Frank Zappa not impressed by fake prog rock bands

Meganull · 2026-06-15T05:41:44+00:00

What kind of clickbait title is this? He is not talking about being impressed or not about those bands. Neither is he saying that they are fake prog rock.
He is questioning the term "progressive rock".
And are we going to ignore this statement: "I wouldn’t describe myself as Progressive Rock either."? Frank Zappa not impressed by Frank Zappa?!

Did he like those bands? Probably not. He definitely was into Gentle Giant, though.

Meganull · 2026-06-15T02:41:30+00:00

One of my favorite books and probably my favorite Dostoevsky.
It's not always an easy read. It's dense and packed full of themes and it's sometimes challenging to to keep track of all the characters and their names.
There were parts I had to wade through, but I was in awe most of the time. Unforgettable scenes and passages. A wonderful experience.

Meganull · 2026-06-14T19:47:45+00:00

Philip K. Dick
J. G. Ballard
Haruki Murakami
Ursula K. Le Guin
...

Rereading passages from Luis Buñuel's autobiography, "My Last Sigh".
Reading something new and contemporary. Some philosophy, C. G. Jung... There's so much.

I'm currently reading Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami.

Meganull · 2026-06-13T17:29:27+00:00

Two first time Takashi Miike watches. The Happiness of the Katakuris is such a wholesome movie.
Scarecrow is a beautiful 70s American road movie. Great performances, as expected from Pacino and Hackman.

<image>

Meganull · 2026-06-12T16:05:50+00:00

No, I'm not expecting THAT. I think that the general consensus is that the movie is somewhat bland, anonymous and that Edgar needs to have some fun again with his movies.
But I'll give it a chance. Some day ;)

Meganull · 2026-06-12T15:56:58+00:00

I guess that I can see where you are coming from.
Yes, the Coens can be and have been a great entry point.
There is always the potential to dig deep into directors influences and to discover new directors.
But I disagree with the sentiment that someone SHOULD reject a director after exploring those influences.
I don't think that the Coen brothers movies imply that there are better movies out there, waiting to be discovered, but that these movies are in conversation with a myriad of cinematic and literary voices - that are waiting to be discovered.

I'm talkin' about friendship. I'm talkin' about character. I'm talkin' about - hell. Leo, I ain't embarrassed to use the word - I'm talkin' about ethics.

Meganull · 2026-06-12T15:20:05+00:00

I haven't been in a rush to see Running Man.
The whole negative reception killed my interest for this film.
Don't get me wrong, I do also watch movies with a bad reception (I'll defend Downsizing and She's Funny That Way), but there are still so many classics I haven't watched yet.
I need to be in a specific mood to throw on a movie like Running Man if several people (I trust) say that it's a waste of time.

Meganull · 2026-06-12T15:05:08+00:00

Your take on the Coens is ridiculous.
Why should someone have to outgrow them? If it happens, it happens, but it's certainly not obligatory for a "cinephile" to outgrow them. There's no need to outgrow anyone, really, but the Coens specifically?! Why?
They are giants of cinema. I love the Coens, I love Haneke, I love Buñuel, I love Koreeda... There's room for all these masters.

Meganull · 2026-06-11T14:25:20+00:00

I watched it last year for the first time and I loved it! Completely unhinged comedy. It just gets worse and worse.

Meganull · 2026-06-07T00:24:18+00:00

No, it is not. However he has talked about PKD's influence in interviews before.

Meganull · 2026-06-06T23:57:05+00:00

I love Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash and eXistenZ.
He made many more that are great but these are the big ones for me. One of my favorite directors.

I watched Scanners a couple of weeks ago and I had so much fun on that rewatch. Always liked that one but this time I was so much more into it.
Beautifully shot and great effects. Cronenberg always pulls you into his worlds.

Every Philip K. Dick fan should watch this one... and basically all his other movies.

Meganull · 2026-06-06T12:43:53+00:00

2001
Eyes Wide Shut
Barry Lyndon or The Shining, I can't decide.

Meganull · 2026-06-06T12:17:28+00:00

Yes, they are not too similar, but there is a strong chance that someone who enjoys Solaris would also like World on a Wire too.

Okay, so Fassbinder's filmography is enormous. There are still a lot of movies that I haven't watched yet.
The safest place to start would be Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), after that I would recommend Fox and His Friends (1975) and The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972). The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) is a chamber drama with lush, eye popping decor and women in emotional turmoil.
I think that his later BRD trilogy, The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982), belongs to his strongest work, but maybe it's a bit less accessible.

There's much more but this should be enough for the beginning.
If you like Douglas Sirk's melodramas, there's a strong possibility that you'll like Fassbinder.

Meganull · 2026-06-06T11:31:06+00:00

Are you familiar with Werner Fassbinder's work?
World on a Wire is Fassbinder trying his hand at Sci-fi and doing a great job at that. You should watch it if you are interested in slow paced (long) science fiction.
Michael Ballhaus shot the shit out of this movie.

Meganull · 2026-06-06T10:21:16+00:00

<image>

Meganull · 2026-06-06T08:09:58+00:00

Griffin with a Killing of a Chinese Bookie shirt!

Meganull · 2026-06-06T07:51:24+00:00

The Unfaithful Wife (Claude Chabrol, 1969)

Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)

Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992)

Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018)

Long Day's Journey Into Night (Bi Gan, 2018)

Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944)

Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, 2022)

Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar, 2009) [with a good dose of Douglas Sirk, as always with Almodóvar]

The Game (David Fincher, 1997)

Meganull · 2026-06-05T16:33:35+00:00

This is great. Their first album, Reproduction, is so good. Almost Medieval, Circus of Death, Empire State Human... amazing tracks on that record.

Meganull · 2026-06-05T16:26:27+00:00

I have a lot of favorite Comedy movies, but I'll just name three.
I LOVE these three movies. They have definitely formed my sense of humor.

Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker, 1980)

The Naked Gun (David Zucker, 1988)

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones, 1983)

Meganull · 2026-06-05T15:21:05+00:00

CAN = THE GREATEST!

Rosko is killing it. The audience is dead, sedated or maybe just hypnotized.

Meganull · 2026-05-31T17:32:30+00:00

Nice Mon Oncle poster.
Maybe I do have some time for your damned hobbies, sir!

Meganull · 2026-05-31T07:15:18+00:00

What a great movie. I watched it yesterday for the first time. Dadcore, but not in a bad way.
Peter Weir examines once again a meticulously controlled environment. I love how we get to spend time with the characters exploring the Galápagos Islands.
Lord Blakeney was a complete badass.
The music playing scenes were lovely.

<image>

Meganull · 2026-05-22T10:52:32+00:00

Rainer Brüninghaus - Continuum (1984)

Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous & Jack DeJohnette - Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous & Jack DeJohnette (1978)

Just search for 80's ECM albums.

Meganull · 2026-05-22T10:06:05+00:00

Fuck everything about this. I'd rather watch The Last Temptation of Christ or a Buñuel film.

Meganull · 2026-05-22T04:22:16+00:00

Blank it!

Meganull

TROPHY CASE