Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Yeah, it's been a few days but I've been busy. It's not easy raising hell on an almost constant basis.

I've also been terribly addicted to Soulseek, my new super-favorite file-share system.

On top of that I've rarely left the house during daylight hours because I keep re-watching Paris When It Sizzles (more on that in a moment) and the advance Academy screening DVD of Catch Me If You Can that my roommate somehow managed to snag. I never realized the whole plot plays out during the opening title animation...kind of cool.

As if my attention-deficit-disorder wasn't bad enough I finally scored a decent copy of the 2 Many DJs Radio Soulwax disc and can't get enough of their mixing style. When I first started spinning in 1990 this was always what I had in mind as far as being an interesting DJ...I just never figured out how to do song interplay so seamlessly. Beat-matching is easy but creating a whole new song out of lots of little bits to create something new and exciting ...that's pretty incredible. I guess DJ Shadow and Spooky do the same thing on the fly and live but in a more abstract way. I guess you could think of 2 Many DJs as a kick-ass mix-tape who's songs just won't stay in their proper place and keep slipping and sliding over each other.

Anyway, back to Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Paris When It Sizzles. Here is a movie from the 1960's that drips with self-awareness and constantly pokes fun at the medium through which this entertainment is actually being delivered. In some ways it really reminds me of Adaptation in a more linear way as movie reflects life reflects movie reflects life reflects...you get the idea. I mean, at one point Tony Curtis shows up in the film to spoof both method actors and himself and apparently he was added at the last minute in much the same way he appears in the film...as an after thought to the screenplay. You have to see it to really understand but let's just say it's possible that as far advanced as we believe we have come in terms of storytelling and innovation it's quite possible that we haven't really moved all that far ahead. Rather we've just gotten better at flashing it up and distracting the audience. The entertaining thing is that I had always avoided this film because I thought it was going to let me down but I finally relented in a period where I definitely needed an Audrey Hepburn fix. Boy am I glad I did. From the Noel Coward opening through William Holden's viciously funny writerly comments on actors and Audrey Hepburn's deliciously knowing portrayal of a typist who is nowhere as innocent as one would think the whole package actually traverses the years between its inception and now rather well.

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