(Untitled)

[psyched_out]

rest in peace derek bailey, the world is a sadder place without your presence but your albums (and your wonderful book on improvisation) will remind us of your wit & your trailblazing approach to playing the guitar - i can hear him now: "i'm just what heaven needs...another fucking guitarist

Comments

[ikahana]

Derek Bailey died? I had no idea. How sad

[psyched_out]

yeah, derek died on christmas day from motor neuron disease, according to what i've read - he'd been going back and forth between barcelona and london for treatments over the past few months...

you're right, i forgot to mention that "the passion of anna" wasn't even in widescreen - or at least, not at the proper ratio...

bergman is someone who has fascinated me, but up until now i've only seen a few of his films ("the seventh seal", "wild strawberries", "smiles of a summer night", and "persona"), and i know virtually nothing about him - so i hope to get a good education with this films - i read up on "fanny and alexander" and realize that the TV version is considered to be infinitely superior to the film version, but at a price that cheap i thought it was worth a shot...

this is part of why i'm interested in film books - i base almost all of my knowledge on a guide to 4 star movies that i bought in a bargain bin, and to a book about midnight movies written by village voice critic j. hoberman (oh, i like his writing too) - the

[ikahana]

"so who do you favor for film criticism?"

Jonathan Rosenbaum. NO question. All others are no-nothing crayon scribblers compared to him. You can read his stuff on the Chicago Weekly website, but he has several books out there as well, which sometimes can be a bit harder to find. I think I'm finally going to order his latest - which is now about a year old.

Bergman pretty much put it all in his films, so if you keep up with watching them you will get a fairly decent take on his life. It goes something like this - God/bad, Women/good - both create torment and angst. Death = The End.

I love watching him being interviewed because he laughs and smiles so much.

[psyched_out]

oh, now that you mention it rosenblaum is the co-author of that hoberman book i mentioned (now i feel guilty for not giving him credit) -

[_maldorora]

SWORD OF DOOM! *flails* that is my favorite old samurai movie ever.

[psyched_out]

good deal, i know very little about the movie but with a title like that how could it go wrong?

[lokilokust]

it's a FANTASTIC and almost completely amoral film.

[lokilokust]

that's quite a nice haul!
i adore 'ugetsu' and it's one of the few dvd purchases i'm allowing myself next month.
i'm consistently happy with the criterion collection (hell, i should be, since i have almost 200 pieces!) and i have that bergman box, too.
while it could be better, it's still nice to have all those films together, and the extras are decent.
still, it's mgm, and they're just not that concerned with quality.
(i mean, hell, they still have that awful edition of 'fellini satyricon' on the market, even though there have been MUCH better translations, transfers, and everything. gods, i wish they'd pull that and 'fellini's roma' and release GOOD versions of them.)
i'll also say that i do often like rosenbaum, but i have a tough time trying to pick any one favourite critic.
(like i have with trying to pick any one favourite anything, i suppose.)
.
which version of 'the wages of fear' was it?
(i still need to get the two disc reissue.)
.
this comment has been a mess.

[psyched_out]

if the dvd of fellini's satyricon is anything like their VHS version, i agree that its completely terrible! i rented it once and couldn't make it through more than 30 minutes before having to stop it - it was almost making me nauseous...

the ugetsu box is gorgeous - haven't delved into any of the bonus features yet, but hopefully i'll rectify that soon...

oh, its the 2-disc wages of fear - of all the movies listed, its the only one i already had (well, along with persona) as it came on TCM back in the summer - although i'd never watched it, and the bonus features sounded nice...i haven't seen any clouzot yet, actually - the damned video store that shut down near me closed up before i could grab diabolique from them...

if you, ikahana, and daniel_1980 can all agree on rosenbaum, that's more than enough recommendation for me, at least as a starting point...

[lokilokust]

i actually think that 'the wages of fear' is a superior film to 'les diaboliques.'
(although, 'les diaboliques' is still one of the greatest and most important horror films of all time. sadly, it's been mimicked so many times that you'll probably feel like you've seen it a thousand times when you finally get to watch it.)
i'm also glad that they decided to include some of the stories that inspired 'ugestu' with the dvd, rather like they did with 'short cuts' and 'the man who fell to earth.'

[lokilokust]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801878403/104-0288237-9711920?n=283155
a good place to start with rosenbaum, i'd say.

[bresmommy92402]

Hey! Just wanted to let you know that I started my own journal on here. lol Tell S. and the baby that Bre and I said hi! :) Hope you guys have a great New Years. It was really good seeing all of you earlier this month.

[psyched_out]

thanks for letting me know! i just friended you so (1) i can find out when you post & (2) you can see my non-public entries - not that i live some dark and sinister life, but that's how i classify any photos of me, S, or A - and as you can probably guess, there have been a fair number of those since september...

i look forward to seeing all of your pictures when i'm not on some ridiculously slow dialup connection!

we had a good time seeing you too - i'm glad you were able to stay at my parents' house rather than be part of the whooshing train of goodbyes that swept through about 6 minutes after we arrived...we hope that your new year is a good time too! i'm the only one awake right now but i'll tell everyone you said hi later on...

that store

[sid_icarus]

If its the store I'm thinking of, its going out of business in North Carolina too, and dankamongmen and my girlfriend both slang books there (separate locations).

I asked her once if she's had more jobs or sex partners, and while I've repressed her response, her brief employment at this store was apparently the equivalent of a handjob or a blowjob.

Walter_Cronkite_v("And that's the way it [was]...");

Re: that store

[psyched_out]

still, that'd be enough to get her impeached...