20 January 2012

Rapid Round-Up

Yesterday, the 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom that had appeared in Morocco sold for $524,000 at the Scottsdale, Arizona Bonhams auction. See some screen captures of the vehicle from Dietrich's first American movie, which Daily Mail nicked!

The Guardian reported that the Banton-designed Angel gown will glitter at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London much later this year. The museum website, however, mentions Morocco?

Julian Casablancas of The Strokes interviewed Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek of The Doors, and Manzarek discussed being a student at UCLA, where he learned about butterfly lighting from Josef von Sternberg.

Add more in the comments section if I missed something recent.

4 comments:

  1. Would that I had been at UCLA in the '60s in a class taught by Josef von Sternberg! At last I understand what butterfly lighting is...

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    1. Lady Eve, have you seen/do you have the Criterion Collection DVD of The Scarlet Empress? One of its special features (really, the only truly special one) is a 1967 BBC documentary called The World of Josef von Sternberg, in which Sternberg shows "enthusiasts" how he sets up a movie shoot. He has them switching lenses and moving lights, set decoration, diffusers (?), etc. There are a lot of interview clips and voice-overs that annoy me because I'd rather watch raw footage of the demo, but what we do see gives us the gist.

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  2. I love the interview with Ray Manzereck. It's a shame they didn't mention his producing X's first few albums. They are fantastic. 'Punk' classics.

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    1. I like that Manzarek and Krieger took over the interview by talking a lot. Casablancas was itching to ask too many questions about Jim Morrison. Also, that question about The Velvet Underground was out of the blue. Lots has been written about TVU, but they never had commercial success as The Doors did. Someone should ask Casablancas whether Animal Collective are The Strokes' rivals. As for X, I haven't heard them in a long time, although I recently listened to that album that Exene did with Lydia Lunch. I suppose it was spoken word poetry, but it worked perfectly as a comedy routine--much funnier than most self-professed comics, too.

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