blog.humaneguitarist.org

Happy New Year.

Speaking of New Year's, I avoided "amateur night" as one of my favorite bartenders called it.

Instead of going out, I stayed home and watched "The Phantom Carriage" on Hulu. The arrival of the New Year plays an important part in the film.

Earlier this week, I watched another silent film, "The Unknown" with Lon Chaney. It's kind of like a one-way, gruesomely macabre spin on "The Gift of the Magi".

It's been a few years since I watched some silents at home, but in large part my interest has been renewed by reading "American Silent Film" by William K. Everson.

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I've had this post in "draft" mode for months, though there never was any text.

As I wait a little while before I have a Sunday night drink (vodka, soda, slice of orange FTW!), I wanted to quickly mention that I saw these two films and really enjoyed them.

Interestingly, they are both connected to Canada …

The first is Anvil: The Story of Anvil. 

Now, I like heavy metal – at least the pre-90's stuff. It's actually what got me into classical music given that so many 80's metal guitarists were seriously into classical music. So I might be more inclined to watch this than some. But I'd encourage anyone who thinks they are dedicated to something they love to watch this film. These guys are damn dedicated to playing music even though they never got the "success" they seemed poised to achieve. There are funny moments and heart-wrenching ones, too. The relationship between this Canadian band's frontman "Lips" and drumming virtuoso Rob Reiner is really something to behold.

For some reason this film reminded me a lot of Beyond the Mat, the wrestling documentary, particularly the parts about Jake "The Snake" Roberts (which had to be the inspiration for The Wrestler). Maybe because both are about people doing what a lot of people might think aren't serious endeavors. But these people are really serious. And they're seriously real. Much more than a lot of people I know who like to think they're smart, unique, etc. when they're just dull and delusional.

On to film #2, Ginger Snaps.

There's a lot of vampire-inspired stuff around these days, so it's nice to see some lyncathropes on film every now and then, too. Both actresses are great in this Canadian gem. Like the Anvil film, this, too, reminded me of another film: The Lost Boys – which, of course, starred the "Coreys".

I guess wherever there are werewolves, there are vampires, eh?

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Since I got rid of Facebook, I no longer have a way to share any movies that I really enjoy. So I've added a "film" category to this blog, which more and more is serving as documentation of where my head's at. Film isn't really off-topic anyway given that I'm casually working on some stuff with the Netflix API to get a list of some horror films.

Anyway, today is Halloween and last night I watched a great film called "Burn, Witch, Burn". I didn't watch a horror film because of the date. I just love horror films, especially ones like this that are well-written, well-acted, and just a joy to watch.

As intelligent as the film is, the opening and ending (at least of the version I saw) were really cheesy. In a good way.

The opening narration is really a treat and I knew as soon as I heard the voice of the narrator that I'd heard it before … at the Haunted Mansion in Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Sure enough, the narrator was one Paul Frees who did indeed do the Disney/Haunted Mansion voice.

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Update, November 27, 2011: If you're looking for a live list of Hammer Films streaming on Netflix you can see it here.

To read more about the HammerFlicks project, click here.

…

It's been a while since I've posted … I'm prepping to leave Tuscaloosa, AL for a new job (more on that later), but I thought I should get myself, as this blog is primarily a reference point for me, up-to-date.

So let me get right to it.

I have Netflix.

I use their Watch Instantly feature often.

I use this feature to watch films made by the Hammer Film Productions company, often.

Hammer made a lot of great off-beat horror films and they just have a certain style that I love. The films I've seen of theirs feature, more-often-than-not , well-crafted and well-acted tales of strangeness with sympathetic characters and beautiful women – where story, and not spectacle, rules the day.

In fact, my first Hammer Film was Dr. Jeckyll and Sister Hyde. I won't give it away, but I highly recommend it. It has all the traits mentioned above that I associate with Hammer Films.

Anyway, Netflix, to my knowledge, doesn't allow me to search by production companies. But I want to know which Hammer Films are available on Netflix and if I can stream them. Unless and until Netflix ever allows this search, it seems I'll have to roll my own solution.

The idea is to use the IMDB data files to get a list of the film titles where Hammer was the production company. Then, using the Netflix API, I can get a report on those titles in the Netflix catalog.

This is a pretty simple idea, but one that I'd personally find very useful.

I've just started working on it and I'll share my work as soon as it's done. I'm not sure if I can offer this sort of searching as a service – there might be some legal issues – but I can at least share the methodology.

Now, if anyone out there knows of a way to already do this, please let me know.

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