The Mule

It's a great city. Wish I still lived there!

One more thing about the coda to TAXI DRIVER---One thing you musn't forget is that Travis Bickle was all set to assassinate a presidential candidate and was thwarted. He then focused his rage on a more "socially acceptable" target and became a hero. If he had succeeded the first time, he'd be villified and notorious. Instead he's a hero and people like Betsy suddenly look upon him more favorably. Problem is, he's still the same guy who almost killed a presidential candidate. His rage was indiscriminate. He just happened to shoot the right people....

I actually think the problem with Di Caprio in GANGS is that his part simply isn't written very well. I don't think that Leo had anywhere near the great amount of stuff to play as an actor as Daniel Day Lewis did. Bill The Butcher was a much more complex and colorful character on the page and, frankly, the movie is about him. Leo's character, unfortunately, is pretty much just a plot device to hang the narrative on. I also suspect Mirimax pushed Scorsese to give more screen time to the "romance" between Leo and Cameron Diaz because they somehow thought Leo's TITANIC fans would be disappointed if he didn't get to fall in love with somebody...

Not in any order: BRAZIL THE THIRD MAN THE RED SHOES BLACK NARCISSUS PEEPING TOM CONTEMPT STRAW DOGS THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC THE COMPLETE MONTEREY POP GIMME SHELTER SALESMAN (documentary) HAXAN aka: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES WRITTEN ON THE WIND THE BLOB (the extras are better than the movie!)

Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about and have wondered myself. To my eyes--and I don't know if I'm right--it looks like the grain in that shot may be due to the fact that it's been optically zoomed-in (to emphasize his eyes) from a wider shot. If anyone is interested you should pick up this book: Which is a book-length essay on the film and pretty interesting. Here's the Amazon link.

That change in "grain" as you call it is actually a red filter over the shootout scene which was imposed on Scorsese by the MPAA. They ratings board wanted to give the film and "X" because of the violence in that scene. Since Scorsese really couldn't cut it in a way that would please the censors or himself, they struck a compromise to make the blood "less red" by printing the scene with a red-colored filter on it so that it would seem less bloody somehow. Ironically, what it really does is add an even more disturbing tone to the already disturbing scene...

Yes, I believe it was deliberately ambiguous, and I think Scorsese has said that he wanted to leave doubt in the viewer's mind that Travis was somehow "okay" now. There's also that little musical sting on the soundtrack when it cuts to the shot of Travis catching his own reflection in the rear-view mirror. My read of that moment was always that this was a guy who still had a hair-trigger and could go off again at any moment.... I've got the old Criterion laser-disc with Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader doing a commentary. I'll listen to what they say about that scene and report back...

Think it's been added back in during the last decade or so. Might have made it's first appearance on the old laser disc--I have it and I'll check. Man, remember the awful jump-cut/splice on the old prints where they just snipped the line out?

Jazz Showcase, Green Mill, Jazz Record Mart, Art Institute, and venture into the near-Western suburbs to Elmwood Park for Johnny's Italian Beef (7500 W. North Ave.) and get a beef sandwich (sweet & hot peppers, dipped) and an Italian ice to go...

The Tom Lord discography lists that Gene Shaw album as the only recorded appearance for Sherman Morrison. Thanks for the quick reply. That's what I suspected. Too bad as he seemed like an interesting player...

Does anyone know if Sherman Morrison, the tenor player, was ever recorded again after BREAKTHROUGH? He had a bit of a Coltrane-thing going on...

Now THIS was a tv series!

PM me and we can work it out... B)

Yes, it HAS to be Pops' because not only is it his birthday, but it's also Lon's!

I think it would have to be big band music from this Reader's Digest set: This was in my grandmother's record collection when I was a kid and I would listen to it from time to time. The sleeves on the records had really cool charcoal-pencil drawings of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, etc. (see below) and the box came with an interesting booklet illustrated with some great photos. I eventually asked my grandmother if I could have it and I brought it home and listened to it often. I still have it in my collection, although it's gotten pretty dog-earred over the years...

Review from Daily Variety: Posted: Tue., Jan. 6, 2004, 6:06pm PT Keeping Time: The Life, Music & Photographs of Milt Hinton (Docu) A Slap Bass production. Produced by David G. Berger,Holly Maxson. Directed, written by David G. Berger, Holly Maxson, Kate Hirson. With: Milt Hinton, Branford Marsalis, Gregory Hines, Richard Davis, Nat Hentoff, Joe Williams, Jeffrey Wright (narrator). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By RONNIE SCHEIB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Legendary jazz bassist Milt Hinton furnishes both sound and image for this joyous journeyman docu. A talented amateur photographer, Hinton chronicled 65 years of jazz greats as, at one time or another, he played with them all. Trio of filmmakers interweaves rich black-and-white archival performance footage, Hinton's own evocative photographs, and short interview snippets with numerous jazz writers and artists including the genial Hinton himself, who died in 2000 at the age of 90 just before the film wrapped. Docu should play sweet on public or music-related TV and in ancillary music markets. Hinton started in Chicago as a violinist with silent movie orchestras, moving to the bass after the advent of talkies. Hinton, who developed a distinctive slapping string style on bass, soon joined Cab Calloway's band traveling countrywide with the flamboyant bandleader and snapping thousands of pictures. Some photos record the world-renowned band's encounters with Southern hospitality, as the group is seen mockingly posing by "colored" drinking fountains or in front of segregated motels. After the disbanding of the big bands, Hinton became one of the very few black musicians to break the color barrier and secure a job as a studio musician, thanks to a chance meeting with longtime friend Jackie Gleason who insisted Hinton join his TV orchestra. (One of the reasons there were so few black studio musicians was the racist belief that blacks could not read music.) Arguably, pic's most fascinating section concerns the craft of the studio musician, as expounded on by Quincy Jones, among others. The studio musician was required to come in cold and play any kind of gig, from a three-bar commercial jingle to a lush film score to a bluesy Gerry Mulligan arrangement. As it happens, Hinton was already famous in jazz circles for his variegated repertoire and ability to play in astonishingly diverse styles. Images from Hinton's archive testify to the vast range of performers with whom he played: candids of Harry Belafonte with his baby daughter, snapshots of a young, anxious Barbra Streisand, and contact sheets full of a broody Billie Holiday, whose final failed recording session Hinton recalls in detail, while on the soundtrack Holiday's quavering voice cracks and skids. A seemingly endless montage of album covers further attests to the fact that Hinton became one of the most recorded bassists of all time, while clips show him playing club dates after hours, jamming with the likes of Coleman Hawkins or Dizzy Gillespie (with whom he enjoyed a particular affinity). Tech credits are fine and selection and editing of archival material are first-rate. Camera (color/B&W, DV), Vic Losick, Greg Barna; editor, Hirson. Reviewed on videocassette at African Diaspora Film Festival, New York, Dec. 12, 2003. Running time: 60 MIN.

After I read this book: There was no doubt in my mind Rose bet on baseball and that he's been lying about it all these years. I say NO to the Hall of Fame.

Nope. Never. Won't ever. And I've lived in or near big cities my entire life.

Back at ya. Hope you're not giving too many copies of BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE as holiday gifts.....

Have a great birthday!

...the biggest antennae in TVLand? You've heard the probably-apocryphal story regarding Milton Berle and the contest to discover who in Hollywood who had the, er...biggest antennae. I've heard the contest was between Berle and Humphrey Bogart, Berle and Forest Tucker, Berle and Sinatra. It basically goes like this: Berle and Bogart (or whomever) and their buddies are in the locker room at the Beverly Hills Country Club after a round of golf. Goaded on by their friends to "settle this once and for all" they decide to whip out their...antennae...to determine whose is bigger. Just as they're about to do it, one of Berle's friend's says, "Hey, Milton, just take out enough to win."

Well, as much as I'd like to say my on-line moniker is taken from Asimov, it's not. It's actually a nickname I've had for ages derived from my family name...

Which one is you? The big one on the left...

Here's one of me and the family....

Muh-wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!!!!