Movie Reviews-Safe, Contraband, Brighton Rock, Meeting Evil

Safe

If you have seen any recent Jason Statham movie you pretty much know what you're gonna get. A bald bada$$ British bruiser who is both a dangerous man and a fashion plate kicks a$$ in all sorts of interesting ways while finding time to drop a few cool one liners in a gruff tone. It's what he does and he does it well. But either his brand is starting to wear thin or he's just not choosing the best scripts. Safe was entertaining enough once the butt-kicking commenced but it was, even for an action film, rather empty. Looking back I think this was because Statham didn't have a love interest or more importantly for this genre, any really interesting rival/opposite to play off against. So as a result there just wasn't enough there. I would say in hindsight that this was probably a wait for DVD/Netflix film. And I like Statham. But it is what it is. The ending both deconstructs action film showdowns and sends a tip of the hat to Statham's ensemble film Snatch.

Safe is suitably frantic and violent but verges on ridiculousness at times. It's hard to believe, especially in a city as densely populated as New York, that the characters could engage in the sort of violence that they repeatedly do and manage to largely avoid police interference.

Luke Wright (Jason Statham), a sanitation worker, is a fighter in unsanctioned NY cage fights. He is a somewhat passive fighter and lets another fighter hit him more than he should. Offering only the most cursory of resistance he still wins the fight. We then see him in a tense standoff with a mid level organized crime yokel who reminds him that he was supposed to take a dive. Both the yokel and his backer, a Russian-American crime boss not known for mercy, lost money on the fight. Wright heads home to try to get his wife out of town but it's too late. The Russians, led by the boss' depraved son, (who really lays on the accent thick and chews up the scenery) have already tortured and murdered his wife. Mercifully and effectively this is shown offscreen. The Russians consider killing Wright but he offers them no resistance. Disappointed that they can't hurt him anymore, the Russians tell Wright that they may kill him in the future or may not but they will definitely kill any friends he makes or any relatives they can dig up. Evidently like any evil overlord worth the name, the Russians want to make Wright suffer. And like most evil overlords they commit the cardinal sin of leaving an enemy alive. A tear rolls down Wright's cheek.

Meanwhile in China a young girl Mei (Catherine Chan) is revealed to be a genius with numbers, mathematics and probability, with a photographic memory for even the longest sequences. She is kidnapped from her family by organized crime boss Uncle Han (James Hong from Big Trouble in Little China) and put to work under his subordinates' direction to maximize profits from his gambling interests. Skimming drops dramatically and profits rise as Mei's preternatural skills with numbers are employed. 

Uncle Han decides to send Mei to NYC where men loyal to him are in a battle with the same Russian Mafia who destroyed Wright's life. She has a long number to memorize. Should she fail him he will murder her mother. But the Russians already know of this wunderkind and have their own plans for her. And through a series of unlikely events Mei winds up on the radar of a suicidal Wright. Deciding not to kill himself Wright dedicates himself to Mei's protection. And of course we learn that Wright was never a garbage man or (just) a cage fighter but something much more deadly. And now he's got a purpose. This didn't quite have the righteous anger or star power of the similar Man on Fire with Denzel Washington but it wasn't the worst way to waste time. It has lots of violence and moves quickly but ultimately is a forgettable if occasionally enjoyable flick. Chris Sarandon has a part.
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Contraband

Much like Statham, you know that Mark Wahlberg is going to bring a certain consistency to his action films. I don't know that Wahlberg is a better actor but he does have more range in my opinion.
Unlike Safe, Contraband is as much of a drama film as an action film. Wahlberg has a love interest and the film does ask you to use your brain a little bit more, even as it employs a great many common tropes such as One Last Job, You Were Like a Brother to Me, Putting the Band Back Together and so on. But even as the film does ask you to engage a bit more, it still is rather predictable. How you might feel about this will determine if this is a film you care about watching. It was set and shot in New Orleans but the film's lead actors generally do not attempt a Louisiana accent. 

Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is a hard working New Orleans home alarm installer who gives people good service and doesn't try to rip them off. He's married to Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and has two boys with her. His best friend Sebastian (Ben Foster) runs a local construction company.
But Kate has a younger brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) who likes to live on the wild side. Coming back into the US on a drug smuggling trip, to avoid detection by the Coast Guard, Andy dumps the cocaine in the ocean. He thinks that's the smart move. However his boss, the nervously malevolent Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) doesn't see it that way. He wants his money.
Chris is a former (almost legendarily devious) smuggler who went straight. He stops by to see Briggs to see if Briggs will be reasonable about the loss and take less than full value. Loss is part of the business risk after all. But Briggs is profanely disrespectful and does not budge from his original position. Andy has two weeks to come up with the full value of the lost package or Briggs will kill him. And then in Briggs' mind the debt will pass to Chris and Kate. And if they can't pay Briggs will kill them but not before taking out some payment in trade from the delectable Kate.

The way Chris sees it he has no choice but to put his old smuggling crew back together, hop on a cargo ship under the control of a captain who doesn't like him, Captain Camp (the amazingly profane and aggressive J.K. Simmons), head over to Panama to get some counterfeit dollar bills, smuggle them back into the US, pay Briggs and be done with it all. Kate doesn't like this plan, not wanting Chris to end up in prison like his father(William Lucking), but she likes the idea of her brother dead in a levee even less. Sebastian thinks Chris ought to bring some drugs back so that there is more opportunity for profit but Chris is adamantly anti-drug. In order to protect his family against Briggs and his goons while he's gone, Chris tasks Sebastian with watching Kate and the boys. What could go wrong with this plan? 
There's a Bob Seger song that I like titled "Still the Same". One lyric stanza reads
You always won every time you placed a bet/ 
You're still damn good/No one's gotten to you yet/  
Every time they were sure they had you caught/ 
You were quicker than they thought/ 
You'd just turn your back and walk
The enjoyment in Contraband comes from watching Wahlberg attempt to make these lyrics come true. John Singleton once said Wahlberg reminded him of James Cagney and you can definitely see that here. If you like heist films check this out.
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Brighton Rock

This noir movie is based on a Graham Greene novel which I have not read. I was actually happy about this as I had no preconceptions about the movie. This adaptation takes place in 1960's Great Britain near and around as you might guess, Brighton. A small time group of hoodlums want to take revenge for the murder of their boss. A naive, lonely and virginal waitress named Rose (Andrea Riseborough) accidentally gets photographic evidence that could implicate a gang member in a revenge murder. Pinkie (Sam Riley) gets the assignment to obtain and destroy the picture, find out what if anything Rose knows and if necessary, send her to the afterlife. Pinkie is just the person for the job as his vileness and coldness and willingness to kill have already made the other gang members nervous to be around him. Pinkie's boldness and hatred only increase throughout the film as he kills his way to become boss of his gang.

This film is not an action film; it's a drama. And the drama is primarily about the relationship between good and evil or more precisely between Rose and Pinkie. 
Rose is quite obviously desperate for someone, anyone to pay attention to her. In a sad, very depressing scene she has to listen as her obviously uncaring (and abusive?) father bargains a fair brideprice for her with the maleficent Pinkie, who intends to marry the underage Rose to forestall any chance of testimony against him. Actually whenever I see Rose, I expect that Eleanor Rigby should be playing. It's a very religious film , not so much in the imagery though there is that but in the conversations between Pinkie and Rose about heaven and hell. Pinkie and Rose are both Catholics. 

Pinkie is quite adamant that there is hell but couldn't care less about heaven. He has a way of speaking that constantly belittles Rose and a few times it looks as if he's not above hitting her. At the same time while Rose is enthralled by and deeply in love with Pinkie, Pinkie is fascinated by her, even if that fascination is almost wholly based in contempt.

On the side of the angels is Rose's employer Ida (Helen Mirren-who is still going to be vamping men when she's 70), who as a former "party girl" herself, can recognize the pure evil radiating from Pinkie. One of the men Pinkie killed was an associate of Ida's. Ida basically engages in a struggle to save Rose's life and soul. In this she's advised by her friend Phil (John Hurt) who has never gotten to know Ida in a biblical way and appears to deeply resent it.
Look for current Game of Thrones actor Nonso Anozie as Dallow, a member of Pinkie's gang who starts to realize that Pinkie is not all there. Andy Serkis has a small but important role as Mr. Colleoni, the most powerful gangster in Brighton and a man who intends to keep that distinction. This is a VERY dark noir indeed but it's not very violent. I liked the acting here. I liked this film and thought it was very worthwhile. It throws a few curveballs at the viewer's head and like all good curveballs they don't necessarily break when or where you think they should. This looks, feels and sounds like a fifties or sixties movie. It doesn't have hyperactive camera work or crushing sound. It assumes that a scene can last for a while and not lose the viewer's interest. The ending will stay with you.
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Meeting Evil

Samuel L. Jackson can play a Scary Black Man better than anyone else I know. He's probably going to be doing it well into his eighties. He is a good actor. However this film just rubbed me the wrong way. Jackson's character didn't really work. In my opinion, the motivations stunk. In the same way that some movies have Black Spiritual Guides who evidently have no hopes, dreams, lusts or purposes of their own and just want to ensure that their white charges live a blessed life, other movies have Scary Black Men who seemingly live to just mess with white people for no better reason than because they can. If anything Meeting Evil rather implausibly combines these two tropes.

John (Luke Wilson) is a visibly depressed real estate professional  (realtor?) who was unlucky enough to have all of his chips on the table when the bubble popped. He also just got fired. Bills have been piling up and he is about to lose the family home. He has been trying to hide this from his leggy wife Joanie (Leslie Bibb) and their son and daughter. John loses it when his family tries to cheer him up and snaps at them. Angered, his wife takes the kids to a previously planned outing: without John.

Shortly afterwards there's a knock on the door and there is a man dressed in a funereal manner. It's Richie (Samuel L. Jackson) a verbally aggressive individual who browbeats John into helping him get his sports car restarted. After a seeming accident wounds John, Richie insists upon driving John to the hospital. On the way though a few rude or inconsiderate people get on Richie's nerves and he "corrects" them. His idea of correction usually involves removing the person from the planet. As you might expect it is very easy to get on Richie's nerves. At first this is done without John's knowledge but quite soon John becomes aware that he's riding around with a full blown Type 4 Chaotic Evil killer. Strangely enough, Richie seems to take a personal interest in John. He knows things he shouldn't know about John's private life. 

For a while the film flirts with the idea that Richie is either John's alter ego or indeed something supernatural. As the bodies start to pile up more secrets are revealed and a few twists that aren't really twists come to light. What could have been a subversion of the two tropes mentioned above falls into slavish worship of them to the point where they're extremely unrealistic-even for tropes. When John is arrested by the cops and desperately babbles about the scary black man who really committed all the mayhem  we're supposed to feel for him because in this instance the stereotype really is true. Ho-hum. 

So if you find the idea of a milquetoast white man finding his inner Alpha Male through the act of murder as shown by Jackson, to be an interesting story this could be the movie for you. Or if you just like watching Jackson do his trademark righteous bad$$$ indignation you may enjoy this film. Me? Ehhh. Definitely not his worst film but far from his best.
Tracie Thorns and Muse Watson are mostly wasted as a pair of police officers tasked to investigate all the killings. Thorns and Bibb have a scene together that is virtually senseless.
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Limits to Religious Freedom: Circumcision and Herpes

I'm not religious although I don't think I'm necessarily anti-religious. People can believe what they like and within certain constraints act as they like based on their religious beliefs. If you want to believe that there's someone in the sky watching you or some Force in the universe that is interested in the doings of human beings, it doesn't really impact me. Go for it.  I came down on the side of the Catholic Church over the contraception provision controversy. Basically I think that as long as you aren't hurting anyone else the state should pretty much stay out of your affairs. I think that's a general good rule for most citizens and it's a constitutionally protected right for religious institutions. You mind your business and I will mind mine. Good fences make good neighbors. Each captain runs his own crew. We all have to tend our own gardens. Live and let live. And so on.
But.............
There are limits. You don't get to sacrifice babies to Baal. You don't get to force your children to become temple prostitutes for Ishtar. The Catholic Church has no constitutional right to priest-boy sex. Although your religion might find dogs unclean you can't go around banning or killing other people's dogs. And it's iffy because parents do have the right to oversee and direct medical care for their minor children but if a parent wanted to use prayer instead of medicine to treat a gunshot wound to a child I would not lose sleep if the state intervened, treated the child and arrested the parent. Those sorts of actions would make me hostile to religion, not just because the religious person is accepting myths that to me make no sense, but because they are harming other people. That's the red line I think.


So if you tell me that your religion requires that a grown man undertake bloody oral genital contact with a baby so that said baby becomes an acceptable member of your religious society , then I'm gonna reach for my baseball bat and keep a close eye on you while I call the cops. Because that is FAR across any sort of red line.

A baby died at a New York hospital in September after contracting herpes from a controversial circumcision ritual.The infant died at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, where the cause of death was listed as "disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction," according to the New York Daily News.

Now, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office is looking further into the case, the Jewish Week reports. The boy is the second New York area infant in recent years to die from complications related to the Orthodox Jewish ritual of metzitzah b'peh, during which "the mohel places his mouth on the freshly circumcised penis to draw blood away from the cut,"according to the New York City Department of Heath.For its part, the state health department — then headed by Antonina Novello, appointed by Republican Gov. Pataki, who himself had strong ties to the Orthodox community — reached its own agreement with chasidic leaders in June of 2006, hailed by Rabbi Niederman in a press release as a “historic protocol” and the one to which Zwiebel referred to above.

The 2010 letter to rabbis from the commissioner of the state health department, referenced above, noted that “over the past five years” there have been “several documented cases” of herpes simplex Type 1 viruses in newborns who underwent metzitzah b’peh in New York City. 

When it came to light that two more babies had been infected (apparently not by Fischer), Frieden issued an “Open Letter to the Jewish Community,” which recommended — but stopped short of requiring — a cessation of the practice altogether, instead endorsing alternatives to the practice, like using a sterile glass tube (which is done in modern Orthodox circles). 

Now putting aside the generally accepted hypocrisy that male circumcision is just fine while female circumcision is a Stone Age evil that must be stamped out, it seems to me that whatever your feelings might be about the propriety of chopping away genital tissue from newborns, at the very least you would have to admit that a man having oral contact with a boy's bleeding penis as part of a religious ritual is not safe and shouldn't be legal. 

Unfortunately because of political considerations in New York this has not attracted a huge amount of media attention. Finally law enforcement is looking into it because of the death of the babies, but honestly it never should have come to that. This is something where religion and state must clash and the state MUST win. The men who performed this deed should be identified, arrested and prosecuted with the full vigor of the law. The city and state of New York need to give out information about the health dangers of this practice and convince parents not to allow it. And finally if the parents refuse to change their behavior they ought to be arrested and charged the same way we would charge any other parent who harms a child. I don't see a lot of grey here. It's black and white for me. Man putting his mouth on boy's privates= man going to jail.

But what do you think?

1) Should this practice be outlawed? Do you see religious freedom problems?

2) Should the parents and/or rabbi go to jail?

3) Is focus on this practice anti-religious?

4) If outlawed would this interfere with parental prerogatives?

HBO Game of Thrones Recap: The Ghost of Harrenhal

Ok. Obviously we left off last week and everyone wants to know what exactly Melisandre birthed. Well it doesn't take long to find out. In the opening scene Catelyn Stark and Renly Barratheon are closing a deal. Renly and Robb Stark will team up to fight the Lannisters. Robb will still get to call himself King in the North and Renly will look the other way provided Robb will swear fealty. Catelyn thinks she can sell that to her son but still wants Renly to negotiate with rather than fight Stannis. Kinslaying is considered a horrible crime. Renly scoffs at that idea and is characteristically primping when the shadow we saw last week appears behind Renly and stabs him through the heart. It seems to have a resemblance to Stannis. Renly dies and the shadow disappears. Renly's other guards appear and immediately blame Brienne. In a quite effective scene Brienne shows she is NOT the woman to be messed with and quickly sends her former comrades on a trip to the afterlife. I am impressed with the actress. Brienne is broken by Renly's death and wants to stay but the practical Catelyn points out that they need to leave like yesterday. And by the way that looked like the Bayeux Tapestry behind Renly. Maybe it wasn't but it looked like it. Nice touch. Littlefinger and Margarey urge Loras to scram as it appears that the majority of the army intends to switch to Stannis. Loras, like Brienne, would rather stay and fight but is convinced otherwise. Margarey reveals to Littlefinger her ambition is to be the queen. 

In King's Landing Tyrion and big sis Cersei share a rare moment of familial happiness as they drink to Renly's death. But that doesn't last long as Cersei is still po'd at lil bro for making a betrothal for her daughter Myrcella. As a result she doesn't tell Tyrion what the plans are for the defense of King's Landing. Tyrion isn't convinced that either Joffrey or Cersei know what they're doing so he browbeats Lancel to find out that Cersei's plans include wildfire (a napalm equivalent -similar to Greek fire in our world.)

As Stannis and Davos walk through camp ordering their forces Davos finds that the strangely serene Stannis is not interested in talking about his brother's death or what Davos saw that night with Melisandre. However like the late lamented Ned Stark, Davos is concerned with means not just ends. Unable to convince Stannis to fight using "clean" methods he appeals to Stannis' prickly pride by suggesting that if Melisandre is allowed to join the coming battle the victory will be hers not Stannis'. This appears to get through but in another example of you should have kept your big mouth shut, Stannis puts Davos in charge of leading the initial naval assault. Davos gives Stannis good reasons as to why he's not the best man for the job but Stannis is unmoved. Davos is in charge and that's that. 

Tyrion and Bronn find that rumors of the royal incest are well known enough to be laughed at in the streets of the capital. Tyrion also learns that he's getting a lot of the blame for Lannister cruelties. Tyrion goes to see the pyromancer Wisdom Hallyne (played by Roy Dotrice-this is special because not only is Roy Dotrice a friend of George R.R. Martin's, he is also the narrator for most of the audiobooks in the series). The pyromancers were favored under the Targaryens but for the past few years have been ignored. Bronn is skeptical of the military value of wildfire because it can be just as dangerous to the user as to the target and requires massive training to use correctly. But Tyrion is impressed with what the pyromancers have done so far under Cersei's command and orders them to continue to work under his direction. 

Theon is armored up and ready to take command of his ship but finds that his men do not respect him or the mission. They make that as clear as they can as soon as they see him. His sister stops by to make fun of him as well before they sail to attack the North. To further twist the knife she mentions that she has 30 ships and her men obey orders. Theon gets an idea.

Arya Stark listens to Tywin Lannister and his council discuss the war's progress. Tywin admits to greatly underestimating Robb Stark. Robb is kicking butt and taking names despite being outnumbered and up against more experienced generals. Tywin sends a cousin home for what he sees as defeatist talk. Tywin says that if it weren't for their blood relationship he would have taken his cousin's head.  Despite his greater rationality compared to his daughter or grandson, Tywin is not a nice man. Seeing through Arya's southern girl disguise Tywin forces her to admit she's a northerner and asks if she thinks Robb, who has gained supernatural prowess in the eyes of some Lannister troops, is unkillable. Arya replies "Anyone can be killed" but the subtext and the way she's looking at Tywin let you know who she's really talking about. And Tywin just might have known as well. I love Charles Dance in this role. Sent to fetch water , Arya runs across one of the men she helped escape from the cage, Jaqen H'ghar. He says she stole three lives from the Red God so she must pick three people to die in return. He has a very formal way of speaking and talks of himself in the third person. Arya chooses the man who tortured her friends, The Tickler.

Beyond the Wall , Qhorin Halfhand, a real bada$ Night's Watch ranger who once survived winter on his own, has discovered that the King Beyond the Wall , Mance Rayder, has gathered up all the wildlings and is heading south. The wildlings are more organized than before. Rayder is a former Night's Watch man and knows their tactics. Halfhand intends to kill Rayder's lookouts and then get close enough to kill Rayder himself, which will hopefully end the wildling threat. Jon Snow volunteers for the mission.

Qarth is a more diverse and peaceful place than Westeros. Daenerys is feeding her dragons and teaching them to spit fire on command. At a party Daenerys is shown a gem that causes or appears to allow a man to be in two places at once. The warlock who gave it to her invites her to the House of the Undying. Xaro is unimpressed by this and takes Daenerys somewhere private to talk. Jorah Mormont who by this time is pretty painfully and obviously stuck in Daenerys' friends zone is approached by a mysterious woman in a red mask who warns him to continue to look out for Daenerys.

Catelyn and Brienne are on the run. Catelyn wants to share the latest info with Robb and then head home. Brienne doesn't really have any place to go. It's in the subtext here but Renly was pretty much the only lord who honestly accepted Brienne as she was. And now he's gone. Brienne intends to kill Stannis, who she knows is behind the murder as the shadow looked like Stannis. Brienne swears fealty to Catelyn. Again it's subtext but this is pretty revolutionary stuff for Westeros, a woman taking fealty from another woman. This is a very strong scene and very well done.

At Winterfell Maester Luwin is overseeing Bran and Rickon holding court. Well Bran is anyway. Rickon is busy eating nuts. News comes that Torrhen's Square is under attack. Winterfell is short of muscle having sent most of the men south with Robb but Bran instinctively understands that a Lord must protect his people. Again, Ned Stark's decency and rectitude shines in his children. It makes a nice contrast to Joffrey's antics. Bran sends Rodrick Cassell with 200 men to protect Torrhen's Square. Bran shares his dreams with Osha that the sea came to Winterfell.Xaro, having figured out that Daenerys and Jorah are not an item, offers marriage and alliance. He wouldn't mind being a king in Westeros. He is ambitious. When told of the offer Jorah opposes it (obviously he doesn't tell Daenerys the real reason-that he wants her) but points out that she will not win in Westeros with only a foreign army. He claims that he will find her a ship. Jorah doesn't think that rich men get or stay rich by just giving things away to people.

Arya is giving Gendry fighting advice. It's ironic that Ned's daughter and Robert's son have taken a liking to each other although this is certainly not what either father would have intended. There's a scream and a thud. Everyone runs to the courtyard to see what happened. The Tickler has evidently fallen to his death. Arya looks up and there is Jaqen H'ghar, nonchalantly eating an apple just like The Tickler used to do. He holds up one finger. We see the briefest of smiles flitter across Arya's face.

*This post is written for discussion of this episode and previous episodes. If you have book based knowledge of future events please be kind enough not to discuss that here. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea....

Music Reviews-Musical Theft: Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie and Others

There are (depending on the musical tradition you're using) a somewhat limited number of notes, chord progressions or modes that make sense musically and are pleasing to the ear. Some rhythms and tones just work for humans and others simply don't. So over time, musicians repeat certain patterns and modes. This is unsurprising. The trick to being a successful creative musician seems to be less about discovering something completely new than to come up with your own version of what's worked in the past. There are of course many musicians who do come up with totally revolutionary ideas but those people are truly rare and not who I want to discuss today. 


Just about everyone then, even most of the revolutionaries and visionaries in the musical world, is standing on the shoulders of those who came before them. We all know the Chuck Berry double stop riffs that started rock-n-roll in the fifties but it can be a little shocking to hear those same riffs being played by Pee-Wee Crayton, Goree Carter, Carl Hogan, Freddie Green or T-Bone Walker years before Berry was a known name. As great as Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn were, each learned a lot from Albert King's work. And so on all the way back. 
But it's one thing for a musician to learn from and be influenced by his peers or previous musicians and something completely different again to steal their work and claim it as his own. One is the normal artist development and maturation. The other is cheating and really, it's criminal. Lots of musicians, artists, writers etc have done it of course but that doesn't make it right. If I were to write a serialized posting on this blog about vampires in a rural Michigan town called Caleb's Plot, featuring a troubled hero named Ken Steers, a vampire named Marlowe, a priest named Father Monaghan, and it got picked up and published, I would expect that a certain Maine writer of some note would send some nasty people to have a short, direct and highly unpleasant talk with me. 

Below, I list some of the more egregious examples of theft. Some of these you may have heard of, others not. Occasionally, the original artist or songwriter had the resources to fight back and get correct attribution. In other cases they didn't. These aren't cover songs where the writer was properly credited. These are mostly songs where the original songwriter credit went up in smoke and the royalties were not correctly paid. I first list the original song by the performer who either wrote it or is most closely associated with it and secondarily the artist who recorded it without attribution or put his name as composer. Some of the stolen music may indeed be arranged in more dynamic or exciting ways to my ear, but that's not the point. Arrangement is not composition. If it were then we could argue that John Coltrane wrote My Favorite Things and Jimi Hendrix wrote our national anthem.

A great many of the original rock and roll, folk or blues artists were often bitter about such things (lampooned here in the classic Redd Foxx skit) and with good reason. Everyone has an ego and wants to be recognized for what they create. Of course some people shrugged their shoulders and moved on. If you didn't have the ability to do something about this sort of ripoff, I don't suppose being angry about it all the time did much for your health. I can't stand the idea of people getting over on me so if I were in that situation I wouldn't be forgiving or forgetful. Somebody would have to pay. I would get mad. I would want revenge. My patience would be at an end. So it goes.


Chuck Berry wrote Sweet Little Sixteen and evidently was upset enough by the Beach Boys' appropriation of it as Surfin USA to successfully sue. Chuck Berry also wrote Little Queenie but I don't know if Berry made Humble Pie stop claiming the group wrote Natural Born Boogie. Little Walter's Can't Hold Out Much Longer somehow appeared on a ZZ Top album as Mushmouth Shouting but without proper composer credit.


Elmore James' Stranger Blues  has a slide riff and tone that would later show up in some Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynrd hits. That's okay influence I guess. But Fleetwood Mac "covered" James' Stranger Blues and put their name as writer. Not okay. The intro to Pee Wee's Crayton's Do Unto Others appears to have been "sampled" for the intro to The Beatles' "Revolution". I guess that's okay, no? A lawsuit revealed that The Chiffons' He's So Fine was the "unconscious" inspiration for George Harrison's My Sweet Lord. 


The Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart was rather allergic to giving proper (i.e. paid) credit for songs they didn't write. BB King's Rock me Baby shows up on a Jeff Beck Group album as Rock My Plimsoul while Buddy Guy's Let Me Love You Baby is changed to Let Me Love You. Hmm, so I guess the dropping of one word in the title makes it a totally different song. Got it. The Jeff Beck Group also stole BB King's Gambler's Blues which they called Blues DeLuxe but "forgot" to give credit. 


The Rivingtons had hits with Papa Oom Mow Mow and Bird's The Word and were upset when The Trashmen came out with Surfing Bird  which didn't credit The Rivingtons. The Rivingtons contacted attorneys who forced The Trashmen to correct the credits.

Ike and Tina Turner released Black Coffee in 1972 with lyrics written very much from a black pov which gave a nod to the black power/black is beautiful movements of the day. This didn't prevent Humble Pie from covering the song a year later, adding one or two lyric changes and claiming writer's credit for their bassist. This may have since been corrected. Muddy Waters also had a hit with Louisiana Blues. For some reason Humble Pie also felt entitled to claim writer's credit on their cover of Louisiana Blues. Speaking of Ike Turner though, back in the day Guitar Slim had a MASSIVE hit with The Things I Used to Do. Shortly afterwards Ike Turner came out with The Way You Used To Treat Me which is almost exactly the same song as Guitar Slim's right down to the Ray Charles inspired shout at the end, except for that pesky little composition credit. JJ Fad's Supersonic seems to have at the very least "anticipated" Fergie's Fergalicious.

Of course saving the best (or in this case the worst) for last leads me to Led Zeppelin. They are a favorite group of mine but they didn't always give proper credit. Actually they usually didn't. And this is not just a question of putting your name on songs that were hundreds of years old and in public domain. That's still dishonest but not that harmful to other current songwriters. No, I'm talking about taking other people's work that's under copyright, erasing their name and putting your own.
Muddy Waters had middling success with the Willie Dixon written You Need Love. Led Zeppelin rearranged this as Whole Lotta Love but had to be sued to give composer's credit. Howling Wolf's Killing Floor has a really cool riff and beat which is probably why Led Zeppelin redid it as The Lemon Song. Again, a lawsuit was required to compel them to give credit. Bert Jansch's version of the traditional Black Waterside was redone as Led Zeppelin's Black Mountainside but Jansch's arrangement was unacknowledged; Jimmy Page claimed sole writer's credit. Bobby Parker had a hit with Watch Your Step. Jimmy Page was a fan and tried to sign Parker to a record contract. It didn't pan out but Moby Dick certainly seems to allude to Watch Your Step. Theft? I'm not so sure.

Blues-Gospel giant Blind Willie Johnson wrote Nobody's Fault But Mine as far as we can tell. We certainly know that Page and Plant didn't although their version gives them writer's credit. Blind Willie Johnson was one of the first people to record the traditional gospel Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed. This was later recorded as In My Time of Dying by Josh White and in a slightly different version by Bob Dylan. White's version seems to be the direct inspiration for the Led Zeppelin version which again claimed sole authorship by the band. Joan Baez had a hit with the Anne Bredon written Babe I'm Gonna Leave You. Led Zeppelin did a version of this but did not credit Bredon, a situation which has since been rectified. And lastly Jake Holmes wrote Dazed and Confused, not Jimmy Page, though Page's is by far the better known version. Holmes's lawsuit is currently pending. 


Page and Plant have by turns been dismissive or defensive about these issues over the years, often pointing out that all music derives from somewhere else. Perhaps so but I wouldn't advise trying to use their music without permission or credit. Because when it's money out of their pockets they have shown themselves to be fierce defenders of copyright protection. Jimmy Page wrote Kashmir and years later prevented usage of Schoolly D's Kashmir inspired Signifying Rapper for Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant soundtrack. Never mind that Signifying Rapper was itself primarily a updated traditional toast that goes back to before Black people arrived in America. 


Moral of the story? It's important to protect whatever you create. No matter what you create or how popular, amateurish, obscure or remunerative it may be, someone out there will try to steal it. 

HBO Game of Thrones Recap: Garden of Bones

One of the key recurring themes in Game of Thrones is that you need to be careful of what you ask for. This is made most evident in the perilous circumstances of the Stark children. Arya Stark didn't want to lead the life traditionally proscribed for girls and ladies. She wanted to do what the boys did. Well in a way she got her wish. She was running for her life with a bunch of male desperadoes and refugees until she was captured. She's seen a ton of violence and had to do some killing. Sansa Stark wanted to be betrothed to a king. Well she is but unfortunately the king is a capricious sadist who delights in causing her emotional pain as much as he does physical. Robb Stark wanted to be a great leader, like his father Ned. Well now he's learning that war is no game and there aren't any easy or good decisions in war, only less bad ones.


This episode opened with two hapless Lannister soldiers meeting the business end of Grey Wind, Robb Stark's direwolf.  It's not really explained well but Grey Wind has found a secret path that allows the Stark forces to flank and surprise the Lannisters. Shortly afterwards Robb has won another battle and killed five Lannister troops for every Northern man lost. Despite this Robb still has a chivalric (and perhaps unrealistic??) idea about war. We get to see the introduction of another Stark bannerman, the enigmatic and ruthless Lord Bolton, who urges Robb to allow torture of captured troops for information, a suggestion Robb angrily dismisses. Bolton is also not happy about using Northern forces to guard prisoners. There is the explicit introduction of some modern ideas about the pointlessness of war, put in the mouth of an attractive nurse. Robb can't debate the right and wrong of war but he likes how the nurse looks.

News of the latest Lannister defeat reaches King's Landing. Joffrey decides to take out his frustrations by having his bodyguards publicly beat and strip Sansa Stark. The court is shocked but no one does anything until an angered Tyrion intervenes. Joffrey and his kingsguard are of course bullies and have no stomach for standing up to Tyrion. Punching and humiliating teen girls is more their speed. Sansa Stark is too frightened to respond to Tyrion's kindness with anything other than repeating canned lines about her brother's treachery. In order to try to remove some of Joffrey's negative energy Tyrion sets him up with two prostitutes but this ends badly as Joffrey really is more interested in beating and hurting women than he is in physically bonding with women.
Cersei sends Lancel Lannister to insult Tyrion and bogart him into releasing her spy, Pycelle. Tyrion very quickly picks up on the fact that his cousin really has no business seeing Cersei at this time of the night unless they are bumping uglies, something which Lancel shamefully admits to. Given that neither Tywin nor especially Joffrey would be happy about this, Tyrion blackmails Lancel into becoming his spy. Tyrion knows how the game is played. Peter Dinklage owns this character.


Littlefinger visits the Renly camp and butters up the arrogant Renly beautifully. He also makes a play for Renly's wife Margaery (basically saying if you need a real man call Littlefinger) but she shoots him down in a quiet yet cutting manner. He then visits Catelyn and urges the release of Jaime Lannister in return for Catelyn's daughters. Littlefinger has returned Ned's remains (not shown directly). Michelle Fairley really shines in this scene. She is just so believable as Catelyn. This was the most powerful acting in the episode, I thought.
One of Danerys' riders has found the city of Qarth-a merchant city ruled by the Thirteen. The Qarth rulers will let her and her starving people in but only if she shows the dragons, something she doesn't want to do. I liked the wordplay in this scene. She is allowed in when one of the Thirteen merchants, Xaros, decides to vouch for her.

Arya Stark and all of her group that weren't killed last week are now prisoners of the most sadistic Lannister bannerman, The Mountain. As much for fun as for any other reason, The Mountain's men are torturing and killing a different person each day. This situation is utterly hopeless. These people are literally like chickens in a coop. Every day a different one has its neck wrung. We get to see the beginning of Arya's prayer, where to get to sleep, she intones the names of people she intends to kill. Nice. Just as Gendry is about to be taken and tortured, Tywin Lannister arrives at Harrenhal and puts an end to the torture, not for any sort of moral reason, but because he thinks it's a waste of manpower to have so many of his troops standing around guarding/torturing people. He has a war to fight. It's also better to have prisoners working for him instead of dead. It is interesting that both Tywin and Tyrion stop atrocities under their watch for slightly different reasons. Tywin recognizes that Arya is female and takes her for his cupbearer.

There is a showdown between the Barratheon brothers. Both actors raise their game a bit here. Stannis has no doubts that he is the rightful king while Renly has no doubts that he would be the better king. Catelyn Stark again tries to get them to put aside their quarrel and join the Starks against the Lannisters but to no avail. Don't get in the middle of a family fight is good advice in our world and also evidently in Westeros. Stannis gives Renly a day to come to his senses. Evidently Renly didn't do so because at night Stannis sends Davos with Melisandre on a secret mission where Davos must smuggle Melisandre near Renly's camp. I believe the actress playing Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) is using her own (Dutch) accent here. It sounds exotic. Melisandre is very well aware of the erotic impact she has on men. She makes Davos nervous as much for sexual as for religious or supernatural reasons. Anyway she strips and is quite pregnant. In fact she's ready to deliver. Something comes out of her -something shadowy, wraithlike and not remotely human.

Movie Reviews- Burke and Hare, Little Deaths, The Phantom of the Paradise

Burke and Hare

Leave it to John Landis to make an accessible and somewhat humorous comedy about an infamous pair of 19th century body-snatchers, who upon finding that the demand for fresh cadavers, exceeds the available supply, decide to meet that demand by murdering people.
Burke (Simon Pegg) and Hare (Andy Serkis) are the down on their luck Irishmen, who have immigrated to Edinburgh, Scotland to seek their fortune. As they aren't very good at swindles and confidence games they are excited (well Hare is, Burke mostly wrings his hands and goes along) to find that they can make a living by supplying Dr. Knox (Tom Wilkinson) with bodies needed for dissection and medical experiments. Knox doesn't ask questions about where the gruesome twosome get the bodies from. Knox views some things as required for the greater good. Both lead actors are extremely well cast here. Serkis just has a disreputable smirking goatish look about him which he uses to great effect in this movie. Pegg can look simple minded and guileless, which he often does here. 

Hare has not a shred of compunction about at first finding dead bodies to sell, later "helping along" elderly/sick people to meet their maker a bit quicker than they otherwise would have and finally just murdering people whom he hopes won't be missed. As mentioned Burke has some problems with this but times are tough and he gets with the program. Burke has fallen in love with a local actress/prostitute named Ginny Hawkins (Isla Fisher). He intends to bankroll her distaff production of Macbeth, as much for hopes of the obvious reward as any love of theater. Hare has no need to pay for feminine companionship as his crafty practical minded wife Lucky (Jessica Hynes) is just as lusty as he is. She also figures out very quickly what her husband and his friend are up to and finds ways to help.

Dr. Knox has to turn to the disreputable duo for his needs since his bitter rival Dr. Monroe (Tim Curry) has locked up the available supply of cadavers and made alternate means of supply illegal. Monroe and Knox are engaged in a battle for the King's patronage. Dr. Knox means to map the human body , for which he obviously needs a constant supply of fresh bodies. 

This was based on a true story and runs out of steam a little near the ending. It is a black comedy, so if you can't imagine being sympathetic to or interested in two lovable rogues who do murder for money and feel bad about it (well one of them feels bad about it) let this one go. Costumes and lighting are great and accents weren't too bad. I only had the subtitles on once or twice.
Hammer Icon and horror film legend Christopher Lee (probably best known to modern audiences as Saruman in The Lord of The Rings) has a brief cameo.This movie doesn't have any good guys. Narration is occasionally provided by the Angus the Hangman (Bill Bailey) who, as you might expect, has a rather cynical outlook on life. The ending gives a shoutout to what else, Animal House.
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Phantom of the Paradise

This was one of Brian DePalma's earlier movies and shows a lot of the distinctive stylings that he would continue to be use throughout his career. It is also my favorite "cult" movie of all time. I was inspired to watch it again and write about it because the lead actor in the film, William Finley, just passed away. 
Phantom of the Paradise (PoP) works in the same genre as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, came out in the same time period and has more than few similarities. PoP is a mashup of The Phantom of The Opera, Faust, The Picture of Dorian Grey as well as a satire of the early seventies rock music scene, particularly Led Zeppelin and KISS. The thieving bad guy is named Swan (Led Zeppelin ran Swan Song records) and has a right hand man that is a dead ringer for Led Zeppelin's notoriously thuggish manager Peter Grant.
The final third and ending of this film is pretty bad and the special effects are sometimes almost deliberately pedestrian but that's not why I like this movie. This movie is great because it takes themes from the classic mentioned above and updates them in a rather inventive manner. Much like Don McLean's American Pie, PoP chronicles the fall (?) of rock and roll from love struck doo-woppers or innocent singer-songwriters to seventies stars who compete to be as decadent as possible and are only concerned about the next high or sexual coupling. The movie also is a (doomed) love story and a satire of the music industry.

Winslow Leach (William Finley), (his name is an inside joke at Cary Grant :Leach was Grant's real name but Winslow is not smooth, suave or good looking), is a painfully shy and somewhat naive pianist-singer-songwriter who is trying to get a record deal with Swan (Paul Williams-who also wrote the film's songs which are hilarious). However for the moment Winslow is making ends meet as the pianist for one of Swan's fifties knock-off groups. After hours and during breaks Winslow plays his own music. Swan likes what he hears and sends his top associate, Philbin (George Memmoli) to offer a position to Leach as staff writer and producer. All he has to do is leave his music for review and they'll be in touch. Excited, Winslow does just that and is somewhat surprised when he doesn't hear from Swan. 

Feeling that there must have been some sort of mistake he marches down to the record company where the secretary smiles at him and summons security to throw him out. Wimp or not Winslow takes his music VERY seriously. He goes back to the audition hall to confront Swan and is both flattered and angered where he sees a host of women singers auditioning with his music. He takes a fancy to one of them, Phoenix (Jessica Harper) as she is the only one who doesn't laugh when he tells her he wrote the song she's practicing. But the singing audition is also an casting couch audition (primarily for Philbin) and when Winslow is discovered he is thrown out. Eventually Swan has Winslow arrested, framed for narcotics dealing and sent to an experimental prison (funded by Swan) where his teeth will be removed. Finley's fourth wall breaking turn to the camera after sentencing and declaiming "But I'm innocent!!!" in front of the American flag has got to be one of the funniest and saddest lines in all of cinema. Mopping the prison floor one day the depressed and toothless Winslow hears Swan's fifties group butchering one of his songs. He snaps, goes completely berserk and after giving a few guards what for, escapes from prison. Winslow makes a beeline to Swan's Death Records warehouse where he tries to destroy every last single pressing of the stolen music. However he doesn't notices that a record pressing machine is on and suffers an unfortunate and face-altering accident. 

A few months later in the Paradise Theater Swan is running a group through its paces when a bomb goes off. Swan realizes that the disguised and disfigured Phantom is Winslow. He gives Winslow a voice box to help him speak. Swan offers to let Winslow write his masterpiece cantata , which will only be sung by Phoenix. And to close the offer, Swan gives Winslow a contract, which must be signed in blood....And things only get more interesting from there. If you can tolerate some dated references and some very bad KISS parodies, you might enjoy this film. I LOVE the original music written by Paul Williams for this movie. I can (badly) sing along with all of the songs. Again, if you're familiar with DePalma's work you might enjoy seeing the evolution of certain filmic techniques. But mainly I just enjoy the music. There are also some pretty good classical style pieces used in this film.  Look for a hilarious turn by Gerrit Graham as Beef, a rather fey rock singer who manages to channel Robert Plant and David Bowie at the same time. Graham steals every scene he's in. DePalma's Psycho homage with Graham cracks me up. Graham brings it. This was Jessica Harper's debut acting performance.  She also shows she's a good singer with Special to Me and Old Souls. The movie's theme song if it has one is probably The Hell of It.
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Little Deaths

I can't state strongly enough that this is not a movie for everyone. In fact I'm not sure it was even a movie for me. It's a British collection of three short minifilms which as the title, a French metaphor for orgasm, implies, are all about the intersections between sex, violence and death. Story number 1 involves the supernatural. Story number 2 involves scientific progress gained at a horrible price. Story number 3 has neither the supernatural nor the scientifically implausible.
Story 1: House and Home (directed by Sean Hogan) involves a rich nasty couple that likes to bring homeless women to their home so that they may "play with them". Of course for this couple "play" involves the idea of fun that a cat has with a mouse. However as it turns out this pair of cats may have picked the wrong mouse to play with. In fact they may not even be the cats in the "cat and mouse game". This short makes some some very explicit class analogies. It could be considered an allegory about class warfare and lower class resistance.

Story 2: Mutant Tool (directed by Andrew Parkinson) depicts a scientist using Nazi era technology to attempt to develop ESP and other mental powers. This involves severely disgusting activities and the usage of a call girl as an experimental subject. Obviously this sort of body horror brings Cronenberg's seminal 70's and 80's work to mind. But it goes beyond that into some places I wish it hadn't.
Story 3: Bitch (directed by Simon Rumley) is probably the "best" or least most well written story. It details a highly dysfunctional relationship between an attractive but EXTREMELY domineering woman and her boyfriend, a wimpy "nice guy". About the nicest thing his girlfriend does to him is humiliatingly (and openly) cuckold him in their own bed. Believe me she did worse to him. Much worse. But of course every dog has its day, now doesn't it.

ALL of these stories are EXTREMELY EXPLICIT (the movie is unrated) and physically or emotionally brutalizing. Both men and women are shown in very ugly ways. There is male and female nudity. This is not for the casual horror fan. Although it wasn't akin to the bloody mess of the Hostel or Saw movies it was in that neighborhood. If you can tolerate that sort of movie you could watch it. It wasn't really my cup of tea though I must admit Story 3 was quite well written and paced. It has a 7 minute wordless climax (no NOT that kind) that stays with the viewer for a while. The music was good too. Story 3 dealt with the unpleasant truth that good or bad, people respond to strength. And with either dogs or people it is much easier to correct bad behavior when it first starts than if you let it go on.  But really I felt I needed a shower after this movie to wash off the ugliness. If I had read honest reviews I wouldn't have watched this film. So I hope this review is honest. Your tastes may differ, though.  If you want to temporarily venture somewhere depraved, this is the movie for you. All three shorts are shot in a dark murky swamp of blue and gray lighting with occasional blasts of stark daylight. Sound is good. The dialogue is understandable for the non UK resident, which is occasionally a problem for me with UK accents.
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