| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8996 Registered: 05-2005 |
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I really liked it. I haven’t seen many films this year because there hasn’t been much worth seeing, so I’m very glad I saw this. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4202 Registered: 03-2005 |
Padraig, I've been keeping mum on this movie until the people who want to see it do. I posted little hints in the "song of the day" section, just to see if anybody picked up on them. For a Los Angeleno, the film is nostalgia porn. I didn't move down here for grad school until August of 1978 but it was still sufficiently similar to make Tarantino's 1969 recreation--with its amusing LA insider anomalies thrown in for a laugh--a real pleasure. So many of the settings are places I traipsed around for years. I saw it a second time when my brother and nephew were down here on a visit. After the movie was over I took them to El Coyote for dinner. The margaritas are dreadful but it kept the vibe going. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8997 Registered: 05-2005 |
Very cool, Randy! And no, I didn't pick up on any of your hints. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4203 Registered: 03-2005 |
One correction to my comment above: I should have said "amusing LA insider anachronisms" instead. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9001 Registered: 05-2005 |
One of the best pop music videos I've seen in a very long time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3urXygZX b74 | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 470 Registered: 05-2005 |
Long live to cd's and vinyls! Already eight Ikea's Gnebby full of music for me. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4206 Registered: 03-2005 |
Very fun Padraig! I've always been a bit less volume-oriented and thus have maybe about one hundred more CD's and LP's combined than people who viewed the video at the time of my visit (about 3,150 views). I very unwisely discarded almost all of the vinyl that I had replaced with CD's including many that took me years to find in the pre-internet era. Sigh. Nonetheless I probably still have about 500 LPs. I am afraid to think of your total or Hugh's. What I like the most about the video is that it reminds me of my old best friend in my home town. He was a true addict and he found the most awesome records in the most unlikely places for cut-out prices, all back in the 70s when what was out of fashion were 60s records in general and particularly those by artists who never made it commercially, sometimes artists who became big influences in the late 70s and the 80s. And we listened to them all, with our different tastes (he more rootsy and bluesy, me more esoteric pop). Trou, I reached 11 Gnedby plus three of IKEA's older obsolete shorter CD units that probably equal about 4 more Gnedby. The older ones are less efficient because they don't go as high. Good for under a window though. In my earthquake-prone territory, all of these IKEA CD cases will just hurl everything onto the floor in a heap of broken jewel cases. Because of this I purchased a secondhand Can-Am CD drawer cabinet that holds 810 CDs and can be stacked on top of other similar units. These are shockingly expensive cabinets and also expensive to ship: http://www.can-am.ca/CD-cabinet-DVD-cabi net.htm I found somebody who wanted to sell one for $75 a few miles from where I live. A nearly Padraig-level bargain! Don't know if I'll ever find such a thing again. I need several more unless I go Hugh's route and discard the jewel cases. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9002 Registered: 05-2005 |
I ditch jewel cases too. I’ve been doing so for years. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1173 Registered: 03-2007 |
Randy, I have a lot!!! Stored in 3 Litre Really Useful Boxes ( CDs ) 2.1 Litre Really Useful Boxes ( Mini CDs ) and heavy duty Cardboard Boxes ( Vinyl EPs / LPs.) Apologies if I misled you at some point in time but I have not discarded any jewel cases. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1174 Registered: 03-2007 |
A short documentary on The Bats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LyGY7nk QIw&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3c9E413Q PPZF5bb0zJE48bNXqW7XBcEG_Q6Dy2eB5KC41fe4 CwXKfH9ag | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9008 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks for the link, Hugh. Great to see it. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9022 Registered: 05-2005 |
Ad Astra. A big bag of portentous, pretentious shite. Everyone in it - Brad Pitt, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones and Ruth Negga, who is from 10 miles from where I grew up - is outacted by an enraged monkey. At least it kept me from seeing Ireland commit hara-kiri in the rugby. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4221 Registered: 03-2005 |
Don't hold back Padraig! It's showing at the theater that's three short blocks from my house. Since I'm not a big sci fi guy I wasn't planning on seeing it anyway but thanks for the warning. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9029 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Politician, on Netflix. It starts and ends great. Some of the middle is too stylised and sags and drags, but I persisted with it and will watch the second season whenever it comes. One thing though, why do US shows so often use people in their late 20s and 30s (and who look every day of it) to play high school students? Are there no teenagers capable of playing the parts? | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 602 Registered: 08-2005 |
Pádraig, my wife would agree with you re Ad Astra – personally I enjoyed the slow-moving, 2001-influenced, slightly thin sci-fi offering. I thought Brad Pitt was very impressive – takes all sorts! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9039 Registered: 05-2005 |
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. A BBC review trashed it, giving it one out of five and said it should not have been made. Two other reviews I read gave it 4/5, with one saying it was a proper movie and the other saying it was more like an extra long TV show. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I’ll keep this brief. I’m not sure it was worth making as it doesn’t add much to our knowledge of the Breaking Bad world, though I’m glad it was anyway - there are at least three outstanding performances in it. But it is definitely more of a double length TV show than a standalone film. I’d give it 3.5/5 and hope that’s the end of the franchise. The second part of the film title - A Breaking Bad Movie, rather than The Breaking Bad Movie - suggests there may be more to come. If so, that would just dilute its legacy. Vince Gilligan should concentrate on Better Call Saul which, to me, is better than Breaking Bad. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1311 Registered: 04-2005 |
Why I still go to the cinema part 235 Céline Sciamma's "Portrait de la jeune fille en feu" ("Portrait of a Lady on Fire" in English) The sheer beauty and emotion of this film on the big screen is something to behold. Sciamma built the whole project around her partner, one of the main 2 actresses, Adčle Haenel. Such an expressive, but quite unusual, face. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9052 Registered: 05-2005 |
The End Of The F***ing World. I watched season one in one go on Monday night, half of season two last night and the rest tonight. It’s brilliant. And the music is incredible. I wish they would list all the songs they used. Has anyone else seen it? | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1200 Registered: 03-2007 |
Padraig, Not yet but plan to do so soon. https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/features /the-end-of-the-fucking-world-season-one -soundtrack/ | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9054 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks for the link, Hugh. The soundtrack blew me away as even a serious music geek such as myself didn't recognise half of it. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1628 Registered: 10-2006 |
Any soundtrack that includes the Francois Hardy self-penned masterpiece Voila is ok by me! I wonder how it's used? Anyway, it encouraged me to go back to her excellent later album Le Danger, where they had the bright idea of pitching her lovely voice against a rockier band than usual, with tremendous results. I don't think she ever tried it again. I was sad to see, however, that Alain Lubrano, who co-wrote and produced most of the album, died at 47 in 2011. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9062 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Irishman. This has been far from a vintage year for film. In fact, I can't remember a worse year. But The Irishman is a classic. See it in the cinema if you can - don't just wait for it on Netflix next week. It deserves to be seen as Scorsese intended. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1286 Registered: 08-2004 |
Wifey has been hyping The Irishman as an important family event. I am somewhat sceptical. Which I feel is a defence mechanism to avoid disappointment. Also watching a lot of European Championship qualifiers and am baffled at the playoff process. Hopefully some good will come from it. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4262 Registered: 03-2005 |
Citizen K. This documentary on Mikhail Khodorkovsky refreshes the recollection of what happened after the Soviet Union collapsed and at least helps the viewer understand who the original post-Soviet Russian oligarchs are/were and how they came to be. This was a pretty fascinating film. I just kept marveling at the sheer guts and determination of the Russian opposition. It was truly humbling to this pampered unserious American. The first thing I said to my movie-mates at the end of the credits was undoubtedly a variant of what everyone who sees this film says at the end: "so, how long until he gets whacked?" | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4298 Registered: 03-2005 |
1917. Powerful and effective. A valuable reminder. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9124 Registered: 05-2005 |
I saw it tonight, Randy. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so tense all the way through a film. My great-grandfather was killed in WW I. This made me wonder what his last moments would have been like. What an incredible film. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4300 Registered: 03-2005 |
Padraig, in my semi-advanced age I'm just a big baby. The waterworks started for me probably no more than 15 or 20 minutes in. I kept thinking of how young these kids were and of the bizarre mindlessness of the war's causes. I thought about the normally peaceful but now destroyed rural France and/or Belgium. (I wasn't sure whether this was supposed to be France or Wallonia.). It made me think of a President who is seemingly willing to go to war because some people protest at our embassy in a country we've wanted to get out of for at least a decade. And here's something for you: my family is so stereotypically American in its aversion to history that I don't even know if any of my ancestors fought in WWI. My maternal grandfather's family emigrated from France but I don't even know about them. So, hey, we can do anything now, right? I think everyone should see this film. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9126 Registered: 05-2005 |
I wasn't sure if it was meant to be France or Belgium either. I have an uncle who is good with family tree stuff, which I'm very grateful for. Also, Ireland has put the census records from 1901 and 1911 online and it's a treasure trove. Seeing my grandmother recorded on the census as a two year old was incredibly moving for me. Search for the Adams's, you might have some Irish blood! http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1663 Registered: 10-2006 |
Family tree searching is enormous, fascinating, often infuriating fun: I started back in the 80s when unemployment gave me time to spare and relatives stumped up some funds so I could go to the Records Office (as you had to do then) to start rifling through the past. Most of the other researchers were professionals who regarded me rather coolly whenever I punched the air and yelped, "Yes!!" as I found some new info. My mother expected me to find a link with a laird of legendary wealth and renown and I was eager to see if there was a fortified house in the Highlands with my name on it; but, no, legendary he remained, and all I got was stalwart sons and daughters of the soil scraping a living, handloom weavers and, on my dad's side, lots of illegitimacy. I still play around with various lines on the available websites, but by now seem to have come to a halt with most of them. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 455 Registered: 02-2007 |
WW1 hugely problematic for Irish Australians at the time. We had referendums for conscription defeated, sectarian divide about our role, Archbishop Mannix opposed to our involvement at all, support for Easter Uprising in 1916 while Western Front raging. Lot of this has been forgotten in the modern reinterpretation of Australia's Anzac myth. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4310 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thank you for that interesting bit of grit--of texture--to Australian history David. I wonder if there might have been a similar cross-current in Canada and New Zealand. I suppose there must have been. I've just started reading an old volume of biographical essays by John Maynard Keynes. The first two are about three of the negotiators behind the disastrous Versailles treaty following WWI. (He seems to have considered Vittorio Emmanuel Orlando of Italy beneath notice.) I am struck by how Keynes constantly refers to "England" and the "English" rather "Britain" and the "British." He briefly acknowledges the existence of the Scottish when observing that there were no longer English or Scottish theological types like Woodrow Wilson. He is so obviously smitten with his own Bloomsbury Group cleverness as a writer that I come away from the first two essays wondering if Keynes had any clue that the days of the Empire were numbered. It can't be a good sign when your closest territory is breaking away. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1670 Registered: 10-2006 |
I was surprised to find Barbara Tuchman doing the same thing in her acclaimed The Guns of August, Randy: the English king, England, the English people… then suddenly there’s a reference to a “Scottish regiment” and I barked out loud, “Finally!!” Well, “acclaimed” on its publication, and lavished with awards, now scathingly looked back upon by academics, though just a little bit of envy might play a part. I loved it, a brilliant read, but now I’m stuck for how to get on with the rest of WW1 without going over the same old ground. Meanwhile, in the middle of Max Hasting’s Vietnam, another tortuous tale of governments being gradually sucked into a horrendous catastrophe that hardly anyone really seems to want. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9135 Registered: 05-2005 |
David, Randy and anyone else interested, I wrote about Archbishop Mannix, Australia and conscription here https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-ir ishman-s-diary-on-the-anti-conscription- archbishop-of-melbourne-and-the-pro-cons cription-prime-minister-1.2247899 | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4312 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thanks Padraig. It seems such a different era for the Catholic church. I love Mannix' concession of the dearth of voluntary enlistment of Catholic nuns. And at least Hughes numbered the Irish as a separate and distinct category for calumny to the selfish and the shirkers! Stuart, should I still consider "The Guns of August" a good place to start for WWI? I've read accolades of the book now and then over the past couple years. I realize that revisionist waves will continue to lap the shores of any topic. Another thing I am definitely looking for--because I know absolutely nothing about it--is a decent overall book on the Ottoman Empire. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1671 Registered: 10-2006 |
It's highly readable, Randy, but it was written decades ago and, as I say, has been ferociously attacked by mainly male military historians, very upset, as far as I can gather, that a woman (especially) from a rather privileged background should tread on their turf, and then, what's more, get a best seller and a Pulitzer out of it. And, probably, she did get stuff wrong as well - she is very frank in her intro about not having a total grasp of military strategy, but then, neither do most of her readers I imagine. So it's traditional, top-down history, old men meeting in ornate rooms to decide the fate of thousands (and often, turning aside to weep as they do so). There are no letters home from Private McKenzie about what life is like at the front - well, there wasn't even a front at that point, the trenches yet to be dug, it was still a mobile war with divisions galloping here and there, especially the British, constantly in retreat as their general tries desperately to keep them out of the battlefield, to the despair of the French, who are forever sending out messengers to try and track the British down. She is brilliant at summing up characters in a few, often witty sentences, and the Kaiser particularly is portrayed as a great comic figure, or would be, were his actions not so colossally lethal. Perhaps you'd be better off with a good, thick one volume history that will take you through the whole vast, tragic enterprise from start to finish, rather than being stranded, like me, in 1915 and wondering what to read next. But I'm glad I read Tuchman and will certainly look out for other books by her. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1672 Registered: 10-2006 |
This might be a good intro, otherwise, by another woman writer who gives Tuchman as a major inspiration: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books /105817/the-war-that-ended-peace-by-marg aret-macmillan/ | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1325 Registered: 04-2005 |
Last weekend an excellent documentary that my son had bought on DVD..."The Silence of Others" about various Spaniards who are still trying to get justice for what happened during the Franco period. Very moving. Various stories are highlighted : from a man who lives on the same street as his torturer, a woman who just wants the bones of her father to bury and a woman whose child was taken from her at birth. The trailer is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqK04yeG _WM And I'm currently obsessed by the band Big Thief. I love this 3 song session by them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0E5vMkD fOI As people have commented they don't look as if they should be in the same band. The drummer does look like he just stumbled in from the woods. And indeed there is something of Levon Helm in his way of playing. Their songs can seem so slight on first listen...practically hanging together on very little... | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1326 Registered: 04-2005 |
'A Kitten Banging A Drum ' by Bill Drummond in 60 Seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cx0XhR_ rQA&list=RD_Cx0XhR_rQA "Orange Juice by the Falling and Laughing ?" This is not Jimmy Shand... | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1289 Registered: 08-2004 |
The Righteous Gemstones Very funny crime drama in the Fargo style. Fargo series 4 will be here soon. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9182 Registered: 05-2005 |
A very sweet Irish short film called Dance Lexie Dance that came out 24 years ago, but which I've just seen for the first time ever right now. I've been searching for it intermittently for decades and finally found it online. https://rarefilmm.com/2019/09/dance-lexi e-dance-1996/ It was nominated for an Academy Award. Watch it and you'll see why. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9186 Registered: 05-2005 |
Pandemic, a documentary on Netflix that is incredibly prescient. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 620 Registered: 08-2005 |
Just found this on YouTube: full set of the Go-Betweens live at Glastonbury in 1986. I was there! I was young! I had hair! Life was good! And stress-free! Awww... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=156xUlKX vhM | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9217 Registered: 05-2005 |
Great find, Simon. It reminds me of a story about The Chills. Reporter: What are your memories of playing Glastonbury? Martin Phillips (of The Chills): We never played Glastonbury. Reporter shows Glastonbury 1987 poster, clearly listing The Chills. MP: Oh. I have no memory of playing Glastonbury. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9262 Registered: 05-2005 |
Killing Eve, series three. I love that four of the main actors are Irish, even if only one of them is playing an Irish person. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1268 Registered: 03-2007 |
The Chills - Rolling Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F2RsMHM rpc A previously unreleased early promo video for their first single. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9279 Registered: 05-2005 |
A film about the Glasgow scene of the 80s and early 90s. It’s wonderful. Teenage Fanclub, Pastels, Primal Scream, BMX Bandits etc. Streaming free this weekend. https://vimeo.com/381342175 | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 631 Registered: 08-2005 |
Up to season five of Elementary, a 21st-century New York-set spin on Sherlock Holmes, with the lovely Lucy Liu as Joan Watson. It's less up-itself than the BBC's version starring Mr Cumberbatch, though I enjoy that as well. And we're now watching the BBC's version of His Dark Materials, which we recorded a while back. | ||
| Fred Tadrowski Member Username: Ftadrowski Post Number: 116 Registered: 03-2015 |
Last night I streamed the documentary "Other Music," which is the story of the much loved NYC record store of the same name. I did shop there a couple of times a while back. The best part was 5-seconds or so of Grant & Robert doing Bachelor Kisses at an in-store (1999 or 2000?). Maybe the DVD could have the whole song. Some of the money when renting it goes to the record store of your choice from a list. http://www.othermusicdocumentary.com/wat ch I also recently watched and loved "The Booksellers" about the quirky world of New York rare book dealers. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4388 Registered: 03-2005 |
Francoiz Breut in 2015 at the 1988 Live Club in Rennes. Amazed I never saw this before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWDot0cp 2mM | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1744 Registered: 10-2006 |
Thanks for that, Randy!! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9308 Registered: 05-2005 |
Veep's final season on DVD. Over two days I watched all seven episodes and all the extras, including eight commentary tracks (two for the final episode). | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1350 Registered: 04-2005 |
And my obession with Big Thief continues unabated. From all that is on YouTube I have the feeling that the songs are often even better live. Couple of performances from 2018 in Chicago are really magical. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dosQWJ9O RHQ "Shark Smile"...they seem to get such a kick out of playing together. When those drums kick in it is wonderful. And Buck Meek is an truly original guitarist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcPiH6u8 wmg And their more fragile side in "Mary"...there are moments when you think it is all going to fall apart. They are not afraid of silences. Some of the melody and phrasing seems to have come from a centuries old folk song ? There is also my obession with Adrianne Lenker's ever changing haircuts. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 153 Registered: 05-2005 |
If you like Big Thief it’s worth listening to the episode of the Song Exploder podcast that covers Cattails. There aren’t many good episodes, maybe 1 in 20. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1352 Registered: 04-2005 |
Thanks for that tip Burgers ! Finally got round to listening to that podcast and it was very interesting and enlightening. And today's Big Thief video is a acoustic version of "Replaced" (from "Two Hands"). Filmed in a caravan in a cornfield. And absolutely charming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pozOukY- atw | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9359 Registered: 05-2005 |
Election. It was on TV tonight. It was at least 15 years since I had last seen it. I hadn’t realised it did very poorly at the box office when it came out in 1999 - which I just read on its Wikipedia entry. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4414 Registered: 03-2005 |
The Chills -- The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps This is a marvelously honest documentary. It skips all the humbug about how fabulous the rock 'n roll life is and shows the viewer what it's really like to be a critically acclaimed cult hero after working at his art for nearly 40 years. And I really enjoyed looking at Dunedin. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 9367 Registered: 05-2005 |
I was just wondering the other day if your copy of the film had arrived. How it portrays Dunedin is so accurate to how it feels there. It helps that it was winter when we visited and, much to our delight, it snowed on us in The Octagon. |