Moon Safari

This was bigtime when I first moved to Detroit. I credit Ted Connelly and Clare Cotugno for turning me onto this one, from Philly days. Thanks, y'all, wherever you are (still in Philadelphia, I imagine) . . . Air, Moon Safari (1998), "All I Need," Beth Hirsch on vox.

Still ruminating about Exile on Main St. and Stones in Exile.

Today's Rune: Protection.

Stones in Exile: Take One

Finally finished Stones in Exile completely. The archival footage alone is worth a watch, but it's also really interesting. The tribe. The creative processes. England to France to the USA. How it all "transgressed."

Exile on Main St is the main reason I put the Rolling Stones at the top of the heap; this record -- or CD or download -- is one I'd want for a desert isle, or on a spaceship. Am savoring the idea of getting the expanded version with extra tracks. Tracks like "Pass The Wine (Sophia Loren)" sound real cool.  The album endures, I think, because you can never fully absorb it or lay it aside: it keeps giving, like a lovin' cup.

Today's Rune: Protection.

Wim Wenders: Paris, Texas

Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) is a fabulous movie, highly recommended. It was cool to see it again hard on the heels of Der Amerikanische Freund / The American Friend (1977). Not for those suffering from ADHD, however.

The setup: A man (Harry Dean Stanton) in some kind of fugue state is wondering around South Texas. Thirsty, he walks into Terlingua and is looked after by a shady doctor, who calls his brother (Dean Stockwell), who in turn travels from LA to retrieve him. And on from there. The key players, all related to each other in the film, are fantastic: Stanton, Stockwell, Hunter Carson (son of L. M. "Kit" Carson, who adapted Sam Shepard's screenplay), Aurore Clément and Nastassja Kinski. Wowza! Excellent soundtrack by Ry Cooder and let's not forget the gorgeous camerawork by Robby Müller.

What strikes me now is how non-judgmental and unvarnished the tone of the movie is. And, the limits of human relationships, even when all are trying their best. This taps into much of Wenders' work. Everything human is refracted through the prism of the mind, the prisms of our senses, and can only go so far.

Distance is put between characters through several framing devices, the very same things that also connect or reflect us: telephones, walkie talkies, tape recorders, film (Super 8 in this case), glass, mirrors and photographs.

Other things noticed: $1.16 gallon full service gas and Gulf Oil stations; smoking on a plane and by a doctor at work; no seat belts; a red VW like the one in The American Friend and recurring in Coen brothers films; phone booths, pay phones, dial phones.  Also, drive-through banking, fairly new in the early 80s.

Today's Rune: Joy.

Crossroads and Boundaries

Next January in Austin, Texas, USA, the Society for Historical Archaeology will hold a conference with the theme "Boundaries and Crossroads in Action." Cool topic. Boundaries and crossroads are filled with "exchanges, conflicts, challenges" for sure, especially over (or through) time. Archaeology can mine the layers, or you can just go out to a crossroads and observe for yourself. The theme has also been receiving some attention in art, communications theory and psychology.

Boundaries can be big, like an international frontier, or small, like a street or road dividing city and suburb. Some places are porous, and some are more locked down. Mack Avenue in Detroit is porous; the 38th parallel dividing Korea is locked down. Going back to frontier days in North America (or anywhere else), crossroads and boundaries entailed a lot of unpredictability and interaction -- and instability. Since recorded history began, border towns and port cities have tended to be wilder and rougher, less sheltered than interior towns, though even deep in the interior of many places, strange things have happened near crossroads and on the "inside" of boundaries.

I can think of a bunch of ways this all applies, but for one, think of how people in the recent past (and in many places, still) would make a booze run from "dry" areas to "wet" areas, and all that entailed with policing, risk, danger and excitement! Think of gobs of youthful travellers crossing from Michigan into Canada or Amsterdam to skirt laws enforced within their home boundaries . . . and you get the idea. Think race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, profession, organization, etcetera, and the possibilities for exploration and storytelling are as boundless as Médecins Sans Frontières . . .

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Night Owls and Early Birds

Night owl or early bird? My "natural state" makes me a night owl, but my Marxian reality is more of a mixed bag: because early birds must have created the typical work schedule quite a little while ago. A farmer's schedule in the electric age. I'm flexible (of course) by necessity (also of course). I find irksome, however, those early birds who chirp, "Rise and shine! Day's a-wasting!" Mercifully, there is coffee -- and more coffee.  There are also day dreams as well as nightmares.













If I were put on trial a la Kafka and had to explain my living preferences, what would be my defense? I would lay out my preference for some variety in sleeping/waking schedule, with six to nine hours of sleep when possible, and nothing urgently important scheduled first thing in the daylit morning ever. Why? Because, like Bartleby the Scrivener, I prefer not to deal with such "daymares" until fully awake. How about you?

At top: Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight / Campanadas a medianoche (1965), insanely not yet available in the USA 45 years later! With Jeanne Moreau and Fernando Rey, bring it on over, please . . . Wake me up when it gets here . . . And let's not forget Woody Allen's newest project, Midnight in Paris. 

Today's Rune: Signals.

Well gather 'round people and listen to this . . .

During the Great Depression, an aging Tennessee hermit decides to come to town and hold a living funeral for himself. Things proceed from there. That's the premise of Aaron Schneider's Get Low (2009), set for limited American release at the end of this month.

From the press kit:

For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush (Robert Duvall). People say he‘s done all manner of unspeakable things -- that he‘s killed in cold blood; that he‘s in league with the Devil; that he has strange powers -- and they avoid him like the plague. Then, one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It‘s not your usual funeral for the dead Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a "living funeral," in which anyone who ever had heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in. (For more, see http://www.sonyclassics.com/getlow/)

Add Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray, Lucas Black and others, actors who've turned in many a strong performance.  Will it work?  More will be revealed . . .

Reminds me of two things right off. First, "Play Guitar Play," one of Conway Twitty's best songs penned by the man himself, a number one Country and Western hit in 1977; and Iggy Pop's "The Ballad of Cookie McBride," from which today's header derives, orginally from  "Zombie Birdhouse" (1982).   Iggy's song is so bad it's become a real favorite -- that's how bad it is!  Where he got the idea, God knows. But it makes me chuckle every time. Jack London?  Sample lyric:

Well gather 'round people and listen to this
I am a hermit of burial ridge
Once I was shaven and worked every day
But the call of the wild just lured me away . . .

And onward, complete with "bears in the area and wolves at the door" . . .

This odd and darkling ditty may have inspired John Waters to cast Iggy as Belvedere Rickettes in Cry-Baby (1990) alongside Johnny Depp.  Who knows?

Today's Rune: Fertility.  

Free and Bold

Now that slavery has been abolished in the USA, civil rights acts established, now that women and any other free citizens of age can vote, now that the 18-21 year old crew can, too, Americans can feel pretty good about Independence Day.  Some of these liberties have been established in my own life time.

With British Petroleum off our shores, however, and some of our not-so-united states (Arizona, for example) in a repressive mood, gay rights still fledgling and the land of the free, home of the brave (still) blithely having committed troops and mercenaries to invade and garrison "over there" for insufficient reason (specifically Iraq) and having re-established prison camps (Gitmo, etc.) after 9/11/2001, we can't now afford to rest on our laurels, not by a long shot.  If the USA has been at war for more than half of my lifetime, this is certainly even more true for anyone younger than I am . . .

I, too, though, despite the long haul still to go, personally am grateful to be free, to not have to attend a state-sponsored Puritanical ceremony, to be able to write without censorship, to communicate mostly with whom I wish, to eat drink and be merry on my own time, to travel far and wide without censure, to have a job, to have friends and family and aquaintances alive and kicking, to be alive to enjoy, to get another day of life, even -- yes, cynical-sounding as I may sometimes come across, I do be grateful.  Have freedom, will travel . . . Happy Independence Day from the US of A, y'all!

Today's Rune: Defense.