Yep...

Day 8: Be Here To Love Me

This is actually a relatively obscure documentary I’ve seen before but hey, make your own list.

Townes Van Zandt lived the life on the road. He was a musician who had a heart, and he sang until he died. Born in Texas in the 40s, Townes was a middle class child who got an early interest in music. He bought a guitar and started playing. He also began drugs very early. He would be found passed out from glue overdoses at his academy. Because of his wild behavior, he was sent to a mental institution that wiped away a lot of his memory with electroshock therapy. After that, he married and played in local clubs in Houston. Then Townes hit the road. He wrote prolifically with sad ballads like “Waitin’ ‘Round to Die” and “Pancho and Lefty”. His music began to explode, but only in his cult following.

In Townes’s tumultuous life, he married three times. He recorded numeroud albums, many of which are still out there, unreleased. He wrote classics that were covered by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Guy Clarke, Willie Nelson, and more. Townes’s alcoholism and life on the road finally caught up with him. At age 52 on New Year’s Day 1997, Townes died, leaving behind a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten.

This movie is meant as a continuation of Townes’s legacy, and certainly not an exposition of his life. There are so many unanswered questions left after this movie ends. So many events were left out or left unexplored. After I watched this movie the first time, I read a very informational book about Townes called “A Deeper Blue”. The book gave so much needed detail to the life of Townes. The movie is basically a collection of random tapes, songs, and recordings from Townes that often times don’t blend very well. On the other hand, this movie is an artful exploration into the life of Townes with a true and heartfelt feel that does nothing more than pays respect to this humble man.

See this movie. Only because Townes deserves your respect. Townes’s writing was unlike any other, and his tortured soul will lead yours to his whether you want it to or not. He had a hard life and never got the attention he deserved, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a “big fan”. I say that because I truly belive that Townes was a genius. Nobody wrote like he did. Nobody. His music is so captivating. The first song I heard from him was “Marie”, a heartbreaking ballad of a homeless couple. I couldn’t get enough. I then bought his self-titled album (A great place to start) and took off from there. The feelings one has when listening to Townes are indescribable. This movie is a great way to “get into” Townes. It features his most famous songs and commentary from very big names. It’s also absolutely heartbreaking. 

I could end this analysis with a lyric from one of his songs, but I’ll end it with a quote. 

“Aloneness is a state of being whereas loneliness is a state of feeling. It’s like being broke and being poor.”

-Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt 

1944-1997

TO LIVE’S TO FLY

(Source: seinfeld)

This was a page in an old Neil Young songbook. By far my favorite piece of Neil Young memorabilia out there. Only love can break your heart.

(Source: thismaduniverse, via homosapienhaven)

thebluthcompany:

Everyone is updating their summer albums on facebook, so I did my part. <3

foreverneilyoung:

Neil Young by Gene Trindl

Day 7: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Another Kubrick for the books.

In 1964, the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis are at their peaks. America and the USSR are neck and neck in the arms race. General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden) believes the Russians are putting dangerous “fluoride” in America’s water to contaminate the citizens’ “precious bodily fluids”. He orders all active planes stationed near Russia to carry out a plan to bomb the USSR, usurping the President and higher command generals. The President (Peter Sellers) calls together the Pentagon’s War Room. Here, the leaders of America, including Chair of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Buck Turgidson, and The Russian Ambassador (Peter Bull),  gather frantically to attempt a nuclear holocaust.

With Ripper’s B-52s racing towards their targets in Russia, The President calls Russian Premier, Dimitri Kisov to settle this. The two have an unprofessional and hysterical conversation where Kisov informs everyone of Russia’s secret Doomsday Machine. The Doomsday Machine is triggered to go off basically whenever it is even touched and can wipe out all life on Earth. The Russians and Americans work desperatly to stop the lone B-52 bomber to stop its course of action, after all of the others have turned back. Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) , an ex-Nazi who is the nuclear advisor to the pentagon, is consulted, and gives them very dubious responses, because he’s insane. 

In the end, the B-52 diverts its course to a closer destination, just as talks from Strangelove about living underground are happening, and drops the bomb. The final scenes of the movie are of mushroom clouds.

What Kubrick does with this movie is that he takes the fear and the hype of the Cold War and shows that there is most definitely a reason to be afraid. To be afraid of the monkeys in charge of the decisions. I am almost 100% certain that The President’s conversations with the Premier were just as foolish, and that there were low ranking generals out there with their fingers on the button. It wasn’t the soldiers in the bomber’s fault. They were following orders, and one of their orders was to lock down communication. It was the politicians’ fault. This is a political satire that casts a dark shadow on the real world.

This movie is gripping, hilarious, and downright captivating. See it. But remember, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!

theimpossiblecool:

Doc.

photo by Henry Horenstein

foreverneilyoung:

Neil Young in Spin Magazine in 1994

(Source: fateandfourleafclovers)

ecufilmfestival:

Bill Murray fitting the part on and off screen for Wes Anderson’s Cannes 2012 release Moonrise Kingdom. 

I would literally kill someone to see Moonrise Kingdom right now

If you haven’t read this before you really need to. An intimate telling of the life of Townes Van Zandt.