'Traffic'

I'm glad I'm not a politician having to figure out the illegal drug thing.

As a kid, "Just Say No!" was a motto etched into my brain. It was hard to imagine a future in which drugs were not going to ruin so many lives, potentially my own. Looking back, it was pretty apparent just how calculated it all was. They harped on peer pressure and how it would make even the strongest-willed kid to crack (figuratively, literally) and yet I've never felt any peer pressure to do drugs, drink alcohol or do anything else.

Peer pressure exists, but it's the internal, perceived pressure that labors us. We think we need to be cool and we think doing something (stealing, drugs, drinking, sex, et al.).

I knew people that dealt and did drugs. I'd heard that hard drugs (cocaine, heroin) were pretty prevalent in my school growing up. Later, the rural area were I grew up with become of the biggest meth bases in the state of Texas.

One kid -- a brother of a classmate -- overdosed on heroin. Friends wound up caught up in the meth distribution and in prison or worse.

Generally, however, most everyone I know turned out OK. Maybe they're not making tons of money and some might smoke weed pretty regularly, but, in the end, drugs are pretty insignificant.

I don't know how to address or judge the influence of drug use in our society. I've heard of large swaths of time when there epidemics (like crack cocaine in the late-1980s and early-1990s or heroin in the indie rock arena). No doubt thousands were affected, but I don't know if it was really something that required our attention.

As a tax-paying adult, it's pretty clear there's no more of a losing, wasteful battle than that against drugs. It's odd, if you think about it. The United States has zero control of the borders and no matter how much technology we have, resources to throw at the problem or men and women dedicated toward fighting, the good guys are a perpetual 10 steps behind the criminal.

The United States isn't drug-addled at all, unless you consider over-the-counter drugs with a record-number of kids getting meds because they can't pay attention as being drug addled. Authorities might consider this a sign that they're winning and in a weird, obtuse way, they're right.

I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer. I once asked everyone I really know if they knew how to get some heroin and even those that did mild drugs did not have an answer. Is this a victory for the war on drugs or is it just proof that we know how to act like reasonable human beings?

What's worse: Big Macs or cocaine?

'Two-Lane Blacktop'

You probably wonder how a film about Dennis Wilson (my second favorite Beach Boy ... the one who actually surfed) and James Taylor driving across the country couldn't be awesome.

I think it's because Taylor was no longer a heroin addict. Yes, it would have been better if he were high.

'Cairo Station'

Youseff Chahine is one of the great directors of the world and probably the most renown from Egypt's less-than-stellar past as a filmmaking giant despite the innate intrigue surrounding the country's history.

Who could better make the story of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra than an Egyptian? Although, I'm sure there'd be a ton of bias. Who could better make a story of the Pyramids, the great pharaohs and the countless wars and one of the great early civilizations?

Chahine admittedly made films for himself even wanting international audiences more so than his homeland Egyptian audiences. Still, this might be because his films are genuinely Egyptian. Who else would you want to see your homeland -- its streets, rail stations and ordinary people -- than those on the outside looking in?

Chahine actually portrays the hero-villian in Cairo Station, the easily pitiful Qinawi, a beggar in a Cairo rail station, who gets a job selling newspapers. His sexual frustration is pasted onto a wall of his room where he's placed photos of pin-up girls. This desire is quickly focused on a soft-drink saleswoman, Hannuma, portrayed by the super-sexy Hind Rostom. 

In typical fashion, instead of buying flowers or attempting to woo her, he plans to kill him and stuff her in a crate on the eve of her marriage. He ends up killing the wrong girl and ... well, it doesn't end well for Qinawi. 

An interesting sub-plot is that of Hannuma's fiancé, a porter who is attempting to organize a union to strike. They spend just enough time on it to make it worthwhile, but generally it has little to do with the plot. 

Chahine did not shy away from controversial topics. He had gay and bisexual themes in his films and the brutal murder in Cairo Station certainly caught the eye of the government, who was not the friendliest or most progressive for filmmakers. Chahine once exiled himself to Lebanon to make two films in a sort of protest. 

'Kind Hearts And Coronets'

Eddie Murphy has nothing on Alec Guinness. Fifty years before Murphy attempted to portray several different members of a family, Guinness would have eight different parts in Kind Hearts and Coronets.

He also was Obi-Wan Kenobi. So there's that.

Give the American film censors some credit in 1949. They had the word "nigger" changed to sailor. Real progressives over in the states.

'Butterfly'

My favorite thing in the world outside of watching people on Christian television is listening to people overanalyze pure pop-star diva-driven pop music. 

Nothing against Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the dozens upon dozens of other bubble gum pop stars through the ages, but you’re not curing cancer. 

You’re a pretty face with a pretty good to great voice. There’s nothing wrong with that. I wish I were a pretty face with a half-decent voice. Hell, I’d take the pretty face. 

Still, I find people that try to rationalize albums like these as having meaning and possible value. Honestly, I think Carey’s done much, much better albums. If I listen to pop, I want hooks. I want pep. (I’m pretty sure Tom Hanks’ character in That Thing You Do said the same thing.)

Butterfly is boring. There are no hooks and I can’t even sing to it. And I don’t want to hear about what the album is saying about Carey at the time. She may or may not be vulnerable and I’m sure at some point during the process she got her feelings hurt and I’m sure she was really happy and in love. 

Doesn’t make any difference to the songs. They’re not windows into her soul. They’re singles. 

'1977'

Ash may be the least serious Irish band of all time. 

The island that gave us U2, The Cranberries, Stiff Middle Fingers, the Dropkick Murphys and Van Morrison also gave us a band so enthralled with Star Wars that they dedicated almost their entire first album to it, including naming it after the year the first installment was released. 

The album begins with the purr of a TIE fighter. The final song is titled “Darkside Lightside” and another titled “Kung Fu” in honor of Jackie Chan. 

If nothing else, Ash are known for getting plum gigs in the video game and soundtrack industry recording an number of tunes for films and getting partnerships in providing songs for video games including a Star Wars game. 

I’ve never felt the Irish should be so series. 

'Akira'

To be honest, I had little to no interested in Japanese animation outside of an episode of “Voltron” before starting this project.

As it’s turned out, maybe some of the best films I’ve seen have all been Japanese animation: Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies and, now, Akira. 

Akira is the oldest of the bunch and it could be considered the frontrunner of those other films and others like it that have caught on in the United States. 

Akira is a very cool late-1980s dystopian tale of motorcycle gangs and a sci-fi twist about children psychics and the end of the world. Anything from Japan has some sort of theme that relates to the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and for good reason. Good or bad, it sort of defined that country for a long time from the outside in and probably still remains this blot of scar tissue to this day. Like it’ll never go away. 

Made in the late-1980s and based on the manga, it has heavy Cold War themes and the destruction capable should the United States and Soviet Union choose to bomb the crap out of each other (Japan caught in the middle, of course). 

Naturally, the cult status of Akira has spawned at last four attempts to make a snowy white live-action version with actors like James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michael Fassbender, Gary Oldman, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix being mentioned in one way or the other during the synthesis of the project. It’s hard to imagine this turn out well if it ever turns out.  

'Dispatches'

Dispatches and its author, journalist Michael Herr, are interesting on a number of levels. 

First, Dispatches is considered one of the best examples of New Journalism or a nonfiction novel. Popularized by Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Terry Southern and Norman Mailer, it came about in the middle of the 20^th century when journalists started writing novels like Capote and In Cold Blood, something that started out as an article in The New Yorker, but grew into a whole novel. Or it even came from fiction writers deciding to do nonfiction. 

New Journalism is subjective, raw and intense. It leaves little stone unturned and tells a more honest and, often, brutal portrayal of events. This is especially true for Dispatches, the reporting of Herr as a columnist for Esquire during the Vietnam War.  

It’s not only just a good novel: It’s one of the most truthful depictions of the Vietnam War and it was one of the first open for consumption by the American public. 

The fact that Herr later went on to work on scripts for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket – which contain composite characters taken from Dispatches to the point that it’s achingly obvious to anyone that’s seen the film – makes me love those films even more. 

Eerily enough, Dispatches includes two characters – Sean Flynn (Errol’s son) and Dana Stone – who were kidnapped by communist guerrillas and were never seen from again. They are presumed dead. 

Vietnam always scared me. I think the reasons are obvious. It was a destructive and silly war fought over ideologies. Land, money, spite or hate are reasons I can understand in war. Quibbling over ideologies is something I can’t grasp. 

It was a war fought in a strange land against a truly angry opponent that were smarter and very confident. It seemed no one came back from Vietnam the same way they left: Physically or mentally. It was chaos and seemingly the first complicated war where sides were blurred.  

'The Reader'

In college, I once got into a healthy, friendly debate with a sister of a girl I was dating about how Nazi soldiers and German citizens could sit back and watch the Holocaust take place? 

What was their level of culpability? 

I don’t remember my stance on the subject at the time, but considering I was an opinionated, hot-headed college kid delving deep into the Holocaust, I found it unconsciounable that anyone from that era in France, Germany, Austria, Poland or the Soviet Union could not know what was happening and how they could live with that. 

I’ve gone back and forth on the subject and despite all the atrocities over the globe, nothing haunts me and makes me think like Europe between 1933-1945. I think it’s a unique time and place and I think citizens have attempted to come to grips with what happened ever since. 

The documentary Shoah is a creepy, sprawling film that interviews survivors of the Holocaust and even former Nazis, who perpetrated deaths of millions. Still, the most fascinating interviews are those of the random citizens that lived adjacent to killing machines and billowing smokestacks of crematoriums. Most readily admit they knew something was happening. Maybe it’s plausible deniability. Maybe they genuinely thought people were being shipped away for relocation or labor camps. 

My current opinion is that the Holocaust was too gigantic for anyone to truly comprehend what was happening. I think people in these villages and towns saw their six Jewish families expelled. I think they saw it as a cost of war. I think they saw it as good riddance to a tanner or cobbler who had charged them too much. Like it was karma. 

They did not see it as a machine or six million dead. Guilty, yes. Responsible for the biggest travesty of the modern world? Certainly not. 

This middle ground or purgatory is probably what makes survivors and the generations after so crazy. 

This is pretty much the synopsis of The Reader. A really great book that was turned into a really great movie without spoiling or ruining anything. The most telling part comes during the trial of Hanna, when the defendants began to rationalize their part in a church fire that killed multitudes of Jewish prisoners. 

Others denied everything, but Hanna’s excuse – that she can’t read – would have made her less culpable, but the shame of being illiterate was too great for her to tell the truth. 

'The Reckless Moment'

The Reckless Moment is a pretty run-of-the-mill film noir. Good and all, but nothing really to right home about outside of it being a Max Ophüls and also starring James Mason.

With that said, I’m willing to talk Mason. 

Mason was a British actor, who made as much of a name for himself in the states as he did in his homeland. By my count, he’s in six of the 1,001 films you should see before you die. 

Mason was in countless films working under  a range of directors  like Ophüls, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and others. 

He portrayed Brutus, Humbert Humbert, Captain Nemo, Gustave Flaubert, Joseph of Arimathea and Erwin Rommel (twice!). Quite the career to be perfectly honest. 

He was born in 1909, which would put him in his early 50s when he portrayed Humbert Humbert, which makes it even creepier that he was going after Dolores. It also made him 50 when he had his first cardiac issues in 1959, which he would later die of in 1984. 

I think most satisfying was the fact that he wrote and illustrated a book about he and his wife’s love for cats titled The Cats in Our Lives, which is one more singularly awesome details of his life. The drawings of the cats are honestly kind of neat looking. Good luck finding a copy. 

'Nineteen Eighty-Four'

I wonder how many people that describe things as “Orwellian” have ever read Nineteen Eighty-Four?

I’m being cynical because it’s fun. But more than likely a lot of people have read George Orwell’s most well-known novel set in a dystopian post-war totalitarian regime. 

It’s been translated into 65 languages and is commonly used in classrooms. My first read came in an English class in college. Although the professor was a Vonnegut guy (he wound up gifting me a copy of The Slaughter-House Five), he had us read Nineteen Eighty-Four. 

I think it’s used a lot because it’s a complexly simple novel. Yet, it’s deep and long and unforgiving. For anyone who read it in high school and college, it’s probably the darkest piece of pop culture that they’ve ingested. 

I strongly suggest reading more about Nineteen Eighty-Four. The way Orwell infused it with real tactics used in the Soviet Union and England makes you truly understand that the world of Oceania is closer and truer than we want to realize. 

As a side note, and I’ve never seen this in print or written about online, but a parallel literary universe to Orwell’s is the magic world in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. 

The classifications, the gigantic government always knowing when someone’s doing magic, the bureaucracy, the arbitrary decisions of rulers and even the language is so overbearing. I think Harry Potter is Orwellian. Which I can say because I’ve read the book. 

'Ace In The Hole'

As the Wikipedia page notes, this was a film of firsts for Billy Wilder: It was the first for Wilder to be credited as writer, director and producer, it was the first without long-time writing partner Charles Brackett and Wilder’s first lemon. 

It cost $1.8 million to make and it was a commercial and artistic failure, although, with time, it’s clearly become a much more poignant film. Reading reviews upon its release, most disliked it because it was cynical and put the journalism world square in Wilder’s crosshairs. 

It was such a bust at the movies that the studio changed the name to The Big Carnival.

These days, Ace in the Hole speaks volumes. It’s about a drunk, down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter (Kirk Douglas) that goes west and finds himself with a newspaper in Albuquerque and a potential blockbuster story on his hand: Man trapped in a collapsed mine. 

Using his influence and probable talent, he trumps up the story making it a national headline in a vain attempt to get his old job back in New York City. Meanwhile, the ensuing publicity causes the area to become a literal carnival as the masses wait for the rescue efforts (Douglas’ character convinces them to use the slower means of excavating the man from the earth). 

The man in the cave dies and Douglas’ unscrupulous reporter gets stabbed with scissors. An appropriate end, no less. 

If all of this sounds eerily familiar it’s because Wilder predicted the state of journalism a full half century before it got to a carnival-type atmosphere. The only difference is that people are too lazy to actually go physically to a place of news and instead congregate on Facebook, Twitter and the web in general to witness a travesty. 

'Monsieur Verdoux'

Look up "dark comedy" in the dictionary and you'll see a movie poster for Monsieur Verdoux.

It's a fascinating film about a jobless banker, who romanticizes women only to grift them for their money and then kill them. Rumor has it that Orson Welles initially wrote the film and approached Charlie Chaplin to play the lead role.

Chaplin balked at the idea. Either he didn't want to be directed or the film wasn't completely written and didn't want to mess with an unfinished project. Either way, he bought the script from Welles and made his own money, giving Welles credit only for the idea.

It's a new world for Chaplin, who actually talks and doesn't take on his "Tramp" character that made him a highly recognizable movie star the previous 20 years. It's Chaplin like he's hardly been seen before.

The film did poorly bombing in the United States mostly due to the timing of its release (amid the tumult of World War II) and his extremely dark theme of casually murdering women, not thinking it murder because it was done for money and saying a few dead women was better than war.

Verdoux is based on the real-life Henri Désiré Landru. He killed 10 women after putting an ad in the looney-hearts section of the newspaper. He also killed one of the women's sons. He, like Verdoux, was caught when a victim's sister came snooping around and was executed.

I'm sure it wasn't nearly as funny as the film, though.

'A Touch Of Zen'

I have a feeling I've talked about wuxia. Do this thing long enough and you start to really not remember anything you done before. I spend more time searching for posts that I swore I've done than I do writing anymore.

A Touch of Zen is a Taiwanese film done in 1969 but released in 1971. In it's initial release it was split into two parts probably because it's 187 minutes long.

A Touch of Zen is an example of wuxia, which translates to "martial hero." It's a genre that has its roots in literature, but through the 20th century it's continued through video games, film, TV and comics.

The wuxia is not unlike the gunslinger of the American West or a knight of the Round Table. He's a hero with certain skills of survival like martial arts and fighting. Or swordsmanship in Arthur's England or the ability to shoot in a Gary Cooper Western.

More often than not, it's the wuxia's other skills that win the day. Patience, bravery, nerve, brains. Those are the qualities that really end up making the difference between the good guy or the bad guy winning.

In A Touch of Zen, our "martial hero" uses a bit of psychology to play on the superstitious tendencies of the enemy guards in order to gain victory. These warriors are noble. They fight for the right and the ethical. They carry the weight as if evil were always finding them somehow. As if life would be so much better if they'd be left alone. Probably, this is totally true.

'The Score'

What's wrong with Lauryn Hill and why can't anyone help her?

Timeline: The Fugees -- Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel and Hill -- release the beautiful and mind-blowing album The Score. A year later, despite all the rumors of a follow-up, the group wound up putting together their solo careers including Hill's The Miseducation of ... which is even more brilliant and I think one of the greatest albums of all time.

Following that album, Hill disappeared. The rumors were she got caught up into motherhood. She also apparently got caught up into religion bordering on a cultish precipice. Relatively speaking, she's been in complete exile except for an odd reunion of The Fugees in 2004 for a European tour and album.

It all fell apart when tensions between Hill and Jean and Michel festered at least partly to Hill's diva tendencies.

Needless to say, she is weird, weird, weird.

Jean and Michel have both stated publicly that it would take a minor miracle for them to work with Hill again, Jean even suggesting that she needs to consult a psychiatrist, which, on the surface seems like a really good idea. Somewhere a screw popped loose. The passionate, young and beautiful woman who supposedly cried while doing the vocals for "Ready or Not" is a pariah and a reclusive weirdo unfit to do much of anything but rant and not necessarily do what she is really good at.

In the 1990s, hip-hop was Greek to me. I was busy exploring just how loud and angry music could get and if there was a song that embodied heartbreak more than the next.

Oddly, I purchased The Score. That and Paul's Boutique being my hip-hop collection as a teenager. I can't say enough about the album even today. It hold's up like a skyscraper. It's meaningful and thoughtful hip-hop with the crispest of production despite not having the big-name producer or guest rappers. It's not gangsta and they're not trying to blow the doors off the establishment.

They did it anyway.

'Exit Planet Dust' & 'Dig Your Own Hole'

No artist has had a longer Wikipedia page than The Chemical Brothers. Good gravy.

These two are  their debut album and follow-up. They started as the Dust Brothers providing music for the Beastie Boys before venturing on their own for what has been a most fruitful 17 years for a pair of guys that don't even need to sing over their own tracks, but instead get mega-superstars to beg them for a vocal opportunity or a remix.

Metallica's allegedly begged them for a remix, but to no avail. Oasis invited them to DJ, kicked them off the stage and, years later, Liam Gallagher came back begging for a vocal track.

The Stone Roses have asked them to work together. The Beatles -- or what remains of them -- sent them a letter claiming they sampled "Tomorrow Never Knows" and had to bring in a musicologist to prove they didn't.

Anyone who is anyone, especially in the British scene, have had their moment of glory with the Brothers and probably most of that island nation have danced absurdly to some festival or outdoor show that they've put on. They make the music the world dances to.

'Suite Francaise'

Irène Némirovsky was a French writer of Ukrainian Jewish descent. She was 39 when she died in the infamous concentration camp, Auschwitz.

She wrote Suite Francaise in a single notebook in small handwriting, which her daughter Denise kept until 1998, unread. Only until she was going to donate it to a museum did she read the notebook and realize that it was actually a manuscript.

Technically, it's one of the earliest novels about World War II. It is set in 1940 right after the French army is unable to hold back the brunt of the German army as they made their way to Paris.

The first novella chronicles the race out of Paris to the south of France and the countryside. The second novella tells the story of a small village under German occupation and the fear of sticking up for themselves, fighting back or just biting your tongue.

The final novella is actually based on an outline, some of which apparently contradicted Némirovsky's original ideas. 

The manuscript was discovered in 1998 and published in 2004, 62 years after her death in that concentration camp due to typhus. 

Controversy has arisen as it's been discovered that her different novellas are extremely similar to existing novels about the same content. Although Némirovsky was dead before either novel was published, no one actually read her own work until 1998, after those other novels were published. 

'Walden, or Life in the Woods'

Henry David Thoreau leaves his home in Concord, Mass. in order to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

He moved to the woods around Walden Pond and built a cabin with his own hands. He lived there two years and observed the seasons, the animals and commented on literature, solitude, economy and more.

Thoreau was born in Concord to a middle-class family. He would later work in the family's pencil factory. He went to Harvard and studied everything from rhetoric to mathematics. He refused to pay a $5 fee and didn't receive his diploma.

Thoreau was a great and brilliant man, in my opinion. He was an abolitionist and the man behind civil disobedience, which would later inspire Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His influence transcended generations and would lead the country he loved into its greatest trial 100 years later.

He was one of the progenitors of Transcendentalism and one of the earliest environmentalists in the United States. After the Walden years, he dived deep into naturalism and botany. He became one of the first American supporters of Charles Darwin and his theories.

Thoreau's two years in the woods resulted in the manuscript, Walden, or Life in the Woods. Eight rewrites and 10 years later, it would be finally published.

It's a brilliant collection of essays. It shows America at its most solitary and self-reliant. It's beautiful in a lot of ways and inspiring in many more.

‘1999’ & ‘Purple Rain’ & ‘Sign "O" The Times’

Prince is guy whose aura overshadows the reason he’s famous in the first place. The dancing, costumes, androgynous appearance, the seclusion, being a Jehovah’s Witness, being a punchline for Dave Chappelle, a Minnesota Vikings fan, being from Minnesota and still living in Minnesota.

My favorite tidbit is that, despite all the names, his real name is Prince.

Despite all that, he’s one of the biggest superstar recording artists of all time releasing probably three of the most famous albums of the 1980s despite not being penned in by any genre (soul? Funk? New wave? R&B? rock? ) or by any one audience (white or back), which is probably why he’s sold as many albums as he has despite being kind of a weirdo.

It’s a weird career that no one can put a label on and I would only assume that Prince himself would not want it any other way.

My first exposure to Prince came during the first Tim Burton-directed Batman movie, which was probably my first foray into absurdist art. First, there’s Burton writing this very disjointedly awesome movie, with so many one liners that I still don’t understand. Then, there’s Prince. Thinking back, his songs from the soundtrack are written into the movie: When The Joker invades the museum, the parade scene et al. And these are oddly melodic songs about nothing. Or about sex. Sorta depends on what you read into the lyrics. I wouldn’t say I came out of that experience a fan, but Prince definitely had my attention.

Fast forward the next decade and Prince became more of a reclusive oddity that … oddly enough still recorded albums and toured a lot. A guy that doesn’t have to do either because he’s insanely rich (and he lives in Minnesota). I would not shock anyone to see such a private dude just to slink back to his house and disappear for 20 years.

 

He doesn’t. He has zero problems recording albums, touring and even getting the Super Bowl halftime gig where he simulated masturbation with his guitar.

If you cut all this bullshit out, you have some really great songs. I listened to these three albums and kept finding a new song that I remember and really love. I wish I had a simple relationship with Prince. That’s not what Prince wants.

'The Ladies Man'

I wanted to write something about Jerry Lewis here, but, as it turns out, the guy is rather boring.

He is most notably one of the most well-known comedic actors of the 20th and 21st centuries. He teamed with straight man Dean Martin for years on the stage and on film. He then went solo and really made a name for himself.

Lewis was rejected for service in World War II for a heart murmur, which might have had a role in his supposed heart attacked in 1960, when he was 34, the other two heart attacks he's had since. Needless to say, had he gone into the service, if the Nazis didn't kill him, his own troops would've. No doubt he would've been incredibly obnoxious in a foxhole.

Lewis has been married twice, the first time 26 years and his sequel has lasted 19. The only bad or shocking thing I can say about the guy is that he's completely obnoxious. I can't imagine another actor out there that drives me as bananas as Lewis does with these kooky, idiotic characters, who are all easily duped and stumble into fortune or narrowly miss the disaster of death or shame.

No matter what you might think about him, Lewis seems to be a guy that's done things the right way for the vast majority of his career, which has spanned eight decades. Maybe he's loved the drugs, drink or girls (or guys), but over that length of time in his high-profile and often philanthropic image, it'd be hard to stuff all those skeletons into the closet.

I wish I could dislike Lewis as a person as much as I do a comedic actor, but it's impossible.

'The Corrections'

This was a labor of love.

I first bought this book at a used bookstore about eight or nine years ago. I went to my girlfriend's house and found that A) she wasn't home and B) I couldn't get in the house.

I don't remember why I did this or why I didn't go somewhere (which included my apartment) but I instead decided to take my new book and lounge in the back part of my vehicle and do a little light reading. Size aside, it doesn't take long to find out this isn't going to be a very easy read. Not that it addressed themes or subjects that were difficult to decipher. In the simplest way, Jonathan Franzen made this story of a somewhat dysfunctional Midwest family hard to sink your teeth into.

I think I got about 10 pages in, my girlfriend (probably) returned home and I didn't pick the book back up until this year. Then again, it's taken me, honestly, 10 months to get through this book. And it's good. Once I really got into it, I cruised through it.

However, I can't quite not think about that dumb day when I thought I'd tackle The Corrections in the back seat of my car.

Since that day, I've been to Europe twice, gotten married (to the girlfriend I was waiting on), had a child who has just turned six, gotten Franzen's latest novel for Christmas, read probably another 300 books and voted for two different presidents from two different parties.

'The Holy Bible' & 'Everything Must Go'

It's impossible to discuss Manic Street Preachers without making it about Richey Edwards.

Discussions with friends from high school always turn into a laundry list of regrets. Girls and life decisions. But mostly music and trying to figure out why we listened to what we listened to and didn't listen to all of this amazing junk that was happening all right under our noses.

Manic Street Preachers fit that mold. I love it now and there's little reason to believe I wouldn't have loved it as a teenager in the 1990s.

Edwards was the guitar player and general heart of the band. Sorta guitar player. He apparently had little musical talent and often faked the guitar in the early days. He started as a roadie and driver. He eventually became the main creative valve for the band writing most of their highly-acclaimed album, The Holy Bible.

Edwards struggled with the usual (drugs and booze) and the not-so-usual (self-cutting, depression, stabbing cigarettes out on his arm). Nothing was ever right. After his and the band's integrity were questioned by a journalist, he took a razor and cut "4Real" into his arm, requiring 18 stitches.

Six months after the release of The Holy Bible, Edwards left his hotel, took out some cash from the bank and disappeared.

His car was found abandoned near a bridge known for suicides. No body or trace of the guy was found. The band kept a portion of the royalties back in case he turned up. The family didn't officially pronounce him dead until 2002. Are they vulnerable because they're rock stars or rock stars because they're vulnerable?

In the great mystery that is rock music, fans have made the tragedy that is Richey Edwards into a chapter of enigma. Countless reports of Edwards in India and other island nations have been reported. He's like a ghost.

After he disappeared, the band took a break, nearly disbanded and then released Everything Must Go, of which five songs were written by Edwards.

‘Aladdin Sane’

Long time coming for this review. Keep listening to this album and it never strikes me as being anywhere close to my favs despite its David Bowie at his absolute prime. 

What I didn’t know is that Aladdin Sane (“A Lad Insane” … get it?) was a character, a sort of evolution of Ziggy Stardust, who actually “retired” in 1973. So, Bowie was Aladdin Sane. (Get it?) 

Bowie called Sane “Ziggy goes to America.” The album was very influenced from Bowie’s tour of the United States during his huge break out following the release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The grind got to him in a negative manner and he put it on vinyl. 

Bowie's sense of glam-rock schizophrenia seems doubly weird when you consider that his brother, Terry, was actually schizophrenic. You wonder if Terry had a modicum of talent if he would have been the actual better rock star. What he would have done would have been genuine, at the very least.

Aladdin Sane turned out to be one of Bowie’s best-selling albums to date (which probably wasn’t very difficult … not like he was The Beatles). 

'Solid Air'

A great album featuring one of my favorite new songs to hear during this project, “Over the Hill.” 

John Martyn was a stalwart of the British folk scene in the 1960s and you can hear that a lot on Solid Air despite being more of a mid-career album. You also hear the very distinct jazz influence. He’s a great guitar player and it shows. 

Martyn recorded another album, Grace & Danger, in the 1980s following the dissolution of his marriage. It is not on the 1,001 list, which is a shame not to be able to write about it, but it’s one of the darkest albums ever recorded. So dark, that the record company didn’t want to release, friends didn’t want to hear it, yet, Martyn calls it his favorite album considering the honestly in the songs. 

Like many, Martyn struggled with drugs and drink during his career. Later in life, it appears he didn’t take care of himself as he looks terribly overweight. Still, he recorded until his death in 2009 and even dabbled in hip-hop aesthetics. 

'Want One' & 'Want Two'

Rufus Wainwright was the first musical artist to make me say, "Man, he's gay."

It was in a review for one of his albums (it had to by his eponymous debut because it came out in 1998 and I was still in high school) and it expressly stated that Wainwright was publicly gay. I immediately sort of categorized him as a gay artist, something I hadn't necessarily done for Elton John or Freddie Mercury. Mostly because most review of Sheer Heart Attack or Caribou didn't talk about their sexual orientation as much as they did about the songs.

I don't know if Wainwright would care that a dumb hick from East Texas thought of him as a "gay artist." He'd been out of the closet since he was 14 years old. He was apparently very open with who he wanted to be intimate with.

Furthermore, if Wainwright sought to dodge the "gay" label, he's doing a pretty poor job of it. Releasing an album of Judy Garland covers does not keep you low key for very long.

Wainwright is a very successful guy. He's released numerous albums, written and opera and worked in the movies. Still, it's a man that depends on the gay community to buy his albums. By all accounts, it's a very loyal group.

'Sons Of The Desert'

I write about this film realizing that I probably like the movie posters more than I might like the actual movie. 

However, that’s just the nature of the film poster of the 1930s and that should not take away from the fact that I enjoyed this very much. 

Despite the physical, sophomoric nature of the comedy, I found myself laughing throughout and I really think that Stan Laurel (who is actually an Englishman) is one of the funniest men to walk this Earth. His scene eating the fake fruit is quite funny. 

 Both guys started in show business in their teens, Laurel in Scotland and Hardy in Georgia. Hardy particularly was successful in the early years of film making more than 300 shorts. Only about 150 still survive. 

They first acted together in The Lucky Dog in 1921 and they both signed with Hal Roach later on. Six years later, Roach had teamed them and made them into the duo that they would become for 20 years. 

Their final film was Atoll K, released in 1951. It was hampered with language barriers and the declining health of Laurel (61 at the time) and Hardy (59 … a hard 59). 

At his death, Hardy weighed 138 pounds and had several strokes. He died in 1957 and Laurel lasted until 1965. 

They filmed hundreds of films together (short- and long-form) and about three are considered lost, meaning they’ve haven’t been seen in 80 years. 

The International Laurel & Hardy Appreciation Society is named "Sons of the Desert." 

'John Prine'

One of the few country legends, who was a postman. Prine grew up in Illinois, served in the U.S. Army and eventually wound up in the United States Postal Service for five years in the 1960s. 

His music career took root when he attended an open-mic event and was asked if he could do any better. He got up and sang and played guitar. He became one of the main protagonists in the Chicago folk revival of the era. 

After this album was released, he was called “the new Dylan,” which is bullshit because there’s almost zero elements of the former in the latter, at least on that album. 

John Prine is plain, good country music with guitar, bass and fiddle. Not that Dylan was not capable of the same, but I think Prine’s DNA has much more Hank Williams than Bob Zimmerman.  

One of the more brilliantly good albums I’ve listened to during this project. 

'Beach Samba'

I just need to write about this son of a bitch and move on with my life. 

I’ve probably listened to this incredibly boring album about a dozen times because I always feel I’ve never listened to it. I’m sure is Astrud Gilberto read that sentence she might feel a little bad. Or she might could care less considering I’m some dope writing about her album anonymously on the Internet. Tell you the truth, I don’t blame her.

As I go through this project, I find that sometimes you’ve just got to do it: Watch or read or listen to whatever, digest it and write about it. I’m fairly certain I’ll never listen to Beach Samba ever again. Needless to say, if I do, it’ll be beyond my control. 

It doesn’t sound bad or anything. It’s sorta cool mood music. Like a score, it’s hard to really notice with all the action on screen. I often start this album, blink and it’s over. Of course, if it were any longer I’d go berserk. 

As a side note, Gilberto was married to guitarist João Gilberto. They divorced and she started getting involved with jazz Stan Getz and that more than soured whatever working relationship the three had. The Yoko Ono of jazz. 

'The World Is A Ghetto'

The band, War, conceived albums that correctly mirrored the times and pop culture of their era, particularly the 1970s. 

Not being born until 1980, I can only judge this time period based on the pop culture of the time. Although writers had been chronicling the plight of the poor (and that of the African American) for decades, it wasn’t until the 1970s that music, TV and film followed – all a decade after the Civil Rights movement, Great Society legislation and the ebb of the folkie/hippie protest movement. 

There seemed to be a settling here, and I’m talking out of my butt here. Things were “better” because the Vietnam War would start to wind down, legislation for rights fought for in the 1960s were taking root. On paper, things were “getting better.” 

However, it also appears that this time period is when the poor started associating themselves – with an overwhelming amount of pride – with their neighborhoods, or ghettos. It’s seen first hand during the busing riots in Boston. Granted, it had a lot to do about race. It also had a lot to do with how we identify ourselves with where we live, the people that live around us and how poor (or rich) we are. 

I find it interesting that a lot of sitcoms from this era (and even the 1980s) would show the front of the house during the opening credits. Many show a car ride’s view of the surrounding area. This is notable in All in the Family. Overhead view of the Good Times neighborhood is prevalent. 

The World is a Ghetto is a dark soundtrack to these streets and alleys. There isn’t the canned laughter of sitcoms. There aren’t the heroes of the films. It’s a group of guys telling an honest story of people that are stuck with almost no hope. 

War actually started in Los Angeles, unique for being multi-cultural in the line-up. They first backed up Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Deacon Jones. Then they were discovered by former Animal Eric Burdon, who recorded two albums and toured with War. He left the band mid-tour in Europe and a year later they released their own record. A year after that, they gave us The World is a Ghetto. 

'The Idiots' & 'Breaking The Waves'

The films are directed by Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier and are part of his “Golden Heart Trilogy” along with the previously reviewed Dancer in the Dark.

Both films are also part of the Dogme 95 genre, partially started by Von Trier in an attempt to make as natural of a film as possible: All shot on location, no artificial lighting, no soundtrack or score, no filters, no special effects and all in color. Basically, trying to make the film as much like actual life as possible. 

The Idiots was the first of these films for Lars Von Trier and depending on your definition of success, it was a relative failure. Both films had multiple infractions including sets, altering of light and the such. Doesn’t make the films bad, but it does sort of cheapen what those filmmakers were aiming to do. If your first movie can’t follow the rules, does it matter if the others can? Doesn’t seem any film has fit the Dogme 95 platitudes. 

The Idiots is about a group of young Danish men and women who go into public and act like mentally disabled (and physically disabled) individuals. Sort of ironically, they’re more anti-bourgeois group as much as they’re proponents for understanding and respecting the rights of the mentally and physically handicapped. They do it to waylay their inhibitions and to live freer. 

This film is notable (not only is it really, really good) for having unsimulated sex in a group sex scene, something brought on by Von Trier, but rarely duplicated. Due to the fact that it’s real people having real sex and folks can’t handle that. 

Breaking the Waves is about a religious woman – you sort of suspect that she’s extremely naïve or possible mentally handicapped – who marries a Norwegian oil rig worker and finds herself struggling with the time apart as he works in the middle of the ocean. After a brief respite at home, he returns to the rig and is paralyzed after an accident. 

After a failed suicide attempt, he urges his wife to take a lover. Maybe not so much for her as it’s for him in some sort of odd cuckolding fetish. She struggles with the request and eventually gets caught in this desire to be happy and the repercussions of being a harlot in a non-progressive religious community. 

Von Trier, in most of his movies, eventually puts the viewer no trial, so to speak. He challenges our beliefs in very raw, uncomfortable scenes. He places people in impossible situations that often fail and leave them has lost as they were before. 

'The Band Wagon'

This movie represents the whole genre of American musicals that drive me crazy in a way. I can’t put my finger on it and to explain my disdain would drive me crazy and, foremost, wouldn’t make any sense. 

Being quite younger and living in a world where the sheen of Hollywood was replaced with cynicism and jaded opinions of the stars that make films, I don’t understand movies of the 1950s. Knowing my mother, I do imagine it being a lot more “magical” for viewers. Films were star driven. Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bob Hope and any other star of the era were well aware that people were spending hard-earned cash to watch their dopey movie. Therefore, you often saw thin plotlines broken up by unique dance routines and clever songs. 

The stars are not emoting for the sake of portraying a character because nine times out of 10 they were simply portraying some version of themselves. 

The Band Wagon is the perfect example. Astaire’s “Tony Martin” is a facsimile of himself: An aging star coming to grips with his own fading star. He’s portraying himself. Chances are, however, Astaire never actually acted like that. I wonder if he ever took time by himself and fully realized what this role actually said about himself? 

Astaire and other stars of his ilk and era were not idiots. They played the hopeless romantic or the star-crossed entertainer because that’s what people went to the movies. They wanted Astaire’s personal life to be like that of Tony Martin’s because it’s too disturbing to see someone we adored to crash in flames. Unlike the modern times. 

The Band Wagon is considered one of the greatest American musicals along with Singin’ in the Rain. Naturally, both co-star Cyd Charisse. And underrated accomplishment, I think, both being released within a year of each other. 

'Romper Stomper'

Russell Crowe was 28 years old when Romper Stomper was released. It was just his fifth film and it would be another three years until he had a break out with his co-starring role in The Quick and the Dead and L.A. Confidential two years after that.  

He was still eight years from his true break out in Gladiator. 

Crowe looks younger in Romper Stomper, an Austrailian film about the decline of a rabble-rousing Neo-Nazi  gang in Melbourne as they terrorize the community and battle the growing number of Asian immigrants. 

Based on a real guy and allegedly inspiring an actual murder, the film is eerily like the film This is England including the punk influences, the Neo-Nazism, the charismatic lead man and the veritable fall from grace. It’s also a screenshot of the psychology of crime not unlike Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Except the gang on the latter killed and pillaged indiscriminately. I guess the Neo Nazis can be credited for having a mission statement. A fine line between sociopaths and cultish personalities. 

'Autobahn'

This from a group of Germans making semi-electronic music (actual flutes and violins were played) in the 1970s and doing it pretty successfully. 

The actual song “Autobahn” is a 22-minute sprawling epic recreating the sensation of driving. It was cut down to three minutes for radio release and peaked at No. 25 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Not bad for a song with no real lyrics and zero hooks. 

This from a band doing the near impossible at a time when they were relatively alone on their tier of success and have wound up doing it for 40 years. Sorta makes you want to re-think that college education. 

This from a band where only one original member still exists with the group. The same man that took up cycling in the 1980s and urged the entire group to go vegetarian and to record an entire album dedicated to cycling. He later sustained a coma after a serious accident on his bike. 

This from a band, who built its own recording studio and kept its location a secret. There, they kept the ringer off on their phone and requested that anyone seeking to get in touch with them call the phone at a specific time. There and then, lead man Ralf Hütter would answer despite the phone not ringing. 

Another anecdote from Coldplay singer Chris Martin when he sent a letter to request their use of a melody from a Kraftwerk tune through various channels of attorneys and agents. Weeks later, he receives and envelope and a slip of paper with “yes” written on it. 

All of this makes it hard to not like this album.