I went out last nite to Ultra. My friend and new biz associate Ryan was hangin’ there with a bunch of friends and invited us to come meet him.
Ultra is this chic newish lounge, with the velvet rope, the huge bouncers, and the models, the whole deal. So it’s the shit in NYC, for whatever that is worth to you. I’ve been going to clubs in NYC for the last twenty years, since I was 16 going to Tunnel on the west side on Manhattan, getting chosen in by door men who thought I was a 25 year old investment banker (thank god for Willy Wear suits and limited lighting). So while I do like going out to these new exclusive places (Why not?), I have seen basically everything (except for seeing a topless woman give a lapdance at Cain on Wednesday nite, a first for me to see that in a club).
So I am going out to this ultra hip lounge for drinks and chillin and dancing. Whats the best thing to do first?
Right.
Karaoke.
So I meet my brother Rich and my sister (in town for Thanksgiving this week) at Karaoke 17. Now I used to be a little bit of a karaoke whore, which is the term I use for people who get a little bit too into it. I used to go quite a bit, a few times a month, spend an entire evening belting it out. I even went to karaoke in Bulgaria one nite when I was there recording the score for “My Brother.” I know, ultra cool.
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BTW, I am watching the remake of “When A Stranger Call” and while I think it’s a great premise and I think Camille Belle is sexy as hell and a good actress to boot, and the movie is very well made, I am not quite sure that it cuts the mustard. It just doesn’t pack the punch of the original – she just found out that the Caller is inside the house. And I am just not that spooked. Now I knew it was coming, because I am a fan of the genre and I saw the original last year, when I was prepping for a horror movie that I never ended up making (though it was made with other producers). I watch tons of horror films as a form of instruction when I make one, both to remind me what I think works, and as much, or more, what doesn’t.
It just seems to me that while there isn’t enough here to carry a story for 90 minutes, and I’ll be damned if its readily apparent to me why it worked OK the first time and now, its falling short. I think its just too focused on the one character being traumatized, without interruption, and her breasts just aren’t big enough when she is running around. Did I say that. Im not even a boob guy. Never mind.
It just turned into The Shining, with the dude trying to break down the door to get to her, Not scary. And hes walking after her and the kids are crying kinda goofily. OK, enough about this, I am moving on. But I still love Camille Belle. Total fox (and shes getting all wet in the pond now, hehe- OK, maybe the movie isn’t so bad after all).
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So I am at Karaoke, but my voice is really no where near where it was, strength wise. I do a few tunes, Steve Miller Band’s Take the Money, Cheap Trick I Want You, and my standard, Journey Don’t Stop Believin’. Also a little Clapton, some G&R, and Brandy, What A Fine Girl from the Looking Glass.
Haveta say, I haven’t lost it. Kid has still got it.
Went over to Ultra to meet Ryan. He actually told the girl at the door, Mia (I think, you know, you’re typical supermodel with a clipboard who watches to make sure that regular folk cant enter without the grace of someone far cooler, which I may pretend to be, but that’s why they call it pretending) and she said hi when I mentioned his name and then rather than just comping us and letting us in, actually walked us inside and took us to Ryan’s table. I guess I am a big shot now.
The place was fun (places populated by 80 percent women, and a very good looking crowd at that, for some reason tend to be fun, not only for guys but for the women too, because women don’t seem to mind being in groups that are mostly female, as opposed to us guys who dread the sausage party). We drank, danced a bit. Bitter shook her thang and was having a great time with 24 year old boys hitting on her. While Richard had left, Newman had replaced him, meeting us just before we got there. A good time had by all, thanks to Ryan’s seemingly never ending supply of hospitality.
We left at three AM or so, and Ive barely left the bedroom today. I didn’t think I drank that much, but it musta added up. So I’ve been home. Briefly contemplating going out, but I think its one for them, one for me on this Saturday nite, though (I am told) the weather is gawgeous.
Hope you all had a great thanksgiving.
Grumpy
13 comments:
Yes, G.O.S., it's me believe it or not. I just couldn't let your WHEN A STRANGER CALLS remarks pass by without a comment that applies to 99% of every movie ever made. Movies made by committee SUCK -- that particular remake -- like most movies today -- was made by a committee. Umpteen voices eviscerating a story, a vision, a film. Since movies are a director's medium, hence (and while the following applies to all movies, I'll limit myself to horror), the best horror movies are made by directors with supportive producer, strong cast, worthy crew etc., but who ultimately have it so together you can trust their vision to deliver the goods. Who's made the best horror movies ever? Murnau, Hitchcock, Ulmer, Raimi, Romero, Carpenter, Craven, Friedkin, Cunningham, Powell, Whale, Browning, Dante, Mamoulian, Florey, Harrington, Polanski, Dreyer, Boyle, Corman (the '60s Poe films), Kubrick, Tourneur, Robson, Wise, Gordon, Bava, Argento, Martino, Fulci, DePalma ... yes, even Fred Walton, who made the original WHEN A STRANGER CALLS back in 1979, financed by a guy named Mel Simon who owned shopping centers around the country and knew enough to let Fred make his movie the way Fred saw it, and let Fred scare us the way he wanted to scare us. Of course there's more, but these are just 30 examples. Reading your commentary about the STRANGER remake really made me realize that there aren't many horror auteurs out there anymore ... SAW, HOSTEL, WOLF CREEK and REST STOP are torture-the-pretty girl movies, dangerous as well as repugnant ... but if any filmmaker(s) out there can revitalize the auteurist horror genre, it will no doubt be Tarantino and Rodriguez with GRINDHOUSE. And in the meantime, here's to you finding the next horror auteur at Slamdance!
I donno, my favorite movie of all time, Casablanca, was pretty much made by committee, as were many of the studio era greats, no?
CASABLANCA is indeed the great exception of a committee movie that's spectacular. There are very few. CASABLANCA was produced at the height of a World War we were losing to supply a voracious need for propaganda entertainment, with a top-notch professional journeyman director who could do any genre (Curtiz), with a very unhappy contract star (Bogie) and a very expensive and even more unhappier star on loan from David O. (not Grumpy O.) Selznick (Ingrid), all miserable at not having a completed script. There of course have been other movies shot without completed scripts; there are none that come to mind as good as CASABLANCA. Very much the exception to the rule.
Selznick (GONE WITH THE WIND, REBECCA) and Goldwyn (WUTHERING HEIGHTS, BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES) were the only two producers in Golden Hollywood who can remotely qualify as auteurs -- and really only because of their unwavering commitment to the highest quality (read: most expensive) properties, directors, even cinematographers (Goldwyn kept Gregg Toland under personal contract til Toland died in '47 -- he did CITIZEN KANE and HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY on loan-out from Sam). Selznick's habit of using multiple (uncredited) directors (e.g. GONE WITH THE WIND, credited solely to Victor Fleming, but over 50% actually directed by Sam Wood, George Cukor, Wm Cameron Menzies, Breezy Eason, Chester Franklin, William Wellman and D.O.S. himself) led to the creation of the DGA.
After 1946 and BEST YEARS (highest grossing movie to that time, with GWTW in close second), Goldwyn's star director William Wyler was able to break the Goldwyn bonds -- Sam almost went bankrupt with one bad movie after another until he engaged another auteur director nearly ten years later, Joseph L. Mankiewicz (ALL ABOUT EVE) to direct his last hit movie GUYS AND DOLLS.
Re the rest of classic Hollywood --producers like Thalberg, Zanuck, Cohn, Laemmle and Zukor knew enough to leave moviemakers like Ford, Hawks, Wellman, Wilder, Capra, Vidor, Walsh, Huston et al. alone. That's where the expression "cutting in the camera" came from -- the director did it so the studio couldn't bastardize the work. What those producers (and those are just some of the very good ones working then) excelled at was finding the appropriate material, letting the director do his thing, and above all, selling the dang movie, which was a whole lot easier back then when the studios also owned the theatres. And if the studio was dealing with an independent chain, well, if the exhibitor wanted HELLO FRISCO HELLO, the new Betty Grable musical, they also had to take Wellman's THE OX-BOW INCIDENT. If we want to talk Eurofilm, Fellini, DeSica, Visconti, Germi, Truffaut, Godard -- basically all the greats of Italo-Franco cinema -- had it even better. Made for some mostly great movies.
Look at the best movies of almost any year, this year for example. The best movies I can think of are director-driven, not committee driven: THE DEPARTED, STRANGER THAN FICTION, BABEL, THE QUEEN, HALF-NELSON, BRICK, GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YR SAINTS etc.
Well, it is true, the exception often proves the rule. It is a director's medium, to be sure, on the biggest and the smallest movies. I think the biggest problem these days is, quite frankly, the material just often isnt very good. Its all homogenized to work in 110 different countries, all with different social mores and different tastes. That makes it very difficult to be provovative (thought-provoking, that is) in the way that some of the best movies from some of the best directors you've listed have been, at least when they are made by American (and now British, i.e. Walden) studios.
Yes, I did have a totally great time hanging with you :)
Thanks again for letting me tag along!
yeah, well, you kinda forced my hand. hehe.
heheheh.
yeah, i did, didn't i?
but, i followed the rules!! at least give me that :)
By flirting with 24 year olds? Or by going bootie-calling all nite? Snap!
Ummm, the 24 year olds were flirting with me!
As for the bootie call... snap is right! Thanks for outing me to the world.
Steph, just getting you some street cred. You need it at your age. But if you'd rather not, I can take it down. No one reads this blog anyway, much less the comments.
Yeah, your sis is turning 40 in less than a month. Age is just a number... I don't look or feel it... as the 24 year olds can attest to...
And if this sounds like a defensive comeback... it is. Cause on top of outing my personal life, now you've chosen to highlight my age.
Thanks, bro. I can always count on you.
You threw the number out there. I woulda left it anonymous. Personally, I think we can all see you enjoying yourself here, everyone seeing what a playa you still can be. But again, if you want, i can take this all down, playa.
I'm so not a playa, and you know it as well as I do...
I don't think this is what I want people to believe I am...
Your call.
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