RIP David Johanson

David Johanson from The New York Dolls to his alter ego Buster Pointdexter is gone. He was 75 (born Jan. 9th 1950). No more "Personality Crisis"... Amazingly he lived to be 75 while his bandmates (Johnny Thunders, Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, Bill Murcia) and the other tough & rough dudes of the era are long gone and buried. The Dolls reunion album (only Johanson and Sylvain) in 2006 was entitled prophetically, "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This".  , (which incidentally I found & bought at the time on CD in Romania !).

article and obit in The New York Times 

In film, he was the Ghost of the Christmas Past in Scrooged (1988), Bill Murray being a friend of his. 

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Martin Scorsese (with David Tedeschi) directed a rockumentary, more like a concert film, Personality Crisis: For one Night Only for Showtime, in 2023.

it's a one night allshow with Johanson singing, crosscut with archival footage, interviews- talking funny about his life, a sort of comedic one, as his sense of humor was absolutely great !

He is one of the BIG ONES, of the stature of Iggy and the last of its time, only Patti Smith is still here....unfortunately the world today (hah..what world ?) has forgotten those wild dayz and wild people. Cos it seems they only cahanged t for a while, changed themselves and some of us, and the rest still conformed and zombified. Can't put Your Arms Around a Memory, oh yes, you can !!!

Rutger Hauer-Like Tears in the Rain

The long in the works documentary  (& awaited by ppl like me) on Rutger Hauer , The Rutger !!!

 will be now on streaaming, amazon prime in March (viaplay in UK).

Trailer here:

RIP Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman, one of the greatest Actors there ever was, (it's said he could play Anyone and Antything), died on Tuesday Feb. 26th. He was 95. He died suddenly along his wife and their dog ! His wife (the 2nd, married in 1991), the pianist Betsy Arakawa, was 64 ! The Police of Santa Fe discovered all three of them....

During the last 3-4 years I re-saw /saw again some of his films with the fear he'll die any moment. So, there was him at his most funniest in Get Shorty, the neo-noir Heist, action mentoring channeling The Conversation part -Tony Scott's Enemy of the State (2 bad it had Will Smith as a lead, if could've been Denzel or Jamie Foxx it'll rock more today), more good action thriller-The Package and the comedy I caught up Heartbreakers. Forgot he had a cameo in The Mexican when I gave that film another shot (totally hated it when it came out), tried to see again The Royal Tenenbaums but remembered how he quarreled with Wes Anderson (which I find completely overrated) and paused it. It's a great part but not a lengthy on.  Also discovered some gems like The Hunting Party (1971), The Split (bit cop part) when Jim Brown died and recently, when Kris Kristofferson passed I saw Cisco Pike (1971). Brilliant wicked part for Gene Hackman, probably last seen by me. 

He was retired since 2004 after the lesser comedy Welcome to Moosesport. He was painting and writing thriller noir/ history fiction novels. 

Hackman received two Academy Awards (for William Friedkin's The French Connection & Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven), two British Academy Films Awards (BAFTA), and four Golden Globes.

My faves after the obvious characters of Popeye Doyle, Harry Caul, Little Bill Daggett and Lex Luthor are Crimson Tide, Prime Cut, The Scarecrow, French Connection II (he's better in Frankenheimer's sequel than in Friedkin's hit, it's harder bit too imo) , Bite the Bullet, Night Moves, Eureka, Under Fire, so on...

Most amusingly he played the blindman in Mel Brooks' parody Young Frankenstein, in 1974, uncredited. It's kind of a cameo but now every obit mentions it as an important part. Come on, you AI generation morons...

As a kid I saw him first in cinemas in Superman, The Poseidon Adventure, The Domino Principle, Marooned, Zandy's Bride, The Gypsy Moths (that on TV). Then later his breakthrough part in Bonnie & Clyde. 

He was a superb villain always, suave and smiling. Also he could play men in uniform, military authority at best. And grand in westerns. But his secret gift was comedy. He Is, was and will be one of my favorite Actors. And as far as I checked everyone says he  was the Best Actor that ever IS !

 "If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being."

                                                             Gene Hackman (1930-2025)

The Gorge (2025)

Would've been nice to see The Gorge on the big screen, but it's streaming fodder (Apple+).

The leads are charismatic, Milles Teller (Whiplash) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa) and they have chemistry, which helps a lot. It's also a loves troy, between two isolated snipers, one burned-out American (Teller), one Lithuanian (Joy) on watch on towers on both sides of a mysterious isolated Gorge.

The story remined me of many films, The Mist, the combo of WW2 films of action and horror with experiments gone wrong (The Bunker, Outpost, Frankenstein's Army, Overlord, Biatlov Pass, etc).

Plus the riff on the corporate evil (Resident Evil;), Sigourney Weaver in an office with the Baku Flame Towers on her back ;) 

Scott Derrickson's (Sinister, Doctor Strange) direction here is good, but I guess it's the story and screenplay that rised the bar (written by Zach Dean). Location helps, gorgeous mountain scenery (in Norway, Wales and Durham County in UK).

Score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, and good songs onto it. Rockin', grooves-The  Watchtower by Devlin & Ed Sheeran, Twisted Sister, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Ramones, The Dead Weather.

afterthoughts, "The Hollow men" and the other creatures in the gorge inspired by Polish surrealist painter Zdzislaw Beksinski. Which art is most fascinating and I suggest you dig further in.