Crime and Horror Comics, Bad Magazines, and the eventual fate of Ed Wood Jr.
Top most wanted DVD list of 2004
Two years ago I put together my top 10 list of movies that needed to be released on DVD and I think it’s time for an update. Of that initial list, The Monolith Monsters, Action In The North Atlantic, and the Dragnet TV movie are completely unavailable with The Driver available only as a region 2 disc.
Anyway, this year’s most wanted is:
O Lucky Man – Lindsay Anderson’s surrealist triptych with coffee salesman Malcom McDowell. I’ve always wondered how the heck something like this got made and wish more movies were like this.
The works of Oskar Fischinger – Known probably for some of his early work on Disney’s Fantasia, Fischinger was a pioneer in abstract animated films. Seventy years later, his films are still a couple light years ahead of their time. Attention Criterion: how about a monster Fischinger DVD box like what you did for Brakhage?
Highway 61 – This kinda got lost in the shuffle of early 90s indie road trip movies, but it’s smarter than the rest and, well, extremely Canadian. One of the best representations of Satan in any movie ever, and hey – Jello Biafra plays a cop.
Rikky and Pete – This one got lost in the flood of late 80s Australian movies. It’s not spectacular and the “wacky Aussie humor” could be just as annoying as it is charming, but it’s just gentle enough to be the perfect thing to watch when you’re sick.
The Lively Set – 1964 teenage exploitation on wheels. Hokey as any Elvis movie but with lots of racing scenes and twangy guitar on the soundtrack. Worth it alone for all the scenes of Chrysler’s 1963 Turbine Car.
The Loved One – Hysterically absurd Terry Southern comedy about the funeral industry, Hollywood, and Los Angeles cliffside living. Ahem… Criterion again?
Ace In The Hole – Bleak and ultra-harsh movie about journalistic corruption with Kirk Douglas as an alcoholic reporter. Possibly my favorite Billy Wilder movie.
Nightmare Alley – Lurid film noir about carnys, nighclub fortune tellers with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell
The Conformist – Again, attention Criterion! Why the HELL isn’t this available on DVD? We’re not talking some offbeat cult movie, but a cinema classic. WTF?
Ere Erera Baleibu Icik Subua Aruaren – Basque artist José Sistiaga’s seventy (yes, seventy!) minute abstract work of 100,000 individually painted frames. This is messy and swirly flipside to the precision of early computer graphics and the “stargate” sequence of 2001. No audio necessary, the only soundtrack necessary is the sound of your neurons being tuned up.
The Double Life of Veronique – Again, I’m stumped as to why this hasn’t been released on DVD yet. Almost all of Kieslowski’s other movies are available, what gives?
Angel’s Flight – Gritty and bleak film noir filmed in and around the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles before the city bulldozed the whole works down to put it out of it’s misery.
Ace In The Hole – Bleak and ultra-harsh movie about journalistic corruption with Kirk Douglas as an alcoholic reporter. Possibly my favorite Billy Wilder movie.
Play It As It Lays – Joan Didion adapted her own novel about the LA entertainment industry in the early 1970s.
Serial – Satire/sitcom of the baby boomer post-cocaine crash at the end of the 70s. Not a particularly great movie, but supposedly a lot got cut before it hit the theaters.
Dusty and Sweets McGee – Sort of the Los Angeles version of Panic In Needle Park which also came out around the same time. Terrific shots of the forgotten areas of early-70s Los Angeles.
Pac-Mondrian
Lots of folks are linking to Pac-Mondrian, but it’s worth the saturation linking.
Dogs and cats living together… Mass hysteria!
Senator John Cornyn (R – TX) is afraid that gay marriage will lead to a slippery slope Sodom & Gomorrah of marrage absurdity
“It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife.”
So why stop there?.
John then listed the stuff he plans to marry. Not long afterwards, Victoria at Unspeakable Vitrine picked up the meme and came up with her own list.
Now that the bedrock of Western Civilization has been irrevocably shattered here in Portland, I realize that it’s time for me also to be lawfully wed to a selection of animals, objects and concepts. Here’s my list. I encourage you to post your own. Remember, an elected official has made it clear that if you can marry someone with the same bathroom parts, you can marry ANYTHING. Have fun, and happy marriage!
Therefore, I intend to marry:
The box turtle, because The Man is putting them down.
The 1964 New York World’s Fair
Iapetus, a moon of Saturn
“Southforkscu“, a Romanian replica of the set of the TV show Dallas built by the King of Romanian cheddar, Ilie Alexandru.
This album cover from the band Quatermass
R. Buckminster Fuller stamp
This new R. Buckminster Fuller stamp is so cool looking that I’ll stop paying bills online and go back to checks just so I can use it. It reminds me of a early 60s “new wave” science fiction book cover. The Register has a nice summation of Fuller’s influence.
Fuller’s actual inventions come secondary to his reputation as a popular, homespun philosopher of science. At times vilified as a fruitcake and a show-off, he later taught to appreciative audiences and represented the United States delegation in meetings with top Soviet scientists. (This was before the days of Air Miles). Although it’s true that Fuller’s reputation has never quite shaken off the hucksterism, and at times his writing reads like a very bad weblog, this was an extraordinary achievement. Fuller was a more profound critic of contemporary capitalism than any of the communists he can have met.
That’s because Fuller came to represent – much to the horror of his peers – the creativity and imagination that we like to think propels scientists at their best. And these are qualities we look for in vain from popular scientists and “futurologists” today.
The Man With The Head Of Saturn
I have no idea how to interpret this, other than wondering what the hell comic writers in 1963 were smoking.
Mike Sterling explains.
Inexpensive Apple flat-panel monitor repair
The voltage regulators on Apple’s 17″ flat panel monitors have been failing and there’s a great deal of justified hand-wringing and irate anger at Apple’s inflexible out-of-warranty strategy which is to replace the monitor at a $500+ cost. If your Apple LCD is flaking out, go directly to Monitor Experts in Anaheim – they can fix them at a fraction of the price.
Not affiliated with them in anyway, just a satisfied customer with three formerly dead displays.
AllMusic Guide 3.0 blows
Yeesh. The latest AMG site redesign is quite possibly the worst site redesign ever. Browsing by genre, theme, etc. is now “subscriber content” (attention BugMeNot!), less information is now listed on an artist page and there’s this:
“Notice: You are accessing allmusic.com with a browser that is not currently supported. The appearance and functionality of the site could be impacted. allmusic.com is optimized for Internet Explorer 5.5 and above for Windows.”
Firefox and Safari users apparently have to step to the rear of the bus. Sorry AMG, I’m out – I’ll pop in for the occasional discography check, but feel free to drop dead in the meantime.
Back on the west coast
And finally back home after being out in NYC for awhile. Public service announcement: you might think that you’re getting a deal with cheap airfare on America West, but you would be wrong because there’s a good chance that your flight will be cancelled due to mechanical problems. I was late able to catch a new connecting flight to SNA, but apparently I’m not the first one that’s had this happen. More America Worst West commentary and the obligatory sucks page.
To add insult to injury, the first gate I attempted to depart from at JFK was British Airways‘ old Concorde gate and lounge. Tremendously obvious thought of course but while standing around watching the dust gather in the lounge I can’t help but count up the number of steps backwards travel/culture/etc. is taking. Sure, I’m not in any situation where I can spring for supersonic travel, but goddamn I sure want the option to.
Additionally, someone at America West needs to get it through their thick head that if they’re going to serve the New York and Miami areas they need to offer some food that doesn’t have pork in it. Just saying…
165 minutes at LAS
For something billed as one of the best airports in the country LAS sure is an anonymous sprawl. Much like Las Vegas itself I suppose. I’m sure at some point in it’s past McCarran International swung as much as the rest of Vegas in the 1960s but wannabe Rat Packers would need a magnifying glass and tray full of martinis to unearth any evidence of its past. Now you have to leave LAS’ secure area to drink up because even with Vegas’ current sleaze-positive image there isn’t an appropriately scuzzy airport bar to anchor the terminal. Just a couple of clean, well-lit sports bars devoid of anything, including customers.
LAS is not that great of a place to hang out. The high-rolling gentry of course, fly on corporate or privately-leased jets and consequently never use the terminal, but there’s still plenty of people-watching opportunities if free-floating anxiety is your bag. People anxious to hit the casinos and do things that they can “leave in Vegas” and hungover people anxious to get the hell out of town after blowing their wad. The only “regulars” that LAS has are the “Janet” 737s of the Area 51 squadron and the mannequins that are part of the vintage Bonanza and Hughes Air West airline displays.