The Milky Way - Buñuel (1969)

Pretty big leap here, across the spectrum and dimensions of the 2012 Sight & Sound poll.

But I do like it when things get weird, or edgy, a little passionate, with a unique voice, a solid point of view, and often a strong sense of the absurd. Where were we now?

The Milky Way (La voie lactée)
dir. Luis Buñuel. 1969, France.
Sight & Sound 2012: Critics' #894 / Directors' #322
New York Times movie review ... Criterion essay
OOP Criterion DVD from Amazon
No streaming...



The Milky Way trailer (1969)

"Hear me, all of you. This is dogma, the sole truth... Whoever strays from this dogma shall be declared a heretic."

The Milky Way is what we call the spiral galaxy that our solar system exists within. Its name comes from the outer spiral arm that's visible as a stream of stars because we're out here on the very edge. What we can observe in the night sky, though, is only explicable through reason and science. The earth is not the center of the solar system, nor of the galaxy, nor of the universe. So... apparently/supposedly, in olden Europe this stellar arc was known as the Way of Saint James and other names, including El Camino de Santiago. These in turn came from the old pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain - resting place of the apostle James. Which is where our duo of Hope/Crosby drifters are headed in this tour of heresy from Spanish surrealist master Luis Buñuel.

John and Peter, Smith and Jones... On their way from Paris to España and through multiple time periods, they encounter several religious figures, philosophies and heresies. As always, I can't claim to be any kind of expert - for example, on the history of European Catholicism and all its threads and conflicts. What do I know about the fight between Jansenists and Jesuits? Only what Buñuel tells me... during a 17th-century sword duel between predestination and free will (with our derelicts as seconds, arguing in parallel). I mean, yeah, I kinda get the whole transubstantiation deal, just don't ask me to compare & contrast with consubstantiation. But I now know that such an argument can end with hot coffee being thrown in a cop's face and a priest carted off (back?) to the asylum. At first I thought the forest worshippers were naked Pagans, then I was fairly sure they were actually Gnostics, but later I checked - and they were ultimately Priscillianists. Close enough?

Regardless, I can recognize Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the Angel of Death. I'm not sure what it meant to show Mary encouraging Jesus not to shave when the one vagabond was telling a story of his own mother's advice about his trustworthy beard that might have gotten him some alms from the man with a cape (and a dwarf). I can understand what's going on when a firing squad executes the Pope, or a rosary on a branch is shot up by some stolen hunting rifles. But what to make of the Virgin Mary returning the restored rosary in person to the unitarian anti-Papist who just shot it, prompting yet another change of heart? The haughty maitre d' can talk a good doctrinal game, but does not act very Christ-like to the hungry hungry hobos. The heretic will face punishment from the Inquisition on principle, but the doubting Thomas within the Church hierarchy will submit instead. Why does the priest with the miracle of the wayward Carmelite nun bring a saber to a bedtime story? How Jesus walked might be an eternal mystery, although maybe not on the level of the Immaculate Conception or post-partum virginity. But a stolen Spanish ham will feed an empty belly.

At the end of the movie, after the whore (of Babylon?), some modern-day blind men literally find Jesus, who heals them. With sight restored, they ignore Jesus Himself telling a parable right there before them - Jesus in turn ignores their excited requests to be shown what everything is. I mean, they've heard of Jesus sure, but they've never seen white and black before. As the Savior and his disciples move on, the blind follow but cannot seem to cross a small ditch without probing around with their canes. This impediment of movement perhaps recalls Buñuel's early film The Exterminating Angel (1962, S&S #202). The Milky Way is the first in an informal trilogy, followed by The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972, S&S #183) and The Phantom of Liberty (1974, S&S #588). The last entry was always referenced as a precedent to the walkabout narrative structure of Linklater's Austin classic Slacker (1991).

A Serious Man - Coen Bros. (2009)

I'm starting to wonder if this daily film/blog schedule is actually sustainable, what with real life going on and everything. Maybe just laying the groundwork for breaking the letter of the commitment, if not the spirit.

So, the last in our trio of autobiographicalesqueries! No Coens anywhere at all in the Sight & Sound poll... Seriously?



A Serious Man
dir. Joel & Ethan Coen. 2009, USA.
Sight & Sound 2012: Critics' #894 (1 vote)
Roger Ebert's movie review
DVD from Amazon [Blu-Ray]
Watch via Amazon Instant / iTunes / YouTube



A Serious Man trailer (2009)

Like with Scorsese, there was a period of Coen films that I kind of checked out on - around Intolerable Cruelty, c. 2003. Similarly, they've kind of moved back into areas I'm more interested in. I'd heard this one was very hard on the characters, even by the Coens' standards.

Danny Gopnik: "F Troop" is fuzzy!

One is reminded of the Old Testament story of Job, who endured trials and tribulations while maintaining Faith. Larry Gopnik doesn't so much weather his trials as boggle at them, and the faith he maintains is more in an explicable universe of cause-and-effect (physics) and rules (property lines) - one which seems misguided at best. When the system breaks down, he appeals to authority: rabbis, lawyers, but not HaShem. (And there is a God that's testing Larry, but it is the Coens.) Either that, or he falls back on his having not "done" anything - equally when facing the break-up of his marriage, when facing tenure review, and when the Columbia House Record Club comes to collect. I think the implied emphasis of his wife's calling Sy a serious man is on "man," in that he doesn't just passively accept everything until the end.

Prof. Gopnik can understand (and reject) his student's attempt to break the rules - without "doing" anything about it. But he's completely flummoxed by the student's father threatening with lawsuit(s) for both/either defamation and/or accepting a bribe. Schrödinger's cat: "Accept the mystery." And what of the Goy’s Teeth? "It proves we can't ever really know... what's going on."



Marshak!! "When the truth is found... to be lies... And all the hope... within you dies... Then what?" Could this wisdom have helped Larry, if only the rabbi had granted an audience? Certainly his only actual advice to Danny would not have: "Be a good boy." It seems unlikely that either being a serious man or a good boy would have saved him the trouble. Maybe the naïve Junior Rabbi Scott and his parking lot - and Larry's zonked interpretation - provided the most insight: perspective, perception. Probably not. Much of what befalls Larry isn't the result of a lack of perspective, or seriousness, or even action. But: "couldn't hurt." We're actually approaching the nihilism that the Coen Bros have so often been accused of - but still with the same dark humor.

And this is all before mentioning Fyvush Finkel as the dybbuk(?) in a shtetl ghost story, a hesher bar mitzvah, or even poor Arthur and his fabulous Mentaculus - with its echoes of Philip K. Dick's Exigesis and the art of Paul Laffoley.



Until a couple of scenes in, I'd totally forgotten about how this movie raised some charges of self-hating anti-Semitism against the Coen Brothers. I'm not going to dredge up the whole debate again, but I thought I would post this sermon on the film from Rabbi Norman M. Cohen, of Bet Shalom Congregation in Minnetonka, MN - right next door to the Coens' native St. Louis Park. Very nice.

A Monument to Love & Truth

This is a bit about Bill Hicks.


Long story short, Hicks was a new kind of comedian in the '80s, busting out of Houston, TX, on a rant. Scathing, influential, and dead much too soon...



"Flying Saucer Tour" from Dangerous (1990)

That was the first bit that I ever heard from him - on Rice University's late, lamented radio station KTRU.



"Great Times on Drugs" from Relentless (1992)

So yeah, they want to build a Bill Hicks statue. Good on 'em! Mightn't you help out?

I got this e-mail from Free Press Houston, which puts on our local Summerfest (#5 Live Show of 2011, #8 of 2010):

BILL HICKS is revered throughout the world as many things - legend, truthsayer, shaman, philosopher, and many more. Bill was a rare breed of human; A guy that comes along once in a lifetime to challenge us to be better. He made you think, he kept you on the edge of your seat, and he was completely fearless. He's one of the few comedians that is still relevant almost 20 years after being taken from the world too soon, and his legacy grows every day. Yet, there does not stand a single monument in the world to him. Bill began his comedy career in Houston at the now defunct Comedy Workshop on San Felipe and Shepherd. A statue to permanently pay homage to him in the city where he began his journey would solidify his legacy. This statue would serve as a symbol to remember the past and everything Bill gave us, but also as a reminder for the future generations to seek knowledge around every corner.

Houston sculptor DAVID ADICKES has agreed to build the statue of Bill. If you've ever seen his work, you know he is the best man for the job and that the statue will be nothing short of amazing. A Houston legend sculpting a Houston legend - It doesn't get better than that. The family and estate of Bill Hicks has given their blessing to this project and will be on hand at the statue's unveiling.

THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN. You can directly support the building and placement of the statue to honor a hometown hero by clicking the PayPal link below and donating money to the cause.

The costs for creating, placing, and maintaining such a monument are staggering. Costs also include a nationwide PR campaign and location fees. We estimate this total to be about $70,000 yet any funds which exceed cost will be donated to Bill Hicks Foundation for Wildlife.

Free Press Houston is going to start this project off with an initial donation of $10,000. BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP.

For the most generous donors ($5,000 or more), we have something special for you-- YOUR NAME WILL BE PERMANENTLY INSCRIBED on the statue thanking you for making it a reality.

For donations of $1000 or more, YOU WILL BE HONORED AT A PRIVATE THANK YOU DINNER AND PARTY the evening preceding unveiling. This party will have very special guest performers.

People who donate $200 or more will receive hand signed and numbered, LIMITED-EDITION SILK SCREENED ART PRINTS OF THE 'REMEMBER ME?' POSTER BY WORLD RENOWNED POSTER ARTIST JERMAINE ROGERS.

But really, anything helps, and if you aren't able to donate money, a simple share on your social networks spreads the word about this project to more people and helps immensely. Please pass this along to everyone you know and encourage them to support in any way they can.

We have our own ideas about where this statue should be placed - a public historical place where fans can pay homage, but also where people who Bill is unknown to can discover him for the first time. Because you're the ones who are going to make this dream a reality in the end, we'd like to have your opinions on where this statue should go as well. Please email us your thoughts on where you'd like to see this statue at, and any other suggestions here.

You can DONATE via PayPal



"Sex on Trial" from Relentless (1992)

... for the record.

American Cheese

I wanted to play something really American for the USA's birthday.



No, not Neil Diamond's "America" - nor the Boss's's "Born in the U.S.A." - nor The Eagles...



"Living in America" from Rocky IV OST (1985)

It's our President of Funk, James "JB" Brown, from the 1980's, the most American of all decades!!



"U.S.S.A." from Locust Abortion Technician (1987)

What a difference a couple of years makes... (Should I have played the Guess Who cover instead?)

Or maybe The Jackofficers? Regardless!!



Happy Independence Day.

Why Can't We Live Together??

No, seriously. How have I never heard of this before?



"Why Can't We Live Together" by Timmy Thomas (1972)

From a list of 500 worst Rolling Stone reviews, #44:

Rating: Unfavorable

"To get to the point: This record is a piece of junk. It drives me out of the room when it's on the record player; it gives me a headache if I stay. Yet it is one of the top 40 best-selling albums in the country...Thirty minutes of listening to a hack organist and a metronome playing basically the same song in eight variations is one of the most abrasive experiences I've undergone in months."
(Russell Gersten, 4/12/73 Review)

I realize I'm probably in the minority on this, but I think it is kind of awesome that a song that consists entirely of a guy singing and playing an organ, accompanied only by a primitive drum machine, could reach the top ten - the simplicity of the presentation is precisely what makes this record so affecting. And I actually prefer Timmy's "Coldest Days of My Life" to the saccharine Chi-lites version.

#3 on Billboard!!



I also love this one, on the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin (1999), #313:

Rating: 3 Stars

"Their music isn't, how you say, universally accessible, and the weirdness gets same-y, but no one else has posited a parallel universe in which the Sixties and the Nineties exist simultaneously, allowing for a peculiarly convincing brand of monolithic robotic swirl." (Arion Burger, 5/27/99 Review)

"The weirdness gets same-y" in a "monolothic robotic swirl"?? What the fuck are you yammering about??

Yeah. The robotic swirl would come on their next album!!

You can start at the beginning of the list - he's currently up to #376 (Snooki-Riding-A-Metal-Phallus cover).

"Mea Culpa!!" (A Funny Story)

So last Thursday, I put up a video from John Elliot's solo alter-ego, Imaginary Softwoods. Eventually the Top 10 posts will begin... One of a few Emeralds-related re-releases from last year (collectively #2 of 2010), the self-titled double-12" is full of repetitive, hypnotic synth drones. Not my best videowork, but serviceable.

Then on Friday, Pitchfork does a 7.7 review of the album, and all of a sudden I've got like 300 views! Pretty cool, but I'm a bit wary of too much internet attention. So, here it is:


The "C2" video in question, from Imaginary Softwoods (???)

Listen to it... Whaddya think? I like it - very primal, overlapping analogue drones, with ebbing and flowing intensity. And I got one YouTube thumbs-up, and one comment, "Woah - this is good." Not bad, not bad... Then the trouble starts.

Due to some atypical weekend flakiness on my part, I was in communication with a friend about bailing on some plans. When I see an e-mail notification of more YouTube comments - Steven Seagal 1984 had informed me that I "might wanna try 45 rpm since its ripped at the wrong speed." Woah, indeed.



I remembered that the 2xLP package contained very little information, like track names or credits or whatever. But I pull it out to see if I'd missed anything. Plain paper sleeves, no inserts, nothing on the gatefold cover, but there... in the text etched amidst the run-out groove: "45 RPM" - on both 12" vinyl discs. How'd I miss that?!



Side C, track 2, from Imaginary Softwoods (2010)

So now we're up to 500 views and three thumbs-up, all people who have been drastically misled by my screw-up. Kind of. Anyway, I re-rip side C at 45 rpm and video-ize track 2, rename the first video the "Brains in Slo-Mo version," and try to make it obvious with comments/links. And another 100 people have watched the wrong version...

But let's look at the situation. Setting aside correctness and authorial intent, is one of them better than the other?


I liked my original version just fine, having listened to the full album "wrong" several times without any real issues. I mean, the whole album is somewhat similar to this track, as discussed by Pitchfork. There's no vocals, drums, or any other benchmarks that would indicate (to me) that I'd played it too slow. The hidden message (at least to me) about record speed, especially being unusual for 12"s, seems a bit suspicious. Although it's probably more that the overall package design left minimal room for helpful text - and I have to admit I had found the ABCD side designations in the run-out text. But still...

Maybe I'm just trying to rationalize my mistake, but the nature of the music and the somewhat obscure placement of the unusual RPM for 12" discs - maybe it was at least foreseeable, if not intentional. (I believe Tribes of Neurot's 2002 Adaptation and Survival project might have allowed for different playing speeds for the vinyl discs.) Plus, one thing about synth/noise music that sometimes bugs me is overuse of the really high-range tones - so maybe I'm predisposed towards the lower-end. Maybe I would have preferred the 33⅓ rpm version anyway, if given a choice. Maybe... but I'm going to hold onto my "wrong" edition of the album regardless. If it turns out I prefer it slower, I'll be getting like 50% more music that way!! And I can accept being wrong.

I don't really draw any conclusions from the whole mess, but it made me think about certain aspects of the more abstract music I listen to. Which is alright.



Funnily enough, a very similar story was told in the review I linked to for Blut Aus Nord's What Once Was... Liber I (#16, 2010).

Hark! A Vagrant

How you like history? What about literature? Super-heroes? Surly teenagers? Canada? How 'bout pure hilarity??

Seriously, you should be reading Hark! A Vagrant. Maybe the best web-comic of all time forever! I mean, I'm sure you've got plenty of alternatives that would illustrate made-up stories for a bunch of real books' Edward Gorey covers... right?


Click to the full-size comic version. Or European history! Or even mystery. Or Wolverine + Wonder Woman! And that's just in the last coupla months or so...

You're welcome!

Absu - Absu (#2 of Next Ten, 2009 Metal)

I haven't finished the #9 post-up, and I'd better take the opportunity to turn this into a mini Blackened Fest. So, going back to one of the first posts, on ridicvlous Black Metal song titles, of which the real winner was Absu's "The Cognate House Of Courtly Witches Lies West Of County Meath" from Tara (2001).


So, now I'm going to go through #12 (Metalloid division) album Absu's song titles, rank them on a BM song title scale, with brief commentary. Song titles link to a video for reference, where available. Link provided to full lyrics, courtesy of Dark Lyrics. Or follow along on the album's lyric page, and/or listen to almost the whole thing. Off to Sumeria!!

01. "Between the Absu of Eridu and Erech" 7/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

An empty void will always enlarge itself
It stretches from the nether waters inside
As the chaos lives again: vapors condense
Ushum-Gal allots the beasts to the chantry

Points for having band name in the song title (and album's!). Sure, Mayhem and Immortal will regularly namecheck themselves, but more difficult when your name comes from a water elemental in the Sumerian creation story. Also the syntax is unclear or incorrect: what two distinct things is whatever between? Excellent kick-off lyrics, I'm already confused!

02. "Night Fire Canonization" 6/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

The headmaster of magicians is
The serpent-king and the slayer
The possessor of the torches speaks
To the night with desire

Suitably vague... "Night" and "Fire" are strong BM words, and canonization can imply lots of religio-ceremonial events of import. The lyrics provide a glimpse into the hierarchy of magicians, which is informative and useful. We will need to learn more of these torches.

03. "Amy" 0/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

He practiced his knacks and skills of trickery
Most malicious, he became revolting
Spirits were locked inside the mirrored vestibule
The Circle was ambushed by cornered, lined frontiers

Worst BM title ever! Good song though. Trickery and ambush, mirrored vestibules... always the same topics in songs these days.

04. "Nunbarshegunu" 7/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

The old woman of Nippur
Instructs Ninlil to walk the banks of Idnunbirdu
She thrusts the magic(k)
To harvest the mind of the great
mountain-lord Enlil

A little generic, but I definitely want to know more: a great hero, an evil demon, a suburb of Catalhuyuk? Perhaps the cosmos dies when you learn the truth.

05. "13 Globes" 4/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

On momentous days
I teach validities
Of the sea and the secrets
The crux: "The Primeval Source"
In the planes of the shining lodes
Za-ab: return to the source

I know you have to throw in some Mesopotamian numerology for the Entertainment Weekly crowd, but this one feels a little tossed-off. C'mon, the shining lodes? 22!!

06. "...of the Dead Who Never Rest in Their Tombs Are the Attendance of Familiar Spirits" 10/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

Serpentine lamias and ravage-clawed harpies
Liquefy and eat into the gifts of decay
Every dream of man and woman coils by the worm
As the ghouls race to the world of the living

Bam! There you go!! An unnecessary ellipsis starts things off right, anti-grammatical construction, nested prepositional phrases going nowhere, Dead, Tombs, Spirits!!! (By the way, those lyrics are basically the chorus of the song.)

07. "Magic(k) Square Cipher" 8/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

There is not a square to close the system
Five breaks silence
The stabilization
The lamp courier

Yes, parenthetical single letters! Haven't seen one of those since Aborym's "Me(n)tal Striken Terror Action 2" (also a Top 10 Ridicvlous winner). Cipher works here like canonization and globes, hinting at esoteric wisdom and rituals, not yet ready for the Material Plane.


08. "In the Name of Auebothiabaithobeuee" (live) 10/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

The great scimitar of Barzai
Alabaster statuette of Yebsu
The representation of Koth
Cobalt flames light the blaze of Laurel

There ya go, perfect... It's not just that the name is ridiculously unreasonable, it's that the song is "In the Name of" such a name. The mind boggles at the practicality of such nominal application.

09. "Girra's Temple" 5/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

Here stands the mighty chantry
Inlaid with black-blue lapis
You're seized by the Ushum-Gal

Meh. Some temple... I'm sure it's overflowing with evil energies and marauding undead, but insufficient for a song title.

10. "Those of the Void Will Re-Enter" 6/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

Clad in robes imprinted with spells
Regress time - degenerate
Founders of mankind,
Come lay your claim
Revert - Annunaki

Everyone knows this already. Declarative statement titles should inform - like, do Those of the Void have razor-lined tentacles? Do their souls shatter the resonance of The Primeval Source?

11. "Sceptre Command" 3/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

We shall not climb to the origin of elements
We must examine the base of Gudua
In order to harvest a benthos existence
I call upon the backing of Gugalanna

No surprise the video is lacking. This kind of childish double-entendre has no place in mythological occult metal.

12. "Ye Uttuku Spells" 9/10 [full lyrics]
Sample lyric:

A frenzied rupture opens the stone
Out pours the beam and the shaft of light
Point it straight to the mountain's zenith
Ye Utukku awake, Utukku

Part of an ongoing Spells series of songs, I suppose. Ye Uttuku is certainly a worthy candidate for such an honor.

13. "Twix Yesterday, the Day and the Morrow" 5/10 [instrumental]

Twix doesn't make up for the step down from Absu of Eridu and Erech to yesterday, today, etc...

Official - absu.us/
Myspace - myspace.com/absu
Purchase - Candlelight [CD / LP]
iTunes - Absu

Genre - Sumerian Thrashened Black Metal
Location - Plano, TX
Review - Pitchfork

The Man's Name Is Dolemite

It's been a year since we lost a giant, Godfather of Rap, King of the Party Records, the badass: Dolemite, Rudy Ray Moore (1927-2008).

The comedy's just too epic to be contained in little ol' YouTube soundbites, so here's some film-related musical greatness. First up, the theme from Dolemite (1975)!



And the sequel's equally awesome theme song:
The Human Tornado (1976)!

[Click for gigantic poster size]
How you like "Ghetto Street, USA?" From Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-in-Law (1977)... [full instrumental version]




Here's the famous proto-rap "Shine and the Great Titanic," also from Dolemite:




One more - the Dolemite soundtrack is really terrific! Revelation Funk's "Time is On Our Side" (performed live in the film):



And finally, here's hoping It Came From Trafalgar (????) will finally get a release sometime soon. Cheers!

Hilarity Ensues: Phil Hartman

Today's the birthday of Phil Hartman (1948-1998).


Phil Hartman did a lot of stuff, but it all came together on Saturday Night Live. That late-'80s/early-'90s era was a true heyday. Second only with respect to the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players, maybe. I'd say Hartman lead the way. He did a lot of impressions (Reagan and Clinton), but how many people could make a sketch like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer funny? Maybe no-one else, most certainly no-one on SNL these days. I don't use the word genius lightly. But if such a thing exists, Phil Hartman was a sketch comedy genius.

From The Pee-Wee Herman Show, to NewsRadio and The Simpsons, he was always a low-key, second-line standout. From all accounts, as both a performer and writer. Anyway... for my money, the pinnacle of Phil Hartman is The Sinatra Group. This was the day we attacked Iraq, and Sting played a song instead of doing a monologue. He's great as Billy Idol, it's got Jan Hooks, Chris Rock, Mike Myers... Maybe it's because I already watched The McLaughlin Group weekly, and thought it was already hilarious. But this one gets my vote for Best SNL Sketch - Ever! A tour de force.

[Click to see at Hulu (sorry) - where it's not so tiny.]


Also, it's deeply satisfying that Joe Piscopo does. not. approve.

UFO & Supermarionation

Just bought the DVD set of Gerry Anderson's UFO series (1970-71). He made a lot of television shows for kids in the United British Kingdom of England. But I've always wanted to see this one based solely on the show's intro. Groovy!



Gerry Anderson is mainly known for the dubious innovation of Supermarionation - science-adventure puppet action!

1960s theme songs and titles are go! There was:
Supercar (1961-62)
Fireball XL5 (1962-63)
Stingray (1964-65)

The most famous - Thunderbirds (1965-66):



And then the comedowns:
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-68)
Joe 90 (1968-69)

After the switch to live action, and failure of UFO, Anderson struck gold again with Space: 1999 (1975-78). Which I remember watching at my dad's house on those '70s weekends... [alternate opening]


Finally if you watched any of those videos at all, you must check out Peter Cook & Dudley Moore (Not Only... But Also, 1965-66).
Insanely hilarious!



Extending the non-music streak to 2 posts! Ex-cel-lent.