like a visit from an old friend...

juju hisowndamnedself was laid up with a bit of a cold this weekend, and when we felt it coming, we dropped into our local video emporium to pick up some DVDs to watch. Lovely to come across recently released Criterion edition of Wim Wenders' marvelous film, Wings of Desire. A.O. Scott makes recent mention of the film at the NYT's Critic's Picks. Oncet upon a time juju's alter ego posted a d'monkey mention of WoD, if ye be interested look for the 6.27 link you'll find at this page...
damn, 1987?
Egads...

the esteemed Naomi Klein writes about...

Capitalism, Sarah Palin-style and 'tis worthy of a studied perusal
(as is Ms. Klein herowndarnedself...).
credit to Akkam's Razor for providing that nice chewy, chunky bit of linky goodness, and here be some others from the August 4th post there...

gosh, while we're at it (we = ju ju and his head full of imaginary friends), a review of Katherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker from Kevin Murphy's Ghost in the Machine.

Back for a moment as we wanted to be sure to point ye to Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire and 10 Steps to Take to Do So, courtesy Tom Dispatch, but credit to the heads up on the linky goodness goes to Gordon Coale.

re that Blogger makes it Bigtime story involving...

movie called Julie and Julia or somesuch...
SO...
some young blogger gets bright idea to do all of Julia's recipes and blogs about it, gets bigtime book then movie deal (or sumptin' like dat), ennyway, now we have film about to hit the theatres featuring Ms. M. Streep as Julia alongside the lovely (and how!) Amy "Yum Yum Yum" Adams as the young blogger Julie.

Okay, so me a WEE tiny bit resentful (HAH!), nobody wants to make movie of aging silverback ape fella anyway, no matter his sexual peculiarities, but, jessferdahalibut, and as tribute to SNL of old, here's a great bit from back in the day featuring Danny Ackroyd as Julia...

perhaps the book my dear parental units ought...

to have written,via the marvel that is Boing Boing,
Toto and I, A Gorilla in the Family;
and whilst here, will not miss mention (courtesy the New Yorker online)
of singular published work by a certain Malcolm Lowry, on the centenary of his birth, & certainly worthy of your studied perusal,
Under The Volcano.
While at it, ju ju will make mention that a pretty damned good film adaptation of said novel, directed by John Huston and starring Albert Finney, is available.

TETSUO!!!!

Yow! via gmtPlus9.



"A young man (Tomorowo Taguchi) slowly transforms into a metallic monster after he comes into contact with a bizarre man with metal objects protruding from his body." @ Nippon Cinema.

quickie post on a wednesday morning...

inspired by the vid o' the moment there alongside, recalling working in the NoNo HQ bookstore and listening to NPR's The World, story about the retirement of bigtime rockstar of the French persuasion, Johnny Hallyday. As our personal homage to the French Elvis, we want to point you to film where we became a little better acquainted with the legend that is J. Hallyday, Man on the Train, and, as an aside, really be happy to recommend anything you might pick up directed by Patrice Leconte. Thanks for the vid, Esteban!

in response to that very recent and timely like a...

mo-fo post from El Stupendo Stumperino, via the New Yorker online, Hendrik Hertzberg's The Glorious Third.

ju ju and asst'd amigo/amigas spent some time in movie theatres this weekend, catching up with some recent releases. Saw Moon, liked it, sort of low key sci-fi non-actioner; Girl from Monaco, which puzzled us to some degree, as there was often some humourous stuff going on, leading us to think "oh, wee lightweight French comedy, and oh-so-very-French" but then events at end of film having us re-evaluate and go "Hmmmm, now what was THAT really about?". Best of three viewed was Kathryn Bigelow's new film, The Hurt Locker, of which we cannot say enough good things about. Meant a trip to the city where we caught early matinee at the Embarcadero theatre which was nearly a full house, as it is the only game in town as far as this release goes presently, and yourstruly not patient enough to wait until the 27th when it opens in the local Berkeley environs. We will try to shake that lazy sluggard Juicy Pernil out of his self-imposed slothfulness so he can tell ya more about what's been happening here in this wee tiny part of the leftest coast. OH!
almos forgot, some trailers that caught ju ju's eyes and have us looking forward to release of these films: In the Loop, and for electric guitar fans especially, It Might Get Loud (and we'll wager it does, too)...

oh, and 'fore we forget-
!!!iroL ot yad-B yppaH

hiya hiya...

summer is fully afoot now.
lovely 'round these parts presently, hope it be nice wherever ye be.

couple of things to share from the online greylady, altho' first we toot el chango tonto's horn (during a non-permalinking period) when he mentioned a bit about his dislike of a particular person by the name of rumsfeld (hie thyselves to the dm page of May '06 and seek out the 5.5 post, and now bring ye up to the present and review of recently published book on D. Rumsfeld. Oh, and don't we wish there was some authority that would bring miscreants like Rumsfeld and Cheney to task for...
nevermind, don't get ju ju started on this.
okay, now this one for those of us given to indulging our various appetites (in this case speaking of those food related lesser impulses)via The Well @NYTimes.com, How the Food Makers Captured our Brains.

ok, almos forgot, back here to pass along film recommendation from the esteemed G. Coale. the embedded vid included below discovered and supplied by Dante O. hisowndarnedself...

he say he makin' no promises...

and that is likely a good thing, as he ain't very good at keepin' 'em...
Mine doppelganger jehosaphat prayer appears to be resurrecting that odiferous, dust laden and cobwebbed old corpus of el chango tonto out here on the left coast, will wonders never cease. He make mention there of the work of a certain Clayton Call, Famous Rock and Roll Photographer (that few people have ever heard of...) and ju ju got to agree, katz und kitteez, check that site out...

Abraham Obama, tonight, 8 PM 92nd St. Y Tribeca

Oy, yo yo yo, doing anything tonight? Cuz Kev (Kevin Chapados) directed Ron English's Abraham Obama, screening tonight at the Tribeca Branch of the 92nd Street Y.

forty year anniversary of Easy Rider...

wow...

caught sight of that news at some blog or another, you can look up your own item regarding this news via this googled link.
Just an aside here, recently viewed a film titled Elegy w/Ben Kingsley and Dennis Hopper, a long way from his role as Billy in Easy Rider.

manohman, was just an impressionable young buck of sixteen when I saw easy rider, the northgate theatre in ol' EPT...

Later that same day...
two wonderful pieces from two different sources, both worthy of thy studied perusal:
The Things That Carried Him by Chris Jones, courtesy Esquire Magazine online;
How David Beats Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell, via the online New Yorker.

sometimes we all need a hand...

yah, like when you might be hoping to find a film like that one you saw that one rainy night so long ago...

via the local fishwrap, some news about clerkdogs...

and lo and behold, clerkdogs does a pretty damn fine j - o - b of it...
OH, nearly forgot-
also from the pages of the local fishwrap's food section today:
(hey dere stumperino, lemme know if the flavour truly be dere!)
gift suggestion for the baker you love, Baked, from that bakery in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood...