Twelve Films At Christmas - 6 &7

Two contrasting offerings today, both notable in their distinct categories.

Unforgiven has come to be considered the peak of Clint Eastwood's art. He produced, directed and co-starred in the picture, winning Oscars in the first two of those classes. It's underlying tone is bleak (as befits its title, no one is cast in a pure light) but there is a lightness of touch at work and it nicely casts aside and then stunningly rejuvenates Eastwood's Man with No Name persona. In the end all is unforgiven. An important film and an enjoyable one. 86/100. 

Also enjoyable but of far slighter substance is Witness for the Prosecution. It is a visibly over-expanded adaptation of Agatha Christie's stage play but it nevertheless rattles along, commanding your attention. not least because of the brilliance of Charles Laughton giving it his considerable all as the defence barrister. They don't make them like this anymore. 74/100.  

Twelve Films At Christmas - 4 & 5

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Good book. Good film. I read the novel (a pleasingly tatty second hand copy - I love a bargain, although I suppose this predilection does nothing for the income of the author) almost at one sitting whilst lounging beside the pool in the garden of the house we rented in Noosa. Some things stay with you. It was Queensland winter and the pool was freezing, though the sea was perfectly swimmable to OG, DN1 and DN2. I digress. A film cast in noir shades with Richard Burton never better than as the embittered spy, Alec Lemas. 69/100.

An altogether different proposition but a film as redolent of the 80s as Spy is of the 60s, Desperately Seeking Susan wants to make you laugh at its kookiness. It succeeds. Madonna, though we couldn't have known it, was on the cusp of mega-stardom but would never be seen to such good cinematic effect again. As for Rosanna Arquette, stardon yes, mega-stardom, no, but she is glorious in the lead. 68/100.

 

Advent 24

Door 24 on the calendar. It's an arresting piece of country music, the track that won the Oscar for Best Song. Robert Altman's Nashville is an undervalued bit of cinematic genius and this song is delivered by Keith Carradine in one of the screen's great ironic scenes. I won't try to explain it - watch the film for yourself. So here it is, the latest entry into the pantheon of Doors 24 - I'm Easy.

I hope you've enjoyed the trawl through my musical mind. Not inspiring I suspect, possibly even hard core bland out. But maybe there has been something that has sent you back to your own stereo. Happy Christmas and may your God go with you. 

Advent 23

 

 

Only one day to go calendar wise. DN1 and DN2 will be with us by the end of today. As Noddy so wisely bellowed, IT'S CHRISTMAS.

Castles in the Air by Don McLean is a poetic lament against city life, a cousin, if you will to my favourite Elton John track, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Castles in the Air is from McLean's first album, Tapestry but made perhaps its greater impact as the B side to the later Vincent. Hauntingly good.

Advent 22

 

 

Now this, I believe, is what those of us who are down with the kids might call a chooon. Possibly a banger. Hell, I don't know, I'm hardly down with my own kids, let alone anybody else's. No matter, this track explains to me why people like electro and why loud dance music has its uses. Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl.

Advent 21

 

 

There is a strong Eagles thread running through much of the music I find attractive. Yesterday's Poco track is a good example, Timothy B. Schmit having been a member of both bands. Schmit crops up again today, singing backing on Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band's Fire Lake. Don Henley and Glenn Frey, Eagles both, are also on the track. I rediscovered it recently.

I have the vinyl of the album (Against the Wind) from which the track is taken. I remember I got it from the bargain bin at, I think, Boots for 50p. Nice. 

Advent 20

 

  

I'm a sucker for a bit of country rock and when you listen to an Eagles inspired playlist on Spotify, it won't be long before a Poco track turns up. This my idea of their most memorable song - Rose of Cimarron. Oddly enough, only a couple of days after I had discovered this song, I was out running and some workmen were up a scaffold in Dunton Close, radio blaring out, and this was the track being played. More serendipity.

Twelve Films At Christmas - 3 - Teamed With Kultcha Vultcha - Part The Third

White Christmas may not be (as any film bore/geek like OG will tell you) the film in which the title song makes its first appearance (that would be Holiday Inn) but it has undoubtedly become part of the Christmas furniture. Danny Kaye may only have been third choice to star alongside Bing Crosby but the producers got lucky - his sort of clowning is a nice counterpoint to Crosby's elegant langour.

And of course any film is best when seen in a packed cinema. So to the Electric Cinema for a screening of the movie, but not your usual two hours of pleasurable detachment. No, this was a screening paired with wine tasting, in the hands of the estimable Wine Events Company. The film was cheerfully paused to take in an Alsace cremant, an Austrian Riesling,  two reds , and a port, plus, naturally, a couple of mince pies. Brilliant. As for the film, difficult to be objective but 70/100.

Kultcha Vultcha Encore Une Fois

Sing Choirs of Angels, an installation by Illuminos at Lichfield Cathedral. Now I have to confess that I hadn't been to the cathedral for decades, notwithstanding that it is practically on our doorstep. It is magnificent at any time but when lit up to relate the gospel it is captivating. A great evening adventure in the company of the Groupie and DN1. We even found free parking. Result.

Advent 19

 

  

The week leading up to Christmas. Today it's festive hats and jumpers on the links of Royal Pype Hayes and then drinking with the golf lads at the Bishop Vesey in the evening. It's a hard life but someone's got to do it.

So here we have a real party banger. Some may prefer Love Shack, but for me Roam sees the B52s at their joyous best.  

Advent 18

 

  

No list is complete (apparently) without some 80s alternative rock, whatever that means. Here is a top song, Shine On by House of Love. This is the third day in a row that has thrown up music to drive to. Or indeed music to draft a thesis to. Never end a sentence with a preposition. Certainly never end two in a row. One week to Christmas.

Advent 17

 

  

More glorious noise. Bearing probably the best band name of all time, Pop Will Eat Itself are a riotous alternative rock band with left wing tendencies. Which you might think makes them an odd choice for this reactionary old blogger. Not a bit of it. Nearly thirty years old and still relevant today, this is the brilliant Ich Bin Ein Auslander.  

Advent 16

 

  

Forget the love songs; crank the volume up to 11. This is one I play very loud when driving the Precious Jag, preferably while wearing the Precious Oakleys. Mid life crisis? Hell no, I'm older than that. More like an old age crisis.

From 1985 The Cult with She Sells Sanctuary. More noise tomorrow.

Advent 15

 

  

We had a soppy song yesterday and today we have another one. Don't worry, things will get more raucous later. Yesterday's video was from Top of the Pops. Today's live rendition of Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel is from the cooler pillar of seventies music, The Old Grey Whistle Test. This is an unashamed love song and I enthusiastically dedicate it to the Groupie who has taken me just the way I am. For my part, loving her has been easy - she is perfect.

Advent 14

 

  

This is beautiful. Listen to it and I defy you not to have it meandering around your head for the rest of the day. It is the title song from Kiki Dee's 1973 album Loving and Free. She wrote the song; Elton John played keyboards on the album and co-produced it. The single was not released until 1976. It reached No. 13. Deserved better. For those of a certain innocent age, here is her Top of the Pops performance.

Twelve Films At Christmas - 2

Christmas is the time when you get lots of repeats on the television, most particularly in this age of so many channels. After all what is wrong with a continuous loop of The Two Ronnies? Actually not much - ed.

As for television, so for this blog. There is a plethora of Christmas films but only a limited number that merit re-watching. I reviewed The Polar Express under this thread three years ago. This one just about justifies revisiting - not every year but perhaps evry third year, just like we did. It leaves you with  that nice, warm Christmassy inner glow. And the animation is arresting.

Advent 13

 

  

As I write this I realise that this has been a strong list for guitar heroes - you have my nomination of John Williams and yesterday we had guitar work from Clapton. Well here's another contender - in a mesmerising live performance, Richard Thompson (founder member of Fairport Convention) gives us his brilliant 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. 

A Day In The Life Of A Kultcha Vultcha

Opera - I've tried hard but I'm afraid I can take it or leave it. But ballet, that's a different kettle of cultural fish. I Find myself left in envious admiration of the sheer athleticism.

So, with the Groupie and OG's aged mother to see the Birmingham Royal Ballet Nutcracker. The taxi journey into Birmingham was trouble-free (I'm a great one for worrying that something will go wrong with any plan I make) and left time aplenty for a pre-performance glass of overpriced, but passable, malbec. As things transpired the journey home was mildly blighted by the traffic in Birmingham's unruly city centre, but it was far too late in the day to cause any upset - it perhaps even added a frisson of local authenticity.

Birmingham Royal Ballet make their home at the Hippodrome, a quite fabulously classic proscenium arch with (as all such theatres should have) an upstairs and a downstairs. We were upstairs (Lower Circle Right) in not inexpensive seats. Still one definitely shouldn't carp at the price when you consider the magnificence of the staging, the size and ability of the orchestra, and the size and precision of the corps de ballet. And, of course, with Nutcracker, you get a sequence of Tchaikovsky's greatest hits. That plus proper dancing, not that clever modern stuff with spiky music. OG loved it. He's listening to the music now. I suspect this makes him a bit of a philistine. Oh well.

But wait, the day gets better before that character-forming, bladder-testing, return journey. Pig's party went for a late afternoon curry after the matinee performance. Now this was another part of the itinerary for the Pig to agitate over, for he had chosen the restaurant based on internet reviews and its proximity to the theatre. The Pig was triumphant and enthusiastically recommends Ark. In particular give the chicken chettinaadu a try.

So all in all a success and, I'll say this as well for The Nutcracker - it doesn't half put you in the mood for Christmas. As if my advent calendar wasn't enough to do that anyway.

Advent 12

 

  

You live and learn. Apparently the lead guitar on this track is Eric Clapton. Apologies for the less than woke video - it was the eighties after all. The album on which it appeared had an equally dodgy cover.

From his first solo album this is 5.01 am (the Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking by Roger Waters. A far cry from yesterday's offering from Townes Van Zandt, but hey ho, viva eclecticism.

Advent 11

 

  

My original plan had been to play around with that list of Liked Songs on my Spotify page, but then I thought I spied some intellectual integrity in spinning through the list in the order in which I saved the songs. The integrity thing is bollocks of course, bit I'm sticking with it. Thus on the eleventh day we have my favourite discovery of the year, the song that would otherwise have earned the coveted spot behind door twenty-four.

Townes Van Zandt sings his haunting composition Waitin' Around to Die. This one's for depressives everywhere. You are not alone.

Advent 10

 

  

One has to have a guitar hero. I tried to learn the guitar and failed. However my brief foray into the world of classical guitar confirmed me in the conviction that John Williams is the man. Here, on the Val Doonican Show of all things, is Williams playing Cavatina, best known as the theme tune for The Deer Hunter, though in fact it was written a decade before that film and had even made an earlier screen appearance in the forgotten movie The Walking Stick.

Advent 9

 

  

A bit of high-class crooning today. You can keep Sinatra, Bennett et al, if I have to listen to one crooner it will be Andy Williams. And here we have Nino Rota's Love Theme from The Godfather (I don't need to tell you again how good those films are) with a lyric bolted onto it for Williams to do his damnedest. Speak Softly Love.

Advent 8

 

  

I know where this one comes from. If you start a deep-dive into Belle and Sebastian (and on that score I refer you back to my introduction of this year's calendar) Spotify forms the strong opinion that you will like Richard Hawley. It is mildly alrming that an algorithm can be so spot on. Tonight the Streets Are Ours.

Twelve Films At Christmas - 1

The trees are up (yes we have two - so bourgeois) and the lights are shining. Thus I can start my festive diet of things cinematic.

I have said before (ok I was hardly the first) that sometimes the Best Picture Oscar is not a reliable indicator of merit, but, of late, there have been some gems. Barry Jenkins's Moonlight won the award and it is brilliant. It is all about something that I have mentioned before - toxic masculinity, or at least it is partly about that because it works on a wider stage. It is about being human. Sometimes the patois dialogue is difficult but challenge yourself to make the effort and then wallow in the fine playing and the directorial craftsmanship. Beautiful. 89/100. 

Advent 7

 

  

He's not even the most famous musician from Stourport-on-Severn (that would be Ray Thomas from my beloved Moody Blues) but Clifford T. Ward was responsible for this nicely soppy song, Home Thoughts from Abroad. Ward had a dodgy haircut (a lot of us did in the seventies) but anecdote has it that he was good at his day job as an English teacher so I thnk we will forgive him that.

Advent 6

 

  

You've got to have a bit of corn in there. This song is uber-corny (or should that be tres corny). This is Charles Aznavour's rendition of She. A song made fashionable again by the use of the Elvis Costello version in the film Notting Hill - which, by the way, is, in the opinion of this critic, better than its close cousin Four Weddings and a Funeral. Just saying.

I think I must have been channelling my Andy Williams vibe when this track came up. That's the way it works - I always have music playing when I am working and if something really grabs me I add it to my 'Liked' list.

Advent 5

 

  

Sierra by Boz Scaggs. This is a seriously haunting piece of music. I came across it when exploring Spotify for tracks suggested by a liking for Ry Cooder. Not sure the link makes any sense other than in my untutored manner - perhaps it's even the similarity of their names (that probably doesn't make any sense either) but what I do know is that my great mate Big Willy, who strums a mean guitar himself, approves of both.

Advent 4

 

   

Joan Baez has a voice of crystal clarity. Perhaps most famed as an interpreter of others' songs, this is one of her own compositions. Some commentators liked to imagine that Diamonds and Rust was a bit of a swipe at her former lover, Bob Dylan. Baez has always denied that. Why let the facts stand in the way of a good story. A rather beautiful noise.

Advent 3

 

   

Hey man you're sooo avant-garde. Dude I know. I even liked the Velvet Underground before they were acclaimed. This last boast is a false one - I'm not quite that old. Rock and Roll. Enjoy.

Advent 2

   

And now for a bit of prog-rock. Manfred Mann's Earth Band should not be confused with 60s pop band, Manfred Mann, though their common inheritance is the keyboard skill of Manfred Mann himself. 

Enough of that. I can't quite remember what got me listening to this track once again (I usually put these things down to Spotify serendipity and I do listen to a lot of prog-rock - it's an age thing) but here it is, unashamedly riffing on Holst's Planet Suite (Jupiter), Joybringer.

Advent 1

    

Welcome to December, the month of hope and expectation. Also the month of long nights and generally uncongenial weather. So let's start with something uplifting. It's a cover version so might have found a place in last year's calendar. But it didn't. So deal with it.

In fact it's much covered, the first notable edition being by Mama Cass in 1969. This is Paloma Faith's 2018 rendition of Make Your Own Kind of Music, commissioned for a Skoda advertisement of all things. Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Well. Nice.