cinema history class: snuff

Session: Gory, Gory, Hallelujah! Week 4
Movie: Snuff (1976)
Directed by Michael Findlay, Horacio Fredriksson, and Simon Nuchtern

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

Plot:
In South America, a Manson-like cult figure has several women in his thrall, and leads them to commit murders. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

A little background is in order. What became Snuff started out as a low-budget exploitation film called Slaughter. That film was directed by Michael and Roberta Findlay. There are conflicting accounts as to whether it was ever released theatrically. At any rate, after it sat on the shelf for several years. Producer Allan Shackleton added a cinema verite-style ending in which an actress is supposedly disemboweled. The added scene really has nothing to do with the rest of the film. The result, Snuff, was advertised in a way that implied that the movie was, in fact a snuff film, and apparently there were some people who believed it. I'm not quite sure how anyone can see the hokey effects and believe it was real. But I suppose if you see the movie once onscreen and you can't rewatch it then maybe you can be convinced. In case you're interested, here's the added scene:

Putting aside the added ending, Snuff has all the incomprehensibility of El Topo, but without the artistic imagery. I hated El Topo (that film is still a point of contention within the class) because it wasn't really understandable. But at least it had some beautiful shots. Snuff's plot, such as it was, was also hard to understand, and -- visually -- it was just ugly.

About that plot -- it's clear that the film was intended to have a plot. The early murders and the dialogue are clearly targeting a story. But they can't really focus in on it. In service of this nonplot, the movie throws in whole lot of stuff. At one point, one of the characters starts spouting off about arms sales to Arab countries, the Arab/Israeli conflict and Adolf Eichmann. That particular scene featured a loud impassioned argument. Though the characters were really into the issues they were arguing, it was a bunch of gobbledygook.

Those of us in the class rated this movie very poorly because it was such a load of crap. Keith, on the other-hand, gave it more credit because it marked the end of a style of movie-making.

As an aside, the story of the Findlays is quite an interesting one. In case it's of interest, here's an item about them from Cinefear's blog.

Ratings

Me: 2

Bob: 1.1

Christina: 4.5

a part of my youth was wrong

We all have our memories from high school. I have vivid memories of the Zion Deli, which was on First Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets in Manhattan -- just around the corner from my High School, which was on 15th Street between First and Second Avenues.

I would, when I was occasionally feeling flush, go there for lunch. And I have told many people about that deli. Blair, for one, has heard me sing the praises of its sandwiches. Probably more times than she cares to recall. Of course, the deli closed in the mid-1980s -- not many years after I graduated from high school. And the high school moved to Battery Park City in the 1990s. So, well, that's that.

Anyway, I went looking on the interwebs today to see if I could find out anything about it. I couldn't find much except for this post in Ephemeral New York, a blog devoted to old-time New York. And what I learned shocked me. The place wasn't The Zion Delicatessen, as I had thought. It was Schwatrtzberg's Delicatessen. All those years, all those stories and conversations, and I never knew the correct name of the place.

My memories are a fraud.

happy tunesday! "write a song (about me)" female vocal version

For Roadtrip 2012 we drove across the country to visit some friends who lived in San Francisco. The kids were getting restless somewhere in Nebraska, so we stopped for games at a GameStop. 

The place was staffed by college kids. As we were waiting on line, one of the boys was talking about his English class. "I have to write an essay, but I have no idea what to write about."

The girl sitting next to him offered a suggestion: "Write about me! I love it when people write about me!" And that gave me an idea. By the time we got to Frisco, I had a song mostly written. I note -- and I will get back to this below -- that as I was writing it I was hearing a female voice singing it. With one pronoun change it works for a male vocalist, though even then I think of it as a song exhibiting female sensibilities.

This is the third song that Toby Wilson, studio musician for hire, has recorded for me. And I think he did better with this than he had with either of the others. Because I wrote the song with a female voice in mind, I asked him to use a female vocalist, so he hired (subcontracted?) Bryony from London. This is the finished track.

Now, if you love this -- and, honestly, why wouldn't you -- tune in again next week and the week after when I plan to present alternative versions.

As part of his production process, Toby initially recorded the song with his vocal -- sort of as a guide for Bryony. As long as he had that, he was willing to include a mix with his vocal instead of hers. But I also had a follow-up thought. Since the two tracks would be exactly the same, except for the vocal track, it should be relatively easy to create a duet. I asked Toby how much extra he would charge to create the duet, and he offered to throw it in for free.

Many thanks to my friend, Christina Crocker, who had the initial idea to turn the song into a duet -- and who came up with the idea for which lines would have the male vocal, which would have the female vocal and which would have both. I'll have more to say about that in two weeks.

happy 20k, mlb

 Major League Baseball reached a milestone yesterday. It's 20,000th player.

Baseballreference.com is generally my go to site for baseball statistics. They keep their statistics up to date, so it's very useful for tracking things like Albert Pujols' home run progress. Near the top of its homepage is a little bar that indicates how many players there have been in baseball history. Each day it's updated to add in whatever players played their first games the day before.

Last year I noticed that it was closing in on 20,000, so I've been watching -- and waiting -- for the counter to hit 20,000. Which it did today. Which means that the 20,000th player played yesterday. No, I have no idea who it was. No, I have no intention of trying to figure it out.

I mentioned this to a member of the Twitterati who's into baseball. He said that it seemed like a low number. Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't even know how to think about whether it seems low or high.

That said, I do think that the true number is probably higher. It's a known fact that the early days of baseball weren't well-documented. The early records that we have were compiled based on the work of devoted researchers who delved into old newspaper accounts (and whatever else is or was available). I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there were players -- maybe some who played in only one game) who have escaped the official records. Of course, having asserted that there are likely some such players, I have to acknowledge that I have little idea how many there were.

cinema history class: blood freak

Session: Gory, Gory, Hallelujah! Week 3
Movie: Blood Freak (1972)
Directed by Brad F. Grinter

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

Plot:
After eating a drugged turkey. Herschell grows a turkey head. In this state, he craves the blood of drug addicts.  Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

If I want to find reason to praise BF, I can note that it's a one-of-a-kind travesty of a movie. This is an anti-drug, anti-sex, pro-religion exploitation flick. And there are relatively few of those.

But there are so many things to not like.

The acting is terrible -- lots of monotone deliveries that betray little if any emotion. And that's made worse by the editing. Scenes of conversations are made painful by the way they are cut. Since I am not a filmmaker or director, I can't explain exactly how any of the scenes should have been shot differently. But I know they should have. Another thing I can't exactly put my finger on is the fact that lots of scenes had a sort of bad 1970's porn vibe. During the living room scenes where lots of people are sitting around doing drugs, I half expected Juliet Anderson to come out and start directing an orgy. But the movies she was in were better-produced.

The sound was also...odd. During the most violent sequences, the screams seemed to be on a loop, so there was scream -- silence -- scream -- silence -- etc. You can even hear that by listening to trailer (above).

Brad Grinter, the director, kept popping up as a sort of narrator. He came off as a third rate Rod Serling. His commentary was largely a bunch of ramble, though his disdain for drugs is obvious.

But the worst sin was the ending. I was ready to give the movie an almost half-decent grade strictly by virtue of the fact that it made me laugh. But in the end, it fell back on the dream sequence twist, which is truly unforgivable.

One last thought: Herschell, as TurkeyHead, kind of reminds me of a demented San Diego Chicken.

Ratings

Me: 2

Bob: 3.1

Christina: 6.5

a perfect 49

 Saturday night I was able to cross an item off my lifetime to-do list.

A little background is in order. In Judaism, the second night of Passover begins a seven week period called the omer. It is a religious custom to count the days of omer. On the first night (which is the second night of Passover, one first says a blessing, and then states that it's the first day* of the omer. Translated to English), it is roughly:

Blessed art thou, Lord, or God, king of the universe, who sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us to count the omer. Today is the first day of the omer.

This nightly ritual continues. So, for example, on the 23rd night, one says:

Blessed art thou, Lord, or God, king of the universe, who sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us to count the omer. Today is the 23rd day, which is three weeks and two days of the omer.

If you forget to count in the evening, you can still count (without a blessing) the next day. That done, you continue to count each evening with a blessing. But if you forget to count in the evening, and don;t make it up during the subsequent day, then you no longer use a blessing when counting (in that year).

After the 49th day of the omer comes the holiday of Shavu'ot, also known as the Festival of Weeks. Shavu'ot commemorates God giving the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai.

It has been a longtime goal of mine to, one year, count the omer all 49 nights, so that on the 49th I am still counting with a blessing. And, year after year, I have fallen well short. Many years I didn't even remember on the first night -- which is particularly embarrasing since the counting of the first night is incorporated into the second Passover seder.

But this year I was determined. And this Saturday night, the 49th night of the omer, I finally did it.

One can argue that it couldn't have meant that much to me if I never managed it before, and if many years I blow it on the first night. I choose to ignore such arguments because I have no good response. But every year for decades I have had a "Dagnabbit!" moment when I realize I've blown it for another year.

So what made this year different? Techmology! I realized that, since I have a smartphone with me all the time, I could use it to help me. So for seven weeks I had a nightly alarm to remind me to count. Of course even with that I could have missed. There were a couple times that the alarm went off that I couldn't stop to count. My backup notification was a WhatsApp conversation with some friends from work. There are four of us in the conversation, and the other three are all practicing Orthodox. They were only too happy to add nightly (or near-nightly) reminders. They even made it a game, substituting baseball players whose uniform numbers matched the day. "Don't forget, tonight will be Tom Seaver of the Omer!" Between the alarms, and the moral support, I managed to get through the process. I suppose there's a life lesson. Wanting to do something isn't as important as taking concrete steps to do it.

There is, of course, an epilogue. In this seven weeks of counting, I was thinking of the whole thing as kind of an exercise in OCD. The daily counting has a certain something to it that appeals to my more obsessive nature.** I didn't even think of there being a spiritual, self-reflective element to the process until a Facebook friend (who isn't Jewish) noted it.*** Even then I put thoughts of that aside until tonight. In writing this post I decided to look for a Youtube video that would explain the whole thing.

So, while I went through the motions, I completely missed the (arguably more) important element of self-reflection. I suppose there's always next year...

__________________________
*According to the Hebrew calendar, a day starts at sundown. So when the second night of Passover is on a Sunday night (as it was this year), the first day of the omer runs from Sunday evening until Monday evening.

**Remember -- I used to sort pennies by year and mintmark before rolling them.

***Which reminds me of the time my Irish Catholic boss (unintentionally) shamed me into taking off work for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

cinema history class: the gore gore girls

Session: Gory, Gory, Hallelujah! Week 2
Movie: The Gore Gore Girls (1972)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis

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

Plot:
Strippers are being murdered in particularly brutal fashion. Journalist, Nancy Weston, pays private investigator, Abraham Gentry, to investigate so that she can get an exclusive scoop. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

At its heart, GGG is really a crime thriller. There's a string of murders and a renowned private investigator is brought in. He's got an infuriating level of self-confidence, but he can get away with it because he can back it up with results. There's a romantic angle. And there are enough red herrings to keep the viewer guessing.

And there's gore. And more gore. And more more gore. The murder victims are horrifically mangled and mutilated, and the camera watches with voyeuristic glee. I've seen lots of onscreen violence, but this is, I think, the bloodiest, goriest movie I have ever seen.

One can debate whether the gore was too much -- even considering that Keith framed this movie as something of an American version of a giallo. I could have used a little less violence, but in the movie's defense, it was produced for a market that wanted an excess of blood and violence. And, on that score, it didn't disappoint.

But there were ways the movie did disappoint. The sound and picture quality were questionable at best, and the acting wasn't great. Even Henny Youngman's appearances couldn't save it. I did have a great time enjoying this, but I simply couldn't give it high marks.

Ratings

Me: 5

Bob: 5

Christina: 7

roger adam cohen, rip

My brother-in-law, Roger, had been suffering from a chronic health condition for nearly two decades. During that time it was largely manageable. It turned acute last month, and he was hospitalized. Though he was released, he was not out of the woods. So, while it was shocking, it wasn't altogether surprising that he passed away on Sunday night.

As we plan the funeral -- which will most likely be this Sunday* -- we are experiencing a wide range of emotions. These include pain pain, disbelief and shock. I feel bad for the kids, who are trying to process the raw emotions. We are getting used to it, but it's hard to assuage their grief.

My best time with Roger was during the Superstorm Sandy emergency of 2012. Hal (Roger's father) and Roger's home in Westchester was uninhabitable, so they relocated to our house. Roger and I fell into enjoying a nightly walk to one of the local Chinese takeaways. Very few people could ever make me laugh the way Roger did on those outings, and I will remember them for the rest of my life.

But it was hard to get to know Roger, as he was a very private person. But I do know that he was intensely loyal to those he loved. This is evidenced by the devotion he showed  Hal, during the latter's last years. Roger largely gave up his life in order to make sure Hal could live out his final years in his house. Roger was Hal's full-service staff, making sure his needs were met.

But I choose to remember Roger at the indoor playspace in Rohnert Park, when he was hanging out with my family, being a brother, a brother-in-law, and the best damn uncle he could be.

Rest in peace, brother.

________________________________

*I realize this is not in keeping with Jewish law, but Blair and I are not very religious, and neither was Roger. There are other considerations for us -- notably allowing Roger's beloved partner, Tim, to get to New York and be here for the burial.

what makes a neighborhood

It's a nice Sunday afternoon. We're at home Sundaying when the doorbell rings.

At the door are Elsa and Marcos, two people whom we we don't know. They were walking by our house and saw the daylily markers and wondered what they symbolized.

Blair dropped what she was doing, and explained the labels, the cultivars., etc. She told them to come back later in the season and she'll  give them some. It all wasn't a big deal, And yet Marcos explained that they were hesitant to ring the doorbell. What if we came out screaming at them to leave us alone?

I grew up promising determined to never be a "get-off-my-lawn" type of guy. And that's an influence on the fact that we have a park-bench style seat and a bench swing on the front yard. I enjoy it when I look out the window and see neighborhood people hanging out in the front yard.

So, Elsa and Marcos, the worst I'd do is tell you that I don't have time to talk. But feel free to look. Bloom season starts late next month.

cinema history class: bloodthirsty butchers

Session: Gory, Gory, Hallelujah! Week 1
Movie: Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970)
Directed by Andy Milligan

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

Plot:
In this retelling of Sweeney Todd, the evil barber murders and dismembers his customers. He then provides the meat to a local pie shop. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

It was very difficult to watch this movie -- for several reasons related to budgetary constraints. According to IMDB, this film had a budget of about $18,000. Based on what Keith told us about Andy Milligan (more on that later), he probably pocketed about $9,000 and spent the other $9,000 on the film.

The picture quality was very poor -- if I recall correctly, it was shot on 8mm film. There were places where the camera angles looked odd to me. People were positioned at 90-degree angles to each other and therefore speaking into each other's profiles. People were speaking while halfway offscreen. Keith told me that that was actually a respected avant-garde style. No matter. To my eyes it was sloppy, and it made it harder to watch. Further, the characters were, almost all, ugly. Hauntingly ugly. At times it felt as if I was watching some kind of inbred-centered story.

The sound quality was simply awful. There seemed to be a constant low-level rumble, which made it hard to make out the dialogue (of course, the heavy English accents didn't help). And that can be a big problem for a movie as dialogue-heavy as this. To add to the problem, Milligan stuck with public domain recordings for background music (using an original score would have cost money). As a result, for the most of the film, the ill-fitting music was in a weird death-battle with the movie itself.

Ethan hit the nail on the head when he compared this movie to early John Waters productions. There was a similar lack of quality. Of course, there was nothing here to match the grotesqueries that Waters put into his films, but the feel was still the same.

This is not to say that there was absolutely nothing to enjoy about the movie. The Sweeney Todd character was the best thing, deliciously fun to watch in his depredations. And the scene where characters are quoting Othello was amusing. But even allowing for these enjoyable parts, the movie is just lousy.

More interesting than the movie itself was watching Keith talk about its director, Andy Milligan. Milligan, as Keith tells it, was sociopathically hateful of everyone. Keith told us, using full body language of legendary fights Milligan had with business associates, and how Milligan would demand that organized crime figures pay him what they owed him. That was fun.

Ratings

Me: 3.5

Bob: 2.3

Christina: 7.8

Ethan: 8

tax return blues

This year, for the first time, Ethan had to file a tax return. No biggie. The accountant who does Blair's and my return was only too happy to add on Ethan's return. For a small fee, of course. It was a simple return which he filed in late March, and Ethan had refunds due to him from both the IRS and New York State.

The IRS duly sent him his refund. But he still hasn't gotten his state refund. When he looked online, he learned that the state has some questions about his return, and has sent him a letter indicating as much. We can't seem to get any more information from the state's website, which is very user unfriendly.

So we just have to wait.

Meanwhile, we can agonize over the pending questions. Like these folks: