Tag Archives: John Carvill

Self-Styled Siren

by John Carvill

Websites We Love – Part 4 – Self-Styled Siren

“Let me introduce you to, uh, a friend of ours…”

There are millions of movie sites out there, but here’s one which offers an irresistable balance between erudition and enjoyment, someone who takes cinema seriously but without undue solemnity. In short, the Siren knows her movies inside out, and – crucially – knows that movies are there to be enjoyed. Covering a range of old and new, with an empathis on the classics, there’s always something interesting to be found on the site’s front page, including, at present, one of the best writeups we’ve seen on Scorsese’s ‘Hugo’.

Dig a little deeper and you’ll soon find articles which – like this one on Raoul Walsh’s ‘The Strawberry Blonde’ (1941), starring James Cagney, Rita Hayworth, Olivia de Havilland, Jack Carson, and Alan Hale – cover their subject so thouroughly and entertainingly that you’d struggle to find anything left to say. And yet the quality of the numerous comments posted by the Siren’s equally knowledgeable readership gives the lie to such notions.
 

- by John Carvill

 

You Don’t Know How to Dunk: a Clark Gable Double Bill

by John Carvill

Oomska Recommends – Classic Hollywood Double Bills

You can’t get much more classically Golden Age than Clark Gable, so let’s indulge in a double bill featuring the ‘King of Hollywood’, one from his prime, the other the last film he ever made.

Part One: ‘The Misfits’

First up, it’s John Huston’s ‘The Misfits’ (1961), in which a weathered, crumpled-looking Gable leads a stupendously great cast including Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter and – of course – Marilyn Monroe, for whom this would also be the last film. The problems afflicting the production of this film are legendary. Both Monroe and director John Huston were hammering the booze (and, in Monroe’s case, pills) pretty hard, Huston was in the grip of a gambling addiction, a recent car accident had left Clift needing resonctructive surgery, screenwriter Arthur Miller’s marriage to Marilyn was breaking up, and all concerned were beaten down by the extreme heat of the Nevada desert. And it’s very sad to reflect that, within just a handful of years, all the principal cast – except for Wallach who is still with us today, aged 96 – would be dead.

Gable didn’t even live to see the completed film, suffering a fatal heart attack – said to have been triggered at least in part by over-exerting himself in the stunt department, wrangling horses etc – immediately after shooting finished. And Gable only got involved in the stunts because he was bored waiting around for the forever late-arriving Marilyn Monroe, who is as luminescent as ever in this often overlooked film. Was Monroe ever more beautiful than in the crisp, crystalline black and white footage shot by veteran cinematographer Russell Metty? If so, not often.

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Thomas Pynchon

by John Carvill

Websites We Love – Part 2 – ThomasPynchon.Com

“Let me introduce you to, uh, a friend of ours…”

No, not a garralous blog by the famously publicity-seeking author of ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’. Rather, this is Tim Ware’s cornucopious Pynchon resource – your best one-stop online shop for all things Pynchon.

Pynchon.com

The meat of this website is the indices to Pynchon’s first three “big” novels — V. (1963), Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) and Mason & Dixon (1997). These “Web guides” have been of great help to readers of Thomas Pynchon through the years, and will no doubt continue to be. Contributions are always welcome. If you’re reading Pynchon for the first time, you may want to take a look at Advice for Newbies, given by a cadre of life-long fans and contributors to this site.

Pynchon Wikis

These days, there is also the Pynchon Wiki, which consists of a suite of seven wikis, one for each of Pynchon’s novels, with extensive annotation — and growing all the time. Those interested can also register to become editors of the wikis.

“He gets back to the Casino just as big globular raindrops, thick as honey, begin to splat into giant asterisks on the pavement, inviting him to look down at the bottom of the text of the day, where footnotes will explain all. He isn’t about to look. Nobody ever said a day has to be juggled into any kind of sense at day’s end. He just runs.”

- Thomas Pynchon, ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’

 

Michael Gray

by John Carvill

Websites We Love – Part 1 – Michael Gray

“Let me introduce you to, uh, a friend of ours…”

Oomska’s favourite music critic, Michael Gray, has a brand new website, here:

 

 

 

Most people will know Michael Gray as the world’s leading authority on Bob Dylan’s music, author of essential texts such as ‘Song & Dance Man’, and ‘The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia’.

His new site is a treasure trove of writing, photos, resources and recommendations.

And of course he still maintains his thriving, always interesting Bob Dylan Encyclopedia Blog

Best news of all: Michael has recently released a wonderful CD containing recordings of some of the Dylan Encyclopedia’s most insightful and entertaining entries. Anybody who has attended one of Michael’s talks will know just how well he presents this material; anybody who hasn’t should snap up a copy of this CD and find out. Highly recommended.

Bob Dylan Encyclopedia Greatest Hits

 

Tossing a Baseball Bat in the Air

by John Carvill

‘Tossing a Baseball Bat in the Air’: Bob Dylan at the MEN Arena, Manchester, 2011

Bob Dylan, supported by Mark Knopfler, MEN Arena, Manchester, October 10th 2011. The Never-ending Tour continues…

by John Carvill

 

Most reviews of last night’s Manchester show will inevitably make reference to the ‘hard rain’ that’s been falling on the city for days now. I’d spent years repeatedly assuring my brother (and anyone else willing to listen) that Manchester’s reputation for rain was undeserved and really just a wildly over-exaggerated stereotype, so imagine my embarrassment when we found ourselves soaked to the skin within minutes of leaving the shelter of the Lass O’ Gowrie pub, having made the brisk walk to what remains of the Free Trade Hall – setting for the infamous ‘Judas’ heckling concert in 1966 – now the Radisson ‘Edwardian’ hotel, where the barman offered a sombre, head-shaking apology for the inclement weather. A couple more pit stops in pubs of variable historic interest were made to keep out of the deceptively heavy drizzle, but we still arrived at the MEN arena with clothes several shades darker than they’d been when we set out.

We caught the very end of Mark Knopfler’s noodlings. Who knows the mysterious ways in which Bob works? If he wants Knopfler supporting him, so be it. There were of course semi-rumours, or maybe just wishful thinking, that the pair might take to the stage together and do something more interesting than the standard ‘support then headliner’ format; a quick run through ‘Infidels’, say, from ‘Jokerman’ to ‘Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight’, would have delighted the faithful (so long as they omitted ‘Neighbourhood Bully’ and tacked on ‘Blind Willie McTell’). Now, given that we all thought of that, there’s no doubt they must have done too; for whatever reason, though, nothing of the kind was attempted: Knopfler played, then stopped, then Bob played. Good night.

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