Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Hobgoblin of Small Minds


When I bought my vinyl copy of John Lennon's Shaved Fish back sometime around 1980, one of the songs listed on it was "Instant Karma." This was a slight change from the original single, which had never before appeared on an album but was issued on its own as "Instant Karma!" back in February 1970. On what I believe is the most recent Lennon compilation, Lennon Legend, it's been restored to "Instant Karma!" Thanks, guys.

Meanwhile, on the Criterion Collection DVD for David Mamet's 1987 movie House of Games, the title on the cover is listed as House of Games, the onscreen title is given as House of Games, the booklet includes what is purportedly the cover of Mamet's screenplay, and it reads House of Games. The disc itself, though, has a hand-painted logo circling the hole in the center that reads, very clearly, The House of Games.

11 comments:

Joe Levy said...

Dude, while you're getting all copy editor here, your fact checking side is slacking. It's "hobgoblin of little minds," not "small minds."

Tom Nawrocki said...

What makes you think I was going for consistency in my accuracy?

Joe Levy said...

I considered the possibility it was a conceptual post about inaccuracy, then came to the conclusion that since your concerns were orthographic in nature, such a high concept was either highly improbable or simply an unearned conceit. In order for it to be a conceptual post about consistency, shouldn't you have rendered the allusion differently (or inconsistently) in two places?

Also, you could have spiced things up with a picture of the Green Goblin.

Tom Nawrocki said...

If there's one thing this blog provides in spades, it's unearned conceits.

Gavin said...

I actually asked Beck about the divergent punctuation for the lead track of Odelay on its original release and its recent deluxe reissue.

(Original: "Devils Haircut"
Reissue: "Devil's Haircut")

He shrugged and acknowledged that there was a small but meaningful distinction between the two--but he clearly wasn't bothered by the switch, and didn't really have a preference.

Tom Nawrocki said...

If we're talking about Odelay, don't you mean "Beck!"?

Marshall said...

Is it possible, given the hand-painted quality of the logo, that THAT refers to the actual bar where much of the movie takes place?

I actually don't recall if there's a "the" on the club's sign in the flick.

Tom Nawrocki said...

The hand-painted logo doesn't look anything like the logo on the bar, which is made of those hardware-store single letters. If that sign on the bar reads "The House of Games," rather than "House of Games," the "the" is teeny-weeny.

Marshall said...

You'd think Ricky Jay, of all people, would have known better than to fill that water-pistol.

Oh wait. I guess it turns out that was intentional.

(By the way, readers, above: Spoiler Alert!)

Tom Nawrocki said...

Ricky Jay does the commentary track on the DVD with Mamet. They both say that one of their favorite lines in the movie is when Ricky says he filled the water pistol (no hyphen needed) because he couldn't have shown up with an unloaded gun.

Marshall said...

I knew you'd point out the hyphen thing. You magnificent bastard!