Like...Dreamsville: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

April Is/Was Jazz Appreciation Month

How did I not know that until now?

Finally! Rockstar's L.A. Noire Video Game

I blogged about this way back here when I first heard about it. I got to thinking recently, "I wonder what ever happened with that?" so I looked it up and lo and behold it hits the shelves May 17th! Needless to say my copy is pre-ordered. Blogging may be sparse after May 17th.

Most videos I can find have the embedding disabled so go check out the L.A. Noire page and watch them. This game looks amazing. I'm glad they took their time with it.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Dreamsville Podcast On Hiatus

Apologies to all my faithful listeners.

Just lost the entire episode for next month when the power flickered here. Had problems recently with some things that may be related to the recent hacking of the Playstation Network.

If we're all still here after May 21th, hopefully there will be a new podcast for June.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Young Man With A Horn - Michael Curtiz - 1950

I had intended to save this until I had read the book but I was in the mood for a good jazz film so I watched it.

The book by Dorothy Baker claims to be the story of Bix Beiderbecke. I've yet to read it so I can't say as to how closely the movie follows but since the names have been changed, presumably the story isn't all that accurate. It's certainly not accurate with what little I know about Bix. Regardless, it's a beautiful movie. Lavish MGM production, gorgeous sets. Kirk Douglas is fun to watch and so is wholesome Doris Day. I must admit, I've never been a fan of Lauren Bacall and she's a perfect bitch here. The ones that really light up the screen are Hoagy Carmichael as Smoke, Rick's best friend and the narrator of the story and Juano Hernandez as Art Hazard, the old jazz man who serves as Rick (Bix's) teacher and mentor. I knew I'd seen him before and after an IMDB search I was reminded of his role in an episode of Johnny Staccato. I was surprised to learn of his humble beginnings as a Brazilian street urchin singing for money. A real rags to riches story, that guy. Well maybe not riches but a far cry from the streets of Rio.

Pretty enjoyable film. You should see it.

"If I had one of those I could carry it around with me and play it any time I wanted."

Plink, Plank, Plunk

"That's the way it started and there was no way of stopping it or changing it. He couldn't see anything but notes and he couldn't here anything but his trumpet."

PAAARRRRRRP!

"They call me Smoke...never could figure out why."

Parp Parp!

Tootlie toot toot

"The Very Thought Of You"

"He's the sheik of Alabam!"

"Jo's interesting isn't she? So simple and uncomplicated. Must be wonderful to wake up each morning and know just which door you're going to walk through. So terribly normal."

"Everything's gonna turn out all right. Don't let anybody worry you."

"You know I'd give anything to have what you've got. To be able to do one thing really well and know that it's worth something. It's the only real security in the world."

All night session

Nobody knows the trouble I seen

"You know who buys records? High school girls. You know why? To learn the words. They only buy the new songs to learn the words. Nobody knows what we're doin' 'cept us. The guys that do it. They don't hear us. They just hear the words."

"I don't want it. I don't want to ever see it again. Give it to some kid who wants to play an instrument. Only tell him not to fall in love with it."

"The truth was the only thing in the world he felt safe with was his trumpet, and when that let him down too, well, he just couldn't take it. He went to pieces, but not in any small way."

"You see, Rick was a pretty hard guy to understand and for a long time he didn't understand himself. But the desire to live is a great teacher."

"Hear that note Jo? It's clean and sweet. Yeah, it's a good note."

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Beats On TV - Burkes Law - Season 1 Episode 12 - Who Killed Cynthia Royal - 1963

Cynthia Royal is dead and its up to Burke and his boys to find out who dunnit. As the events of the murder unfold, it appears that a neighbours cat, who may have witnessed the murder was abducted. Well it turns out the cat escaped and where does a cat in the city go to be with like minded individuals? Why, to a beatnik coffee house, natch!

Deborah, the Siamese cat winds up in the back alley of The Centaur Coffee House, which appears to be populated with painters and wandering minstrel beatnik chicks...

...and an old tom cat...

...and Max & Maura played by Frankie Avalon and Kathleen Nolan.

Maura had a little lamb

"You know Max, I still can't understand why they pay us to come sit at their parties."

"Basic insecurity. They think beatniks lend exotic flavour to a dullsville party."

"What's a beatnik?"

"I don't know, I think it's some kind of mythical creature...like elves maybe."

"Don't be such a square! We all gotta be free to swing, to groove, to hoot!...like the cat over there."

"She digs cappucino! Go cat go!"

"The amber night.

Hiding my evil now.

A life as dead as fried rice."

Afraid In The Dark - Mark Derby - 1951

"He was clearly a fanatic, and fanatics were never short winded."

This is one of those men's adventure type books of the "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" variety. Actually more of the "I Hunted Japanese War Criminals In The Malaysian Jungle" variety...in fact, that's it exactly.

Patrick Derrex is hired as a hitman, basically. His job is to hunt down and bring swift justice to the dastardly cad known to many poor, tortured former internees of Japanese POW camps in the British East Indies as Makota. Makota is, strangely enough, of Scottish/Malaysian descent and his persecution by whites in particular because of his half caste status is what has driven him to evil deeds.

Derrex is a tortured soul himself. From his war service and commando years in the post war period as well as his torment at the hands of terrorists in the very part of the world he's now been sent back to.

There are a number of blurbs inside this book comparing Derby to Graham Greene and John Buchan. I don't know if I'd go that far but it is a very engrossing bit of pulp. I can imagine this being serialized in those old men's adventure mags. You can almost smell the sweat. Plenty of hair raising moments, a caste of eccentric characters and a mysterious shipwreck make this a hard one to put down. Actually one of the most enjoyable books I've read in the past few months.