Unknown Artist
Artwork of the Day: Hotel Hostess
Yearly Archives: 2017
Music Video of the Day: The Golden Path by The Chemical Brothers, featuring The Flaming Lips (2003, dir by Chris Milk)
The Golden Path is one of my favorite songs of all time.
I’ve been listening to it a lot this weekend, while thinking about friends and loved ones who left this world far too early. On a normal day, the combination of Wayne Coyne’s sincere delivery of “How and why did I die?” and the song’s closing chorus of “Please forgive me, I never meant to hurt you!” makes me emotional. This weekend, it’s literally brought tears to my eyes.
(Interestingly enough, in an interview with the Guardian, Coyne said the following about recording the vocals for The Golden Path: “We recorded our part very quickly, almost flippantly, like we’d get a second chance. Then Tom and Ed left a message within 20 minutes of receiving the tape. You could hear them jumping up and down in the background, shouting ‘We’re ecstatic.'”)
As for the video, it’s actually pretty simple. An office drone fantasizes of a colorful world beyond his gray existence. The dreamer is played by Fran Kranz, who you might recognize as the stoner from The Cabin In The Woods. This video was the first to be directed by Chris Milk.
Enjoy!
(Val should be back tomorrow!)
Tangling With The “Shirtless Bear-Fighter!”
One of the chief gripes that a lot of folks who’ve fallen away from comics over the years have is that the medium just takes itself way too fucking seriously these days — and I have to admit that, looking over much of the output that comes from the “Big Two” (as well as a number of independent publishers), these past (and hopefully future) readers do have something of a point. A quick glance through the pages of almost any randomly-chosen five or six “floppies” on the racks of your LCS are enough to make anyone think that “dark,somber, and brooding” is the order of the day in what were once thought of as “funnybooks.” Which isn’t to say that many of these (overly?) serious titles aren’t involving, interesting, smart, and maybe even fun, in their own way — but goddamnit, whatever happened to stupid fun?
Well, it may be…
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Lisa’s Early Oscar Predictions for June
Hi there!
Well, it’s time for me to make my monthly Oscar predictions! Though my predictions are no longer “too early,” they are still definitely early. Most of these predictions are based on a combination of wild speculation and wishful thinking.
For instance, do I really think that Wonder Woman will be an Oscar contender?
Well, I think it could be. I’d like it if it was. If really pressed, I’ll say that I think it has a better chance of being nominated than Logan does. And, as you’ll remember, I had Logan listed as a best picture nominee back in March.
I guess what I’m saying is that these predictions should always be taken with a grain of salt. To be honest, right now, the only precursor that we have is Cannes and Cannes is notoriously unreliable when it comes to being used as a tool to predict what will actually be nominated.
Anyway, these predictions will probably be good for a laugh or two next February. Be sure to check out my previous predictions for January, February, March, April, and May!
Best Picture
The Beguiled
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Detroit
The Disaster Artist
Dunkirk
Goodbye, Christopher Robin
Best Director
Sofia Coppola for The Beguiled
Simon Curtis for Goodbye, Christopher Robin
Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk
Dee Rees for Mudbound
Joe Wright for Darkest Hour
Best Actor
Chadwick Boseman in Marshall
Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman
Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour
Robert Pattinson in Good Time
Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here
Best Actress
Judi Dench in Victoria and Abdul
Kirsten Dunst in Woodshock
Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman
Carey Mulligan in Mudbound
Michelle Pfieffer in Where Is Kyra?
Best Supporting Actor
Steve Carell in Battle of the Sexes
James Franco in The Disaster Artist
Woody Harrelson in The Glass Castle
Jason Mitchell in Mudbound
Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories
Best Supporting Actress
Melissa Leo in Novitiate
Julianne Moore in Wonderstruck
Margot Robbie in Goodbye, Christopher Robin
Kristin Scott Thomas in Darkest Hour
Naomi Watts in The Glass Castle
A Movie A Day #167: Stick (1985, directed by Burt Reynolds)
Stick (Burt Reynolds) is a veteran car thief who has just gotten out of prison. No sooner has Stick arrived home in Florida then he accompanies his friend, Rainy (Jose Perez), on a drug deal that goes bad. When Rainy is killed, Stick goes into hiding. He manages to get a stable job, working as a chauffeur for an eccentric millionaire (George Segal). He gets a new girlfriend (Candice Bergen) and starts to bond with his teenage daughter (Tricia Leigh Fisher). Stick wants to go straight but, before he can, he knows that he has to confront the men who murdered Rainy.
Stick starts out strong. The first half of the film finds Burt, who was often as underrated as a director as he was as an actor, in pure Sharky’s Machine mode, mixing the steamy Florida atmosphere with quirky character comedy and hardboiled action. Adapting his own novel, Elmore Leonard wrote the screenplay and Stick seems like a classic Leonard hero, a criminal with his own moral code.
But then Stick falls apart during the second half and it becomes obvious why both Reynolds and Leonard often cited this film as being one of the biggest disappointments of their careers. Universal Studios disliked Burt’s first cut of the film and brought in a second screenwriter, who beefed up the action scenes and added the subplot with Stick’s teenage daughter. Reynolds reshot the second half of the movie, no longer playing Stick as a tough criminal but instead as another variation on the Bandit. The end result is a very disjointed movie, with Burt looking bored.
It does not help that the movie’s main villain is played by Charles Durning, who wears an orange fright wig and several Hawaiian shirts. Durning was an actor who gave many great performances but never was he as miscast as when he played a drug dealer in Stick.
Summer Fun with Bill Murray in MEATBALLS (Paramount 1979)
Summer is finally here, so what better way to celebrate than with a summer movie starring Bill Murray! Bill had joined the cast of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE in 1979 (back when it was actually funny) and quickly became a fan favorite with his smarmy, snarky persona and silly characterizations. After the film success of John Belushi, it was only natural for Hollywood to come calling, right? Wrong, bucko… it was Canada that lured Bill for his first starring vehicle, the oh-so-70’s teen comedy MEATBALLS! Yeah, you heard right, ’twas the Great White North that plucked Bill away from being “Live from New York” to a location shoot at good ol’ Camp White Pines in the wilds of Ontario.
Bill’s fellow ‘Second City’ alumnus Harold Ramis (or as he was called in SCTV’s credits, ‘Ha-Harold Ramis’!) was a cowriter of the screenplay, beginning a long string of movie collaborations between the two (STRIPES, CADDYSHACK, GHOSTBUSTERS I…
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Artwork of the Day: Sex Kitten
by Paul Rader
Music Video of the Day: D7-D5 by Blanck Mass (2016, dir by Jake McGowan)
When Benjamin John Power, the man behind Blanck Mass, was asked about this haunting and surreal video, this is what he told Spin:
“D7-D5′ is intended as the second move in a game of chess initially instigated by Manuel Gottsching when he released (and named said release) ‘E2-E4,’ the recording which many believe pioneered techno. The video was made by [my] good friend Jake McGowan, and follows one man whilst he struggles to deal with a flurry of emotions and human states which are common during a battle of any size, including a game of chess.”
For myself, I’ll say that this video immediately reminded me of the work of David Lynch. Of course, I’m kind of obsessed with David Lynch’s art right now. Until Twin Peaks has finished its run, I imagine that almost everything is going to remind me of Lynch in one way or another.
Still, this video is almost unsettling as that famous scene in A Field in England, that one that featured Blanck Mass’s Chernobyl playing in the background. Remember that scene?
Well, unsettling or not, Blanck Mass helps me to focus, which considering the intensity of my ADD, is no small accomplishment! If not for well-selected background music, I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish 3,000 of the 3,897 things that I have posted on this site!
Enjoy!
“Land Of The” — Sorry, “Revenge Of The Lost”
Dinosaurs! You love ’em, I love ’em, everybody loves ’em — and we love ’em even more when they look cheap.
The good news is that if you’ve got a low-rent dinosaur itch, there’s a brand-new (2017 release date and all) number available for streaming on Amazon Prime called Revenge Of The Lost that’s sure to scratch it for you. The bad news is that aside from the admirably cheesy practical-effects dinos, it’s not a flick that really has much else going for it.
The brainchild of director/co-writer/producer/star Erik Franklin and co-writer/producer Daniel Husser’s less-than-imaginatively named Franklin-Husser Entertainment, a Seattle-based production outfit that apparently has some ambitious plans for the future, this is a film that fell far short of its fundraising goal on Indiegogo, but what the hell — our intrepid Pacific Northwest auteurs didn’t let that stop ’em from unleashing their debut opus on the world, and…
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Rough week for us #SnarkAlecs; But family sticks together.
As most of you you know, us #SnarkAlecs are a family; each and every one of us. And when something happens to one of us, it happens to each of us.
As a family we have suffered several great losses this week.
The first happened with the passing of our #SnarkAlec Sister Amy Fegaro. At this time it is not sure exactly her cause of death. Her fiancee, Patrick found her unresponsive and they were not able to revive her. Amy was one of the funniest, and at the same time, honest person I have ever known.
Not that that was enough.
Our Sister #SnarkAlec, Janeen lost her Mother. I have never met Janeen’s Mother, but have had many conversations with Janeen about her. She is a very special woman. She passed away peacefully, which is is some comfort, but there is no words to describe the loss of a parent.
And, lastly, (hopefully for a while)
Our Brother #SnarkAlec Steve Seigh (and Sister #SnarkAlec Bronwyn Kelly’s husband) Lost his Grandmother. Jazz singer, healer and pancake maker.
As much as we all Snark things together; when tragedy strikes our family we all bond together as a family!
Condolences, sharing, and financial pages are being set up now. More on those soon.
I don’t know how to express the deep sadness I feel for the loss my #SnarkAlec family has suffered. This is just a few words I could share.
I love each and every #SnarkAlec family member!
Through the Shattered Lens 