I feel fortunate to have seen some great movies or documentaries about music and musicians lately. (Well, within the last 10 months.)
I would like to recommend them to you, especially if you want to learn what drives particular artists; and where some of the new stuff is coming from.
First -- the Jersey Boys, about the rise of the Four Seasons in the sixties. An unusual American group that survived the Beatles invasion of North America. They had hits, some number 1s, before and AFTER the so-called English invasion. They also toured successfully through out those years. That is very unusual, many of the pre-Beatles American groups could no longer get bookings anymore. It is also interesting because in an industry known for its corruption and back biting, Frankie Valli and Bob Crewe never had anything more than a handshake to bind them. In the film they somewhat jokingly call it a 'Jersey Contract'. [Of course, in Britain, that is known as a Gentleman's Agreement and is legally binding.] It has a wonderful soundtrack from mine, and many other's youth.
Get On Up. Is a dramatic presentation of the life of James Brown. Again, a huge star with so many interesting social and cultural touchstones. See it !
Of course, there is also the Mr. Dynamite/James Brown documentary from HBO that is closer to the true story of James Brown, with interviews with the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger was the producer behind this project. Clearly shows how Jagger developed his idiosyncratic moves after James Brown, especially when the two groups met at the taping of the seminal T.A.M.I. show in 1965. That show was long talked about. I remember reading about it in the sixties; But it was not till much later -- Eighties I think, that a good tape of the show surfaced and was released. Now it regularly features on PBS fund raising weeks !!
The two part Eagles documentary on HBO is a fascinating look at a group that are a classic example of Too Much, Too Soon. Immature Southern Californian types who felt they knew how the world worked... or should work... and why isn't the world listening to me. I am taking my ball and I'm out of here !
They fought internally a lot; Partied a little too much to their own detriment. In some fashion, though, they re-invented themselves, cleaning up their back story; depending on which current or past group member one listens to, or whose autobiography one reads. It is definitely worth watching for the music.
Sonic Highways, also on HBO, is a documentary following Dave Grohl as he and the Foo Fighters record their last album at different recording studios around America and looks into what made each studio famous. A terrific documentary and the Foo Fighters have not been any better than this. Highly recommended.
Last and no means least is Muscle Shoals a documentary on the Documentary Channel (what a co-incidence!) about the Alabama town of the same name that contained Rick Hall's FAME recording studio. So many fabulous songs came from there. It is also a story about the meanness and pettiness that permeated the business back in the sixties and seventies. It is also a story about friendship and how talent will out. Good to see great musicians, the Swampers, decide that world wide touring was not for them. They loved their little town of 8,000 people where their family lived and preferred that lifestyle. They produced great music, and instead, the world -- well known artists, singers and bands, came to them; readily and happily. Watch it.
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Thursday, 28 May 2015
Books I have loved - narrative part two
6 -- Frannie and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Yes, I read Catcher in the Rye and liked it; However, this "book", really 2 stories about the Glass family, sucked me in as a student learning about the world at large. This was unlike anything English that I had lived . At that time, all the friends I associated with were voracious readers and we shared what we liked. I was given this book by a friend and it has been everywhere with me ; I read it again every couple of years. It is multi-layered liked its author.
7 -- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart. Actually a Canadian authoress. A beautiful novel full of metaphors. Love lived, and lost. I bought it in central London as a student, by the time I had arrived home in north west London I had finished it; Could not stop reading as I rode the tube and bus and even as I walked ! Gave it to my great friend Dee that night. She loved it. Bought myself another copy the next day. It is still with me.
8 -- Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro : This is the only novel by this Canadian Nobel Laureate of Literature. (Her speciality is short stories.) It came out in paperback just as I fell for my first "born and raised in Toronto" girl! (Woman, of course, as we were both in our mid-20's.) Our frames of reference were clearly different and this book helped me understand hers.
9 -- Winter: A Berlin Family by Len Deighton. I loved all his spy novels and his eye for detail in cold-war Berlin. This novel takes in the whole sweep of C20th Germany through the lens of one family - the Winters. The book is a terrific primer for any person interested in how Germany came to be embroiled in WWII.
10 - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Cavino. A book for book lovers. Each chapter is a different story linked by the search for a special edition of a famous radical's book. The first line of each story, when read as a chapter heading, describes the novel's outline. Ingenious.
11 - Dune by Frank Herbert. A great novel, sweeping in scope, vivid characterisation that has lead to a whole series of Sci-fi novels, inter-linked by characters and planter descriptions. 40 + years since its publication but it is recognised now as fostering an environmental awareness.
I was lucky enough to meet Frank Herbert in Toronto the day Queen Elizabeth II was signing our constitution in Ottawa It was ironic that only a handful of us turned up for Herbert's book-signing. We had an engaging chat as he had time on his hands and no customers !
7 -- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart. Actually a Canadian authoress. A beautiful novel full of metaphors. Love lived, and lost. I bought it in central London as a student, by the time I had arrived home in north west London I had finished it; Could not stop reading as I rode the tube and bus and even as I walked ! Gave it to my great friend Dee that night. She loved it. Bought myself another copy the next day. It is still with me.
8 -- Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro : This is the only novel by this Canadian Nobel Laureate of Literature. (Her speciality is short stories.) It came out in paperback just as I fell for my first "born and raised in Toronto" girl! (Woman, of course, as we were both in our mid-20's.) Our frames of reference were clearly different and this book helped me understand hers.
9 -- Winter: A Berlin Family by Len Deighton. I loved all his spy novels and his eye for detail in cold-war Berlin. This novel takes in the whole sweep of C20th Germany through the lens of one family - the Winters. The book is a terrific primer for any person interested in how Germany came to be embroiled in WWII.
10 - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Cavino. A book for book lovers. Each chapter is a different story linked by the search for a special edition of a famous radical's book. The first line of each story, when read as a chapter heading, describes the novel's outline. Ingenious.
11 - Dune by Frank Herbert. A great novel, sweeping in scope, vivid characterisation that has lead to a whole series of Sci-fi novels, inter-linked by characters and planter descriptions. 40 + years since its publication but it is recognised now as fostering an environmental awareness.
I was lucky enough to meet Frank Herbert in Toronto the day Queen Elizabeth II was signing our constitution in Ottawa It was ironic that only a handful of us turned up for Herbert's book-signing. We had an engaging chat as he had time on his hands and no customers !
Monday, 18 May 2015
Books I Have Loved -- narrative part one.
I find listing just 10 books much too limiting. Even sticking to only fiction, I cannot find a decent cut-off...
So, instead, taking a leaf out of Tiberius T. Kirk's book, I will "re-program" the question: instead of naming 'a book', a couple of suggestions are going to be a novelist. For me, when a book/story moves me, I seek out the author's other works and invariably, they move me too.
So, onwards :--
1. Jules Verne 's 'Journey to the Centre of the World' is an amazing fantasy. The descriptions are so vivid I could imagine the subterranean world as if I was watching a film. I read it when I was 12; loved it; saw that he had written more , so I searched them out and read them all.
2. Sherlock Holmes: saw Hounds of the Baskerville on TV, again when I was about 12 or 13. I went to the library and saw Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fantastic output. I loved the short stories.
I recommend Silver Blaze, I think that is the title. It has the famous sleuth's comment: "the curious incident of the dog in the night." (Hint: It did not bark. ) This simple but ingenious solution to the crime has been copied numerous times. It came up in a crime show on TV recently; It is the basis of Michael Haddon's novel and now a play.
A Study in Scarlet is the first story that introduced the public to the famous sleuth. It is great and also been filmed dozens of times.
3. The Rubiyatt translated b Fitzgerald. My mum gave me a beautiful, illustrated version when I was 20. The language Fitzgerald used is amazing; it is transcendental.
A loaf, a book, a jug of wine and thou
and paradise is enow.
Also a book that is constantly quoted, but many are unaware of the source of their quote.
4. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. I had to read this for my 'O' Level in English Literature and could not believe that I actually enjoyed the book. Somehow I managed to write a decent essay on it to pass. Thank goodness I did not have questions on Silas Marner another set text; I hated that one and have never gone back to it, whereas, I have re-read Great Expectations as an adult and still love it.
5. Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth. This is a Sci-Fi novel from the 1950's where governments are irrelevant; Corporations rule the world and Advertising Agencies are the powerful manipulators of the population's desires and intentions. A prescient novel of our Global Economy of the C21st.
So, instead, taking a leaf out of Tiberius T. Kirk's book, I will "re-program" the question: instead of naming 'a book', a couple of suggestions are going to be a novelist. For me, when a book/story moves me, I seek out the author's other works and invariably, they move me too.
So, onwards :--
1. Jules Verne 's 'Journey to the Centre of the World' is an amazing fantasy. The descriptions are so vivid I could imagine the subterranean world as if I was watching a film. I read it when I was 12; loved it; saw that he had written more , so I searched them out and read them all.
2. Sherlock Holmes: saw Hounds of the Baskerville on TV, again when I was about 12 or 13. I went to the library and saw Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fantastic output. I loved the short stories.
I recommend Silver Blaze, I think that is the title. It has the famous sleuth's comment: "the curious incident of the dog in the night." (Hint: It did not bark. ) This simple but ingenious solution to the crime has been copied numerous times. It came up in a crime show on TV recently; It is the basis of Michael Haddon's novel and now a play.
A Study in Scarlet is the first story that introduced the public to the famous sleuth. It is great and also been filmed dozens of times.
3. The Rubiyatt translated b Fitzgerald. My mum gave me a beautiful, illustrated version when I was 20. The language Fitzgerald used is amazing; it is transcendental.
A loaf, a book, a jug of wine and thou
and paradise is enow.
Also a book that is constantly quoted, but many are unaware of the source of their quote.
4. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. I had to read this for my 'O' Level in English Literature and could not believe that I actually enjoyed the book. Somehow I managed to write a decent essay on it to pass. Thank goodness I did not have questions on Silas Marner another set text; I hated that one and have never gone back to it, whereas, I have re-read Great Expectations as an adult and still love it.
5. Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth. This is a Sci-Fi novel from the 1950's where governments are irrelevant; Corporations rule the world and Advertising Agencies are the powerful manipulators of the population's desires and intentions. A prescient novel of our Global Economy of the C21st.
Saturday, 9 May 2015
Books I have loved
1 -- Jules Verne all his books
2 -- Sherlock Holmes. Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
3 -- The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam. translated by Edward Fitzgerald
4 -- Great Expectations. Charles Dickens
5 -- The Space Merchants by Pohl & Kornbluth
6 -- Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
7 -- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down & Wept by Elizabeth Smart
8 -- Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
9 -- Winter: A Berlin Family by Len Deighton
10 - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Cavino
11 - Dune by Frank Herbert
just can not make a top 10 list.. this 10+
2 -- Sherlock Holmes. Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
3 -- The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam. translated by Edward Fitzgerald
4 -- Great Expectations. Charles Dickens
5 -- The Space Merchants by Pohl & Kornbluth
6 -- Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
7 -- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down & Wept by Elizabeth Smart
8 -- Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
9 -- Winter: A Berlin Family by Len Deighton
10 - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Cavino
11 - Dune by Frank Herbert
just can not make a top 10 list.. this 10+
Monday, 23 February 2015
My Halifax -- winter & fridays!
Here I am again on a sunny Friday indulging in a Boomburger meal.
The great burgers (with hot sauce) and PEI potato fries make the effort worthwhile.
Monday, 26 January 2015
This is Propaganda by Tino Sehgal
THIS IS PROPAGANDA
British-born, Berlin-based artist Tino Sehgal turns art storage on its head. Why? As performative work – executed not by Sehgal himself but by his trained ‘interpreters’ – it is completely immaterial. Unlike other artists in this field, Sehgal also stipulates that no record whatsoever remains of the work – no photos, no recordings, no press releases; only the experience. That rule even extends to institutional sales agreements of his piece – a sale like that of This is Propaganda, which Tate bought in 2005, is verbally executed. The artist, the buyer, a lawyer and a notary are present; all rules and regulations around the piece are committed to a designated person’s memory. So This is Propaganda (which sees a gallery guard singing “This is propaganda, you know, you know, this is propaganda, Tino Sehgal, This is propaganda, 2002” to every visitor who enters the space) exists only in the mind. Imagine that.
Fascinating- modern art, concept art, is art about the creative process or is "art" the outcome?
I don't know, but I do know artists themselves are interesting.
(Courtesy BBC website.)
British-born, Berlin-based artist Tino Sehgal turns art storage on its head. Why? As performative work – executed not by Sehgal himself but by his trained ‘interpreters’ – it is completely immaterial. Unlike other artists in this field, Sehgal also stipulates that no record whatsoever remains of the work – no photos, no recordings, no press releases; only the experience. That rule even extends to institutional sales agreements of his piece – a sale like that of This is Propaganda, which Tate bought in 2005, is verbally executed. The artist, the buyer, a lawyer and a notary are present; all rules and regulations around the piece are committed to a designated person’s memory. So This is Propaganda (which sees a gallery guard singing “This is propaganda, you know, you know, this is propaganda, Tino Sehgal, This is propaganda, 2002” to every visitor who enters the space) exists only in the mind. Imagine that.
Fascinating- modern art, concept art, is art about the creative process or is "art" the outcome?
I don't know, but I do know artists themselves are interesting.
(Courtesy BBC website.)
Sunday, 18 January 2015
Afterwards by Thomas Hardy
When the Present has latched its postern behind my tremulous stay,
And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,
Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say,
'He was a man who used to notice such things'?
If it be in the dusk when, like an eyelid's soundless blink,
The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight
Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think,
'To him this must have been a familiar sight.'
If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm,
When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn,
One may say, 'He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm,
But he could do little for them; and now he is gone.'
If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they stand at the door,
Watching the full-starred heavens that winter sees
Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more,
'He was one who had an eye for such mysteries'?
And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell's boom,
'He hears it not now, but used to notice such things'?
Read this as a schoolboy in England. Had a wonderful youth traversing Hardy's "Wessex".
As a kid in school, the poet's desire to be remembered struck me as an idea I could grasp. Alot of poetry , back then, was a foreign land for which I did not have a passport.
And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,
Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say,
'He was a man who used to notice such things'?
If it be in the dusk when, like an eyelid's soundless blink,
The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight
Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think,
'To him this must have been a familiar sight.'
If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm,
When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn,
One may say, 'He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm,
But he could do little for them; and now he is gone.'
If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they stand at the door,
Watching the full-starred heavens that winter sees
Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more,
'He was one who had an eye for such mysteries'?
And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell's boom,
'He hears it not now, but used to notice such things'?
Read this as a schoolboy in England. Had a wonderful youth traversing Hardy's "Wessex".
As a kid in school, the poet's desire to be remembered struck me as an idea I could grasp. Alot of poetry , back then, was a foreign land for which I did not have a passport.
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