Les Blank: Always for Pleasure

“So for my last hurrah, I’m going to start with my eyes closed, so that you can see that I’m… I’m gonna do a random pick. Trying to feel… Let the Closet speak to me. Les Blank: Always for Pleasure. “An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen, mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad.” Do you know any of these films? You ready? God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance. Name of a film. Another called A Well Spent Life. Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers. Sprout Wings and Fly, In Heaven There Is No Beer? But I’m excited. See, I don’t know enough about film and I bet this guy– I bet there are a million people who are going to comment. I know. I see your comments below: “How do you not know Les Blank?” “You don’t know anything.” “You’re such a jerk.” “Les Blank is one of the greatest of all time.” “Look at Arnett, what a doofus.” “I hate his haircut.” Who cares, man? I’m just happy I got it.”

“You got like the [ __ ] Les Blank box set? Oh, I mean, I already got that, so you're right, I'm good, I'm good. Well, you wore the T-shirt to the, to the show. I wore the T-shirt to the show. I'm that guy. I'm all right with it. Yes, hell yeah.”

“The great Les Blank, of course. This is a journey through different lives, which I love because we get so isolated these days, and especially because we’re sitting behind our little phones and our iPads and our televisions, etc. But sometimes there’s something you can put on that just rips right through the screen and takes you outside and takes you into the world, and there’s something more to see, to explore, something more to see than you ever imagined. So.”

“And Les Blank, total ledge. Les Blank goes into parts of Louisiana where people… He’ll find some 114-year-old Black grandmother who… not only is French her first language, she never learned English. He finds all these subcultures, in America and documents them, and they’re just some… they’re beautiful and they’re fascinating, and he, like, stays out of the way. Whenever I can’t think of things to watch, I’ll just put on Les Blank.”