June 15, 2013
Kubrick at LACMA
I went to the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at LACMA. Usually photography is restricted in special exhibits and in exhibits featuring photography, so I was surprised to see no restrictions at all on photography in the Kubrick exhibit (except for the usual restriction on the use of flash). They didn't even stop people from videoing the films being displayed.
The Shining
A model from 2001: A Space Odyssey
The lens that allowed Kubrick to shoot by candlelight in Barry Lyndon - f0.7!
Fear and Desire - this is the only one of his feature films that Kubrick withdrew from circulation, so it was not being shown at the museum, and I've never seen it.
Even in 1960 - a letter from Rev. Max F. Stowe pastor of Bible Presbyterian Church in Tampa, Florida, dated December 10, 1960.
Dear Mr. Kubrick:This is just to let you know that many of us regret sincerely your making the picture based on the novel, "Lolita".
It is so obvious to everyone, although you might dislike to admit it, that it is based upon sex appeal. And that appeal is quite degenerate in its nature. It can accomplish no good.
Cordially yours,
Max F. Stowe
The complete set of photos is available here.
In addition to all his well known feature films, Fear and Desire, and his short documentary works, the exhibit included information on three projects that Kubrick started but did not complete: Napoleon, The Aryan Papers, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
There were several darkened rooms showing film excerpts, still images, or music from Kubrick's films. The sound quality in these rooms was atrocious! I now know what became of the old loudspeakers that the MBTA used to use in its subway stations before they were upgraded in the 1980s.
The entrance to the exhibit is a room with two large screens displaying excerpts from all of Kubrick's feature films (except Fear and Desire). The trouble with this set up was that you walked into it immediately after coming in from Los Angeles sunlight. I (and others) simply couldn't make out whether there were any obstructions (like chairs?) on the floor, so people tended to freeze in the entryway, waiting for their eyes to adjust. I tried scooting sideways to get around the crowd but ran into something solid. I couldn't tell what it was or how large, so I just stopped and waited.
Later, while I was watching these films a woman and man were seated to my right. I would judge them to have been in their thirties. When the excerpts from 2001 began I heard her say to her gentleman friend "Oh, I've never seen this one." I was a bit surprised. If 2001 isn't Kubrick's most popular film, I would guess it's second only to The Shining. But the shocker came a minute later as she was trying to look it up on her smartphone. When the famous "Also Sprach Zarathustra" theme began to play, she turned to her gentleman friend to ask "Star Wars?"
Later I wondered about the spot this put the man in. One presumes that one of those two is a film lover, and I don't think it's the lady. So he brings his girlfriend/wife/sister/whatever to the Kubrick exhibit, only to learn that she can't distinguish Kubrick's films from schlocky space westerns. The man has some weighty issues to consider.
The Kubrick exhibit ends June 30, 2013. Unfortunately, the one prop from A Clockwork Orange that I really wanted to see was not there. Apparently, it's on display at the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami:
permalink | June 15, 2013 at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
Spock vs. Spock
According to this ad for Audi, the greatest disadvantage to owning a Mercedes is you can't put golf clubs in its trunk, I guess.
permalink | June 15, 2013 at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2013
Who Will Be John Galt?
Chances are, you are not one of the seven people who watched both Atlas Shrugged: Part II, but if you were you noticed that there was a complete change of cast. Dagny Taggart went from lightweight Taylor Schilling to Samantha Mathis who at least looks like she's done some work in her life. John Galt, who won't take front stage until "Part III," was played by Paul Johansson in "Part I" and by D.B. Sweeney in "Part II."
And now the people making "Part III" are asking the public for their input on who should play John Galt this time. You will recall that this is the part of the novel where John Galt gets his sex scenes AND delivers the undramatically gargantuan "Galt's Speech." They pose the question this way:
A. As long as the actor looks and acts like John Galt, I don't care what his personal beliefs are.
B. The actor needs to possess a deep understanding of, and passion for, Ayn Rand's ideas first and foremost.
Obviously, choice B will lead to a laughable failure of a movie, but commenters on the page are ignoring the question and simply suggesting actors. Lets see who they want:
Plus this comment: "It's a movie. These are actors. 99% of actors are socialists. You could cast an Objectivist, but he probably would have zero acting ability."
Obviously some of those are jokes (Donald Trump?!), but most seemed to be sincere. John Galt is supposed to be in his 30s, so I've indicated the ages of those who are 60 or older, plus the one teenager. I don't know if these commenters have a blind faith in the ability of an unlimited makeup budget, or if they've never noticed that actors age at the same rate all of us do. Also, the film is supposed to be fairly low budget. Some of these top rank actors would wipe out the whole budget.
permalink | May 29, 2013 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2013
Netflix Decision Flow Chart
permalink | May 12, 2013 at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2013
Sins Of The Fleshapoids
I think this got in my Netflix queue because John Waters recommended it. It looks like it would be ideal for a party. I guess I could warn Spoiler Alert but I think it's more like I'm going to save you 43 minutes of wasted life.
- It starts with grating music and credits that go on for a minute and 50 seconds, even though there are only 6 people listed.
- 1:55 The narrator tells us it's a million years in the future. We see a close up of a soft, heavily made up woman wearing Mardi Gras beads.
- 2:10 She takes a bite of apple, which must be a really tough apple because she has to jerk it to get the bite free of the fruit. She is bored. A voice balloon says "Fleshapoids!" It seems they shot with silent film and then added voiceover and music. She claps like a child watching a game on TV. She stands in a way that suggests she has lower back problems.
- 2:45 The narrator tells us Fleshapoids are mechanical men who are servants of the human race and obey every command. A pair of lumbering oafs appear in the scene. Our lady bats her eyes in a seductive manner. Considering the obvious low budget, the viewer expects some cheezy erotic events pretty quick.
- 3:05 Now in a clearer shot we can see that one of the Fleshapoids is wearing a helmet that looks like a sort of coal scuttle. He's soft and overweight, developing man boobs. He leans crookedly against the wall as though he has some muscular or neurological malady. Our lady sets herself down in a manner that was probably considered sexy in 1910. This film was made in 1965. The Fleshapoid in the helmet moves jerkily, not like a machine, but like he's listening to some internal dubstep music. He pours wine for the lady.
- 3:18 The narrator explains the Fleshapoids are robots. He describes them as "perfect mechanical slaves."
- 3:47 Now we see the other Fleshapoid who looks like a goatherder from central Asia who hasn't shaved in a week and is maybe a little drunk. He holds a tray of plastic fruit.
- 4:05 Close up of the helmeted Fleshapoid who is really unattractive. The helmet and the chubbiness gives him a resemblance to Il Duce. Close up of the goatherder and he appears to be asleep on his feet. Too much vodka, maybe.
- 4:46 Our lady goes back to work on that apple.
- 5:05 The narrator tells us humans live in a true paradise, as the camera pans across a display of 20th century plastic fruit: grapes, plums, oranges, peaches, bananas and a fish! It's kind of brown, so maybe it's smoked. But it's a whole fish.
- 5:23 Now we see a good looking young man eating a soft-serve ice cream cone. He's probably human, not Fleshapoid, because he's good looking and moves normally. He admires a pile of plastic fruit very much like the lady's pile of plastic fruit. In fact, I'm sure it's the very same pile. They didn't even bother to re-arrange it between shots. And there's the fish!
- 6:09 Young man surveys his plastic fruit and selects something. The camera goes in closer and it's a Clark bar! Really! A Clark bar in a wrapper that clearly says "Clark." He takes off the wrapper and begins to eat it.
- 6:35 The camera pulls back a bit. He seems to be wearing a blue loin cloth made of terrycloth. But then he rolls on his side and we see he's bare butt.
- 6:45 A being comes and sits on the young man's bed. Human or Fleshapoid, we don't know. Young man rolls on his belly so we can see his naked ass. Well, well! Camera moves in closer on the young man so we no longer see his butt. Shadows indicate that the other being is moving around. Are we about to see cheezy gay sex? Hard to say. The other being reaches forward and does something with his hands to the back of the young man. Maybe this is supposed to be massage, but it's completely in shadow and blocked by a big fat blue candle in the foreground, so we can't tell what's really happening. After about 5 seconds of something done with less effort than applying sunblock, our young man rolls over...and opens a bag of Wise potato chips! Honest, visible trademark and everything. The other being pulls back a bit and holds its hands in a claw like position. It's wearing a babushka and reminds me of the old women who [used to?] monitor the escalators for Moscow subways. Young man rolls back onto his belly and the massage resumes - yes, it's clearly massage in a better light now. Really poor massage.
- 7:46 We now see a young woman who is wearing a giant paper leaf to cover her bare butt. She swings around and we see another paper leaf covering her frontside plus two giant flower blooms made of construction paper applied to her breasts like huge pasties.
- 8:36 The narrator tells us there are no more wars. No weapons are being created. As we go back to watch the young man eat potato chips the narrator tells us that the first nuclear war ruined the earth for 70 years - 70 whole years. Continents disappeared. Forests were "reduced to naked twigs." On screen we see the massaging Fleshapoid presenting the young man with a platter of Mardi Gras beads. The narrator tells us rivers turned to poison. "Birds ceased to play in the sky." As the young man admires the Mardi Gras beads the massaging Fleshapoid turns toward the camera and we see he has a hairy chest.
- 9:16 Narrator: "The humans have returned to being children of nature, to do nothing to pump the mind with knowledge, but to pump their mouths with nature's fruit and to indulge in the fulfillment of the senses." (When are we gonna get to the cheezy sex?) The young man really likes the Mardi Gras beads.
- 10:42 The young woman with the paper flower pasties has been on screen for a while doing nothing, but now begins to stretch and wiggle her body as though to test the glue on her costume pieces. Nothing falls off.
- 11:05 We're back to the first woman, the one with the two oafs. She is dancing to some music in her own head. The goatherder lifts up his tray of plastic fruit and pours it all over her. Yes, whole plastic fruit. No syrup, no chocolate. Totally clean. We watch it bounce on her red shag carpeting. Goatherder and Il Duce pick up a small stool that either one of them could have easily picked up alone. They bring it over to the lady so she can stand on top of it and undress. But our two oafs hold a red cloth up in front of the camera to obscure the view. Even so, I'm sure this would have been banned in Kansas in 1965.
- 12:53 The Il Duce Fleshapoid reaches down into his costume and pulls some warm, greasy, sweaty Mardi Gras beads out from somewhere below. He gives them to the lady. The narrator tells us that Fleshapoids have been in existence for 20,000 years. He goes on to explain that while the Fleshapoids outnumbered the surviving humans after the war "a strange thing happened." Meanwhile, goatherder is staring at Il Duce with what seems to be affection. The narrator explains that some of the Fleshapoids developed senses. "They began to react to evolution and environment just as the minute organisms did a billion years ago."
- 13:56 We get a good view of Il Duce's saggy left tit as the narrator identifies him as Zar, although it sounds more like Zaaaarrrrrrr. And we see the back of Zar's helmet for the first time. There are two bugeye lenses on the back. I'm sure this "helmet" was originally used as a headpiece for some alien in another film and Zar is simply wearing it backwards.
- Zar picks up a mirror as the narrator explains he didn't want to obey humans. As he walks in his jerky stiff way with the mirror it reminds me of the way Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon moved in drag in Some Like It Hot - IOW, like a man trying to walk like a woman. The narrator warns us that today is the day the Fleshapoids will sin.
- 15:05 Our lady catches Zar admiring himself in the mirror. She saunters up like Mae West, although she doesn't have the body for it. Zar sees her, gets up and walks behind her. Now the too of them are standing back to back and our lady is making weird, indecipherable faces into the camera.
- After about 15 seconds of that, she whips around to face Zar's back and squints like he's really hard to see two feet away. She orders him to turn around (in a voice balloon). He cringes as though she had just said "No more wire hangers!" But he doesn't turn around. Our lady moves around in front of him, still making weird faces and says "Obey me, or I'll wet you and make you RUST!!" At that moment he does seem to have the the Tin Man's eyes. Our lady holds up a nice water pitcher to pour on him and he pulls away like the Scarecrow from flame. Zar grabs the pitcher and begins to overpower the lady. He becomes a very angry Mussolini and grabs her wrists. He forces her to the floor. She lifts the knee of one bare leg. (Are we finally going to get some cheezy sex?) Zar grabs her garment. She rises and pulls away, so the lower half of whatever she is wearing is torn away...but she's wearing some kind of undergarment. She goes for the pitcher again, but Zar stops her. In the midst of the struggle his mouth begins flopping away like a fish out of water. He bashes her on the head and she falls.
- 18:15 Zar now walks around in a jerky sort of Monty Python way, finally mincing out of the scene.
- 18:40 We see a cartoon drawing of what looks like a space ship with castle turrets. Now it sounds like the narrator is calling the Mussolini Fleshapoid "Xar," like "ksar," not "zar." In any case, Xar wanted to be with his loved one, a Fleshapoid called Melenka. She feels the same for Xar. She works for Prince Gianbeno which is pronounced like "Giant Beano" only without the "T." Gianbeno's castle is "just behind the marshes." Xar stares at the cartoon castle through the trees.
- 19:00 We see Prince Gianbeno who looks like George Hamilton dressed as Yul Brynner in drag. He is obviously a bitchy screaming queen as he sits on his throne smoking a cigarette while wearing black leather gloves - and these are not trim, sexy black leather gloves, but just some cheap winter gloves, probably from Montgomery Ward. [Wow! Montgomery Ward still exists! I thought they had disappeared decades ago.] He calls for Melenka who comes wearing a blue flapper dress and matching feather boa.
- 19:35 Gianbeno asks if dinner is ready. Malenkena shows him an arrangement of what seems to be plastic clementines. Gianbeno knocks them out of her hand and kicks her to the floor for her lack of respect, so maybe he's not such a bad guy. Then he talks and talks and talks, but the filmmakers gave him no voice balloons. Malenkena brings him a wheelchair, which he walks to.
- 19:55 The narrator tells us Gianbeno's "corrupted, spoiled soul permeated the castle except upstairs in the tower where his wife Vivianna entertained her secret lover."
- 20:15 We see hands playing a stringed instrument which I believe is a kantele. The camera pans up to show us a middle aged man faintly resembling Karl Malden, but not as cute. Based on his general unattractiveness I'd guess he's a Fleshapoid. Then we see a young man and woman making out in a bed behind a red gauze screen. Even through the screen we can see the young woman, presumably Vivianna, has HUGE fake eyelashes on. The young man wearing a loincloth moves the gauze so we can see him clearly, but not Vivianna - as if that would advance his Hollywood career. Now we see that Karl Malden is stiffly playing the kantele for the young lovers...and staring at them.
- 21:08 Another shot of the young couple in bed obscured by a house cat walking in front of the camera. This does not look planned.
- 21:20 Karl Malden pours a tray of plastic fruit on the young lovers, but they are not into the particular fetish and react with some disgust. Or at least Vivianna does. Her boyfriend couldn't care one way or the other. Vivianna throws an apple at Karl Malden who catches it in his mouth. She laughs and all seems to be well again. We get a good clear shot of the young couple as Vivianna strokes the man's chest and bats her 2-inch eyelashes. The man begins to admire some piece of Crackerjack jewelry worn by Vivianna. It's even cheaper looking than Mardi Gras beads, so she gives it to him.
- 22:05 The narrator explains that Vivianna is living off her husband's money. Well, what else do you do when you're a princess? Get a job as a car hop? "She now had everything. For Vivianna too had found love. Together with Ernie they vowed to share eternity together." Yes, our handsome young loin-clothed lover a million years in the future is called "Ernie."
- 23:20 Finally, it looks like some cheezy sex is happening, but there are still clothes, lots of fabrics in the way, and too many shadows.
- After 15 seconds of that Vivianna announces she must join her husband for dinner and leaves the boudoir. Ernie doesn't seem to care one way or the other. Vivianna calls for a Fleshapoid and instructs him to "Bathe and feed my lover."
- 24:00 We see Prince Gianbeno at the dinner table fingering his dagger. Malenka serves something like sauerkraut, which the Prince can't quite get in his mouth, dropping it in his lap. He picks it up and flings it at Malenka and moves his lips, but once again he gets no voice balloon. Vivianna arrives and the two of them sneer as they each address the other as "my beloved." Gianbeno tells Vivianna to "put out the candle" which is on the table between them, so ouf course Vivianna throws a glass of water on it, hitting Gianbeno with most of the water. He takes it in stride, like a good cuckold. Vivianna bats her eyelashes, one of which seems to be falling askew.
- 25:15 Meanwhile, Xar is still outside staring at the castle from the marsh. He climbs through a window into the castle. The window, BTW, is a standard sash window that needs a bit of scraping and fresh paint. He moves through the castle with his head bobbing like a chicken. We see Malenka who moves smoothly as she climbs the stairs to meet him. No wonder he's in love with her.
- 26:27 We see Vivianna eating dinner. It seems the custom is to scoop up some food on your fork and then use your fingers to pick bits of food off the fork and put them in your mouth. Gianbeno simply stares as he moves his fork around on an empty plate.
- 26:47 Meanwhile, Malenka sits herself down stiffly on an ornate wooden seat, throws her head back and closes her eyes like a teenage virgin waiting for her man to take her. Xar kneels in front of her, moving stiffly as though he hasn't a clue what comes next. He says "We are Robots....yet we are in Love." She opens her eyes and stares upward saying "Let us now make love," despite the fact that her mouth flapped enough to have recited the entire Gettysburg Address. They reach their hands toward each other until literal sparks fly. Then they grab each other's hand and electricity flows.
- 27:41 Back to Vivianna's young lover, Ernie, who is singing in the bathtub while soaping his hairy self.
- 27:50 Back to Vivianna at the dinner table. An off screen fan has been turned on and Vivianna can hardly open her eyes with those giant eyelashes.
- 28:00 Ernie in the bath again. The camera pulls back to show us the Fleshapoid who is pouring water. But in addition to him we see a very hairy, hot man shaving outside the bathtub? Who is he? We've never seen him before, but Vivianna's young lover pulls back the red gauze to get a better look.
- 28:50 More bathtub scene. Maybe the hot hairy guy is also a Fleshapoid. He and the other Fleshapoid are scrubbing Ernie, and they are doing it in a very effective, fluid manner, totally unlike klutzy Xar. Ernie is smiling.
- Meanwhile Vivianna has been wandering in an underlighted room looking for that damn fan, but it keeps blowing gauzy fabrics into her face and she seems to be getting nowhere.
- 29:30 One of the Fleshapoids admires Ernie's Crackerjack jewelry that Vivianna gave him. Ernie tells the Fleshapoid that it came from a store on Rodeo Drive and cost at least $50,000 (I had to read his lips for that part).
- Vivianna gives up on the fan and goes back to the dinner table. Gianbeno asks her "Where is your necklace," referring to the Crackerjack jewelry. She says she left it upstairs. Gianbeno rises and says he will get it for her, but Vivanna says not to go upstairs, but he goes gallivanting up the stairway until Vivanna catches him and throws him down the stairs.
- 31:05 Vivianna runs to Ernie who is now back in the bedroom, all dry, in his loincloth. She orders him to dress, saying they must run away. She hands him a football helmet and, I swear, some football pants (1960s style, of course). She helps him lace up the front of his football pants. This might be the most erotic point in the film. OMG, he's actually wearing shoulder pads too! Vivianna pulls a red cocktail dress on over her black cocktail dress, which was a white wedding dress in earlier shots. Ernie has put on the jersey and he is number 26. Vivianna wastes time trying to put his wreath of flowers on his helmet without any Velcro. They discover they can't kiss through the face guard, frustrating Vivianna nearly to tears. She pulls on a red riding hood over her red cocktail dress.
- 32:30 Ernie orders Vivianna to take her jewels. She picks up her jewel box and spills the jewels out o the parquet floor. Many of them break because they are just Christmas ornaments (back in the 1960s Christmas tree ornaments were breakable - those were tough times). Ernie goes down on his knees to scrape up the jewels and his helmet falls off.
- 33:30 After standing and just watching Ernie do all the work, Vivianna asks "Who do you love?,.. me or my jewels?" "Both!" he answers. Smart boy. He pretends to push her away. She pretends to slap him. He pretends to be hurt. She pulls a big dagger from between her breasts. I've no idea how that got there! She points the dagger at her own heart, saying "If you leave me...I'll kill myself." A very odd thing to say, since he had given no indication of leaving her. But Ernie asks "Is that a Promise." Maybe not such a smart boy. He turns to leave and she...well, you know women never keep that sort of promise. She comes after him, dagger raised, and plunges it right through his number 26. Ernie sort of lies down on the floor. I think that was supposed to be his death scene.
- 35:30 Meanwhile Xar and Malenka are still holding hands and making sparks fly. Gianbeno witnesses this. "It's against nature!" He expresses his concern about the future of the human race. He pulls a strap of Malenka's flapper dress off her left shoulder, revealing a bra-like construction of galvanized steel and duct tape with some sort of 1960s electronic device attached to the nipple area. Attached to that is a sensor for a cooking thermometer. Xar gets up and moves like a jerk, managing to hit Gianbeno, knocking him down. Xar adjusts Malenka's left nipple to 400° and re-attaches the temperature sensor.
- 38:20 Xar grabs Gianbeno's wrist. Gianbeno makes weird faces while Xar announces "I'm negative." Wow, this is really way ahead of its time! Malenka says "I'm positive." Bet you didn't see that coming! She grabs his other wrist and Gianbeno lights up like a fourth of July sparkler.
- 38:53 The narrator announces the prince is dead. Malenka stares at his bare, smoking skull and says "S-s-something is wrong? 'gasp'." She falls to the floor and begins to writhe. A mixture of voices are dubbed in that sound like the moaning of cheezy sex and a baby crying. Definitely unpleasant. This goes on and on with Xar flitting about unhelpfully.
- 40:57 Is this rolling around and moaning ever going to end? She's grabbing her belly, and I do not want to see her give birth to a car battery or a transistor radio.
- 41:44 It looks like it's over and she's all smiles! But then we see a harmonica-playing toy robot walk from between her legs. The two parents smile at it adoringly. Meanwhile in the background we can still see the flames where the prince's body is burning.
- 42:55 Uplifting music as the narrator tells us that the machines have found love where humans had failed.
- 43:00 "The End."
See, in this story the horrible perversion of robot love is justified because it can produce viable offspring from sexual intercourse. I think this is some kind of pro-Prop 8 propaganda.
permalink | April 23, 2013 at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2013
John Waters
John Waters talks about filth, obscenity, Fred Phelps and crackpot evangelists.
Pasoloni's grave. John Waters says he wants his gravestone to look like Pasolini's. Is this really what he has in mind?
Mr. Waters recommends Salò and Irreversible. I don't know about Irreversible, but you should not go out and rent Salò without doing a little training first. Were you able to watch Pink Flamingos without turning away from the screen - ever? Did you find Caligula entertaining? Do you consider Sebastiane a must-see? If you answered yes to all three, then go ahead, you may be ready to watch Salò.
permalink | April 22, 2013 at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)
April 7, 2013
L.A. Beer Festival
Yesterday I went to the L.A. Beer Festival which was held on the grounds of Paramount Studios on Melrose. The beer wasn't to be available until 5 PM. Those who entered before 5 o'clock hung out in a parking lot with several food trucks where you could gird yourself for the coming onslaught. There were several hundred people there when they dropped the gate at 5:00. What you could see from the gate was this Sky Wall and many beer vendors in front of it. Those who didn't check their email thought that was it and flooded into that area, creating more congestion and not as much beer drinking as hoped. Those who had opened up the PDF mailed the day before knew that there were far more vendors behind the Sky Wall in a faux New York City.
Ones fear, observing the crowd and the congestion, was that it might be tough to get enough beers in the three hours of the event to make the cost and effort worthwhile. But about 20 beers later (they give you a little cup that can hold only 3 or 4 ounces), when one begins to relax and checks his watch to see how much time remains before last call one sees that it is only 5:30 and is satisfied that things are progressing very well in terms of beer consumption.
Stage 14 where Glee, Saturday Night Live, Top Gun and The Ten Commandments were filmed, along with many other big movies and TV shows.
The PBR was there for irony, I'm sure. They had the biggest truck - actually, the only truck - but business was very slow.
The Bun Truck where I got "Duck Fat Fries" with garlic. I asked if the duck fat was organic and the answer was "Who cares?"
It's like New York City except the street is packed with southern Californians.
A NYC Metro bus map at a bus stop. A New York friend of mine says that the bus stops in NYC do not have these maps.
As I stood in line for a beer I saw a lot of people coming and going through this alley, so I headed back in there to see what there was. It turns out it was just a place for the beer vendors to smoke their medical marijuana. It's sad that so many in the craft beer industry seem to be afflicted with arthritis, cancer, sleeplessness, AIDS, anxiety, chronic pain or any of the other maladies treated with marijuana - and at such a young age too!
Like I said, Paramount Studios.
The complete set of photos is here.
Some observations:
- The little plastic cup they give you when you enter is in a plastic bag. Very nice, especially compared to the WBUR beer tastings I went to in Boston. There they handed you real glasses from a box and they were filthy, sometimes even bearing dead roaches. But back to the plastic bags. The nearest trash cans to the point where they handed you the plastic cup were several hundred feet away and not visible. The obvious result was that this rather careless crowd simply threw the plastic bags on the ground where they blew around Paramount property.
- Experienced beer festival attendees came with long necklaces of pretzels. Great idea.
- They let you bring in bottled water and I saw one man drinking from a gallon jug. I realized they didn't need to worry much about water spiked with booze at a beer festival.
- Some beer vendors had no sign or banner at all. Others had nothing more than the 8½x11 piece of paper with their name that identified their spot. If you walked around to where you could see the kegs, those were usually labeled. I don't understand why a brewer would go to the effort and expense to be at a beer festival and not at least make up a good sized sign with their name.
- I saw no vomiting and no public urination...until I left Paramount property. One of our festival participants only made it about a block before he gave the sidewalk a good hosing in daylight, unable to make any significant effort to hide himself.
- One guy had the balls to wear his GoPro Hero3 on his head while touring the festival.
permalink | April 7, 2013 at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2013
Chand Baori
The Wikipedia page for Chand Baori tells us it is in Abhaneri, Rajasthan - built in 800 AD and "dedicated to Hashat Mata, Goddess of Joy and Happiness."
Chand Baori photo by El_Balo.
The photo below is how it appears in the beautiful movie The Fall.
permalink | March 21, 2013 at 07:24 AM | Comments (1)
February 2, 2013
Rent Grey Gardens
"Little Edie" at Grey Gardens.
Yes, really. The real Grey Gardens. You can really rent it. If you really have $125,000 - but that's not so much when you realize it's for two months. Info here. The real estate listing. The documentary from 1975 made by the Maysles brothers who also made Gimme Shelter. The Wikipedia article.
The documentary at Netflix. The movie based on the documentary, made 34 years later in 2009. Both are 5-star movies in my opinion. One of the highlights of the 2009 movie for me was the rediscovery of Jerry Torre who was a teenage boy who hung out with the Beales in the 1970s.
There is also The Beales of Grey Gardens, which is footage that was not included in the original documentary.
It will give you a new perspective on the Bouviers.
permalink | February 2, 2013 at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2013
It's Just Like Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wizard of Oz
Well, sorta...Koyaanisqatsi and Steam Boat Willie.
And for those who never tried it on their own, The Dark Side Of Oz.
