Ya took mah woman. And I'm a-gonna keel yah, fer a-takin' mah whoa-man. But first, I'm a-gonna sing yah a song and we is-uh gonna have couple uh drinks. And howsabout mah man Billy Byrd's gee-tar? Whooooooooo-eeeeeeeee!
Did you see the PBS documentary on Warhol this week? First part was really good. Second part was uneven: factory part was good, went into too much detail about Solanos shooting and then just brushed aside last 15 or so years of his life. This short extract from an early interview with him neatly sums up something about him and about the whole process of self-description. Interesting how journalists in the 1960s didn't really know how to talk to people like Warhol or Dylan or the Beatles. Have journalists gotten more hip or have hipsters gotten less so?
Gary Giddens writes in today's NY Times (in a review of the second volume of Simon Callow's biography of Orson Welles):
"For here is the crux of the Welles conundrum, boiled down to one question: Which is the more impressive feat? A gifted young man is given a film studio, its technicians and almost unlimited funds to make any movie he desires, and he comes up with “Citizen Kane.” A mature, experienced, stubbornly individual artist in middle age, working with little more than rent money and spit, makes “Chimes at Midnight.” The first film revolutionized cinema, yet merely hints at the sublimity of the later work. The question implies — as does “Hello Americans” — that the Welles debate has shifted ground. It used to center on the cause of his decline: Was the fault in Welles, the stars, the system? Now the decline itself is in question."
Exactly. One of the reason Welles is so highly regarded by his fans is that he was not courting perfection, he was endlessly curious, even restless. Anyone who sees his later works like "F for Fake" knows his brilliance and creativity never waned. He may never have created another film as formally "perfect" or as perfectly entertaining or astounding as Kane (though we'll never know since "Ambersons" was so mutilated), but his later projects (no matter what state they are left in) are always fascinating.
An Automat just opened in St. Mark's Place in NYC! I will never leave this wonderful city!
From NY Times: "One look at Bamn's hot-pink color scheme and it's obvious this is not an old Horn & Hardart Automat, though this new spot at 37 St. Marks Place (Second Avenue) also serves its food via coin-fed machines. The menu is totally modern, with roast pork buns; Japanese-seasoned beef sliders; pizza dumplings; and Hawaiian musubi, a kind of open-face beef sandwich, all $1 to $3.
The owners, Robert Kwak, David Leong and Nobu X, actually took their inspiration from updated Automats they visited in Amsterdam. They hired Kevin Reilly , the chef at the Water Club, to fine-tune the food and create 39 sauces for thick-cut Belgian fries.
Their compact spot is open around the clock, and has a small counter where the fries and swirls of soft-serve green tea ice cream are dispensed."
