cj fitzpatrick RIP

received news via mail (a rather strange post mortem postcard from the ol' HS) that CJ Fitzpatrick recently died.

CJ and I had a tumultuous relationship in high school - but it was generally a good one, even though we once got into an actual fistacuff at some point over something I am sure was entirely inconsequential.

CJ probably was among those who had it the hardest that I went to school with - pretty rough family life, clearly someone who felt he had to fight to survive. Culturally I think he had a pretty hard time relating to a lot of his peers for this reason, but we generally got along pretty well.

At any rate, it was a pretty sad way to come home from a long weekend.

new yorker films RIP

larry c was kind enough to pass on the terribly sad news that new yorker films was effectively foreclosed on this week. this is hugely depressing news. dan was a curmudgeonly old man who didn't trust us to mess up his prints at Doc films, but damnit, it was a GREAT house.

seriously probably (along with jessica at kino) single handedly responsible for my understanding of good and great cinema. okay I guess that's not single handedly, but damnit, still.

A little sliver of Touch and Go goes

Actually not such a little sliver.

Honestly it surprises me that there wasn't a way to spin this off, though I suspect Howard and Corey tried to make it work somehow. Given the number of not so hard earned dollars I've spent and earned from this label, well, it makes me a bit sad honestly. The cottage industry seems more and more like a unique artifact of time and place, but damnit, it's still awesome.

I will say that it will be interesting to see what Albini does.

I am volunteering my services

to the administration. my new job is going to be offering to make podium signs.




jeesh.

let's go eat sushi and not pay!

indulgences are back yo.

I like the bagger

I don't know why, maybe it's the voice that sounds like he's lived more than a little bit, or how he comes across as honest, despite having a job to do that honesty seems at time tangential to; I dunno. Maybe it's that I like movies.

But I like him.

And here, he did a good job nailing an aspect of the industry that has long interested and repulsed me.

Some years back, Brad Bordine made some comment about fame and peer group approval and the insularity of celebrity culture, while actually making fun of academics and rock stars at the same time (as only Brad can) but it always struck me as quite true. In the end the spotlight has an easier time finding celebrity for exactly these reasons. And Mr. Carr has it right and compliments Brad's cynical and somewhat meanspirited insight - one looking from the inside and one from the outside (in more ways than one of course).

At any rate, it's an issue that I think about (more than I should in all likelihood) as I skirt around the periphery of what is both the arts machine and the culture machine and it was nice to see it nailed nicely.

Lux Interior - RIP

Full on freakasaurus rex Lux Interior died in Glendale of all places, marking an end of the Cramps, glam sexploitation rockabilly punker spazoids.

I was never a big Cramps fan, but you did have to be in awe of the spectacle of it all.