No. 19: Tosh Recommends...
Caliber 9, Georges Bataille, Riot Squad (early Bowie), and Beavis and Butt-Head
Caliber 9 (1972) is an Italian film written and directed by Fernando Di Leo, and it’s amazingly great. Based on a novel by Giorgio Scerbanenco, it’s a narrative about a gangster released from prison who is thought to be hiding $30,000 from his gang. And you know how cranky gangsters are, especially when they feel they are owed money. There are twists and turns, then more twists, and it is such an entertaining work. The film is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel, and I ordered some Scerbanenco books. I have obtained an intense obsession with Italian crime novels. Let me be sucked in.
Georges Bataille is a figure I have been following for some years now, and he’s like peeling an onion or an exotic fruit, where it is either juicy or you get layers of tastes. Probably one of the most out-there thinkers/writers of the 20th century. Louis XXX is a collection of Bataille’s writings and poetry written while writing his other (and more famous) works. Not a good gateway to his world, such as his novel The Story of an Eye, but something that a reader wants to add as a side dish to a very demanding and fascinating figure in French philosophy, fiction, and cultural criticism. His writing on sexuality is revolutionary. A champion of eros and original thoughts, Bataille is, without a doubt, a provocative and thoughtful presence.
Two obsessions are hitting me here at the exact moment. One is Joe Meek, and the other is David Bowie. The Riot Squad is an obscure London Mod-like band from the 1960s produced by Meek, and Bowie was in the band. But since we don’t live in a perfect world, Meek didn’t produce the band when Bowie was in the group. Nevertheless, we have The Toy Soldier EP, and Bowie is very much front and center of this version of the band. This is a fascinating recording between February and May 1967 while Bowie was working on his first solo album.
It is common knowledge that Bowie had the only copy of the first Velvet Underground and Nico album in the UK, brought to him by his manager after visiting Andy Warhol in New York City. When Bowie is obsessed, he’s obsessed, and he was an early lover of Lou Reed. Here, we have probably the first-ever cover of the Velvet’s “I’m Waiting for the Man, and his early composition Toy Soldier pretty much borrows (steals?) the Velvet’s decadence. Bowie was tip-toeing through the taboo world, and he liked it. Only for the die-hard Bowie fanatic, including what sounds like a demo version of his excellent Silly Boy Blue.
The ninth season of Beavis and Butt-Head streaming on Paramount + is brilliant. Compared to the other seasons, Beavis is getting subtle background information. Such as, according to Butt-Head, his mom is a slut. Watching this episode, it’s hysterical but horrific as well on so many levels. Mike Judge has always been excellent, but this specific season, he is going beyond his comfort zone and often makes watching this show very uncomfortable. Still, the humor is like a knife, but with considerable pain felt by the artist holding that blade. Beavis and Butt-Head are famous but underrated by the masses, and this cartoon show is probably one of the great critiques of contemporary life in all its glory and human forms.
No. 19: Tosh Recommends...
Found "Milano calibro 9" (Fernando di Leo, 1972) on YouTube.
Clicked subtitles auto-translate to English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1qq4PxZAD0