Music Video of the Day: Passing Strangers by Ultravox (1980, directed by Russell Mulcahy)

Posted on November 7, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 116 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 103rd video to premiere on MTV was this stylish clip for Ultravox’s Passing Strangers. This was one of the many Russell Mulcahy-directed videos to air on that day.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: In My Arms Again by Shoes (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on November 6, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 116 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 102nd video to premiere on MTV was this performance clip from Shoes, for their song In My Arms Again.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

The Man From Bitter Ridge (1955, directed by Jack Arnold)

Posted on November 5, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

When Jeff Carr (Lex Barker) comes riding into the town of Tomahawk, he’s nearly lynched by the townspeople, who are convinced that Carr must be responsible for a series of recent stagecoach robberies. Luckily, before they can finish the deed, they discover that Carr has actually been sent by the government to investigate the very same robberies!

Once the townspeople realize that Carr isn’t responsible, they go back to blaming the the local sheepherders. When Carr investigates the number one suspect, Alec Black (Stephen McNally), he quickly realizes that Ale is not the guilty party. Carr and Alec team up to solve the crime but complicating their efforts is the fact that Carr has fallen in love with Alec’s girl, Holly (the beautiful Mara Corday).

The Man From Bitter Ridge is mostly a generic Western but the plot does have one interesting wrinkle. The man who is actually behind the stagecoach robberies is planning on using the stolen loot to fund his political career! This is actually historically accurate, as many outlaws in the post-Civl War west attempted to either redeem or protect themselves by seeking political office and many of those efforts were funded by money that had been stolen from the very people who were now expected to vote for them. Several of the outlaws were actually successful in their efforts, proving that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Otherwise, The Man From Bitter Ridge is a typical B-western with Mara Corday’s lovely screen presence providing occasional relief from the bland performances of Barker and McNally. The movie does wrap up with an exciting gun battle in the town square but. overall, The Man From Bitter Ridge is most just for for B-western completists and fans of Mara Corday.

Game Review: Goat Game (2021, Kathryn Li)

Posted on November 5, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

Goat Game is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition. Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

You are a research assistant at Yobel Industries. You’re also a humanoid goat, as is almost everyone else in this game. That doesn’t really play much into the game’s plot but it is does make the illustrations that go with each chapter interesting to look at. When you discover that there is a potential safety violation at the lab, you have to decide how to respond to both it and the subsequent scandal. There are a lot of decisions to make, most of which have to do with how you feel about your job and the animals that you work with. The decisions you make influence three key stats, all of which play into determining which one of the 15 potential endings that you’ll end up with.

The number of different endings is the main appeal of Goat Game. Because it’s a quick game, it’s interesting to see how much one choice can totally change how things go for you. The endings are determined by how much you hate or like your job and the city, and also how many friends you’ve made. I haven’t seen all the endings yet but I’m going to keep playing until I do. Along with the endings, Goat Game is well-written and it does a good job of transporting the player into the world that the game’s created.

Play Goat Game.

Music Video of the Day: Holiday by Nazareth (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on November 5, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 116 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 101st video to premiere on MTV was the video for Nazareth’s Holiday. Along with featuring the band performing, this video also features some old fashioned video arcade action. There’s no better holiday than playing pole position.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Incident at Phantom Hill (1966, directed by Earl Bellamy)

Posted on November 4, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

During the final weeks of the Civil War, a group of Confederates, led by Joe Barlow (Dan Duryea,) hijacked a shipment of Union gold and buried it near Phantom Hill, Texas. Now that the war is over and Barlow is in custody, he makes an offer. He’ll lead the government to the gold in return for a pardon. Needing the money, the government agrees to Barlow’s conditions. A group of Cavalrymen, led by Matt Martin (Robert Fuller), are ordered to accompany Barlow to Phantom Hill and retrieve the gold. Because the gold itself is buried near Comanche territory, the men will be traveling undercover. If Martin and his men are captured or killed, the U.S. government will disavow any knowledge of the them. Cue the Mission Impossible theme.

It’s an eventful journey to Phantom Hill. When a local sheriff recognizes Barlow as a wanted criminal, Martin has to convince him not to kill Barlow. The sheriff agrees, on the condition that Martin and his men escort a prostitute named Memphis (Jocelyn Lane) out of town. When a group of outlaws discover that Martin and Barlow are heading for the gold, they take off after them. Meanwhile, Barlow has a few plans of his own.

Incident at Phantom Hill is a fast-moving B-western, the type that will be appreciated by fans of the genre. There are a few good shootouts. Jocelyn Lane is beautiful as Memphis, Robert Fuller is firm at Matt Martin, and Dan Duryea is dangerous as Joe Barlow. The outlaws are unusually cruel and the scene where the kill a comic relief character was probably shocking for 1966. The most interesting thing about the movie is its portrayal of Union officers working with former Confederates and the struggle to determine where everyone fits in now that the Civil War is over. Barlow is not to be trusted by the relationship between Memphis and Matt suggests that the country can come back together as long as everyone has a common enemy that needs to be defeated.

Game Review: Unfortunate (2021, Jess Elizabeth Reed)

Posted on November 4, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

Unfortunate is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition. Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

You are a fortune teller at a party. The person throwing the party has called your abilities into question and has dared you to correctly tell everyone’s fortune before the night is finished. Throughout the game, you observe and talk to the seven other party guests. You ask them questions and then, once you feel you have enough information about them and their relationships with everyone else at the party, you give them their fortune. Then, a few turns later, you discover whether or not you were correct.

I liked the idea behind this game. It may be puzzle-based but, instead of trying to guess the verb or figure out what part of the room you have yet to search, you’re trying to ask the right questions and correctly interpret the answers. That’s a challenge and there’s enough characters in the game and they move around enough that Unfortunate is the type of game that will be worth replaying.

There’s a few bugs in the game, though. At one point, I got trapped in the kitchen and could not get the game to respond to any of my commands. In that case, I had to restart the game from the beginning. Overall, though, this is a challenging game with a good idea at the center of it.

Play Unfortunate.

Music Video of the Day: I Won’t Let You Down by Ph.D (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on November 4, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 116 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 100th video to premiere on MTV was the video for Ph.D’s I Won’t Let You Down. Like their previous video that aired on MTV that day, this video showed off the band’s comedic skills. It’s emphasis on narrative, along with highlighting the music, predicted what the future held for music videos as a result of MTV’s popularity.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

The Raiders (1963, directed by Herschel Daughtery)

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

In the years immediately following the Civil War, seven Texas cattleman, led by Col. John McElroy (Brian Keith), try to drive their cattle into Missouri. The terrains proves treacherous and the local Pawnees refuse to allow the cattlemen to pass through their land without paying a hefty fee for the right. McElroy and his followers go to Fort Hays and demands that the local railroad magnate, Huntingon Lawford (Addison Richards), extend his line into Texas. When both Lawford and martinet Calvary officer Capt. Benton (Alfred Ryder) refuse to help, McElroy and his man start sabotaging the railroad’s western expansion.

This brings them into conflict with Wild Bill Hickok (Robert Culp), Buffalo Bill Cody (Jim McMullan), and Calamity Jane (Judi Meredith), all of whom are working for the railroad! Hickok is an old friend of McElroy’s and Cody is sympathetic to McElroy’s cause but will they be able to broker a peace between the two sides? When Captain Benton plans to lure McElroy into a trap where he and his friends will fired on with a Gatling gun, it’s up to Cody and Hickok to try to prevent a massacre.

The Raiders starts out as a downbeat look at a cattle drive in the years when America was still trying to rebuild from the devastation of the Civil War. Brian Keith was one of those actors who was always ideally cast in westerns and war movies and he’s convincing as the tough but fair-minded McElroy. If the film had just been about McElroy, it would have been a good B-western. Instead, it brings heavily fictionalized versions of Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Calamity Jane into the story. Robert Culp, Jim McMullan, and especially Judi Meredith all overact in their roles and a lot of time is wasted on subplots like Calamity Janes being in love with Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill trying to prove himself to the older man.

The Raiders started out as a made-for-TV movie and it appears that it was a pilot for a proposed TV show about Calamity Jane and the Bills. (Brian Keith is even listed in the credits as being a “special guest star.”) When the pilot wasn’t picked up, the film was given a theatrical release but The Raiders still has the flat look and unimaginative editing of a television show. No matter how authentic Brian Keith’s performance might be, he can’t make up for the fact that the majority of the film was clearly shot on a studio backlot.

Game Review: Brave Bear (2021, John Evans)

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

Brave Bear is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition. Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

In Brave Bear, you are a teddy bear. In the tradition of Toy Story, you can walk and communicate with all of the other toys and devices in the house. The game is short and simple. You are walking around the house. In each room, there is a dark phantom (each representing things like insecurity and depression) that you must defeat in order to continue on your way. Some of the phantoms you can defeat on your own because you’re a brave bear. Others are going to require you to make friends and get help from the other toys in the house.

It’s a cute game, ideal for it you’re looking for something that you can play quickly. There are puzzles and puzzles are traditionally my downfall but, for once, I was able to solve most of them on my own. And if you do find yourself stuck, there’s a walk-through. It’s a simple game but who doesn’t like a brave bear?

Play Brave Bear.