Badlands: An Oral History: Movies TV: GQ

~ Mark

Martin Sheen:

Terry called one night and said, “I want you to play the part.” I had to get up very early the next morning to go to work, and I was driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in a little Mazda. I was listening to a Dylan album I was fond of, and the song “Desolation Row” was playing, and the sun was rising, and it hit me that I was going to play the role of my life. I had been a professional actor since I was eighteen. I was thirty-one, I had four children, I was struggling, doing a lot of television—a lot of bad, silly work just to make ends meet—and I wasn’t having any luck in features to speak of, and here was the part of my life. And I was overwhelmed, and I pulled off to the side of the road, and I wept uncontrollably.

Also, from assistant director Bill Scott:

We were so green. A couple years ago, Terry told me that on that first morning of filming, after he got his big wide shot, the cameraman turned to him and said, “Should we go in for coverage now, Terry?” And Terry said, “No, let’s do an over-the-shoulder shot’"—which is coverage. And I remember when someone asked me if I had ordered the honeywagon, I said, "Yeah, the catering’s all lined up.” The honeywagon’s the toilet truck.

I gotta watch Badlands again.

Badlands: An Oral History: Movies TV: GQ

White Dog

~ Mark

White Dog. Incredibly blunt B-level message movie with terrible dialogue, but it works in a Night of the Living Dead kind of way. Ennio Morricone soundtrack helps for sure.

~ Mark

What I Read, 2007-2012. Amazing how it all adds up. Six years, 400-something books and counting. (Sometimes I write about them.)

As with any long-term journaling, what’s especially fun is the bigger picture you get from looking back. I see the individual books, yes, and my passing topical interests and ongoing obsessions, but I also see who I was hanging out with, who I was influenced by, and an incidental history of where I was living.

The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death | OutsideOnline.com

~ Mark

No one can yet predict exactly how quickly and in whom hypothermia will strike–and whether it will kill when it does. The cold remains a mystery, more prone to fell men than women, more lethal to the thin and well muscled than to those with avoirdupois, and least forgiving to the arrogant and the unaware.

In other words, I’m doomed. I remember reading Jack London’s To Build a Fire and watching the short film adaptation in middle school. Love it. Keep your gloves on, folks.

The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death | OutsideOnline.com

Fame

~ Mark

Fame. Like I said after I watched Mystic Pizza, the bildungsroman reached a huge peak in the ‘80s. I was totally sold on a few really awesome musical numbers in there, none of them feeling too super-campy-fabulous, but the real payoff is actually the stories in between. The few main chapters (auditions, freshman year, sophomore year, etc.) each present a few vignettes revolving around a collection of teen hopefuls. Success, stress, trauma, persistence. Great movie. I have no interest in the remake. Another wonderful, episodic film about New York teens (from a different demographic) wrestling with their fears and expectations is Metropolitan.

Tweetage Wasteland : Get Off My Stoop

~ Mark

The standards once applied to reporting are now often reserved for correction writing. […] If you tell me that a lunatic killed twenty kids in an elementary school, that gives me enough to process for a while. I can wait a few minutes or a few hours (or even a few days) to learn about the details about the shooter’s psyche or his relationship with his deceased mother. But these days, it seems, no one producing news can wait. But someone has to wait. Little value for journalists or their readership is created in the race to be first. We need a media that races to be right.

Tweetage Wasteland : Get Off My Stoop

When Bram Met Walt | Humanities

~ Mark

When he was twenty-two, Bram Stoker read and fell in love with Walt Whitman’s poetry, finding solace and joy between the covers of Leaves of Grass. And, like many fans, he wanted the connection that he felt to Whitman to be real. Late one night, cloaked in the comfort of darkness, Stoker poured his soul out to Whitman in a shockingly honest letter that described himself and his disposition. That letter, when Stoker finally mustered the courage to mail it, would begin an unexpected literary friendship that lasted until Whitman’s death.

When Bram Met Walt | Humanities

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

~ Mark

After watching THX 1138, I started reading about co-writer Walter Murch. I love how he separates his film editing from his film writing:

When I write a script, I lie down–because that’s the opposite of standing up. I stand up to edit, so I lie down to write. I take a little tape recorder and, without being aware of it, go into a light hypnotic trance. I pretend the film is finished and I’m simply describing what was happening. I start out chronologically but then skip around. Anything that occurs to me, I say into the recorder. Because I’m lying down, because my eyes are closed, because I’m not looking at anything, and the ideas are being captured only by this silent scribe–the tape recorder–there’s nothing for me to criticize. It’s just coming out.

That is my way of disarming the editorial side. Putting myself in a situation that is opposite as possible to how I edit–both physically and mentally. To encourage those ideas to come out of the woods like little animals and drink at the pool safely, without feeling that the falcon is going to come down and tear them apart.

So simple, so obvious: if you want to get some ideas out without reflexive self-editing, choose your medium and environment so it’s hard to edit. Use a tape recorder, separate digital vs. analog desks, Sharpies, index cards…

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

THX 1138

~ Mark

THX 1138. Part of me wishes that George Lucas had continued to make weird films. But then we wouldn’t have The Empire Strikes Back, so… I don’t think the characters are great–you root for them more as symbols–but the mechanics are fun. I love the claustrophobic close-ups, the dead interiors. The chase was surprisingly good for a debut, in this era. And those confessional booths! This one is certainly better than other flight-from-dystopia films like Logan’s Run, but not quite up there with Brazil.

Pilgrim’s Progress by Pete Beatty – An Excerpt From “Rust Belt Chic” | Vol. 1 Brooklyn

~ Mark

The Rust Belt is at once very real and something of a mirage. It took a miracle to make the factories and foundries and neighborhoods of Cleveland burst into flower, to make vibrant and meaningful cultures to spring up here, in Pittsburgh, in Buffalo, in the Mahoning Valley, in Detroit and Chicago. It took the exact opposite of that miracle to empty out those jobs and homes, to send us scurrying to the suburban desert, to very nearly forsake the idea of community. A community—what New York City can’t be—is the closest thing we have to heaven. Middleburg Heights probably can’t host the community I want either, although the only way to prove that would be to try to build one. Cleveland, as a place that needs and wants people, is a fallow field, desperate to be the host to a living community again. It will soon be played out once more if we treat it like we have in the past. Those are the terms of use.

I always enjoy Pete Beatty’s (@nocoastoffense) writing.

Pilgrim’s Progress by Pete Beatty – An Excerpt From “Rust Belt Chic” | Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Gannet & The Grand: A Wyoming Whirlwind Tour | The Ultimate Direction Buzz

~ Mark

On speed in the outdoors (after summiting Gannett Peak in 9 hours):

I used to be of the opinion that speed isn’t important. And, in an absolute sense, I don’t think it is. In a relative sense, however, I think that one’s speed does matter. This is because–relative to one’s innate ability–striving to operate as close to that ability as possible requires a level of commitment to the craft and presence in the moment that I have yet to achieve by other means. For instance, because I wanted to move quickly when climbing Gannet (or any mountain), I made a point to study the map carefully, read other trip reports, solicit advice from friends who had already made the outing. Not to mention spending countless hours in the mountains building skill and fitness (and having fun!). Without the impetus of speed I would’ve undoubtedly taken a more lackadaisical approach that likely would’ve left me irresponsibly underprepared, with less respect for the mountain, and, ultimately, less connected to both the landscape and the community of enthusiasts who venture into this gem of a mountain range. Going fast requires–above all else–paying attention, and achieving that fleeting measure of grace where my effort and abilities are meshed perfectly with the challenge is a huge motivating factor in what I do. I find that this practice of paying attention is one of the more instructive and valuable takeaways that a trip to the mountains offers me. Plus, I’m just really inspired by wild landscapes.

Gannet & The Grand: A Wyoming Whirlwind Tour | The Ultimate Direction Buzz

The Hunter

~ Mark

The Hunter. Great movie! Dafoe is awesome per usual. I was also pleasantly surprised to not just tolerate, but really enjoy the child actors. It’s nice to watch Dafoe doing the day-to-day tasks of setting traps, navigating, recording the day’s work. I don’t love the opening and closing plot elements, but you have to have something to get the rest rolling. I love the environmental sounds in this one: water drips, crickets, bird calls and such. And there’s a wonderful Springsteen moment that you shouldn’t watch unless you’re sure you want it spoiled. El Aura is another great, gently-paced work of suspense that takes place during a hunting trip. The Naked Prey is much more frantic.

Thor

~ Mark

Thor. Funny to compare this to my experience watching The Dark Knight Rises. While just as gee-whiz/fun/bad, this one was much less ambitious and much less exasperating. A lesson in expectations. I expect Captain America to remain my favorite of the Marvel series, followed by the first Iron Man, then Thor, then Iron Man II. I guess that leaves The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers on my to-watch list.