Lost in the Movies: December 2013

Soundtrack to a Warm Winter: #iPodAlbumPlaylist, December 2013



As the year ends, I begin a new method of recording my musical explorations. Since the spring, I've been rounding up #iPodAlbumPlaylists, groups of LPs I set up and then listened to over the course of weeks or months (you can keep track via this hashtag on Twitter). I'm no longer setting up these playlists ahead of time, but rather choosing what album I want to listen to at a given moment - and at the end of each month I'll round up the results. Here's what I listened to in December, limited by the absence of headphones for several weeks and a Christmas song playlist that occupied my earspace around the holidays. Next month there will probably be more titles here. As before, I've included covers, basic info, and favorite tracks with a link to the track itself, if available online.


The Christmas Day Nostalgia Marathon (#WatchlistScreenCaps)


Today, December 25, I celebrated Christmas with a viewing marathon. There was a definite theme to the lineup: not only were the first eight movies (well, six movies and a TV episode) holiday-themed, most of them I knew well from childhood (the two exceptions were based on stories or characters I was very familiar with). In many cases, this was my first re-viewing as an adult.

In keeping with the tradition of previous viewing marathons, all films viewed digitally appear full-size while TV episodes, VHS viewings, and broadcasts (i.e. things I usually wouldn't screen-cap if I wasn't being so comprehensive) appear in smaller images. Visit my #WatchlistScreenCaps archive for a full line-up of everything I've watched this year.

Links lead to pieces I've written on the given film. Merry Christmas (or what's left of it), Happy Boxer's Day, and a Happy New Year.

#WatchlistScreenCaps, 12/22 - 12/24


Here are the last ten films/videos I watched digitally, with a screen-captured image and caption. Visit my #WatchlistScreenCaps archive for images from everything I've watched since February. On Christmas Day, I will be tweeting and eventually blogging screen-caps from a nostalgia-movie marathon (focused on films I watched as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s, some of which I haven't seen since), so stay tuned.

Also, please let me know if you can't see any pictures in the slider atop this blog (only visible on the main page, not individual posts). Or if you can. I can't see anything anymore and am wondering if it's just my computer and phone, or if I should lose the feature...

#WatchlistScreenCaps, 12/7 - 12/21


Here are the last ten films I watched (except my music video marathon, which was gathered on its own page), with a screen-captured image and caption. Linked titles lead to previous pieces on the given title from this blog. Visit my #WatchlistScreenCaps archive for images from everything I've watched since February.

Music video marathon, 12/16 - 12/18


Between December 16 - 18, I viewed seventy-nine music videos based on three lists (Time, Rolling Stone, Billboard), favorite songs on my #iPodAlbumPlaylist, and a few random selections I wanted to watched. Here they all are, with a screen-captured image and personal epigram. Visit my #WatchlistScreenCaps archive for more arresting images.

Links are to the online music videos, so you can watch them yourself. Enjoy.

4 thoughts in response to The Battle of Chile


The following brief reflections originally appeared on Twitter following my first viewing of The Battle of Chile (1975 - 1979), a 3-part documentary covering the CIA-sponsored coup which overthrew democratically-elected left-wing President Salvador Allende and replaced him with the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Frances Ha


Frances Ha is a fish-out-of-water story in which we actually see that process take place. Flailing, failing dancer Frances (Greta Gerwig), shuffled from home to home, falling behind her pack of friends, wandering off to Paris on a whim and mail-order credit card, is like a sea creature swimming along contentedly until the tide abruptly goes out, leaving her flopping on the shore unexpectedly. One moment the spot she inhabits was her watery home, the next it's her sandy grave. Not that the film is so dark; it's a charming comedy of manners, and one of its charms is that it neither takes itself too seriously nor treats itself too flippantly. One of Frances' most likable qualities is that even as she radiates neurotic discomfort and disappointment, she staggers on, trying to make the best of things instead of wallowing in misery. Her ethos is almost old-fashioned, like a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd hero determined to run with the big boys even as we love them precisely for being incapable of making it.

Fiction and Nonfiction - 10 Long-Form Films: #WatchlistScreenCaps, 11/17 - 12/7 (miniseries edition)


Here are the last ten films I finished, with a screen-captured image and caption. All are miniseries (half are documentary, half are dramatic) - many of which I began watching this summer. The first three were re-viewings, the rest first-timers. Linked titles lead to previous pieces from this blog. Visit my #WatchlistScreenCaps archive for images from everything I've watched since February.

Search This Blog