More Phallic Frenzy

I'm almost 2/3s finished. F*ck Pauline Kael- what a slag. The reviews quoted were an eye opener because Kael, Alexander Walker (the Evening Standard critic Ken pelted with a rolled up newspaper) and Roger Ebert especially should have just stopped reviewing his films. Pauline Kael is particularly distributing to read because she sounded so emotionally invested, so timid, vastly unimaginative and stuck in some 1940s middle American malaise.

These proclaimers pre-internet could make or break films. Ebert has the most nerve though as Russ Meyer's best friend and script writer!! I think there was jealously involved because, as much as I truly love a lot of Russ Meyer's work (I am Super Amanda because of Super Vixens) and think he was astonishingly artistic, he's more of an X rated cartoonist than an auteur compared to Ken. That's not a dig as I'm a ONCE AGAIN, huge fan of Meyer who was happily by choice in a mostly one track big boob parody niche as I am on You Tube. I think Ebert hoped Meyer would find more respect in this era the way Ken has but he has not and is still mostly considered Grindhouse. I just expect Ebert to have a bit more respect for the eccentrics and the risk takers if he's worked on film like "Beneath the valley of the Ultra Vixens'! One star for The Devils is just shameful on his part.

It is upsetting. I'm now almost 2/3s finished. Critics and studios were so spoiled with talent and so fascist like the way record companies became. And they wonder why everyone is file sharing now! On a happier note, reading about Derek Jarman and Glenda Jackson has been delightful. I know now never to second guess myself or be ashamed of my rage towards convention again. "Phallic Frenzy" and "A British Picture" should be required reading for all artists. And if "required reading for all artists" sounds oxymoronic it is meant that those books serve as a reminder of how much hard work it really is, how you will suffer and go nuts and how many haters line the procession to make sure you're locked away if you indeed really do want to set the stage and create a scene.