#interview with robert s. johnson

[onefootin1941]

Three top ace fighter pilots of World War 2, from the 56th Fighter Group

(Left to right) Robert Johnson, Hubert “Hub” Zemke and Walker “Bud” Mahurin. (National Archives)

[jesuisgourde]

A list of all the books mentioned in Peter Doherty's journals (and in some interviews/lyrics, too)

Because I just made this list in answer to someone's question on a facebook group, I thought I may as well post it here.

-The Picture of Dorian Gray/The Ballad Of Reading Gaol/Salome/The Happy Prince/The Duchess of Padua, all by Oscar Wilde -The Thief's Journal/Our Lady Of The Flowers/Miracle Of The Rose, all by Jean Genet -A Diamond Guitar by Truman Capote -Mixed Essays by Matthew Arnold -Venus In Furs by Leopold Sacher-Masoch -The Ministry Of Fear by Graham Greene -Brighton Rock by Graham Green -A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud -The Street Of Crocodiles (aka Cinnamon Shops) by Bruno Schulz -Opium: The Diary Of His Cure by Jean Cocteau -The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson -Howl by Allen Ginsberg -Women In Love by DH Lawrence -The Tempest by William Shakespeare -Trilby by George du Maurier -The Vision Of Jean Genet by Richard Coe -"Literature And The Crisis" by Isaiah Berlin -Le Cid by Pierre Corneille -The Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon -Junky by William S Burroughs -Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes -Futz by Rochelle Owens -They Shoot Horses Don't They? by Horace McCoy -"An Inquiry On Love" by La revolution surrealiste magazine -Idea by Michael Drayton -"The Nymph's Reply to The Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh -Hamlet by William Shakespeare -The Silver Shilling/The Old Church Bell/The Snail And The Rose Tree all by Hans Christian Andersen -120 Days Of Sodom by Marquis de Sade -Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke -Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard -In Favor Of The Sensitive Man and Other Essays by Anais Nin -La Batarde by Violette LeDuc -Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov -Intimate Journals by Charles Baudelaire -Juno And The Paycock by Sean O'Casey -England Is Mine by Michael Bracewell -"The Prelude" by William Wordsworth -Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Atalli -"Elm" by Sylvia Plath -"I am pleased with my sight..." by Rumi -She Stoops To Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith -Amphitryon by John Dryden -Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman -The Song Of The South by James Rennell Rodd -In Her Praise by Robert Graves -"For That He Looked Not Upon Her" by George Gascoigne -"Order And Disorder" by Lucy Hutchinson -Man Crazy by Joyce Carol Oates -A Pictorial History Of Sex In The Movies by Jeremy Pascall and Clyde Jeavons -Anarchy State & Utopia by Robert Nozick -"Limbo" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge -Men In Love: Masculinity and Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century by George Haggerty

[arbitrary line break because tumble hates lists apparently]

-Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -Innocent When You Dream: the Tom Waits Reader -"Identity Card" by Mahmoud Darwish -Ulysses by James Joyce -The Four Quartets poems by TS Eliot -Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare -A'Rebours/Against The Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans -Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet -Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell -The Man With The Golden Arm by Nelson Algren -Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates -"Epitaph To A Dog" by Lord Byron -Cocaine Nights by JG Ballard -"Not By Bread Alone" by James Terry White -Anecdotes Of The Late Samuel Johnson by Hester Thrale -"The Owl And The Pussycat" by Edward Lear -"Chevaux de bois" by Paul Verlaine -A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton -Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes -The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri -The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling -The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling -Ask The Dust by John Frante -On The Trans-Siberian Railways by Blaise Cendrars -The 39 Steps by John Buchan -The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol -The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol -The Iliad by Homer -Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad -The Volunteer by Shane O'Doherty -Twenty Love Poems and A Song Of Despair by Pablo Neruda -"May Banners" by Arthur Rimbaud -Literary Outlaw: The life and times of William S Burroughs by Ted Morgan -The Penguin Dorothy Parker -Smoke by William Faulkner -Hero And Leander by Christopher Marlowe -My Lady Nicotine by JM Barrie -All I Ever Wrote by Ronnie Barker -The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys -On Murder Considered As One Of The Fine Arts by Thomas de Quincey -The Void Ratio by Shane Levene and Karolina Urbaniak -The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro -Dead Fingers Talk by William S Burroughs -The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage -London Underworld by Henry Mayhew

[imaginesig]

Masterlist

@imaginesig

All SMAU

Hockey

Quinn Hughes

Father day posts verstappen!reader’s inner child is healed by her boyfriends dad

F1

Oscar Piastri

Dancing under the lights ballerina reader and her f1 boyfriend

"Hang on now, Joseph, You'll make it someday" childhood best friends to lovers

Lewis Hamilton

“If they call me a slut, you know it might be worth it for once” pop-star reader speaks out against hate over her relationship

“Can someone give a message to the smallest man who ever lived” Pop-star Y/n and her long term relationship with Lewis Hamilton ends and silence is broken

"Ditch the clowns, get the crown / Baby, I'm the one to beat" what happened between the releases of TTPD, pt2 to "Can someone give a message to the smallest man who ever lived"

Logan Sargent

The Y/l's Y/n and her husband get the Issac Kutch treatment

Yuki Tsunoda

Sweet Summer Hughes!Reader plays professional hockey and a certain f1 driver is taken with her

F2

Kimi Antonelli

"I was enchanted to meet you" Kimi and Lando's little sister have a secret relationship and their soft launch doesn't go as planned, SMAU with writing

“I had the best day with you today” a short fic based on the previous Kimi smau where they get invited to the Eras Tour

"Private But Not Secret" Kimi's girlfriend is a vet student who tries to keep away from public eye, but that doesn't mean she's hidden

Ollie Bearman

You Would've Done It Too We all know Mad Max, but what if his younger sister is worse? And what if her on track enemy isn’t always that?

A Bear and a Gorgeous Girl with a new wave of fame how will rockstar Y/n’a fans react to the side her of posted by her boyfriend

Paul Aron

"I think he knows... he's gorgeous" Paul and his singer s/o, inspired by Taylors mashup

Documenting A Proposal Leclerc!Reader is getting engaged; she doesnt know, but her brothers girlfriend does

Paris 2024 What does the journey to a gold medal look like for Paul Aron's gf?

Arthur Leclerc

Left My Heart in SoCal can a driver from Europe and an American surfer end up together?

Zak O'Sullivan

"He laughs at all my jokes / And he says I'm so American" Logan Sargents grid kid is an american menace to the grid, her British bf included

Indycar

Pato O'Ward

Blue + Papaya an f1 and indycar driver go on a social media brake

NFL

Joe Burrow

"Ditch the clowns, get the crown / Baby, I'm the one to beat" what happened between the releases of TTPD, pt2 to "Can someone give a message to the smallest man who ever lived"

Actors

Xolo Maridueña

Nepo Baby Xolo Mariduena and Ralph Macchio's daughter seem to have more than a friendship going

Nicholas Hoult

I'd Have 2 Nickels The release of Nosferatu compliments Nick's wife's own film perfectly, as does the couple. SMAU Blurb

Today, Tomorrow, Forever When they meet on Skins, Yn and Nick weren’t exactly a love at first sight story but they get there eventually SMAU with written bits and interview clips

Bill Skarsgård

Couple of the Year Bill’s wife had an unexpected reaction to his transformation as Count Orlok in their new film Nosferatu. SMAU using interview clips and Twitter

Aaron Taylor-Johnson

In Every Realm Aaron's wife is a big name in Hollywood: Lily-Rose Depp's favorite cousin and Robert Egger's muse. What a time she has filming "Nosferatu"

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Bagley * * * *

“You are not allowed to give up.”

February 17, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

Vladimir Putin killed his chief political opponent on Friday. Alexei Navalny, a Russian hero and patriot, is the latest in a long line of victims of Putin’s murderous regime. Navalny was in prison north of the Artic circle when he allegedly “died suddenly” on a “walk.” Most of Putin’s victims “fall out” of second-floor windows or die from exotic poisons or nerve agents. President Biden said,

Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny's death. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin's brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world.

Of Navalny, Biden said,

He was brave. He was principled. He was dedicated to building a Russia where the rule of law existed and where it applied to everybody.

Putin kills with impunity. Coincidentally, Donald Trump is currently urging the Supreme Court to grant him (and all other US presidents) the power to kill their political opponents with impunity. Even more coincidentally, Trump has not condemned Putin’s assassination of Navalny—leaving Trump alone among US and Western democratic leaders, all of whom condemned Putin for the death of Navalny.

The assassination of Navalny comes as the GOP is under the thrall of Putin. Trump and congressional Republicans are doing Putin’s work by refusing to provide supplemental funding for Ukraine. MAGA poster boy Tucker Carlson provided a platform last week for Putin to spread his lies about Russia’s history and territorial claims—including his claim that Ukraine is “not really a separate country.” Even Putin was derisive of Tucker Carlson’s pathetic interview. See Business Insider, Putin Says He Thought Tucker Carlson Would Ask Tougher Questions.

President Biden also condemned Congress for its inaction on Ukraine in his remarks on the assassination of Navalny. After his formal remarks, a reporter asked President Biden if there was anything the US could do to accelerate the delivery of aid to Ukraine. Biden responded,

No, but it’s about time [Congress] step[s] up, don’t you think? Instead of going on a two-week vacation.” Two weeks, they’re walking away. Two weeks. What are they thinking? My God, this is bizarre, and it’s just reinforcing all of the concern and almost – I won’t say panic – but real concern about the United States being a reliable ally. This is outrageous.

The heroism of Navalny highlights the cowardice of House Republicans. Mike Johnson is damaging US foreign policy so he does not provoke the ire of Marjorie Taylor Greene. See op-ed by Eric Garcia in The Independent, Navalny’s death has shown Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson up as a coward.

Garcia explains that Mike Johnson did not spend the last two work days on the Senate bill granting aid to Ukraine but instead wasted time on the Mayorkas impeachment:

Johnson did [so] in the service of appeasing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the right-wing conspiracy theorist and Trump ally from Georgia, who is also an ardent opponent of funding for Ukraine. The fact [Johnson] refused to cross the person largely responsible for him being Speaker shows how unserious he is. Marjorie Taylor Greene has pledged that if aid to Ukraine goes to the floor of the House, she will file a motion to vacate the chair of Johnson. This comes despite the fact that many in Johnson’s conference want to support Ukraine and most Democrats would vote to help pass a bill doing so.

In other words, Mike Johnson is willing to allow Ukraine to fall to Putin because he wants to remain in his job as Speaker of the House—under the thumb of Marjorie Taylor Greene. What a pathetic, cowardly existence.

Against Mike Johnson’s cowardice (emblematic of all congressional Republicans) is the heroism of Alexei Navalny. In anticipation of his own assassination, Navalny left these words to those who remained behind:

If they decided to kill me, then it means we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed . . . . We don’t realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing, so don’t be inactive. You’re not allowed to give up.

We do not need to make Alexei Navalny’s ultimate sacrifice to follow in his footsteps. We just need not to give up—even when the odds against us seem overwhelming. We can do that. We have been doing that.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

[petty-crush]

“Madam Web”

-this film’s stumble is a sadly common one, a nifty scenario cut down to shreds by bland committee suggestions

+every scene, almost every edit, suggest a tree never allowed to stretch its branches

-a pity, because the cast here is good, but they have nothing to do

-according to a interview with star Dakota Johnson (via ‘thewrap’) it was originally about a time traveling villain hoping to kill spider man before birth, and the gals all coming together to stop this occurrence, terminator style

-now that would have been awesome.

-how strange it is to imagine Emma Roberts (radiant and charming as ever) as peter Parker’s mom. Timelines are a funny thing

-the best sequence is when Cassie Webb (Johnson) goes back in time—“Christmas Carol” style— to see that her mother took a trip to the Amazon to cure her in womb daughter’s fatal prognosis

+hence she can let go of the pain and stop hating her

-I will wildly speculate this scene was emotionally highly satisfying to director SJ Clarkson. It feels more involved in a directorial way

-how much p/e/p/s/I is in this flick? And none of it cherry

-I sensibly chuckled when clairvoyant Web made a snide comment to Ben Parker loving being a uncle as all fun and no responsibility “no, it won’t be like that”

-that level of dopey fun is sorely needed in this film

-must all the spider peeps be orphans, literal or symbolic?

-seeing them in a dream, actually using powers, is such a cheat

-once again, my body cries out to “start with action and world. Allude to past events that build up the present via flashbacks” Ala Batman 89

-this is especially notable as the Amazon journey is repeated, first as an intro, then towards a flashback which actually has stakes to the world

-one of the joys of the raimi spider man films (ya know, the ones that earned billions) was letting dorks with horror tendencies make something in the eternally dark and existential spidey universe.

+Letting their freak flag fly. Not cutting off their legs

-until then the entries become forgettable, not entertaining goof ups that make the audience want to give their money for mirth

[usafphantom2]

July 24, 1964

The selection of Crewmembers started on the very same day that the SR 71 was announced. President Johnson did not reverse the letters. RS when he announces the SR-71!

For years I had heard that President Johnson became dyslexic when he announced for the first time that the United States had developed a Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft, the SR-71. The story was that President Johnson was supposed to name the Blackbird the “RS-71” and that he confused the letters, reversed them, and said “SR-71.” I always thought what a waste of time and money they have to change the lettering to protect the mistake of a President. It was SR-71 pilot Rich Graham that investigated and got the true story.

The very same day, July 24, 1964, when President Johnson announced that there was an SR-71, the interviews started. They were not wasting any time.

Doug Nelson went to Carswell Air Force Base in Texas; this is where half of the B 58’s were stationed. B- 58’s had many similarities to the SR-71, it was fast capable of going Mach 2, and use the stars as navigation .The first men selected for the interview, a computer actually selects them! Colonel Nelson later told my Dad that he was so relieved when he said yes. The first crew’s ( pilot and navigator) for this spectacular new airplane were picked to go to Brooks for the Astronaut physical. They had to pass the physical. They also ran a risk; If they found anything wrong with the candidate, they might be grounded. My Dad, Butch Sheffield, wrote in his unpublish Book that my parents had talked over and decided to leave the B-58 program for this new airplane if the opportunity came. Dad told my mom (Rosie)that this new plane would be safer than B-58:approximately 1/4 of all the B 58’s crashed!

During the 1964 presidential campaign, Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater repeatedly criticized President Lyndon B. Johnson and his administration for falling behind the Soviet Union in developing new weapons.

The media transcript given to the press at the time still had the earlier RS-71 designation in place, creating the story that the President had misread the aircraft's designation. Not true. It was Curtis LeMay who wanted a different name. Strategic Reconnaissance is what the SR stood for.

Originally designated RS-71, the Skunk Works was forced to change about 29,000 blueprints to SR-71 when Lyndon Johnson turned the letters around during his 1964 announcement acknowledging the existence of the airplane.

But the official transcript shows it wasn't a flub by President Johnson. Supposedly Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay preferred the SR (Strategic Reconnaissance) designation and wanted the RS-71 to be named SR-71. Before the July speech, LeMay lobbied to modify Johnson's speech to read SR-71 instead of RS-71.

No matter the reason, in July 1964, President Johnson announced the existence of the SR-71 Strategic Reconnaissance airplane. Selection started with my father, Richard “Butch” Sheffield on that very same day.

Also chosen from the B 58 program, Robert “Gray” Sowers, Hal Confer, Al Hichew, John Storrie, Dale Shelton, and Earle Boone were selected to be Pilots. The RSO’s’s that were chosen beside my father, Coz Mollozzi, Tom Schmittou, Larry Boggess, and Dewain Vick. They all were the finest man that I was privileged to know.

Written by Linda Sheffield

source, SR 71 blackbird thesr71blackbird.com

’The Very First” unpublished book by Butch Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via Twitter

[hooked-on-elvis]

🎸Scotty Moore's guitars⚡

Scotty Moore with his '54 Gibson L-5 CESN, originally purchased by him in July 7, 1955.

Besides how it was recording with Elvis and other amazing stories such as one incident involving the three rock and roll pioneers (Elvis, Bill and Scotty) and Bill Black's bass later owned by Paul McCartney, on this interview Scotty talks a bit about his early music instruments' history, such as amplifiers and guitars. He mentions the✨Gibson L-5 CES✨, which we'll know about a bit more from now on:

Much of the RCA 50's recordings of Elvis Presley feature the sound of Scotty Moore's L-5.

Scotty (with Gibson L-5), D.J. Fontana (drums), Elvis (with 1951 Epiphone FT-79*) and Bill Black (bass) in Texarkana, AR, 1955. * The 1951 Epiphone Elvis is playing belonged to Charline Arthur, a female American singer of boogie-woogie, blues, and early rockabilly.

Scotty traded his ES-295 in on July 7, 1955 at the O.K. Houck Piano Co. located on 121 Union Avenue in Memphis, for this Gibson L5 "mainly because the workmanship was just so much better in the L5, of course it cost more too" ($565.00).

L5 CES ad, and Scotty's original receipt for the 1954 L5 CESN.

Much of the RCA fifties recordings of Elvis Presley feature the sound of Scotty Moore's L-5. Scotty (with L5) and Elvis rehearse for the Milton Berle show, June 1956.

Scotty's Gibson L-5 was first used to record "Mystery Train" and on most of the subsequent RCA recordings until January of 57 (though it was apparently used on stage at least in Buffalo, NY on April 1, and Toronto on April 2, 1957). Scotty used it extensively with a custom--built Echosonic amplifier by Ray Butts acquired around April of 55 (which allowed the ability to perform live with the signature slap-back echo sound of the recordings).

The Gibson L5 CES features a single rounded cutaway 17" wide bound hollow body, solid carved spruce top, layered tortoise pickguard, single bound f-holes, maple back/sides/neck, 20 fret bound pointed ebony fingerboard with pearl block inlay, adjustable rosewood bridge, model name engraved trapeze tailpiece with chrome insert, multibound blackface peghead with pearl flame/logo inlay, 3 per side tuners, gold hardware, 2 pickups (P90 single coil in 51, Alnico V in 54 and Humbucker in 57) , 2 volume/2 tone controls, 3 position switch. Available in Natural (Scotty's) and Sunburst finish. Mfd. 1951 to date.

Source: http://www.scottymoore.net/54L5CES.html

Scotty' L5 The guitar when displayed at the Memphis Rock 'N' Soul Museum.

This guitar was owned by Robert A. Johnson for many years and had been on loan for display at the Memphis Rock 'N' Soul Museum. It was sold in 2004 and expected to be on display at the Elvis-A-Rama museum in Las Vegas, NV. In September of 2005 CKX, Inc (the parent company to EPE, Inc.) announced that it had agreed to acquire the assets of Elvis-A-Rama with the intent of closing it with an overall plan to bring a world class Elvis-themed attraction to the Las Vegas strip. Prior to that though this L5 was sold to a private collector in the UK and is no longer on display. Scotty's L5 was purchased from the UK collector in February of 2005 by Heather Mozart shortly after the auction and along with Scotty's 1956 Super 400, Elvis' 1968 Ebony J200 and many other items remains part of her collection.

Scotty's original 1956 Super 400, 1954 L5 and Elvis' 1968 J200 (Elvis' record awards in rear).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

🎸 SCOTTY'S GUITARS OVER THE YEARS

MUCH MORE ABOUT ALL SCOOTY MOORE'S GUITARS, HERE (http://www.scottymoore.net/guitars.html) - Website created and managed by James V. Roy for Scotty Moore with the sole intent to help promote the arts and history of American popular music and Scotty's major role in it.

[therecordchanger62279]

TOP 20 FAVORITE BOOKS OF ALL-TIME

Two separate lists of 10 fiction, and 10 non-fiction books.

TOP 10 FICTION

1. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

3. The Once and Future King by T.H. White

4. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

5. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

7. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

8. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

9. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

10. Interview with The Vampire by Anne Rice

TOP 10 NON-FICTION

1. Fear and Loathing on The Campaign Trail ’72 by Hunter S. Thompson

2. Door Wide Open by Jack Kerouac & Joyce Johnson

3. Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson

4. The Spy and The Traitor by Ben MacIntyre

5. There Goes Gravity by Lisa Robinson

6. Growing Up Underground by Jane Alpert

7. Waiting For The Sun by Barney Hoskyns

8. The Boys On The Bus by Timothy Crouse

9. Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

10. Reporter by Seymour Hersh

[dankusner]

Top 5 Bob Dylan myths, explained

TULSA — Has Bob Dylan ever stepped foot inside the Bob Dylan Center?

“No, he hasn’t. And we don’t expect he ever will,” a staff member replied in a quick, measured manner that implied she’d heard your question a thousand times before.

It’s hardly a surprise that Dylan hasn’t visited his own museum.

After all, he didn’t acknowledge winning the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature for several weeks and blew off the annual Nobel ceremony in Sweden.

Ever since singing the phrase “don’t look back” in 1965, Dylan has mostly refused to examine his hallowed place in music and culture.

The singer — who’s still touring and recording at age 83 — had almost no involvement in the center other than selling his vast archives to the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation, which opened the 30,000-square-foot museum in 2022 next door to its other project, the Woody Guthrie Center.

But even if the elusive artist won’t take part in a remembrance of things past, millions of fans are doing just that.

Not just in Tulsa, where a steady stream of visitors pored over hundreds of interactive displays about his career on a cold gray weekday in late November.

The main event takes place in movie theaters nationwide on Christmas Day with the opening of A Complete Unknown, the aptly titled biopic starring Timothée Chalamet as the young, curly-haired Dylan.

Directed by James Mangold, who also oversaw the Johnny Cash story Walk the Line, the film takes a mostly factual look at Dylan’s uneasy rise to fame from ’61 to ’65.

But according to news reports, the singer instructed filmmakers to include at least one scene that is totally fictional.

That’s par for the course with Dylan, who fabricated stories about being a carnival worker and a male prostitute before he was discovered in Greenwich Village folk clubs.

He also blurred reality in the 2019 pseudo-documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.

“That came from Bob. He loves to mix fact and fiction,” T Bone Burnett, Dylan’s longtime friend, told The Dallas Morning News in October.

So who is the real Bob Dylan?

Your guess is as good as anyone’s.

To help Dylan neophytes unwrap the enigma, here’s a look at five common myths.

Spokesman of his generation

After writing topical masterpieces like “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Dylan was hailed as the mouthpiece for the anti-war and civil rights movements and a half dozen other causes.

“And here he is: Take him, you know him, he’s yours,” singer Ronnie Gilbert said, introducing him at 1964′s Newport Folk Festival.

There was just one problem.

You can’t be a spokesman if you refuse to speak.

Within months of being called the new prophet of social progress, Dylan stopped writing political songs, ceased giving interviews and publicly disavowed his role as “the prince of protest,” as he later dubbed it with a sneer.

In a Dylan Center exhibit on 1965 — the year he went electric and alienated folk purists — a concert review quotes him as telling fans:

“I’m sick of people asking ‘What does it mean?” It means nothing.’”

Years later, he said hearing the word “spokesman” made him physically ill.

Just a Guthrie clone

Some critics slammed Dylan for mimicking Woody Guthrie on his first few albums.

Yet for all his Guthrie-isms (the voice, the lyrics, the Greek fisherman’s cap), he was far from a Guthrie clone.

He was more of an equal-opportunity sponge.

He borrowed melodies from countless old country, folk and gospel songs — sometimes credited, sometimes not.

Most of all, he borrowed heavily from the blues.

He filled his ’62 debut album Bob Dylan with a half dozen blues songs, including “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” by Dallas legend Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson — who recorded half of all his songs at 508 Park Ave. in Dallas — was another huge influence.

“From the first note, the vibrations from the loudspeaker made my hair stand up,” Dylan wrote about hearing Johnson’s music in Chronicles: Volume One, his impressionistic 2004 memoir.

“The stabbing sounds from the guitar could almost break a window. When Johnson started singing, he seemed like a guy who could have sprung from the head of Zeus in full armor.”

His peers love him

Most of them do.

But the love is far from universal.

Judy Collins, who met him in ’59 when he was still Robert Zimmerman, practically tripped over her tongue describing him to The News earlier this year:

“He was a magical chisel into the preconceived idea of what this country was all about.”

He gets a mixed review from onetime girlfriend Joan Baez.

She’s depicted in A Complete Unknown calling him “kind of an a--hole.”

Yet she was fairly glowing when The News asked her about him in 2019.

“I mean, he’s a genius,” Baez said.

“He gave us the best songs we’ve ever had.”

And then there’s Joni Mitchell.

Though the two were friendly in the ‘70s, she lashed out at him in a 2010 Los Angeles Times interview:

“Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.”

Refuses to sell out

Everyone knows Dylan marches to his own beat.

But what’s often forgotten is that he isn’t above making a quick buck.

At the Bob Dylan Center, you can buy his Heaven’s Door whiskey, supposedly “co-created” by the singer and named after his 1973 song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

In 2004, he appeared in a Victoria’s Secret TV ad, brooding and flashing his glimmering blue eyes like a fashion model.

And in 1996, he licensed “The Times They Are A-Changin’” for use in a Bank of Montreal ad campaign.

As he put it so well on Bringing It All Back Home, “Money doesn’t talk, it swears.”

You gotta see him in concert

Some musicians really need to be witnessed in the flesh for you to fully appreciate them.

Dylan?

Not so much.

In the 13 concerts I’ve seen, he’s been brilliant a few times, unveiling bold new arrangements of old songs and singing with soulful urgency.

More often than not, a Dylan show is an exercise in frustration, especially for newcomers.

Performing in April at the Music Hall at Fair Park, he stayed hidden in the shadows behind a keyboard, barely acknowledged the audience and skipped all his best-known songs in favor of tunes from his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways.

Some die-hard fans loved the show. But most of the audience simply seemed puzzled — which is precisely how Dylan wants it.

Did Bob Dylan Invent Bootcut Jeans?

This holiday season, if you find yourself parked in a theater seat to witness Timothée Chalamet embody an early-1960s Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown, keep an eye out for the changing hems of Dylan’s blue jeans.

Indeed, while the new James Mangold-directed film follows a four-year period in Dylan’s career, from his 1961 arrival in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village to his “going electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, it also traces the musician’s shifting self-presentation—most notably through his changing hairstyles, but also his denim.

When Dylan lands in New York City with little more than a snap-buttoned cap, an acoustic guitar, and a dream of meeting Woody Guthrie, he wears a farmer-ish pair of late-’50s Levi’s 501s; by the time he plugs in his amp at Newport, he’s rocking a leather jacket and ultra-skinny jeans.

“I realized that the onus would really be on costume and hair to help guide the audience through this visual growth of this 19-year-old kid to a 24-year-old man,” says costume designer Arianne Phillips, who previously earned Oscar nominations for her work on Mangold’s 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, as well as Quintin Tarantino’s 2019 mid-century epic Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

“I was really looking for threads of continuity in Bob’s character and his taste level,” Phillips says, “and one thing I can say for sure in that excavation was denim. Bob has always worn jeans.”

During pre-production, Phillips connected with Paul O’Neill, the design director of Levi’s Vintage Clothing, the brand’s sublabel that recreates and reimagines archival designs.

Back in 2019, O’Neill and his team developed a capsule collection based on the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s called “Folk City,” and he’d already done a good deal of research into the wardrobes of Dylan, Karen Dalton, and Joan Baez (who also features in A Complete Unknown, as portrayed by Monica Barbaro).

While reading A Freewheelin’ Time—a memoir by Dylan’s then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo, a version of whom appears in the film as Elle Fanning’s Sylvie Russo—O’Neill uncovered a great sartorial tidbit:

In the mid-1960s, Rotolo used to sew inverted-U-shaped panels into the inseams of Dylan’s 501s, widening the hems so that he could more easily wear the pants over boots. In other words, Rotolo was DIY-ing bootcut jeans years before Levi’s started manufacturing them in 1969.

“I can remember me and my colleague high-fiving each other when we found that out,” says O’Neill.

“Arianne said they had Dylan experts consulting on the film, and none of them had even heard about this before or seen it.”

Bob Dylan in 1964.

It was a lucky nugget for the costume team, one that not only explains one of the musician’s style idiosyncrasies but also adds narrative depth to Dylan and Rotolo’s dynamic.

(The real-life Rotolo also appeared on the cover of Dylan’s 1963 album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan; for that photoshoot, Dylan himself wore a pair of 501s.)

Once O’Neill and Phillips discovered the detail about Dylan’s custom flares, they started noticing them everywhere—including on the album artwork for his fourth LP, Another Side of Bob Dylan.

To commemorate A Complete Unknown and its costumes, Levi’s Vintage Clothing produced a capsule collection featuring a reproduction of Dylan’s customized XX 501s complete with hand-sewn bootcut inserts and a D-ring leather belt, as well as toffee-hued suede work jacket based on a jacket Dylan wore during the era.

The full assortment will hit the brand’s website on December 20.

In A Complete Unknown, Dylan’s classic denim also contrasts with Baez’s trendier silhouettes, which often included Levi’s with a white or black logo tab on the back pocket, which the company produced in the early 1960s to denote hipper styles geared towards young people.

In this case, that meant more denim storytelling: Dylan, like his customized jeans, was sly and rugged; Baez, fresh and forward-thinking.

But by the mid ’60s, the folk scene—and with it, Dylan’s tastes in music, clothing, and otherwise—was in metamorphosis.

And the jeans, they were a-changin’.

Phillips gleaned that after Dylan had toured England in spring 1965, he “clearly had come back with his Cuban-heeled boots, his skinny jeans, his military peacoat, that whole look. He was a big fan of the Beatles, and he met the Beatles and he was hanging out with Donovan [Phillips Leitch],” she says.

“It was Carnaby Street mod time, and he definitely brought that look back.”

The costume designer consulted with O’Neill to identify the super-skinny jeans that Dylan wore during his historic Newport performance that summer.

In 1965—the same year Bob went electric—Levi’s introduced the Super Slims, which O’Neill says “were basically the skinniest jeans you could make without using stretch fabric.”

He sourced fabric produced at a defunct mill in North Carolina to recreate a pair for the scene.

Though there was no photographic evidence to verify for certain that Dylan wore Super Slims that night at Newport, for the film, they fit the bill.

But Dylan’s trailblazing Newport ’65 performance held another fashion mystery.

Per photos from the era, Dylan wore an uncharacteristically loud mint-green, polka-dotted blouse during a soundcheck for his electric set;

he later wore the same shirt on the cover of one of his 1966 EPs.

When Phillips first showed images of the shirt to Mangold, she recalls, “Jim wasn’t so sold on it.”

But Chalamet himself had a vision for how the shirt might make sense in the movie.

(Hint: Chalamet’s Dylan wears it in a scene opposite Boyd Holbrook’s Johnny Cash, a character whom Phillips—having costumed Walk the Line—relished the chance to revisit “in a totally different film and with a different actor.”)

“Timmy loved that shirt and I loved the shirt, too,” says Phillips.

“It really seeds what we know Bob goes on to in ’65, where his style really explodes.”

Over the course of the film, as O’Neill puts it, we see Dylan morph “from this rough-and-ready traveling character into this peacock with the big hair and the shades and the skinny jeans and the polka dot shirt.”

Even so, the blue jeans provided a through-line.

“Denim is so beautiful because it’s the signature of a youth culture movement [and] when we think about today, we take it for granted,” says Phillips.

“I’ve done a lot of mid-century films, but denim, there are so many dress codes [where] you couldn’t wear denim in the workplace, you couldn’t wear it to school, you couldn’t wear it to church. It was really relegated to the blue-collar workers [or] how we dressed on the weekends until it became a signature of the youth movement in the Sixties. And that really, that rebellion—I mean, that was punk rock before punk rock, right?”

Movies If Bob Dylan didn’t exist, “A Complete Unknown” would be an absorbing if conventional drama about a fictional folk singer with that name who, in the nineteen-sixties, shows up in New York and turns himself into a rock star at a time when the concept was novel.

But, given the complex ubiquity of Dylan’s music and life story, the movie’s synthetic simplicity is bewildering.

The director, James Mangold (who wrote the script with Jay Cocks), emphasizes the protagonist’s own sense of self-invention, and offers a bland and smooth official portrait—which nonetheless remains fascinating.

Timothée Chalamet stars, delivering an impressive yet emotionally muffled impersonation of Dylan; the rest of the cast—principally, Edward Norton, as Pete Seeger; Monica Barbaro, as Joan Baez; and Elle Fanning, as the pseudonymous Sylvie Russo—push vigorously against the narrow limits of their roles.

[ulkaralakbarova]

Five twenty-something friends spend a drug-fueled weekend in Cardiff, Wales. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Jip: John Simm Koop: Shaun Parkes Nina: Nicola Reynolds Lulu: Lorraine Pilkington Moff: Danny Dyer Lee: Dean Davies Felix: Andrew Lincoln Moff’s Father: Terence Beesley Reality (voice): Jo Brand Andy: Richard Coyle Karen Benson: Jan Anderson Pablo Hassan: Carl Cox Fleur: Stephanie Brooks Howard Marks: Howard Marks Jip’s Mother: Helen Griffin Tyrone: Danny Midwinter Ziggy Marlon: Justin Kerrigan Hip Hop Junkie: Tyrone Johnson Koop’s Father: Larrington Walker Jip’s Manager: Philip Rosch Lulu’s Uncle Albert: Peter Albert Lulu’s Auntie Violet: Menna Trussler Jeremy Faxman: Mark Seaman Connie: Lynne Seymour Luke: Patrick Taggart Boomshanka: Anna Wilson Casey: Robert Marable Herbie: Nick Kilroy Matt: Peter Bramhill Moff’s Mother: Carol Harrison Moff’s Grandmother: Anne Bowen Martin: Giles Thomas Jip’s Ex #2: Sarah Blackburn Doctor: Eilian Wyn Asylum Doorman: Neil Bowens Jip’s Ex #3: Nicola Davey Inca: Roger Evans Tyler: Bradley Freegard Trixi: Emma Hall Jip’s Ex #1: Elizabeth Harper Jip’s Secretary: Jennifer Hill TV Interviewer: Nicola Heywood-Thomas Casey: Robert Marrable Cardiff Bad Boy: Louis Marriot Millsy From Roath: Millsy in Nottingham Karen Benson’s Boyfriend: Robbie Newby Tom Tom’s MC: Ninjah Jip’s Mother’s Client: Cadfan Roberts Koop’s Workmate: Mad Doctor X Bad Boy: Jason Samuels Breakdancer / Bodypopper: Tim Hamilton Bodypopper: Alicia Ferraboschi Bodypopper: Sherena Flash Bodypopper: Marat Khairoullin Bodypopper: Adam Pudney Bodypopper: Mark Seymore Bodypopper: Algernon Williams Bodypopper: Colin Williams Bodypopper: Frank Wilson Film Crew: Supervising Sound Editor: Glenn Freemantle Sound Editor: Tom Sayers Dialogue Editor: Gillian Dodders Casting Director: Sue Jones Additional Editing: Stuart Gazzard Associate Producer: Rupert Preston Producer: Allan Niblo Director: Justin Kerrigan Producer: Emer McCourt Co-Executive Producer: Michael Wearing Steadicam Operator: Paul Edwards Second Assistant Director: Marcus Collier Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Craig Irving Editor: Patrick Moore Director of Photography: Dave Bennett Costume Designer: Claire Anderson Original Music Composer: Matthew Herbert Set Dresser: Ed Talfan Sound Recordist: Martyn Stevens Production Coordinator: Andrea Cornwell Post Production Supervisor: Jackie Vance Post Production Coordinator: Claire Mason ADR Recordist: Sandy Buchanan Gaffer: Andrew Taylor Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Nicolas Le Messurier Script Supervisor: Laura Gwynne Assistant Sound Editor: Susan French Music Supervisor: Pete Tong Makeup & Hair: Kerry September First Assistant Director: Charlie Watson Post Production Supervisor: Maria Walker Second Assistant Director: Matthew Penry-Davey Assistant Editor: Amy Adams Foley Editor: Miriam Ludbrook Original Music Composer: Roberto Leite Storyboard Artist: Nick Kilroy Dialogue Editor: Keith Marriner Makeup Designer: Tony Lilley First Assistant Director: Emma Pounds Music Consultant: Arthur Baker Co-Executive Producer: Kevin Menton Electrician: Mark Hutchings Boom Operator: Jeff Welch Costume Assistant: Karen Mason Casting Director: Gary Howe Production Design: David Buckingham Co-Executive Producer: Nigel Warren-Green Executive Producer: Renata S. Aly Art Direction: Sue Ayton First Assistant Director: Hywel Watkins Third Assistant Director: Tivian Zvekan Location Manager: Peter Vidler Location Manager: Frank Coles Assistant Location Manager: Roland Mercer Focus Puller: Mike Chitty Clapper Loader: Ewan O’Brien Key Grip: David Hopkins Construction Manager: Martin Dawes Property Master: John C. Reilly Set Dresser: Riana Griffiths Art Department Assistant: Jacqui Puscher Storyboard Artist: Deena Mathews Costume Supervisor: Anne McManus Makeup & Hair: Hanna Coles Still Photographer: Hector Bermejo Unit Publicist: Jessica Kirsh Movie Reviews: zag: One of my favorite films of all time, its a period movie describing the young party goers of the UK in the 1990’s. It hits the nail on the head, the lov...

[sinceileftyoublog]

Robert Finley Interview: Something to Laugh About

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The most stunning and heartbreaking song on blues singer Robert Finley's latest album Black Bayou (Easy Eye Sound), is made up. On album closer "Alligator Bait", the narrator--at first talking rather than singing--describes trudging through the swamp, his grandfather having just purchased for him a pair of hip boots. Backed by Kenny Brown's spindly guitars, Eric Deaton's slinky bass, and Jeffrey Clemens' slow-burning, stomping drums, Finley's gruff voice tells the story of this character wading around, waiting for something to happen. He accidentally steps on an alligator's back, thinking it's a log; his grandfather shoots the gator after it reacts. Matter-of-fact, Finley states, darkly humorous, "A lotta kids got ate like that." But on the second half of the song, he sings, wailing like a bluesman who had his heart broken. Only this time, he's taken aback by familial betrayal, realizing his grandfather had only bought him the hip boots and told him to enter the swamp in order to use him as alligator bait. When the narrator goes home to tell his father, his father laughs and brushes him aside, confessing that the same thing happened to him when he was a kid. Most of us face a mini existential crisis when we learn our parents aren't perfect. The narrator of "Alligator Bait", on the other hand, has just learned of his own dispensability.

When I spoke to Finley over the phone a few days before Black Bayou was released in late October, he confessed, "'Alligator Bait' was supposed to be cheerful. I didn't want to make him look like a mean old grandpa. It's just something to laugh about," before pausing and adding, "Maybe it'll make some kids stay away from the creek." Indeed, seven years into his improbable comeback, Finley views his role as a singer and entertainer as twofold: meeting the audience at the heart while simultaneously giving them advice, telling them the barebones truth when other authority figures won't. On Black Bayou, he reckons with ideas of homesickness and loneliness, lust and love, selflessness and salvation. Buoyed by longtime collaborator Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, Finley wrote all of the songs in the studio, and his familiarity with his supporting cast of musicians resulted in songs that were both efficiently recorded and emotionally acute. Brown's guitar winces with longing on "Livin' Out A Suitcase" as Finley's tired of traveling. On "Waste Of Time", a song that sees Finley taking pride in rural living even if it means missing out on opportunities provided by cities, the buzz-saw guitars and Clemens' clattering percussion yield a perfect maximalism to go along with Finley's claims that, yes, there's still a lot to digest right outside your doorstep. "There are so many guys down here with super talent," Finely said. "They haven't been exposed to the right places."

In fact, Finley's daughter and grandaughter, Christy Johnson and LaQuindrelyn McMahon, offer a prototype. Like many musicians and singers in rural Louisiana, Johnson had long been singing at church, specifically in the youth choir before she started traveling with her father, joining him on his 2019 America's Got Talent stint and eventually recording background vocals on 2021's autobiographical Sharecropper's Son. And Finley insisted to Auerbach on McMahon singing backup on Black Bayou, though she's also in her own band, according to Finley. After all, there's not much of a difference between blues and gospel music. As Finley puts it, it's just "Oh, baby!" versus "Oh, lord!"

Really, Finley feels his songs could essentially soundtrack various milestones or important events in life. He made sweet doo wop outlier "Lucky Day" for others. "It's a wedding song. It's for people celebrating their 50th anniversary," he said. "It's one of those songs you can use in different situations." In contrast, he describes "Susie Q"-esque lurker "What Goes Around Comes Around" as "basically scripture," even as he sings lines like, "I got my whiskey and my woman / I ain't worried about a thing." Living the way you want and keeping to yourself can be a holy exercise, too. "They're the true facts. No sugarcoating," Finley said, adding, "Something the preacher ain't gonna say. They'd kick him out the church!"

The line between Finley's performance as authentic versus an act is not one he's really ultimately concerned with, as the very fact that he's gotten here is surreal. "I'm living my childhood dream at my age," he said. "I get a chance to express myself. To be able to go back and look at myself on film to see how I've made a fool of myself." Multiple times throughout our conversation, he referred to himself as in total service of the audience, wanting to make them laugh, wanting to make their lives easier, even if he needs to paint himself as a sinner or dunce in order to do so. Still, he has his head on his shoulders. "There's a difference between acting a fool and being a fool," Finley said. "One means you're a really good actor because you can act crazy, and the other says, 'You're fucking crazy for real.'" Find me a preacher who'd admit that!

[mcbastardsmausoleum]

Lucky McKee's 'May' & Xavier Gens' Frontier(s) arrive on Limited Edition Blu-ray 7/24 from Second Sights Films

MAY Make a date with May – for an unforgettable, uncomfortable, weird and wild experience. Lucky McKee’s wickedly wry body horror featuring outstanding performances, stunning cinematography and a stellar soundtrack, is back for a new release this July. Second Sight Films has it all sewn up with a brand-new Limited Edition and Standard Edition Blu-ray version, both complete with a fantastic slew of special features. Meet May Dove Candy, the socially awkward veterinary assistant, who was bullied as a child for her lazy eye, and has developed an obsession with perfection. Desperate for connection, May struggles to make friends and is desperately searching for a perfect boyfriend. Then she meets Adam, the boy with the flawless hands… could he be the one? But the path of love never runs smoothly, especially with May’s inability to connect with people. As her dream of perfection unravels, she becomes increasingly detached from reality and descends into the depths of depravity. The brand-new Limited Edition is set for release on July 24 and is presented in a stunning box with new artwork by Bella Grace, alongside a 70 page book, with new essays. Both editions come complete with a host of brilliant extras including new audio commentaries and new interviews with the stars, director, composer and editors and much more, see full details below. Don’t miss May Limited Edition, a devilish delight that’s a cut above the rest.

Special Features:  - New audio commentary with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas - Audio commentary with director Lucky McKee, cinematographer Steve Yedlin, editor Chris Sivertson and actors Angela Bettis, Nichole Hiltz, and Bret Roberts - Audio commentary with director Lucky McKee, Editor Rian Johnson, Composer Jammes Luckett (formerly credited as Jaye Barnes Luckett), production designer Leslie Keel, and Craft Services guy Benji - The Toymaker: a new interview with director Lucky McKee  -Perfect Hands: a new interview with actor Jeremy Sisto - Blankety Blank: a new interview with actor James Duval - How to Execute a Murder: a new interview with cinematographer Steve Yedlin • Peeling Back the Layers: a new interview with editor Rian Johnson - Jack and Jill: a new interview with editor Chris Sivertson - In the Cut: a new interview with editor Kevin Ford - Blood, Gore and Rock ‘n’ Roll: a new interview with composer Jammes Luckett • From Frankenstein to May: Miranda Corcoran on May - Bits and Pieces: on the set of May Limited Edition Contents:   -Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Bella Grace - 70 page book with new essays by Joseph Dwyer, Rachel Knightley, Mary Beth McAndrews and Heather Wixson - Six collectors' art cards

FRONTIER(S) 

Dare you cross Frontier(s)? The shockingly violent and darkly disturbing horror from Xavier Gens(Hitman, Gangs of London)  in his 2007 directorial debut, is set for a brand-new Limited Edition Blu-ray Box set release alongside a Standard Edition version from experts in the field Second Sight Films on July 24 2023. 

Shocking and thrilling audiences and offending (some) critics on its original release, French helmer Gens’ blood-fueled,  brutal feature is set for a stunning new Limited Edition outing. The box set is presented in a rigid slipcase with new artwork  by James Neal and a 70 page book featuring new essays and comes complete with a bucket load of special features. These  will be available on both versions and include: an audio commentary with Zoë Rose Smith and Kelly Gredner, new interviews  with cast and crew, the 'Making of’, a short film and more! Please see full list below. 

It’s a time of severe political unrest in Paris, an extreme right-wing party has come to power and violent protests soon turn  into full scale riots. As the streets burn, a group of young reprobates use the chaos to their advantage, robbing anything  and everything they can. But as they get in too deep, tragedy strikes and with the police on their tail, they’re forced to split  up and flee the city. 

Their situation goes from bad to worse as they end up holed up in a remote countryside guesthouse, where they come face  to face with a strange clan, the Von Geislers – a ruthlessly and violently oppressive father, his fiercely sexual daughters,  and brutish sons – who soon reveal themselves as neo-Nazis. The debauched family’s fantasy of starting a new Aryan race  could soon be realized as Yasmine (Karina Testa, Budapest), could be the key to the fresh bloodline they’ve been waiting  for. Can she and her friends survive the human abattoir, or will she become 'one of the family'? 

Enter the depraved and debauched Frontier(s) for a twisted, stomach-churning, thrilling horror experience. 

Special Features: 

- Audio Commentary with Zoë Rose Smith and Kelly Gredner 

- Reinventing the Extreme: a new interview with director Xavier Gens • Going Method: a new interview with actor Karina Testa 

- A Light in the Dark: a new interview with actor Maud Forget - Lights, Camera... Fear: a new interview with cinematographer Laurent Barès • Sounds of Violence: a new interview with composer Jean-Piere Taïeb • The Making of Frontier(s) 

- Fotografik Short Film 

- Xavier Gens Highschool Trailers 

- Frontier(s) Trailers 

- Storyboard Comparisons 

- Behind-the-Scenes Photos with commentary by Xavier Gens and Karina Testa 

- Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Xavier Gens and Karina Testa 

Limited Edition Contents: 

- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by James Neal 

 -70 page book with new essays by Dr Sarah Cleary, Mark H Harris, Carolyn Mauricette and  Alexandra West 

- Six collectors' art cards 

[back-and-totheleft]

Do we ever learn from history?

Ask any journalist who has interviewed Oliver Stone, and you’re prone to hear the same story. He is hardly the man you might expect from his movies, argumentative and hyper-caffeinated. He speaks in an even, measured tone of voice. His arguments are thoughtful and intelligently reasoned.

For more than two decades, Stone has been lambasted by historians (for his expansive, conspiracy-minded re-examinations of the Kennedy assassination in 1991’s “JFK”); by the moral guardians (for his scabrous satire of our sex-and-violence-obsessed culture, 1994’s “Natural Born Killers”); and most recently even by the critics who used to champion him (recent titles like 2004’s “Alexander” and 2010’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” have been especially poorly received).

In which case, perhaps Stone has learned to rise above all the noise and remember that it’s his work — probing, searing and technically dazzling, even if it does occasionally devolve into grandstanding — that speaks loudest.

“I think we’re in a time that we can take the gloves off, stop the mythologizing about America,” he says — quietly, reflectively — of his determination to keep pushing our buttons cinematically.

Stone is calling from New York City, where he’s doing the publicity rounds for his latest, a thriller called “Savages,” which opens Friday. Based on Don Winslow’s 2010 novel, which Stone acquired before it was published, it tells the story of two handsome young marijuana dealers (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson), the beautiful girl they both love (Blake Lively) and the vicious Mexican drug cartel that tries to move in on their turf.

In many respects, it’s one of the director’s least evidently political movies. Stone throws us into a turbulent and exceedingly violent world, which also features a deadly Tijuana widow (Salma Hayek), her two henchman (Demian Bichir and Benicio Del Toro) and a DEA agent on the take (John Travolta). But there’s also no avoiding the movie’s real-world parallels. Stone doesn’t flinch from the outsized, unimaginable violence being reported regularly out of Mexico — at various points in the film, characters are beheaded, stabbed and tortured. And underlying the drama is a distinctly Stone-ian sense of exasperation about the failures and hypocrisies of America’s war on drugs.

“It’s an unmitigated disaster and has cost this country friendships abroad, and has cost us half a trillion dollars,” Stone says about the federal government’s drug control policy.

“The thinking on it is perverted. Do we ever learn anything from history? Prohibition only gave America a new gangster class that went onto into other rackets, after they were finished with liquor. We only create more criminals.”

(Stone’s attitude toward the criminalization of marijuana can perhaps be summed up by the fact that he posed for the cover of the current issue of High Times magazine smoking a joint.)

With its sometimes unlikely twists and elaborate double-crosses, it’s clear that “Savages” is a movie more about showing the audience a good time than inspiring any sort of sustained policy debate. Yet the director’s days of controversy-making also appear to be far from over.

His next project is a 10-part documentary, titled “The Untold History of the United States,” which is expected to begin airing on Showtime in November. It will question conventionally held wisdom on a host of major historical topics, from the bombing of Hiroshima to Bush v. Gore.

And given the opportunity, the director is still willing to toss off one of his trademark conspiracy theories, albeit in calm and perfectly reasonable-sounding fashion. Moments before our interview began, the Supreme Court had just announced its decision to uphold President Barack Obama’s health care law. Stone was predictably skeptical and iconoclastic in analyzing Chief Justice John Roberts’ motivations.

“Roberts is under a lot of pressure there,” he said. “I think if he had his druthers, he’d have gone the other way.”

-Christopher Kelly, "Back with thriller ‘Savages,’ Oliver Stone doesn’t shrink from controversy," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 3 2012

[pastedpast]

I had another chance to catch up with Netflix programmes while I was in Canterbury and I watched a few items of interest. One of them was 'Moonage Daydream', a documentary made last year about David Bowie. I'm not a huge fan of Bowie as a musician - his stage performances were too theatrical for me and I don't enjoy his lyrics (he often used the 'cut up'* technique), but I like him a lot as a person and am going to continue watching interviews with him, via YouTube. I also liked his artwork, many of which are shown in the film, that you don't usually hear about or see. (The painting above is one of his, called 'Child in Berlin').

What else? I watched a documentary about psychedelics ('Have A Good Trip'), which featured the experiences and opinions of a number of famous people, like actress and writer Carrie Fisher, musician Sting, and author on spiritual matters, Deepak Chopra. It was mildly entertaining, but what was more interesting was the British programme called 'Magic Medicine', which explored the possibility of how psilocybin – the psychoactive ingredient of magic mushrooms – could be used to treat depression. A review on the Guardian website accurately describes it as "an intriguing, inconclusive film about an intriguing, inconclusive drug trial", which focussed on three participants, all of whom were long-time sufferers of depression. The results were varied, but definitely provided evidence that there is scope for the drug being used in tandem with therapy to treat mental illnesses with positive effects.

And I watched a documentary about the brief life of Robert Johnson, the man who, it was suggested, sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads in order to become a brilliant blues musician and songwriter in 1930s America. More likely is that he learnt a lot from blues guitarist, Isaiah "Ike" Zimmerman, having left town for about a year, possibly searching for his birth father. It's said that the two guitarists practised in a graveyard at midnight, sitting on tombstones across from each other. Before he left his hometown, Johnson was not a very good player, but when he returned he was so brilliant that people couldn't believe it, hence the supernatural story about his gift being attributed to a deal with the Devil.

Not much is really known about Robert Johnson - only three, possibly four, photographs and 29 audio recordings (and 13 alternate takes) exist. His work influenced later blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, white musicians such as Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, and several of his songs became blues standards. He died age 27 from being poisoned after messing around with another man's wife.

Info from Wikipedia about the 'cut up’ technique:

It is an aleatory (i.e. dependent upon luck or chance) literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to the Dadaists of the 1920s, but it was developed and popularized in the 1950s and early 1960s, especially by writer William S. Burroughs.

[sarahmoonartroom]

Studio Visit with Tamara Johnson (February 9th, 2023)

Hello blog! Today I am documenting my studio visit with Tamara Johnson, an artist from Waco Texas, home of the Dr. Pepper. Johnson is Washington University’s 2023 Freud Fellow. She received her BFA at the University of Texas in Austin (lit) and earned her MFA in sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design (slay). After completing her degree at RISD, she did the dang thing by moving to New York ***** City!!! She stayed for 6 years, working under Robert Gober, an American sculptor manipulating familiar and domestic objects to explore ideas surrounding sexuality, religion, and politics. She then left NYC to start Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, extending her practice to a one acre lot in West Dallas that supplies space for experimental, large-scale outdoor projects. 

One of my favorite things Tamara said after her impressive biography was rattled off, was that it "sounds way more concise and upbeat than it was". There were plenty of years of depression. Being an artist has so many peaks and valleys, there are so many challenges and so much rejection. You may send out twelve applications and only get one response, but that one just might be your next step.

“Everything you’re doing is moving you forward.”

Other great advice she poured out....

there is power in 3’s. It normally takes 3 months to get in the flow of a new job, but it takes 3 years to get really settled into it. 

“You will always have time and money for the things that you really care about”

Once you leave art school, its a different form of creating. Soak up this experience and make work to impress your peers in the program. 

You can Invent Time— DRAG YOUR BODY TO THE STUDIO. 

Dont get jaded. 

There is no one way to do it, carve your own path

So- for the blog I figured I would ask to do a quick interview and practice SPEAKING...if Tamara doesn’t mind. I’d love to ask a few questions. To be continued....

When you got the idea about your sculpture park Sweet Pass Sculpture, what was the next move you made? Did you start sketching, researching? How did you go about starting a project of such a size without getting overwhelmed by just the idea?

What is your one piece of advice for someone reading who wants to move to New York to deepen their art practice?

What is your favorite studio ALBUM to lose yourself creating to?

Below I have attached some photos from Johnson's work, sourced from her website.

[bringinbackpod]

We had the pleasure of interviewing Track45 over Zoom video! Rising country trio Track45 announces its signing with United Talent Agency (UTA) for booking. The trio, made up of siblings Jenna, Ben and KK Johnson, will be working with UTA booking agent Lance Roberts as its day-to-day. Track45 signed to BBR Music Group’s Stoney Creek Records in August of 2020 and is managed by T.R.U.T.H. Management’s Missi Gallimore. The band recently released its own version of “Family,” a song written by Jenna, Ben and KK that was made famous last year when it was recorded by David Guetta featuring Bebe Rexha, Ty Dolla $ign, A Boogie wit da Hoodie. Listen to Track45’s “Family,” here: track45.lnk.to/FamilyPR "I have been wanting to work with these guys for a couple of years now," says UTA booking agent Lance Roberts. "Very excited that we are finally doing it and excited for what the future holds for them with help from our team at UTA." "We are all about Family, and are so excited to add to ours by partnering with UTA," says Track45. "We are extremely thankful for their belief in us and excited to see what the future holds!" Members of Track45 have written songs for artists including Justin Timberlake, Charlie Puth, Dierks Bentley, Weezer, Lee Brice, HARDY, Lauren Alaina and others, and Ben Johnson was recently honored for five songs at the 2022 BMI Country Awards. The band is set to announce new music in the coming months. In the meantime, visit track45.com for more info. We want to hear from you! Please email Hello@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #Track45 #Family #JennaJohnson #BenJohnson #KKJohnson #NewMusic #Zoom #NewMusic Listen & Subscribe to BiB https://www.bringinitbackwards.com/follow/ Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! https://www.facebook.com/groups/bringinbackpod