Posted on: July 19, 2010
Statue of Charles Chaplin. Waterville, Ireland. Photo by Alan Hall
Just finished watching “The Circus,” Chaplin’s wonderful film from 1928. Silence and black and white. Laughter without laugh tracks, but with Chaplin’s own score carrying us from scene to scene. Pathos comes from The Tramp. He makes us laugh and it’s deep, and meaningful, and sad. The movie made me think of my trip to Ireland in 2003, where I saw the statue above, and it seemed so incongruous there, near the strand, not in Alaska, or in some darkened woods with the hobo’s song in the air. But then I remembered the Irish have always mixed deep sorrow and belly laughs, and everything in between. Perhaps everyone does at times. Sadness is too sad alone.
Felino Soriano doesn’t necessarily write humorous poems, and the poems below don’t strike me as being particular sad. But they…
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Posted on: July 13, 2010
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson.
Just watched the Swedish film adaptation of the first novel in Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, and it’s quite good, though very dark, and not for the faint of heart. There is a rumor of an American version coming out in 2012, which seems to be a pattern these days. Another very good Swedish film, “Let the Right One In,” is soon to be a Hollywood production as well, and “Brothers” was recently remade from the Swedish original. A reversal of creative juices is in the air. Bollywood once had a habit of churning out Hollywood movies in new form, but with the success of “Slumdog Millionaire,” I’m guessing the former British colony might do some colonizing on its own. Changes are all around us.
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is a thriller and a murder mystery,…
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Posted on: July 6, 2010
When You’re Strange, a film by Tom DiCillo. 2010
I love the music of The Doors, the times and the legend. Watching archival footage in Tom DiCillo’s Rockdoc, I was taken back to a moment in our history filled with so much hope and promise, yet riven with an overwhelming sense of confusion and loss. Americans were deeply confused about a host of things in the 60s, and just like today, sought long and hard for someone to break on through to the other side.
Morrison was born to be a shaman/showman and blaze new trails.
The film reminded me of a few important details. It’s one of the first biopics to deal at all with the musicianship of the other Doors — Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore. Morrison got all of the attention and notoriety, but they set his voice to…
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Posted on: June 29, 2010
Ukulele. Photo by Massimo Barbieri
Found this by perusing Crooked Timber. Had never heard of them and now wonder why. They are funny, talented, don’t take themselves seriously at all, and their eccentricity seems well earned. Simply put, they make us smile …
So, without further ado, I present The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!!!
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