#Love Lettes of a Nun

[flashfuckingflesh]

Blind, EVIL, Undead Templar Knights Hunt for a Bite to Eat! "Tombs of the Blind Dead" reviewed! (Synapse / Special Edition 2-DiscBlu-ray)

“Tombs of the Blind Dead” 2-Disc Blu-ray Available for Purchase Here! Maria, Betty and Roger take a train across the Spanish countryside to see the landscape sights.  When Maria feels like a third wheel stuck in between Betty and Roger’s flirtations, she jumps off the moving train, leaving her friends aboard, and camping out under the ruins of an old countryside Church.  There’s only one…

[germenis]

Didion and Steinbeck. With an epigraph from the former and a diegetic reference to the latter (The Grapes of Wrath on audiobook), writer/director Greta Gerwig immediately establishes that Lady Bird, her directorial debut, is a film grounded in astute social awareness; a document of observations on class, gender, family, and popular culture recorded with unflinching precision. Didion and Steinbeck were great chroniclers of Californian life–Gerwig’s work places in her in good and rightful company.

Sacramento, CA is the site of Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson’s coming of age. 17 going on 18, Lady Bird belongs to a family that can barely keep from financially drowning, while attending a Catholic high school that she can barely make the grades to maintain enrollment and scholarship.

Saoirse Ronan plays Lady Bird to be both singular and universal, embodying so many of the struggles that I would imagine the majority of teenage girls go through (so much of what she deals with is applicable to American teenagers, regardless of gender). Frustrated about wanting more and better when it comes to the house she lives in, her weight, being liked by the cool girls, the colleges she can (realistically) get into, LB is too fierce a spirit to allow the rest of society to get away with keeping her down.

This includes Marion (Laurie Metcalf), her own mother, a hospital worker who frequently pulls a double shift, the rock of the family, and frequent bad guy when having to discipline Lady Bird in order to ground her in reality. Mother and daughter are all too similar in their strength and stubbornness–the opening scene has LB throw herself out of a moving car after finding it preferential to arguing with Marion over turning the radio on.

To think of this relationship as cliche would be to overlook the universal truths inherent to it. As someone who grew up in a family comprised mostly of women, I can attest to the ease with which mothers and daughters oscillate between argument and enjoyment. Take for instance a thrift shop scene where the two are picking out Lady Bird’s Thanksgiving dress: pricked by her mother’s passive aggressive comment on dragging feet, the two quickly revert to a happier state once an ideal dress is found. The emotional pendulum swings from side to side in a matter of seconds.

The rest of Lady Bird’s immediate family consists of her father, Larry (Tracy Letts), whose struggle with depression is worsened by his recent unemployment; her brother, Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues), whose adoption(?) is never mentioned, his place in the family unquestioned; and a surrogate sister, Shelly (Marielle Scott), finding refuge in the McPherson household.

Lady Bird’s best friend, Julie (Beanie Feldstein), is much stronger at math than she is, not that it hurts she’s also got a crush on their math teacher. LB and Julie’s friendship is one of the most beautiful dimensions of the film. Clearly each other’s confidant, the two girls share a love and kinship that I hope to see more of on the big screen. Spending practically every second together, the two discuss masturbation, their futures, boys, and everything in between. Long after romantic stints with Danny (Lucas Hedges) and Kyle (Timothee Chalamet) end in heartbreak, LB has Julie to rely on. At their senior prom, they need no one but each other.

Gerwig excels at including the presence of male characters without steering away from what is obviously, and wonderfully, a story about women, about girls becoming women, and all that implies and contains. The pressures of sex, the fear of pregnancy, the disappointment of men, and the support of other women that doesn’t come without its own set of difficulties to navigate.

Jealousy, stubbornness, and likemindedness are only a few of the emotions that complicate the relationships between women in Gerwig’s masterwork. Best friends may hurt each other and spend prolonged periods of time without talking, but no matter what they can’t be separated.

Lady Bird, like the rest of us, struggles to define herself apart from the support system around her. Refusing to go by Christine, her birth name, LB tells a theatre director that “Lady Bird” is her given name because she gave it to herself. At odds with her mother, guidance counselor, teachers, and nuns telling her what she’s (not) capable of, LB refuses to give up on moving to New York City for college, believing that she can make it in the Big Apple on her own.

Never stating at any point what she’s going to college for, or what careers interest her, Lady Bird simply wants to be. In one of the many pitch-perfect dialogues with her mother, LB poses the question of What if she’s already her best self? No matter how confident and strong-headed (read: stubborn) she may be, the doubt sometimes seeps through the cracks.

This self-doubt and uncertainty of Self are manifested in her malleability when interested in a boy: she pretends to know who Jim Morrison is for Danny; for Kyle she reads Howard Zinn during mass. Even when the lie is something she internalizes as truth, Lady Bird’s core identity remains fixed. As revealed during a talk with one of the school’s sisters, LB’s college application betrays the notion that despite her often harsh criticism of Sacramento, she’s gifted with a keen insight that’s borne out of love.

Lady Bird’s revelation is that attention and love are often synonymous. We devote our time and mental energy to what we care most about, and though we may not always say I Love You, our focused attention can be a suitable substitute, if not the true execution of love; whereas words are just words–meaningless without action.

It is here in this moment that the viewer understands LB’s mother more than LB does herself. Though she might be tough on her, everything she does, all the sacrifices that are made, are for LB. It takes moving across the country to Manhattan, isolated while surrounded by millions, for LB’s quite literal moment of clarity to come.

While at a college party, Lady Bird introduces herself as Christine for the first time to a boy whom she tells that she’s from San Francisco instead of Sacramento. Along with her pondering on the strangeness of not believing in god after the boy claims atheism, LB maintains her contradictory nature of making progress with accepting herself while still unable to claim her hometown.

3,000 miles away and home is still a contested space in the mind. As she attempts what will surely be unexceptional sex with this boy, LB becomes violently ill–drunk for the first time. Awakening in a hospital, the world around her a blur, she goes to the one place she knows will be safe: a cathedral for Sunday mass.

The sublimity of the mass reveals to Lady Bird the comfort she never realized it brought her. Its beauty reminds her of what she always had, of what, in spite of her constant contention with external forces of authority, will always be there for her. She calls home, leaving a voicemail to tell her mom that she loves her.

And in a perfectly-executed sequence that depicts both mother and daughter driving separately through the suburbs and wilderness of Sacramento–Gerwig’s blocking of these shots makes mother and daughter one; interchangeable–expresses the strange sensation that comes with experiencing the familiar as if it were new.

When Lady Bird hangs up the phone, she does so as a woman. A woman who seeks to empathize with another woman’s experience, finding the commonality as opposed to what divides. She is a daughter who knows she is loved, and loves in return. And an individual with a family and home always waiting for her.

Christine is a woman ready to be her best self.

Review: Lady Bird (2017) Didion and Steinbeck. With an epigraph from the former and a diegetic reference to the latter (

[filmforthought]

Lady Bird

Starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges and Tracy Letts

Rating: ★★★½

June 23, 2015 was the final obligation of seniors at Steinert High School. It was a scorching hot day as I picked up my friend of ten years, Tom, in my father’s 2000 Buick LeSabre. Dressed in our Shrek green gowns, we were sweating in bumper to bumper traffic on Hamilton Avenue because the air conditioning and back windows were broken. Today the air conditioning works, but the heat went just in time for winter.

When we entered the cool Sun Center in Trenton, we were directed to our chairs. For the last time, the class of 2015 would be together under the same roof. It was nerve wracking sitting in those chairs because after each speech the end was drawing near. All the school dances, hanging out with friends, asking the teacher to use the restroom and pasta Thursdays in the cafeteria would all be over. Once our caps were thrown into the air, it was the beginning of a new chapter.

This day serves as a precious moment not only for being with my high school class for one last time, but for the memories that led up to it. Senior year in particular was a pivotal moment for all students to determine what path to choose after graduation. These memories rush back while watching a film like Lady Bird, which represents all the peaks and valleys of senior year in high school.

Lady Bird, played by Saoirse Ronan, a senior in a Sacramento Catholic High School, is one of the lesser known people in her class. She wants to go to college on the East Coast, but Lady’s grades, financial situation and mother are obstacles in her way. As Lady applies for colleges, she gets a role in the school play, falls for a boy and gets involved in other extracurricular activities.

Lady Bird is the definitive coming-of-age feature by capturing all the major events during senior year of high school in genuine fashion. The film also addresses parental relationships, socio-economic issues and adolescent choices.

We all remember those petty arguments with our parents over doing the dishes or coming home late from jenga night at a friend’s house. They lasted for a day or so, and in the end, we hugged it out. Lady, on the other hand, honestly feels that her mother hates her. At seventeen-years-old, the world revolves around you and if Mom tells you to clean your room after the homecoming dance, it’s official: she hates your guts. Lady is usually arguing with her mother over something, whether it's after listening to The Grapes of Wrath audiobook cassette or sifting through the stylish outfits at Thrift World. The High School senior feels that her mother is too controlling, but she doesn't see her mother’s love through the lectures. Lady’s mother, Marion, played by Laurie Metcalf, lectures her child because she wants her to reach her full potential. Not everything can be handed to Lady on a silver platter, including a college education on the East Coast.

Usually around November is when college applications are due. Remember the fun of that? Picking the right schools and writing all those essays and checks to College Board for sending SAT scores to colleges; that was a blast. Lady goes through the same challenges, but she wants to continue her education on the East Coast, despite pushback from her mother. This will hurt her mother not only in the heart, but wallet as well. Lady’s mother has picked up two shifts at the hospital because her father, played by Tracy Letts, has lost his job. This is another example of the mother’s unrecognized love. Not all affection for one’s child is shown through hugs or kisses. Many children take their parents efforts for granted when it comes to working hard for paying the bills. If paying your child’s bill for tuition isn’t one of the highest forms of love, I don’t know what else is.

While Lady deals with family and financial issues at home, she also gets involved with the juicy high school drama we all miss. During play practice, Lady falls for its leading actor, played by Lucas Hedges. The two embark on their puppy love relationship, which has surprising twists. Meanwhile, Lady begins associating with the cool kids who hang in the parking lot and smoke cigarettes they probably got from the chill gas station employee. Those cool kids are the ones we all loved in high school, who got a BMW for their seventeenth birthday. To back them up, a $50,000 vehicle was essential to roll up in the Wawa parking lot after school.

Along with the social climate of high school, it navigates through all the important events in a typical school year. The first day mass, homecoming dance, the play’s opening night, Thanksgiving break and of course, prom. Ah, the prom was a great time especially when the dude who graduated two years ahead of you was DJing the event. Nothing like shuffling to “Trap Queen” in a tuxedo to send off our last year of high school. With each event, it’s impressive to see Lady evolve into a young adult.

These features are expected for a coming-of-age flick, but Lady’s genuine curiosity stands out compared to other films with similar themes. When she first kisses a boy, Lady runs in the middle of the street, screams to the high heavens and falls to her knees. I had the same reaction when I found out peer leaders got an additional study hall period. Additionally, as Lady and her friend hang out prior to mass, they are snacking on communion bread like chips. It’s okay though, because the bread hasn’t been blessed yet. The humor sprinkled in these moments make Lady’s experience a sincere portrait of adolescence.

The film’s charming humor and original feeling is accredited to first-time director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig. Gerwig has recently starred in terrific films such as Frances Ha and Mistress America, which she also co-wrote. The dialogue between high school students, along with children to their parents feels like the camera is rolling through an actual conversation. Also, the situations are relatable and ones we have all found ourselves in. I mean, haven’t you been at the homecoming dance, swaying closely with your date and a nun approaches you saying, “make room for the Holy Spirit?” Amen to that!

Lady Bird is the definitive coming-of-age film. In today’s cinema, we are lucky to come across some films in the same genre like The Edge of Seventeen, but they don’t portray the same personal touch that Gerwig brings. Watching this takes me back to June 23, 2015. The sadness of a stage ending, but the excitement for a new one to begin. While harping on nostalgia, Gerwig successfully makes this a beautiful love letter to mom. Many parents may feel their love goes unrecognized through all the bickering and arguments. However, once the dust is settled, it’s important for us to be grateful for the things we have and to see love in different ways. Our parents pour love into their work and lectures to give us a better life. Lady Bird is not just about reflecting on the angst of high school, but rather recognizing the efforts of our loved ones.

[thisisheffner]

The Clash's 40 greatest songs – ranked! | Music | The Guardian

A historical artefact, not for the proto-punk music, but because the lyrics epitomise the new wave’s perceived threat to the old guard. “No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones / In 1977,” sang Joe Strummer, hardly about to let his love of such pop greats get in the way of punk’s declaration of year zero.

39. White Riot (1977)

Guitarist Mick Jones now dislikes the first Clash single, its lyrics written by Strummer after the band were caught up in the 1976 Notting Hill riots and he concluded white people needed “a riot of our own”. The sentiment hasn’t aged well, but the song exemplifies the amphetamine-fuelled punk the band would leave behind.

38. What’s My Name (1977)

A Clash curio in that it’s the only one of the group’s songs to bear a writing credit for Keith Levene, the band’s original guitarist. Levene showers melodic gold dust all over this otherwise shouty punk stomper, but is better known for his work with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd.

37. Know Your Rights (1982)

From Combat Rock, the final album by the classic quartet of Strummer, Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon. The tank was getting emptied, but Strummer’s black humour brims through lines such as “You have the right to free speech / As long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.”

36. I’m So Bored With the USA (1977)

This hugely anthemic track on debut album The Clash began life as I’m So Bored With You, a song about Jones’s girlfriend, before Strummer’s ad-libbed “… SA” took it in a new direction. The blistering critique of US imperialism and exported culture (“Yankee detectives are always on the TV”) didn’t stop the Clash’s love of American iconography, cars and clothes.

35. Janie Jones (1977)

Original Clash drummer Terry Chimes – uncharitably credited as Tory Crimes on The Clash – propels the debut’s storming opener, a eulogy to a 60s pop celebrity and libertine who had been jailed for vice offences in 1973. On release, the convicted madam returned Strummer’s affections in the song Letter to Joe.

34. Charlie Don’t Surf (1980)

By the epic three-disc fourth album, Sandinista!, the Clash arguably had too many ideas for their own good, but within the 36-song sprawl are undoubted treasures. Titled after a Lt Col Kilgore quip in Apocalypse Now, there’s an element of the doo-wop era to this sweet song about, well, cultural imperialism.

33. Brand New Cadillac (1979)

This bracing cover of a 1959 Vince Taylor and the Playboys track refers to the early Brit rockers’ glamorous dream car (when most of them probably had to make do with a humble Ford Anglia). From the double album London Calling, the Clash’s creative zenith.

32. The Guns of Brixton (1979)

Brixton boy Simonon wanted some songwriting cash and so penned this memorable song about police harassment and discontent in his London neighbourhood, two years before the district exploded into rioting. In 1990, Simonon received an unexpected windfall when Norman Cook (later Fatboy Slim) sampled the groove for Beats International’s hit Dub Be Good to Me.

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31. Clash City Rockers (1978)

Year zero meant many punks hurriedly buried their pasts in pub rock bands with long hair, but this 1978 single reworks a song from Strummer’s old pub rock band, the 101’ers, around trademark Clash self-mythology. The shift from aggressive guitars (surely copied from the Who’s I Can’t Explain) to something more mournful suggest musical adventure to come.

30. Rudie Can’t Fail (1979)

According to long-time Clash associate Don Letts, this London Calling gem is the fruit of a long hot summer that the Clash spent smoking herb and going to reggae clubs. It’s a horns-drenched homage to Caribbean culture, “drinking brew for breakfast” and the “chicken skin suit”.

29. Tommy Gun (1978)

A great single from the not universally adored second album, Give ’Em Enough Rope. Strummer is scathing about the idea that terrorists see their cause as glamorous, yelling: “You’ll be dead when your war is won”, while Headon’s snare drum rolls resemble gunfire. This didn’t stop the singer posing for photos in a T-shirt honouring Italian-based violent leftist organisation Brigate Rosse (the Red Brigades).

28. Police and Thieves (1977)

This cover of the Lee Scratch Perry-produced Junior Murvin hit stands out a mile on The Clash. It’s their first attempt at reggae, played punkier, with a new, Jones-penned intro. That summer, Bob Marley (working with Perry) acknowledged the burgeoning punk/Jamaican music love-in with Punky Reggae Party.

27. London’s Burning (1977)

Also from the debut album, this most captures those punk rock summers of 1976 and 1977, with its bone-crunching verse and rabble-rousing chorus. The imagery is a comprehensive list of the band and movement’s inspirations, from high-rise living above the Westway (where Jones lived with his gran) to a capital city “burning with boredom now”.

26. Somebody Got Murdered (1980)

According to Pat Gilbert’s superb book Passion Is a Fashion, the Clash were approached by producer-arranger Jack Nitzsche to provide a song for the William Friedkin movie Cruising, but he never called again. Thus, the song lit up Sandinista! with its effervescent tune and film noir-ish imagery about a random killing.

25. Career Opportunities (1977)

The limited youth employment of the 70s is timelessly skewered (“Career opportunities, the ones that never knock”) in this gem from the debut. The line “I won’t open letter bombs for you” refers to an actual job once held by Jones, checking government mail for explosive devices.

24. Pressure Drop (1979)

The B-side of the slightly hackneyed English Civil War and one of the Clash’s great covers, of Toots and the Maytals’ 1970 reggae/ska classic (as heard in the 1972 film The Harder They Come). Later, Strummer was at pains to point out that they recorded it in 1977, hence it pre-dates 2-Tone.

23. This Is England (1985)

Headon and Jones had been sacked by now (for heroin abuse and behavioural issues, respectively) as a remodelled, five-piece Clash made a sixth album. The otherwise unloved Cut the Crap did herald this final terrific single. Keyboards and guitars drive Strummer’s withering take on our national strife.

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22. Gates of the West (1979)

The Clash had been singing about the US since I’m So Bored With the USA. Based on Rusted Chrome, an early Jones composition, this stormer from the Cost of Living EP describes their New York experiences, the characters, imagery and anthemic tune all reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen.

21. Hitsville UK (1980)

From Sandinista!, this eulogy to pop is a bubblegum delight that namechecks the UK’s emerging independent labels and argues that a great “two minutes 59” single can triumph over industry sharp practice. With its Motown (the original “Hitsville”) groove and sugar-coated duet between Jones and his girlfriend, Ellen Foley, the Clash’s remaining hardcore punk fans hated it.

20. Police on My Back (1980)

Another terrific example of the Clash’s ability to cover a song (the original was by Eddy Grant’s old band, the Equals) and make it sound as if they had written it. Jones’s guitar wails like a siren, and the song has all the adrenalin rush of a police chase.

19. Lost in the Supermarket (1979)

In the tradition of the Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction and the X-Ray Spex back catalogue, this is a great Strummer-penned/Jones-sung song about the dehumanising effects of advertising and the consumer society. (“I came in here for that special offer / A guaranteed personality.”)

18. I Fought the Law (1979)

The band reputedly heard the Bobby Fuller Four original on the studio jukebox in San Francisco while recording Give ’Em Enough Rope. Writing credits aside, this is a trademark Clash smash, full of outlaw rebel posturing and laden with Headon’s six-shooter drum cracks.

17. Death or Glory (1979)

Strummer’s ferocious blast at ageing, sellout rock stars builds to a hurtling climax on a lyrical twist as he fears a similar fate himself. Presumably it was ruled out as a single because of the infamous, hilarious line: “But I believe in this and it’s been tested by research / He who fucks nuns will later join the church.”

16. Safe European Home (1978)

Strutting around Kingston, Jamaica, in full punk regalia (in theory to stir the creative juices for Give ’Em Enough Rope) proved a rude awakening, but did produce this untypical example of Clash self-mockery. “I went to the place where every white face / Is an invitation to robbery / And sitting here in my safe European home / Don’t want to go back there again.”

15. Clampdown (1979)

Strummer’s view that capitalism was endangering people and the planet was sharpened by the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, which inspired this London Calling highlight. The Clash were exploding with musical ideas by now, and packed rock, funk and disco into this fiery, timeless anthem.

14. Garageland (1977)

The rock critic Charles Shaar Murray’s dismissal of the Clash as a “garage band” in an early live review prompted this defiant riposte, which also reflects the band’s fretting that signing to a major label would be selling out. It’s a furious but somehow melancholy anthem: “People ringing up making offers for my life / But I just wanna stay in the garage all night.”

13. The Card Cheat (1979)

Surely channeling Jones’s love of Mott the Hoople, this is the sort of thing that presumably inspired the Libertines. Horns, drum rudiments, a sublime piano hook and vivid imagery (“To the opium dens and the bar room gin ... The gambler’s face cracks into a grin”) combine in a song about a card sharp who is shot for cheating.

12. Spanish Bombs (1979)

A favourite of the late INXS singer, Michael Hutchence. The melody is glorious and Strummer’s lyrics contrast the freedom fighters of the Spanish civil war with modern tourists. The singer partly sings it in what he called “Clash Spanish”. Olé!

11. Rock the Casbah (1982)

Headon wrote and played most of the music on Combat Rock’s club/chart smash, which innovatively combines rock, funk and a slightly eastern feel. Strummer’s lyrics are inspired by Iran’s post-Islamic revolution ban on pop music, the singer’s idea being that the people would rise up and “rock the casbah”.

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10. Train in Vain (1979)

After a planned NME flexidisc fell through, this sublime Jones unrequited love song was added to London Calling too late for listing on the initial sleeves. Pete Townshend’s favourite Clash tune, this is the band at their unashamedly poppiest. Headon’s killer drum intro fires one of the rhythm section’s funkiest grooves.

9. Stay Free (1978)

Jones’s sublime, heartfelt eulogy to his old Strand school friend Robin Crocker, who became known as Robin Banks after a sting of heists landed him a stretch inside. Some fans were delighted to discover that Banks subsequently punched the song’s producer, Sandy Pearlman, who had previously worked with Blue Öyster Cult and is largely blamed for Give ’Em Enough Rope’s not exactly punky gloss.

8. The Magnificent Seven (1980)

Having rattled through punk, reggae, ska, dub and rockabilly inside five years, our boys assimilate the emerging hip-hop sounds they heard while in New York, and Strummer turns white rap pioneer. A terrific groove forms the platform for daft-but-inspired wordplay: “Italian mobster shoots a lobster.”

7. The Call Up (1980)

Following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, as the US geared up to reintroduce the draft, the Clash spearheaded the resistance with this fantastic Sandinista! single. “It’s up to you not to heed the call up / I don’t wanna die ... I don’t wanna kill,” cries Strummer, over a magnificently eerie reggae-ish backdrop.

6. Bankrobber (1980)

So many great songs poured out of the Clash that this Mikey Dread-produced gem was almost thrown away as an import-only 45, which didn’t stop it making it No 12 in the UK charts. It’s dub music with folk storytelling – Strummer’s “daddy” wasn’t really a bank robber, but a diplomat.

5. London Calling (1979)

The Clash’s highest-charting UK single, until Combat Rock’s rather banal Should I Stay Or Should I Go reached No 1 in 1991 after being used in a Levi’s ad. Years before the climate crisis and flooding sparked public concern, Strummer fears an imminent biblical apocalypse, hence “London is drowning and I live by the river”.

4. Armagideon Time (1979)

The flip of the London Calling single, this superb reworking of Willie Williams’ social justice anthem is the definitive example of the Clash playing reggae. Strummer’s “OK, OK, don’t push us when we’re hot” is his shouted rebuff to then-manager Kosmo Vinyl, urging him to scrap the allotted three-minute length and keep the tapes rolling.

3. Complete Control (1977)

After CBS infuriated the Clash by releasing Remote Control as a single against their wishes, the band responded with their punk-era high watermark. Lee Perry produces, and Strummer’s yelled “You’re my guitar hero!” during Jones’s blistering guitar solo is one of many goosebump moments.

2. Straight to Hell (1982)

Headon’s bossa nova rhythm and a haunting hook (later sampled by MIA for 2007’s Paper Planes) power Combat Rock’s finest. The band’s unity was already fracturing, but Strummer rightly called this vengeful tirade against imperialism and American soldiers in Vietnam who left local women pregnant (“Go straight to hell, boys”) “one of our absolute masterpieces”.

1. (White Man in) Hammersmith Palais (1978)

Any of the Clash’s best songs could grace the top spot without too much argument, but this edges it. The collision of reggae (verse) and rock (chorus) epitomise what the critic Lester Bangs described as the Clash’s fusion of “black music and white noise”. Lyrically, a disappointingly lightweight reggae gig (in the Hammersmith Palais) triggers Strummer’s blistering state of the nation address, in which he considers everything from music (“Turning rebellion into money”) to racism and rising nationalism (“If Adolf Hitler flew in today, they’d send a limousine anyway”). Forty-two years on, it remains a tour de force and as relevant as ever.

Various 40th anniversary super deluxe editions of London Calling are out now on Sony.

This content was originally published here.

[daybydaywithmercury]

Kisgyermek évek / Toddler years 👦

Az 5 éves Farrokhot a Zanzibar Missionary Schoolba, azaz a Zanzibári Misszionárius Iskolába íratták be szülei, amelyet anglikán apácák működtettek Stone Townban. „Az átlagnál sokkal gyorsabban fejlődött, és már ekkor megmutatta tehetségét a festésben és a rajzolásban.” – emlékszik vissza Perviz. Az édeasnyja, Jer szerint, már ekkor megmutatkozott a zene és az előadó művészet iránti érdeklődése. „Kisfiúként nagyon boldog volt és nagyon szerette a zenét. Népzene, opera, klasszikus, mindet szerette. Azt hiszem, mindig is showman szeretett volna lenni.”

„Volt egyfajta csillogás a szemében és egy csintalan csíny. De amire a legjobban emlékszem, hogy nagyon titokzatos volt és félénk. Borzasztóan félénk. Amikor a szüleivel látogatóba jöttek hozzánk, sosem beszélt sokat. Ilyen volt a természete. Amikor már idősebb lett, nem sokat láttuk egymást. Nagyon sokat járt a barátaival játszani az utcára és a tengerpartra.” – mondta Perviz.

1952-ben Bomi és Jer életébe újabb boldogság költözött, hiszen megszületett Farrokh kishúga, Kashmira. „Hatéves volt, amikor én megszülettem, úgy hogy csak egy évet tölthettünk igazán együtt, mégis mindig tudtam, hogy az én büszke bátyjám vigyáz rám.” – mesélte Kashmira. Az, hogy Kashmira mit értett azon, hogy csak egy évet tölthettek együtt, könnyen megfejthető rejtély, hiszen 1955 februárjában Farrokhot bentlakásos iskolába küldték a szülei Indiába.

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The 5 years old Farrokh attended the Zanzibar Missionary School where his teachers were Anglican nuns in Stone Town. "He was developing quickly into delightfully courteous, serious and precise little boy, than average and already showed his talent in painting and drawing," Perviz recalls. His mother, according to Jer, had already shown his interest in music and performing arts. “As a little boy he was very happy and very loved music. Folk, opera, classical, he loved them all. I think he always wanted to be a showman.”

„He had a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous streak. But I remember him most vividly as secretive and shy. Painfully shy. He would not talk much, even when he came with his parents to see us. That was his nature. As he grew older, we didn’t see each other so much, as he would be out playing on the streets and on the beach with all the other boys.” – Perviz said.

In 1952, the happiness of Bomi and Jer moved on with the birth of Farrokh's little sister, Kashmira. "He was six years when I was born, so we could only really spend a year together, but I always knew that my proud brother was looking after me." - Kashmira said. What Kashmira meant by spending only a year together was an easy mystery, as Farrokh was sent to a boarding school in India in February 1955.

[Irodalmak / References:  📚 - David Bret (1996): Borotvaélen, Freddie Mercury története. - Lesley-Ann Jones (2011): Bohemian Rhapsody, The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury. - Matt Richards, Mark Langthorne (2019): Bohém Rapszódia.]

[newyorktheater]

André Bishop, head of Lincoln Center Theater: $1 million Todd Haimes, Roundabout: $922,000. Oskar Eustis the Public Theater: $659,000 Lynne Meadows, MTC: $565,000 Carole Rothman, Second Stage $191,000 James Nicola, New York Theatre Workshop: $178,000

These are the latest known annual compensation for the artistic heads of NYC non-profit theaters, compiled by Philip Boroff in Broadway Journal, who judiciously explains the artistic and financial accomplishments of each, and points out their sacrifices: Rothman’s salary represents a 50 percent paycut from her previous annual compensation while fundraising for the Hayes.

“Not-for-profit leaders forego the potential windfall that commercial producers earn from a blockbuster, in favor of a job with steady income. Yet some company trustees and foundation leaders privately call the biggest nonprofit packages excessive, the appearance of which can deter donors.”

  November Theater Openings

Alia Shawkat in “The Second Woman”

October Quiz

  The Week in New York Theater Reviews

Aran Murphyas Hamnet, in person and projected onto the screen, along with Bush Moukarzel as his father Shakespeare

Hamnet and the absent (projected) Shakespeare, his father

Hamnet

William Shakespeare’s only son, named Hamnet, died when he was 11 years old; a few years later, the playwright wrote “Hamlet.”  The Irish theater troupe Dead Centre conjures up the Bard’s boy in the hour-long “Hamnet,” a whimsical, tender, technically innovative avant-garde play that features an extraordinary performance by a 12-year-old named Aran Murphy.

He Did What?

a ten-minute animated opera that was projected for free onto the wall of BAM’s Peter Jay Sharp building nightly from 7 to 10 p.m

Raul Esparza as a temperamental chef in “Seared”

W. Tre Davis

Raul Esparza and Krysta Rodriguez

Seared

Theresa Rebeck’s slight but savory comedy  about  running a restaurant stars Raúl Esparza as Harry, a hilariously mercurial chef-owner of a hole-in-the-wall eatery  that’s become the latest foodie destination. A blurb in New York Magazine has praised Harry’s ginger lemongrass scallops dish, so now the customers are flocking to the place and clamoring for the dish.

But Harry refuses to make it anymore.

“I’m not feeling the scallops,” he says.

Freestyle Love Supreme

Freestyle Love Supreme, the hip-hop improv group,is not so much Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway follow-up to “Hamilton” as it is a subsidiary of Lin-Manuel Inc. …It is designed to feel good-natured and informal, like friends sitting around a dorm room at Wesleyan, even though there are 766 of us and we’re at the Booth Theater…That goodwill goes a long way.

Fear

Two adults are standing over a teenager named Jamie who is tied to a chair. Phil, a plumber, has kidnapped Jamie, and dragged him into this abandoned tool shed in the woods outside Princeton, New Jersey. Ethan, a professor, is trying to rescue Jamie…An eight-year-old girl from the neighborhood is missing, and Phil (Enrico Colantoni, who plays the genial father in Veronica Mars), has reason to suspect that Jamie (Alexander Garfin) has something to do with it.  Or does he?…A play that requires a vigorous suspension of disbelief. Yet, if you can get over that hurdle, it offers three good actors constantly playing with our perspective – not only about who did what but such issues as moral relativism, class tensions, and…fear

  The Sound Inside

“The Sound Inside” is a dark drama by Adam Rapp that keeps us in the dark, literally and figuratively, which works better while watching it on stage than thinking about it afterwards. Mary-Louise Parker portrays a middle-aged Yale professor named Bella Lee Baird, who prefers literature to life, and expects to die soon; she tells us she’s been diagnosed with cancer. Bella slowly develops a friendship with 18-year-old Christopher Dunn (Will Hochman), one of the students in her course…They turn out to share a taste in books, especially dark tales like Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” which is one of so many book titles name-dropped during the course of the play that the script could serve as a reading list (which I include in the review.)

Monsoon Season

Lizzie Vieh’s black comedy about a divorced couple permanently underwater in Phoenix Arizona, is clever and merciless, but it is also oddly compassionate….Danny and his ex-wife Julia may be losers who constantly make laughably wrong choices, but they are trying to do right, to be better.

The Week in New York Theater News

“The Minutes,” Tracy Letts’ most political play to date, will have its first preview on February 25, as this cryptic e-mail revealed. No theater or cast have been announced. The play, which premiered at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago in 2017, is about a City Council meeting in the fictional town called Big Cherry that turns ominous. Letts began work on it before the 2016 election,

“The play is not about Trump or Trumpism — I don’t find him a particularly complicated figure — but it is about this contentious moment we’re having in American politics in the last few years,”

Andrew Garfield will star in the Netflix adaptation of Rent playwright Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical tick…tick…BOOM, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

    Lear deBessonet will lead Encores!  starting officially in the 2021 season, succeeding Jack Viertel

Samira Wiley and Dominic Fumusa will star In Molière in the Park‘s “The School for Wives” in Prospect Park, November 13 and 14 FREE.

  Thomas Finkelpearl is leaving his job as cultural affairs commissioner after five years. “The timing of it is suspect,” councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, chair of the city council’s cultural affairs committee, told NY1. Some speculate he’s unfairly taking the fall for the various controversies and glitches over the city’s plan to build more statues honoring women and people of color. Finkelpearl helped spearhead the city’s efforts to tie its funding to the diversity of arts institutions’ employees and board members under the cultural plan, unveiled in 2017.

Billy Porter, performer, now playwright

Idina Menzel, Lea Michele and Billy Porter will be among those performing at the 93rd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Remember when Billy Porter performed at the parade in 2013, as Lola in Kinky Boots?  and conservatives were outraged? Have times changed?

  Times Square is presenting its first annual Show Globes, displaying giant snow globe-like sculptures of   Dear Evan Hansen, Wicked, Ain’t Too Proud, and The Lion King. On Broadway Plaza in Times Square between 44th and 45th streets through December 26.

2020 Seasons

  2020 Under the Radar Festival celebrates its 16th season with a line-up of groundbreaking artists across the U.S. and around the world, including Australia, Chile, China, Japan, Mexico, Palestine, Taiwan, and the UK.

92nd Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricists

Yip Harburg Jan 25-27 Jerry Herman Feb 22-24 George Gershwin March 21-23 Stephen Schwartz and Broadway’s Next Generation (featuring Schwartz and Ns Marcy Heisler & Zina Goldrich, John Bucchino, Khiyon Hursey) April 18-20 George Abbott and the Making of the American Musical May 30-June 1

  Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series

  Andre De Shields January 29 Joe Iconis Feb 1 Ali Stroker Feb 28

   Theatre Row, a six-theatre complex located on 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, has announced the Off-Off-Broadway companies that will be making work at its spaces, as part of the complex’s new Kitchen Sink Residency. The two-year program will give the companies space to develop new work, culminating in a three-week production run. The companies are the Assembly, Broken Box Mime Theater, LubDub Theatre Company, Noor Theatre, and Superhero Clubhouse.

The Critic Unmellowed

From Wall Street Journal interview  with John Simon, 94:

“His penchant for criticizing actors’ and actresses’ physical traits —he once wrote unkindly about Liza Minnelli’s face, and another time about Barbra Streisand’s nose— has also helped to make him repugnant to the city’s cultural elite. He contended at the time, and again to me, that such criticism is entirely legitimate if a performer fails to transcend his or her defects of appearance by force of talent.” (How does one “transcend” one’s appearance?)

On how theater has not declined:

“Things were never very good,” he says.“I don’t really see a decline. Looking back into the past always makes the past look better than it actually was,and the present worse, perhaps, than it actually is. . . Out of, I don’t know how many plays open in a season —a lot of them anyway—there may be two or three even worth bothering with. It has always been so.”

  Rest in Peace

Bernard Slade, 89, creator of the TV series “The Flying Nun” and “The Partridge Family,” but we know him as the Broadway playwright of “Same Time, Next Year,” a long-running and widely-produced stage comedy.

Andile Gumbi , 36, former Simba of Broadway’s The Lion King. He died of cardiac arrest while in Israel , Gumbi was portraying the lead role of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel The Musical at the Jerusalem Theater.

A memorial for Eric LaJuan Summers will be held on Nov 4th, 2019 at 9:30pm at The Green Room 42 on W42nd Street & 10th Ave. Members of the Broadway community will be performing.

    Non-Profit Pays! Letts’ Turn to Politics. #Stageworthy News of the Week André Bishop, head of Lincoln Center Theater: $1 million Todd Haimes, Roundabout: $922,000. Oskar Eustis the Public Theater: $659,000…

[42inchtv]

Some Thoughts On The Best Movies of 2017

Honorable mentions: "Alien: Covenant” (dir. Ridley Scott), “Battle of the Sexes" (dirs. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris), "The Big Sick" (dir. Michael Showalter), "Blade Runner 2049" (dir. Denis Villeneuve), "Call Me by Your Name" (dir. Luca Guadagnino), “The Florida Project” (dir. Sean Baker), "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (dir. James Gunn), "It" (dir. Andy Muschietti), "The LEGO Batman Movie" (dir. Chris McKay), "Logan Lucky" (dir. Steven Soderbergh), “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” (dir. Noah Baumbach), "Molly's Game" (dir. Aaron Sorkin), "mother!" (dir. Darren Aronofsky), "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (dir. Jon Watts), "Wonder Woman" (dir. Patty Jenkins)

10. “The Post” (dir. Steven Spielberg) Let's journalism the shit out of awards season. Urgent and restless with a pace that feels Scorsesian, Steven Spielberg's "The Post" is a broad movie about the dangers of living under an authoritarian president that doesn't bother with subtly (and is better for it). Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are better than they've been in years and the rest of the cast -- television pros, all -- crackle, proving there is no such thing as a small role in a Spielberg joint.

9. “The Disaster Artist” (dir. James Franco) The greatest thing James Franco has ever done, and maybe his best performance too -- give or take an Alien in "Spring Breakers." "The Disaster Artist" is the year's funniest comedy but also something more: there are deeply felt messages here about friendship and failure. Franco is impeccable as "The Room" impresario Tommy Wiseau, a performance art stunt with a genuine heart.

8. “The Shape of Water” (dir. Guillermo del Toro) If I told you about "The Shape of Water" -- the movie where Guillermo del Toro combines "Creature from the Black Lagoon," "Amelie," the magic of Steven Spielberg, the music of Alexandre Desplat on his best day, "Splash," and an episode of "The Twilight Zone" -- what would I say? That it's exceptional, a romantic two-hander between Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones that shouldn't even come close to working and yet does. To borrow from the "Superman" marketing campaign, "The Shape of Water" makes you believe a fish monster can love. Maybe there's hope for the rest of us.

7. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (dir. Martin McDonagh) Good people can do bad things, bad people can do good things, and anger without empathy only leads to more anger and less empathy -- those are just some of the themes tackled by "Three Billboards," a problematic fave that is the best Coen brothers movie they've never directed. This is the cinematic version of "RT does not equal endorsement" that asks tough questions of the audience without providing easy answers (in a way similar to polarizing masterpieces like "Zero Dark Thirty," "The Wolf of Wall Street," and "Gone Girl" before). Naturally, some people hate it. But if nothing else, it's home to the best performances of Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell's illustrious careers (Woody Harrelson is no slouch either).

6. “Phantom Thread” (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) There’s a good chance of all the great movies on this list, “Phantom Thread” is the one we’re still talking about in 30 years. This is Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” a sly look at relationships and what happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force. (According to Anderson, the force always wins.) Daniel Day-Lewis is customarily outstanding here, but, like every great movie, it’s the find who steals the show: Vicky Krieps matches Day-Lewis beat for beat and wins the movie. An all-time classic.

5. “Dunkirk” (dir. Christopher Nolan) It's hard to explain in words, but maybe that's the point: No performance affected me more this year than Tom Hardy's nearly dialogue-free showstopper as a World War II pilot in "Dunkirk." He does more with his eyes, with his actions, than most Oscar contenders do with pages of text. That's the power of Christopher Nolan's movie, which leans heavily into the theme of sacrifice for the common person to create something visceral and beautiful.

4. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (dir. Rian Johnson) A movie about the danger that comes when hope is lost and the hope that a better future can arrive courtesy of the next generation, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" what "Vs." is to "Ten" in Pearl Jam's discography. It's richer, bolder, harder, and strays just left of what worked so well the first time around. The result is a tremendous movie, mature in the way it views "Star Wars" nostalgia and smart enough to know its characters are winners across the board -- especially Kylo Ren (legit FYC for Adam Driver), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, who rivals Sylvester Stallone in "Creed" in performance), and Rey (give Daisy Ridley all the movies forever).

3. “Get Out” (dir. Jordan Peele) Now that Nazis have been emboldened to come out of the darkness, a scathing takedown of performative wokeness might seem a little dated. Good fortune then that Jordan Peele's "Get Out" is precise in its satire of white privilege and cultural appropriation -- taking those two pervasive realities to an outrageous, hilarious, and uncomfortable conclusion. This one is the very definition of a hoot; prepare to shout at the screen in admiration.

2. “I, Tonya” (dir. Craig Gillespie) What would it look like if Martin Scorsese directed a movie about Tonya Harding? "I, Tonya" provided an answer in 2017, shouting "suck my dick" while listening to Q104.3 with the volume turned way up. Directed by Craig Gillespie, this movie is a wrecking ball -- its frenetic editing is like the third act of "Goodfellas" on more cocaine. Naturally, some people hate it. "I, Tonya" has been dinged for a host of reasons, its tonal shifts first among perceived offenses. But that's what makes the whole thing feel even more authentic. Life is messy and often exists in a tricky grey area. Gillespie never forgets that, while allowing Margot Robbie to shine as Tonya herself; in a year of towering female performances, she absolutely stands tallest.

1. “Lady Bird” (dir. Greta Gerwig) The sweetest movie ever made where a teenager calls a nun the c-word, Greta Gerwig's directorial debut is a stone-cold classic -- funny, smart, thoughtful, and a reinvention of the teen movie for the modern age. Wholly her own thing, but with elements of Cameron Crowe, Wes Anderson, John Hughes, and Noah Baumbach sprinkled lightly throughout, Gerwig proves herself to be an effortless filmmaker; "Lady Bird" comes across like the work of a 10-time director, not a first. The script is first-rate too, as are the performances -- Saoirse Ronan obviously and Laurie Metcalf too, but also Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, and Tracy Letts as the world's most resigned dad (I will take pointers from him forever). "Lady Bird" is universal and specific in ways that cross generations and genders -- and Lady Bird is a character we'll remember alongside '80s favorites like Lloyd Dobbler from "Say Anything" and Andie from "Pretty in Pink" for decades to come. This was a great year for movies, but "Lady Bird" was the greatest.

[gossipnetwork-blog]

Peter Travers: 'Lady Bird' Is the Coming-of-Age Movie of 2017

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/peter-travers-lady-bird-is-the-coming-of-age-movie-of-2017/

Peter Travers: 'Lady Bird' Is the Coming-of-Age Movie of 2017

Just when you think there’s nothing original or exciting left to mine from a coming-of-age story, along comes the totally irresistible Lady Bird – a reminder that no genre is played out when there’s a new artist around to see it with fresh eyes. Screenwriter Greta Gerwig, in a spectacular solo directing debut (she co-directed Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg in 2008), has carved a brilliantly hilarious and heartfelt script out of her own teen life. Not a punch is pulled, and sentiment takes a holiday. All that’s left is blunt honesty. 

Gerwig, 34, best known for her stellar performances in the films of Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, Mistress America), doesn’t appear in Lady Bird. She’s left the job of playing her teen self to 23-year-old Saoirse Ronan, a miracle of an actress (see Atonement, Brooklyn). She plays Christine McPherson, a high school renegade who insists that “Lady Bird” is her “given” name. (As in, she gave it to herself.) Like Gerwig, McPherson is growing up in Sacramento, California, circa 2002, with acne, a dye job and a house on the wrong side of the tracks. Mom (Laurie Metcalf, incredible) is “warm and scary”; Dad (Tracy Letts) is jobless and depressed. She dreads the notion of staying in NorCal almost as much as she fears of having “unspecial sex.”

It’s senior year for Lady Bird at a Catholic high school where she sinfully snacks on communion wafers, puts a “Just Married” sign on a nun’s car and receives warnings from the mother superior (Lois Smith) to rein in her ambitions. Maybe she should also audition for the school musical, Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” about youthful idealism gone sour. McPherson confides in her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein) about her need to escape her home town – she calls it “the midwest of California” – for New York; she theorizes that college enrollment will be down post 9-11. As for her crushes – sexually confused theater geek Danny (Manchester By the Sea’s Lucas Hedges) and uber-cool musician Kyle (breakout star Timothée Chalamet; wait until you see him in the upcoming Call Me By Your Name) – things don’t work out the way Lady Bird plans. As if.

What the film ultimately comes down to is a battle royale between Lady Bird and her mother, Marion. A nurse who works double shifts to support her family, the matriarch has no patience for her daughter’s big schemes. The two women are cut from the same stubborn oak, but their love is indisputable. Metcalf, fresh off her Tony win for Broadway’s A Doll’s House: Part 2, merits serious Academy attention in her richest film role to date. She’s funny, fierce and all together magnificent. And Ronan matches her beat for beat; with her expert comic timing and nuanced dramatic shading, she is, quite simply, astonishing. The actress lets us into the mind and heart of Lady Bird, right down to her frayed nerve endings.

Sam Levy’s evocative cinematography and Jon Brion’s just-right score add to the mix, along with such period hits as Alanis Morissette’s “Hand in My Pocket” and Dave Matthews’ “Crash Into Me.” But Lady Bird isn’t selling rose-colored nostalgia – it’s after the truth even when it hurts. And as a filmmaker, Gerwig proves herself a blazing talent, generous and tough with all the people she puts on screen. She lets us joke with them and ache with their insecurities, finding the ferocity and fragility in characters on both sides of the age divide. Lady Bird is impossible not to love. Gerwig has turned her personal story of a small-town girl into a full-blown triumph and one of year’s best films.

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