Prince "Pink Cashmere"

It's sad to say, but, as far as I know, this might be Prince's last good song.

Prince "1999"

(I love the second image and the way that it uses the same text from the 1999 album cover and shrinks it and places it on a purple background with all the lyrics in normal print.)

Prince "When Doves Cry"

Prince "Let's Pretend We're Married"

STAR WARS

I'm trying to get my brother to with me to the movies Friday night to see STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE in 3D. All I've ever seen is the first one, probably when I was 4, and I don't remember any of it. A guy my age should've seen them all dozens of times. What can I say? I missed a lot.

This winter has been weird so far: usually it's cold and snowy and I waste a lot of time indoors reading and watching TV shows I've already seen. Instead I've been working overtime and entertaining friends on weeknights. I'm not complaining, it just feels like something's missing. I'd like to take the whole weekend and watch the season two DVD set of The West Wing. First I've gotta buy it, though.

By the way, this past fall I was very broke- and I still kinda am- so I never got Throwing Muses: Anthology, but I still want it badly. The problem is: I don't know if the 2 disc set is still even available. If you have a copy and wanna give it too me send me a message and we'll work it out. Thank you.

WILD AT HEART

WILD AT HEART (1990) David Lynch

When WILD AT HEART came out I was already obsessed with Twin Peaks. I loved WILD AT HEART, with reservations. I've seen it one other time since first seeing it all those years ago. I was very young then, so I missed a lot of things.

Around 1989, 1990, 1991, I was very interested in art, especially visual art. I didn't care about the story as much as I cared about how things looked. I was into the Madonna videos that were dirceted by David Fincher and Mary Lambert and I was hearing Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Sugarcubes for the first time (I wish that The Pixies and Throwing Muses were on my radar back then but I didn't find out about them until a couple years later).

Anyway, after all these years, I still apprceiate the visual aspect of WILD AT HEART. And I love Harry Dean Stanton and Diane Ladd- the scene where she's got lipstick all over her face and the music that goes along are still amazing. And the things that bothered me the first time around still make me uncomfortable. I hate when they come across Sherlyn Fenn (it's unbelievably sad) and I hate when the clerk at the feed store gets his hand shot off and the dog runs away with it. It's meant to be funny and it's light-years from funny.

Can we talk about Chris Isaak for a minute? He's had an amazing career. By the way, I think he's great. My favorites are his San Francisco Days and Forever Blue. Anyway, the list of directors that he's worked with, or been associated with, is pretty neat. He had songs in Blue Velvet and WILD AT HEART (plus David Lynch directed one of the videos for "Wicked Game"; Herb Ritts directed the second, better-known one) and he had a role in Fire Walk With Me. Jonathan Demme game him small roles in Married To The Mob and Silence Of The Lambs and Isaak was on the Married soundtrack. His song "Two Hearts" was on the soundtrack for True Romance and Stanley Kubrick choose his "Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing" for the film and trailers for Eyes Wide Shut. Then he had a starring role in John Waters's A Dirty Shame.

THE DEER HUNTER

THE DEER HUNTER (1978) Directed by Michael Cimino

I'd seen parts- including the ending- before, but tonight I caught all of THE DEER HUNTER on Retroplex, one of the movie stations I get. The first thing I have to say is its a great-looking movie, maybe one of the most attractive movies I've ever seen. And the shots of the mountains where the guys go hunting before going off to war are matched by the shots of their hometown and the homes and steelmills. Another thing: look how young everyone is. Espcially Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken. They look like kids in this movie.

Watching the movie I started to feel a little sad. Not about what was going on on screen but thinking about 1978 and how my parents and aunts and uncles probably saw THE DEER HUNTER on HBO in 1979 or 1980 and how things were so different then and now they're so much older.

Michael Cimino's next movie, HEAVEN'S GATE, was a big failure and hugely over-budget. He had a few more projects over the years, the biggest probably being a remake of THE DESPERATE HOURS (1990) with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins right before he became Hanibal Lector. I've read stories about how crazy Cimino was while he made HEAVEN'S GATE and how coked out the cast and crew was and I'd like to read the book that was written about its production, Final Cut. I'd also like to see the movie itself.

I've got about 20 movie stations but they never play movies like that. I've always wanted to see ISHTAR too. I hear it's not so bad and is actually kind of funny.

Anyway, this is what I read about Cimino: prior to making THE DEER HUNTER he was interested in doing a remake of THE FOUNTAINHEAD, and, even more surprisingly, he was almost the director of FOOTLOOSE. That would've made for an interesting resume. THE DEER HUNTER, HEAVEN'S GATE, FOOTLOOSE.

Remember, William Freidkin is the director of THE FRENCH CONNECTION, THE EXORCIST, and the video for Laura Branigan's "Self Control".





Note: Tomorrow we'll talk about WILD AT HEART (1990).