Saturday, November 21, 2009
Dark Lady
Back in the 1940s, Linda Darnell radiated as much cinematic heat as the Hays Code allowed. She died tragically in the 1960s, in her own forties, days after she survived a house going up in flames..
I'd seen Linda years ago in the brilliant 'A Letter To Three Wives,' from 1949, and enjoyed her last night in a lesser, but still entertaining Fox noir, 'Fallen Angel..' Enjoy the trailer for the former, below.. Look here tomorrow for my review of the terrific 'An Education,' a film bound to win many accolades in the weeks to come...This is certainly one of the best hundred old movies ever made... This is terrific...
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...Hang Around.... I'll have an interesting post later this afternoon. Off to get a haircut, a laptop battery, a new Coach bag, a partridge and a raspberry tree (more fiber than pears...)
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Friday, November 20, 2009
David Hockney Has Left The Country
Thankfully, JP doesn't have to do the same.. We were pleased to catch Pace Wildensteins' showing of recent David Hockney work on Saturday on W 25th in between 10th and 11th Avenues... It runs through December 24, and is not to be missed. Color, wonder, imagination...
Hockney is gone from our shores, because this British US resident couldn't get his boyfriend a visa, and they didn't want to be separated. This immigration discrimination hurts more people than you'd suspect...
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
Just Another High Line Sunset
Photographed with my iPhone, about two weeks back..
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Simply Marvelous
JP made me matzoh-ball soup! A little TLC with the bonus of putting me in touch with my inner Jew... : - ) Simple, but marvelous.
It just needed a little love, Charlie Brown.... JP makes something special of romaine lettuce, chickpeas, tuna, Chinese noodles, carrot, and dried pineapple...
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Misty Saturday Gallery Hop
With apologies to Led Zeppelin.. : - ) Our hike canceled, Steve, JP, and I wandered the galleries of 25th Street, and I'll dribble the results out over the next week or so... One highlight was the obvious-but-no-less-entertaining-for-it oeuvre of Olaf Breuning...
I just need to...
The human condition...
You are here...
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Monday, November 16, 2009
Learn To Learn To Learn
This one has been a long time coming! I kept forgetting to use, for Song of the Week, 'Learn To Learn' by The Week That Was, from late 2008. Perhaps, because it's an olive or an anchovy on the musical menu - not to everyone's taste, but most scrumptious if your musical taste buds are so aligned...
This song is informed, but not defined, by its influences: Peter Gabriel, XTC, and mid-period Beatles. Its mastermind, Peter Brewis, is 1/3 of the lovely, Beatlesque 'Field Music,' with his brother David, and may or may not be leaving that very similar group for this project. Listen and hear for yourself. Here's the very cinematic black & white video for 'Learn To Learn:'
The other single was 'Scratch The Surface:'
You should also here Peter's work with his day job, Field Music... here's the angular and jittery alternative new wave of 'In Context...'
The other single was 'Scratch The Surface:'
You should also here Peter's work with his day job, Field Music... here's the angular and jittery alternative new wave of 'In Context...'
Finally, a live performance of 'The Airport Line,' my personal favorite on the album..
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
Make A Date With A Fox
I just got entertained : - ) Don't miss Wes Anderson's terrific stop-motion animated film of Roald Dahl's classic 'The Fantastic Mr Fox.'
This film works on both adult and kid levels, with Roald Dahl's unsentimental dark humor filtered through Anderson's trademark quirkiness. By the last of its 93 delicious minutes my face muscles ached from smiling! Top-flight actors supply the voices (Clooney, Streep, Murray, DaFoe) and the soundtrack is a twangy 60s AM-radio treat.
The trailer conveys the film's flavor and wit but neither reveals plot nor shows the entire movie in encapsulation...
The trailer conveys the film's flavor and wit but neither reveals plot nor shows the entire movie in encapsulation...
In stop-motion, and object is physically manipulated to appear to move on its own, in small increments between separately photographed frames that seem to move when played in sequence. It's proto-animation, and is less polished and slick than today's CGI, but has more warmth and personality, CGI, a fun and novel world in which to spend an hour or two.. Here's a stop-motion King Kong Volkswagen ad clip from the 70s...
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Rain Cancels
We had to cancel the Giant Stairs hike I was going to co-lead this morning. New York's had heavy rain for two days now, and the massive boulders of this hike are treacherous when slippery. So, the slightest rain cancels. This is the Plaza of Heroes in Budapest...
Co-leaders of a hike must make the official decision at 7am on the morning of the hike. I had my cell phone right by my bed. That was a short and drowsy conversation... Here is the Palace of Art in Budapest, to the left of Plaza of Heroes, a vast 100,000 piece plus collection that corresponds to our Met Museum, albeit 1/10 the size. That plaza is the gateway to a park that's full of attractions (zoos, steam baths, museums) but skimpy on greenery...
And here's that park's skimpy greenery. Back in New York, JP & I have decided to make the best of this rain-swept day and go gallery hopping this afternoon with my hike co-leader Steve..
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