He had been most inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie. "Woody had a sound and said something with his music." He wanted to meet Woody and thank him for such inspiring songs. Woody had not been well and was being treated in a local hospital. Bob went and saw him and then wrote a "Song to Woody." Suddenly, following that visit, as if overnight, Bob Dylan became a household name. He was selling out theatres across America and England. He was referred to as a genius. It has been said that Bob went down to the crossroads and struck a deal with the devil, in order to arrive at such a place. He continued to evolve from the old acoustic folk singer that everyone loved, to a somewhat loud electric rock star. Columbia Records and many of his fans were not happy about this change. Fans were booing and heckling him at concerts,...
Bob's electric song "Like a Rolling Stone" from the acclaimed album "Highway 61 Revisited" climbed to number 2 on the Billboard pop charts, second only to The Beatles "Help."
Life on Scorsese's Mean Streets: A realistic fictional film with a pseudo-documentary style all its own How could a film that is supposed to be about New York City, shot on the streets of Los Angeles 'feel' so real, so truthful to these characters that aspire to be good, but fail? The pseudo-documentary style adopted by Mean Streets is one reason that the gangster film has such a strong sense of
Henry Hill may be one of them -- but at the same time, he is not: their dialogue is fatuous, unreflective, and insipid. Their voices bounce against the voice of the narrator and shatter into pieces. The contrapuntal use of sound as the scene continues reveals a gangster world that is as fragile as it is glamorous -- the slightest glitch could bring the whole thing to a crash.
The 1990s also saw innovative interpretation of law enforcement's role in the perpetuation of organized crime. One of the most notable examples is L.A. Confidential (1997), in which corruption has reached so deep into the Los Angeles police department that two seemingly unrelated criminal investigations both lead to the police chief. The genre also proved its adaptability and continued appeal with Heat (1995) and Carlito's Way (1993); both films starred
Films and Filmmaking As Spike Lee noted in the 25th Anniversary celebration of his film Do the Right Thing, "the only reason why my generation went to film school was we couldn't get our hands on the equipment" (Macfarlane). Do the Right Thing had an independent feel to it, largely because of Lee's hands-on oversight of production, direction, writing and editing -- but it was ultimately a Universal picture. Since its
Scorsese cuts to a boring subdivision: Henry Hill exits his boring house in a bathrobe, stoops to get the newspaper "just like anybody" else, and for a moment remembers that he used to be a gangster. Scorsese cuts to a clip of the violent thug Jimmy (played by Joe Pesci) firing rounds point blank at the audience, and then cuts back to Henry who is either smiling or grimacing
Performance Art While some may believe we are close to achieving the purest art form that technology has to offer, I see it another way. Understanding the differences between live performance and a recorded performance are often difficult due to the relative appreciation of every individual. Consensus in the arts is very hard to come by, but when it does, it is obvious. The digital age has allowed for the consumer
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