Like its Southern California influences in the Paisley Underground (Rain Parade, Three O’Clock), named as an homage to the psychedelic heyday of Jefferson Airplane and Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Green Pajamas must hold the world’s record for most albums (somewhere around 30) recorded by a band with the fewest number of live appearances (somewhere more than 30) over a career that has spanned almost 30 years. Jeff Kelly and Co. recently released longplayer Death By Misadventure via longtime Pajamas label Green Monkey. Kelly and bandmates Laura Weller and Eric Lichter will be guest editing magnet magazine.com all week. Read our recent feature on them.
Kelly: It was 90 degrees in Seattle, and the Blue Angels were out there making a lot of noise doing an air show for Seafair. I sat in a dark room listening to Tom Dyer’s new record, drinking a Maritime IPA and thinking about one of my favorite things, The Criterion Collection. (I do though go outside occasionally to smoke.) I have discovered so many wonderful things via Criterion:
Pandora’s Box (1929): Starring the extraordinary Louis Brooks, the Criterion edition presents three different musical scores to choose from. I quickly watched it three times with each of those soundtracks and loved all of them.
Flamenco Trilogy (1981, 1983, 1986): Carlos Saura’s where I sat, absolutely mesmerized, watching the dancer Cristina Hoyos for the first time.
The Spirit Of The Beehive (1973): Starring the astonishing eight-year-old Ana Torrent, this might possibly be my favorite movie of all time.
Cria Cuervos (1976): Torrent also stars in another I would not have known of but for Criterion, which was made a year or so later. I can’t look away for a second when Ana is on the screen. This was Carlos Saura again, and he wrote the movie after seeing Torrent’s performance in The Spirit Of The Beehive. Her parents had decided they didn’t want her to do a second film. They told Saura “no” and he was going to scrap the film because he had written it specifically their daughter! Luckily for all of us, he convinced the parents to change their mind.
In Vanda’s Room (2000): My wife and I were hypnotized by Pedro Costa’s film, thanks to Criterion. Who would guess we would give much care to the mundane lives of a few junkies in a Lisbon ghetto? At three hours, this film is dark, compelling and ultimately, very beautiful.
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975): The film looks like an Impressionist painting come to life or, at very least, some breathtaking wet dream. (I had the fortune to see the real Hanging Rock in Australia a couple of years ago. There was a kangaroo in the garden by the gift shop but still no sign of the girls.)
Anyway, the list goes on.
Criterion’s DVD and Blu-Ray packaging is always elegant and representative of whichever film is being presented. My wife finds it silly that I purchase the DVDs. I tend to think of them as old friends, just like the many old books that line the walls of our home.
Other Criterion Collection releases, which have also enriched my life artistically and intellectually and, in the end, are just great entertainment, after the jump.
Au Hazard Balthazar (1966)
Eyes Without A Face (1960)
Six Moral Tales (1969)
Letters From Fontainhas: Three Films (2010)
The Double Life Of Véronique (1991)
Three Colors (1993-1994)
