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Tom Ronca - 2005-06-22 10:47:27
Boy, do I wish I was in NYC to catch some of these at the Film Forum! I urge you to catch the two films that kick off the series, "Trouble in Paradise" and "Blonde Venus". Ernst Lubitsch's seminal romantic comedy is the paradigm that all following romantic comedies have attempted to emulate, and for the most part failed, with the exception of some of Lubitsch's. Don't miss it. "Blonde Venus" is the best Von Sternberg/DIetrich collaboration, and for my money, features the sexiest appearance of a woman in a gorilla suit ever. Also not to be missed. I could go on and on regarding the selection here, but basically anything by Lubitsch, Mamoulian and Von Sternberg is worth catching at least once, so just go see them all. For the record, I am the 'Tom' referred to on the El Minotaur Blanco blog, but I don't force Van to watch any movies. I force him to stay in the room while I play them, and he is hypnotically drawn to their intense narrative stucture. SO there.
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Bob - 2005-06-22 13:14:01
See, I can see scrobbling? when it comes to films (and we certainly do enough of it in your comments section), but why (as you asked) DON'T you find it creepy when it comes to MUSIC? It's not that it smacks of several aggro-geeks who were always scrawling their favorite uninteresting bands' names on the chalkboard before class in ninth grade in my youth, cuz who pays attention to those... but rather, that it seems musical enjoyment should be as subjective as possible, rather than influenced. Not that it really does get influenced... but I see more point, and reliability, to film scrobbling. For instance, I'd be interested to check out various films Tom enthuses about, because, though we never had much to say to one another in college, I apparently share some of his likes/dislikes when it comes to film, and that sort of thing has seemed to me like it carries over a bit more reliably when it comes to film than when it comes to songs. (And appropos of little, I enthusiastically recommend "Nights of Cabiria" to anyone here who hasn't seen it and thinks they might want to.) But then again, I am FOR immediate "Here, check out this song" (and tune it out if you don't like it)... and not so much for forced exposure to movies.
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Tom Ronca - 2005-06-22 13:41:43
Well, I think scrobbling makes sense for both film and music; although I can see where it might be more effective for films. Music, and likes and dislikes thereof, seems more subjective and more difficult to put into words than the criteria we tend to apply to films, which tend to narrative-driven, and hence, essentially 'textual' objects. In fact, it's non-narrative films that are the most difficult to critique in this manner. For example, I can explain to someone why they might want to see 'Nights of Cabiria' (a great film! I could gaze at Giulietta Masina's face for hours!), but I'm not sure I could do the same for the experimental films of Maya Deren (which are also great). By the way, Bob, do we know one another from New College?
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Bob - 2005-06-22 14:24:31
Yep.
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Bob - 2005-06-22 15:53:25
Oh and Paula, I don't consider your going into your musical tastes in your own blog to be scrobbling (gee, English is getting as lovely as German, isn't it?). And am interested in that as something that pertains to you. (I dunno... maybe my problem with "scrobbling" is just that, as words go, it ain't exactly musical.)
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2fs - 2005-06-24 11:49:14
Audioscrobbler also allows one to discover that Our Blorghista's favorite artist (at the moment) is someone named "Paula Carino." Whozzat?
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Paula - 2005-06-25 21:08:43
No, no, no, no that's the *other* Paula Carino, the, uh, salsa star.
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