1. I'm not quite sure why I've been absent for a while, but this afternoon I returned to the Criterion Channel and started poking around. I can't remember quite how I accidentally stumbled upon a collection of interviews focused on director Alan J. Pakula's movie, The Parallax View. The collection also included the movie. Upon my discovery, I suddenly remembered that several times I've read that The Parallax View is the middle movie of what many writers and film buffs call Pakula's Paranoia Trilogy: the three movies are Klute, Parallax View, and All the President's Men.
I watched (and blogged about) Klute back in November, 2018. I've watched All the President's Men about 90 times (it seems). I've never watched The Parallax View.
After today, though, I'm well prepared to watch The Parallax View.
The Criterion Channel interviews dazzled me. First, I listened to British director Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy and Repo Man) talk absorbingly about the movie in relation to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and to a lesser degree, the shootings of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Cox has studied in great detail different explanations of JFK's murder that refute the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone (or even shot) Kennedy. He considers The Parallax View to be, in his words, "the best JFK conspiracy movie."
I also listened to the other interviews in the collection. Two feature Pakula himself reflecting on directing the movie. I loved listening to Gordon Willis discuss his work as the movie's director of photography. The last interview featured John Boorstin who worked as an assistant to Pakula and did a lot of legwork to help create the scenes, including a famous montage, in which Warren Beatty is tested to see if he is the kind of person (socio/psychopath) the Parallax Corporation wants as an employee.
Now I'm ready to watch the movie. In fact, I plan to watch the entire Paranoid Trilogy, maybe even in order.
One movie that came up in, I think, the Alex Cox interview was the 1973 political thriller/assassination movie, Executive Action, featuring Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan.
I plan to watch it, too, and wouldn't be surprised if I watch other political thrillers from 35-55 years ago. I need to make a list.
2. Not only did it feel right and good to tune back into the Criterion Channel, it also felt good, right, and, in fact, blissful, to sit and listen to my two favorite radio shows tonight.
After missing these shows the last two Thursdays (but catching up on them earlier this week), I relished sitting in the living room with Copper resting peacefully on the chair next to me and Luna at peace on the ottoman, listening to Hard Rain and Slow Trains: Bob Dylan & Fellow Travelers. Dan is back in Tulsa for events surrounding the opening of the Bob Dylan Center this week and so he didn't present a brand new show. He reached back in the archives to July 2, 2020 and played a superb show that he and Jeff hosted together.
Bob Dylan's latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, opens with the song "I Contain Multitudes". Inspired by that song's title, Dan and Jeff presented "I Contain....Openers", an hour of Bob Dylan songs that opened several of his albums. Not only did I love hearing such songs as "Shot of Love", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Blowin' in the Wind", "Thunder on the Mountain", "Tangled up in Blue", "A Satisfied Mind", and others, the show helped familiarize me with several of Bob Dylan's albums, albums I have, quite honestly, ignored over the years but that now have my attention.
3. Jeff's Deadish was a golden two hours of almost incomprehensible variety! He opened the show with selections from the first set of the Dead's May 5, 1979 show performed in Baltimore at the Civic Center. I especially enjoyed that show's "Sugaree" and always love to hear "Friend of the Devil". Jeff tried to resist, for reasons having to do with time, this show's splendid "Scarlet Begonias" ---> "Fire on the Mountain" that opened the second set and I'm really glad he decided to throw caution to the wind and play it.
I got distracted by something while Jeff played some tunes from May 5, 1967 at the Fillmore. I snapped back to attention later in Deadish's second hour when Jeff went as far into the stratosphere as I've ever hear his show go by playing music by King Black Acid. He came a little closer to earth when he played music by Sky Cries Mary. Jeff playing music by these two groups epitomizes what I cherish about his Thursday night show. Since KWEP-LPFM is low power and non-profit, since it's not beholden to ratings and advertising money, he is at liberty to take his listeners on trips into all kinds of musical territory that we'd never hear on -- well, as far as I know, on any other station. Jeff then wrapped up the show by returning to Baltimore and playing a fanciful and fun Grateful Dead version of "Dancin' in the Streets".
It was uplifting and stimulating to once again experience the joy of Blissful Thursday with Dan and Jeff coming into our home via the internet magic of live streaming!
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