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Jun. 29th, 2013
Estate sale
Jun. 29th, 2013 02:26 pmNeat estate sale in one of the many crumbling mansions on West Adams. First time I've been to an estate sale where they said the building was being considered by the city for historical whatsits status. And therefore any fixtures in use were not for sale. And perhaps related to this, if you took pictures inside the house, they were gonna throw you out.
Hundreds of player piano rolls. Probably a thousand 78s. Three pianos (one a player). Dozens of radios and radio consoles. Smutty paperbacks.
I looked through the piano rolls hoping to find something with some sentimental value. I found a roll of Louis Moreau Gottschalk's The Last Hope. Here it is played from a piano roll, but not the one I have (mine was made by the amusing if quite accurately named Automusic Perforating Co. of NY, NY):
Piano rolls were $2, and off 50% on Saturday, so $1. Tomorrow it'll be 75% off.
78s were a buck each, so fitty cent, so a quarter tomorrow.
There was a jillion of them, so I picked up a couple that caught me eye. Liked the Vocalion label, liked the red color ("Vocalion Red Records are best"), and liked the Spanish theme. I hypothesized that the label specialized in Spanish language music, but that's apparently nowhere close to the truth, though it was true of the only 3 or 4 red discs in this huge collection.
Of course, I don't have a record player, much less one with a 78 setting. But this is the age of the internet. You can hear at least a preview of the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra's version of "Mexicali Rose" on amazon. Though I haven't found the A side -- "The Song of Songs".
You can download both sides of the other disc (and a few more Spanish songs) from a great blog of old music. The disc I have is the one pictured in the post: "La Golondrina" backed by "La Paloma", by The Castillians.
The Loot:
Hundreds of player piano rolls. Probably a thousand 78s. Three pianos (one a player). Dozens of radios and radio consoles. Smutty paperbacks.
I looked through the piano rolls hoping to find something with some sentimental value. I found a roll of Louis Moreau Gottschalk's The Last Hope. Here it is played from a piano roll, but not the one I have (mine was made by the amusing if quite accurately named Automusic Perforating Co. of NY, NY):
Piano rolls were $2, and off 50% on Saturday, so $1. Tomorrow it'll be 75% off.
78s were a buck each, so fitty cent, so a quarter tomorrow.
There was a jillion of them, so I picked up a couple that caught me eye. Liked the Vocalion label, liked the red color ("Vocalion Red Records are best"), and liked the Spanish theme. I hypothesized that the label specialized in Spanish language music, but that's apparently nowhere close to the truth, though it was true of the only 3 or 4 red discs in this huge collection.
Of course, I don't have a record player, much less one with a 78 setting. But this is the age of the internet. You can hear at least a preview of the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra's version of "Mexicali Rose" on amazon. Though I haven't found the A side -- "The Song of Songs".
You can download both sides of the other disc (and a few more Spanish songs) from a great blog of old music. The disc I have is the one pictured in the post: "La Golondrina" backed by "La Paloma", by The Castillians.
The Loot:
The luck of the Netflix
Jun. 29th, 2013 09:41 pmArgo last night. Cloud Atlas tonight.
Both excellent.
Since I have it on the brain... Argo is more like The Last of Us. Doesn't break any new ground. The story is... well, history (accentuated). But it does it all very very well, and compellingly.
Cloud Atlas is... I dunno, LA Noire? Trying to do something different... out of the box... possibly not entirely successfully. Sure it's based on a novel. And believe me, I was glad I had read it, though Dr. Pookie seemed to get along fine without a several hundred page cheat sheet.
As with the novel, I still think the separate stories don't really add up to anything much greater, though I think the screenplay actually makes some of the thematic connections in the novel stronger, primarily because of the different way the chronology is interleaved. The film tends to cycle through them all, allowing it to have the thematic and dramatic twists and conclusions of different stories side by side, accentuating their similarities.
I think my favorite section of the sextet in the novel is "An Orison of Sonmi~451", but the film version, though entertaining in exactly the right way to get Hollywood producers' coffers open, is a poor substitute. Then again, it might be hard to accurately film a 22nd century Bildungsroman written in the form of an interrogation.
The film has been criticized for its use of yellowface, but given all the whiteface, brownface, penisface and vaginaface in the film, not to mention the peculiar nature of the story, I can't find too much fault in it. So sue me.
Which is all to say that I think conversation about Argo (last week or ten years from now) will be "Great film!" "Great film!" and no more (and kudos to all). But conversations about Cloud Atlas may be longer and more full of meat.
Even if the whole goddamn thing doesn't mean anything much more than...
Don't be schmucks to each other!
Both excellent.
Since I have it on the brain... Argo is more like The Last of Us. Doesn't break any new ground. The story is... well, history (accentuated). But it does it all very very well, and compellingly.
Cloud Atlas is... I dunno, LA Noire? Trying to do something different... out of the box... possibly not entirely successfully. Sure it's based on a novel. And believe me, I was glad I had read it, though Dr. Pookie seemed to get along fine without a several hundred page cheat sheet.
As with the novel, I still think the separate stories don't really add up to anything much greater, though I think the screenplay actually makes some of the thematic connections in the novel stronger, primarily because of the different way the chronology is interleaved. The film tends to cycle through them all, allowing it to have the thematic and dramatic twists and conclusions of different stories side by side, accentuating their similarities.
I think my favorite section of the sextet in the novel is "An Orison of Sonmi~451", but the film version, though entertaining in exactly the right way to get Hollywood producers' coffers open, is a poor substitute. Then again, it might be hard to accurately film a 22nd century Bildungsroman written in the form of an interrogation.
The film has been criticized for its use of yellowface, but given all the whiteface, brownface, penisface and vaginaface in the film, not to mention the peculiar nature of the story, I can't find too much fault in it. So sue me.
Which is all to say that I think conversation about Argo (last week or ten years from now) will be "Great film!" "Great film!" and no more (and kudos to all). But conversations about Cloud Atlas may be longer and more full of meat.
Even if the whole goddamn thing doesn't mean anything much more than...
Don't be schmucks to each other!