p e n g u i n d e v i l

WordPress 2.3 is out, I fear that means that I may update and also take this opportunity (as I imagine will thousands of others) to, yet again, tinker or trash this blog layout. Not only is it sad because I always end up making a fun little mess for myself, but also because I never really find anything that I am totally satisfied with, so consider this fair warning!

Some other little piece of interest, I was listening to Am I Evil? (yes, Metallica and no, I don’t like them either, but I am fond of this particular tune), when the line “My mother was a witch” came on. It reminded me of something that I saw at work on Wednesday. Someone sold us a little old handbound book of four pamphlets. It didn’t look particularly exciting on the outside but inside were not just any pamphlets, mind you, but pamphlets of contemporary accounts of the Salem witchcraft trials and related writings.

What makes these interesting is that they are original pamphlets! Actually dating from the seventeenth century. They were in remarkably good condition considering that they’ve been floating around since before the United States, and they were quite nicely printed. Anyway, I thought it was a neat little surprise, a hand bound (probably bound 300+ years ago) volume of four Witchcraft tracts (including two by Cotton Mather) in the original 1690’s printings. Of course, it was a bit creepy too, thinking that this was maybe someones reference book at the time. Sadly, even though its subject matter falls under my umbrella, its rather excessive cost meant that the Rare Books folks got to keep it. But still, seeing the occasional item like this reminds me of one of the great joys of working around used books, you really never know what might some your way.

So I finally watched Hollywoodland, a movie that I’d been wanting to see ever since it came out, as I love the clothes from that era. Honestly. Well, and these sort of whodunit movies… I thought it was pretty good. It was based on a real subject that I didn’t really know anything about, the confusions around the suicide of George Reeves. Admittedly, I wasn’t particularly interested in the subject, and the movie didn’t make me any more interested, but the movie itself was good.

The story of a private eye (Adrien Brody) who is hired by George Reeves’ mother to prove that his suicide was actually a murder. Of course, since the case has been closed he has to run a bit counter to the LAPD to do this and there are plenty of potential suspects each out for their own good, including Reeves’ fiance and his lover (Diane Lane as the wife of a studio head, played by Bob Hoskins).

The movie felt a lot like watching L.A. Confidential, though not as good and with no where near as great a cast or story, but it looked good and they did a nice job with the 1950’s thing. I like Adrien Brody fine, but I had a hard time buying his character. Ben Affleck did fine as George Reeves, though he seemed a bit like I would imagine Ben Affleck to really be, but it worked for me. Of course, Bob Hoskins was here playing his usual bad self, but sadly his rather focal character didn’t have enough screen time for me.

And we finally watched Safemen. This was a surprisingly fun little comedy. Paul Giametti (redeeming himself from last week’s Shoot ’em Up) plays Veal Chop, a Jewish mob underling in Baltimore who mistakenly pegs Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn (a failing music duo) as the Safe Men, the greatest safe crackers of Baltimore. He traps them so that his boss, Big Fat Bernie (Michael Lerner brilliantly playing a very similar character to his role in Barton Fink) can force them to heist some safes for him. Of course, throw in the fact that they don’t know how to break safes and then a love triangle and, of course, the real Safemen and you have comedy hijinks! Adding good direction, some very funny dialogue and then just some odd but very good shots, and you have a pretty entertaining and good-hearted comedy. I don’t watch a lot of comedies, but I would recommend this one.