Ralphadeus

THIS DAY'S PORTIONS - CRIMEAN WAR, CLERKS X, and the WICKER MAN OST



Well here goes with the first in a series of musings and reviews of things vaguely historically oriented with music and movies, comics and so forth thrown in. Mostly I will be writing about pretty deadly boring stuff but thought I'd start with a quick mention of the Albion Comic by Alan Moore which issue one by DC is out in the shops now. A collector's item of the future, no doubt and now that Ive mentioned that you all know how hip I am I can move onto some more boring stuff.
The Crimean War. I have been mostly musing on this subject for the last weekend or so thinking back into my childhood as I often do and trying to assess my feelings about it and all that. Why? Well we're into the 150th anniversary of this campaign and it is obviously famous for its countless blundering and its Victorian stupidities. WHy my childhood? Well as a child of the 1960s I can squint back into those days and find myself surrounded by images of this conflict and I have to conclude that this was quite a fashionable era back then. Obviously the classic movie 'Charge of the Light Brigade' by Tony Richardson had something to do it but there must have been more behind it than that? The whole Victorian era was lampooned in the 60s but in a way that also enabled the satirists to also suck a bit of the general glamour too - witnessed by Hendrix wearing Nolan's pelisse, and the whole 60s Victorian uniform obsession. Anyway where it started I don't know - maybe Schlesinger's 'Far From the Madding Crowd' with Terrance Stamp's portrayal of Sergeant Troy - who knows? Maybe it's just me - I've looked on the web for stuff on the 60s obsession with the early Victorian era but have found nothing yet. Any thoughts?

My interest in the Crimea started as a young lad, seeing the movie and having the rub-down action picture book of the 'Charge' - (does anyone else remember these Letraset things? Big, some of them were - foldout scenes of the Wild West or similar). Anyway without digressing too much I kind of find myself a little disappointed to see that there isn't much in the way of stirrings from the UK reenactment scene on recreating this war which is a damn shame - there has been some good cavalry recreations on the British side but nothing else. Why not? There's plenty of interest from the Historical community and the media, probably but nothing seems to be forthcoming. So, maybe I think, I ought to appeal to people out there with an interest in military history to maybe think about the period and whether they want to help get this period off the ground in this country. The trouble is if we want to catch the end of the anniversary, say organise an event to coincide with the anniversary of the end of the war, then we'll have to get moving. I've set up a guestbook and am hoping to get a few friends interested in trying to recreatae Russian Militia and sailors - as depicted in the Sebastopol panorama. Have a visit at
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/ralphjmitchard/crimea.html and leave a message - especially poistive ones. If you want a few reasons why - to coin a phrase - think how many Europeans recreate the American Civil War during the summer - wouldn't they so easily be able to 'do' British, French and Russian troops? Some like Zouaves are ready already but if people went for greatcoat order it would be great. Another reason; cantiniere and vivandiere uniforms? This was an era of some of the most dashing female uniforms ever made and these women often went into battle too. There's a photo of one particular lady in Lawrence James' The War with Russia from contemporary photographs NY 1981 - a lovely book - a copy I saw on ebay for a few dollars
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crimean-War-Photography-History-Book_W0QQitemZ6552530206QQcategoryZ4070QQssPageNameZWD4VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Anyway, that's enough about the Crimean war for now. I will review a couple of things vaguely related - the first being the Soundtrack of the classic horror thriller 'The Wicker Man'. This is now been redone from studio recordings rather than just taped off the film as the last soundtrack was, and includes some new to me tracks in particular Christopher Lee and Ingrid Pitt duetting - this is such a brilliant album. Composed by Paul Giavanni - it seems to be some sort of faux folk music filtered through a 70s pair of shades. With lewd lyrics. Sort of flared rustic it conjures up summers never had in this lifetime anyway. I love these songs and I am not surprised to hear there is to be a stage musical of the movie which it practically is. If you dont know the Wicker Man movie it is probably the best British thriller/horror film of the 70s with Edward Woodward playing a policeman investigating a disappearance on a remote neo-Pagan community under Lord Summerisle.
Not last nights movie though - this was CLERKS X - the special tenth anniversary edition of this classic slacker comedy by Kevin Smith. This is a low budger black and white affair that stormed the Sundance festival with its witty take on New Jersey youths. It brought to the worlds one of the great twosomes - Jay and Silent Bob and if you're a fan you mgihty want this expansive but inexpensive version - got mine for 15 quid from Fopp. So much better than Kevin Smith's more recent Jersey Girl with Ben Affleck being all schmaltzy as a single parent bringing up baby with ocasional support from Liv Tyler. Maybe its a date movie - maybe its a no-brainer but it certainly sucked. Bigtime as idiot-savant Silent Bob would say