MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANY: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO PLAN YOUR WEEKEND

Now that I’ve gotten Bad Education out of my brain (see below), here are a few of the other things rattling around up here, including some suggestions for some fantastic movie and movie on TV opportunities this weekend that you shouldn’t miss.

But first: "Former Viacom chief operating officer Mel Karmazin was named CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio." Is corporate PR synergy magnificent. You think that this news breaking on Thursday afternoon at approximately the same time that Howard Stern was taping the Late Show With David Letterman in an effort to publicize his pending move to Sirius Satellite Radio is a coincidence? You think that Howard’s choice of Sirius over XM wasn’t made with his long-time benefactor Karmazin in mind? The rumors of Karmazin joining Sirius have been around as long as those claiming Stern would be heading there. And you know what? Stern’s pronouncements of the death of terrestrial radio and the rise of Sirius may not be so far off with Karmazin at the helm. (Tangential note: funniest moment of Stern’s appearance on Letterman – when Dave asked him if he knew what "Sirius" actually was and Stern was baffled and mumbled something about stars and the dog icon. I’m sure that’s one question Stern would have appreciated having been put his way in a pre-interview.
Here’s a little reminder: a week ago today Lily and I published our interview with They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh on Gothamist. Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns), the documentary about TMBG, will air as part of Sundance’s November "AMPED: Movies for Your Ears" series this Saturday night at 9 PM. Don’t miss it. And you should also think about checking out People Are Wrong!, the rock musical starring Flansburgh now playing at the Vineyard Theatre.
Every now and then I mention how wonderful it is to see a classic silent film with live musical accompaniment, and on more than one occasion, I’m sure I’ve mentioned the fantastic Alloy Orchestra. Well tonight and tomorrow night is your chance to do so thanks to the Walter Reade Theater’s Golden Silents series. Tonight at 7:30 PM, the Walter Reade screens Buster Keaton’s 1924 comedy Sherlock Jr. with musical accompaniment by The BQE Project. And then for two showings on Saturday, the Alloy Orchestra will be performing along with Keaton’s all-time classic, and one of the greatest silent comedies ever made, The General.

Don’t stop now … there’s more (Network, Days of Being Wild, Overnight, Tarnation, my San Francisco roots, and the TAR premiere rebroadcast, all after the jump):

On more than one occasion, I have written how everyone should see one of the greatest films of all time, Sidney Lumet’s and Paddy Chayefsky’s remarkable TCM will air the 1976 masterpiece this Saturday night (as part of a Robert Duvall-themed evening) at 2:15 AM Eastern (11:15 PM Pacific). Watch it; record it; whatever! Year-by-year, this film manages to become even more relevant (and in hindsight, even more amazingly prescient) than ever. Continued corporate consolidation and the media circus surrounding this most recent election cycle make the foresight of Network even more apparent. If you also want to see why nobody should remake Bullitt or try to replace Steve McQueen and reconceive the character of Frank Bullitt, you can see the film — including one of the all-time great car chases through the streets of San Francisco — earlier that evening at 10:15 PM Eastern. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that the Duvall evening kicks off with his feature film debut in the great To Kill a Mockingbird at 8 PM.
Starting today, Film Forum will be screening for one week only the American theatrical premiere of Wong Kar-Wai’s early film Days of Being Wild. Before Chungking Express, Happy Together and In the Mood for Love brought him widespread international acclaim, this was what Wong had up his sleeves. I actually haven’t seen it, so you can bet I’ll get down to Film Forum this week. If you’re a fan of Wong’s films, I’m sure you’ll find it interesting to see an example of from where this magnificent filmmaker developed. Additionally, Days of Being Wild was Wong’s first collaboration with brilliant cinematographer Christopher Doyle.
Also continuing at Film Forum are two documentaries, one which you should rush to, and the other? Not so much. Overnight and Tarnation are each docs featuring amazing stories but are as different as night and day. Overnight is an overdone documentary that leaves too many loose ends and unanswered questions, hiding behind snazzy editing and sound effects but ultimately telling very little. It’s upsetting because the story behind Overnight — that of overnight sensation Troy Duffy who was handed the keys to the kingdom by Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein only to let his ego destroy him in the process and have his highly sought after script and film (The Boondock Saints) banished to the video racks — is an amazing Icarus tale. But the only reason to see Overnight is to observe how possible it is to make a bad movie out of a great story. Directors Tony Montana and Mark Brian Smith couldn’t have hoped for better access or accidental timing since they were close friends of Duffy’s (at least at the beginning) and were along for the ride every step of the way.

Tarnation, on the other hand, is a filmmaking achievement unlike most things you’ll see this year. Jonathan Caouette’s film has been a favorite on the festival circuit and received much notoriety due to the fact that he edited the entire thing on his iMac using Apple’s iMovie software. And his editing is complex and breathtaking; much more involved than simply cutting scenes together. I hope to write about Tarnation in more detail some other time, but this provocative and enthralling doc is well worth the price of admission. A word of warning, however: Tarnation is a potentially depressing and upsetting story but also an important one that in its own personal way shines a light on what has been wrong with the mental health system in this country over much of the past 50 years.
Speaking of San Francisco (yeah, it was a few items ago – so what?), I really enjoy IFCine & Heard, and I’m not trying to berate it’s author Alison Willmore – I appreciate whenever she links to me – but she seems to enjoy being inaccurate (at least in reference to me and my blog) simply for attempted comic effect. (It doesn’t look like IFCine & Heard uses any permalinks, so you’ll have to take my word for the following.) First, a couple months ago after I wrote a post regarding how impressed I am with IFC and Sundance Channel creating their own individual identities slightly different from the other, she wrote in a post something like, See, Aaron, when you call out to the blogosphere, the blogosphere talks right back to you. Of course, this wasn’t until well after I had been haranguing IFC’s Ultimate Film Fanatic for its entire two month run (here are the finals) so maybe the blogosphere is just slow to react. Now she linked to my post on Rent shooting in San Francisco and says I’ve outed myself as a "closet former San Franciscan." Just in case anyone is confused, I have to make one thing clear: I am not now nor have I ever been a closeted San Franciscan. I live in New York, I love New York, and I love living in New York, but I will always be from San Francisco. I think I’ve even mentioned in several times on this blog that I was born and grew-up in San Francisco, and by that I mean the city itself. I’ve definitely referred to the fact that I’m a big Giants (as in San Francisco baseball) and 49ers fan. I consider myself lucky to be from San Francisco and to have grown up in the only East Coast city on the West Coast. I’ll always say I’m from San Francisco before claiming to be from California because while the technical geography might match up, that 49 square mile peninsula is nothing like the surrounding state. So Alison, I appreciate the links, and I’d love to join your club (I was always fond of Taqueria La Cumbre’s steak burrito’s myself – during a summer working at the Eureka Theater Co. in the Mission, I think I lived on them), but maybe you should come read me just a little bit more to make sure you’re accurate. (And no, this was not a rant nor am I trying to start any kind of stupid blog war, so stop taking everything so seriously, people: this was just my appreciation for the only place other than New York — and Italy — in which I would want to live.)
And last but certainly not least, if you didn’t see the premiere of The Amazing Race Tuesday night, don’t forget that CBS is replaying the entire two hours on Saturday starting 8 PM. Go see why TAR is far and away the best reality shows on television and discover how amazingly easy it is to despise Jonathan and feel sorry for Victoria within such a short period of time.