Living : Life

Watching: The Omega Man

There was a real darkness about science fiction films in the early 1970's that when you think about it, kind of reflects the film noir genre of the 40s/50s. There was a tremendous cynicism about humanity and it's seemingly endless capacity to monumentally screw things up.

Coming (in the USA particularly) at a time of the Vietnam war, growing awareness of various environmental issues, the death of the hippy era, fear of nuclear war, the oil crisis, racial tension and economic stagnation, the time was right for filmmakers to gaze into their crystal balls and try to extrapolate how bad things could get if the current madness continued.

So we got films like THX1138, Soylent Green, Rollerball (not the lame remake), Westworld, The Planet of the Apes series, Logans Run and more. Films where the future is universally grim - over polluted, corporate controlled, conformist and generally just very bleak.

The Omega Man (1971) sits fairly comfortably in this pack. Set in Los Angeles in 1977, a couple of years after biological warfare wiped out almost all of the planet, Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) a military scientist who developed the weapons and is the only person to have tried the vaccine - is - in effect - the last man on earth.

Well this isn't entirely true - there are a bunch of albino cultists who have some kind of resistance to the "plague" but are slowly dying and are quite insane and violent. They are led by a charismatic former tv newsman turned religious crazy who sees science as the cause of their woes and they are determined to kill Neville as the last representative of the old system.

Throw into the mix some young folk who haven't developed the albino disease yet (and the obligatory love interest), a possible cure for the plague made from Heston's blood and you have yourself the fixings of a story.

Ultimately, there is a fair bit about this film that seems kind of silly now. There is a bunch of religious symbolism that just plays way too over the top and indulgent (Heston takes some kind of crucified pose at least every 20 mins or so and when he first meets his love interest Lisa (Rosalind Cash) at gunpoint, she tells him to spread his arms like he's being crucified. )

(From Wikipedia)

It has been suggested that the film parallels the story of Christ, the Apostles, and the Crucifixion^{[citation needed]}; there are disciples, a betrayer, a Mary Magdalene figure, a Pilate-judge, allegories to the persecution by the Pharises and the salvation from the Blood of Christ, and even a spear being thrust into the main character. The "omega" in the title references the final letter in the Greek alphabet (implying, like the 1964 version that Neville is the "last" man), which is also connected to Christ, who was referred to as the Alpha and Omega

Now perhaps this is more my issue but it's kind of hard to see Charlton Heston and not think about him as a gun nut. (President and spokesman of the National Rifle Association 98-03). He certainly seems a fan of them in the movie. (Interestingly, having done a little research, he was actually more of a lefty back around those days and actually called for gun control after the murder of Robert F Kennedy).

The film opens well with scenes of Heston driving around a deserted city like a maniac, "shopping" and generally doing the things you could imagine doing if you were "the last man on Earth". I know that this was something that always fascinated me growing up (I think I first saw this film on latenight tv as an early teen) as a bit of an outsider who was happy with my own company. I think it was probably the absence of rules that appealed but I always came to the conclusion that life without other people would be boring/maddening before too long.

One of my all-time favourite sci-fi (or sf if you prefer) films deals with this issue as well - Geoff Murphy's 1985 NZ classic The Quiet Earth. (But we'll come back to that one).

Unlike other films in this genre at the time, The Omega Man didn't really seem to have that much to say in terms of social commentary - beyond perhaps the whole "wiping the planet out with biological weapons" thing is a bad idea - and plays better as a post apocalyptic action flick.

It is based on a 1954 novel by Richard Matheson entitled I am Legend. The diseased in the book are much like vampires (though without the supernatural/mythical origins) and there is more of a focus on Neville's psychological struggles to deal with being the last man on Earth. Another film version was made in 1964 with Vincent Price and the story itself has been quite influential over the years - George Romero said that the book inspired his 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead.

Blade Runner director Ridley Scott tried to make a version in the 1990s with Arnold Schwarzenegger but the film didn't get off the ground (um, I suspect thankfully - although Ridley Scott...) and apparently Will Smith is set to star in I Am Legend this year.

This film is worth checking out if you like the post-apocalyptic genre or the 70's sci-fi - for the most part it works but is a little clunky at times. Certainly nothing to worry about if you aren't a fan of blood and gore.

Here's the trailer.

Listening: Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny (Soundtrack)

With a love for and a seemingly endless knowledge of classic hard rock and metal, Tenacious D like to squeeze every possible rock reference and cliche they can into their music. (In a good way).

Taken seriously, this could go horribly wrong, bringing us into the territory of the pretentious and/or the precocious. (Like when The Darkness claim they aren't taking the piss. Don't get me wrong, if you ignore most of the second album, they still rock.)

Fortunately, for "the D", it's all a bit of a giggle - they love what they do and they particularly like the silliness of it all. Which makes sense, given that it's the band of one of the leading comedy actors of our time, Jack Black. Filling out the band is Kyle Gass, talented guitarist and I assume actor mate of Black's. (One thing that pops into my mind is how many people does it take to make a band - I mean, the word band suggests more of a group, surely. Like Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Of course, then you get one-man-bands and it all goes to hell).

Anyways, after a longish spell between drinks (the first Tenacious D album - featuring the single Tribute - was released in 2001), the second D album was released last year and is the soundtrack to their upcoming film entitled (unsurprisingly) Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny.

I haven't seen the film yet but the soundtrack plays out in someways like a bit of a rock opera and gives you a pretty good idea of the storyline - essentially a warped bio-pic of the band where at some point they get hold of a mystical guitar pick making them rock-gods.

The majority of the tracks are story oriented and draw from a range of rock influences, from Black Sabbath to Nirvana, from Sport metal (whatever happened to sport metal) to the obligatory awful ballad that has been a rock staple ever since Kiss let Peter Criss record Beth. (OMG, just checked out wikipedia and Beth is their highest charting single ever - go figure).

But that's not all - Jack Black and Kyle Gass also find the long-lost lyrics to classical pieces including Eine Kleine Nacht Musik and other tunes that I'm ashamed to say I don't know the names of. (Update - Found one - Beethoven's Fur Elise) Check it out here in a clip where the two first meet.



Other highlights on this album are Meatloaf as Jack Black's repressive rock hating Dad, Dio (Ronny James Dio - Black Sabbath) as some kind of rock guardian angel (I think), a great car chase song and a final confrontation "rock off" with the devil that includes the lines "I'm the devil, I love metal - check this riff it's fucking tasty".

The Tenacious D style of humour isn't for everyone, it often slants towards the crass 14yo boy kind of thing but for me, the exuberance of Jack Black's performance, his showmanship and the bands obvious love for what they are doing make it all worthwhile. If you don't come in expecting profound social commentary or philosophical insights and are happy to have some great rockin' fun, this is for you.

Oh and by the way, I couldn't let this pass - doing a little fact checking on wikipedia (I know it's not perfect but I trust it) and I noticed that the opening line of the definition of Tenacious D is as follows :

Tenacious D is an American rock band composed of musician/actors Kyle Gass (a.k.a. "KG", "Kage","Rage Kage") and Jack Black (a.k.a. "JB", "Jables"). Their style fuses rock with pure fucking awsomeness.

Now you wouldn't get that kind of accuracy in the Encyclopedia Britannica. :)

Reading: The Neon Wilderness - Stories by Nelson Algren

INT. NIGHT. Chicago Late 1940s. A city police station in a working class Polish Neighbourhood.

They come off the streets for a night or a week and pause before the amplifier with a single light, like a vigil light, burning high overhead. Each pauses, one passing moment, to make his brief confessional:

"Leo Cooney. Fraud'lent perscription. It's a bad bang, Captain"

Life is a bad bang for Cooney: a bum rap and no probation.

"What do you use when you can't get morphine sulphate?"

"Paregoric."

And steps back into the shadows. You won't see Cooney in the light again.

Yes, and he'll drink starch too. His nose didn't get white from blowing it.

The thin-featured Negro beside him is trying to look like an M-G-M Mexican: broad-brimmed hat and sideburns so deep and dark they look like cords fastening the foolish hat under the chin.

"What you in here for, Sugar-Cure?"

"Walked off with a dolla' 'n fo'got to bring a man his change"

"You mean you forgot to bring him his marijuana. Where'd you come from?"

"Chillicothe, Ohio"

"Didn't the Chamber of Commerce know you were coming in?"

"I didn't tell'em. I was in the House of Correction."

"Turn around and face the back wall. Take off that hat."

The pseudo-Mexican removed his hat, faced the wall a moment and turned back to face the darkened rows where a hundred victims of recent crimes watched silently. The Captain explained: "We just wanted to see the back of your head. So when they turn you over, we'll know who you are. Next man".

This is the opening of the first story in Nelson Algren's The Neon Wilderness, a story entitled "the captain has bad dreams".

Nelson Algren wrote about the underclass in his native Chicago in the 40's and 50's with the compassion and clarity of an insider as well as an incredible beauty to his language. He won the US National Book Award in 1950 for "The Man with the Golden Arm", which was made into a film with Frank Sinatra in 1956.

(Butchered some might say - I saw the film first and thought it was ok but then read the book and that blew my mind. Algren wrote a book published in 94 (Noncomformity) which told his side of the filmmaking debacle/story)

Lou Reed said in 2001 that Algren's 1956 novel "A Walk on the Wild Side" was the launching point for his song "Walk on the Wild Side". (Thanks Wikipedia)

His writing isn't always easy to find but if you're looking for something gritty and beautiful, this is the man to read.

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Listening: Mashups

You flick on the radio and the low opening drum riff of the Dandy Warhols' Bohemian Like You begins but then as soon as the guitars kick in you hear the opening lyrics of Mousse-T's Horny (don't try to pretend you don't know it) come in over the top - Horny, horny, hornyhornyhorny.

Huh?!?

You keep listening and even though the juxtaposition is bizarre, the song actually really seems to be working. The rhythm/beat/tempo/vibe of the Dandy's music and Mousse-T's lyrics (the rest has been removed) mash together perfectly - and I should probably add quite hilariously. Finally when the trademark Dandy Warhols' Whoo Hoo Hoooo chorus thingy tops off a line of I'm horny, hornyhornyhorny you know you're listening to something interesting. (Not to mention having them singing And I like you, and I like you and I like you I like you I like you)

But in case you're not yet convinced - take a look at this.



Ok, so we're in the world of the MashUp - what's it all about?

The wikipedia entry on mashups is (unsurprisingly) quite rich - here's the primary definition (I'll leave the rest for you to explore - but I really do encourage you to do so)

Mashup, or bastard pop, or bootleg, is a musical genre which, in its purest form, consists of the combination (usually by digital means) of the music from one song with the a cappella from another. Typically, the music and vocals belong to completely different genres. At their best, bastard pop songs strive for musical epiphanies that add up to considerably more than the sum of their parts.

In short, the mashup has a loooooong history - from classical composers borrowing from traditional folk tunes centuries ago to djs mixing up Orson Welles War of the World broadcast with music tracks to the modern day where digital technology has made it possible for virtually anyone to have a crack.

I've even had a brief toy with it (with horrendous results) but plan to come back to it one day.
If you're interested, check out this site - http://www.paintingbynumbers.com/bootcamp/
for some handy hints.

(Damn and I thought this was going to be an easy post - the more I read the more I want to talk about. I think the best thing to do is to give you some links here and you can peruse at you leisure.)

At one point I was having a bit of an internal dialogue about the whole - is this art or is it just lazy/stealing? - thing but I had a few thoughts that put me in the "it's art" team.

I mean, the history of music is one of artists learning from those who have come before, taking inspiration and often times copying and changing. Listen to the main riff in Smells Like Teen Spirit - now listen to Boston's More than a feeling - more than a little similar no? (And yes, Kurt admitted taking inspiration from that song).

Now let's take a bit of broader look at the history of art in the 20th century. We've got the Dadaists who turned art upside down and made the point that the art aristocracy was bloated and inbred and you can take a urinal and stick it in a gallery and make it art. Pop Art and Andy Warhol carried on this tradition by taking images and icons in the world around them and effectively remixing them to create something which depended on the work of others but which was special and unique in it's own right. It became as much about the ideas and the intention as it did about the actually work itself.

So yeah - it's about the ideas I guess and the way you can use juxtaposition of two things to create a third. (This is just the same as editing in a film - say you have an image of a child in a playground and then you have an image of a gun - you can't but help create a meaning which combines the two).

As to the matter of infringing on copyright - well you just know that this is a matter blown out of all sensibility by the moneymen who have no interest in the art at all. Instead of taking the commonsense view that exposure is good and could well inspire someone to go out and investigate the source of mashup (ie go out and buy Bohemian like you and/or Horny), they are determined to wring every last cent of every last 1 and 0 of their artist's music.

I think there is probably a case to be made for making some kind of payment to the original artists if you're going to be making money from their work - and giving them full credit if you aren't making money (it's only manners) but beyond that, the sky should be the limit.

Anyways, enough of my prattle - here are some links for you to chew on.

2 Many DJs - http://2manydjs.free.fr/
The Kleptones - http://www.kleptones.com/
Bootie USA (Best of Bootie 2006) - http://www.bootieusa.com/

And one more clip.

Which one's pink?

I had a bit of a Pink Floyd The Wall moment this morning when I decided to shave off the moustache that I'd been growing since the start of November.

You know the scene where Bob Geldof comes out of his drug/alcoholic haze and gets ready for the show by shaving all the hair on his body (thereabouts)? Well obviously I didn't go that far but having had this very large fuzzy caterpillar taking up a fair proportion of my face for the last few months, it's sudden absence was much odder than I'd expected.

I mean, logically I was returning to the face I'm most familiar with so you could imagine it would work as a happy homecoming but everything just looked a little small, bald and odd. Big puffy cheeks and a tiny tiny mouth surrounded by blank skin.


That said, I've adjusted to it already so it can't be that big a deal but it was really quite a surprise. (Maybe I'll go and shave off the eyebrows as well then? :)

Bit of wikipedia trivia (that I'm not 100% about but here goes anyway) - the aforementioned shaving scene was based on something Syd Barrett did during the recording of Wish you were here.

I had a fascination with Pink Floyd The Wall as I was growing up - the movie came out in 1982 when I was in Grade 5 and living in a family with shall I say conservative musical tastes I wasn't exposed to much in the way of rock. (Never watched Countdown).

I did from time to time though see the odd video clip that they would stick on during the afternoon cartoons and in particular one from The Wall, with Gerald Scharfs brilliant animated fascistic marching hammers among other things and in particular the lyrics "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control", which kind of blew my mind at the time and I think probably was an early spark to whatever sense of rebellion I still carry.

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Watching : Strangers with Candy

Strangers with Candy is one of those relatively obscure films that sit on the shelf in the video shop (dvd shop?) - in fact I'm not 100% sure it got a cinema release in Australia - that you look at the cover for 10 seconds and move onto something else.

But that would be a mistake.

Strangers with Candy is the movie version of a tv series (on SBS a few years ago I think) where a 46 year old ex-junkie/hooker/delinquent/jailbird, Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris) returns to high school to start her life over in the hope of bring her father out of his coma.

Co-written by (and co-starring) Stephen Colbert (of the Colbert Report and earlier The Daily Show with John Stewart) along with director Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris (apparently the only woman who can make David Letterman laugh), this film features some of the best comedy dialogue I have ever come across.

Many times when you talk about great quotes or scenes in a comedy film, you give away the best jokes - the good news is that I can do this here pretty easily as this film is wall to wall gold. These in particular where some of my favourite scenes.

Jerri Blank: Faggot.
Chuck Noblet: What did you say?
Jerri Blank: What did you hear?
Chuck Noblet: I'd rather not repeat it.
Jerri Blank: Then I guess we'll never know.

While the writing in this film is definitely the highlight, the performances come a very close second. Again, all gold - particularly Amy Sedariswho does is able to mesh a dumb teenager with a streetwise adult perfectly, creating an utterly immoral and thoroughly lovable character in the process. Like all good comedy, the best performances are those taken over the top - Stephen Colbert I'll mention again as well as the guy who played the principal Onyx Blackman, Greg Hollimon.

Throw in some shining guest spots from Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Allison Janney (CJ from West Wing), Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker (who I actually thought was Jennifer Aniston in the movie) and you have a very lively cast.

I'm going to have to hunt up the original series now.

Five reasons to watch Strangers with Candy:

• Stephen Colbert


• Amy Sedaris


• What did you say? - What did you hear?


• I wasn't pushing you away, I was pulling me towards myself


• Jerri Blank on drugs