The Nosebleed Section V 2.0

Lazy Summer Bloggin'

The next two weeks will be a little busy around here, both work-wise and socially (Radiohead tomorrow night!!!) so I thought I'd make a links-heavy post of some noteworthy websites and other general news that have struck my fancy.

* In the sad music news department, Sleater-Kinney have broken up, okay technically they're on an "indefinite hiatus". Over the last ten or so years they have been releasing nothing but solid work. I got into them in 1997 and the Dig Me Out record, which to this day is still my favorite. Had I known that there was a possibility of them disbanding, I would have made more of an effort to see them live in the past few years. I've seen them live 3 times and they killed each time, but its been six years. Thanks for the good music, ladies, and enjoy the respite from anymore condescending "Women in Rock" articles in rock magazines.

* In the happy music news department, The Arcade Fire are hard at work on their sophomore effort. Since not only do I think they transcend the hype, but consider their debut work, Funeral, the best album of the aughts, or whatever we are calling this decade, I cannot wait to hear any and all new material. Too bad about the whole Neutral Milk Hotel working on a new album being b.s. though.

* I will probably not see Superman Returns until this weekend or probably next week, but I have seen the Spider-Man 3 trailer that is attached to the prints. Looks like Raimi will end the dreaded part 3 of the comic book series curse. X-Men 3 is just the latest of this trend. It seems in most comic book series, the third entry lack of inspiration leads to the first ringing of franchises' death knolls. Superman 3 forwent continuity to become an unfunny Richard Pryor vehicle and Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever killed Tim Burton's dark vision and introduced butt-shots, awful dialogue, revolving door Batmen portrayals and lame mise-en-scene culmunating in his opus, Batman and Robin. The only thing that gives possible pause about Spiderman 3 (or 3 as its labelled in the trailer), is word that there will be four villains (only three have been announced so far: The Sandman, Venom and Green Goblin II and/or Hobogoblin), come on, you saw what that did the above mentioned Batman series. Guiltly, I have to admit that I started reading comic books when Spidey was sporting the black and white costume, so I have always held a soft spot for it and the Todd McFarlane penned days.

* Speaking of movies coming out in 2007, the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double bill, Grind House is still in pre-production, but Entertainment Weekly sat down with the filmmakers to discuss the going's on.

* Two websites I am digging right now: Score Baby Annex offers out-of-print exploitation soundtracks from the 60's and 70's for free download. The site has become quite addictive, its full of jazzy and/or psychedelic scores from little seen American and foreign films. And while you wait for me to update my trailer blog go over here (be forewarned, it takes a while to load), they have a slew of what they refer to as "historically significant trailers from the history of film", the selection ranges from the Silent Era to 2004, though I would debate the "historic significance" of some of their more modern selections like The Day After Tomorrow, Thirteen, De-Lovely, King Arthur, and Windtalkers.

I should be back in a little over a week (if I have time, I may post a Radiohead show review, but no promises), enjoy the summer weather, or do like me, and find the nearest air-conditioned room.

And because I love my readers so, I leave you with this:

Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973, Shunya Ito)

In the opening scene of the third Female Convict Scorpion film, Beast Stable, our heroine (or anti-heroine) Matsui is discovered by two detectives on a subway train, a brief chase ensues, and the melee concludes with Matsui on the track, handcuffed to one of the detectives who is still inside the train, the doors closed between the two arms. Matsui does what I'm sure most of us would, she cuts off the detective's arm and runs out of the station with his severed arm handcuffed to her. I mean who hasn't found themselves in that position once or twice in life? But what I truly love about this series is that while most films would end the scene there or immediately cut to Matsui in a warehouse with an axe cutting off the handcuffs, the film delves a little deeper and goes into certain peculiarities of the situation. The entire credit sequence consists of Matsui running through the streets of a busy urban Japanese town (Tokyo?) handcuffed to the arm as onlookers stare perplexed (no audio commentary on the DVD, but I hope I find out this was done guerrilla style!). And after the credits, she's left to scrape the handcuff off against a concrete pillar.

However, even with the awesome opening, this is my least favorite of the three so far. I like it a lot, but there are two deficiencies: a.) Matsui is less pro-active here, often time getting her enemies to kill off one another instead of doing the deed herself and a large chunk of the film finds her drugged up and caged in a giant birdcage. b.) stylistically, its the least adventurous of the films. That's not to say its poorly directed or boring to look at, but save the opening and one scene at a party where director Shunya Ito takes frames out of shots, this one lacks the over-the-top comic book quality that the first two films shared.

That said, I still dig the movie and like some of the changes the character is undergoing, while its strange to see her play a kind of Svengali of violence instead of the harbinger, she very similar to Clint Eastwood's character in A Fistful of Dollars, its an interesting turn. She also appears to becoming a little more human here. She gives mercy to the retarded brother of her prostitute friend, who tries to rape her, even refusing to kill him at her friend's desperate request (her friend is pregnant with her retarded brother's child, again, another situation we all find ourselves in frequently). There is one more episode left in the series, it will be interesting to see if the character is given the chance to become human after all or if her brutalities will be her undoing.

Meanwhile....over at my trailer blog, you can see one of the two (couldn't track down the other)bootleg trailers that Quentin Tarantino made for his partially Female Convict Scorpion inspired film (s) Kill Bill.

Kevin's Trailer Park

Since I was a child, one of my favorite aspects of going to the movies was watching the trailers for upcoming releases. Remember Annie Hall, when Alvie Singer tells Annie that he refuses to watch The Sorrow and the Pity because its already a minute into the film, despite that he's already seen it multiple times? That's kind of the way I am with trailers. I consider them one of the essential components of the movie watching routine and will get upset if my viewing companion leads me to miss them.

Over recent years two factors have dampened the trailer experience: the addition of commercials before trailers and their on-line availability. The commercials are depressing because adding an additional ten minutes before ten minutes of trailers creates a general antsiness to just get on with the damn movie and while I am as guilty as anyone of watching trailers on-line before I see them theatrically, there's no denying that the scope of a computer screen, no matter how nice just can't compare to the scope of a screen designed specifically for film. Still trailers have a power, as displayed with the bewitching Brick preview which catapulted a film I knew next to nothing about when I saw the trailer for the first time in January to one of my most anticipated films of the year, and now my favorite film of the year thus far (uh, did I promise to write a review of that, oh).

So I thought it would be a great idea if I start a weekly feature where I shared trailers I thought of particular interest. One problem, YouTube, the site where I am retrieving these trailers is not compatible with Typepad. While I am sure most people could find a solution, I am admittedly somewhat Netarded. YouTube does however allow Blogger sites to stream videos. So I decided to create a new website committed solely to sharing cool trailers with you.

kevinstrailers.blogspot.com is the site. I have already posted two trailers. One for Female Convict Prisoner 701: Scorpion, one of the Meiko Kaji starring films I discussed a couple of weeks ago at this site. The other is the original banned teaser trailer for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. In case you are not aware of why this teaser was banned, let's just say if I gave you the date it was pulled from screens, you could probably figured it out for yourself. September 12th, 2001.

I hope you enjoy this new venture and let me know of any suggestions of improvements or trailers you would like me to try and track down for you. I will add a permanent link to the trailer blog on my sidebar for your convenience.

Talkies? They're a phase, I say!

I have been to the Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles a total of three times. Of those, only once has been since I actually moved to LA, and that was back in 2002, about two months into my residency in Southern California. The programming went from every weekend (before I moved) to once a month (shortly after I had moved) to basically whenever the hell they felt like it (mainly holiday weekends). The theatre was spending most of the time serving as a banquet room for weddings, bar mitzvahs or the occasional concert rather than showing silent movies. Still, when I opened today's Los Angeles Times to the news that the theatre had been sold to a pair of twentysomething year old brothers (article here) I was depressed. Then I actually got to reading the damn thing, and it sounds like a possible fantastic improvement at the best and an interesting experiment at the least.

Los Angeles needs more repertory theatres, the

New Beverly is great and all, but those fucking seats, man! Watching a long movie or a double bill is literally a pain in the ass. And I know its no fault of theirs, but their prints have been poor and their calendar not as adventurous as in the past. Parking near the Egyptian is difficult and possibly pricey, and the Aero is not a convenient spur of the moment trip for someone residing in Silver Lake.

My reaction while reading the article went from mere relief that the buyers wouldn't be turning the theatre into a Quizno's or Jamba Juice to unadulterated enthusiasm for more cinematic treats in LA.

Godspeed!

The buyers', the Harkhams, first decision was a bold one. The Silent Movie Theatre is going to start showing films with sound! But they seem like generally enthusiastic film buffs and are treating this venture as kids in a candy store. Most importantly they will continue a silent movie night, every Monday. When that comes to fruition, they will be showing more silent movies per month then the old owners have been in the last couple of years. Their first few selections off the calender for August show a lot of promise of unique bookings: Two-Lane Blacktop, Straight Time, Basket Case, being amongst them.