DVDs
1.Usual Suspects
Great extras including deleted Scenes, Keyser Soze: Lie or Legend Featurette, out-takes (see them mis-pronounce the criminal mastermind's name), interviews with writers and cast members, something called a gag reel
and the all important commentary where, amoung other facts, you find out that director Brian Singer's favourite film is Jaws ... the film's pretty good too.
2.MichiganFest 2002
Hot Snakes, Owls, Dismenberment Plan, Oxes, Arab on Radar, Radio 4, Vaz, Small Brown Bike, !!! and maybe another 20 bands play over a weekend in March in some hall in the Midwest. Its entertaining and you can impress your mates with obscure indie knowledge, plus some interview footage of people larking about.
3.
The Day Today
The entire series that sent up the news complete with pointless polls, graphics with a mind of their own, self-important analysis and its own made up war! Introducing the talents of Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Front, David Schneider, Patrick Marber and Armando Ianucci. We get extras too; a corporate bonding session pre-
Office style and a swimming baths spoof documentary.
4.
Jam
Possibly the best thing Chris Morris has ever done. It blends surreal camera work, deadpan acting and the blackest of black humour. Best sketches are the porn stars with 'the gush', the woman who always wins arguments because she's too thick to know when she's lost, the doctor who treats his patients with ambivalence rather than medicine and the inept armed robber. Music is used to moody effect and there's even a playlist on the extras but perhaps the best add-on is Adam & Joe's hilarious homage called 'Goitre'.
5
. Manhunter (dir: Michael Mann)
Based on the Thomas Harris novel
Red Dragon, it pre-dates Silence of the Lambs. The 'tooth fairy' likes to enter the homes of nice young families and leave a bloody mess and its up to detective William Peterson (now of CSI fame!) to come out of retirement to catch the nutbag. Sounds cliched, I know, but Mann working with his favourite cinematographer, masterfully creates a Hitchcock-like tension. Every scene is compelling to look at, not least the scenes with Peterson and his wife bathed in romantic blue. Colours are, in fact, used to great effect throughout. Hannibal Lektor pops up here, played just as ably by Brian Cox, and Tom Noonan apparently scared the whole cast and crew as the baddie. Scarier than its more well know sister film and recently remade as Red Dragon with a dose of Hollywood. Extras include director's cut and commentary, plus interviews with actors and the cinematographer.
6.
The Simpson's Season 4
The famous Monorail episode with that song,
but main street is still cracked and broken ... Sorry Marge the mob has spoken ... Monorail ... Monorail ... MONORAIL!
Marge in Chains featues one of my favourite, if little used characters Lionel Hutz. He's the lawyer trying to defend Marge while battling with a lust for bourbon ...
whats that ... you want me to drink you? ... but I'm in court
Incidentally Phil Hartman who played the law-talking guy was shot by his wife who then killed herself. Apparently she was on anti-depressants and drinking.
This DVD, however, will cheer you up.
Record Shop Blues or
My Goat and How to Get at it
1. The House compilation
At work we have a system whereby the first seven or so people in get to put a marker down as their album choice for the day. Each day a colleague of mine who shall remain nameless, gets in early and puts on somnething that fits the following criteria.
i) it is House, or one of its frivolous sub genres (e.g. Click House: House you scratch your beard to!)
ii) it is by some European guy with silly name (see Juri Hulkonen or Simone Cervantes or Xavier Alfonoso Vermillici) Although often its impossible to work out who the actual music is by because its other peoples 'tunes' 'mixed' by the 'DJ' who might include their own 'tune' but not the 'original'. Keep Up!
iii) it often employs the most annoyingly kitsch female vocal lines, saying something like 'come on', 'uh-huh!' or 'yeaahh, sexieeee', its suppose to be alluring but ends up making you want to commit murder.
iv) it is
always 70 plus minutes long
This is what happens when you do too many drugs and read DJ magazines.
2. The Drum + Bass 12"
Why oh why do they insist on including absolutely NO information on the sleeve.
Is this some kind of council estate, sports casual battle for secrecy and underground cred when releasing
'Whites' (self-released 12s with no artwork, just white inner sleeve hence the name).
It appears the blander the better, and thats before we even get to the music sometimes.
Hence it is impossible to know what record you are handling and often the punter is as confused and could be taking anything home.
Honestly
3. 'The'
Why is everyone using 'The' to name their bands, it wasn't too clever the first time round.
Now it seems to be a good selling point judging by the endless conveyor belt of workaday actswho have adopted the moniker. This mass lack of imagination seems to translate to the music.
So why not make a band called the Shits and save everyone the trauma.
4. Remastered/Reissued/Repackaged/Regression
Rolling Stones, you pointless money grabbing skeletons, you might not care or even make the decisions, but surely having
a million different versions of the same album is clearly a pointless rip off.
There's the Remaster, the ABKCO Remater, the Remaster in a Digipak, the ABKCO Remaster in a Digipak, who's ABKCO? probably some intern at the record company who decided to turn the the treble up slightly to con more money out of balding lovestruck men to buy an album they already own because it reminds them when they swore in front of auntie. In fact I don't know what annoys me more the people who churn out this crap or the people who gobble it up.
Crap bands that look like raisans aren't the only ones at fault as the recent Eno re-fest testifys.
Someone decided to release his entire back catalogue as a Remastered Digipak but I think they forgot to do one important thing
make it sound different
Brian should be turning in his space pod
more to come, depending on whether I calm down enough ...
5. New Releases
Why do we bother?
