Ooops!
"Er...did you say..."Moonlight" or "La La Land"?"
Ah. yes…the Oscars. The Dream Factory. The Virtue-Signalling Citadel. The Selfie Gang-Bang. Trump-Hate Central. But apparently, they screwed it up…called the wrong winner. I thought we were ALL winners? But nooooooooooooo….Not used to working live, we guess.
Continue Reading →“Shoot Straight, You Bastards!”
Breaker Morant (1980) (Directed by Bruce Beresford) 1899-1902. The Boer War. The South African veldt, once overseen by the Dutch East India Company, is now in the tender mercies of Queen Victoria and her successors. Afrikaans farmers (‘Boers’) are grumpy about that, and in rebellion. Lord Kitchener has assumed command, with the command (possibly implicit) to put down the unrest, if necessary very roughly. Where England fought, so did Australia, and in this dirty little war, the Bushveldt Carbineers are at the coalface. Experienced soldier and poetaster Harry “Breaker” Morant (Edward Woodward) and his men, Lieutenant Peter Handcock (Bryan Brown) and Lieutenant…
Continue Reading →You Don’t Know Me
Songs in Our Heart # 73 You Don’t Know Me (Ray Charles) (written by Cindy Walker, with help from Eddy Arnold; released April 1962) [Ray Charles’ record, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, is surely selector’s choice for the weirdest disc in recording history. And one of the most wonderful. On the 10th spin, you begin to see what he was up to: the first real crossover album, C & W meets R & B, with lush orchestration, superb arrangement, dynamite backing harmony and Charles’ great clear and magisterial voice cutting through it all. Every song works – the slow-boat-to-China…
Continue Reading →TVC Caption Contest # 2
For this contest, we offer “Las Meninas” by the sublime Spanish painter (and legendary snob) Diego Velázquez (1656) hung at Museo del Prado, Madrid. Please send us your suggested caption. Some inspiration may be drawn from our review of a book dedicated to the meaning of this royal Spanish domestic scene… The best three selections will receive prominent publication (with attribution, or anonymously if you prefer) and a unique TVC artefact!. You will need to send us your email address and postal address (no, we will not publish those and we do not spam).. T’s and C’s: The Varnished Culture is Marshall Tito in…
Continue Reading →The Lobster
Out of the frying pan...
(Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) (2015) At the commencement of the film, David’s unseen wife has told him that she is leaving him for another man. “Does he wear glasses or contact lenses?” David (Colin Farrell) asks incongruently for us but entirely reasonably for him, as will become apparent. A magnificently affectless Colin Farrell is booked into a dreary hotel for the purpose of finding a mate. He is told that the “bisexual option is no longer available”. No, it’s not a swingers’ or lonely hearts’ hotel, not exactly. In this dystopian state (filmed in Ireland) it is unlawful to be single. David and his fellow singleton “guests” each…
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