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How Bill Withers brought the world a little closer and much more! $$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
MY FAVOURITE THINGS |Make Love To Your Mind
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“I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you.”— BILL WITHERS
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I’ve come full circle in the last fortnight, slowly accepting the fact that the silver linings of this global crisis are what we make them. Never before has something shattered the illusion of normalcy quite like this existential pandemic — at least in my lifetime. It is a reminder that we’re all we have, we’re all in this together. This week’s list is littered with an assortment of creative blasts from the past to help you take your mind off the present and make room for the simple pleasures. As Aisha Ahmad deftly writes, stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and simply take care of you and yours. Or as Nick Cave notes in his Red Hand Files newsletter this week, learn to appreciate the here and now, by savouring it as if it were for the last time. Xo
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After digesting Hua Hsu’s poetic farewell to the late Bill Withers in the New Yorker last week, I strapped myself into this live album. According to Hsu, this 1973 recording at Carnegie Hall is his favourite and after streaming on repeat this week I’m apt to agree. I love the way the West-Virginian native sheds light on his interior life with such grace and humility, managing to stay true to himself within the cult of celebrity. The talented singer-songwriter, the son of a maid and coal miner, had that rare ability to bring such a diverse audience together in celebration of music and life.It’s no small thing to walk away from the limelight, especially at the height of success and even more remarkable to be cherished by generations to come. So long, Bill. Thanks for showing us how to savour the little things.
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When I tuned into a recent episode of Alec Baldwin’s Here’s The Thing in conversation with Barry Sonnenfeld, I knew I was in for a good time. What I couldn’t have known was that this podcast would be the gift that keeps on giving, leading me to seek out a copy of his new memoir. Sonnenfeld is one of my favourite directors from the nineties, a curious visionary who wrought the Men In Black franchise into existence and helped adapt Elmore Leonard’s Get Shorty into one of the greatest comedies of my adolescence. Sonnenfeld is a self-confessed neurotic, a man who has been lauded as out-shining Larry David in the anxiety department and recounts a litany of life experiences that left me shaking my head in exasperated wonder. How this Jewish kid from Washington Heights managed to dip his toe in the adult industry, collaborate with the Coen bros, survive a chartered plane crash and Jon Peters while directing Wild Wild West is nothing short of wonder.
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I’ve been rubbing my hands together for this new podcast series, hosted by former members of the cult HBO series The Sopranos. Listening to Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) and Bobby Baccalieri (Steve Shirripa) open up about the making of one of my favourite shows is a trip. I absolutely adored their characters on the show and love that these working actors are both making time to nourish the ever-growing fanbase of this noughties hit. Hell, I was even happy listening to their commercial interludes for Bose headphones. I can’t wait to kick back with the eighty-six episodes to come and am excited to rekindle my teenage bromance with the late great Jimmy Gandolfini.
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I published an article for FilmInk magazine to help get the word out about our little podcast last week. Within the piece, I come clean about the state of the Australian film industry, my love of zeitgeist-hits like Tiger King and my burning need to enact the change I seek. It’s a scary thing putting your ideas out into the world but scarier still keeping them trapped inside. Every single time you get up the courage to realize your dreams, you move one step closer to embodying the person you were always meant to be. Let’s make the most of this forced isolation and come out the other side with a new lease on life and our creative passions.
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After finishing Nelson George’s phenomenal Where Did Our Love Go? on the incredible story behind Berry Gordy’s Motown Records, I’ve been diving back into the back catalogues of their celebrated artists. As I wrote in my blog this week, Steveland Morris’ (a.k.a. Stevie Wonder) enduring legacy on the culture is something to behold. Signed to the Detroit hitmaker at the age of thirteen, the blind child prodigy would learn from the very best of his generation before embarking on his own journey into the music of his mind. I stumbled over this incredible New Yorker profile from 1995 by Giles Smith, helping me to understand the Michigan native’s enduring obsession with unlocking the creativity within him. Smith’s profile had me giggling at so many moments, sharing outrageous tales of Wonder’s inveterate lateness and his incessant playfulness. The man is a miracle worker.
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I’m very excited to share our first conversation with Destin Daniel Cretton. The Hawaiian native, currently locked down on the sunny shores of Sydney while making the latest Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings, was kind enough to sit down with us over Zoom a few weeks back. The ensuing conversation was surprisingly raw and confessional, diving into the therapeutic nature of bringing stories to the silver screen. I can’t think of a better first guest to kick off Popcorn Therapy. If you’re looking for some cathartic viewing over the Easter long weekend look no further than Short Term ’12, Cretton’s second film starring Brie Larson, Rami Malek and a youthful Lakeith Stanfield. It’s one hell of an emotional rollercoaster.
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I slept on this 2017 picture from Dan Gilroy, the visionary writer/director behind Nightcrawler, before renting this week. To say the film took the wind from my sails is putting it mildly. Denzel Washington brings his star power to Roman J. Israel, Esq an aging savant that devoted his life to advancing the right of African Americans under the rule of law. There is such a bittersweet truth to this character’s awakening to the modern world, one that values the bottom line over the rights of the individual. While I wasn’t surprised to discover this film came up short at the box office, it is nevertheless one of the most touching blockbuster stories I’ve seen in recent years. I’m excited to tuck into his latest flick Velvet Buzzsaw (re-teaming Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo) on Netflix.
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This clever little horror flick left me quivering in my britches last week. Directed by Fede Álvarez, his follow-up to his slick remake of Evil Dead is set in the dystopic wastelands of Detroit and follows a group of young punks knocking off the homes of well-to-do folks in order to escape to the sunny shores of California. When they decide to pull the routine on a cashed-up blind veteran, all hell breaks loose. I was excited to screen this clever little genre pick in advance of our conversation with Daniel Zovatto this week, an incredibly talented actor and old friend from the City of Angels. I’m all excited for Zovatto’s latest project, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, created by the brilliant John Logan and debuting later this month. It’s so heartwarming to see such a talented and hard-working feller like Zovatto getting his due in heading up this Showtime series.
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After digesting this great Pitchfork article on the enduring beauty of Stevie Nicks and her ineffable voice, I found myself tucking into this self-titled LP recorded alongside Lindsey Buckingham — her former collaborator and romantic partner. Released in 1973, the album failed to find commercial favour but auspiciously brought the hippie-duo to the attention of Mick Fleetwood, whose British blues band had plateaued after Peter Green (their original leader) suffered a mental breakdown. There is a beautiful sentimentality to this early record, a clear sign that they were destined for great things.
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I couldn’t say no to a three-month pandemic special offered by Foxtel Now (the Antipodean answer to HBO Now), signing back up to dive into Alex Garland’s latest brainchild. Ever since I screened his debut feature Ex Machina, I’ve been curious to understand the inner workings of the British filmmaker and novelist (his debut paperback would be adapted into Danny Boyle’s The Beach!). Devs seems to be some sort of prequel to Annihilation, his previous Netflix film, exploring the inner workings of a Silicon Valley tech giant. I’ve been waiting for a show to capture this current moment, a time where big data has effectively eclipsed the former gatekeepers. Only time will tell whether these whiz-kids will be able to apply the theoretical power of quantum mechanics.
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This incredible film is the surefire trick to bring about tears of joy. When I first stumbled over this Joel Schumacher flick from the late nineties, I couldn’t believe my luck. Robert De Niro starring opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman? When a conservative New York City police officer suffers a debilitating stroke (De Niro) and is prescribed remedial speech lessons with a drag queen (Hoffman) in his tenement building, all hell breaks loose. What makes this dramedy all the more resonant in our current moment is its ability to cross the aisle, to marry tradition with the marginal fringes of society. We need more stories that challenge our belief systems, help us to empathize with our fellow man and bridge the divide. A powerhouse of a picture.
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When was the last time you listened to this album from cover to cover? It’s been many years since I’d jumped headfirst into Jimi Hendrix’ third and final record and boy is it ecstatic listening. Produced by Hendrix himself (after an exasperated Chas Chandler stormed out) the end result is an acoustic wonderland of soundscapes that still feels so fresh and exhilarating. The structured chaos of its iconic singles magnify the pain and anguish of the boomer generation. Young men and women haunted by the horrors of the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, the unresolved murder of MLK and the racial tensions in the face of such devastation. This double album has to be one of the most phenomenal records of the twentieth century. An unadulterated revelation.
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