Holmes, Welles and annoying obituaries
Something for the Sherlock Holmes fans: a radio version of The Final Problem, starring John Gielgud as Holmes, Ralph Richardson as Watson, and Orson Welles as Moriarty. The first part is here. Welles' voice is damn near ideal for Moriarty; Gielgud & Richardson are their reliably excellent selves.
Speaking of Orson W., someone made a good vid using scenes from F for Fake, Chimes at Midnight, The Third Man and Prince of Foxes to form a Wellesian reflection on death:
And another genius made a fake trailer for Orson Welles' Batman. (LOL horrible fight scene from Lady from Shanghai.) Incidentally, Welles did play Lamont Cranston/The Shadow on radio, i.e. the prototype playboy with a secret superhero identity, so it's not out of this world, but imo Orson being Orson he'd have insisted on playing Bruce Wayne and the Joker. Have a look at the trailer anyway.
In other news, here's me being upset 30 years after the fact about Robert Christgau's December 22nd obituary for John Lennon in which he uses that old journalistic contrivance, "my wife/neighbour/an acquaintance said..." for an absolutely revolting quote: "Why is it always Bobby Kennedy and John Lennon? Why never Nixon or Paul McCartney?" First of all, wishing someone dead goes way beyond expressing musical preference (which is anyone's right to express). Secondly, this is why I dig Ray Connolly as far as journalists of the era are concerned. He was a John boy as far as favourite Beatles were concerned, but he really liked/likes Paul as well and didn't see that as mutually exclusive. Still doesn't,
as this article demonstrates, which got something of the bad taste of Christgau out of my mouth. (Though I disagree about the iTunes thing.) Thirdly, if we're talking English musicians and American politicians, I wish someone had mailed Christgau a record of John hanging out with Californian governor Ronald Reagan during the December 9, 1974 Monday Night Football, complete with Reagan explaining the rules of American Football to John. (Depending on how trustworthy you regard Fred Seaman's rendition of Lennon quotes, John also said that if he could vote in the US he'd vote for Reagan in 1980 because Carter "is a wimp".) And fourthly, I wish someone would have made Christgau write the following John Lennon quote (also from December 1980) 100 times: "These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists - it’s like idol worship. (...) What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I’m not interesting in being a dead [expletive] hero!”
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/638727.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Speaking of Orson W., someone made a good vid using scenes from F for Fake, Chimes at Midnight, The Third Man and Prince of Foxes to form a Wellesian reflection on death:
Click to viewAnd another genius made a fake trailer for Orson Welles' Batman. (LOL horrible fight scene from Lady from Shanghai.) Incidentally, Welles did play Lamont Cranston/The Shadow on radio, i.e. the prototype playboy with a secret superhero identity, so it's not out of this world, but imo Orson being Orson he'd have insisted on playing Bruce Wayne and the Joker. Have a look at the trailer anyway.
In other news, here's me being upset 30 years after the fact about Robert Christgau's December 22nd obituary for John Lennon in which he uses that old journalistic contrivance, "my wife/neighbour/an acquaintance said..." for an absolutely revolting quote: "Why is it always Bobby Kennedy and John Lennon? Why never Nixon or Paul McCartney?" First of all, wishing someone dead goes way beyond expressing musical preference (which is anyone's right to express). Secondly, this is why I dig Ray Connolly as far as journalists of the era are concerned. He was a John boy as far as favourite Beatles were concerned, but he really liked/likes Paul as well and didn't see that as mutually exclusive. Still doesn't,
as this article demonstrates, which got something of the bad taste of Christgau out of my mouth. (Though I disagree about the iTunes thing.) Thirdly, if we're talking English musicians and American politicians, I wish someone had mailed Christgau a record of John hanging out with Californian governor Ronald Reagan during the December 9, 1974 Monday Night Football, complete with Reagan explaining the rules of American Football to John. (Depending on how trustworthy you regard Fred Seaman's rendition of Lennon quotes, John also said that if he could vote in the US he'd vote for Reagan in 1980 because Carter "is a wimp".) And fourthly, I wish someone would have made Christgau write the following John Lennon quote (also from December 1980) 100 times: "These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists - it’s like idol worship. (...) What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I’m not interesting in being a dead [expletive] hero!”
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/638727.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.