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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer Review – Richard Ramirez Docuseries Speaks Plainly

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Netflix dives into one of the most horrifying cases of multiple murders with its eyes wide open in Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. The documentary is told from the perspective of the investigators at the heart of the case, particularly a veteran homicide detective and his young, enthusiastic partner. They had nothing going into the case, and when they did dig out the clues, they often lost what they had because of its newsworthiness. The series works because it treats the audience the same way as the cops were treated: infuriatingly.

Every clue, setback, and recalculation in Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is satisfyingly frustrating. We all know the story by now, so director Tiller Russell can leisurely fill in the plot. We don’t even get the name of the serial killer until the end of the third episode. It’s not in the title, and if the detectives don’t know it, the series won’t disclose it. This is an internal affair, and early disclosures to the media contaminate clues like dancing on a crime scene in a pair of size 12 Avia sneakers.

The four-part series opens in a hot and happy Los Angeles, filled with glossy tinsel and hair metal. The city hosted the Olympics in 1984, and the Lakers were international superstars. Archival weather reports continually update a sweltering heat wave, and the citizens cool off leisurely and diversely. But not after dark, where the bulk of the docu-series is set. That is LA Noir. The same kind of darkness that crept into the headlines when the Black Dahlia murder struck, but more similar to the Manson Family killings.

One bad boy, who will later be described as having incredible sex appeal, rips the nightlife apart. At the time, though, all anyone knows about him is he has bad teeth, smells like a goat, and loves AC/DC. Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer captures the mid-eighties period well, with archival TV news and clips of then-current shows. When the events turn creepy, Max Headroom is playing on a black and white TV in the distance, almost out of focus.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective Gil Carrillo and renowned homicide cop Frank Salerno are great storytellers whose obvious gravitas centers the documentary. There is one other standout from law enforcement. San Francisco Police Department homicide Inspector Frank Falzon actually breaks down what it’s like to be goaded into punching a possible witness. He completely explains the forces which lead him to do it. The frustration, the horrid images of the case which flashed into his mind. The disgust he felt at the actual details. Carrillo has a similar incident, convinced of a suspect who fits too perfectly only to be told “He’s a freak, but not your freak.” But his defining moment probably comes when he can’t bear to even listen to a discussion of putting a child who had been sexually assaulted on the stand to testify.

Even though we know how it ends, the limited docu-series captures the race against the clock tension of the summer of 1985. Initially tagged “The Walk-In Killer” and “The Valley Intruder” by the press, the satanic beast prowling Los Angeles came to be known as “The Night Stalker.” His crimes seemed disconnected because the victims were so varied. Serial killers usually have a specific type of victim. The Night Stalker’s crimes appeared to be random. “There was no pattern,” a detective bemoans in an interview.

The detectives get blowback from inside and out. We hear about an important theory being laughed out of a meeting. Investigators have to deal with cops in different districts not sharing information, as multiple jurisdictions spark “a pissing match between Type A dudes.” The investigators don’t only have to deal with the media blowing the case. They get the information from a politician who releases details which tip off the suspect. Many of these details have never been told.

We also get to hear Laurel Erickson and Paul Skolnick, the journalists who covered the story from the beginning, explain why they were so eager for details, and where they drew the line. Like the Hillside Strangler, who had recently been caught by Salerno’s homicide team, the Night Stalker was a once-in-a-lifetime case. Not only to the press, police and politicians, but to the community, which ultimately plays the most emotionally satisfying part in the documentary. When the suspect is caught in East Los Angeles, he tells the arresting officers “Thank God you came.”

The mystery unfolds through first-person interviews with victims who lived through the attacks, some of whom were allowed to survive. One woman remembers being dropped off at a gas station to call someone to take her home after the killer had sexually assaulted her in a dingy room. She was a child when that happened, one of the youngest of the Night Stalker’s victims. They ranged in age from six to 82; were men, women and children; some affluent, others poor; and of a mix of races. Anyone could be the next victim. The persistent updates on the heatwave accentuate this, because in a town under siege no one can sleep with their windows open. After Charles Manson had been caught, the people in Los Angeles didn’t feel the need to lock their doors, the documentary asserts. Now residents barred their windows.

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The assailant also varied his weaponry, using knives, hammers, tire irons, and a .22 caliber pistol. The savage specter takes on an almost occult status when the investigators find pentagrams drawn and carved on walls, and occasionally on victims. The killer gouged the eyes out of one woman. He used thumb cuffs, which comes as a visual surprise to the detective recounting it. He relives that one moment of discovery with both a personal revulsion and a cop’s curiosity. He still hasn’t gotten his head around it, and it’s only one detail. Like an Avia sneaker, size 11 and a half, the only one shipped to Los Angeles since the company was founded.

There have been several features on the notorious killer at the center of Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. Chris Fisher’s film Nightstalker (2002), Ulli Lommel’s Nighstalker from 2009, and Megan Griffiths’ The Night Stalker (2016). His story was dramatized in the 1989 TV movie Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker. Zach Villa played Ramirez on American Horror Story: 1984. Director Russell, whose father worked in the Dallas DA’s office, grew up in courthouses, jails and police precincts.He keeps his focus steadily on the investigators and the victims.

Russell presents the evidence plainly. Emotionally, he wants to present the feel that anyone in the horrific footage could have been a viewer or someone they know. He never treats the victims like statistics. We get personal stories, like one told by a granddaughter remembering how she preferred a grandma who did cartwheels over any necklace heirloom which could be bequeathed. The documentary occasionally lets the camera wander around recreated footage too long, and takes leisurely pauses of action with only music over grim background sets to amplify the atmosphere. We also get the occasional emotion-cam closeup, with a frozen face willing a testimony into a camera wordlessly.

The first glimmer of a name the documentary provides for the suspect is Richard Mena, who is being treated for an impacted tooth. Richard Ramirez actually doesn’t get much screen time. We get a very curt statement on why he turned out the way he did. “All the things that could poison a child were part of his life,” a detective explains. The only detail is a recollection of how Ramirez was tied to a cross in a cemetery overnight as a reprimand from his religious father. Ramirez explains himself throughout, although without credit until we learn the quotes and affirmations come from a recorded interview the Night Stalker gave from prison. But we never learn how Satan was “a stabilizing force in his life,” which prompted “a motivational charge.”

The documentary explores the killer-groupie phenomenon, but it is from the amazed and uncomprehending reactions of the investigating officers, and the families of the victims. They don’t get it. The journalists who covered it have never seen anything like it. It proves everything about the case is unprecedented. We see Ramirez, upon sentencing, tell the families, as well as the judge, jurors and investigating officers: “You don’t understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience.” The doc cuts his last lines, “I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells in us all.” What replaces it is a snippet of Ramirez requesting a promise that his recorded interviews be erased after his death.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is a satisfyingly exhaustive account of the investigation into the Richard Ramirez murder-and-assault-spree. But know it is limited to the crimes and the cities they were committed in. Los Angeles is a bigger character in the documentary than Ramirez. The docu-series isn’t about him. It’s about what he did, and the people he did it to. Survivors describe his very presence in the court as “evil,” and the documentary resolutely chalks the case up as a triumph for good. By following the timelines so deliberately, Russell lays out the arc of a perfect detective story. That being said, I could have watched two more installments on the villain and collateral damage.

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Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer streams on Netflix on Jan. 13.

The post Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer Review – Richard Ramirez Docuseries Speaks Plainly appeared first on Den of Geek.

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traincat · 5 years

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What to read for peterxfelicia(i'm not sure if there's a ship name?) goodness for someone who's getting into it because of the current hunted storyline?

I never know what the ship names for anything are; I think PeterFelicia goes by PeterFel and SpiderCat, but don’t quote me on that one. For Peter and Felicia content, I’d go way back to Felicia’s first appearance to start with, and then follow along from there.

Amazing Spider-Man #194-195: At the tail end of his affair with married Betty Brant, Peter runs into the Black Cat, an enigmatic thief with whom he has an instant romantic connection, but the Black Cat has her own agenda.

Amazing Spider-Man #204-205: Felicia makes her reappearance in Peter’s life. Don’t pay too much attention to the ending of this one; it quickly gets overwritten.

Amazing Spider-Man #226-227: Felicia’s scheme from the previous story pays off, and she and Peter attend a costume party. Felicia attempts to quit her criminal ways to further her romance with Spider-Man, but it’s harder than she expects.

Spectacular Spider-Man #74-79: Peter tries to help his colleague, friend, and beleaguered love interest, Deb Whitman, only to end up surprised when Felicia crashes into his life once again. The two battle Doc Ock with disastrous results.

Spectacular Spider-Man #84-90: Felicia is released from the hospital and she and Peter continue their romance. In Spectacular Spider-Man #87, Peter unmasks to Felicia. Felicia, wanting to be Spider-Man’s partner in more ways than one, strikes a deal to get herself superpowers.

Spectacular Spider-Man #91: Felicia runs into Peter in his alien black suit for the first time.

Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #4: The B-Story, Cat and Mouse. Felicia goes on a wild goose chase when a carafe Peter gave her goes missing, and a friend expresses doubts about whether the relationship is good for her, which I think is an important bit of nuance – fans who don’t like PeterFel love to label Felicia as “bad” for Peter, and there is dysfunction in the early days, but I think it’s important to realize it more than goes both ways. (I love a complicated relationship.)

Amazing Spider-Man #256-258: Mary Jane reveals a secret to Peter, while Felicia has apprehensions about both Peter’s black suit and his civilian identity.

(It’s not a Felicia issue but I highly recommend reading Amazing Spider-Man #259 if you haven’t already – it’s the issue that reveals Mary Jane’s backstory and it’s perfect, completely throwing all of her previous actions into a new light.)

Spectacular Spider-Man #95-100: Cracks develop in the relationship as Felicia worries her new bad luck powers are harming Spider-Man, and as Peter begins to question Felicia’s morality. They break up at the end of #100. (Peter and Felicia also have a brief and tense conversation about Felicia’s new powers in Amazing Spider-Man #263 and a frosty interaction in ASM #266, which takes place before Spectacular Spider-Man #100.)

Spectacular Spider-Man #112: My very favorite Christmas issue. While a Santa-themed robber strikes around the city, Peter, Felicia, and Mary Jane ruminate on the holidays.

Spectacular Spider-Man #115-117: Peter’s attempts to get rid of Felicia’s bad luck power’s influence over him leads to her powers cutting out at the worst moment possible. Felicia’s new costume debuts in #117.

Spectacular Spider-Man #119: Felicia has a moment of introspection on her relationship with Peter.

Spectacular Spider-Man #123: Peter and Felicia seemingly reunite after Peter saves her after an explosion in her apartment.

Felicia has appearances in Amazing Spider-Man #288-289, which are part of the larger Gang War storyline, which takes place from Amazing Spider-Man #284-288. In ASM #289, which takes place after Spider-Man vs Wolverine (highly recommended), she presents Peter with some new costumes.

Spectacular Spider-Man #128-129: Felicia’s revealed to have double-crossed Peter up – or has she?

At this point in time, Felicia vanishes off the pages for a little bit. Peter and Mary Jane shortly get married, which Felicia only finds out when she returns to Peter’s old apartment, expecting to find him. In an attempt to get revenge on Peter, she starts dating his best friend, Flash Thompson – only to end up genuinely falling for him. I love Flash and Felicia’s relationship, and it’s genuinely really sweet, but some PeterFel highlights from this period: on the last page of Amazing Spider-Man #329, Flash shows up with Felicia at Peter and Mary Jane’s loft, and ASM #330 has a flashback to a double date dinner. In ASM #331, Felicia confronts Mary Jane about her marriage to Peter and reveals her plan to break Flash’s heart to hurt Peter. (I think it’s important to remember at this point in time that everyone here is in their early 20s and very dramatic.) In ASM #335, Flash tries to arrange a double date while Felicia canoodles with him in front of Peter. In ASM #341-343, Felicia twigs to the fact that Peter’s lost his powers, and the two team up again. In ASM #346, Felicia offers to help Peter with a supervillain, and in ASM #347, she says that even though she still has feelings for Peter, she’s now in love with Flash.

Web of Spider-Man #80: When Peter goes missing, Mary Jane asks Felicia to track him down.

Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206: Both Felicia and Peter attend the reading of Harry Osborn’s will following his death in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. When Flash is injured by Tombstone, Felicia becomes furious that Peter didn’t tell her. This isn’t a particularly romantic Peter and Felicia teamup, but I do feel it’s a good look at their dynamic post-romantic relationship.

Spider-Man Unlimited #11: The Spider-Man in this story is Peter’s clone, Ben, but on top of the Ben/Felicia flirting, there’s plenty of PeterFelicia background. A woman from Ben Reilly’s past has been murdered – and someone wants to put the blame on the Black Cat.

Peter Parker Annual 2000: The B Story (although the A Story features one of my favorite rare Marvel characters, Bounty). With Mary Jane currently presumed dead, Peter encounters Felicia one night.

Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #1-6: Felicia Hardy’s asked to track down a missing friend, while Peter Parker hunts for the source of the mysterious drug-related death of one of his students. When these two events bring them back together, they team up to take down a threat who can give people a high – or kill them – without ever being in the same room. This one tends to be a “love it or hate it” series for people, especially considering it retcons Felicia’s backstory to include sexual assault as motivation for becoming the Black Cat, but there is an awful lot of Peter/Felicia content in it. Warning that rape is a major theme in the story.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-12: Aunt May is kidnapped, and Peter’s on a race around the clock to save her before time runs out. Felicia’s the first person he calls for help. Feilcia takes a few issues to become a major part of this story, but it’s all one big arc, and she has a huge part in it, especially in the ending. Also features Peter and Felicia both calling each other “baby” when they’re not in a romantic relationship.

Spider-Man Unlimited (2004) #14: A Story. Felicia enlists Peter help to break into the Latverian Embassy.

Amazing Spider-Man #606-607: Post-Brand New Day, the link between Peter Parker and Spider-Man has been erased from the minds of almost everyone, including the ones who knew him best – like Felicia Hardy. It doesn’t stop them from teaming up – or hooking up.

The Many Loves of Spider-Man: A oneshot collecting several different stories about the women in Peter’s life. The Black Cat one is very cute.

Web of Spider-Man (2009) #11-12: When Spider-Man goes missing, Mary Jane contacts Felicia Hardy to find him.

After this we hit Superior Spider-Man and things get not good for a while, which you’re probably familiar with if you’re getting into them through the current ASM run, where Peter’s finally re-unmasked to Felicia and restored her memories. But that should bring you up to date!

Some other continuity PeterFelicia recs:

Spider-Man Noir & Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face: Four issues each, Spider-Man Noir takes place during the Great Depression. The nephew of socialist rabble rousers, Peter Parker is an angry young man taken under the wing of Ben Urich, Bugle Reporter, when he’s bitten by a mysterious spider. Felicia Hardy owns a speakeasy, the Black Cat, and knows all about the criminal underworld. Felicia first appears in Spider-Man Noir, but the romance doesn’t kick off until Eyes Without a Face. If you liked Noir Peter in Into the Spider-Verse, I recommend his comics.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist: While Felicia has a quest in the main game, she makes an appearance during The Heist, the first DLC from the PS4 Spider-Man game. When Felicia starts stealing drives belonging to a major crime family, she claims she needs to complete the heist to save her son -- leaving Peter to wonder if the child is his.

If you don’t have the time/cash/inclination to play the game but still want to see the PeterFelicia scenes, this video has all the Black Cat stakeout missions from the main game, and this hour long video basically has the entirety of The Heist.

#you-are-my-someone-somewhere #peter parker #felicia hardy #marvel comics #comic recs #peterfelicia #traincat talks comics #*replies #long post/

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ancientbooshartifacts · 5 years

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If It Kills Me

Author: Stevrick

Year: 2009

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Howince Naboo absentmindedly stirred his tea and rubbed his temples. Too much poppers with Tony Harrison last night. It was almost opening time and Vince and Howard were nowhere to be seen. He frowned and stopped stirring the tea. Something was up with those two. Howard never listened to his jazz records anymore and was depressed and brooding even for him and Vince, while still bouncy and wearing ridiculous clothes, was down too. He could see it in his eyes. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, knowing that he would have to solve this himself just like always.

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Vince Noir, king of the mods, was absentmindedly humming along to Gary Numan and straightening his hair, just like he always did in the morning. When he was finally done he looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look like the fresh-faced young man he usually did, quite the opposite in fact. Dark purple bags had formed under his eyes and his eyes themselves seemed to have dulled a bit. He sighed. He knew the reason that he wasn’t as beautiful as usual was because of the dreams he had been having lately. Ever since that kiss on top of the roof at Howard’s party all he’d dreamt about was Howard; not that he didn’t ever dream of Howard before, but now it was different. Usually when he dreamed about Howard it involved a bed and plenty of lubricant. These new dreams were different and they scared him. His mind wandered to the one he’d had last night.

“I thought you hated people touching your hair.”

“Not if it’s you.” Vince mumbled from his position on Howard’s chest. He knew Howard was smiling he continued to run his long fingers through his raven hair. Vince snuggled further into Howard’s chest, completely content. He looked up into his small brown eyes and pressed a gentle kiss on his surprisingly plush lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Little Man.”

Vince shook his head, wiping the dream out of his mind. What the hell was wrong with him? I mean, he’d always been attracted to Howard; that much he knew. Even though he loved jazz, even though he was a bit (okay, more than a bit) plain, there was always just something about him. Howard was sweet and kind. He liked to be around him even when he wasn’t dressed to the nines and covered in make-up. He’d even found himself less attracted to those hottie electro girls and boys in bars because Howard was on the back of his mind. And that kiss...well, that kiss just unlocked something inside of him and made him realize just how much he really did care about Howard. Vince put a hand to his heart. There was no denying it, he was in love. And it absolutely terrified him. This was all new to him. He turned off his straightener and sat by the window in his room. It was raining, but they didn’t usually have good weather anyway. He traced the raindrops as they crept down the glass, the warmth from his fingers leaving steam marks on the glass. He always got plenty of lays, but he never really felt anything for them other than a passing affection. The feeling was always mutual; those people wouldn’t feel anything for him if he didn’t have his make-up on or if he wasn’t wearing one of his tight spandex suits. That was all that he ever knew, but (even though he would never admit it) he’d always wanted someone who loved him for just him, not his style or looks. And the person he wanted all of that from was the one person who he couldn’t have. And that sucked more than having a bad hair day.

“Vince!” Naboo’s lisping voice coming through the door brought him out of his trance.

“Come in. All right, Naboo?” he asked quietly.

“Fine, except for the fact that you’re not downstairs.” he answered.

“Yeah, sorry. I’ll be down in a bit.” he said, turning his head back to the window. Naboo sighed and closed the door.

“Vince,” he said in a soothing voice rather than his usual monotone “what’s wrong? You haven’t been yourself lately. Usually the sunlight practically shines out of your arse, but now you’re like this all the time.”

“No I’m not!” Vince countered.

“I hate to break it to you Vince, but you’re not that hard to figure out.” he sighed. Vince glared at him and stared back at the window “Now, what’s up Vince? Tell your old friend Naboo.”

“You wouldn’t even believe me if I told you.” Vince almost whispered.

“It’s hard enough to believe that you’re even depressed in the first place, but here I am acting the part of a therapist.” he said calmly. Damn Naboo and his constant mellow, stoner state. Vince dug his fingernails into his wrists.

“I’m in love.” Vince whispered.

“With Howard, right?”

Vince sharply turned to face Naboo, wide eyed. “How the fuck did you know that?”

He shrugged. “It’s a bit obvious. You guys have lived together for years now, so there must have been a reason for you to stick around with him.” Vince sighed and turned to the window again. “Have you considered telling him?”

Vince shook his head. “I don’t want to scare him.”

“Well, Howard probably wouldn’t want to see you like this either.” Naboo said, gesturing to the depressed electro boy. “Besides, he’s your best friend. He’ll understand.”

“Maybe.” Vince said quietly. He didn’t exactly feel reassured, but he did feel a little better telling someone. He smiled. “Cheers Naboo, you’re a diamond.”

“Yeah, yeah, just sort yourself out.” he said, shaking off the comment and making Vince smile wider. Naboo walked out into the hallway, deep in thought (which he was actually able to do as he hadn’t gotten his hookah out yet). So, Vince was lovesick for Howard, he sort of knew this day would come, but it was nothing that he himself could fix. Unless...he thought of something that happened a few weeks ago at Howard’s birthday party. The Head Shaman was babbling on about some two guys making out on the rooftop, one with a moustache. Vince later explained it was only to stop the Head Shaman from cutting his head off, but maybe there was more to it than that. Maybe Howard was depressed for the same reason.

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Howard awoke after he heard something explode, probably just Bollo messing up breakfast based on Naboo’s yelling. He groaned and got out of bed to get ready for work. Unlike a lot of people, his work was really easy if you thought about it. He just manned a cash register and he got paid enough to live comfortably. He even got to work with his best friend. A shiver went down his spine when he thought of Vince. Vince with his pale porcelain skin, his big blue eyes, his shiny black hair, his long and slender frame that just screamed out “Hold me.”, his-

Howard shook his head. He shouldn’t be thinking like that. He really needed to stop before he did something stupid. Vince only saw him as a friend, he knew that. It just didn’t help when he was so damn adorable all the time. His laugh, his smile, his sense of humor...he loved all of it. He loved Vince, all of him, he knew that. But he also knew that Vince was way out of his league. It was Mrs. Gideon all over again. Although, that was really a ploy to get Vince to notice him anyway.

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Vince and Naboo finally came downstairs after Vince pulled himself together when Howard had been there nearly half an hour. “Where the hell have you been, Little Man?” he asked, slightly annoyed.

“My straightener was on the fritz and I had to fix it.” Vince lied. “You know I can’t be seen without perfect hair!” He shook his mane in Howard’s face and Howard shoved him away but with a smile on his face. “What are you doing down here, Naboo?”

“Lost a necklace down here the other day. The charm on it is a portal to Xooberon, very important for shaman business.” Howard nodded, accepting the story and went back to manning the cash register. “Vince, could you get those boxes off that high shelf for me?”

“Sure, Naboo!” he said cheerfully, grateful to him for listening earlier. Naboo pretended to look through some random junk, but he was really keeping an eye on Howard. Naboo smirked when he saw that, as he planned, Howard’s eyes were glued on Vince. He was wearing his typical too-tight skinny jeans and a neon shirt with a pirate skull on it that was a bit too short for him so you could see his hipbones sticking out. Howard was fixed on the image of Vince reaching up high to get the boxes His shirt was going up to show his lower stomach, Nicky Clarke scar and all and he was also perving on his legs and arse as he bent to put the boxes down. Since watching men in skimpy clothes wasn’t really his cup of tea, Naboo slipped to an area closer to Howard. He peered over his shoulder to look at what was supposed to be this week’s profit list in Howard’s hand, but it had shifted into a poem.

Vince Noir, an angel fallen from Heaven.

With his creamy, white skin,

and his eyes like sapphires...

“Found it.” Naboo announced, holding up a random necklace he’d found and walking upstairs. He had all the information he needed. He ran into Bollo in the hallway. “Oi, Bollo, make sure you don’t make plans tonight, we’re going to Shamansbury’s.”

“Aww, but today Sunday!” Bollo protested.

“Yeah, I know, but I need you to play along with me on this.” Naboo said quietly, leading him down the hallway and explaining his plan.

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Howard gave a sigh of relief as he switched the sign in the window from “Open” to “Closed”. He went upstairs and sat down on the couch to watch some telly. “Vince, you going out?” he asked as the smaller man walked out of his room.

“Howard, it’s Sunday remember? No clubs are open on Sunday.” He went up to the couch. “Can I watch the telly with you?”

“Sure Little Man, you don’t have to ask.” he said with a smile. Vince plopped down beside him and took control of the remote. After some channel surfing he found some show with Gordon Ramsey on it. They sat there laughing as he screamed at terrified people who owned a restaurant he was trying to revamp. Vince was really happy. He hadn’t sat down and hung out with Howard like this in a long time and he’d missed it. Soon they switched it to “Walk the Line”, a movie about some American musician he’d never heard of, and it got quieter as they got into the movie. He didn’t recognize the songs, but he did take a liking to one of them.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine,

I keep my eyes wide open all the time,

I keep the ends out for the tie that binds.

Because you’re mine, I walk the line.

It was so romantic, just what he needed with his secret love sitting right beside him. He thought back to what Naboo had said that morning. Maybe this romantic atmosphere would give him the opportunity to talk to Howard.

I find it very, very easy to be true.

I find myself alone when each day is through.

Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a fool for you.

Because you’re mine, I walk the line.

He dared to rest his head on Howard’s shoulder. Howard smiled down on him and put his eyes back on the screen. He didn’t seem to be disgusted...

“Hey Howard, you ever been in love?” He could feel him stiffen a bit.

“Why?” he asked, confused.

“It’s just that...I think I might be in love with someone. He doesn’t even notice me, though. We’re total opposites and I don’t have a chance with him and...and...oh, fuck it!” he cried, attacking Howard with his lips. He pulled away, looking at a very shocked Howard. “Howard, I love you, you jazz spanner!” he cried and kissed him again. Maybe Howard would fall for the Noir charm after all. But suddenly, he got pushed away roughly and Howard had a look of hatred on his face.

“Very funny, Vince.” he said quietly.

“What?” he questioned, standing up.

“Vince, you’ve gone too far this time. I know you like to play games, but this is low even for you.”

Vince just stood there, mouth gaping open and a strange wetness coming in behind his eyes. “No...no Howard, I’m not playing with you. I would never do that...”

“Oh, bullshit! That’s a flat-out lie and you know it Vince!” Howard yelled. “You treat me like shit half the time and you always lie to me! Besides, you don’t do love, you do one night stands, you’ve said it yourself! Just do us both a favor and go out and get a girl to give you a blowjob, you’ll be back to normal in no time.” He turned around and walked stiffly to his room, slamming the door behind him. Vince couldn’t move. He felt like the sky just fell down on top of him. He felt weak at the knees and collapsed on the couch. The strange sensation behind his eyes strengthened. What the hell was that? Then he felt a tear stream down his face. Oh, he was crying. He hadn’t cried in so long that he had forgotten what it felt like. Overwhelmed and not knowing what else to do, he laid down on the couch and let the sobs take over his body. His eyeliner was running down his face and ruining his make-up, and for once he didn’t care. He felt sick to his stomach and as if his heart had cracked in his chest. Vince thought that unrequited love hurt, but being heartbroken was even worse.

“Vince?” He looked up to see Naboo and Bollo looking down at him.

“What wrong with precious Vince?” Bollo asked him.

Vince sat up. “Nothing...just...everything. I’ve completely ruined everything!” he said as his voice cracked. He pushed past them and ran out into the rain.

“Naboo, your plan not work!” Bollo growled. “Now Vince out on the street all alone!”

“I know, I know! I wonder why it didn’t work though...”

“Because Howard giant idiot!” Bollo yelled. Naboo was inclined to agree, but not ready to give up.

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Vince ran down the street, narrowly managing not to bump into anyone. He could barely see through all his tears. He finally managed to find an abandoned fire escape and climbed up the ladder. He buried his face into his knees and sobbed. He had been such an idiot. How the hell would Howard love someone like him? He’d ruined it all.

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“Maybe Bollo should beat the smart into Howard!” Bollo growled while beating his chest.

“No Bollo, Howard wouldn’t respond to that.” Naboo said calmly. “I’ll talk to him.”

“What about Vince?” Bollo asked.

“Let him cool off for a bit. He’ll probably find a place for shelter in this rain to protect his hair.” Naboo said knowingly. “Now, let’s go talk to Howard. And NO beating him.”

“Fine, but only because Vince loves him.” Bollo growled. “He can do better, though. Why you suddenly matchmaker anyway, Naboo?”

“Because no matter how much trouble they get me in and how much they annoy me they’re my friends.” Naboo said, looking up towards the ceiling. “I can’t just stand by and let them stay miserable.”

Bollo thought this over. “So, you do care about more than hookah.”

“Occasionally, yes.”

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Howard was pacing about in his room, anger firing up. Vince must have found out that he loved him and decided to have a little joke. It’s not like someone like Vince could ever want him anyway. Suddenly his door swung open and he cursed himself for not remembering to lock it.

“What the hell did you say to Vince?” Bollo growled. Naboo was also uncharacteristically angry. Whatever Howard had said, it must have been pretty harsh to make someone like Vince cry.

“What did I do?” Howard cried. “Ask that electro ponce! He just played the lowest prank on me ever!”

“What do you mean?” Naboo asked, confused.

“He just came up to me, going on about how much he loved me! You don’t joke about love Naboo, you just don’t!”

Naboo sighed and shook his head. “Howard, you idiot. You complete ball-bag.”

“Oh, of course you would take HIS side! Everybody bloody loves Vince, right? And nobody loves me, I know the routine!”

“Vince loves you.” Naboo told him, matter-of-factly.

“Are you in on this joke too?” Howard asked Naboo.

“No Howard, you idiot, this isn’t a joke.” Naboo said sternly. “Vince really meant what he said. When Bollo and I got back from Shamansburry’s he was crying his eyes out on the sofa!”

Howard stopped pacing. “He was what?”

“You heard what I said Howard. He was crying, sobbing actually. He babbled that he’d ruined everything and then just ran out of the flat.”

“He ran out of the flat? In this weather? My God, he’ll get pneumonia out there!”

“Well, he clearly doesn’t care now whether he lives or dies now that he thinks he can’t have you.” Naboo said, pulling Howard to sit down on the bed. He sat cross-legged in front of him (which was a bit hard with his curled shoes). Bollo just stood in the corner because if he was anywhere near Howard he probably wouldn’t be able to resist punching him. “Now, why don’t you tell me why you denied Vince?”

Howard didn’t know what to say. “I...I thought it was all a joke...how could Vince ever love someone like me?”

“How could someone like you love someone like Vince?” Naboo countered. “The man who taught me the ways of the shaman once told me that sometimes the heart knows better than the brain. And no offence Howard, but your own brain in particular often tells you the wrong thing.” He ignored Howard’s half-hearted scowl. “So Howard, what is your heart telling you?”

Howard just sat there for a minute, a million thoughts going through his head. All the times at the zoo, crimping, gigs, and adventures; Vince was the one who made it all worthwhile. It always came back to Vince. “Oh my God.” he said quietly. “Oh, shit!” He put his face in his hands and a few tears leaked out of his eyes.

“Finally, his eyes are open.” Bollo yelled, throwing his arm over his head. “Praise God!”

“Bollo, shut up!” Naboo hissed.

“No, he’s right!” Howard said, taking his face out of his hands. “I never meant to hurt him! I just never thought someone as amazing as Vince could ever love someone as plain as me! I do love him, I’ve always loved him, and now he thinks I hate his guts!” After that, even Bollo couldn’t say anything. Naboo scrunched his eyebrows together, switching between thinking and looking at the currently heartbroken Howard. Suddenly his eyes widened.

“I’ve got an idea.” He jumped off the bed and went to the closet to grab Howard’s guitar. “Bollo, you know that coffee shop that’s open until absolutely ridiculous hours in the morning?”

“Yeah, Bollo DJ there once. They no interested in DJ’s though, only dirty hipsters that like live music.”

“Exactly. They’re open on Sunday, right?”

“Uhhh, yeah, but-“

“Howard, you can play this thing well, right?” Naboo asked, holding up the guitar which was an effort in itself as it was almost taller than he was.

“Yeah, of course I can, but what are you going on about Naboo?”

“I’ve got another plan.” he said simply. “Bollo, get the carpet ready.”

“Wait, what do you mean ANOTHER plan, sir?”

“Howard, shut up and come with us!

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Okay Bollo, you go and find Vince and be back here by midnight.” Naboo said as the reached the coffee shop. “You only have a little less than an hour, so be quick about it. Run like the wind!” Bollo grunted impatiently as he was very eager to find Vince.

“Naboo, this whole idea is absolutely mad! You’ve gone wrong! And why are you so eager to help me out anyway?”

“Not a lot of people know this, but I do care about my friends and not just my hookah.” he said, shooting a look Bollo’s way. Bollo snickered and flew away just as Naboo pulled Howard into the shop. Even though it was a Sunday night at a coffee shop there was still a big crowd mostly made up of people typing poetry on laptops in boho skirts on plush couches and antique tables that were listening to live bands. One such woman was the one at the counter that was idly playing with her long curly hair.

“Excuse me miss, but can you fit one more person on the bill?” Naboo asked. The girl looked up at them and quickly looked back to the magazine she was reading.

“No problem, you lot can go on whenever you like. It’s Sunday and we need someone that can actually play the guitar to get on stage.” She handed them a backstage pass and looked at Howard. “Oi, I know who you are! You’re in that band with the pretty black-haired girl!”

“Er, yeah, that’s me.” Howard stuttered before Naboo pulled him to the back.

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After about half an hour Bollo found Vince crumpled up on the fire escape. “Vince, thank God! You scare Bollo!”

Vince looked up and smiled sadly. “Yeah, sorry Bollo. I just needed to get away, you know?”

“Howard idiot.” Bollo grunted.

“No, he’s not!” Vince yelled. Bollo shrunk back and Vince shook his head. “Sorry Bollo, I’m just...” Bollo lifted Vince up onto the carpet and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Bollo take Vince home.”

“No! No, I don’t want to go home! I don’t want to face him!” Anticipating this, Bollo pretended to think for a moment and then looked back down at him.”

“Bollo know a place that stays open late. Guitar music, plush couches, good coffee. We go there.”

“Cheers, Bollo, you’re a diamond.” he mumbled. Bollo put the umbrella he had brought with him over Vince’s head and rode off towards the shop.

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“Howard, you ready?” Naboo asked.

“Yeah, I am, I have a song picked out and everything. God, I really hope this works Naboo.”

“Vince is a sucker for this kind of stuff, trust me. I’ve caught him up late at night watching romantic chick flicks.” A soaking wet Bollo suddenly ran up behind them.

“Bollo find Vince! He sitting at a table with a hot drink. He was up on a fire escape, soaking wet and looking terrible” he said darkly, looking at Howard.

“Oh God-“

“No time for that Howard, there’s about three minutes until you’re up. Break a leg!” Naboo shouted as he led Bollo out to the front of the shop. He almost gasped as he saw Vince sitting at the table. His hair was limp and lifeless and his clothes were soaked through. His eyes were puffy and red, clearly from crying. The lady with the curly hair was currently wrapping Vince up in a towel that she kindly brought from the back and setting a hot coffee down in front of him. When his bright blue eyes focused on him they widened, which was impressive since they were already huge.

“Naboo, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Never mind that, just try to get yourself dryer, you look downright terrible.” Vince was so sad he didn’t even try to argue. The guy who was on stage with a set of bongos took a final bow as he stepped offstage with only a few people clapping.

“Finally, that bugger was a complete ball-bag.” Naboo groaned. “Vince, let’s stay for the next one, yeah?” He just shrugged and took a sip of the steaming coffee, liking how it warmed him up. The curly haired girl stood up onstage.

“Allright, that was Johnny Come Lately with his bongos. Now, for our next act, we have a guy who usually performs with his band, but he’s solo tonight. Here’s Howard Moon!” Vince’s eyes widened and he leaped up from the table, but Bollo held him down.

“You’re not going anywhere Vince, you need to hear this.” Vince sat down with fear in his eyes, suddenly shaking. The curtain pulled back and Howard was sitting on the stool on stage with his guitar trying to adjust the microphone.

“Um, hi there, Howard Moon.” he said awkwardly. “Um...this is a song for someone that I love very much, more than I can put in words. I think he’s here right now, so I just want to say that if you are out there-and you know who you are-I want to say that I’m sorry for what I did earlier. I was just surprised that someone as amazing and incredible as you had an interest in me and I couldn’t believe it at first. Hopefully this song will show you how I feel and how I’ve felt over the years.” Vince was breathing in shaky breaths now and he was shaking even more, but Bollo no longer had to restrain him because he was glued to his chair. Howard started strumming on the guitar.

Hello, tell me you know That you've figured me out Something gave it away And it would be such a beautiful moment To see the look on your face To know that I know that you know now And baby that's a case of my wishful thinking You know nothing 'Cause you and I, we go carrying on for hours on end We get along much better than you and your boyfriend

There was a small pause and Bollo and Naboo swore they could hear Vince’s heart beating a hundred miles an hour.

Well all I really want to do is love you A kind much closer than friends use But I still can’t say it after all we've been through And all I really want from you is to feel me As the feeling inside keeps building And I will find a way to you if it kills me, If it kills me How long can I go on like this Wishing to kiss you Before I rightly explode Well this double life I lead isn't healthy for me In fact it makes me nervous If I get caught I could be risking it all Baby, there’s a lot that I miss In case I'm wrong

All I really want to do is love you A kind much closer than friends use But I still can’t say it after all we've been through And all I really want from you is to feel me As the feeling inside keeps building And I will find a way to you if it kills me, If it kills me

Everyone in the whole place was now giving their full attention to Howard. He was doing unbelievably well and people had even started dancing. Vince stood up too, slowly walking a little towards the stage with tears in his eyes. Howard caught his eyes and was able to hold the contact.

If I should be so bold I'd ask you to hold my heart in your hand Tell you from the start how I've longed to be your man But I never said a word I guess I'm gonna miss my chance again

Vince broke out into a huge smile and the tears spilled over his face. This was quite possibly the best moment in his life. He’d seen people being serenaded in movies, but this was really absolutely incredible. He’d fallen truly, madly, deeply in love, even more than he was as he listened to Howard’s voice.

Well all I really want to do is love you A kind much closer than friends use But I still can't say it after all we've been through And all I really want from you is to feel me As the feeling inside keeps building And I will find a way to you if it kills me, If it kills me, if it kills me

Oh, I think it might kill me And all I really want from you is to feel me As the feeling inside that keeps building And I will find a way to you if it kills me, If it kills me It might kill me

As Howard finished he was met with a huge amount of applause but he was only interested in one person. He set his guitar down on the stool and hopped off the stage. He walked towards Vince with a shy smile on his face. “Vince...” he began, but before he could finish Vince sobbed and all but jumped on him and locked their lips. The whole shop cheered and Howard felt like a billion fireworks had gone off inside him. The kiss was unbelievably tender, filled with pent up love and lust, and unlike the kiss on the rooftop Howard was actually able to kiss back instead of just sit there like a cold fish. His hands went to Vince’s wet hair, making the little man moan in appreciation and lick Howard’s bottom lip. Howard opened his mouth and let him in, the soft pink tongue probing his mouth. Vince tasted like he always imagined, like candy and flirtinis and...well, Vince. They finally pulled away for oxygen and smiled stupidly at each other. Vince was still crying a bit and he clutched onto Howard’s shirt to keep his knees from buckling. Howard wiped the tears away and pulled him in closer. “Vince, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. You already said all you needed to say up there.” Vince said quietly. “You were amazing. You should play the guitar more often.” Howard laughed and kissed him again.

“Now, let’s try this again, shall we?” he said after they pulled away. “I love you, Vince Noir.”

Vince smiled so big that Howard thought that his face would split in half. “I love you too, Howard Moon. Thank you for the song.”

“Thank you for giving me another chance. You know this means no more one night stands, right?”

“I don’t need them anymore. I’ve got you, and I really love you so it makes it even better. Vince buried his head into Howard’s chest, blissfully happy.

“You want to head home, Little Man?”

Vince smiled and looked up. “Howard, I am home. Right here in your arms.”

“You soppy little tart.” Howard teased, but Vince could see his eyes get a little wet.

“Well, as long as we’re being soppy, kiss me again.” Vince laughed. Howard happily obliged.

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“Well Naboo, you better man than me.” Bollo said over a cup of tea.

“Thanks, even though you’re not technically a man.” Bollo chucked his arm, which nearly sent him flying off the chair because of his size. Vince and Howard were currently on one of the couches acting very much like teenagers, snuggled together and stealing kisses.

“But seriously, that good thing Naboo did.” Bollo continued.

“Yeah, I guess so. You bring anything?” Bollo nodded and pulled a joint out of his pocket. “You think people will care if we smoke it in here?”

“It one in the morning, I don’t think anyone will notice.” Boll said as he lit up the joint and took a puff. “Uh oh. Naboo, look over there.”

Naboo turned over to the couch where Vince and Howard were residing. Vince was now on top of Howard, kissing him like his life depended on it and grinding their pelvises together. Howard placed his hand on his arse and slipped his hands under his shirt, making him moan in appreciation.

“Oh, I didn’t need to see that!” Naboo said, scrunching up his face.

#the mighty boosh #mighty boosh #boosh #howince #vince noir #howard moon #vince/howard #vince noir/howard moon #howard moon/vince noir #naboo the enigma #naboo #bollo

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josebarrmageddon · 6 years

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Mute (2018) Movie Review

Following years of anticipation and hard work, Duncan Jones finally made his dream project, Mute. And, a full year later, I finally got around to seeing. Set in Berlin during the 2050’s, we follow Leo, played by Alexander Skarsgard, who is mute. Following a childhood accident and because of his family’s strict amish beliefs, he was unable to receive the proper treatment and grew up unable to speak. Despite living in the future, he still lives a simpler live and stays away from all technology. Leo works as a bartender in the same club as his girlfriend, Naadirah(Seyneb Saleh). However, things get a little rattled when he wakes up one morning and finds Naadirah missing. She isn’t at work either, she is nowhere to be found. Leo must now embark through the cyberpunk mob world to find her.

Even though he never speaks, Skarsgard’s physical performance is what helps cement him. In a futuristic world like this one, so many things are required to work through interactions, but without the ability to talk, Leo often finds himself stuck. He is forced to interact with a world that he doesn’t know, nor wants to know, and the struggle of that gets to him. Skarsgard is able to express all that weight through his body and face. Despite the toll it takes on him, he solders on in order to find the woman he loves.

While the movie is mainly about Leo, we also have another storyline, one revolving around the characters of Cactus Bill and Duck. Cactus and Duck are two American surgeons who are hiding out in Berlin and working for some mobsters. These two are in their own movie. Paul Rudd plays Cactus, a stubborn and hostile man who reluctantly works for the mob in order to get him and his daughter back to America. Justin Theroux plays Duck, who is old friends with Cactus, even though he is the complete opposite, enjoying his work and always cracking jokes and teasing people, but equally guilty of having his own perversions.

The movie splits its time between Leo and Cactus. Since there isn’t much dialogue with Leo, everything quiet and may appear uninteresting. With Cactus and Duck, everything’s always fast and more colorful. The two never stop talking and you become more interested in them with how funny and charismatic they are. This sometimes takes focus away from Leo and the mystery, but there is a reason for that. With Cactus and Duck, we learn more about the world they’re all in and the rules everyone must follow to make it out. With Leo, we get to see all of that in effect. This helps the story by expanding the world, even if it comes off as non-linear at times. It sometimes feels like you are watching two different movies, but It isn’t until the third act when things come together.

There is one subplot that truly feels out of place. It’s almost presented as a twist, but you can see it coming a mile away and there is no reason to have it in the movie. It doesn’t have much of a payoff and what little it did, you could easily replace it with any other altercation. Once you see it, you’ll know what it is and it does take you out of the movie for awhile.

Another problem is with the casting. I don’t mean that the acting is bad, everyone’s performance is great, but you have everyone acting and then you have Paul Rudd, the most charming person you may ever meet. Even though Cactus is arguably a villainous character, he is entertaining to watch. Whether he’s trash talking to his superiors or threatening an old lady for calling a cookie a “biscuit”, Cactus Bill steals the fucking show.

There are other well-known actors who make appearances such as Noel Clarke, Robert Kazinsky, and a bizarre cameo by Dominic Monaghan. There’s even a small cameo from Sam Rockwell as his character from Moon(2009). That’s right, Mute is connected to Duncan Jones’s first movie. It doesn’t play into the story in anyway, but it was a clever nod to the events in that movie.

As for visuals, the world it creates is mesmerizing. With everything drenched in neon, you can get lost by staring off into the background. In most science fiction movies, the CGI sticks out and takes over an entire scene, but every effect here feels authentic and is appealing. Mixing it with Clint Mansell’s beautiful score gives you a visual feast. The film’s problems really come from its approach to story. It can be disorienting and underwhelming, but it is unique in it’s portrayal. As long as you stick with, it does manage to shine not only as a science fiction film that also as a true film noir.

-Jose Barr (2-23-2019)

FUN Fact: Dedicated to Duncan Jones’s father, David Bowie

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mybukz · 6 years

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Review: Cold East by Gabija Grušaitė

Title: Cold East Author : Gabija Grušaitė Publisher: Clarity Publishing Genre: Fiction Format: Paperback, 232 pages Price: RM39 Released: October 2018 Reviewer: Leon Wing

With the premise of a murdered Mongolian woman and her connection to a former Malaysian Prime Minister and his wife, Cold East could only have been published here in Malaysia after the last major general election, in which he lost to Mahathir. Cold East is translated into English from the Lithuanian, and is published by Clarity Publishing, a Penang-based publisher. It won the Penang Monthly Book Prize for 2018.

Stasys Śaltoka, or Stanley Colder, as he sometimes calls himself, is an Eastern European living in New York. The character smacks, at first reading, of the men in those New York novels of the 80s: full of angst, money and looks. Stasys is good looking enough to draw women from Tinder for sex. He has published his first novel. He is a veritable social media being, with followers and fans on Twitter and Instagram. He constantly checks for new tweets and loads pictures to his Instagram.

He likes living on his own, hates sharing, hates humanity, hates getting out of bed, enjoys his sofa any time of day, and enjoys eating when he wants to. He has enough money for luxuries, like expensive shoes, for one. But all these are not enough. He thinks positive and acts as if he already has everything: “.. I’m failing to remind myself why I love life and just how lucky I am. …my brain in arctic cold.” He is at the cusp of his 30th birthday, he is steeped in ennui, he is jaded, and he questions the things he desires. He considers his to-do list as “complete and utter shit”.

Stasys is not happy with his life at all. Thus his desire to get away from all those things—all the way to the Far East on a one-way ticket, via an invitation by friend Kenny. He lands in Khao San, Thailand, where he meets a Russian at a bar, Aleksey Lemontov. They share a commonality of expensive clothes, “Eastern European accents, marching hairdos and love for whiskey”, the same Nespresso machine, hatred of people around them, and cynicism at the world in which only they are important, at home only in high class places like 5-star hotels. They get along well, staying at the Russian’s hotel, then at his, enjoying the islands in the south, just the thing for his Instagram. While waiting for Kenny to arrive, he listens to Alex reminisce about bygone days in Russia with his wealthy family, the ups and the downs when things went sour with the mafia, Chechnya, about being traumatised by a friend’s suicide. Like him, Alex also needs to get away from all this, usually to places like Paris, and devote his life to “searching and not giving up”.

About the Malaysian aspect in all this, it so happens that Alex’s father has connections in Malaysia close to Naqib’s wife. (The author alters the man’s name by a ‘q’.) Alex suggests Kenny does a documentary about the wife, who apparently runs the country, not the prime minister husband. Also, Alex used to know the Mongolian woman who was murdered in connection to the politician.

However, Kenny, who heads the documentary, is more interested in the ISIS angle of a story, rather than one about a murdered Mongolian’s connection with a prime minister, even when Alex argues the corruption angle of it. Kenny is convinced to take on the story only after hearing about the Muslim majority of the population in Malaysia.

If a reader sympathizes with the former prime minister and his wife, prepare to flinch at some of the unsavory aspects of Malaysia pictured here. Stasys comes to Malaysia knowing nothing about it but wanting to expose lies. Typical of Stasys, as much as he hates Thailand, he hates the first thing he encounters upon landing in Malaysia. To him, Putrajaya is “designed by middle-aged neurotics on meth” and the Pullman hotel is like a Barbie house. When they interview taxi drivers about the corruption in business and politics, one man high on meth quips: “..it’s Malaysia. This is how things are done here”. In the course of their investigation, a government informer named X discloses that all immigation records of the murdered Mongolian are wiped out.

The men are determined to make a documentary that divides the good, “beautiful, strong woman”, with the bad, the corruption. As they shoot their film, Stasys questions why he even considers joining the others who only want fame and the thrill. He is drawn only to the secrecy and the romance, particularly the romance of a stream in the jungle carrying a fragment of the spine of the murdered Mongolian and the DNA results. For someone who doesn’t care a jot about happenings around him in the world, he doesn’t care about bringing justice.

With everything going on, the novel somehow jacks in some gothic or supernatural elements. One day Stasys thinks he spies a girl from New York, who has been stalking him. It could well be something psychedelic because he fears he is hallucinating.

Besides the politician, his wife, and the Mongolian, the story weaves in some real events and people, with names altered. While they break from filming in Penang, The Sabah Report and WSJ break the news about the minister’s private bank account. They find that their documentary will be relegated to old news, making it difficult to sell. They have to decide what to do next, whether to abandon the project and look for a new one, or just continue as normal, hoping for the best, or just tweak the topic. Stasys is surprised that the locals carry on as usual, not protesting, and that the local press never report the scandal. The friends opt to share their research and interview with one Anna White of The Sabah Report, reasoning that the world would want to watch their documentary, especially when it focuses on Altansarnai, the murdered Mongolian. But Anna replies to their email: “you’re a fraud.” Later, she surprises them when she wants to know more about Rosnah’s jewelry. They are relieved, thinking all is not lost with their documentary.

Despite this, and Alex thinking life is beautiful because he is rich, Stasys still feels apprehensive, imagining “the nightmare…in the shadows, in a parallel reality…right in your head”, when things don’t go their way. Stasys realises that “People don’t care about living things—animals, forests, oceans, even other people.” People like him are triggered more by an animal’s death than a human’s, like the Mongolian—they are only interested in the thrills and the fun their making the documentary gives them. He likens all this to a “nostalgia you haven’t experienced.” He wants his life to make sense.

They try to sell their documentary to Al Jazeera, but when they start editing it, they find inconsistencies and a lack of focus. Though it is about a murder, their story is not unique and is similar to other stories already available. Al Jazeera will consider it if they interview the Mongolian’s father in person.

It is only when Kenny gets deported from Malaysia that their documentary becomes a success, so much so that Al Jazeera and other channels want to work with them. But the thrill of fame is short lived, as they have to look for another project. For Stasys, it is back to boredom, as usual. They return to Thailand, and as luck would have it for them, Thailand gets flooded—this is their next ticket to fame.

Near the end of the book, Stasy rethinks his philosophy about life: “Maybe beauty (of a human being) lies in making peace with reality”. He thinks he has found his perfect partner in Kenny’s ex-wife, Isabel. However, he knows himself better than anyone: “you need to know how to love in order to do that”. He admits that “we are always looking for the worst, most photogenic scenario. We don’t have souls.” While the locals flee from Bangkok as the waters rise, they remain so that they can film the flood. At one point, Kenny gets kidnapped. Stasys thinks it is up to him to be strong for the others. This vulnerability makes Stasys think that running out of time will make him feel alive.

With Kenny gone, and only he and Alex remaining, and it is near his birthday, the two men decide to go to Chiang Mai, to celebrate, and also to bury Kenny’s watch as a funeral. Stasys, by this time, has decided to write his next book, a love story, or rather three love stories. He thinks back to his time in New York, and wonders if anything has changed at all. When he loses his wallet full of credit cards, he thinks of them as sentimental junk that he can easily replace.

The way Stasys finally sees reality sums up he and his friends as “white, privileged men, not entirely happy, suffering from first-world problems; hoping for enlightenment at some point in the near future.” Stasys still haven’t found happiness at the close of the novel, but he has found something.

Cold East is written, or rather, translated, in a lean, a straightforward, almost stripped-down, noir-like, style, with no long descriptions or adjectives. An example: “I go out to the street. Dark. Hot. The smell of food and rubbish. Soy, rice, fried bananas. Shrimp. Ginger. A soft smell of coriander. Fried chicken. Rotten souls. My soul, if I still have one.” Those sentences are not typical of the rest of the novel, but you get the idea how images fast cut from one to the other cinematically.

Even if the picture painted of Malaysia in the novel is no tourism guff, remember it is merely fiction. Or something rendered as fiction.

Gabija Grušaité is an author and curator; Cold East is her second novel. A graduate of Anthropology & Media from Goldsmiths College, UK, Gabija’s creative pursuit is defined by the relentless search of new horizons through travel. In 2009, she settled in Penang, Malaysia where she cofounded an independent, contemporary art centre – Hin Bus Depot – where she was curator-in-chief. She currently lives in Vilnius, Lithuania with her two Malaysian dogs, Gorgeous and Hazelnut.

#Cold East #Gabija Grušaitė #novel #Penang Monthly Book Prize 2018 #Clarity Publishing #fiction #literature

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blackkudos · 6 years

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Danny Glover

Danny Lebern Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist.

Glover is well known for his leading role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series, The Color Purple (1985), To Sleep with Anger (1990) and Angels in the Outfield (1994). He also has prominent supporting roles in Silverado (1985), Witness (1985), Predator 2 (1990), Saw (2004),Shooter (2007), 2012 (2009), Death at a Funeral (2010), Beyond the Lights (2014) and Dirty Grandpa(2016). He has appeared in many other movies, television shows and theatrical productions, and is an active supporter of various humanitarian and political causes.

Early life

Glover was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Carrie (Hunley) and James Glover. His parents, postal workers, were active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working to advance equal rights. Glover's mother, daughter of a midwife, was born in Louisville, Georgia and graduated from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia.

Glover attended George Washington High School in San Francisco. He attended San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the late 1960s but did not graduate. SFSU later awarded him an honorary degree. Glover trained at the Black Actors' Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater.

As an adolescent and a young adult, Glover suffered from epilepsy but has not suffered a seizure since age 35.

Career

Glover originally worked in city administration working on community development before transitioning to theater. He has said:

I didn't think it was a difficult transition. Acting is a platform that can become a conveyer for ideas. Art is a way of understanding, of confronting issues and confronting your own feelings—all within that realm of the capacity it represents. It may have been a leap of faith for me, given not only my learning disability (dyslexia) but also the fact that I felt awkward. I felt all the things that someone that's 6'3" or 6'4" feels and with my own diminished expectations of who I could be [and] would feel. Whether it's art, acting or theater that I've devoted myself to I put more passion and more energy into it.

His first theater involvement was with Conservatory Theater, a regional training program in San Francisco. Glover also trained with Jean Shelton at the Shelton Actors Lab in San Francisco. In an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Glover credited Jean Shelton for much of his development as an actor. Deciding that he wanted to be an actor, Glover resigned from his city administration job and soon began his career as a stage actor. Glover then moved to Los Angeles for more opportunities in acting, where he would later go on to co-found the Robey Theatre Company with actor Ben Guillory in honor of the actor and concert singer Paul Robeson in Los Angeles in 1994.

Glover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles, and is best known for playing Los Angeles police Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series of action films, starring alongside Mel Gibson and Gary Busey . Later he once again starred with Busey in the blockbuster Predator 2. He also starred as the husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in the celebrated literary adaptation The Color Purple, and as Lieutenant James McFee in the film Witness. In 1994 he made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override.

Also in 1994, Glover and actor Ben Guillory formed the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theatre by and about Black people. During his career, he has made several cameos, appearing, for example, in the Michael Jackson video "Liberian Girl" of 1987. Glover earned top billing for the first time in Predator 2, the sequel to the sci-fi action film Predator. That same year he starred in Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

In common with Humphrey Bogart, Elliott Gould and Robert Mitchum, who have played Raymond Chandler's private eye detective Philip Marlowe, Glover played the role in the episode "Red Wind" of the Showtime network's 1995 series Fallen Angels. In 1997, under his former production company banner Carrie Films, Glover executive produced numerous films of first time directors including Pamm Malveaux's neo-noir short film Final Act starring Joe Morton, which aired on the Independent Film Channel. In addition, Glover has been a voice actor in many children's movies. Glover was featured in the popular 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

In 2004, he appeared in the low-budget horror film Saw as Detective David Tapp. In 2005, Glover and Joslyn Barnes announced plans to make No FEAR, a movie about Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo's experience. Coleman-Adebayo won a 2000 jury trial against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The jury found the EPA guilty of violating the civil rights of Coleman-Adebayo on the basis of race, sex, color and a hostile work environment, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Coleman-Adebayo was terminated shortly after she revealed the environmental and human disaster taking place in the Brits, South Africa, vanadium mines. Her experience inspired passage of the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No-FEAR Act). As of 2013 the No Fear title has not appeared but The Marsha Coleman-Adebayo Story was announced as the next major project of No Fear Media Productions.

Glover portrayed David Keaton in the film The Exonerated - a real-life story of Keaton's experience of being arrested, jailed and then freed from death row.

In 2009, Glover performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".

Glover played President Wilson, the President of the United States in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released in theaters November 13, 2009. In 2010, Glover participated in a Spanish film called I Want to Be a Soldier. In 2012, he starred in the film Donovan's Echo.

Planned directorial debut

Glover sought to make a film biography of Toussaint Louverture for his directorial debut. In May 2006, the film had included cast members Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Roger Guenveur Smith, Mos Def, Isaach de Bankolé, and Richard Bohringer. Production, estimated to cost $30 million, was planned to begin in Poland, filming from late 2006 into early 2007. In May 2007, President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez contributed $18 million to fund the production of Toussaintfor Glover, who is a prominent U.S. supporter of Chávez. The contribution annoyed some Venezuelan filmmakers, who said the money could have funded other homegrown films and that Glover's film was not even about Venezuela. In April 2008, the Venezuelan National Assembly authorized an additional $9,840,505 for Glover's film, which is still in planning.

Public appearances

Glover appeared at London Film and Comic Con 2013 at Earls Court 2 over 2.5 days during Friday 5th to Sunday July 7. He participated in a panel discussion in McComb, Mississippi on July 16, 2015. The event, co-sponsored by The Gloster Project and Jubilee Performing Arts Center, included noted authors Terry McMillan and Quincy Troupe.

On January 30, 2015 Glover was the Keynote Speaker and 2015 Honoree for the MLK Celebration Series at the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI). Glover used his career and personal story to speak on the topic "Creativity and Democracy: Social Change through the Arts."

Personal life

Glover purchased a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) house in Dunthorpe, Oregon, in 1999. As of 2011, he no longer lived in Oregon.

On September 2, 2009, Glover signed an open letter of objection to the inclusion of a series of films intended to showcase Tel Aviv at the Toronto International Film Festival.

On April 16, 2010, Glover was arrested in Maryland during a protest by SEIU workers for Sodexo's unfair and illegal treatment of workers. He was given a citation and later released. The Associated Press reports "Glover and others stepped past yellow police tape and were asked to step back three times at Sodexo headquarters. When they refused, Starks says officers arrested them."

Activism

Civil rights activism

While attending San Francisco State University (SFSU), Glover was a member of the Black Students Union, which, along with the Third World Liberation Front and the American Federation of Teachers, collaborated in a five-month student-led strike to establish a Department of Black Studies. The strike was the longest student walkout in U.S. history. It helped create not only the first Department of Black Studies but also the first School of Ethnic Studies in the United States.

Hari Dillon, current president of the Vanguard Public Foundation, was a fellow striker at SFSU. Glover later co-chaired Vanguard's board. He is also a board member of The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, Walden House, and Cheryl Byron's Something Positive Dance Group. He was charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly after being arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan's humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Glover's long history of union activism includes support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, and numerous service unions. In March 2010, Glover supported 375 Union workers in Ohio by calling upon all actors at the 2010 Academy Awards to boycott Hugo Boss suits following announcement of Hugo Boss's decision to close a manufacturing plant in Ohio after a proposed pay decrease from $13 to $8.30 an hour was rejected by the Workers United Union.

On November 1, 2011, Glover spoke to the crowd at Occupy Oakland on the day before the Oakland General Strike where thousands of protestors shut down the Port of Oakland.

Political activism

Glover was an early supporter of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries until Edwards' withdrawal, although some news reports indicated that he had endorsed Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, whom he had endorsed in 2004. After Edwards dropped out, Glover then endorsed Barack Obama. In February 2016, Glover endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Glover was an outspoken critic of George W. Bush, calling him a known racist. "Yes, he's racist. We all knew that. As Texas's governor, Bush led a penitentiary system that executed more people than all the other U.S. states together. And most of the people who died were Afro-Americans or Hispanics."

Glover's support of California Proposition 7 (2008) led him to use his voice in an automated phone call to generate support for the measure before the election.

On the foreign policy of the Obama administration, Glover said: "I think the Obama administration has followed the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don't see anything different... On the domestic side, look here: What's so clear is that this country from the outset is projecting the interests of wealth and property. Look at the bailout of Wall Street. Why not the bailout of Main Street? He may be just a different face, and that face may happen to be black, and if it were Hillary Clinton, it would happen to be a woman.... But what choices do they have within the structure?"

Glover wrote the foreword to Phyllis Bennis' book, Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power. Glover is also a member of the board of directors of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank led by economist Dean Baker.

InternationalAfrica

Glover is an active board member of the TransAfrica Forum. On April 6, 2009, Glover was given a chieftaincy title in Imo State, Nigeria. Glover was given the title Enyioma of Nkwerre, which means A Good Friend in the language of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.

Caribbean and Haiti

On January 13, 2010, Glover compared the scale and devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the predicament other island nations may face as a result of the failed Copenhagen summit the previous year. Glover said: "...the threat of what happens to Haiti is a threat that can happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations... they're all in peril because of global warming... because of climate change... when we did what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens..." In the same statement, he called for a new form of international partnership with Haiti and other Caribbean nations and praised Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba, for already accepting this partnership.

Iraq War

Danny Glover has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq War before the war began in March 2003. In February 2003, he was one of the featured speakers at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco where other notable speakers included names such as author Alice Walker, singer Joan Baez, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. Glover was a signatory to the April 2003 anti-war letter "To the Conscience of the World" that criticized the unilateral American invasion of Iraq that led to "massive loss of civilian life" and "devastation of one of the cultural patrimonies of humanity". During an anti-war demonstration in Downtown Oakland in March 2003, Glover praised the community leaders for their anti-war efforts saying that "They're on the front lines because they are trying to make a better America.... The world has come together and said 'no' to this war – and we must stand with them."

Venezuela

In January 2006, Harry Belafonte led a delegation of activists, including Glover and activist/professor Cornel West, in a meeting with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez, with Glover calling Chávez "remarkable". In 2007, the Venezuelan government allotted $18 million to Glover for a film about a slave uprising in Haiti with Hugo Chávez hoping "to mobilise world public opinion against imperialism and western oppression". Glover was also a board member of TeleSUR, a media network primarily funded by the Venezuelan government.

During the beginning of the 2014 Venezuela Protests, Glover shared his support to Chávez's successor, President Nicolas Maduro, calling members of his government "the stewards" of Venezuela's democracy. Glover also told Venezuelan government supporters to go fight for the sovereignty of Maduro's government.

Music

Glover has become an active member of board of directors of The Jazz Foundation of America. Danny became involved with The Jazz Foundation in 2005, and has been a featured host for their annual benefit A Great Night in Harlem for several years, as well appearing as a celebrity MC at other events for the foundation. In 2006, Britain's leading African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi appointed Glover as one of its three Patrons, joining Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jocelyn Jee Esien opening the organization's tenth-anniversary celebrations (Sunday, February 2, 2008) at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.

Honors and awards

Utah State University

In 2010, Glover delivered the Commencement Address and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Utah State University.

Starr King School for the Ministry

Also in 2010, Starr King School for the Ministry awarded the Doctorate of Humane Letters (Litterarum Humanarum Doctor), in absentia, to Mr. Glover. His call to humanity to see itself as the recipient of a legacy of caring and commitment that began with prior parental and religious communities and that it should carry on for the sake of those who will follow are in alignment with Starr King's values. Mr. Glover was awarded the doctorate specifically for his long history of passionate activism, including support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, as well as his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the Haiti earthquake victims, literacy and civil rights and his fight against unjust labor practices. Mr. Glover is co-founder and CEO of Louverture Films, dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity; we honored his commitment to using film to lift up and advance social justice issues, such as his then recently released project "Trouble the Water", a documentary about New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

Glover has had a close association with Starr King School through his role as guest lecturer in its course on Non Violent Social Change and lending his support and presence to events sponsored by Starr King's Masters of Arts in Social Change (MASC) program.

Deauville American Film Festival

He was also the recipient of a tribute paid by the Deauville American Film Festival in France on September 7, 2011.

Wikipedia

#Danny Glover #07-22

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beastoftheblackhole · 6 years

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11, 30, 33, 46!

11: books/authors that’ve influenced me the most:oh god i hate to admit it but lovecraft. PURELY STYLISTICALLY, i hasten to add. i love that kind o breathless erudite panic thing he does at the denouement, i love the cumbersome huge words, i love the whole concept o cosmic horror. ‘pickman’s model’ will never not be one o my fave short stories. any time i start waxing long-winded abt monsters or voids or the indifferent nature o the universe, blame that asshole. (and honestly i could wax poetic abt the crawling chaos and malevolent asshole trickster gods but i’ll restrain myself.) (yes i know he was appallingly racist. he was an all-around trainwreck o a human being. but the man could tell a tale imo.) also brian jacques for sheer descriptiveness and his incredibly visual style o storytelling. (which he prob developed bc he used to tell stories to blind kids.) mm. china mieville, too, bc again he’s v visual and v descriptive. he also clearly is writing whatever the hell he wants, to hell w current trends, and is Not Shy abt getting political w/o hammering u over the head w it, and i wish i could be half as subtle. i’m the type o dude who will. just. drop a million anvils rather than imply anything. (granted mieville will also hammer u over the head w it.) there’re prob others, but i’d have to sit down and have a good think and prob dissect my writing w a scalpel to figure them all out.

30: fave idea i haven’t started on yet:technically the fantasy pandemic story tbh. i’m still doing the research, i’ve only written little bits and the occasional drabble here and there. and there’re little things i want to work into my blood drive fics (like slink being a saxophonist how tf do i keep forgetting to mention that i fucking play saxophone me @ me wtf are u doing). i also wanna write a high fantasy murder mystery and a high fantasy noir bc i love crossing genres like that. gangster elves and wizard detectives and shit. and i still toy w the idea o rewriting this long story i wrote in high school abt a serial killer writer whose character came to life and started killing ppl. he (the writer) ends up in a relationship w a detective who wants to bring him to justice but instead gets corrupted and it’s all v hannigram even tho hannigram wasn’t a thing back then. (i wrote it in like 2008, 2009.) it reads like a teenager wrote it bc a teenager did write it and i’d like to see what an adult could do w it. but every attempt has petered out and deflated like a balloon w a hole in it...

33: have i ever killed a main character:lmao i killed two in the prion fic. other than that, yeah, i’ve killed some leads. i don’t usually like to, esp pov characters bc i get too attached to them (also my pov characters are usually queer and god knows the world doesn’t need more dead queer characters), but i’ve done it before and will do it again. (in the pandemic story i plan on killing one lead and giving another a near-death experience, for instance.)

46: do i reread my own stories:oh all the time. partly to keep shit fresh in my mind and partly bc half the time im the only person writing what i wanna read bc im apparently incapable o shipping anything but rarepairs :U

#talking into tin cans #d--t #writing stuff #tumblr games #writing meme

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skold · 7 years

Text

this post is Marina’s List Of Favorite and/or Iconic Music Videos

this could also be subtitled as: if you truly want to understand me as a person, watch these videos because it’ll answer a lot of questions

it’s gonna be a long one so i’ll pop it under a cut

alright we goin by artist then chronological

AIDEN

knife blood nightmare - this is iconic for me simply bc i rly wanted to look like wil in this video so bad in 6th grade.

die romantic - WHAT A BOP. i used to do my black eyeshadow like wil in this video too lmao

ALL TIME LOW

poppin champagne - because blonde alex and also?? honestly?? what a wild video. this is truly late 00s oversaturated pop punk at its finest

i feel like dancin - i’m not the biggest fan of this record or even this song in general but this is like, quintessential all time low to me video-wise. like. it’s everything i want from an all time low video.

ARCHITECTS

follow the water - or as sam carter says, follow the wah-uh. first of all i love that this is in a church. second of all when will i get to go to an architects show this lit here in the states

heartburn - bc they all look pretty. ok. aesthetically on point as well.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD

beast and the harlot - i don’t always bop this song but when i do, the whole cul de sac does too. no but really this was so influential to middle school me i wanted nothing more than a boyfriend who looked like zacky or jimmy and whatever eyeshadows zacky was wearing in this clip

BLINK 182

i miss you - the video that inspired this post. THE AESTHETIQUE. 20′s inspired romantigoth film noir. i don’t yell about this music video enough.

BRING ME THE HORIZON

chelsea smile - it’s literally just a house part video but the song literally defines the year 2009 for me. emetophobia warning at 1:08

it never ends - this video got mad shit but i love it. pretty heavy gore throughout this video

alligator blood - CREEPY ASS AESTHETIC SHIT!!!! i live for it. 16 y/o me had it so bad for matt nicholls and him getting tied up and violated was like, god tier for me

visions - more creepy aesthetic shit. the videos on there is a hell were underrated

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

hey john what’s your name again? - i gotta throw this one in just bc this hurls my ass right back to the year 2008. that bible imagery. those haircuts. it was a better time for music

html rules d00d - THIS SONG STILL SLAPS LMAO DON’T READ ME

ELISSA FRANCESCHI

salt - i’m not crying you’re crying!!! how did anne and christian franceschi manage to spawn two flawless and talented siblings!!!!!!

EVERY TIME I DIE

ebolarama - it’s a performance video in a roller rink what more could you want

wanderlust - you’ve probably caught on to the fact that i love creepy aesthetic shit.

decayin with the boys - THIS VIDEO HAS ME HOWLING. there are too many good moments to list here but the personal highlight is the dude admiring the lesbians making out, then he turns and admires they gays making out at about the 1:30 mark. also the jenga dream sequence. there’s a dick in this video, just a heads up. and a whole bootyass. i love andy williams. mild emetophobia tw at 2:30

FOXY SHAZAM

a dangerous man - eric nally’s screeching was the soundtrack of 2008

i like it - the chorus of this song is literally just “that’s the biggest black ass i’ve ever seen and i like it” and i have nothing more to say

holy touch - it’s a performance video but it’s. different. i really don’t wanna ruin this by saying too much about it. that’s just kinda how foxy shazam were. this song is a fucking banger. yes, they did have a trumpet player in the official lineup.

FRNKIERO ANDTHE CELLABRATION

joyriding - another performance video that’s. different. lmao. aesthetically perfect

GOOD CHARLOTTE

lifestyles of the rich and famous - the proletariat banger we weren’t ready for in 2002, but we’re ready now.

girls and boys - old people being punk rock. that’s all.

predictable - i SPECIFICALLY remember watching this on the good charlotte website the day this dropped. THE EARLY 2000S BAD CG IS REAL. i was literally ten years old but i somehow Felt every word of that spoken bridge, man. WHEN THE LITTLE GIRL GIVES JOEL THE ROSE AND IT TURNS BLACK i deadass thought that was so fucking dope y’all

i just wanna live - ignoring the irony of joel whining about being famous, this video had THE MEMES.

GREEN DAY

longview - iconic simply by virtue of being their first video.

when i come around - ask me about my favorite songs of All Time and i’ll probably mention this one. it’s still great nowadays. i love all the shots of berkeley.

brain stew/jaded - this is such a great piece of art lmao the fucking. sludgy feeling of brain stew going into the chaos of jaded is great on the record, but even better in video form going from being stoned in sepia to tripping acid in an oversaturated cluttered space

walking contradiction - comedy gold

hitchin a ride - creepy weirdness and an iconic bassline. also mike dirnt looks fine as hell in this video

minority - i’m running out of ways to explain that a video is iconic to me purely bc of how important the song was to me at a given time lmao.

american idiot - is there anything i can truly say about this video? it was perfect in 2004, it’s perfect in 2017. uncomfortably relevant. epilepsy warning for strobe lighting effects in the second half

holiday - technically this was released before blvd, but since it chronologically precedes blvd in the story, i’m putting it first. this is like 90% here for the bridge section y’all. fucking iconic. i wore a fedora on the first day of sixth grade bc tre cool wore one in this video. not my proudest fashion moment. emetophobia warning at 1:56 but them playing EVERY character in the bar scene is perfection

boulevard of broken dreams - ah yes, 2005′s most overplayed song. i could not escape this song. every time the intro started everyone would just look at me bc i was The Green Day Chick. this video is aesthetically perfect though. shout out to mike dirnt’s jawline in profile

HOZIER

work song - first of all, this song makes me cry. second of all, the video is dreamy as fuck. it gives me irl chills. i love the choreography so much. the whole vibe is very modern southern gothic. and it’s incredibly intimate feeling without being... sexual or vulgar, i guess.

IN THIS MOMENT

adrenalize - first of all i’m gay. second of all i’m gay. this video is decidedly nsfw

whore - aesthetically pleasing. chris motionless being subby is the real highlight here

sick like me - again, it’s here for the aesthetic.

big bad wolf - also aesthetic but THIS MAKEUP LOOK. maria’s makeup look in this video is actually literally my aesthetic goal. epilepsy warning for strobe light effects

sex metal barbie - say it with me: aesthetic. i also love this one bc the lyrics are largely lifted from people talking shit about maria on the internet, shaming her for being a woman with sexuality and agency, so fuck yes i support it. mild body horror warning for this one

JOHN 5

making monsters - john’s videos are mostly performance based but this one is so cute lmao. where do i cop a j5 action figure

LADY GAGA

paparazzi - i’m only including the RLY vital gaga videos here and the full version of paparazzi is her best work imo......

bad romance - .......but bad romance is a close second.

telephone - i can’t not include this one though. the collab of the decade.

LINKIN PARK

one step closer - i think this was the first linkin park video i saw Back In The Day......... it was 2 heavy 4 baby me at the time lmao but nowadays it’s one of my fave lp songs. the video is super corny let’s be real but it was 2000

numb - this song is so fucking emo but i love it. the video is like peak emo too. i swear the main girl in this video was like my fashion icon at the time. layered tank tops, ripped loose jeans, oversized hoodies and jackets. i wanted her hair so bad lmao

what i’ve done - this video is really visually solid. i thought this was like the Deepest Shit in middle school lmao

MARILYN MANSON

sweet dreams (are made of this) - THE CINNAMON TOPOGRAPHY!!! god i have no complaints about this video except that twiggy is in it. visual fx?? dope. wardrobe?? dope. location?? dope. manson in the wedding dress?? dope. unsanitary warning for the later half of the video bc manson gets pooped on by birds lmao

tourniquet - one of my fave vocal performances by manson tbh. i prefer this one of the two videos floria did w/ manson.

long hard road out of hell - femme manson and religious imagery need i elaborate

the dope show - the first manson video i ever saw. i was... so creeped out lmao. LOOKS ON LOOKS ON LOOKS. john 5 lookin like a snack in this one

i don’t like the drugs (but the drugs like me) - this is probably the most heavy-handed manson has ever been with the christ allegory lmao and yet......... i love it. also shout out to manson and rose’s dogs bug and uncle fester for guest starring. body horror tw here

coma white - basically a flawless music video i have nothing to say here that isn’t already said by the video itself

disposable teens - everybody looks great in this one except twiggy fuck twiggy. i actually love the mtv version of this video too, which is all performance, but i can’t seem to find it rn??

the fight song - one of my fave manson looks. those boooooots tho. the gloooovessssss. i’m gross let me live

tainted love - sorry to send y’all to vimeo for this one but i couldn’t find one on youtube that didn’t look like it was filmed with a potato or watermarked. y’all slept on the genius of this video tbh

mobscene - hello it is me gaogfucker666.

this is the new shit - still me, gaogfucker666. this video feels misinterpreted too honestly

(s)AINT (director’s cut) - specifically the director’s cut bc more tim skold in a dress and boots smoking a cigarette. this video is seriously fucking nsfw. needles, drugs, sexual content, vomit etc watch with caution pls

personal jesus - i love this glam rock look so much. tim looks so good in this he never wore the look again bc he knew he looked so good we could never handle it a second time.

putting holes in happiness - I CAN’T FIND the extended version with tim’s full solo and i wanna scream. but. here’s the official version

say10 (short) - i really fucking wish he’d compounded off this for the official say10 video, beheaded orange man or not. just the verse. it’s so good. moody and creepy and AHHH.

we know where you fucking live - heed the warning at the beginning lmao. i honestly loved this video. i know some people thought it was edgy but i rly rly don’t see that. it’s offensive and obscene yeah but it doesn’t have that edgelord feel, as much as i love to call him an edgelord.

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE

reincarnate - old school horror vibes!!! as a Humble Fetishist of Boots and Gloves, this is a great video. also this is one of those songs where i Feel the lyrics for real

eternally yours - THE COLORS!!! THE FUCKIN IN A COFFIN!!!! i have nothing more to say

MOTLEY CRUE

looks that kill - please watch this corny ass fuckin 1983 ass hair metal ass music video. please. i’m tryna add more shout at the devil era nikki sixx vibes to my wardrobe tbh

wild side - i love a late 80s arena performance video ok also where do i cop nikki’s shirt

dr. feelgood - i will always credit this as one of the songs that made me want to play bass tbh

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

vampires will never hurt you - too emo to view with the naked eye.

i’m not okay (i promise) - the video that spawned a million high school AUs. god i love this one. even watching without the nostalgia goggles it’s great.

helena - perhaps my favorite music video of all time? if not then top 3. this video still remains my ideal aesthetic 12 years later. HOW I’M TRYNA BE. i just wanna look like an extra in this video, okay.

the ghost of you - time to cry!!!!! emetophobia warning at 0:47

welcome to the black parade - it’s hard for me to talk about these videos bc they’re so universally iconic that to explain why i love them so much would be mostly redundant.

famous last words - see above. this song means the world to me

desolation row - if i had to pick a video other than helena to look like an extra in i’d pick this one. has gerard ever looked this good, before or after this video?? peak.

NINE INCH NAILS

down in it - these are getting linked to vimeo since the official nin account has them all uploaded there in better quality. anyway i love so many of the shots in this video and i love the colors and i love bab trent

head like a hole - SO dated y’all but bab trent leveled up and became baby dread trent.

happiness in slavery - this is seriously graphic. but it’s great. also where’s the extended version that shows trent getting eaten by the weird carnivorous robot

gave up - bABY BRIAN!! infants, y’all. INFANTS.

march of the pigs - it’s a one-take performance video but it’s...... so much more than that. this video hurts me in my hand/glove kink.

closer - this is in the top 3 with helena honestly. it is... a piece of art film before all else. a Must Watch.

burn - another case of a video being important to me because of the song it’s for tbh.

the perfect drug - marc romanek is a GOD. also a piece of art film honestly. just y’all wait till i make my dnd character based on trent in this video lmao

starfuckers, inc - hm, another nin video that trent invited manson to be in. interesting. all memes aside it’s a great video even as much as i hate the use of the “fat = ugly” trope. epilepsy warning for flashing effects in the last part of the video

deep - why. are. y’all. SLEEPING ON THIS!!!!

only - this may have been the first nin video i willingly saw and recognized as nin. this video still holds up, especially with it being 95% cgi and still looking as good as it does.

ROB ZOMBIE

living dead girl - the theme song of my life??? iconic couple costume idea????

meet the creeper - i have to include this video because it’s BAD. it’s terrible and i fucking love it

american witch (live version) - WHEN ROB PICKS UP JOHN AND STARTS SPINNING HIM AROUND!!!! this is here specifically for all the long hair john content

dead city radio and the new gods of supertown - the aesthetic. everybody looks great. matt is in a gorilla suit

well everybody’s fucking in a ufo - highly nsfw. where do i begin with this fucking hot mess...... sheri’s huge fake boobs. john and matt and ginger as astronauts. john jerkin off. the aliens with dicks. the fact that the whole story is about getting gang banged by aliens???? nothing will ever reach this level

SKOLD

self titled promotional clip - epilepsy warning for a lot of flashing and smash cuts. sort of a few partial music videos in one, but there are only two official skold videos, so i gotta include both of them. the quality is garbage. it’s so incredibly 1996. yet i love it. the last song, anything, is pretty nsfw as in there’s actual femdom porn clips but this is why i love it.

better the devil - if there were more skold videos i’d put them here. but as i said there are only two. tim out there lookin like not just a snack but a full course meal in 4k quality. goddamn. the only man i can ever truly call d*ddy. tiffany and eli lookin like delicious side dishes as well.

TAKING BACK SUNDAY

you’re so last summer - flava flave is in it

this photograph is proof - this song makes me so fucking nostalgic............. it transports me right back to eighth grade lmao. tbs were one of my fave bands in middle school.

makedamnsure - the most emo song of all time?? side note regarding tbs: real talk, being fat in middle school, seeing another fat person in a band was so fucking reassuring and great. i love eddie.

liar (it takes one to know one) - these visual effects are SO cool, even now.

YOU ME AT SIX

jealous minds think alike - ART... no but actually look at these literal fetuses. i fucking love this song. it’s probably my fave track on take off your colours.

kiss and tell - you right it’s another house party video BUT. baby josh with an undercut. he must be 18 or barely 19 here??

liquid confidence - WHEN YOU GOT NOTHING TO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE

stay with me - jkfljkghdfskljgs okay serious time: this song got me through a seriously rough part of my life and i have the title tattooed on me partially because of the video.

loverboy - i have never seen a fandom in such utter chaos as the ymas fandom was on the day this video dropped. holy fucking shit. the THIRST was REAL.

bite my tongue - peak ymas captured in one music video. that’s truly the most important part. that peak sns era ymas was preserved forever in this video.

lived a lie - is it bad if i still kinda want a “we are believers” tattoo lmao. i really....... love this song a lot. is it obvious by now that ymas love a big chorus lmao

give - this song gives me The Feels. it deserved better than a performance video in an empty arena but it’s all we got, so here it is.

#well this took for fucking ever #and will probably get no notes bc it's a personal post #which is fine but #i hope y'all appreciated my commentary anyway lmao #do not lose #i will likely update this as my faves continue to release gr8 videos

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screenandcinema · 5 years

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Coming Attractions - May 2019

Five years ago today, here on the S&C, we presented for the first time a list of the movies what would be hitting your local cinemas that month. That initial list included The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Chef, Godzilla, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Every month since then over the course of five years we have done the same rundown of movies coming soon and you have been there to read them all along the way. Thank you for that. We thought this was a special day to reflect on in the history of the S&C.

With that said, here are what movies are coming out this month:

May 3rd

Long Shot - Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron star as an odd-couple in this upcoming comedy, him an unemployed journalist and her a candidate for President of the United States. Long Shot premiered to great reviews at South by Southwest in March and I for one can’t wait to see it.

UglyDolls - Quick! Is UglyDolls an original film or one based on existing IP? Do you know the answer? I don’t. (Well I do now, cause I looked it up, but I didn’t know when I asked it.)

The Intruder - Meagan Good and Michael Ealy star in this thriller as a couple who buys a house from Dennis Quaid’s character, and he refuses to let go off his long-term home. The film hails from the same screenwriter as 2009′s Obsessed and 2008′s Lakeview Terrance, so audiences should know what they are getting into with The Intruder.

Extremely Wicked, Shocking Evil and Vile - If you are keeping score at home, it is now Ted Bundy: 1, Oxford Comma: 0. Zac Efron stars as the notorious serial killer in this new film coming to Netflix this month. Reviews of the film have been fairly solid since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year.

May 10th

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu - Though I have never been a fan of Pokémon in the least, Detective Pikachu looks to me like the film I wanted The Happytime Murders to be, a noir-ish fantasy mystery made in the same vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And while I have no interest in the film, I do have an 8-year nephew who does.

The Hustle - Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson take the lead in this comedy film that is a remake of 1988′s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, which is itself a remake of 1964′s Bedtime Story starring Marlon Brando and David Niven. Still one remake shy of a full A Star is Born.

Poms - In this comedy, Diane Keaton starts a cheerleading squad at her retirement community and her friends played by Jacki Weaver, Pam Grier, and Rhea Perlman, join up!

Tolkien - Nicholas Hoult is J.R.R. Tolkien in this biography of the famous author. Like similar more recent works Finding Neverland, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Becoming Jane, and half of Saving Mr. Banks, audiences will surely seeing Tolkien’s future works come alive in his life experiences through his time as school and World War I.

May 17th

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - John Wick is back for installment number 3. The John Wick film series has been a surprising revelation and it is always good to see Keanu Reeves back on the big screen. Prepare for war.

A Dog’s Journey - This is a sequel to 2017′s A Dog’s Purpose. Did you see that one? Oh, you didn’t. Then my job is done.

The Sun is Also A Star - It is a race against time for two young students hoping to fall in love before one of them is forced to leave with her family forever. My prediction? She is an alien.

May 24th

Aladdin - Disney’s 1992 beloved animated classic is back with a live action version directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Will Smith as the Genie. As a kid, I remember seeing Aladdin in theaters five times and it was a personal favorite. Unlike some of the recent and forthcoming Disney remakes, Aladdin doesn’t appear to be a scene-for-scene rehash of the original, which is extremely refreshing.

Brightburn - James Gunn produces this superhero horror film written by his cousins Mark and Brian Gunn. “Superhero horror” might be the best genre name imaginable. Essentially, Brightburn is a twist on the familiar Superman story - what if a child gave from space with amazing abilities and instead of trying to save us all, he tried to kill us all. Count me in!

Booksmart - Olivia Wilde makes her feature film directorial debut with the coming-of-age comedy in Booksmart. In the film, two smart good girls try to make four years worth bad dumb decisions over the course of the night before high school graduation. The film premiered at South by Southwest in March to fantastic reviews.

May 31st

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - On the surface, it is hard to tell how much of King of the Monsters is a sequel to 2014′s Godzilla and how much of it is set-up for 2020′s Godzilla vs. Kong as Legendary Entertainment continues to build their MonsterVerse. As much as I enjoyed Godzilla and 2017′s Kong: Skull Island, nothing about King of the Monsters is really exciting me at this point, which in itself is disappointing.

Rocketman - The music biopic craze continues with Rocketman starring Taron Egerton as Elton John. The film is directed by Dexter Fletcher, who you may or may not know as the guy who came in and finished directing Bohemian Rhapsody after Brian Singer was fired. Rocketman looks to be everything Bohemian Rhapsody wasn’t, including an actor who sings throughout the movie and a historically accurate portrayal of the musician's life and times. Fans of music who were disappointed by Bohemian Rhapsody should be eager to take a ride with Rocketman.

Ma - Octavia Spencer stars a lonely woman who befriends a group of mischievous teenagers only to viciously turn on them in this upcoming thriller from Blumhouse. Watch this one with the lights on.

Now for a quick look ahead to June, my top picks for next month are Dark Phoenix, Men in Black: International, and Toy Story 4.

-MB-

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justanothercinemaniac · 8 years

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Epic Movie (Re)Watch #119 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Spoilers Below

Have I Seen It Before: Yes.

Did I Like It Then: Yes.

Do I Remember It: Yes.

Did I See It In Theaters: No

Edit: At the time of writing this I did not see the film in theaters, but have recently.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes. #565.

Format: DVD

1) Starting this comedy/noir film off with what appears to be an animated cartoon from the 40s is a good way of establishing tone for a few reasons. First of all it tells us what kind of toons Roger and company are. The kind that star in short after short after short like Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny, as opposed to say the Care Bears (it was the 80s, so I’m going with that example) who had a TV Show and a movie. It also introduces us to Roger, Baby Herman, the idea of ACME in cartoons, and Maroon studios. Also the film’s excellence in slapstick is there from the get go.

2) But as soon as the cartoon is over, we’re in the “real” world. This film has a slight bit of edge to it that I wildly appreciate. Not like Martin Scorsese edge, but come on. This is a film starring animated characters that has swearing, murder, sexual innuendo galore, and an alcoholic main character. For example in the original version of the film (now edited out): after Baby Herman walks under the skirt of a female employee on set, his finger is extended upward and has some liquid on it. That is VERY adult but will go over the heads of children.

3) According to IMDb:

Joel Silver's cameo as the director of the Baby Herman cartoon was a prank on Disney chief Michael Eisner by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. Eisner and Silver hated each other from their days at Paramount Pictures in the early '80s, particularly after the difficulties involved in making 48 Hrs. (1982). Silver shaved off his beard, paid his own expenses, and kept his name out of all initial cast sheets. When Eisner was told, after the movie was complete, who was playing the director - Silver was nearly unrecognizable - he reportedly shrugged and said, "He was pretty good."

4) Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant.

Eddie is a wildly interesting character. He’s a former goofball who has kept his sharp tongue for wiseass remarks and being a pain in the ass, which is always appreciated by me. His conflict is incredibly interesting (more on that later) and he’s just a great character to follow around in this world.

Bob Hoskins is perfect for this role. I’ll go into detail on this later but his interactions with the cartoon characters look easy when they’re not, and Hoskins is able to balance the sourpuss aspect of Eddie’s personality with the wiseass, heartache, alcoholism, and former goofball in a complete package.

According to IMDb:

On the Special Edition DVD, Robert Zemeckis recounts that he had stated in a newspaper interview that Bill Murray was his and producer Steven Spielberg's original choice for the role of Eddie Valiant, but neither could get in contact with him in time. Bill Murray, in turn, has stated that when he read the interview he was in a public place, but he still screamed his lungs out, because he would have definitely accepted the role.

I think Hoskins can’t be replaced though.

5) This film is more of a noir film than an animated fantasy. You have your archetypes like RK Maroon begin the big money slime, Judge Doom is the shady government official, and Jessica Rabbit it the femme fatale. This is felt in every aspect of the film, from the cinematography right down to Alan Silvestri’s wonderful music.

6) Remember how I said Eddie had a great conflict?

Angelo [bar patron who Eddie flipped out on]: “What’s his problem?”

Dolores [Eddie’s sort-of-girlfriend and bar owner]: “Toon killed his brother.”

Like that is such a strange idea, a murderous toon, and it provides such great conflict for Eddie. A conflict which we see laid out before us when the camera takes the time to look at all the stuff on his and Teddy’s desk. You SEE that Eddie is in pain, and without a flashback you see the guy he used to be when his brother was around. The fun goofball who liked working Toontown and helpings toons out. To go from that to where he is now takes a lot of heartbreak.

7) I love that the password to get into the Ink & Paint Club is, “Walt sent me.”

8) Daffy and Donald Duck.

This is the first (and to date only) time cartoon characters owned by Warner Brothers and Disney have appeared in a film together. Since the film was being made by Disney, WB only allowed to have their characters show up if the major characters had the same amount of screen time as the Disney characters. That’s why Donald/Daffy and later Mickey/Bugs always share the screen together.

As a kid THIS was my favorite part of the film! The crossover aspect. Getting to see characters interact who normally don’t. AND they got the official actors at the time to voice them. Mel Blanc voices all his Looney Tunes characters, Tony Anselmo is Donald, and Wayne Allwine is Mickey Mouse. These aren’t cheap cameos, these are the genuine articles and that’s amazing!

9) There are also some appearances by non-Disney/non-WB characters, such as Betty Boop.

I think the inclusion of Betty is a nice way to pay respect to the early days of studio animation, and her original voice actress was still alive at the time so she got a chance to reprise the character.

10) Jessica Rabbit.

Before anything else, I would just like to point out that Jessica’s proportions are PURPOSEFULLY impossible. I think that this is done to play into the idea of her being a femme fatale, but more so even to critique some of the ridiculous bodies animated female characters have (but that last part may just be wishful thinking on my part). Kathleen Turner unfortunately does not get credit for her voiceover work as Jessica, which is a shame because she gives the character so much of her heart and intrigue. When she’s just the femme fatale Jessica’s a bit of a stereotype but by the end of the film she becomes truly interesting to me because she doesn’t just fill that role. There’s also a fan theory about Jessica I’m totally onboard with, but more on that later.

11) Robert Zemeckis’ films are marked for their incredible special effects, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit is no exception. Ask yourself: every time an animated character opens a door, or moves a desk, or splashes water, or bumps into a lamp, or (in the case of Jessica) pulls Eddie close to them by his tie and then lets him go, how did they do that on set? Because they had to! CGI is not a factor in this film. The animation is done by drawing over the film that was shot in the traditional fashion, but everything else had to be done practically on set. It’s so subtle and so natural that I marvel at it every time.

12) Okay, I love the theory that Jessica Rabbit is asexual. If you want to read the full post click the link above but here are the basic points of argument:

She’s in love with a rabbit because he makes her laugh.

She uses her body to get things she wants from people, but outside of that doesn’t she interest in anybody.

Her line, “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.”

Her line, “You don’t know how hard it is being a woman looking the way I do.”

The only thing that really contradicts the theory is that later in the movie Eddie says to Jessica that Roger is a better lover than a driver, to which she replies, “You better believe it buster.” But I can easily see that as her defending his loving husband side instead of any sexual prowess.

13) Another thing that supports the asexual Jessica theme is that instead of her doing anything sexual with Marvin Acme, she plays Patty Cake with him. Like literally, patty cake.

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

That is a joke I did not understand as a child.

14) I haven’t talked too much about Roger’s voice actor yet, Charles Fleischer.

During filming, Charles Fleischer delivered Roger Rabbit's lines off camera in full Roger costume including rabbit ears, yellow gloves and orange cover-alls. During breaks when he was in costume, other staff at the studios would see him and make comments about the poor caliber of the effects in the "rabbit movie".

Fleischer’s voice IS Roger in so many ways. All he can do to deliver Roger’s heart is speak, and Fleischer’s performance in this film is not to be underwritten because it is amazing. It is full with such life, such heart, and a surprising amount of honesty. It works brilliantly.

15) You have to keep your eyes open for the little innuendos in this film. For example, when Eddie meets Jessica at the crime scene he quickly peeks down at her boobs. This is the first time I’ve ever noticed that and I’ve seen this film a lot.

16) Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom.

Director Robert Zemeckis had worked with Lloyd on their most iconic film Back to the Future (where Lloyd played Doc Brown), and now Lloyd gets to show off his villainous side. He is wonderfully and gleefully evil, showing no remorse and has a cartoon like quality which makes the bad guy work wonderfully in the role. He’s just threatening enough but also just funny enough. And Lloyd never phones it in once. It’s a fantastic performance through and through.

16.5) Can we talk about how this judge just murdered a cartoon shoe for no other reason than to show that he could and no one stopped him. Like, is the shoe technically a prop and so it doesn’t count as murder? Because that thing seems more alive than a prop!

17) So I talked about Roger’s voice actor but not much about Roger as a character yet.

Roger is a pure cartoon character, and I mean that in a sort of literal sense. He’s not tainted by greed or hatred, he is pure joy and humor. A bit of a dunce but he trusts people and WANTS to see the best in them. His entire purpose in life is to make people life and that feeds every decision he makes. It’s a wonderful cartoon counterpart to Hoskins as Eddie.

18) Hoskins’ interactions with Roger is where he shines. Because remember, Hoskins was not on set with Rogers. He was looking at an empty space which would be drawn in latter. But when you watch the film he’s never looking through the space. He’s miming it excellently, he is looking AT an animated character who isn’t even there yet. It’s amazing and the key reason he excels in the role.

19) I never caught this line before.

Roger [asking Eddie for help]: “You know there’s no justice for toons anymore.”

So toons are sort of a disenfranchised minority. That’s an interesting concept. If there’s a sequel maybe they’ll play with it.

20) According to IMDb:

When Eddie takes Roger Rabbit into the back room at the bar where Dolores works to cut apart the hand-cuffs, the lamp from ceiling is bumped and swinging. Lots of extra work was needed to make the shadows match between the actual room shots and the animation. Today, "Bump the Lamp" is a term used by many Disney employees to refer to going that extra mile on an effect just to make it a little more special, even though most audience members will never notice it.

21) @theforceisstronginthegirl, this is for you:

(GIF originally posted by @i-am-the-wallflower)

Nothing sums up Roger more than the fact that he can only get out of those handcuffs when it’s funny. It feeds into how Roger entertains all the guys at the tavern because they’re down on their luck, even though they could turn him over to Doom for a ton of cash (but they don’t). He believes in the power of laughter.

22)

Judge Doom [upon observing the record on the record player]: “‘The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down’. Quite a looney selection for a bunch of drunken reprobates.”

“The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” is the theme to the Looney Tunes shorts.

23) The rest of the bar scene is filled with so many great cartoon gags. The fact that Judge Doom is able to lure Roger out by having him respond to, “Shave and a haircut,” is great. But a subtler reference is how Eddie gets Roger to drink the alcohol and loose control (thereby freeing himself from Doom). They go back and forth where Eddie wants Roger to drink the drink but Roger doesn’t want it, but when Eddie says Roger DOESN’T want the drink Roger says he wants it just to continue the conflict. Sound familiar?

24) Benny the cab is another fun original character added to the film, and he’s the same voice over actor as Roger!

25) I find this hysterical.

Benny [right before they’re going to hit a car]: “Pull the lever!”

Eddie: “Which one?”

Roger: “Which one?”

Benny: “‘WHICH ONE?’!?”

26) I am so ashamed of myself that I never caught the Back to the Future reference this film makes! Benny is driving down an alleyway and the evil weasels are driving straight towards him, and one of the weasels declares, “I’m gonna ram him!” Well in Back to the Future (also directed by Robert Zemeckis) Biff Tannen is about do the same thing to Marty McFly and says the EXACT same line as we get the EXACT same shot of his car!

I love that.

27) Me too Roger, me too.

Roger [expecting another cartoon to play in the movie theater but it’s a news reel]: “I hate the news.”

28) When we were introduced to Roger in the opening cartoon, I was trying to dissect what made him a unique cartoon character. Like Donald has his temper tantrums, Bugs Bunny is a wise guy, and Roger I’ve discovered likes to go on tangents. Like someone will tell him to do something and he’ll talk for five minutes about how well he’ll do it even when no one is around to listen. I like that.

29) The animated bullets Eddie uses in the gun given to him by Yosemite Sam are very much in the style of Chuck Jones and I can appreciate that.

30) It’s pretty fun watching for all the animated characters the filmmakers inserted into Toontown.

31) Droopy Dog is another cartoon character who shows up despite not being owned by Disney or WB. This meant he got to show up again later in an animated Roger Rabbit cartoon.

32) When Eddie is in a Toontown bathroom there’s writing on the wall that says, “For a Good Time Call Alyson ‘Wonderland’,” but then there’s no phone number. The theatrical release DID have a phone number but it was Michael Eisner’s home phone (I think) so it was edited out for the home video release.

33) What could possibly top Donald Duck & Daffy Duck dueling pianos?

I love everything about this. But it also gets to another agreement between WB & Disney: Disney did not want any of their characters doing anything to harm Eddie, so that’s why when he gets the “spare” from Mickey & Bugs (it’s a spare tire but he thought it was a parachute) it is BUGS who gives it to him!

Honestly it’d be awesome if Disney and WB could make more crossover cartoons. That would be pretty awesome.

34) File this one under jokes I didn’t get as a kid:

youtube

35) So Judge Doom’s end goal, his whole villainous plan, is to construct...a freeway? God, if it weren’t for the twist coming up that would’ve been so stupid.

36) Eddie’s comedy routine is great. It shows Bob Hoskins’ skill at slapstick and goofball and is just a joy to watch. Also we get this fun line:

Eddie: I'm through with taking falls / And bouncing off the walls / Without that gun, I'd have some fun / I'd kick you in the...

[bottle falls on his head]

Roger: Nose!

Head Weasel: Nose? That don't rhyme with "walls."

Eddie: No, but this does. [kicks Head Weasel in the balls, propelling him into a vat of Dip]

37) Doom is a toon!

This is a nice twist in the film that you can totally see was setup if you’re looking for it. Christopher Lloyd is able to play Doom with an even bigger sense of cartoony evil, and it means his end goal of a freeway isn’t so stupid after all.

38) The train that hits the dip machine at the end has a bunch of window. If you go through it frame by frame, each window depicts someone being murdered. Fun fun fun.

39) According to IMDb:

The opening track on the Sting album "...Nothing Like the Sun", the song "The Lazarus Heart" was originally written as the movie's musical finale, at an early stage of the movie's production when the book's tragic ending, where Roger is killed in the crossfire during the final duel, was still in the script. When the studio ordered its default ending to be used at the film's end, in which Roger is alive at the end of the duel, however, the song was deleted from the script and ended up on Sting's album instead.

40) I like that the film ends not only with the classic, “That’s All Folks,” but also Tinkerbell to let us know this was special.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is awesome. It’s fun, funny, gives us interesting characters, has effects which stand the test of time even 29 years later, and is just a wonderful ride. Hoskins’ performance and the animation are the true standouts here, but that is not to discredit any of the other amazing aspects of the film. A true joy to watch all the way through.

#Who Framed Roger Rabbit #Roger Rabbit #Bob Hoskins #Jessica Rabbit #Robert Zemeckis #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Christopher Lloyd #Charles Fleischer #Looney Tunes #Walt Disney #The More You Know #Movie #Film #GIF

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subjectredacted · 8 years

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1, 8, 20 and 29?

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?read - One of my all-time favorite reading experiences was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The writing style and language was easy for me to consume and I loved the engaging nature of how man comes to question his own morality while also dealing with the fear of responsibility that one isn’t ready for. It’s the birth of science fiction and a great metaphor for how we as people assume we know best.I did also devour Fahrenheit 451 when I had to read it in school, because it felt so close to our reality but with some strong sci-fi elements that were vividly described and easy to visualize. watch - I was gonna try to just pick ONE thing but I’m gonna have to pick a few because they’re different genres - End Of Days - Rated R - Okay so I must confess that while this movie is rated R (because there is sexual content in it as well as other things) that I grew up watching it as a child. I loved seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger in a serious role as a melodramatic cop, like he’d stepped out of a noir film and into a biblical film about the end of the world. Gabriel Byrne plays a mysterious and alluring interpretation of The Devil, and it’s all around very odd business but I love this movie. Lots of spooky demon stuff, possession, body horror, and sexy nightmares.Star Trek (the 2009 film) - Rated PG-13 - I love TOS Kirk but AOS Kirk resonates with me on a deep emotional level. I went through a lot of the same struggles he went through growing up and so I really feel like I understand what he’s been through, and by that notion, seeing him overcome his personal obstacles as well as outside ones gives me hope. It took him a lifetime of self-deprication before he found his purpose and career goals in life, and honestly I hope that I’ll find that for myself someday, even if it takes Way Too Long and I do spend a lot of time hating where I’m at in life in a career sense. Plus, I love sci-fi.Rock Of Ages - Rated R - This kooky musical captures my love of life, the 80s (from a pop culture standpoint, not a socio-political one), and music. Also it has a gay couple in it who even kisses on-screen!!! It deals with sex positivity and the struggles of workers in the sex industry in a way that I feel like is much needed and honestly this gem goes underappreciated. PLUS, TOM CRUISE IN LEATHER PANTS, and if you either looked up the deleted scenes or watch the extended edition, you even get to see him pole-dancing. Overall, this musical deals with great coming of age analogies and how to learn to accept yourself, both your good parts and your faults. This musical is a gift and honestly if you like 80s-themed musicals, please check it out.Evolution - Rated PG - This movie…. This freakin movie…. It has an all-star 90s cast, and while it came out in 2001, it still has that classic 90s movie feeling but with more polish in its special effects due to its time of production and release date. You’ve got Mulder from X-Files dealing with aliens but in the most comedic, although sometimes raunchy way, and this is another movie that I grew up watching religiously when I was a child. This movie was so quotable for me, and I have a long time love affair with “Play That Funky Music” thanks to this movie. The way they end up beating the aliens and saving the human race is a huge spoiler but it’s SO AMAZING AND SILLY. Great punchlines throughout this whole thing. Humor I enjoyed as a child and jokes I appreciate as an adult, something for the whole family to enjoy. listen to - Pre-Fallen album Evanescence has some of my melancholy depression/need an escape from reality songs - “Forgive Me” is a nice peaceful ballad when you’re feeling sad about wronging someone, “Give Unto Me” is when someone else is feeling sad and you wish you could shoulder their burdens, “October” is the feeling when you’ve been working too hard and everything has become hopeless so you’re crying out, “Anywhere” is escapism where you fantasize about running away from your life to start something new with the person you love. For something more upbeat, I’d probably go with the Plans album by Death Cab For Cutie. It’s still relatively relaxing to listen to, but there’s more positivity, with some occasional lows in the album. Ultimately this album just feels like it captures the different states of humanity and relationships very well. Also I Will Follow You Into The Dark is a go-to duet for @spookyeyeimagery and I to sing together.

8. what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?Blue October’s entire discography is a tale of how one moves through life with depression and I feel that. This is another one that you could listen to to understand me better, especially since Justin so clearly and vividly depicts the image of what depression feels like for a listener who might not understand what living with it is like. My favorite tracks include “For My Brother^”, “The Feel Again (Stay)”, “Razorblade^” (tw self-harm, rape in this one), “Amazing^” (cw kind of sexual but i usually just imagine general intimacy/cuddling), “Come In Closer^”, “James^”, “Somebody^” (tw abuse), “Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek” (cw sex, but it’s consensual, not rape), and then to round out all the depression with some positivity, “Not Broken Anymore.” Songs marked with ^ have live versions of the songs that I enjoy as well as the studio versions. Poets of the Fall would me my other choice, not because of mental health reasons at all but because the way that Marko writes and performs, and generally the final compositions of the songs just feel very familiar to me, but not in a way like “oh yeah i’ve heard this kind of song before, (insert band here) did something similar.” Poets of the Fall’s music makes me feel like it’s a group of old friends I’ve known for a while, even though I haven’t met a single one of the members of the band. It’s just a level of kindred nature I guess in their music that really resonates with me.

20. would you rather be in middle earth, narnia, hogwarts, or somewhere else?HMMMMMM… This is hard because there’s pro/cons for each one… Honestly I might go with Gotham instead because um, Batman??? But also I think the DC levels of universe weird are the right kind of weird for me.

29. three songs that you connect with right now.Remains - Bastille (vs. Rag'n'Bone Man & Skunk Anansie)Yuri On Ice - Taro UmebayashiSledgehammer - Rihanna

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bluewatsons · 8 years

Conversation

Nathaniel Rich, James Ellroy, The Art of Fiction No. 201, The Paris Review (Fall 2009)

Interviewer: You were away from Los Angeles for twenty-five years. Why’d you come back?

James Ellroy: One reason--Cherchez la femme. I chased women to suburban New York, suburban Connecticut, Kansas City, Carmel, and San Francisco. But I ran out of places, and I ran out of women, so I ended up back here.

Interviewer: Did you miss the city?

James Ellroy: While I was away, the Los Angeles of my past accreted in my mind, developing its own power. Early on in my career I believed that in order to write about LA, I had to stay out of it entirely. But when I moved back, I realized that LA then lives in my blood. LA now does not.

Interviewer: What’s wrong with LA now?

James Ellroy: I fear the sloth, the disorder, and the moral depravity. It makes me want to hole up in my pad for days on end.

Interviewer: And what about the LA of the fifties has a hold on you?

James Ellroy: A lot of it is simple biography. I lived here, so I was obsessed with my immediate environment. I am from Los Angeles truly, immutably. It’s the first thing you get in any author’s note; James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. I was hatched in the film-noir epicenter, at the height of the film-noir era. My parents and I lived near Hollywood. My father and mother had a tenuous connection to the film business. They were both uncommonly good-looking, which may be a hallmark of LA arrivistes, and they were of that generation of migrants who came because they were very poor and LA was a beautiful place. I grew up in a different world, a different America. You didn’t have to make a lot of dough to keep a roof over your head. There was a calmness that I recall too. I learned to amuse myself. I liked to read. I liked to look out the window. It’s rare for me to speak about LA epigrammatically. I don’t view it as a strange place, I don’t view it as a hot-pot of multiculturalism or weird sexuality. I have never studied it formally. There are big swathes of LA that I don’t even know my way around today. I’m not quite sure how you get to Torrance, Hermosa Beach, Long Beach. I don’t know LA on a valid historical level at all. But I have assimilated it in a deeper way. I had lived here for so long that when it became time to exploit my memory of the distant past, it was easy. Whatever power my books have derives from the fact that they are utterly steeped in the eras that I describe. LA of that period is mine and nobody else’s. If you wrote about this period before me, I have taken it away from you.

Interviewer: What did your parents do?

James Ellroy: My mother was a registered nurse. She worked a lot. At one point she had a job at a Jewish nursing home where movie stars brought their aging parents. She was fluent in German, and when the patients spoke about her in Yiddish, behind her back, she could understand them. She was a big reader of historical novels, and she was always listening to one specific Brahms piano concerto—I remember a blue RCA Victor record. I have more memories of my dad. He was a dipshit studio gofer, a big handsome guy, a scratch golfer. He worked for a schlock producer named Sam Stiefel. He was always snoozing on the couch, like Dagwood Bumstead. He was a lazy motherfucker. God bless him. He was always working on some kind of get-rich-quick scheme. This is what my dad was like. I’d say, Hey, Dad, we studied penguins today in school. He’d say, Yeah? I’m a penguin fucker from way back. Dad, I saw a giraffe at the zoo today. Yeah? I’m a giraffe fucker from way back. That’s my dad. My dad was a giraffe fucker. He said to me once, I fucked Rita Hayworth. He said that he once introduced me to Hayworth at the Tail O’the Pup, circa 1950. I would have been two years old at the time, but I don’t recall it. He said I spilled grape juice all over her. I never believed that he had worked for Hayworth, but after his death I saw his name in a Hayworth biography. Sure enough, for a period of time, he was her business manager.

Interviewer: You have said you dislike profanity, but you use it a lot.

James Ellroy: I learned it from my father. He was raucous, profane, and freewheeling. I say fuck routinely—my generation is the first generation to say the word routinely, across gender lines. I love slang. I love hipster patois, racial invective, alliteration, argot of all kinds.

Interviewer: What was your childhood like before your mother’s death?

James Ellroy: I don’t remember a single amicable moment between my parents other than this--mother passing steaks out the kitchen window to my father so that he could put them on a barbecue. I had my mother’s number. I understood that she was maudlin, effusive, and enraged—the degree depending on how much booze she had in her system. I also understood that she had my father’s number—that he was lazy and cowardly. There was always something incongruous about them. Early on, I was aware of the seventeen-year age gap. When I knew her, my mother was a very good-looking redhead in her early forties. My father was a sun-ravaged, hard-smoking, hard-living guy. He looked significantly older at sixty than I do now. Everybody thought he was my granddad. He wore clothes that were thirty years out of style. I remember that he had a gold Omega wristwatch that he loved. We were broke, and then all of a sudden, one day, the watch wasn’t there. That broke my heart.

Interviewer: In My Dark Places you describe a sense of foreboding not long before your mother’s murder. Where did that come from?

James Ellroy: Near the end of January 1958, my mother sits me down on the couch. She’s half blitzed, and I can tell. She says, Honey, you’ve never lived in a house before, so we’re going to move to a nice little town called El Monte, in the San Gabriel Valley. I sensed that there was some other, more sinister reason we were moving to El Monte, but I still haven’t figured it out. I think she was running away from something, or someone. We go out there, and it was very upsetting. It was a dirty little stone house with a single bathroom. It was half the size of the apartment that we had in Santa Monica. Five months later, I come back from a weekend with my father. He put me in a cab at the El Monte bus depot. The cab pulls up to my street, our little stone house is on the left, and there are men in brown uniforms and gray suits standing around. And right then, I knew it, my mother was dead. I knew it in that moment. Someone said, There’s the kid. A cop got down on my level and said, Son, your mother’s been killed. I swooned. My field of vision veered off in one direction. But I didn’t cry. I started calculating. I began performing almost immediately. I loved being the center of attention. The cops took me to our neighbor’s garage, and they took a photograph—often reproduced—of me standing in front of a workbench. I was goofing, mugging and making faces. The El Monte police chief was dispatched to pick up my dad. Of course, he was the first suspect. At the police station, they sequestered my dad and me in separate rooms. They gave me a candy bar. When they finally let my dad out, I ran to him and put my arms around him. We went back to his pad on the freeway bus. I recall a stream of cars going by with their lights on in the opposite direction, and I forced myself to cry for just a few minutes. I remember thinking that I should. I was already at a great emotional distance from my mother’s death. When I got back to my dad’s crib, I immediately fell asleep. I woke up on Monday morning, June 23, 1958, and I swear to you, the whole world seemed light powder blue, like a ’56 Chevy Bel Air.

Interviewer: It sounds like you were in a state of shock.

James Ellroy: It technically could have been a state of shock. I had a nervous breakdown much later in life, and I’m still subject to panic attacks; big swells of emotion and anxiety, an aging person’s unsuppressable fear of catastrophe and death. All I can tell you is what went through my mind at the time. I couldn’t express my thoughts about my mother, because my relationship with her was too compromised. I thought, I got what I wanted. My mother is dead. Now what do I do? I felt death all around me. For a period of some weeks, my dad was very permissive. I began to wonder how much time he had left. I’d stay up late watching TV, waiting for him to come back from sporadic all-night accounting jobs—if indeed he wasn’t out fucking every woman who’d let him. I began to read mystery books--the Hardy Boys, Ken Holt. My father would buy me two of these things a week. I could read the damn books in four or five hours. I started stealing them when I was ten years old. At the time I had no creative outlet, no indication of genius or a literary gift. I was fearful and occasionally violent, physically outsized, and out of my mind. But I knew right then that I had discovered a secret world.

Interviewer: Were you lonely in those years?

James Ellroy: Yes, but I enjoyed junior high. That’s where I began to perform for the first time. I was a provocateur. I gave oral reports on books that I had invented in my head. I’m a huge kid, I don’t do well in school, I’m girl crazed, and I’m already peeping in windows. Here we are in this cheap apartment, no air-conditioning, and an unhousebroken dog. One block away, a bunch of Tudor mansions. They’re there, and I’m here. I want the girls, I want the family life, I want something that isn’t malodorous and fucked-up.

Interviewer: Is your voyeuristic impulse related to your need to write and tell stories—to go into the lives of fictional characters?

James Ellroy: Those impulses are one and the same. I already had the massive creative will. Now the performer in me is starting to act up. How do you stand out as a kid with no gifts at all? How do you enact your estrangement, your alienation, your self-loathing, your feelings of oddness and being unloved? The status quo at John Burroughs Junior High School was Jewish, so I shouted, Heil Hitler. I’d say, Bomb Russia, I hate JFK, fuck the liberal hegemony. Of course, I never hated anyone, and most of my friends were Jewish. I got significantly crazier. I joined the American Nazi Party while I was at Fairfax High School. I painted swastikas on the dog’s water dish. I always had a flash roll. My dad would give me a twenty-dollar bill to go to the store. I’d steal the food and I’d bring him change for a ten. I watched The Fugitive religiously on TV. If you’ve seen the original run of the series, it is all about sex and dislocated men and women. They drink highballs, smoke cigarettes, and sizzle for each other every Tuesday night at ten. It was everything that I wanted.

Interviewer: You claim to be ignorant of contemporary pop culture, but it seems that you were completely immersed in it as a boy.

James Ellroy: I was, but back then I didn’t know what it meant. I just felt compelled to read, go to crime movies, and watch crime television shows.

Interviewer: What does it mean to you now? Why is crime an important subject in American fiction?

James Ellroy: We’re a nation of immigrant rabble. A great rebellion attended the founding of this republic. We’ve been getting into trouble for two-hundred-and-thirty-odd years. It’s the perfect place to set crime stories, and the themes of the genre—race, systemic corruption, sexual obsession—run rife here. In a well-done crime book you can explore these matters at great depth, say a great deal about the society, and titillate the shit out of the reader.

Interviewer: You’ve said film noir hasn’t influenced your writing, but you watched a lot of it in your formative years—and you say you were born and raised in the heart of film-noir culture.

James Ellroy: I dig film noir. The great theme of film noir is, You’re fucked. There are a few very fine films--Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, and, of course, Out of the Past. Robert Mitchum sees Jane Greer in Acapulco, and he knows. She sees him, and she knows. He’s passive, inert, but very resourceful. She’s murderous and altogether monstrous. He just wants to forfeit to a woman, to give up his masculinity. She wants to be enveloped in her masculine side. They each want the other. When film noir is deeply about that, it can be very powerful. But noir is overexposed now. I’m over it.

Interviewer: You’ve called Dashiell Hammett “tremendously great” and Raymond Chandler “egregiously overrated.” Why?

James Ellroy: Chandler wrote the kind of guy that he wanted to be, Hammett wrote the kind of guy that he was afraid he was. Chandler’s books are incoherent. Hammett’s are coherent. Chandler is all about the wisecracks, the similes, the constant satire, the construction of the knight. Hammett writes about the all-male world of mendacity and greed. Hammett was tremendously important to me. Joseph Wambaugh was immensely important, too. He is a former policeman whose view of LA perfectly dovetailed with my minor miscreant’s view of LA. I also loved the quickness, the ugliness, the assured fatality of James M. Cain. That giddy sense that doom is cool. You just met a woman, you had your first kiss, you’re six weeks away from the gas chamber, you’re fucked, and you’re happy about it.

Interviewer: How did you do in high school?

James Ellroy: I did poorly, and I had an unimaginably dim social sense. I was horrified when the civil rights workers were killed in Mississippi in ’64, but I made light of it in school. I knew it was wrong, but I had to be superior to the events themselves. You can see this in my books. There’s the reactionary side of me as well as the critique of authority, the critique of racism and oppression. Back then, though, I possessed no social awareness.

Interviewer: Did you graduate?

James Ellroy: No. I flunked the eleventh grade and got expelled. I decided I wanted to join the marine corps, because I wanted to be a shit kicker, which I certainly was not. I did not want to go to Vietnam, I never thought about Vietnam. I had a vague desire to shoot guns. My father’s health was deteriorating ever more rapidly—he started having strokes and heart attacks—and he let me enlist in the army.

Interviewer: How long did you last?

James Ellroy: If you think I’m skinny now, at a hundred and seventy pounds, picture me at a hundred and forty. I got shipped out to Fort Polk, Louisiana. Flying bugs all over the place. Right away, I went from being a big egotistical bully to a craven scaredy-cat dipshit. My dad had another stroke the first week I was at Polk. I got flown home to LA, in my uniform, on emergency leave. Two weeks later, he had yet another stroke. I got flown back again, just in time to see him die. His final words to me were, Try to pick up every waitress who serves you.

Interviewer: Is that when you started writing—after your father died?

James Ellroy: The first thing I did after he died was snag his last three Social Security checks, forge his signature, and cash them at a liquor store. From ’65 to ’75, I drank and used drugs. I fantasized. I swallowed amphetamine inhalers. I masturbated compulsively. I got into fights. I boxed—though I was terrible at it—and I broke into houses. I’d steal girls’ panties, I’d jack off, grab cash out of wallets and purses. The method was easy--you call a house and if nobody answers, that means nobody’s home. I’d stick my long, skinny arms in a pet access door and flip the latch, or find a window that was loose and raise it open. Everybody has pills and alcohol. I’d pop a Seconal, drink four fingers of Scotch, eat some cheese out of the fridge, steal a ten-dollar bill, then leave a window ajar and skedaddle. I did time in county jail for useless misdemeanors. I was arrested once for burglary, but it got popped down to misdemeanor trespassing. The press thinks that I’m a larger-than-life guy. Yes, that’s true. But a lot of the shit written about me discusses this part of my life disproportionately.

Interviewer: Aren’t you responsible for this? You’ve written a lot about this period, and you frequently talk about it in interviews.

James Ellroy: I’ve told many journalists that I’ve done time in county jail, that I’ve broken and entered, that I was a voyeur. But I also told them that I spent much more time reading than I ever did stealing and peeping. They never mention that. It’s a lot sexier to write about my mother, her death, my wild youth, and my jail time than it is to say that Ellroy holed up in the library with a bottle of wine and read books.

Interviewer: Still, writing couldn’t have been exactly in the forefront of your mind at the time.

James Ellroy: But it was. I was always thinking about how I would become a great novelist. I just didn’t think that I would write crime novels. I thought that I would be a literary writer, whose creative duty is to describe the world as it is. The problem is that I never enjoyed books like that. I only enjoyed crime stories. So more than anything, this fascination with writing was an issue of identity. I had a fantasy of what it meant to be a writer--the sports cars, the clothes, the women. But I think what appealed to me most about it was that I could assume the identity of what I really loved to do, which was to read. Nobody told me I couldn’t write a novel. I didn’t live in the world of graduate writing schools. I wasn’t part of any scene or creative community. I happened to love crime novels more than anything, so I wrote a crime novel first. I didn’t buy the old canard that you had to start by writing short stories, and only later write a novel. I never liked reading short stories, so why the fuck should I want to write one? I only wanted to write novels.

Interviewer: Did you feel that your period of homelessness and delinquency was giving you experience that you could turn into a novel?

James Ellroy: If I did, it was false. The real education I had was from the books I read and TV shows and movies I saw. When I watched a film or read a book, I was engrossed. I learned in an unmediated way. I didn’t know what I was taking in—I wasn’t thinking about theme, content, or style—but I took it all in.

Interviewer: You started caddying at golf courses near the end of that period. Did you think you needed the stability of a paying job in order to write?

James Ellroy: What happened was that I quit drinking. I knew I couldn’t write a novel as long as I drank or used drugs. And I was on fire with a sense of urgency. A buddy took me to an AA meeting, and I quit drinking in June of 1975. I continued taking uppers and smoking weed up until August 1, 1977. That’s when I really got sober. I started writing a year and five months later, in late January of 1979. I was not quite thirty-one.

Interviewer: Did you have an idea for a novel? Or just the general notion that you wanted to write one?

James Ellroy: I concocted a story idea. A friend of mine at the country club had taken a job as a process server. He asked me to come work for him. He said it was fun. So I went out as a process server and looked for a couple of witnesses that we never found. It was like being a private eye. I was a big guy in a suit. I started to plan a novel about a guy who gets involved with a bunch of country-club golf caddies, who does some process serving, who grew up at Beverly and Western, who was a tall, skinny, dark-haired guy with glasses, all of which is me. But he was an ex-cop, which I am not. I invented a nice arsonist—a psychotic, anti-Semitic firebug named Fat Dog Baker. I knew a caddy who was called Fat Dog who slept on golf courses. That’s Brown’s Requiem. It’s wish fulfillment, it’s crime, it’s autobiography. But it’s mostly a work of imagination.

Interviewer: How, after fourteen years of telling yourself that you were a writer, did you actually begin to write?

James Ellroy: I was on the eighth hole at Bel-Air Country Club and I said, Please, God, let me start this novel tonight. And I did. Standing up at the Westwood Hotel, where I had a room. Using the dresser as a desk, I wrote, “Business was good. It was the same thing every summer. The smog and heat rolled in, blanketing the basin; people succumbed to torpor and malaise; old resolves died; old commitments went unheeded. And I profited . . .” Native talent—who knows? I sat down and did it—and I had it. The beast was loose. I felt like I had created myself entirely out of sheer will, egotism, and an overwhelming desire to be somebody. All of a sudden I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life. I haven’t stopped since.

Interviewer: What did you learn from your early novels?

James Ellroy: When to use first person versus third person. How to set a scene. Where to put a line break or a new paragraph. How to write an ending. How to develop a tragic sense of the world. Where to put a love scene. When to stress autobiography. When to realize you’re actually not that important.

Interviewer: What inspired you to write Killer on the Road, a novel told from the perspective of a homosexual serial killer?

James Ellroy: Killer on the Road is the only book I ever wrote for the money, because I needed some dough. It was my first large advance, ten grand. In part, I was influenced by Thomas Harris’s brilliant Red Dragon—to me the best pure thriller I’ve ever read. With Killer on the Road, I deliberately set out to shock. I wrote it in four months. It’s the only one of my books that I regret.

Interviewer: Why is that?

James Ellroy: It’s a good book, but I had a hot date with Elizabeth Short—the Black Dahlia victim—and I wanted to get to her fast. The Black Dahlia had been building inside of me for a long time. I became obsessed with the Black Dahlia murder case shortly after my mother’s death. I didn’t openly mourn my mother, but I could mourn Betty Short.

Interviewer: Why did it take so long for you to turn to the Black Dahlia case in your writing? It’s your seventh novel, after all.

James Ellroy: Because I thought for a long time that the success of John Gregory Dunne’s novel about the Black Dahlia, True Confessions, would preclude a successful publication. That’s a wonderful novel, but it doesn’t truly adhere to the facts of the Black Dahlia murder case. Mr. Dunne calls the Black Dahlia “the Virgin Tramp.” Elizabeth Short becomes “Lois Fazenda.” When I took on the murder for my novel, ten years later, I adhered to the facts of the case more than Mr. Dunne did. His book is phantasmagoria. My book is a much more literal rendering of the truth.

Interviewer: How did that book change your career?

James Ellroy: It liberated me. It was a best seller, I was earning a living as a writer for the first time, and I was exponentially more committed to creative maturity. I’m the most serious guy on earth, but I can bullshit with the best of them, and I play to my audience. There’s a concept in boxing that you fight to the level of your competition. You’re in with a big guy, you bring the fight. You’re in with a bum, you do just enough to win. But if you get lazy, then you put yourself at risk. I’ve always come to fight, from the very first page.

Interviewer: You do certain conventions of crime fiction particularly well. How do you go about writing a great interrogation scene?

James Ellroy: You have a good deal of information that needs to be conveyed to the reader. There has to be reluctance on the part of the suspect to give up that information. There has to be a level of coercion and guile in the interrogator. It has to be physically interesting. You have to be on the side of the interrogator, but at the same time you have to identify with the victim, and experience his horror at encountering official brutality. I’m thinking of a scene in White Jazz when Lieutenant Dave Klein is beating on some black guy who’s handcuffed to a chair. Klein says, I’m not enjoying this, but you’re not getting out of here unless you talk. But, of course, Klein is enjoying it. Most importantly, the scene can’t go on too long. It has to be fast.

Interviewer: Why do your interrogators always beat their suspects with phonebooks?

James Ellroy: Two reasons--they don’t leave marks and they don’t hurt your hands.

Interviewer: Some authors say that their characters are flesh and blood. Other authors say that they are puppets that the author moves around on the page.

James Ellroy: It’s disingenuous when writers say that they have no control over their characters, that they have a life of their own. Here’s what happens--you create the characters rigorously, and make clear choices about their behavior. You reach junctures in your stories and are confronted with dramatic options. You choose one or the other.

Interviewer: You take great pleasure in making your characters commit heinous acts, yet at the same time you rail against immorality. Is there a contradiction here?

James Ellroy: I can describe depravity without being depraved. I wrote My Dark Places, a memoir about my own slimiest actions, but I’ve refrained from such actions for many years. Breaking into houses was a thrill, peeping was a thrill. But these practices need to be curbed and regulated in order to ensure a safe society. There has been a great deal of chaos in my life, and there remains chaos in my creative life, so I crave order. This is what the superstructure of the novel allows me—ultimate authority in the creation of an ultimate order, even as I describe flagrant disorder in wondrous detail.

Interviewer: Are you religious?

James Ellroy: I’m a Christian. I’m a proponent of Judaism, and I see Judaism and Christianity as the through-lines of the rule of law in world history. I love the Reformation. I am of the Reformation—that moment when you stand alone with God. More than anything else, I am an enormous believer in God, the God who saved my wretched, tormented ass so many times. I feel that I have a responsibility to portray the spiritual, religious aspect of life. I hate squalor. I’m always astonished when people come up with the nutty idea that my books are nihilistic. I try to show the result of immoral actions--the karmic comeuppance, the horrible self-destructiveness. I explicate the dire consequences of historical and individual misdeeds. What happens to you when you do not know that virtue is its own reward.

Interviewer: How do you begin writing a novel?

James Ellroy: I begin by sitting in the dark. I used to sleep on the living-room couch. There was a while when that was the only place I felt safe. My couch is long because I’m tall, and it needs to be high backed, so I can curl into it. I lie there and things come to me, very slowly.

Interviewer: What happens after the sitting-in-the-dark phase?

James Ellroy: I take notes. Ideas, historical perspective, characters, point of view. Very quickly, much of the narrative coheres. When I have sufficient information—the key action, the love stories, the intrigue, the conclusion—I write out a synopsis in shorthand as fast as I can, for comprehension’s sake. With the new novel, Blood’s a Rover, this took me six days. It’s then, after I’ve got the prospectus, that I write the outline. The first part of the outline is a descriptive summary of each character. Next I describe the design of the book in some detail. I state my intent at the outset. Then I go through the entire novel, outlining every chapter. The outline of Blood’s A Rover is nearly four hundred pages long. It took me eight months to write. I write in the present tense, even if the novel isn’t written in the present tense. It reads like stage directions in a screenplay. Everything I need to know is right there in front of me. It allows me to keep the whole story in my mind. I use this method for every book.

Interviewer: Your outlines resemble first drafts. Is that how you think of them?

James Ellroy: I think of the outline as a diagram, a superstructure. When you see dialogue in one of my outlines, it’s because inserting the dialogue is the most complete, expeditious way to describe a given scene.

Interviewer: Do you force yourself to write a certain number of words each day?

James Ellroy: I set a goal of outlined pages that I want to get through each day. It’s the ratio of text pages to outline pages that’s important. That proportion determines everything. Today I went through five pages of the outline. That equals about eight pages of the novel. The outline for Blood’s a Rover, which is three hundred and ninety-seven pages, is exponentially more detailed than the three-hundred-and-forty-five-page outline for The Cold Six Thousand. So the ratio of book pages to outline pages varies, depending on the density of the outline.

Interviewer: Is it important for you to have a steady writing routine?

James Ellroy: I need to work just as rigorously on the outline as I do on the actual writing of the text, in order to keep track of the plot and the chronology. But once I’m writing text, I can be flexible, because the outline is there. Take today. I woke up early, at five-thirty. I worked for a couple of hours, took a break for some oatmeal, shut my eyes for a moment, and went back at it. I was overcaffeinated, jittery-assed, panic-attacky. Sometimes I go until I just can’t go anymore. I flatline and need some peace.

Interviewer: Do you write at night?

James Ellroy: I write some nights, and I edit at night. I write by hand. I correct in red ink. When I’m close to finishing a book, I will write more and more, because I’ve got finishing fever.

Interviewer: Does it matter where you write?

James Ellroy: No, but this pad is perfectly outfitted. Some people find my place appalling. It’s too neat and clean. Nothing’s out of place. If you look in my clothes closet, you’ll see that everything is arrayed by fabric, style, and color. I’ll do anything I can to simplify my life.

Interviewer: Where does this obsession with order come from?

James Ellroy: Chaos in my early life, fear of incapacity and death, an attempt to control my overweaning emotionalism, my Beethovenian drives and lusts. I’ve become more single-minded as I’ve gotten older. My subsidiary obsessions have fallen by the wayside, with one big exception.

Interviewer: Women?

James Ellroy: Of course.

Interviewer: What happens after you finish writing a book?

James Ellroy: I go over it, editing fifty pages a day. I send it to a typist, who enters the changes. Then I proofread it once, make some more additions and subtractions. At that point, there are two sets of corrections. In copyediting, I continue to make small changes. Every opportunity that I have to reach perfection, I take.

Interviewer: What do you do once you have a draft that you’re happy with?

James Ellroy: I show it to my agent, Nat Sobel, who is a stickler for the logic of the dramatic scenes. He makes certain that each character’s motivations and actions are sensible. I’m a perfectionist. I go to great lengths to get it all right. It’s the biggest challenge I face when I’m writing. If you’re confused about something in one of my books, you’ve just got to realize, Ellroy’s a master, and if I’m not following it, it’s my problem. You just have to submit to me.

Interviewer: How do you conduct research for your novels?

James Ellroy: There was no research required for my first six novels. I made the stories up from scratch.

Interviewer: What about The Black Dahlia?

James Ellroy: The LAPD will not let civilians see the file on the Dahlia case, which is six thousand pages long. When I started working on the novel, I was still caddying. I was living in Westchester County and realized that I could get, by interlibrary loan, the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Herald-Express on microfilm. All I needed was four hundred dollars in quarters to feed the microfilm machine. Man, four hundred bucks in quarters—that’s a lot of coins. I used a quadruple-reinforced pillowcase to carry them down from Westchester, on the Metro-North train. It took me four printed pages to reproduce a single newspaper page. In the end the process cost me six hundred dollars. Then I made notes from the articles. Then I extrapolated a fictional story. The greatest source, however, was autobiography. Who’s Bucky Bleichert? He’s a tall, pale, and thin guy, with beady brown eyes and fucked-up teeth from his boxing days, tweaked by women, with an absent mother, who gets obsessed with a woman’s death. It wasn’t much of a stretch.

Interviewer: Did you conceive of all four books in the LA Quartet at once?

James Ellroy: No, it was only when I decided to write The Big Nowhere that it became a quartet. Thus, the last three novels—The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz—were linked more closely with one another than with The Black Dahlia. My intention was to recreate the world that my mother lived and died in, as an homage to her, a conscious address to her, and a sensuous capitulation to her. I wanted to tell big love stories, big crime stories, and big political stories. I wanted to honor Elizabeth Short as the transmogrification of Jean Hilliker Ellroy. Whenever someone asks me what the LA Quartet books are about, I say, Bad men in love with strong women.

Interviewer: What kind of research did you do for the extended sections on the homosexual underworld in The Big Nowhere?

James Ellroy: I was influenced by a bad William Friedkin movie from 1980, Cruising. It has a great premise. There are a string of homosexual murders in the West Village and Al Pacino is a young, presumably heterosexual cop, who goes undercover and is tempted by the homosexual world. What an idea! Hence, The Big Nowhere. A cop in LA in the fifties gets assigned to a homosexual murder case and becomes aroused by the men he’s investigating.

Interviewer: After the LA Quartet, you said you wanted to go in a more “mainstream” direction. I wonder what that word means to you.

James Ellroy: I realized that I had taken the police historical novel as far as it could go. I had written a series of masterworks about LA, so I decided to do the same thing with full-scale America. Hence, the Underworld USA Trilogy--American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, Blood’s a Rover. Most of all I credit Don DeLillo. Mr. DeLillo’s novel Libra was published in ’88. I was astounded by it. The book detailed the JFK snuff, largely through the eyes of that horribly persistent loser Lee Harvey Oswald. I said to myself, You can’t write this book—DeLillo got there first. He had created the entire metaphysical worldview of the Kennedy assassination. Jack Kennedy was responsible for his own death. His death was no more than the world’s most overglorified business-dispute killing, on a huge geopolitical scale. I was kicking myself that I didn’t come up with this idea first. And then, very slowly, I started to see that I could write a trio of novels, placing JFK’s death in an off-page context, with a giant social history of the United States to follow. When Knopf was slated to publish American Tabloid, I sent Mr. DeLillo a copy in advance to thank him for the influence. I included a thank-you note, telling him that I would attribute his contribution in all my big interviews. I got a very nice note back from Mr. DeLillo. He sent it on March 4, which is my birthday. It was 1995, but he incorrectly dated his note 1955, which seemed appropriate. He praised the book, and that was that.

Interviewer: Why, after American Tabloid, did you interrupt the trilogy and turn to a new form—the memoir?

James Ellroy: I was forty-five and very happily married. I was living in New Canaan, Connecticut. Life was good. For Christmas one year, my wife got me a photograph taken of me by the Los Angeles Times at the time of my mother’s death. She had it framed. She said, Do you remember this? And all of a sudden—boom. It was like a little knife to my heart. I thought I had locked my mother away after The Black Dahlia. A month later, a reporter for the Pasadena Star-News told me he would be seeing my mother’s file, as part of a piece he was doing on unsolved San Gabriel Valley homicides. Immediately the opportunist in me said, I have to see my mother’s file and write a piece about it. GQ gave me the assignment. I visited the unsolved-homicide unit at the LA County sheriff’s office, and I met Sergeant Bill Stoner. We joked around a little bit and talked about other murder cases. I realized that I was avoiding looking at the file. Finally, he showed it to me. I looked at the pictures first. They weren’t terribly shocking, perhaps because I’d lived with the event mentally for so many years. Then I read the police reports and saw immediately how I would write the book. I knew that it would be my autobiography, my mother’s biography, and Bill Stoner’s biography. I knew I’d get a significant advance. I knew each of the book’s sections would begin with italicized addresses to my mother. I knew that we would try to find the killer. I knew that we wouldn’t find the killer. I knew we were going to get a lot of publicity, and that it wouldn’t help the case. The book would be about my journey to reconcile with my mother. And all of this came about just as I had thought it would.

Interviewer: How did Stoner become so central to the book?

James Ellroy: Because, like me, he was driven by a chivalrous notion of saving women in jeopardy. I identified with his emotional maturity, his intelligence, his resignation. He’s worldly, in the sense that he has a great knowledge of people, but he’s not in the least sophisticated. He says “excape” rather than “escape” and “eyetalian” rather than “Italian.” He has horrible taste in books and movies. But, God, does he know people. You don’t see that often.

Interviewer: For a novelist’s memoir, there is remarkably little about your own experience as a writer.

James Ellroy: That would be irrelevant to the main narrative, which was my mother and me. I did not want the book to be a discursive autobiography. I fear self-absorption as a writer. The book had to be about something more than me.

Interviewer: Has anything new happened in the case since the publication of the book?

James Ellroy: No. Bill Stoner and I continue to get phone calls, but nothing of real merit.

Interviewer: Is your mother as present in your life now as she was when you were writing the memoir?

James Ellroy: There is a quotation from Dylan Thomas that I think of often, “After the first death, there is no other.” He was writing about the firebombing of London, but for me the first death will always be my mother’s. She’s with me still, but no amount of effort will allow me to touch her concretely. I have fulfilled my moral debt to her to the best extent that I could. I have granted her a mythic status through my work. The price for that is public exposure. I am a gloryhound, I’ve always wanted to be famous. She never sought these things. I have a need to refract myself through her, and I owe her a deep spiritual debt.

Interviewer: There’s a line at the end of My Dark Places where you write, “She was no less than my salvation.” Salvation from what?

James Ellroy: From the horrifying, lustful, self-destructive aspects of my masculinity. She’s always there in the wings going, Ha-ha, you dipshit, you exploited my death, and now you’re doomed to have women kick the shit out of you the rest of your life. She also represents a powerful negative example. She’s an alcoholic, I’m an alcoholic. She never got sober, I did. She was a woman of the American fifties with appetites, and was harshly judged for indulging them. I would daresay that she indulged her appetites with a great deal more dignity than I have. I was a man in the sixties and seventies, and I got to drink and fuck with an abandon that she never dreamed of.

Interviewer: You’ve called yourself “the greatest crime novelist who ever lived,” and it’s difficult to think of another living writer who presents himself as aggressively as you do. How important is it for a writer to have swagger?

James Ellroy: You want swagger, look at Norman Mailer. I don’t go around beating people up. I’m just James Ellroy, the self-promoting demon dog. It comes naturally to me. You call it swagger, I call it joie de vivre.

Interviewer: You did say about Blood’s a Rover, “This book is going to be better than War and Peace.”

James Ellroy: Tongue-in-cheek. Wink, wink. The highest compliment ever paid to me was by Joyce Carol Oates. You know what she called me? The American Dostoyevsky. Stop right there, I’ll take it. Ultimately, I’m impervious to criticism. The ass kicking I got by a lot of critics for the style of The Cold Six Thousand was a real motherfucker, but I stopped reading the reviews. You can’t start thinking that critical consensus is a guarantor of quality. This is something I feel very strongly about. I remember that when L.A. Confidential went to the Cannes Film Festival, a critic from The Hollywood Reporter wrote a negative review. He just didn’t think the movie cohered. But by then all the other critics had loved the film, and this guy at The Hollywood Reporter had to join the club, so he included L.A. Confidential on his list of that year’s best films. The irony is that I think much of what he wrote in his original piece was actually dead-on.

Interviewer: L.A. Confidential marked a significant change in your writing. You adopted a “telegraphic style”—extremely short, clipped sentences. How did you come to this?

James Ellroy: When I handed in the novel, my editor told me I had to cut more than a hundred pages, without altering the thematic emphasis or shifting any of the specific scenes. Because the story was violent, and full of action, I saw the value of writing in a fast, clipped style. So I cut every unnecessary word from every sentence. I wrote White Jazz, the direct sequel to L.A. Confidential and the last book in the Quartet, in the first-person style, and in a normal, discursive voice. But it didn’t seem to fit the main character, Dave Klein—a fucked-up, racist cop bombing around black LA in ’58, who inexplicably gets hooked on bebop. I saw that if I eliminated words from his speech, I would develop a more convincing cadence for him--paranoid, jagged, enervated. I reverted to a more normal, albeit still terse style in American Tabloid and My Dark Places, but then I went back and did an extreme telegraphic style with The Cold Six Thousand.

Interviewer: Do you think the extreme style of The Cold Six Thousand was a success?

James Ellroy: Helen Knode, my second ex-wife, is my best friend and the greatest Ellroy scholar on earth. Helen said to me, Big Dog, it’s a great book, but it’s too difficult. As a reader, you want less style and more emotion.

Interviewer: Did she tell you that before it was published?

James Ellroy: Yes. I ignored her.

Interviewer: It seems as if most sentences in that book are four words or fewer. It’s been called minimalistic.

James Ellroy: Minimalism implies small events, small people, a small story. Man, that’s the antithesis of me. Telegraphic means straight sentences—subject, verb, repetitions with slight modifications. The book has flaws. It’s too long, and the style is too rigorous for such a complicated story—the JFK assassination and its aftermath, the plotting of the Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy assassinations, Howard Hughes’s takeover of Las Vegas, all told through the overlapping stories of three morally compromised and traumatized men desperately in love with strong women. It’s a big picaresque mess, and too demanding a read. But the stamina of it is sui generis. If you get it, you get it. It might not be your favorite of my books, but you can appreciate its scope, its audacity. I try to write books that no one else would have the balls to write. They require the reader’s intense concentration. Most writers, as they age, write shorter and tidier. My books are getting bigger and more stylistically ambitious. And my style will continue to evolve.

Interviewer: In Blood’s a Rover, as in many of your novels, several of your main characters undergo extreme shifts of allegiance—from fascistic reactionary, say, to Castroite leftist, and sometimes back again. Why?

James Ellroy: I wanted to dramatize the seismic shifts that took place during the sixties and seventies. I wanted to show the positive effects of ideological transformation. So I have two right-wing-toady assassins who can’t live with the horror of their misdeeds, chiefly the assassination of Martin Luther King. They are two men who embrace revolution, driven by a hope for redemption and by the women in their lives. It’s a more hopeful book than the others in the trilogy. As a character says at one point, Your options are do everything or do nothing. This novel also displays my greatest diversity of characterization. Karen Silfakis is a mother and a revolutionary. Marshell Bowen is a homosexual black man who goes undercover for the FBI. These characters think about their actions and analyze what they mean. They’re not afraid to write down their thoughts. There are a lot of diary entries and correspondence that give us different perspectives on American history between 1968 and 1972. It’s all about conveying the complex, ideological nature of that era.

Interviewer: When you’re writing about vast political events, do you have a particular political agenda in mind?

James Ellroy: No. I do have a complex relationship with authoritarianism. I’d rather live in a society that errs on the side of authoritarianism than a society that errs on the side of permissiveness. Try telling that to a woman and see if you get laid. But in my fiction, the two major arch-villains are authoritarian, reactionary conservatives; Dudley Smith, a corrupt LA policeman in the LA Quartet, and J. Edgar Hoover in the Underworld USA Trilogy. And the overarching moral voices of the trilogy are Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Interviewer: Where did you get the idea to introduce document inserts—FBI transcripts, tabloid copy, police reports—between chapters?

James Ellroy: Sometimes I need to get outside of the perspectives of the characters in order to convey information that they don’t know, and offer occasional editorial comments and historical facts in a compressed, direct way. That’s where the document inserts come in. It’s also a great excuse for me to write copy for Hollywood gossip rags.

Interviewer: As far as literary influences go, Confidential magazine seems a big one for you.

James Ellroy: I loved Confidential. Along with the Lutheran Church, it’s probably the biggest cultural influence of my life. Who’s a homo? Who’s a nympho? Who’s got a big one? Who’s got a small one? Who fucks people of color? Who’s getting head at the Griffith Park john? Who’s a muff diver? That shit was important to me then, and it’s important to me now.

Interviewer: You like to read your work before an audience. How do you prepare for the performance?

James Ellroy: I semimemorize the passage so that I can stand at the podium and share eye contact with the audience. I read shorter sections with as few differentiations in dialogue as possible. Never go long. Never try the audience’s patience. Never put in something too plot deep. Never hem, haw, pause, or do anything that isn’t dramatically effective. How many times have you seen people go for forty minutes, lose it routinely, wet the page, cough, fart, belch into the microphone, say “um,” and do everything short of take a shit on stage. It’s deadening. I walk in and situate myself. I hunker down and read something outrageous. Something with race, class, dope, sex, insane language. I read a section about rug burns—that’s when you’re fucking on a rug and you scrape your knees. Do you want to hear some candy-ass artiste saying, Oooooh, I’m an artist, my characters do things that I didn’t intend? Or do you want to hear about rug burns and get some yucks? I don’t read for more than fourteen minutes, tops. Then I answer questions for twenty minutes. Afterward, you don’t short-shrift anyone—you talk to everybody. You scope out the women. You have a gas. You’re happy, you’re grateful, you’re God’s guy.

Interviewer: You claim not to read books anymore, yet you seem extremely well-read. How do you account for that?

James Ellroy: There are big gaps in my literary knowledge. I’ve never read anything by Faulkner. I haven’t read anything by William Gaddis or James Baldwin. I tried to read True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey, because I met him, but I didn’t buy his style. I tried to read a Cormac McCarthy book and thought, Why doesn’t this cocksucker use quotation marks? I picked up another Cormac McCarthy book and saw that there were six or seven consecutive pages in Spanish. I didn’t know what it meant. My name isn’t Juan Ellroy, OK?

Interviewer: You’ve been criticized at times for being racially insensitive. Why do you think that is?

James Ellroy: Critics want racism, and secondarily homophobia, to be portrayed as a defining characteristic, rather than a casual attribute. Racist language uttered by sympathetic characters confuses hidebound liberals. Who gives a shit?

Interviewer: Are your books received differently abroad?

James Ellroy: I’m a god in Europe—the dominant American writer of our time. And that’s no shit. America is the cultural top of the world, and my books are viewed in Europe as realistic critiques of America—at least by those Europeans who worship and loathe America equally and wish they were Americans and wonder why they’re not the height of culture for the entire world. I sell more books in France than in America.

Interviewer: You’ve talked about your competitive instinct. Who do you feel you’re competing against?

James Ellroy: No one. I’m only fighting myself. I have a duty to God and to the people who love my books, and that is to get better and better. At this stage of the game, I’m entirely self-referential.

Interviewer: Is posterity important to you?

James Ellroy: It is. I don’t want to die. And I’m not going to.

#james ellroy #literature #interviews #greats #eccentrics #crime noir #fiction #crime fiction #tragedy #pathos #critique #biography

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The Ultimate Guide To Tom Ford Fragrances

http://fashion-trendin.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-tom-ford-fragrances/

The Ultimate Guide To Tom Ford Fragrances

Although it’s a bold assertion, there is truth in the thinking that there isn’t anything Tom Ford can’t turn his stylish hand to, be it fashion, films or, in this case, colognes.

While many designers have successfully established a presence in the world of scents – Saint Laurent, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior among them – few have had the same impact in such a short space of time as the designer-turned-director-turned-all-round-modern-Renaissance-Man.

Far from a flash-, or rather a splash-, in-the-pan, Tom Ford’s fragrance collection is as impeccably edited as his own wardrobe, not to mention equally sharp, uncompromising and luxurious.

The History Of Tom Ford Fragrances

The first fragrance under the Tom Ford umbrella came in 2006, with the launch of Black Orchid – a scent that was aimed at women, but whose customers grew to be 30 per cent men. A little over 10 years on, the immaculately-dressed Texan now has over 40 individual, predominantly genderless, eau de parfums to his name.

Many were surprised that fragrance was one of Ford’s first proper solo ventures (his first menswear collection didn’t come until a year later, in 2007), but it turned out to be an inspired move and one that revealed his genuine love of the art form. He even once admitted during an interview that he believes cologne to be more important than clothes.

Much of the success of his bestselling scents like Black Orchid, Noir and Oud Wood comes down to their sheer quality. “They’re distinctive, powerful and made to last,” says Marcus Jay, author of The Chic Geek’s: Fashion, Grooming and Style Guide for Men.

The fact that Tom Ford has never been afraid to play with unexpected combinations is important, too, whether that’s teaming raspberry with leather for Tuscan Leather, or smoky oud wood with a salty sea accord, as he did for Oud Minérale.

“As well as a common sense of opulence and richness, there’s a boldness to all his fragrances,” says Josephine Fairley, an award-winning journalist and co-founder of The Perfume Society. “There’s not a shrinking violet amongst them.”

The key ingredient in these fragrances, however, isn’t vetiver or vanilla, it’s Tom Ford’s own designer DNA. “He’s the absolute master of seduction and really understands the attraction and sex appeal of fragrance,” says Jaye.

The 56-year-old’s legendary perfectionism and eye for detail, meanwhile, ensures quality control. “It’s well known in the industry that he is incredibly hands-on with the development of his colognes, and I think that shows,” says Fairley. “At the end of the day, that’s why they’re considered ��cool in a bottle’ and why Tom Ford isn’t just a style icon but a ‘scent icon’, too.”

The Collections

In an effort to cater to both luxury fragrance connoisseurs and casual buyers (not to mention all pocket depths), Tom Ford’s fragrances are split into two distinct ranges: a premium Private Blend collection and a more accessible Signature line, in addition to several mini-groups within them.

Private Blend

Luxurious and experimental, Tom Ford’s Private Blend collection launched in 2007 and, in the designer’s own words, is his very own “personal scent laboratory”, where he can create original fragrances that are unconstrained by the conventions of mainstream scent-making.

“These fragrances are a little edgier, a little more challenging and generally more thought-provoking,” says Fairley. “Each fragrance begins with the extract from a single note such as amber, tobacco, black violet, leather or gardenia.”

Signature

If the Private Blend collection is a laboratory for Tom Ford’s wilder olfactory experiments, then his Signature collection is where the most successful of those experiments are honed and presented to the wider market.

Although more affordable than Private Blend colognes, fragrances like Tom Ford Extreme, Velvet Orchid and Grey Vetiver still have the integrity and complexity of their higher-priced counterparts. “Regardless of the collection, Tom Ford’s taste in fragrance is really good,” says Nick Gilbert from perfume consultancy firm Olfiction. “Every fragrance is well-constructed and perfectly polished.”

Noir

Bound by a common, evening-appropriate sensuality, the Noir collection currently features four key colognes: Noir, Noir Eau de Toilette, Noir Extreme and Noir Anthracite. Unusually, given that they share a name, these fragrances are distant cousins rather than brothers, with each one a different composition bearing little relation to each other.

The original Noir released in 2012 is warm and powdery, while the eau de toilette version is lighter and more citrusy. Noir Extreme is sweet, spicy and cakey, while the most recent, Noir Anthracite, is smoky and woody. To confuse things further, there’s also Noir de Noir – an earthy, spicy, rose fragrance that falls under the Private Blend collection.

Portofino

Like Doctor Who, Tom Ford’s take on the classic eau de cologne, Neroli Portofino, exists in many incarnations and everyone has their favourite.

Neroli Portofino Acqua has a bitter, almost sporty edge, while Fleur de Portofino is more honeyed and floral. The original, however, should be every fragrance lover’s starting point. Comprising citrus fruits and aromatic herbs, it’s one of the best summer scents available and ideal for guys who like their colognes light, fresh and unobtrusive.

Oud

“The number of Tom Ford fragrances now available has expanded massively, but it’s the woods and oud fragrances that men most associate with him,” says Jaye.

Oud Wood, the star of the collection, has become so successful that it’s one of the few Ford colognes to boast its own ancillaries, including a body moisturiser, shower gel and beard oil. Also worth a sniff are Tobacco Oud (spicier and, as the name suggests, with a tobacco edge), Oud Fleur (floral, with plenty of rose) and the shouldn’t-work-but-does Oud Minérale, which combines the smoky wood with a salty marine accord.

The 10 Best Tom Ford Colognes

Patchouli Absolu

Patchouli has long been a mainstay of men’s fragrances thanks to its earthy aroma, but Tom Ford’s Private Blend interpretation rounds things out with touches of amber, musk and leather, so you don’t smell like someone who’s just attended Woodstock.

“Like all of Ford’s fragrances, Patchouli Absolu is essentially genderless, but it smells particularly good on a man’s skin,” says Fairley. “On a woman, the creamy, suede-like notes emerge, but when men wear it, it’s the woodsiness that comes out.”

Buy Now: £158.00 for 50ml

Neroli Portofino

With inspiration taken from the sparkling blue waters, cool breezes and lush foliage of the Mediterranean, it’s little wonder Tom Ford’s Neroli Portofino has become one of the designer’s best-selling creations.

A wonderfully fresh blend of Sicilian lemon, neroli, bergamot, lavender and amber, the scent’s emphasis on uplifting citrus notes means it’s the perfect pick-me-up for travel, sport or those disappointing summer days when all you see are clouds. Think of it as sunshine in a bottle.

Buy Now: £119.90 for 50ml

Noir

Built around a whopping big violet floral note, this fragrance from 2012 starts off smelling powdery and spicy, owing to a combination of iris and black pepper, before maturing on the skin into something warm and creamy, thanks to its use of vanilla and amber.

As well as offering good longevity on the skin, the notes in Tom Ford Noir add up to an evening scent that’s worth having in any fragrance collection.

Buy Now: £96.00 for 100ml

Orchid Soleil

“The original Black Orchid was a fragrance marketed at women, but men have fully embraced it,” says Gilbert. And it’s easy to see why with this summer version, which fuses floral notes of tuberose, lily and orchid with pink pepper, vanilla and patchouli.

Borrowing from or sharing fragrances with the fairer sex is nothing new, but it’s fair to say Tom Ford has made it not only acceptable but desirable. “I think that men could embrace any Tom Ford fragrance, but in I’m a particular fan of this one, which smells like a suntan.”

Buy Now: £81.50 for 50ml

Oud Wood

One of the standout colognes from the Private Blend Collection, Oud Wood takes one of perfumery’s most recognisable, yet polarising, ingredients – oud – and makes it accessible to all.

Exotic and sensual without being overly rich or strong, its smokiness is tempered by citrus notes, cedarwood and patchouli. “Already something of a classic, Oud Wood is rich, lush and warm – everything you want from a men’s fragrance,” says Jaye.

Buy Now: £158.00 for 50ml

Bois Morocain

Warm, spicy and, thanks to a huge dose of incense, Bois Morocain was originally launched in 2009 before vanishing off shelves only to reappear for a second shot at success in 2017.

With cypress, cedar and thuya (a wood found in Morocco), it smells like a cross between a hot, dry sauna and an old church pew. Quirky and demanding rather than straightforwardly appealing, but well worth a go.

Buy Now: £250.00 for 100ml

Grey Vetiver

Based around one of Tom Ford’s favourite notes, this contemporary interpretation of a classic vetiver cologne benefits from a tart, fresh, citrusy opening, which means it works just as well during the daytime as it does in the evening.

“I absolutely love Grey Vetiver,” says Gilbert. “It’s zingy, clean, perfectly woodsy and very well-balanced.”

Buy Now: £72.00 for 50ml

Tuscan Leather

Loved by both men and women, Tom Ford’s punchy take on a traditional leather fragrance oozes sensuality with notes of saffron, black pepper, jasmine, tobacco and amber wood.

But it’s the unexpected addition of raspberry – a move that takes it in an unexpected direction and one that’s very ‘Tom Ford’ – that prevents Tuscan Leather from being just another animalic number. It’s potent stuff though, so be careful not to overspray.

Buy Now: £158.00 for 50ml

Tom Ford For Men

Already 10 years old (which practically makes it a modern classic) this woody, spicy signature cologne is everything a Tom Ford fragrance should be – sensual, heady and complex – but comes at a price most fans can afford.

The twist comes with the addition of Moroccan grapefruit flower – a precious ingredient hand-harvested from blossoms just three weeks a year – to top notes of ginger, tobacco leaf and bergamot.

Buy Now: £56.50 for 50ml

Fucking Fabulous

Released at the end of 2017, this deliciously creamy, almost edible blend of almond oil, tonka bean and clary sage provoked the kind of publicity most brands can only dream of.

“The fragrance isn’t as quite as fabulous as the name suggests,” says Jaye, “but it’s worth wearing just so you can say ‘Fucking Fabulous’ when somebody asks what scent you have on.” Somehow, we suspect nobody would love the reaction you’ll get more than Tom Ford himself.

Buy Now: $310.00 for 50ml

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