Original Japanese Trailer for “Woman of the Dunes”
“Eija Okada plays an amateur entomologist who has left Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert; when he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the home of a young widow (Kiyoko Kishida) who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune. What results is one of cinema’s most bristling, unnerving, and palpably erotic battles of the sexes, as well as a nightmarish depiction of everyday Sisyphean struggle….” You can find this film on Criterion here.
Circa 1955: A diving horse mid-dive with the rider clinging to its neck. (photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)
Circa 1955: Dinah, a diving horse stands with her rider after a dive. (photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)
William Frank “Doc” Carver or “Evil Spirit,” as he was sometimes known, was a talented, freewheelin sharp shooter and former dentist in the late 19th century. One day in 1881, whilst chasing bandits in Nebraska on horse back, a bridge he crosses collapses and he and his horse dive 60 feet into the the river below. It is this event that inspires Carver to develop the diving horse act. Carver trained various animals and went on tour. His son, Al Carver constructed the ramp and tower and his daughter Lorena Carver was the first rider. Sonora Webster Carver, William “Doc” Carver’s daughter-in-law, joined the show in 1924. The show became a permanent fixture at Atlantic City’s very popular venue, Steel Pier. This popular American past time disappeared shortly after the 1950s.
“I Am Secretly An Important Man is a feature length documentary film portrait of Steven J. Bernstein (aka Jesse Bernstein), one of Seattle’s most celebrated voices. His angry, surprisingly fresh, lyrical writings are about sensitive souls, drifters and drug addicts; people alienated by a society that refuses to understand them. He peeled back the ugliness and the darkness of life on the fringe to expose tender and not so tender human feeling. His unique rhythms, filled with humor and pain, were especially exciting when read in his own gravely voice. People packed into theaters, bars and cafes to hear him read and sing.” www.iamsecretlyanimportantman.com
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George Stubbs, born in England in 1724 and died in England in 1806, was extremely fond of painting horses. His painting Brood Mares and Foals, just sold for close to sixteen million dollars at a Sotheby’s auction.
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In 1970, folk singer Linda Perhacs release her only album Parallelograms to barely any notice. Only in the last 10 years has her music be rediscovered and appreciated. Parallelograms has just been reissued on vinyl. Click here.
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A few years back I was lucky enough to be photographed by the iconic Paul Jasmin. It was at a beautiful house in the hills behind Los Angeles and I had to wear a diamond studded purse on my head; it felt ridiculous, but the photographs were beautiful. Steidl is about to releasea book of Jasmin’s photography compiled over the last two years entitled “California Dreaming.” Jasmin, who is by most standards an old man by now, finds youth the antidote. Described as “dreamers,” the subjects captured in his photographs, who have come to to Los Angeles to pursue their careers as musicians and actors, bask in a classic nuanced glamor that only through the eye and through the lens of Jasmin can such be captured. “California Dreaming” makes the ultimate argument for Los Angeles as a golden mirage of both glamorous aspiration and sunsoaked leisure.” Find it here.
