ICONS TOGETHER

Monroe & Taylor

Brando & Dean

Keaton & Chaplin

Presley & Sinatra

Lennon & Jagger

Ali & Pele



BERT STERN CAPTURING ICONS

Bert Stern captured some of the most iconic actresses in his modernist and clean style. Here are just a few



 

all images  copyright: Bert Stern



TEN UNHINGED VILLAINS

Tommy Udo

"You know what I do to squealers? I let em have it in the
  belly, so they can roll around for a long time thinkin it over"



Scorpio

“You better answer me, if you want to know where the girl is. Okay? Now listen... I've changed my mind. I'm going to let her die! I just wanted you to know that. You hear me? I just wanted you to know that before I killed you!”

 

Charles Antony Bruno

“Don't worry, I'm not going to shoot you, Mr. Haines. It might disturb Mother."

 

Roy Batty

“Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave”

 

 Baby Jane Hudson

“I didn't bring your breakfast, because you didn't

eat your din-din!”

Malak Al Rahim

"I'm not a criminal, I'm a soldier and I deserve to die like a soldier"

"You're not a soldier, you're a fly on a pile of shit"

 

Luther

"Warriors come out to play"

 

Charlie Oakley

“The cities are full of women, middle-aged widows, husbands, dead, husbands who've spent their lives making fortunes, working and working. And then they die and leave their money to their wives, their silly wives. And what do the wives do, these useless women? You see them in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands, drinking the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge, playing all day and all night, smelling of money, proud of their jewelry but of nothing else, horrible, faded, fat, greedy women... Are they human or are they fat, wheezing animals, hmm? And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?”

 

Don Logan

“You got very nice eyes, DeeDee. Never noticed them before. They real?”

 



Frank Booth

“You've got about one second to live buddy!”

Kiss Of Death

Dirty Harry

Strangers On A Train

Blade Runner

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?

Wanted Dead Or Alive

The Warriors

Shadow Of A Doubt

Sexy Beast

Blue Velvet

MY HIT LIST: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 33

From February 1966, possibly the greatest single mainstream comic book ever.

Story by Stan Lee art by Steve Ditko, its a tale set in one place with one man reflecting on the nature of heroism. It's almost a soliloquy about obligation and internal fortitude. the single setting allows Ditko's art to enter the realm of the abstract and Stan Lee manages to compose some of the greatest dialogue this medium had ever seen.

This issue is a true milestone in the evolution of the comic book yet it retains a simplicity that makes it ultimately accessible.

GREAT THR33S X 2 : TIME TRAVEL

PART 1
Saving lives

I have to say that I love movies about Time Travel, Rod Taylor in The Time machine was a favourite of mine as a youngster as was the TV show Time Tunnel. Travelling back and forth in time seems a fascinating concept as the possibilities are endless

Great follow up to Moon by Bowie junior, yes it's high concept but its directed as a mainstream movie with an edge of real jeopardy. An excellent movie trimmed down to a sleek and economical machine by Jones with a great central performance from the versatile lead.

Gilliam has a style of his own and an extraordinary visual style and perhaps this is his crowning moment. Twelve Monkeys is a Hollywood movie with Hollywood stars but it has a singular vision courtesy of Gilliam.

Cameron's Terminator is relentless, as relentless as this movie. Arnie has never been better and the financial constraints benefit the overall feel of the film. In T2 a 'money no object' aesthetic made for a far more razzmatazz production. The Terminator is original, fierce and thrilling.

Source Code

12 Monkeys

The Terminator

PART 2

A Lighter Touch

Francis Ford Coppola is not noted for levity in his films,nor are they generally considered family friendly however Peggy Sue got married sits alongside Back To The Future quite nicely. Turner has shown she can play light as well as intense and as Peggy Sue you can't help but root for her.

Woody Allen's most successful film to date is not his best (far from it) but it is easy to see why Midnight In Paris is such a hit. Owen Wilson, who I generally can'y abide, is good as Woody's avatar and the story is full of clever humour and real charm. 

Yes it's mostly about Jack the Ripper but there is a lightness of touch about this movie. It's conceit of HG wells chasing the killer across time makes for an entertaining movie that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Peggy Sue Got Married

Midnight In Paris

Time after Time

MUSIC? YOU MUST BE JOKING



The current version of GENERIC AVERAGE BOYS SINGING AND DANCING are One Direction; created in the furnace of The X Factor’s voracious appetite for money.

They are not musicians; they’re not artists they are boys having their moment in the sun. Like a group of lads working in a bar over the long school break making some money, having liaisons and living la vida loca for one long summer: only amplified to 11. The fifteen minutes of fame will be rinsed by the management company with an evil villain presiding over his team of graduates and analysts to look at inventive ways to garner the cash from Joe Public: only this villain and his entourage have no Superhero nemesis to thwart the plan. Every toy bearing their image, every trading card, every bottle of overly pungent perfume, every download and every cinema ticket will help to line pockets of greedy men in offices where the walls are lined with gold records and the boys themselves will receive their share (fair or otherwise).

When the bubble inevitably bursts and there is no more cash to be made, when sales drop and another younger, prettier group of boys comes along they will fragment. The curly one will go solo on advice from a dubious agent and the rest will try to soldier on. Before long they will be firmly in the “didn’t you used to be?” camp and appearances on Celebrity Irrigation or Celebrity Breathing will be all that they are offered.

They will look back on their halcyon days like any other men who cast an eye back to that summer in Magaluf, only some of them will have sizable bank accounts but some will have squandered it all. Sucked in, chewed up and spat out by the machine of popular music as revenue stream above all else. That’s entertainment...in 2013

GREAT THR33S: DAVID FINCHER

When you are a director as good as David Fincher some of your films can get overlooked. He has the big hits of Se7en and Fight Club, Benjamin Button, The Social Network and his version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo were commercially successful and broadened his audience but three of his best works are sometimes overlooked.

Zodiac, a low fi throwback to the style of seventies film making of Friedkin and Lumet. Panic Room, a Hitchcockian thriller of confinement and The Game a labyrinth of a story with a payoff that defies description.

Fincher is one of the few mainstream American directors producing consistent quality and I always look forward to his latest. If you have seen his hits why not try one of these: I think you will be entertained

Zodiac

Panic Room

The Game

GREAT THR33S: OLIVER STONE

 James Woods in Salvador

 

Yesterday's birthday boy Oliver Stone has been praised and criticised in equal measure, his view of America's issues has caused much cinematic debate yet he has produced movies that have become somewhat classics of their time: Platoon, Wall Street, JFK. He has also directed some movies that are just not up to a high enough standard. Controversy has pretty much followed him but he is an extremely talented film maker. He has a political edge to his work and also uses complex editing and structure. Three of his best movies are little seen; Salvador, Talk Radio and U turn all feature great performances from talented actors and are less bombastic than Stone's usual fare, making for great entertainment.

 



Salvador



 

Talk Radio

 

U Turn



RANT

iPhone headphones-no one wants to hear a swarm of wasps banging dustbin lids in synchronicity thank you

“Can I get”-It’s” may I have”, “can I have” you’re not ‘getting’ anything

Fake-fake nails, fake eyebrows, fake hair, fake tan, fake breasts, fake brands, where’s it going to stop?

D replacing TH- people corrupting speech with the letter D? dey do don’t dey?

Bus drivers-the antagonistic manic depressives of the road

Celebrities-oh right, so you’ve been on one of the hundreds of TV stations inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide for more than seven minutes: welcome to the world of celebrity

Like – “So yeah, he was like, and then she was like, then we were like, and then like, they like, etc

Comic Sans – Use this to gain instant lack of credibility

Village- calling an area such & such Village does not create instant affluence

Children's Sun Suits- just put some sun cream on them and give sensible boundaries, or just don't go on a holiday in the sun

Gordon Ramsey - okay we get it, you’re the shouty sweary chef; you shout and swear at people

Weatherspoons -Alcoholics 'R' us. Cathedrals of crushing despair

 

Low strung trousers- march of the Penguins

 

Ryanair-you're not passengers you're money sponges now sit down, shut up and spend and whatever you do don't try to contact us

 

Crocs-medical staff and children only. Adults need not apply

 

ITV2-A bandon all hope ye who would enter expecting anything other than a televisual equivalent of a mobile above a cot

 

Music in shops- “excuse me, how much is this?" "how much is this?" "HOW MUCH IS THIS?" "I SAID: HOW MUCH IS THIS?!!!!"

LIFE BOAT

 

So there I was bobbing and rolling on a crystal clear Aegean sea ,the chugg of the engine and the lapping of the foam created by the boat 's swirl the only sounds accompanying my reverie. At sea with six of the most important people in my life, at sea but not adrift with my first mate as my anchor. I care about my crewmates and they care about me. This is important; to be around those who you cherish and who in turn cherish you. A tight ship, if you will.

The vast expanse of ocean that surrounded me was a stark counterpoint to the reduced world I had existed in a mere four weeks ago: that world was a world of four walls, my ability to climb out of bed was diminished my capacity to step outside the environs of my front door compromised by anxious thoughts that, like a runaway express train, threatened to permanently derail my day to day wishes for normality.

As defining moments go my pause for reflection off the coast of Rhodes defined how far I had come both in a physical sense of time and space and in terms of recovery. Yes recovery is a process that can be taken for granted because it consists of milestones, most of which are in fact small steps toward a goal: mine being the abstraction that I choose to call normality.

A boat on the sea quite possibly has a deeper psychological meaning and that's something I need to define another day, but that moment on the seven seas will be one that I will return to when the dark shadow that is discouragement visits again, and like a mutinous Blaggard I shall hurl him off the starboard bow into the rock strewn depths and raise cutlasses with my shipmates.