Sometimes I feel it coming all the same. Then I go all queer. (He takes off his hat, peers inside it, feels about inside it, shakes it, puts it on again.) How shall I say? Relieved and at the same time . . . (he searches for the word) . . . appalled. (With emphasis.) AP-PALLED. (He takes off his hat again, peers inside it.) Funny. (He knocks on the crown as though to dislodge a foreign body, peers into it again, puts it on again.) Nothing to be done. (Estragon with a supreme effort succeeds in pulling off his boot. He peers inside it, feels about inside it, turns it upside down, shakes it, looks on the ground to see if anything has fallen out, finds nothing, feels inside it again, staring sightlessly before him.) Well?
ESTRAGON:
Nothing.
Pocket Money is a strange little film from 1972 with an impressive set of credentials: featuring Paul Newman and Lee Marvin, screenplay by Terence Mallick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, Thin Red Line), support from Strother Martin, Wayne Rogers, Hector Elizondo, cinematography by László Kovács (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces), directed by Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke).
Seminal Image: Paul Newman throwing a television set off one of the Westward Ho’s balconies (back when it was still a hotel) into the courtyard below:
The plot is practically non-existent but the movie serves well as a vehicle for Newman and Marvin’s scrappy but essentially clueless would-be entrepreneurs scrambling to make a few bucks. Nothing really happens. Maybe the Waiting for Godot of late-period Westerns?
“…an improbable contrivance characterized by a sudden unexpected solution to a seemingly intractable problem.”
Only time will tell. As for now…
Commissioned to celebrate the launch of Light Rail in Phoenix and featuring “a distinctive amplified kazoo solo”, Michael Daugherty’s ‘March of the Metro’ will broadcast at Stations and in Rail Cars on the opening day, Saturday, December 26th.
Nothing says “you’ve arrived as a city” as much as a specially commissioned piece from a classical artist in celebration of a new mode of public transportation. In the old days we would have been happy with an irritating radio jingle composed by a second-rate hack before we started tagging the cars and not using the service. Aspire, Phoenix, aspire.
Here is a link to the full article. And here is a midi mock-up of the march in all its mutant Miss Marple meets Fantasia in a weird circus-sideshow glory (mp3). Oooh, maybe we could ask to have all the Light Rail drivers dressed like Juggalos and Juggalettes!
And speaking of kazoos, it would be remiss of me to let the opportunity slip by without referencing the giants of that particular medium, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra. Here is their deconstruction - nay, total annihilation - of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’. The solo is just demented, in the best way. Screw a Zep reunion, we need to bring these guys back! Wild Man Fischer in support!
And as a special bonus, because we can: The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra - Sprach Kazoostra. Worth it alone for the look on Mike Douglas’ face. Enjoy.
Great last-second winner in the Mexico v Ecuador game last night. OK, it was only a friendly, but try telling that to Vicente Matías Vuoso. Muy bien! Now will MLS send Phoenix a team please?
Just a quick announcement: I just noticed last night that the “Email This Post” link wasn’t working. By the looks of it, it’s not been working for a long time — maybe all year. I fixed the problem last night, then spent the rest of the evening smearing lipstick on my face, staring at the bathroom mirror pulling my hair, punching my head, and repeating “bad web guy! bad web guy!.”
