Elizabeth, it was good to see on FB that you are safe after the floods, and I trust that you guys didn't suffer any damage. All looks good, with you at the keyboard working on music for a new film project. That's the spirit of creativity, and it reminds me of David Lynch - whose book has fascinated me - because he is constantly creating art, in one form or another, be it painting, photography, drawing, filming small projects, making music, or even making films and tv shows. The latter two are actually what he does least because they require crews and major backing. So even though his shows and movies are what he is most known for, he actually has spent more time creating personal art, at home.
I mention him also because - well, because I like mentioning him, haha - but also because he has a Wisconsin connection. His third wife Mary Sweeney is from Madison, and when Lynch was married to her from around 1992 - 2007, he spent a lot of time at her family home on Lake Mendota. He produced a lot of art there, and even worked on screenplays for "Lost Highway" and "The Straight Story", his most heartfelt and least weird movie that was partially filmed in Wisconsin. He is no longer married to Sweeney, but their son Riley was a major character in the new "Twin Peaks", and the period of his life spent at the house on the lake, when he had his own little motorboat to cruise around in and contemplate life, was a big influence on his work at the time.
Pretty cool, I think. :)
I am back at work, but you know I watched a movie, and!......drum roll....it wasn't a Shakespeare.
That could be construed as good or bad, I suppose, but I mean it as neither. It's only an observation because of the recent prevalence of WS material I've been consuming.
Nope, tonight I needed a Western Fix, and I knew I was gonna savor it because yesterday I had received in the mail, from Amazon, three separate dvd sets containing a total of 17 Westerns from the 40s and 50s. They are almost all B-Movies, but as we know from watching many Sci-Fi, Horror, Film Noir, and indeed Westerns, very often, B-Movies are better than the high grade stuff because they are so "for real".
B-Movies are professional, but they don't care about putting on an image. B-Movies are in your face, with realistic, blunt acting, solid camerawork and more often than not, above average scripts.
So I love 'em, I recommend 'em, and tonight I watched a great one, called "Gun Belt" (1953), starring George Montgomery as "Billy Ringo", one of two brothers and a nephew who make up the Three Ringos. As I watched, I was figuring John Lennon's age at the time - 13 - and was wondering if he'd seen this movie, because for sure the Ringo name in Western movies was an influence on dubbing Richard Starkey with that moniker. Starkey also wore a lot of rings, but it has been mentioned that the Western Ringo Factor may have planted the seed in young Lennon's mind.
Billy Ringo is a former gunslinger who has gone straight. He now owns a small farm and is about to marry, but just then his brother Matt Ringo breaks out of prison - organised by a casino owner - and Matt comes calling to his now-honest brother Billy, to help him rob a Wells Fargo Stage of half a million dollars. The robbery has been set up by the wealthy and powerful casino man. But he has a silent partner, a blackmailer by the name of Ike Clinton (a takeoff on the famous Western Clanton name), and Mr. Clinton wants in on the Wells robbery himself.
The plot deceptions and shifting loyalties were nearly Shakespearean, so in that way I felt I was inadvertently continuing the tradition. And I more than got my money's worth because not only was the story tight and the acting 100% Western (with lines like, "Hey Kid, go rustle up some grub"), but also because the whole thing was shot at Iverson Ranch, so I was seeing one Chatsworth location after another, mostly from Santa Susana and Garden Of The Gods. ////
Two Big Thumbs Up for "Gun Belt" and for the new stash of Westerns I have in hand.
I wish they'd made as many B-Grade Sci-Fi flicks, cause I need a new fix of those, too.
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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