The World of Jacob Riis #2
The Blind Beggar (1890)
for the series:
The World of Jacob Riis
September 30, 2005
September 29, 2005
Antonioni Lives!
We here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . would like to take this opportunity to mark the 93rd birthday of Michelangelo Antonioni, the director of Gente de Po, Cronoca di un amore, Le Amiche, and probably best known and best loved of all, Chung Kuo: Cina.
In six decades of masterful Cinema, uneven bouts with the zeitgeist, and extraordinary resillience, it gives any cinephile with a constant heart great relief and even a rare assurance to know that, where so many of his co-conspirators in the construction of our mutual obsession and dream life have fallen, he remains. And if his work no longer commands our ardor as it once did, he at least inspires the multitudes by the persistence of his will to forge ahead through the winter of his art; staring down mortality, if only for a time.
September 28, 2005
When Legends Gather #59
Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby and Clark Gable
for the series:
When Legends Gather
Stacks O'Wax #12
The Goons (Decca e.p., 1957)
I just had to post both sides of this fun e.p. cover, possibly my favourite eBay purchase ever (and as a bonus, it actually came with a record). The art is by Rex Morston, but obviously inspired by Spike Milligan's famous doodles, and nicely decontstructs the nature of album covers by playing with the placement of the catalogue number, printing the song titles upside down, and providing useless information about how not to damage the record (a frequent addition to album covers in the '50s and early '60s) on the back.
The record's fun too. No Yuletide would be complete without I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas.
for the series:
Stacks o' Wax
September 27, 2005
The Art of Cinema #87
Velvet Fingers
(Episode 10: Shots in the Dark)
(George B. Seitz; 1920)
for the series:
Art of Cinema
September 26, 2005
Don Adams Dies at 82
Don Adams (1923-2005)
Before I ever saw a James Bond movie, I was well-versed in the cliches of secret agent skullduggery by the '60s TV classic Get Smart, starring comic Don Adams and with brilliant behind the scenes work by co-creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. But Adams did the heavy lifting in front of the camera, with a razor sharp sense of timing to pull off every "Would you believe...?" and "Sorry about that, Chief."
Adams was also a gifted impressionist, and is equally remembered for his cartoon voice work (I spent a healthy chunk of my childhood trying to ape Tennessee Tuxedo), but it was Agent 86 that followed him through his career, getting dusted off every decade or so for another attempt to recreate the magic of the original.
So his death this week from a respiratory illness comes as sad news, although learning that he was the only survivor of his Marine platoon on Guadalcanal, and that he was a frequent guest at the Playboy Mansion, makes one realize he's already been to heaven and hell.
For more on Adams remarkable life and career, check out the obituary written by son-in-law and talented character actor Jim Beaver.
for the series:
Obits
September 24, 2005
Willie Hutch Dies at 59
Willie Hutch, 1946-2005
Although Isaac Hayes' Theme From 'Shaft' and Curtis Mayfield's Superfly are the most immediately known sounds of the '70s blaxploitation school, Motown jack-of-all-trades Willie Hutch further cemented the genre with his soundtracks for Foxy Brown and The Mack. Those records are of another time and place now, but they still have more spirit and life than anything Diddy could cut and paste together.
From the Associated Press obituary:
*Legendary R&B singer/songwriter Willie Hutch, the Motown veteran who co-wrote "I'll Be There" for the Jackson 5, has died at his home in Dallas, Texas, reports WREG-TV Memphis. He was 59. The cause of death has not yet been released.
Born Willie McKinley Hutchinson in 1946 in Los Angeles, Hutch grew up in Dallas, where his debut single "Love Has Put Me Down" was released in the early sixties. After putting out his first album in 1964, the artist went on to work with a number of artists as a writer and producer.
In 1970, producer Hal Davis called Hutch at the 11th hour to write a song for a backing track he had produced for the Jackson 5. The Michael Jackson-led group reportedly went into the studio the next day to record Hutch's words on the track, which turned out to be one of the group's biggest hits, "I'll Be There."
Hutch went on to write and/or produce solo albums for Jackson, as well as Smokey Robinson, The Fifth Dimension, The Miracles, The Main Ingredient ("California My Way"), Junior Walker, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, among others.
He also wrote the entire soundtrack for Pam Grier's 1970s blaxploitation masterpiece, "Foxy Brown" and worked on the soundtrack to "The Mack," including the song, "Brother's Gonna Work It Out." Hutch even penned a song for the 2005 John Singleton-produced film, "Hustle and Flow."
for the series:
Obits
September 23, 2005
Relevant Quote #65
"Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary's life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime."
-- Angela Davis
for the series:
Relevant Quotes
September 21, 2005
Seminal Image #294
Gone to Earth
(Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; 1950)
for the series:
Seminal Images
From 'The Black Panther Coloring Book' #4
"The Black man in Africa had strong warriors and beautiful cities."
for the series:
From the Black Panther Coloring Book
They Were Collaborators #80
Elvis Costello and The Attractions
for the series:
They Were Collaborators
September 20, 2005
Adventures in American Filmmaking #41
Today's adventure: Sam Wood, with a crew that includes Canadian cinematographer Osmond Borradaile, directs Jackie Coogan and Queenie the Dog in Peck's Bad Boy in 1921.
for the series:
Adventures in American Filmmaking
September 19, 2005
Seminal Image #293
Le Passion de Jeanne D'arc
(The Passion of Joan of Arc)
(Carl Theodor Dreyer; 1928)
for the series:
Seminal Images
Adventures in American Filmmaking #40
Today's Adventure: Blake Edwards discusses the middle-class American purgatory that informs The Days of Wine and Roses with Lee Remick (1963)
for the series:
Adventures in American Filmmaking
Adventures in European Filmmaking #9
Today's Adventure: Sergio Leone is nowhere to be seen on the set of Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, and yet the cameras roll (1966)
for the series:
Adventures in European Filmmaking
September 17, 2005
El Cine Del Oro #17
Pepe el Toro (Ismael Rodriguez, 1953)
Before Jake La Motta, there was Pepe.
for the series:
El Cine Del Oro
Tom's Influences #6
Nathanael West (left; with his brother-in-law, S.J. Perelman)
for the series:
Tom's Influences
Great Con Artists of the 20th Century #7
Gertrude Stein
for the series:
Great Con Artists of the 20th Century
September 15, 2005
Robert Wise Dead at 91
Robert Wise, the director of The Sound of Music and Mystery in Mexico, died today at the age of 91.
Here are three obituaries:
The New York Times
The Associated Press
Reuters News Service
Anyone looking for a cinephile treatment of this subject needs to get a life.
for the series:
Obits
September 14, 2005
From 'The Black Panther Coloring Book' #3
"The White man wanted the riches of the Black man. They came with guns and force and took them."
for the series:
From the Black Panther Coloring Book
The Art of Pop #1
Tell Me All About Yourself
Nat 'King' Cole
(Capitol Records; 1960)
for the series:
Art of Pop
September 12, 2005
Seminal Image #289
The Enforcer
(Bretaigne Windust, Raoul Walsh; 1950)
for the series:
Seminal Images
The Present Day Composer #20
Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952)
for the series:
The Present Day Composer
Great Con Artists of the 20th Century #6
Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey
for the series:
Great Con Artists of the 20th Century
September 11, 2005
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown Dies at 81
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1924-2005)
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was one of a kind. A Texas bluesman raised near the Louisiana border, he fully believed there was only two kinds of music: good and bad. He played music with equal doses of blues, Cajun, country, western swing, big band, and whatever else took his fancy. He could play guitar, fiddle, and pretty much anything else with strings on it, and was gleefully knocking down musical divisions long before the term "roots music" ever left anyone's lips.
I had the great fortune of spending an afternoon with Brown, talking about his early days playing around the South, the musicians he loved and those he couldn't stand (I made the mistake of mentioning Rufus Thomas, who I'd only recently heard for the first time) and his love of making music of any kind. Brown had a hit out of the gate on Peacock Records with Okie Dokie Stomp, but never rose to the same ranks as the likes of Muddy Waters or B.B. King, maybe because his sound was never regarded as being as "pure" as some blues legends, but by the same token, his records never got boring. Track down his shared LP with Roy Clark (it's called, simply, Makin' Music) for an example of his open mind and open heart. Years later I talked to Clark and he said it was the most fun he ever had in a studio.
Sadly, Brown's death came in the wake of his house's destruction by Hurricane Katrina, you can read more in this BBC obituary, but maybe news of his passing will lead more to the music of this wiry, wily master musician.
for the series:
Obits
September 10, 2005
Happy Birthday, Harold Pinter!
We here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . would like to take this very opportunity, mama, to wish Harold Pinter . . . one of Britain's greatest living playwrights, already; and no doubt a regular visitor to this blog . . . all our best as he celebrates his 75th birthday today.
for the series:
Birthdays
September 09, 2005
They Were Collaborators #77
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
for the series:
They Were Collaborators
September 9, 1976
An Andy Warhol rendering (1976)
Mao Tse-Tung, the cheeky 'generalissimo' of China's Communist Party, died on this day in 1976.
Here are seven images:
The young Mao and Maoist; sometime in the 1920s
Declaring the establishment of a People's Republic in China (October 1, 1949)
With his son, Mao Anying; shortly before the latter's death in Korea in 1950
Heard you missed me; sometime in the 1960s
Meeting Richard Nixon (1972)
At rest at last (1976)
"I am alone with the people. Waiting." (1972)
for the series:
Obits
September 08, 2005
The Last Testament
of Hunter S. Thompson
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun _ for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax _ This won't hurt."
-- Hunter S. Thompson; 4 days before the end.
Adventures in European Filmmaking #8
Today's Adventure: Jean Renoir and crew gather to do justice to Zola on the set of Nana (1926)
(massive thanks to Bob Keser for this image)
for the series:
Adventures in European Filmmaking
