The Go-Between's Twin Layers Of Lightning

I think I'd trade everything Pulp ever did for this one track. Forster and McClennan were that good.

An Interesting Comment

As part of the avclub's 'What we're rooting for at the Oscars' rundown, one Phil Dyess-Nugent (not an avclub regular as far as I'm aware) remarks as follows:

The only legitimate reason to care about the Oscars is the effect they can have on the careers of the people involved... For that reason, I’m very happy to see Jennifer Lawrence’s Best Actress nomination for Silver Linings Playbook. There’s not a chance in hell she’ll win; young actress[es] don’t win Oscars for being that funny and sexy and insanely alive, unless (like Marisa Tomei and Mira Sorvino) they can be squeezed into the Best Supporting Actress category, and even then they can expect to spend the rest of their lives being expected to apologize for it. [My italics]

The suggestion that there's a kind of vengefulness against youth and beauty associated with Academy Awards to young actresses is as intriguing as it is chilling. I'm not sure that the suggestion is correct, indeed I suspect that much of the evidence for anything like Dyess-Nugent's thesis is also evidence of the Academy's larger aversion to comedy, hence can't differentially establish what Dyess-Nugent needs. But the point deserves further study.

Les Rhythmes Digitales Live(?)

They sound utterly terrific (esp. 'Soft Machine') in these clips:

Lots of backing tapes surely but enough live stuff to be impressive. On this evidence, LRD and Stuart Prices's projects more generally need to play live a lot more than they do. In general, too, a new LRD album would be very welcome.

American Guns

In Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1947), a distraught and confused (but certainly unarmed and not evidently dangerous) George Bailey slugs the Pottersville counterpart of Bedford Falls's cop Burt and runs off down the street. Despite having earlier speculated that George may be seriously mentally ill, Burt responds by letting fly with six shots, emptying his revolver.

This would appear to be an excessive and disproportionate use of force. Dangerous too: Burt has to worry about a lot of bystanders, including people in moving cars behind the running George (highlighted by the oval) and directly in the line of fine.

Yet in all of the American paenes to IAWL that I've read or heard over the years, I've never heard anyone query Pottersville-Burt's behavior. Maybe if he'd shot Clarence dead for resisting arrest back at George's abandoned Pottersville-house there'd have been some push-back!

I guess there is some question about whether Pottersville-Burt's behavior is supposed to deplorable/corrupted/Pottersville-only, so that, as it were, Bedford Falls-Burt would never let fly like that, but I dunno... maybe Americans really do believe that anyone who resists arrest or flees may (or even should) be shot and killed.

RS on Rage Remaster

Rolling Stone assessing the remastered version of Rage Agianst The Machine's eponymous debut:

The rap appropriation has lost the force of novelty, of course, but blaming Rage Against the Machine for Fred Durst is like blaming Abraham Lincoln for John Boehner

Indie Babes o' the Year

Chairlift's Caroline Polachek, who had one of the songs of the year (here sung quite gloriously mostly in Japanese):

And Au Revoir Simone's Erika Forster:

Gorgeous group generally of course!

Advertising Psycho in 1961 in New Zealand

The first advertisement for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in NZ's paper of record, The New Zealand Herald was a long column on May 25 1961:

Psycho had opened in the US a full year before, in June 1960, so presumably the NZ movie-going public was absolutely ravenous to finally see the new sensation, and possibly ticked off at having had to wait so long. The second Herald notice (May 28, 1961) appears to acknowledge that situation:

although the rumors referred to may also be to censorship possibilities/worries (NZ's censors followed the UK's in imposing cuts on Psycho's shower sequence).

The third Psycho ad. repeats the savagely chopped and inserted title/logo, but also dramatically announces and imprecates!

The fourth ad., now directly underneath the ad. for the current occupant (The Sundowners w/ Kerr and Mitchum) of the St James cinema announces that tomorrow there'll be a big announcement:

The (possibly anti-climactic) announcement turns out to be that bookings will now be taken:

On June 7, 2 days before Psycho opens, Hitchcock the showman returns:
Psycho does different things to different people! And no one but no one will be admitted after the film begins.

The same day, the evening paper in Auckland, The Star announced the winners of its various Psycho-related competitions including its Hitchcock-look-alike:

Come on down Mr H. Pietry to the most terrifying, shocking, and generally incredible film experience of your life!

One day to go and the Herald can barely control itself:

Thursday evening's Star and Friday morning's Herald indirectly hail the grand opening:

Friday night's Star, however, takes the biscuit:

It's now Psycho time and DO NOT KILL YOUR FRIENDS' (enjoyment by telling them the ending). Note the specification in the ad. of exactly when the main feature will start, i.e., after roughly 40-50 minutes of shorts (including travelogues features such as 'Ports of Paradise' and short documentaries from Rank films' Look at Life series. Water shortages in England before Psycho - who woulda thunk it?!)

As in North America, Psycho played in NZ with no previews so both the Herald and the Star reviewed Psycho on Saturday June 10. Both reviewers act very wise about Hitch's marketing savvy. Neither mentions Herrmann.

After Psycho is released the ads become a parade of Alfred Hitchcock Presents drollerie sometimes with two Hitchcock representations to drive the point home:

Even William Castle would be proud of "Pay no attention to the rumour that this film may send you completely berserk!' or "If you can't keep a secret keep away from people after seeing Psycho". Most tho' not all (e.g., not the rumor of speechless wives) of this schtick was drawn from an acclaimed media/marketing package of teaser ads prepared by Paramount:
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A couple of post-release ads are worthy of special note.

I thought that use of supposed infra-red footage of audience reactions in advertizing began with '70s mega-thillers such as The Exorcist and Jaws, but here it is as part of Psycho's ad. frenzy. Was Psycho then the first with this?
And, finally, a reference to shows packing out:

Psycho was a well-deserved, monster hit world-wide, the showbizerry of which left an imprint on a whole generation.