crestfall [2021)

Starts sampledelia.

A story.

The push and pull of clunky electronics.

The goal of fucking up a sound recording to the greatest extent possible.

And then those beautiful strings come in.

Like The Cure.

All cats are grey.

Bass doesn’t drop until two minutes.

Pretty slick.

The Specials.

Ghost town.

Of James Brown pianists.

Federal.

The Bar-Kays.

Soul finger.

Spies like us.

Not so long ago now, seems it?

Have you got your anti-radiation supplements?

Let me help you out on that.

In case your city gets nuked.

And the 300 kiloton warhead doesn’t incinerate you.

Because it was dropped on the other side of town.

Maybe because the missile was old.

Or clunky.

You don’t have to be that accurate with a nuke of that yield.

Now you are battling radiation.

Stay inside as long as possible.

Days.

Weeks.

Months.

Water will soon be contaminated.

But soaking for 30 minutes in a bath of sea salt (one capful [as if it were bath salts]).

Nancarrow.

William S. Burroughs.

Has to be sea salt.

Can’t be table salt.

Pulls the radiation out of your body.

But you’ll need more than that.

Storable drinking water.

Storable food.

Air ok to breathe, but don’t go outside.

Air conditioner filter will remove radioactive particles.

But do not open any windows or doors.

[NB The EMP of the nuclear weapon will fry all electronic devices…so you will not have electricity probably for the next few months (at least). Air conditioner will not be working, but any air that passes through its filter will be cleared of a lot of radioactive particles. Phones will not work. Computers will not work. Internet will not work.]

Avoid yellow dust (nuclear fallout).

Here’s what you need to combat those radioactive isotopes (assuming you and your family didn’t get incinerated as a result of NATO’s insane and incessant eastward push over the past 30 years).

You need iodine.

Yes, potassium iodide is good.

Nascent iodine is probably even better.

But you need something to protect you from iodine-131.

Nascent iodine and/or potassium iodide will do that.

You need potassium.

You’re not gonna be making any trips to the store for bananas (unless you’re a moron).

And there will be no food arriving at any stores for quite some time (an understatement).

Potassium orotate.

Protects you against cesium-137.

You’re gonna need calcium.

Same story as with the bananas.

DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.

You don’t need milk from the store.

There will be none there anyway.

Get some calcium that includes magnesium.

If it has a little zinc in there too, that’s fine.

But you mainly need the calcium to protect you against strontium-90.

The magnesium is gonna help the calcium work better.

You’re gonna need iron.

I’d say probably take for a week or two.

No longer than that.

You need iron to protect against plutonium-239.

And finally, you need some vitamin B12.

This is gonna protect you against cobalt-60.

What a schizo record!

If you wanna bump up the effectiveness of the sea salt bath, add a cup of baking soda each time.

https://www.reboothealth.co.uk/blog/how-to-protect-yourself-from-nuclear-fall-out

Meanwhile, Pauly keeps releasing these albums.

He’s up to 24 albums (369 songs) over the course of the past year.

And we are way behind here at Pauly Deathwish Incorporated in reviewing our own albums.

But this one is pretty good.

Lots of variety.

Some Brazilian.

Hard to review your own albums.

Some might say pointless.

I disagree.

I think it’s pretty cool that this dude has put out so much music in the past year.

Something for everyone.

This is a pretty experimental album.

But has some accessible stuff too.

Dub reggae.

America is fucked!

Russia’s selling oil in rubles now.

Impressive music.

Considering this was all created with little more than an iPhone 7.

Things really start heating up with “H&mmer & Scorec&rd”.

Sophisticated piece.

Gershwin would have dug this.

So would have Penderecki.

Ligeti.

Górecki.

Bizet.

Bernard Herrmann.

A composer should be able to write about their own music.

Should be able to analyze their own music.

This album comes from the era when a Pauly Deathwish album would have 10 songs.

introversion, bucolic, MZFPK, zenith, glitch, drugs, disassemble, 41020…

After 41020, Pauly finally changed things up.

Released a maxi single.

The cover of Sonic Youth’s “Schizophrenia”.

And here he was back to another 10-song album.

crestfall.

These albums are pithy.

They are challenges.

They challenge the audience to figure out what the fuck is going on over the course of a mere 10 songs.

Let’s look at running times:

introversion 48:25

bucolic 39:59

MZFPK 35:49

zenith 48:06

glitch 54:36

drugs 55:01

disassemble 38:38

41020 48:00

crestfall 43:56

Spotify.

iTunes.

-PD

Spies Like Us [1985)

Hulu lost me.

Hello Netflix.

Hulu is like an inept intelligence agency.

They had the goods.

The Criterion Collection.

But as that oeuvre was surreptitiously phased out, Hulu was unable to offer any value whatsoever to the thinking person.

And so perhaps it is ironic that my Netflix relationship (no chilling here) starts with a spy spoof of sorts, but make no mistake (as the woeful Barack Obama is wont to say):  this is a very intelligent film.

It was a childhood favorite of mine.

Perhaps I was a strange child.

[no doubt]

But we all want to be James Bond to a certain extent, right?

Details disappear.

Even Putin had his cinema heroes.

Consider the film Щит и меч from 1968.

iMDB seems to fill in where Wikipedia fails.

Because these details tell so much.

To know one’s opponent.

But Vladimir Putin is not our opponent.

As long as our election stands.

Perhaps the answer is Stanislav Lyubshin.

Or was it Oleg Yankovsky?

The real answer is comedy.

Even spies need a laugh.

Spies are humans too.

Spy lives matter.

And so we get the provenance of the Pentagon basement meme.

A favorite of mine.

And this film.

Integral to who I am.

I had a cousin who worked in the Pentagon.

I don’t think she worked in the basement 🙂

But God rest her soul.

She is no longer with us.

And she was the most kind lady perhaps I ever knew.

She served her country.

I believe she did something in the health care field for veterans.

But yes…I identify extensively with Austin Millbarge.

In my own way.

Dan Aykroyd is stellar here as Mr. Millbarge.

And then there’s Emmett Fitz-Hume.

Chevy Chase is at his best in this film as Mr. Fitz-Hume.

Frank Oz is classic in his role as a test monitor.

Yes, Yoda and Miss Piggy were the same person.

How’s that for a mind fuck?

For young know-nothings like myself, this was a likely first exposure to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

And it speaks volumes that the DIA “recently” fielded its own band of covert operatives (in direct competition with the CIA).

There is, it seems, a palpable mistrust between the CIA and the U.S. military.

Different cultures.  Actually, a class difference.

[Not to get all Marx here…]

But it’s real.

I can’t define the parameters other than those intuitive, nebulous sentiments just expressed.

It is (very) interesting to note that Dan Aykroyd’s wife Donna Dixon, who stars in this film, was born in Alexandria, Virginia…

Hmmm…

NoVA.

We get Pamir Mountains.

We get Tajikistan.

But before that, we get Pakistan…and Budweiser…and Old El Paso tortilla chips.

And the intel cutout Ace Tomato Co.

And while we’re on the subject of failed businesses (Hulu), we should note that we definitely shan’t be accepting Indra Nooyi’s invitation (“Why don’t you gentlemen have a Pepsi?”) any time soon.

No…we’d much prefer to look at B.B. King’s Jheri curl blowing in the Nevada breeze…or watch Bob Hope “play through” on the Road to Bali.

But let us get back to that old enigmatic chestnut of our youth:  the road to Dushanbe.

“It’s…’Soul Finger’…by…The Bar-Kays.”

“They must be having trouble getting gigs.”

God damn…best line ever!

“Doctor.  Doctor.  Doctor.  Doctor.  Aaaaand Doctor.  Did we miss anyone?”

So many lines in this film which hit just the right mark.

Rarely do I write about screenwriters (it’s the auteur theorist in me), but Dan Aykroyd and his cowriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo (!) Mandel deserve major credit for the quality of Spies Like Us.

And yet, the direction of John Landis is fabulous as well!

Landis is no slouch.

I’ve previously written about the timelessness of Trading Places.

And I am sticking with that assessment.

But let’s take a break here…

Is there anything more lovely than seeing Vanessa Angel emerge from that tent?

Well, at least we get the cultural edification of some Lithuanian dancing to a boombox blasting Stax/Volt goodness around a Stolichnaya campfire 🙂

Back to the essential stand-down aspect of the false flag/stand down.

And for this we will always be indebted to Dr. Steve Pieczenik (and to a far lesser extent Roberta Wohlstetter).

We again refer to the FBI’s 1989 raid of Rocky Flats and the heavily-armed DoE agents guarding that facility.

Perhaps some U.S. Army Rangers are in Michael Chertoff’s not-too-distant future (to name but one grand conspirator).

“Ohh…I’m sorry Paul Wolfowitz!  The correct answer is ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’!!!”

 

-PD