Tag Archives: bbc
New Normal
This past Sunday night was the debut of Adam Curtis’ new BBC documentary, HyperNormalisation. Curtis is a flat-out genius and any new film from the master is an occasion for celebration… We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the [...]
Midnight Visitor Waits
If you follow me on Facebook you might have seen my ornery post last week wherein I linked to an announcement about Leonard Cohen’s new album, and complained about my Nashville music peers constantly celebrating “great” songwriters who shouldn’t even be allowed to mutter Cohen’s name in their prayers. GREAT is a big word, and [...]
Clash Crash ’86
This year we mark the anniversary of the death of The Clash — they fired Mick Jones in 1983, but The Clash was still a thing until 1986. Thirty years later I’m planning a number of Clash-related posts in the months to come. The Clash are always in the running when I consider favorite bands [...]
Considering Cassavetes
This year we mark three decades since the release of John Cassavetes’ last film, Big Trouble, in 1986. Truth is, I’ve never seen Big Trouble — Cassavetes stepped-in to helm the troubled production when the original writer/director bailed on the project. For most fans of Cassavetes, his last film was the 1984 marital drama Love [...]
Eno Also
Anne and I were driving around in the Nashville sunshine but we couldn’t find her YOUNG AMERICANS disc so we listened to TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN instead. Since Bowie’s death we’ve been listening to lots of Bowie and watched a cool documentary a few weeks ago. That same night we found a couple of documentaries about [...]
Anderson/Burroughs
In the 1970′s few women were allowed in William Burroughs’ clique of male friends and colleagues. I’ve seen lots of lovely pictures of Burroughs with Patti Smith and I’ve read that she had a crush on the writer. According to this new BBC program, another woman who had access to The Bunker – as Burroughs’ [...]
Sold On Sellers
Comic genius and all-around super strange dude, Peter Sellers was born 90 years ago on September 8, 1925, and he died 35 years ago on July 24, 1980. Now that we’re somewhere right between these auspicious dates, it seemed like a good time to remember the great jester with this bizarre film about his bizarre [...]
Writing on Walls on Film
I just turned in my column for next week’s Contributor, reviewing the new DVD release of the Jean Michel Basquiat film Downtown ’81. While Style Wars is often mentioned as the first hip-hop documentary, Downtown ’81 was shot a few years earlier even though it wasn’t released until 2000. The film is actually fictional, but [...]
The Legend of Dylan Thomas
Nowadays, it’s hard to remember a time when poetry really mattered. I still love to read poetry and write poetry, and I occasionally get out to read my words in a bar or a coffeehouse in Nashville where other poets gather to share their words, but it’s almost always a case of singing to the [...]
