More seasonal greetings

This, the earlier Kinks and Roy Wood songs, are the only Christmas music you'll ever need.

Motivational video of the year

From the folks as Overthinking it.
Here's the full text - because you'll probably want this in a needlepoint sampler:
"Shame on you. This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you’re going to let it be the worst. And I guarantee a week won’t go by in your life you won’t regret walking out, letting them get the best of you. Well, I’m not going home. We’ve come too far! And I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause. A day may come when the courage of men fails… but it is not THIS day. The line must be drawn HERE. This far, no further! I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. You’re going to work harder than you ever worked before. But that’s fine, we’ll just get tougher with it! If a person grits his teeth and shows real determination, failure is not an option. That’s how winning is done! Believe me when I say we can break this army here, and win just one for the Gipper. But I say to you what every warrior has known since the beginning of time: you’ve got to get mad. I mean plum mad dog mean. If you would be free men, then you must fight to fulfill that promise! Let us cut out their living guts one inch at a time, and they will know what we can do! Let no man forget how menacing we are. We are lions! You’re like a big bear, man! This is YOUR time! Seize the day, never surrender, victory or death… that’s the Chicago Way! Who’s with me? Clap! Clap! Don’t let Tink die! Clap! Alright! Let’s fly! And gentlemen in England now abed shall know my name is the Lord when I tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our Independence Day!"

No laughing matter...

And more seasonal...

Seasonal...

Brian Wilson rides the Black Cab

The Black Cab Sessions is a series of short videos in which musicians are asked to perform while riding in the back seat of a cab. Simple enough, right?

We all need a helping hand.

Watch the skies.

Heroes and villains

...won't pay the rent?

Straight Shooting

From Harvard's 02138, a no-nonsense talk with the great Tommy Lee Jones. (Thanks to Jeffrey Wells' always relevant Hollywood Elsewhere for bringing this to my attention.)

Recommended viewing:

Life in the city

He's got the silver..

I admit it; I'm pretty excited about "Shine a Light" one reason being the trailer, which cracks me up every time I watch it:



Turns out Marty's also on the accursed MySpace, if you're interested. Go ahead, be his friend.


(P.S. 5/4/08: I had to disable the Flash version. But, go see the movie. It's amazing...)

Hello sailor!

Popeye with Dorothy Lamour, courtesy of this post at Cartoon Brew.

This day in history...

1973: Dr. Hook actually made the cover.




"Aw man, that's beautiful!"

(I saw Dr. Hook perform shortly before this song broke, in between their 1st and 2nd albums, as part of a show that also included ShaNaNa and Flo and Eddie. This video catches some of the rowdy nature of their performance, which included a completely disrespectful trashing of their earlier hit, the weepy "Sylvia's Mother." It was the biggest single of 1971, only to suffer a huge backlash when the entire world collectively decided that the song got on its nerves.

Same as it ever was?

I've been looking for this clip for years and couldn't even find so much as a still from it until now. One more reason to name YouTube one of the Seven Wonders of the Internet World...
(The inspiration for it can be found here and here and here...)

from the old country...

Sacred chords and beautiful losers

A well-deserved honor for the debonair Mr. Cohen...

His week still beats your year.

Happy birthday to Lou Reed, still cooler than the rest of us...



More here and here and especially here.

and the final count...

15 out of 24.. Anything over 50% is respectable in my book..

My predictions (if "prediction" and "guess" mean the same thing):

Best Picture:
No Country For Old Men
Best Director:
The Coens
Best Actor
Daniel Day Lewis
Best Actress
Julie Christie
Best Supporting Actor
Bardem
Supporting Actress:
Cate Blanchett
Foreign Film
The Counterfeiters
Animated Feature
Ratatouille
Art Direction
There Will Be Blood
Cinematography
There Will Be Blood
Costume Design
Atonement
Documentary Feature
Sicko
Documentary Short
Freeheld
Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
Makeup
La Vie en Rose
Original Score
Michael Clayton
Song
Falling Slowly
Animated Short
Madame Tutli-Putli
Live Action Short
At Night
Sound Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
Sound Mixing
The Bourne Ultimatum
Visual Effects
Transformers
Screenplay –Adapted
No Country for Old Men
Screenplay –Original
Juno

Second gussing: The ones I am most doubtful about are the two actresses, original screenplay, original score and costume design...

The last good man

Seeing things in black and white...

A review of Persepolis, courtesy of Playback.

"What number is it, Chip?" ... "7A"

Folksinger John Stewart, formerly of the Kingston Trio, is dead. He's best known for this very fine song:






You can find Stewart's own version here.

Beware of "perilous stunts" and "fancy alcoholic drinks".

Today I became Jack Valenti's Worst Nightmare. I took a group of pre-teenagers to an R-rated movie (Sweeney Todd, which is, by the way, just as good the second time around).

Meanwhile, for those of you who think the MPAA isn't tough enough, The Guardian offers this helpful selection of highlights from various " parental guidance" websites..

The 666 Trio

"When there's no more room in Hell..."

The esteemed Robin Wood, whose writings on horror films in the 1970s remain the definitive critical work on that genre, has written a brief but typically incisive look at Diary of the Dead, the fifth installment in George Romero's trilogy-that-grew for the latest issue of Film Comment. I haven't seen the film, which was generally well received on the festival circuit last year, so I'll let Wood's analysis speak for itself.
The film is due to open in the U.S. on February 15th.

Outwitting the Curse of GMRX

A very good common-sense piece by A. O. Scott in the NYT about why people need to learn how to ignore the ratings.

The sun never sets: George Macdonald Fraser (1926-2008)

George Macdonald Fraser, whose twelve volumes of "The Flashman Papers" are among the most entertaining works of fiction of the last forty years, has died. In addition to creating (or rather, reshaping from a minor literary role in the Victorian classic "Tom Brown's Schooldays") the rascally Harry Flashman, Fraser wrote the screenplays for Richard Lester's "Three Musketeers" films.
Information on Fraser's life can be found here, plus a sample of his work here.

A cautionary tale...

Did you ever notice how the cautionary mental hygiene films and the exploitation films of the 1960s have in common?

Can we make a quick edit?

Spent the New Year's Eve/Day catching up with two movies, one of which definitely earns a slot on a revised Best of 2007 list. The other was Juno, which is destined to fill the slot in your life left empty by this.
But Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is something else altogether, a gruesome and witty horror film that just happens to be a musical. But not just any musical. Go see it.