Doggin' Around

The BFI is one of the best things about living in London, an opportunity to see classics and curios of various types on the big (or biggish) screen.

The other week, I noticed they were showing a screening of 'Doggin' Around' a one-off BBC drama from 1994 starring one of my very favourite actors, that king of shambling laconia, Elliott Gould.

It was shown as part of an Alan Plater season to commemorate his passing. I'd never heard of Plater before but on this evidence I'll be dipping into more of his work.

Aside from some (forgiveable) broad comedy, this was a lovely piece of work. It's a paean to the dream of the travelling jazz musician, the hip cat. Great to see Gould given a script worthy of his comic talent. Many terrific lines for Gould here.

Then, the shots of roadsigns and the headlights of lonely cars on Yorkshire motorways in the dead of the night accompanied by melancholy jazz go beyond ironic juxtaposition of themes and just come off as plainly beautiful.

Black & WTF

Found it on Buzzfeed. The blog, Black & WTF is over here.

'Front Pages'

For posterity or whatever here are all the pics I can remember having as my header or front page. Only 5 I can remember. Let me know out there if you can remember any more.

First one I can remember (back in 06) was a bit of the old art brut from Jean-Joseph Sanfourche called 'Pierre'. Looking for images of his art today, I was sad to read he died on 13 March 2010 at the age of 87. R.I.P. Jean! Here's a vid about his work I posted earlier.



Anyway. then we had the classic image of Fellini's La Dolce Vita for a while.



Edit: Then this shot of the delectable Mathilda May, looking hot in Chabrol's last (?) film A Girl Cut In Two



Then this huge impromptu-looking snap of my dream woman Charlotte Gainsbourg. Love this woman's style and charm. She is totally scrummy!!!



I recently saw Luca Guadagnino's incredible feast for the senses I Am Love starring the great Tilda Swinton and I picked up on Tilda's co-star, the still pristine Marisa Berenson (model and Barry Lyndon leading lady), and sought out this rather artistic snap of her back in her heyday. I found this again on a lovely blog of imagery called Only This Nothing More.



Currently I have this snap by up and coming photographer Venetia Dearden. This snap is simply called England. I find it an endlessly fascinating and poetic image. Hope you agree x

Vids From Hipster Land

I'm living near Brick Lane at the mo so maybe it's something in the water supply round here but I'm getting more into 'fashionable' music again, even tho it makes me feel both 'past it' and 'never was'. All this shit is deep in the way Mogwai and Three EPs-era Beta Band were. Strong.



U R A Fever by The Kills - tasteful, sexy, innovative, beyond hip with a Velvets and Patti Smith NY lineage - love love love the lo fi video, dude even looks like Lou Reed.



This is beautiful, bit like early Verve. Damaged, sensitive, amazing. Pic is a spot on snapshot of the hipster lifestyle.



Gang Gang Dance are IT. All their stuff is totally amazing, full of innovation and wonderfulness. Feel like I did when I first heard The Three EPs (before I played it 1000 times a day and - ahem - 'rinsed' it).



The xx are beyond lo fi. Incredibly come down but with an edge of something celebratory too. The video is jaw-droppingly good and very moving too.

Enter The Void

Wasn't blogging at the time I first saw this. Haven't seen it again, by the way - then again, no need to. It's an amazing trip. You can never see it for the first time twice. Resist resist resist finding out ANYTHING about this film. Go into it blind. You will get so much more out of it. I promise!!

Gaspar Noe, one of the strongest, most original voices in cinema today, made this film. I was impressed with his previous film Irreversible though it's an extremely challenging work, but Enter The Void is his masterpiece. Freeform, sprawling, emotional, messy, spiritual, beautiful, hideous, beatific, anguished, hip, it's uncannily brilliant.

Deep

Wonderfully atmospheric mix of progressive deepness mixed by Scott at Trackwerk - link. No les than 3 tracks from Donato Dozzy - big fave of mine.

Here's the tracklist...

Mike Huckaby – My Live with the Wave
Deep Space Orchestra – Trust Skynet
Morphosis – Dirty Matter
Tin Man – Nonneo (Donato Dozzy Remix)
Donato Dozzy & DJ Say – Transparent
Morphosis – Yaam
Svereca – Obscur (Claro Intelecto Mix)
Daso – Why Try (Fred P Reshape)
DJ Spider – Antikythera Mechanism
Donato Dozzy – Untitled D2 from K
Anton Zap – Road Trip Song

The image is from Junku Nishimura which I spotted on Flickr but snatched it off Shotspot.

Mulholland

'Driving through Paris in a taxi at breakneck speed, expecting a crash at any moment. A remote district of warehouses and empty streets.'

Quote is from William S. Burroughs' 'My Education' - which is mostly transcripts of his dreams

Sonnet XVII: I do not love you as if you were brine-rose, topaz

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

poem by Pablo Neruda, image by Rory Doona.