The Heaven and Earth Magic movie+live music from Deerhoof the other night at the Castro was a good time. The first movie, Heaven and Earth Magic, is a 60 minute black and white film from 1962 full of moving collage elements suspiciously reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s animations in Monty Python. I wonder if Terry was inspired by Harry Smith. The theatre was getting painfully stuffy towards the end and started to get a little painful for me. I wondered if a big, stuffy quiet theatre was really the best setting for his movie. It’s a pretty nonsensical hodge podge of elements: victorian women, skeletons, cats chasing watermelons, lots of vessels and drops of liquid, big hammers and strange creatures. Deerhoof did a great job with the score and aside from a clostrophobic attack brought on by lack of oxygen, I had a good time. What I really liked, were his color abstract shorts from 1946 to 1950. They showed about 5 or 6 of them and Deerhoof played an incredible set along with them. All were about 5 minutes or shorter. I could have spent an entire night just watching the color abstracts. So beautiful.
Harry Smith was an experimental filmographer, artist, and writer. He has been credited with having influenced American culture heavily throughout his life. To find out more about Harry Smith, visit the Harry Smith Archives website.
Deerhoof are an experiemental local San Francisco rock band. Their music ranges from wacky to poppy and everywhere in between. I’ve been a fan for a few years now and find their music addictive. I’ve heard they are a great live band, although this show was the first time I’ve seen them in person. They’ve been making quite a name for themselve and I think they deserve a prominent place in San Francisco music scene history books, as well as the worldwide alternative music history books. There are free MP3s on the Kill Rock Stars website.
A strange and very sad thing happened before our showing, and I feel pretty lucky that I wasn’t around for it. There was a major car crash and fire on Castro Street during the 5:45 showing of the movie. Eight cars burned and someone lost their life. It was a sad and strange night. I had been in front of the theatre several times that afternoon and I feel lucky to have not been involved in the accident.