Pre-Friday iPod Random Ten

Sathima Bea Benjamin - The Man I Love

Duke Ellington - Pyramid

Sonny Rollins and the Modern Jazz Quartet - In a Sentimental Mood

Duke Ellington - Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Duke Ellington - All Too Soon

The Modern Jazz Quartet - Ralph's New Blues

John Lewis - September Song

Billie Holiday - Why Was I Born

Art Farmer - Isfahan

Gerry Mulligan - Just in Time

Huh. Well, there is a lot of Ellington at any given time on my iPod. The MJQ/John Lewis thing there's no excuse for, however.

Movie Quizlet

This is circulating on a mailing list I belong to, so I thought I could use it to make up for the non-traffic here.

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

In my teenaged years, The Third Man and Citizen Kane, for certain. In recent years, probably only The Young Girls of Rochefort.

2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.

Pulp Fiction, A Fish Called Wanda, 8 Women, All About My Mother, and those Young Girls are the only ones that leap to mind. I know there are others, though no others in the last decade.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

C. Deneuve, F. Dorleac, I. Huppert, S. Bonnaire, D. Auteuil.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.

Mapother, Thomas Cruise.

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.

Midnight Cowboy, a lot. So much so that most of my quotes are really mundane, so few people spot them as such. Lost in America, usually unconsciously.

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.

None.

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.

The Young Girls again. Umbrellas of Cherbourg, too, but only in spots.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.

This is not a question to ask a video store denizen, because the one thing I can tell you is that there is not a single movie that everybody likes. Not even close.

9. Name a movie that you own.

I can recite my entire movie collection! Young Girls, Umbrellas, Donkey Skin, Seven Samurai, Amarcord, Bicycle Thieves, 8 Women, and the Almodovar box set.

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.

Just watched the new Sopranos so I really want to say Sydney Pollack, but he started as an actor, didn't he? I'll lame out and say Dexter Gordon.

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

Mais oui. Two visits stand out strongest in my mind. Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Trek II in Saskatchewan. Here in Waterloo, a quadruple bill of Back to the Future, The Money Pit, something else, and... of all things... Brazil.

12. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet gotten around to it.

Most of John Ford.

13. Ever walked out of a movie?

No, but there are practical reasons for that. When I see a movie by myself, it's usually because I reeeeeeeeally want to see it and don't give a damn if anyone comes with me. These I am highly unlikely to bail out on. I have wanted to leave many times, but I have always been with someone else, so I don't want to leave before my ride home. I would have walked on Magnolia.

14. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.

All About My Mother, Dancer in the Dark, most Demys.

15. Popcorn?

Not my snack of choice. Those would be Nibs (the packaging is too noisy, though) or nachos (but those always make me feel like a fool).

16. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or
watching them at home)?

I've been taking Dee Dee about once a month of late, but as for movies of my own choice... it was a long time between King Kong and Grindhouse.

17. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?

Grindhouse.

18. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

Cerebral foreign thrillers.

19. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

Bambi, though my memory of my Dad asking me if I wanted to go is much stronger than the actual moviegoing.

20. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding. People always think I'm kidding but it is the actual mark of the end of my cinephilia.

21. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

Gee, weird is such a hard thing to qualify. I'd say Dumbo almost qualifies. Many would say Mulholland Drive is weird, but I think they're wrong. I don't know. I honestly can't think of any movie of which I couldn't make some kind of sense.

22. What is the scariest movie you've seen?

Southern Comfort.

23. What is the funniest movie you've seen?

The Fatal Glass of Beer.

Happy Easter Weekend

Grindhouse...

... is so, so very awesome.

Hated the trailer, so I tempered my expectations.

The one part I was excited for, Rob Zombie's trailer for Werewolf Women of the S.S. turns out to be the least interesting part. The casting, which had me salivating, turns out to be the only good joke... so I won't spoil it for you (suffice it to say, the first names revealed will bring a smile to any cult movie fan, but it's the final one... and specifically the character he's playing... that is a masterstroke).

Planet Terror is Rodriguez's best film by a long shot, a cracking riff on early John Carpenter that starts off great and never lets up. Especially delightful is the resuscitation of the least likely actors - Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, and especially Josh Brolin (channeling Nick Nolte) - that we expect from Tarantino.

Speaking of whom, words cannot capture my awe for Death Proof. It is slightly let down by its placement in this film, since it provides a slight but not isignificant tonal shift from all of the giddy tongue-in-cheekiness that precedes it. I was apprehensive about Kurt Russell taking over from Mickey Rourke, but as usual QT's instincts are spot-on: Russell gives a vital twinkle that would have been missing from Rourke, and I would be sad to lose the hilarity of Stuntman Mike's last 15 minutes or so to the (I'm presuming here, of course) gravitas would have brought. Anyway, Death Proof is 30 mins of solid Tarantinoisms, capped by a helping of ruthlessly visceral horror, followed by 30 mins of QT's version of a chick flick, followed by an 30 minute finale in which QT not only hommages but thoroughly bests all of those 70s car thrillers he loves so damn much.

Normally I'll guzzle a large drink throughout a 90 minute movie, Grindhouse was accompanied by one post-Rodriguez gulp of water because damned if I was gonna miss a second of this bugger. It repaid that commitment in spades: even if there is a "better" movie this year, no ten movies combined will have as many movie-movie goodies thrown at a sympathetic audience than this one.

Monday iPod Random Ten and Catch-Up

Dexter Gordon - Ruby, My Dear

The Don Pullen/George Adams Quintet - Serenade to Sariah

Clifford Jordan - I'll Be Around

Duke Pearson - My Love Waits (O Meu Amor Espera)

Pepper Adams - Bloos, Blooze, Blues

Nancy Wilson - You've Changed

Ella Fitzgerald - Hurry Home

Clifford Brown & Max Roach - Daahoud (alternate take)

Lou Donaldson - The Humpback

Gerry Mulligan - Prelude in E Minor

Hey, presto! Variety! Except the two vocalists back to back, but I expect the iPod can't be expected to know things like that.

Nice trip to Rochester last week. We drove down in mid-day, taking our own sweet time but just beat the major blizzard that hit the area by about fifteen minutes. Jenn's mom was not so lucky and didn't arrive til around midnight. Still, better late than in a ditch.

I was sick with the flu before we even left, so I stayed in bed on Tuesday while the girls went shopping.

Wednesday we all went to the Strong Museum of Play, reputedly the premier kids' museum in the U.S. The three of us spent four hours trying to keep up with Dee Dee, who had a blast.

Dee Dee just ran up to me in the persona of her alter-ego, Snoopy, a dog. She likes to run to us on hands and knees panting, wanting to play fetch. It's pretty funny, but with my crappy knees it makes me wince to watch her doing it.

Wednesday night Jenn and I went to the Difford show. It was a bitterly cold evening so turnout was light, but the show was very nice. A bit over-mellow, though: he's touring with himself on acoustic and vocals, a female backing vocalist and a steel guitarist. Not the kind of instrumentation that necessarily rings my bell, but they carried it off nicely, having obviously honed the act over the last year or so. They played songs I've heard too many times live and made them fresh; a pretty high compliment, I'd say.

Afterward I had to dart to the lavvy, so Jenn was alone when he came out. He approached her, said thanks for coming out and she gave him a hug. His slightly uncomfortable reaction told her he didn't quite know who she was, a fact confirmed when he sent us an e-mail the next day asking if we had been unable to make it.

More soon, including our Godfather III moment.

Sunday iPod Random Ten and More

OK, let's get the silliness out of the way first...

John Patton - Just 3/4

Bud Powell - Un Poco Loco (alternate take #2)

Dizzy Gillespie - Selections from Zodiac Suite

Bud Shank & Bob Cooper - Moonlight in Vermont

Herbie Hancock/Michael Brecker/Roy Hargrove - My Ship

Dizzy Gillespie - Cool Breeze

Sonny Rollins - Remembering Tommy

Ben Webster & Don Byas - Lullaby to Dottie Mae

Bud Shank - Valve in Head

Michael Brecker - Seven Days

120+ artists on my iPod, 530+ tracks, and 3 repeat performers. The sheer randomness of it all is dizzying (pun not intended, not actually even noticed until I had to republish to catch a spelling error).

Lots of silence lately, mostly due to lots of nothing going on, mostly. I've been down with the flu the last few days and tomorrow we leave for Rochester for a few days. Going to see Chris Difford and Granny Jackie, not in that order. The last time we saw Chris was summer of '98 when Squeeze was only holding together due to Glenn's best efforts and sticky tape. Chris wasn't a terribly happy soul at the time, so it will be nice to see him under happier circumstances. I'll up you to date when we get back Thursday.

Friday iPod Random Ten

Ella Fitzgerald - I Thought About You

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - You Go to My Head

Thelonious Monk - Dinah (take 1)

Duke Ellington - Charpoy

Gerry Mulligan - Prelude in E Minor

Duke Ellington - Smada

Gerry Mulligan - Barbara's Theme

Sonny Stitt - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Bud Powell - Bouncing with Bud

Billy Mitchell - You Turned the Tables on Me

An Afternoon Out

Since Jenn spends all of her days with Dee Dee and the majority of her evenings, I decided that today would be a good day for the wee one and I to have an adventure: climb on a bus and go to the movies. I was forgetting, of course, that I have enough trouble trying to find a single movie I would want to see, let alone one Dee Dee would too.

Past trips to the cinema have not left me begging for more: she was moderately interested by both Curious George and Over the Hedge for about half of their running time, then started to get restless and wanted to leave. Still, she was just barely two for the former and not much older for the latter, so I hoped she'd be more open to the experience now.

Not much playing for the kiddies these days, but we settled on Arthur and the Invisibles. True, the only good time I've ever had at a Luc Besson picture was when Jenn, some workmates and myself loudly ridiculed every single frame of The Messenger. But have you seen the reviews for that new Disney/Jesusco Narniaesque thing that I can't be bothered to remember the title of? Yikes.

So the pair of us bundled up and made our way up the hill to the bus stop. I walked, Dee Dee rode in a little sled she barely fits in anymore. It was damnably cold, with wind whipping snow into our faces, and Dee Dee suggested going back home before the bus pulled itself into view.

We got to the theatre, stocked up on popcorn and a soda (both of which she was looking forward to at least as much as the movie itself), and settled into our seats. It was only then that I remembered D. is in the "why?" phase so that every movie viewing at home is littered with requests to clarify plot points or character motivation. I braced myself, and explained to her that we had to be quiet, for the sake of those around us.

The movie... ehh. I was surprised at how pleasing I found the live action stuff, with Mia Farrow as grandma and the kid finding clues and secret compartments around his home. Then we get to the fantasy land and... well, it's all CGI and pretty charmless even by those standards. Lots of celebrity voices, with two standing out, illustrating the pluses (David Bowie, the only CGi character who really gets fleshed out, in no small part due to the voice performance) and minuses (Madonna, who manages the uptight bitch aspect of her character, but never convinces for a second when the character shows feeling) of such stunt casting.

After the movie, onto the bus again. Dee Dee at first didn't understand the notion of buses being on schedules and routes... they're just there to take us where we want to go, right? We got on about five minutes before the scheduled departure, and Deeds, impatient to go, called out "Drive the bus!" The other passengers laughed, but the bus driver didn't hear. Small blessings.

Back down the hill, on the sled again, and back into the apartment. Jenn asked D. how she liked the movie and got details of the popcorn, drink, bus ride, sled ride, the jellybeans I got her before we got on the bus, and generally everything but the movie. Sounded about right to me, and matched the parts of the day that I'll remember myself.