Hi,
Thx Mike ... that is very nice indeed and a wonderful Christmas and New Year cheer for me!
I don't crave "social interaction" or "camaraderie" per se, mostly because my background has been nothing but the arts, and this is something very difficult to discuss and work with people that were brought up on television, and radio, most of which was considered quite inferior to most of that work for a long time.
Since the mid 70's with the advent of Cable, and the likes of HBO and such, this has changed. Championed by the BBC, a lot of work is being done that also rivals the film history ... and is not spoken of much. Today, a lot of work in the cable side of things is vastly superior, historically speaking, to the top ten films of the year.
All in all, there are some films that will give you some history ... that is of the far out and cool kind ... you must get and see "Visions of Light", because it defines how some films ended up having the feel that they had ... and pay attention to it, because some cinematographers, are the real thing ... and the folks that make the film come alive ... and then there are the strange parts ... and the color stuff around Bertolucci will give you a great giggle ... (make sure you find out about the music on that film, too!).
For me, "life" has been ... film first ... and it was my helper in learning English by watching the subtitles, only to realize later that American English has no grammer and that those subtitles are crap! I could not speak enough English to get into film school and ended up doing theater, where I did very well, and majored in directing, with a minor in film. My directing on stage was "live film" and I was mixing contemporary work by Peter Brook and other experimentalists into the stage and the folks I was working with.
During that time, I was collecting music (called imports then!) and I was using all this crazy stuff on the stage and blowing people away ... because the foreign/different stuff allowed me to use ... lots of color and sound on the stage ... to help illustrate the empty stage ... I refused to use "sets" ... and did way better without them, than anyone else ... !!!
I lived the life of inspiration of the light and the camera, and still do ... I post it here EVERY DAY ...
I probably have seen over 75% of those films in my time ... remember that for 15 years I depended on every French, Italian, Spanish, Mexican ... film you could think of ... and it was the time of Truffaut, Renoir, Malle, Fellini, Bunuel, Welles, Antonioni, Bertolucci, Roeg, Herzog, Wenders, Godard (my personal favorite and "anti-film" maker I mention all the time here!), and later Almodovar, and such. These have been my "guides" along with things like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Amon Duul 2, and many other bands, who inspired me to no end! These bands were almost the same thing as those films and film makers ... they were not the "hollywood", or "bollywood" variety of entertainment ... they were "something else", completely different! ... and I always worked on answering that "why the difference"? ... and the only answer is ... it is who that person is!
This is the reason, why things like my review of ITCOTCK is not appreciated ... it is a quotidian review, that ends by saying something else ... it's a complete snapshot of one man and his life ... by the name of Robert! Done in a perfectly well defined Joyce'an style ... and of course, most folks here have no idea what that means ... and that makes them feel I am snapping at them, when the only snap I could say is ... go read Joyce!
It's hard, for me, as I am sure it is for Bapu to hear them, and vice versa, to make comments on music, when the backside of it is so far and away from his experience ... and he will say the same thing about me ... I have no idea about his own ... and it's true ... and something like film, or music ... can show how different people are, and how differently they see things. And because so many Americans are not quite versed on this history and the impression that film has made on the world ... it makes things harder. The world changed much more in EUROPE with the arts, than America EVER did. And you can go back to the flood of stuff and arts aimed at Russia in the cold war days ... even America was a part of it ... but it didn't mean much here ... and then you can listen to that Guru Guru song in the Tango Fango album, about getting the Germany's together again ... and you realize ... oh my ****ING gawd ... it is alive and well and clear in music too! The thurst of that song? ... Chuck Berry in the end ... as a wonderful symbol of the "new god" ... or the symbol of the "new music" complete with feedback! I can talk for years about that ... and everyone will not even read it!
They can not relate to the history of it! And now ... lastly, Mike ... get the Tom Dowd DVD ... it has the best history of American music in the 50's and 60's that you will ever hear ... and it is fabulous ... history of the LP and music! That goes along with the film history so beautifully ... and its subtle ... you will catch it ... and go ... WOW ... you're kidding me ... and turn around take a walk ... wow ... I am not sure that some folks here, that even play professionally, realize where it came from ... other than you learning something because you liked it ... and there is always more!