Death goes straight, opens up your gates, maybe tells you about Phaedra

Lee Hazlewood 1929-2007

I think what best displays the originality of the recently deceased singer-songwriter Lee Hazlewood is that three of the music stores I frequent all classify him under three separate genres. In one store he will be found with the country western artists, in another, the "oldies" section (alongside 60's psych bands like Love and 13th Floor Elevators and pop harmonists such as the Righteous Brothers and The Ronettes) and in the third, amidst the pop vocalist amongst such icons as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Apropos because where exactly would you put someone who can be considered a hybrid of the likes of Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen and the sixties psychedelic garage movement? Writers invented a genre to try a scratch the surface of Hazlewood's style, "cowboy psychedelia". While he never gained the fame of a Sinatra or Dylan or Cash, his uniqueness is what has kept him relevant long after artists that sold more have been forgotten. In the past ten or so years, younger bands and music collectors have started to recognize his talents. His songs have been covered by the likes of Primal Scream and Slowdive, his music has popped up in films (such as Lynne Ramsey's Morvern Callar) and part of his oeuvre has been rereleased through Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelly's record label, Smells Like records.

If you are interested in Hazlewood's music but don't know where to start, allow me to make three suggestions.

Nancy & Lee (1968) -- After penning Nancy Sinatra's famous kiss-off anthem "These Boots are Made for Walking", the pair teamed up for this duet album. Nancy was Hazlewood's greatest collaborator, on record they have a chemistry that matches Bogart and Bacall's on-screen fireworks. Despite his deep baritone voice, Hazlewood was great at writing songs with equal feminist and masculine P.O.V.s and would continually duet with other female vocalists on later albums. But here is his finest foil. The album contains covers of some standards (such as the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" and "Jackson") along with some original material such as the now classic "Some Velvet Morning" and my personal favorite, "Summer Wine".

Cowboy in Sweden (1970) -- For a spell, Hazlewood lived in Stockholm, while there he recorded this concept album of alienation amongst subcultures, equating the combination of western swagger and European cool as being like, well, a cowboy in Sweden. The song that best demonstrates these contrasting styles is "Hey Cowboy" a duet he sung with Swedish Nancy Sinatra stand-in, Nina Lizell. It's funny, but this album always struck me as being cinematic (I am even in the process of working on a screenplay inspired by the track "The Night Before") but it wasn't until after his death I learned that this album provided the soundtrack for a Swedish television movie by director Torbjorn Axelman. From the look of things, it pretty much a collection of music videos for each track on the album. Here's a clip from the film, the aforementioned "Hey Cowboy".



Requiem for an Almost Lady (1971)-- Another concept album, this time finding Hazlewood readopting the storyteller technique he used on the earlier album, Trouble is a Lonesome Town, to create a narrative revolving around the disintegration of a relationship. Each individual song is introduced with a spoken monologue. This album shares a particularly special place with me because not only was it the first Hazlewood album I ever purchased, I also happened to be going through a break-up at the time I picked it up. Hazlewood perfectly surmises the range of emotional responses of a heartbroken person: sadness, anger, despair, self-hate, and black humor. This is best captured in his introduction to the track "Won't You Tell Your Dreams" where he remarks: "Dreams have never been my friends. When I had you, I never dreamed of you. But since you've been gone, I dream of nothing else. Dreams have never been my friends"

A lot of Hazlewood's work is out of print, I also heartily recommend Trouble is a Lonesome Town and 13, both readily available, and I look forward to picking up The Cowboy and the Lady, a duet album with another saucy 60's chick, Ann Margaret. Last year he released Cake or Death, an album written after he was diagnosed with cancer. If there's one benefit of his passing it's hopefully that his entire oeuvre will soon be assessable. We'll miss you Lee, hope the afterlife is full of beautiful ladies for you to sing with.

Death Scripts His First 15 Plays

Bill Walsh 1931-2007

As I have said before, my very first recollection of any football game was the 1982 NFC Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers, what is now affectionately referred to as either "The Catch Game" or "The Game That Launched a Dynasty". For the first six or seven seasons that I was cognizant of the game of football, I was lucky enough to root for a team that was coached by William Ernest Walsh, I will consider myself lucky if another 49er coach in my lifetime has half the amount of football savvy or brains that Mr. Walsh possessed.

He is referred to as "The Genius", but genius is a word that gets thrown about too carelessly this days, so I wish to posthumously redub him either "The Architect" or more aptly, "The Artist". Bill Walsh is to the NFL what Orson Welles is to cinema, what Bob Dylan or Miles Davis are to music, what Frank Lloyd Wright is to architecture and hell, what DaVinci was to art (or codes, even). A person who saw past the limitations of his profession and reinvented the form. A person whose distinct influence is more persuasive today then it was in his tenure. Someone whose methods were once considered strange or controversial and today are considered the standard. The NFL is what it is today, the most dominant sporting league in America by a tremendous margin, thanks in large part to Walsh's offensive schematics that changed league emphasis from a primarily run first philosophy to passing early and often. To paraphrase a famous commercial "Chicks dig the Touchdowns!" His "West Coast Offense" spreads across the continent.

Even today, nineteen seasons after he retired from the 49ers, several of his coaching assistants are currently head coaches around the league, including Super Bowl winning coaches Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan and Brian Billick, what more several of these disciples have seen their assistants become head coaches, the Walsh family tree envelopes at least half the NFL. But what I think best displays Walsh's influence on not just the NFL but the sport itself, the University of Nebraska, the program who made prominent the option quarterback who throws about five attempts per game and prided itself on punishing defense and as an institution for strong runners (including 49er alums Roger Craig and Tom Rathman) is now operating out of the West Coast offense.

Goodbye Bill.

Dan Haren named AL starting pitcher for tomorrow's All Star Game in San Francisco

I kind of thought Haren's chances would have drastically slimmed after getting roughed up in his last two starts where his ERA increased from 1.78 to 2.30, but luckily Detroit manager Jim Leyland disregarded those as flukes (and thank you C.C. Sabbathia for having a horrendous last start) read this well argued blog entry (not proven, but c'mon) and went ahead and named Haren starting pitcher, so I guess Barry you will just have to wait until your second at bat to hit your dramatic home run. Hopefully this will inspire the A's to, you know, start winning some games again.

While I am on my high horse, Chris Mullen if you are reading this, and we know you are...trade for Kevin Garnett.

Trailers of the Week: Wake Me When its Autumn

Although today's calendar technically marks the first day of summer, we are already midway through the annual all sequels and blockbusters all the time fare that the major studios so graciously offer us at this time every year. And thus far the pickings have been, shall we say...uninspiring. This became all the more evident when trailers for a trio of upcoming fall releases popped up on the internet this week promising cinematic goodness still months in the waiting. Daylight savings can't get here fast enough.


No Country For Old Men

The Coen brothers first film since the much reviled The Ladykillers in 2004, which by the way I didn't think was as awful as its reputation and actually enjoyed more than Intolerable Cruelty, but still felt like the brothers were in a holding pattern of sorts, why were one of the most unique modern filmmakers wasting time remaking a perfectly fine film? No Country for Old Men premiered at Cannes last month, and while it came home without any prizes, it did receive copious amounts of praise. Judging from the trailer, it looks like a return to the Blood Simple/Miller's Crossing vibe for the Coens. "The Ultimate Badass" indeed. No Country For Old Men opens in select cities on November 9th (that better mean Los Angeles buddy) and throughout the country on November 21st.

There Will Be Blood

After having four films released in a five year span between 1997 and 2002, there has been no Paul Thomas Anderson directed films in the five years since, though he did assist Robert Altman on A Prairie Home Companion. I am one of the rare, but devoted, persons who thought his last film, Punch Drunk Love, was also his best. I also loved Hard Eight and Boogie Nights and have an interesting love-hate relationship with Magnolia, which I actually thought worked best during its most indulgent moments; i.e. the opening montage, the singalong and the frogs. There Will Be Blood, the first of his films that is an adaptation (of the Upton Sinclair novel, Oil!) and not an original story, looks to be his most ambitious work to date. Looks like he boned up on his Terence Malick during preproduction. This is not an official teaser, but just something that he gave the good people at the P.T. Anderson fansite, Cigarettes and Red Vines as a way of whetting their appetites. Consider my appetite duly whetted, sir. There Will Be Blood opens in select cities on November 21st.

Margot at the Wedding

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While I found his first two films, Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell soccer movie) and Mr. Jealousy a little too "clever", and at the time partially placed the responsibility of my less than impressed response to Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic on his contribution as co-writer, his last film The Squid and the Whale, changed my tune on Noah Baumbach. It was my favorite American film of 2005, an honest, devastating but hilarious take on divorce and its effect on children. His latest film stars Nicole Kidman and his wife Jennifer Jason Leigh as sisters reuniting for Leigh's marriage to Jack Black. It opens in limited theatres on October 19th.

And as a special bonus, here is the first photo from what will be one of my most anticipated films of Autumn 2008, Spike Jonze's third feature (and at that point, first in six years), Where the Wild Things Are, the adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book.

Pitching Dan Haren

Early this afternoon the Oakland Athletics were one out away from being no hit by a forty year old pitcher, they have no regular everyday starter with a batting average above .300, they are six games out of first place in the AL West to the hottest team over the last month, the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim), at one point their entire outfield was on the DL, currently their DH is on the DL, as is their closer, and two of their starting pitchers, on top of which, coming into the season they didn't have a clear cut number five starter. Yet, they are three games above .500 and that is all due to some exceptional starting pitching, foremost being opening day starter Dan Haren. This is my pitch (pun fully intended) for Haren to be named not only an All Star, but to the AL starting pitcher in the All-Star Game.

Haren is still an up and comer, he doesn't have the sexy name, he's not the Rocket, Dice-K or Schilling, he's not the sexy strikeout specialist that Johan Santana or Justin Verlander are (though he does have 14 more K's at this point of the season than Verlander), and most importantly he doesn't play for a team that wears pinstripes or has a red B on their cap. But what he has been during the first two and a third months of the season is the best pitcher in the AL and running neck and neck with the Padre's Jake Peavy for best pitcher in the entire major league.

Let's look at Haren's stats:

E.R.A: 1.70 (1st in AL, 2nd in MLB)
Opponent's Batting Average: .178 (1st in MLB)
W.H.I.P: 0.87 (1st in MLB)
Strikeouts*: 70 (8th in AL, 13th in MLB)
Innings Pitched: 90 (tied for 2nd in AL, tied for 4th in MLB)
Walks Allowed: 21 (7th in AL amongst pitcher with at least 75 innings pitched)
Record: 6-2 (7th in AL, I will get more into this)

* (As discussed in Sam Walker's book Fantasyland (thanks by the way, Heath), strikeouts are one of the most overrated stats in baseball, strikeouts are not the most effective strategy because most take about seven pitches to achieve, eating into pitch counts and shortening the length of a pitcher's start)

In comparison, let's look at the stats at this point of last year's opening day starter for the A's, the San Francisco Giants' newest ace, and millionaire a hundred times over, Barry Zito.

His line:

6-5. Era: 3.87. 44 K vs 38 Walks. WHIP: 1.35. Innings Pitched: 74.1.

This isn't to slag on Zito. He's a solid pitcher and it wasn't like the A's made any effort to resign him and after a pretty awful start (including a nice trouncing by his former team) he's vastly improved, allowing only two earned runs over his last three starts. He'll be fine. The sight of him in a Giants uniform is still disturbing, but hey at least it's not the Yankees, Angels or Red Sox. Oh by the way, Harden v. Zito this Saturday!

What I meant to show by comparing his stats to Zito's is that Haren has thrived when given the leadership role and along with the surprising Chad Gaudin (winner of his last five decisions, second in the AL in ERA) a former relief pitcher thriving in his new role as starter, he's getting the young injury plagued and hitting slump prone Athletics through a very tough part of the early season and keeping them in a position to make a late season push for the Wild Card.

Nothing short of a long term injury or monumental collapse over the next few weeks will keep Haren off the All Star team. He will probably be the A's sole representative, it'd be nice to see Nick Swisher makes the squad, but with him toeing the line of .300 and not leading any significant batting categories in the AL, sorry Nick I don't think second in the league in walks is your ticket to the Mid-Summer classic, it seems unlikely. Despite having the second best record in the Major League during the 2000s, the A's usually have only one All Star per season, who could forget the glory of 2005 when middle relief pitcher Justin Duchscherer stood proud as the A's sole representative (this despite a 88-74 record), while the Yankees, the team with the best record during the 2000s, usually has half of its hitters in the starting lineup, two to three pitchers, the coaching staff, batboys and their player's mistresses all accounted for.

The one thing I see standing in Haren's way from being named the AL starter, well other than he's not a Yankee or Red Sox, is his relatively-small-for-his-amazing-stats win count of six. But let's, as the American Beauty poster urged, look closer. Since losing his first two games of the season, he has not lost a single decision, oh by the way his total ERA for his two loses? A whopping 0.69. Is it his fault he's on the most anemic hitting team in the entire league? Further proof of his hard luck, the line for his last start Monday versus the Red Sox: 7.2 Innings Pitched, 2 Earned Runs, 1 Walk Allowed, 9 Strikeouts. This is a dream start for most pitchers in the major league. It actually increased his ERA by .06 points. He leaves the game with a two run lead and guess what happens? Injury fill-in closer Alan Embree blows a save in the bottom of the ninth. Earlier this year, Haren had a three start stint versus the nadir of the league Tampa Bay and Kansas City (sorry, Heath) where he got three straight no decisions. Over the course of those three games he allowed four runs, pitched 21 innings and struck out 24 hitters. I repeat: he got no decisions in all three games! In three games versus the Devil Rays and the Royals, the A's couldn't get him more than three runs to give him the wins he deserved (they did win the Devil Rays game, getting three runs in the bottom of the ninth, after Haren was taken out of the game). If Haren was on the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Indians or any team with solid hitting and reliable relief pitching, he could conceivably have a record of 10-1 right now.

Being a pessimist, I am predicting Josh Beckett gets the nod. Luckily the voting for pitcher is entirely up to the coaching staff, which I believe will be the A's since they lost last year's AL Championship series to the Tigers, and not the fans, so Japan cannot stuff the ballot box with Dice-K votes and since Schilling is on record as saying he has no plans on retiring, there won't be the old "give the retiring guy his last start" deal in effect. All this leads me to believe the man taking the mound in July in Whatever The Fuck Its Called These Days Park in San Francisco will be the most deserving pitcher.

If you are still unconvinced, here's a picture of Haren (next to A's second baseman Mark Ellis) with his doggie!

When Bad DVD Covers Happen to Good Movies # 2

Film: Bad Education (2004, Pedro Almodovar)

Offending Cover:




The only explanation I can deduce as to the origin of this horrendous cover is either: A.) It was the result of a late into the night compromise when the graphic design department couldn't decide whether to play up Gael Garcia Bernal's handsome looks or his dramatic transformation as a cross dresser in the film, when suddenly, angered and wanting to return home to his wife, children and drinking problem one designer ripped both covers in half and tossed them on his desk in frustration, leading to the other putting them next to the each other and uttering a sentence that started with, "Hey Carl, I have a crazy idea...", resulting in the above. Or B.) A ultra meta statement on the inner turmoil and abused past of the film's character by making the DVD renter or buyer experience that exact inner turmoil and abuse when looking at the cover. Cleverly played, Sony graphic designer!

Better Option:

Perhaps not Pedro Almodovar's most striking poster, but its nicely understated while simultaneously haunting.

Note: Sony has recently released a "Viva Almodovar!" box set featuring amongst other works, Bad Education, I have not purchased it, so I cannot personally confirm, but judging from the box artwork, they may have decided to go with the latter, better option. Good work, Sony, now just destroy all the prior covers and we'll call it a mulligan.

Gloria (1980, John Cassavetes)

Part of the 80's Project

I will lose some cred with this admission, but other than his debut film Shadows which I saw during my first semester of college and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie which I saw about 12 years ago, and for which I have the slimmest of recollection, I haven't really explored the works of independent maverick writer-director John Cassavetes. I am more knowledgeable of his acting gigs which he mainly did to provide money to fund his self produced low budget works. Still, as the saying goes, his reputation precedes him, so it must have been some kind of bad harbinger of the corporation takeover that laid ahead in the upcoming decade for American Cinema that his first film of the 80's (his last decade alive, he passed away in 1989) would be a buddy picture involving, of all things, an aging street smart woman (his wife and frequent star Gena Rowlands) and a sassy Puerto Rican kid who attempt to hide from the mob. Had the auteur given up his intimate relationship dramas for high concept? Certainly the opening shots, views of famous New York landmarks (Statue of Liberty, World Trade Center & Yankee Stadium)shot from a helicopter signaled a change from his past films, some of which were shot in Black & White 16mm.

Cassavetes may have been changing some of his methods, but not necessarily his themes. Gloria is essentially a relationship film and those shots of New York are relevant, the city itself is a character. The plot is simple. Buck Henry plays a mob accountant improbably married to a gorgeous Puerto Rican lady, he has stolen money from the mob and has a book full of accounting records, he and his family will be gunned down, but not before he can hide his son, Phil, in the care of their neighbor, Gloria. Gloria and Phil must then hide from the mob and eventually try to get out of the city.

The main flaw of Gloria is that Cassavetes doesn't seem all that interested in the mob genre and its the weakest element. As much as he loved Rowlands, and as good as an actor that she is, its unbelievable that she escapes these alleged tough guys with the ease she does here (even when her past relationship with the head of the mob is revealed). I think his hand is shown, that he is more interested in commenting on classic genre conventions than actually making the bad guys formidable in any sense, by making all the mobsters old white guys and having the heroes be female, young and Hispanic.

Early in the film, 7 year old (age approximated) Phil, is told before his father is killed that he's now "the man", repeating this as a mantra of sorts, he tries to impart authority over Gloria, who of course, is having none of it, even kicking the young kid out of a bed they share in a sleazebag motel after he tries to get fresh with the woman roughly thirty-five years his senior. After saving his hide several times and coping with the death of his family, Phil tells her (I paraphrase) "You're my father. You're my mother. You're my friend." and when they reunite in the end, she's disguised in a gray wig and calls out to him "Don't you recognize your grandma?", both realizing and accepting that in their empty existence, they are everything to one another.

One aspect I got a kick out of is that Gloria doesn't have a car, and Phil is obviously too young to drive, so they are trying to outrun the mob but they have to rely on public transportation. A dilemma that is definitely New Yorkian by nature. Cassavetes shot on location and fills the film with crowded trashed streets, beat up cabs and packed subways that play a role as intrinsic to the feel of the film as the two main characters. They get separated when trying to leave a rush hour level crowded subway and later Gloria is able to elude a potential threat when the cab driver throws the dude out of the cab for being a racist jerk.

Cassavetes may not be the first person you'd envision writing and directing what essentially is a chase buddy movie, and the endeavor is weakened by his unwillingness to ever make the villains that much of a threat, but his ability to develop a complex relationship between the two protagonists and an interesting take on the whole dynamics of "the chase" gives Gloria a nice spark. It may not be considered high tier Cassavetes, but its interesting nonetheless.

Who Cares? Colonel Mortimer's 2007 Summer Movie Preview Semi Spectacular (and bonus Trailer of the Week)

After a somewhat inspiring spring movie season which featured a handful of mainstream films flirting with experimentation in terms of form: Zodiac, Hot Fuzz, Grindhouse (and I'd toss in two films that I was less enthusiastic about, Black Snake Moan and 300 in this category) and some quality foreign fare getting wide attention: The Lives of Others, The Host, Black Book; Hollywood return to playing it safe 24/7 for the next four months beginning this Friday with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. Since its one of the very few summer blockbusters I actually have serious interest in this year, I have made sure to stay away from plot synopsises, reviews (though I gather the general consensus is decidedly mixed) and any footage outside of the trailers. I still have no idea what Venom is going to look like (I know some sites ran five minute scenes from the film a few weeks past, really what's the point of watching it out of context? To say you saw it first?) or if Bryce Howard becomes the Black Cat. Is the fact that I saw a Kraven figure at Target worthy of some kind of spoiler alert?

What I love about Raimi's films, and yes I said "love", is that I get the same giddy sensation watching them as I did discovering super-hero comic books as a kid. He embraces the corniness factor as he simultaneously emphasizes the angst of being a hero, yeah the whole "with great power comes great responsibility" thing, part 2 spends a great portion of its running time convincing us that actually being Spider-Man kinda sucks. The whole dual personality thing is a common thread in the super-hero film cannon, but its never treated with as much care and respect as Raimi and his screenwriters have given it, including sacrificing a half hour segment of action in the middle of Act II to have Peter Parker give up being Spider-Man.

The rest of the summer '07 fare is less inspiring, here's some of the, ahem, highlights with grumpy commentary from yours truly:

Shrek the Third: apparently the combination of fart jokes, overt sexual innuendo in children movies and two year old pop culture references = cha-ching!

Pirates of the Carribean 3-It Never Ends: I feel like I am still watching part 2 from July. ps It was looong.

Knocked Up: Okay, I actually really want to see this. But seriously, 132 minutes, Judd? Didn't you come from television? Does it really take that long to establish just how much a slacker Seth Rogen's character is?

Hostel 2: I'd much rather see a full length version of Thanksgiving.

Ocean's Thirteen: Soderbergh, Clooney, Pitt and company overestimated audience's desire for winking in-jokes in Ocean's 12. The trailers make the film look pretty fun though and thankfully they got rid of that deadweight Julia Roberts. The fact that a whole section of this film is dedicated to a nose joke aimed at Harvey Weinstein is either brilliant or more evidence of the gang's winky in-joke overindulgence.

Fab Four Meets the Silver Guy: Raimi respects the corniness of comic books, the makers of the Fantastic Four spent the entire running of the first film belittling their origin. Fuck 'em I say. Some of the fanboy debate here is whether or not the Silver Surfer has nads. Let's get the Monster Squad on the case.

Evan Almighty: Any goodwill the inclusion of Steve Carrell's presence is here is negated by the presence of director Tom Shadyac.

Live Free or Die Hard: Where John McClane moves to New Hampshire to have Johnnycakes with a handsome mustachioed volunteer fireman.

Transformed!: Michael Bay spent 200 million dollars to make the film equivalent of you and your best buds playing toys in your backyard twenty years ago. One difference. Your twenty year old toy playing featured a better plot, character development and visual coherence.

Harry Potter 28: I've only seen one of these, is this the one where he's naked on a horse?

The Simpsons Movie: I totally want to see this.....fifteen years ago!

The Bourne Ultimatum: Okay, I want to see this too, I enjoyed the first two, but I wonder if Paul Greengrass has found a cameraman without epilepsy yet.

Rush Hour 3: I hated the first two installments, find it hilarious that Chris Tucker got (allegedly) the highest paycheck for an actor ever for this when he has not done a single non-Rush Hour film in ten years, but the real reason I hate this film, the fuckers raided Zankou Chicken early one night and when I came to get my grub on, they had no chicken. This time its personal.

Rob Zombie's October 31st: Whoah Zombie you're so dark man, showing a young Michael Myers hitting a cat whilst playing a crappy rock score you composed is so much more interesting and disturbing than actually leaving the reason for young Myers murder spree unexplained. Why do a complete remake, why not make a sequel with a new angle. Oh, probably because Zombie thinks all the sequels suck (which isn't entirely false). But that's funny, because I see you're going with Laurie Stroud being the sister of Michael Myers, which is never mentioned until part 2 (oh and John Carpenter, you know the director of the real Halloween, is on record as saying he hates that development). Here's hoping the final shootout between Loomis and Myers is a twenty minute slo-mo shot scored to "Freebird". Seriously, the critical establishment liked The Devil's Rejects?

Okay, enough, this summer make sure you visit your local rep house frequently.

This week's trailers are reruns from an old site.

First, the teaser trailer to the first Spider-Man movie, which was pulled after 9/11 because of the inclusion of the World Trade Center. Too bad about the awful nu-metal music playing in the background.


And finally, the trailer for what most consider the first "summer blockbuster" and still the best, Spielberg's Jaws.