To all of our American readers who are celebrating today,
Happy Thanksgiving!
And when having that Thanksgiving meal with your loved ones, please do not neglect the Kitty…
Monthly Archives: November 2017
Artwork of the Day: Flag With Legs
(Andy Warhol, 1985)
Originally, when I was thinking about what I wanted to say in this post, I was going to open by saying that, right after the 4th of July, Thanksgiving is the most American of all holidays.
But, actually, that’s not totally true. Though Thanksgiving may have been first been celebrated in the States, many nations have days specifically set aside for giving thanks. Canadian Thanksgiving has been celebrated since 1879. Some people in The Netherlands, from which many of the pilgrims originally came, celebrate the holiday. Liberia observes Thanksgiving on the first Thursday of November. In Grenada, a Thanksgiving holiday is observed on October 25th.
That said, Thanksgiving always makes me think of America. Later today, I’ll be at my uncle’s, having a huge meal. Because the weather’s getting cold, we’ll probably eat inside. If we did happen to go outside to eat, we’d be eating in the shadow of an American flag, one that’s much larger than the one in this picture. That’s right — on Thanksgiving, my uncle actually lowers his Texas flag and replaces it with an American flag. That’s the power of this holiday.
(Rest assured, at midnight exactly, the Texas flag will go back up.)
As for today’s artwork of the day, this picture was taken by Andy Warhol in 1985, two years before he passed away. As with much of Warhol’s work, it somehow manages to be both earnest and satiric at the same time. It was this combination that made Warhol such a uniquely American artist.
Enjoy this uniquely but not solely American holiday!
Music Video Of The Day: God Only Knows by The Beach Boys (1966, dir by ????)
Apparently, the most difficult thing in the world is to try to find a good music video for Thanksgiving!
Seriously.
First off, there really aren’t that many Thanksgiving songs and those that do exist don’t have music videos. If there had been an official music video for Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant (which Gary wrote about yesterday), I would have shared it. But, as far as I can tell, there isn’t.
I nearly went with Alanis Morrisette’s Thank U but then I realized how much that song annoys me so I decided not to. If Natalie Merchant’s song, Kind and Generous, had been called Thank You, I would have used it but, unfortunately, it’s not.
I eventually went with God Only Knows because it’s the type of song that can bring tears to your eyes and I recently rewatched Boogie Nights and I love how the song is used in the film. And, to be honest, it’s a song that captures the feeling of Thanksgiving, even if it’s not really a Thanksgiving song.
So, I used it. I can’t really tell you much about this video, other than music videos in the 60s and 70s were considerably more straight-forward and less flashy than what we’re used to today. It’s a simple video but it works for the song, I think.
Enjoy and happy Thanksgiving!
A Movie A Day #317: Flashpoint (1984, directed by William Tannen)
November 22, 1963. While the rest of the world deals with the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, a man named Michael Curtis drives a jeep across the South Texas desert, heading for the border. In the jeep, he has a $800,000 and a high-powered rifle. When the jeep crashes, the man, the rifle, and the money are left undiscovered in the desert for 21 years.
1984. Two border patrol agents, Logan (Kris Kristofferson) and Wyatt (Treat Williams), are complaining about their job and hoping for a better life. It looks like they might get that opportunity when they come across both the jeep and the money. A bitter Vietnam vet, Logan wants to take the money and run but Wyatt is more cautious. Shortly after Wyatt runs a check on the jeep’s license plate, a FBI agent (Kurtwood Smith) shows up at the station and both Logan and Wyatt discover their lives are in danger.
Though it was made seven years before Oliver Stone’s JFK, Flashpoint makes the same argument, that Kennedy was killed as the result of a massive government conspiracy and that the conspirators are still in power and doing whatever they have to do keep the truth from being discovered. The difference is that Flashpoint doesn’t try to convince anyone. If you’re watching because you’re hoping to see a serious examination of the Kennedy conspiracy theories, Flashpoint is not for you. Instead, Flashpoint is a simple but effective action film, a modern western that uses the assassination as a MacGuffin. Though Kris Kristofferson has never been the most expressive of actors, he was well-cast as the archetypical gunslinger with a past. Rip Torn also gives a good performance as a morally ambiguous sheriff and fans of great character acting will want to keep an eye out for both Kevin Conway and Miguel Ferrer in small roles.
Thanksgiving Tradition: ALICE’S RESTAURANT (United Artists 1969)
There’s another Thanksgiving tradition besides gorging on turkey’n’trimmings and watching football (which usually ends up with me crashed on the couch!), and that’s listening to Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 story/song “The Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”. Here in chilly Southern New England, I catch the annual broadcast on 94-HJY (Providence’s Home of Rock’N’Roll) at noontime, just before the yearly chow down. Arlo’s one of our own, though born in Brooklyn a long-time Massachusetts resident, and still frequently plays concerts around the state (catch him if he’s in your neck of the woods, he always puts on a good show).
Director Arthur Penn stretched Arlo’s 18-plus minute autobiographical tune into a 111 minute film back in 1969. ALICE’S RESTAURANT is not a great film, but it is a good one, with Penn and coscenarist Venable Herndon hitting all the touchstones of the counterculture movement: free love (read: sex), drug use, the Vietnam War, long-haired…
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Artwork of the Day: Terror From Under The House
This poster is for a 1971 film called Terror From Under The House. I haven’t actually seen this film. Normally, I would look at this poster and assume that it must be about a monster living in a basement but this is 70s exploitation that were talking about. Just because its featured on the poster doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily going to be in the film.
Apparently, Terror From Under The House was just one of the many titles used by this film. It’s also known as:
- Revenge
- Behind the Cellar Door
- After Jenny Died
- Inn of the Frightened People
- I ekdikisis (which means “The Revenge” in Greek)
- Il passo dell’assassino (which means “The Killer Steps” in Italian)
- Miedo sangriento (“Bloody Fear” in Spanish)
- Violence en Sous-Sol (“Violence in the Basement” in French)
The main thing that I noticed about this poster was that apparently, audiences were forced to accept the “Free Screaming Teeth of Terror” as proof that this movie was so frightening that watching it could lead to death. I’m not sure what exactly that means but this film was rated PG so, honestly, how scary could it be?
Someday, I’ll watch it and let you know.
“Doomsday Clock” #1 — Yup, The End Really Is Here
And so here we are — the “big event” that all of DC Rebirth has been leading up to, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s eagerly anticipated/thoroughly dreaded (depending on your point of view) DCU/Watchmen mash-up, Doomsday Clock. The lines between the two formerly-separate fictitious universes were blurred, of course, in last year’s DC Universe Rebirth Special, and here they’re completely wiped out. We’ve known it was coming, now it’s arrived — and it wants five bucks a month from you for the next year as it plays out over the course of 12 issues. Should you do what it (and, specifically, DC) wants?
Lots of critics are answering that question with an emphatic “yes,” some no doubt charmed by the free pancake mix and maple syrup that preview copies of the book came packaged with (DC shrewdly, but wisely, calculating that many comics critics — like many…
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Music Video Of The Day: Acceptable in the 80s by Calvin Harris (2007, directed by Woof Wan-Bau)
Hi, everyone! Lisa here with today’s music video of the day!
Today’s video is Calvin Harris’s Acceptable In The 80s. This song, which appeared on I Created Disco, was Calvin’s first hit, reaching the number 10 position on the UK Singles Chart. I like the song and I like the video, which features big hair, bright colors, and some memorably weird imagery that I’m not even going to try to interpret.
“It was acceptable at the time…”
Hmmm, that’s something we’ve all been hearing a lot this year.
Enjoy!
A Movie A Day #316: 52 Pick-Up (1986, directed by John Frankenheimer)
Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) is a businessman who has money, a beautiful wife named Barbara (Ann-Margaret), a sexy mistress named Cini (Kelly Preston), and a shitload of trouble. He is approached by Alan Raimey (John Glover) and informed that there is a sex tape of him and his mistress. Alan demands $105,000 to destroy the tape. When Harry refuses to pay, Alan and his partners (Clarence Williams III and Robert Trebor) show up with a new tape, this one framing Harry for the murder of Cini. They also make a new demand: $105,000 a year or else they will release the tape. Can Harry beat Alan at his own game without harming his wife’s political ambitions?
Based on a novel by the great Elmore Leonard and directed by John Frankenheimer, 52 Pick-Up is one of the best films to ever come out of the Cannon Film Group. Though it may not be as well-known as some of his other films (like The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds, Black Sunday, and Ronin), 52 Pick-Up shows why Frankenheimer was considered to be one of the masters of the thriller genre. 52 Pick-Up is a stylish, fast-paced, and violent thriller. John Glover is memorably sleazy as the repellent Alan and the often underrated Roy Scheider does an excellent job of portraying Harry as a man who starts out smugly complacent and then becomes increasingly desperate as the story play out.
One final note: This movie was actually Cannon’s second attempt to turn Elmore Leonard’s novel to the big screen. The first attempt was The Ambassador, which ultimately had little to do with Leonard’s original story. Avoid The Ambassador but see 52 Pick-Up.
Artwork of the Day: The Bonnie Parker Story
This poster is for the 1958 film, The Bonnie Parker Story. That’s right — this film predates the better known Bonnie and Clyde by about 9 years. Dorothy Provine was cast in the title role and, judging from this poster, it looks like her Bonnie was even more dangerous than Faye Dunaway’s! Apparently, in this film (which I haven’t seen yet), Clyde was renamed Guy.
(Bonnie and Guy doesn’t quite have the right ring to it, does it?)
Anyway, it’s a good poster, one that is direct and in your face. That’s something I always appreciate about any film poster. Plus, there’s that tag line!
Cigar smoking hellcat of the roaring twenties!
Hell yeah! Now that’s a tag line!
Through the Shattered Lens 