I havent been the biggest fan of Adam Curtis over the years but I thought this little doc was quite arresting: its a pop culture history of the 60s (more of a collage really) and in this section it contains some interesting information about Osama Bin Laden, Charles Manson and the TV show Bonanza.
One thing Curtis could have mentioned was the Chinese cook on Bonanza, Hop Sing, played by Victor Sen Yung. After Bonanza ended Sen Yung was in a real life skyjacking on a Pacific South West Airlines flight and was shot in the back by the FBI during the rescue mission. He survived until 1980 when he unfortunately died from carbon monoxide poisoning during the making of clay pots at his home kiln.
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The music is from The Velvet Underground & Nico, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, The Temptations et. al.
The clips are from the BBC film archive where Curtis worked as an editor.
It Felt Like A Kiss was an 'immersive theatrical production' set in an abandoned warehouse during the Manchester Festival. This documentary was part of the production.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Felt_Like_a_Kiss
This bit is part 3 of 4.
It's good. Makes some interesting connections. Of course, very depressing. Part Four is worth watching, too, if just for the ending about how the computers used for the moon landing were then used to analyze individual credit data so every American could be lent money.
John
We should give fair warning to everyone. Part 4 is really quite disturbing. It did make me look out River Deep Mountain High by Tina Turner though. The lass has some set of pipes.
Yeah, sorry, I did think about writing, "Spoiler alert," but it seemed odd for a documentary. Especially after what you had to say about his other one ;)
I also think it's interesting how in part one (Spoiler Alert!) he says, "It starts with the story of how America set out to remake the world fifty years ago."
I don't think I've ever heard that without it first being prefaced by, "With Europe in ruins..." or something like that.
well i just ordered my copy of falling glass.
now i read below that Michael has made his last appearance but long time devotees of this blog remember some talk of The Wake of Scotchy Finn. Is that off?
The title was presumably based on this, which makes me suspect this is no feel-good documentary.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
John
I liked part 4 but some of imagry is really the stuff of nightmares. And that officer from the Mai Lai massacre scares me.
Dylan
Much of it has been incorporated into FG so I cant really repeat it again.
Peter
Part 2 is all about that. Its the story of Carole King's babysitter Eva.
He's got a new one coming soon and is also, strangely considering his doco work, an editor of Popbitch
Further info on the new doco from the Popbitch mailout
I'm A Celebrity inspires BBC documentary
Adam Curtis' new documentary series starts on BBC2 next month. His title for it, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace, was rejected initially by BBC bosses as
too long. How would it fit on the electronic programme guide etc?
Then it was pointed out that this title had exactly the same number of words as I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. And so Curtis was allowed to have the title.
(FYI: As you’re no doubt checking, yes, one does have 33 characters, while the other has 44.)
Rob
I think its safe to say that the music and the images in the new doc will be fantastic. Whether his points will make sense is another matter entirely.
Foreign Policy explains why a dog went in with the Seals.
Dogs in the Arab world -- another insult from the West.
Peter
Good job they didnt fly in with those truffle sniffing pigs.
Oh my God, they didn't keep their shoes on, did they?
His father died when he was ten years old in a plane crash?
Like my teacher Mary Holmes said, airplanes have a lot to answer for.
Peter
I was at a cafe yesterday and another patron sitting nearby started in with me about various conspiracy theories surrounding Bin Laden's death. I think he was a lawyer because he kept talking about the legal niceties of invading Bin Laden's compound in a a sovereign country etc. I nodded, said nothing and continued to read my book (American Gods by Neil Gaiman). He was also reading a book about Lord Haw Haw and after a while he couldn't resist telling me that the British were just as bad and had fiddled with the laws of treason so that William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) could be hanged as a traitor and what a disgrace that was. "Yeah it was a disgrace all right. They should have just marched him outside, put him against a wall and shot the bastard," I said. That terminated the conversation.
Seana
Hitler was 13 when his father died. Napoleon 15.
Hi adrian I'm writing a blog review of Falling Glass and I was wondering if you had a favourite line from the book that you would be willing to share? A favourite sentence or piece of dialogue etc.
Cheers,
Rick
Rick
I'm not at home at the moment so I dont actually have the book in front of me, but there was a line that apparently cracked me and only me up. I think its at the start of Chapter 2 where I do a little homage to Franz Kafka's The Trial. If I recall correctly the chapter begins:
"Someone must have been telling lies about the Special K."
And then I go onto explain why the breakfast cereal was fake. If I'd had my way I would have begun the book with that line but not everyone shares my childish sense of humour apparently.
That's right, they requested that you take some of the jokes out, didn't they?
I don't think it's because they're too childish, I think it's because not everyone shares your frame of reference.
But they should have humored you. Somebody would have gotten all of them.
Not me. But somebody.
Seana
I still love that line, but I can see how it might annoy some/most people.
I think the next bit after that line mentions "ersatz" one of your bug bears.
Well, it's not really a bug bear, not now that I know about the Ersatz Line.
I don't think it would annoy people so much as sail right over their/our heads. Which is why they should have let you keep the jokes in. Just for your own amusement.
I'll have to back and reread the Special K bit.
I remember the Special K bit. I didnt know what Ersatz meant. I do eat the red berries variety a lot also I live on Heinz tomato soup with white bread and Gin.
I like little lines like this
Killian's fresh pint of the black stuff appeared on the bar in front of him a mere forty-five seconds after he'd been promised it-not a good sign.
We all know that one eh?
I liked all the comedic bits, never listen to publishers! Fight the power!
Frankie, does the gin go IN the tomato soup???
he he! Not usually. I bet it would taste a bit like a VirGIN Mary.
Sure, one dog and he's getting all this press. What about the Cats of War?
Seana
That was always my feeling, keep them in and no one will be the wiser.
Frankie
Thats happened to me a distressing number of times. Sometimes I feel like just walking right out of the pub.
Dennis
Their feeling is that the comedy takes readers "out of the story" but I dont think it does.
John
Everything with cats is funny. But that is really good. Worthy of the Onion.
I like cats, but I've never really thought of as team players.
Obviously I was wrong.
I saw a man walking a cat on my street this afternoon. Neither of them seemed entirely confident of the proposition, but each was making a brave go of it.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Seana, Peter
I've seen cats on leashes too. It never looks right.
This cat wore no leash. They guy was walking, turning around to tell the cat to follow him, and so on. A noble effort, it was.
Peter, I'm pretty sure the cat was in control, no matter how it may have looked on the surface. No doubt it's the same for these cats that go on special operations. You might have noticed that the cat in the command control room picture had the best seat in the house.
The president? Not so much.
What's the deal with cats? They're supposed to exert mysterious influence, yet they are also, say people who study such things, pretty stupid. What are the implications of this?
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I think people who study cats think pretty much whatever the cats happen, in any given moment, to want them to think.
See? It's not that difficult really.
Perhaps the cat I saw was being trained for a mission in which he'd go undercover as a dog.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Or perhaps the human was.
Seana, Peter
I know you arent fans but the 3 pages Camille Paglia writes about cats in Sexual Personae is great stuff.
A joke or literary reference that will work whether or not the reader gets it is an elegant achievement.
"Special K" just sounds so funny that readers need not not wake up on their backs with their limbs flailing uselessly in order to enjoy the passage in question.
By the way, the Philadelphia Eagles NHL football team have a back-up quarterback named Mike Kafka. I think he only gets into games that are hopelessly lost.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
The editor still wanted me to cut it though. Why begin an importat character development chapter talking about breakfast cereal was his reasoning. I gave in on some of the other jokes however so he didnt fight me over that one.
The cat probably dictated that bit, which would explain the discrepancy.
I was thinking about Breaking Bad in relation to the humor seriousness question. I think they get it about right. Maybe you should have had them watch a few episodes.
At gunpoint.
I don't know about the mechanics of putting a novel together, but a chapter opening like that sharpens my attention for what might come next.
Mike Kafka, poor guy. The Detroit Red Wings have a player named Johan Franzen and everytime I hear his name during a game I'm surprised he doesn't get injured.
He has a concussion, doesn't he?
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