Comment Archives: stories: Arts and Culture: Country Life
Re: “Local Filmmakers' A Measure of the Sin Tonight at Belcourt”
So what did you think of the movie?
Re: “Local Filmmakers' A Measure of the Sin Tonight at Belcourt”
A story about a man who exploits women being directed by a man who exploited his actors and thus turned what could have been a decent tale into just another a poor excuse for gratuitous nudity that will likely be soon forgotten. At least thirty of those I hope to never see again minutes should not have survived the final cut! Wedding’s lack of screenwriting talent and vision, plus careless editing, ruined this film.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
That's a vivid, and to me accurate, description of the film, Pink.
Another brilliant aspect of Spike Lee's direction is the use of the Bill Lee score vs the hip hop/New Jack Swing soundtrack, where the music is used diagetically (car radios, for instance, but most critically Radio Raheem's boombox). Spike Lee's use of music is well-known, and to some, annoying, like when he brings the score way up. But to go from the sound of the streets to Bill Lee and Winston Marsalis' jazz score adds to the the powerful tension in the movie.
Re: “Hot Type: Martin Brady on Why The Columnist Matters for Local Theater”
Can't wait — I'm going Tuesday. Alford's great. I've never forgotten the production of A DOLL'S HOUSE that he and Denice Hicks did — it made me completely reevaluate a play I'd always found airless, stodgy and melodramatic.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
Great post, Ben P. I saw it at the Hickory Hollow mall cinema, and I've never forgotten the tension in the racially mixed audience: it built up to that famous sequence of characters of various ethnicities spewing slurs directly into the camera, followed by Mister Senor Love Daddy's impassioned appeal to decency. The power of clearing the air has never been felt more forcefully.
I've also never forgotten walking around NYC in summer heat after the movie's release and seeing the movie's T-shirt everywhere, like a badge of solidarity. If anyone reading this thread hasn't seen the film, you're missing one of the great American movies — one you should by all means see with as big an audience as possible.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
Indicator that you are getting old: when the cinema where you saw a film in its first run is now an art house and brings the same film back as a classic.
I can even date exactly when I saw this, thanks to the internet: July 21, 1989, because we went right from the Belcourt to watch the Mike Tyson vs Carl Williams fight.
Re: “Congratulations, Acklen Post Office — You're One of America's Quirkiest Post Offices”
I think the Belle Meade post office has celebrity photos as well. It's been a while since I've been, but I seem to remember that (and thinking #yasni).
Re: “Congratulations, Acklen Post Office — You're One of America's Quirkiest Post Offices”
I live in the Acklen PO zone, and, while their lobby may be lots of fun, the carriers are insane. One Saturday morning, we saw a carrier scream at one of our neighbors. It was so blatantly crazy and unprofessional that we were actually as impressed as we were terrified.
To this day, our household discussions often end with "MIND YOUR BUSINESS AND WALK YOUR DOG!" or "Lady, you better watch yourself. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF DAY I'M HAVING!"
(It all started because the postman parked her truck in a lane of traffic, instead of 10 feet down the street in a parking spot, and the neighbor suggested that she pull forward 10 feet.)
Good times. Go Uncle Sam.
Also, in the interest of full disclosure and as a disclaimer of potential bias, my regular carrier tramples through my flower garden EVERY DAMN DAY and gets muddy tracks everywhere.
Re: “Hot Type: Martin Brady on Why The Columnist Matters for Local Theater”
Terrific play, tour de force performance by Alford. See this thing. Kudos Tennessee Rep.
Re: “'Gangsters': A Second Series of Drawings From Those Darlins' Jessi Zazu”
Bought both sets! Fantastic!
Re: “Vince & Amy, Renée Fleming to the Rescue in Cash-Strapped Nashville Symphony's 2013-14 Season”
No they do not ..
Re: “Vince & Amy, Renée Fleming to the Rescue in Cash-Strapped Nashville Symphony's 2013-14 Season”
I wish I was able to of seen it
Re: “'Gangsters': A Second Series of Drawings From Those Darlins' Jessi Zazu”
I considered the R. Crumb correlation, too, as well as that series of prints from Bryce McCloud of heroes like Johnny Cash and Fred Rogers on pennants.
http://isleofprinting.blogspot.com/2008/04…
Re: “'Gangsters': A Second Series of Drawings From Those Darlins' Jessi Zazu”
These remind me of those awesome R. Crumb trading cards of early blues musicians. Love that grid layout too — Kurt Wagner did something similar with his exhibit a couple of years ago at Zeitgeist, using small, finely textured black-and-white portraits drawn (as I recall) from a book of cotillion photographs.
Judging by her series title and subject, wonder if Jessi's ever read Robert Warshow's essay "The Gangster as Tragic Hero," still one of the best pieces of writing about movies and culture I've ever read:
http://www.srs-pr.com/ESSAYS/warshow-gangs…
Re: “Is The New Mind of the South Fact or Fluff?”
Interesting point about the changes "from prosaic to pop-cultural" — why should the South be exempt from the shifts wrought by mass-media globalism? Every culture is under threat right now from the bombardment of monolithic corporate media, and the resistance often takes the form of social-media mutation.
Re: “Tonight: Poetry Sucks! With Sing Again Soon at Dino's”
These Rachel Briggs posters are amazing.
Re: “Nashville Recap: ‘My Heart Would Know’”
You didn't kill Avery!! :(
Re: “Cahiers du Coco: Beauty and the Beast”
Oh, my Lord, I so love this movie! Her tears turn into diamonds! The living mantelpiece and wall sconces! It's magical.
Re: “How to Fit Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem into Your Nashville Film Festival Schedule”
Zombie's music, I confess, I can take or leave. Zombie's movies, though, are another story — he's the most original horror filmmaker to come along in many, many years, one who discards worn-out devices like jump scares in favor of building fully detailed, steadily unnerving worlds. THE DEVIL'S REJECTS is the LAWRENCE OF ARABIA of drive-in rotgut, fusing every disreputable genre of ’70s exploitation into a crazily ambitious sleaze epic. His HALLOWEEN remake seemed at first an intriguing failure, but a second viewing shows how much he brought to the project — only Zombie, with his empathy for the devil, could have envisioned the Michael Myers origin story as a headbanger cousin to CARRIE, more morose tragedy than slasher movie. (His sequel is a pretty daring anti-horror anti-sequel that deliberately undermines and sabotages the slasher genre. It's rather torturous to watch, but it's more thoughtful than its reputation.) I can't wait to see what the guy does next.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
"Ahmad, your Jordans are DOGGED!"
One of the funniest scenes in a movie ever, a close second to the part with the guys wondering what kind of a woman would name her child 'Sweet Dick Willie', hahaha...I'm also partial to "Where's my High Life? I NEED my High Life!" and "EXTRA CHEESE IS TWO DOLLAS!"
I think this movie is responsible for more of the quoted lines in my canon than even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Big Lebowski...such a classic!