'The Decalogue' & 'The Double Life of Veronique'

A set of 10 short films originally produced for Polish TV. Each is loosely set around one of the 10 Commandments from the Old Testament.

Extraordinary for TV, the series was hailed as the only masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick in his lifetime. Although very good, I don't know if I can go that far, but Kubrick would know much more than I would.

Two of the films -- Nos. 5 and 6 -- were later expanded into full-length features. Eight of the 10 feature actor Artur Barciś  playing an unnamed role. The theory is that he supposed to be some supernatural character keeping tabs on the Earth-dwellers and their moral dilemmas. Also, have feature milk in some part of the plot. I don't know what that means other than a reference to the "land of milk and honey," which the Jews of the Old Testament were seeking with Moses and Abraham.

The Double Life of Veronique and The Decalogue were both directed by the great Polish director Krzysztof KieślowskiThe Double Life of Veronique. I don't honestly remember much of it. I'm sure I was seriously impressed at the time.

'The Bad and the Beautiful'

Watching all these old movies, I’ve gotten quite used to the flashback melodrama: A crew of characters is brought to some mysterious set of circumstances as the film itself peels back the layers like a stinky onion slowly revealing how everyone got to this point holding certain feelings. 

This movie is quite ingenious and extremely dramatic. It’s about Kirk Douglas’ Shields, the son of a disgraced Hollywood exec, who uses every ounce of ingenuity and gumption to make it in the film industry. He teams up with an out-of-work director (Barry Sullivan). Their plan: Douglas uses his remaining fortune to lose to a high-profile producer in a game of poker for the sole purpose of working on films to pay off their debt. 

Next he befriends Lana Turner’s Georgia Lorrison, the enigmatic, explosive and drop-dead gorgeous small-time actress. He feigns love to control her alcoholism and to evoke the dramatic performances he needs for his films. 

Then, on top of his game, Shields employs Southern novelist James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) to leavehis quaint southern home to take a stab at screenwriting. Whilst in Hollywood, Bartlow is interrupted in his work by his meddling wife. Shields hires a handsome actor to entertain the wife while Bartlow works. The wife decides to run away with the actor and they perish in a plane accident. Later, Shields lets it slip the true reason Bartlow’s wife was in the plane. 

The point is to get the three back to work with Shields and they all deny the request and begin to leave. As the producer and Shields are talking on the phone, all three – made rich and famous thanks to Shields – eavesdrop on another line. We are led to believe that they accept the arrangement.

It’s dramatic, edgy and won five Academy Awards.

'Maverick a Strike'

This is a record by Finley Quaye is not nearly as interesting as his father, Cab Kaye, a London-born jazz musician and bandleader.

African by blood, Kaye played all through World War II as a black man during a time when jazz boomed through just about every speaker in the United States.

Finley was the result of an affair with jazz singer Sharon McGowan, who I think was also the name of my business teacher in high school. Finley did not meet his father until 1997, when he was well into his 20s, during one of his concerts at Paradiso Amsterdam. Seems like a pretty swell guy.

'Tago Mago' & 'Future Days'

Ugh. Any time the term "classical avant garde" or "ambient" are associated with your rock band then you've taken a wrong turn. Even if you're German.

Can is German and their music is obnoxious, far more than German "krautrock" groups that would follow. Although, there is evidence that the keyboard player would slam the keys with karate chops. So there is that.

'Traffic' & "John Barleycorn Must Die'

Traffic is one of the few bands that when you Google their name they come up at the bottom of the search page. Weed through the dozen or so traffic websites and you finally get to the actual band. Even Can comes up sooner.

It’s only a problem because when you Google “Who” the top return is The Who. Traffic should’ve picked a better band name. Like Monkey Face Rape. 

Traffic was a band formed by Steve Winwood and bunch of other guys that no one’s ever heard of. After released their eponymous first record, a more traditional record, they broke up and Winwood went to help create supergroup Blind Faith with Eric Clapton. 

After a year, Winwood began recording a solo record, eventually had his old Traffic buddies come in to record and he basically just threw his hands in the air and got the band back together. That record would be John Barleycorn Must Die, a more progressive album and certainly a lot more adventurous.

'Tender is the Night'

F. Scott Fitzgerald moved to the Baltimore area in 1932 in order to put his wife, Zelda, into psychiatrict care. There he began work on the novel that would become Tender is the Night.

The book itself is a amalgamation of a bunch of different ideas in addition to being semi-autobiographical. Fitzgerald himself entered into a relationship with a young starlet when he went to Hollywood to write screenplays.

He had also hospitalized Zelda in Switzerland due to mental illness. In 1932, she had published the semi-autobiographical Save Me the Waltz. Two years later, Fitzgerald hit back with Tender is the Night.

Fitzgerald died in 1940 after not seeing Zelda for about 18 months. Tender is the Night is the last novel that he'd complete.

'Teenager of the Year'

Black Francis actually did win a Teenager of the Year award in high school.

A great album. Definitely something we should've been listening in the 1990s.