It’s been a while since I’ve posted here–from the purge of this platform to the death of another–but I have some pop cultural thoughts and this is where they go.

Pavement is a definitive album band and record collectors’ band, but they also released a ton of great material on singles, EPs, compilations, and bonus releases. Most of that was collected on cd in a string of deluxe expanded album reissues starting in 2002 that were more exhausting than exhaustive. The material for the first and last of these is on vinyl, but the middle three are not. I think there is demand for a missing album or two on vinyl, curated from all of those non-album tracks.

Now Matador has announced Cautionary Tales: Jukebox Classiques, a box set with reissues of all of their 7" singles. I realize that this limited, pre-order only release is strictly for diehards and prosumer nostalgists. It does not increase access, it’s just a fifth way to hear “Baptiss Blacktick”.

There is one efficient Pavement compilation, the seminal Westing: By Musket and Sextant, which collects their first three EPs, first single and contemporary compilation tracks.

Matador could simply release the middle three records’ bonus content on vinyl, and they would be more successful than the first volume was in 2015, but the songs are already available digitally. All of the collections, including Westing, have stuck to a strict chronological sequencing, which is a missed curatorial opportunity.

So I propose one LP that simply collects their 5 last EPs, and a ‘lost album’ of the best remaining non-album material.

The cover art, like the playlist, is composed of art that was cropped from their original albums. Of course I’ve got a third LP of less-listenable curiosities but we’ll see how the first two sell first ;)

Cinema Bunz 5-10

I’ve watched 150 “significant” movies (and probably another 50 others) since the last time I did a write-up.  So here are 20 of my favorites, in no particular order:

-Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)  A window into the proto-Trans community in Tokyo.  Flawed but stylish and fascinating.  See also: The Queen, Portrait of Jason.

-M (1931) A landmark film that doesn’t need my endorsement.  But it stands out even among landmarks.  See also: The Third Man

-Black Narcissus (1947) The Archers were Masters of Sweep.  This one is absolutely sopping with color, spectacle and emotion.  

-Night of the Hunter (1955) In contrast, this one’s intimate and impressionistic, a child’s nightmare with one of the greatest villains in film.  See also: Eraserhead.

-Tower (2016) Rotoscoped animation can feel like a novelty, but there’s a genuine marriage here of medium and message.  It’s a mastic that fills in gaps between sources and memories, a hyperreality between the actual and the reenacted.  See also: Peace Officer.

-Edward II (1991) Another example of stylization used to draw parallels.  The point where New Queer Cinema meets Elizabethan drama.  Baz Luhrmann for adults.

-Play Time (1967) Must-watch for architects.  Physical humor enacted by buildings and the frustrated people trying to navigate them.

-The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Another towering epic.  I war story with very little combat, addressing pride and honor from a completely different angle.

-The Exterminating Angel (1962) Magical realism + comedy of manners is a combination that still feels novel.  What if the party you didn’t want to end became a party you couldn’t escape?

-Chico & Rita (2010) Just a flat-out gorgeous animated romance for adults.  

-The Wages of Fear/Sorcerer (1953/1977).  Separate adaptations of the same novel.  The former lean and stark; the latter, shaggy and lush.  Both masters of psychology and tension. 

-The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978).  Glossy 80’s supernatural melodrama. So. Much. Fun.  See also: Blow-up (1966).

-Jules & Jim (1962).  It’s refreshing to see sexual mores questioned so frankly this early.  Triads and polyamory still haven’t had their moment in contemporary film, and the relationships flow naturally from well-drawn characters.  See also: Design for Living (1933).

-Black Lizard (1968).  A mod Japanese spy romp starring a trans woman.  Does something have to be more than the sum of its parts, if it’s executed at the highest level? I say no.  See also: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014).

-Grand Hotel (1932).  Ensemble comedy that throws you in the deep end and doesn’t care if you keep up.  So saturated with charm I want to date it.

-Strange Days (1995).  The best of the 90’s near-future films, that’s mostly just a well-crafted crime flick?  The philosophy has mostly held up but the racial politics are depressingly current.

-It Happened One Night (1934).  My favorite of the Capra I’ve watched.  Certainly a genre-defining romantic comedy, with a Clark Gable performance that washed Rhett Butler out of my hair

-The Conformist (1970).  Production designed to the GODS, Mama!  The plot is twisty and the performances are strong, but I’m here for the sets.

-Raise the Red Lantern (1991).  The plight of a third concubine in 1920’s China.  Gorgeous, subtle, wrenching. 

-A Separation (2011).  I am a sucker for spectacle, abstraction and melodrama.  Reality is hard!  But this one is a chunk of concrete executed flawlessly.

90′s Records that Hit Different During a Pandemic

You’re Living All Over Me

Touch Me, I’m Sick

Use Your Fingers

Barely Breathing

Superunknown

Cinema Bunz 4:

10/17:

I’ve now hit 100 movies from the list started in July, although we’ve watched another 30 or so incidentally.  My notes on the last 25:

-I knew Bette Davis and Joan Crawford starred in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, but I didn’t know who played who.  Anyway, I preferred Mommie Dearest.

-Never underestimate the set construction budgets on silent movies.  Metropolis and Intolerance were both stunning.

-Add me to the list of suckers for the piano bar sequence in Marriage Story.

-Stalker was my biggest disappointment, but the locations are killer.  By which I mean they were toxic and some of the crew died.

-Kids has been the hardest watch so far.

-Treasure of the Sierra Madre > Casablanca

-Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains makes a great double feature with The Legend of Billie Jean.  Similar themes and alarming debut performances.

-Songs I Didn’t Know Were From that Movie: As Time Goes By, Invincible, Things in Life, all that Philip Glass in Koyaanisqatsi

-Songs I can’t believe *aren’t* in the movie: Natural One.

Favorites: Fabulous Stains, Legend of Billie Jean, Fox and His Friends, Footlight Parade, Terror Nullius

Cinema Bunz 3

From 9/26:

I’m over my 25 movie quota for September, here are my notes:

-Jim caught Richard Dreyfuss’s cameo in The Graduate.  The montages really hold up.

-A coincidental spate of anachronistic black & white: Young Frankenstein, Last Picture Show, Ed Wood, Satantango.-The latter loses *nothing* if you watch it at x1.25 speed.  Do it.

-Also lots of actor/subject/documentary ambiguity: Close-Up, The Act of Killing, Shirkers.

-I was a little bored with Hard Boiled but the single take with the elevator is impressive.

-Crumbs is not a perfect movie, but it’s the scrappiest thing I’ve seen since Stingray Sam.

-I won’t say to skip the speeches in Triumph of the Will, because it’s important to tie the awesome spectacle to the awful message.  They are a bit of a snooze, though.

-Murray Hamilton has popped up in three movies so far: Anatomy of a Murder, The Hustler, and The Graduate.

Top Five: Tongues Untied, April and the Extraordinary World, Three Colors Trilogy: White, The Last Picture Show, The Act of Killing.

Cinema Bunz 2

(posted post facto, circa 8/29)

I finished my 50 movies today, two days ahead of schedule. I was surprised by:

-Cassian Andor showing up in Y Tu Mamá También

-Showgirls. I mean you think you know exactly what it is, but it still manages to impress?

-The visuals in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. The editing is kinda limp, though.-

The vivacity of Soy Cuba, before the propaganda takes over.

-City of God > Gomorrah

-How dull Blue is the Warmest Color was.

-The ending of Carrie. I thought I’d absorbed the whole film by osmosis but I had no idea what happened after prom.

Favorites on the back half include Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Losing Ground, La Belle Noiseuse, Cinema Paradiso, and The Big Heat.

Cinema Bunz 1

For years, I’ve had a Google Doc of movies to watch, pulled from listicles, mentioned on podcasts, and recommended by friends. During the pandemic I decided to organize a list of 50 movies, to make sure I get more diversity in my diet. The project has grown to a second batch, and now a third, so I wanted to transcribe my notes here as the project continues.  From 8/12:

I’m more than halfway through my list of 50 movies, and I was impressed by:

-The unrelenting gorgeousness of the Secret of Kells.

-The soundtrack to Last King of Scotland.

-The number of hot guys in Battleship Potemkin.

-The inferiority of High Society to The Philadelphia Story.

-The psychedelia of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.

-The metaphysics of Your Name.

My favorites so far are Seven Samurai, This is England, Oldboy, Mudbound and Endless Summer.

Top 10 Underseen Films of the 10′s

My film of the decade was Moonlight, but you don’t need to be told to see it.  Or Get Out, Her, or Fury Road.  Below are my favorite films of the decade that weren’t nominated for Best Picture or AFI’s top 10.  I tried to stick to one per year, but I’ve got two from 2015 and none from 2017, The Year the Academy Got it Right.

    Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) - Colorful, weird and queer in a way Marvel still hasn’t managed.  

    Weekend (2011) - Why is it still so hard to be gay?  Subtler and more concrete than Moonlight or Call Me by Your Name.

    Holy Motors (2012) - Lynch, but satisfying.

    You and the Night (2013) - A sexy Breakfast Club soundtracked by M83.

    Phoenix (2014) - The postwar setting, Twilight Zone premise and understated performances combine to create heart-wrenching drama that’s never overwrought.

    Anomalisa (2015) - Why would you use puppets to tell a story with a small cast, set entirely in a hotel?  Because the uncanny valley is an arm holding a mirror.

    Tangerine (2015) - We watch films to see how other people live.  We watch cinema to mine the deeper truths of existence.  We watch movies to be entertained.  This ticks all three boxes to the extreme.

    The Handmaiden (2016) - Now *this* is overwrought.  Most beautiful film of the decade?  But also one of the creepiest?  But also twistiest?  An exquisite, pervy, Dickensian feast. WIYL The Favorite.

    Annihilation (2018) - The fumbled release really killed anticipation for this one, but (nearly) all-female hallucinogenic Sci-Fi is my jam.

    The Long Shot (2019) - Silly, legitimately romantic and eminently watchable.  I can’t stand mediocre rom-coms, but I’m an absolute sucker for this one.

Honorable mentions: Victoria (2015) probably would’ve made the list if I didn’t already have two from that year.  Dauntingly ambitious and emotionally effective.  The Great Beauty (2013) Won Best Foreign Film, and released on Criterion, so maybe it’s too big for this list.  Long, talky, sumptuous, fascinating.  Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Hateful Eight (2015) and Phantom Thread (2017) are just incredible films by seasoned auteurs outdoing themselves.  My favorite for each of them.

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Anonymous asked:

Hello ! Sorry to bother you, but I am getting an h3q (the host) error, so I cannot dl your edits on the Hobbit. (both of them) I you have time, could you resolve the problem please ? Thanks !

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been out of town.  Not sure if you were trying to dl when my server was down, or if there was another problem.  Try these:

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