CINEMA: The Comedy Of Murder

MONSIEUR VERDOUX (1947, directed by Charles Chaplin, 124 minutes, U.S.) THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009, directed by Dennis Iliadis, 100 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC This is what happens when a director takes career advice from Orson Welles.  Released in 1947 and based on an idea that Orson Welles offered Chaplin (Welles was hoping to direct), Monsieur Verdoux found the fifty-eight year old comedian leaving behind the beloved “Little Tramp” character for the first time. In Monsieur Verdoux the star’s bird-like grace would be put to use to lend charm to a serial killer, a Bluebeard […]

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CINEMA: Bluebeard’s Castle

BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE (1963, directed by Michael Powell, 59 minutes, Germany) DER ROSENKAVALIER (1925, directed by Robert Weine, 73 minutes Germany) ANDREW’S VIDEO VAULT @ The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA Thursday March 12th 2009  8PM Free! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC British director Michael Powell crafted a steady stream of masterpieces over the last century, his love of art and music informing popular classics like The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and Scorsese favorite Tales of Hoffman.  Powell’s career went famously south after making the 1960 film Peeping Tom, a tale of a killer who films his prey that rivals […]

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CAN’T HAPPEN HERE: Germany’s Columbine, Again

CNN: WINNENDEN, Germany (CNN) — The teenaged gunman who killed 15 people in Germany targeted young women on his shooting spree, methodically shooting them in the head, police say. Tim Kretschmer, 17, began his rampage Wednesday at a school where he used to be a student in Winnenden, a small town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Stuttgart. Most of the victims at the school were female — eight female students, three female teachers and one male student, said Heribert Rech, interior minister for Baden Wuerttemberg region. Rech said: “They were completely taken by surprise. Some of the victims […]

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THIS JUST IN: Tom Waits Goes Gold, Goes Hollywood

[Photo by MICHAEL T. REGAN] TOM WAITS latest 3 CD set—Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards—has been certified gold by the RIAA® and will be released on vinyl by Anti- Records in the not-too-distant future. He has also collaborated with Kool Keith on N.A.S.A.’s recently released The Spirit of Apollo, which also features such diverse artists as David Byrne, Karen O and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. As for new material, Waits and his long time collaborator and wife, Kathleen Brennan, have begun writing new songs, which they plan to record this summer for an upcoming CD. (No release date at this time.) […]

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CINEMA: La Dolce Vita Turns 50

LA DOLCE VITA (1960, directed by Federico Fellini, 174 minutes, Italy) On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Dan Buskirk wrote: Subject: Re: Slacking… Sorry for this undesired sabbatical, I got frozen out of Tuesday night THE WATCHMAN screening and missed the midnight screening last night.  Will be back on the horse very soon. -db Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 13:14:59 -0500 Subject: Re: Slacking… From: jonathan.valania To: dbuskirk1 Grrrr. You can pay penance by giving me an appreciation of La Dolce Vita on the eve of its 50th Anniversary for this weekend. – – – – – – […]

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TONITE: Unmasked And A Little Less Anonymous

BY ELIZABETH FLYNN Bob Troneiri is an institution in the Philadelphia bartending community. The man’s been slinging drinks for 16 years, and 12 of those years he’s been at Tattooed Mom’s. Every punk rock drunk in the city knows Bob, and if you’ve showed your true colors in Tattooed Mom’s like most of us, it’s guaranteed that Bob knows you. Now, we are all familiar with the phenomenon of bartender/artist, and we all know that the artist part of that equation fades a little bit more every year spent behind the bar. Very few people escape this trap, most end […]

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We Know It’s Only Mock N’ Roll But We Like It

WIRED:  For a self-described “semi-retired” legend, Christopher Guest sure has a crazy schedule. The writer, director, actor and musician, most famous for his portrayal of knob-twiddling metalhead Nigel Tufnel in the 1984 cinematic spoof This Is Spinal Tap, is preparing for Spinal Tap reunion tours to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movie’s release. He’s also been busy in the studio, emerging with six or seven new Tap tunes beneath his belt as well as an instrumental chill-out effort called Memories of Summers as a Child, released last month, which Guest recorded with childhood pals David Nichtern and CJ Vanston […]

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NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR Bible scholar Bart Ehrman says that the Gospels are at odds with each other on important points regarding the life, death and divinity of Jesus. In his new book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) Ehrman examines how these contradictions affect our understanding of the historical Jesus — and of the authors of the Gospels. Ehrman is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of more than a dozen books, including Misquoting Jesus and God’s Problem. JOHN POWERS: Near the end […]

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USELESS INFORMATION: David Lynch’s Twitter

[by DAVMO] Good morning. It’s Monday, Feb. 23, 2009. Here in LA, gray, overcast skies & a slight breeze. Looks like rain. 60°F 16°C. Have a nice day. about 20 hours ago from web To think: He used to read our mind, now he reads the weather. Who says you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows? Oh, right. That guy.

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