darkblue
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Days Won
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Posts posted by darkblue
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Here's my favorite version of I'm Only Happy When It Rains.
Reminds me a lot of the SCTV bit where host Gerry Todd would play videos of versions of new wave songs done by Tom Monroe. Like this one:
He also did 'Da Doo Doo Doo Da Da Da Da' (the Police hit) in his lounge style at the end of this set:
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The first time I ever thought about collecting movies for a home collection was on Feb. 1, 1983. That's the day that pay-tv came to Canada. There were 3 services one could order: First Choice (mostly movies and some sporting events like boxing), Superchannel (pretty much the same as First Choice, just a different schedule and different sporting events that were few and far between), and C-Channel (movies but also concerts, operas and higher culture offerings). You could order any one service for 19.95 a month (if memory serves) or you could order 2 of the services for 29.95 a month.
Naturally, I ordered First Choice and Superchannel.
C-Channel went bust within a couple of months. People got enough culture from PBS, I guess.
The very first movie to be shown on Canadian pay-tv - at midnight on Feb. 1 - was 'Star Wars'.
When I saw all these uncut and commercial-free - and with no screen insignias in the corners (CRTC wouldn't allow them in a pay service) - movies being shown, I felt the compulsion to start recording them and keeping the recordings for my own personal collection.
But I never did. VCR's were still quite expensive then - I had a friend who bought a Hitachi for $1500! We were 10 years away from the hundred dollar VCR.
When I finally bought a VCR at the end of the 80's, I didn't have pay-tv anymore, so still no collecting.
I'm glad now. Everyone I knew who collected movies - 3 to a tape - have pretty much found the tapes look terrible compared to digital now and take up so much room that they're more of a pain to have around than a blessing of any kind. Additionally, VCR's had virtually no editing features, so sloppy beginnings and endings were a reality of recording life. DVD recorders - especially those with a DVR section (known as HDD) - are fantastic for editing nice and clean starts and stops - and even excising segments if necessary.
I've been recording movies for only a few years using a DVD recorder - and only about 10 percent of the titles have been taken from TCM showings. I don't have an interest in very much of what TCM shows - and I only spend money (50 cents per disc + 25 cents per disc storage) on movies I have an interest in collecting. I'm interested in some movies from the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's - but not very many of them. Not compared to movies made from 1964 and onward. These later films comprise about 95 percent of what I care to collect.
I'm not much of a fan of "old Hollywood", though there's always some exceptions that do connect for me.
A few years ago, I discovered that if I routed my DVD player through a VCR and then to the Hard Drive of my LG DVD recorder that I could record to that HDD from any commercial DVD I wanted to. Macrovision is supposed to stop this, but it doesn't. The picture is recorded in XP mode, which is the same quality as the commercial DVD - so it's leaps ahead of a VCR quality picture. I was initially disappointed to find that this routing provides sound only in mono, but then I realized I don't use external speakers anyway. The speakers of my widescreen tv are all I use and the sound is just fine coming out of there, so all that surround and 5.1 and whatever is a moot point with me. I'm perfectly happy to own a movie, with all the DVD extras that come with it, for anywhere from 75 cents to a couple of dollars depending on all the extras, with decent mono sound. And the upscaling that some players provide break out a simulated surround from my akai widescreen anyway, so yay!
And so, 3 years ago, I finally began to build a library of movies on DVD's.
For a while I subscribed to Zip.ca (Canada's version of Netflix by mail). I'd get a dozen or so movies a month and make copies for my home collection. I'd also record movies from TCM - as long as they weren't available from Zip. TCM is great for getting the odd movie that renters don't have in stock, but the picture is noticeably softer than a transfer from a DVD, so it's only for those difficult to get titles that I TCM-record. Months vary in terms of how many treasures TCM provides for me - I had a month as low as 2 titles, and I've had a month as high as 19 titles. On average, we're probably talking about 8-10 titles per month I get from TCM showings.
Zip went out of business and so I now go to a couple of public libraries to borrow commercial DVD's. If I lived in Toronto still I'd be in heaven. Toronto has more available from its libraries than from anywhere else in Ontario - if not the entire country. But I do have access to a library in a city with a known liberal arts university - so they have a very good selection and it'll take me many years and thousands of movies to work my way through it.
I never record from a source - whether that's another DVD or from a TCM broadcast - directly to a DVD. I always record to a Hard Drive (DVR) first. Then, after I've edited the movie to a clean start and finish, I'll transfer to a DVD. This leads to another very important difference between VCR's and DVD recording. The best visual quality available with a VCR was SP mode. But that was only if the movie had a running time of less than 2 hours and 2 minutes. If you wanted to record a movie that was 2 hours and 6 minutes, say, you had to spring for an expensive extra long blank cassette or accept your recording in a lesser quality - usually EP mode. I record my DVD's only on recorders that have something called variable bit recording. Pioneer and Panasonic are the models for that. So you never have to settle for an EP quality - the machine will record at the best possible quality for any length of movie.
If you were to demand absolute best, of course, you'd have to record at XP and split every movie onto 2, 3, or even 4 discs. That I do not do. One movie per disc for me at whatever the best visual quality I can get from my Pioneer recorders. In cases where there's a couple of hours (or more) of extras, I'll make a separate disc for all the extras and keep the proper movie alone on its own disc.
For storage I use CD/DVD cases (Case Logic is all I've used so far). I decided to use only those binders that can hold 100 discs. When a binder is full, it goes on a special shelf I have. I presently have 12 black binders on the shelf.
I record all of the titles on a notepad file, in alphabetical order by title. I also list all the titles on another notepad file by number - the number representing where each movie can be found in the binders. I'm also working on another notepad list of titles by release year of each movie - that's an ongoing stop and start project. No hurry there.
No other methods of sorting - such as genres - are done. I keep it as simple as possible. With the 3 lists, I can find what I've got pretty quickly.
I think I've said about everything - as far as completest collecting goes, there are some actors and directors that I do try to collect as fully as possible. Alan Arkin would be an example. There are quite a few more - he's just the first to come to mind.
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Fiona Apple has a song called 'Criminal'. Not a bad song - though I always felt it sounded a little hard coming from her.
Anyway, I just heard it sung much softer by Sarah Paulson and I thought, "now that's how it should be sung". Just my preference, that's all.
She sang it in the 2nd episode of season 4 of 'American Horror Story'. That season's over-arching theme is 'Freak Show'. The setting is the early 50's when Circus Sideshows (or Freakshows) in America, though declining, were still the only way these people had of making a living. Paulson plays the part of conjoined twins, who are mostly of one body, but definately of separate heads (and personalities).
Here's the song from Sarah and the episode titled 'Massacres and Matinees'.
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HIGH NOON, the film by which Gary Cooper is best remembered today. But Coop, whose career was on the decline when this western was made, was far from the first choice for the role of the marshal abandoned by his town with the news that three killers would soon be arriving to kill him.
Among the actors offered the role of Will Kane prior to Cooper were Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston, all of whom turned the part down. Peck would later call that one of the biggest mistakes of his career.
Brando was too young for the part. John Wayne or Charlton Heston would've been terrible - their lack of acting talent (and lack of chemistry with Grace Kelly) would have turned the movie into an ordinary, forgettable oater, rather than the rich classic that it is.
Gregory Peck might have been okay in the role - although Kane would probably have been quite a lot more talkative with Peck interpreting him and would therefore have changed the character (and the movie) for the worse, in my opinion.
Cooper was perfect - maybe a little older than some think he should have been considering his beauteous bride, but that's a nitpick not worth considering when one watches such a compelling western as High Noon. His quiet stolid-ness as Kane is exactly the right note.
Sometimes fate just makes sure something comes out perfect, and that's what happened with Cooper and 'High Noon'.
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Australians also used nasty racial comments freely. It was one of the cultural differences that made my decision to come back to the US.
I would've thought it was their custom of lifting their leg and releasing methane whenever the impulse struck.
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DAMN! Jan Smithers sure was cute, wasn't SHE?!!!
(...dark, it is you who always agrees with me on this?)
Hell, yes. I'd have married her in a heartbeat.
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you mean bun.
What's a bun?
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is that anything like a captain midnight decoder ring?
I think its a rinsing out of the inside of your bum.
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Tragically, Joan died all too soon, but was an important actress to the post-Golden Age. Her fine performances and sensitive acting actually motivated me to really enjoy the film, though I usually prefer older Film Noirs,
I'm a Joan Hackett fan also. Another TV movie I remember in which she was excellent was 'Class of '63' (1973). She looked great in that, too! Of 'The Group' (1966), she was definitely the one I had eyes for.
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..so, if we haven't seen the film, we don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.
Do you ever?
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If you two "like" this post so much, send her some money.
Aaaah, that's your answer to everything.
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For the past 20 years my situation has pretty much been like Hank Stamper's (Paul Newman) at the end of 'Sometimes a Great Notion' (1970).
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"They have wings, you know....but for some reason they don't use 'em"
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I also enjoyed films like Pieces and Mortuary from the 1980s.
I liked 'Hellbound: Hellraiser II' (1988) and 'The Funhouse' (1981).
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Now, there's in idea!
CaveGirl certainly thought so - she started a thread about the rain and snow and other stuff that falls from the sky.
And may I say, it's enthralling!
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W. T. F. I have my thoughts on who this might be.
I bet your thoughts are wrong.
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Lawrence--judging by the response here, you have more fans than detractors--don't let one person drive you away from this site. You have the support of Moderator1 and most members who have posted.
We all have the support of moderator1.
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I always wondered whatever happened to Norman Bates.
Oh, wait....now I remember - they let him out.
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I remember him mostly from his TV work, his series (Toma), and his guest appearances on Police Story.
Yes, unfortunately for Musante, his brilliance as an actor didn't register sufficiently with audiences to keep him working in movies, and he was reduced to tv work. He wasn't pretty - actually had a ratty, menacing look to him that audiences of the 60's just didn't go for.
But to anyone who ever saw him in 'The Incident', he was unforgettable.
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thanks for the mention, blue
will have to try & catch it
If you get the DVD, be sure to watch the extra feature from BBC4 called 'Sex in a Cold Climate' which features testimony and visuals of actual girls who were kept imprisoned in these convents/workshops. Heartbreaking.
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"...situations that were still considered racy for the time. The language was more profane, the violence more pronounced, and sexuality was a central theme. True, by today's standards, the movie's view of homosexuality seems dated and unenlightened, but at the time it was a risky step for a star like Sinatra to even star in a movie that treated such formerly taboo themes with a previously unknown level of openness."
-TCM article
Homosexuality was still considered a crime when 'The Detective' was made.
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I recently re-watched 'The Magdalene Sisters' (2002).
Brutal, brutal truth. Infuriating - and to someone who spent 8 years in Catholic school from 1956-64, entirely authentic.
There was no other place on Earth where Catholic authority had as much demonic control over the populace as in Ireland.
There's no way you can watch 'The Magdalene Sisters' without becoming upset.
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Just a quick note to those who view 'The Detective' (1968) later tonight - watch for a brilliant small role played by actor Tony Musante (of the previous year's remarkable 'The Incident') as a homosexual suspect being grilled by the cops.
Before DeNiro, there was Musante.
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I LOVE "Georgy Girl" ! ! ! And since I have impeccable taste in music, that seals it: "Georgy Girl" is a GREAT pop song.
And the movie is a monument to masterful filmmaking, circa 1966.
Let's all join hands and swing to "Georgy Girl":
There's another Georgy deep inside!
Off Topic: Favorite Music?
in Your Favorites
Posted
Orbison wrote most of the many songs he recorded up till the 70's. I'd say at least 80 percent. He had two main writing partners - Joe Melson from '60-'62 and Bill Dees from '63-'67. He and Dees wrote all ten songs for the movie, though only 7 ended up in the movie, some of those truncated versions.
Being primarily a singles artist, his talent for writing so much content did not get much admiration from the public - mainly because his songs were pretty out of step with the psychedelic era of pop.
But, now that we can look back without fashion-of-the-day filters, it's easy to see what a gifted songwriter he was.