Thoughts On Fox Hunting // Melvin Poe

Watch the full documentary here.  (WARNING: Be prepared to see a fox get torn apart by dogs.)

Fess Parker R.I.P.

And that makes three...  My father knew him as Davy Crockett but I knew him as Daniel Boone.  Like so many others before my time, as a child I wore a coonskin cap (that I still have somewhere) and dreamed of being handy with a big knife because of him.

Fess Parker

August 16, 1924 - March 18, 2010

Peter Graves R.I.P.

I only just found out about this....

Peter Graves

March 18, 1926 - March 14, 2010

Now Playing: North Face

This true story of German mountaineers Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser and their 1936 attempt at the north face of the Eiger looks like something I'd want to see.  It's at The Belcourt here in Nashville all week (maybe longer.)  I don't want to go into detail about the story until after we've all seen it but here are a couple of photos:

Toni Kurz (left) and Andreas Hinterstoisser (right) in 1936

Looking Forward, Looking Back

I'm guessing that "the blogosphere" is a lot like the gym at the top of a new year: everybody pledges to be more consistent and disciplined about posting and, for a few weeks at least, they will be.  I'm not sure if 2010 will be the Year of the Blog for me or not (I've decided to try to limit my time on the internet to hours in which my sweet children are asleep) but I'm going to try and start out on the right foot by posting on day one.

January 1st is a tricky day for me.  I spend a little bit of time thinking about the previous year.  My nature is to make lists and take stock so I do some of that.  Then I think about the new year.  I make a note of the things I'm looking forward to.  Then I forget it all and I just take the year as it comes.

Here's how it goes in my head:

2009 Highlights By Category

Recorded Music Releases

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk

Norah Jones - The Fall

Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live

Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend

Avett Brothers - I and Love and You

The Beatles - Mono Box Set

David Mead - Almost and Always

M. Ward - Hold Time

Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid

Live Shows

M. Ward - Cannery Ballroom, Nashville

Andrew Bird - Ryman Auditorium, Nashville

U2 - Memorial Stadium, Norman OK

Movies

Coraline

Star Trek

Up

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Fantastic Mr. Fox

TV

The Office

Glee

30 Rock

Food

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Books (not necessarily released in 2009)

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

This Wheels on Fire by Levon Helm

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

and then I might do:

Great Expectations for 2010 By Category

Recorded Music Releases

Vampire Weekend - Contra

Fleet Foxes - Unannounced

Midlake - The Courage of Others

Fionn Regan - Shadow of an Empire

Live Shows

Bill Frisell, Buddy Miller, Marc Ribot - Belcourt Theatre

Vampire Weekend - Ryman Auditorium

Movies

Alice in Wonderland

Clash of the Titans

Oceans

MacGruber

Iron Man 2

Robin Hood

The A-Team

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

TV

LOST Final season

Food

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Books (not necessarily released in 2010)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Brave Companions by David McCullough

You get the picture, I'm sure.  This is pretty much how it goes for me each New Year's Day.  And just so nobody thinks my only interests are music, movies, TV, and burgers, I should also specify that I plan to earn, save, and give as much money as possible, remodel our tiny kitchen so that it is not just tiny but also very cool, and wear bow ties as often as I can this year.

Silent All These Years

Occasionally, two kinds of genius collide in a way that makes so much sense you wonder how the world survived before without the combined force....

In the early 1990s, Seattle-based avant-jazz guitarist Bill Frisell took on the enviable task of composing scores for six silent films from the 1920s starring Buster Keaton.  Frisell and his trio began performing the soundtracks for a live audience with VHS copies of the films projected on stage.  Reissues of the films including the Frisell scores have been a point of discussion (and Frisell's ultimate desire for the work) off and on in the nearly fifteen years since the scores were created but plans never seemed to fully materialized.  Finally, last September three of the six pieces (Go West, The High Sign, One Week) were made available on DVD as "Films of Buster Keaton, Music by Bill Frisell" complete with the "new" scores performed by Frisell, bassist Kermit Driscoll, and drummer Joey Baron.  Nonesuch has also released the scores as a separate CD.  Any fan of film or music should own this set.

Bill Frisell

Buster Keaton (with a puppy in his pocket)