Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

In my day, never was longer.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Second rate reporter says what?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Come on, man.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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Open thread

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Mistermix and I saw “Nashville” on the big screen (at the local Dryden Theater) on Friday. Amazing movie! When I was in college and grad school, my two favorite things in the world were (though not necessarily in this order) watching 70s movies and reading Pauline Kael reviews of 70s movies. So this weekend made me feel 20 years younger.

What are your favorite movies about music?

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134Comments

  2. 2.

    Evolving Deep Southerner

    The Last Waltz is hard to beat. Robbie Robertson is a pretentious tool throughout, and I can see where Levon Helm would have been pissed with the final product, but that makes the film better in a way.

  3. 3.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Stop Making Sense.
    It more or less meets the description. And it’s highly entertaining.

  5. 5.

    RobertDSC-eMac 1.25

    The only one off the top of my head that I can cite now is Moulin Rouge. Nicole Kidman killed me in that.

  7. 7.

    the Conster

    I like Almost Famous, but I love the scene where he’s looking through his sister’s record albums for the first time, caressing the cover art in wonder.

  9. 9.

    dance around in your bones

    Well, Woodstock, of course. Last Waltz, as mentioned above. Also The Decline of Western Civilization (punk rock) and X The Unheard Killer. And OMG! The Blues Brothers!

  10. 10.

    khead

    Purple Rain.

    Once upon a time I was a teenager who thought Morris Day was the coolest man on the planet.

  15. 15.

    maya

    Not a big impression in the good ol’ USofA, Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy is, by far, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s tentatively about Gilbert& Sullivan and the making of their operetta, The Mikado, but it was much more than that. Music scores were not only excellent, the actors actually played all the instruments involved and sang their own lines. It was over 2 1/2 hours long, but moves along at such a quick pace,at the end you will say, Is that all?

  17. 17.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Gotta mention Help, but not Sgt. Pepper’s* or, for my taste, Yellow Sub.

    *Frampton? really? FRAMPTON?

  18. 18.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I liked Bryan Ferry’s Dylanesque, but that’s certainly an acquired taste. Even I thought he should have loosened up a bit.

  20. 20.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Rust Never Sleeps. It’s a top-fiver. Neil Young ‘live’ is a guitar colossus.

  21. 21.

    Evolving Deep Southerner

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: It’s so funny that you mention X. One of the greatest bands ever, for sure, but the funny part is that John Doe has gone on to be http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=John+Doe+just+a+little+more+time&oq=John+Doe+just+a+little+more+time&gs_l=youtube.3…1059.10032.0.10197.36.34.1.1.1.0.80.1641.34.34.0…0.0…1ac.1.RkiCWbCvZcw>post-punk’s own Buck Owens. And I mean that as a sincere compliment.

    ETA to correct link fail.

  22. 22.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @maya:

    We loved Topsy Turvy. Beautifully made and acted. Jim Broadbent just being quietly brilliant as W.S. Gilbert.

  23. 23.

    gbear

    Saw ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ at the theater when I was 9 years old and it’s hard to top that. I still love that movie. I’d have to say that my second favorite music movie is Spinal Tap just because it’s so dead on hilarious about it’s subject.

  27. 27.

    Evolving Deep Southerner

    OK, gonna try this again. @Ultraviolet Thunder. It’s funny to me that X frontman John Doe has become postpunk’s Buck Owens. I mean it as a compliment.

  29. 29.

    Yutsano

    Amadeus, which is also a brilliant stage play. I never saw the Beethoven biopic but I have issues with him anyway.

  30. 30.

    dance around in your bones

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: Oops – you’re right.

    I have loved X since I first heard Los Angeles and got to see them numerous times in LA and SD in small clubs. John Doe and Exene had this great weird harmony together – soaring, wild harmonics.

    My kid still remembers when we took her to see X at SDSU when she was maybe 9 or 10 or so? And Mom (that’s me) disappeared to the front of the stage to dance and sing. Dad had her on his shoulders in the back of the room.

    We also took her to see Decline of Western Civilization, which probably scarred her for life.

  36. 36.

    Svensker

    @Yutsano:

    I never saw the Beethoven biopic but I have issues with him anyway.

    The movie stinks. Music is good, tho. :)

    I love Amadeus, too. Perhaps best biopic ever made?

  37. 37.

    trollhattan

    @aimai:

    “Little Voice” is one of the nuttiest, most enjoyable movies I’ve seen, at least one nobody else heard of. Can’t say how many “Ab-Fabs” I watched before I sussed out Bubbles (Jane Horrocks) was Laura from the film.

  40. 40.

    Evolving Deep Southerner

    Does anyone here remember seeing a thing called Urgh! A Music War? Notable for the bands that lasted and the ones that didn’t. I have it on VHS tape and nothing to watch it on.

    Of course, there’s always Athens, Ga., Inside/Out, but I’m hopelessly, hopelessly biased.

    ETA: This great performance from the latter movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WyifQBBYJY

  42. 42.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Dammit. I’m enjoying this thread and I have to go to Easter dinner with in-laws.

    It will be a bummer. My MIL had a house fire today and lost her 3 Pekes despite their having an open dog door of their own. We’ll never know…
    The house may be a total loss. She’s devastated, but has a lot of family nearby to help her through. Gonna be a rough time.

    Sorry to damper the proceedings. I’ll catch up in a few hours.

    RossinD, out.

  47. 47.

    MikeJ

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    I’m a huge fan of X ever since Los Angeles.

    Did you catch Border Radio on TCM the other night? John Doe and Dave Alvin from the Blasters in a movie about a band that gets ripped off and takes the money owed them. Surprisingly little music in the movie. Much more about the scene than the music.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    @Svensker: It’s also more or less accurate, at least from the perspective of the madness of Salieri. He did insist until the day he died that he had murdered Mozart even though Mozart quite clearly died of natural causes. They just shrugged it off as a rival with a conscience to clear (which may or may not be true) but a few music historians have tried to see if there was any truth to it. Unfortunately we may never find Mozart’s body, so the world will just have to wonder.

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: Oh man that’s rough. Hugs to the MIL and hopefully y’all get through this without too much grief.

  56. 56.

    vtr

    It might be my favorite, if I ever got to see it. There’s a doc out there called “The Wrecking Crew” about a group of studio musicians in LA that backed up many of the records made in the sixties and seventies.

    Also Clint Eastwood’s movie “Bird.”

  59. 59.

    rreay

    How is the new Dryden? I haven’t made it since the remodel.

    And I’m going to have to also say Stop Making Sense.

  60. 60.

    HI

    How about Once? I recall that The Commitments was also good, but I don’t remember the details having seen it a long time ago. Stop Making Sense and The Last Waltz are great concert films, of course.

  61. 61.

    jenn

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: Oh, man, I’m so very sorry. That’s my nightmare, and one of the reasons I cart my dogs around with me wherever I go. If your MIL needs a hug from a random, yet fellow dog-loving, stranger, pass her one from me.

  67. 67.

    raven


    The Jazz Baroness

    Contemporary filmmaker Hannah Rothschild tries to uncover the real story behind her great aunt’s sudden disappearance. In 1951 the beautiful married mother of five left home and went to New York in search of the man who wrote ‘Round Midnight. She found him and this is the extraordinary account of what happened next. A journey that took her from Harlem to Hell and back again. She went to prison for him and gave up everything familiar. But why? Helen Mirren reads Pannonica’s words and Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, TS Monk junior, Roy Haynes, Curtis Fuller, The Duchess of Devonshire and other luminaries tell their side of the story. This film is the result of a ten year search to solve the puzzle of Pannonica.

  68. 68.

    AliceBlue

    It got mixed reviews, but I enjoyed “De-Lovely” with Kevin Kline as Cole Porter and Ashley Judd as his wife Linda. Any movie that features Porter’s music can’t be all bad!

  71. 71.

    The Thin Black Duke

    O Lucky Man, starring Malcolm O’Dowell, directed by Lindsey Anderson, music by the ridiculously underrated Alan Price.

  72. 72.

    R-Jud

    Agree with Stop Making Sense, Topsy Turvy, and The Commitments. I also enjoyed the They Might Be Giants doc, Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns.

  74. 74.

    Nicole

    I loved Hedwig and the Angry Inch, though I liked the stage version a bit better (but thought the movie was really good). Also The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

    Rough Easter here, too. My dad, who was in the hospital a few weeks ago (collapsed from weakness) is going back there today, barely two days after the very brief OT and PT Medicare would pay for ended and three weeks after he was released. He really needed to go to an in-patient place, but Medicare wouldn’t cover it. Augh. Best healthcare in the world, bitches.

  78. 78.

    raven

    Horrific injury in the Ville-Duke game. Never seen anything worse in basketball.

    Kevin Ware

  80. 80.

    Randy P

    I see lots of mentions of Spinal Tap and it is a classic of course, but I think I like A Mighty Wind even better.

    I loved Phantom of the Paradise, have to agree with that one.

    This week I’m probably going to watch Alice’s Restaurant, which is a movie-length version of the same story told in the Arlo Guthrie song. I’d put it on my Netflix queue after we saw an Arlo Guthrie concert (no, he doesn’t accept requests to play it — too long) and then forgot about it. So it arrived this weekend in what we call around here “a Netflix accident”.

  83. 83.

    M31

    I haven’t seen it since it came out in the early 90’s but the move Impromptu, a sort of soap-opera costume drama about Chopin (Hugh Grant) and Georges Sand (Judy Davis), is quite good. The guy they got to play Liszt (Julian Sands) seriously looks just like the real Liszt. Or maybe anybody with those clothes and that hair looks just like the real Liszt.

  86. 86.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    I don’t know how Louisville can play. Their concentration has to be shot.

  88. 88.

    Ronnie Pudding

    I didn’t see whether Duck Soup has been mentioned, but surely one of the great musicals. Also, the South Park movie.

  91. 91.

    raven

    Others are saying compound. It’s actually better than the joint. Mine didn’t keep me out of the Army and I’ve lived with it quite well for 50 years.

  92. 92.

    Moonbatting Average

    Duke – Louisville game: right tib/fib complete break. Kid’s leg was hanging at 90deg. Worst basketball injury I’ve ever seen

  102. 102.

    Evolving Deep Southerner

    @raven: Lord, I don’t know. Not a doctor, and the teevee people – to their credit – haven’t been showing it over and over. It ain’t good, whatever it is. I think I’ve told you that I’m not a roundball fan/spectator at all; I’m just trying to get into it now that I’m working at a basketball school. But good God, I thought being a basketball fan would give me a reprieve from some of the gorier types of injuries you see on the gridiron. That shit? I feel so very, very bad for that kid and everyone who loves him.

  103. 103.

    The other other Max

    Spinal Tap, Mighty Wind, and any Altman film are among my favorites. I also thought Walk Hard was one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.

  104. 104.

    raven

    @Evolving Deep Southerner: It’s a miracle there are not more. Kid last night had another player come down with his full force on his head and neck. It bent his head in a way that I was sure it was a serious injury. Actually it happened in both games.

  105. 105.

    Tehanu

    Didn’t anybody ever see Still Crazy with the great Bill Nighy playing a burned-out 70’s guitar hero? Wonderful movie. Or The Music Lovers with Richard Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky?

    And what about American Graffiti and Singin’ in the Rain?

    I also endorse those mentioned already:
    X: The Unheard Music
    Moulin Rouge
    Spinal Tap
    Topsy Turvy
    A Hard Day’s Night
    Yellow Submarine
    Little Voice
    The Commitments
    Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
    Woodstock
    Amadeus

  106. 106.

    Evolving Deep Southerner

    For the greatest “band’s home movie flick” of all time, there’s The Song Remains the Same. Parts of that cracked me up even as a fifteen-year-old. Jimmy Page must be the most overrated guitarist of all time, and John Paul Jones had one of the most under-rated careers of all time. I guess Robert Plant and Bohnham both ended up about where they deserved, historically.

  108. 108.

    raven

    @Angela: They are warriors and he is their brother. They may not have seen that specific injury but you don’t spend your life on the court/field without seeing nasty injuries. I could tell you stories.

  109. 109.

    raven

    @Angela:

    Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.[1]

    I do think that it showed up a bit in the Ville’s jump shooting.

  111. 111.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Angela: I’m thoroughly impressed. I expected Louisville to need the halftime to recover from the shock. When they bought out the backboard, we were saying they might as well cancel the rest of the half, because neither team would be able to concentrate. I thought Duke had a chance to refocus because it wasn’t their teammate/leader/best friend.

  113. 113.

    dance around in your bones

    I think Stop Making Sense was the first videocassette we ever purchased. I can still remember David Byrne coming out onto a bare stage with only a tape player and a guitar? And then one by one the other musicians join him.

    The second video we ever bought was Dances With Wolves because you could get it for $5 at McDonald’s when you bought a hamburger. What the hell, we thought.

  114. 114.

    Citizen_X

    The von Trapp family is disappointed that no one has mentioned The Sound of Music, so I’ll throw that out there. I mean, come on: it’s got the Alps! Nazis! Music!

    And for great performances, great cinematography, and real-life horror: Gimme Shelter.

    But do I know those movies by heart? No, I do not. So I guess The Decline of Western Civilization has to have had the biggest influence on me.

  117. 117.

    hamletta

    I’m so late to the party, even my obscure favorites have been mentioned.

    But I did find this religious review of Still Crazy interesting. She posits that the movie is a re-telling of the Gospels and Brian Lovell is the Christ figure.

    She presents some semi-plausible arguments, but as a semi-serious scholar of both theology and rock & roll history, I find it a stretch.

  120. 120.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    Just saw a report confirming that it was a compound fracture.

    There’s also a vid up. Triggers memories of Theisman.

  121. 121.

    Heliopause

    Got to be honest with you, I like Nashville about as well as I liked Pret-a-Porter or Prairie Home Companion. The episodic style is not my favorite.

  122. 122.

    hamletta

    Also, I don’t get how a band called “Strange Fruit” would have made it even into, not to mention out of, 1970s America alive.

    I mean, really.

  127. 127.

    Melissa

    Yes. All of the above. Let me add Hard Core Logo. Also I was an extra in Alice’s Restaurant. We smoked dope with Arlo Guthrie.

  128. 128.

    ranchandsyrup

    some good documentaries:
    1. Dig! — the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols
    2. Meeting People is Easy — Radiohead
    3. Beats, Rhymes and Life — A Tribe Called Quest
    4. Loud Quiet Loud — the Pixies

  129. 129.

    Kathleen

    Standing In The Shadow of Motown, Spinal Tap, Mighty Wind, Music and Lyrics, Rattle and Hum, Hard Day’s Night

  130. 130.

    Patricia Kayden

    Dreamgirls (2006) with Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson. Even liked Eddie Murphy’s performance.

  131. 131.

    dance around in your bones

    Ok, this also makes me think about when my husband and I were in Nepal, and we were hired as extras for an Indian film called Hare Rama Hare Krishna, mostly because they paid us 40 paisa a day plus food to act like hippies in the movie. There is a scene where I can see myself jumping out of a jeep for some unknown reason.

    We smoke chillums with hash and tobacco for the cameras until we ran out of hash, then we just smoked tobacco. That made me dizzy as hell.

    I still remember this song being played ad infinitum Dum Maro Dum. I’m looking to see if I can myself in the video.

  132. 132.

    handsmile

    Most of the great and good ones have already been mentioned, but here’s a few more nominations:

    Round Midnight (fictional film starring tenor sax legend Dexter Gordon)
    Aria (ten short films by different directors of opera excerpts)
    Humoresque (John Garfield as a young violin virtuoso and Joan Crawford as his besmitten patron)

    From some of the earlier recommendations, the definition would seem to be flexible enough to include Quadrophenia as well.

    @Citizen_X: Brilliant selections each one!

  133. 133.

    maya

    @Citizen_X:

    The von Trapp family is disappointed that no one has mentioned The Sound of Music, so I’ll throw that out there. I mean, come on: it’s got the Alps! Nazis! Music!

    Yes. My fave song is –How do you solve a problem like Scalia?

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