it's zmedsday!! (xviii)

it's tunesday! "venus" by nervus rex

Nervus Rex was an underrated New York new wave band that should have more success than they did. I originally heard this album after buying a used copy on vinyl at St. Marks Sounds. For twenty-five cents. That was great purchase.

Now, one of the thing that I love is when two things that seem unrelated turn out to be related afterall. Another band I got interested in during college was a folk rock trio called The Washington Squares. I always thought of them as an updated and modernized version of Peter Paul and Mary. I bet they'd have bristled at hearing that, but whatever. Anyway, one day I was going through records and noticed that the purple-clad guitarist on the cover of the album looked a lot like the female third of the Washington Squares. And, yup, same person-- Lauren Agnelli. She's had quite a varied career, and should be better known than she is.

cinema history class: the legend of hell house

Session: Get Your Haunted House On, Week 2
Movie: The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Directed by John Hough

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A physicist, his wife and two mediums enter the notoriously haunted Belasco House in hopes of understanding and ending the haunting. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
The Legend of Hell House is very similar, conceptually, to The Haunting, which we saw a week earlier, so it's only natural to compare the two. And, while Legend is a very good movie, it suffers by comparison.

This movie lacked the subtlety of last week's. A good example is the scene where the ghost has his temper tantrum (which, by the way, appears in the trailer) is exciting and drives the story along. But it doesn't get under your skin the way the implicit menace of the earlier movie does. I also found that I kind of appreciated the whole house-as-spirit thing more than the more-mundane house-haunted-by-a-person's spirit, which was at the heart of Legend.

One peculiar thing about this movie is that there are these title cards fixing the date and time of events. They start on December 20, and work their way up to December 24. SO the whole time I was thinking (and Joe was as well) that this would somehow reach its climax on Christmas. I distinctly recall thinking "Ooh! Christmas movie!" when that first title card appeared. And as Christmas edged closer, my anticipation grew. But nothing ever happened with it, which was distinctly odd. Now, it's possible that it could have been any period. The story could have started on October 20 and ended on October 24, and I wouldn't be giving it another thought. But the choice of December 20-24 seems too deliberate. It's possible that it was just a tease -- but I don't think so. Keith suggested that it may be something that was in the book (Hill House by Richard Matheson) that never quite made it into the movie. If so, that's just sloppy work. Having said all that, I have to admit that it didn;t bother me all that much. I think it annoyed Joe more than me. But that's his issue.

Overall, a very good movie. And I might have rated it higher if we weren't fresh off of seeing a similar-but-better film.

Oh, and not that it's crucial, but I realized that I'm the only one in the class who doesn't have an "E" in his name. Makes me wish Scott were still in the class.

Ratings:

Me: 8

Dave: 9.8

Ethan: 10

Joe: 9.8
Sean: 3 out of 4

it's zmedsday!! (xvii)

it's tunesday! "rumble seat" by bobtown

Bobtown is among my favorite New-York area bands. They play a unique blend of rock, country and folk, emphasizing harmony and percussion. I pulled the following description from their website:

Drawing on field hollers, gospel music, folk songs, pop melodies and bluegrass harmonies, Bobtown reinvents American choral music for the 21st century to create a unique and compelling blend of voices and instruments that move gracefully between elegy and celebration.

I've seen Bobtown perform a few times -- not nearly enough, mind you, since life gets in the way of my seeing live music -- and enjoyed myself immensely.

I wrote about them several times in my now-defunct music blog. You can see those posts here.

I also note that, when they were crowdfunding their third album (the fourth one is coming out soon), I supported their Kickstarter. The main reward for that was that they recorded a demo of one of my songs ("Five Missing One"). There's a lyric video up on Youtube, but I don't want to include it here because this post is about the video above. Also as a reward, I got access to a bunch of early demos of songs on that album. I loved that because it gave me light peek at the creative process. Sadly, I lost my access to those demos when an old computer (with emails up to that point) died. I was hoping to make a CD of those demos for my own listening pleasure. I was going to call it "A History of A History of Ghosts," but I never got that done. Such is life.

At any rate, "Rumble Seat" is one of those songs that I like to just turn up and listen to with my eyes closed, thinking about nothing but the song.

In case you're interested, their website is here.

reviewing a premise: yesterday

First, a disclaimer: I have not seen the movie, Yesterday, which is scheduled for release later this year. So, of course, this is not a review. I just wanted to get that out of the way, before saying anything. So no one accuses me of reviewing a movie without seeing it.

So what is this? I guess this is a review of the premise.

I first heard of this movie when a Facebook friend shared the trailer and tagged me -- presumably because he knows I'm into music and movies.*

The premise? Some guy named Jack** finds himself in some kind of reality in which the Beatles never happened. But he knows their songs. Since people assume he wrote them, he manages to ride the brilliance of these masterful songs ("Yesterday," "Hey Jude," "Let It Be").

It's a clever idea, and the movie could be good. I will probably go see it when it comes out -- unless I hear really bad things. But I'm a bit put off by the implicit message that brilliant songs are enough to make a band famous.

The Beatles didn't become successful on the basis of their songwriting. It was a combination of hard work, chemistry and luck. The simple fact is that some uncharismatic schlub isn't going to become a big star simply because he  plays his songs -- no matter how good they are -- for his girlfriend and her friends. And, by the way, if you look at the early Beatles albums, you'll find a distinct lack of those enduring songs. "Please Please Me," "Love Me Do," "I Saw Her Standing There." They were really good pop songs -- I dare say that that third one I named was great. But at their core they are really just simple rock and roll songs. It was actually the band's success that allowed them to take chances with the more ambitious songs that lead to Jack's success in the movie.

Oh, yeah, also...Pete Best.

*I mean, who isn't?

**Well, that's a clever touch.

hq damn near gives me a heart attack

Fuck HQ.

Fuck HQ to hell.

Oh, and may I say, Fuck HQ.

Before I go on, I should explain (for the uninitiated) that HQ is an app for cellphones. There are daily trivia contests. It's free to play, and you can win actual money. I myself have won a total of $2.82 playing it. I wrote a little bit about it here.

Friday afternoon. I'm at work. I look at my cellphone and see that there's a message from HQ. So I open the app. The first thing I notice is that my avatar has been replaced. It used to be a cat -- Ethan's cat, Red, to be specific. Now there's a picture of some blonde woman. She's attractive, I'll admit, but what the hell is she doing on my phone, as my avatar?

The panic sets in. My heart races. I can't sit still. I'm sure that my phone has been hacked, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.

So, of course, I check with a friend. I work with Elliot, and know that he plays HQ. I ask him if his avatar was replaced? I explain that I want to know if it's my phone, or (hopefully) some systemic glitch with the HQ app.

Elliot explained that everyone's picture was replaced with one of the stars of Sex and the City, since that was the theme of the contest Thursday night. With that information, I kind of recognize that the new avatar looks like Kim Cattrall.

OK...heart attack averted. But, dang...what ever made them think it was a good idea to make it look like all their users' phones had been hacked?

cinema history class: the haunting

Session: Get Your Haunted House On, Week 1
Movie: The Haunting (1963)
Directed by Robert Wise

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A small group of paranormal investigators are trying learn the secret of thea notorious haunted mansion. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
I have this perception that haunted house stories usually involve spirits that have taken up residence in a house. In The Haunting, it seems that the house itself has a consciousness. I don't know if my perception is wrong, but it did strike me as interesting. Another movie that I recall as featuring a living house is the 2006 animated children's feature, Monster House.* Now, this might not be worth mentioning, except that a lot of the way the house was portrayed reminded me of that animated film. I have to wonder if the creative team behind Monster House was familiar with The Haunting.

This movie also reminded me of Carnival of Souls (1962) because of the use of odd camera angles that put the viewer on edge. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn;t note the way this played like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone. At the very end, I almost expected Rod Serling to step out and say something along the lines of "For Eleanor Lance, the nightmare is over. She is now living her dreams in a house in the twilight zone."

Putting aside the comparisons to other movies, this thing stands very well on its own terms. Dave from class put it well when he noted that the movie felt claustrophobic yet expansive at the same time**. That has to do with the fact that most of the film takes place within "Hill House" -- which is really the true star of the movie. The hallways give the feel of being trapped, but the large rooms -- especially the library -- serve to give the feeling of space. Adding to the disconcerting effect is the use of what Sean called (though he credited the term to HP Lovecraft) "alien geometries." The angles don't seem quite right. And the distorted perspectives throw the audience off.

Notably, the movie doesn't really offer much explanation for why the house is alive and (arguably) evil. The closest is that the house is said to have been "born bad." But in a sense that explanation is really all that's needed. I suspect that, if they had tried too hard to provide a real explanation, it would probably have proven to be distracting and annoying.

Ratings:

Me: 9

Dave: 10

Ethan: 9

Joe: 10
Sean: 3 out of 4

*Admittedly, Monster House can be viewed as a hybrid of these types. If I recall correctly, the house is alive, but it's alive because it somehow absorbed the spirit of the wife of the man who lives in it. It's been a while, but I think it has something to do with her tragically falling into the cement foundation as it was drying, and becoming part of the house. How very Poe.

**Those weren't his exact words, but close enough.

in which my name races my sister's name to the presidency

With the national prominence of Senator Amy Klobuchar, and her entrance as an A-list candidate in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, I have come to the realization that we are now more likely than not to have a president named Amy (i.e., one who shares my sister's first name) before we have a president named Marc (i.e., one who shares my first name).

For whatever that matters.

If you had asked me when I was a kid, which we'd have first -- a president named Marc or a president named Amy -- I probably would have said Marc. While we knew that women could be president, it never seemed like an imminent possibility. Things are different now. Hillary Clinton almost won in 2016, and there are several women with credible chances of getting the Democratic party nomination next year -- Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand come to mind (aside from Klobuchar), and they're not the only ones. But more to the point, there is actually a serious candidate named Amy running for the nomination. I can't think of any contender named Marc. I guess there's Mark Zuckerberg, but he's not a serious candidate -- and his name is not the same as mine (even though it's pronounced the same*)

If Klobuchar wins the nomination and then wins the general, then that's it. The name Amy beats the name Marc to the presidency. Game over.

If Klobuchar doesn't get the nomination, then she remains a credible candidate for  2024 or 2028 (depending on how 2020 goes), and "Amy" has to remain favored to get to the presidency before "Marc."

But if Klobuchar gets the 2020 nomination and loses? Then she is no longer a credible candidate for the future. So in that event, which name is more likely to get to the white house first?

Short answer: I have no friggin' clue. To figure that out, I'd probably need the following:

• How many boys and girls were born each of those years
• Number of boys named Marc and girls named Amy born each of those years
• Relevant sex-distinct mortality tables
• Some model of the relative likelihood of a male or female being elected
• A probability distribution of age at election
• Some way of projecting these statistics in the future

And that's just to start. To refine the estimate, you'd probably want to have those numbers refined by certain demographic groups -- and estimate prospective likelihoods of members of those demographic groups getting elected. Yeah, I think I'll pass on that project.

*That has long been one of my big bugaboos.

it's zmedsday!! (xvi)

it's tunesday! "andrew in drag" by the magnetic fields

I'm not a big fan of The Magnetic Fields. Blair likes them a lot more than I do. She has some stories from decades ago when she would go their shows and sit on the side of the stage. Between songs, lead singer, Stephin Merritt, would make fun of her clothing.

But six and a half (or so) years ago I was introduced to this video. Merritt was hosting a screening of a hard-to-find Japanese film from 1968 called The Black Lizard. Ethan and I went to see it -- I wrote about that experience in my now-defunct music blog. After the movie, they screened the video for "Andrew in Drag." And I liked it. I still do, even though I haven't actually bought the album.

cinema history class: scalps

Session: Spaghetti Nightmares, Week 4
Movie: Scalps (1987)
Directed by Claudio Fragasso

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A group of renegade Confederate soldiers wants to capture a Native American woman for their colonel One particular Native American woman. Suffice to say she doesn't want to be captured. . Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
Scalps struck me as very American as far as Spaghetti Westerns go. As with The Four of the Apocalypse (which we saw a week ago), there were actual good guys. I also noticed that there was very little emphasis on gunplay. Most of the Spghetti Westerns I've seen seem to emphasize guns. For example, To cite one example, In The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, the three main protagonists are all expert gunslingers and the story comes down to a final three-way shootout (which, I suppose, is of interest to game theorists). Here, there are guns, but it's not the same. On another note, this movie involved Native Americans. Of course, it's not the only one to do so (Navajo Joe comes to mind), but that's a topic that the Italian directors seemed not to have explored much. Now, having said that, I should acknowledge that 1987 was pretty late in the Spaghetti Western timeline. Also, as Keith pointed out, it was written by an American. So that may have something to do with it. At any rate, it seemed to play like a Louis L'amour novel.

Keith (and I think the others) kept making the obvious comparisons to the second Rambo movie, though to me it seemed more like 1984's Red Dawn. Either way, it was exciting. And the use of bows and arrows (combined with dynamite) was terrific.

So we were watching this movie, and there was good energy in the room. We were really getting into this. But it really upped the ante in the last fifteen minutes, and you could tell from how we were reacting. But the denouement was killer.

I think the quote of the night was Keith's: "It's relentlessly bloody and ugly and bloody and relentless."

Ratings:

Me: 10

Dave: 9.8

Ethan: 8

Joe: 10
Sean: 2 out of 4

Joe suggested that we start a new class ritual. At the conclusion of each session, we each indicate which was our favorite move of the session. So here are our picks for the best movies from the "Spaghetti Nightmares" session:
Me: Scalps
Dave: Scalps
Ethan: Three way tie between Cut-Throats Nine, Four of the Apocalypse and Scalps
Joe: Scalps
Sean: Four of the Apocalypse

i shoulda backed up

Let's be clear. Losing your data sucks.

My hard drive died this week. No, I hadn't been backing things up.

I literally cannot recall everything that I had that's now lost and has to be recreated as best as possible. But here's a partial list (not in any particular order):

• Medical records from the last several years
• Brokerage account records
• A list of accounts with various vendors, services and institutions, complete with passwords (encoded so that only I can interpret them)
• A list of movies that Ethan and I have seen in our weekly film class
• A draft of a newsletter for LIDS
• The membership list for the Jamaica Estates Association
• All the music I spent endless hours ripping from my CD collection.

A lot of the info (not the music files, mind you) are on paper. But, damn, who wants to go through all that paper?

I won't bore with the blow by blow of "well, I was working and then the blue screen came up, so..." Suffice to say it wasn't fun. Yeah... backups from now on.

it's zmedsday!! (xv)

it's tunesday! "(a funny thing happened on the way to the) toystore" by pianosaurus

advice sought -- what guitar to buy?

Now that I've been going to open mic nights (see here), I have renewed interest in getting another guitar. Right now I have two guitars:

A dreadnaught style Yamaha that I got 35-or-so years ago. It's got a good sound.

A 3/4 (I think) size Taylor. A GS-mini. We bought it for Sharon when she was taking lessons. She lost interest so I kept the guitar. It's got a really bright sound.

These are both acoustic, and I've been wanting an electric -- probably a Fender Strat or Tele (or something based on one of those designs. I love the glassy sound of a Strat. I've actually wanted an electric guitar for a long time, but just never really wanted to pay the price for one. Now with my doing open mics -- and fantasizing about memorializing some of my songs on CD -- the time may have come.

But now the question. What to buy? How to go about looking? Yeah, that's two questions. Sue me.

Amazon has some low-cost Strat-style guitars. And I found (quite by accident, believe it or not), a video review of "the cheapest electric guitar on Amazon." Spoiler: Apparently it's a decent guitar, though not great. A reasonably good buy for the price. And I found some low-end guitars on Amazon that seem to get good reviews.

On the other hand, there's a Sam Ash near me. Maybe I should go there (or to a Guitar Center) and look at used guitars. That way I can sit down and feel an instrument before spending my money. But I'd end up spending more. Yes, I know you get what you pay for -- but that's not always true. I also am not really experienced enough to know for sure what to look for.

So I ask my reader: What are your thoughts? Amazon cheapo, or used from a store? Any other related thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

uncovering chicanery -- brady style

With the continuing hoo-hah over the blown call in the NFC championship game -- the one that likely cost the Saints the game -- I recall a certain sequence in The Brady Bunch.

I remember seeing this as a kid, and thinking it was crazy -- no proof that the photo wasn't staged after the fact.

The fact is, the NFL today is just a cheap imitation of The Brady Bunch.

But at least there was no lawsuit.

mute wilma

There's something odd about the closing credits from the first season of The Flintstones.

As Fred walks by Wilma, who's asleep in bed, you can see that she has no mouth.

Joe from my cinema history class gave some background. When they were animating the Flintstones, mouths were done as separate cells from the rest of the person. That made it cheaper to animate people standing still and talking -- they could keep the same image for the body and just change the mouth. For whatever reason, in the sleeping sequence they neglected to add Wilma's mouth.

cinema history class: the four of the apocalypse

Session: Spaghetti Nightmares, Week 3
Movie: The Four of the Apocalypse (1975)
Directed by Lucio Fulci

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Four outcasts are traveling together, just trying to survive, when they run into a hired gun. At first, all looks good, but then they take a turn for the worse. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
My line about Spaghetti Westerns has been:

The difference between American Westerns and Spaghetti Westerns is that American Westerns have good guys and bad guys while Spaghetti Westerns have bad guys and worse guys.

After Four of the Apocalypse I kind of have to revisit that observation, because the four protagonists here really are good guys. They may be flawed, but they all have good hearts -- they're not dark troubled heroes like Blondie (Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), Django (Nero in Django) or Harmonica (Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West. Their problem is that they ran into the psychotically sadistic Chaco who's bad enough to make up for all of them.

At times, this was a very slow-moving film, as a lot of the trail sequences seemed to go on for too long. But, as it progresses it does seem to pick up steam. I think part of that has to do with the fact that the characters get fleshed out and become interesting.

Lucio Fulci, for his part, can't seem to make a movie that isn't a horror film. Despite this being a Spaghetti Western, we have the crazy guy seeing dead people, we have the cannibalism and we have the torture (including a graphic skinning scene.

The biggest flaw in this movie is the soundtrack. I've come to expect certain things in Spaghetti Western soundtracks, and early 1970's pop rock ain't it. I kept thinking they were playing albums by America of Cat Stevens. The music itself wasn't bad, but it didn't fit the film.

I was also kind of annoyed by an unimportant inconsistency. The opening narration sets the movie in 1873, but later on when Bud is looking through a graveyard, he puts dates of death as much later -- in the 1880s and 1890s. It may not be important, but it annoyed the hell out of me.

On the other hand, the cinematography was superb. There were some really well-done visuals. My favorite was near the opening -- an aerial shot of the four making their way through a more-or-less dry river bed.

At first I gave this an 8.5 which, in the context of this class, is not a great rating. But I spent enough time thinking about this movie that I think I need to upgrade it to a 9.

Ratings:

Me: 9 (in class, I gave it an 8.5, but have since rethought that).

Dave: 9.2

Ethan: 9

Joe: 9.5