Rob T
@thexclaim6.bsky.social
580 followers 970 following 2.2K posts
Leeds via Leicester. Project Manager. Band member. Ex-zine author. 📚 and records. Punk. Cinema. Old stones. The Long Sixties. Modernism. Weird fiction. Film Noir. JG Ballard. You get the idea…
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Reposted by Rob T
thexclaim6.bsky.social
A couple of punk bands I’ve been in included in an exhibition at Leeds Museum - quite decent. Featuring @iamtheowwl.bsky.social 👌
Music Leeds Us exhibition entrance display Collage of Leeds punk photos Collage of punk bands and flyers
Reposted by Rob T
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Debenhams is selling idols of Pazuzu, in case you were wondering what stage of late capitalism we’re in…
Pazuzu idol pendant for sale at Debenhams
Reposted by Rob T
fintanmallory.com
Wikipedia wants you to know that John Maynard Keynes is not the lead vocalist of Tool. Just in case you were confused.
Wikipedia page for Maynard James Keenan. It starts with "Not to be confused with John Maynard Keynes. Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, philanthropist, record producer, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Debenhams is selling idols of Pazuzu, in case you were wondering what stage of late capitalism we’re in…
Pazuzu idol pendant for sale at Debenhams
thexclaim6.bsky.social
My last couple of decades has basically been playing in the same kind of bands because time is a flat circle
thexclaim6.bsky.social
A couple of punk bands I’ve been in included in an exhibition at Leeds Museum - quite decent. Featuring @iamtheowwl.bsky.social 👌
Music Leeds Us exhibition entrance display Collage of Leeds punk photos Collage of punk bands and flyers
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Visiting my parents invariably involves recovering some ephemera from our teenage years. This time round, a photo of @burton88.bsky.social aged 15 singing in our high school punk band.

The Straight Edge has gone dull since despite the thickness of those X’s
A singer stage diving on an audience with X’s on his hands in a small venue in Leicester
thexclaim6.bsky.social
A couple of punk bands I’ve been in included in an exhibition at Leeds Museum - quite decent. Featuring @iamtheowwl.bsky.social 👌
Music Leeds Us exhibition entrance display Collage of Leeds punk photos Collage of punk bands and flyers
Reposted by Rob T
anna-orridge.bsky.social
I went to see The Word For World Is Map and I would just like to observe that Ursula K. LeGuin was a gift to humanity in so many ways.
A print of Ursula's map of the Labyrinth of The Tombs of Atuan.
Reposted by Rob T
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Just finished The Chase (1946), a remarkable film noir. It’s actually got a similar feeling to Out of the Past from a year later.

The essence of noir in its romantic fatalism - the doomed patsy and dame to match. I can’t believe I’d never seen it before…

A few thoughts 🧵 #filmsky
Screenshot from The Chase, as the patsy enters the house of the gangsters - a stucco art deco pad with classical sculptures and palms - right at the start of the film, just to return a wallet (the ultimate innocent gesture), sealing his fate
thexclaim6.bsky.social
I need to watch this one too! Don’t think I’ve seen it

Will see if it’s in the Gifford book…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Agree! The dream ‘cautionary tale’ element also a little like Woman in the Window (but done in a more interesting way I think)
thexclaim6.bsky.social
BUT it is bloody great
thexclaim6.bsky.social
And the Lynch thing seems to have caught on - it’s unusual for a noir of this type to have nearly 100k views on a YouTube rip uploaded 2 years ago…

But I think Lynch comparisons can be overdone. It’s neither as surreal as some viewers might claim, or as distinct from other noirs of its era…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
P.s. Barry Gifford (Lynch collaborator) for some reason didn’t include The Chase in his book of noir reviews, which is odd considering how it’s often tagged as Lynchian.

Guy Maddin apparently compares it to Lynch frequently in the commentary track he did for the film’s Blu-ray…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Was reminded of this 📚 today - a collection of short noir films reviews by Barry Gifford, writer of Wild at Heart and Lost Highway…

It’s a lot of fun, all the more for how subjective his takes are. But I was surprised to see The Chase (1946) isn’t included, which I’m just about to watch…

#filmsky
paperback cover for Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford, showing a screenshot from the film (you guessed it) Out of the Past Some film titles included in the book, photo of contents page - sections D to K, everything from The Getaway to Kansas City Confidential and beyond…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
@steadytiger.bsky.social did a great thread on the film the other day, which inspired me to watch it

He’s right about the long, dialogue-less scene in the middle. Lots of surprising restraint, time for scenes to just breath.

All in all - a big banger

/ End thread
steadytiger.bsky.social
The Chase (1946). This is so great. There’s a weird twist, which makes it even greater, but the real gold is in how the ordinary main story is told. There's a B-movie air, but scenes of such depth, beauty, and originality that suggest auteur status for director Arthur Ripley, who I’d never heard of
Poster for The Chase. A man and a woman look frightened on a staircase looking over the rail
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Of course post-Vietnam, similar themes would be explored, a whole new generation of scarred returnees (Taxi Driver, Deer Hunter, Rambo et al)…

Anyway, back to The Chase. Steve Cochran’s performance as the mob boss is another standout. He acts primarily with his eyes. Pure menace…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
What does the demobbed serviceman represent in these films? Dislocation? Vulnerability? Idealised heroism contrast with unheroic reality?

Or a more reactionary stance. Those who fought vs those who stayed behind, the skivs who cheated the draft & now run everything. Is this what we fought for etc…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
So maybe Hitch was paying attention?

It’s also worth remarking on Cummings portrayal of a nervous, shell shocked servicemen adjusting to civilisation life

This is a frequent theme in immediate postwar noirs - Blue Dahlia from the same year jumps to mind. A comparatively under-discussed theme…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
There’s also more than a hint of Hitchcock to proceedings - Robert Cummings (of Saboteur and Dial M) but also the Cornell Woolrich source (Rear Window), the wrong man” theme, and its great use of tracking shots and suspense. The knife scene specifically is VERY similar to North by Northwest…
thexclaim6.bsky.social
This exchange between the doomed lovers in embrace sums it up:

“How much time do we have?”
“Forget time.”
“Do you think we’ll make it?”
“We’ve got to.”

There’s enough ambiguity to keep it interesting - to try and ‘solve’ what’s real and what’s fantasy is pointless. The journey matters…
Screenshot of Robert Cummings and Michèle Morgan as doomed lovers in The Chase
thexclaim6.bsky.social
Let’s see shall we

✅ Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel
✅ “Wrong man” protagonist framed for murder
✅ Psychiatry as a plot device
✅ Ambiguity as to what’s dream or reality
✅ Peter Lorre playing a tough
✅ Backlot pre-revolutionary Cuba sets
✅ Wacky gadgetry that comes out of leftfield

thexclaim6.bsky.social
Just finished The Chase (1946), a remarkable film noir. It’s actually got a similar feeling to Out of the Past from a year later.

The essence of noir in its romantic fatalism - the doomed patsy and dame to match. I can’t believe I’d never seen it before…

A few thoughts 🧵 #filmsky
Screenshot from The Chase, as the patsy enters the house of the gangsters - a stucco art deco pad with classical sculptures and palms - right at the start of the film, just to return a wallet (the ultimate innocent gesture), sealing his fate