The Films of Robert Altman – More than any film director’s death, I actually felt the loss of Robert Altman when he shuffled off his mortal coil this past year. It wasn’t just that he was one of my favorite filmmakers. Nor was it the fact that he seemed not to be slipping at all (oh, sure, he’d come out with a stinker or two, and then, PRESTO, follow it up with a Gosford Park), a real rarity in a business where the artists truly do seem to reach A peak. No, what saddened me the most is that the longer he lived, the more Altman’s love affair with life seemed to grow, the more his compassion for humanity seemed to deepen. If you were to go back in time and view his breakthrough film, M*A*S*H, it might be hard to accept that compassion would be the strongest of his many virtues as a story-teller. Nevertheless, it is compassion, his unconditional love for the foibles and idiosyncrasies of human beings that might just be his greatest legacy. And what a legacy! My favorites (chronologically):

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Images (1972)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Nashville (1974)
The Player (1992)
Short Cuts (1993)
Gosford Park (2001)

That’s a terrific list. And it doesn’t even include such truly great films as M*A*S*H, Thieves Like Us, California Split, 3 Women, A Wedding, Secret Honor, and most recently, A Prairie Home Companion. Altman made truly awful films, of course, but even they tend to be … fascinating. More than the films themselves, I continue to find his approach, his process, inspiring. Whereas most film directors are fascist (both with their collaborators and ESPECIALLY with the audience), Altman was truly democratic. He allowed artists to find their moments and audiences to discover as much as they possibly could within the frame and soundtrack of his films, which was always too much for only one or two viewings.

So, I’m sad. I would’ve liked to have seen more Robert Altman films.

Boston Legal – There are only a handful of shows currently on the air that have become habit-forming for me, and Boston Legal is at the top of the list. It began with James Spader’s character on the final season of The Practice. Boston Legal is so much more than that. It is, quite simply, like nothing I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing else like it. It shatters the fourth wall, it pontificates, it offends, it exploits, it titillates, and it makes me laugh more than any Show EVER. And like any truly great comedy, it has the ability to move you to tears. If you’re not watching it, I really have very little use for you.

Paul Weller – Anyone who knows me, knows that Paul Weller has literally been responsible for the soundtrack to my life. With The Jam, The Style Council and for the past fifteen years, his solo work, witnessing and enjoying his musical explorations has been one of my enduring passions. This month, I will be in New York seeing Mr. Weller perform on three consecutive nights at the Irving Plaza. Report to follow...

A Sideways Look at Time – One of the books I’m currently enjoying, Jay Griffith’s work is truly (in the words of the introduction), for anyone who does NOT think that time is money, for anyone who has a sneaky feeling that other cultures might have ideas of time far more wise and elegant than our own, for anyone who feels that the time of the modern West is “coercive, crushing and overwound …” I’ve always had – physically, mentally, verbally – good “quickness”. I’m trying to develop (in all the aforementioned) good slowness. This book came to me at just the right … time …