The Wheel's Still In Spin

Favorite Movies 1960-1969

Adding to my list of favorite movies, what follows are the inductees from 1960s.

Movie Reviews Black Girl, Cléo from 5 to 7, and When a Woman Ascends the Stiars

Here’s the latest batch of mini movie reviews as I check my way through movie lists by watching a lot of “classic” films. These three films from 1960-1966 deal with female roles, but only one – Cléo from 5 to 7 – was directed by a woman.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs | Cléo from 5 to 7 | Black Girl

New Releases – 25 May 2010

Here are The Wheel’s Still In Spin’s suggested new releases. As always, feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions.

First Aid Kit – The Big Black and The Blue | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “I Met Up With the King” (mp3)
First Aid Kit is a Swedish band consisting of Klara and Johanna Söderberg. They may not be strangers to TWSIS readers since their first EP, Drunken Trees, ended up as one of the Favorite EPs of 2009. Now the sisters Söderberg return with another beautiful batch of original folk songs, their first full album. The tracks primarily contain acoustic guitar, keyboards, and auto harp, but it is their Carter style harmonies that are most enticing.

Peter Wolf Crier – Inter-Be | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Crutch & Cane” (mp3)
Download “Hard As Nails” (mp3)
A guitar and drum duo can often conjure a blues influence, like The White Stripes or The Black Keys. Peter Wolf Crier sounds more like The Dodos’ The Visiter. This set of undulating indie folk is catchy and melodically dense.

Kurt Vile – Square Shells [EP] | Vinyl MP3 | FREE download from Matador (very limited time)
Download “Invisibility: Nonexistent” (mp3)
Later this year Kurt Vile should have a new full length solo album released. In the meantime, this short-player is an interesting mixture of musical textures. It has a diverse set of acoustic singer-songwriter tracks, a few keyboard-based instrumentals, and the longer, drum machine accompanied track “Invisibility: Nonexistent,” which can be downloaded here.

After the jump, there is a list of more new releases from this week.

Hmm: Shooter Jennings' Black Ribbons vs. My Album

I record my own music under the name Straight armS. Back in 2006 I made an album called The Final Broadcast of the Underground Radio Show. The concept of the album is the final 30 minutes of an underground radio show. Here's a post I recently wrote on the Straight armS website about an intriguing similarity between my album and Shooter Jennings’ Black Ribbons:

Shooter Jennings released a new album in March called Black Ribbons. According to the Amazon description, the album “features a unique collaboration between Jennings and best-selling author Stephen King. The 70-minute concept album sees King provide the voice of Will O’ The Wisp, a late-night talk show radio host who is in the last hour of his final broadcast before the airwaves is overtaken by ‘government-approved and regulated transmissions.’”

This is a good concept. It sounds very similar to the album I created back in 2006, The Final Broadcast of the Underground Radio Show. My album focuses on the final 30 minutes of a pirate radio show. The album begins with the static intro of a listener dialing in the underground radio show. This is the final broadcast before the FCC punishes the DJ. He plays a group of independent and original music concluding with the song “The Final Broadcast.” Then, at midnight, the airwaves go back to static.

There are differences between my concept and Black Ribbon, but this is an interesting coincidence. I am currently reading King’s book On Writing and proud that I had the same idea as a Steven King related project.

via www.straightarms.com

Favorite Movies 1950-1959

Adding to my list of favorite movies, what follows are the inductees from 1950s.

Movie Reviews La Pointe Courte, The Secret in Their Eyes, and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Here’s the latest batch of mini movie reviews as I check my way through movie lists by watching a lot of “classic” films.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? | DVD
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? was adapted from a book of the same name and nominated for 8 Academy Awards after it was released in the final days of 1969. The film is set during the Great Depression. The story revolves around a dance marathon, which dangles a cash prize to the contestants as they mentally and physically breakdown. Caught in a no win situation, the movie builds to the ultimate decision of the lead characters.

This film was a welcomed surprise. I did not expect it to be so convincingly crafted. Sydney Pollack did an excellent job directing. He perfectly set up the different stages of each character’s collapse and built the tension to the final scene. This period piece is still presented applicably today.
Wheels in Spin:

The Secret in Their Eyes
El Secreto de Sus Ojos, the most recent Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, mixes crime drama and romance with some comedic wit. Benjamin Esposito has just retired from the Argentinean courts. He decides to write a novel about his most memorable case. Interwoven in the 25 years of flashbacks is the continued flirtation with his superior Irene Menéndez-Hastings.

All aspects of this film are well done. The acting, the direction, and especially the writing are solid. The cinematography also works well to mimic the onscreen actions. There are many shots with objects in the foreground that are deliberately out of focus. The viewer, like the characters, may not notice some details. It creates an ideal for telling stories based on memories. At the end, after the stories and emotions resolve, there are two clear shots, giving the audience the desired, detailed resolution.
Wheels in Spin:

La Pointe Courte | DVD
A friend’s wife recently started agnesfilms.com, an online community named in honor of Agnès Varda and aiming “to provide support to emerging and established female filmmakers.” That piqued my interest in Varda, since I had not seen any of her films. After watching La Pointe Courte, her debut, I am very excited to watch many more of her films. Luckily, The Auteurs, which just changed its name to MUBI, are now screening a total of 22 of Varda's films online.

This film intersperses 2 distinct stories, cutting from one to other. One tells the struggles of a southern French fishing village and is filmed in a neorealist style. The second story focuses on a couple that have reached a stage in their relationship where the initial spark has become complacent. They are visiting the same fishing town, but the filming style of their story is more controlled.

Varda is often called the Godmother of French New Wave because she took so many unique risks with this film. She was a photographer, but had not intently studied the filmmaking process. She made many choices that were not standard but worked very well. The film has a unique narrative style, audio editing, and overall technical process. Many directors owe a debt to this film, including Resnais, who edited it, Godard, Truffaut, and Bergman, who is often parodied for the overlapping faces of Persona, a technique that Varda uses twice in La Pointe Courte (see the picture above to the right).
Wheels in Spin:

New Releases – 18 May 2010

Here are The Wheel’s Still In Spin’s suggested new releases. As always, feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions.

Band of Horses – Infinite Arms | CD Vinyl Deluxe CD/Vinyl MP3
Download “Factory” (mp3)
For their third album, Band of Horses continue the expansive Americana sound that got them on my list of favorite albums for 2006 and 2007. Ben Bridwell’s recognizable bellowing tenor voice adds to the warmth of the full sounding music. Stream the entire album at stream.bandofhorses.com.

The Black Keys – Brothers | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Tighten Up” (mp3)
The blues-rock duo from Akron, Ohio, has returned self-producing their music on this album. The guitar/drum combo is perfectly in sync on these 15 songs. With their earlier releases and live show, The Black Keys have solidified themselves as powerful performers. On Brothers, they sleekly opt for more soul than showmanship.

Pearly Gate Music – Pearly Gate Music | CD MP3
Download “Big Escape” (mp3)
This debut album from Zach Tillman is a diverse set of lo-fi indie rock. The instrumentation and production seem relaxed but have an engaging energy, even behind the more mellow songs. Tillman’s fantastic melodic sensibility makes these songs impressive.

Reflection Eternal – Revolutions Per Minute | CD MP3
Download “City Playgrounds” (mp3)
Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek have combined as Reflection Eternal for their second album in ten years. Hip hop is usually based more on strong singles than strong, complete albums. Revolutions Per Minute has skillful tracks like “Strangers (Paranoid),” “Midnight Hour,” “Just Begun,” and “In This World.” But it also takes a diverse set of beats and styles and creates a strong full album.

After the jump, there is a list of more new releases from this week.

Otis Gibbs – Grandpa Walked a Picketline

Original Release Date: 20 January 2009 (Wanamaker Recording Company/Thirty Tigers

Download “Caroline” (mp3)

It can be a tough decision to make. When he’s lying on the hard floor of a quaking boxcar on a cold night, Joe’s got to decide if he wants to wear his coat to keep hisself warm or bundle it up like a pillow to cushion his head. Unless it’s too bitterly cold, though, goes to softening his head from bouncing with the rails.

As he tried to fall asleep, he was reminded of an album he got to hear on the way to Salt Lake City. He hitched a ride down I-84, through Boise and Twin Falls. The driver kept playing an album by Otis Gibbs, Grandpa Walked a Picketline. Gibbs is a folksinger with the kind of strong but haggard voice that sounds older than the singer really is.

Please Stay LeBron (We Are LeBron)

I was raised in Northeast Ohio and am a big fan of all Cleveland sports teams. I’ve been pulling for a championship win in that city my entire life and thought this would be the year.

Now, though, LeBron James will be a free agent. He deserves to shop around. He deserves to get the best deal he can. But hopefully for all Cleveland fans, he'll stay in with the Cavs.

Growing up outside of Cleveland in the 80s and on into the early 90s meant watching the Cavs lose in the playoffs to the Bulls, watching the Browns lose to the Broncos in the playoffs, and going to Indians games and being able to pick yourself out on a radio broadcast when you clapped or cheered.

One Christmas, the 80s also brought the “We Are the World” vinyl, where musicians and celebrities came together to address world hunger. The city of Cleveland has brought together a cast of local celebrities to sing about another plight that could wreak havoc on the world – Cleveland may lose LeBron.

That scene with Dick Goddard, a local weatherman that my 8th grade history teacher called one of his personal heroes, and Governor Ted Strickland is fantastic:

We Are LeBron Video - Watch more Funny Videos

Favorite Movies 1940-1949

Adding to my list of favorite movies, here are the inductees from 1940-1949.

Fantasia (dir. Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen, David D. Hand, Hamilton Luske, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe, T. Hee, Norm Ferguson, and Wilfred Jackson, 1940) | DVD
The Great Dictator (dir. Charlie Chaplin, 1940) | DVD
His Girl Friday (dir. Howard Hawks, 1940) | DVD On Demand
Rebecca (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) | DVD
The Maltese Falcon (dir. John Huston, 1941) | DVD On Demand
Casablanca (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1942) | DVD On Demand
Heaven Can Wait (dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1943) | DVD
Double Indemnity (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944) | DVD
Laura (dir. Otto Preminger, 1944) | DVD On Demand
The Miracle at Morgan’s Creek (dir. Preston Sturges, 1944) | DVD
Children of Paradise (dir. Marcel Carné, 1945) | DVD
The Lost Weekend (dir. Billy Wilder, 1945) | DVD
It’s a Wonderful Life (dir. Frank Capra, 1946) | DVD On Demand
The Bicycle Thief (dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1948) | DVD
Gun Crazy (dir. Joseph H. Lewis, 1949) | DVD
Kind Hearts and Coronets (dir. Robert Hunter, 1949) | DVD