Category: Uncategorized

Alison Kraus – Shows by Date

1988.10.07 – Alexandria, VA – w/Tony Rice
1995.09.02 – Woodstown, NJ
1997.05.12 – Morristown, NJ
2001.06.24 – Telluride, CO
2007.06.23 – Telluride, CO
2008.06.15– Manchester, TN – w/Robert Plant
2010.xx.xx – Lossless Legs Gift to Tapers Comp
2016.12.10 – Asheville, NC – w/Warren Haynes
2022.06.09 – Indianapolis, IN – w/Robert Plant
2022.06.26 – London, England – w/Robert Plant
2022.06.30 – Roskilde, Denmark – w/Robert Plant
2022.07.14 – Lucca, Italy – w/Robert Plant
2022.07.18 – Sopot, Poland – w/Robert Plant

Old Posts, Revisited

I have now imported almost all of the music posts to the new music site. There are still a few stragglers here and there but for the most part, the bulk of the transition is complete. I have now made this site public again.

I removed my post about the new site because I want it to remain completely private and therefore I do not want any links from this site to it. I will write a vague post about the music trying to inform anyone who hasn’t been around these parts what has happened so look forward that.

As part of my work on this site, I will be going back into the bowels of it and making some very old private posts public once again. I did this a while back but for those of you who have forgotten or weren’t around back then here’s the scoop.

This blog was originally a diary of the year I spent in France. Then it became a pop culture site where I wrote movie reviews, talked about music and books, and any other thing that interested me. At some point, I turned everything except the music private. I have slowly been going through those old private posts, giving them a light edit, and then making them public again.

When I do so WordPress treats them like a new post and it sends out an e-mail to all my subscribers as if these posts were just written. That can be confusing as I wrote a lot of personal stuff back then and you may hear me talking about living in France or Indiana, or reference something that happened twenty years ago.

I’ll try to make note of when I originally published these posts to ease that confusion. Most of you will have no interest in these old posts but I don’t know how to turn it off so you don’t receive those e-mails. My apologies.

The Movie Journal: August 2024

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I watched 45 movies in August of 2024. 38 of them were new to me. 22 of them were made before I was born. It was Animation in August and I watched 11 animated films this month. As per usual I started strong with my theme and then I got a little tired of it. Then I had a lot of review movies to watch and write about and then I kind of forgot about it. But I got to see some animated films I otherwise would not have watched so I consider it a plus.

actors

The actor’s race has stayed more or less the same. Almost everyone moved up a notch with one additional film watched by each. Alan Ladd and Peter Cushing popped into the rankings although to be fair there are several other actors who have five films to their name, but Letterboxd only shows ten faces in their ratings.

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Director-wise things are still tame. I don’t know why I haven’t focused in on a few more directors this year. By this time, I’ve seen quite a lot of films by a few directors, but this year I’ve spread them out. John Ford did bump up a film putting him in second place and Yoshiaki Kawaijiri landed in third place. He directed three of the animated films I watched this year. I keep thinking sometime soon I’ll watch a bunch of Scorsese films or something, but I keep not doing it.

Speaking of Scorsese I thought about making this month Scorsese in September, but ultimately decided against it. I’m seriously thinking about watching his entire oeuvre chronologically and talking about everyone. But we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway here is the full list.

A Bug’s Life (1998) ****
Fight Club (1999) ****
25th Hour (2002) ****
And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973) ***
The Legend of Hell House (1973) ***1/2
A Queen’s Ransom (1976) **
Black Mask (1996) ***
Appointment with Danger (1950) ****
Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1949) ****
Make Haste to Live (1954) **1/2
A Man Called Tiger (1973) **1/2
Kutsukake Tokijiro: The Lonely Yakuza (1966) ****
The 355 (2022) ***
Gemini (2017) ****
Needful Things (1993) ***
Black Moon (1934) *
Prime Cut (1972) ***1/2
High Crime (1973) ***1/2
Broken Lance (1954) ***1/2
The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) ***1/2
Doctor Who: The Web Planet (1965) ***1/2
The Prowler (1951) **
Suzume (2022) ****
Death Line (1972) ***
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000) ****
Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) **1/2
Right Hand of the Devil (1963) ***
Five Minutes to Live (1961) **
Platinum Blonde (1931) ***
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) ***
Female on the Beach (1955) ***1/2
The House (2022) ***1/2
When Time Ran Out… (1980) *1/2
Demon City Shinjuku (1988) **1/2
Princess Mononoke (1997) *****
China (1943) ***1/2
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) ****
A Scanner Darkly (2006) ****
Song of the Sea (2014) ***1/2
Batman: Year One (2011) ***1/2
Kansas City Confidential (1952) ****
Wicked City (1987) ****
Vampire Hunter D (1985) **
A Quiet Place (2018) ***1/2

Black Mask (1996)

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I’ve only seen a few Jet Li movies and I can’t say that I’m really a fan. Obviously, he’s got mad martial arts chops, but his movies (at least the few I’ve seen) don’t really do it for me.

Black Mask is an exception, sort-of. It is an utterly silly movie with a dumb plot and some terrible acting. But the action is so over-the-top and completely ridiculous that it won me over.

You can read my full review here.

High Noon (1952)

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High Noon changed the way I understood Gary Cooper. I think it was the first film I’d ever seen by him. I knew who he was even when I was a little kid. He was the strong, silent type. I thought that meant tough and mean. I wasn’t expecting someone so sensitive. Tough yes, but also caring.

He’s now one of my favorite actors. You can read my full review of the Blu-ray here.

A Man Called Tiger (1973)

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Bruce Lee was supposed to have starred in this film. But he and director Wei Lo had something of a falling out and so Jimmy Wang Yu got the lead role.

It is a crazy movie with a ridiculous (and somewhat incomprehensible) plot. This is made a bit more comprehensible in the newly restored Hong Kong edit (it was chopped to pieces in the Internation edit upon initial release). But it still doesn’t make much sense.

But it is worth watching because the action is a lot of fun. I’m a sucker for Hong Kong action flicks and this totally delivers. You can read my full review here.

High Crime (1974)

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Franco Nero was one of the biggest Italian movie stars of the 1970s. Though he made a number of international and American movies I’m not sure if he was ever all that well known over here. Maybe he was. I really don’t know. These days he’s well loved by genre fans. His breakthrough role was Django a terrific Spaghetti Western that beget untold sequels. He made lots of other Westerns, Gialli, Poliziotteschi, and every other Italian genre film you can think of. He’s still working, too, having recently been in films like John Wick 2, and The Pope’s Exorcist.

Not all of his films were masterpieces (dude has starred in over 200 films so you gotta give him some slack) but I always enjoy seeing his face appear in anything.

High Crimes is a pretty good little crime thriller from the 1970s. Nero plays a no-nonsense cop who feels all the rules and regulations are keeping him from nailing the bad guys. The plot gets a little convoluted but the action sequences are pretty great. You can read my full review here.

Eric Clapton – Unreleased Soundtracks and Other Wonders

Eric Clapton
Unreleased Soundtracks And Other Wonders
Various Dates and Sesssions

Disc One
01 – I Don’t Know Why ~ 1970 First Solo Album Alternate Version
02 – Jam # 1 ~ 1974 Studio Jam
03 – Jam # 2 ~ 1974 Studio Jam
04 – Motherless Children Jam # 1 ~ 1974 Studio Jam
05 – Jam in E ~ 1974 Studio Jam
06 – I Found A Love ~ 1975 There’s One In Every Crowd Outtake
07 – Matchbox ~ 1975 There’s One In Every Crowd Outtake

Disc Two
01 – Say Hello To Billy Jean ~ 1980 Outtake
02 – Lady of Verona ~ 1986 Outtake
03 – It’s My Life Baby ~ 1986 Color of Money Outtake
04 – Training Jam # 1 ~ 1988 Homeboy Outtake
05 – Training Jam # 2 ~ 1988 Homeboy Outtake
06 – Communion ~ 1989 Communion Outtake
07 – The Van Opening Theme ~ 1997 The Van Outtake
08 – The Van Closing Theme ~ 1997 The Van Outtake
09 – Nil By Mouth ~ 1997 Nil By Mouth Outtake
10 – Ruthie ~ 1997 Legends Outtake

Various sources
Compiled and mastered by ml13
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