Category Archives: Movies

Mary Poppins Remixed

By hugh | Published: July 7, 2009

The Mary Poppins soundtrack is one of my earliest musical memories. Back in the 80s, I laid out my vision for a sampled 60s world of dance music but my partners wouldn’t buy it so it’s gratifying to see that the musical on Broadway etc. has made it happen. My parents and relatives took me [...]

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Up the Yangtze

By hugh | Published: July 1, 2009

I recently had a dinner with a cousin who is working in China. He said any businessman worth his gold watch should be asking himself and every business associate he meets with, “What’s your China angle?” That night I watched Up the Yangtze, a most remarkable documentary about how the Three Gorges Dam project is [...]

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Bang on Cans, Pots, and Pans

By hugh | Published: May 30, 2009

Here’s where I encourage all new music enthusiasts to come down to the World Financial Center tomorrow, May 31st, for the Bang on a Can marathon. Among the opening acts will be Dither shown below playing at the New Music Bakesale and Andy Akiho who I saw perform at the beginning of the month at [...]

Also posted in Music | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Benchmarks

By hugh | Published: May 27, 2009

A life coach is a psychiatrist/therapist with a best (possibly a mild) seller and without a degree. Instead of having a whistle and making you do push-ups and laps and drills like a sports coach, they give you list-making exercises and paraphrase Bing Crosby songs in elaborate metaphors, ending with some variation of the punchline [...]

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Spam Attack

By hugh | Published: May 22, 2009

One of my posts was getting spammed 50 times a day in the comments and there was nothing on it I could see that would warrant such an attack, not even a dirty innuendo or a cuss word. I changed the name of the post a bit and removed some of the links and tags [...]

Also posted in General Pop Culture | Leave a comment

New York City Fire Escapes

By hugh | Published: April 9, 2009

Many of us have these tiny balconies to hang out on on a nice day but we usually don’t. Why is that? What if a fireman sees you? Is it against the law? (Most people know you can’t grow your garden on your fire escape or use it for any other storage because whatever it [...]

Also posted in Photography, Travel, places | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Genius of the Crowd

By hugh | Published: April 2, 2009

Matt Dillon nailed Charles Bukowski in the movie Factotum. He never smiles and got the cadence just right. Someone should cast him again in another Bukowski / Chinaski novel turned movie. Mickey Rourke missed in Barfly. There’s a man playing a lonely trumpet outside. I turn on WNYC and listen to the talk radio people [...]

Also posted in Books, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Old Men Justifying Shit

By hugh | Published: April 1, 2009

Watching Ben Kingsley muddle his way through Elegy, I thought of The Dean’s December by Saul Bellow. They were both long falling moments when a couple of my heroes got really ugly. They stumble out at the end a ready-made baptism. (Both are fictions.)

Also posted in Books | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A Short Review: The Fall (2006)

By hugh | Published: March 19, 2009

I agree with the Ebert assessment of The Fall: Definitely see it for the eye candy. The behind-the-scenes stuff on the DVD don’t do justice to the numbing number of shots in exotic locales that were set up — some for a two-second scene or less. From the opening credits which depict a rescue effort [...]

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Before He Was Famous: Robert Duvall

By hugh | Published: March 12, 2009

Robert Duvall in The Time Tunnel Everybody doing the funky chicken in the time tunnel lab Hulu has the entire run of a show I loved as kid: The Time Tunnel. I used to tumble around with friends in slow motion pretending to land in some other time before playing cowboys and indians or cops [...]

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Where I Got the PA From

By hugh | Published: February 23, 2009

I have mixed feeling about this place but I mostly love it because it reminds me of the Brothers Quay. I have to spend this afternoon here putting the PA back together.

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Jimmy Stewart, Duke Ellington

By hugh | Published: February 2, 2009

I really like this shot and the fifties hipster text. That’s a crazy name for a crazy lawyer. Hey man, you’re not splitting the scene are ya? I mean, you’re not cutting out? From Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder… Lee Remick here too.

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