Viewing: Film - View all posts
Kim Novak in Vertigo
Gone But Not Forgotten
CHOOSE WISELY
I know what you're thinking.
You're asking yourself, "Who should I go see on August 16th?
Chloë is at the Cineplex, but Clairdee is at Chandler Center for the Arts!"
Well friend, it's a no-brainer.
Movie houses are a dime-a-dozen, but Chandler's celebrated multi-use theater is a one-of-a-kind, elegant marvel of acoustical engineering.
Chloë & Aaron will be fake crime-fighting together for weeks. Clairdee & Dmitri are real life artist-warriors, appearing together for one-night-only.
Their show is overpriced. Our show is free, and we do ALL our own stunts!
Most importantly, San Francisco vocal sensation Clairdee is the Original "Hit Girl," singing and swinging Broadway and Hollywood hits like nobody's business.
And is there anything more Kick-Ass than The Great American Songbook?
We don't think so.
TRUCKEE HOTEL established 1873
My kind of atmosphere. This is the kind of place Clint Eastwood might've
stayed in Pale Rider or High Plains Drifter.
MAL DU PAYS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARRELL
THE PHILOSOPHER'S PATH | Kyoto, Japan
Lalo Schifrin: BULLITT (1968)
ALL WORK & NO PLAY ETC.
OFFICE HOLIDAY
The offices of Matheny Music will be closed today, Wednesday, May 8, 2013,
in celebration of the Iron Man & Higley Hot Dogs Day holiday.
(It's good to be the boss.) ~DM
5/4
RELUCTANT WARRIORS THREE
"I don't want to kill anyone.
I just don't like bullies."
—Captain America
"I don't give a **** about your war
or your President!"
—Snake Plissken
“I cannot preach hate and warfare when
I am a disciple of peace and love!”
—Wonder Woman
THE ONLY THING TO SAY
WHAT ELSE
"What else is the whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and plays each one his part, until the manager waves them off the stage?"
—Erasmus
IMPRESSIONABLE
When I was young and asking the big questions, I learned most of what I still believe about loyalty, bravery and morality from the Silver Age superheroes in my comic book collection.
For real.
In later years I would travel internationally, study world religions, read classic works of philosophy and ethics, and even pay attention to my father's many lectures. I went to private school, public school, boarding school and the school of hard knocks. I'm an educated cat.
But to this day, when the world tests my mettle or challenges my sense of right and wrong, it's not Spinoza but my inner Green Lantern who shows up for the fight.
I've always been impressionable in this way.
For example, I'm pretty sure I have a goatee because of the way Spock looked in "Mirror, Mirror." I know I started wearing dashikis in high school because of a picture I saw of Elvin Jones in Downbeat. I sport a beret on stage because Dizzy did.
Today, while watching Highlander for the godzillionth time, I noticed something about Christopher Lambert's home. Like so many characters in films of the 1980s and '90s, The Highlander lived in a loft.
It now occurs to me that my interior design preferences and bone-deep love of warehouse loft spaces and mid-century modern furniture are not based on anywhere I've lived or anything I've seen or studied. They don't reflect some sophisticated notion about the aesthetic requirements of an artist's life. They aren't because I need space to rehearse and create.
Nope. I learned about loft living from the movies. Dig:
William Sanderson in Blade Runner (1982). Jennifer Beals in Flashdance (83). Lambert in Highlander (86). Barbara Hershey in Hannah and Her Sisters (86). Mickey Rourke in 9-1/2 Weeks (86). Tom Hanks in Big (88). Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally (89). Rosanna Arquette in New York Stories (89). Nancy Travis in So I Married An Axe Murderer (93). James Caan in Bottle Rocket (96). Ethan Hawke in Great Expectations (98). Julianne Moore in The Big Lebowski (98). Adam Sandler in Big Daddy (99). Christian Bale in American Psycho (00). Owen Wilson in Zoolander (01). Olivier Martinez in Unfaithful (02).
I want their cribs!
Thanks, Hollywood.
(Sure hope this flugelhorn thing works out.)
THE RULES
"This is not 'Nam. This is bowling.
There are rules."
—Walter Sobchak
"If I'd observed all the rules,
I'd never have got anywhere."
—Marilyn Monroe
"I'm going to show these people
what you don't want them to see.
I'm going to show them a world without you.
A world without rules and controls,
without borders or boundaries.
A world where anything is possible."
—Neo
WESTWARD HO
Across the plaza from Civic Space Park (where guitarist Stan Sorenson and I played a noontime concert today) stands one of the most interesting and historic buildings in downtown Phoenix: the Westward Ho.
Upon its grand opening in 1928, the neo-Renaissance Westward Ho was the tallest structure in the area (16 stories!) and one of the most elegant hotels in the west, with vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows and beautiful tiled floors.
Over the years, the hotel accumulated its share of fame.
Jack Benny broadcast radio shows from the Westward Ho during World War II.
Elizabeth Taylor kept a suite at the hotel and dined in its restaurant, Top of the Ho.
Paul Newman filmed a scene for the 1972 movie Pocket Money there.
Robert Wagner married Natalie Wood on the hotel patio.
Marilyn Monroe filmed the parade scene in Bus Stop (1956) on Central Avenue in front of the Westward Ho and is said to have gone for a moonlight swim (without a suit!) in the hotel pool.
Some of the Ho's other famous guests include John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Rogers, Jackie Gleason, Myrna Loy, Amelia Earhart, Esther Williams, Danny Thomas, Gary Cooper, Lucille Ball, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Bob Hope, Liberace, Lee Marvin, Tyrone Power, Eleanor Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Al Capone, Spencer Tracy and John Wayne.
Contrary to popular belief, the Westward Ho does not appear in the opening sequence of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, but is featured in the 1998 Gus Van Sant remake.
A 280-foot television broadcast antenna, added to the hotel's rooftop in 1949, is now used as a cell phone tower.
In 1980, after 52 years, the Westward Ho hotel closed for business and was converted to subsidized housing for the elderly and mobility impaired.
The building is now recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
ON MONEY
"Las Vegas is the only place I know
where money really talks. It says Goodbye."
—Frank Sinatra
"For what? For a little bit of money.
There's more to life than a little money, you know.
Don'tchya know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day.
Well, I just don't understand it."
—Marge Gunderson
"Getting money is easy, but changing an
impoverished mindset is next to impossible."
—Nicholas Payton
WILL
"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them: hold on..."
—Rudyard Kipling
"Your will turns thought into reality.
You must learn to focus your will and
create what you see in your mind.
The limits are only what you can imagine."
—Tomar-Re
"The man who is to be great is the one who can be
the most solitary, the most hidden, the most deviant,
the man beyond good and evil, lord of his virtues,
a man lavishly endowed with will."
—Friedrich Nietzsche
THE NATURE OF REGRET
HAVE A PLAN
"There's a difference between knowing the path
and walking the path."
—Morpheus
"All plans don't go as planned.
But have a plan."
—Robert Glasper
"Everyone has a plan until they get
punched in the face."
—Mike Tyson
DO YOU SEE?
"Always see everything,
my brother."
—Ghost Dog
"I like to look for things
no-one else catches."
—Amélie Poulain
"From infancy on, we are all spies.
The shame is not this
but that the secrets to be discovered
are so paltry and few."
—John Updike
R5-D4
I keep thinking about R5-D4.
He was all set for the big adventure, when out of the blue: poof. Bad motivator. Left behind.
A tragedy, but I bet it didn't even bother him that much at the time. After all, astromech droids are optimists by nature, and each of us is the hero of our own story. R5-D4 probably thought "Just a setback. No worries. This is only the beginning. Another opportunity will come along soon."
How could he have known that those fleeting few moments, during which he was the chosen one, were actually the peak of his role in the big adventure?
I bet he's still out there in the desert, wondering what the hell happened.
He probably thinks his best days are still ahead. Maybe he's right.
For all we know, he could be in great condition now.
Motivator repaired, fully operational. Ready to serve.
May the force be with him.
REMEMBERING RITA HAYWORTH
Some legends say the Margarita cocktail was named for her when she was dancing under her real name in a Tijuana, Mexico nightclub.