There's not a lot to this documentary unless you're a huge fan of Henri-Georges Clouzot ... or if an hour's worth of leering at Romy Schneider is your thing. Either one of those makes this the best movie of the summer so far for me. Schneider suggests the essence of Doris Day as a sordid fetish object, kind of the European Tuesday Weld. She plays Odette, the much younger wife to Serge Raggiani's possessive husband, Marcel, in Clouzot's unfinished L'Enfer. As co-directors Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea tell it in their doc, so much Hollywood money was thrown at the perfectionist director that it resulted in too much planning and constant revisions to ever reach completion. And because Clouzot was one the great authoritarians of cinema, he tended to treat his actors like building material for the realization of his storyboards. Raggiani had had enough abuse and quit during the middle of shooting. Clouzot tried to replace him, but suffered a heart attack, leaving the film one of cinephilia's fantasized masterpieces. This doc is really just an excuse to show the great footage that had been lying dormant for over 40 years.
Marcel is pathologically jealous, imagining Odette in various infidelities. Inspired by Fellini's recently released 8½, Clouzot wanted to push the oneiric qualities of cinema even further in depicting his character's delirium. He hired a group of celebrated cinematographers to create a series of visual experiments, mostly focusing on Schneider. The results are amazing and can only make one consider the negative impact of CGI on film aesthetics. Inception or this:
legend KRS ONE, who, in support of his latest book, 
Memphis reunion shows), while those of us who are fans across the USA collectively held our breath, crossing our fingers for some more spread-out dates here. The time has come to breathe freely again -- The Gories are coming!
society; Hip Hop itself brings cultures together because it gives people a chance to talk and to really see what the other guy is thinking and in a peaceful way," he told me when I asked about the real meaning of Hip Hop as a culture and a lifestyle. 
Necessary (Jive/RCA), remains true to this day. KRS-One really does think very deeply about every minute detail and aspect of Hip Hop and he digs deeper than most are prepared to, or are even interested in doing. As he said in the Amoeblog interview, "I dig deep: I'm rapping, I'm emcee'ing. What the hell is emcee'ing? Rakim said 'E M C E E, a repetition of words, check out my melody,' so why did he say E M C E E and not M C? What's the difference? I know other people didn't really care about what the difference was. They just wanted the money. But me, I ran and grabbed the Oxford English dictionary with a magnifying glass on it and I looked up E M. What is E M and what is C E E? And then what is I N? And what does it mean to take the G off of I N G? When did this happen in English language? Who else did this? Why are we thinking like this? No one asks those questions. I ask those questions."
high profile movie actors in a position to represent Hip Hop more than they do. 
fine Oakland organizations and businesses (for profit & non-profit) that have either been around for a few years such as 
Christopher Nolan's Inception is another one of those sci-fi tales confronting the problem of infinity lurking behind subjectivity. Because it uses dreams instead of virtual reality, the film is structurally closer to the short story quoted above than the cyberpunk-influenced Matrix (although the action puts it closer to the latter). In Borges' tale, a sorcerer spends years dreaming a man into reality only to learn that he, too, was given life via the same method. And it's just as likely that the dreamer of the sorcerer is himself being dreamed, etc., ad infinitum. This is the old phenomenological problem of the Transcendental Ego.
Haight Street store this week. As the ever knowledgeable hip-hop buyer (and DJ) notes, right now is a perfect time to stop by Amoeba SF and dig for vinyl in the vast hip-hop section of the store. 
Dillinger's timeless "Cocaine In My Brain," the lovers-rock classic’ “Cottage In Negril” by Tyrone Taylor, and one of reggae music's all time anthems, “Greetings” by Half Pint. 
District of our beautiful San Francisco? And it was large enough to have been deemed "navigable" in old maps and have a bridge built over it? Yup, we live on top of one of the largest, most paved over former estuaries in the world. What once was is where the title of the 
slowly seep into your brain and have you still humming the melodies days later.
with this icon at his Amoeba SF instore performance. Charlie's a Southern gentleman to the core and he also had me cracking up all day, flirting relentlessly and making cracks about "tramp stamps." He's quite a character and a consummate entertainer -- they don't make em like that anymore.
e same name his work inspired, was found dead by his wife, Joyce Brabner, early this morning in their Cleveland, Ohio home. He was 70 years of age. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death. Pekar and Brabner wrote the book-length comic Our Cancer Year after Pekar was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1990 and consequently underwent an exhausting treatment for the disease.
ts of Cleveland," as the comic's subtitle stated. In real life Pekar worked as a file clerk in the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Cleveland, where he found more than a little inspiration for his work, and continued working there up until his retirement in 2001.
is like too much of a good thing. Sometimes you have to take a break from your favorite things just to keep them your favorite things. Music is often like this for me. I really almost wore out the album by The Teenagers a couple of years ago. And I almost wore out my Thieves Like Us album. Luckily there have been some great albums this year to keep me busy! I am still not nearly done with the 
Smiths were the first band that I owned the full catalog of on cassette -- at least everything that I could find at the record store. I of course later updated to CDs and LPs. The same thing happened with most of my other favorite bands. I think Blue Bell Knoll was my first Cocteau Twins album and Into the Labyrinth was my first Dead Can Dance album. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me was my first album by The Cure. It just all depends how old you were when these albums first came out, how cool your older brothers or sisters or cousins were, what albums your best friends listened to, or even when your radio station decided to start playing certain bands. At this point in my life I have pretty much explored all the albums of the bands that I already like or am ever gonna like, but luckily I still do love new music, so it is exciting to find a new band that you can follow from the beginning. Sometimes though I wonder if it is better to go backwards. It does always seem like the albums get better when you go backwards. Early New Order is obviously better as y
ou go backwards. 
n well-loved Boris rockers featuring part/full-time axe-master Michio Kurihara on guitar and a bonus DVD of the band playing live in Japan. If Heavy Rocks and/or Akuma no Uta is/are among your most treasured Boris albums this'll have to be a must-have, as the newly recorded versions of "Korosu," "1970" and "Naki Kyoku" shalt surely melt ye face. Variations + Live is available now at Amoeba Music in San Francisco; act fast. 
Manhattan park's big screen is set in New York City, like tonight (July 5th)'s 9pm screening of The French Connection, the energy in the thousands-strong crowd that packs the lawn tends to be even louder than usual! So expect a lot of cheering along this evening as Gene Hackman, who won an Oscar for his brilliant portrayal of tough smack-talking NYPD narcotics cop Popeye Doyle, runs around New York City in this 1971 William Friedkin directed film that features the greatest car & subway chase of all time.-poster.jpeg)
gh dramatic extremes in the change from winter to summer. The East Coast's freezing cold winters are typically a period when you simply have to stay indoors much of the time and are so severe that by the time the polar opposite hot New York summer rolls around, everybody automatically rushes outside to spend as much time outdoors as possible. 
figure Jorge FABEL Pabon, aka Popmaster Fabel. Long rooted and well connected within New York's hip-hop circles, TOW manages to enlist some amazing artists. Last Thursday I attended the Park Jam at East Harlem's White Park on 106th Street and got to see/hear many artists, including GrandMaster Caz of the legendary Cold Crush Brothers and DJ GrandWizzard Theodore -- the veteran Bronx DJ who created the scratch. As the classic breaks and hip-hop music boomed from the JBL speakers, b-boys, poppers and lockers got busy in a most entertaining and impromptu fashion. 
