==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, July 26, 2003

David Thomson on Henri-Georges Clouzot, as a series of his films opens in London

Coincidentally, I just watched Le Corbeau (The Raven) tonight, and it's a tight little knot of noir, let me tell ya. The print was fine (on TCM) but the subtitles were white (though not old and tattered like some) and hard to follow because the pace is quick (part of this is my eyesight/being too far from the TV -- but you have to pay close attention to the plot and dialogue). It's not an easy movie to follow if you know French, never mind if you don't. But it's quite good.

I think Les Diaboliques didn't work for me back in the eighties because the print was poor; I'll have to track it and at least The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur), which I've heard rumors of ever since I saw the film Friedkin based on it, Sorcerer.

Anyway, the Thomson piece is a nice intro to the director, who sounds like he was a perfect shit to work with, but is essential for film fans to delve into.

Here's an article on Diaboliques from the TCM site (watch for spoilers, though you're warned in the article).

11:40 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, July 25, 2003

R.I.P. John Schlesinger

10:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Recent favorites of Marc Weidenbaum of Disquiet

On "Horizons Endless," what seems to be a muted choir, as if heard through a thick church wall, reveals itself to be but a few seconds of sampled vocal sound. As the sample loops, its edge, the point at which the splice is evident, takes on a rhythmic purpose, as if like one of Michael Jackson's hiccups. And then, bizarrely, the sound is overlaid with what seems to be a Jew's harp, all bouncy fun, albeit minor-key. Inevitably the voices fade back in, just in time for the whole piece to fade out. Many of the pieces on [Rapoon's] I Am a Foreigner make similarly peculiar transitions; "Dusk Moon" starts out with reverberating piano, only to be transformed into a Tangerine Dream-style staccato movement. Even on repeated listenings, I Am a Foreigner challenges you to find your place in its mass of found voices and sounds. A background sample from one track becomes the core material of another; tracks change mood at midway points.

I've been listening a lot (behind the latest releases, as usual) to Tleilaxu's genetherapy, Kenneth Kirschner & Taylor Deupree's post piano, and 833-45's Solar Cycle 23, a CD-R from a while back that you can download at autoplate or purchase on krebs' site, along with the rest of his work.

The Mathieu/Ehlers' Heroin and Polyvox Populi 2 comp (download here) are also ones I come back to.

Also got an email from Torontonian elleinad with a link to her latest work. Been following her fine stuff on mp3.com and elsewhere since '99.

2:34 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

More tech

DVD X Copy Express looks like a winner in the DVD burning competition. Low featured but fast and easy -- and cheap ($70). I agree that there's little point in burning 2 discs to cover the dual-layer DVDs, but for a simple cheapo copy, this looks like the bet.

Comparison of 10 best online digital photo printing sites. The local WalMart looks like the best bet for shots that are decent to begin with. (The only choice where I live...)

1:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

2 tech articles of note from the IHT

A feature comparison of the new media suites from Roxio and Nero.

Spray-on electronics are nearly here -- though this article doesn't give good examples of the possibilities. You'll be able to put electronics anywhere -- if you want to...

1:16 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Researching Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies (for this post), I found this neat site called Subterranean Cinema, which among other things has the complete screenplay for El Topo and also Rospo Pallenberg's (Excalibur) unrealized screenplay for a George Romero version of Stephen King's The Stand (available as a 277k zipped Word file)

6:15 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest in full flower [Undernews]

Mac was the crustiest ex-LAPD homicide detective with three ex-wives, two mortgages, a greedy daughter wasting time at college, a gay son playing acid-blues punk in some Sacramento dive, and a liver that had been bitch slapped by cheap vodka so many times it looked like a bag of yellow fat, who ever walked into my floral and gift shop. (Robert Salsbury, runner-up(!) in the detective fiction category

12:50 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, July 21, 2003

English forum for new artstuff: Pogogallery

11:52 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

C|net overview of P2P & privacy in the wake of the RIAA's war on consumers, plus WiFi hotspots as a workaround

Popular peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa, where the lion's share of online trading of music and other files takes place, are designed such that participants who wish to remain completely anonymous must pay a severe price in terms of convenience and usability, experts warn.

"There is no good system out there for hiding identities," said Randy Saaf, president of MediaDefender, a Los Angeles-based company that investigates peer-to-peer networks for the music industry. "If they're sharing content, they're wide open -- they're running the risk. It's hard to anonymize people on a big public network."

1:43 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

A number of people have been searching for Leida Finlayson, and the link for her interview on CBC's Richardson's Roundup (at previous post) is stale: go here instead

11:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, July 20, 2003

Music Mobsters in death thrash

Industry suing 75 music customers a day for sharing music

The escalation in violence threatens to bring the US criminal justice system to an impasse: although the prison industry is already full to the brim, the RIAA's actions make new criminals out of tens of millions of ordinary US citizens. As Boycott-RIAA's founder Bill Evans notes, "there are more file-sharers than voters for either candidate at the last Presidential Election".

11:55 AM - [Link] - Comments ()