BillHeise | October 25, 2011
I’ve been working on my first scholarly book on Spenser’s Book of Holinesse in his six book (and still uncompleted) Faerie Queene (I know; how cool am I?). I am going to publish this serious academic work before I publish my already completed satire on Art in the Age of Talk Radio, because in my [...]
BillHeise | March 5, 2011
I had a thought this morning, so I thought I’d share it with you. I was thinking about how I don’t want to get murdered, because if someone murders me, then my life is over. You probably are concerned with getting murdered, as well, so we have that as common ground on which to build [...]
BillHeise | February 8, 2011
So the other day I was talking about my last Leone film, and I got caught up in the film’s score, which was written by my favorite movie scorer, Ennio Morricone. He, of course, scored my favorite Western of all time, Once Upon a Time in the West. I could listen to the lilting theme [...]
BillHeise | February 6, 2011
Towards the end of last year, I finished watching 150 westerns in preparation for a future project. But, as I did when I watched 150 film noirs, I saved a few choice bits for last because I knew that my pace of watching so many movies would leave me exhausted. I was too tired to [...]
BillHeise | January 29, 2011
I was reading today’s column by Mark Steyn, and in it he’s talking about Dalton Trumbo. He credits Dalton as “the screenwriter of Spartacus, Exodus, and Roman Holiday,” but he leaves out what I think is probably his masterpiece, Gun Crazy. I know that all of you have seen this film, which is the best [...]
BillHeise | October 13, 2010
I was watching Cadillac Records, a movie about Chess Record producer Leonard Chess (Adrian Brody) as he discovers first blues men and subsequently rock n roll. His first discovery was of Muddy Waters, who he teamed up with Willie Dixon‘s writing talent on Hoochie Coochie Man: During a session with Muddy, he allows his side [...]
BillHeise | September 1, 2010
I used to go to the drive-in a lot in high school and college, and the most disturbing movie I ever saw in my life was I Spit on Your Grave. I must have seen the movie five of ten times (I used to go to a lot of movies). Of all the movies I [...]
BillHeise | July 11, 2010
Okay, let’s review. Here’s how I look at art. The viewer starts out with a Status Quo (that’s ‘the way things are now,’ for the less Latin inclined). But the clever artist has identified a conflict in the Status Quo. The introduction of conflict into the previously untroubled world of the Status Quo means that [...]
BillHeise | June 12, 2010
I’ve been working my way through the silent film era in Germany recently, and I have to admit that silent film is one of those things that takes getting used to. The pictures are often grainy (1920’s Golem), the stories are often abbreviated (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and scenes take far too long to [...]
BillHeise | June 7, 2010
There’s just one more thing about It Might Get Loud. Here’s an interview that I never saw before of Jimmy Page, god of guitar, being asked what he’s going to do with his life. Interviewer: Are you going to take up skiffle? Jimmie Page: No, I’d like to take up biological research. Interviewer: What do [...]
