95 DVDS 95

I have seen 95 movies from the Criterion Collection. The titles are below. The ones I actually liked, or would watch again, are in all caps.

The 400 Blows

Armageddon

The Bank Dick

The Battle of Algiers

Being John Malkovich

Belle de Jour

BLAST OF SILENCE

The Blob

Blow Out

Border Radio

Bottle Rocket

BRAZIL

Breathless

CARLOS

Chasing Amy

Chungking Express

Crumb

Dazed and Confused

DEAD RINGERS

LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE

Do the Right Thing

DOWN BY LAW

Easy Rider

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

FISH TANK

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE

Gimme Shelter

Gomorrah

La Haine

Hard Boiled

High and Low

Homicide

HOUSE OF GAMES

The Ice Storm

In the Mood for Love

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES

KAGEMUSHA

The Killer

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

KISS ME DEADLY

THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO

The Last Emperor

The Last Temptation of Christ

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Long Good Friday

M

The Man Who Fell to Earth

METROPOLITAN

MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS

Mona Lisa

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

My Own Private Idaho

Mystery Train

Naked

NAKED LUNCH

Night on Earth

THE NIGHT PORTER

Paris, Texas

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

RAN

Rashomon

Repulsion

Ride With the Devil

RIFIFI

Robocop

THE ROCK

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS

Rushmore

Salo, Or the 120 Days of Sodom

Schizopolis

SHALLOW GRAVE

Short Cuts

Sid & Nancy

The Silence of the Lambs

Slacker

Something Wild

STRANGER THAN PARADISE

STRAW DOGS

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

This is Spinal Tap

Three Colors: Blue

Three Colors: Red

THREE COLORS: WHITE

Time Bandits

Traffic

TWO-LANE BLACKTOP

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Vanishing

VIDEODROME

W.C. FIELDS – SIX SHORT FILMS

Walkabout

WALKER

WHITE DOG

Wise Blood

Yojimbo

MUSIC DIARY 2012

I didn't find out about this "Music Diary" project until I saw entries about it on my Twitter feed. But whatever. This post will be updated throughout the week.


MONDAY, MAY 7
Deep Purple, Made in Japan (all tracks)
Cactus, Ultra Sonic Boogie 1971 (tracks 1-5)
Defiance, Void Terra Firma (tracks 1-3)
Anthony Braxton, The Montreux/Berlin Concerts (tracks 1-3)
Walter Smith III, Live in Paris (tracks 1-3)

TUESDAY, MAY 8
Robin Trower, For Earth Below (all tracks)
Lee Morgan, Search for the New Land (all tracks)
Rhapsody of Fire, From Chaos to Eternity (tracks 1-3)
Rhapsody of Fire, The Frozen Tears of Angels (all tracks)
Peter Brötzmann, Nothung (all tracks)
Trivium, "Kirisute Gomen"
The Black Dahlia Murder, Ritual (tracks 1-3)
Coroner, No More Color (tracks 1-3)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9
Miles Davis, Sorcerer (tracks 1-6)
Vader, Necropolis (tracks 1-9)
Perfume, JPN (tracks 1-10)
Ornette Coleman, Of Human Feelings (tracks 1-6)

THURSDAY, MAY 10
Sleep, "Dopesmoker"
Earthless, Live at Roadburn (all tracks)
Fishbone, Truth and Soul (all tracks)
JD Allen Trio, I Am I Am (tracks 1-3)

FRIDAY, MAY 11
JD Allen Trio, I Am I Am (tracks 4-10)
Jerome Sabbagh, Pogo (tracks 1-6)
Joshua Redman, Compass (tracks 1-7)
The Cult, Choice of Weapon (tracks 1-8)

SATURDAY, MAY 12
Elvis Presley, Good Times (tracks 3-6)
Wadada Leo Smith, Ten Freedom Summers, Disc 1 (all tracks)
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Green River (all tracks) & "Born On the Bayou"
A shuffling mix of tracks from the following albums: Jones Very, Words and Days; No For An Answer, A Thought Crusade; Pagan Babies, Next; Token Entry, Jaybird; Wrecking Crew, Balance of Terror; Various Artists, Free for All
Belanova, Fantasía Pop (all tracks)
Wire, Read & Burn 01 (all tracks)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz (all tracks)
Peter Brötzmann Trio, For Adolphe Sax (all tracks)

SUNDAY, MAY 13
Interpol, s/t (tracks 1-3)
Darius Jones Quartet, Book of Mae'bul (Another Kind of Sunrise) (tracks 1-7)
Diego Schissi Quinteto, Tongos (all tracks)
Juilliard String Quartet, Shostakovich Quartets, Disc 1 (all tracks)
Steve Noble & Stephen O'Malley, St. Francis Duo (all tracks)
Sam & Dave, The Definitive Soul Collection (all tracks)

OTTO WHAT? OTTO PARTS?

L'ARC-EN-CIEL LIVE IN NEW YORK

Last night, I saw the Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel (who I profiled for the current issue of Relix) at Madison Square Garden. I was there for the Village Voice; you can read my review of the show here. They only used one of the photos I sent them, though, so I'm posting the rest below. Enjoy!

ALIEN TRAILER

I'd never seen this before - don't even know if it's a bonus feature on the Alien DVD I own. Pretty great, though. Wait till the third time they show the cat - that's when shit starts to really go nuts.

BERLIN 2012

So I went to Berlin for a few days, to give a talk about German thrash (Destruction, Kreator, Sodom and a bunch of lesser-known acts) at Centrum, a small independent art space, and walk around and see some museums, the zoo, and whatnot. I took a whole bunch of crappy photos, too, and you can see them below, now that my wife has made them halfway tolerable to look at.

This was my hotel, which looked from the outside like a spaceship from The Fifth Element or something:

This is the Berliner Dom, a cathedral:

This is an art museum, which I didn't go inside (I did go inside the Neue Nationalgalerie, where they show modern art, but I didn't take any pictures in there or in the Museum of Musical Instruments, which was creepy and fantastic):

This is, of course, the Brandenburg Gate, which I walked through:

That's it for historical-touristy stuff. On my second day in the city, I went to the zoo. Here are some pictures of animals.

A penguin, who didn't seem all that happy about having his picture taken:

A seal, who was only too happy to hang out posing for photos and scratching himself with his tail:

A wolf (I looked around for Liam Neeson, in case he came through the Plexiglas):

Something called a dune cat, which was about the size of a regular house cat and which spent most of its time running frantically back and forth—I grabbed this shot in a rare moment of stillness:

And here's a panda:

Also, the Berlin Zoo apparently had quite a famous gorilla once, named Bobby. He's dead now, but there's a statue of him, and a plaque that tells his story (if you can read German):

Frankly, I wish I'd had more time to spend in Berlin. The people were really nice, the food was good, and there was a lot of stuff I didn't have time to see (like the giant Gerhard Richter exhibit opening at the Neue Nationalgalerie today). I hope to return one day, and bring my wife this time.

USED CD TALLY

Bought a few used CDs today at the Princeton Record Exchange:

Nat Adderley, Work Song ($4.99)
Patsy Cline, The Definitive Collection $4.99)
Cesaria Evora, Voz d'Amor ($3.99)
Kenny Garrett, Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane ($1.99)
Kenny Garrett, Songbook ($1.99)
Dizzy Gillespie, Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac ($4.99)
Ben Monder, Excavation ($1.99)
Charlie Rouse Quintet, Takin' Care of Business ($5.99)
Various Artists, The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records ($7.99)

Also got one new CD:

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Soul Time ($14.99)

42 OF 'EM

There is nothing wrong with your day that this video can't fix.

TRAIN SUICIDE - DON'T DO IT

I spotted this sign yesterday at the Perth Amboy, NJ train station.

Perth Amboy doesn't have an elevated train platform, with a drop down to the tracks; the train comes in right at ground level, and you climb steps up into it to board. Naturally, this makes it somewhat easier for those so inclined to leap in front of oncoming trains. So NJ Transit has apparently seen fit to create a suicide hotline, to prevent just such an occurrence.

BURNING AMBULANCE #5 OUT NOW!

The latest issue of Burning Ambulance is out. It features a cover story on New York improvising funk/rock/jazz/hip-hop/other music ensemble Burnt Sugar; interviews with saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, and Swans founder Michael Gira; a profile of improvising guitarist/composer and former Burnt Sugar member Morgan Craft; a black metal roundtable featuring members of Averse Sefira, Infernal Stronghold, Krallice, Krieg, Lightning Swords of Death, Panopticon, Xibalba, and Yaotl Mictlan; an essay on Cecil Taylor; an essay on the nature of time in music; and a look back at Monte Hellman's movie Two-Lane Blacktop, 40 years later.

As always, the print edition is $10 for a handsome perfect-bound paperback; the ebook version (compatible with Nook and just about every other e-reader on the market) is $5; and the Kindle version is a mere $3.

Why not pick one up today?