Just finished watching...

...the mini-series "Pistol" by director Danny Boyle.

This entertaining look at the formation of punk's most influential and recognizable band, The Sex Pistols was directed by Boyle ("Trainspotting," 28 Days," "Slum Dog Millionaire") who lived through this period in England and can helm such a rock and roll biopic with knowledge. The series is based on The Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones' 2017 autobiography LONLEY BOY: TALES FROM A SEX PISTOL and features Toby Wallace as Jones. While it is fun to see Wallace and fellow actors Anson Boon as Johnny Rotten, Jacob Slater as Paul Cook, Christian Lees as Glen Matlock, and Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, what I found particularly delightful is seeing actors portray the people in The Pistols' orbit...we get to see Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Malcolm McLaren, Talulah Riley as Vivienne Westwood, Maisie Williams as Jordan. We even get to see flashes of Siouxsie Sioux, Soo Catwman, Billy Idol, and Pete Farndon. And regular readers will know that I am a fan of fashion and fashion history so of course it was a thrill to see Westwood and McLaren's shops recreated: first as Sex, then later rechristened Seditionaries, down to the correct lighting and graffiti on the walls.

If you know this part of rock and roll and cultural history, it's fun to see these references, but I will acknowledge that if you are younger and not familiar, the series does not do a great job of giving you clues as to who these peripheral people are much less delving into the social, economic, and political conditions that gave rise to a movement such as Punk. I guess that can be seen as both a flaw but also a feature in that Boyle and crew and cast simply recreated, understanding that this particular incarnation of the story of The Sex Pistols was not for a deep anthropological study. What we do get is a fast-paced romp through the early days, formation, and rise of the band, told in six episodes, each titled "Track:______" and bearing the name of one of The Sex Pistols' songs. And each actor does a wonderful and thorough job of capturing, through voice and body and facial mannerisms, exactly who each of these historical musical figures were.

Recommend? Yep, great fun. Like I said, if you know the history (or were around for it like I was), dive right in and enjoy. If not, you might want to do a little concurrent research to pick up on the events and personalities that go flying by.

https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/pistol

R.I.P. Malcolm McLaren

We have lost more creativity. The great impresario, stylist, artist, and fearless provocateur Malcolm McLaren died today in Switzerland after a lengthy battle with mesothelioma. He was 64.

He and Vivienne Westwood single-handedly changed the course of world pop culture forever. Read his fascinating biography here.
Despite the fact that he invented the snarling, ferocious musical genre known as "punk rock," and despite the fact that he surrounded himself with the likes of Johnny "Rotten" and Sid "Vicious," for me, Malcolm seemed like a delighted little boy, full of a kind of naiveté, almost giddily happy, and ready to make a fool out of himself at any moment. His musical career is peppered with lyrics and performances from him that could be considered "corny," but which I find totally endearing and mesmerizing for the fact that he appeared fearless and without any self-consciousness; he simply flung himself into whatever it was he dreamt up and I admire that. McLaren was a "conceptual collage artist" who threw cultures, fashion, lifestyles, art, and music together and found joy and artful expression in both the similarities and the differences of all the elements in the mix. A good example is his debut release, Duck Rock which treated all "folk music" as one, whether it was African music from Soweto, square dancing music from the Appalachians, hip-hop music form Brooklyn, or voudoun drumming from Haiti.
Take a moment to honor McLaren with two of his videos. In this first video for "Madame Butterfly (Un Bel Di Vedremo)," his glorious version of the classic aria "Un bel di..." from the opera Madama Butterfly by Puccini, melancholy models languish in a steamy, beautiful hammam. This track is from McLaren's 1984 conceptual release Fans, a collection of interpretations of classic operas.

And this video, "Paris Paris," is from his release Paris, a wistful and deeply passionate love letter to the City of Light. It features the elegantly beautiful Catherine Deneuve and has a distinct North African flavor, to reflect the North African immigrant influence on Parisian culture.