This is the second — and hopefully the last — epitaph I need to write on the political career of Christopher Collins. The first is here. His governmental record is, on balance, replete with abject failure. He was a disastrous County Executive who spent wildly to implement dubious corporate hocus-pocus, with little effect. He raised taxes and cut critical services on which citizens relied.
It’s no secret that the cult of Judy Garland fans were drawn to her suffering as much as to her abilities as a performer. That seems to be the intended audience for Judy, now playing at the Dipson Amherst and Eastern Hills Mall theaters, which recreates her abilities as a stage artist but mostly focuses on the sad state of her life in the months prior to her presumably accidental death in 1969 from an overdose of barbiturates.
In an era when the political scene brings new outrages with the regularity of a ticking clock, it’s worth remembering—or, if you’re young enough, learning—that this behavior isn’t exactly new. There’s just so much more of it, conducted with shameless brazenness. But it wasn’t that long ago that we went to war on the basis of a bald-faced lie: that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction.
The market for books and movies about the Mafia has never much diminished, but it got a shot in the arm in 2006 with the publication of Gomorrah, Roberto Saviano’s expose of the Camorra, Naples’ answer to the Mafia. The book sold four million copies around the world and made Saviano a marked man in his home country: he has been under what is expected to be permanent police protection since shortly after the book’s publication.
What it is, it’s the return of the Ludovico Technique.
You remember it, from A Clockwork Orange, the scene with Malcolm MacDowell strapped to a chair with his eyelids held open. The idea is that, in order to get Alex to give up his nasty ways, he is forced to watch films of violent atrocities while being injected with a nausea-inducing serum. After the therapy is finished, any violent urges result in him becoming sick to his stomach.
“Muslim” and “burlesque” are words you seldom find paired, but they’re central to the new feature film Becoming Burlesque. The Toronto production stars Shiva Negar (American Assassin) as a college engineering student chafing at the expectations of her traditional Muslim family. A chance encounter with a burlesque dancer opens up a whole new world of liberating performance to her, one that invariably clashes with the world view of her loving family.
Still trying to decide what films to see at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, beginning its week-long run at the Dipson Eastern Hills Mall Cinema today? I feel your pain: there’s a lot to choose from, and over the past decade festival organizers Greg Lamberson and Chris Scioli have proven adept at separating the wheat from the chaff out of the hundreds of genre films submitted for inclusion every year.
If you’re among those who can’t wait for November and the tenth edition of the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, here’s good news: you only have to wait until next week! In case you missed the memo, Buffalo Dreams has been moved up this year, to Friday, Aug. 23rd — Thursday, Aug. 29th. The location hasn’t changed – still at the Dipson Eastern Hills Cinema. And festival organizers Greg Lamberson and Chris Scioli promise that this year’s offerings of independent genre films will be better than ever. (Of course they promise that every year.
As summer starts to wind down, the death grip of Disney product on area theaters finally loosens, making room for some films that are not about superheroes or talking animals.
In Paris on March 22, 1895, France’s Lumiere Brothers presented to an audience of 200 people results of their patented cinématographe, a moving picture camera. They thought of it as merely a novelty—they were surprised that the short films they presented drew more attention than what they considered their bigger achievement, a color photography process—and did little to pursue the field.
In honor of musical parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic’s appearance at Artpark tonight (with an orchestra, yet), I dug up this interview I did with him many moons ago. How many? To be honest, I really don’t know. But it all seems pretty on target to the peculiar craft that has made him the best selling comedy recording artist of all time.
The concentration camps and the White House’s daily parade of insults and embarrassments are quite difficult for people to wrap their heads around. It is unimaginable that this is what our government has become, and it is amazing how far and how fast we fell. Things that were once whispers are now amplified with bullhorns.
Think of popular music of the late 1960s and you’re likely to think of the Beatles and the whole “British invasion” that crossed the Atlantic with them. But American music more than held up its own end, as demonstrated by this vaguely conceived but entertaining documentary.