Bananas

Woody Allen's third full feature as a director was Bananas. Very much in same mould as Take The Money And Run its one liners and visual gags come at you like a tornado.

Bananas tells the story of Fielding Mellish, a loser working as a product tester who is searching for his calling and some lady action. Desparate to impress a sexy young political activist Mellish heads to Central America to dip his toe into the country's revolutionary turmoil. Eventually he ends up in the leadership of the guerilla forces and becomes President following their successful insurrection.

No worries, this is more Groucho Marx than Karl Marx, as the politics are ridiculous and its all about Woody Allen trying to use his situation to win back the girl. Its funnier than Take The Money And Run with a successful joke ratio of about 88%. Highlights are Mellish helping his parents with some surgery, an uncredited Slyvester Stallone beating up Mellish on the subway and the final court room scene where Woody Allen represents and questions himself. Personally I love the sketch where Allen is asked to secure food supplies for the rebels and ends up in ordering sandwiches in a local deli.

At 85 mins its a lean, mean comedy machine.



This scene is from the beginning of the film and his Allen's loser character trying to buy porno mags in a busy magazine store.

Take The Money And Run

Was chatting to Shatbass and Jaconelli in the workplace the other day and was really sad to hear that Shatbass had not seen any of Woody Allen's early output. So sad and a yes I am patronising.

But I thought it would be nice to have a Woody Allen theme for the next few posts and cover his output up to Manhattan.

Take The Money And Run was Allen's directorial debut and is a fabulously fake documentary about a notorious criminal who is totally hapless and destined for failure. The film is a blueprint for his 70s output with its extremely heavy doses of one liners, slapstick and sight gags. In this they come at a 100 mph and while not all them hit the mark its extremely close to Allen's stand up routines.

Highlights include Allen's character playing in a marching band armed with a cello and chair, his courtship of his wife and prison exploits. Below is the trailer.



Youtube had a small selection of clips but this is one of the ones I was hoping for. An example of Allen's twisted humour as Virgil desparately tries to rob a bank but none of the tellers can decide what his note says.

Miss Dolly & The Silver Lion

Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers that is. Was flicking in a digital style thru my country christmas orientated tunes and was reminded that this track was meant to close my comp last year. I even went to the trouble of fading it at the end and cutting about a minute of children singing "I believe in Santa Claus" along with with Dolly and Kenny. But like I said before I just do not think its either alternative, ironic or bare-able enough to use.

So like a piece of peeling skin I other it as a cut price pressie this Xmas period.

dolly parton & kenny rogers - I Believe in Santa Claus (edit)

Help The Hag This Christmas

Jeezo and I thought I was a little grumpy this time of year. Thanks Merle for making me feel like Timmy Mallet compared to youself.

Merle Haggard - If We Make It Through December

Who Is That Ugly Old Woman Shrieking?

Oh, its Rod fookin Stewart. I hate Rod fookin Stewart.

Its not just that he looked like an old woman when he was 21 and its not that he looks like an old croan today. Its that...plus the fact he is a cockney git who pretends to more Scottish that horizontal sleet, plus every west of scotland family seems obsessed with his old woman arse shaking...plus my upstairs neighbour is watching his pishy ITV special and playing it full volume.

I am currently sitting on the sofa listening to my xmas mix to chill out, watching a muted Enemy At The Gates and occasionally shouting "Rod Stewart Sucks!!!" at the top of my voice.

I think I need to get some Squarepusher out.

Country Christmas

I would like to thank y'all for the positive feedback for the 2009 Xmas mix. There has been a couple of "best yet" reviews as well as few "Bob Dylan!!!" comments.

Well I thought that for the rest of December I would put up a few tracks which would not normally reach the annual comp. These will probably be country christmas tracks cause although I know I could get away with one or maybe two of them, they can be to much of an acquired sound and one whose novelty quickly wears off.

I have started with a beautifully sung track from Gram Parsons collaborator, Emmy Lou Harris. If the Cohen brothers made an xmas version of Oh Brother Where Art Thou this would be the title track.

Emmylou Harris - Christmas Time's a-Coming

A New Hope

I stopped watching Family Guy about a season and a bit ago. Its sad addiction to jokes about rape, battering women and basic repetition of all the jokes from the previous six seasons meant that although I will still watch the older episodes, I aint interested in the new stuff.

But there is maybe a wee hope. A New Hope. Below is the trailer for Family Guy's follow up to Blue Harvest and it looks like just as much fun. Hope so.

No Platform

Having some interesting fun at the moment. Noticed that someone in the building had started scribbling 'BNP' and 'Pakis Out' on the walls of our stairwell. Following my involvement in a successful anti-fascist action last weekend (which I will post about soon) I started using a chunky black marker to cover the offending statements.

After a small delay the 'BNP' declarations came back and I continued my sabotage. What I find funny is that the moron writing the grafitti is starting to get a lil' agitated. A few days ago he scrawled 'wa-nk' with an arrow to my black marker stains(I like how he felt the need to specifiy who the wa-nk was...haha). He wote that agin the following day and today he wrote to day 'benefit wa-nk'. I suppose anyone who would be angry at fascist grafitti would have to be on benefits???

Anyhoo, while he has been growing steadily frustrated I am patiently covering up anything he writes. I even bought a black spray can today for swift sweeps. Where is this heading? I dunno but I do not want my home where people visit and a variety of different folk stay to have this poison in the background.

BTW how do i know he is guy? Well its an informed judgement. I would reckon he is young guy, a rangers fan, scared of a society that does not share his fear of difference, ugly and a little ignorant.

Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove

It's Here!!!

A year in making my latest Xmas comp has been finished, burned and packaged. Distribution will begin tomorrow and continue as and when I receive/find addresses for my more distant subscribers.

Called Kristmas ****'s Outsider Xmas Mix '09 its a break from previous comps where it was am explosive combo of anything I could scavenge and re-mould from the internet. I think a lot of you wont enjoy it as much as others but its what I wanted to do and isn't that the true meaning of christmas??

I do plan to put up a zip file of the comp as soon as i can find the time to get of my arse and do it. While you await your copy and the digital upload here is a track that never made it...and with good reason.

Kitt The Amazing Card Of Tomorrow - A Knight Rider Christmas

Snap!!!

This is the song that would have been that penultimate epic mood maker track from Planes, Trains & Automobiles if it had been set today. Honestly, listen to it. As soon as I heard it I thought about Steve Martin sitting on that train thining about his highs and lows with John Candy, before suddenly putting together the fact that Candy's wife was dead and then returned to get him and take him home for his first real Thanksgiving in years.

I think I need to watch P, T & A this weekend.

Washed Out - New Theory