movie: Casanova

The wife is on a Heath Ledger kick, who she's had a crush on ever since screening A Knight's Tale
with one of her at-risk youth back in her mentor days with Americorps.

I was mostly cleaning house during this one, but I think the wife's comment about halfway through the run-time sums it up nicely:

"More nudity, less shitty dialog!"

I'm about to check out the Korean military/supernatural thriller R-Point.

Hopefully I won't find myself howling "more supernatural phenomenon, less poorly subtitled dialog!" during the third act...wish me luck.

Music: Steely Dan

I'm at work (yes, on the 4th of July) listening to Steely Dan's Alive in America, track 7, their classic hit Peg.

Making my E-rounds I come across a youtube link on the making of Peg.


EERIE.


Off to a BBQ after work, wish me luck.
And nobody blow off their fingers or toes!

/edit
link fixed- thx dangs!

Nuke Test Videos

declassified for your viewing pleasure.

Theater News

The Pelf has some East Coast productions coming up:

fReAk sTorM is showing in NYC thanks to the fine folks at American Theater of Actors. It'll be running for a week at the end of August.
I think I make an apperance in this one as "childhood friend #2".
Biographical note- Pelf wrote this one after our batchelor party road-trip before Bobo's wedding.

Also in August the Revolution Theater Company will be putting on GORE HOUNDS.
I assure you dear reader, any similarities between the horrifying plot and our gloriously misspent youth are entirely coincidental.

For the sake of Pelf's few remaining hairs I hope they act better than they code HTML...

Bastille Day

It's nearly upon us and we here at the Baxblog will be celebrating in fine style.

Anyone in the neighborhood is invited to attend the first annual Secret Garden Bastille Day Celebration & Sing-Along


click image for readable size

We begin with a screening of Jean Pierre Melville's last film Army of Shadows at the Palm. Rather pathetically, it is the film's first theatrical release in North America.

Then it's off to the Secret Garden for gastronomic delights in the Parisian tradition.
Baguettes, cheese, lyric sheets & snooty attitude will be provided by the hosts...guests are responsible for appropriate headgear, wine and witty repartee.

Hirst's shark rotting

clicky clicky

Speaking to critic Stuart Morgan in 1996, Hirst said: “I did an interview about conservation and they told me formaldehyde is not a perfect form of preservation... They actually thought I was using formaldehyde to preserve an artwork for posterity, when in reality I use it to communicate an idea.”

Hey Damien...maybe you should have explained that to the sucker who paid 6.5 million dollars for your "art".


On the other hand, anyone stupid enough to pay 6.5 million for a dead shark gets whatever they deserve.

movies: half of Predator 2

The wife came home with a guest halfway through Predator 2, necessitating a switch to Down By Law to protect my carefully cultivated image of omnicient hipness.

Predator 2 is a kid's coloring book of a movie, the pictures filled in with neon pens weilded by epileptics. It feels like it had a comic book instead of a script, creating a particular flavor of jokey over-the-topness it's hard not to embrace. Sword in the Moon could have used a transfusion of P2's happy juice.

I'd forgotten it had Rueben Blades in a supporting role- I always liked him.

It was impressively multiethnic and despite it's hyperventillation it caught the "feel" of LA better than a lot of other movies. LA actually looked like LA, for a start.

It was pretty fun, I think I'll finish watching it tonight.