A retrospective of Patterson’s work will be held fr0m November 6, 2010 through January 30, 2001 at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, TX.  The exhibition seeks to establish Patterson as an integral player in contemporary American art. Click here  for further information.

Recently a discussion kicked up in Twitter about picking the one, key Agile practice.  Obviously the answer can vary by situation, but the consensus I saw settled on the retrospective as the answer.  Declan Whelan, in reply to Esther Derby, seemed to say it best:

@estherderby If there was only 1 agile practice what would it be for you? For me, it would be retrospectives as they are foundational.

I fully agree that retrospectives are the one powerful Agile practice to do if no others are yet implemented.  I posted:

@estherderby The first retrospective we had was stilted and shallow. And it improved the culture of the team dramatically!

As I posted that brief message, I knew a blog post was needed to fully explain the strong statement.

Getting To Retrospective

The team had been doing “Scrum” for some weeks.  I put Scrum in quotes because we really were not doing enough of the practices to use the term.  Key members of this team and engineering management were not fully committed to Agile and Scrum.  We were adopting practices slowly, as the acceptance of these key players allowed.  We were doing:

• Weekly Sprints
• Weekly planning meetings
• Daily team status meetings, like a daily Scrum
• Using a team board with tasks

I had been requesting that we start doing retrospectives, even just do one to try it out.  The biggest objection was the perception that it would be a waste of time on a “feel good” measure of little value.  Percistent discussion and pointing out the well known desire to gather “lessons learned” finally prevailed.  We scheduled one retrospective as a test.  Maybe they just wanted to stop me asking.  Whatever works, right?

The Culture

Prior to beginning our migration to Scrum, this team had a very traditional structure.  A brilliant engineer was the Team Lead.  He determined tasks for each of the team members.  As we started doing sprints and team level planning, this lead continued the practice of defining tasks for each team member.  We shifted to emphasizing that each team member needed to accept the suggested tasks.  The reality remained that the Team Lead was determining the work of the team.  (This practice was not Scrum, nor Agile.  A dicussion of the value of such a slow shift to Scrum is another blog post.  Or an essay!)

Several members of the development team were quiet.  When discussing development one-on-one, they had great ideas and interesting things to say.  When in the team meetings, they were largely silent and simply agreed with the more dominate personalities in the group.

The Setup

I chose our Training Room as the venue for the retrospective.  This is also the same room where sprint planning meetings were held.  Usually the room has four tables pushed together in the middle of the room to form one large table with 12-14 chairs around it.  For most meetings this arrangement is appropriate but for others, it is not conducive to the meeting goals.  (See http://blog.dayleyagile.com/2009/02/23/the-real-elephant-in-the-room/)

I split the tables appart, pushing them out to the edges of the room with the chairs lining three sides of the open space in the middle.  The team board showing the task cards for the sprint just ended was positioned at the front on the wide marker boards, now erased and ready for writing.  Sticky notes and pens were liberally sprinkled around the room for attendee use during the meeting.

The Meeting

During the meeting several notable things occurred.

• As attendees arrived they made comments about the organization of the room.  Some were quizical, some were intregued.  Two who brought notebook computers were unhappy at the lack of a table for thier electronic distractions.
• I asked each attendee to state what value they though they could get out to the meeting.  Their responses were interesting.  More important was getting each of them to talk so each would be more likely to speak up during the meeting.
• Each was asked to write sticky notes of what went well and what could be improved.  This minimized the effect of dominating personalities and ensured that everone had the opportunity to contribute.
• Dot voting with performed to find the top improvements to work on.  The Team Lead was particularly irritated that his three dots were not enough to force his desired improvements to the top of the list.

Immediate Changes

As I think about it today, this retrospective was not particularly effective for the practical work of the project.  We did not even execute well on the choosen top improvements.  The team member interaction started changing from that day forward.

• Everyone contributed at a team meeting, maybe for the first time.  And it was not just the individual answer at the beginning, though I’m sure that opened the door.  Every person provided sticky notes and comments throughout the meeting.
• Several times comments along the lines of “I didn’t know you thought that” were heard.  The following planning meeting that afternoon was more lively than ever.
• Right there, in the meeting, the Team Lead role began to be absorbed into the team.  This was difficult for the dominate personalities to take but the “human side” of the team started forming in a positive way.

Retrospective Power

As time went by, this team began to gel further.  Participation in the meetings and with each other increased.  The team unified further, more easily able to request changes from the larger organization.  We also had serveral meetings that dove to the heart of individual difficulties, something not possible without higher levels of trust.

Several of the dominate personalities eventually left the company, perhaps in part as a side effect of at more egalitarian team environment.  We continued to have retrospectives and attempted to apply the actions to improve our work and team.  This team eventually produced the product and has now moved on, mostly joining into a team designing our next generation project.  Retrospectives are a key part of the work and we never skip them, ever.

If you are doing a slow adoption of Agile practices and must pick only one practice, do retrospectives.  Do them regularly and with serious attention.  Daily meetings, sprints and team planning are powerful and look easier to start doing.  Real change on with the team’s human dynamics really happen when the retrospective becomes part of your habitual practice.

Stampfli & Turci are very pleased to present a new series entitled “Retrospective”, by British fine art photographer Ian Talbot, in which he looks back at his previous work.

With quotes from Johns, W.H.Fox Talbot, Sugimoto, Sudek, Armani, Kafka … punctuating the chapters, this retrospective offers a privileged glimpse into the personal centers of the creative process of this distinguished artist.

Right Eye : Fingering The Edge

© Ian Talbot

“Seeing a thing can sometimes trigger the mind to make another thing” Jasper Johns, 1982

This image is a part of an extended self portrait project.

On the surface it is “just” a more or less moodily lit close up of my right eye. However, on closer examination and with a small effort of will to see it as being my LEFT eye instead, it takes on an altogether different appearance… animal like and disturbing. Of course, in the context of being a “self portrait” one could think that the image is intended to express an animal or sinister side to one’s nature. That may well be a possible “effect” but the intent and thinking behind this image was somewhat more prosaic, albeit more complex and layered in meaning.

For some time I had been studying intensely the work of Jasper Johns for a projected series of works some loosely, others more tightly, based on the motifs and concerns of his later pieces. So when it came to embarking on my “self portrait” project Johns was still very much on my mind. In 1989 he executed a curious work entitled “Montez Singing” in which he used a device, largely derived from his reading of certain works by Picasso, of allowing the features of the face to float freely, as it were, within the confines of his canvas. The ensuing result was lips, eyes etc, coming to rest at or near the edges of the canvas with seemingly no relation to the face as a complete entity. It was this canvas that first sparked a thought to isolate just one eye in a close up self portrait of my own.

Previous to the “Montez” canvas Johns had executed the piece “Cups 4 Picasso”, a 1972 lithograph which was Johns’s contribution to a portfolio honouring Picasso’s ninetieth birthday. In this work Johns had used the device of the famous “ambiguous figure” of the goblet that can also (or rather alternatively) be seen as two faces at will, as it were. The use of the term “at will” is true but ambiguous as once one has settled on seeing it one way it requires an effort of will to “see” the alternative view.

Immediately I saw the first image I made of my own eye I knew that I could achieve something of the same sort of effect with my own image. There was no real great trick to it… a handheld camera and macro lens, all it required was to get the lighting, framing and angle right! It took a while…

As a sort of incidental “by the way”, in actual fact the resulting image (and this has been confirmed by quite a few viewers) has a slightly greater tendency to be read at first sight as of a left eye, the “disturbing” reading if you like. The simple device of giving it the correct title of “Right Eye”, however, effectively sets up the duality or oscillation of the possible interpretations.

Ian Talbot

Text & image © Ian Talbot

• You can see the complete set at Ian Talbot’s website : Fingering The Edge :Identikit

Next week
Three Squares 01 : Formal Concerns

Stampfli & Turci – Art Dealers

Disclaimer & Copyright

It’s that time of year. Yes, holidays, winding down – one hopes – and looking forward to the start of a new year. It’s never too early to begin laying down the foundations of a business, marketing or personal plan for 2010. Here’s a simple R-E-C-I-P-E.

Take a RETROSPECTIVE look at 2009. Look at the good, the not-so-good. You’ve lived (almost) another 12 months and you’ve experienced (almost) another 12 months. That’s a year’s worth of wisdom. You’ve probably learned much more than you realize and you can put that all to good use in your plan for 2010.

EVALUATE the successes. What were your goals at the beginning of the year? Did you have any? If not, resolve to change that immediately! How does your year end appear to be shaping up relative to those goals? What were the successes in 2009. Were they planned or unplanned? Write them down and figure out what you achieved. Plan to do it again if possible.

CELEBRATE your successes. Give yourself a pat on the back! Even the smallest achievement is step in the right direction. It’s something to build on. Experience is a success in itself, so at minimum, you’ve got that to celebrate.

INVESTIGATE the failures. I hate to use that word, but I couldn’t think of a better one. What didn’t work as planned in 2009? If you had a plan and something didn’t work out, try to understand why. Accidents happen. The unforeseen happens. The saying "the best laid plans of mice and men…" exists for a reason, as does "if at first you don’t succeed…". You now have the benefit of hindsight.

Begin your PLAN for 2010. Yes, I know 2009 isn’t over, but it’s almost December and the year end will be here before you know it. Your plan should include measurable goals (see A SIMPLE GAME PLAN). Looking back over this year, include possible pitfalls you need to watch out for. Try and add a goal that you didn’t have this year. On your calendar, put a short-term objective for each month and a method by which you can measure success. Don’t wait until the end of next year to get yourself back on track. If 2009 didn’t go as expected, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and plan to try, try again.

ENJOY yourself. It’s the holidays. Season of goodwill and time to be grateful for all the big and little things in our lives. Next year will be a challenge, but you’re going into the New Year with a plan and a whole 12 months of additional experience and wisdom. Let bygones be bygones and resolve to begin 2010 with a clean slate and a whole year of potential.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving (and Holiday Season)!

Ultra compact et super polyvalent
Avec son châssis poutre en aluminium, sa polyvalence d’adaptation inégalée et un confort de cabine jusque-la inconnu sur ce type de véhicule, le Méga Multitruck a révolutionné la catégorie des utilitaires ultra compacts. Gros plan sur un véhicule et une entreprise qui ont su forger un avenir au transport léger, avec ou sans permis.

Lutte contre les émissions de CO2, acces aux centres-villes de plus en plus réglementés (en attendant qu’ils deviennent payants), environnement urbain congestionné… Voici quelques raisons qui expliquent le regain d’intéret pour les utilitaires légers, bien moins encombrants et souvent mieux adaptées a certaines tâches spécifiques qu’un 3,5 T classique, par définition plus encombrant et plus cher. Cette tendance, Méga l’a captée des l’orée des années 2000, avec pour résultat la sortie en 2003 de la premiere génération du Multitruck, profondément revue en 2006 sur le plan technique et stylistique en 2006.

Aluminium, ABS et polyester
Le Méga a cependant gardé ce qui fait sa spécificité et son succes : son architecture composée d’un châssis poutre en aluminium, sur lequel vient se greffer une carrosserie composée d’élément en ABS ou polyester. Les avantages sont multiples : légereté, robustesse et facilité de réparation. Mais, la ou cet utilitaire se démarque encore plus, c’est dans la conception de la partie arriere : une benne en polyester standard pour toutes les versions, sur laquelle peuvent se greffer un grand nombre d’aménagements. De plus, précise David Charrier, Responsable Marché Méga Professionnel, « la conception astucieuse de la partie arriere et le choix qui a été fait de développer un véhicule traction avant a permis de dégager de la place a l’arriere pour d’aménager un coffre de rangement sous la benne ». C’est, en effet, la botte secrete du Méga, qui offre a ses utilisateurs un espace de rangement fermé et a l’abri des regards pour ranger les outils.

Adaptations “métiers”
Méga propose, directement d’usine, des adaptations « Métiers » de type camion fourgon pour les livraisons en zone urbaine, rurale ou en site fermé, un plateau ridelles pour les collectivités, les artisans ou l’industrie, une benne basculante bien adaptée aux espaces verts ou la voierie, une benne a déchets, un pick-up, mais aussi un châssis cabine, pour des adaptations spécifiques. « Nous sommes attachés a pouvoir offrir des adaptations spécifiques en fonction de la demande. Par exemple, nous avons développé, avec un carrossier du nord de la France, une carrosserie conçue pour la vente ambulante. Le Méga se prete bien a ce genre d’habillage, car il est compact et d’un cout raisonnable ». Certains clients ont d’ailleurs trouvé qu’il était plus intéressant d’avoir deux Méga qu’un seul gros utilitaire ! « De plus, le Méga est en lui-meme un outil de communication, un véhicule sur lequel les gens se retournent ». Une version frigorifique a meme été développée, sur base diesel ou électrique, un choix rendu possible par le mode d’alimentation du bloc frigorifique, par batterie additionnelle, capable de fournir l’énergie nécessaire a la production du froid entre 3 et 4 heures. Cette batterie se recharge le plus simplement du monde sur le secteur. A noter que la version Fourgon a la particularité de « cuber » 3 m3, soit le volume d’un Kangoo Express Génération ou d’un Peugeot Partner Origin. De plus, on peut y charger une europalette, car on dispose de 90 cm entre les passages de roues. La charge utile maximale ressort a environ 445 kg. Ce fourgon répond bien a la problématique de livraison urbaine, mais aussi a celle des sites industriels.

Diesel ou électrique
Les différents modeles de la gamme Méga se déclinent en deux motorisations diesel (4 et 11,2 kW) et une motorisation électrique (4 kW). Tous sont équipés d’une transmission automatique. Les versions 4 kW répondent a la problématique « sans permis », tandis que la version 11,2 kW nécessite un permis. Cette derniere permet, entre autres avantages, de profiter de la charge utile maximale et de performances tres correctes (75 km/h maxi). Le choix de la traction électrique ne doit pas etre pris seulement sous l’aspect financier, meme si, dans les faits, il ne coute pas plus cher que le thermique a l’usage. C’est surtout un choix fort en termes d’environnement, notamment de baisse du bruit dans les centres villes. Le moteur diesel a une cylindrée de 600 cm3 et développe une puissance de 11 kW. Sa consommation est de l’ordre de 4 l/100 km, avec des rejets de CO2 limités a 117 g/km ; ce qui conforte le positionnement de ce véhicule en milieu urbain. Le moteur diesel de 400 cm3 répond a la problématique du « sans permis ». Il développe 4 kW et consomme de l’ordre de 3 l a 3,5 l aux 100 km, avec des rejets de CO2 limités a 77 g/km.

source vehiculesutilitairesmag.com

I remember wrapping him in swaddling clothes and lying him in a crib.  The midnight feedings, his first steps, our rocking chair.

I remember the joy and chaos of life with an infant.   The schedule changes, his tiny smile, our time together when the rest of the house was empty.  And silent.

I remember him, forever, as my baby.

~

But tonight I’m starting to see that the baby has officially hit the half-way mark to 8, noted by his infatuation with dirt bikes, snowboards, and basically, any kind of sport that gives me ulcer-inducing nightmares of him cracking all his teeth out of his head and possibly suffering a minor concussion.

He has opinions about what he wears, whether the temperature deems wearing an actual jacket [he counts fleece-lined sweatshirts as being good enough], and now, he cares about his hair.

His dad and I don’t mind this new burst of independence, although his cowlicks and course mop make the carefree J.Crew-kid hairstyle an impossibility.  Instead, we bargained: He may grow out the top of his hair, but the sides have to stay trimmed to avoid any confusion between his ‘do and a bonafide helmet.

The compromise is working.  It’s also making his look so old. And quite tough. Like a dirt bike rider or a snowboarder.

I’m guessing that’s what he wanted.

Funny, though, how a mother’s heart most often repaints her landscape with a retrospective lens.  Because to me, he’ll always be my sweet little boy.

Each year we see the release of countless updated sports titles from publisher giants like EA and Konami. The problem with sports games is, very rarely they offer a new experience. Even publishers like Activision knows the fruits that exist within franchises like the Tony Hawk series. With countless sports titles on the market, it’s hard to imagine where they all came from. This week I want to take you back to 1987, where the extreme sports title California Games was born.

California games focused on sports primarily popular in California (coincidently), which at the time included skateboarding, footbag, surfing, flying disc, roller skating and BMX. We have a sports title that provided an experience of not one, but 6 extreme sports. Although the company who published this title later filed bankruptcy, California games received modest reviews, and has been ported to numerous consoles and mobile apps.

The game itself delivered some great examples of early videogames integration of sports, with particularly in depth skating and surfing available in the game. The game also provided a brilliant 16-bit soundtrack that also contributed to the games success. This undoubtedly is one of my favourite games on the Mega-Drive, and if your a retro gamer, this might be worth investing some of your spare cash on.

The Air Jordan VIII was released in 1992

The eighth model of the Air Jordan was heavier than early models. Its base was clearly close to that of the Air Jordan VII model, but it had a lot more details, including two straps on each shoe and a furry Jumpman logo.This shoe was only made in three different color combinations. The shoes were produced in less quantity than the VII. The Air Jordan VIII was re-retroed in September 2007 in its aqua colorway.Every sneaker head needs a pair.

Drake Wearing “Air Jordan 8 Aqua”

Inspiraional Director Tim Burton will be the topic of conversation during the retrospective held by the Department of Film at MOMA starting on Sunday, November 22, 2009.

Over his 27 year career, Burton has given the world films like Edward Scissor Hands, A Nightmre Before Christmas, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory amongst many classics. The exhibition explores his influence over a generation of film makers and displays over 700 unique objects and drawings.

I’m going to be heading down to the Convention Center soonish.  I’ll be meeting some of my TNT friends to get my race packet and bib number and peruse the merchandise, and then we’ll be eating a dinner to celebrate how far we’ve come.  I can’t believe the marathon is actually here!

Lately I’ve been suffering from insomnia, due in part to my nerves for the marathon.  Before I go any further, I have to say that I don’t know how people deal with this disease.  And my dad?  He used to work between 40 and 80 hours a week in his hay-day of being a homicide detective (between solving murders and going to court to testify against bad guys).   So, as you can imagine, he got little sleep.  Yet he was still able to not only work all those hours (and do a darn good job!), he took my siblings and me to softball, baseball, soccer, and cheerleading.  How is that even possible?!

But I digress.

Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I flashed back to November of 2007.  This is the first time I really stepped up my running game: I completed the Run the Bridge 10K.  At the time, this was the longest distance I had ever run, and I was really nervous about it.

I “trained” for a month or two beforehand, but I use that word loosely.  I played Frisbee (“speed work”) and ran on the weekends.  I maxed out my runs at five miles, and I ran around the Northeast Philly Airport, where I lived.

Two years later, the run has sort of faded in my memory, so I can’t give you a play-by-play.  But I have some pretty clear memories:

• I was shocked to realize that the bridge was a hill.  I had only driven across it before that, so I was little upset to realize that I ran uphill, then down, then turned around and ran back uphill, and then back downhill.  I remember being angry at myself for not having thought about that.
• I ran jut about the entire race behind this older (maybe 50ish) blind guy?  He ran with a guide on his left and a cane on his right, and he ran on the right side of the crowd.  I remember thinking that if he could do it, so could I!
• After coming back across the bridge, we ran through Camden.  There was a bunch of caution tape near this one spot because the fence had broken.  Just as I was running near it, a huge gust of wind blew and tangled me up in it.  That was the only time I stopped running.
• We finished the race by entering Campbell’s Field near center field, heading towards the infield.  When I entered the field, I teared up.  I teared up again when I crossed the finish line.
• I felt sick afterwards.  It was probably the V8 Vegetable and Fruit Juice I drank.  (Seriously, what ARE those things?!  Several servings of fruits AND vegetables in the SAME DRINK?  No, thank you.)
• Bridget drove home because I didn’t think I’d be able to make it.
• I finished in about 1:15.

And now here I am, a few days away from an entire marathon.  If you would have told me a few years ago that I would have voluntarily signed up for and trained for a marathon, I would have kindly directed you to the nearest sanitarium.

Wow.

“You can’t handle the truth”, “Frankly my dear I don’t give a d***,” “I could have been a contender” just some of the one liners that make it into the AFI top movie quote.Many of which have become a part of daily conversation amongst us mortals. Films have been a global universal cultural experience, from an idea on paper, they are translated to the screen and the stories tug at our heart-strings, the characters become pop culture icons. From Star Wars to Pulp Fiction, from The Godfather to Fight Club, movies have a profound impact on a generation. We quote the lines, we vote for Pedro, and apparently take pregnancy pacts to look like cautionary whales.

“A clockwork orange(1971)“, now considered a classic, was ban in some countries and was blamed for copy cat killings. The movie Child’s Play(1988) came into debate as an influence after the sad case of  the Jamie Bulger murder and The Shawshank Redemption(1994) was said to inspire a real life Prison Break, taken right out of the well-loved movie . Jaws(1975)  made people afraid to go into the waters. Witchcraft and Wiccan sites suddenly had millions of hits and inquisitive emails after The Craft and other similar movies came out. Across the globe young men beat themselves to a pulp trying to become Tyler Durden, then putting them on the internet.  One of the better stories was the US Air-force recruitment booths that suddenly had thousands of young men signing up after Top Gun was released. Anyone that doubts the power and somewhat overwhelming power of celluloid is either delusional or been living on some other planet.

So what does this mean, if films have such a profound influence on viewers should some form of caution be involved? Though they can not be blamed for the actions of everyone , there is no doubt that some thoughts are planted or rooted out by movies. This is not to say there should be a crack down on artistic expression or creative license but it does raise a lot of questions which remain unanswered.

As Faith Films begin to grow and have a larger viewing, whether they would become cultural icons and inspire one liners like their secular counterparts only remains to be seen. Characters that inspire us and have a profound effect on our world view. The gun totting, wisdom speaking Madea could be counted as one but some opposed to the cross dressing portrayal by creator Tyler Perry may disagree. It’s only a matter of time to see how influential on the culture this rebirth of faith films will have.

The faith films released in the past few years have come a long way from their predecessors in the 70’s and 80’s. With bigger budgets, bigger names and wider releases, they re reaching more audiences. These new films have  wider appeal and Biblically addressing issues that even non Christians would appreciate. Fireproof had a totally different to approach marriage and divorce than “The War of the Roses” ,”Intolerable Cruelty”or many of the other Hollywood films have had.Many that have seen the movie have testified to how it opened their eyes, many have gone on to recommend it. The 40 day challenge followed in the movie has been adapted into book and is said to have saved marriages that were about to crash.

Whether faith films in the future, would continue to have such effects remains to be seen, and one can only hope that it only gets better from here.

Kenya McQueen is a successful African-American CPA, working her way to the top of the corporate ladder — but her life has become all work and no play. Urged on by her friends to try something new and to let go of her dream of the “ideal black man,” she accepts a blind date with an architectural landscaper named Brian, only to cut the date short upon first sight, because Brian is white. The two meet again at a party, and Kenya hires Brian to landscape her new home. Over time, they hit it off, but Kenya’s reservations about the acceptance their romance will find among her friends and family threatens everything. An intelligent romantic comedy that chooses to deal with issues of race and perception in a straight-forward way, from a point of view not often seen: that of a successful, upper-class black woman. (IMDB Pro)

Sanna Lathan(Love&Basketball) and Simon Barker(The Guardian,The Mentalist) give good performances in this movie . Although sometimes, i the issue of race felt contrived . There were enjoyable, as well as cringe worthy moments.

A wide supporting cast included Blair Underwood(Madea’s Family Reunion),Donald Faison(Scrubs) and Alfre Woodard(Eve’s Bayou) Taraji P Henson(I can do bad….) and Mike Epps(Next Friday).

The movie explores inter racial dating and the complications that arise. One slight difference here, was that the character, Kenya, had more issues with inter racial dating than anyone else. She put more pressure on herself than the supporting characters.

The question is,

Should race be an issue when it comes to romance?

A lot of feed back from people that saw the movie was “i like prefer to date within my race”, “……… race is just my preference”.

Now, this was not simply about attraction, it was a “i wont even give you a chance if we aren’t of the same race”. Granted, some people just want to avoid the stares and whispers that they know bi racial couples get. They are not ready to deal with the complications that arise, and the raising a child in that kind of environment and that is understandable.

Having said that, let’s take a look at it from another angle. Based on the statement. “It’s my preference to date within my race” which has nothing to do with the social complications, or conflicting values or opposing faiths.

-What happens when you show up for an interview and they say “It’s our preference to hire within our race”.

-What happens when your child,niece,or god child runs home crying one day, telling you that the parents next door have a preference for their child to make friends within their race?

-What happens after moving in to a brilliant neighbourhood you try to join the Neighbourhood watch or the Barbecue, and they tell you , “We prefer to keep parties and social activity within one race, that’s just our preference”

Sends a shiver down the spine doesn’t it .It may seem far fetched but , just because one issue is social and the others professional they are still painted with the same brush.

The movie ended on a high note, with the couple over coming their pre programmed ideals and societal expectations ; they got married photo shoot and all. But the issues in the movie and the reaction from punters begs the question.

Is romantic racial prejudice, downplayed as ” my preference”, justifiable?, Especially when that preference is a blanket statement and not made on an individual basis, or an aversion of social complications, but made strictly on race.

“SOMETHING NEW” WAS SCREENED BY THE RAPTURE FILM CLUB, TO FIND OUT ABOUT FUTURE SCREENINGS  CLICK HERE

It’s good fun catching up with games I missed first time around. In this case, I’m talking about Paradroid ’90, which in turn was a port/update to the original Paradroid on the C64. The Andrew Braybrook programmed C64 original is the best known version, and stands up as one of the essential titles for the old 8-bit machine.

The Amiga version, also by Braybrook, boasts improved graphics and sound thanks to the much more powerful hardware. So I guess the question is cosmetic improvements aside – does the Amiga version fare as well as the classic C64 original? 5 years and a new generation of hardware separate the two games, but does that count for anything?

Read on…

Well, as you might expect the basic game is identical on both platforms. Viewed from a top down perspective, you’re tasked with clearing a spaceship of rogue droids that have taken it over. You play as an Influence Droid, the weakest droid on the ship, ranked 001 of 999. It has only the laser version of a pea-shooter as a weapon, but you’re unlikely to use it all that often anyway. More importantly, the droid has a “transfer beam” which allows you to take over the higher ranked droids.

A take-over attempt consists of a mini-game where you have to light more diodes than your opponent. Success means you are now in control of the defending droid, failure means both defending droid and the droid you are currently in control of explode. If you’re not in control of a droid, then the Influence Droid will buy the farm and it’s game over.

The transfer mini game.

So, once you’re in control of a droid you have it’s powers, which comes in handy if they’re armed. But the more powerful the droid, the faster the droid degrades until it explodes, leaving you as poor old 001 again so it’s important to transfer often. Once all droids on a deck are destroyed then the lights dim, you head to the elevator and choose another deck. Once the ship is clear, you’re placed on the next ship which of course is harder, with higher ranked droids. There are 8 ships in total, not that I’ve ever gotten beyond the second, but I hear once the final ship is complete it loops on that ship with harder and harder droids.

Thus we come to my first problem with Paradroid ’90 – the graphics. As you might expect, the Amiga’s power is used to produce graphics that are miles better than anything the C64 could output and for the most part they fit the game well. The issue I have is that in the C64 original each droid was represented by a number. 001 being the influence droid right up to 999 which was the hardest. Paradroid ’90 is completely lacking these numbers, with individual sprites representing the different droids. As you can imagine this looks a lot better, but it loses that immediate feedback. Generally it’s not until they open fire that you can tell if it’s a danger or not, and even then there’s no way to tell which droid is of a greater rank than another. Eventually you may learn through how quickly they degenerate once captured, or how good they are at the mini-game but the immediacy is gone. A shame.

Compounding the issue of ranks are the controls, which again are mostly fine and functional apart from one issue. To activate the transfer beam, you have to leave the joystick centred and hold the fire button. Holding a direction will fire your pea-shooter, and it takes just a little too long before the beam starts up. This leads to awkward moments whenever you face a droid that will shoot at you, as you dart around trying to dodge bullets and get the transfer beam to actually engage. Unfortunately you’ll find you’ll be getting the game over screen an awful lot because of this little “quirk” in the controls.

Not that there isn’t fun to be had with Paradroid ’90. It requires some investment before you begin to see reward, so perhaps not one for quick gaming bursts every now and again. Nor is it an easy game, the destruction of the Influence Droid means game over, so it’s possible to lose within seconds with a score of 0 if you’re not careful or unlucky enough to start on a deck with combat ready bots. The first time you even clear a deck though and the light goes out, it feels like an achievement. Then the next deck, and the next…

The main game

There are some nice details as well. Each droid feels more of an individual than in the C64 version, and all have their own strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited. You’ll also learn to be afraid of the command droid, which emits a spooky, droning noise when you’re on the same deck as it. In a nice touch the game takes advantage of the Amiga’s stereo sound so you can tell whether it’s on the left or right of the deck.

In the end it feels Braybrook did a better job first time round with the C64 original. There were actually a few different versions but generally only things like improvements to the scrolling were changed. Heavy Metal Paradroid being named by most as the definitive version. Paradroid ’90 is an example of how a game can be changed due to a couple of relatively small changes.

To actually play Paradroid ’90 you’re going to have to go the emulation route. I believe there is at least one remake of the original Paradroid, but for ’90 specifically emulation is the only answer. The excellent Lemon Amiga will be the best starting place, as it’s a superb resource for anything Amiga related.

Sure Tim makes beautiful films but it is his drawings and early animations that I truly love. So it is nice to see that Moma is honoring him. I can’t wait to visit this show over the Christmas season while I am in New York.

The opening is taking place Wednesday, November 18 & the show runs from November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010. For further details go to the Moma site.

C’est officiel, le MoMA de New York consacrera une rétrospective à Tim Burton entre le 22 novembre et le 26 avril 2010. Le réalisateur nous a concoté pour l’occasion un mini spot plutôt sympa. L’animation proposée réinterprète le logo du musée dans un style complétement propre au créateur d’Edward aux mains d’argent. On notera l’expression quasi humaine que Tim Burton arrive à faire passer par ce petit personnage de métal. Enjoy!

L’exposition Soulages est certainement l’un des plus grands événements de l’automne en matière de culture en France. Bien entendu, ce type d’affirmation n’engage que moi… Reste que, d’habitude sceptique en ce qui concerne les expositions au Centre Pompidou, je m’incline.

A visiter jusqu’au 8 mars 2010, l’exposition Soulages propose une rétrospective de l’oeuvre du maître du noir et de l’outre-noir. Partant d’un accrochage chronologique, les toiles plus récentes trouvent une unité dans leur facture et leur traitement. Savant jeu de matière et de lumière, le noir s’illumine et trace ses sillons sous le regard médusé du visiteur. Se déclinant dans une véritable richesse, une générosité et une profondeur sans fin, les abysses des oeuvres de Soulages se font lumineuses et sereines.

Et même si la configuration du centre Pompidou rend l’exposition sinueuse, on ne peut pas reprocher à cette exposition son manque de fidélité par rapport au peintre. En effet, Soulages a décidé de l’accrochage lui-même. Autant dire que le peintre a établi lui-même la géographie à respecter pour que la relation oeuvre/public s’exprime selon ses désirs. Le maître est constamment présent : depuis l’affiche jusque dans la mise en place des oeuvres.

Ne vous laissez pas berner par les reproductions des oeuvres de Soulages, rendez vous directement au Centre Pompidou : seul votre oeil pourra rentre justice à un tel travail, et non pas un cliché sur papier glacé.

Il s’agit certainement d’une des meilleures expositions organisée au MNAM au cours de ces dernières années.

Today I did something I hadn’t done since last November.

I ran with Erin.

See, I have several hangups about running with people.  In no particular order, they are:

• I’m slow
• People who run with me will get frustrated that I’m slow and therefore slowing them down
• That I won’t be able to talk
• That if I can talk, I won’t have anything to say

Well, training with TNT has changed that.  If someone is going to run with me, he/she knows my pace and therefore knows what to expect.  So when Erin called me this afternoon saying she needed to go for a run, I offered to accompany her.  Not only would we be able to catch up (I mean, it had been about 18 whole hours since I last talked to her!) but there’s a better chance that we won’t get stolen if we’re together.  So we set out for 3-4 miles along Kelly Drive.

We talked mainly about work–what happened today, updates on different situations, but it was nice to get out of the house.  And I couldn’t help flashing back to just about a year ago, when Erin and I ran a half marathon.

I had signed up for the race in September, still excited about running Broad Street the previous May.  If I could run 10 miles, I could run 13, right?  My training was spotty–between the long hours I was putting in at work and fall Frisbee, I wasn’t running much during the week.  I did, however, make sure to get in my long runs on the weekends.  I discovered the Manayunk Towpath, since there was a regatta just about every weekend on Kelly Drive.  The Towpath is mainly flat and a nice little change from my normal route, but it’s really hard to figure out how far you’re going.  I ran 8 miles one day by accident.

The week before the half, I played in a Frisbee tournament on a rainy, muddy Saturday.  Afterwards, I went to my 10 year reunion, and the next day, I dragged my sore, tired body out of bed and ran 10 miles.  After an exhausting and exercise-filled weekend, I felt confident and prepared for the race.

But as race day dawned, I started feeling nervous.  First of all, it was freezing.  I mean, literally below 32 degrees.  I hadn’t run in weather this cold.  I didn’t know if I’d be able to run 13 miles.  Plus, I couldn’t quite get over the cold I’d had for about a week.  I took some Advil, packed my fanny pack with GUs, and headed out of my apartment, the moon still bright in the sky.

Erin and I decided to take a cab to the race since it was early Sunday morning and the buses and trains weren’t running on time.  Our cab showed up at one of our favorite pizza places (which is in between our apartments) and we climbed in, already freezing and not knowing about the whole wearable garbage bag thing that experienced runners did.  We exited the cab as the sun started peaking over the horizon, and we walked around, surveying the race scene.  We figured out a place to meet if we got separated (at the meeting place but near the Qs), and found our our corrals.  We agreed that we didn’t have to run together, but we could.  As the race started, the sub-30 degree temp prevented the airhorn from going off.  I told you–freezing.

I ran with Erin for the first three miles, but then lost her when I stopped off for some water at the first stop.  I caught back up to her and we essentially ran together, though we didn’t talk.  I had my iPod with me (don’t tell the organizers) and the music was definitely helping.  For the first eight or so miles, I felt great.  I even thought, “I could run a full marathon!  Bring it on!”

But as we approached Memorial Hall (which I think is around mile 10), the fatigue started to hit me.  I had a side stitch (probably from too much GU/water/Gatorade) and I think that my brain/nerves  started to get the better of me.  I hadn’t run more than 10 miles and I didn’t think I could do it.  My iPod died.  But Erin was there and I kept telling myself how far I had already come and that I was almost done.

We approached our last water stop as a volunteer bundled in a blue coat and black hat cautioned, “Ice ahead!  Slow down!  Ice ahead!  Runners, slow down!”  And man, was he right!  I was walking and I still slipped a little as I grabbed my last cup of water.

We set out for the remainder of the course.  The hardest distance was the last 1.1.  I smiled when I saw the 12 mile mark and it broadened when I heard a volunteer say, “Just get up that hill!  You’re almost there!”  Well, we had to get back to the Art Museum and then run around Eakins Oval which was much bigger than I remember.   “Almost there” has become one of my least-favorite expressions (along with “cash bar” and “not included with purchase”).  Erin and I crossed the finish line at 2:23, high fived, and hobbled towards the finishers’ area, where we got solar-activated blankets, some food (my apple juice was more like an apple ice cube), and our finishers medals.  After using the Port-a-potties, we walked towards our bus stop and headed back home, exhausted and proud.

So, yeah, today’s run felt pretty good.  And it was nice to run with an old friend.

As I was surfing on the internet I have found a blogsite with Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s apparels designed for Canon in 2007. At that point I thought I should make a little retrospective photo gallery to let you know that among other european designers, like Castelbajac or Matthew Williamson I was also invited by Canon to design a collection for their ‘We Speak Image’ campaign. I was teemed up with  clothes designer Bodza Team to design the hungarian collection of 6 outfits made out of Canon’s printing fabrics and papers. After finishing the collection we had a fashion show. I’m happy and also very proud that I’ve been chosen by Canon to represent Hungary with a creative collection. Our aim was to make something hungarian: feminine and colorful mixed up with traditional tailoring. The result was a fashionable yet experimental collection of 6 outfits.

The White Ribbon (w/d. Michael Haneke, 2009)

Technically faultless. Often arrestingly beautiful. Superlative performances.

Sound design, structure and mise en scene recall Hidden, The Piano Teacher and Benny’s Video, so The White Ribbon is arguably the apotheosis of an auteur mastering his language. The disturbance the film arouses is redolent of that turbulence coursing beneath Resnais’s Night and Fog, but without its explicit surface.

Haneke plays a few games in imitation of Ingmar Bergman – mirroring both images, plotted power dynamics, stylistic and dramatic aspects of dialogue. The Lutheran pastor is an expansion on that sinister figure of Fanny and Alexander. The doctor is an explicit rendition of the doctor in Cries and Whispers, or so many other Bergman men who have skeletons in their cupboards and violently abusive exchanges with the women they crush. Wintry black and white crime scenes recall the suicide of Winter Light.

Haneke clearly intends, and was quite right to mention so in recent interviews, his films to lurk in your thoughts once you’ve left the cinema. Nobody sits to discuss the film after, and it worries you in the core. Plotting, despite the ubiquitous inconclusiveness, is essential to his method and ends. The stories remain open both to leave one questioning events, and thereby to return one to the world presented. We aren’t to wonder ‘who done it’. That is irrelevant, and a MacGuffin to draw us into pondering this world’s “malice”, “envy”, “brutality”, “apathy” and “perverse revenge”.

One can hardly help but place the little boy in the white band, his lips pursed as though a lie is trying to force its way out, in his presumed future as camp commandant; his omnipresent sister as a prototype Eva Braun; the flayed whistle-thief as jackbooted storm-trooper. This is context specific, but the film’s world isn’t, and Haneke wants it to be read easily into any scenario where an authoritarian and absolutist value system is forced down throats until it is internalized and returned with vengeful fury to those who hypocritically and inconsistently inseminated it. Where Hidden made the vague gnawing of collective cultural responsibility for distant suffering highly acute, personal and present inside our lives (rather like a terrorist attack), The White Ribbon plays a similar tune to those vices quoted above. Here is where its lingering, troublesome affect has bite, and why I draw the Night and Fog analogy. Each of us is still culpable, in the same dimensions as those condemned, for contemporary manifestations of those same horrors.

The Saragossa Manuscript (d. Wojciech Has, 1966)

Inspired and exuberant. Stunning images articulated with a distinct, elegant, mature cinematic language.

Jan Potocki’s magical story manages to subvert what might have been a typical tale of aristocratic intrigue, straight out of Dumas, into something quite disturbing. It is immense in girth and depth.

On the one hand, it adopts a Nietzschean paradigm of cyclical infinite repetition, brought out in the unending hallucinated purgatory of our protagonist, a Captain of the Walloon Guards, who foolishly blunders into Satan’s land, by insisting on a shortcut through the Sierra Morena. He is cursed to return unendingly to Venta Quemada, the haunted bothy where two Orientalized sirens bewitch him, only to awake at a bone and corpse strewn gallows, carrion birds menacing.

On the other hand, it adopts a framing paradigm, wherein each character introduced begins to tell their own story, generating an infinitesimal inwardly collapsing sequence of stories within stories, than only begin to intersect and illuminate one another at the fourth integral. Whereupon light begins to dawn on the whole, as gestured at by the interceding Velasquez, a philosopher skeptic introduced alongside a mysterious Cabbalist and a gypsy king.

The story and its structure are highly entertaining, but so is their formal constitution. There are too many aspects to highlight in this respect, but one of my favourite is the sound design. Is there any other film in which a plucked double bass is used to such haunting, comical, erotic, otherwise suggestive effect? It is also astounding to behold, from the opening credits, what affect the cinemascope widescreen commands. What an incredible picture. Great thanks to Coppola and Scorsese for remastering this.

PS – watch out for one of the most delightfully flagrant uses of bedpost-as-phallus.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (w/d. Terry Gilliam, 2009)

Despite certain schizophrenic incoherences in structure and script, there is nothing else available today with the same degree of imagination and originality.

The images of Gilliam’s mind appear more phenomenal than ever, due to some well-tempered use of CGI. I have not felt so won-over by a world of fiction in recent memory. Imaginarium is so captivating (almost solipsistic, were it not for the real economic and social particles that fly penetratingly hither and thither) that one can forget the real world exists, and walk out with a sense of nostalgia measured by its gentle concluding scene.

Tom Waits is, naturally, a delight. Christopher Plummer has trouble delivering Dr Parnassus with any consistency, given the difficult tonal shifts and character twists left obfuscated by the script, throwing him between drunken lunacy and meditative transcendence. Everyone else is right on the money, though Ledger is somewhat snatched in and out of the film, for obvious reasons. Amongst the walk-on roles, Farrell is definitely weaker than Depp and Law. But they are all much the same character in different faces, so it pulls together neatly. To my satisfaction, there is a substantial part for Andrew Garfield, who we will remember from Red Riding. He is an absolute star.

I loved this film. It is obviously not a great film on an objective scale, and not among Gilliam’s best. But it is a world unto itself, of uncanny vision. This is a pretty rare thing.

Katalin Varga (w/d. Peter Strickland, 2009)

Haunting, experimental, bleak, yet oddly satisfying.

The strengths of Katalin Varga are built on smart concept, sharp screenplay, inventive, youthful direction, and note perfect performance. Its weaknesses, in some respects, were proscribed by budget constraint. Some of the imagery Strickland captures, of forests in particular, and the excellent application of sound, of nature in particular, call to mind the highest – aesthetic – achievements of Antichrist. But obviously, without the experienced cinematographic talent and high-tech gear on board. It is sincere and honest in its engagement with the audience, but a little more manipulation might help us engage better, feel the tension when it’s unfolding. One thing to admire – this is one of the few films I’ve seen in 2009 which ends when it should end. An interesting commentary on the conditions of the possibility of female empowerment in developing countries. And, equally, a transcendental analysis of revenge. A genuinely clever film.

Zombieland (d. Ruben Fleischer, 2009)

A stupid film with a ghastly, ghastly script.

Usually charming, here Jesse Eisenberg delivers a perennial voiceover of patronising inauthenticity, weak imagination, and vomit-inducing cliche. Zombieland’s basic three act structure is crudely drawn out of a featureless, derivative story, with atrocious and incredible dialogue to boot. Reasonable production values there may be – in fact quite a bit of cash was clearly thrown at this glossy, high shutter speed slow-motion bilefest. Harrelson phones in his Mickey from Natural Born Killers, but his edge is absent. Eisenberg is completely deflated by the execrable writing. Did Fleischer just force him to impersonate Michael Cera? Jesse Eisenberg is not Michael Cera. Don’t ask him to quirk and nerd himself into atrophy. He is quite capable of dimensionality. Emma Stone is employed as one-note eye candy, while Breslin has some of the worst lines in the film (between, admittedly, possibly the best – in a hilarious little explanation of Miley Cyrus). There is the odd laugh, and a decent one at times, but always forced. The big cameo is amusingly irrelevant, tangential, but feels irreverent to the point of denigration. If you want entertained and have low standards, give this a shot. Otherwise it is patently dumb and depressing.

The Invention of Lying (w/d. Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson, 2009)

An unfunny comedy.

After a promising opening act with a few laughs and an excellent concept – a script in which subtext is dialogue; a world in which there is no fiction – Invention of Lying descends into a monotonous, unambitious and unfunny slog. As soon as Gervais invents lying the concept falls flat, revealing every inconsistency of a world in which no one can lie, some people must only tell the truth, where others seem less compelled to share their thoughts and feelings – particularly bewildering when the protagonist is on the receiving end of abuse, but feels no compulsion to retaliate. If it more subtly subverted the notion of subtext in dialogue, a world of non-fiction, and faith or ungrounded belief as the source of happiness and emotion in the world, this might have been interesting.

Funny People (w/d. Judd Apatow, 2009)

It’s not that funny. This doesn’t matter – it’s so well crafted that our immersion is swift and sublime.

For the first chapter, full of acutely observed and meditative scenes dealing with the lived experience of fame, we are brought an insight to a possible world – the outsider (Apatow) discovering what such inordinate success looks like from the inside (for Sandler). Meanwhile – clearly a film of two not totally incongruous halves – in the second we find Sandler invading the marital realm of Apatow, with hard-knock results.

It is uncanny the extent to which the real lives of these two signifiers breach the boundaries of Funny People. There is an aura of authenticity to the film, which is only dispelled by its somewhat stodgy running-time – rather than interest sagging, it just starts to shed acuity and becomes rather more veneer than insight. Moreover, Eric Bana, clearly a more competent comedian than most of the others, with the possible exception of Jonah Hill, is unfortunately quite structurally incongruous, but fulfills his role well.

We leave willing to forgive the shortcomings of Funny People, including its slightly incredible ending – the latter partly because it is so knowingly framed between the produce isles of a supermarket. A reflexive gesture to acknowledge the film’s product essence? Charming, sometimes powerful stuff, which gets us on side such that even the mildly amusing becomes a complete gas. Value for money, even just for the first thirty minutes.

Approchez, approchez, mesdames et messieurs ! Le Harry’s Harbour Bizarre est fier de vous présenter ses bizarreries humaines ! Après le bébé à trois têtes, le garçon à tête de chien et la femme singe, vous verrez ce soir l’homme à la voix de gorille ! Sorti tout droit d’un siècle révolu, il nous vient spécialement d’Amérique pour pousser la chansonnette ! Amis du blues, du folk, du banjo et du piano, nostalgiques des vieux clubs enfumés de la Nouvelle-Orléans, alcooliques, dépressifs, fous et vieux loups solitaires, venez écouter ses mélodies bancales, ses râles, sa fête foraine et sa basse-cour ! Mesdames et messieurs, un tonnerre d’applaudissement pour … Tom Waits !

Par où commencer pour parler de Tom Waits ? Peut-être par une citation. De Daniel Durchholz, un critique qui a un jour décrit la voix de Tom Waits comme ayant été trempée dans une cuve de bourbon, fumée pendant quelques mois, puis sortie et écrasée par une voiture. Avec sa voix écorchée et caverneuse, Tom Waits mêle à foison folk, blues, jazz et country dans une musique tantôt désarticulée et burlesque, tantôt se lamentant sur le sort de l’Amérique profonde, tantôt noyée dans l’alcool, tantôt touchant la grâce, quand ce n’est pas tout ça à la fois. Et pour ce faire il sait s’entourer de beau linge, on peut en effet rencontrer au fil des albums Marc Ribot, Greg Cohen, ou encore Les Claypool (c’est d’ailleurs réciproque : pour les fans de Primus, Tommy The Cat c’est lui). Mais Tom Waits c’est aussi un personnage, sorte de musicien errant, de clochard traînant sa savate dans les bars mal famés d’un quartier sordide de la Nouvelle-Orléans. Une musique théâtrale donc, et à multiple facettes, que je vais tenter de présenter. Discographie partielle.

La carrière de Tom Waits commence dans les années 70, alors sorte de crooner jazz/blues. Je préfère passer rapidement sur cette période, non qu’elle soit inintéressante, mais parce que notre Tom propose pour l’instant une musique assez classique, sage, et encore loin du génie torturé qu’il deviendra par la suite. Bien sûr, cette période mérite quand même son coup d’oreille, écoutez par exemple Blue Valentine. Mais c’est précisément en 1983 que sa musique prendra un véritable tournant, avec la sortie de Swordfishtrombones, succédant à Blue Valentine. A partir de là, fini le gentil crooner avec son armée de violons. Place aux dissonances, aux cling-clong, et aux grognements plus gutturaux que jamais. Mais son premier chef d’œuvre sera pour moi l’album suivant, Rain Dogs. La musique y apparaît plus travaillée, peut-être un peu plus torturée encore. D’ailleurs je ne peux pas m’empêcher de vous mettre une vidéo du petit bijou Tango Till They’re Score issu de cet album :

Ensuite, les albums se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas. En vrac, quelques perles : Bone Machine, dont les deux premiers morceaux seulement devraient mettre tout le monde d’accord, qui est accessoirement une bonne porte d’entrée dans l’univers de Tom Waits (c’est avec celui-là que j’ai découvert). The Black Rider*, plus difficile d’accès, écrit pour la pièce du même nom de Robert Wilson, co-écrite par William S. Burroughs. Il nous propose vingt petites saynètes burlesques, comme son introduction, où l’on nous présente un spectacle de monstres dans une fête foraine (qui m’a d’ailleurs inspiré l’introduction de cet article …), une chanson d’amour improbable où Tom chante son numéro de téléphone (I’ll Shoot the Moon), une musique russe (Russian Dance), et j’en passe. La collaboration avec Robert Wilson continuera en 2002 avec les albums Blood Money* et Alice*, respectivement pour les pièces Woyzeck et Alice (adaptation d’Alice au pays des merveilles). Ces deux albums sortis la même année sont en fait assez différents. Le premier, très burlesque, semble sorti tout droit d’un film de Tim Burton (très bon album également pour découvrir le bonhomme), alors que le deuxième apparaît plus doux et feutré. Allez j’en profite, voici le magnifique All the World is Green tiré de Blood Money (l’interview qui suit est assez délectable d’ailleurs) :

Enfin, je tiens aussi à parler de Mule Variations*, album un peu à part dans sa discographie. Le rythme y est lent, lourd. Tom est vieux, fatigué, seul dans sa vieille bicoque en bois au plancher qui craque. Et les journées sont longues. On entend son souffle lent et rauque. Il s’ennuie. Le genre d’album qui ne demande pas si ça mord (pour les lecteurs assidus qui comprendront la référence). Un album sur lequel on met du temps à accrocher, à cause de ce côté un peu monotone au début, mais qui révèle sa saveur au fur et à mesure des écoutes (cette remarque est d’ailleurs vraie pour l’ensemble de son œuvre). Paradoxalement, il contient aussi LE tube interplanétaire de Tom Waits, j’ai nommé Chocolate Jesus (et les paroles sont délicieuses) :

Vous l’aurez compris, Tom Waits est un artiste à découvrir d’urgence, à écouter puis réécouter. Je n’ai cité bien sûr que quelques albums, à vous de vous perdre dans les méandres de sa discographie. Mais c’est aussi un personnage, un humour décapant (ses quelques interviews en donnent une idée), et d’ailleurs, Tom Waits à une conférence de presse, ça donne ça :

Voilà pour le Tom Waits chanteur, mais il y a aussi le Tom Waits acteur ! Je vous recommande notamment le magnifique Down By Law de Jim Jarmusch, avec également John Lurie et Roberto Benigni, l’histoire de trois personnages hauts en couleur (malgré une image en noir et blanc) qui se retrouvent en prison, dans la même cellule, et qui décident de s’évader. Tom Waits a un rôle sur mesure (un vieil ours présentateur de radio), l’image est sublime, et l’ambiance pesante (l’histoire se déroule dans des quartiers sordides de la Nouvelle-Orléans). Bande-annonce (agrémentée de Jockey Full Of Bourbon, tiré de Rain Dogs) :

On peut aussi citer Short Cuts de Robert Altman, fresque où se mélangent les destins de nombreux personnages. Tom Waits y joue un chauffeur de taxi alcoolique (encore un rôle pour lui …). Enfin, il y a aussi Coffee and Cigarettes, de Jim Jarmusch toujours, collection de petites scènes dans des cafés américains où les personnages se retrouvent pour discuter autour d’un café et d’une cigarette. Je n’ai malheureusement pas encore vu le film, mais la scène où l’on trouve Tom Waits face à Iggy Pop est un régal :

Des petits liens :

Le myspace

Un site où on peut écouter en intégralité un concert donné le 29 juillet 2008

* Malheureusement, les liens Jiwa ne respectent pas l’ordre de l’album, et on y voit même des titres en double ! (si ce n’est pas tous), ce qui est bien évidemment un sacrilège. Courez donc plutôt à votre médiathèque préférée.