Growing up it was unavoidable that I would end up loving the rock band Eagles. It was something I pretty much had no choice in the matter. I blame my Dad for this situation. I say this with love because The Eagles is that one band that’s become part of the American pop consciousness.
The band formed in 1971 with Don Henley, Glenn Frye, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. They would make their debut album a major success and follow it up with a sophomore effort that was just as critically-acclaimed as much as it was a success with the public. It was from this second album that today’s “Song of the Day” comes from and also one of my Dad’s favorite songs from the band. It was his second favorite after “HotelCalifornia”and would be part of his regular listening rotation during long drives to and from home and work.
While I would dismiss the band in my youth as was typical of most children who wanted to branch out from their parents when it comes to what they like. In the end, as time went by I would fall in love with the band. Some looked at Don Henley as the architect of the band’s success and one would not be wrong, but I always thought that Glenn Frye was the soul of the group. As lead vocals for the band he gave the band’s song the emotion it needed to resonate with the listening audience.
This is why it was saddening news to hear that Glenne Frye passed away earlier today after a long battle with ill-health. Here’s to the soul of the Eagles as we slowly stare at another tequila sunrise as we say goodbye to Glenn.
RIP Glenn Frye
Tequila Sunrise
It’s another tequila sunrise Starin’ slowly ‘cross the sky, said goodbye He was just a hired hand Workin’ on the dreams he planned to try The days go by
Ev’ry night when the sun goes down Just another lonely boy in town And she’s out runnin’ ’round
She wasn’t just another woman And I couldn’t keep from comin’ on It’s been so long Oh, and it’s a hollow feelin’ when It comes down to dealin’ friends It never ends
Take another shot of courage Wonder why the right words never come You just get numb It’s another tequila sunrise,this old world Still looks the same, Another frame, mm…
We celebrate the 6th year anniversary of the site and we continue a yearly holiday ritual over here at Through the Shattered Lens. I present to all of you readers, visitors and passer-byes the greatest holiday film ever created since forever, ever.
It is a film full of joy and happiness. Of giving and sharing with loved ones that which matters most. This is a film that best describes what Through the Shattered Lens stands for and works towards.
It even has a scene straight out of a Disney classic.
So, from all of us at Through the Shattered Lens….
Whenever you saw Robert Loggia in a movie or a TV show, you knew he was going to be a tough guy.
He played gangsters in The Sopranos, The Don’s Analyst, Sicilian Vampire, Innocent Blood, Prizzi’s Honor, Armed and Dangerous, and Speedtrap. In Scarface, he played Frank Lopez and controlled the Miami drug scene until he was overthrown by Al Pacino’s Tony Montana. In David Lynch’s Lost Highway, he played Mr. Eddy and nearly killed a man over tailgating. (Before casting him in Lost Highway, Lynch offered Loggia the role of Frank Booth in Blue Velvet. When Loggia turned the role down, Lynch offered it to Dennis Hopper. If Loggia had accepted the role, the 90s would have been a very different time as far as movies are concerned.) Loggia was nominated for an Oscar for playing a tough P.I. in Jagged Edge. In Independence Day, he was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If the aliens knew he was waiting for them, they probably would have stayed home.
Robert Loggia even played himself in one of the best commercials of the 1990s.
Robert Loggia’s acting career began in 1956, when he appeared alongside Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in Somebody Up There Likes Me. Over the years, he played everyone from Joseph in The Greatest Story Ever Told to Norman Bates’s psychologist in Psycho II. But, for many of us, he will always be best remembered as Mr. MacMillan in Big, the toy company owner who rediscovers his inner child by dancing on a keyboard with Tom Hanks.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Loggia. Thank you for the memories.
This cute anime kitty is super excited about Arleigh’s birthday!
Hi, everyone! Today is November 27th and that means that it is a major holiday here at the TSL Offices! Today is the birthday of TSL co-founder and editor-in-chief, Arleigh Sandoc! Five years ago, Arleigh came across me ranting about Dario Argento on twitter and asked me if I would be interested in contributing to this blog and it has been an amazing journey ever since! Thank you, Arleigh, for the site and the opportunity!
As always, we first observe Arleigh’s birthday with song:
And now, we shall move on to the traditional celebration of cake, Guiness, and a trip to the shooting range. During the celebrations, why not check out some of the reviews that Arleigh has posted over the years:
Hi, everyone! It’s Thanksgiving! Well, actually, it’s the final hours of Thanksgiving. In fact, it’s 10:03 as I start this and it’s totally possible that I won’t be ready to post it until midnight so, by the time you read this, Thanksgiving will probably be over and you’ll be in a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/None of the Above type of mood. Well, no matter…
So, every year, I make out a list of what I’m thankful for and I post it on this site. Today, as I relaxed at my uncle’s house and I listened to all my cousins talking about football, I realized that I wasn’t really quite sure what I was specifically going to mention.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot that I am thankful for. I’m thankful to be alive. I’m thankful that I have people in my life who love me and I’m thankful that there are people who I love. I’m thankful that my sprained foot is much, much better. I’m thankful that it rained today so I would have an excuse not to lay out in the sun and pretend like I’m actually capable of getting a tan. Seriously, I’m a redhead. We don’t tan, we just burn.
And, because this is an entertainment-related site, this would be a good time to mention that I’m thankful that 2015 has been a pretty good year for film. Mad Max, Ex Machina, Sicario, 88, Inside Out…I’m not even beginning to scratch the surface of how many good films have been released this year. As for the bad films — well, The Fantastic Four, Ted 2, and Vacation were all terrible but you know what? None of them did a bit of good at the box office so at least the movie going public is not adding insult to injury.
It’s been a good year and, as a lover of the Oscars, I’m especially excited by the fact that there is no clear front runner. Oscar season is going to be exciting! Sure, it would appear that The Martian and Spotlight appear to be early favorites but neither has dominated. Seriously, this is going to be fun.
So, there’s a lot that I am thankful for but you know what I’m really thankful for? I’m thankful that I have thoughts to share and I am even more thankful that are people out there who are actually interested in learning them. There is nothing more wonderful than the freedom to say whatever the Hell you want. That, along with so many other things, is what I’m thankful for in 2015.
So, instead of coming up with a big list and trying to show off how witty I am, I’m just going to use this holiday to say “Thank you.” Thank you to all of the writers and reviewers at the Shattered Lens. Thank you to Arleigh Sandoc for asking me, 5 years ago, if I would be interested in contributing to an entertainment blog that he had just started. Thank you to all of the writers who were here before me and thank you to everyone who joined after me. Thank you for keeping this site alive. Thank you for keeping this site interesting. Thank you for keeping things lively. Thank you to all of you. Thank you for everything.
Even more importantly, thank you to all of our readers. They you to everyone who subscribes to this site. Thank you to everyone who has ever left a comment. Thank you to everyone who has ever clicked the like button. Whether you’re a regular reader or if you just found us through a google search, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Whether today was Thanksgiving or just another Thursday, I hope it was a wonderful one for you!
All my love — Lisa.
P.S. Wow, it’s 10:26 and I’m already ready to post. Happy Thanksgiving!
P.P.S. By the way, since it’s Thanksgiving, here’s the NSFW trailer for Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving. Hurry up and get this movie done, Eli!
P.P.P.S. Finally, since it is Thanksgiving, why not read my review of the classic killer turkey film, Blood Freak?
Well, it had to happen but did it have to happen so soon?
So, here we are. Just two weeks into doing Lisa’s Editorial corner and already, I’m worrying that I may have nothing to talk about. Of course, some of that is because I’m a little bit preoccupied. Somehow — don’t ask how unless you really want the details — I managed to sprain my foot on Saturday morning. I stayed on the couch for the weekend but then, foolishly, I attempted to both work and dance on Monday. So, right now, I am home, my foot hurts, and I’m having a hard time focusing on anything else.
(At the same time, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve sprained my foot and/or my ankle. It sucks right now but I’ll be okay soon. I’m taking off work on Tuesday, which means that I’ll get to make even more progress in cleaning out the DVR!)
Plus, as I write this at 1:30 in the morning, we are currently under tornado watch! If a tornado does decide to show up, I am not looking to forward to having to hop my way into the downstairs coat closet. They say that, if you don’t have a storm bunker like the one Michael Shannon installed in Take Shelter, the downstairs closet is the safest place to get in case of a tornado. I have never understood why.
This is why I sometime hate social media.
Since Monday is always my crazy day, I was not on twitter when the whole “Charlie Sheen Has HIV” story broke. In fact, I didn’t know a thing about it until someone mentioned it in passing that night and, at that time, I was so busy trying not faint from the pain of my sprained foot that it really didn’t register with me.
So really, it wasn’t until I got home, took a handful of Vicodin, and logged onto twitter that I was really aware of what’s been going on with Sheen. Apparently, this Tuesday (i.e., today), Sheen is going to be on the Today Show and is going to reveal whether or not he has HIV. There’s something really ghoulish about how much some people are anticipating Charlie Sheen announcing that he is HIV positive.
It’s also sad that, judging from many of the comments on twitter, a lot of people don’t understand that being HIV positive does not mean that Charlie Sheen has AIDS. Check out a few of the comments:
Keep in mind that I’m writing this at 1:33 in the morning and Charlie Sheen has yet to officially announce anything. By the time this post is published and you read it, Sheen will probably have announced whatever it is that he’s going to announce but, for now, nobody knows anything. There’s just speculation. For all we know, Sheen is going to announce that he’s HIV negative or that he wants to be Donald Trump’s running mate.
In fact, the only thing we know for sure is that a lot of people seem to be positively gleeful about the possibility of Charlie Sheen having HIV. I’ve never been a fan of Charlie Sheen’s and I found his whole “winning” thing to be more pathetic than anything else. But it has always disturbed me that his extremely self-destructive behavior has always been treated as a source of entertainment. What’s particularly offensive is that many of the same people who loved to watch crazy old Charlie talk about “tiger blood,” are now gloating about how Sheen’s “lifestyle” has caught up with him. It was a lifestyle that was largely dependent upon and made possible by American’s own twisted love/hate relationship with celebrity.
The blogger known as Jedadiah Leland and I have often debated whether or not social media is worth all the trouble. Usually, I think I can make a pretty good case that twitter does enough good that it makes all the other bullshit worth it. But, when I see thousands of strangers competing to come up with the best joke about someone being HIV-positive, I start to think that he may have a point.
And since I’ve just been critical of twitter, I’ll wrap this up with a tweet from my sister:
Right, let's all talk about Charlie Sheen because it's not like there's anything else happening in the world right now.
Before I got caught up writing about Charlie Sheen, I was going to devote a bit of a space to talking about how much I hate it when people show up late for a movie. I mean, seriously — we all know that, if a movie is listed as starting at 7:00, the movie isn’t really going to start until 7:20. That’s a 20 minute grace period right there and there’s really no excuse for arriving at the theater after that grace period has ended. If you’re going to be more than 20 minutes late, either go to a different showing or go back home. But for God’s sake, don’t wander into the theater and go, “Oh, the movie’s started,” and then stumble around looking for a seat in the dark.
To be honest, I’d rather be stuck in a theater with a screaming baby than have to deal with people showing up 30 minutes late for the movie.
As long as we’re here, check this out!
The evil clown who pops up to sing ‘Get Yourself High‘ in the Chemical Brothers’ live show has his own Facebook page. I am so happy right now! Unfortunately, there’s not much information on the page about the clown but I liked it anyway. You never know when the clown might decide to open up about his hopes and dreams.
FLASHBACK TIME!
You know what you should find time to do today? You should take a trip into the past and read the very first review that Leonard Wilson ever wrote for this site. I present to you … Leonard’s 2o11 review of Rango!
One Final Thought…
At any given time, I usually have about a week’s worth of blog posts scheduled to publish on the various sites that I write for. So, if I died tomorrow, my writing would actually outlive me. Think about it — I could be dead and still giving you my opinion. And if I am dead and I tell you to see a movie, you better see it!
Hi there! Well, as of my birthday yesterday, I am now officially an adult. What does that mean for this site? Well, for the most part, it means that I’m going to be even more aggressive about giving my opinion. After all, I’m an adult now. Whatever I say matters, no matter how weird or random it may be! In fact, I’m such an adult that I’m not even going to worry about proofreading these posts anymore. Adults don’t have to worry abut makin typos.
So, what is Lisa’s editorial corner? Well, it’s a new weekly feature where I talk about whatever caught my eye during the previous week. Basically, it’s a way for me to embrace my inner know-it-all. Fear not, I’m going to keep it entertainment-related. You don’t have to worry about me using this feature to try to convince you to vote for Gary Johnson in 2016. (At least not yet…)
For instance, I might use this feature to talk about Gunnar Hansen…
On Gunnar Hansen and Andrew Bryniarski
On November 7th, Gunnar Hansen passed away from pancreatic cancer. He was 68 years old. When I first heard the news, I was out with my friends in the SBS (and I’ll explain what that stands for at a more appropriate time) and we were celebrating my upcoming birthday. I spent the day after that with my family and then it was Monday and it actually was my birthday and … well, long story short: I’ve only now gotten a chance to write about his passing on this site. And I feel really guilty about that because Gunnar Hansen was an iconic figure in film history.
Who was Gunnar Hansen? Well, you probably already know. He was Leatherface in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Beyond that, he was also a teacher, a writer, an acclaimed poet, and reportedly one of the nicest guys that you could ever hope to meet. I never met Gunnar but every story that I’ve ever heard about him — whether it was from someone who met him at a convention or someone who knew him outside of the world of horror fandom — has been a positive one. As well, I’ve read many interviews with Hansen about the making of Texas Chainsaw and he always came across as being a very intelligent and well-spoken individual.
And it’s often overlooked just how good a performance that Hansen gives in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hansen may have been cast because of his large frame and he may have had to perform underneath a mask but he still turned Leatherface into a genuine character. It’s often overlooked that, out of the entire cannibal family, Leatherface is the only one who has any real responsibilities. He’s just trying to prepare everyone’s dinner and he keeps getting interrupted! No wonder he eventually ends up sitting down and slumping in frustration.
Now, upon until a few hours ago, I had absolutely no idea who Andrew Bryniarski was. Do you know who he is? Here’s a picture of him, with Gunnar Hansen:
Gunnar is on the right.
Why are Andrew and Gunnar posing together? Because Andrew played Leatherface in 2003 remake of Texas Chainsaw and in 2006’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.
And here is what Andrew said on Facebook after several people tagged him in posts about Gunnar’s death:
Seriously, Mr. Bryniarski? Now, before you think that he “misspoke” or any of that, he went on to double down on his comments. When someone pointed out that, if not for Gunnar, Bryniarski would have never played Leatherface, Bryniarski wrote back, “I played the role twice without him.” Bryniraski then told another FB user to “suck Gunnar’s dead nutz.”
Seriously — what the Hell!?
For what it’s worth, Bryniarski has an official response to everyone who is upset with him. You can check it out here. As far as I can tell, it appears that he feels that, while promoting Texas Chainsaw 3D, Gunnar criticized the way that he played Leatherface.
There’s probably more to it than that but … well, it really doesn’t matter. If you’re going to speak ill of the dead, you better have a hell of a better reason that professional jealousy. End of story. Bryniarski’s comments and the outrage that greeted them only serve to remind us that Gunnar Hansen was a class act.
Gunnar Hansen, R.I.P.
On Jack The Ripper
Over 4 years ago, when I reviewed Murder By Decree, I wrote about my fascination with the unsolved case of Jack the Ripper. Well, after all this time, I’m still fascinated. So, needless to say, when I read that an Australian professor named Richard Patterson was convinced that he had figured out the identity of Jack the Ripper, I was intrigued.
Then I found out that Patterson thought that poet Francis Thompson was the murderer and I promptly yawned.
Poor Francis Thompson.
Seriously, most evidence (as opposed to the speculation of people who have seen From Hell) indicates that Saucy Jack was probably some psycho who lived on the margins of society. He got away with his murders because he committed them in 1888, a time when just taking fingerprints was considered to be advanced forensic science. He was never caught, he died in obscurity, and no one knows his name.
However, that’s no fun! Why spend so much time researching Jack the Ripper if the final solution is just going to be some creep that nobody’s ever heard of!? That’s why it seems the almost every Victorian of any sort of renown has, at some point, been accused of being the Ripper. Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Francis Thompson, and the painter Walter Sickert — all of them have been accused and, amazingly, all of them have had their creative work cited as evidence of their guilt.
You have to wonder if, 100 years from now, amateur criminologists will insist that Stephen King was responsible for every unsolved murder in New England…
Speaking of Walter Sickert…
Here’s one of the infamous painting that’s always cited by people who are convinced that he was Jack The Ripper:
Why not listen to a little music before you leave?
Hey — did you know that I have a daily music blog? Check it out: Lisa Marie’s Song of the Day! This is the song that I shared on my birthday because a lot of people have told me that it might as well be about me:
You know what you should do now?
Since it’s the day after my birthday and all, why not go read the first review that I ever wrote for this site? Check out my thoughts on a strange little film called Welcome Home, Brother Charles.
Through the Shattered Lens 