Posted on by mwhybark

ENRON: Skilling "agitated"

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/24/business/24ENRO.html

“When shown records that laid out the details of the financial returns during his testimony several months ago before the S.E.C., Mr. Skilling was said to have grown agitated as he described his opinion of the information. Had he known the magnitude of the profits, Mr. Skilling was said to have told the regulators, he would have immediately summoned Enron executives involved in the dealings and given them 24 hours to justify such outsize results.”

WhhaAATTT! Why, THESE PROFITS are an OUTRAGE! EXPLAIN YOURSELVES or face the WRATH of… KENNY BOY!

After all, that’s what CEOs do, right? Call employees on the carpet for reporting absurdly high ROI? Yup, that’s why they make the big bucks.

Posted on by mwhybark

Spence on Méliès

Spence added a comment to my bit on Méliès that is both long enough and interesting enough to merit promotion to a full fledged entry. Take it away, Spencer!

“Actually, I’m fairly certain the print of “Conquest of the North Pole” is complete. Most of Melies’ films have fairly choppy narratives. When he got started at the turn of the (last) century, this wasn’t a big deal — in fact, in many ways he was ahead of the game. For example, contrast his 1902 magnum opus “A Trip to the Moon” (“La Voyage dans La Lune”) with other films of the same period — on the whole, cinema of the period was only just moving beyond the “actualities” (static shots without edits of street scenes and other real-life views, typically lasting perhaps a minute or two). Not only was La Lune practically an epic at some 20 min., it had an actual narrative and editing — the much-ballyhooed narrative breakthrough film, “The Great Train Robbery,” would not be made for another 2 years. (Indeed, Melies was making narrative films — albeit phantastical ones — two to four years prior, earlier than almost any other filmmaker that I’m aware of.) And not to mention, of course, the special effects that remained cutting edge for at least another 10-20 years.

Alas, Melies the auteur did not evolve much beyond the simple trick film. “Conquest of the North Pole” (1916) is really not very dissimilar from his works of 15 years prior. By this time, of course, cinema had evolved considerably in terms of editing, storytelling, and camera placement. After all, the year prior had scene the release of D.W. Griffith’s monumental (albeit racist) “Birth of a Nation”; even his fantasy film cache was slipping as early versions of “Der Golem” and other phatasticals were being produced by numerous others. Meanwhile, Melies was still relying on his stagey, proscenium-style staging and eschewing cross-cutting.

The result? Melies became increasingly passé, fewer tickets sold, and fewer distributers could give a damn. In 1915, Melies had to sell his own theater. By 1917 or so, he was completely out of the game and effectively vanished like one of his own fantasy creatures. Legend has it that he resurfaced ca. 1938 when someone spotted him selling toys in a Paris market. The story goes that he had no idea that he was remembered at all, and was unaware of the crucial impact he’d had on cinema. Like so many important geniuses, he died penniless.”

You can go here or here to find out more interesting things from Mr. Sundell.

Posted on by mwhybark

The Latin Playboys, "Dose"

One of two discs that surfaced (thanks as usual to the industrious Spencer Sundell) during the weekend’s festival of food is by an obscure offshoot of LA roots-rockers Los Lobos. In a 1995 review by David Levine concerning the first release (“Latin Playboys“) he writes:

This music is so original and yet so familiar, it’s almost archetypal.

Which begins to convey the depth of the deliciousness of the band’s work.

Trolling for info I aso came across this review of a show at Aro.Space here in Seattle – and Bloomington musican Lisa Germano opened. Guess I need to read the Stranger more often.

The recording style on “Dose” is deliberately primitive, reminiscent of Pussy Galore and The Butthole Surfers’ exploration of the aesthetics of noise. However, in contrast to the work of these bands, which frequently buried a groove under loads of high-frequency noise or other grating aural effects, the Playboys embrace the groove; the squeezed and scratchy quality of the sound creates an effect similar to that of listening to a field recording. It dramatically enhances the power of the music.

Naturally enough, there’s a distinct Latin beat to the music which is infectious as well.

Interestingly, Amazon customer reviews prefer the first disc; however, the reviews for “Dose” include a number of highly negative reviews in which individuals were drastically put off by the more experimental nature of the recordings than the average Los Lobos cut. I have not heard the first record, but it seems likely that I should check it out.

I recall hearing a couple of cuts from “Dose” when it was released and very much liking them, but I did not know the name of the ensemble, and thus remained ignorant. Now, my knowledge is greater. Thanks, Spence!