"Rojo Sangre" / What Else? / Roy Haynes

Hello. The government shutdown continues with no end in sight. I've started to lose track of what day it is for the first time in my, I suppose, working life. Weird. Guess I know what retirement will be like now. Except I'll be prepared for that. But really, I have no idea how long this is going to go on. Especially with this utter madman in charge. Ugh. I'll start to feel the real effects of it in another couple of weeks. I have enough money to see it through for quite a while, but still.....

Anyway, the only movie I have to write about today is "Rojo Sangre," which for some reason I thought I wrote about years ago. Apparently, I didn't. I was in a discussion with some friends a couple of nights ago about Paul Naschy, and I recommended "Rojo Sangre" as a good late example of his work. After thinking about it some more, I thought I should watch it again to make sure I was remembering correctly. To my relief, I was.

"Rojo Sangre" is from 2004, putting Paul Naschy at about 70. He wrote and starred in the picture, the plot having to do with an aging actor looking for work in a cruel, young person's world. The early scenes of him at an audition and on a set are pretty painful to watch. But I like how Naschy tempers the character by making him pretty crude at the same time. It gives the whole thing a nice balance. Anyway, Naschy's character ends up being recruited through his agent to be a "doorman-entertainer" at a nightclub specializing in, let's say, interesting and fleshy entertainment. He accepts and begins a new chapter in life, including the "removal" of people he sees as undesirables. That's as far as I'll go into the plot. Quite interesting, and it's nice to see Naschy's screenplay made into a movie as this late stage of his career. This could have been the type of film where it becomes "oh look, isn't it cute, Paul Naschy's on the screen again!," but it's definitely not. Kudos to whoever got behind this project to see it through. The direction is effective, although it contains plenty of the early 2000s variety of "ooh, look, we can create this effect digitally, and this effect digitally, and...." I still recommend it.

One last thing about "Rojo Sangre," though....currently, there's only one domestic DVD version of this around; it was put out by Shriek Show and Fangoria. Unfortunately, it's non-anamorphic, and if you need subtitles (I do), you can't zoom it on your screen without losing the subtitles. An annoyance, for sure, but I keep thinking this might see a better release sometime down the road.

It's kind of funny - after years of spotty writing in this blog, the government shutdown has given me the motivation to write almost daily. With the exception of Friday, I think I've posted every day this week. Good exercise, but now I find lacking a bit in topics....let's see.....

Recently, I picked up an interesting box set dedicated to one of the greats of jazz drumming, Roy Haynes. It's titled "A Life In Time," contains three CDs and a DVD, and has an interesting concept. The first two CDs cover Roy's career playing with many different folks, interspersed with occasional tracks credited to Roy alone. The third CD is credited to "Roy Haynes' Hip Ensembles" and is a bit more "fusion-y," I guess. The DVD has a documentary and some filmed performances. I enjoyed the set more than, as a drummer, I thought I would. The career CDs are pretty fascinating. Most of the tracks feature Roy in some way or have a brief solo, that kind of thing. But then there's one song, where he's playing in Sarah Vaughan's band, and he's basically just keeping half note time on the hi-hat. A really great sampling of a really great drummer's career. Roy's in his early 90s now, and I don't know if he's still playing. He was in his 80s, for sure; there's plenty of video evidence out there. Fascinating, and inspiring.

More information about future Hickoids touring is coming in. We're going to play the Muddy Roots festival in Tennessee at the end of August and then shortly after, hightail it to Europe to play a Spanish festival the next week. It's looking like we'll spend the bulk of September playing in Spain and France, perhaps Italy as well. There's a chance Michelle might join me at the end of the tour, and we can continue gallivanting in Europe. We'll see. Again, this shutdown might play havoc with whatever sort of leave situation I have. Ugh, again. The uncertainty.....

And I'll close with that for now.....

A New Year / "Spring Breakers" / "Stromboli" / "Human Beasts"

A Happy New Year to anyone reading this. I hope this particular demarcation of our agreed-upon  calendar brings you joy, health, and the occasional bon bon. I feel tremendously lucky to still be playing drums, watching films, writing in this here blog, etc.

Quick reviews of the last few films watched:

"Spring Breakers," from 2013 and brought to us by Harmony Korine (writer of "Kids," writer/director of "Gummo," etc.) is certainly one of those movies that is much different than its marketing campaign would have you believe.  Even the title is misleading, although, when I think of it, the title might be completely accurate. The plot involves a group of female teenagers who rob a diner in order to facilitate a trip to St. Petersburg, FL for spring break. They have another friend who's definitely on more solid moral ground, albeit through religion, and she joins the trip. Once there, the group is busted at a hotel for using drugs (I think - this part was fuzzy), and a piece of work played by James Franco bails them out of jail. From there, the story gets even more interesting and moves in directions I didn't see coming. Frankly, every time I thought I knew what the next plot point would be.....it wasn't that. I can't say the movie was a stone classic, but it is very good, and I'd recommend it. Especially if you're tired of the mainstream movie wagon.

Hitting the ol' time machine, "Stromboli," from 1950, is the first collaboration between Italian director Roberto Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman. This is another one of Rossellini's neo-realistic films from the post-war era. Bergman plays a Lithuanian (!) refugee who is placed in a former POW camp, and while there, she meets an Italian fisherman and decides to marry him. Largely to get herself out of the camp. Once she ends up with the fisherman on his island home of Stromboli, well, she thinks she made the wrong decision. The locals don't take a shine to her, there is nothing of the sort she was used to before the war, and her attitude becomes worse as the picture moves on. Overall, I liked the movie, but I think more as a period piece than an examination of self (which is what the movie is). Good, but it didn't blow me away. I'll be watching the other two Rossellini/Bergman films soon enough, and I should have words about them, too.

Finally, a Paul Naschy gem from 1980, "Human Beasts." Paul Naschy (real name Jacinto Molina, a Spanish horror icon) wrote and directed this one, and it's got one interesting plot. Sort of a kitchen sink story. Naschy plays a career criminal named Bruno who hooks up with a couple of Japanese diamond smugglers (brother and sister). Bruno begins a love affair with the sister. After pulling off their planned diamond robbery, Bruno double crosses the Japanese and ends up killing the brother. And this leaves the sister, Bruno's former flame, to track him down. Bruno ends up, through a series of events, seriously wounded and taken to a doctor's estate, where he's looked after by the doctor, his two daughters, and a servant. Shades of "The Beguiled," in a way. And there's much more. I think this is one of Naschy's best stories. His films are always enjoyable, but this one arguably has the most plot going for it. It's a doozy. The final shot is pretty damned spectacular. See if you're not shouting "that, too??" at the end.

That's it for now....been a lazy New Year's Day. Aaaahhhh......