Grey Room #17

I came awfully close to not doing a show this week, but pulled one out anyway. Quite pleased by this one.

1. Les Rita Mitsouko – C’est comme ça (1986)
2. The Rolling Stones – Sway (1971)
3. Queen – I’m in Love With My Car (1975)
4. Underground Lovers – In My Head (1996)
5. Yo La Tengo – Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House (2000)
6. Motorhead – Capricorn (1979)
7. The Chameleons – Swamp Thing (1986)
8. Black Flag – TV Party (1981)
9. Bruce Haack – National Anthem to the Moon (1970)
10. Front Line Assemly – Heatwave (1992)
11. Mind Enhanced Waves – Profondo Giallo (2019)
12. Amon Düül II – Wie der Wind am Ende einer Strasse (1972)
13. Soundgarden – Room a Thousand Years Wide (1991)
14. Machines of Loving Grace – Perfect Tan (1993)
15. Happy Mondays – Holy Ghost (1988)

A Woman Kills

Interesting to see Jean Rollin making an appearance in this film, given that quite a few of the people involved in it (including director Jean-Denis Bonan) also worked on Rollin’s Rape of the Vampire around the same time. I suppose in some respects this is kind of similar to that film, in that it’s obviously taking a genre (the crime film in this case, vampire horror in the other) but doing really quite odd things with it. Alas, Bonan was even less fortunate that Rollin was; his earlier short film Tristesse des anthropophages had been banned, and consequently no distributor wanted to take this thing on, meaning that it didn’t get shown until 2010, and only after that did it finally actually get finished and released. Plotwise, I suppose it’s pretty straightforward, in that a woman’s been executed but her crimes appear to be continuing… the handling of this story, however, is quite experimental in many ways; Bonan was clearly not interested in making a conventional noir or anything like that, especially with the gender tomfoolery going on. I have seen one review that considers the film as possibly a spoof of nouvelle vague style, which may have been the case, indeed the blu-ray commentary says something about the French new wave having petered out by 1968 and a sort of “new” new wave comprising figures like Bonan and Rollin taking its place, so there may well be something to that too… It’s interesting that Bonan shot the film while all the May 1968 stuff was going, yet never actually mentions any of that, but as the commentary notes how the many dates referenced in the film matched significant dates in that series of events. I don’t really know how I feel about A Woman Kills, to be honest—it’s one of those films I sometimes pick up randomly because it sounds interesting and it’s obscure enough that I may not get another chance to do so—I think it may take more than one viewing. But it’s one of those thing I’m kind of glad exists and is available out there anyway…

The BASTARD

You know, I’ve heard some bad things about this Hitler character, but this REALLY convinces me that he was evil… This is a real book, by the way, published in 2004; one review I found of it suggests it’s actually less an attack on Hitler than it is an attack on non-vegetarians/vegans in general (Mr Berry appears to have been one of those vegans).

But then THIS news broke the other day:

…And I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, by this revelation, primarily because I thought it had always been suspected that Hitler offed Geli Raubal. At the very least the idea was offered as scuttlebutt almost as soon as it happened. I refuse to sign in to the Telegraph so I don’t know what the article actually says beyond the headline, but I hope the historian isn’t positing this as some sort of new idea when it’s piss all of the sort… and in any case I doubt it’ll actually make anyone think less of Adolf than they already did…

With friends like these, etc.

Pro-Trump ‘Freedom Fest’ featuring Kid Rock canceled after poor VIP sales

“Freedom Fest,” a pro-Trump event in Kentucky featuring Kid Rock that was scheduled to take place this weekend, has been canceled after low VIP ticket sales, according to its organizer, Eric Deters, a failed House candidate and Trump supporter.
In a now-deleted video posted to his Facebook page late on Monday, Deters said he had to cancel the event, “Patriot State Freedom Fest,” which was free to the public but cost $1,000 for the “VIP experience.”
Deters said only six VIP passes had been purchased as of Monday, which was not enough to offset the cost of the event for him, Newsweek reported.
“When I put together Patriot State Freedom Fest, I put it together with the game plan and the idea that I could pay for it with the VIP sales of $1,000 from these hundred people that I interact with on a regular basis that have money,” Deters said in the video.
“Out of all these people that have money that I interact with, who I do favors for all day long, they ask me for something, I never say no. I never said no to these people,” Deters went on, railing against his acquaintances for their lack of support.
“I am never ever, ever, ever, ever doing this event again,” he added.

You can hear the pathetic whine in his voice as he said that, can’t you? I wonder what the VIP experience even was… maybe the reward was that you got to avoid Mushroom Cock or something. Surprisingly, he’s actually been doing this event for a number of years now, successfully enough that he’s been able to keep doing it until now… is this how he’s always funded it, or was this some interesting new idea? Cos it was a fucking stupid idea if it was the latter. Anyway, Eric now has the perfect opportunity to get rid of his old “acquaintances” who don’t appreciate him and find new ones who are stupider than them, stupid enough at least to pay for his shitty “festival”…

He could in fact be beaten

Ironically, given that all his bandmates in Rose Tattoo died of cancer, Angry Anderson appears to have passed from a heart attack instead, aged 79. What a curious and difficult man he was. I had no especial fondness for his music, but I kind of liked him, cos he did a ton of good work for charities in the 90s and seemed like an all-round good guy… until his turn to right-wing politics in the previous decade. What happened, Gaz? Cos something sure as hell happened to you to trash your record as badly as you did. I mean, Angry did a number of good things then suddenly turned weird about Muslims, and though he seemed to mellow a bit after doing SBS’ Go Back to Where You Came From and gained a bit of evident understanding, he then still slung his hook with the National party and Tone Abet’s policies… and then he moved even further right by standing for Australian Liberty Alliance. I don’t know how to appraise him in the end.

The Golem: How He Came Into the World

Watched this late last night. I’ve seen this a number of times but never reviewed it on my old film blog for some reason… plus this was my first time seeing it in HD (Murnau Foundation restoration), and I think that actually did make a difference to my appreciation of it. One of the film’s primary features was, of course, the wild Expressionist design by Hans Poelzig, and I think it’s fitting that his credit (at least in this restoration) comes immediately after that of the two directors, cos he really was the MVP of this film, way ahead of any of the human performers… Anyway, the scene is medieval Prague, where the Jews have been given their marching orders by the emperor; community leader Rabbi Löw, meanwhile, is messing with some kind of dark forces and working on the titular creature. Will the Golem be the saviour of the Prague ghetto? Or will it be a bigger problem than Löw expected? No prizes for guessing, of course… I found myself enjoying this rather more than I have done in the past; I always liked The Golem without ever really loving it, but I definitely get it a lot more now that it’s so much clearer in high-def. I do remain a bit perplexed by a couple of things, mainly the romance between the rabbi’s daughter and the emperor’s emissary:

I mean, do YOU see the chemistry radiating between those two? Cos damned if I ever have… But this is the other thing I’ve never got:

This comes from the scene in which the Golem is brought to life (the film’s later influence on the 1931 Frankenstein is most obvious here), with the rabbi having been given the magic word which he writes on a strip of parchment then, as we see, he puts it into the amulet thing that animates the Golem. This isn’t a close-up, though, as we’d understand it, in that the film doesn’t cut from a longer shot to a closer one; this is one continous shot of the rabbi and his assistant Famulus carrying the inanimate Golem into the middle of the chamber in long shot, with the rabbi then approaching the camera for the close-up, then going back. I’ve always been a bit baffled by this; I know from having studied early film history that staging in depth and in long shot was the default mode of early cinema, this is how a film made in 1905 or so would’ve handled this business… but this is a film made in 1920, so this was already massively dated even then, most films would’ve just cut to the close-up. I’ve always wondered why Wegener and/or Boese did it this way, and I am almost certainly the only person who ever has.

As I was saying about the design, though. LOOK AT THAT. The illustration of the buildings in the film poster is one thing, but these were real, and BUILT. Goddamn. Hadn’t seen The Golem in years, delightful to revisit it at last…

Maybe, just maybe…

Seen on Tumblr; this is from June 1962, apparently, so three and a half years since Castro conquered in Cuba. Looking at the question about whether or not voodoo was used on Castro, it’s tempting to kind of mock it, cos, well, Castro stuck around for a lot longer than I suspect any in 1962 was expecting him to do, voodoo didn’t have much effect on him… or DID it? Cos I presume that “Voodoo used on Castro?” was asking whether it was used against him, but I looked at this and suddenly thought: what if it was used FOR him? Maybe some curandero on his side using less conventional weapons? I don’t know, maybe that’s what the article was actually asking, not like I’ve actually read it or anything…

Grey Room #16

Particularly pleased with this installment, for whatever that may be worth.

1. Mighty Baby – Egyptian Tomb (1969)
2. Peter Gabriel – Intruder (1980)
3. Naked Raygun – Soldiers Requiem (1988)
4. Marianne Faithfull – Witches’ Song (1979)
5. The Chameleons – In Shreds (1982)
6. Renegade Soundwave – Traitor (1990)
7. Love – Dream (1969)
8. Spahn Ranch – Dubnosis {1998)
9. Machines of Loving Grace – If I Should Explode (1993)
10. David Bowie – Dead Against It (1993)
11. Tame Impala – Jeremy’s Storm (2010)
12. British Sea Power – Childhood Memories (2002)
13. Stereolab – Ping Pong (1994)
14. The Chosen Few – Do Your Thing (1972)
15. Died Pretty – Radio (1997)

So much for political homelessness?

Joe Rogan Calls Trump Fans ‘F**king Nuts’ And Says He’s Been ‘Left-Wing My Whole Life’

In a conversation with comedian Ron White, Rogan made the highly charged remark about the MAGA faithful on his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
“Trump supporters are fucking nuts, man,” Rogan said. “They’re rabid.”
Rogan continued in what appeared to be a cautionary tale about political worship.
“He represents something other than just a person to them,” Rogan said. “He represents a leader that they wish they had, which is a real problem in our society in general with leaders. We look to them as if there’s something different than every other person that’s ever been a leader before. Like, ‘This is the one. This is the one that’s going to save us.’”
Earlier in the podcast, Rogan took issue with the perception of himself as right-wing “because I look right-wing and because I did kind of help Trump.” (Rogan’s interview with Trump before the 2024 election and last-minute endorsement of him were credited with helping the Republican to victory.)
“I’ve been left-wing my whole life,” Rogan continued. “I have very left-wing views on a lot of things. But I also recognize when government is taking over our lives. And what we were sold with the Trump administration would be that would end and it would be ‘drain the swamp.’ Obviously, it’s not been ideal in that regard.”

I mean… he’s not actually wrong about this stuff, especially the bit about Trump’s supporters, but it’s just… fantastically rich coming from Joe Rogaine, who’s hitherto been fond of describing himself as “politically homeless” to try and pretend that he’s not just a platform for the right. I’ve heard some bullshit come out of Joe’s mouth over the years, but this is about the bullshittest; whatever good things he has admittedly supported in recent years, he’s still responsible for spreading some horrendous ideas from horrendous people. I imagine one of those people, probably someone like Peter Thiel, will be on his show sometime soon to show him the error of his ways.

Before liberals run to place Rogan on their team, note that he then ranted about COVID-19 vaccine mandates and pandemic safety protocols as examples of “insanity.”

Ah, that’s more like it.