In which Barry White “cordially invites yo ass” to something or other at Paul Quinn College. Archival outtakes ftw.
Amazing archive of interviews with authors from the 80s and 90s. A must-bookmark.
Woah.
The Cranes Are Flying. Here’s a good Criterion essay. It’s odd watching something like this the night after I watched Die Hard—which is a great movie, sure, but the camerawork is a bit more… utilitarian. This one is a treat for the eyes. It was directed by Mikhail Kalatozov and shot by Sergei Urusevsky, who is supposed to be a genius cinematographer. I think this is probably correct. Here are some more brilliant photos that don’t do it justice, because they’re not moving. There’s several dramatic long shots outdoors that are awesome, and many of the indoor takes have some clever tracking and repositioning. All in rich, purposefully-lit black and white. Looks like someone has put The Cranes Are Flying on YouTube so you can investigate. As for the story, it’s lovers-separated-by-war stuff. But if you’re going to get stuck watching a WWII romance that’s not Casablanca, it’s probably best take charge and pick something that’s visually awesome. And I should mention that the actors are great.
The Droste effect. Clever Wikipedians. “The effect is named after a particular image that appeared, with variations, on the tins and boxes of Droste cocoa powder, one of the main Dutch brands.”
The audio examples are really fascinating. (via).
When composers wrote for these instruments they sometimes loved them and sometimes chafed at their limitations, but in any case they wrote for those sounds, that touch, those bells and whistles. From old instruments, performers on modern pianos can get important insights into the sound image that Mozart, Schubert, et al., were aiming for. But music from the 18th and 19th centuries doesn’t just sound different now than on the original instruments; some of it can’t even be played as written on modern pianos.
Die Hard. Excessive law enforcement buffoonery aside, it’s fun fun fun. Great movie. I got inspired to watch it after BLDGBLOG’s post on Die Hard as an architectural film.
Out of the West: Clint Eastwood’s shifting landscape by David Denby for The New Yorker. My relatively new Eastwood obsession means of course I dropped everything to read it. Lots of good stuff in this article.
For a Few Dollars More. I’ve finally finished the Dollars Trilogy. This one is great. I found it much better than A Fistful of Dollars and almost up there with The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The first duel in this movie is either the first or second best in the whole trilogy. I love the way Leone builds from silence to melodramatic swells of music and back to silence and only then gives you resolution. And nice little details like in the delightful hat duel where every time Eastwood shoots the hat it lands in a pool of light. And the repeated appearance of the safe during the bank robbery scene. You know something is going to happen with/to/near/around it, but you gotta wait for the moment. Sweet, sweet suspense.
I’m to make my first trip to Los Angeles in just a couple weeks. I will bring my elastic pants.
Manhattan may boast the highest concentration of high-end restaurants in the world, and Singapore hawker centers may pack more joy into each square inch, but Los Angeles is the best place in the world to eat at the moment, a frieze of fine dining overlaying a huge patchwork of immigrant communities big enough and self-sustaining enough to produce exactly the food that they want to eat.
A piece about painter Thomas Kinkade and the California real estate market.
We have to accept that the violent orange glow that emanates from the interior of nearly every house in a Kinkade painting merely indicates that the house is warm and inviting, not burning to the ground. […] He says that as the son of a single mother who worked late, he often came home to a house that was dark and cold, especially in winter. The “Kinkade glow” represents what he wished was there instead. He tells the story more than once, which raises a question or two: Didn’t he maybe just want to burn the place down? Is his art really a form of arson?
Key Largo. “Your head says one thing and your whole life says another. Your head always loses.” This was a drawing-room crime/suspense film with relatively low stakes. It turned out to be pretty good, but could use some trimming. Edward G. Robinson really carries it.
Sorry about the couple photo-less posts in a row, but you have to hear this: Alex Ross’s “Top Ten Glissandos.”
For maximum effect, press all the buttons in quick succession.(via Unquiet Thoughts)
This is delightful. Might I also suggest The Beatles’ A Day In the Life?
Alice in Wonderland (1903). “The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll’s tale has recently been restored by the BFI National Archive from severely damaged materials.” (via)
