I haven’t spoken much about this the last two years, but I am pleased to announce that The Dinner Parting, a movie I produced and co-wrote with my longtime collaborator J.W. Andrew, will make its debut at the Cinequest Film Festival. It will start virtually April 1st, and there will be an event in-person this August. My production company, Arts & Cults, is now on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, if you would like to consider following.
“As the night wears on, stories turn ever more elaborate and the get-together goes way off its original three courses. The witty banter gets deliciously served up… in this black-and-white charmer of a throwback to films of yesteryear.” – Randy Myers, film critic for San Jose’s Mercury News.
Since it’s my birthday and I haven’t really said hi in quite some time, I figured I would answer the same questions The Bustle plans to inflict on celebrities for eternity.
What’s your coffee order? No.
What are the saved weather locations on your phone? East Lansing, various other Michigan cities I frequent, the cities I have visited the most (New York, Chicago, San Francisco) and Austin, a city I wish I visited the most.
What’s your sign? I know it’s Pisces, but I admittedly don’t really know what that is supposed to say about me.
Favorite overused movie quote? “I once thought I had mono for an entire year, It turned out I was just really bored.”
What’s one movie or TV show you’re currently obsessed with?
A Brighter Summer Day. Saw it last July and still think about it often. A Taiwanese coming-of-age set in the late ‘50s that is as much a T.E. Hinton as the War and Peace one character compares their own life to. A slightly misinterpreted Elvis lyric gives this film its (American) title, a mistake by youngsters in the film attempting to translate and understand one of their many obsessions with U.S. culture. It’s such a beautiful, sad, claustrophobic movie.
I don’t watch too many shows, but my two favorites, which I believe are both ending soon, are back on. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is just as funny as always. Midge and Susie still kill and the B/C plots seem a lot better as of late (or I am less of a curmudgeon than I was during the lockdown when I watched the first three seasons. That’s very likely, too). And Better Things is still just the best.
Who is your celeb idol? It was Anthony Bourdain, and probably still is.
If you had to be on a reality TV show, what would it be? I have a secret desire to be a picker, so if it would catapult my career...
Go-to karaoke song?
I would love to belt out an old, melancholy classic, but as such I cannot and therefore do not belt anything. Do like karaoke, though.
What’s something that’s inspiring you lately? I finally picked up Maus last summer, and I (finally) started reading after this bullshit. I love that said bullshit brought more attention to this book and finally pushed me into reading it. I love the telling of such an incredible story in a unique way. Makes me want to learn more about the Holocaust. I am not jewish but it makes me want to learn more about my grandparents, about my mother, my and my father. I want to read more books, read more comic books, write comic books, and just write in general.
Probably doesn’t get much more inspiring than that.
What is something you would want people to say about you? That I always did my best.
Had a conversation last night about this video from Bill Maher that I saw via a tweet from Scott Adams on this year’s Best Picture nominations, which Adams calls, “feel-bad ‘entertainment’ that gives you brain damage.” I haven’t seen all of the films (yet), but I wonder if Adams or Maher have either, or why exactly any of them would give one “brain damage?”
Maher’s argument is that movies should be less dour. I would argue plenty of movies are less dour, likely hundreds that were released last year alone.
“I’m not glad Stan Lee is dead, I’m sad you’re alive,” Maher said not that long ago, chiding those that like comic book and comic book films, and asking that grown-ups should read books that make them think. “Read James Baldwin, read Toni Morrison, read Michael Eric Dyson,” he pleaded.
Can film not do the same? If a movie can move you, or make you think, does it not hold value?
He continues, and this is the real crux of his argument, that the movies made in 2020 were not about entertainment, but virtue signaling. You can make that argument for Promising Young Women (to which I would disagree), but I can’t see that argument about any of the other nominees. (Side note: I would also argue Promising Young Women and The Trial of the Chicago 7 were wildly entertaining).
This is where he really loses me: “They used to know how to make a movie that was about something… that was also entertaining, and not just depressing,” he says while a list of films are shown on screen cherry picked from over 80 years of cinema, including Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry Men, Look Who’s Coming to Dinner, Do the Right Thing, Schindler’s List, and 12 Years A Slave, all of which invalidate his “argument” and makes me ask:
“…the person who emerges from quarantine doesn’t have to be the same old you. Scientists say that people can change their personalities well into adulthood. And what better time for transformation than now, when no one has seen you for a year, and might have forgotten what you were like in the first place?
It was long thought that people just are a certain way, and they’ll remain that way forever. The Greek physician Hippocrates believed that people’s personalities were governed by the amounts of phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile that flowed through their bodies.
Modern science, of course, has long since discarded notions of bile and humors. And now,it appears the idea that our personalities are immutable is also not quite true. Researchers have found that adults can change the five traits that make up personality — extroversion, openness to experience, emotional stability, agreeableness and conscientiousness — within just a few months. Much as in Dr. Steffel’s case, the traits are connected, so changing one might lead to changes in another.
Changing a trait requires acting in ways that embody that trait, rather than simply thinking about it. As Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire, put it in “The As If Principle,” you can behave “as if” you are the person you want to be. Pretty soon, you might find that it is you.”
This year thousands of people turned their homes into floats for Mardi Gras, capturing so much of what makes New Orleans great: creativity, positivity and resilience.
“I’m not familiar with the scene of skateboarding. At the same time, I had the feeling, yes, that’s kind of my people… You have to accept trial and error…”
You’re coming off the holidays. It’s cold outside. It’s snowing. Not suggesting be outright lazy for a month, but lean into the new year. You’re much more likely to set goals and keep them if you formulate a game plan.
I keep a planner and in the back pages run monthly tasks that I use as a reference as I fill in my “free time” week to week. This year I decided to be realistic and, outside of a few time-sensitive tasks, combine my “to-do” list for January and February.
I know Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today and that means six more weeks of 2020. But if you’ve seen Groundhog Day, you know the final act is when Bill Murray decides to become the man he wants to be.
“He gets to know everybody in the town,” writes Austin Kleon. “He sees what problems there are in the town to solve, and how he can use his powers to help… He also throws himself into his work: he crafts a super eloquent speech for Punxsutawney Phil, which he presumably gives every day. He learns French. He learns how to play the piano. He learns how to sculpt ice. And it’s when he finally masters these things, when he’s turned himself into a person worth loving, it’s then that Rita notices him, and they live happily ever after. Phil learns, as Hugh Macleod says in his book Ignore Everybody, ‘The best way to get approval is to not need it.'”
If you are down on yourself for not getting shit done during the lockdown, or surprised life hasn’t gotten magically better because it is no longer 2020, or embarrassed that you have yet to start your resolutions (or never set any in the first place), I will just say this: Fuck that.
He fought mental illness his entire life, and by my estimation was at best a serviceable guitarist, decent pianist and awful singer. One that wrote simple, often naive lyrics. But there is a reason even the most mainstream of alt-rock-kingpins (Cobain, Veddar and Cornell) loved him so dearly. In their simplicity, his songs were haunting and moving. His story and songs will always have a spot in my heart.
Last year, Built to Spill released a cover album of Johnston material and got a bit chided for playing it safe, but I enjoy listening to it and think it serves as a good introduction for those that might not be able to look past Johnston’s rudimentary skills and lo-fi recordings. It ignores some of the obvious choices (notably “Story of An Artist,” previously recorded by M. Ward and used in an Apple advert, and “True Love Will Find You in the End,” covered by both Beck and Wilco), but it’s a solid collection of some of Johnston’s more melancholy and beautiful songs, including “Bloody Rainbow,” “Fish” and “Heart, Mind & Soul,” the latter a retro doo-wop ballad that manages to break my heart every time I hear it.
Happy Birthday, and Rest In Peace, Daniel. Let it be said you killed the monster.
In 1960, Dixieland soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy joined the jazz legend’s band for a tour with John Coltrane. Young, wide-eyed and starstruck, he absorbed all he could, eventually writing down Monk’s words of wisdom. Applicable in jazz, so too applicable in life:
Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time.
You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?
Avoid the hecklers.
Always leave them wanting more.
Stay in shape!
When you’re swinging, swing some more!
(What should we wear tonight?) Sharp as possible!
Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along & do it. A genius is the one most like himself.
They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it.
“The film-maker and documentarian was known for films such as Gorillas in the Mist and Coal Miner’s Daughter, as well as his long-running series of Up documentaries. His death has been confirmed by his agency to the Hollywood Reporter. No further details are yet known. Apted’s career started in the 1960s on the small screen, and in 1964, he assisted on the the show Seven Up! as part of the current affairs show World in Action. He helped the director Paul Almond interview 14 seven-year-old children, and continued to independently revisit them every seven years over the course of their lives. The most recent, 63 Up, was released in 2019 and the director referred to it as ‘the most important thing I have ever done.'”
In a piece from The Nation, writer Susan Pederson notes that while the first few installments are flawed, reducing the subjects to stereotypes, there was a profound change in the films, heightened in my opinion by the longevity of the project:
“28 Up (1984) was the tipping point. The first film of the series widely screened in the United States, it was the one Apted considered a breakthrough. Only then did he realize that he wasn’t making ‘a political film about Britain’s social classes,’ but something much more unusual: an ongoing inquiry into how individuals from a wide range of backgrounds sought out meaning and happiness amid the rapid social change of postwar Britain and all the random incidents and accidents that life threw at them.”
Each film is relatively simplistic in structure, short interviews with each subject cut with footage of what they’ve been up to recently. But with each new installment, we see entire lives unfolding. Their lives force us to examine our own. It seems impossible not to watch the Up Series and not think about where you were when you were 7 and 21 and 28, or where you think you will be, or who you want to be, in seven years, in fourteen years, in thirty-five years.
And with the passing of Apted, if you will be.
Profound words: “I want my life to have meant something.”
These words on the (likely) last in the series sum things up nicely:
“The latest installment, 63 Up, is one of the series’ best, in part because the subjects are aware they’re moving into their sunset years, and in part because they also know the 78-year-old Apted may never make another one of these films. He and the people he’s been tracking for more than half a century now interrogate each other in 63 Up, speaking with undisguised emotion about what they’ve all learned from stopping every now and then to publicly take stock of their lives and their desires.”
Pretty fucking funny. The Gods of Carnage turn a routine, man-made avalanche into something that at least looks scarier. Scary enough to knockout assumptions of security and a few gender stereotypes. Scary enough to forever scar some yuppie Swedes and ruin their bourgeois week on the slopes. Like I said, funny. You probably think you’re a better person than Tomas. Maybe you’re not.
Cutting a jazz record is usually done so either live or by “getting the band back together” in a little room and ripping it up. This album, named after the clause in contracts that allows events to be cancelled due to an “act of God,” speaks of that struggle. A compilation of weekly online performances recorded in their Harlem apartment on a single microphone, partners Brandee (harp) and Dezron (bass) make the most of the circumstances, inadvertently highlighting the versatility of the two instruments in the right set(s) of hands. They cover John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, The Jackson Five, Kate Bush and “Sing” from Sesame Street, improvising with their limited resources in very interesting ways. In between songs, they crack wise, seemingly a knee-jerk response to the situation they were in (that so many of us were in), and speak of the uneasiness of now in a very off-the-cuff, honest way. Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters became the quarantine album, but this is a close second, a true representation of 2020.
Was on the road a lot for work the last week, and found myself on country roads in thick fog while listening to Michael C. Hall read Pet Semetary on Audible. Now it is late on this rainy autumn evening, just on the heels of Halloween, and I find myself home alone, as is Louis Creed. Even though I know what happens next, I am still terrified, for him as well as myself.
But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands.
Moreover, it’s important for us to understand which levels of government have the biggest impact on our criminal justice system and police practices. When we think about politics, a lot of us focus only on the presidency and the federal government. And yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it. But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.
It’s mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions. It’s district attorneys and state’s attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions. In some places, police review boards with the power to monitor police conduct are elected as well. Unfortunately, voter turnout in these local races is usually pitifully low, especially among young people — which makes no sense given the direct impact these offices have on social justice issues, not to mention the fact that who wins and who loses those seats is often determined by just a few thousand, or even a few hundred, votes.
So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both.
But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.
So that’s why children are burning it to the ground. They don’t know what else to do. And it is the responsibility of us to make this better — right now. We don’t want to see one officer charged, we want to see four officers prosecuted and sentenced. We don’t want to see Targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism burnt to the ground.
How are you? What are you working on, artistically or otherwise? Who or what has shaped who you are? What inspires you? What do you love? Send a letter to luke@retroduck.com and let me know. These letters inspire me. I hope they inspire you, too.
I have often said, “Sundays are for worship and Netflix.” An old friend, Josh Ramirez, writes in about a different and unique way to relax and enjoy the movies on your weekend day.
Dear Luke,
Thank you for your interest in my unusual hobby. I did my first swap in October of 2019, although, I’d been thinking about it for a few months previous. I like to post pictures of my swaps on Instagram, where I get inspiration and encouragement. I decided to make a goal for myself to post a new swap every Sunday for the 2020 year (maybe beyond?). I try to coincide the swaps with events, holidays and the like (although sometimes I get ideas a bit too late). So far, I’ve been keeping up with that goal and I feel like I’m getting better at it.
As far back as I can remember, I have always loved movies. The first movie I saw at the theatre was Ghostbusters. I was a toddler at the time and was terrified yet intrigued. It is, to this day, my favorite movie. As an adult who grew up in the ’80s, I am fascinated with the technological changes in the industry. I can’t help but obsess over analog technology, though. I’ve collected music on cassette and vinyl for many years. I’ve amassed an enormous collection of VHS cassettes as well. If I had to guess, I currently own around 700 cassettes. Obviously, VHS tapes are no longer mass produced so thrift stores are my main source. Vintage horror is particularly hard to find, so I scoop that stuff up every chance I get. Ebay is a decent source if you are willing to pay. Spoiler alert: I am.
Spoolswapping is basically the swapping out of the actual VHS film spools and putting them into a new colored cassette case that better personifies the film itself. I also like to swap to cassettes that match the cover art of the sleeve. Swapping spools is a pretty simple process. Really, you only need a small screwdriver, a heat source (heat gun or hairdryer) and a glue stick. There are five tiny screws that need to be removes from the back of the cassette. You have to be careful removing the the spools and keeping the tiny components together. You don’t want to wrinkle the film or the movie might get choppy when you play it. Do the same with the other tape and swap those bad boys out!
Once you screw the cassette back together, you gotta get the label on. I use a hairdryer to heat up the label as this will make it easy to peel it off. This should be done extremely carefully as to preserve the integrity of the label. All that’s left is using a glue stick to apply the label on the new tape and you’re good to go.
In this age of streaming services, I believe that it’s important to preserve analog technology for nostalgic purposes. Also, there have been countless times where I want to watch a film, and I can’t find it on any streaming platform. When you own hard copies, you can watch whenever you please. Furthermore, it’s pretty sweet to have an aesthetically pleasing copy of said movie. That’s about it. I’m about six months in and I won’t be slowing down any time soon! I look forward to making custom VHS cassettes of newer films that were never able to see the glory of VHS. I’m excited to see what I can do going forward.
Atlanta (Seasons 1-2): I applaud the ambition, but it didn’t always grab me. Could have been funnier, or at least shown more heart. Stanfield was great, as always, but was most impressed by Brian Tyree Henry’s nuanced performance.
Better Things (Season 4): The small moments have always been the best part of this show. There are so many moments I can relate to, but those I don’t, like a scene when a new husband sings “Martha” to their partner, or when a child recreates a classic Hollywood slapstick routine; those are the ones that make want to live in this world. Other shows make me laugh more, but no other makes me smile, cry or feel as much as Better Things.
#BlackAF (Season 1): I haven’t seen any of Kenya Barris’ other work so I can’t speak to it, but I thought this was funny, honest, insightful, and entirely too long. Read: Redundant. There’s a great movie in there somewhere. Love Rashida Jones, obviously.
Castle Rock (Season 2): I love Stephen King so much (probably too much) that I was intrigued from the start and then… wasn’t. I’ll give it to her though, as bad as this got, Lizzy Caplan was frickin’ committed.
Fleabag (Seasons 1-2): First season seemed kinda obvious. Sincerely don’t know how it could be described as groundbreaking. But I did laugh, a lot. Really liked the direction the second took. Hannah Jane Parkinson says it all a lot better than I can.
High Fidelity (Season 1): Since too many of my friends related a bit too much to Rob Gordon, I appreciated the female role reversal. Mighta been interesting to see future seasons not bound by source material.
Kim’s Convenience (Seasons 1-4): Just delightful. There isn’t a lot of social commentary, but sometimes that is O.K. It seems real. As a straight sitcom, it’s the best one I’ve seen in awhile. It’s that funny.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Seasons 1-3): Very seldom (if ever?) do I care about the B/C stories, but boy am I in love with Midge and Susie. And the stand-up is solid, something I rarely, rarely say about stand-up within shows or film.
Schitt’s Creek (Seasons 1-6): The plot makes little sense, but it’s so funny and has so much heart it doesn’t matter. I bought the final season on Amazon because I couldn’t wait to finish. The finale was a mess, but I was too, a blubbering mess, after watching the documentary at the end. The cast reading the letter from the mothers of thousands of LGBTQ+ kids fucking wrecked me.
The Sopranos (Seasons 1-6): The great rewatch. The greatest rewatch.
Twilight Zone; (Season 1): Thought I was going to love this. At least like it more than I did. The cast is often great (which somehow makes things worse), and some of the plots are interesting, but the episodes usually fail to stick the landings. “The Blue Scorpion” was solid. “A Traveler” seemed the closest to the original series. “Not All Men” and “Replay” were intense and scary. Could have done without the rest, especially the Black Mirror parody, “The Wunderkind.”
The Wonder Years (Seasons 1-6): The great rewatch. The greatest rewatch.
“Mr. Coyote states that on December 13th he received of Defendant via parcel post one Acme Rocket Sled. The intention of Mr. Coyote was to use the Rocket Sled to aid him in pursuit of his prey. Upon receipt of the Rocket Sled Mr. Coyote removed it from its wooden shipping crate and, sighting his prey in the distance, activated the ignition. As Mr. Coyote gripped the handlebars, the Rocket Sled accelerated with such sudden and precipitate force as to stretch Mr. Coyote’s forelimbs to a length of fifty feet. Subsequently, the rest of Mr. Coyote’s body shot forward with a violent jolt, causing severe strain to his back and neck and placing him unexpectedly astride the Rocket Sled. Disappearing over the horizon at such speed as to leave a diminishing jet trail along its path, the Rocket Sled soon brought Mr. Coyote abreast of his prey. At that moment the animal he was pursuing veered sharply to the right. Mr. Coyote vigorously attempted to follow this maneuver but was unable to, due to poorly designed steering on the Rocket Sled and a faulty or nonexistent braking system. Shortly thereafter, the unchecked progress of the Rocket Sled brought it and Mr. Coyote into collision with the side of a mesa.”
