Carl Orff recommendation

This 2 cd set has been on my playlist for some time now. I love Carl Orff -- and not because Carmina Burana has been used and abused so much in movie previews. I actually like Catulli Carmina more -- it sounds more spiritual and uplifting, as opposed to the Burana. The chorus, the contstant rhythm throughout the piece is compelling. This set predates Jochum's famous 60's work on the same label -- these were recorded in the mid 50's, in mono, so the sound isn't as full bodied or as powerful. But the performances are dynamic and alive; this is a wonderful set well worth searching!

Matisse show at the Met

Been a while since the last post. I went up to NYC over the weekend, and spent most of Saturday soaking in art -- most of it at the Met, where I saw this fantastic little show on Matisse and the collection of fabrics and textiles he owned. They were an important element in his work -- because it stimulated his composition, sense of color, and how he approached the human figure. I'm surprised that this is seen as a "new" idea in understanding Matisse, but maybe it is because I come from a similar background -- my mother used to work in the clothing industry, and I remember going with her to the fabric stores all the time. The paintings are known, but there are a lot of drawings and works that I hadn't seen before, lots from private collections that are superb.

My lp listening this week

This is a great lp. Bass is tremendous and the playing is intense. Piano concertos!

Jazz in Paris

Dusty Groove has a nice series of cds called Jazz in Paris, recordings made in France during the 50's thru the mid 70's, and featuring artists like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and lesser known artists like Henri Criolla, Bobby Jasper, Don Byas, Lou Bennett, Rene Thomas, etc. My favorite right now is a Rene Thomas disc that features Lou Bennett on organ. Smokes like a US made Presige soul jazz session! Dig it!

A Strange and silly movie of Mrs Wardh

This was a disappointing movie. After reading the hype about it on various sites, like DVD Drive in, I picked this up at Best Buy thinking I was in for a treat, especially since it stars the beautiful actress Edwige French. Well, she's gorgeous in it, but spends most of her time wandering around in a daze as she tries to avoid an ex lover who still continues to haunt her (I think Ivan Rassimov), taking up a new beau (George Hilton), all the while being married to a diplomat (again I think Manuel Gil). A serial killer is terrorizing the city, and the movie leads you (and out heroine) to believe that it is one of the three men. But the silly pseudo Hitchcockian Maguffins (false trails) serve to confuse the viewer. Is Edwige nuts or is one of her beaus a psycho? Lots of topless scenes with her writhing with Hilton, or getting the bejeezus knocked out of her by Rassimov, as there is a lot of sadomasochism stuff in their relationship. A plot that tries to be cleverer than it is, the viewpoints change 3/4 of the way through the movie, to a conclusion that makes as much sense as the more recent Wild Things, but without the winking knowingly at the audience. I called the ending before it happened, which is always bad. Issued as part of a new Sergio Martino Collection by NoShame films, it is an average giallo mystery but without the tension or suspense of a Mario Bava. Look for All the Colors of the Dark for a much superior giallo, also starring Edwige French.

Peer Gynt

I saw this recent review in classicstoday.com, and put in an order. I loved the suite, and I am really interested in hearing how the complete version is. A detailed report soon!

Haydn House - CD Transfers

Haydn House - CD Transfers

This is a classical music site specializing in lp to cd or tape to cd transfers of rare and OOP performances, from the 40's on up. I have a couple -- mostly reel to reel transfers -- and they sound great! Prices are reasonable -- $10 a cd, including shipping. Check it out!

Hellevator - an unusual sci fi thriller

Despite its lurid and silly title, evoking the pinhead guys from the Hellraiser series, or something worse, this is a surprisingly decent little movie that combines elements from Cube, THX-1138, and Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat. Bet the last one threw you there. It is the future, and everyone is living underground, due to who knows what disaster happened on the surface. Transportation is done through tunnels, and a series of elevators that span the city, going up and down at least several hundred floors. Everything is sectioned off by floors; the women who "run" the elevators, like the elevator ladies from department stores of old, are dressed sharply and politely sound off the destination points of each floor that the passengers take. This is pretty smart - they control the elevators like a train operator, manning a series of controls, and even using an "express" option once they passed a certain floor. Travelling on this particular elevator is a teenage student on her way to school, along with a mother and her child in a carriage, a businessman, and a slacker young man plugged into his headset. Apparently in this world some of the people possess telepathic skills, and the female student can tap into anyone's minds. This might explain her unstable past, as she murdered her father in a fit of rage, and sent to a mental institute for rehabilitation. But in the beginning of the movie she's fine, just another teen juvenile who only goes to school to keep out of trouble, but is not adverse to buying illegal cigarettes from a deal on the "street." Her smoking sets off a chain of events (done off camera) that directly affects the cast on the elevator mentioned later. On the way "up," they have to make an emergency stop on the detention level to pick up a couple of prisoners, who are on their way for execution. They are bad, sick thugs who scare the beejeezus out of everyone, and the lone security guard who is patrolling them doesn't reassure them. Sure enough, the elevator conks out (due to the cigarette left behind by the student, which ignites some fluids and causes a massive explosion, killing scores of people -- all off camera). The prisoners break free, kill the guard, and terrorize the passengers. Through the student's telepathy skills we find out the prisoners' pasts, and the attempted rape of the elevator lady sets her off, causing her to go a little nuts and she manages to kill one prisoner and the others defeat the other. Now this is where the Lifeboat stuff comes in. Lifeboat, the mid 40's movie by Hitchcock, is essentially a one set piece where the survivors of a shipwreck try to deal with one another as they try to stay alive, waiting for rescue. Hellevator is also a one set piece, all taking place in an elevator, and we find out that all of the passengers are not what they seem - the businessman, who kills the other prisoner when he comes to, tries to bribe the others saying that he didn't kill him, or he will lose his job -- but really he is a terrorist, carrying a deadly biological agent. The slacker kid is a secret agent intent on stopping him -- he also has some telepathy skills. And the mother is not really a mother at all. OK, so there are a few left curves thrown in, but it's handled well, as it gives an insight into this future world, its people and culture, than being about CGI effects. Kind of like a mixture of old school talky sci fi from the late 50's early 60's with contemporary Japanese action. However it does get confusing at the end, because the whole story is told in flashbacks, as the secret agent is talking to some military official as to what happened, which was different than how we saw it, which was through the student's eyes. So the girl is sent for execution, which is being sent to the top floor, unchained, and released into the surface world, which looks like a post apocalype landscape, until the camera turns up and a modern city appears. Huh? Despite the ending, it's a dvd worth seeing for the ideas and 3/4 of the plot. Better than your average slash em up.

Classicstoday.com -- Classical CD Reviews, SACD Reviews, DVD Reviews

Classicstoday.com -- Classical CD Reviews, SACD Reviews, DVD Reviews

Comic Book Noir: Sin City

I went up to New York these past few days, and while I drowned myself in new and strange art, I took a diversion and went to see Sin City, the latest offering from Robert Rodriguez, of El Mariachi and Spy Kids fame. Needless to say, I was impressed with the visuals -- the movie is taken panel for panel from the comic book series of the same name, done by Frank Miller, who is best known for revitalizing Batman in the 1980's with his Dark Knight series. I remember being in college when the first Sin City book came out, and it is one of the three stories in the movie. Everything is black and white -- and sometimes red, and the cinematography is stunning, the way the scenes are composed, the black framing the white. The acting is okay, I mean, this is hammed up guy noir stuff, where everybody's a tough guy, and all the women are objects of their affection -- or a left hook. Bruce Willis probably turns in his finest role since 12 Monkeys, though even there he had a bit more to do. Jennifer Alba plays another hottie, but not much to do, and Guillermo del Toro plays another in a long line of dramatically odd characters that reinforces his good acting abilities. Rutger Hauer, Mickey Rourke, and a host of other all star actors are in this film. My main problem with it is the droning, monotonoud voice overs that serve as text panels in the comic book; here they become annoying and detract from the visuals. Halfway in the movie the director seems to agree -- the narratives become less and less. It was kind of like Pulp Fiction without some of the humanity that it had -- this was a very decent interpretation of the comic book, but I felt it could have expanded on it more and not be so slavish. It's a depiction of a dark, nihilistic world treaded by Jim Thompson, Horacy McCoy and David Goodis, but on steroids.

Sabadaba

Music

This has become one of my favorite sites to visit. The music is great, and the covers are fun to look at. I like that there is some research involved in who some of the artists are, and how they figured in the Brazilian music scene of the 60's and 70's.

Thailand's action: Born to Fight

Thailand has been producing movies recently that are staring to take notice here in the US. Ong Bak, the Thai Warrior, should be hitting the screens here soon, with most of the talk centering on the movie's action star, Tony Ja, who is being promoted as the next Bruce Lee. He probably isn't, because he doesn't have the same kind of charisma, but regardless, his unique style of fighting, a close quarters punching and kicking that makes open attacks very difficult to do. And is amazing to watch on screen. A more recent release, Born to Fight, is much more in the classic action movie mold of, say, Fist of Fury, or pick your favorite 80's action movie, starring Chuck Norris, Van Damme, Steven Segal, Schwarzenegger, or Sly Stallone. This means a threadbare plot with lots of ass kicking. Basically it all centers on a small Thai village, where a bunch of young men and women are volunteering to help distibute essentials to the villagers -- clothes, toys, food, etc., when suddenly a band of terrorists come out of nowhere and wipe out half the people in a show of force. The other half are used as hostages as the terror leader calls on the Thai government to release the group's leader from prison. What they don't know is that one of the volunteers (Choupong Changprung), is a police officer, and brother to one of the volunteers, who happened to come along for the ride. Most of the movie is spent showing him evading and kicking terrorists all over the place, and eventually leads the hostages to overcome the terrorists. All the main characters are stunt men and women, and the fight sequences and stunts are breathtaking! This is the purpose of the movie -- to see what situations they get into, and how they do it. There is a girl who had to have been an Olympic gymnast; she uses a strategically placed parallel bars to subdue the bad guys, another does a gasping leap from the top of a tractor trailer, flips over, and lands on the ground, and another leaps from his motorcycle in a firey inferno through a wooden wall, flips over, and somehow lands in one piece. Each incredible sequence is repeated in short, slo mo repeats, and all are worth seeing twice. Very minimal CGI; these guys really hurt themselves for your pleasure! A must see for action fans!!!

Sam Rivers at the Peabody Institute 4/1/05

I went to work at my usual time Friday, and checking my voice mail messages, a friend had called and said that Sam Rivers was going to play at the Peabody Institute that night! I called back and said heel yes, let's try to makeit -- so we leave around 5:30, snarled in the rush hour traffic on I-95, my friend on the cell, calling to see if we can still get tickets, yes there are, we nab em, and manage to squeak into Baltimore with minutes to spare before the show began. Apparently the Peabody has a Jazz program -- relatively new, with a big band. They had Cecil Taylor some years ago, but this was an event -- Sam Rivers! Of the Blue Note era, with classic albums like Fuscia Swing Song, Contours, to the Impulse era, Hues, Sizzle, Crystals, to COnference of the Birds with Dave Holland, to the RCA All Star Big Band recordings of several years ago. With longtime bandmates Doug Mathews and Anthony Cole, the trio performed one set, doing improvisations (Sam didn't really announce the titles as much as mumble them, and even then he said they were making it up as they were going along), and of course, Beatrice. The second set was with the Peabody Band, a collection of students from the school that only had a few days' preparation with the trio to execute very difficult arrangements. And as true to the high quality and talent of the students, they pulled it off very well! I can't say enough about the playing of Sam and his group -- they just know how to play off of each other, and they still have fun while firing off some highly complicated and intricate tunes. While Rivers may not have had the fame and attention like Coltrane, Rollins, or even Wayne Shorter, he has had a solid musical career with no loss in direction or musical inventiveness. All three musicians play different instruments -- Mathews mostly bass instruments, baritone sax, electic bass, upright bass, etc. Cole plays tenor sax, as well as piano. And Rivers does tenor, soprano, flute, and piano with equal skill. The auditorium was medium sized yet intimate -- I overheard the sound engineer saying to tsomeone that it used to be a rehersal room, but by accident they discovered that it was great for playing jazz, as the other concert rooms distorted the sound too much. It was sold out, though as is the case, anyone who had come to hear some jazz, and not Sam Rivers, were gone by intermission. Forutnately, it was still crowded. I only wish DC was more in tune to events in Baltimore, as we just don't have a clue, or the venues, to hear talents of this high caliber play. But for last night, at 82, Sam Rivers can still kick out the jams and put out quality music. Amazing!

Science of huh?!? : Steamboy

You know, some movies just aren't meant to be understood. Yeah there's a concept sometimes, but it usually gets buried under piles of oohs and aahs of special effects, or so dense that it seems to be really smart and esoteric, but in the end is just a head scratcher. Steamboy certainly qualifies as a head scratcher, and an enjoyable one. Let me explain. The centerpiece is science, that science will lift civilization (in the movie it is around mid 19th century) out of its sludgey working class pathos and bring them wonder and what one assumes is clean living. But hey, who pays the bills on this project is a quirky research fund headed by the granddaughter's daughter named Scarlett, who is a pain in the ass adolescent who beats her poor dog one to many times to be likeable, and that's all I have to say about her. On the other end is another science firm headed by Robert Stevenson, who presumably is backed by the British government and the royalty. What both want is a little metal ball that packs an insanely high concentration of steam, enough to power London, if London was wired in any which sort of way. It was invented by this eccentric old man, who with his son, was involved in an accident in Alaska as they were perfecting this power source. Somehow, both survive and take opposite sides -- the old man now wants to prevent anyone from obtaining this metal ball, and he sends it to Manchester to the custody of his grandson (in his teens, also a science whiz) with orders not to give it to anyone till he arrives. The father sees this as evidence that science can triumph over all, yadda yadda yadda, and is sort of power hungry. That's right, sort of. Don't really know how hungry, except he has an ego trip to feed and something has to pay the bills to feed it! So after a pretty damn exciting beginning, in which there are a lot of booms, crashes and bangs, and a locomotive chase, the boy ends up in the father's castle which is also cleverly disguised as a science building in the London Exhibition!!!! Are you following any of this? It gets better -- after a lot of yadda yadda talk to the son about how science "makes people happy" (I kid you not), and the grandfather (who is held prisoner in the place somehow) yadda yadda yaddading about power corrupts and mix that with science and military funding you have a recipe for modern warfare, we have one hell of a battle between Scotland Yard, with the Royal Guard and the navy, versus the "evil" father and a kick ass army of "steamtroopers," air watchamacallits and Snidely Whiplash. I know some friends who would appreciate an alternate history where there was a Battle of the Great London Exposition, but damn, this is getting ridiculous! I don't remember the ending of the movie too much, because the drugs were kicking in -- either that or I could have sworn that the science building became a big steam metal floating city, complete with carousels, ferris wheels and fireworks, growing legs and steaming half of London and destroying the rest. How the hell did I miss this in my history books? It ends with the boy rescuing the girl, who after this experience becomes a founder of Greenpeace and is hopefully nicer to her dog! Both pa and grandpa bite the big steam shovel and hopefully we have learned a lesson here, though I have no idea what it is. Science is fun? I give this a thumbs up and some aspirin.

Kung Fu for the 21st Century: Kung Fu Hustle

Just saw this last night. This is Stephen Chow's latest, and while he made a splash in the States with Shaolin Soccer, this surpasses it both visually and in story. I'll even go so far as to day that it is his best movie, a masterpiece of action that can stand tall with other classics of the genre, like Drunken Master 1 & 2, Fist of Legend, Enter the Dragon. Chow combines his visual sense of humor, love of Bruce Lee and old style kung fu movies, wich modern technology that owes to movies like Crouching Tiger and the Matrix, and manages to poke jabs at both, and surpass them as a movie. He seems to have fully embraced CGI, and uses it not so much for gosh wow look what I can do stuff, but to enhance the story. Visually this is like Crouching Tiger, except instead of sublime beauty we get Pig Sty Alley, a forgotten corner of Hong Kong (I assume) where the people are so poor even the gangsters don't go there, because they can exort any money. It's run by a couple -- actually, the wife, in rollers and nightgown, keeping the locals in line through verbal put downs and such. We see people doing their daily routine, which is basically surviving. One day an incident happens where the local mob -- the Axe Gang -- is drawn to the Alley, and we discover that some of the locals aren't what they seem to be. Stephen Chow is the main character, but really the landlord couple are the center of the movie, with their own hidden past. Back to the CGI -- it's downright Warner Brothers cartoonish, with the landlady chasing after Chow by foot -- except that both are going 1000 mph, legs spinning like circles. The fight scenes are awesome -- when the Axe Gang resort to recruiting the Butcher, the baddest of all the martial artists, his kicks and punches literally rip buildings apart. And when they connect, damn if someone's head goes through the floor. And underground! Buddah's Palm technique has never been shown like this! And watch out for the Lion's Roar -- more like the sonic attack that the 70's prog band Hawkwind always warned us about. The characters are well realized, the plot never strays too far from the main thrust of the story -- the defense of the Alley from the gangsters -- and the action is as good as it ever gets! I saw this as on import dvd, and it will be playing in the US in theaters soon. I say run -- don't walk to see this fun movie!

Heroes of the East

Here's another good Shaw Brothers action flick -- Heroes of the East. It's also known as Shaolin Challenges Ninja. This is another fine remastering job by Celestial Pictures, and it is 100 minutes of non stop kung fu greatness, released in 1978. The movie is divided neatly in two -- the first half of the movie is about the marriage between a Chinese scholar (Gordon Liu, sporting a not too friendly rug on his head), and a Japanese woman, played by Yuka Mizumo. She happens to be a judo and karate student, and to the consternation of the family servants, the grunts and groans aren't the passions of the newlyweds, it's the wife tearing the place apart while practicing! You have the ususal China vs Japan rivalry happening as the husband and wife demonstrate their home grown skills on each other, but Liu always wins (probably a nod to the home town crowd in Hong Kong). Frustrated, the wife splits for home in Japan. Liu, with a servants help, schemes to get her back, by issuing a challenge to her, daring her to come back and fight, and if he loses in any of the skills, he'll concede defeat. And this is where the second half of the movie starts. The wife shows the letter to an old lover, who happens to be a ninja expert, and he shows it to his fellow buddies at a martial arts school -- naturally, they are all pissed, and take up the challenge. So, it is non stop action as one by one they test their skills against Liu's. This makes for one hell of an entertaining movie, as the action is fast and furious, never boring. My only complaint -- minor, I guess -- is that the plot set up -- the relationship between the husband and wife -- fades away as you wonder which guy is going to kick Liu's ass all over the stage set. There is some sort of reconciliation, I guess because the wife suddenly dresses in Chinese garb as opposed to her kimono. Whatever. You ain't seen nothing until you see tri pole vs nunchucks! Recommended.

King Boxer a.k.a. Five Fingers of Death

I remember my misspent Saturdays as a kid in the late 70's and early 80's, where I would watch an inordinate amount of time gazing at the boob tube, starting at 6 am, run through my schedule of required cartoons, then breaking for lunch, and finally switching to channel 20 for the early afternoon kung fu theater. I can only remember the ones I did see by watching the dvd reissues of classics like Five Fingers of Death -- images triggering long forgotten memories. Of course, a lot of the charm was that they were dubbed, sometimes badly, but I am surprised in some cases how faithful the dubbing was to the original language -- I guess it depended on the distributer. Anyways, this Shaw Brothers classic came out around '70 or '71, and because of its strong story and innovative on-camera kung fu action, it became a breakthrough film that reached an international audience, paving the way for movies like Enter the Dragon. It also made a star out of Lo Lieh, the hero in this film, who is the lone survivor of a massacre of a school, and sets out for revenge. Along the way he endures the hardships and training that all action star greats must go through -- nothing as exciting as 36 Chambers of Shao Lin, but cool nevertheless. And the famous Iron Palm technique, which came complete with a soundtrack, which sounded like a funky car alarm. Quentin Tarratino used it in Kill Bill, but not to great effect. There is a tournament, and our hero has to win not only for the honor of his new school, but to also win his girl's hand for marriage. And of course there are the usual baddies who try to do everything possible to thwart him from doing so.

I bought the Celestial Pictures' recent remastering of this -- they have bought the rights to the Shaw Bros films, and have been doing an excellent job of restoring this great movie catalog. They are Region 3, however, so you have to have an all region dvd player to see it. Also, they are not dubbed, which may piss off some hard core viewers. I have to say, I don't mind subtitles at all -- yeah, so I read while I watch, but I find it amazing that there are so many people who will not watch a movie because it has subtitles. WTF???? Anyone who has the Five Fingers of Death dvd will have the dubbed version, but picture wise, this is superior. Plus, there are extras, such as background info, filmographies, and trailers. Highly recommended!

Movie review: The Mansion of Madness

This Mondo Macabro dvd reissues one of the best and most misunderstood movies of the 70's. The director, Juan Lopez Moctezuma, worked with the cult director Jadarowsky (El Topo, Santa Sangre) in the 60's and 70's on a number of strange, non linear, but beautiful films that have to be viewed as performance pieces rather than stories. MM has previously reissued another Moctezuma film, Alucarda, which is a wild, LOUD horror film that combines nunsploitation and demon possession, which always makes for a potent cocktail of a flick. That one came out around 1975; this one was made around 1970 and issued a year later -- it is better known in the US as Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon. That title alone gives an indication as to why it was so ill received -- it was sent directly to the drive in circuit, and the people who went to see it, expecting gore and sex, must have walked away, confused. It's a story about a reporter who goes to an insane asylum to do a story, but little does he know that the inmates are running the asylum. Apparently it is loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather." Very loosely! The movie is very theatrical; more about the spirit of the times, of performance art and theater, where anything goes, and visually, this movie is exciting -- Felliniesque, even. From the guards dressing in 18th century military uniforms, to the director of the asylum's daughter dressed in a Mara Hari uniform, performing in front of a psychedelic band in surreal makeup, to the asylum itself, with the vast room of glass cases with inmates (or the employees?) inside them, and the guest quarters made out of fabric and rope -- all brilliantly used and photographed, to give a real sense of absurdity. The three dancers dressed in black, covered in feathers, and menacing our hero at the end of the film is very memorable! The dvd reissue makes an apology for the quality of the remastering, however, the film is very sharp and detailed, and the color is vivid. Only 2/3 ito the movie is there a shift in language; they must have used the spanish dubbed version (this film was filmed in english), and subtitles appear. It is 85 minutes long, and the story is simple and to the point, unlike a lot of movies nowadays that clock at 2 hours. It's not really a horror film, yes there are some disturbing moments, but not outright gore, and some nudity. It's like watching a Theater of the Absurd, where everything is downright strange, and we see everything thru the reporter's eyes. Probably the find of the year for reissues, just when you think you've seen it all. I loved it!