CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part II
Thought I'd focus on some variants on a single tune today. The selection is "Christmas Time is Here," by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. That combo had a surprise hit in 1963 with "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," a wistful little melody that thrilled me upon its release because it sounded like nothing else on the radio. It was a cut from the samba-flavored soundtrack to the glorious film Black Orpheus, which had introduced Bossa Nova (see my post on this form) to the US a little earli
CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part I
People who know me recognize the reverence I hold in my heart for the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, with a special emphasis on Christmas. Best time of the year, followed by that vast wasteland that ends only with the incipient hope provided by the arrival of pitchers and catchers for Spring training. As much as I love the holiday season, I acknowledge that it can be a sad period, leaving one wistfully ruminating about one's failure to achieve personal happi
THANKSGIVING TREAT
Couldn't resist the opportunity on this Thanksgiving to add Arlo Guthrie's immortal Alice's Restaurant Massacree to this blog. Played it for my students most of the years I've been teaching, though many view it as some sort of ancient artifact. Hard to believe that when Arthur Penn's film version of the song (There are more songs than you think that have been adapted into films! Future post.) was released in 1969 that students from Syosset High School piled into school buses
NICK ADAMS-That's How It Is When You're Nineteen!
My students got a big kick out of the just slightly overripe voiceover to this trailer for the 1962 film Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man .
THE AWFUL TRUTH
One of cinema's top ten sight gags-from Leo McCarey's sublime classic comedy of remarriage, The Awful Truth , starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
JAMES HONEYMAN SCOTT
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the last studio recordings of the late James Honeyman Scott, a woefully underrated guitar player who helped create the iconic Pretenders sound. Jimmy Scott's 80s new-wave musical style was singular, but he respected his influences, which included Pete Townshend and the Punk Rock eruption of the late 70s. He acted as a subtle complement to the vocals of the legendary Chrissie Hynde, but it was his dynamism that Hynde acknowledged made th
MR. PEANUT/LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Adam Ross's 2010 novel Mr. Peanut is the best initial work by an author I've read since Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh back in 1988. Ross's recent collection of short stories, Ladies and Gentlemen , released this past June, received excellent reviews as well. The Boston Globe' s critic wonderfully suggested that Ross's style was a blend of Raymond Chandler and Raymond Carver. Doesn't get any better than that. Even the legendarily har
TOP TEN Finale (at least until some time in 2012)
To conclude my thoughts on Sight & Sound 's Top Ten lists that appear each decade (in the year ending in 2), let me clarify a few points. There were 144 critics who took part in the Critics' Poll in 2002 and 108 directors who contributed to the Director's Poll. Taste is idiosyncratic. There were 631 films nominated by the critics, and 408 of them received exactly one vote apiece. One can see how personal the selection process is; some voters didn't even list Citizen Kane
TOP TEN (Part V-B)
Sorry I haven't posted recently. This weekend I will conclude my review of the Top Ten lists of Sight & Sound magazine, often thought to be the world's most respected journal for the study of cinema. In a few months, Sight & Sound will publish its compilation of the views of critics and directors from around the globe, as well as a number of Top Ten lists. In 2002, the last year the surveys were taken, the magazine published a Top Ten Critics' List as well as a Top Ten D
TOP TEN (Part V)
In 2002, Sight & Sound , arguably the premiere film journal in the world, conducted its latest survey of critics and directors to determine the positioning of global cinema and its artistic successes. The poll reached fifty years old and had earned a certain gravitas from cinephiles. Here are the results with brief justifications by the editors: The Sight & Sound Top Ten Poll 2002 Critics' Poll 1. Citizen Kane (Welles) Dazzlingly inventive, technically breathtaking, Citi
