Music Video of the Day: Couple Days Off by Huey Lewis and the News (1991, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Everyone needs a couple of days off, even Huey Lewis and the News!

This song was the final single from Huey to chart in the Billboard Top 20.  For better or worse (I would say “better”), Huey Lewis and the News were the epitome of a mid 80s band.  They worked hard and they made videos that celebrated having a good time.  Huey Lewis and the News will always be the blue collar bar band for me.

This video was directed by Jim Yuckich, who has directed videos for everyone.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.14 “Inferno”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, Bobby goes undercover!

Episode 4.14 “Inferno”

(Dir by Sara Rose, originally aired on January 17th, 1999)

TC is on vacation but, before he leaves, he tasks Cory with discovering who is selling heroin at a trendy nightclub.  To be honest, that sounds like a job for the Narcotics Squad but whatever.  Cory tasks Bobby and Monica with going undercover.  Monica starts to hang out at the club.  Bobby gets a job as a bouncer.  It’s amazing how the same two cops can somehow both patrol the same small stretch of land and also continually work undercover without anyone ever recognizing them.  Their presence at the club still doesn’t prevent a rock star from overdosing or an actor from later shooting himself in front of Monica.

Meanwhile, Cory and Amy ride their stupid bikes around Santa Monica and harass drug addicts.   Amy catches one addict and says that he hasn’t been looking too good lately.  Amy has only been a member of the bike patrol for a few months so why is she acting like she’s been on this show for years?  As silly as the undercover work is, Pacific Blue is still at its most ludicrous when it tries to make the bike cops look like a bunch of badasses,

Bobby’s ex-girlfriend, Rita (Heather Marie Marsden), turns up singing at the club.  Despite Monica warning that Bobby is making a mistake, he allows himself to fall for Rita again despite the fact that Rita is now dating club owner Gary Fein (Scott Paetty), the man who is suspected of being Santa Monica’s biggest heroin dealer.  Of course, it turns out that Rita is the drug dealer.  Eventually, Bobby has to kill his ex-girlfriend to keep her from shooting his fellow bike cops.  Bobby is almost as upset about that as Slater was over losing his salamander.

The episode ends with a Cory/Bobby conversation.  Cory asks if Bobby was in love with Rita and Bobby admits that he had feelings for her.  The scene suggests that Cory and Bobby are secretly a couple.  If I was Cory, I would be hesitant about dating someone who killed his last girlfriend.

TC returns and tells Cory that she did a good job running the department.  Cory thanks him and then looks sad as the episode ends.  If she really felt that way about Bobby, why did she send him undercover in the first place?  Why not send in Granger?  Actually, is Granger still a character on this show?  I haven’t seen him in a while.

This is a dumb show.  You already knew that.  This episode served as a reminder that, along with being dumb, no one on this show is particularly good at their job.  Bobby goes undercover and allows his emotions to get the better of him …. again!  Monica goes undercover and actually does a good job but Cory won’t acknowledge it because she hates Monica …. still!  Amy rides around on her bicycle and harasses people like a corrupt deputy in a drive-in movie.  The fact that everyone is on bicycles just makes everything all the more ridiculous.

Santa Monica, you deserve better!

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” is the opening scene of VAMPIRES (1998)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

James Woods was recently asked on X if he would have enjoyed starring in a sequel to one of his movies!

His response… “John Carpenter’s VAMPIRES, because it was just so much fun to do!”

As a huge fan of Woods going back to the 80’s, I saw VAMPIRES when it played in the movie theater. I really enjoyed it, and I’ve even written a review for the film for this website. (On a side note, I shared that review with Mr. Woods, and he thanked me for it.) One of the main reasons I like the film is the badass opening sequence. Woods couldn’t have looked any cooler, and Carpenter’s guitar sets the macho mood perfectly. Today I thought it would be fun to share that scene with all of you. It’s a long clip, but it’s still awesome. Enjoy!

Retro Television Review: Saved By The Bell: The New Class 2.13 “Bayside Story”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 2o00.  The show is currently on Prime.

Oh no, it’s another Bayside vs Valley episode!

Episode 2.13 “Bayside Story”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on October 22nd, 1994)

It’s time for Bayside and Valley to meet on the athletic field …. again!

*sigh*

Seriously, how much water can this show draw from the well of this particular rivalry?  Ever since the original Saved By The Bell, there have been episodes about Bayside competing against Valley.  Every episode begins with Mr. Belding complaining that Bayside never beats Valley.  And yet, every episode also seems to end with Bayside defeating Valley so I’m really not sure what Belding’s problem is.

This episode, after Valley toilet papers the Bayside hallways, Mr. Belding complains that Bayside hasn’t defeated Valley since Slater graduated.  Tommy D, Lindsay, Rachel, Megan, Brian, and Bobby all nod in agreement, which is odd since Slater graduated before any of them started at Bayside.  Belding also mentions that Screech is in Vegas for Zack and Kelly’s wedding and, again, everyone nods as if they know who Zack and Kelly are.  None of these students knew who Screech was when he first came back so how would they know Zack and Kelly?  Am I just giving this too much thought?  Perhaps.

As the head cheerleader, Megan is determined that the cheerleading squad (which is apparently made up of only her, Rachel, and Lindsay) is ready to declare death to Valley.  But then she meets Doug (Bumper Robinson), the captain of Valley’s football team, and she ends up falling for him.  Her friends are horrified that Megan would date someone from Valley but that doesn’t stop them from using Megan’s relationship to take advantage of Doug by pulling off one of those elaborate SBTB schemes where everyone dresses up in a stupid costume and distracts Doug long enough for Brian and Bobby to use a spy camera to take pictures of Valley’s playbook.

(Seriously, the whole thing is really stupid.)

Shortly afterwards, Megan ends up breaking up with Doug because she can’t handle everyone’s disapproval.  The Gang feels guilty so they decide to give the pictures of the playbook back to Doug but, as opposed to just giving him the film, they instead decide to pull off another elaborate prank that involves everyone putting on costumes.

The reason why I’m not going into a lot of details about the pranks and the costumes is that it’s all really stupid.  And I’m worried that if I spend too much time describing all of this, my brain might short-circuit.  Let’s just say that it never occurs to anyone to just do the simplest of things, like maybe practicing really hard on the football field and trying to win the game legitimately.

That said, there a few things that work in this episode.

Amazingly, there actually is a funny running joke in this episode.  Unlike most of the characters on this show, Brian knows nothing about American sports and continually has to be told the most basic facts about football.  (“It’s played on a field, not a rink!”)  Christian Oliver delivered his lines with the right amount of enthusiastic naivete and it was kind of nice to see Brian transformed into something more than just a stand-in for Zack.

The episode ends with the Bayside Gang meeting the Valley Gang at the Maxx and everyone crying as they realize that they’re not so different after all.  That was actually kind of sweet.  And then Belding ran in wearing riot gear because he was convinced a fight was about to break out.  That actually made me laugh a little.  So, dumb pranks aside, this episode wasn’t a total loss.

In conclusion, I should mention that my high school had a hated rival that was actually only a few blocks away from us.  Our football team hated their football team and all that other stuff.  Unfortunately, since my school was pretty much an art school, I don’t think we ever won a game against them.  Some of that was because my school didn’t even have a football field so our team had to go over to the rival school whenever they wanted to practice.

Seriously, not even Slater could have saved them.

 

 

Artist Profile: Alex Ross

Posted on by Arleigh

Alex Ross fundamentally transformed the visual language of American comic books by introducing a level of photorealistic fine art painting previously unseen in the medium. Eschewing traditional pen-and-ink line work, Ross utilized gouache, watercolor, and ink to render iconic superheroes with a tangible weight and texture that made them feel startlingly real. His approach treated comic book characters not as colorful abstractions, but as living, breathing figures existing in a recognizable world. By grounding these fantastical beings in reality through meticulous brushwork, realistic lighting, and lifelike facial expressions, Ross elevated the comic book cover and interior page to the status of gallery-worthy illustration, forever changing the expectations of comic book artistry.

Ross’s impact is indelibly tied to his defining projects for the industry’s “Big Two” publishers. At Marvel Comics, his groundbreaking 1994 miniseries Marvels recontextualized the Golden and Silver Ages of the publisher’s universe through the weary eyes of an ordinary photojournalist, capturing the awe and terror of living alongside gods. He later expanded this sprawling mythos with the Earth X trilogy. However, it was at DC Comics where Ross arguably cemented his legacy. His 1996 magnum opus Kingdom Come offered a grand, prophetic, and deeply moral vision of the DC Universe’s future, utilizing his painted style to bridge the gap between the publisher’s Golden Age innocence and modern cynicism. Through works like Justice and Peace on Earth, Ross continually reimagined DC’s most famous characters, stripping away decades of dark reinterpretations to restore their fundamental nobility and mythic grandeur.

The legacy of Alex Ross extends far beyond the individual pages of his graphic novels; he essentially spawned an entire subgenre of painted comic book art that dominated the industry in the late twentieth century. While many imitators emerged attempting to replicate his style, few could match his nuanced understanding of color theory, historical costume design, and emotional resonance. Furthermore, his aesthetic influence has bled heavily into broader pop culture, with his conceptual character designs serving as direct visual inspiration for numerous animated television shows and live-action films. By proving that superhero mythology could be approached with the same gravitas and classical technique as Norman Rockwell’s illustrations or Renaissance portraiture, Ross forced the comic book industry to permanently expand its artistic boundaries.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Stuart Gordon Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

79 years ago on this date, director Stuart Gordon was born in Chicago, Illinois.  Gordon went from experimental theater to feature films and was responsible for some of the most visually memorable horror films of the past century.  Perhaps no other American director was a strong interpreter of the work of H.P. Lovecraft than Stuart Gordon.

Today, we honor Stuart Gordon with….

4 Shots From 4 Stuart Gordon Films

Re-Animator (1985, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Marc Ahlberg)

Dolls (1987, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Marc Ahlberg)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1991, dir by Stuart Gordon. DP: Adolfo Bartoli)

Castle Freak (1994, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Mario Vulpiani)

Scenes I Love: Reggie Bannister in Phantasm

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Rest in peace to the great Reggie Bannister.  After years of ill health, Bannister passed away on August 9th at the age of 80.

Reggie Bannister will always be remembered for his role as the same-named Reggie, the ice cream man in the Phantasm franchise.  For all the attention that was given to how scary Angus Grimm was, Reggie was the heart of the film.  Today’s scene that I love comes from 1979’s Phantasm.