So far the score in the War on Christmas (original) goes something like this: Number of people who’ve told me the PC police will yell at anyone who says “Merry Christmas”: 3 Number of times I’ve been yelled at for saying Merry Christmas: 0 Number of attorneys ready to file suits against people who substitute “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas”: 1550 Number of ACLU employees in the main New York office: 170 (original) (in 2002) ...
It is somewhat unlikely that I will do a best movies post this year, because I fell in love and maintaining an LDR wreaks merry havoc with the movie-going. I liked Sin City and A History of Violence; they make a nice pair of bookends, as one’s a commentary on the memes captured by the other. Roger Ebert’s list (original) looks pretty good, though. I wanted to see most of the movies he lists.
My opinion on the news I just read is sort of an incoherent haze of happiness. So, Mister Bond, would you like a six CD set (original) of Richard Thompson rarities and live performances for your birthday? “Yes please.” Gosh. What’s going to be on it? Lots of stuff. (original) An entire CD full of live performances with extended improvisations. A CD of covers! Which has that cover of “Willie and the Hand Jive/Not Fade Away” he was doing on the 1985 tour on it — pity they didn’t stick his “ Hey Joe” on there. What an insane set.
The Brattle Theatre Watch-A-Thon (original) is pretty tempting. I could see a lot of movies between November 11th and December 4th. HEY. YOU. Would you sponsor me?
Not that I’ve got a bootleg copy of Good vs. Evil or anything, but if I did it’d be medium quality video recorded from the Sci-Fi Channel (original) with the Sci-Fi logo in the upper right hand corner and all. But it’d be the whole schmear on three DVDs, both the first season on USA and the second season on Sci-Fi. So it’d be totally worth it. There might be an email address — dvd@timlarock.com — on the amateurish menu screen. Or this might all be a complex sting operation on my part. I dunno.
NBC bought the new Sorkin show. They paid a hunka hunka burning money, it’s a show about a live comedy show (c.f. SNL), and that’s most of the informational content of the article I just linked to. Anticipatory.
Versions of “Shoot Out The Lights” in my music library: The original, off Shoot Out The Lights, one of the best albums ever. Linda Thompson provides backup vocals. They were months from divorcing at this point, and you can tell; Shoot Out The Lights is also one of the most voyeuristic albums ever. An acoustic version, from A Rare Thing. This album is a bootleg from the 1994 tour (August 13th, 1994, in Chapel Hill); middling quality, but good music. This is the only acoustic version I have, although I have a number of acoustic Richard Thompson albums. It’s not really an acoustic song. Then again, that’s what makes this version interesting. ...
Suck news of the day: the Brattle Theater is in trouble (original). Compared to Katrina? This is a pretty trivial deal. But it’s still significant enough for me to care. The Brattle has film programming as good as anything I’ve seen anywhere, including the Castro Theater out in San Francisco. Ned Hinkle, who does the programming, has an exhaustive knowledge of film and he has the contacts and know-how necessary to program festivals ranging from a complete Wong Kar Wai retrospective to a classic film noir series. They also run the Boston Fantastic Film Festival, which is small potatoes compared to Fantasia or Sitges, but which does not in the least suck to have around. ...
The answer to the question “how does filmed entertainment reach the eyes of the viewer” continues to change, as per this article on direct to video movies. This isn’t anything new, of course; Disney has been doing this for years and years. Just ask any parent. Still and all, it’s significant that the direct to video market in the US is gaining… aha. Legitimacy is the word. Direct to video Disney releases is one thing; a direct to video sequel to Carlito’s Way is more interesting. ...
The Complete New Yorker is pretty cool. Kind of easy to describe, too: it’s every single New Yorker scanned and archived on 8 DVDs. You can get a tour of the interface here (original). Yep, I bought it more or less instantly. Come on — $65 on Amazon (or Barnes and Noble)? Sure thing. It’s cool. The interface is a tad clunky on the Mac, but it’s easy to flip through an issue and it’s very very readable. The search is slowish. I’m not sure how well it’s indexed; a search on Red Sox for the last five years or so returned nothing. On the other hand, a search on Cronenberg was quite successful. I imagine each article is tagged with key words. ...