From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V4 #119 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Saturday, May 1 2004 Volume 04 : Number 119 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] All the Ships at Sea ["Larry Tucker" ] [loud-fans] Merrit Salon article [steve ] Re: [loud-fans] All the Ships at Sea [zoom@muppetlabs.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:40:30 -0400 From: "Larry Tucker" Subject: [loud-fans] All the Ships at Sea I'd like heap some praise upon Dan Sallitt and his film "All the Ships at Sea" which screened at the Riverrun Festival in Winston-Salem last weekend. Friendship aside I highly recommend this film if you ever get a chance to see it. It really is a wonderful little film, though I'm not a film buff I thought it was well written and directed. And Dan, it sure was nice after all these years to finally put a face to a name. I wish you luck on getting some kind of distribution deal for your work. Larry ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:02:47 -0700 (PDT) From: zoom@muppetlabs.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] All the Ships at Sea > I'd like heap some praise upon Dan Sallitt and his film "All the Ships > at Sea" which screened at the Riverrun Festival in Winston-Salem last > weekend. Friendship aside I highly recommend this film if you ever get a > chance to see it. It really is a wonderful little film, though I'm not a > film buff I thought it was well written and directed. This is your new digital one, Dan? What's the story? I don't see anything about it at your website, or at IMDb, confusingly enough. You ever make it out to the Seattle International Film Festival? Dan's website, for anyone who wants to take a peek (and you should), http://www.panix.com/~sallitt/ Just saw AFTER THE LIFE and ENVY (though I'm still waiting for the next great film of the year after CRIMSON GOLD), Andy A 19-seater has no flight attendant, meanwhile, and it was the responsibility of the first officer (co-pilot) to give the safety demo, providing ample opportunity to hone his or her public-speaking skills. With most regional co-pilots qualifying for food stamps, this also provided a natural segue into researching a second career. Namely, comedy. Southwest's stand-up routines have nothing on the wisecracking and ad-libbing heard at Northeast Express Regional Airlines, circa 1992, believe me. I know of no airline pilot ever taking the stage at a comedy club, which is a testament to just how awful most of these routines were. "But seriously, folks, your seat cushion becomes a flotation device! Is this thing on?" Other planes had built-in cassette players, through which all regulatory announcements were taken care of by a sober-sounding fellow with a voice like James Earl Jones'. Side A was the safety demo, which would run and then automatically stop. When the time came, you'd flip to side B for the pre-landing spiel. With the tape decks on hand, I'd sometimes carry albums to work. Out on the ramp between flights, I'd have lunch (usually something from Spinelli's, over in East Boston, which would splatter my shirt with enough tomato sauce to make it look as though I'd murdered my passengers) and listen to music. One thing led to another, of course, and every now and then riders would be treated to the greatest hits from Patrick Smith's collection of 1980s alt-rock. My exact choices varied with the weather, time of day, and probability of inflight bumpiness. Cruising through the clouds: H|sker D|, the Wedding Present, or the Jazz Butcher. Evening flight: the Reivers, or those mellow instrumentals from the Clash's "Sandinista!" Rain or fog: time for the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy," or possibly the Velvet Underground. I'd get seasonal too: the Misfits on Halloween. The idea was to play a couple of songs while people got comfortable, then switch it off once the props were going. Occasionally I'd forget, and the music would keep going. Neither I nor the first officer could hear a note of it, strapped with headsets and busy reading "How to Fly," but I'm sure some people dug it. What's more consoling to passengers, already agitated and uncomfortable, than belligerent rock music mixed with the din of thousand-horsepower engines? En route to Burlington, Vt., one evening, the noise was enough to prompt a weary-looking businessman to stick his head into the cockpit and ask, "Could you please turn that racket off?" Oh hell, I thought, the tape! I reached for the player, then paused with my finger on the switch and asked him, "You mean the music or the engines?" In the sad, hot summer of 1994, as our paychecks began bouncing and we braced for our company's imminent liquidation, I can report that at least one first officer hit the Play button, instantly and "accidentally" subjecting an overbooked flight to some of the more atrocious chords of early '80s hardcore punk. MDC's "John Wayne Was a Nazi" got some jaws dropping, as did a horrible old Negative Approach song that began with the clearly audible line: "We won't take any shit!" Those were the obvious goofs, though not the best ones. Another crew popped in their briefing cassette and, upon hearing the usual muffled tenor of James Earl Jones, or so they thought, continued with their paperwork and checklists. Thirty minutes later they were startled to notice the tape hadn't stopped. The co-pilot yanked it from the slot and discovered they'd just played nearly the entire audio-biography of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. - --pilot Patrick Smith, from http://salon.com/tech/col/smith/2004/04/30/askthepilot84/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 19:07:02 -0400 From: Dan Sallitt Subject: Re: [loud-fans] All the Ships at Sea > This is your new digital one, Dan? What's the story? I don't see > anything about it at your website, or at IMDb, confusingly enough. Yeah, I guess I should create some kind of web page for the movie, shouldn't I. There's one review of the film online: http://www.24fpsmagazine.com/ATSAS.html The IMDb won't list undistributed films that don't play at least once at a big festival. > You > ever make it out to the Seattle International Film Festival? I submitted. There's still a week before they announce their schedule, right? But I'm not too optimistic at this point. - Dan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:44:53 -0500 From: "Fortissimo" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] All the Ships at Sea > popped in their briefing cassette and, upon hearing the usual muffled > tenor of James Earl Jones > --pilot Patrick Smith, from > http://salon.com/tech/col/smith/2004/04/30/askthepilot84/index.html "Tenor"? Man I hate it when people use musical terms whose meaning they're blissfully ignorant of... - ------------------------------- ...Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ :: Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb :: --Batman ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 16:57:39 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: [loud-fans] Film festivals Dan, San Francisco & the Bay Area seems to have a film festival every other week. Have you looked into getting your film into one of them? (I realize this post isn't very helpful.) Joe Mallon jmmallon@joescafe.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:08:06 -0500 From: steve Subject: [loud-fans] Merrit Salon article > "I would say that Stevie Nicks is an important precursor to Bjvrk, > perhaps surpassing her in artistry." Stephin Merrit article at Salon, as there's a new Magnetic Fields album next week. - - Steve __________ Variety reveals that Disney is negotiating with Yuen Wo Ping, choreographer of groundbreaking actioners The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, to helm a live-action take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Penned by scribes Josh Harman and Scott Elder, the Snow update is set in the 1890s and follows a woman who returns home to Hong Kong to attend her father's funeral after 20 years abroad. She discovers that her stepmother is plotting against her and escapes to mainland China, where she seeks solace with seven Shao Lin monks who, in turn, come to believe the woman holds the fate of the world in her hands and protect her. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:57:55 -0700 (PDT) From: zoom@muppetlabs.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] All the Ships at Sea > The IMDb won't list undistributed films that don't play at least once at > a big festival. Really? I'm confused. My buddy Edward's film's been up there awhile; he has no distribution aside from the DVDs he's selling quite literally out of his house; and if the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival is a big festival, I'm a shoggoth in a freshman beanie. Now will someone explain to me the significance of "I'm Rick James, bitch!" Andy Byran Ferry is a god, and Roxy Music was his court. As a stylistand thats what he is, not an icon, not a performer, not Lesley Gore, not Bob Dylan, people he would love to beor to have beenno one touches him, just as no one touches Neil Young. They have their own styles. Their styles are narrow, so much so that they can seem merely self-referential. Maybe so. More Than This, from Roxy Musics Avalon, from 1982, twenty-two years ago that can feel like last night, summed up everything the bands style ever implied, everything it ever wanted. More Than This is the essence of the story the band told, and at least half of the story Ferry always meant to tellno, you cant fit his version of Dylans A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall into More Than This. It begins with Phil Manzaneras high-stepping guitar, and then Bryan Ferry on a swing, pumping slowly, going just a foot higher with each passall you can do is sigh. All you can do is shake your head, that anything could be so perfect. Now, this is my karaoke number because I love it. When asked to pick a song this popped into my head without a thought. But after I chose it, I realized that behind that choice really was karaokeBill Murray in a Tokyo karaoke bar singing More Than This in Lost and Translation. For this moment, anyway, the title of the movie is strange: in this moment, every word is enunciated, singled out as a thing in itself, made plain: every word is exposed. You realize that the man Bill Murray is playing, in his attempt to seduce the woman played by Scarlett Johanssen, in his attempt to seduce himself, to convince himself that he is still sexually alive, cannot afford to miss, even to elide, a single word. The song is the truth; in this moment, the only way Murays character can imagine telling the truth is literally. But the truth of More Than This is anything but literal; the truth of the song is that to remake the song as fact is to show how afraid of the song you really are. For me anyway, after twenty-two dissolving years of listening to the tune, Bill Murrays halting, heartfelt version was a shock: the shock of discovering that More Than This has words. Lyrics. Absolutely terrible lyrics, on the order of Castles in the sky/ Castles made of sand/ You and I will last forever/ My ring upon your hand. You hear not a word of this when Bryan Ferry sings the words that he himself wrote. More than thisnothing. Those are the words to More Than This. As far as Im willing to go, that is the complete lyric. Roxy Musics More Than This is a drift, a float. The sounds coming out of Ferrys mouth, except for the chorus, when the whirlpool is stopped, when its centered, when he steps out as if to make a speech, are a golden smear. Four minutes and fifteen seconds long, the song begins to fade after two minutes and thirty-two seconds. You hear More than thisnothingand then Phil Manzanera, who has simply been counting off the rhythm behind Ferry, play his solo. Its maybe eleven bent blues notesthere and gone in under three seconds. It is the most elegant and ephemeral distillation of the guitar solo, any guitar solo, imaginable, and it brings up a question. What is a guitar solo? What happens when the singer steps back and gives the songits themes, its argument, its imagery, its storyto a musician? What happens is the admission that certain things cant be said in words, but they can be said. Almost always, when this happens in a song, theres a sudden thrill, a catch in the hearteven if what follows is bland, blank, time and no more than time. - --Greil Marcus' "performance" of Roxy Music's "More Than This," from "Critical Karaoke" at the Experience Music's Pop Conference earlier this month. For this panel, each critic picked a song and then delivered an essay on it while it played. ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V4 #119 *******************************