The Friday Article Roundup
Paying tribute to the best pop culture writing of the week.
This week, you will honor:
Honor the FAR with your submissions! Send articles throughout the next week to magpiesfar [at] gmail! Post articles from the past week in the comments for discussion, and have a Happy Friday!
Bruce Bennett digs deep into Elvis Presley’s collaboration with Don Siegel — and some lesser talents — for Metrograph:
Flaming Star also marks an all-time low in the number of musical sequences Presley was obliged to endure. Not counting the theme , Presley performs exactly one song, “Cane and a High Starched Collar,” done and dusted less than five minutes into the film. Music and lyrics are the work of Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett, whose increasingly idiotic contributions to Presley’s screen musicals to come are some of the most memorably awful things about the films themselves… In Flaming Star, Tepper/Bennett contribute a mercifully innocuous faux folk tune solely notable for being (after the G.I. Blues title song) their second Elvis screen number in a row containing a verse that rhymes the word “chow.”
At Crooked Marquee, Jason Bailey looks at the endearing charm of the re-released Linda Linda Linda:
Linda Linda Linda sets itself apart from the movies that premiered before it by focusing on the process of becoming a band. We see the members of Paranmaum, or ”Blue Hearts” in Korean, learning their instruments and stumbling through cringe-inducing rehearsals. In some scenes, the band deals with issues that other young musicians can relate to, like scheduling rehearsal times with other bands that need the equipment room or Kyoko’s embarrassment when her ex-boyfriend lingers too long at their rehearsal space. Other scenes depict the problems that only the members of Paranmaum would experience, as in a slyly humorous scene when Son uses her shaky Japanese to get a discounted karaoke room so she can memorize the three Blue Hearts songs.
At Jacobin, Joey La Neve Defrancesco details how musicians in Maine stopped the expansion of Live Nation:
Live Nation launched its own propaganda push to squash the moratorium [preventing them from building their venue], but MEMA answered by redoubling their efforts. They secured support from national groups like the National Independent Venues Association and United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW). They screened documentaries about the music industry, covered the town in posters calling Live Nation “An Old School Robber Baron” and “The Music Mafia,” kept pressure on city councillors with email drives, and presented a petition signed by twenty-one Portland music arts businesses and organizations — including nearly every venue in town — and more than two thousand musicians, arts workers, and fans.
For The Bulwark, Bill Ryan examines the connections between a famous Ursula K. Le Guin short story and a novella by Christopher Slatsky:
The most mysterious aspect of Mina’s work at the massacre site is the presence of a small hut, or shack. It’s flanked by heavily armed guards, for reasons nobody seems to know…. But if you’ve read Le Guin’s story, the question becomes, What’s in that shack? Of course, without knowledge of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” the idea that [a missing character] might be in that shack could easily be arrived at, once you learn [they] hasn’t been found. What you won’t have without Le Guin is a possible answer why. It’s rare to find, in one writer’s story, an explanation, or possible interpretation, in the story of a completely different writer’s quite different story.
Zach Lewis traces the background of Dani Kouyaté’s Sia, Dream of the Python for In Review Online:
One of the most celebrated Burkinabé filmmakers came from one of the most prestigious lines of griots dating back to the 13th century: Dani Kouyaté. Though he was never formally trained as a griot, his father (Sotigui Kouyaté) was a celebrated griot and actor who was able to blend the traditional griot’s responsibilities into the storytelling art forms of the twentieth century. Dani followed his father’s path and left his native Burkina Faso in order to learn acting and directing from the richer, resource-laden land of France (long the colonizer of Burkina Faso’s previous iteration, the Upper Volta). He then literally followed the elder Kouyaté as he traveled the world in a griot-inspired theater troupe before returning to Burkina Faso in 1989 to make films inspired by this traveling theater in his home country.
At his substack, Max Read gives a close read to the choice of vehicles in One Battle After Another:
To most Americans, the B13 Sentra is a mostly forgotten car of which very few remain on the road–almost as far from “iconic” as Willa’s friend’s Yaris.3 But just a few miles south of Anza-Borrego across the border in Mexico, the B13 Sentra–there known as the Nissan Tsuru–was produced and sold as one of the country’s most popular vehicles for 25 years. If you’ve ever taken a taxi in a Mexican city (or, indeed, almost any city in Central America), you’ve likely sat in the four-door version of Bob’s car; it wasn’t until 2017 that Nissan stopped producing the model at its Mexican factories. The scene-stealing “cavalry” of the final chase isn’t merely a Japanese compact vying against American muscle–it’s the sport version of a working-class Mexican icon, pulling up behind two notoriously aggressive cop cars.
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More articles by Dave Shutton
Double Features
Considering the comedy in The Phoenician Scheme and The Naked Gun.
The Friday Article Roundup
Going on the record with the best pop culture writing of the week.
The Friday Article Roundup
A cowardly and superstitious lot? No, the best pop culture writing of the week.
The Friday Article Roundup
No kings, of pop or otherwise, just the best pop culture writing of the week
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Babylon 5, Season Three, Episode Eight, “Messages From Earth”
Wow, an X-Files-like conspiracy of the government knowing about the existence of alien life… in a space opera! I love this. By far and away and without a shadow (hah) of a doubt, the reveals and twists are the best part of this show. And Psi-Corp is covering it up! This is a rare twist that actually has a lot to say about, like, humanity and junk; science fiction has long had a fascist problem, with stories that emphasised biological elites who deserve to rule over the rest of us due to mutant powers and psychic abilities (Philip K Dick wrote a few stories parodying this trend). Psi-Corp being a strong element of the fascist uprising works as both a plot point and a satirical idea.
Also, I’ve described this show as the liberal to Andor’s leftist, but there’s still a lot of fascinating breaking from the basic structure of command that isn’t really present in Andor – not a criticism, just an observation. Andor is significantly less interested in elites during a fascist takeover and more the people on the ground, and the shows make fascinating pairs. I’ve been spoiled on the fact that Babylon 5 declares independence from Earth this season, and it makes sense as something they’re building up to as Sheridan gets increasingly disgusted by the fascism.
I love the friendship between Garibaldi and G’Kar – Garibaldi hates criminals, and he clearly does not register G’Kar as a criminal, so it’s opening up new avenues to his character. Great gag where G’Kar remarks he’s been passing the time in jail by singing occasionally, and Garibaldi says there’s been a petition (“For or against?”). I think this episode influenced my beloved Mass Effect – the signal from the Reapers is described in a very similar way to how the Shadows ship affected Garibaldi and the doctor.
Zack’s in too deep. Great shot moving in on him as he realises what’s happening.
G’Kar in jail rules, for the character I mean. I think part of my dislike of Zack (besides his broad performance) is down to his very obvious role as “guy who gets in too deep in the fascist plot,” I have not seen Andor but my understanding is it is much stronger on the character and Empire structure front, not defending it in any way but examining how it is a structure people live in — the Night Watch here is obviously evil from the start so there’s a lot of marking time with their bullshit. Will be interested to see how you interpret some Psi-Corp stuff on the way!
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, “The Big Switch” – As noted in Anthologized, the ending fell flat for me, but the cast is very good.
NL Division Series, Phils at Dodgers – I ran out of steam after the top of the eleventh, and figured that the Dodgers were going to win it now anyway. Well, I was right, but I am not sure I wanted to watch live a reliever make both a physical error and a mental error to allow the Dodgers to win. Otherwise it was a tense and reasonably well played game except for the little things the Phils pitchers did wrong late. The defending champs move on, the Phils go home.
The Dodgers are so well coached. I haven’t watched a ton of baseball this season (mostly listened to Nats games on the radio), but they really punish you for errors and mistakes because they are almost always ready to capitalize on them.
Having now watched the clip, I think lots of teams could have capitalized on that one. Woof.
Live Music – a Dutch band called Fiep, over on their first UK tour. Not very well attended, but they put on a good show and they have a few really catchy kinda new-wavey indie-rock songs (check out “Same Boat”). The local support also did an impressive job putting in the effort despite the small crowd, but they were not my thing at all – I am just not ready for the nu-metal revival and I don’t think I ever will be.
WUUUUUUUUUUUUUU NU METAL
Don’t encourage them!
Cannot in good conscience “Woo” the nu-metal band, but the new wave gets a “Woo!”
Woooooooo live Netherlanders!!
The X-Files, “Apocrypha”
Very fun cold open here, with two excellent (if unsurprising) reveals: 1) Mulder’s dad was involved in covering up the Zeus Faber case, and 2) the Cigarette Smoking Man was once a certified looker. (You know what, he still is, at least to me.)
The problem with the mytharc episodes not really leading anywhere is that it reduces me to talking about what’s effectively their marginalia, but at least in this episode, that still leaves me with that well-structured opening (hammering home, once more, how much Mulder’s path has diverged from his father’s; there’s almost an existential horror to someone having to beg “Mr. Mulder” to help him and not cover up the truth, and doing it all in vain), ice-skating Lone Gunmen, Skinner declining Mulder’s thanks and insisting he was just doing his job, a screaming Krycek oozing black oil out of his eyes and mouth (an image that stirs up horror and pity–Krycek is awful, but this is worse) and then banging on the door in the silo, and all the performances, including another appearance from the Well-Manicured Man. The show can have such a great sense of faces and voices, especially with its older and/or weirder characters.
Halloween Ends
Rewatched with a friend. Merciless heckling of the material ensued, but we also kept brainstorming different ways to take this: a classic case of bad art sometimes sparking even more creativity than good art.
New York Stories — The first segment is the best here, with Nick Nolte stalking around the frame like an animal. I’m struck again by how everything he says to Rosanna Arquette’s Paulette is both born out of his pathetic puppy-dog longing but is *also* legitimately good advice. There is one shot where he looks at the young artist Paulette has brought home with this absolute shit-eating grin, because no matter what happened in the night, that guy is never going to make art as important as this. It is the funniest shot in the picture.
I continue to like the disjointed and trivial Coppola section more than most. Certainly it’s the weakest of the three, but it’s cute. And the fact that the adults’ motives don’t always make sense doesn’t bother me, because it’s told from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl, who knows that love and sex exist but doesn’t understand how they rive the adults around her.
Oedipus Wrecks’ success seems like it would be dependent exclusively on the first-time viewer’s reaction to the insane thing that happens. And as someone who has seen this movie two or three times before, I wondered if it would work as well for me. And then Sadie pulls out the baby pictures and I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe. Questel is also so good in the earlier section.
It’s funny how things come around — earlier this week I said I didn’t always care for Dianne Wiest performances because she sounded like Olive Oyl, and now here’s Olive herself.
Oedipus Wrecks is the one time I’ve found Woody Allen genuinely funny. But I’m definitely in the “Coppola section is incomprehensibly bad” camp which may have helped.
Babylon 5 — LONDOWNAGE! With a side of VIRTALITY! Some great stuff with these guys (and Vir has come a long way since the beginning) and the rest of the show is moving at warp speed, as in some very big things happen in what feels like a very Star Trek vein in terms of the sci-fi conceits at play (maybe Clarke as well?). Which is not bad at all but I do prefer the intrigue. What’s intriguing now is how the show has gotten to a point much earlier than one would expect, interested to see what is going to happen next.
Linda Linda Linda — caught this on the last night it was in theaters on a 20th anniversary restoration and was very glad I did. A band of Japanese teens falls apart right before the high school festival they’re set to play, they recruit a shy Korean exchange student (Doona Bae) to be the new singer and get to work learning a few songs by the Blue Hearts. This manages the great trick of being low-key in substance and style — Nobuhiro Yamashita avoids close-ups and often uses static shots, but with a perfectly-judged distance — and having that bring out the emotions in these straightforward situations for the viewer, while not condescending to the characters in sometimes trying circumstances (a boy’s declaration of love for Bae is hilarious cringe even as you can see why he’s doing it). What this feels like more than anything is a Jarmusch movie, deadpan and lovely and deeply in tune with its characters and their art, a teen punk Paterson. And it is one of the great band movies, the girls are skilled (I believe a few were actually from bands, while others learned their instruments for the movie) but not expert and their rehearsals are full of actual rehearsal goofery and fuck-up. They have lives outside the band and it’s not like this band will be forever, but it is here for a show and a conduit for wonderful music. At one point one of the girls tells their teacher they won’t be doing originals but Blue Hearts songs instead, in the translation the teacher calls this “copies” and I don’t know if that is literal or idiomatic. Because the term is “covers,” which has an implied metaphor of putting yourself over a song and letting it shape you, not just replicating it, and the final concert has a drumkick into the first chorus that is all the girls and everything you could want from a song. Nobuhiro films Bae’s first time listening to Linda Linda from behind and with the music on her headphones, her reaction is unseen but her new bandmates are surprised to note she’s crying — this is a movie to make you tear up with joy.
Have you seen We Are The Best? Different country and formatting for the story but it’s also a very funny and sweet movie about teenage girl punks starting a band, though their true DIY roots make them, uh, controversial live.
Thanks for the reminder, that’s been on the list forever. Linda Linda Linda is definitely not breaking any boundaries but that’s fine, although there is an extremely funny “cameo” from a famous punk band.
So the intrigue’s more intriguing?
Intriguingly yes!
The Whip And The Body – Gothic ghost story with some kinky S&M added for spice from Mario Bava. The story itself is simple, maybe a little thin but compelling enough. The sadomasochism from beyond the grave atmosphere is one of oppressive melancholy. The two central characters exist between the realms of love and hate. I thought the whole thing took on a new and more powerful meaning once all was revealed in the end if a little slow to get there. Christopher Lee is imposing but his voice is dubbed which is a little distracting. It looks absolutely gorgeous with its detailed production design. Bava’s signature color and compositions are all about color emerging from shadow. Amazing how extreme it is for 1963 – highlighted by the sadistic whipping scenes.
Did I see this? Nope, I’d have remembered the whipping scenes… (I watched a lot of Bava in a short space around 25 and 26.)
What did we read?
8 Bit Theater, 0150-0180, Brian Clevinger
One way this comic has deeply influenced me is the willingness to take a long walk to a short punchline. It’s close to Douglas Adams in principle, although Clevinger litters as many funny phrases as he can on the way; his characters build up threats with single intention that have shocking and funny consequences (like failure) as opposed to a narrator leading you down a point only to suddenly take a left turn. The main example I’m thinking here is Red Mage threatening and intimidating a giant.
This leads to another great comic conceit of the, uh, comic – Black Belt managed to stupid so hard he broke reality, and this has Red Mage intentionally try to break reality through debate, pointing out the logical inconsistency of a giant operating in a forest – from the lack of appropriate food to the fact he’d break his spine just by existing. This is something that works depending on when it’s funniest; it fails here.
On top of this is the new basis of the comic. Now that the characters and their basic situation is established, the comic’s fundamental goal is to find new and interesting places and people to have them react to. In this section, they go to P-an, where the locals have names that start with P out of tradition (in response to being oppressed by King Steve to the south, who gets his full intro here, more on that in a second); this section ends with them being poisoned by a witch, to go on a sidequest for her.
The situation is an essential part of comedy, and knowing when and how to change up the situation is an important part; classic sitcom TV is known for stasis to the point of oversolidifying, and the most important idea The Good Place came up with is that comedy not only can, but needs to keep changing its situation; if not to the extent it did, then to at least enough to keep the comedy fresh. 8 Bit Theater did, in fact, do this on a regular basis.
In terms of new ideas, this fully brings out King Steve, with the characterisation that would define him for the next thousand pages. This turns him into a loose parody of George W Bush – these strips were written and released in 2002 – but the character manages to not only survive time, he was his own person in 2002. There are two gags that specifically tie him into Bush – a monologue where King Steve observes that hereditary government is a terrible approach and a gag about him drilling for mana (“You don’t drill for mana.” / “We do now!”), and even these are pretty independent of Bush.
What truly makes him a magnificent character is his cheerful, willful disconnection from reality entirely. He’s only ever half-listening to anyone (literally, in one gag where he simply responds to anything Sara says with “hmm, yes, is that so? uh-huh”), and gets very Charlie Kelly-like preoccupations with stupid goals. The cheerful wall he puts up between himself and reality, imbued with the power of being a king, is what makes him incredible; he’s operating in his own bizarre universe where absolutely nothing goes wrong, ever, and it leads him to some absurd behaviour and dialogue.
(He also has a line that’s deeply influenced my humour: “Call [boring talkie thingies i.e. meetings] whatever you want, stranger, but that won’t make them any less boring. Or talkie. Or thingies.”)
1984, George Orwell
A reread in preparation for reading Julia, Sandra Newman’s retelling of the book from, uh, Julia’s perspective. It’s a great idea because the section with Julia is the weakest part of the book; Orwell’s slightly smug and superior perspective becomes a weakness during it, not just because of her weak and slightly sexist characterisation, but because the plot becomes dull. But the ideas remain as compelling as ever; there’s a reason the words of this book (right down to Orwell’s name) have become iconic. It’s less about socialism and more about totalitarianism and authoritarianism; if this remains relevant, it’s because these ideas would be present in any economic system, and indeed, to my great annoyance and embarrassment, I could see parallels to the capitalism of today.
Orwell makes the argument that totalitarianism aims to destroy human creativity and human curiosity; this is a book about trauma in the sense that the villains aim to traumatise the ability to think one’s way out of a totalitarian system. As O’Brien points out, killing someone simply makes a martyr out of them; Ingsoc aims to destroy the soul of a person and reduce them to petty survival. It’s a canny point that the Party systematically makes the world as small as possible; most obviously with Newspeak and the killings, but also in smaller ways. Authoritarianism is based on fear and in spreading that fear as far as possible.
The weakness is mainly in the plotting. This is a more subjective viewpoint than Animal Farm, and as a result is plotting is shoddier and often more tedious; it comes alive when Orwell discusses the idea of his world and becomes less interesting when it delves into action and consequence.
Little Women, Louisa M Alcott
I liked this a lot – it’s light in presentation, but there’s a lot of ideas to it. I went in knowing there was a trans male reading of Jo and was shocked to find it was pretty much text; basically her/their first lines are about how much it sucks to be a woman, and most of their story is about trying to rise above their limitations. What’s interesting is how this ties into the overall theme of frustrated motivations; much of it is obviously about the little women’s desires being frustrated by their gender roles, but even Laurie, the sole male character, has his dreams of being a musician undermined by his grandfather’s fears. The story is largely anecdotes and jokes rather than conflict, but that theme permeates the whole thing.
I read Little Women numerous times–especially the first half, which is often published as a separate volume, which is what I had as a kid–and the rambly, anecdotal structure of it, like Anne of Green Gables, makes it hold up very well as a mental destination, a thing to sink into, even if it makes it slightly weaker as a novel. (Shades of episodic TV here?) Jo was always my favorite as a kid, but I’ve grown to really appreciate the Amy/Laurie romance and Amy as a character in general.
The War of the Roses by Dan Jones – Even accounting for the shorter length of this than Jones’s book on the Plantagenets, this was a much quicker read. Maybe because Jones didn’t really bring most of the figures of this period to life. He seems to be more interested in racing from king to king, from event to event, than in doing the deep dives he did in the earlier book. Though the events themselves are pretty interesting. Good thing if we want more about Richard III or Henry Tudor, there are books about them. All that said, I had no idea that the Tudors’ claim to the throne was very weak, or that they were basically Welsh. (And if you are wondering, Jones has no desire to whitewash Richard III’s usurpation even a little, though he only touches briefly on the Two Princes.)
Midway through The Caine Mutiny, last read in college. A very readable and intelligent book that is equal parts a character study of a spoiled young WASP coming of age in war and the rather rapid decay of a captain’s authority. Seeing it through mature eyes, I can see how utterly miscast almost all the leads in the movie were. Bogey is far too charismatic to be Queeg, for one thing. But the book exists as its own thing, and it achieves what it sets out to achieve.
And near the end of Midnight in Chernobyl. We might never know how many people actually died or got sick because of that event. And it’s kind of a wonder this only happened the once in the USSR.
The Tudor claim is SO weak! This is part of Henry VIII’s insecurity when there’s a Northern rebellion against him towards the end of Cromwell’s service. It feels like The War of the Roses may be so big that it’d be hard to summarize in a single book.
I think Jones just was not that engaged, which is a bit unusual for him. Maybe reading all that Tudor propaganda got to him.
Even The Wicked, by Lawrence Block — more Scudder! An odd one involving a media-taunting dispenser of justice, which is very much not Scudder’s bag but he’s brought in naturally and cracks the case while working on another case in his normal bag, a murder that seems to have no point but is revealed to have a purpose after all. Scudder is an enjoyable person to follow because of his mix of tenacity and calmness (although this mix is work in itself), I need to pace myself on these.
Cold Shot To The Heart, by Wallace Stroby — while reading pans of the horrible-looking new Parker movie I came across a recommendation for Stroby and his books about a “female Parker.” And what do you know, he largely pulls it off. Stroby’s great strengths are an understanding of criminal detail, the work done for the crime and the life as a criminal moving through the straight world that Richard Stark limned so well, and that a female Parker is not just Parker with a dress — Crissa Stone is very aware that she is a woman in a world full of hard men, and she also is a woman with certain goals of stability that Parker did not have in the early going. The book follows a heist gone bad because of hidden complications and how a cold-blooded ex-con worms his way into the mix, the ex-con is a nasty piece of work in part because of how Parkerish he is in ability without the professionalism, he kills because it solves problems and as Parker knows, that soon becomes how you solve all your problems. This is untenable for him but the harsh truth for Crissa is how her balanced life is also untenable and the book leads to an origin of sorts that has echoes of Stark blowing everything up for Parker at the end of The Jugger. A very enjoyable read that gets closer to what makes Stark great than other tributes/knockoffs I’ve read, there are apparently three more of these I need to get my mitts on.
This sounds very cool.
Oh yeah, got Cold Shot to the Heart waiting for me at the library, that sounds like something I need to check out.
Box Office Poison – No, not the Alex Robinson comic but Tim Robey’s fun, slightly fluffy history of Hollywood through box office flops. Fun though he gets into weird online speak with his prose.
Victorian Psycho – Meanwhile this has some fine prose but every single character is an asshole so it was genuinely hard for me to care about anything in the book. Fun third act at least, it’s simply that it is easy to feel superior to upper class Victorians, it’s like declaring that at least you’re not the Saudis.
King: A Life by Jonathan Elg – Very good biography that had me brimming with tears over and over. (The audiobook also has fantastic narration with an uncanny King impression from Dion Fortune.) King is, for his many faults, heroic, straight out of a story like a lot of Great Men in history: aware he will die young, lusty, warm, funny, charming as hell (Coretta notes his “jive” in their first meeting). His least heroic trait in fact is that he is afraid of conflict with people he respects, though he will fucking bring it sometimes. I wanted more of King’s personal life in the book, but he also didn’t have time in the last 15 years of his life to have one beyond his adultery and complicated, loving relationship with his wife: it is staggering to see what he accomplished, even given what else he could have done with more time, before getting shot at 39. There’s also a lot to get through here, including the civil rights movement as a whole, the FBI’s reaction that Elg implies got King killed, and how bad conditions could get for Black citizens in the Jim Crow era, especially if they fought back. (King is bombed or shot at or stabbed many, many times.) Recommended.
Have wanted to see Linda Linda Linda for ages, hopefully this re-release makes it easier to see.
I resent the implication that the Toyota Yaris is not “iconic”, although I guess I’ve only driven one for about six months so maybe I haven’t quite gotten it there yet.
Linda Linda Linda does not have a cat, but otherwise it is the most vomas-coded movie imaginable. Seek it out however you can.
And I had a laugh at that Yaris section because at least where I am, it was rather lesbian-coded, in the manner of a Subaru.
It does sound waaaaay up my street.
My mother-in-law had a red Yarus that she totaled last year.
Year of the Month update!
Here’s a primer on some of the movies, albums, books and TV we’ll be covering for 1973 in October!
TBD: Patrick Mio Llaguno – The Long Goodbye
Oct. 14th: Bridgett Taylor: Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road
Oct. 15th: Lauren James: Working
Oct. 16th: John Bruni: Shotgun Willie/Sweet Revenge
Oct. 22nd: Lauren James: The Wicker Man
Oct. 26th: Ben Hohenstatt: Mind Games
Oct. 29th: Lauren James: Don’t Look Now
And this November, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al from 2018!
Nov. 10th: Bridgett Taylor: Aquaman
Nov. 12th: Ben Hohenstatt: Bark Your Head Off, Dog