hogTV returns this Wednesday with another double-bill feature – Human Highway & True Stories, directed by and starring Neil Young and David Byrne respectively.
What can I say about these 2 films?
They’re odd.
Human Highway is the oddest. It evades any kind of description, so instead I’ll just tell you who’s in it:
All the members of Devo (including Booji Boy), Dennis Hopper (Frank from Blue Velvet), Dean Stockwell (Al from Quantum Leap, also co-director), Russ Tamblyn (Dr Jacoby from Twin Peaks) and Charlotte Stewart (Eraserhead’s wife + Bobby Briggs’ mother) to name a few.
Filmed over the course of 4 years and largely funded by Neil Young himself ($3 million according to wiki), the project was a labour of love that maybe got a bit out of hand. Nevertheless, I think it’s proper good fun and very enjoyable.
True Stories on the other hand is a bit more conventional in unconventional terms.
David Byrne, with blissful, innocent, Theroux-like presence drives around the quaint, fictional town of Virgil, Texas, interacting with various folk as they prepare for an event called the ‘Celebration of Specialness’.
The film is an expression of loveliness but in a curiously alien way… which come to think of it is just a description of David Byrne’s persona.
Afterwards I’ll be playing a couple of wonderful short films by the late great Iranian film director, Abbas Kiarostami.
And everything else, well it’s just hog as usual.
(Schedule subject to change)
19:00 – Intro
19:05 – Review – S01E06 – Road Rage, Orgy
19:30 – The Shivering Truth – S02E05 – The Diff
19:40 – Go West (1923)
A short silent film with an all animal cast, about a young chimp who is kicked out of his home by his parents and heads west to make his fortune.
Featuring the dulcet tones of doom metal overlords, Boris.
19:50 – Out of the Inkwell – The Cartoon Factory (1924)
19:55 – Old movie trailer + newsreel
20:00 – Russian Rhapsody (1944)
Warner Brothers short lampooning Hitler and Soviet Russia.
20:10 – Vaudeville Days (1942)
A narrator provides very brief info on the beginnings and history of Vaudeville while Vaudeville acts are staged by impersonators and contemporary performers.
20:30 – Human Highway (1982)
The new owner of a roadside diner, situated in a town built round a constantly leaking nuclear power plant, plans to raze the restaurant to the ground to collect the insurance money. However, a series of bizarre occurrences prevent him from doing so.
22:05 – True Stories (1986)
David Byrne plays host to this bizarre patchwork of tabloid-inspired tales, set in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas. Cruising the streets in his cherry-red drop-top, Byrne introduces viewers to the local eccentrics gearing up for the town’s 150th anniversary. They include a community leader (Spalding Gray) with a thing for veggies, a woman (Swoosie Kurtz) so lazy she won’t leave her bed, a lovelorn country singer (John Goodman) and more!
23:45 – The Bread and Alley (1970)
A little boy walking home with a loaf of bread who is confronted by a hungry dog.
23:55 – Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)
A short film about conflict resolution.
00:00 – The Misc Zone
