Flow, The Last Showgirl and The Amateur

 

I was surprisingly captivated by Flow, this animated feature from Latvia directed by Gints Zilbalodis. And surprisingly again, it did deserve to pip Wallace and Gromit to the Oscar. Fortunately with not a human in sight, it was stunning to look at. The camera is always on the move, sometimes at great pace. How do they do that? It had to be a "U" certificate, but at times I found it really scary. Although the cat is the star (and what a scaredy cat he is) I loved the raccoon and the stupid dog as well as the lemur and the capybara who was always falling asleep. And who takes over steering the boat but the injured secretary bird. It was great that they all learnt to live together. 

At the beginning, the cat's house is deserted. Have the owners left already and left him there as the waters start to flood. And someone is obsessed with cats, given the huge sculptures there. It works just great without dialogue, the animal noises speak for themselves. Some of the backgrounds are especially amazing. The music is great and is limited to when needed. But I didn't know that cats can swim (he is in the water a lot) or even dream? Who cares, this is just a brilliant movie. Kambole Campbell in Sight and Sound magazine said it felt "startling sophisticated" and that "the film was animated in the open-source 3D creation suite Blender" whatever that is.

I was less taken with Pamela Anderson's The Last Showgirl. It just seemed a very cheap movie, (only when I found later it was made for peanuts). The exterior shots of Las Vegas that I thought might be interesting are in very short supply. A strange sad film from director Gia Coppola, personified by Jamie Lee Curtis as the oldest and saddest ex-showgirl, now a waitress. But then I thought that Dave Bautista did so well in a sympathetic portrayal of the manager. As for Pamela, it was Wendy Ide who thought she gave the performance of her career in her four star review. I was less impressed with her character still trying to perform at 52! Over 30 years as a showgirl. The film was apparently shot in 18 days and looked like it. Jessica Kiang in Sight and Sound magazine of March this year was similarly unimpressed, " curiously cautious example" of the comeback movie. 

Another surprise, and in a good way. The Amateur is an enjoyable spy thriller staring Remi Malek as a fish out of water analyst, now on the trail of the bad guys. It has taken the James Bond format and twisted the central character to someone that has to use his computer skills instead of physique to win the day. It has that fast pace, gadgets and wonderful locations - London, Paris and Istanbul.  It is well directed by James Hawes and based on the book by Robert Littell. It has a very decent budget, exciting chases, and even some surprising emotional moments. Some of the scenes are very short with those quick fire sharp edits, typical for these films. A lot was shot at Pinewood Studios. So good fun while it lasted, but like Mark Kermode said, it does not outstay it's welcome or linger in the mind.

Hostas

 

The hostas in pots at the side of the house are doing fine. Not a snail in sight. Apparently slugs and snails (that love hostas) are absent due to the prolonged dry weather. The last rain was on the 26th February which is nearly seven weeks ago. 

And then just a minute ago, and after the rain last night, what do I find? The most enormous snail had made it's way to top of the pot. So now  I need to inspect every morning.

Wonderland: Science Fiction in the Atomic Age on Sky Arts: Episode 1: Mary Shelley to Isaac Asimov

 

After the introduction of a clip from Planet of the Apes, John Clute looks at the invention of the atomic bomb by "science fiction scientists", Robert Oppenheimer for one. Professor Dinah Birch CBE talks to us about the threat of annihilation of mankind. We hear words from  Arthur C Clarke's 2001, A Space Odyssey. I did like it when we see clips from films with the author's words spoken over the pictures. Dinah says that it's hard to identify a precise starting point for science fiction, but we are asked if Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818 is the first in literature. 

John Clute tells about Jules Verne and his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A dark prophesy for the future. It was Walt Disney who saw the potential for a film. E M Forster's short story called The Machine Stops came in 1908 and has been adapted for TV and radio. Dinah Birch then talks to us about H G Wells and how he was so influential and made so many predictions for the future. It's Brian Sibley this time Who discusses The Shape of Things to Come from 1933 that was adapted for a movie three years later. Another book by Wells was The War of the Worlds published at the end of the nineteenth century and made into a film in 1953. The narrator speaks those famous opening lines:

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. 

Two more of books by H G Wells are mentioned: The Rights of Man and Desired Epitaph. The author of Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut had been in prison in Dresden and we hear an extract from the book. I was not impressed with the story. J G Ballard's book Crash was highly controversial when it was published. I only know the film. I'm not sure why, after all these books we are suddenly pitched into the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy, space travel and fear of nuclear catastrophe. Professor Adams is here talking about Neville Shute's On the Beach. On the theme of nuclear disaster, we see extended clips from Dr Strangelove (1964) and then from the same year Fail Safe, Threads (1984) and The Day After (1983). We hear that the BBC's The War Game (1966) was banned from being shown. And finally Dinah Birch is recalled to talk about Isaac Asimov's novel Pebble in the Sky (1950), all about a radiated planet.

The series is written, directed and produced by Adrian Munsey. He also narrates alongside Anna Wilson-Jane. And even composed the music. I did find it all a bit incoherent and messy. A mix of literature and film. Presenters are all over the place. There are some interesting facts, but it could have done with another producer. We will see what the next episode is like.

How It All Began, A Sweet Obscurity and Windmill Hill

 

A poignant novel that I thought started off so well but somehow lost it's way before bringing it all together by the end. A story of interconnecting lives of the nine main characters. It all begins (as the title suggests) with a mugging. Elderly Charlotte is left injured on the pavement and ends up convalescing with her daughter Rose and her husband Gerry. Their children are grown and never enter the fray. Now Rose is a PA to the retired (and famous in some circles) Henry ("even Prime Ministers consulted him"). He is seventy six and when invited to give a lecture, loses his notes. "You can't bloody well remember what you were going to say next when you know perfectly well what it was". I can sympathise.

When Rose has to stay at home to look after her mother, it's Henry's niece Marion who takes over helping him. She's an interior designer whose business gets into trouble. Not only that but she has a lover called Jeremy whose wife Stella finds out and there is hell to pay. Apart from Mark who only appears at the end, the only other character is Anton. An intelligent Central European who is foisted on Charlotte to learn to read English. And so it goes.

The author gives us short alternating sections on these people's lives. In a way that keeps us interested, in other ways it's too much of a distraction. I liked how the injured, but recovering Charlotte is beginning to reinvent herself, especially in her reading material. "Why life speeds up as you get older". Later I liked how the relationship between Rose and Anton blossoms. But the men are all caricatures and do not come out well. But the prose is great, and that's what kept me going.

I enjoyed the alternating chapters about the separated Giles and Eliza. The first lives with his new partner Julia and the latter with her dead sister Hannah's child Dido. These are clever middle class people, although Eliza refuses any support and lives frugally with Dido. We hear all about their backgrounds before another character appears. Pearce is a farmer in Cornwall and it's only when Eliza and Dido share a dilapidated caravan in the wilds outside St Just do the stories come together.

There is one chapter here, when Eliza joins a madrigal group, that her interaction with the singers is truly exceptional. And here is Pearce. Of course having holidayed in Cornwall so many times, there is plenty for me to find interesting. "Their car climbed the downs above Wadebridge", and a visit to St Michael's Mount etc. Giles is, interestingly, a counter tenor who is to rehearse an important performance.

I was not impressed with leaving Hannah's story and the connection with her daughter until very late on. A secondary story about the search involving an ancient madrigal was never fully realised, and the book sort of peters out at the end. But the research on many fronts is impressive. I'm not sure that it warranted 500 pages, I haven't read one that long for ages. But the writing is splendid and there was much to enjoy.

Astrid is eighty two and owns a windmill (now dilapidated) next to her cottage in Sussex. We hear an awful lot about it's features. Astrid was once a famous actress whose career was brought to a sudden end because she somehow takes the blame for a death that was not her fault. She now lives in the cottage with a Mrs Baker her companion "broad in the beam, she had the strength and flexibility of a young shot putter". They live with their dogs who are ever present in the story.

Astrid is off to Scotland to visit Magus her ex-husband, an even more famous actor and film star, now on his last legs. She needs to confront him about a memoir that might include that awful incident from forty five years ago. The two of them in a Tudor hunting lodge, a young actress and a director. But her journey only briefly starts each chapter before it delves again into the past. Somehow this reflects Astrid's deteriorating faculties as her memories (and of course at eighty two there are many) invade the present. I just wanted her to get to Scotland, but soon I realised this will only happen later. Over a hundred pages through and she is still at the airport.

So the book is about the past, especially when Nina, the ghostwriter of that memoir turns up. There is one superb section where she and Astrid share similar experiences. It turns out that Astrid was famous for her Shakespeare roles "even though his women end up mad or dead". (Except perhaps Cordelia). But the lies that ended her career are eventually put to bed. I didn't remember that Lucy Atkins writes so well. Perhaps this latest novel is the shape of things to come.

Garden in April

 

April, and lots of things happenening in the garden. I'm glad I kept all the names of the shrubs as I would never have known this was the Osmanthus burkwoodii. See previous posts. In the picture below, the maypole crab on the very far left is starting to blossom.

There are twelve of these unusual tulips in pots. A combination of red and yellow mix. I spent ages trying to find what I had bought but no luck. Fortunately they go really well with the narcissi behind the dwarf wall. 

The one below had a lovely shadow from late sunshine yesterday.

These white narcissi are my favourite. They don't seem to mind there is hardly any soil in the wildflower border.

Below was one of the two pots next to the back door where the geraniums were growing. 

I decided they needed splitting and replanted in the same pots below with new compost. The remaining ten pieces are now in the front border.

As usual, the laurels at the far end flower at this time of year. Ignore the raked lawn at the bottom.

This is the time of year I jet wash the side and back pavings. Not sure how long I can keep this up. But they do look a whole lot better.

Let's Do It : The Birth of Pop by Bob Stanley - Chapters 1-10

 

A huge volume that I will review in stages. These are the first ten chapters of the 52.

Foreword by Lenny Kaye

In New York City in the mid 1800's, George Templeton Strong was "writing meticulous accounts in his diaries" of visits to the opera, recitals, concerts and salons. If he was here today it would all be on a blog or other media. 

Introduction

This book is a guide through the pop music of the first half of the 20th century. It's about records "that were made to sell".

Prologue

I wonder (like the author) who was first to stick a label in the middle of a record. That blank circle in the centre of a disc. They "became known as record labels". Apparently it was Emil Berliner (a German born inventor) who came up with that flat "gramophone disc". It was adopted by Columbia Records in 1901 through to 1960. "Cliff Richards' first half dozen singles were on 78's as well as the seven inch 45rpm". (Our first two records were Cliff''s Living Doll and Travelling Light both on 78's). Then notes about some early recordings of Stephen Foster's songs: Oh Susannah, Campton Races, Swanee River and Beautiful Dreamer in 1862! Unfortunately Foster died in 1864 at the age of 37. "The first writer of songs that were recognisably pop".

Chapter 1    Music Hall

I'm not sure this should start the birth of pop, but hey. 

Chapter 2    Ragtime

This I understand. Black music, piano based and Scott Joplin it's "saddest victim". His Maple Street Rag was the first piece of sheet music to sell a million copies. The biggest ragtime hit of all. "Joplin was responsible for making ragtime the first true American music". But we get so much detail of artists of whom I had never heard (and I do know a lot from this period - see later). Until we reach Irving Berlin's big hit from 1911: Alexander's Ragtime Band. But only a passing mention of Jelly Roll Morton, and no mention what great piano he played. I have an old EP.  Funnily enough, it's the last paragraph (it seems to have been added later) that is the best. It's about Fats Waller and his stride piano. He should have had his own chapter! 

Chapter 3   Songs for Sale: Tin Pan Alley

We are in lower Manhattan, West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, where "a warren of song writer's offices" was named Tin Pan Alley. (I didn't know that). The first arrivals came in 1893. The birth of the new record players included the Victrola in 1906 with the consequential demand for records. We hear lots about the earliest recordings and then Capella male quartets or as we know it, barbershop. The Ziegfeld Follies gave us Shine on Harvest Moon and By the Light of the Silvery Moon. But "the most significant song in the development of American pop, written by a scrawny twenty two year old called Irving Berlin was Alexander's Ragtime Band. The chapter ends with a piece about Sophie Tucker, "the mother of American song". How she became a huge star, especially as the first white female artist, who had to black up when she started out.

Chapter 4    Doing What Comes Naturally: Irving Berlin

His original name was Israel Berlin, who "wrote hit songs for more than half a century". How that song described above was such a big hit and set him up. When his wife died, some maudlin ballads were huge (and still sung today). What'll I Do and All Alone. In late 1937 he wrote White Christmas. In the 1950's even more big hits. "He is American music".

Note: I'm not sure about how some of the writing is repetitive over a number of chapters.

Chapter 5    A Culture of Consolation: Music Hall and Musical Theatre

Not sure why this is here, just padding? Yes, it was very important in the first years of the twentieth century, but hardly anything to do with the birth of pop?

Chapter 6    On the Other Side of a Big Black Cloud: World War 1

I was hardly interested in all those wartime songs. "British popular music had effectively pressed the pause button for four years".

Chapter 7    A Conversation of Instruments: The Birth of Jazz

Hurrah! Coming out of New Orleans, "popular music would have no bother combining elements of ragtime , blues and jazz". The author tells us that "the most succinct description of jazz I've ever come across" was "a conversation of instruments, ad-lib on the subject of a tune". It was the Original Dixieland Jazz Band that first conjured the name, and their front line of cornet, trombone and clarinet became the template of all the bands to come. (Right through to the sixties - see post on Dunmow Jazz Club).

The "best selling jazz orchestra of the 1920's was in fact the band of Paul Whiteman. He was labelled the "King of Jazz". Although "his musicians followed carefully prepared arrangements", the solos I guess the only times of improvisation. The chapter ends with a note about the young George Gershwin, already writing hugely popular songs and the extraordinary Rhapsody in Blue. 

Chapter 8   The Greatest Love of All: Louis Armstrong

I didn't realise that this book would take me back to my teenage years. When I went through my jazz phase in my late teens, I had most of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings. His great love was the cornet, not the trumpet. He first of all joined Joe "King" Oliver's band when "it gave jazz it's voice". Joe put together the Creole Jazz Band, "effectively the first super group". They created the role for the soloist. Johnny Dodds was on clarinet that I remember from the Hot 5/7 tracks that also included Kid Ory on trombone. 

I posted some time ago (7th February 2012) about Dunmow Jazz Club that I used to attend in 1962/3. Those bands booked by Derek Watson (on the National Jazz Archive) where he says "the village hall is quite big, more than a village hall .... people came from miles around .... some even from Portsmouth". "Shoulder to shoulder, nobody sat down ...... we used to run coaches ..... a coach from Braintree". 

I was never sure when Louis turned to singing. He made the Fats Waller composition Ain't Misbehavin' a hit. I always preferred  Fats' version. But Louis' vocals made him a star. Hello Dolly came much later. That's when" he became a "popular entertainer", the greatest sin in the eyes of the purists". (That's me). My post of the 28th January 2015 described my huge disappointment when he played the Hammersmith Odeon. (Stall on the right, not far from the front). 

Chapter 9    The Blab of the Pave: Jerome Kern and Broadway

Our author talks about the four different stages of music from 1900 - the revue, vaudeville, burlesque and operetta. But this chapter is all about Jerome Kern: "the first modern Broadway writer, the first master of the twentieth century American musical". The inspiration for all those famous composers who followed. 

When Kern was young, he made his way to the UK who, at that time, provided all the shows for the USA. Back home he was writing songs for many of these for which he never received a credit. But then his first stand out song They didn't believe me was for another imported show. The song was a trailblazer and we hear a lot about it's construction.

At the same time, Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart were writing so many songs with no success until, in 1925, a song for "The Garrick Gaieties" meant they joined the immortals. Manhattan is a classic that is still played today. (But why is this included in a section about  Jerome Kern?) However in 1921, for a musical "Shuffle Along", came the standard I'm just wild about Harry. The top show of the late 1920's was "Showboat" with songs composed by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. 

Chapter 10  Let Me Entertain You: Al Jolson

Although we are told Jolson was the biggest star of the 1920's, I have no interest in his story. "Jolson is the biggest name in this book whose enormous success seems hard to fathom today (no surprise there). (his voice is not pleasant) whose crude, untutored, megaphone voice seems impossible to listen to as entertainment". Well, "The Jazz Singer" was the first talkie and Jolson was the star. Say no more. His longevity is explained.

Ascott in April

 

In the middle of a period of wall to wall sunshine, an early visit yesterday to the National Trust property at Ascott near Wing. Not many people there as it was quite breezy. Lots of lovely photos.