I didn't know much about Richard Kuklinski before seeing Ariel Vromen's The Iceman (named after the former's sobriquet as a contract killer for the mob). It's a solid enough movie: an interesting story competently executed though solid performances and an unintrusive camera. It's watchable, probably more so than most of what's currently out there, but what bugged came up after the film during a Q&A with the director. Someone asked him why he left out the spousal abuse. As an example, I found this interview with Kuklinski's family from a 2006 episode of Larry King Live where guest host John Roberts asks Kuklinski's wife of 25 years, Barbara, about that very topic:

JR: Barbara, you have said of Richard "There were two Richards. I never knew who would be walking in the door. He could be generous to a fault or the meanest man on earth." Tell us more about that.

BK: That's true. He was kind, considerate. You know he would have done anything for all of us, very generous gifts and flowers and the best dinners and nice wine. But when whatever twisted him, whatever happened, it didn't matter how good those times were because the bad was so bad then.

JR: And he abused you physically?

BK: He certainly did.

JR: What did he do?

BK: Stabbed me, broke my nose, lost consciousness many times, strangled me, would wake up, you know, at two o'clock in the morning with a pillow over my face and he would tell me that he decided that was the day I die.

Some pretty intense shit, right?, which says a lot about who this guy was and what it was like to live under his domination. Vromen's answer to why he left all of this out was that it would make half the audience walk out -- that is, inhibit our ability to identify with Kuklinksi. But the man was a casebook example of the sociopath, a person who can't identify, or can't empathize, with the feelings of another. So understanding through identification is a pretty stupid reason for making this film. How Vromen creates identification is by manufacturing a pressure-cooker setup for Kuklinski's behavior. When his mob boss (Ray Liotta) suspends him, Kuklinksi becomes increasingly agitated at home, blowing up at his wife, though never striking her. He soon apologizes, saying that she and their daughters (their son was left out of the film) are all that's important to him. It's okay in this fantasy land to slaughter a hundred men, but punching your wife in the nose or traumatizing your children is just going too far, despite his family's being around to tell the tale. Furthermore, by using the pressure cooking theory and mostly just showing the "generous side" of Kuklinski at home, the slaughter of all those men becomes perversely justified in the film as a quid pro quo for his distaff half. He kills for his love and the protection of his wife and daughters. You'd have to go back to the classic days of Hollywood crime flicks to see this level of mythologizing towards murderous psychopathic gangsters (or at least to Penn's Bonnie & Clyde). Ironically, it makes Kuklinksi's family accomplices to his crimes, rather than victims. His wife didn't care what he did as long as he brought home the bacon and made her feel like a princess. But as a fantasy, it's entertaining enough, I guess.

A gift for Mother's Day? A gift for YOU DAY? Whatever the occasion, it's the return of Amoeba Happy Hour! Swing by any of our three Amoeba locations on Sunday, May 12th between 5pm and 6pm and buy a $20 gift certificate for just $10!

Please note: limited to two gift certificates per person. Cannot be combined with any other offer.
 

Inspired by and based on a similar event in the MidWest today's  Oakland Internet Cat Video Festival is a fun and worthy event that is bound to delight the masses of cat fanatics out there who can't get enough of that internet preoccupation of viewing cat videos (like the one above) on YouTube and other websites. A co-production of The Great Wall of Oakland and the Walker Art Center and with involvement from (and benefiting) the local SPCA the Oakland Internet Cat Video Festival happens this afternoon and evening (Saturday May 11th) on West Grand between Telegraph and Broadway where the highlight will be an hour-plus collage of dozens of some of the best of aforementioned popular YouTube cat videos all tightly edited together - to be screened onto the "great wall" in downtown Oakland.

Today's event runs from 3pm to 10pm and folks are invited to bring along their own cats to the event where the East Bay SPCA will also have cats up for adoption for anyone who wants to take one home with them.  Supplying cat themed music for the event will be The Cat Man of West Oakland. Yesterday I caught up with said Cat Man - born Adam Myatt - who may not own a cat himself but sure has a compassion for (not to mention a good eye) for dozens of strays in his neighborhood as is evident from the wonderful feline photos in this Amoeblog - all taken by Adam in the area near his East Bay home. When we talked I asked the Cat Man about the event and what music he will be spinning to keep the cat party moving today.

        


1) Talib Kweli Prisoner Of Conscious (Blacksmith)

2) The Uncluded (Aesop Rock + Kimya Dawson) Hokey Fright (Rhymesayers)

3) Qwel & Maker Beautiful Raw (Galapagos4 Records)

4) Sunspot Jonz and BOAC Skywalkers (Outhouse Records)

5) Sole No Wising Up, No Settling Down (Black Canyon)

Thanks to E-Lit at Amoeba Berkeley for his run down (video and chart above) on all the latest in hip-hop releases at Amoeba Music this week that include such new joints as Sunspot Jonz (Mystik Journeymen/Living Legends) who teamed up with Bay Area producer BOAC (founding member of The Earthlings along with DJ Bootleg who used to book the hip-hop shows at the defunct SF venue Maritime Hall) for his latest release Skywalkers - released on the long running Living Legends label Outhouse Records. As E-Lit notes it is a fun, all killer, no filler hip-hop release.  Other new releases include the straight up hip-hop album from Qwel & Maker Beautiful Raw on Galapagos4 Records, and the much more alternative/adventurous hip-hop outing from The Uncluded: Hokey Fright on Rhymesayers Entertainment. The Uncluded is the pairing of Aesop Rock with Kimya Dawson who have worked together before this new collaborative full-length album. You may recall that Kimya Dawson made a cameo on Skelethon - the stellar solo album (following a five year gap) from Aesop Rock last summer (when he did a memorable in-store at Amoeba San Francisco), and that Aesop Rock in turn had made guest appearances on Dawson's album from the previous year Thunder Thighs. Released by Rhymesayers Entertainment it features the single "Earthquake." See the accompanying video below and you will immediately see why E-Lit describes it as like children's music in its production presentation of the 16 track album that, according to the publicity release from the label, "helps to tell the story of two people who are finding therapy through making art together."

Alexander Spit Preps Instrumentals Mixtape, Releases ‘Valet Park, CA’

Alexander Spit released a tantalizing debut LP earlier this year called A Breathtaking Trip to That Otherside. Now the West Coast rapper/prouducer has a mixtape coming out that could make even more waves than his debut, judging by the first taste, “Valet Park, CA,” a blissed-out track with warped vocals. I doubt Valet Park is less a real place and more of a pun, but the displaced, quietly melancholic vibe he summons here calls to mind so many nowheresvilles of California.

 

The Mantles Release Second Song From Upcoming Sophomore Album

The Mantles sound a bit like they’re from New Zealand (home of The Clean, The Bats etc.), but they’re from San Francisco, so hurray for us! This band hits all the right jangly notes, evoking The Byrds with their harmonic singing but in a perfectly disinterested way, while their guitars have swagger in addition to the jangle. “Hello,” indeed. Long Enough to Leave is due June 18 on Slumberland.