Author Archives: Joe Nolan
Ira Cohen Fest
One of my favorite authors, photographers and filmmakers of all time has two films currently available on YouTube. Ira Cohen isn’t a particularly timely subject, but movies like Kings With Straw Mats and The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda are forever and always. Here’s a mini-Cohen film fest for your Boxing Day viewing… Please subscribe to [...]
Pictures of Lilly
The name John Lilly might conjure many images: scientist; physician; the inspiration behind William Hurt’s character in the psychedelic cinema classic Altered States; don’t forget dolphin whisperer. John Lilly contained multitudes and I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon this look back at the man and his work from the Stuff To Blow Your Mind [...]
New Wave Airplane
Last week I finally got around to posting about Jean-Luc Godard’s 87th birthday, and today Open Culture reminded me how rich the master’s collection of odds-and-ends shorts and clips can be. In 1968, Godard shot Jefferson Airplane performing live on a rooftop in Manhattan. Godard’s film features a performance of “The House at Pooneil Corners,” [...]
HBD! JLG
Jean-Luc Godard celebrated his 87th birthday on December 3 and even though I read a handful of articles and re-tweeted tweet I saw about the master I’m only getting around to mentioning it here. Maybe I was slow to this task because GODARD seems too massive for a quick mention in a blog post. He’s [...]
Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra
It’s only the 13th of December, but it felt like Christmas came early when I stumbled upon this Bandcamp guide to the Sun Ra selections that are available on the site. I had no idea there were so many Sun Ra albums available to stream and download through the independent music hub that many of [...]
Godfather 45
The Godfather is one of the greatest American films of all time, and in many ways it represents the best of the New Hollywood movement that flourished roughly from the 1960′s into the early 1980′s. The film included all of the greed, violence and lust for power that earlier films like Little Caesar (1931) and [...]
DJ Dick
As someone who spends a lot of time writing I can often be found at my desk at home or at the library or in a corner of a coffeehouse typing away with my headphones on. Here’s a little secret: I’m almost never listening to anything. If I’m reviewing a film or working on my [...]
Rouch Roundup
Jean Rouch was killed in a tragic car accident and buried in the Republic of Niger in 2004. We remember the film director and author for his pioneering works of “ethnofiction” which blend scientifically grounded ethnography with creative narrative stories, and which established Rouch as “the father of cinema verite.” The new Eight Films by [...]
Reeling in Ronson
Between 1969 and 1970 David Bowie and his producer Tony Visconti began searching for a distictive guitar player who could match their creativity in the studio as well as play a magnetic foil to Bowie live on stage. The new documentary Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story takes viewers back to the Swinging London of [...]
Merry McChristmas
If you’re a reader of this blog you know that I’m fascinated by the occult and the darker sides of the paranormal. I love the skanky, gritty American cinema of the 1970s, and I’m enamored with the disturbing art of painters like Bosch and Bacon. That said, I’m a sucker for Christmastime. I love everything [...]
