Journal of a Working Boy

Labor Day weekend is upon us! The year is 2/3 over - a time to take stock? What kind of year has it been for films? pretty good in the theaters, though spottily - great films here and there, long stretches with nothing to see; not so good just counting new new films. September is going to be a good month, with Syndromes and a Century and I Don't Want to Sleep Alone coming - not to mention City Lights, Fallen Angels, Pierrot Le Fou, getting extended runs at the Brattle. And regular releases tend to get better in the fall... Wait! I feel a list coming on!

Best new releases, 2007? - do I get to count Killer of Sheep? if not -
1. Brand Upon the Brain
2. Zodiac
3. Into Great Silence
4. Triad Election
5. Tears of the Black Tiger

Best new new films?
1. Zodiac
2. Away From Her
3. Grindhouse (Though Death Proof, by itself, might be the best new film of the year)
4. Hot Fuzz
5. Sicko

And that sort of reminds me that Sicko was the last film I reviewed on this blog - and thus an excellent transition into self-criticism. I've made a bunch of sort of promises I should try to keep: from a non-bizarro review of WC Fields (specifically You're Telling Me, his best so far), to something about the Chinese action films that should have been nominated for the foreign film poll (a sort of penance since I could have voted for them, and didn't...), to some more on theatricality and theater in films, to, maybe, a defense of Death Proof as contemplative cinema. (Which blog Harry Tuttle and I have started hijacking back from Dan Schneider's [not Little Ricky] endless reviews.... Peter Green and Thumper's mother keep me from commenting further on Mr. cosmoetica.) Plus there are a bunch of films I've seen this summer I want to comment on: the Election films; a Barbara Stanwyck/Douglas Sirk double feature, and Stanwyck with Capra in Ladies of Leisure. And more besides. I don't know when I am going to get a chance to do all this writing - though the paradox is, the busier I get, the more I get done: it's coming home and sitting in front of the TV watching the Red Sox that keeps me from posting anything worthwhile. We'll see where things lead...

And finally, since it is Friday, and the iPod is working (it's getting iffy - it's conked out a couple times now, and it's not just me forgetting to turn it off and killing the batteries. I'm trying to milk every second out of it, cause I don't want to buy anything significant until next year if I can help it. It's not looking good though...) Random 10!

1. Shonen Knife - Top of the World ***** - really, though, what more can you ask?
2. Bikini Kill - Speed Heart
3. U2 - Exit *** - halfway decent song, from U2's worst period - no, I'm not a Joshua Tree fan, no...
4. Pylon - Look Alive **** - the only Pylon record I've been able to find, but damned good
5. Pink Floyd - Chapter 24 *** - some kind of hippy nonsense outta the i ching, but a neat song anyway...
6. Pavement - Jackals, False Grails: the Lonesome Era **** - we're doing well today
7. Minutemen - Cut - no ranking, but that's deceptive as the starting point for the Minutemen is around 3.5...
8. Rolling Stones - Carol(live - Get Your Ya Yas out)
9. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Rock of Gibraltar *****
10. Don Byron - Bar Mitzvah Special - playing the music of Mickey Katz

And of course something from YouTube: how about the next best thing to Shonen Knife? The Carpenters themselves, with Japanese titles!



Oh god. I can't help it. Here's a Japanese karaoke rendition of Superstar, with what looks like footage from the Defender video game...