Yeah, that's pretty much the only excuse I have for not annotating this week's artistic consumption log below. I was all set to sit down and take some time to annotate it yesterday, but my will failed me. Call it "the Christmas spirit" or just plain "laziness" if you will, but I felt more like hanging out with friends/folks yesterday rather than sitting down in front of my computer and coming up with substantive things to say about everything I consumed artistically this past week (which ended up being quite a lot, actually).
So this week's log is a barebones one. Next week's will most likely be barebones as well, but we'll see about that.
In the meantime...well, it's a day late (but hopefully not a dollar short), but here, for your viewing pleasure, is that immortal holiday chestnut "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" as sung by Judy Garland in one of the films I saw this past week, the classic 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis (yes, for the first time—and it is glorious indeed). That film, by the way, is the one that introduced that song to the world—which partially explains why the lyrics are a little different than what you might be used to hearing.
Plus, sprinkled in this week's log are some personal Christmas traditions: viewings of the first two Die Hard films as well as a Christmas-set episode of The X-Files! (I've already thought of a different choice for next year's Christmas movie entertainment, though: Wong Kar-Wai's 2046. Hey, it's got scenes set on Christmas Eve! It works!)
Happy holidays!
Films
★ The Servant (1963, Joseph Losey), seen at IFC Center in New York
★ The Gold Rush (1925, Charlie Chaplin), seen at Film Forum in New York
★ Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Vincente Minnelli), seen on Turner Classic Movies in East Brunswick, N.J.
★ Die Hard (1988, John McTiernan), seen on Netflix Instant in Hillsborough, N.J. [fifth viewing]
★ Die Hard 2 (1990, Renny Harlin), seen on Blu-ray in East Brunswick, N.J. [fourth viewing]
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011, David Fincher), seen at AMC Bridgewater Commons in Bridgewater, N.J.
Television
★ The X-Files: "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" (Season 6, episode 6) (1998, Chris Carter), seen on DVD in East Brunswick, N.J. [fourth viewing]
Music
★ Game Theory (2006, The Roots)
★ Rising Down (2008, The Roots)
★ How I Got Over (2010, The Roots)
★ Undun (2011, The Roots)
The Embracers, seen at The Bitter End in New York
2 comments:
I definitely prefer "until then we'll have to muddle through somehow" to "hang a shining star upon the highest bough." But I suppose muddling through isn't the kind of feel-good message that retailers want to pump through the Muzak system at the local shopping mall. As usual, commerce trumps art, but don't give up the struggle!
Indeed! Plus, the original lyric underscores the darker undercurrents pulsing through Meet Me in St. Louis that—if I have any reservat1ion about the film at all—tend to be swept under the rug of the film's nostalgic feel-good Americana vibe (especially with its ending).
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