Life’s a bit breakneck at the moment, but I’m pulling my head up out of the water just high enough to mention this: Gustave Doré, whose spectacular illustrations for Don Quixote would be the absolute pinnacle of an amazing artistic career if he hadn’t ALSO DONE DANTE, produced 26 engravings for Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” They are, predictably, fantastic. But they’re also a bit different from some of his other works, as highlighted by OpenCulture’s post: Like all of... Read more
Every time I begin to despair of the InterWebs and their ability to offer anything of legitimate value, they come along with something that changes my mind. The latest example, courtesy of the Blank on Blank folks? A wonderfully animated (in several senses) interview with the legendary Man in Black, Johnny Cash (put together from an interview recorded some time back in 2006). Really, really great stuff. A man of tremendous talent, a man who’s been chastened and humbled time-and-again — often as a result... Read more
The Previously-Discussed Welsh composer Karl Jenkins has written a concerto based on the legendary La Folia. For the marimba. Your argument is invalid. I love contemporary composers who have a knowledge of and an appreciation for the past. Plus, anyone who names their album of strange concerti “Quirk” is worthy of more attention, in my book. Especially when he says he was drawn to jazz because it was tonal, and he disliked the atonal stuff he was studying. (Plus, I mentioned he was Welsh, right?... Read more
I realize that today’s short this is a bit more philosophical than my usual fare, but not to worry. I don’t really understand Plato’s ubiquitous Cave allegory — whether I’m dealing with it in written or in animated form. So we’re good. Claymation has always been a bit tricky for me, honestly. I love the amount of patience on display, and the painstaking creative process encourages a tremendous attention to detail. But the roughness around the edges is sometime distracting to me; can’t... Read more
One of my favorite films from last year is now available on both NETFLIX INSTANT and AMAZON PRIME: Mud, from Jeff Nichols. It’s a hard film for me to describe, really. Somehow, it retains a distinctive personality despite an abundance of obvious predecessors and influences. Imagine Huck Finn meets Flannery O’Connor, with a dash of Faulkner, a pinch of True Grit, a bit of Noah — No, not THAT Noah! — and a smidge of Robinson Crusoe. It’s a strange and mysterious work, with... Read more
I love documentaries. Always have. Yet one of the much/most-lamented facts of my early cinematic education was that it was astonishingly hard to get my hands on them. With the Streaming Revolution, that’s all changed. Yet the forced documentary frugality of those early years makes it hard for me to grasp that fact, even now. So I’m still a bit amazed by the fact that all five of this year’s Oscar-nominated documentaries are currently streaming on Netflix. Hang on. Once... Read more
Douglas Adams is an acquired taste. I say that with some sadness, but also with a great deal of personal certainty. Because despite my sincere and repeated efforts, I’ve never been able to acquire it. I know many, many tasteful folks who love him and his famous “Hitchiker’s Guide”, so I know it can be done. And I include my wife in this exclusive group, which is partially why I admit my lack of appreciation with some sadness. But as... Read more
This one’s short and straightforward, yes. But also visually inventive — the tree and the time-lapse sequence actually made me catch my breath — and the story is charming despite its predictability: I was not familiar with the short’s directorial duo — Brendan Carroll and Francesco Giroldini — but a quick search turned up the fact that Giroldini has worked as a “shot lighting artist” on a number of Dreamworks Animation’s feature films, including the Kung-Fu Panda sequel. Which makes a ton of sense,... Read more
Just getting myself ready for tomorrow night with this “little” long-distance number from the occasionally-healthy Hanley Ramirez: OK, so that particular clip isn’t of something getting closer and closer. It’s of something getting really, really far away. Almost impossibly far. But baseball itself is getting closer and closer. For which I am deeply, almost frighteningly grateful. You know what else is almost impossible? This: Tonight, the Dodgers announced that for the first time in franchise history, they will have sold... Read more
Baz Lurhmann’s crazy. Seriously. The guy’s insane. For years, I’ve struggled with his films. But not because he’s crazy. I struggle with them because he’s not quite crazy enough. Or at least he’s not whole-heartedly crazy. Not uncompromisingly crazy. He’s always holding a little something back. Wow, you know who sounds crazy now? Me. Luhrmann holding something back? Seriously? Yes. The things about him that are most insane are stylistic things: zooming, wooshing, wildly-windmilling camera work; extreme, over-the-top and in-your-face... Read more
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