over the years that I never got photographs of because they were early works and given away.
I Used to Sketch
While searching for the photo of my painting Not Even Death Shall Part Us for the previous post, I ran across a bunch of other stuff.
Okay, I know they’re not fine art, but at the time (I was 20 or so) I was very happy with how they turned out; now doubly-so because I know I didn’t lay anything out first. I just grabbed a pen and started drawing.
Artistic ability may indeed be a gift, but I know this much: if you don’t use it, it deteriorates over time. Take this from a guy who really hasn’t produced any art in over ten years and is now almost terrified at the thought of drawing anything.
Jean-Michel Jarre Does It Again
Chills upon hearing the first track. Just like 40 years ago after rushing home with the newly-released Equinoxe.
Once again I am twenty years old, skimming over a vast sea of golden dunes in my landspeeder under a double sun in a wheat-colored sky with the love of my life at my side.
In 1978 as the original Equinoxe was spinning on the turntable I called my friend and mentor Kent and after holding the receiver (yes, Virginia, it was a phone with a wire connected to the wall) up to the speaker I said, “Can you hear that? Landspeeders!” It’s been a long time since a piece of music had me bouncing off the ceiling.
I won’t say Infinity does this—and a lot of the same criticisms I had with Jarre’s last sequel, Oxygene 3, apply here as well—but it’s still a worthy followup to the original work.
Just Because
I’m Going To Hell
Shower Thoughts
You can save 100% by staying home on Black Friday.
Gratuitous Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Shower Thoughts
When you completely stop watching the news for a substantial period of time, the world becomes a much better place.
UNF! (NSFW)
A Little DUNE Humor
I’m Going To Hell
“George, I never noticed how beautiful your eyes were! They’re like pools of liquid sapphire… whaddaya say we leave Beau and Larry down here to talk shop and go upstairs and fuck our brains out?”
Moody and Atmospheric
Netflix does it again.
As we often do when nothing catches our eye on cable, we pick up the remote and say, “Netflix.”
Sometimes even that comes up empty, but a week or so ago we started watching Bodyguard. I was initially reluctant to dive into it because the subject matter didn’t pique my interest, but once I started watching it gripped me. It’s one of those dark British dramas whose inscrutable characters, subtle soundtrack, and saturnine cinematography immediately drew me in.
Bodyguard is the story of Sgt. David Budd, a war veteran who helps thwart a terrorist attack, and is then assigned to protect the Home Secretary who was a major proponent of the conflict he fought in. Sgt. Budd harbors a secret and carries with him a host of conflicts and issues that must be addressed, but not until circumstances force him to confront his demons does he finally find peace.
I give this one a 9 out of 10 stars only because of a couple gaping plot holes that were never fully addressed. It’s only a six-episode season, but worth every minute.
And Richard Madden (Sgt. Budd) is very pretty too.
Released 22 Years Ago Today
The Addams Family (1991)
Another one of those films (along with its sequel) that when it appears on cable I drop everything I’m doing to watch. Raúl Juliá’s death in 1994 was an absolute tragedy. The Addams Family films had the potential for becoming such a wonderful series. Watching Pugsley and Wednesday grow up would’ve been delightful…
It turns out that the film had a very tortured birth and that there actually was a third film with a totally different cast, director, and production company that went direct to video and crashed horribly—as it should have. You don’t mess with classics.