With a few Lynch virgins in the room I admit I often found myself at a mildly-anxious loss trying to gauge what anyone thought of Blue Velvet until they explicitly said after it was over, and even then a tangible sense of hesitation seemed to linger for a few sink-in/dare-I moments. I admit I was a bit worried during a few scenes that when the credits came up everyone was going to nervously smile and resolve not to trust my recommendations anymore :D
Hmm, third time viewing the film and I got from it what I got from it the second time and that was what I got from it the first time. I think in a way that's why I don't rate it with Mulholland Drive. Critics tend to favour (though not overwhelmingly) Blue Velvet and I think part of that stems from the fact that you find yourself with a pretty solid grounding (if you aren't Ebert) to defend it as a great film, its fairly definable in its affect, whereas with Mulholland Drive it's often the very things that are easy to point to as what might normally be weaknesses in a film that are strangely what contribute to it being so great, particularly the fact that's it deals in so few absolutes - an absolute resolution perhaps the key thing here, something which can leave some unsatisfied with the film as a whole. Blue Velvet's satisfying for a lot of straightforward reasons that to me don't compete with whatever abastract appeal Mulholland Drive is enriched with. Mm. And The Straight Story's probably still my favourite from Lynch. I very much look forward to reading the Lynch book once this damn essay's over and thinking about these movies in light of what he's got to say.
I'm still keen to do more of a movie-marathon type deal sometime when people are more free. 2001, Requiem For A Dream, Brazil, Godfather 2... Anyone keen?
Rugby: The New Huge Grant
When France beat the All Blacks I was disappointed for all of four minutes, possibly because I was also listening to the end of Hail To The Thief at the time. But mostly I found it all quite amusing thinking about how everyone was going to react after all the hype and, moreso, blind assumptions of - at the very least - a first final since 1995 (as if our also-wrongly-presumed Aussie opponents would be a semi-final pushover despite beating us this year). And I just smiled. Not a denial-smile. A smile of genuine amusement. And I've smiled through every ten-minute deluge every news hour over what went wrong. And I smiled when Fiji almost pipped South Africa. And I was rooting for England today ('yay' by the way) just because it's so absurd that they could make the decider after everyone wrote them off as likely to fall to Samoa and Tonga just a couple of weeks back and not even make the quarters. They've got to be the worst team to ever make a World Cup final. This tournament's become the most consistently mildly-amusing, smile-inducing thing since Music & Lyrics. And that had an 80s music video parody in it.
Huge Grant
In Rainbows
Obligatory in-depth review forthcoming in the next couple of days. Liking very much so far. You can download it free HERE, and if you're hesitant about spending... time doing so you can of course preview the tracks on YouTube. The sound quality of the YouTube clips does tend to compress a lot of the melodies though.
1. 15 Step (trippy jazz-guitar/electronica-beat fusion)
2. Bodysnatchers (Bends-ish but with more grunt and some Sonic Youth guitar fuzz)
3. Nude (minimal, haunting, awesome vocals)
4. Weird Fishes / Arpeggi (Coldplay's Clocks + talent & vision)
5. All I Need (musically happier (perhaps not lyrically) Karma Police)
6. Faust Arp (Beatles' White Album + Nick Drake's orchestra)
7. Reckoner (Kid A-ish)
8. House Of Cards (Jack Johnson with atmosphere/dark subtext? maybe?)
9. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (overdue OK Computer revival)
10. Videotape (Coldplay with emotional substance)
Or check out the LA Times Review which, unlike most publications, actually bothered waiting more than 2 hours before publishing an obligatory safe 4-star review.
And in all fairness I like Coldplay, I really do.
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