Better Than Friday -1
Hello everyone, this is the first Better Than Friday (working title, suggested by a patron).
I’m thrilled about this content experiment. Finally, in a display of stunningly banal irony, as a man who reviews books, I can show off my lack of actual writing skills.
I thank you for your endurance. Enjoy.
What's Coming Up Next:
Santiago Gamboa’s ‘Necropolis’ - and it is the second-best thing from Colombia that I’ve stuck my nose in.
The first being coffee. Of course.
Last Great Film I watched:
‘Volver’ by Pedro Almodovar.
The Next Film I’m Planning to Review:
‘Seconds’ by John Frankenheimer - Incredible film, disturbing and unique.
What’s in the Book Pipeline:
All That Man Is by David Szalay
What’s in the Film Pipeline:
The Decline of Western Civilization directed by Penelope Spheeris.
A phenomenal depiction of the L.A. punk rock scene in the early 80’s with X, FEAR, and more. All that’s missing is Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club.
Total filthy nihilism.
This is the music of my teenage years. FEAR’S ‘Let’s Have a War’ sounds just as apocalyptic as when I first heard it. The drums sound like artillery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiCTq_AHcqw
Last Great Song That Won't Leave My Head:
I can’t stop listening to this after seeing William Baldwin dance around in Refn’s ‘Too Old to Die Young’.
(Graphic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnNxSvLOyII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEkPoJjBzdI
999 completely passed me by. I’d never heard of them, but they’re one of the great early punk bands. This solid brass-knuckle punch of a track tears it up.
It’s killer.
Ha.
The Last Strange Youtube Documentary I watched:
Francis Bacon; a Brush with Violence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgrO5za0lSY
Insanely good rare 80s Goth tune of the week:
Where I’m Visiting/Considering Moving Next:
Austin Texas.
My Favorite Bookstore in Austin Texas:
Malvern Books
https://malvernbooks.com/
Comments (6)
For your own reading pleasure, you should check out the book Burning Down The Hause. Great look at early punk.
I really like this Better Than Friday thing btw
If you were engaged by “Too Old to Die Young” I would also highly recommend a British suspense thriller named “Utopia”. It has a lot of similarities to Refn’s work yet each aspect of the show is highly distinctive from his work in its own right such as stylistic color schemes that seem to ensnare one within dream gone horribly wrong, a hauntingly visceral and varied electronic soundtrack coupled with a chorus of human sounds that can best be summarized as a demonic sense of childlike playfulness and a highly intricate and visual story revolving around an obscure manuscript whose art feels like it was taken straight out of a surrealistic Lynchian nightmare.
SECONDS is a brilliant movie—one that requires more and more attention. It’s in the Criterion Collection and rightfully so!
'Decline' is tied for my second favorite among tapes I picked up from this really rad video rental place I used to frequent as a teenager--tied with a film called "Plastic Utopia" (check it out, since you're thinking about Austin) and second to none other than "Mishima." I think I first rented Decline alongside a Manson documentary, if I recall. Speaking of which, I was really tickled by the context in which Homicide popped up in "Too Old"--just perfect. I had been absolutely obsessed with that track in the fall of 2008, for some reason.
Oh, man! I think understand myself a little bit more just by watching the trailer of "Decline of Western Civilisation". Not that I was in that generation but I can definitely see how it has cycled into the culture of late 1990s babies like myself.