Monthly Archives: July 2023

Music Video of the Day: Would? by Alice In Chains (1992, directed by Cameron Crowe and Josh Taft)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Would? was originally written in 1990 as a tribute to Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Mother Love Bone, after Wood’s death from a heroin overdose.  The song first appeared on the soundtrack to 1992’s Singles and the subsequent music video was released to coincide with the release of the film.  Singles director Cameron Crowe co-directed this video but the only direct reference to Singles is a quick shot of the film’s poster.

Would? went on to win Best Video From A Film at the 1993 VMAs.

Enjoy!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 6/26/23 — 7/2/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I hope everyone (or at least everyone who is celebrating or living near those who celebrate) has a good and safe 4th of July!

Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week!

Films I Watched:

  1. Bundy: Legacy of Evil (2009)
  2. Deep Rising (1998)
  3. Detective Knight: Independence (2023)
  4. Easy Prey (1986)
  5. Exterminator 2 (1984)
  6. Grunt: The Movie (1985)
  7. Hell House LLC (2015)
  8. House on the Hill (2017)
  9. Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993)
  10. Killer Bees (1974)
  11. Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)
  12. Out of the Darkness (1985)
  13. Party Monster (2003)
  14. The Preppie Murder (1989)
  15. Purple Rain (1984)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 1923
  2. The Bear
  3. Beavis and Butt-Head
  4. Dirty Pair Flash
  5. Forgive or Forget
  6. Friend of the Family
  7. Jenny Jones
  8. King of the Hill
  9. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
  10. The Master
  11. Only Murders In The Building
  12. Paul T. Goldman
  13. Perry Mason
  14. Shrinking
  15. Ted Lasso
  16. Wednesday
  17. Welcome Back, Kotter
  18. Yellowstone
  19. Yes, Minister

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Adi Ulmansky
  2. Carly Rae Jepsen
  3. The Beatles
  4. Big Data
  5. Bloc Party
  6. Bob Dylan
  7. Britney Spears
  8. The Chemical Brothers
  9. Fitz and the Tantrums
  10. Halsey
  11. Kid Rock
  12. Lynard Skynard
  13. Michael Fredo
  14. Rolling Stones
  15. The Runaways
  16. Saint Motel
  17. The Wallflowers
  18. The Who
  19. Wu-Tang Clan

Live Tweets:

  1. Deep Rising
  2. Lone Wolf McQuade
  3. Purple Rain
  4. Hell House LLC

Trailers:

  1. Five Nights At Freddy’s
  2. Natty Knocks
  3. Retribution
  4. The Collective
  5. Dune Part Two

New From Last Week:

  1. Actor Alan Arkin Dies At 89
  2. Julian Sands: British actor confirmed dead after remains identified
  3. Actress Carmen Sivilla Passes At 92
  4. Actor Nicholas Coster Dies At 89
  5. Actress Meg Johnson Dies
  6. Actress Judi Farr Dies At 84
  7. Melanie Lynskey Remembers Julian Sands in Heartfelt Tribute: “I Will Never Forget You”
  8. Gabriel Byrne says late friend Julian Sands was ‘destined for stardom but craved adventure’
  9. Elon Musk under fire from Twitter users for limiting posts that can be read: ‘Picked a fight with America’
  10. ‘Boy Meets World’ Cast Breaks Silence On Being ‘Ghosted’ By Friend, Co-Star Ben Savage

Links From Last Week:

  1. There was a darkness behind the film’s frivolity – Merchant Ivory and the making of A Room with a View
  2. Inside Boxing Helena, the macabre misfire that delighted Julian Sands – and broke Kim Basinger
  3. No One Believes Elon Musk’s Explanation For Breaking Twitter
  4. Censoring RFK Jr. is only making his voice louder
  5. The World’s Common Tater’s June 2023 In Books
  6. Would You Dive Into “The Grave Pool?” Welcome To The World’s Most Dangerous Theme Park – “Class Action Park!”

Links From The Site:

  1. I reviewed Under the Influence, Purple Rain, The Exterminator, and Exterminator 2!
  2. I reviewed Hang Time, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, City Guys, The Master, and Welcome Back Kotter!
  3. I wrote about twitter and Tweetdeck!
  4. I shared my week in television!
  5. I shared my Oscar predictions for June! 
  6. I paid tribute to Sydney Pollack and Paul Thomas Anderson!
  7. I shared a scene from Nashville and The Master!
  8. Erin shared the Groves of Desire, Awake to Darkness, Between Darkness and Day, Cameras, Dark Destiny, July, and The Man From Avon!
  9. Erin shared a photographic essay about walking in the rain!
  10. Erin shared covers of the cities and patriotic posters!
  11. Jeff shared music videos from Metallica, The Pointer Sisters, Richard Marx, Bryan Ferry, Rodney Dangerfield, Rush, and Twisted Sister!

More From Us:

  1. At my music site, I shared songs from Adi Ulmansky, Carly Rae Jepsen, Bloc Party, Fitz and the Tantrums, Bob Dylan, Halsey, and The Runaways!
  2. At her photography site, Erin shared Away From The World, Shadow Bird, Eye, Camera, Collapse, Pond Near The Cemetery, and Sunset at the Pond!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Retro Television Reviews: Under the Influence (Dir by Thomas Carter)

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 Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1986’s Under the Influence!  It  can be viewed on YouTube!

Noah Talbot (Andy Griffith) is an upstanding member of the community.  He owns a hardware store.  He has a large family.  He’s known as a gruff but folky storyteller.  He’s a deacon in his church and helps to collect the offering every Sunday.

He’s also a drunk and a bit of a bully.  His family walks on eggshells around him, fearful of setting him off on one of his benders.  He occasionally spends the night in jail, arrested for trying to drive drunk.  Even when he gets bailed out, his first instinct is to go back to the bar.  The folks at the bar love him, don’t you know.  The people at the bar are always happy to see him and never bother him about whether he’s had too much.  The people at the bar never let him down the way that he feels his family has left him down.

The members of his family each cope in their own individual way.  Noah’s wife (Joyce Van Patten) is in denial and spends a lot of her time popping pills.  His oldest daughter, Ann (Season Hubley), is driven to succeed at work and spends all of her time both hating her father and desperately hoping for his approval.  (When she tells him that she got a raise at work, he berates her for only getting a 6% increase in her salary.  “That’s just a cost of living increase!” he snaps at her.)  His eldest son, Stephen (Paul Provenza), fled to Los Angeles and is trying to make a career as stand-up comedian.  (“You’re no David Letterman,” Noah tells him.)  His youngest daughter, Terri (Dana Anderson), secretly replaces Noah’s liquor with water and food-coloring.  And his youngest son, Eddie (Keanu Reeves), is becoming an alcoholic himself.

Having read all that, you may be wondering just how exactly Keanu Reeves could be the son of Andy Griffith and it’s a fair question.  This was one Keanu Reeves’s first acting roles and he does a pretty good job in the role of Eddie.  That said, he looks so totally different from both Andy Griffith and Joyce Van Patten and the actors playing his siblings that I was half-expecting someone to mention that Eddie had been adopted.  Then again, Paul Provenza doesn’t really bear much of a resemblance to the actors playing his parents either.  Dana Anderson and Season Hubley do, at least, look like sisters.

Lack of family-resemblance aside, all of the actors in Under the Influence do a good job of inhabiting their characters.  For those who are used to seeing Andy Griffith playing friendly Southerners in reruns of The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, it’s shocking and a little disturbing to see him playing an abusive, alcoholic jerk in Under the Influence.  Noah is someone who would not only destroy his own family to get a drink but who would then blame them for it happening in the first place.  Noah may be under the influence of alcohol but the entire family is suffering because they’re under the influence of Noah.  By the time Noah is spitting up blood and demanding that his youngest son sneak liquor into his hospital room, the viewer knows there is no hope for Noah but hopefully, his family will escape.

It doesn’t make for a particularly happy movie but, speaking as someone who grew up in an alcoholic household, I can attest that it does make for an honest portrayal of what addiction does not just to the addict but also to the people around the addict.  I cringed in sympathy through nearly the entire film, especially as I watched three of the four children react in the same ways that I did.  (Unlike Eddie, I never became much of a drinker and instead developed an aversion to alcohol in general.)  It’s a film that feels real and one’s heart aches for the entire family.  If it could happen to Andy Griffith, it could happen to anyone.

Film Review: Purple Rain (dir by Albert Magnoli)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Prince could actually act.”

That was my main reaction to watching the 1984 film, Purple Rain, a few nights ago.  Over the years, there have been a lot of music stars who have attempted to make the transition to acting.  Some have been more successful than others.  While some have stuck to playing versions of themselves, others have attempted to become actual character actors and the end results have often been mixed.  Being a strong stage performer does not neccesarily mean that person is automatically going to be a convincing film actor and the history of the movies is full of famous singers whose personality seemed to evaporate as soon as they had to act for the cameras and try to sound convincing while reciting dialogue.  Taylor Swift has built up a strong and incredibly loyal fanbase but you wouldn’t necessarily believe that she was one of the world’s biggest stars if you only knew her from her wan and bland performances in Cats and Amsterdam.  Indeed, while watching her in Amsterdam, it’s kind of hard not to be thankful when that car drives up and brings her performance to an end.

Prince, on the other hand, could truly act.

In Purple Rain, he plays The Kid.  The Kid is an enigmatic musician living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He’s the front man of a band called The Revolution and he sings songs that are, at times, almost disturbingly personal.  The Kid rides a purple motorcycle and he’s one of those musicians who is driven to record almost every sound that he hears.  (At one point, The Kid listens to a recording of an unidentified woman sobbing.  Who exactly the woman was or why she was crying are questions that are never answered, though I think it’s possible it was supposed to be the Kid’s mother.)  He performs to escape from the scars of his upbringing.  His father (Clarence Williams III), a failed musician, regularly beats his mother (Olga Karlatos, who memorably lost an eye in Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2).  No one can deny The Kid’s talent but he’s also known for being a bit of a control freak and the other members of the Revolution sometimes feel that he’s not willing to give them the credit and opportunities that they deserve and….

Okay, obviously there are some similarities between The Kid and the man playing him.  Purple Rain was Prince’s first film and his first acting role and it makes sense that he would want to play a character in a situation that he was familiar with.  But that still doesn’t change the fact that Prince gives an excellent and charismatic performance in the lead role.  Unlike so many other singers-turned-actors, he doesn’t lose his spark when he has to remember his lines.  His presence doesn’t evaporate when the camera is turned on him.  Instead, if anything, Price feels even more natural off-stage than on.  Whether the Kid is being playful or serious, driven or defeated, Prince is never less than convincing.  Yes, the audience never forgets that they’re watching Prince.  But, at the same time, the Kid comes to life as an individual character with his own life and problems and personality separate of the actor who is playing him.

As for the film’s plot, it’s a fairly simple one.  The Revolution is one of three bands that hold down the house band slot at the First Avenue nightclub.  The Kid’s rival, Morris Day (played by Morris Day), plots to replace the Revolution by putting together an all-girl group called Apollonia Six.  Apollonia Six is led by Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero), who is the Kid’s girlfriend.  As Morris explains it, the Kid is too wrapped up in himself to help out Apollonia or the Revolution’s Wendy and Lisa.

And Morris Day has a point.  As soon as Apollonia tells the Kid that she’s going to be working with Morris, the Kid responds by striking her.  It’s a shocking scene but, as the film shows, it’s all the Kid learned at the hands of his father.  It’s only after a personal tragedy that the Kid starts to realize that he does not have to be just like his father.  That said, let us hope that the Kid invested in some therapy and some anger management courses after the end credits rolled.

As a character, the Kid would be unbearable if not for the strength and charm of Prince’s performance.  Prince is amazing when he performs on stage and the film’s soundtrack still holds up but what makes the film work are the moments when Prince shows us the Kid’s vulnerable side.  Self-loathing is not an easy feeling to play and it’s an even more difficult feeling to make sympathetic but Prince does both.  The Kid knows that he’s self-destructive and immature but he’s also sincere in his desire to be better than his past. The film leaves you to wonder if he’ll succeed.

Personally, I really hope he did.

WTF, Tweetdeck!?

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, I woke up and tried to hop onto Tweetdeck and I discovered that it is now down.  I usually have 10 open columns on my Tweetdeck and, as of right now, only two of them are loading.  I can check my DMs and I can see tweets from people I follow but I can’t check my lists, I can’t check my hashtags, and I can’t see my replies on Tweetdeck.  For that, I have to go straight to Twitter.

(Oddly, I can still tweet from Tweetdeck.)

Following yesterday’s rate-limit announcement, it’s hard not to assume that the limits that Elon Musk instituted also broke Tweetdeck.  It’s like he’s just looking for ways to make those of us who encouraged others to give him a chance feel foolish.

Don’t get me wrong.  There are some thing that Elon Musk has done that I agree with.  I agree with the idea that free speech should be Twitter’s number one priority.  I agree with the release of the Twitter Files, which did show just how much the government and other wealthy players manipulated the news.  I agree with bringing back the previously banned accounts.  In fact, I think he didn’t go far enough where that’s concerned because, as far as I know, the Trashfilm Guru’s original account is still suspended.  And I even agree with doing away with the legacy blue checkmarks because the verification system had itself become corrupted.  After Musk took over the site, I had a lot less annoying people showing up on my timeline as recommended follows and I appreciated that.  Plus, Elon Musk drives my commie friends crazy and I appreciated that even more.

But none of that matters if people cannot actually use the site!

The official story is that the rate limit was instituted to combat data scraping.  Data scraping is something that has been going on since the day Twitter was founded and it’s never been a big enough problem to require destroying people’s ability to use the site.  If the problem was suddenly so bad that emergency measures were needed, why not take Twitter offline for maintenance instead of making an announcement that everyone would be restricted but that subscribers to Twitter Blue would be restricted less?  If the problem was so bad that unverified users could only read 600 tweets a day, why then change that to a thousand tweets a day in response to people getting pissed off?  If it’s that huge of a problem, you don’t say, “Okay, sorry, here’s an extra 400 tweets.”  What you do is apologize and promise to fix things as quickly as possible.  The rate limit is obviously just a scheme to convince people to subscribe.

At this point, I think everyone just has to hope that Joe Rogan or Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will declare rate limits to be a conspiracy because they seem to be the only people that the Silicon Valley tech bros are interested in listening to.

In the end, this is all a reminder of the outsized role that social media (and Twitter, in particular) play in our lives.  Is it too late to return to the blogging era?

Celebrate The Cities of America With The Pulps!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

by Robert Maguire

With the 4th of July approaching, it’s time to celebrate the great American cities with a little help from the pulps!

Artist Unknown

Artist Unknown

by Barye Phillips

by George Gross

by Harry Barton

by Julian Paul

by Mike Ludlow

by Mike Ludlow

by Raymond Pease

by Robert Bonfils

by Robert Maguire

by Robert Stanley

by Robert Stanley

by Robert Stanley

by Hubert Rogers

Music Video of the Day: We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister (1984, directed by Marty Callner)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The anthem for dissatisfied 80s kids everywhere, We’re Not Gonna Take It has been co-opted by so many products and campaigns and political candidates that it might be easier to try to keep track of who hasn’t used it at some point.  Dee Snider has always come out against anyone trying to claim the song’s message as their own.

The kid in the video is played by Dax Callner, the son of the video’s director.  The kid’s father is played by Mark Metcalf, best-known for playing Douglas C. Neidermeyer in National Lampoon’s Animal House.

Enjoy!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 6/25/23 — 7/1/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As a part of my effort to get caught up with all of the potential Emmy nominees, I watched a lot of television this week.  This was a week of binging!  Here’s a few thoughts on what I watched:

1923 (Paramount Plus)

A western set in the 1920s, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren?  Seriously, what took so long?  Between watching Hot Fuzz last week and binging 1923 this week, I’ve also come to newly appreciate Timothy Dalton.

Are You Being Served? (Sunday Night, PBS)

The womenswear staff had to temporarily share space with the menswear staff!  No one got along but the audience loved it.  This show is single-handedly challenging all of my assumptions about the natural superiority of British humor.

The Bear (Hulu)

I was dreading watching The Bear because everything I read about it made it sound like the type of depressing show that I usually can’t stand but, having now binged the first season, I can now say that it was far better than I was expecting.  A lot of that was due to the steady and empathetic lead performance of Jeremy Allen White.  I’m looking forward to binging the second season.

Beavis and Butt-Head (Thursday, Paramount Plus)

Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head attempted to abduct Tom Anderson so that they could experiment on him.  Unfortunately, their anal prober broke down but luckily, Tom was able to repair it.  However, once he found out what it was for, he announced that he didn’t want to join the Elks that badly and he walked out of the flying saucer.  Meanwhile, teen Beavis and Butt-Head tried to convince Cody to let them play his video game.  Cody’s parents loved Beavis and Butt-Head.  Apparently, this week’s episode was the second season finale.  It was an okay wrap-up.  As always, I enjoyed the Tom Anderson stuff.  Cody and his parents were kind of boring but at least we got to watch Beavis and Butt-Head beat each other up while watching a relaxation video.

Dirty Pair Flash (YouTube)

On Friday night, I watched the fifth episode of Dirty Pair Flash.  Lilly and Yuri were supposed to go on a stakeout but Lilly had a date.  Yuri was not happy.  Personally, I was on Lilly’s side.  Just because you have a job, that doesn’t mean that you don’t get to have a life!

Fantasy Island (Tubi)

You can read my thoughts on Fantasy Island here!

Forgive or Forget (YouTube)

I watched an episode on Thursday.  Robin Givens was giving people paternity tests.  Robin yelled at all of her guests for being a bunch of cheaters.  I watched another episode on Friday, in which Robin was ordering even more cheating men to “get into the doghouse.”  Robin was very loud and very shrill and so was her audience.  Say what you will about Mother Love’s style of hosting, at least the sound of her voice didn’t induce migraines.

A Friend of the Family (Peacock)

I finally watched this miniseries about how Jan Broberg was abducted not once but twice by the same friend of the family and oh my God, was it ever creepy!  It’s easy to watch the Brobergs in this show and dismiss them as just being unbelievably naïve but, as the Jan mentioned in her introduction to the show, it was a different time.  This miniseries featured excellent performances from Jake Lacey, Colin Hanks, Anna Paquin, and McKenna Grace.

Jenny Jones (YouTube)

“Stop dissing my dreams!” children said to their parents, who refused to support their show business dreams.  A flustered Jenny Jones encouraged the parents to be more accepting of their kids.  The show that I watched on Thursday was over 20 years old and none of the kids became stars.  What a bunch of losers!  Shame on them for wasting everyone’s time.

King of the Hill (Weekday Afternoons, FXX)

I watched two episodes on Friday, both of which were personal favorites of mine.  First, Hank was happy that Bobby was getting into church until Hank discovered that Pastor K was a long-haired skater.  This episode featured the classic line, “Don’t you realize you’re not making Christianity better, you’re just making rock and roll worse!”  This was followed by the episode where Hank was excited that his new neighbor was a former Cowboy until he discovered that “Big Willy” Lane wasn’t the hero that he thought he was.  These were two excellent episodes, funny and heartfelt.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime)

The final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was brilliant, with the time jumps reminding us that the story isn’t ending even if the show is.  My main fear was that the show would do some sort of alternate history thing to save fan favorite Lenny Bruce but, though the temptation was undoubtedly there, the show didn’t.  If Midge watching Jeopardy with Susie in 2005 didn’t bring a tear to your eye, I don’t know what to tell you.

The Master (Tubi)

I wrote about The Master here!

Only Murders In The Building (Hulu)

I enjoyed the first season of Only Murders In The Building but, even during that season, I was aware that the show would probably end up becoming a bit too self-satisfied for its own good.  I could forsee a future of slumming stars stopping by to hang out with Steve Martin and Martin Short.

This week, I watched the second season with a bit of trepidation.  I did end up enjoying it, even if the second season didn’t quite have the thrill of discovery that made the first so likable and replacing Sting with Amy Schumer just confirmed my fear that the show is heading towards the trap of celebrity self-indulgence.  That said, Steven Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez continue to be delightful and hopefully, the show will survive season 3’s addition of Meryl Streep to the cast.  (Like many talented people, Meryl is at her worse whenever she’s slumming.)

Paul T. Goldman (Peacock)

I watched this non-fiction miniseries on Monday night.  It basically featured an apparently mentally disturbed man explaining his paranoid theories about why his marriage failed.  To be honest, it all felt a bit mean-spirited.  Paul T. Goldman didn’t seem to be in on the joke and he made some pretty serious accusations against people who weren’t there to defend themselves.  The whole thing held my interest but still felt pretty icky.

Perry Mason (HBO)

It’s a shame that HBO has cancelled Perry Mason.  I watched the second season this week and I found myself very much enjoying its stylish portrayal of 1930s Los Angeles.  The story itself didn’t do much for me but the show was such a visual treat and Matthew Rhys was so well-cast as Mason that it was still compulsively watchable.

Shrinking (AppleTV+)

This week, I finally caught up with Shrinking, which is a dramatic sitcom about therapists and their patients.  I laughed more than I was expecting to at the show’s dark humor but, to be honest, the main appeal of this show is watching Harrison Ford prove that he’s still one of our best actors.  Between this and 1923, it’s hard not to regret that Harrison Ford waited so long to start doing television.

Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)

It’s finally over!  I was never as huge a fan of Ted Lasso as some people were and the third and perhaps final season didn’t really hold my interest when I watched it this week.  (Admittedly, some of that could be because I felt a bit rushed with the Emmys coming up.)  Jason Sudeikis is a likable actor and, even if the show wasn’t my favorite, the final episode did warm my heart a bit.  I will say this: if this show was your  favorite, I understand why and I don’t think any less of you.

Wednesday (Netflix)

I enjoyed Wednesday more than I expected I would.  Netflix has a pretty uneven history when it comes to horror adaptations (remember when Case and I used to suffer through their Sabrina show?) but Wednesday was enjoyable and, of course, Jenna Ortega was perfectly cast in the lead role.

Welcome Back Kotter (Tubi)

I wrote about Welcome Back, Kotter here!

Yellowstone (Paramount Network)

This is another show that I meant to watch earlier but I only got around to the latest season this week.  I loved the mix of political melodrama and gorgeous scenery.

Yes, Minister (Monday Morning, PBS)

Jim Hacker made the mistake of thinking for himself during a television interview and talking about the need to cut back on wasteful government expenditures.  Fortunately, Sir Humphrey was able to remind Hacker of his proper place.