==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, February 22, 2003

Chicago class action suit against movie theatres for forcing patrons to sit through ads beginning at showtime

6:17 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

David Kaufman's Ridiculous!: The Theatrical Life and Times of Charles Ludlam

2:57 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Where I'd be this weekend, druthers

David Thomas's and Johnny Dromette's Disastodrome!: Thomas's rogue opera with Van Dyke Parks & Frank Black, the reunion of Pere Ubu & Rocket from the Tombs (with Television's Richard Lloyd in place of Peter Laughner), and more in the spirit of Alfred Jarry and Jack Kerouac

Thomas might even do his cover of the Beach Boys' "Surf's Up."

Why isn't there more stuff like this?

11:39 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, February 21, 2003

For a change

Some TV I'll be catching this week

I had my friend Cozy tape the 6 Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes Trio ran in December, and they're the only ones I've gotten all the way through of the 6 series he taped for me (The others were United States, Gun, Action, The Ernie Kovacs Show, The Famous Teddy Z, and Now and Again). I'll finish Gun I'm sure, and it's nice to have the Kovacs, but the rest I may never get through, "brilliant" though they may have been.

Now I see that the Sci Fi channel is going to run what looks like the whole series, 5 at a time, starting this Tuesday at 12PM MST. The next installment is March 13th.

I always got a kick out of Darren McGavin, whose TV and film career dates back to 1945. I remember him from the TV series The Outsider mostly. It wasn't a great series, but the down-on-his-luck PI was a great character for him, and I loved at the time that a series star drove an old junker. I was only 12 at the time, so I'm not sure I'd be able to watch it now. But the noir-y vibe appealed to me then.

Also this week, TCM is running some films I've not seen that I want to:

Tortilla Flat with John Garfield and Spencer Tracy.

State's Attorney with John Barrymore and Helen Twelvetrees.

The Black Cat (1934), the Edgar G Ulmer classic with Bela Lugosi (playing a good guy!) and Boris Karloff.

The Smiling Lieutenant, a pre-Code Lubitsch with Miriam Hopkins, Claudette Colbert, Maurice Chevelier and Charles Ruggles. Never seen this and it appears not to be on tape, so this is my Pick of the Week. Lubitsch has been a huge influence on anyone who's made a romantic comedy since 1930, especially Billy Wilder.

The Big Hangover with Van Johnson (who was very good in Scene of the Crime, which I just saw recently) and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Lady L (1965) a sleeper Peter Ustinov satire with Sophia Loren, Paul Newman and David Niven which some folks now adore. I may not get through it if it's too precious.

Lust for Life, the van Gogh bio with Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. Apparently it's closer to the truth than the book it's based on, which is a first for me if it's true. Robert Altman's Vincent & Theo covers van Gogh's later years and is quite good too (Tim Roth plays the artist). Much cooler in tone than the Minelli/Cukor, natch.

Bachelor Mother (1939), one of Ginger Rogers' best I'm told.

Some Came Running with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine, which David Thomson talked me into trying.

And finally the 1995 version of A Little Princess directed by Alfonso Cuarón, which I believe is the most recent movie TCM has run since I've had access.

I provided dates for films that were re-made or when other films had the same title, like I do in my "Viewing" section at left.

Not a bad week, all in all.

11:17 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Smithsonian Folkways now uses CD-Rs to keep all its titles in print

12:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Also short but better interview with William Gibson (salon) [Extenuating Circumstances]

The world, as Gibson notes repeatedly during our interview, is weird enough without needing to invent anything.

Somehow, though I know I'll enjoy Pattern Recognition, the present blocking out the future because it is so weird and overwhelming makes reading SF less engrossing, for me anyway.

Then again, life kind of takes over as you get older anyway. And the old escape hatches doppler and stutter in and out of phase.

2:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Google buys Pyra (blogger) [Infomaniac]

Great for Evan Williams, I guess. Seems like the blogoverse has to change somehow because of this, though I'm not sure how.

Hm.

1:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, February 17, 2003

Gibson teaser

How did the book change after 9-11?

I was about 100 pages in on September 10. I came back to it a couple of weeks later and realized that my character's backstory had ceased to exist, or diverged onto an alternate time track. It's the strangest experience I've ever had with a piece of fiction. [orlin grabbe]

3:17 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Early review (for Americans -- it's already on the bestseller list in Canada) of Barbara Gowdy's The Romantic

Nothing startlingly new for fans of her work, apparently. But undoubtedly satisfying for them as well.

The White Bone was such a departure, a return to form seems appropriate.

If you don't know her work, try Mr Sandman or her We So Seldom Look on Love collection of stories first.

I don't know whom to compare her to, but bizarre characters and behavior lace her books, leavened by her wry and dry level gaze.

Sorry about that. Not very eloquent tonight.

2:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()