Videos

Documentaries Videos Raymond Chandler Los Angeles There

Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

1988 documentary from the Los Angeles History Project: Raymond Chandler's LA.

Digressions Videos Jørgen Dahl Moe Bruce Springsteen Covers Robert Creeley Mercury Rev FW Murnau Janet Bergstrom There

Jørgen Dahl Moe and Digressions

I'm at a loss for words at how extraordinary I find Jørgen Dahl Moe's cover of Bruce Springsteen's cover of Dancing In the Dark. One of the most disarming voices I've heard. The judges look like they're watching a magic trick they can't fathom.

I'd love a copy of the track without the judges' interruptions, but I don't subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music, so I'll have to do without. There's another version on Youtube that is the full song but it lacks a bit of the charm:

Speaking of Springsteen and covers, his interpretation of Suicide's Dream Baby Dream is the best thing he's ever recorded, imo. Here's the vinyl-released version that someone's paired up with footage from FW Murnau's tremendous silent film, Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans:

Springsteen recorded the track to celebrate songwriter Alan Vega's 70th birthday. It was released on vinyl as a 10" and limited to 4000 numbered copies by Blast First Petite.

Suicide's original (below) was recently used during the closing credits of the film Civil War.

Murnau's film was released in 1927, which puts it in the public domain. You can view it here:

Sunrise has a considerable number of in-camera effects, which were discussed by film scholar Janet Bergstrom in 2013.

Alan Vega died in 2016. I love his 1994 collaboration with Mercury Rev:

But my favorite Mercury Rev piece is probably their accompaniment to Robert Creeley's reading of So There, a much-loved (by me) poem:

Creeley taught at SUNY, where Mercury Rev's founders were students.

Moving on. Mr. Ocean,
       Mr. Sky's
got the biggest blue eyes
       in creation –

here comes the sun!
       While we can,
let's do it, let's
       have fun.

Indeed.

Puppetry Art Videos There

Randy Buys a Bookshelf Off Gumtree

Randy is a puppet who tells a story about buying a bookshelf. Off gumtree.

Videos Architecture Illustration Stephen Wiltshire Callum Cooper There

Five Days, Thousands of Windows

Stephen Wiltshire is an architectural illustrator best-known for his panoramic illustrations of city skylines which he does from memory.

I first became aware of him a few years ago when I saw Callum Cooper's short about his NY panorama (which is now on permanent display in The Empire State Building). Here's the short: