Elsewhere Online: Desperate Man Blues

Set aside an hour-and-a-half sometime in the next week and take a look at Desperate Man Blues, director Edward Gillian’s 2003 film about Joe Bussard, known in record-collecting circles for his love for and devotion to 78s. Bussard seems like a curmudgeonly old fella who lights up once he drops the needle on one of his many rare discs. He chain-smokes his cigars, stomps his feet to the old blues and bluegrass and old-timey jazz that he collects, and rails against rock-and-roll as “the cancer that killed music.” The part of the film I loved was traveling with him as …

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Movie Review: White Dog

1982. Starring Kristy McNichol, Paul Winfield, Burl Ives. Sam Fuller wanted to take on the world, and I love him for it. Just how I loved the advice he gave fellow director Jim Jarmusch — “If the opening scene doesn’t give you a hard-on, throw the goddamn thing out!” In White Dog, he takes on racism — and not overt racism, but the kind of racism that is bred into us, deep down into our instincts, that keeps us from all getting along. Kristy McNichol stars as a Hollywood Hills actress who — in the opening scene — runs over …

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Movie Review: Man On Wire

2008. Starring Philippe Petit. Directed by James Marsh. Philippe Petit is trying to explain how he took the first steps onto the wire. He has been drawing it out over the course of the movie, talking about the planning, about procuring the supplies and sneaking them into one of the Twin Towers, about hiding under a tarp on the top floor as a security guard stood just feet away. One false step — even before walking out onto the roof — and his “fantasy” would be over before it was begun. The dream of walking on a wire between the …

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Movie Review: The Visitor

2007. Starring Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Jekesai Gurira. Directed by Thomas McCarthy. It’s valuable for Americans to be reminded of how lucky it is to be free. Richard Jenkins, previously a well-traveled character actor, takes the lead as Walter Vale, a Connecticut professor who admits that he hasn’t worked in years, despite “co-authoring” a paper on international economic development and having to present the paper’s findings at a New York conference. Dropping into his NYC apartment for the first time in months, he finds a couple staying there, having been misled into renting the apartment from a mysterious “Ivan.” …

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Movie Review: Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry

1974. Starring Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Rourke. Directed by John Hough. Two-Lane Blacktop is more contemplative and Vanishing Point is more elegiac, but Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry isn’t concerned with much of a story, allowing it to focus on some really great chase scenes. Larry (Peter Fonda) and Deke (Adam Rourke) are small-time crooks who have planned a grocery store robbery, holding the owner’s (Roddy McDowell, uncredited) wife and daughter hostage until they can make a clean getaway. That getaway is complicated by Larry’s girl from the night before, the trampy Crazy Mary (Susan George), who refuses to be …

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Country Music Reclamation Project: Hello Walls

Willie Nelson was fairly new to Nashville when he wrote Hello Walls and pitched it to Faron Young, who was on a hot-streak at that time. Still, the song bears the songwriter’s trademark cadence — almost as if Faron is impersonating him. It was a great performance of an odd little idea, and became a huge hit. Hello Walls (performed by Faron Young) Written by Willie Nelson Hello walls How’d things go for you today Don’t you miss her Since she up and walked away And I’ll bet you dread to spend Another lonely night with me Lonely walls I’ll …

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Movie Review: Hell Ride

2008. Starring Larry Bishop, Michael Madsen, Eric Balfour. Directed by Larry Bishop. Most of the biker movies I’ve seen have been content with stressing the antisocial appeal of the gangs — beer-drinking, authority-flipping, whatever-rebelling nature of a bunch of smelly guys. Plus there was always one guy who took things too far. Few, if any, have had a message other than drop out, turn on and over act. The Quentin Tarantino-produced Hell Ride had a couple things going for it. First, it wasn’t made in the ’60s or ’70s, so it doesn’t revel in the fact that the lead characters …

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Movie Review: Pickup on South Street

1953. Starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters. Directed by Samuel Fuller. Pickup on South Street begins with a claustrophobic encounter on a streetcar, as three-time loser and talented pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) sees a promising target in Candy (Jean Peters), and stands directly in front of her, eye to eye, breathing each other’s breath, and removes the wallet from within her purse. He doesn’t know that, tucked within that purse, is hidden microfilm, being tracked by a couple of federal agents who are only feet away. Such close quarters don’t allow for many secrets, but McCoy makes the most of …

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Elsewhere Online: Black Cab Sessions

I’m finding so much music online these days. One really unique stage I stumbled across is provided on Black Cab Sessions, a site that features artists playing about as stripped down as one can get, riding through London in a cab. There’s something about the intimacy and necessary acoustic nature of these videos that is very appealing. I really enjoyed the Fleet Foxes, Beach House and Ryan Adams performances, and there’s a link below to a great Bon Iver appearance, but there are many more that I have to check out. The Black Cab Sessions: http://www.blackcabsessions.com Bon Iver on Black …

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Passings: Ron Asheton

The Stooges recorded three frantic, intense LPs, developed a tough and nasty reputation, then watched as their lead singer became an icon. They got old, were remembered and idolized by a relative few, then reunited — like stepping out for the expected encore — and gathered the respect and adoration that might have escaped them earlier. To perform in the shadow of Iggy Pop and not become invisible means you’re doing something right. Ron Asheton’s guitar on the The Stooges and Funhouse records was as raw and wild as Iggy’s vocals and stage behavior, and endeared him to many who …

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