My all-time favorite ELO song. Brilliantly used over the end credits of P.T. Anderson’s 1997 film “Boogie Nights.” The attached video is extremely primitive … kaleidoscope visuals plus a lead singer who barely tries to match his vocals to the original studio track … but extremely cool in my opinion.
I’m not going to lie to you. This has been a tough week. Between learning a good friend has passed on and the overtime I’ve put in at work, I need something that makes me feel good to be alive. Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” is a song that always makes me feel better about the world … especially this kick-ass live version recorded for the 2007 film “Lou Reed’s Berlin” directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julian Schnabel. Lou was in his late 60s when he recorded this. This gives me hope and good feelings for my impending “golden years.”
This Leonard Cohen song is almost becoming a cliche in terms of being covered by singers trying to be “serious” or “spiritual.” But it’s still a great song. Jeff Buckley’s 1997 cover is probably the most famous of all the most recent versions, but I prefer John Cale’s take. Cale’s cover was the version that was featured rather prominently in the first “Shrek” film. Hearing Cale’s inimitable Welsh voice sing this while watching a very mainstream family film was an odd, but very cool experience when I saw “Shrek” in 2001.
F–k “The Exorcist”! THIS is the scariest film of all time … because it involves real life at its worst … whatever good is in it is eroding away bit by bit. Based on David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, this is a film about men who have had varying degrees of success in their life, but are now not doing so great. They’re a millimeter away from losing their livelihood … and they’re resorting to desperate means to hold onto what little they have. This movie disturbed me as recent college graduate in 1992 … it scares me even more 20+ years later.
This scene … the most famous in the film … involves a sales leader browbeating and emasculating the desperate men who are their weakest. This is darkly funny on one level … horrendously sad and depressing on another. This is the dark side of the American Dream … the side which says if you fail, it’s because you didn’t work hard enough, you didn’t want it badly enough, because … you weren’t man enough.
Aside from his genius portrayal of CEO Jack Donaghy on the comedy TV classic “30 Rock,” this is Alec Baldwin’s greatest performance. The other performances by Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, and Kevin Spacey are all top-notch, as well. This is not safe for work by any means. This is verbal brutality at its most heinous. A-B-C. Always be closing … ALWAYS BE CLOSING!
The terrific and gloriously politically incorrect opening of writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s 2000 film “Way of the Gun” … McQuarrie’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning script for “The Usual Suspects.” The performance by Sarah Silverman as the obnoxious girlfriend is beyond perfect. The fact that the entire sequence is underscored by the Rolling Stones’ “Rip This Joint” makes it even more memorable. Be warned, though. The language (and action in the sequence) is beyond obscene … not safe for work, little ones, or those who are highly sensitive.
The original “Apology Line” from 1980-1995 was the brainchild of conceptual artist Allan Bridge, who posted fliers in New York City requesting that people call his answering machine to confess to anything they felt guilty about.
The fliers prompted a flurry of phone calls to his machine, which led to a magazine (“Apology”), an HBO film based on the project (“Apology”) with Leslie Ann Warren and Peter Weller, as well as several different projects over the years where the calls were played. The calls ranged from the mundane (lying about going to a family gathering) to the truly criminal and scary (rapes, murders). Since it was all anonymous, it’s not clear how much was true and what wasn’t. However, if you want to examine the human mind at its darkest, this is a good place to start.
A sampling of the original calls can be found here:
A segment on the Apology Line from a past episode of Ira Glass’s “This American Life” can be found here … with additional calls:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/277/apology?act=2
I first heard about the Apology Line back in the fall of 1984 when the USA cable network’s late night show “Night Flight” featured a short documentary about the Apology Line where several of the calls were played. It was probably one of the most disturbing things I had ever encountered at that point.
Allan Bridge was accidentally killed by a jet skier while diving in the mid-1990s (the sad irony was that the jet skier who killed him was never found). However, the legacy of the “Apology Line” continues today. First of all, with a new play based on the project, written by Greg Pierotti, who co-wrote “The Laramie Project”:
http://www.apologyline.com/index.html
There’s also a new “Apology Line,” based in England, which inspired the James Less directed documentary, which you can view below:
Please note that none of what you’ll see or hear is safe for work or little ones. You are literally hearing the darkest parts of the human soul being expressed here … so be warned.
A great performance of one of the more memorable (albeit extremely depressing) songs from Lou Reed’s stellar 1973 song cycle “Berlin.” If you like what you hear, you should check out the original album, or the brilliant 2007 film adaptation (lensed by Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel) called “Lou Reed’s Berlin.”
One of the best films about the art / history of comedy, as well as the early days of TV is director Richard Benjamin’s hilarious and touching 1982 film “My Favorite Year.” The unspoken denominator in this enterprise is (uncredited) producer Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks was a comedy writer for Sid Caesar’s early TV show “Your Show of Shows,” which the film’s show within a show “The King Kaiser Show” is based on.
Mark Linn-Baker (as rookie writer Benjy Stone) is the obvious Brooks stand-in, trying to keep notorious debauched movie star Alan Swann (brilliantly played by Peter O’Toole based on debauched real-life movie star Errol Flynn) sober and on schedule for his appearance on the show. However, the constantly drunk Swann has other plans.
“My Favorite Year” may not be perfect … or even a great film, but it’s one of those films that always puts me in a good mood. And it earned Peter O’Toole a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination in 1982. The film also resurrected Lainie Kazan’s career, who plays Benjy’s overbearing, but loving mom. Kazan resurrected the role in the 1992 Broadway musical adaptation of the film.
“Layla” may be the best-known song from Eric Clapton’s and Duane Allman’s pseudonymous 1970 band Derek and the Domino’s “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” album. While it’s a great song, unfortunately, it’s power has been greatly diminished (at least for me) over the years due to endless replays on classic rock radio and other places. Though, Martin Scorsese did redeem it somewhat through its use in “Goodfellas” but I digress …
For my money, their cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” is the highlight of the album. I’ve never heard hard rock sound so damn sad, but not in a grandiose “Pink Floyd The Wall” type way. This may be just the blues … but it’s played with such incredible power and sorrow. Clapton was in a bad way (emotionally and healthwise) when he recorded this and you can feel it.
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