More Carrie Fisher

My obsession with Carrie Fisher is winding down. I caught Wishful Drinking on HBO OnDemand three times (I read the book last November), and yesterday I found some old articles about her from Entertainment Weekly.

You know, she used to be a script doctor. From what I understand that job pays a shitload of money- studios, desperate to finish out-of-control movies, call in writers to fix the script: pulling the story together and, especially, punching up the dialogue.

Whoopi Goldberg brought CF in fix Sister Act when Whoopi was fighting with Disney (Disney Pictures, not Walt). CF also helped with Hook and The Wedding Singer.

Yesterday I read an article from 1990. The movie version of Postcards From The Edge was about to come out at the same time as CF's second novel, Surrender The Pink. The story said that Steven Spielberg bought the rights to Pink before the book was even finished. I've read both novels and I can say: Surrender The Pink is a big disappointment. Especially considering it's about CF's relationship with Paul Simon. That relationship fascinates me- their early days with the SNL crowd, their marriage that lasted about a year, and all the songs he wrote about her: "Hearts and Bones" from Hearts and Bones, "Graceland" from Graceland, and "She Moves On" from She Mo- The Rhythm of the Saints.

But anyway, I think I've found out all I can.

Throwing Muses Anthology

Anthology (September 5, 2011) Throwing Muses

I can't wait till Anthology comes out. Disc Two (B-sides and rarities) is going to be one of the greatest CDs ever. So many excellent songs together for the first time. It's just a limited-edition bonus disc, but I believe it should be released on its own and promoted. It's all from the 90s and none of it sounds dated at all. I think it could be something never seen before: a B-sides album that becomes a hit. Why not?

Disc One was a surprise for me. I wasn't expecting "No Way In Hell". Same with "You Cage", "Finished", and "A Feeling".

Most of TM's singles were left off- as far as I know, the only one on there is "Bright Yellow Gun". I wasn't expecting 'Dizzy", but I wonder if BYG was included because it came out when they had their biggest mainstream exposure and that's the one TM song that most people might've heard before, or, if it's a song that the band really likes a lot. I like BYG but I prefer "Shark", still, nobody's heard it.

The only song I would've left off is "Vicky's Box", but I know a lot of people like it and the ending is pretty cool.

Anyway, I'm hoping that TM will come to Massachusetts when they go on tour. I'll definitely get a ticket. I missed them when they came to Boston in 2006 and I'm not letting that happen again.


Note: By the time I got to the forth paragraph in the press release I was expecting to read "we decided to eschew "White Bikini Sand" and "Santa Claus".

Question Of The Day: Answer

This Siouxsie and the Banshees sleeve for "The Passenger" (1987) reminds me of the artwork for The Pixies Bossanova (1990).

The images are similar to the Bossanova sleeve while the colors are a lot like the ones on the "Dig For Fire" sleeve.

And no, I'm not saying that they copied the Banshees, maybe they never even saw the sleeve; I'm just saying maybe they did and it gave them ideas.

Devil

Devil (2010)

This movie came out last September. I really wanted to go see it then but that didn't work out. It was on Cinemax last night so I got some chips, mini-donuts, and blue gummi sharks and put all my pillows on the loveseat.

You might not want to keep reading- I'm giving away everything here.

The movie starts with helicoper shots of a city (NYC, I guess. It's probably made very clear in the movie but I don't pay attention to that kind of thing), and it's creepy cause the images are all up-side-down.

The movie is narrated with a voice over from one of the characters, Ramirez, one of the security officers at the office building where the story takes place. The incidents are based on a fable that Ramirez's mother told him as a child and the whole movie has a fable-like feel to it. The movie was produced and co-written by M. Night Shyamalan and I guess that's kind of his thing, especially in movies like The Village and The Lady In The Water, neither of which I saw. I've only seen The Sixth Sense and Signs, but I really want to see The Happening.

Anyway, five people are trapped in an elevator and one of them is the devil. I love this kind of story: people stuck somewhere- there's a blzard or the bridge is washed out and one of the people is a murderer. This movie is a tribute to Agatha Cristie and especially her And Then There Were None.

Devil does two things very well: keeping the viewer guessing, and making the characters scary. And Ben Larson, the new temp security guard is fucking terrifying. Sometimes, Tony the mechanic is too. It goes back and forth and you don't know who really is killing the other passengers.

If there's one weak element to the whole film it's when the Devil is finally revealed. It isn't as scary as it should be and I'm not sure why. Probably because at that point you get the idea of how it's going to end. You somehow know that Tony isn't going to die. He's safe, won't even get a scratch. And while Ben and Tony take turns being scary, they're just using facial expressions and getting the job done. The old lady can't pull it off. At one point her eyes turn completely dark; I get the feeling that effect was added in post production when the filmmakers saw that she just wasn't scary enough.

Also, just a thought- does M. Night Shyamalan have some experience with drunk driving or hit-and-run drivers. Like Signs, this movie hinges on beloved family members killed by another driver.

Anyway, Devil is very good movie. I was surprised that it was PG-13, but after seeing it I guess it falls into that catagory. It's just weird cause this type of movie is almost always rated R.

Question of the Day

Here's the first RJ Battles Question of the Day- what does this record sleeve remind you of?

I'll give you the (my) answer tomorrow (or later today, after I get out of work).

I wish I had readers

There are so many subjects I wanna touch on. I've seen some good movies and shows lately- I finally got to see all of Wishful Drinking, and last night Hoffa was on- it's a surprisingly attractive movie. The dear hunting scene, for instance, may have been shot on a soundstage but it works to its benefit. The yellow sky is pretty and adds excitement; it heightens the scene.

I have to say: I saw the ending a mile away, and not just because we all know Hoffa dies at the end. I knew who would kill him because a) He looks too innocent, and b) when the kid makes a phone call he uses Bobby's last name even though he shouldn't.

I'm just wondering, what does Bobby send gift-wrapped to the newspaper? I think I know but I'm not sure.

About a month ago I saw Paul Simon on Letterman around 1986 or 1987. Simon mentioned how he hates it when people allow their songs to be used in ads. Then I remembered that "The Only Living Boy In New York" is being used in a car commercial. It could be that he had nothing to do with that, but I thought I read somewhere that, unlike most singers, Simon owns the copyrights to his songs. I'm interested to hear the full story.

That's it for now, I hope to be back soon.

Tornado

The headquarters for RJ Battles is located in western Mass., and yesterday, around 4:30pm, a tornado rolled through the area. My town was only hit by thunderstorms, but the tornado went right down my Noni's street, fucking up a grammar school and a house and leaving her without power. Her road had to be closed because of trees and power lines in the street.

The tornado went from Westfield to West Springfield, over the Connecticut River and into the south end of Springfield where it did a lot of damage.

A couple people died, including a mother who was shielding her teenage daughter in the family's bathtub.

The day started like any other. It was warm, humid, and sunny. In the morning, a co-worker told me we were supposed to get thunderstorms around 4pm. Just before I left work at 2pm my boss came over and told me that there was a tornado watch on.

Yesterday morning nobody could've predicted the way that the day would turn out. I'm sure that poor woman never thought that before the sun went down she would die.

There was a tractor trailer turned on its side and countless cars crushed by trees and homes and businesses destroyed.

Here, around 8pm, I looked out the window after the thunderstorm ended. The dark clouds were gone and it was unusually bright. The sky was bright yellow and everything had a strange dark glow to it. I went for a walk around and it felt so weird to see all the trees and buildings so oddly lit. It's something I've never seen. I wanted to take a picture but I don't think that would captured the way that everything looked. The light was just too weird.

Today things are back to normal here, but just a little to the south it's still a big mess. All day it was sunny, but all day it was also very cool and comfortable. At times it got very windy too. I'd love for the whole summer to feel like today did.

I'm about to go to bed- windows open, ready for a cool, comfortable sleep, and thankful that my friends and family are safe.