Look Back in Anger, 1959, Tony Richardson

Usually this would be a day of recording and editing a podcast, but thanks to having a holiday and a little free time on my hands, I have time to talk about some other stuff. It is rare that I post a “miscellaneous” topic, but why not? This is the first part of a series that I’ll post whenever I feel like it, or rather, when I have a good amount of stuff to talk about.

This week has been one spent immersed in the world of the British New Wave, or the “Angry Young Men” period, as it is often called. This is for our upcoming Podcast episode about Lindsay Anderson’s If…., which is sort of a postscript for that movement. This is a blind spot for me, as I had not watched or studied many of these films. That’s one great thing about this Criterion project and the Podcast, that I get to learn about interesting cultural movements. More on that once we record and release the podcast.

The best news of the week has nothing to do with movies, podcasts, or really anything about what I talk about here. I bought a car. I casually asked someone whether I should mention it on my blog, and they responded that there’s no point in having a blog if you don’t talk about a “sweet ride” like the one I just bought.

It is a Lexus ES300h. Yes, it is a Lexus and a hybrid. This is something I never would have expected to own. Even two weeks ago, I never would have imagined being a Lexus owner. It is a long story of how I got here, but basically I had some unforeseen mechanical problems with the car I owned, which are still not fully identified and corrected. The Lexus dealership was glad to take some of that risk, give me a reasonable offer on the car, and give me an opportunity to upgrade it. So I took the plunge.

The best part was seeing this on my dash:

Those who have followed me here and on Twitter know that I buy a lot of physical media. My wife playfully calls them “rocks,” based on Hank’s deliveries on Breaking Bad. Along with the Criterion Collection, I buy a lot of other labels and Region B titles.

Here is my latest delivery from the Masters of Cinema sale, but there have been many more that I haven’t blogged or tweeted about. One day I’ll share the entire collection.

With the new car, the “rocks” will have to slow down. I’ve canceled a number of pre-orders, but I’ll still keep an eye out for sales and indulge when the price is right. And I will always buy the Criterions. Those are a priority.

The #CriterionBlogathon planning is still in progress. We now have a whopping 154 entries, most of which are already posted at HQ. The difficult part is organizing those into a 6-day posting schedule. So far we have a rudimentary schedule that looks like this:

11/16: English part one
11/17: European (France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain, Czech)
11/18: English part two
11/19: Asian (Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Russia, Taiwain)
11/20: English part three
11/21: Essays and box sets.

It could change. Soon enough we’ll have specific categories and will notify participants on when we will recap their sections. Thanks again for all of your enthusiasm and excitement.

For the upcoming week I have a busy writing queue. I’m planning to write a piece on Yi Yi for Wonders in the Dark. I’m also going to write about William Wellman’s A Star is Born for Now Voyaging’s first blogathon. In addition, I have a post on My Beautiful Laundrette in the works for right here.

So it’ll be a busy week in the blogging and podcasting world, but this is my passion and I’ll enjoy it.