Month: September 2013

Categories
comedy Geniuses Humour Monty Python performers Poetry TV videos

The Monty Python: Part the First.

Most {well, all…} of these videos were wiped from the face o’ the earth, or at least from YouTube, semi-recently. It has been one of my ambitions to reinstate them, preferably in even better quality. These absurdist geniuses must be made available!! {7/21/2019}

And so…as Kevin Phillips-Bong stoically accepts the somewhat-less-than-one-might-want voting numbers, this concludes this, the first installment of re-Montying the planet. These pioneering wonders must—and shall be—well, you know what I mean.

Categories
Bing Crosby Irish Music Music vocalists

The Mr Bing Crosby.

Bing Crosby - Shillelaghs

Two Shillelagh O’Sullivan

It’s The Same Old Shillelagh

With My Shillelagh Under My Arm

Livin’ on Lovin’

Lonely Street

Dear Old Donegal

Frosty The Snowman

Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead

Those Were the Days

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

The Donovans

Two Shillelagh O’Sullivan
It’s The Same Old Shillelagh
With My Shillelagh Under My Arm
McNamara’s Band
The Donovans
Dear Old Donegal
How Are Things In Glocca Morra
Those Were The Days
The Straight Life
Livin’ On Lovin’
Lonely Street
Chim Chim Cheree
Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead
Talk To The Animals
Frosty The Snowman
High Hopes
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Bing-Crosby-Thoroughly-Modern-548521

Mr. Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby here covers a variety of material, in his nonpareil manner.

Categories
Actors Actors of Greatness Blacula Film photography Predators Vampirism William Marshall

The Blacula.

William Marshall

The great William Marshall, with his stentorian delivery, and dignified/exalted bearing, brings much to the table in these two films. Thalmus Rasulala, Pam Grier, and Don Mitchell also excel, Rasulala in 1972’s Blacula, and the latter two in Scream, Blacula, Scream, from 1973.

Marshall was a Shakespearean actor, who portrayed the lead character in various productions of Othello to great effect. A formidable 6’5″ with a deep basso profundo register, Marshall carried with him a dignity and a regal demeanor. In a review, Harold Hobson of the London Sunday Times praised Marshall’s portrayal as “the best Othello of our time.”

{Revised with Full Intensity 7/6/2019}

Categories
Audio Music music videos Scott Walker Singers vocalists

The Scott Walker.

Track 6.
Man From Reno.
Thanks For Chicago, Mr. James.
It’s Raining Today.
Little Things That Keep Us Together.
Hero of the War.
Old Man’s Back Again.
World’s Strongest Man.
30 Century Man.
Jackie.
Get Behind Me.
Best of Both Worlds.
Plastic Palace People.
Next.
Montague Terrace.
Shutout.
Such a Small Love.
Dealer.

The above are audio tracks that span a fairly large time period of Scott Walker’s remarkable body of recorded work.

In My Room.

And a few Walker Brothers masterpieces.

Scott Walker VII

{NOTE: Revised 11/19/2019}

Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel, 1943, a musical artist of profound depth and originality, was (and is) a cherished figure for millions worldwide. Reclusive, enigmatic, innovative, Scott occupies a unique place in the pantheon of recording artists. He’s also very near and dear to my own heart. He will be deeply missed.

Many will remember Scott Walker’s sublime work with ballads; many others love his idiosyncratic, Brel-influenced blossoming into a top-notch composer and performer; still more prefer the uneasy, discomforting terrain and eerie beauty of his later recordings. I’ll remember him for all of it, for everything. There’s no replacing him. We’ll never see his likes again.

Memorial post here.

Categories
Actors Actors of Greatness Film Geniuses Maestri Marlon Brando One Eyed Jacks Predators Psychopaths The Missouri Breaks videos Westerns

The Marlon Brando.

Amazing how Marlon B could so casually convey supreme menace from situations which are hardly synonymous with same.

Sheer, unnerving menace…from the confines of a bubble bath.

Unreal hand speed and devastating power with either hand, whilst bestowing epithets and disposing of tables.

And, of course, his iconic performance in The Godfather.

The truly great Marlon Brando, appearing here in The Missouri Breaks, One-Eyed Jacks, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Free Money, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. One of the supreme practitioners of his art, ever to stride across the earth.

Categories
Actors Actors of Greatness Film Gary Oldman LΓ©on The Professional Psychopaths videos

The Gary Oldman.

{Note: Massively Revised 7/8/2019}

Gary Oldman, in a titanically twisted, iconic, canonical, epoch-defining performance, portrays psychopathic, corrupt DEA agent Norman Stansfield in the film LΓ©on, The Professional. Stansfield really gets down to some serious malevolent weirdness in the above video scene with would-be DEA agent-slayer Mathilda (Natalie Portman).  He calmly interrogates the young lady in ways that would bamboozle, unnerve, and intimidate anyone in human history. Throughout, the crazed but {mostly} composed DEA agent manages to be one moment menacing, the next pleasantly conversational. Stansfield presents an enigmatic, occasionally humorous, malevolent-ly inclined figure. Quite unforgettable.

In The Fifth Element, Lost in Space, and True Romance, he displays the ability to simply do anything he wants as an actor. All 3 roles are quasi-humorous/sinister, but in entirely different ways. Masterful.