I’m kind-of on vacation right now. As much as one can be on vacation with 8 kids, anyway. So this one’s a real softball. One of my favorite films from film school. And a big part of why Buster Keaton’s my favorite silent comic. (It’s the first half more than the second half, really. The chase stuff in the latter part of the film really shows off his amazing physical skills and timing. But it’s the dead-pan set-up that I... Read more
View image | gettyimages.com I stumbled across this piece a few months ago as I was researching my post on Morten Lauridsen and his love for Mary. I think it’s part of his “Mid-Winter” song cycle (or at least it’s usually featured on a CD with his Mid-Winter song cycle), so it might not be exactly seasonally appropriate. But I love it, so here. The song’s lyrics come from a poem written by James Agee, which also inspired a setting by Samuel... Read more
Today’s short film, Carlos Lascano’s “A Short Love Story in Stop Motion,” is more than seven years old. I have absolutely no idea why it’s taken me this long to find it. I love the mixture of mediums; parts of it feel very 3D/physical/claymation-y, and parts of it feel very 2D/ethereal/hand-drawn. And parts of it feel very …both. Using such disparate styles simultaneously feels really unconventional (to me). That’s probably why watching the “Behind the Scenes” stuff — which digs down into how (and why) Carlos created... Read more
Earlier this week, right after I discovered (and almost-simultaneously posted) this hilarious little clip of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry preparing to fight a rather unusual duel, I was inspired (by the aforementioned clip) to see if the duo’s true comedic masterpiece — the side-splitting “Jeeves and Wooster” series from the early 1990’s — was available from any of the usual streaming suspects. I sort of assumed it wasn’t, but I was wrong. And how. You can Buy-and-Watch individual episodes from AMAZON INSTANT, you can buy... Read more
A few days ago, I came home from work and found this odd/inexplicable assortment of magnetic letters lying on our dining-room table. Because I have yet to learn better, I asked who it’d come from. And what it was. James (the Fifth Son) piped up from behind me, a slight exasperation matter-of-factly hidden under his “Be Patient With Dad” voice: “I made it, Papa. It’s Square M plus Bunny.” I…cannot argue with that. It is, in fact, Square M plus... Read more
View image | gettyimages.com Today’s an All-Day Editing Day — in other words, I’m hip-deep in InDesign and shall shortly run mad — so music is an absolute must. For me, that means (almost always) Baroque, (most likely) keyboard, and (pretty much never) anything jazzy. That last one’s not entirely fair/can be self-defeating, because there’s lots of improvisational elements in Baroque music. Which is probably why I’ve been internally inconsistent/lucked into Keith Jarret, a jazz-classical pianist who’s a really wonderful improviser. And also... Read more
There’s a new Mad Max film coming out shortly; this weekend, actually. It looks insane. In honor of the (impending) occasion, here’s a Mad Max-inspired short film that’s slightly less insane (but visually splendid and highly imaginative): After the seas have disappeared, a courageous pilot fights against vicious sky pirates for control of the last remaining source of water: the clouds. The bulk of the film was made using nothing but laptops during a 7-week artist retreat on a small... Read more
WHEREAS it’s been over a year since I recommended a Cary Grant film (which is far too long); and WHEREAS screwball comedies are pretty much the Best Friday Flicks Ever (as long as you’re not too tired to keep up with the banter); and WHEREAS the wonderfully-successful transposition of one of its leads has always fascinated me (as has the legend behind it); and WHEREAS no one who has seen it can actually forget THAT. HAT (just to make sure I don’t bury that lede); therefore be... Read more
FORREST GUMP: We were the first Americans to visit the land of China in, like, a million years or something like that, and somebody said that world peace was in our hands. But all I did was play ping-pong. Some of my fondest teenage memories revolve around a ping-pong table set in the basement of my cousins’ house in Maine. We spent a couple of summers there as I was growing up, and the basement was our refuge against the mugginess (and... Read more
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No Commentary Necessary — Dueling Frys and Lauries
This is not the first time I’ve written about the comedically-transcendent duo of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry in this context. And I’m sure it will not be the last. Attribution(s): There are no “Awesome Dueling Fry and Laurie” images available in the public domain currently, so instead, here’s an awesome “Classic Guys Dueling” image by G. Durand (from January, 1875’s Harper’s Weekly), licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. It’ll have to do. Read more