Head On Tomorrow

I saw the most amazing film last night, "Head-On" (originally Gegen die Wand, or Against the Wall), at the Angelika here, it's been receiving (deservedly) much praise in the papers, its glimpses into the Turkish/German nexus mesmerize, ultra-vivid vignettes of erotic and violent cultural desperation/dislocation played-out over a German-oriented punk and new wave soundtrack ( I mean you even get a snatch of music from The Abwarts thrown in there, wonder if my old friend Magita Haberland is on the track, she once played a mean violin with them). It is probably the best movie I've seen since Wes Anderson's "The Life Acquatic", which boasts stellar performances from Bill Murray and my buddy Willem Dafoe..."Head-On"'s lead actors are truly a revelation, titanic forces of nature, displaced Turkish rude boy Birol Unel has the same mad staring eyes as Kinksi at his kraziest, with a touch of Bruno S., and Sibel Kikelli impresses as a sweet whirlwind of capricious libidinal energies. Director Fatih Akin is new to me but deserves a much closer look, the last time I got the same excited buzz from a director was encountering Lars Von Trier's "The Element of Crime". "Head-On" is edge-of-the-seat engaging, explosive, haunting,...I will definitely see it again.

And another winner in my last blogger sweepstakes...NY Lifer of Livingston New Jersey correctly identified Tiny Tim's song "The Other Side" (written by Bill Dorsey, thanks to Richard Barone for this tidbit) as containing the lyric "The Ice-Caps are Melting...", a song from Mr. Tim's 1968 Reprise album "God Bless Tiny Tim". He receives a copy of the new Fast 'N' Bulbous album , which is picking up brilliant reviews right and left (see my website for the latest 4 star review in Mojo Magazine).

Gods and Monsters had a lovely gig at the Bowery Poetry Club on Friday night, stripped down to the core power trio of myself and Ernie and Billy plus guest visitations from Amica and Michael Schoen, who is making evolutionary leaps into unknown vocal territory. We debuted a bunch of new songs that revved up the crowd nicely, including a cover of "She is Free", a song I wrote with Jeff Buckley in 1992 which is on the "Songs to No One" compilation (Evolver/Rykodisc). We just got booked to play at South by Southwest in Austin Texas on Saturday March 19th, moving this feast forward and making new friends deep in the heart of you know where...


xxGary