Category: Uncategorised

There are some aspects of this film I love. Some of the settings, for example. And also some of the ideas. And then there are some that are less good: there’s some fairly wooden acting, and some dubbing that doesn’t help.

But given the recent Covid pandemic, the idea of an airborne disease that destroys humanity, almost completely, is perhaps more scary than hitherto?

The zombie/vampire aspect of it? Hmmm…

It’s interesting that the zoonomic pathway to human disease, for Covid, was prob’ via bats (and poss pangolins?). But one can read the zombie/vampire thing another way; as a view on modern humanity as inherently failed and flawed.

It’s also interesting in that it suggests a form of human evolution that supersedes ‘us’, i.e. humanity as we are now.

But somehow the film hangs in limbo, between these interesting ideas (and the powerful spooky images) and something much more trashy and cornball. It’s an odd ‘un, alright!

Wow! This takes me back. Back to my forlorn childhood. Thin Lizzy were my first ‘serious’ band, so to speak. Prior to that I’d liked Status Quo, and not really had much in the way of clearly defined tastes in music.

The interview segment of The Tube video is a bit sad, really. Mainly ‘cause Lynott comes off as a bit of dick. He was probably high, alas.

But the music? That’s where his fuller self comes through. And, sandwiched between the heavier rockin’ Boys Are Back and Cold Sweat? ‘The Sun Goes Down’. The sensitive balladeer in Lynott was always in there.

A girl I knew, from school, Heidi, loaned me the above, on cassette. I used to listen to it on a little cassette player, which I’d place under my pillow! I also started listening to The Friday Rock Show, with Tommy Vance; another under the pillow late night pleasure!

Above is the Dixie Dregs ‘Take It Off The Top’, which was the theme for The Friday Rock Show.

And here they are doing it live at Montreux:

The Friday Rock Show also used this Van der Graaf number:

And here they are, doing it live, on Belgian TV, in ‘72:

Ah, the innocence of youth. Tucked in under the warm duvet of ‘family life’. That particular ‘family unit’ didn’t survive, alas. And, like innocence and simple happiness, it’s all just misty memories, fading in the rear view mirror of life.

I was listening the Grover twofer I recently acquired. By God, it’s good!

It’s nice to know that Grover is loved and remembered, as testified to by these two murals:

Grover, and the incredible musicians he played with, transported me to Heaven this afternoon. As did The Carpenters’ Song For You.

My dratted cold is still hanging about, like an unwelcome guest…

It seems to have shifted from predominantly throat based (coughing, upper respiratory tract irritation, etc), to largely nasal. Whereas prior to now, I was surprised at how little mucus I was producing, now it’s at those unpleasantly prodigious levels of output I associate with a cold.

I also struggle with mental health issues. And I sometimes wonder, chicken and egg style, which came first? Is there a causal relationship of any kind ‘twixt the two?

I’ve been getting particularly bad January colds now for the last five years, at least. Always the same: tickly, wheezy throaty biz, and then associated issues: headaches, beck pain, sore throat (all exacerbated by so much coughing); then nasal stuff, added to the coughing.

And these things can, esp’ if not managed well, cause sleep issues. I have to try and sleep with my torso more or less upright, to deal with the constant cough.

I do worry that this annual pattern is now repeated every year, without fail. And in the exact same ways. I’m even worried it might do me in.

And then there’s trying to earn a crust, whilst unwell. I really ought to just rest, and recover. But economic circumstances simply rule that out. I have to earn. So I have to get up, go out, and work. Even if that keeps the cold going longer. Which I very much suspect it does.

And this all feeds into depression. The despairing feeling that things are more likely to get worse, as time passes, than better.

So a cold, or at least the kind of colds I’m getting, rapidly lead me to very self-destructive thought patterns. Based on the old ‘cessation of suffering’ gambit.

More groovy Gil Mellé music, extracted from another classic 1970s episode.

Teresa’s been watching Simon Reeves in South America.

I fell in love with both these stunning salt flats, the Salar de Uyuni, and Simon’s fabulous green shirt.

Simon meets some great and inspiring people on his travels. I tried to find the names of the two folk pictured with him, above and below, but was unable to do so.

Alas, nice things, such as this shirt, often turn out to be rather expensive. This turns out to be the case in this instance.

What a bummer! I really cannae afford such expenditure. I guess I need to rethink my economic position…

Starz

Blah…

All of the following are on this collection:

… four albums and a live broadcast.

Blah…

More wonderful moody musical grooviness, extracted from one of my favourite TV shows. And more fascinating info on the man who composed it, can be found in this excellent Jazz Times article.

Ooh… I want one of these bags! £75 from the PanAm Museums.

What a great fun movie! A fabulous Lalo Schifrin score. Charles Bronson, being Charles Bronson. Jacqueline Bisset being sexy, alluring and evil. A great cast. Great settings.

From the wah-wah guitar and flute, to Chuck’s fab suit (dig those lapels!), the gritty urban settings, juxtaposed with the luxury of dirty money, and the complex McGuffin of a plot, this film really delivers.

There’s layer upon layer of intrigue in the story, which works well to drive what is otherwise essentially a genre/mood piece. I don’t know if this was true at the time, but in retrospect, this film partakes of a zeitgeist I’m particularly fond of. At least in celluloid form.

Bronson lives in relative luxury, retired from being a crime journalist, and trying to write a novel. He lives in the interesting Lido Hotel, a place that’s slightly sleazy, but also rather grand. Impeccably dishevelled, perhaps, like Bronson himself?

There are a lot of good actors here, even in the lesser parts (Burr deBenning**, as the unfortunate beat cop, for example; a very young Jeff Goldblum, as a hoodlum***). And the stars all deliver. John Houseman, as Procane (whose ledgers, the confessional journals of a master criminal, it transpires, are the McGuffin), reminds me a bit of Ray Milland.

Maximilian Schell – dig the whiskers! – is great fun, as Procane’s private doc/shrink, who eventually turns on his super-rich possibly hypochondriac employer.

I’m having a bit of a Bronson-fest at the moment. And I have yet to be disappointed. It turns out I’m not in bad company, in my admiration for this unusual actor’s complex and slightly baffling charm:

Like lots of films of this type, about sleazy crime and vast sums of filthy lucre, etc, it prob won’t stand up to much scrutiny. But that’s hardly the point. It’s entertainment. And damned good entertainment at that.

This particular film seems to me unusually rich, in ideas, settings, scenarios, and suchlike. Which make it that bit more fun than some films that might ostensibly be deemed similar.

It’s definitely worth checking out Lalo Schifrin’s very groovy title theme.

There are lots of interesting little nuggets in this movie. Why, for example, are Procane’s cronies named after famous modern painters; Whistler and Constable? Surely that’s not accidental? Not that it necessarily signifies anything…

*Look carefully, and you’ll see this is clearly a doctored photo. It illustrates a great little incidental scene – and this film is enriched by many such baubles – in a rather unusual specialist car body shop.

**I recognised DeBenning from the Columbo episode By Dawn’s Early Light. I added DeBenning to the Wikipedia page (see above screenshot) on the film, as he wasn’t credited!

***Goldblum has, of course, an even more prominent hoodlum role in Deathwish.