I love movies, so as a result it should come as no surprise that I would love a book about the Bacchanalian excess of the 70′s in Hollywood. In fact, the book is so convincing and compelling that it actually yielded that same kind of easy, lucid narrative style that good movies usually succeed in accomplishing. Beginning with a look at the fall of the all-powerful studio system in the late 60′s, and the groundbreaking and critical success of “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Easy Rider,” Biskind primarily examines the producers and directors who managed to redefine Hollywood during the 70′s.

When Warren Beatty managed to convince a studio to allow him to make “Bonnie and Clyde” it took a critic to rescue the film from obscurity. Pauline Kael, who would arguably become one of the most influential film critics there will ever be, was also, in some ways, the savior of Hollywood. Her endorsement was often the straw that kept a movie in theaters and her love of non-traditional subjects and themes allowed creative luminaries to make films that didn’t necessarily need to reach a massive audience. And so, we are told, the film industry was reinvented.
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Director : Stanley Kubrick
With : Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Sidney Pollack

At the ripe old age of eleven I saw my first Kubrick movie, “The Shining,” unbeknownst to my parents while sleeping over at a friend’s. There was something so eloquently dark and legitimately creepy, about Nicholson and his decent into madness, that I remember thinking that it was a movie that even adults would like. And so slowly but surely I begin to tick off and file among my favorite films most of the movies by Stanley Kubrick. As a teenager “Clockwork Orange” was my favorite film, in college it was “Dr. Strangelove” or “2001.”

So like most Kubrick fanatics the years of hearing whispers about the “Eyes Wide Shut” mixed with the ensuing media events surrounding the film led me to the theater with a mixed dose of anticipation and apprehension. The idea of Hollywood’s most visible couple starring in the final film by Hollywood’s most reclusive genius would either be a brilliant boom, or marvelous failure. Most critics and viewers inevitably had severely bifurcated views on the film, but that being said, at least every opinion was at least a strong one. In my book validates the movie as a success.
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Label: Emperor Jones

Like a handful of 90′s indie bands, American Analog Set plays quiet, moody music cut from the same cloth as bands like Velvet Undergrounnd and Galaxie 500. But unlike their spiritual brethren Low, Rex, Bedhead and Idaho, this Austin, Texas quartet has added a rich swirling Farfisa organ to their textural brand of dream-pop. Rather than relying only on clever lyrics, slow subtle building melodies and an overall quiet cool that most of the other like-bands have gravitated towards, American Analog Set has created a sound that shares as much in common with the spaceage Stereolab sound as it does the sleepier slow-core bands.

Led by the sweetly hushed vocals of Andrew Kenny, “The Golden Band” exists on a clean perfectly produced plane of calming space. There is an atmospheric richness to the precisely strummed guitar and other accompanying instrumental lines, covered by perfectly matched vocals. There is definitely an element of intense cool going on with American Analog Set, but there is also a patience and lack of overall resolve that reminds me a bit of the emotional intent of some movies. This is most evident in the specific kind of gentle atmosphere that hovers over the songs on “The Golden Band.” But unlike their two previous efforts the songs are shorter and easier to follow lyrically.

In a world filled with rapidly proliferating electronic music subgenres, it is always brings a smile to my face to hear a band like American Analog Set still being creative as indie rockers, growing older but not outgrowing the genre.