The session: "Spring! When a Young Man's Thoughts Turn to Russ Meyer"
This month we pay tribute to director Russ Meyer
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 2: Motor Psycho Directed by Russ Meyer
My Impressions Going In:
Never heard of it. Never saw it. And I still haven't...
Plot:
As near as I can tell, there's lots of motorcycles and action.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
The stars did not align, so I couldn't make it to class. I didn't see the movie and have no reaction. I'm posting this just for the sake of completeness. Kurt Godel would be proud of me.
The session: "Spring! When a Young Man's Thoughts Turn to Russ Meyer"
This month we pay tribute to director Russ Meyer
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 1: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) Directed by Russ Meyer
My Impressions Going In:
I'd long known of this film's existence. But other than knowing it's a cult classic that I just gotta see, I knew very little about it.
Plot:
Three strippers take off into the dessert to let off steam. They don't have any serious plans until they learn of a hidden cache of cash.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
I went into this session with high hopes. I was aware of Faster Pussycat as some kind of iconic countercultural cult film. And given my tastes and interests, it's actually kind of surprising that I had never seen this before.
Boy, was I disappointed. The plot was weak, and the story telling was uneven. And none of the characters were likeable. But what bugged me the most was the way all the characters were overacting. This was especially true of Tura Satana, who starred as Varla; she seemed to end each line with a rising tone, which seemd like it was supposed to sound emphatic -- but just sounded hacky. Keith explained that that was purposeful -- a directorial choice on Meyer's part. Why he made that choice I'll never know. But in a sense, that kind of makes sense. A lot of the movie felt like it was a series of film school experiments. If Meyer was playing with a variety of styles, it makes sense that he would experiment with his characters' emotions. The problem, though, is that it made the movie harder to watch.
On the plus side, the ending was great. With its red herrings and teasers, It had me on the edge. Sadly, though, that just couldn't save it.
Years ago -- I'm gonna guess about fifteen years ago -- I was working late. Waiting for some information from my interlocutor at another company, I started going through piles of paper -- fighting excess paper is a never-ending struggle for me. I came across a picture of someone I had once been close to. She represented a chapter of my life that had closed. It brought back a lot of memories. Some happy. Some -- not so. Overcome with curiosity, I turned to the internet and Googled her name.
A song idea hit me. And I quickly thought of some lyrics:
Do you Google me now and again
Do your fingers hit the keyboard when
Something frees your memories
Do you Google me now and again.
Often I come up with a bit of lyrics or a song idea, I struggle to take it anywhere. In this case, I played with lyrics, coming up with a lot of lines that related a dead romance to the internet and social media. Nothing felt right. And at some point I decided to drop the internet angle in favor of the chorus that I have now:
Do you think of me now and again
Do feelings come flooding back when
Something frees your memories
Do you think of me now and again.
And still I struggled to take it anywhere. I came up with a bridge, but that was it.
At some point I started writing a story song, describing a breakup. But it was too long -- fifteen or so verses describing, in agonizing detail, an old relationship.* That was about the time that I was slowly figuring out the value of brevity in a song. Leave out some details and let the listener use his or her imagination. But I was still struggling to come up with a khop.
One morning, riding the subway to work and listening to music, I got to Billy Ray Cyrus' "Words by Heart" and realized that I was mining the same subject matter -- or similar subject matter at least. And that was when verses started coming to me. I made some progress, but still was uncertain of what we had. I approached a friend, Scott Milner to see if he would work with me on completing it. And he did advance the whole thing a bit. If I recall correctly, he came up with the passage, "Just a funny mood or a time of day / Like wanting a smoke, can't seem to put it away."
I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but I remember spending time with him in a studio in Hamilton Montana (near where he was living at the time), and we eventually had two similar demos. The lyrics were slightly different, and they were in different keys. They were slower than I liked -- Scott and I have different sensibilities. But I thought we had a good song.
A few years later, Eric Goulden (AKA Wreckless Eric) and Amy Rigby were running a kickstarter to fund their next album (which would become A Working Museum), they offered as an incentive, to record a song with a donor. I misunderstood them. That incentive was aimed at working musicians who wanted someone to produce for them. I thought they were offering to record a cover of a song -- for a fan who wanted to hear them perform, say, "House of the Rising Sun." Though they hadn't intended to offer what I thought they had, they were gracious and agreed to record one of the songs I wrote (or cowrote). For some reason I decided on this song that Scott and I had written -- probably because I wanted something faster.
When it came to recording, though, they identified a few things they didn't like about the song. They changed some of the lyrics here and there. I think that their changes were improvements -- for the most part, anyway. But the biggest change they made was the melody for the bridge. What I had written was barely different than the verses. They came up with something very different. And really good. I asked Eric if he and Amy wanted songwriting credits. He answered in the affirmative. And so, I have now co-authored a song with one of my musical idols from my high school years.** For reference, here's a lyric video I made of Eric and Amy's version.
Dig that bass...I'll admit I like their version better than the one on the album I put out. But I don't own the commercial rights to their recording.
Anyway, when it came to recording this, I don't think Toby got the vocals quite right, so I asked him to give Tim Patterson a go at it.
"Do You Think of Me (Now and Again)" Song by: Marc Whinston, Eric Goulden, Scott C. Milner and Amy Rigby Lead vocal by Tim Patterson All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.
*Not that you're asking, but it was fictionalized, with the narrative driven more by a need for rhymes than by actual memories.
**I still have vivid memories of teen youth group trips, playing Wreckless Eric songs on my boombox. His gravelly voice and strong accent elicited puzzlement from my friends, but I loved his music and didn't care that my friends didn't think it was cool. A few years earlier (and a couple thousand miles farther East) and they would have loved him.
The session: "A tribute to Mr. Big: Bert I. Gordon Month" This month we pay tribute to director Bert I. Gordon, who passed away this past March at age 100
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 4: Empire of the Ants (1977) Directed by Bert I. Gordon
My Impressions Going In:
I had never heard of this
Plot:
A con artist and her intended marks are touring some Florida swampland real estate. Little do they know, the area is overrun by giant ants.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
We've all seen movies where the plot is, essentially, a bunch of people are trying to survive while they try to get somewhere while being chased or stalked by some dangerous monster. They get picked off one at a time and primary source of suspense is in wondering who will survive (and, I suppose, how). It almost doesn't matter what the monster is. It can be a wild animal, a space alien, zombies.
Early on, I was settling in to watch one more of these monster movies. This time, with giant ants. But Empire features a twist on the old concept. In Empire, the ants aren't simply stalking the people; they're herding them to turn them into slaves. Ordinarily, that revelation would be a spoiler. But the trailer makes that part of the plot clear. Of course, I hadn't seen the trailer before Keith showed us the movie, so that turn of events came as a surprise.
And I was having fun as it slowly dawned on me. "Oh, they're herding the people...just like the opening narration said they do with other insects." "Oh, they're going to make the people work for them...just like the opening narration said they do with other insects." When the movie opened with an educational clip about ants, I was getting annoyed. That's often a cheap device. But as I repeatedly related events in the movie to what we had been told in narration, I was actually appreciating the opening.
The movie did a good job of introducing the monsters at just the right time. They didn't appear too soon, and there was a little bit of tease, but we didn't have to wait too long.
The session: "A tribute to Mr. Big: Bert I. Gordon Month" This month we pay tribute to director Bert I. Gordon, who passed away this past March at age 100
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 3: Necromancy (1972) Directed by Bert I. Gordon
My Impressions Going In:
I had heard of this, but for some reason my impression was that it was a very slick high-tech film.
Plot:
After their child is stillborn, a young couple decide to relocate to a small out-of-the-way town. Once there, they learn of the high price of residency.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
Part of Necromancy were interesting, but it played like a fever dream -- a disjointed incoherent fever dream. The ending was better than I expected, and did elevate the experience. Still and all, there's just too much to fault. Now, in fairness -- or maybe just to play devil's advocate, I note that the ending does provide a reasonable explanation for the disjointed fever-dream feel of the film. Still and all, I just couldn't like the damn thing.
The session: "A tribute to Mr. Big: Bert I. Gordon Month" This month we pay tribute to director Bert I. Gordon, who passed away this past March at age 100
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 2: The Mad Bomber (1972) Directed by Bert I. Gordon
My Impressions Going In:
I knew nothing
Plot:
Los Angeles is beset by two criminals: A serial rapist and a serial bomber. The cops want both, but one may hold the key to the other.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
There's no denying that this a fun movie (assuming you're in to the gritty 1970's action movies with plenty of nudity and violence). And the three stars are great. Chuck Connors, playing against type, captures the right combination of menace and sympathy. Vince Edwards seems to be channeling Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. And Neville Brand's gravelly average Joe (with a not-so-average life) is perfect for his role.
The film has two of the best bomb detonations I've ever seen in a movie -- one of which moved Keith to express admiration and the wish that he had come up with it. I also loved the irony in Connors' character -- rudely admonishing people about courtesy while carrying out his bombings. His portrayal of unhinged is note perfect. The characters are also very well developed, given the nature of the movie.
But there are a lot of ways that the plot is implausible, and in many ways this plays like a TV movie (except, of course, that it would never get past the censors). All in all it's a fun watch, but not in any way a masterpiece.
Decades ago I spent several summers at Orthodox Jewish sleepaway camps. There, I got to hear a lot of Israeli pop songs from the era. One song that stuck with me was* "K'var Acharei Chatzot" (which means "It's Already After Midnight") a 1968 record by Ilanit. For reference, I'm including a video of Ilanit singing it.
And that was the inspiration for "Midnight Has Come and Gone." The influence is obvious. My title is close to a translation of Ilanit's. and both songs include pleas for another moment. There are certain structural similarities as well -- notably, in both songs the title is the first line of each verse. But Ilanit's song has a certain hopeful quality to it. In my song, the protagonist sounds desperate. I never really figured out the backstory, but it feels that there's some kind of forbidden affair. The line, "Tomorrow is another day and I don't want to go back to pretend," says something about what's going on. Is someone cheating on a spouse? Are two coworkers sneaking around? I honestly don't know.
"Midnight has Come and Gone" Song by: Marc Whinston Lead vocal by Toby Wilson All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.
