Songwriting

The Folk Fest Songwriting competition is coming up again and I've been thinking about my experience there last year.  I walked into the bar just as Jared Klok was starting to play.  I think about this song every so often, there are so many clever phrasing and great lines. 

"I'm one of the pack, just yelling out misnomers from the back."

Too bad he isn't around this year.

I've also been really enjoying this lately...



Roscoe

When first hearing Roscoe Holcomb I felt like I couldn't take it all in at the same time.  Everything sounded so perfect and primal.  His banjo and guitar are offset so incredibly by his voice, then everything is charged intensely by his posture and expression.  That face.  If I could describe it I would.



In Reference to the small Xiao Wu

The computer synopsis for Xiao Wu that I posted a while ago and the subsequent comments relating to it got me thinking.  I took a synopsis for the Bresson film Pickpocket from Criterion's website and sent it through a translator into Mandarin and back again.

Here is the original:

Robert Bresson’s incomparable tale of crime and redemption follows Michel, a young pickpocket who spends his days working the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. As his compulsion grows, however, so too does his fear that his luck is about to run out. Tautly choreographed and crafted in Bresson’s inimitable style, Pickpocket reveals a master director at the height of his powers.

Translated:

罗伯特布列松 crime and redemption follows the story of incomparable Michel, a young pickpocket who spent the day working the streets, subway cars, and Paris train station. With his force growth, however, so it does not he worried that his luck will soon run out. Tautly dance, in Bresson's unique style of production, pickpockets found that the peak of his master director. 

Then from Mandarin to Japanese to Russian and back again:

Special fabric pine columns crime and redemption is a street 罗伯 Michelle unsurpassed metro cars, work should be devoted to the history of young pickpockets in the train station in Paris. The greater the force of his, but he was not worried about his good fortune to be made ​​immediately. Dansuburesson tight production style, but I found Sri peak director of the wizard.

It doesn't quite surpass the Xiao Wu cover but 'I found Sri peak director of the wizard' is pretty good.  I can picture Bresson dressed as a wizard on the set...

"You shall not pass!"

Beep Beep

Tsai Ming-Liang

I'm not sure what to say about these films.  They are unusual but they seem significant. Mostly I just think that they are kind of great.  They aren't comedies but they aren't, uh, not comedies either.  Tsai Ming-Liang has a way of combining delicate contemplative style with the absurd in a pretty fantastic way.  It took me nearly 2 months to decide that I liked What Time is it There? but now I'm sure that I like it.  There is an appearance from Jean-Pierre Leaud in it, trying to pick up a girl in a cemetary.  The Hole is a musical splashed with science fiction, but somehow still beautiful and subtle.  You should watch them.

Near Miss

Xiao Wu

Earlier this week I had the chance to see Jia Zhang-ke's debut feature Xiao Wu (aka Pickpocket).  It is about a pickpocket named Xiao Wu who increasingly finds himself out of step with the world around him.  He holds onto his way of life in spite of major changes affecting his relationships and livelihood.  The film is an interesting contemplation of people that are looking more for shelter than a future.

The key scene for me takes place in a karaoke lounge where his girlfriend tries in vain to get him to sing along with her, the two of them sit there watching the screen in silence as the instrumental track plays out.  Jia's films are full of these sad and/or ironic images but for some reason this one stood out to me as one of his greatest articulations.

The synopsis on the copy that was leant to me is so incomprehensible that it's worth considering on it's own (I copied the spacing and punctuation exactly the way it appears).

The small xiao wu is a pickpocket, claiming to be is to fuck the handicraft live.He wears black frame in glasses, few speech, Don't how smile, a time is inclined on one side, tongue always crest the  helps.He usually passes hand over rock wall Wall, practice the karaoke in bathhouse, accompany the singer to press the street lifelessly, with once upon a time of" colleague" now At of big a western dress for speaking a few lines thin language in speech in , he wearing big No.2, at the small town that build many new buildingsAscend to flap about. 

Literal translation in all it's glory.

Amazingly the subtitling of the film was all fine.  I think my favorite part is "wall Wall" or "buildingsAscend to flap about."

Winter Sale

The Man with the Gun

I remember the first nightmare that I ever had.  I must have been around 5 or 6 years old and it affected me quite intensely at the time.  There was this wash of awareness that came over me when I woke up, 'I had a scary dream, this is what it feels like to have a scary dream.'

The dream was set in Lloyd mall (in Lloydminster) and I was wondering around by myself.  I came into contact with several members of the cast of my favorite tv show at the time 'Five mile Creek'. One of the characters, I think it was Kate, warned me to, 'watch out for the man with the gun.'  Five mile Creek involved very little shooting so you can imagine the severity of her tone.  I continued to wander around, eventually finding myself in a dentists office.  I was placed in the chair and then a drill that was twice my size was lowered into position above me.  At this point I realized that the dentist was the man with the gun and I couldn't get away, and that's when I woke up.

Last week I came across this on the shelf at the Library:

It immediately brought to memory my dream and I grabbed it off of the shelf.  For a few moments I was actually torn about it though, all those years ago being told to watch out for the man with the gun actually made me second guess watching it.

I went ahead and watched it.  Much to my pleasure it is a great little western with Robert Mitchum at his best (for Mitchum that always includes a streak of the psychotic).  It is one of those movies that sticks pretty tight to it's generic conventions but carries along with it something extra just below the surface.  The violence and sexual tension which are portrayed in the film come across in an unusual way that I can't quite pin down.  There is something about this movie that is both enticing and dangerous, I suppose that's what a good western is supposed to be like.

The discovery of this movie also coincided with a trip to the dentist a couple of days later, not sure what it all means...