The One That Achieves Madness

Yesterday (Monday), I got my copy of the new DVD of Performance, the film by Nicolas Roeg (photographer/director) and Donald Cammell (writer/director), in the mail - a day before release date; thanks USPS! I've been waiting for this film, a favorite, to come out on DVD for years (hell, to have ANY kind of good-quality video release), and . . . well, I'd like to say I was not disappointed, but that's not altogether true.


Good things: The transfer is beautiful. Roeg's images have never looked so sweet and strong. For years I've seen this in faded and/or grainy and/or scratchy prints. The film now lives up to the standard of Roeg's work on other films from Fahrenheit 451 to Masque of the Red Death to Petulia to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

The film is the full cut, not the slightly-edited original USA cut. The voices of Johnny Shannon (as Harry Flowers) and Laraine Wickens (as Lorraine), which were dubbed over with more "intelligible" voices for USA prints, have been restored -- I'd never heard their actual voices before; Shannon is perfectly intelligible to anyone who's watched enough BBC TV, Wickens is, yes, rather more difficult, but far better than the horrible screechy adult-woman-masquerading-as-a-child voice that replaced hers.

The sound remains - correctly - in mono, but has been spiffed up to be more clear, punchy, and wide in frequency than ever before, which brings me to--


One Bad Thing: The attraction to many of this film lies much in its brilliant soundtrack (mostly by Jack Nitzsche), so having the songs be so clear and rumbling (even in mono) is a good thing.

However. Someone must have decided that the classic sequence featuring Mick Jagger performing his song "Memo from Turner" needed even MORE audio goosing, and apparently decided to mix together the original mono track from the film with a mono version of the song as it appears on the original soundtrack album of the film - the same recording, yes, but in a different mix. So when the song begins, the bass suddenly becomes THUNDEROUS and the song really LEAPS OUT at you. This is not in itself bad, though it's noticeable that an extra echo effect is missing from Jagger's voice in a couple of spots. Then, during an extended instrumental break midway through the song, several sound effects and one line of dialogue from Jagger ("Here's to Old England!") are now COMPLETELY GONE from the scene.

Okay. In the great scheme of things, this is a very small matter. Still, this is, despite the film's relative scarcity for many years, an important film, influential on and revered by many filmmakers for years (Paul Schrader once remarked that whenever he was stuck for an idea, he'd watch Performance again, as it's full of ideas, and will always have something good and appropriate for him to steal). This DVD is probably going to now be the "definitive" version of the film, the only one that anyone who gets to know the film now will know, and it's NOT QUITE right. Dammit.

The only other "bad thing," really just a mild annoyance, is that in the (so-so) new "making-of" documentary on the disk, the "swinging London" atmosphere of the film is represented by title graphics with subpar Height-Ashbury-style, "groovy" typefaces and graphics that have nothing to do with the film. Ick. Yeah, yeah, I know: "Sixties" = "Bill Graham Winterland Posters." {sigh}


Restoration is a tricky business all right. They screwed up another little-but-really-not-so-little thing in the new restoration of Eraserhead they just did at MoMA, which I'll be discussing sometime else soon in the next few days when I'll be . . .


DREAMING OF DAVID LYNCH (IN SIX PARTS)


David Lynch’s work is never far from my mind. Obviously, I’m not alone. Recently, when Isaac Butler at Parabasis put it to his fellow theatre bloggers (primarily playwrights) to list their influences, Lynch’s name was generally among the ones listed (James Comtois noted this in his list and comments).

The group of posters over at Vinyl Is Heavy have announced “The Lynch Mob,” a series of postings this week (Feb. 12-16) focusing on Lynch. While not a “Blog-a-thon” per se, it seemed like a good excuse to spend this past week watching the entirety of Lynch’s output as director of film/video works (his work in other media either less interesting or interesting enough to be dealt with on its own, you make the call), in chronological order, and put down a few thoughts about his 25-or-so films/videos.

I don’t want or intend to go into any great analytical detail about all the pieces – that would require at least one book, possibly more, and would be reductive as regards the work in any case. A good book already exists containing as much of that as you need, Lynch on Lynch, edited by Chris Rodley.

This is a personal look at Lynch’s works; a few thoughts about what interests me here and there, connections I’ve made, things of note to point out, and variants/problems with the video versions. A breezy overview.

So after making up a list of his works, and pulling out the tapes and DVDs, I went to it from the start. I've made it through everything from 1967 to 1995 thus far, and my first entry (covering Six Figures Getting Sick through Eraserhead) will be up ASAP.

Separation Anxiety

Amanda Marcotte, blogger of Pandagon, has resigned from her position at the John Edwards campaign, after the campaign had chosen to retain her despite attacks from William Donohue and the Catholic League over her past "anti-Catholic" views as expressed on the blog.


A mainstream news account is here.


I was a little upset, and disappointed in Ms. Marcotte, when I heard the news, as I felt this was just going to give the lunatic Donohue something to cry over as a "victory." And it will. I valued standing up to a psychotic, jumped-up, bigoted, fringe-element leader like Donohue (who very VERY definitely, by any statistical/polling data there is, DOES NOT represent the views of most Catholics in the USA) much more than I cared about any damage to the Edwards campaign - I'm not exactly fond of Edwards, or any of the potential Democratic nominees for that matter (except maybe Bill Richardson, but he has his own personal problems); I'm registered Independent, and will probably wind up pulling the lever in 2008 for whatever Democratic nominee is also registered under the Working Families party in New York.


But it's apparent that Ms. Marcotte's presence paralyzes not only the campaign but the blog as well -- Pandagon has been hit with so much hate mail from "Christians" the site has shut down, and if you follow that link to the site, you'll very likely get a temp page hosted elsewhere explaining the shut down and providing a lovely set of examples of the fine Christian sentiments they've been receiving (if you can bear hate speech, enjoy yourself, for the rest of you, in summary the messages are generally along the lines of, as Ms. Marcotte puts it accurately: "You have a pottymouth, you stupid cunt!"). I can't be upset or disappointed in Ms. Marcotte not wanting to spend one moment more of her life on the receiving end of the spittle of morons at both the campaign and the blog -- I'm sure she can take the attack, but it is a massive waste of time and effort to have to constantly wipe the spit off.


I don't necessarily agree with everything Ms. Marcotte says or has said at Pandagon, though I've been an occasional to regular reader for some time, but that's really beside the point here - this is the beginnings of an organized effort from the Right to separate the Left (or more precisely maybe, vaguely-more-left-leaning Democrats) from the netroots support that has been becoming more and more effective in organizing and getting out information on its behalf. In the case of the Catholic League, there are also not-so-subtle sexist overtones in Donohue's attack - he has been referring unpleasantly to the need to "silence these women" (the other woman being Melissa McEwen, of Shakespeare's Sister, who continues to work for Edwards). Marcotte is pro-choice, pro-sex education, pro-birth control, and anti-patriarchy, and she's not polite about it (nor do I feel does she have any reason to be) -- one can see how this viewpoint winds up conflicting with Catholicism. Donahue's attack is slimy, uses a great deal of misinformation or misleading information, and in its bigotry, is un-American.


It is also, it appears, a violation of federal tax law. Which is where things could get . . . interesting for Mr. Donohue. With some help.


The Catholic League, Donohue's organization, which funds and supports these attacks, is a 501(c)3 corporation. While 501(c)3 organizations "may take positions on public policy issues, including issues that divide candidates in an election for public office" (IRS FS-2006-17), they MAY NOT indulge in "issue advocacy that functions as political campaign intervention." Think this counts?


Here is IRS Form 3949 A, Information Referral, with instructions on how to fill it out and where to mail it.


Damn. Between the time I wrote all this and when I went back to proofread and check all the links, the following link (which used to lead to a template for filling out the above form, with all pertinent information) has been disabled, and seems to not be cached in any search engine, which makes this all a bunch more difficult. Well, all the info you need is out there, or enough in this post to lead you to where to go. I'll leave the next paragraph (and link) up in case the original page comes back sometime soon. The IRS Fact Sheet listed above can be found HERE; the actual section of the tax code violated is HERE. The Catholic League's address, needed for the form, is 450 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10123.


[Here is AN EXAMPLE, courtesy of Auguste at Pandagon, of what information could be filled out on an IRS Form 3949 A before one dropped it in the mail. I won't be getting to the post office today, but tomorrow, I'm there with my version of this.]


Civics can be FUN sometimes, folks! Doesn't it do your heart some good to try and use the IRS for good?

"Gosh, Mister, I Guess Drugs ARE Bad!"

On the lighter, shorter side . . .


Orac at Respectful Insolence has a wonderful post (with great links out, too) covering comic strips and comic books made to teach kids about the evils of drugs, alcohol, VD, and rock'n'roll music (or, at least, Madonna).


I collect films going over the same material, but my knowledge of comics in this area is woefully small. Glad to have got the lead.


And as long as I'm posting comic book material, for those who haven't seen it before, I might as well show off my GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING: