May 15 2013
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This week: Another month, another Marvel production, but at least this one sees the re-emergence of Shane Black, as Chris and Josh talk over Iron Man Three. In other happenings, Josh watches Michael Mann’s massively underappreciated Ali, Chris waxes rhapsodic about the Universal Monsters Blu-Ray coffin and there’s doin’s a-transpirin’ down at the ol’ A.V. Club.
Apr 09 2013
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This week: A relaunch of the podcast finds Josh Slater-Williams coming on board as co-host for film episodes, with discussion of the similarly-themed Side Effects and Trance, Chris advocating regular doses of Spike Lee and Josh hailing Roman Polanski’s debut Knife in the Water.
00:00 – Intro, Roger Ebert
(Funkadelic – Back In Our Minds)
07:31 – Side Effects, Trance [contains spoilers]
(Black Star – Astronomy (8th Light))
32:11 – Malcolm X and Spike Lee
(Miles Davis – My Ship)
46:51 – Knife in the Water and Roman Polanski
Apr 06 2013
I’m aware at this point that it feels like there have been more apologies for neglecting the podcast than episodes of the podcast itself, but what can I say, life keeps getting in the way. This time – i.e. in the six months or so since the last podcast – it’s been because of the process of buying, then moving into, a flat, which has somewhat precluded much activity on this front.
Anyway, I’ve taken the time to give some consideration as to how best to approach the podcast, and I thought an overhaul was in order. So I’m delighted to say that, as of next week, the Seen Your Video podcast is relaunching as a twice-monthly show – one episode on film, one on music – wherein I’ll be joined by either Josh Slater-Williams or Graham Fulton, who’ll act as co-hosts, Josh for film, Graham for music. Their presence doesn’t rule out continuing to bring in guests, but it does mean there’s less of a sense of me just rambling into the ether.
Josh you may remember from the last episode that went up, wherein we talked about all those ‘death of film culture’ articles that were floating about last autumn and subsequently earned the ire of some woman on Twitter who refused to watch films in a multiplex, so that was fun. He also writes for The Skinny, Sound on Sight and his own blog, Read Write Hand.
Graham hasn’t been on the podcast before, having spent much of the last two years in Australia, but any poor souls who ever listened to Left of the Dial, my show on Subcity Radio that somehow ran for three years, may remember him from the last year-end best-of episode we did, or indeed from Screen Shrapnel, the film show he hosted on the station with Nick Green and prior podcast guest Jamie Dunn, or from Modern Highlife, his own solo music show.
Needless to say, I’m thrilled that both Josh and Graham have agreed to do this. Hopefully it’ll make for better listening all round and – he says, once again tempting fate – a regular format for the podcast that I can finally stick to and make work. The first episode – a film show with Josh – should hopefully be available for download some time this week.
Mar 25 2013
I’m the eldest of three sons.
There’s a significant age difference between my brothers and I. My usual line for explaining this away is that, in a reversal of tradition, I was the accident. Anthony, who’s come to be known as Anton, is seven and a half years younger than me. Gerard, born in March 1996, is almost a full decade younger than I am, having been born in May 1986. The day he was brought home from the maternity hospital was the day of the Dunblane shootings. Our dad, picking me up from the school bus, seemed torn as to which was more important that I know first: that my three day old brother was home safe, or that, forty miles away, a man had killed several children whose average age split the difference between us.
It’s been a strange experience, watching Gerard age. Not only are we much more alike than myself and Anton, but the ten year age gap is an uncommonly round number for this sort of thing – for whatever reason, it’s much more jarring to realise that the equivalent of every milestone Gerard reaches is now a full decade in my past than it was to see Anton hit them. It’s been like a mixture of the end of It’s A Wonderful Life and a body-swap comedy: I’ve effectively been able to rewatch my own teenage years play out through Gerard, only with a new decade’s worth of technology, culture and political contexts imposed.
Jan 22 2013
First things first: I’m a big fan of Quentin Tarantino’s work. His first three films were a crucial part of my nascent cinephilia. I fashioned a fake beard out of my own hair and some Pritt Stick to aid my entry into a screening of Kill Bill Vol. 1 six months before I turned eighteen, probably six years before I actually looked old enough to be sold a ticket. I once sat and took minutely-detailed notes on every aspect of Death Proof – the film that many people, including Tarantino himself, claim as his worst – the better to fashion a defence of it as his best film of the past fifteen years. I wasn’t totally sold on Inglourious Basterds upon first viewing, but with some greater sense of what it’s really about have come around on rewatches, although I still consider it his weakest and most problematic. At least, I did until seeing Django Unchained earlier tonight, about which I don’t know quite what to think.
Jan 14 2013
I don’t think I’ve ever been to another live show quite like Miguel’s, which peacocked into Glasgow’s ABC last night in a swirl of strobe lights and sleeveless t-shirts. That’s not to say that the show is unique (with all due respect to the man and his skill as a performer, I’m fairly certain it isn’t), just that opportunities to see its like in Glasgow are limited. As a city, Glasgow’s live music scene – indigenous at least, and maybe to an extent that colours touring acts – is still dominated by indie, folk, pub rock, singer songwriters, genres that largely, for better or worse, place a great deal of value in the nebulous idea of ‘authenticity’. Musicians aren’t meant to seem too rehearsed, too artificial, too flashy. It’s all about the music, man. Feelings, an’ that.
Dec 31 2012
I didn’t keep track of how many fims I saw in total this year, but I would estimate it was somewhere between the two and three hundred mark (including a few rewatches). Of those, 71 were either released in cinemas or went straight to DVD/Blu-Ray (possibly after earlier festival screenings) in the UK in 2012, and it’s those 71 that qualify for inclusion in this list. Disclaimers: I missed a few big ones that are making a lot of other folks’ best-ofs for the year – Holy Motors, Tabu, This Is Not A Film – and I haven’t seen any of the listed films more than once, so all of this is going off of 1) first reactions and 2) memories of the film from, in some cases, nearly 12 months ago. Bear in mind, any non-UK readers, that most of the big award season contenders – Lincoln, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty – aren’t out here until next year, which may also explain the inclusion of some titles here that made a lot of lists in December 2011. I don’t have the time right now to fill out 3,000 words of capsule reviews as I did for the music list, but I did want to get something up before the year was out, so I’ll hopefully come back and do that over the next few days.
Dec 24 2012
You might not know it to look at/listen to what little coverage I’ve given music this year (out of what little coverage I’ve given anything, honestly), but I heard 78 albums, mixtapes and EPs released in 2012. That’s excluding reissues, of which you can add at least another ten to that number (seriously, everyone go get the four Archers of Loaf albums). Excepting those only available digitally (like the second Death Grips record of the year – y’know, the cock one), I bought or was gifted all but one on vinyl or CD (the Stanley Odd album, if you’re wondering, which arrived out of the blue from a PR). By and large, I’m happy to have spent that much. It’s been a good year. And I like buying music with my own money, because it means I don’t feel beholden to anyone for a decent review if it’s pish.
Dec 08 2012
As I mentioned previously, I wrote a few short bits and pieces again for City A.M. Bespoke, the London magazine whose second issue has just appeared online and is embedded after the jump. Some thoughts on the popularity of Philip Glass are on page 9, a commemoration of the tenth anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death is on page 12 and a reminder of how big a deal Life of Pi was for UK publishing in 2002 is on page 13. As before, please bear in mind the target audience is substantially different from anyone likely to be reading this, and know that I recognise the irony of an elegy to Joe Strummer appearing alongside ads for Porsches and luxury watches.
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