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November 29, 2006
MIDTOWN STUCCO
This is my secret shame: When walking the streets of NYC I often notice interesting buildings that seem completely out of place with their surroundings. On these occasions, I will snap a few pictures, pull out my notebook and write down the address, and then later try to find out what the structure's story is. This happened a few weeks ago while I was searching out another building whose lights flash randomly from floor to floor in rapid-fire fashion every night; but that is a whole different story.
The Thursday before Thanksgiving, I was walking down Lexington Ave. from the Upper East Side when I came across a building on the corner of Lexington and 65th St. that looked like an 19th-Century Teutonic Tudor amalgamation of styles. What made it stick out, aside from its relatively low profile on Lexington Ave. and its mansard roofing was an abundance of stucco relief on the 65th St. side of the building. Here's what the AIA Guide to NYC has to say about it:
The Parge House, 132a E. 65th St., SW cor. Lexington Ave., Altered, 1922, Frederick J. Sterner. Altered since.Though compromised by the addition of a Lexington Ave. shop, this picturesque conversion of a row house into architect Sterner's office and apartments remains an unusual work. Note the decorative stucco relief.
NB: While the AIA Guide lists the origin of the building as 1922, the relieving arch over the door on 65th St. that identifies the structure as The Parge House says 1921.
So who was Frederick Sterner? According to a NYTimes article written in 2003, Sterner was an architect most famous for the "Block Beautiful" movement in the early 20th Century. At the time, Sterner prompted the conversion of drab uniform rowhouses into eclectic collections of differing colors and facades.
What to do with mid-19th-century brownstones -- built by the mile, of identical boring design, awkwardly planned and often poorly constructed -- was a subject that puzzled writers at the time, and the question was in the air when Sterner arrived. His earlier projects offered no hint of what he was to introduce in New York. He removed the stoop, covered the dark brownstone with a coat of light cream-colored stucco and replanned the interior. It is now a common approach, but nothing like it had been done in New York before.
Perhaps by design, Sterner's architectural sleight of hand sparked a wave of renovations on the block. Within a few years, several rebuilders changed the East 19th Street block into one of tinted stucco, iron balconies, Arts and Crafts style tilework, flower boxes and projecting tile roofs, mostly in a Mediterranean style and clearly embodying a new vision for an aging city.
The block mentioned above is 19th St. between Irving Place and 3rd Ave. I actually find myself in that neighborhood frequently. The next time I'm over there I'll try to take some pictures.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 7:51 AM | Architecture , NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BRIGHT PROSPECT
When most people think of NYC Christmas displays, the first things that come to mind are the tree at Rockefeller Center and the window displays of Manhattan's major department stores. Those interested, however, may want to check out Brooklyn's Prospect Park this year.
The four major entrances to the park are the venues for a display called Prospect Park In Lights. Brooklyn-based lighting designer Jim Conti employed more than a half-million light emitting diodes (LEDs) to decorate the park's main entrances.
Last night I visited the Grand Army Plaza with its Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch. While the entire display was not on as it was pretty late, the effect is still impressive. I then walked south down to Bartel-Pritchard Circle at the southwest corner of the park. Its two flanking colonnades stood like beacons. To see some of the pictures I took of Prospect Park In Lights, check here.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 7:36 AM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HERDING CATS
(They're fun by any name)
The other day K expressed interest in adopting a cat. I steered her to the PETCO across the street from where she works, which always has a number of pets available for adoption. They all looked pretty good, but K instantly fell pretty hard for two male siblings curled up against each other like a feline yin and yang symbol. She didn't have the heart to break the pair up so she took them both Monday night. Names haven't been decided yet, but she keeps bringing up Stalin and Lenin as possibilities. I normally don't equate cute kittens with inhumane megalomaniacal butchering mass murderers, but that's just me. Why not Pol Pot and Hitler if one is going to go in that direction? For more pictures of the yet-to-be-named duo, check out The Cat Set at my flickr site.
(Eddie and I in a staredown contest)
This past weekend I came back Saturday afternoon after Thanksgiving to cat-sit for my friends M & C. Their cat Eddie is a 13-year-old female who's nonetheless pretty spry. Eddie normally is hiding someplace whenever I come over because she doesn't seem to care for more than three people in the apartment at one time. One-on-one though, we got to spend some quality time together this weekend. Eddie loves leftover turkey, but stuffing . . . not so much.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 7:15 AM | Lexiphotos | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2006
TAKE THE TRAIN TO THE . . . TRAINS
One of NYC's best traditions are its holiday-season store windows. Retailers like Macy's, Lord & Taylor's, and others become tourist destinations by hordes looking to view creative dioramas and displays. There should be a new destination for visitors this December. Model train producer Lionel Trains is moving its corporate headquarters back to Manhattan.
Founded in 1900 by Joshua Lionel Cowen in Midtown Manhattan, Lionel grew to mainstream popularity through the 1950s, when trains were icons of Americana and lifelines of cross-country travel. But when cars and planes began to replace train transportation, Lionel's sales dwindled, with only hardcore hobbyists buying.
The move to Madison Avenue is part of Lionel's CEO Jerry Calabrese's aim to "re-establish what Lionel's tradition was for its first 65 years and stake our flag back in the world of pop culture," he said in an interview yesterday.
The Madison Avenue showroom, complete with oak floors and three operating train layouts, marks a nostalgic homecoming for the company. "There are old men who weep that we're back with a showroom on Madison Avenue," Mr. Calabrese said. The showroom is now seven blocks north of the company's original Madison Avenue showroom at 27th Street. "It's great to be back in the city because the roots of the company are in New York," Mr. Calabrese said.
A major stockholder in Lionel is musician Neil Young, who actually holds patents on several model train innovations, including an audio system that realistically reproduces train sounds. He got involved with the company when his autistic son developed an interest in miniature railroading. I wrote about Lionel's efforts to record NYC subway sounds back in September [see BRINGING THE SUBWAY HOME WITH YOU, 9/21/06].
Train enthusiasts--actually, anyone--should go see The Station Agent, which features a model train shop I used to live around the corner from in Hoboken, NJ. This is totally unsubstantiated, but I have a strong intuition that the movie starring Peter Dinklage was inspired in part by Hoboken City Council President Tony Soares. Tony, or, Mr. Soares as he probably should be addressed, is a Hoboken fixture who ran a great campaign to get elected about five years back. He always seemed like a nice guy to me.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:27 AM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"THIS IS AN INTERESTING SITUATION"
So says art dealer and appraiser Jerome Bengis, commenting on casino mogul Steve Wynn apparently accidentally punching a hole through one of the most valuable paintings in the world with his elbow.
"The blood drained out of their faces," Wynn said, identifying his guests as screenwriter
Nora Ephron and husband Nick Pileggi, broadcaster Barbara Walters, New York socialite Louise Grunwald, lawyer David Boies and his wife, Mary, and art dealer Serge Sorokko and his wife, Tatiana."They did not know what to say," Wynn recalled. "I just turned around and said, 'Oh, my God. How could I have done this?'
"At least I did it myself."
Well I gotta give the guy credit, that's probably the first time that group's ever been at a loss for words in their lives. I know that if a friend of mine--no matter how rich--punched a hole in a $140 million painting, they would have to carry me from the room I'd be laughing so hard.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:17 AM | Culture & | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 13, 2006
BALLSY
While many cities fall all over themselves to get a major sports league franchise, Seattle is currently proactively shrugging its shoulders and telling the Sonics to get the hell out if they don't like it there.
Empowered by a wave of venture capital, a hiring boom and pride in its homegrown billionaires, this city has decided it no longer needs a mediocre professional basketball team to feel good about itself.
Chris Van Dyk of Seattle campaigned against giving public money to sports teams.
On Election Day, residents rebuffed their once-beloved Seattle SuperSonics, voting overwhelmingly for a ballot measure ending public subsidies for professional sports teams.
The owners, who bought the Sonics in October for $350 million from Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, had warned that the team would leave unless the city provided a new arena.
The vote delighted Citizens for More Important Things, a group that, with the help of a statewide health care union, spent $60,000 to sponsor the initiative. Other cities “may be so desperate to lure tourists there that they have to overpay for an N.B.A. team,” said Chris Van Dyk, a founder of the group. “Seattle doesn’t have to lure anybody.”
Wow! That is some civic pride. I think residents of Boston or NYC would rather sell their first-born children than see the Sox or Yankees leave town. Although, NY would probably sell the Knicks for a nickel at this date and time.
When I was very very young, I used to play in a BoysClub b-ball league. One of the members of an opposing team was John Johnson's son and the former would show up for games. John Johnson was part of the Sonics' 1979 championship team that I didn't even have recollection of, but I did get him to sign a poster and hung it on my wall for several years.
Above is a picture of Xavier McDaniels, who was, if not the original, the one that made him popular for it, bad boy of the NBA. Funnily, I imagine him most for a bizarre cameo in Cameron Crowe's Singles. In mid-coitus, he appears in a dream to one of the main characters; interrupting a locker room press conference to advice "Oh yeah, Steve; Don't cum yet".
One probably had to be there, but the X-Man's public persona at the time and the abrubtness of the interlude made it one of the funniest things ever.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 4:04 PM | Sports | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 11, 2006
GOOD LUCK WITH ALL 'O THAT!
The Democrats got their wish fulfilled; and of course the saying is that you better watch out for what you wish for, 'cause you just might get it. With control of the House, Senate, and the dismissal of Don Rumsfeld, the Dems are basically out of punching bags. True, they could continue to pound away at President Bush and his VP Cheney, but that's going to seem pretty lame now that they have legislative power.
What kind of party wants to inherit a war they're insistent on losing? That was their platform: Iraq is un-winnable, based on the faulty leadership of our government. Well kids, now you have the rudder; steer us to victory or ignonamous defeat and embarrassment. The Dems have inherited a record-high stock market, stunningly low unemployment, fantastic economic growth with low inflation, and a war that's claimed a historically small number of lives with no further attacks on the U.S. Their response was to claim that Bush was Hitler, and that was about it.
Nancy Pelosi is now the House leader and frankly the funniest excuse for legislative leadership I've ever seen. Some claim that Clinton also oversaw an economic boom, but that turned out to be a chimera based on fraud and dissembling--well identifiable with the man himself. The Internet boom, Enron, and other major corporate scandals were of a piece with an ethos of "Fuck it, we're getting rich and getting away with it, aren't we?"
Bush inherited that economic clusterfuck, a massive terrorist attack, and continuing public criticism, yet still managed to keep the economy from faltering, the stock market from plummeting, and America from dumping into a Carter-esque malaise.
Now we have Nancy Pelosi, who looks like a female version of Tim Burton's interpretation of the Joker. Yesterday's punchline is now the head of the House. Don Rumsfeld was great and scary because he was an experienced government official with executive experience who'd just as soon cut your nuts off as look at you. Pelosi looks like a deranged PTA parent who's questioning your commitment to SparkleMotion. Good luck Democrats.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 6:37 PM | Politics & Policy | Comments (0) | TrackBack
INTO THE HOPPER
Last week, I wrote an aside about painter Edward Hopper [see SCRIPT AT LARGE, 11/01/06] when discussing the possibility of a Jim Thompson script commissioned by Stanley Kubrick. Coincidentally, The Whitney currently has a full floor committed to displaying Hopper's work.
Most people are probably familiar with Hopper's work in a tangential way, via a popular reproduction that replaces the three counter characters in "Nighthawks" with Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean. Hopper's work is much less pop-art than that, however, capturing the quotidian isolation of urban living rather than something you'd buy at Spencer Gifts.
The entire fifth floor of the Museum is devoted to a large-scale presentation of works by Hopper, whose legacy is closely connected to the Whitneyhome to the most extensive holdings of his work in the world. On view are not only the Whitneys most iconic Hopper paintings, but also an extraordinary selection of drawings and sketches made in preparation for these works. The Whitneys holdings are supplemented by key loans, including such major paintings as the Art Institute of Chicagos Nighthawks (1942, on view beginning October 4) and the Museum of Modern Arts New York Movie (1939).
Hopper's work embodies an interesting inter-World War style that blends impressionism with classic realism. In my mind, it's representative of an arrested and hesistant style stuck between two worlds, as the world itself was about to experience cataclysmic upheaval. The staticness of a lot of Hopper's works seems to be symbolic of a world holding its breath.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 4:24 PM | Culture & | Comments (0) | TrackBack
INDESPENSIBLE
Entertaining can be fun, post hoc,, but the preparation can be rife with stress. Thankfully, Amy Sedaris has presented a helpful cookbook and entertaining guide to help one sort the ins and outs of entertaining and feeding guests you might like and those that you'd care never to enter your apartment.
Amy Sedaris is the sister of well-known author David Sedaris and the creator and star of "Strangers With Candy". We've met briefly a few times and she is absolutely fantastic and everything one would hope she'd be, i.e. she's a weirdo with a serious talent for cooking. She's also cute as hell.
Sedaris' new book is called I Like You, Hospitality Under the Influence. I paged through it yesterday and it lived up to all my expectations. Filled with hilarious graphics and asides, it just might be the funniest cookbook of all time. If Betty Crocker were a recovering pseudo-crack whore/successful actress, waitress, and whatnot, she would've been able to write this book. The Talent Family remains one of my favorites.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 8:28 AM | Food & Drink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
THE SCARLET LETTER
Stranger things may have happened, but they don't happen very often. Rutgers--the state university of New Jersey may be vying for a national collegiate football championship. I hope no offense here to Garden Staters, but Rutgers has taken a perennial back seat to Ivy League contenders Princeton for the past 80 years or so. Rutgers is a fine educational institution, but like Columbia, which endured a multi-year losing streak, its sports program was hardly esteemable.
Wednesday night, however, the undefeated Rutgers Scarlet Nights (ranked #15) met the undefeated Louisville Cardinals (ranked #3) on their home field. With every Tom, Dick, and Tony on the Jersey bandwagon, the stadium's atmosphere was a powder keg of excitement waiting for an upset. And thanks to a horrific defensive foul at the end of regulation as Rutger's kicker muffed a field goal, the man of the hour got a second chance and Ito scored a game-winning three points.
I got word that Hoboken, NJ turned into total pandemonium following the game, as thousands of Rutgers fans, students, and alumni swarmed the Mile Square. A few miles away, I saw K's place dominated by jubilant fans. Suddenly, it was cool to be a Rutgers fan.
While Rutgers fans are about as couth as Red Sox boosters, good for the team. As one of the only undefeated teams in the country (9-0) and a member of BCS conference (the Big East), Rutgers may have a very good shot at entering a national championship bowl game. That may be mind-boggling to people in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, but that seems to be the way it's playing out.
The Empire State Building was lit up red Wednesday night as a "Go Scarlet Knights" tribute. It was lit up red again last night to celebrate the Big Apple Circus, but it's possible to believe that someone was just so hungover with victory that they forgot to change the gels.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 7:52 AM | Sports | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 7, 2006
STUCK IN THE MUD
Some NYC landmarks you just can't get rid of. Anyone who's ever traveled down the West Side Highway must be familiar with the Intrepid, the WWII-era aircraft carrier berthed just south of the cruise line terminals. Recently, it was joined by one of the retired Concord supersonic airliners. The Intrepid is a sturdy gal, surviving multiple kamikaze attacks during the war before settling in NY's harbor. Perhaps she made herself too comfortable. At the coincidence of a very high tide and other factors, the carrier was going to be pushed and pulled downstream to Bayonne, NJ for refurbishment yesterday. Despite best efforts, however, the ship is not so much floating at Manhattan's Pier 86, but just resting in a bed of accumulated silt--its screws (propellers) completely embedded in muck.
"There is a wedge of mud underneath this vessel, and she is completely stuck to it," said Capt. Jeff McAllister, who directed the fleet of tugboats hired to move the ship. "It is absolutely not moving in this current state."
Officials at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum had spent months and $250,000 planning the move to Bayonne.
But 90 minutes after they started the tug out of Pier 86, it became clear the big boat wasn't going anywhere.
With the combined 30,000 horsepower of six tugboats pulling, the Intrepid only moved 15feet, or $16,660 per foot, before the mission was scrubbed.
It was determined that the carrier's four giant propellers on its stern were anchored too deep in the silt to move it out.
"We had the sun, the moon and stars in alignment. It is a disheartening day, and a disappointing day," said Bill White, president of the Intrepid museum.
From the reports I saw on TV, it would be optimistic to say that the Intrepid will be moved before next year's Fleet Week.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 1:13 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SPAM HAIKU
I receive about 50 spam emails a day, at least. Apparently one of the tactics to avoid spam-blocking software is to fill the email with free verse. In tribute to spammers' creative efforts at being total a-holes, I'm going to translate one's latest message into a haiku.
Always very fond of
Me, but of course she did not ment-
-ion My name to you.
Wait a second, that's not a haiku. The Japanese poetry form must adhere to the 5-7-5 syllabic structure. Thank goodness I have a lot of material to cull from.
Debts of honour. Which
Were very pressing; and scrup-
led not to lay all the ill
OK, that's a stretch to be sure, but no one ever accused spammers--or me--of being gifted in the writerly arts.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 6:54 AM | Culture & | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 6, 2006
FAIR WEATHER FAN
I don't know if you can call someone a "fair-weather fan" if they root for you every year but are free to discard your prospects every springtime when the season's over. If that's the case, then I guess I'm diehard, but fairweather.
With the Yankees done and the baseball season over, and I assume that the Knikcs are a joke, my mind wanderd to the G'town Hoyas; they finished up last year pretty respectably. Great God Almighty! The Hoyas are ranked #8 pre-season. After a few early-season tune-ups they get to meet #11-ranked Duke at an away game. When was the last time the Blue Devils had to look at Georgetown as a possible upset?
I can't stand college basketball. Unlike baseball, where every single pitch, hit, run, and play can be catalogued and quantified, college basketball is a mess of chaos where teenagers give middle-aged men heart attacks. It's even worse when your team is ranked so high in the preseason.
All I can say is good luck to JT III, the coach of the Hoyas. I don't have the fortitude to stake anything on your guys anymore. You spent me in the 90s. Best wishes today however. Best wishes always; everyone loves a good effort.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:14 PM | Sports | Comments (0) | TrackBack
WELL ISN'T THAT ROMANTIC?
A friend recently forwarded this article to me about a Bulgarian soccer star. While he hasn't shot, raped, stabbed, or beheaded anyone--in the manner of American sports stars--the wild lifestyle of 19-year-old Bulgarian striker Liven Popov has instigated his club into insisting that he get married in order to settle himself down. Strangely, the kid agreed.
"I accept the order and I promise to do it," said Popov who is a key member of Bulgaria's under-21 squad. "My bosses are right to want such a thing from me because they know my temper."
That is one of the more bizarre contract riders I've ever heard of. The implications of his club's demand are boundless. If an organization can order one of its players to get married to settle him down, is there any limit on the behavioral restrictions it can place on its players? Few things could be more restrictive than a marriage.
[Thanks to JC for notifying me of this.]
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:43 PM | Sports | Comments (0) | TrackBack
NEXT STOP: TO THE MOON!
The Port Authority is shopping around for naming rights to its infamous 42nd St. bus terminal. This seems like a fool's errand. Who wants to slap their corporate name on a place synoynomous with hookers, drugs dealers, and the last way out of a cruel city?
The Port Authority could soon be selling the naming rights of its Midtown bus station, long known simple as the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Officials say the move would be a means of generating extra revenue and that the profits could be used to upgrade and renovate the Eighth Avenue facility.
The bus terminal is used by 200,000 commuters a day.
The station was originally named Grand Central Bus Terminal when it opened in 1950.
To be fair, the new Port Authority Bus Terminal may be an architectural abomination, but it isn't that bad a social place. It even houses a bowling alley that's fun to visit. The whole place is lively, clean, and relatively safe. Yet its reputation precedes it.
The Port Authority should be commended for trying to raise some cash for naming rights, but should just give it up and defer to historical and pop-culture sensibilities. The Ralph Kramden Depot has a clunky sweet ring to it. There's already a statue of "The Honeymooners" character portrayed by Jackie Gleason standing in front of the station on 8th Ave. Has there ever been a more famous bus driver than Ralph Kramden? I think it would be an endearing and softening addition to one of the more traditionally hard-boiled neighborhoods of NYC.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:23 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BITTER BITTER--SWEET!
Head down to Ludlow St. this Saturday evening and try to get into neighborhood nightlife and music mainstay Pianos. The former instrument showroom cum restaurant/venue is hosting the band Bitter Bitter Weeks [NB: The preceding site has strangely little to do with the band itself]. BBWs will be going on early as they are opening for BC Camplight, who I saw several months ago at Joe's Pub. It should be a good evening all around.
What's the basis for the recommendation? My brother is currently playing with BBWs. His former bandmate Bret is now the drummer for BC Camplight, so it's a near reunion of the performing sort for two of The Bigger Lovers. Plus, Pianos is a pretty decent venue, the LES is a great neighborhood to visit, and I'll be there. One doesn't need much more reason than that.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 1:35 PM | Music | Comments (2) | TrackBack
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
Some nights just exceed expectation. After a nice meal at Elmo in Chelsea--which serves tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich floating on top--with my brother, we headed east to check up on the usual suspects at K's bar. There, I was happy to learn that M had been proposed to and entered into an engagement with her boyfriend. Excited would be a tame term to label her. She's a lovely young woman and it just seems like a few months ago that I was celebrating her 20th b-day. Wait a second, that was just a few months ago. Her husband-to-be seems like a totally stand-up guy. So good for the both of them. Congratulations.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:30 AM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 1, 2006
SCRIPT AT LARGE
While this may be contrary to the auteur theory of film direction that posits that a director's actions directly imprint their vision on a script, it might be possible that Stanley Kubrick might have a direct influence on a film yet to be made. Although he passed away in 1999, a script was recently found that he commissioned early in his career from pulp icon Jim Thompson.
Despite its title, “Lunatic at Large” is not a horror story. It’s a dark and surprising mystery of sorts, in which the greatest puzzle is who, among several plausible candidates, is the true escapee from a nearby mental hospital. Mr. Clarke, the screenwriter, said that the recovered treatment (a prose narrative dramatizing an idea by Mr. Kubrick) was a “gem” but also “pretty basic,” and that he expanded it a bit, adding a new subplot, among other things, to make the solution less obvious. Mr. Clarke’s experience consists mostly of writing for British television, so he prepared for his new task by rereading Mr. Thompson and studying old Bogart films.
His finished screenplay has the feel of authentic Thompsonian pulpiness. Set in New York in 1956, it tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, an ex-carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up in a Hopperesque tavern scene. There’s a newsboy who flashes a portentous headline, a car chase over a railroad crossing with a train bearing down, and a romantic interlude in a spooky, deserted mountain lodge.
The Hopper that the Times refers to above is Edward Hopper, an early- and mid-20th Century painter who is probably most famous for his work "Nighthawks", which pictures a trio of people sitting at a flourescent-lit NYC diner counter in the middle of the night. Hopper's work is generally taken as portraits of urban isolation and disconnectedness. As an aside, I frankly think the Times is a being a little pretentious dropping the term "Hopperesque" into an article with no characterization. Sorry! Not everyone who reads your paper was an art history major. There's pedanticism and then there's just being obscurely supercilious. The preceding sentence is a perfect example.
Digressing, the script for Lunatic at Large sounds like a parallel of Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor. The former is about identifying an insane man on the outside of an asylum when society itself presents many candidates. The latter is set inside an asylum and presents the obviously insane inmates as emblematic of the outside society they're restricted from. If Lunatic at Large is ever produced, I think the two films would make interesting bookends to life in mid-20th Century America in a country riven with so many internal contradictions that it eventually cracked during the 60s. I don't know if Sam Fuller and Jim Thompson ever were acquainted with each other, but they were certainly kindred artistic spirits.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 4:12 AM | Film | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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- MIDTOWN STUCCO
- BRIGHT PROSPECT
- HERDING CATS
- TAKE THE TRAIN TO THE . . . TRAINS
- "THIS IS AN INTERESTING SITUATION"
- BALLSY
- GOOD LUCK WITH ALL 'O THAT!
- INTO THE HOPPER
- INDESPENSIBLE
- THE SCARLET LETTER
- STUCK IN THE MUD
- SPAM HAIKU
- FAIR WEATHER FAN
- WELL ISN'T THAT ROMANTIC?
- NEXT STOP: TO THE MOON!
- BITTER BITTER--SWEET!
- THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
- SCRIPT AT LARGE
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