ENNIO MORRICONE AND THE SCORING OF “ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST”
On set, Leone relied for atmosphere upon tapes of Ennio Morricone’s main musical themes, which, this time, had all been written, performed and recorded in advance: ‘Everyone acted with the music, followed its rhythm, and suffered with its “aggravating” qualities, which grind the nerves.’
“The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves.”
― Bill Mollison
The Latest
BILL HICKS: THE CENSORED SEVEN MINUTES ON LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN [FULL TRANSCRIPT]
On October 1, 1993, Hicks was scheduled to appear on Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, where Letterman had recently moved. It was his 12th appearance on a Letterman late-night show, but his entire performance was removed from the broadcast. This is the full transcript.
PUBLIC SHAMING: LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER [FULL TRANSCRIPT]
John Oliver talks about the Christchurch mosque shootings, Brexit, and the power of public shaming, good and bad. With an interview with Monica Lewinsky.
INTERVIEW WITH PAULINE KAEL (MODERN MATURITY)
Pauline Kael has brought the same fierce passion, independence, and incisiveness to her movie reviews since she took on Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight in 1952. When her first book, I Lost It at the Movies (1965), and her 1968 appointment as a movie critic for The New Yorker brought her national prominence, some people raised eyebrows, others glasses, to her revolutionary style.
DONALD TRUMP: LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER [FULL TRANSCRIPT]
Oliver discusses Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and his career in business, outlining his campaign rhetoric, varying political positions and failed business ventures. He also says the Trump family name was changed at one point from the ancestral name "Drumpf".
BERTRAND RUSSELL: SEX EDUCATION
The subject of sex is so surrounded by superstitions and taboos that I approach it with trepidation. I fear lest those readers who have hitherto accepted my principles may suspect them when they are applied in this sphere; they may have admitted readily enough that fearlessness and freedom are good for a child, and yet desire, where sex is concerned, to impose slavery and terror.
THE DEER HUNTER – REVIEW BY DAVID DENBY [NEW YORK MAGAZINE]
After the early acclaim, The Deer Hunter has been subjected in recent months to an extraordinarily coarse and brutal hazing. Everywhere one encounters people convinced that the movie is racist or fascist, while in the press indignant critics compete with one another in manic overstatement.
“Don’t settle believing, strive for knowledge”
– Carl Sagan
Comedy
ERIC ANDRE: LEGALIZE EVERYTHING (2020)
In his first Netflix stand-up special, Eric Andre screams and shouts for 50 minutes, talking about how many drugs he's done, talking about drugs some more, and asking the audience what drugs they like.
ROY WOOD JR.: FATHER FIGURE (2020) – FULL TRANSCRIPT
Roy Wood Jr. tackles freeway protests, examines the origin of the blues and rifles off a list of life lessons for his newborn son.
DAVE CHAPPELLE: HBO COMEDY HALF-HOUR (1998) – FULL TRANSCRIPT
Don't deal with jails and I don't deal with police. My house got robbed in New York. I didn't even call the police. I wanted to, but I couldn't. My crib is too nice. It's not that it's too nice, but, it's too nice for me.
DAVE CHAPPELLE: 8:46
Dave Chappelle performed this roughly edited standup routine in Beavercreek, Ohio, on June 12, 2020. The title references the amount of time that then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck before Floyd died.
Cinema
ENNIO MORRICONE AND THE SCORING OF SERGIO LEONE’S “ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA”
Leone had started discussing the music for Once Upon a Time in America immediately after completing Giù la testa, and the score was more or less complete by 1975-6, seven years before a foot of film was shot, which must be a record.
BRAZIL (1985) – REVIEW BY PAULINE KAEL
Brazil is the kind of ornery, intellectually fuzzy labor of love that is bound to strike some people as just about “the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” and perhaps it will affect others as a picture they want for their VCRs, so they can look at it over and over.
RAN (1985) – REVIEW BY PAULINE KAEL
Essentially, Ran is about color and pattern, the formality and pageantry of warfare, and the fun of melodrama.
THE RIGHT STUFF (1983) – REVIEW BY PAULINE KAEL
The Right Stuff has the happy, excited spirit of a fanfare, and it's astonishingly entertaining, considering what a screw-up it is.
Image of the Day
“True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.”
― Karl R. Popper
The Underrated and Overlooked
FUTURE BOY CONAN (1978): HAYAO MIYAZAKI’S EARLY MASTERPIECE
This seminal work of Japanese master of animation Hayao Miyazaki, Future Boy Conan (Mirai Shōnen Konan) is a post-apocalyptic anime series, consisting of 26 unforgettable episodes packed with action, drama, humor.
Video