It was pretty big when Tracy Chapman came out with it originally in 1988 
I prefer her version over his insufferable country ‘twang.’
i remember this piece touched on some of the of chicago ‘insider baseball’ aspects in the show: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/magazine/the-bear-chicago.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU0.qsrl.3AeT9Wf6LXMI&bgrp=g&smid=url-share
He’s reintroduced that great song to a whole new generation. I thought his rendition was pretty respectful and I’m not a big fan of country music. Again, that performance was awesome and I love that Chapman’s music will have a whole new life.
3 Likes
That was really neat, thanks! I had a feeling the restaurateur Sydney was speaking to was a ‘real’ guy. I was right!
Just finished Reacher season 2 yesterday. Yes, season 1 was better. But still fun just as a casual watch.
Also (re)watched Arrival over the weekend, the 2016 science fiction thriller/drama about aliens visiting the earth (director Denis Villeneuve).
This time I paid more attention to the movie, compared to the first time I saw it. And I was very taken by the story now, it’s one of the better movies of the past few years imho. Really clever storyline, and after I finished the movie I started reading about the movie, and rewatching particular scenes, just to get a better grasp of the story.
This has triggered me to rewatch Blade Runner 2049 also by Villeneuve again.
Guess you might not be fan of Johnny Cash or Willy Nelson then. That’s cool.
I didn’t know Luke Combs before this, but his twang seems genuine, not manufactured but I could be wrong.
I’m generally not a big country fan, no.
Johnny Cash is a whole different story, and I wouldn’t name him or Willy Nelson in the same sentence as Combs.
It’s a great movie and a great adaptation of the short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
here’s a link: https://raley.english.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/Reading/Chiang-story.pdf
I love the movie adaptation for a host of reasons, but largely because it uses the techniques and conventions of film to reveal the big central conceit at the heart of the story, in a way that was quite different to the original story, but analogous in the ways the story uses the conventions and techniques specific to written fiction to do much of the same work. It’s a lovely parallel, and keeps the film on right side of the line while not crossing into schmaltz territory.
I’m somewhat in the minority about Bladerunner 2049. On the one hand, I dearly love the careful way Villeneuve recreated and expanded Scott’s original world in the look and art direction. But I found the plot, and the writing, just not quite as tight as the original. The sequel was enjoyable, but was obviously straining for the levels of profundity and the lightning-in-a-bottle brilliance that Scott was lucky enough to capture. That they only missed by > < that much is commendable, but every time I’ve watched 2049 my final thought has always been “Still not the original…”
While we’re on Villeneuve, March 1 is Dune II. I quite liked the first part, but honestly, I think the whole enterprise kind of suffers from an overabundance of visual artistry. Yes, the ornithopters are fantastic, the sandworm is stunning, Arrakis and the Sadukar soldiers and the blade shields all look like the best versions of the book covers you could ever come up with. But that leaves the poor people reciting the bare minimum of dialog to move the plot along, usually in front of some massive setpiece you want to spend more time examining.
Maybe that’s just an artifact of how they split the story. It’s been years since I plowed through the first 4 books (I know I got to God Emperor. That’s 4, right?)
The David Lynch version is watchable if you’re into seriously rococo design and high weirdness.
3 Likes
Thanks for the link and the comparison with the book, very interesting to learn! It’s my favourite Villeneuve movie so far.
Well, the original Blade Runner will always be in my top 10 favourite movies of all time, so I would never expect a sequel to come close, let alone top it. But maybe it deserves a second look.
The original is just so wildly creative and cinematic: I remember seeing it as a young kid in the 80s, I was already blown away by the opening credits. The music by Vangelis also adds a third dimension, still listen to the music quite often.
I have been trying my darndest to find a link to the full performance - in vain. Figgered I should listen to the whole thing before opining (tho I’d heard bits of his version & still prefer the OG) 
Do you have a reliable one?
1 Like
4 Likes
Thank you! More Tracy and less Taylor. 
4 Likes
Thank you for sharing. I watched the whole thing & thought Tracy was wonderful. I still think the remake adds nothing, and Luke didn’t add much to her performance.
1 Like
Started watching The Tourist with Jamie Dornan (from The Fall we gave up on bc it got more and more contrived and repetitive after the first season) about a fella who finds himself in Australia, suffering from amnesia, and the target of several murder attempts.
Danielle MacDonald absolutely steals the show in a role that reminded me of Merritt Wever’s character in Nurse Jackie.
1 Like
If he hadn’t released his version (with her approval) there would have been no Tracy Chapman performance on the Grammy’s that millions watched on Sunday. My original point was that I was so grateful and touched and amazed to listen and watch her performance and know that she has been reintroduced to an entire new generation of music fans. Not a fan of country music but all good with this…
1 Like
Finished this last night. What a wild ride! Highly recommend.
That is utterly delicious!
I have to say, the missus and I were VERY disappointed w/ season 2, esp since the first was really a lot of fun.
My main criticisms: s2 seemed to have a mean-spiritedness that wasn’t present in s1. While Reacher is certainly never sorry about killing the bad guys, here, he seems to go out of his way to do so, in a way that makes him look almost as bad as the villains. The jokes, where they exist, seem to hinge on nasty, threatening, wise ass sort of comments that sound insincere coming out of living hulk crossed with mom’s Apple pie Alan Richardson (Reacher). The other was the whole enterprise seeemed to be running on 3/4 power. Line delivery was thudding and dull. The lines themselves read like the first draft of something that needed a good punch up, and even the fight scenes all seemed be running in slo mo, like they wouldn’t give folks enough time to learn all the moves safely at speed so they just did things slower.
I’ll probably watch s3 if one comes, but while I could see myself giving s1 rewatch someday, I’d never do so for s2.
1 Like
Ok. I’ll do post 300. It’s a weird one, even by my standards.
Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy (1981) - dir. Dusan Vukotic
A truly gonzo production by award winning Croatian animator Vukotic, this weird little fantasy is about a sci-fi writer, Robert and his quest to write his opus about visitors from the Arkana Galaxy. Suddenly, the things he writes about are coming true! The visitors are two precocious alien children and a femmebot that looks like H R Geiger designed the robot from Metropolis. Oh, and a miniature toy that transforms into the MuMu Monster, (created by Czech animator and director Jan Svenkmajer) which, despite a decidedly family friendly, sitcom tone, begins decapitating wedding guests.
All of which is to say that it’s a wild ride, full of strange humor and a lot of non-sequitur bits of plot, but not like anything you’ve seen since Sid and Marty Kroft stopped making kids tv.
If you snag the Blu-ray, it also includes several of Vukotic animated shorts, all of which are just stunning triumphs of mid century modern design. Including ‘The Substitute’ which one the 1961 oscar for animated short.
This film, like others I’ve viewe recently, is part of a wave of underseen Eastern European films being restored and released to western audiences more widely for the first time. One of the companies is the distributor of this film, Deaf Crocodile. If you’re into this, look them up.
It’s available to stream on Tubi and Kanopy in the US.
1 Like
