For me, almost everything that is called mise en scène is a big joke. In the cinema, there are very few people who are really metteurs-en-scène; there are very few who have ever had the opportunity to direct. The only mise en scène of real importance is practiced in the editing. I needed nine months to edit Citizen Kane, six days a week. Yes, I edited [The Magnificent] Ambersons, despite the fact that there were scenes not by me, but my editing was modified. The basic editing is mine and, when a scene of the film holds together, it is because I edited it. In other words, everything happens as if a man painted a picture: he finishes it and someone comes to do the touch up, but he cannot of course add paint all over the surface of the canvas. I worked months and months on the editing of Ambersons before it was taken away from me: all this work is thus there, on the screen. But for my style, for my vision of cinema, the editing is not one aspect, it is the aspect. Directing is an invention of people like you; it is not an art, or at most an art for a minute a day. This minute is terribly crucial, but it happens only very rarely. The only moment where one can exercise any control over a film is in the editing. But in the editing room, I work very slowly, which always unleashes the temper of the producers who snatch the film from my hands. I don’t know why it takes me so much time: I could work forever on the editing of a film. For me, the strip of celluloid is put together like a musical score, and this execution is determined by the editing; just like a conductor interprets a piece of music in rubato, another will play it in a very dry and academic manner and a third will be very romantic, and so on. The images themselves are not sufficient: they are very important, but are only images. The essential is the length of each image, what follows each image: it is the very eloquence of the cinema that is constructed in the editing room.
moeba Music Hollywood has one highly recommended free instore performance today when producer/remixer/rapper and hip-hop legend Pete Rock graces the stage of the 6400 Sunset Blvd store at 7PM for a free show. For full details on the Mt. Vernon, NY hip-hop great, whose new joint is the appropriately titled NY's Finest -- a guest-heavy production that among others includes Wu Tang Clan's Raekwon and Masta Killa. Check out the insightful, in-depth bio on Pete Rock (including his influential years with musical partner CL Smooth, with whom he recorded one of hip-hop's greatest songs - the classic "T.R.O.Y." - among others) elsewhere on the Amoeba website by clicking here. 
alibi.
dusk,
Several years back I was a dedicated MTA bus rider. I spent countless hours wandering back and forth from Silverlake to my job in Century City where, believe it or not, I worked for a law firm. One afternoon I was sitting in the back staring out into space when someone leaned over past me and tapped the knee of an older man sitting next to me. Hey, this guy told the old man, you’re Art Aragon. Sure enough sitting next to me was none other then LA’s original "Golden Boy,” the legendary and flamboyant Hall of Fame Boxer. This past week Art Aragon died at the age of 80 from the effects of a stroke. And though he never won the world title he was one of boxing’s biggest draws during the 40’s and 50’s.
Born in Belen, New Mexico in 1927, Aragon grew up in East Los Angeles and began boxing in 1942. His first professional fight was in May 1944, against Frenchy Rene at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. He ended his career with a 90-20-6 record, including 61 wins by knockout. He fought many of the stars of the era like Tommy Campbell, Jesse Flores, Carmen Basilio, Don Jordan, Billy Graham, Chuck Davey and Chico Vejarand. Sadly, Aragon had only one title shot in his career, losing to lightweight champion James Carter in November 1951. Aragon, who often struggled to make his weight class, said afterward that he was weak from having to lose seven pounds in the few days before the bout.
Though he was never a world champ, in 1990 Aragon was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame. And while he had a great fight career, it was marred by allegations that he fixed a few of his fights. In February 1957, Aragon was convicted of offering a $500 bribe to welterweight Dick Goldstein to take a dive in their scheduled San Antonio bout the previous December. The fight was called off at the last moment when Aragon became ill. Eventually though, the conviction was overturned on appeal.
After seventy years, Jerome Siegel’s heirs regain what he granted so long ago – the copyright in the Superman material that was published in Action Comics Vol. 1. What remains is an apportionment of profits, guided in some measure by the rulings contained in this Order, and a trial on whether to include the profits generated by DC Comics’ corporate sibling’s exploitation of the Superman copyright. -- Judge Larson
Tuesday night found some of us working after hours at Amoeba Hollywood for our latest change. I'm going to go through these changes quickly, so pay attention!
Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!
Saturday March 29
A RARE screening of the '80s horror classic!
Tobe Hooper's
The Funhouse
New Beverly Cinema
7165 W Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 938-4038
Midnight, $7
May - New Beverly's 30th Anniversary!
May 3 Burnt Offerings
May 10 Smokey And The Bandit
May 24 Creature From Black Lake
May 31 Zardoz
Friday May 2 Special Premiere!
THE MULTINAUTS
From the creators of Dungeon Majesty, Telefantasy Studios presents The Multinauts, an all new adventure saga set in an intergalactic post nuke universe. www.dungeonmajesty.com
There is a really interesting article in the Arts section of this morning's (Thursday March 27) New York Times about newly uncovered research that challenges the belief that Thomas Edison was the father of recorded sound. This new research claims that even before Edison had recorded his first sounds a French man named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville recorded a ten second sound bite of a female vocalist singing a French folk song (Au Clair de la Lune) back in 1860. However it was not recorded onto a record but rather on a "phonautograph" or "phonautogram" (as seen in photo left) which was in turn recently made playable - by converting the written images on the paper into sound - by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Library. If you click on the NYTimes story not only can you read about this amazing discovery in detail but they also have an MP3 sound file of this historic 10-second 1860 recording.
 |
In what may be my favorite marketing ploy of the year... Dr. Pepper has offered to give everyone in America a free Dr. Pepper if Axl Rose decides to release his long awaited Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy in 2008. Only Buckethead & Slash are exempt from the promotion. In response Axl says he will happily share his with Mr.Bucket. Let's all hope this happens soon because the Amoeba breakroom tends to run out of Dr. Pepper towards the end of the week. Read More.... Read GNR's Response... |
Last week an ATM outside an English supermaket malfunctioned and mistakenly started spitting out twice the money requested. For example if you wanted to withdraw a hundred English pounds it would instead dispense 200 but it would show as only a 100 deducted from your account. As you can imagine word spread quickly and after a few busy hours of use the ATM ran dry. Since no crime was broken the police in the town of Hull could not arrest anyone but said that those who benefited could face charges, but only if the company administering the machine complained. Ah, let them keep the money. I say it's theirs to keep if the machine made the mistake.
d a trusted confidante until the end. Neil worked as a personal assistant and road manager to the Beatles throughout their rise to fame and became an indispensable member of their inner circle. When the boys formed Apple in 1968, they made Neil Chief Executive. I remember read.jpg&fitType=exact&width=200&height=309)
ing somewhere that Neil had no idea what that meant or what precisely he was supposed to do, but in the halcyon days of the late 60s, it was anything goes and he managed to make it work as best he could, though Apple Corps is known to have leeched money from the get-go.
onight's a special night for many of my nearest and dearest.
I have been really obsessed with Antony & the Johnsons since I moved to Los Angeles. I'm not really sure why. I did first listen to him when I initially moved to Los Angeles in 2001, so maybe I have him attached to Los Angeles in my mind. I was immediately in love with him. He was like a stretched out version of Marc Almond-- a bit more intense and not as flamboyant. I guess he had a different kind of flamboyance. He's also incredibly interesting and completely engaging. I wanted to
know more about this man. My love for him grew after I eventually moved back to San Francisco. After recently finding myself living back in L.A. once again, I inevitably began listening to all his albums. I listened to them over and over again as I unpacked and rearranged my new apartment. I even broke out a live bootleg album that a friend of mine had made for me. I normally stay away from the live albums-- I would rather physically be there at a live show-- but I even became obsessed with this live album and soon had all his comments to the crowd memorized as if they were part of the album. So of course I was excited to find out that Antony would be featured on a new album coming out this year. Hercules & Love Affair just released their self titled album in the U.K. on DFA Records. You might have to wait a couple months for a domestic release, but in the meantime it is more than worth the import price for this amazing new debut album. You will find Antony on the vocals for four of the ten songs. He also sings some back up on an additional song.
SF rock group Citay, who had driven up from a gig in Philly the night before after being at SxSW the week before, were in the New York area Friday and Saturday doing a few gigs including one on WFMU (on Bay Area transplant Liz Berg's great weekly show) and one at the Lower East Side club (as pictured above in the low-ceilinged basement performance space) in which they won over everyone in the house with their rich, crisp and clean sound and perfect mix that highlighted their vocals and layers of guitar. Also over the weekend longtime Bay Area DJ Spun, who actually lives in New York these days, was representing Rong Music and spinning at both APT and Easy Lover Loft.
And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
-- Lee Greenwood
Questions about the Easter Bunny are less frightening and more practical. How does a Rabbit lay eggs? Where does the Easter Bunny live the rest of the year? How does he carry the Easter Basket? And perhaps, what does he have to do with Christ Jesus' resurrection (if you're Rod or Tod).
Of course, like all great holy days, Easter's roots aren't in Christianity. Whereas usually the Churchies change the name of the holiday when moving their religious observance onto its pagan foundation, in this case they left the old name. This could be because Eostre, a goddess of the Angles and Saxons, hadn't been actively worshiped for some time when Jesus' resurrection was being celebrated.
The Venerable Bede, the Northumbrian monk who is known as the "Father of English History" wrote, somewhat speculatively:
In olden time the English people – for it did not seem fitting to me that I should speak of other nations' observance of the year and yet be silent about my own nation's – calculated their months according to the course of the moon. Hence after the manner of the Hebrews and the Greeks, [the months] take their name from the moon, for the moon is called mona and the month monath.
