"Sweetness Follows"

Critical perception is a funny thing. When I hear that a new movie is getting good reviews, I normally accept that fact, and deem it worthy of a listen or a screening. But for movies that were made before I was born, it's a lot more difficult to have an opinion about them because I was not alive to get the first hand information needed to determine if I should see them or not. Let me explain this a little further.

Back in 1972, The Godfather was released. Unless you have been locked in Buffalo Bill's basement hole for the last couple of decades, you are aware of the fact that Coppola's gangster masterpiece is generally considered one of the greatest movies of all time. So, being born when I was, I was never able to fully understand the fact that at the 1972 Oscars, The Godfather took home only 3 Oscars. Now, in all fairness, one of those awards was indeed the Best Picture honor, but the amazing thing is that another film, Cabaret, won 8 statues that year. Now, because I have always associated the former movie as "one of the greatest of all greats", my perception of Cabaret has always been rather low. I've never really had any desire to see it because I've always expected it to be over rated. A movie that was only appreciated around the time it was released, and one that has not aged as well as The Godfather.

In case you can't tell where I'm going with this, I'll just let the cat out of the bag. I have now seen Cabaret and it is really quite brilliant. To the point where I eventually had no problem admitting that Bob Fosse may have in fact done a better directing job that Francis Ford Coppola. I know, I know. That's kind of a bold statement, but it's true. And I may never have known this if I looked beyond the critical perception of these two movies and given Cabaret the chance it deserved.

I don't want to say much more because the movie may be appearing eventually on my "Top 100 Movies of All Time" list, so I'll just leave you with my favourite song and end it there. Unfortunately embedding was disabled, so click the link instead.

"Money"

Top 100 Movies of All Time: #95

95. MODERN TIMES (1936, CHARLIE CHAPLIN)

Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard

I am pretty sure that this was one of the Chaplin movies that I didn't see until university. Back in high school, I was first introduced to the genius of Chaplin with City Lights and then subsequently The Gold Rush. After those two films, I did what I could to seek out any more of his work that I could, but that search led me to The Great Dictator and not much else.

So it came as a rather big shock to me when I was sitting in a communications lecture during first year, and the prof decided that he was going to use the lecture time to show us an assortment of clips for Modern Times. And it was brilliant. It was just absolutely hilarious. In the time that I had screened those other films in high-school, and this university class, I had totally forgotten how talented Charlie Chaplin really was.

What I love about Modern Times is that despite the rather simple nature of the whole film, every joke works time and time again. The way in which the events happen is very episodic, yet, you don't care. They are acting almost as individual little vignettes which beneath the surface, are all tightly wound together to make the premise of the whole film. The physical comedy that Chaplin evokes is just timeless as well. The bit at the beginning where he is tightening the nuts and bolts on the conveyor belt is some of the best commitment to a joke that I have ever seen. His coordination is flawless. And then of course there is the new "worker feeding machine" (which the above image is of). I would argue that that sequence is one of the funniest moments in any Chaplin film that I have seen... and it stays as funny, every time that I have seen it.

A large amount of credit is also due to Paulette Goddard. Despite having been made in the 1930's, she transcends the era and makes it look as though she could be playing this part from the present day. That might sound a bit odd, but think about it. When you watch an old movie like this, you are well aware of the era that it is set in because of the way the actors act, or the way they carry themselves, no?? Well, in this film, Goddard overcomes that, and makes it seem as though she is straight out of 1996, or any subsequent year.

My favourite scene in the film, was one that wasn't shown in that communications class. See, the reason that that prof showed us clips, was to initiate visuals about how industrialization was beginning to work at the turn of the century. The scene in which I deem my favourite was one that had nothing to do with industrialization, and thus, I hadn't seen it until I watched the film in full, during another (film) class. The part in the movie that I am referring to is the "The Nonsense Song" sequence. If you have never seen this movie, you may not know then that it isn't actually a silent comedy like the majority of Chaplin's work. It does rely heavily on that typical "silent" humour, but it is in fact Chaplin's first movie he made in the "sound" era.

Anyway, the scene that I love is the most prominent "sound" scene in the movie. Chaplin's Tramp has taken a job at a restaurant with Paulette, and is accidentally mistaken by the crowded room as the night's entertainment. So, he takes his place in the middle of the room, and then gives them all a song... consisting of no real words at all. Instead of taking the opportunity to allow the Tramp, the staple character of Chaplin's repertoire, to speak for the first time ever, he uses the scene to enhance the mystery of the character by having him sing in complete jibberish. The entire sequence is just pure gold, because it comes off as though it's a real song that he's singing. He plays to the crowd, and they laugh at him as though they get what he's joking about, yet there are no recognizable words... just a fake language that he seems to be making up on the spot. Here, watch for yourself:

In an era when silent pictures were becoming extinct, Chaplin embraces his silent film techniques, and makes an absolute classic sound picture without really saying any words at all.

"Honey I'm just trying, to make some sense, out of me."

Remember that time when I blogged, like, every day?? Or close to every day?? Well, it's time to start that shit up again. Summer officially began for me last night, and I plan to take total advantage of this free time by getting back into my writing.

And no, it's not going to be one of those times where I say it's time to write more, and then just fall back into the same pit of despair. No, not gonna happen. The semester is over, and I have no excuse. Well, I mean, I guess I will technically have an excuse, because I'm only off for a week and a half before my summer classes start up, but still!! It's not the same situation, so I'm getting to this thing again.

Or else... something. I don't really have the creative impulse to write something funny there, but SOMETHING will happen!! Perhaps involving pie... we'll have to see though.

Also, hey Jo!! Sorry I didn't write a huge long blog for you to procrastinate with the other day. I was too busy studying for exams and whatnot. I apologize.

"Speedy Gonzalez, why don't you come home??"

Hoping to spark myself into writing more consistently, I figured I'd keep this going with a second post for today. Back in November, I was pumping out like a post a day. I have less posts in 2010 so far than I did TOTAL for the month of November last year. Kind of bad.

Anyway, over the course of the last two days, I have been very "nostalgic". What do I mean by that?? Well, I have taken the last couple of days to discover a few things that I had not previously no experience with. Proof of this?? As I right this sentence, Rick Springfield is playing in the background. And it's both hilarious and awesome. I'm not talking "Jesse's Girl" either. Everyone knows "Jesse's Girl". I'm talking OTHER Rick Springfield. Fan. Tastic.

But the one thing that I had never paid any attention to until now, was a show that I had always written off as "trash". I had never been interested in it, because I always assumed it would be tacky and tasteless and not in the least scary. The show that I am referring to is "Tales From The Crypt" from the late 80's, early 90's. As it's pretty obvious to tell, all of my preconceptions were wrong wrong wrong.

On Friday, on one of the many blogs that I follow (ToplessRobot.com for anyone who's interested) they did a Top 10 list of the greatest ventriloquist dummy centered stories. Now, having always been a tad terrified by ventriloquist dummies, my interest in them had always been quite heavy. Isn't that the way it goes though?? If something scares us, we tend to be intrigued by anything involving that particular thing. Hell, when I'm bored, it normally results in me youtubing videos of Sharks and Spiders and such. Happened tonight actually.

Back on track though. I was checking out this list about ventriloquist dummies, and was familiar with a few of the entries on the list, and laughing at a few of the really obscure, 1950's B-Movie ones. But at number 5 on the list (or thereabouts), an entry called "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" appeared, and it caught my eye. It seemed somewhat contemporary, which confused me, because other than the whole "Goosebumps" episodes set around "Slappy" the dummy, I didn't think there was a movie or an anthology series that would have been around recently to cover the subject. So I read on.

Obviously, I soon discovered that it was an episode of "Tales From The Crypt". Normally, I would have just kept on going down the list, but I had to stop for this one because a name jumped out at me: Don Rickles. This particular episode featured legendary comic Don Rickles as the main character. "Alright. Intrigue me" I thought. So I read on.

The plot synopsis sounded pretty standard. I realized that it also starred Bobcat Goldthwait, which was neither a plus, or minus in it's favour. But there was also a youtube link to the entire episode. This was really compelling to me. I was in the middle of procrastinating on an essay anyway, so why not, I clicked on the video, and started watching the thing.

Right at the beginning, I wasn't fully into it. It seemed kind of cheesy, and a little too campy. But, the quality was better than "The Twilight Zone" reboot, which I have watched a lot of, so I hung in there and gave it the time to get into itself. About half way into the episode, I was hooked.

It was sick. It was twisted. It was funny. But most importantly of all, it was not what I expected. And I'm not just talking quality either. I mean, the actually plot of this particular episode caught me completely by surprise when the big reveal happens at the very end. I mean, I thought I had it figured out. It seemed stereotypical enough. Dummy controls ventriloquist. Ventriloquist goes crazy. Popcorn, credits, curtain.

No way. My jaw literally dropped from the shock of the twist, and how hilariously disgusting it really is. I was under the impression that there were no more twist endings out there. Everything had been done. And then I watched this, and I have been completely re-invigorated with hope that there are still ideas to be had. If you have the 25 minutes to spare, I recommend given it a glance:

So of course, my next course of action after finishing this episode off, is to seek out other ones from the series. And to my luck, youtube had a bunch. So I watched another one. And another. And by jove, they just kept getting better and better. All of them, with their mix of maniacal humour and horrifying gore, harken back to the beginnings of Sam Raimi's career, or Peter Jackson's. This show was exactly what "The Twilight Zone" for the 1990's should have been. I'm so pissed it took me this long to figure this out.

Now, not all of the episodes that I have seen end up having that same "100% Awesomeness Guaranteed" mantra, but they are all, in the least, entertaining to watch. Probably the best one I have seen so far is "Carrion Death", about a criminal who escapes prison (played by Kyle MacLachlan) and is pursued by an officer in the desert. The two engage in a fight, where the officer handcuffs the criminal to himself. Of course, the criminal shoots and kills the cop, but not before the cop swallows the handcuffs keys. So now, the criminal has to try and make it through the desert, to Mexico, with the dead body of the cop attached to him at the wrist. How fucking amazing is that!? It's so very good. "Cutting Cards" is phenomenal as well. Lance Henrikson is in that one.

Anyway, over the past few days I have been biding my time with this show and wondering to myself why we don't have any of these awesome things any more. Like, where is our anthology horror series?? Or where is our Rick Springfield?? Or where is our Brat Pack?? (Sorry, I watched The Outsiders last night for the first time, and it was okay, but why can't we have a group of awesome kids like that in Hollywood today?? Ralph Macchio!? C. Thomas Howell!?).

The naughts were a weak decade peeps. Very, very weak.

Playlists: Exams

It feels as though everything that has been posted on my blog recently has begun with an apology to myself for neglecting writing on here. So, instead of doing that this time (because, let's face it, it's happened again) I'm just going to dive right into the post.

This is the second installation of the whole "playlist" thing. I figure a month later (give or take) is when I normally rotate my songs on my iPod and such, and although there are always a couple of carryovers that stick with me for elongated periods of time, there are always a couple new entries into the ol' electronic record player.

Without further ado, I give you my "Exams" playlist...

"Ten Million Slaves" by OTIS MILLER

If the song title doesn't ring a bell, then you will probably recognize it as the main track (it's not OFFICIALLY the main track, but it's the one most prominently featured) in Michael Mann's very, very less-than-mediocre Public Enemies. This song is great for two reasons: 1) I love hearing it and being reminded of the movie's trailer which was SO awesome. It makes me forget for a second that the movie itself never lived up to the quality of the stellar preview in which this song was featured. 2) Miller's mix of old-school folk/blue grass and contemporary electric rock is perfect. There is this aura around the song that allows it to almost transcend time. It harkens back to the 1930's but sounds like it was made yesterday. In accomplishing that, it meshes together a gumbo full of southern rock essence. Fantastic.

"Bad Things" by JACE EVERETT

The "True Blood" theme song?? You betcha. Do I watch "True Blood"?? Absolutely not. I just love the opening of it. I wish the show could have lived up to that. Oh well. The song from the opening credits is wicked. In every sense of the term. It's badass country at its best.

"Work in Progress" by SISTER HAZEL

Probably my second favourite band behind Counting Crows, Sister Hazel have always, always, always put out music that I love. "Work in Progress" continues to pop up on my playlists every now and then because it's a massively upbeat tune with a harsh reality behind the lyrics. Besides finding that I relate to being a "work in progress" as they preach, I love the way that they develop the personality of the song. For some reason I relate it to Ben Folds' "Song for the Dumped" in that they are almost making excuses but in an "in-your-face" kind of way, so as to not lose face with anything. Have I read to far into this?? Perhaps. But either way, it's a fantastic song that strays away from their more soft rock-esque music and falls into a category basically by itself. It's fast. It's catchy. And it's great to boost your confidence after writing an exam you think you did pretty well on.

"American Saturday Night" by BRAD PAISLEY

The inclusion of Brad Paisley's newest one is on here really just due to the fact that it's Brad Paisley's newest. Simple as that. The man is probably the best male country artist working today and everything that he produces is usually fucking gold. This song is no exception. I haven't loved it as much as "Celebrity" or "Online" quite yet, but it's at least on the same level as "The World" or "Alcohol". Especially considering I haven't been up to date on my country ever since a lot of the new artists started sounding the same, it is good to know that Paisley is still around producing some great, new classics. Very reassuring.

"Private Conversations" by LYLE LOVETT

When I was younger, I hated Lyle Lovett for no other reason than I thought he was too weird looking to have married Julia Roberts. And I've never had any excessive feelings for Julia Roberts either, I was just against someone that odd marrying outside of his own league. Apparently when I was younger, I had celebrity marriage issues. Anywho, now that I've grown, and luckily happened upon some of my dad's music, I have heard some of Lovett's music. And by golly is it awesome. With "Private Conversations", I have yet to have mastered the actual lyrics themselves, but it has such an awesome, gentle tone that I haven't needed to learn the words quite yet. I enjoy just listening to the smoothness of it while walking to campus in the morning. It really helps to relax me, which I definitely need sometimes.